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Welcome back to HKFP Monitor. This week, we look at how Hong Kong authorities’ legislative election promotions span government departments and are fashioned into carefully scripted, pun-filled videos.
We also dig into recent controversy around MTR exit signs, after the railway company faced backlash for renaming a Ho Man Tin station exit to feature a new luxury high-rise, removing mention of a decades-old public housing estate.
| HEAD IN THE GAME
What do the words “vote” and “head” have in common? In Cantonese, they are both pronounced “tau.”
This quirk has inspired a series of pun-filled reels made by authorities to promote the Legislative Council (LegCo) elections on December 7, part of a government-wide effort to mobilise voters after the patriots-only polls in recent years saw record-low turnouts.
The legislative elections are the second to take place since Beijing overhauled the electoral system in 2021, allowing only those deemed patriotic enough to stand and reducing the number of democratically elected seats.
Government department websites – from the Health Department to the Government Laboratory – and their social media pages have been plastered with election-related promotions in recent weeks. On some websites, clicking to close pop-ups promoting the elections will reveal more election-related advertisements.
Offline, hikers enjoying a day out in Hong Kong’s countryside are not immune. Earlier this month, a helicopter flying over Sunset Peak in Lantau blared an announcement encouraging the public to vote.
Most of the government’s social media posts are nearly identical photos of officials holding up placards encouraging people to vote, accompanied by captions saying that voting is a civic responsibility.
But some are more creative. On Tuesday, the Hong Kong Police Force posted a reel on social media featuring Police Commissioner Joe Chow and his three deputies at a hair salon. Chow is getting his hair dyed, while the deputy police commissioners are suggesting different colours.
In the end, the hairdresser reveals Chow’s hair to be exactly the same as it was before.
“The colour of your hair doesn’t matter; knowing how to vote is what’s most important,” he said, playing on the reversed pronunciations of “dyeing hair” and “vote.” The former is pronounced “piu tau” in Cantonese, while the latter is “tau piu.”
It follows a video shared on the Security Bureau’s Facebook page late last month. In it, a suited-up Secretary for Security Chris Tang is combing his hair meticulously in a mirror.
“Gelling hair is important for the maintenance of one’s image; legislation is even more important to maintain social stability,” Tang said in a voice-over, using a pun based on Cantonese homonyms for “gelling hair” and “legislation” – “lap fat.”
Wordplay and language appear to be the name of the game in the government’s election promotion videos. On Thursday, Secretary for Civil Service Ingrid Yeung posted a video on social media of government officials calling on the public to vote in various Chinese dialects, including Hakka, Teochew and Minnan.
| ONMAN-WHAT?
The MTR Corporation (MTRC) received backlash after changing the name of Exit A at Ho Man Tin Station from “Ho Man Tin Estate/Oi Man Estate” to “ONMANTIN,” the name of a new luxury high-rise, earlier this month.
ONMANTIN, which sits above the MTR station, was completed earlier this year. It was jointly developed by Great Eagle Group and the MTRC, sparking criticism that the railway company was acting only in its own commercial interest.
Ho Man Tin Estate and Oi Man Estate together have a total of around 11,000 units, compared with ONMANTIN, which has 990 units. Netizens point out that Oi Man Estate – having stood since the 1970s – is a much more widely known landmark than the new luxury high-rise.
Criticism emerged over the weekend, and by Tuesday, the MTR Corporation had changed the sign to read “Ho Man Tin Est./Oi Man Est./ONMANTIN.”
The saga points to a larger pattern of the MTRC changing the names of exits when new landmarks or residences are built, occasionally angering residents who see the revisions as erasing a part of history.
At this very moment, in fact, a similar controversy is going on in Kowloon Bay. The station’s Exit B – formerly Amoy Gardens, a large private housing estate that is known for being the site of a SARS outbreak in 2003 – was renamed East Kowloon Cultural Centre, which opened this month.
The renaming happened a year ago, in July 2024, but recently came to light amid the incident in Ho Man Tin MTR station.
Lawmaker Michael Tien, who lobbied the railway company to change the sign in Ho Man Tin MTR Station, said he was doing the same with regard to the Kowloon Bay MTR sign. In a press release on Thursday, the railway company said it was reviewing the exit name and would “make appropriate arrangements.”
Some years ago, the renaming of Mong Kok MTR Station’s Exit B from Fa Yuen Street Municipal Services Building to T.O.P. This is Our Place, a new mall operated by the MTRC, also attracted attention.
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| LOCAL MEDIA MONITOR
No questions, no debates: In other election news, candidate forums for LegCo election candidates have begun. Traditionally, major TV news outlets like RTHK, iCable, and NowTV held their own series of forums, with reporters serving as hosts and asking the candidates questions.
But this year, the government is organising its own forums called “Patriots Collaborate for Good Governance.” And candidates have reportedly been told not to attend those held by media outlets.
Jeffrey Chan, a member of the centrist group PoD Research Institute who is running as an independent candidate, told The Collective on Wednesday that he was initially invited to a forum held by a TV station. But he was later informed that the forum was cancelled because other candidates would not be going.
On the same day, Ming Pao reported that the three broadcasters decided to cancel their election forums.
Meanwhile, some have pointed out that the government’s forums are more pageantry than substance. During the first forum on Tuesday, featuring five candidates running in the New Territories South West geographical constituency, a significant chunk of time was spent on chanting slogans and introducing the candidates.
The host introduced the candidates not once but four times, each time reading out their names and candidate numbers, as the candidates waved and smiled.
There were also no debates, nor did the candidates ask their opponents questions – a departure from the format of previous forums held by TV stations.
After the candidates talked about their political platforms, the host gave them the choice of continuing that or asking other contenders questions. All of them opted for the former.
Media interviews raised questions about the forum’s attendees and how much they were actually paying attention. After the forum, an iCable reporter asked one woman if she could give the names of the five candidates, but she was unable to name a single one.
Two other forum attendees told iCable they were asked to attend, including by a hometown association.
One woman said: “We don’t really know… they told us out of the blue to come here and listen to this forum.”
The cable station later took down the TV segment with those interviews.
| HKFP PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Three Hong Kong activists protested an Israeli consulate-backed film festival last Saturday, calling for a boycott of the festival that the group said promoted state-sponsored propaganda.
They were immediately surrounded and outnumbered by Israeli consulate staff, identified by their badges, as well as plainclothes police officers and mall security personnel.
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