Young people in Hong Kong are all about MK. No, not Mary-Kate, Mong Kok. Named for a trendy area located in the Kowloon side of Hong Kong filled with karaoke joints, cinemas and malls, the term is used to describe youth (usually teenagers) who love smoking, the punk look, tattoos, etc.
“We now frequently use the term ‘MK’ in our conversations,” said Sunny, a 19 year old university student in Hong Kong. “When we see a group of youngsters wearing LV from their heads to toes, dyed green hair, and an exaggerated look with no personal style at all, we say to each other ‘Hey, look at those MKs over there,” Sunny explained.
In the eyes of university students like Sunny, MKs are followers. “It seems that they have lost themselves totally. They don’t know what they like or what they have to do, they just follow the trends blindly,” Sunny continued.
The term was first used around the year 2000 and has become a common term in the Hong Kong youth community over the years. Here are the top ten traits of MK, according to Wikipedia:
- Punk look
- Show off tattoos
- Smoking and spitting
- Reckless behavior
- Use foul language
- Carry LV and Gucci bags, wearing Adidas
- Eye catchy accessories like golden chains
- Hang out in groups
- Poorly educated
- Always trying to play it cool
- Walk arrogantly
- Use teen slang
Some people may say the MK fad is not a good indicator of Hong Kong youth, but at least it gives us a taste of what some of its youth trends are!
- Louisa Wong, NGT Contributor from FH Hong Kong
2 responses so far ↓
1 merkreflektion // Feb 12, 2009 at 4:36 am
Agree with the above and I add that “MKstyle” or the often degrading term “MK people” is different now than what it used to be. Originally it could be applied to the young “errand boys” of the area, most of them full of tattoos. But for the present its used in a different way and they can be found in many areas of HK.
Starting off, I have to say that MK is not a trend nor a subculture, It is not something based on any paticular ideology. Insted it can be considered an effect of urban culture where teens want to act and dress in a way that in their point of view is cool (misled). They dont have any paticular sense of fashion and thats why MKstyle is a melting pot of many different fashion trends(high fashion or not) + also acccesories combined with Bad taste. They will buy what they see + like and combine it all together excessively/over the top and the result is something thats out of place. Below are some different cases:
- For girls: Long fake eyelashes, Color contacts, Drawn eyebrows, Fake bling(on clothes,nails +accessories), bad hair styles.
- For guys: Often dyed hair, Wearing hiphop accesories(Fitted hats, headbands, big fake bling) with NON hiphop clothes (eg. skinny jeans, Norm size tee shirt), “Hiphop” style with excessive layering, wannabe punk style combined with luxury goods (LV, Gucci, Prada etc) and generally any look thats out of place.
You can see them at Lkf, Karaoke bars and Discos.
Mk girls attitude is quite similar to the attitude of the valley girls, essex girls and japanese gyaru, tho I do believe in stereotypes and I dont like labeling.
Being MK is not a bad thing. Being Ingorant is
2 testval // Mar 19, 2009 at 12:51 pm
01/01/2000
Leave a Comment