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In the next few days, APD would like to take you through the turbulent 2016. We will be presenting stories of a wide range of people – some of them are big shots who have driven major shifts in world order, and others are ordinary folks whose lives have been changed by the dramatic events that occurred this year.
By APD writers Li Mengge, Yin Linjing and Lin Yue
As the melody of "Plum blossoms in the snow" ran out across the arrival hall of Hong Kong International Airport, tens of local teenagers disguising as passersby gradually gathered. They played well-known songs that are familiar to Hong Kong people and turned the bustling airport terminal into an orchestra theater in just a few minutes.
The airport flash mob staged by the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of Hong Kong (MYO) went viral on the Internet at the end of 2016, and the video attracted millions of viewers after being uploaded to the Internet and was highly appreciated by netizens. Without exaggerated performance or unnecessary packaging, the flash mob touched the viewers’ right chords with a sense of freshness and vigor.
The chord of HK performed in the airport.
Members of the MYO were rehearsing the song "A man should stand strong" when APD reporters entered the orchestra’s studio at Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. A young woman conductor was sitting in the center of the orchestra, playing her magic of music with a small baton. Suddenly, the studio was infused with the atmosphere of heroic spirit, which came with the Chinese drumbeats and the following old melody.
Synthia Ko, the conductor, is the organizer of the airport flash mob, and also the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the MYO. Ko selected every member and built up this flash mob team of more than 70 people, with an average age of 14 to 15.
The flash mob team gathers two to three hours for rehearsal every week, Ko said, and for the airport show, the team got only four rehearsals, because all the tracks played were quite familiar to the members.
It’s not the first time for the team to perform flash mob at a public space, but the performances did not attract so much attention before. Ko said that they had performed for four times in the past and always concerned too much about the click rate of their videos.
Passersby applauded for the performance.
Ko had asked some friends for opinions to raise the click rate, she said, and they suggested that inviting some celebrities to participate should be the only way.
Since it was impossible for the orchestra to engage any celebrities and the MYO could not afford the expenses, she believed that the only thing they could do was to try their best. "Through this experience," Ko said, "I believe that there will be people, who really understand and appreciate our work, as long as we do it with all our hearts."
At the first time when Ko led a team to perform flash mob in 2014, her wish was to transfer the highbrow orchestral music, which still was caviar to the general into a popular success with the characteristics of Hong Kong.
Before 2014, she said, a lot of foreign orchestras had adopted flash mobs to perform symphonies, but the music they chose were always epic masterpieces written by western composers like Beethoven.
Routine rehearsal
In the other way around, Ko thought that the way to make orchestral music popular in the city was to play those tracks, which were embedded with local characteristics. "The best way to let people know more about orchestral music is to walk into the crowd," she said, "making the orchestra into an easy charm and common touch."
With this idea, Ko chose several songs known to man, as "A man should stand strong" and "Pearl of the east" to perform at the airport. Besides the high popularity they enjoy, she chose these songs for the reason of her own "nostalgia". Studying abroad for many years, Ko believed that the songs, which always resonated with her endless nostalgia, could echo with the sentiments of a lot more people.
Ko was born in Hong Kong and went to study in the United States’ secondary school at an early age. Until her finished her postgraduate study, Ko only got one or two chances coming back home during all those years.
"I was very poor at that time," she said, "many of my classmates were able to come back home every year. I was very much homesick when I didn’t get enough money to come home." Ko said, each time when she heard a familiar melody, she could feel that the home was closer, and Hong Kong was closer.
Ko said that her devotion to music was inspired by the enlightenment of her teacher in middle school. Studying piano at first, she finally found her life direction when stood on the stage, holding a baton and performing as a conductor for her very first time. Ko joined the MYO when she came back to Hong Kong. She devoted all her emotions towards Hong Kong and towards music into this orchestra and presented such a splendid show.
She was grateful for all the supports from netizens and hoped that there would be more people to be touched by the power of music. For the future, she said that she planed to introduce more Hong Kong elements, such as gourmet and transportation into her performance.
For example, she told APD that she wanted to use Hong Kong’s traditional tool to make the candy--"Deuk Deuk Tong" as the instrument of the percussion music. To put the street hawkers’ chiseling onto stage, Ko is ambitious to present Hong Kong people a concert, which will be full of local romanticism and enjoyable to look at.
The reason why the airport flash mob could go viral was not only because the exquisite designing, but also the positive energy that the Hong Kong teenagers delivered. Activities of the orchestra enabled those young people to show themselves in the public and encouraged them to persist in something that they enjoyed, she said, there should be positive energy in no matter music, painting, reading books or poems.
The 16-year-old Horace See has joined the orchestra for five to six years. In this airport flash mob video, he was the first player to show himself. Had performed for many times, he was quite excited this time.
He said: "the modern technology is so advanced that many people, including my mum’s friend saw this through the Internet. On Hong Kong’s pop music billboard, there’s always pop music from the United States or South Korea and it is quite expensive for ordinary people to go to a classical concert. I hope through the flash mob, we can deliver the beauty of orchestral music to the public."
The first flute-player, the 15-year-old Hui Tin Ho said proudly: "I made the first sound of this flash mob. To interpret the Chinese style ‘Plum blossoms in the snow’ with a western instrument could bring a grand feeling to this song." Hui has only joined the orchestra for one and a half year, and he was a bit of nervous on his first performance in public.
"People surrounded were looking at us, but when the music began, I no longer felt nervous," he said. "After all, the flash mob is not the mainstream form of orchestral music, we shouldn’t be bloated even we got so much supports."
It’s the fourth year for the 15-year-old Michael Au to join the orchestra. With his efforts, he is in charge of the violin department and played a solo in the song "Below the Lion’s Rock". He said that the form of flash mob changed the dreary image of orchestral music, which could only be heard in theaters. "The songs we played enabled foreigners to know Hong Kong music and recalled memories of Hong Kong people," he said, "it’s a strength to unite all the people."
A viewer left his comment on this airport flash mob: "Plum blossoms in the snow" recalled my childhood memories, "A man should stand strong" reminded me the old time Hong Kong’s Kung Fu films with the heroic spirits of patriotism, "Cha Siu Bao" made me laugh and presented me with Canton style dim sum, and the melodies of "Below the Lion’s Rock" and "Peal of the east" ran through each other, bearing too much emotions of our country and the spirit of diligent and struggling.
"These songs and memories, which I thought had been forgotten, suddenly flashed back in my mind because of their performance. I am so much grateful towards these young people," he wrote.
"When the music began, I couldn’t help crying," another viewer commented, "this is the way Hong Kong supposed to be, and this is the vigor and positive energy that Hong Kong’s young people should have. I believe in the future of Hong Kong and a strong and prosperous country depends on its youth. For those lovely youth, you are the hope of our future."
