Pop Culture
Music: Cantopop has dominated and become synonymous with local music culture since its birth in Hong Kong. While many other forms of music exist, Cantopop still enjoys mass popularity. However, the global influence of Mandarin has influenced the style. Mandopop from Taiwan is fast gaining ground. Most artists are essentially multilingual, singing in both Cantonese and Mandarin. Hong Kong English pop, Japanese, Korean and western music are too popular among Hong Kongers.
TV Dramas: Besides from the staple of TVB dramas, citizens also watch a substantial number of dramas from Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The most notable is Korea's Dae Jang Geum. Its 2005 broadcast on TVB was extremely popular. On the night of the series' finale, the streets were unusually quiet, due to people staying at home to watch it.
Celebrity: Hong Kong can be described as "gossip mad". The personal lives of singers, actors and celebrities in general are popular conversation topics and tabloid material. Hong Kong's thirst for gossip is not limited to local celebrities, but extends to celebrities from Taiwan, Japan and Korea. Many gossip magazines are also in circulation, and one of the most notable (or notorious) sections is the "HD Reality" section. Introduced after the implementation of HD broadcasting, the highly popular section shows HD photos of celebrities and analyses their attractiveness or unattractiveness.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Hong Kong
Famous quotes containing the words pop culture, pop and/or culture:
“There is no comparing the brutality and cynicism of today’s pop culture with that of forty years ago: from High Noon to Robocop is a long descent.”
—Charles Krauthammer (b. 1950)
“The children [on TV] are too well behaved and are reasonable beyond their years. All the children pop in with exceptional insights. On many of the shows the children’s insights are apt to be unexpectedly philosophical. The lesson seems to be, “Listen to little children carefully and you will learn great truths.””
—G. Weinberg. originally quoted in “What Is Television’s World of the Single Parent Doing to Your Family?” TV Guide (August 1970)
“With respect to a true culture and manhood, we are essentially provincial still, not metropolitan,—mere Jonathans. We are provincial, because we do not find at home our standards; because we do not worship truth, but the reflection of truth; because we are warped and narrowed by an exclusive devotion to trade and commerce and manufacturers and agriculture and the like, which are but means, and not the end.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)