A Lunar New Year rap written by Malaysian rapper Namewee (黃明志), or Wee Meng Chee, that criticizes “old-fashioned” Lunar New Year songs has become an online hit and struck a chord with Internet users in Malaysia and Taiwan.
In a music video created by Wee to accompany the song CNY Song by Namewee, a man in a traditional red Chinese top appears and sings a traditional Lunar New Year song.
However, he is interrupted when Wee walks in and begins to rap that the lyrics are old-fashioned and don't make sense.
“Why are you singing about winter and spring? You think I'm stupid? Other than rain, it's intolerably hot here everyday,” Wee raps. “Hasn't your teacher taught you, there's only one season called summer in Malaysia?”
When the man goes on to sing about firecrackers, Wee interrupts him again, saying the lyrics are wrong because firecrackers are illegal in Malaysia.
“You can sing a Lunar New Year song about your own culture, not just sing whatever comes out of China,” Wee raps. “You've been living here for such a long time, and you still don't know how to localize?”
Since Wee uploaded the video onto his own YouTube channel two weeks ago, the video has received more than 170,000 hits.
Explaining the idea behind the song, Wee said he could understand that some ethnic Chinese in Malaysia still harbor memories of winter snow and firecrackers at Lunar New Year.
“But how could the new generation [of Chinese Malaysians] accept the copying of a culture that is different from the local culture?” he asked. “Only New Year songs that reflect reality can be considered progressive and localized New Year songs.”
“Very well said. It's really annoying to listen to the same songs over and over every year,” a YouTube member from Taiwan “jamie842226” commented.
“Takayuki” wrote in Plurk.com that she agreed with Wee about including local elements.
“It's just like us singing ‘plum blossoms everywhere,’ but actually, lilies and azaleas are more common in Taiwan,” she said.
The song Plum Blossom that Takayuki mentioned is a patriotic song from China brought to Taiwan by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime in 1949.
Another Plurker, Jiehmei, supported Wee’s localization call.
“It's something we need to think about in the age of globalization, especially when faced with Chinese imperialism,” she said.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS