Transcript (Cantonese to English 粵譯英)
Bot: Hello, good day.
Keith: Hello, good day.
Bot: Welcome back to our Random Talk programme. I have just added a tiny logo of Mo FM on the screen. Hope you don’t mind.
Keith: Mo FM sounds okay though.
Bot: I wanted to play some songs but the entire thing is not smooth. My computer is working very slowly, perhaps?
Keith: Even if it is connected to cable? The line problem…
Bot: I am not sure about the current situation. Let me see. It should be smooth. What is shown there? There are a lot of problems when you are running a live talk show. (The connection) is poor in Malaysia.
Keith: Practically speaking, I saw Taiwanese Youtubers running their live talk shows in their own rooms. I really envy it.
Bot: It sometimes involves more than connection. I am feeling some sort of failure. Is it our internet connection problem? Or is my computer problematic? It involves various things: sound…
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Image on the screen. You can’t run the entire session of live talk show in a very quick and smooth manner.
Keith: Could it perplex us? We wonder if we have failed technically. Could we be thinking too much?
Bot: That’s a failure for sure. I have been working… But I am not always recording live talk show. When you come to think of it, I run live talk show for some time already.
Keith: You need to work on a lot of equipment. Practically speaking, the internet connection frustrated you a lot.
Bot: Even more frustrating, the problem of image on the screen. Which is why I don’t really enjoy working on this part.
Keith: Image problem? How about doing audio recording next time?
Bot: For those who are working on image, they have some requirement for the layout. They could arrange and present it so that it looks more three-dimensional. And it looks balanced.
Keith: It takes more skills to achieve it.
Bot: To be honest, I don’t know much about that. It is still manageable if it is photography. Some set a high requirement for such work.
Keith: But we are just here for a chat; high-resolution image is not needed.
Bot: It doesn’t matter. I hope you guys don’t mind. We come together for a good chat. What are our topics today?
Keith: Did you watch it last night? Hong Kong Film Awards.
Bot: I watched it today instead.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: I didn’t expect it to be like this.
Keith: Why do you say so?
Bot: You watched it last night?
Keith: I watched the latter and ending part.
Bot: You asked me what the topics are for today. Since it is a fresh new topic, we were thinking about talking about HK Film Awards.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: I searched on YouTube today for the three-hour show. I watched it.
Keith: You went through it.
Bot: Yup, went through it.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Several things looked odd.
Keith: In what way?
Bot: We don’t know many of the guests who gave the awards. Those are very young faces.
Keith: I was watching the latter part and I saw many familiar faces. I don’t think I know those appeared in the earlier part.
Bot: They are very young. Some pretty girls looked good and I searched on Google about them. To take a look at their names. I found out that they are not very popular.
Keith: They are still up to par to help run the show, right?
Bot: It is not a matter of being up to par or not. But this is their effort. We watched HK movies since long time ago. Sometimes they played old songs and clips of old films. Is the history of Hong Kong films longer than 50 years?
Keith: It is a long history. Longer than that.
Bot: They have come to this stage and it is discontinued.
Keith: Discontinued from the good old films?
Bot: The discontinuance is more than this aspect. In earlier years, the older actors – I am not very familiar with their names though. Before their glory faded, such as Patrick Tse (謝賢), there were already… such as Louis Koo (古天樂). They were the younger ones previously.
Keith: Some new actors are coming up to succeed the older ones.
Bot: That seemed to be a good arrangement. You have Miss Hong Kong Pageants. And the…
Keith: There are newbies coming up. Some are singing and acting at the same time.
Bot: But for this year, I think things happened too hastily.
Keith: Why is it hasty?
Bot: They realised they don’t have sufficient number of newbies to succeed the older ones. So they arranged the newbies to run the show and give awards.
Keith: Has the discontinuance been going on for some time? And they are trying to fix the problem at later stage to introduce more newbies.
Bot: Possibly. I have another thought.
Keith: What is it about?
Bot: After the show, the popular topic was that they invited Malaysian artist Namewee.
Keith: Uh-huh. Namewee.
Bot: Yes, Namewee. He led four brothers.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: He rapped something. And some negative comments inundated Facebook today. Including my comments.
Keith: It has been a long time since I last browsed Facebook. Can you elaborate about it?
Bot: The whole situation was kind of weird. Hongkongers speak Cantonese.
Keith: That’s right.
Bot: They invited someone who doesn’t speak Cantonese for the opening. But this also raps Cantonese songs.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: His accent is not very accurate. And the rap is not outstanding.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: Which is why many opined that… Some said sorry to their HK friends, because we don’t rap Cantonese song like this in Malaysia.
Keith: Okay.
Bot: They worried if others misunderstand that.
Keith: They wanted to clarify.
Bot: They shared their comments on their own Facebook page.
Keith: Is it? Did others see it?
Bot: Others surely saw it. It is funny. I have another idea though.
Keith: Mind to share?
Bot: I don’t actually agree with him being presented on the stage.
Keith: Alright.
Bot: It affected the entire view. And in terms of language, it is also weird. But we can figure out the reason behind it. As I said, they invited newbies to give awards.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Right?
Keith: Yup.
Bot: We old viewers don’t know the newbies.
Keith: I still follow Cantonese films.
Bot: We old viewers don’t know them. We don’t know if they are popular online.
Keith: For the newbies, I still see their faces when I watch HK films. I don’t remember their names. I have a nostalgia for HK / Cantonese films. I still buy movie tickets to watch them in cinemas, if I find the stories to be attractive. Which is why I can recognise some of the newbies.
Bot: But there were many of them last night. During the opening, there were 20 to 30 newbies. They had a dance and raised a placard indicating they were hosts of the night. A whole range of hosts.
Keith: A whole range of them.
Bot: For this situation, I think the event organiser wanted the international audiences to know more about the newbies.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: This is how they arranged it. They don’t want HK films to be discontinued.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: We old viewers don’t know them. But they could be web influencers. That’s my thought.
Keith: This is…
Bot: This is the only reason behind it. We don’t know many of those web influencers out there.
Keith: We don’t know everything about HK internet culture.
Bot: There is a reason for them to have invited Namewee.
Keith: Because of the internet.
Bot: Because of the internet. If you ask me, I think it is more suitable if he becomes an online ambassador for the event.
Keith: Let him be the web influencer.
Bot: The web influencer. It suits him better. I know it is tough for him to rap Cantonese song.
Keith: He is a Mandarin speaker.
Bot: He hails from Muar.
Keith: Yup. He comes from Muar.
Bot: If I were to run a talk show in Mandarin, I don’t feel comfortable. I can put myself in his shoes.
Keith: I would follow a standard, which is Taiwanese Mandarin. So that I have something to depend on, and I have a standard to follow suit.
Bot: There are some situations. In local market, clients with more budget allocation would invite voice talents to work on advertising recordings. So that the whole thing looks more internationalised.
Keith: In English language, we have this standard called Received Pronunciation (RP).
Bot: Okay.
Keith: RP means that regardless of your nationalities – Australian, Canadian or British – when it comes to broadcasting, or when you go to a radio station, they would want you to talk in tone of RP. You need to reach the standard that everybody understands your English. Regardless of your slang, you need to pronounce the words very accurately. Water, water. Not ‘wa-er’. Nobody understands that. It must be ‘wa-ter, water’.
Bot: Okay.
Keith: They want you to pronounce it accurately.
Bot: They want accurate pronunciation and without your original slang.
Keith: They want standard pronunciation from you.
Bot: Standard pronunciation.
Keith: So that all listeners understand it.
Bot: But it is weird though – because HK Film Awards is a Hong Kong event.
Keith: That’s right.
Bot: As a performing guest, he could be introducing… At the later part of his session, he sang one line: “We the Hongkongers”. That is part of lyrics of the rap song.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: I found it weird when he was shouting that.
Keith: The arrangement was kind of out of tune. Right?
Bot: Yup. His slang is the problem. Not that he is not good enough.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: Not that he is not good enough. When I write online comments, I need to clarify this point. Not that I degrade his capability.
Keith: That’s right.
Bot: He didn’t grow up in a Cantonese-speaking environment.
Keith: He didn’t grow up speaking Cantonese.
Bot: He didn’t grow up speaking Cantonese.
Keith: That’s right.
Bot: Film Awards is a big thing in Hong Kong.
Keith: Such a big stage.
Bot: Such a big stage. Some award-giving guests speak Japanese.
Keith: Yup. Some speak Korean.
Bot: Some speak English.
Keith: That’s right.
Bot: Why didn’t they let Namewee sing Mandarin song? Or let him rap in Mandarin?
Keith: Not that the organiser didn’t allow it. I guess Namewee wanted to challenge himself to perform in Cantonese on such a big stage.
Bot: A sentence or two of Mandarin could have been good enough.
Keith: It could be his goal to speak Cantonese throughout the show.
Bot: It was a misstep.
Keith: He needs time to make the progress. You can’t say for sure though.
Bot: I am not sure.
Keith: He might have requested to only perform in Cantonese in the show. In overall, what do you think about HK Film Awards ceremony last night? I found it to be rather scattering. Not that you have many good films queueing up to fight for the awards.
Bot: This thing could be related back to the entire environment.
Keith: The entire environment.
Bot: In the past, we watched almost all films before the award ceremony.
Keith: That was long time ago.
Bot: But now, not any more. The current situation is that the awards have been given out and…
Keith: We haven’t watched the films.
Bot: Haven’t watched them.
Keith: I haven’t watched Project Gutenberg (無雙).
Bot: We haven’t watched most of the films.
Keith: I haven’t watched it because I didn’t like the trailer.
Bot: Put it this way. In our competitive society…
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Are cinemas willing to screen good films which are less popular?
Keith: Five to six years ago, you could still watch less-popular HK films (in Malaysian cinemas). They are rare in recent years. Only bigger films are screened.
Bot: These films have prominent actors.
Keith: This could be our problem. I see the names of big stars but I still don’t want to watch it.
Bot: We have more choices now. The challenge for the entire environment is this.
Keith: What is it?
Bot: They don’t know how to promote on the internet.
Keith: Online marketing?
Bot: They don’t know how to create news.
Keith: You need to go back to the content. I saw trailer of Project Gutenberg. I didn’t like it and therefore wouldn’t (want to watch it). I shun films whose poster design I disliked. This is my style.
Bot: Yup. There was also some lousy production of HK films. They called it the lousy films.
Keith: We watched and enjoyed some of those.
Bot: We watched them anyway.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Because they were the pioneers back then.
Keith: They influenced the whole world during that time.
Bot: In Asia. Count out Cantonese films. Those produced by yellow-skinned people. Hongkongers performed very well.
Keith: It was really outstanding. My Taiwanese friends watched HK films with Mandarin voice over. And they still enjoyed the films. They opined that HK films from 1970s to 1990s were the outliers in the world. HK films back then were brave to speak up, very innovative and their stories are unfolding very quickly. They enjoyed it even dubbed with voice over.
Bot: Yup. Current situation is not that they are unfolding fast or not. They still present very fast stories.
Keith: Volume of production is lower now. They produced 300 films each year back then.
Bot: That’s a direct thing. If they can’t break even and make profits, the…
Keith: Investment would decrease.
Bot: Lower investment. It really is a big challenge.
Keith: You can’t help it. Some criticised such issue. Some commentators criticised that film makers in Hong Kong are always thinking about mainland market. The suggestion is that if they don’t think about mainland market, they can actually work on local Hong Kong films. That’s the saleable storyline in global market.
Bot: It depends on translation. They did that before. They run subtitles.
Keith: They depend on subtitling. Michael Hui said he brought his films such as The Private Eyes (半斤八兩) and Chicken and Duck Talk (雞同鴨講) to Italy. The Italians watched it with subtitles and they had a very good laugh.
Bot: The situation is…
Keith: Content. You need to go back to content.
Bot: New films nowadays are not without content. They have much better filming skills than before.
Keith: You have various topics and equipment nowadays.
Bot: They added some features which I dislike. Some Cantonese and Mandarin films – even other Asian films, they added too much tech input and visual effect.
Keith: They learned this from Hollywood.
Bot: It is not that their visual effect is poor. It is…
Keith: Exaggerating.
Bot: It doesn’t suit our culture.
Keith: I think it is better for Asians to work on smaller stories and topics.
Bot: When I watched Wisely (衛斯理) in the past.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Was Sam Hui starring in the film?
Keith: Also starring Leon Lai and Lee Ka-yan?
Bot: I can’t recall. The story was about a dragon ball.
Keith: I can’t recall either.
Bot: The dragon ball was meant to initiate a spaceship, which was designed to be a steel dragon shape. They sent back the dragon ball to initiate a spaceship. The spaceship returned to outer space. When it flew through the clouds, you could see the old dragon pattern – same as what we see from dragon dance. I accept such style. It was not created by visual effect. They made it themselves and covered some flaws with smokescreen. I accept it. But nowadays, the dragon comes out from those Di Renjie films and I found it to be funny.
Keith: It is incompatible. Art directors in the past did a very good job.
Bot: It was genuine and you need to hide the wires with smokescreen.
Keith: They adopted such tactic in the past.
Bot: But nowadays, they set up a backdrop and inserted from computer. I don’t really like that.
Keith: I got your point. I find some Hollywood films to be showing very incompatible images on the screen.
Bot: If you compare with major production, DC films are like that.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Some of them.
Keith: Speaking of major production, let’s say the past ten years. Or since the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, Infernal Affairs (無間道) is still the biggest and the best production.
Bot: Infernal Affairs is good.
Keith: Yup, Infernal Affairs. I like some series.
Bot: Cold War (寒戰) is also good.
Keith: I don’t like it too much. I prefer Overheard (竊聽風雲).
Bot: First and second episodes of Overheard are nice.
Keith: I also like the third. I accept it.
Bot: They have big stars for the cast.
Keith: Yup, very good cast. In recent three years, I like Trivisa (樹大招風) the most.
Bot: Trivisa is also very good. These are very original movies.
Keith: It is related to local culture in Hong Kong.
Bot: They don’t have weird backdrop.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Nor do they have odd bombing scenes.
Keith: It depends on the stories.
Bot: The stories lead the whole thing.
Keith: Johnnie To (杜琪峰) directed the script-writing work of Trivisa. There are three film directors?
Bot: Uh-huh.
Keith: Mr To led their script-writing work for five years.
Bot: Yup.
Keith: If I remember clearly. I read some info saying it took them five years to complete the script.
Bot: They are genuine producers.
Keith: Without Mr To’s support and guidance, the script could have halted.
Bot: There were simple stories in the past, such as Breaking News (大事件). It wasn’t an exaggerating film. But it was good for watching.
Keith: Many of them. Such as Chicken and Duck Talk (雞同鴨講).
Bot: The stories were simpler.
Keith: Security Unlimited (摩登保鑣).
Bot: Those were good films.
Keith: I learned Cantonese from these films.
Bot: Jackie Chan’s films in the past were also good. New films mixed with mainlanders, perhaps this is for the sake of making money? I am not against the idea of working with mainlanders in film-making.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: Local films in China were good in the past.
Keith: Such as Zhang Yimou (張藝謀).
Bot: Yup. They need not work with actors from outside. They have their own Mandarin slang.
Keith: They have their distinguishing feature. Follow the original storyline and it can be a very good film.
Bot: It can be good.
Keith: It is quite okay.
Bot: So that you know more about their lifestyle.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: As well as to learn about their culture.
Keith: Co-directed films are better – when Malaysians and Singaporeans work together. When mainlanders and Hongkongers co-invested in a film, we can’t say it is not good. How shall I put it? Mainland films have their own distinguishing feature, so do Hong Kong films. If you don’t mix up both, you will have a clearer picture of their cultural traits. Take Hong Kong for example, Love in a Puff (志明與春嬌). Right?
Bot: That is also good.
Keith: The story was about several friends who are always smoking together surrounding the dustbin downstairs at certain time of the day. It was about the story of the time when indoor smoking was banned in Hong Kong.
Bot: Could they be thinking too much? Or younger generations confused them a lot?
Keith: Hmmm…
Bot: It is the similar phenomenon in music market.
Keith: Music…
Bot: When you check online, you come across music and film production with high cost and prominent cast. You don’t know what to do to make money from the box office. The production costs are exorbitant.
Keith: Yup, exorbitant.
Bot: It is exorbitant. You can’t do much if the costs are lower. They need to consider the chance of breaking even.
Keith: Breaking even is another matter.
Bot: Too many choices out there.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Way too many choices.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: It is really headache.
Keith: Is this a warning? Some worried if there could be no more Hong Kong films. Some Hongkongers were already talking about this two to three years ago.
Bot: There will be new Hong Kong films.
Keith: Really? I don’t want them to disappear.
Bot: There will be some, but the quality could be different. I hope they still have a clear direction.
Keith: They still have something. I accept it if the production of a Hong Kong film is smaller. I think they are still doing very well when they are producing comedies. The company of Stephen Siew Junior released a film several years ago. It was Imprisoned: Survival Guide for Rich and Prodigal (一獄一世界). I brought a friend to watch it. He said he thought it was those gang fighting films of Chow Yun Fat in Prison on Fire (監獄風雲). He thought the film was full of hatred. But it wasn’t. They had a fun time in jail instead. Philip Keung (姜皓文) starred in the film. I really enjoy watching his films.
Bot: I like him too. He is really outstanding.
Keith: He is diligent and works really hard.
Bot: His films are really not bad.
Keith: He is really diligent.
Bot: Which explains why he shot to stardom pretty quickly.
Keith: He struggled for years already.
Bot: Fellow actors from his era did not have such opportunities. You need to come across good scripts to move forward in your acting career.
Keith: Opportunity is one thing, perseverance is the other matter. As we always say: you persevere and you will see hope, not that you only become persistent when you see hope.
Bot: Perhaps we are not qualified to comment on such things.
Keith: What about being qualified or not?
Bot: When we are giving comments, we are seeing things from the perspective of an ordinary folk. But it is about Hong Kong films.
Keith: As you get into the details, Hong Kong films have a long history.
Bot: It is really something. People nowadays have too many choices.
Keith: Hong Kong films have a long history.
Bot: Did you follow HVD dramas produced in Malaysia?
Keith: I followed several of them. I can’t recall because I was a little boy back then.
Bot: I enjoyed watching it.
Keith: I can recall some images of several dramas. But the names of the dramas don’t ring a bell.
Bot: That’s right. Such as Angela Chan (陳美娥). We see them as stars. When you talk about such feeling, we are talking about them specifically.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: They are the prominent actors. You still see them as stars.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: But now, when you look around our local dramas. Movies are rare, because ours are really lousy.
Keith: Some of them are still acceptable.
Bot: You can’t go back to the old days. It is very easy to accept other films. When you make a comparison, you compare with international production. How do you compete?
Keith: It is the same for singing.
Bot: It is similar.
Keith: In the past, you found them to be stars. You don’t have such feeling now. I listen to Simon Lau’s (劉細良) music talk show, he mentioned about this phenomenon. His opinion is that you get too much exposure on the internet. You see the news of a singer or actor on every segment on the internet. You feel like you are seeing him or her every day. When it was not as informative in the past, you only see the stars on newspapers and magazines and television. You need to wait for a particular time to view them.
Bot: Yup.
Keith: It is a rare-to-come-by chance to see them (with less exposure).
Bot: It was rare to come by in the past. You needed to buy a cassette to listen to Michael Jackson’s songs.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: When he was to have a concert here after so many years, the fans would surely go for it.
Keith: That’s right.
Bot: It wasn’t easy to look for his clip or to see him perform moon walk in person.
Keith: That’s right. The internet is very well developed. For example, if you like Will Smith. You might not be buying movie tickets to watch his films in a cinema. You could be staying home and listening to his talks on YouTube. And you enjoy it. You don’t only appreciate his acting. He can’t do anything about this. I don’t a movie ticket now, but I could be buying a DVD later. How about this? Because we have more choices now.
Bot: Yup.
Keith: You can know more about him from different perspectives and ideas.
Bot: The thing is that you can know him more. I remember that I once saw a series of photos.
Keith: How was it?
Bot: It was about Bali Island. This is a side note. It was taken in Bali, Indonesia.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: In earlier years, females didn’t cover their upper bodies with clothes. Most of females in the island were without clothing for upper body. There are some photos. You might check them up on YouTube or Google.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: That was also the time when there were sexual assault cases.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: Zero. The chances were zero. Which said something about it. In the past, when one opened his eyes, he saw all females did not put on clothes for upper bodies. (The males) had no imagination for this any more.
Keith: The primitive peoples were also the same, mate.
Bot: It became…
Keith: They got used to it.
Bot: Got used to it. That was the way it was.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: It was normal. Or they had something different after getting married. Back to our context, it is easily accessible. It is easy to view everything.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: All singers and music writers share their songs on the Internet. They want others to give them a like. And such things become not precious any more. That’s the situation.
Keith: This is such a dilemma. If you have online exposure…
Bot: It doesn’t work.
Keith: You can’t make it.
Bot: This is the most troublesome thing about HK Film Awards. The hottest topic in Malaysia today is that Namewee performed a rap song on the stage.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Which is why Malaysians pay attention to it. From this point, you can see his influence on the internet.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: It wasn’t like that in the past. Andy Lau or Leslie Cheung. Which were their good movies? Did they win any awards? We waited by the television to see if there was a live telecast for HK Film Awards. It was hard to come by for a television station to win the live telecast right.
Keith: That’s right.
Bot: But now, not any more. Live telecast is for sure. Let them do the talking, and we only look up to those parts which others said to be interesting.
Keith: Some Hongkongers did a live telecast on YouTube last night.
Bot: Just as our show, they put the bracket to the corner.
Keith: Yup, you can choose to squeeze or expand it. It depends on whether the television station was happy about it.
Bot: What Internet offers now is actually a sort of erosion.
Keith: Erosion in what sense?
Bot: The erosion worsens and it isn’t ideal for the market, the industry.
Keith: Which makes me think of this point. Do we need films such as Trivisa all the time? If there are ten to fifteen films of such quality produced each year, we might then say Hong Kong film industry is making a comeback.
Bot: Even Trivisa doesn’t cause a stir among modern people.
Keith: That’s pathetic.
Bot: It is only us.
Keith: I have a reaction (for the film) because I have a nostalgia for Hong Kong.
Bot: That’s right. I watched Life Without Principle (奪命金).
Keith: Yup.
Bot: I watched it several times already.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Because it was nice.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: It was not a motion movie but it was realistic. It presented different perspectives. It was nice.
Keith: Yup. We can only explain that we grew up in the same era.
Bot: Others don’t watch it.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Young people under 20 years old won’t want to watch it.
Keith: Simply put, we grew up speaking Cantonese. If you go to a place where nobody speaks Cantonese with you, you will be suffering a lot. I spoke standard Taiwanese Mandarin when I was in Taipei.
Bot: Not only you, I have such situation as well. Why do we run a live show? In our family, I can’t speak Cantonese with my wife and kids.
Keith: Yup. You would be slightly suffering.
Bot: We communicate in Mandarin. I am less proficient in Mandarin.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: Not that I can’t speak Mandarin. Basic communication…
Keith: You can’t express well.
Bot: Reprimanding others. I can express it in Mandarin. I know the easier and harder words. But I don’t feel excited when speaking Mandarin.
Keith: You can learn from my old method. During my university days, I stayed in my dormitory at night listening to Cantonese songs and films. I watched Infernal Affairs II repeatedly.
Bot: I watched Infernal Affairs I and II repeatedly.
Keith: I like Infernal Affairs II a lot, because I like Anthony Wong (黃秋生). I felt very happy for him winning an award. His movie Still Human (淪落人) is about to be screen in Malaysian cinemas. Please support.
Bot: I heard it will be screened.
Keith: Yup. It will be screened. Please support.
Bot: This is what I said. Award-winning films are only reluctantly brought in.
Keith: Reluctant or not, I can’t say for sure.
Bot: This is pity. Let’s talk about copyright.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: Why do I want to set up Mo FM?
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: I wish to play more local songs. I shared this idea with many people.
Keith: Yes.
Bot: I wish to play songs which listeners rarely listen to. Those are local songs and some of them are the songs of indie bands. We can chat and play some songs so that the programme can be longer. But it could involve right infringement, and you need to pay for the copyright. It is a lot of trouble.
Keith: You need to do a research to see which way doesn’t infringe their copyright.
Bot: Such thing hinders the poor people from doing something.
Keith: Because yours is not a big production house.
Bot: For big production, you need to pay them money. Or they have many viewers. The story is different now, if you are trying make it big in singing. Unlike the past.
Keith: In the past, you only worked on music.
Bot: Even actors in the past. Let’s say Director Ang Lee. Look at his face…
Keith: His complexion…
Bot: When Namewee came in and was rapping his song, the camera scrolled through the venue and you saw film directors. Their facial expression is peculiar.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: I can’t accept it, when HK Film Awards became something like this.
Keith: That could be their facial expression. They were at their wits’ end.
Bot: They were at their wits’ end not because Namewee rapped the song poorly. He could promote the thing.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: He is more capable than anyone else to promote it on the internet.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: But that is not the problem.
Keith: His problem is this. Perhaps he should try speaking Cantonese more often in his daily life. Even when he is in Malaysia.
Bot: We can’t blame him for this. Many places in Malaysia don’t have a Cantonese-speaking habit.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: You have different places. My wife hails from Malacca, where people seldom speak Cantonese.
Keith: But you still run into people who speak Cantonese. You need to keep it a habit.
Bot: Yup. When I was in Bentong, where people speak Guangxi dialect. I have many friends who speak Guangxi dialect, but not me.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: My maternal grandfather spoke Guangxi dialect. I know a bit of it though. Not that I don’t know at all.
Keith: How is Guangxi dialect like?
Bot: What I am talking now is Guangxi dialect.
Keith: Oh ya. You fellow villagers…
Bot: It is slightly off tune.
Keith: You guys come over and buy the land.
Bot: The expression is not like this.
Keith: Oh ya?
Bot: When we were speaking Guangxi dialect, when I attended secondary school, I had friends who came from rural areas. They came to our small town to study.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: We laughed at them.
Keith: For what? For their slang?
Bot: Yup. Their slang.
Keith: You made fun of his Cantonese or Guangxi dialect?
Bot: We laughed at him for the Guangxi slang in his Cantonese speaking.
Keith: Such as?
Bot: For example, you saw a bicycle passing by. He would say: “Kakat ka che…”
Keith: I see.
Bot: His Guangxi slang is very obvious and you find it to be interesting.
Keith: I see. If you are conducting a linguistic research, you will be very glad to listen to different slangs.
Bot: Put Namewee’s performance aside, I think he is winning a glory for Malaysia. For older directors such as Johnnie To, they don’t know how to move on when it comes to online marketing. I clicked like on Facebook page of Simon Yam (任達華). Those photos taken with smart phones are vague.
Keith: Photos taken with smart phones.
Bot: Some were taking photos for him when he went to places and attending events. Photos taken by ordinary smart phones are blurred. For art workers from older era, they don’t know how to work on online marketing to promote themselves.
Keith: Unless you have an online marketing expert in your team to work on this part.
Bot: I posted on social media a love and hate situation.
Keith: You love and hate it.
Bot: You don’t know what to do about it. You scratch your head and can’t figure out how to tackle this problem.
Keith: Practically speaking, internet disturbed the entire order.
Bot: That’s right. How would subsequent HK Film Awards ceremonies look like?
Keith: You can’t say for sure. I wonder if they might offer a Best YouTube Programme Award in the future.
Bot: That is for sure. It is a matter of time.
Keith: Think about it. You can choose not to become an actor and work on YouTube live shows instead. You set up your own YouTube channel.
Bot: You make free production for free viewing but you make money from another source.
Keith: You can run a talk show at any given time. Such as what we are doing now.
Bot: We have been chatting for almost 40 minutes now.
Keith: Time is really… I didn’t expect it (to be this fast). I thought it was only 30 minutes.
Bot: It is more than 30 minutes now. Doesn’t matter. Speaking of Cantonese, I wonder if HK films disappear in the future.
Keith: HK films disappearing?
Bot: Or we speak poor Cantonese and Mandarin. It could become more obvious in Malaysia.
Keith: I worry if Cantonese could go extinct here.
Bot: Uh-huh.
Keith: I am slightly worried.
Bot: It is the same as Guangxi dialect.
Keith: When fewer people speak it.
Bot: When few people speak it, we don’t know how to say some very deep Guangxi terms.
Keith: I was quite shocked when I went to southern part of Peninsular Malaysia.
Bot: Do they speak Hakka?
Keith: Nope. I was shocked because the Cantonese people there don’t know how to speak Cantonese. I was taken aback. As far as I am concerned, Cantonese people throughout the world are very proud of their Cantonese language. Regardless of their migration destinations, no matter where they reside, they insist to speak Cantonese and eat with chopsticks at home.
Bot: But this is hard to maintain. Modern people talk about economic (benefits). The new generations won’t analyse…
Keith: Traditional values.
Bot: Traditional values
Keith: Or what should be preserved. That’s why.
Bot: I saw some very weird web influencers. They put peculiar ornaments on their heads. You find the image to be peculiar and you might click it to find out more about their talk. But it is difficult for us to achieve that.
Keith: Uh-huh.
Bot: Right? Because we have an older style.
Keith: It looks weird when you force yourself to be innovative.
Bot: I hope that two different styles can co-exist.
Keith: You know it is possible when you see different styles of talk shows in Hong Kong.
Bot: For the older style, whether it is HK films or local songs. I hope that we can play songs in our next programme.
Keith: I am looking forward to listening to those songs.
Bot: Not that there are few people listen to those songs. You rarely hear that on mainstream media. Since we are chatting here, we can introduce those songs.
Keith: Take it as doing charity. Promoting and marketing those songs.
Bot: Doing charity.
Keith: So that our listeners learn more about those songs.
Bot: There are still many topics when it comes to Cantonese. Both of us insist to run our talk shows in Cantonese.
Keith: Because it is more direct. It doesn’t sound weird when you say something. For example, “What the heck, the connection suffers from hiccups.” How do you express it in Mandarin? What the heck?
Bot: Such expression exists in Malaysian Mandarin.
Keith: Mandarin speakers who express it that way?
Bot: Only in Malaysia.
Keith: Only here.
Bot: Not for Mandarin speakers in other places.
Keith: I see.
Bot: Because we mixed up a lot.
Keith: We have Cantonese of Malaysian style.
Bot: Yup. For such culture, for my dream. I wish to run a 24-hour radio station to play indie songs.
Keith: We will need to accumulate more contents. That’s the way to achieve it.
Bot: It is not only us who run the talk show. Any friends who are interested to host…
Keith: Come here for a talk.
Bot: When you run a talk show without financial support, when you play others’ songs. You need to deal with technical problems and you need to pay the utilities bills. We need some sponsor.
Keith: Yup.
Bot: Amid such challenges, it is hoped that some listeners provide us some local songs.
Keith: The owners of the songs have to accept that we play their songs. Please don’t mind that.
Bot: Because we are not making money. It is okay to pay back to you guys when we are making money.
Keith: We are promoting their songs for free.
Bot: Yup. This is charity. We make the effort and pay from our own pockets.
Keith: I see it this way. It is nice to share good things.
Bot: My original setting today was to show the listeners the music video.
Keith: But the…
Bot: If we can’t make it next time, I might collate their songs in MP3 format and play them from a playlist. It could become much easier.
Keith: Play the songs while we are talking.
Bot: Nope. We can play the songs and mute our voice while taking a rest.
Keith: Or we can show the photos of the bands and groups.
Bot: Perhaps we don’t need the photos. Or we can show a logo. But it affects us if the setting is troublesome. We need to wait until the internet connection speeds up, or when I have the money to get a faster connection.
Keith: For our connection to speed up…
Bot: It is about money; it is realistic. You need to pay for everything.
Keith: The problem is, you pay and the internet connection remains pathetic.
Bot: No choice now. The internet connection today was weird.
Keith: It always disconnects.
Bot: The image becomes very bright now. We shall say goodbye now. Thank you for listening.
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