Hong Kong Outlook In the Shadow of the Karaoke Boom... By VIVIAN CHIU	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
カラオケラウンジから軍歌が消えた日 今週から毎月第1週号に、新海外レポート"Hong Kong Outlook"を掲載します。今、世界から熱い視線を浴びている香港の最新事情を紹介するコラムです。第1回目は、大ブームとなっているカラオケがテーマ。ブームの模様と、一人の日本人女性が行なった「日本の軍歌」禁止運動の軌跡をレポートします。

In the 1990s, karaoke was imported to Hong Kong from Japan and it seemed to have taken the town by storm. At first, a few restaurants in Tsim Sha Tsui installed karaoke machines, but by 1993, the karaoke business was booming and there were hundreds of karaoke lounges all over Hong Kong.

Before karaoke came to Hong Kong, disco was the most popular venue for young people. They went and danced all night long. But after karaoke became popular in Hong Kong, many discos went out of business.

There is a karaoke chain that opened its first karaoke lounge in Causeway Bay in 1990. Now it has eight lounges.

"I believe the karaoke trend will continue to be popular in Hong Kong for a long time, " the manager of the chain said.

Most karaoke lounges in Hong Kong follow the Japanese "box" style of renting rooms to their customers. The smallest box ― for six or seven people ― costs around U.S.$3.60 (¥450) an hour. A deluxe, or "party" box costs $13 (¥1,625) an hour. There are songs in Cantonese, Mandarin, English, Japanese and Thai.

Students go on weekends. Businessmen go to entertain their customers. Office workers go to relax after work and sing their hearts out.

Many people who don't sing very well at the beginning have become almost like professional singers after going to karaoke several times. They even act like professional singers performing on the stage before an audience.

Linda Yu is crazy about karaoke. She has a deep male voice and she doesn't sing very well. Now she can sing smoothly, but still not well. At least she is not off-key.

"Of course I have improved after going to the karaoke so many times," Yu said.

Several big karaoke bars in Hong Kong used to offer Japanese military songs to attract Japanese customers. Lyrics contained lines such as "victory will inevitably be ours" and "we will never regret (joining the war)." Japanese flags, wounded fighter pilots and parachuters were common scenes accompanying the songs.

But in 1995, a Japanese girl, Kaname Odachi, who lived in Hong Kong, believed the military songs would mislead young people and should be banned.

"Many young Japanese do not understand how Japan attacked other countries during World War II because they are not taught about that in school. Singing these songs will only promote militarism," she said.

On August 11, 1995, Odachi and a group of demonstrators marched through Causeway Bay (the hub of Japanese department stores) vowing that they'd continue the battle until every karaoke lounge took out the military songs.

Ms. Odachi, a Chinese University student, said she hoped the songs would not only be banned in Hong Kong, but in all other Asian countries that suffered during World War II.

Odachi, in condemning the Japanese Government, said: "The militarists deny and whitewash their war crimes, but the Japanese should know the truth."

The Big Echo Club Karaoke Box, which has six outlets in Hong Kong, decided to withdraw the songs after consulting its head office in Japan.

Odachi began speaking out against Japan's wartime aggression in Asia when she was 16. She does not care if her countrymen call her a traitor.

"We should speak out loud, real loud," said the now 30-year-old activist. She has lived in Hong Kong since 1989 and speaks fluent Cantonese.

Odachi wants her nation to acknowledge its past; she also wants the Japanese Government to pay compensation to the war victims.

"The government does not want to pay reparations. It is escaping from many countries' criticisms," she said.

"If Japan had paid reparations to the victim countries 50 years ago, Japan wouldn't be so rich now and the older people in Hong Kong would have a better life and more opportunities," she said.

She agreed to head the Hong Kong branch of the war bond reparation society in Japan, which supports the Reparation Association of Hong Kong.

She also set up a war history group, called "Turnip Heads Also Think" ― referring to a Chinese term for the turnip-loving Japanese ― with 30 Japanese living in Hong Kong, to remind Japan of its wartime sins.

"People say I am betraying my country but I am not scared. The Japanese Government does not represent all of us. It is our responsibility to change the Japanese way of thinking" Odachi said.

Shukan ST: May 2, 1997

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