The music was unexpected, his self-composed lyrics were hilarious and the whole thing quite beautiful, all the more given the circumstances.
Hong Kong’s singing cabbie — who first caught netizens attention a few years ago when a clip of his ukulele version of the theme tune for the 1976 comedy film The Private Eyes went viral — is back, and this time he was certainly in the right place.
The driver, surnamed Ho, recently picked up a woman from Tsim Sha Tsui who, after enquiring about the ukulele sitting in the front seat, was treated to several mid-ride renditions of some classics, and even an original hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V26WtAFRWCQ
But more on that later because first, it feels important to note, the woman certainly needed the unexpected lift, both in a literal and musical sense.
Surnamed Chow, she told Apple Daily — to whom she sent footage of the August 25 ride — that after emigrating to the US several years ago she had returned with her husband in unfortunate circumstances: the latter’s grandmother was sick.
Not only that, but after arriving in the city, they’d encountered a much more common phenomenon when hailing a cab here: a shitty driver, who, Chow recalled, refused to take them to the hospital in Wong Tai Sin where their ailing elderly family member was being cared for.
“The first taxi I got into, the driver said ‘I’m not going to Wong Tai Sin, I’m meeting someone for a meal later.’ I said ‘I’m begging you, I need to see my grandma for the last time.’ He said ‘I can’t, I’ve agreed to meet someone for food,’ and I thought that was pretty heartless,” she told the newspaper.
Her husband’s grandmother died the next day. So when she later found herself in Ho’s cab — heading alone from TST to Central — Chow could have been excused for holding a negative impression, as many of us do, of the entire taxi industry.
But, there are always exceptions, something that became evident as, waiting to enter the Cross Harbour tunnel, Ho began his impromptu concert, belting out tunes from Cantopop singer Kenny Bee and the Bee Gees.
Then came the good stuff: Ho’s exclusive performance of a song he composed for chief executive Carrie Lam called “Hong Kong has a lot of rats”.
“Hong Kong has a lot of rats, when I see the rats I get scared to death, there are bucketloads of rats, and they scared Carrie Lam to death,” he sung in Cantonese, a language in which the lyrics work a little better than English.
Like any engaging performer, Ho also spliced his set with a bit of audience back-and-forth, discussing his time playing in bands and the tough racket of trying to make it as a musician in Hong Kong.
To make ends meet, he said, he drives a cab. The fact he brings his ukulele along for the ride, is something we’re grateful for.
(Below is the 2015 viral video of Ho performing in his taxi.)
