Meme China (Internet Culture from the Middle Kingdom)

Meme China (Internet Culture from the Middle Kingdom)

The Bus Uncle

The Bus Uncle is a Cantonese YouTube viral video clip of a quarrel between two men aboard a bus in Hong Kong on 27 April 2006. While the older man, who came to be nicknamed the Bus Uncle, scolded the man seated behind him, a nearby passenger used his camera phone to record the entire incident. The resulting six-minute video was uploaded to the Hong Kong Golden Forum, YouTube, and Google Video. The clip became YouTube's most viewed video in May 2006, attracting viewers with its rhetorical outbursts and copious use of profanity by the older man, receiving 1.7 million hits in the first 3 weeks of that month.

The video became a cultural sensation in Hong Kong, inspiring vigorous debate and discussion on lifestyle, etiquette, civic awareness and media ethics within the city, eventually attracting the attention of the media around the world.

Incident

The video depicts the incident that took place on the upper deck of a double decker Kowloon Motor Bus, Route no. 68X en route to Yuen Long, Hong Kong at approximately 11:00 p.m. on 27 April 2006. It began when a young bespectacled male passenger tapped the shoulder of a middle-aged man in front of him who was chatting on his mobile phone, asking the man to lower his voice. The older man later claimed that when he was tapped on the shoulder, he was under stress from an argument with his girlfriend and was calling the Samaritans. However, the younger man said that he was in fact merely chatting with friends. The older man turned around and started a monologue, ranting about being unnecessarily provoked under stress. The younger man, who seldom talked back, expressed a desire to end the discussion. However, the middle-aged man insisted that the matter was not settled and requested an apology from him. The younger man apologised, reluctantly shook hands, and also warned the older man regarding the use of mother insults. This last warning resulted in more profanities from the older man: The video ends with the older man receiving a phone call.

Aftermath

Sing Tao Daily reported that Chan visited Ho's office on 31 May 2006 in Mong Kok to apologize for the dispute and to initiate a business proposal for the duo to hold a "Bus Uncle Rave Party". Chan was quickly rejected and expelled by Ho, who expressed outrage towards the journalists who arranged the meeting and threatened legal action against the press.

Ming Pao opined that the use of profanity by the "Bus Uncle" and threatening behaviour theoretically contravened the general code of conduct of bus passengers, and that he had violated two public order laws – Section 46(1)(a), (n)(ii) and 57(1) of the Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) Regulations, and Section 17B(2) of the Public Order Ordinance – which potentially carried financial penalties and imprisonment.

Next Magazine journalists interviewed Chan at his home in Yuen Long, and his interview became the magazine's cover story on 1 June 2006. On 7 June 2006, Chan, who had been hired as a Public Relations officer in the Steak Expert restaurant chain, was physically assaulted while on duty in front of witnesses by three unidentified masked men who then fled the scene. He sustained severe injuries to his eyes and face and was admitted to the emergency department for treatment. The restaurant owner, Mr. Lee, then faced pressure from his wife and daughter to fire Chan due to magazine allegations of Chan's exploits in a Shenzhen karaoke hostess bar. Chan resigned after the owner's wife took a drug overdose ostensibly to force the issue.

Impact

Some of Chan's phrases are now frequently used, mimicked, and parodied in Hong Kong, particularly by teenagers. 「你有壓力，我有壓力」 (You have pressure, I have pressure), 「未解決！」 (It's not settled!) have become catch phrases on Internet forums, posters, and radio programmes. Various music videos have been created using the catch phrases, including pop, karaoke, rap, dance and disco remixes. There has also been parodies of an apology, "reenactments" of the incident with video game characters, composite pictures, movie posters, and versions involving Darth Vader and Adagio for Strings. Merchandise such as cartoon T-shirts and mobile phone ringtones have also been produced and sold on the Internet.

In June 2006, TVB television made a parody of the Bus Uncle video in promoting its coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, featuring its sports commentator Lam Sheung Yee (林尚義), whose voice resembles Chan's, on a bus playing the role of the Bus Uncle. In the advertisement, a passenger sitting behind Lam Sheung Yee (played by Lam Man Chung) questions whether Lam Sheung Yee feels pressured for his responsibilities in the upcoming World Cup, which would be his last TV appearance before retirement. Turning around, Lam replies that there is no pressure and emphasises the issue (i.e. the viewers' demand for World Cup coverage) has been resolved. The passenger then offers to shake hands with Lam Sheung Yee, calling for a truce.

In addition, sitcoms of ATV and TVB imitated the video in argument scenes. In episode 67 of the TVB sitcom Welcome to the House (高朋滿座), the young bespectacled main character tried to stop a man from talking too loudly on the mobile phone in the cinema. As a result, he was harshly rebuked by the man. Once his family knew about the incident from a video uploaded on the Internet, they taught the character to be more assertive and not to allow himself to be bullied. In the end, he was able to stand up to the same man when they met again in the cinema and remove him from the premises.

A local Hong Kong rock band is named 'Bus Uncle', and Chinese American Rapper Jin Au-Yeung makes a reference to the Bus Uncle in his song 1997, from his Cantonese album ABC Jin.