“Bus Uncle” Hong Kong Video Huge Internet Hit

Filed under: Hong Kong, Other Destinations Written by:Chris Mitchell.

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Uncle Bus is a video on YouTube that depicts a Hong Kong man losing his temper on a bus. It's been downloaded over 1.7 million times. Moral of the story? Be careful who you talk to: you might get filmed

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OK, so I'm nearly a month late, but so are the wire services - they just cottoned on to this huge Internet hit: a video of a middle aged Hong Kong man bawling out a teenager for asking him to keep his voice down - it's been downloaded over 1.7 million times from YouTube in the last 3 weeks apparently. See the AP report via Newsvine.

The following is lifted wholesale from Wikipedia under their GPL license, as they may be deleting this info from their site:

Uncle Bus (Chinese: 巴士阿叔), refers to a video clip incident of a middle-aged man scolding a teenager for nearly seven minutes on a bus in Hong Kong. The incident was recorded by a fellow passenger onto a mobile phone, uploaded to YouTube on April 29, 2006, and has since turned into an Internet meme and parodied several times. The victim in the video has since spoken up on radio about the incident.

The original clip received considerable publicity, with a viewship of over 1.6 million (2.4m combined), becoming the 4th most popular video of the month on YouTube. It has gained considerable attention from the mainstream media, and is known for its rhetoric and the use of profanity

The Incident

The event took place on the upper deck of a Kowloon Motor Bus route 68X bound for Yuen Long. As depicted from the conversation, the young man (Alvin) tried to tell a middle-aged man, known simply as (Uncle Bus) about his excessive volume while talking on his mobile phone by tapping on his shoulder. The actions of Alvin provoked the "Uncle Bus", followed by the lengthy argument between the two. The conversation was filled with liberal use of the swear word "fuck" (屌) by the "Uncle Bus", as well as many other Chinese swear words.

After the Uncle Bus became distracted by a phone call, Alvin managed to telephone the police much to the Uncle Bus's displeasure. Uncle Bus, who maintained his rowdy attitude, was soon arrested by the police for public disturbance. This second part of the incident can be also found on www.youtube.com under '巴士阿叔 Part Two'. This is later confrimed in the radio takeshow with Alvin as a parody.

The tagline "Not resolved!" (未解決) in this Internet meme was so popular that many parodies appeared, as shown in this example of Johnnie To's Election series.

On May 23, 2006, someone who identified himself as Alvin, called into a radio talk show on Commercial Radio and claimed to be the young man who engaged in the argument. [1]

The man who recorded the clip is later revealed as "John" in the Ming Pao Daily News.

Poster of an event by Capcom, capitalizing on the tagline "I have stress, you have stress" (我有壓力,你有壓力) in the meme.

Influences to the society as a whole

The incident of "Uncle Bus" have introduced some of the newest slangs in Hong Kong. The famous quotes from the event are now frequently used during conversations among Hong Kong teenagers, as well as discussion forums, posters and some television programmes. Parodies of the event have been created in several forms, including modified video clips, music remix, modified pictures and movie posters. Analysis on the event and its influence are made by newspapers and radio stations.

To Kit, an extremely well-known columnist in Hong Kong, has made a commentary about the incident on Commercial Radio in May 23 & May 24, 2006. He described the behavior of "Uncle Bus" as "Noise-Raping", and commented that the incident is the manifestation of underlying social tensions in Hong Kong, as well as the thoughts of a common Chinese person. He criticizes Alvin's speechlessness as being too weak, which he thinks exemplifies typical youths in the present Hong Kong. In addition, he noted that the action of "Uncle Bus" indicates the problems of current status of Hong Kong's society, that harmony between people is hindered.

References