Video of the Day: In Hong Kong, don't shoosh the Bus Uncle

Word association: What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “under pressure”? Freddie Mercury? David Bowie? Vanilla Ice? Nah, not if you live in Hong Kong. Ask any city dwellers on the street and they’ll tell you that phrase, lately, has fallen under the singular providence of one man, 巴士阿叔 (or "Bus Uncle"), a grumpy old man who has captured the city’s imagination and adoration with one simple phrase, “I am under pressure”. Huh? Allow us to explain. Well, actually we’ll let ESWN explain:

What is the most popular movie in Hong Kong? It is not M:i:3 (which is likely not to be shown in mainland China) and it is not Da Vinci Code (which is severely criticized by the Catholic Church). No, it is a stealth
video clip entitled "巴士阿叔, Bus Uncle" on YouTube.

The incident occurred on the top deck of a Number 68X Kowloon bus on April 29. A young man observed that the middle-aged person in front of him was talking too loud on the mobile telephone. So he tapped the man's shoulder and asked him to keep the volume down. This led to a vigorous response, including a string of obscenities. The entire proceedings were recorded by another passenger named John using a mobile camera phone. The film was uploaded on YouTube and then seen by the whole wide world. As of May 19, 1.2 million people have watched the video clip! (Update: 1.9 million as of May 26; ETTV cited a 5.9 million figure on May 27, which probably combines all the editions).

Welcome to the information age.

Anyway, during his now net-famous tirade, in addition to professing some not-so-modest fondness for the young man’s mother, Bus Uncle also unleashed what are now two wildly popular catch phrases in Hong Kong: One being “This is not settled” and the other is of course “I am under pressure”. This has turned into a marketing bonanza for some enterprising dudes/gals. T-shirts, tote-bags, boxer shorts, mugs (you name it) bearing the said phrases are for sale all around town. Songs/remixes featuring Bus Uncle have also sprung up on the net. Again, you can find them all here, thanks to ESWN.

In related news, Shanghaiist is going to Pudong tomorrow, an area not covered by Metro, but is “easily reachable by bus”, or so we were told. In light of this story, and our observation that Shanghainese’s penchant for high decibel phone conversations, we will be sure to bring our video camera along.