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Sunday, June 11, 2006
"I face pressure. You face pressure."
Have you seen Bus Uncle yet? You must. Here:
This video was shot by an onlooker with a camera phone, and has become hugely popular in Hong Kong, where it was shot. Some of the language used in it, like the headline of this post, has apparently become part of Hong Kong slang. Eugene Robinson writes, in an excellent Op-Ed in the Washington Post, that "[e]ach of us has a tiny, raging Bus Uncle buried deep within, just waiting to burst free." He elaborates:
And it isn't a pleasant sight.
(Links via email from Arun Simha, who also directs me to a post on Churi Muri on the same subject.)
Update: Arun directs me to this follow-up story, about how the protagonists have become mini-celebs and so on. You'll find plenty more if you Google for it.
This video was shot by an onlooker with a camera phone, and has become hugely popular in Hong Kong, where it was shot. Some of the language used in it, like the headline of this post, has apparently become part of Hong Kong slang. Eugene Robinson writes, in an excellent Op-Ed in the Washington Post, that "[e]ach of us has a tiny, raging Bus Uncle buried deep within, just waiting to burst free." He elaborates:
Bus Uncle speaks an unassailable truth: "I face pressure. You face pressure." We all face pressures at work and at home. We all have deadlines to meet and bills to pay. We handle our pressures because that's what being an adult is largely about, managing pressures so they don't end up managing us. But we all have those days, don't we, when it feels like a losing battle.Boy, I know what that's like: the sense of a losing battle, the tap on the shoulder. Isn't it amazing that the role that art is supposed to play -- revealing the human condition and yada yada yada -- can now be performed by anyone, and that a camera phone in far-away Hong Kong can be like a mirror to the world.
And then all it takes is an innocent tap on the shoulder at just the wrong moment.
And it isn't a pleasant sight.
(Links via email from Arun Simha, who also directs me to a post on Churi Muri on the same subject.)
Update: Arun directs me to this follow-up story, about how the protagonists have become mini-celebs and so on. You'll find plenty more if you Google for it.
