An immediate icebreaker with total strangers, these T-shirts – so my chum maintains – have led to many pleasantly unexpected new friendships.
Those whose memories of local life stretch back to the late 1980s will recall the widespread popularity of Japanese-inspired T-shirts (along with vests, hoodies and jackets) emblazoned with eye-poppingly meaningless phrases.
Japanese pop culture – then – was the driving force behind these fashion items. During those years, it sometimes seemed like every other young Hong Kong Chinese wanted to pass for Japanese; two generations later, being mistaken for a Korean when in South Korea was a high compliment among the same demographic. Sad – but there we go; times change. Or do they?
Hong Kong man, 26, jailed for three months for wearing seditious T-shirt at airport
Hong Kong man, 26, jailed for three months for wearing seditious T-shirt at airport
For a while, making a mental note of the latest eye-opener became a fun way to spend otherwise idle periods strap-hanging between MTR stations.
In the manner of all such trends, these ludicrous strings of printed or embroidered phrases on T-shirts had gone out of vogue by the early 90s – just as quickly as the fashion had emerged in the first place. And that was that.
Every so often, dug-out vintage examples appear, most probably retained by their owners for a quick-and-casual run to the shops. Market stallholders, after all, will neither know nor care just how dated such garments look, or how profoundly silly and meaningless the nonsense phrases emblazoned upon them may be.
Anyone who walks through the airport – or any other public place, in the inexorably changed Hong Kong of recent years – while brazenly sporting a colourful T-shirt embellished with edgy graphic designs and way-too-clever, intentionally provocative messages, must be prepared for the full weight of the law to fall upon them.
Blithely wearing something presumably incomprehensible loudly emblazoned across one’s chest or back – just for the sheer hoot of it all – may well offer one a fast-track route to long-range misery.
In these febrile times, sound common sense makes plain that sensible persons must now exercise great care, and ensure one knows exactly what specific English words – or, more dangerously, Chinese characters – actually mean, both literally, and in more subtle secondary and tertiary allusions.
Potentially incendiary phrases lurk unsuspected in these easily offended days, when the real-life consequences of being tripped up by deliberately blurred red lines – genuine or otherwise – can be painfully observed by anyone prepared to look.
So – let us ponder; would some amusingly worked up, artfully printed colourful T-shirt design that sarcastically spoofed a malign, oriental-visaged version of A.A. Milne’s timeless, much-loved Winnie the Pooh, or depicted an even dopier-looking Pikachu, that hapless, droopy-eyed Japanese cartoon creature, cause some alert-eyed, self-appointed national security guardian to quickly and resolutely dial the snitch number?
Don’t hate the phrase ‘Hong Kong, add oil’ – we need it now more than ever
Don’t hate the phrase ‘Hong Kong, add oil’ – we need it now more than ever
And upon receiving a timely tip-off, would our local constabulary merely regard the matter as a tiresome waste of their time? Or might some salutary examples be made of the foolish wearer of such images – and their more guilty artistic originator, when eventually apprehended – pour encourager les autres?
Not so long ago, such ludicrously fearful considerations were not even the stuff of local nightmares. But now?
How swiftly and inexorably Hong Kong life has evolved, since “2019 And All That” changed everything forever.
