Stephen Chow, the Hong Kong director and actor, first used the word “plastic” to describe comic culture.
Stephen Chow does not only bring us the movie “Kung Fu Hustle,” but an ideology that is spreading among the youth and bloggers in Hong Kong, and it is coming to the mass market.
Hong Kong youth nowadays describe themselves as “Hard Plastic.” In a recent survey conducted by FH-HK for Next Great Thing, a 19 year-old teenager was asked “Does your community have a street culture?” He answered it without much hesitation—the “Hard Plastic Culture” or as they call it “HP Culture.”
According to Wikipedia (the first-stop source for youth all over the world), the word “Plastic” is composed of organic or addition polymers and may contain other substances to improve performance or economics. However, the meaning of “Hard Plastic Culture” is completely different. It means speaking in witty slang, playing pranks and having ideas like the Razzie awards, which salute the worst that
When they come across like-minded people, the HP Generation will tag one another with this clown icon.
So why exactly does “Hard Plastic” denote this comic, gag culture? There are sayings that it is originated from a Chinese f-word; there are also sayings that it actually comes from the Chinese philosopher Mozi, but most people believe that it became popular only after the HK director and actor Stephen Chow first used it in his movie “The Tricky Brain” in early years.
In recent years, the HP generation works very hard to spread its culture in Hong Kong to shock the public. Flashback two months ago, the HKSAR government paid to compose a song celebrating the 10th anniversary Hong Kong’s return to China, but the Hard Plastics changed the lyrics to mock Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive of HKSAR government, and put it on its ‘plastic site’ and YouTube.
Here is an extract:
Donald’s hunted a job! (I will get the job Done!)
Flattery noise lasts for whole century.
Universal Suffrage! (Universal Suffrage!)
Eight hundred crooks pick within a cage.
Toy with you, Dine with you, Chairman’s you
Arrogance and mockery is everywhere, brown nosing you dare.”
It is difficult to find out how many Hard Plastic members Hong Kong has, but the number is definitely increasing. According to Golden hongkong.com, one of the most popular “hard plastic” websites, there are 25,334 online users and 502,373 accumulated articles writing on the topic of Hard Plastic.
You may say Hard Plastic is just jargon on the web, it is indeed an underground culture spreading among the youth in Hong Kong. Don’t be surprised if you are called HP one day or shocked if you are given a clown icon on your blog in the near future. HP culture will be infiltrating every virtual corner of the youth generation.
- Louisa Wong, NGT Correspondent from FH Hong Kong
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