Question: What do Junius Ho and Thanos have in common? (Aside from being total villains, of course.)
Answer: They were both among Hongkongers’ most-Googled search terms this year.
This year’s Google Trends results reveal that (no surprises here) several terms related to the city’s ongoing anti-government protests made it to the three top 10 lists for Hong Kong — hottest keywords, hottest local figures, and hottest local headlines.
Ho, the controversial pro-Beijing politician, topped the list of most-Googled local figures, beating even Chief Executive Carrie Lam — who is possibly the only person in the city more widely disliked than he is. Ho has repeatedly, and unapologetically, made headlines for such things as getting chummy with a group of white-shirted thugs believed to have taken part in a mob attack at Yuen Long MTR (then having his parents’ graves desecrated in apparent retaliation), appearing to threaten another lawmaker with death in a Facebook livestream, making a crude sexist remark to a female lawmaker during a LegCo session, getting stripped of an honorary doctorate for being himself, and, most recently, getting attacked by a knife-wielding man while canvassing in last month’s district council elections (which he lost, much to the public’s glee).
Ho also surpassed other figures in Hong Kong current affairs, such as Chan Tong-kai, the murder suspect whose case sparked the entire anti-extradition bill protests movement; new police chief Chris Tang, who took over leadership of the historically unpopular force this year; and police spokesperson John Tse, who handles the force’s widely mocked daily afternoon briefings.
Other most-Googled figures include Chan Yin-lam, a 15-year-old whose body was found floating in the sea near Yau Tong in September; Chow Tsz-lok, the 22-year-old student who died days after suffering a fall in a parking garage near a protest in Tseung Kwan O; and Nabela Qoser, the RTHK journalist who went viral for demanding the typically stone-faced Lam “answer like a human being” during a press conference after the Yuen Long station attacks.
The honor of being the most-searched-for keyword (and hottest local headline), however, went to the Reddit-like forum LIHKG, which has been used by protesters to plan and organize flash protests. The forum’s mascots, which have become common sights at protests and Lennon Walls (also trending) around town, are a pig and a shiba inu dog.
Terms related to the controversial extradition bill that kickstarted the protests also featured prominently in the top 10 lists, including the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance — the official name of the law that the Hong Kong government tried to amend to allow extraditions to Taiwan, Macau, and, most controversially, the mainland. “Oppose extradition to China,” or “faan song jung,” the catchy slogan chanted by protesters in the first few months of the protests, also trended.
The district council elections and the MTR also featured in the top 10 lists, as did Glory To Hong Kong, the defiant protest anthem belted out by protesters at rallies, flash mobs in malls, and fans in the stands at football games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUIDL4SB60g&feature=emb_title
It wasn’t all politics and protests, though.
Hongkongers also did a fair bit of Googling about the world of entertainment, especially about Jacqueline Wong and Andy Hui — the two celebrities at the center of the cheating scandal that caused the SAR to lose its collective s**t way back in April. And sandwiched between the star-crossed lovers in Google’s rankings was Avengers supervillain Thanos.
Check out Google’s top 10 most-searched terms here:
Hottest Keywords:
1) LIHKG (連登)
2) Jacqueline Wong (黃心穎)
3) The Legend of Haolan (皓鑭傳) [TV show]
4) Thanos
5) Education Bureau (教育局)
6) Andy Hui (許志安)
7) Stand News (立場新聞)
8) MTR (港鐵)
9) District Council Elections (區議會選舉)
10) Junius Ho (何君堯)
Hottest local figures:
1) Junius Ho (何君堯)
2) Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥)
3) Chan Yin-lam (陳彥霖)
4) Chan Tong-kai (陳同佳)
5) Zhu Nuan (朱媛)
6) Chow Tsz-lok (周梓樂)
7) John Tse (謝振中)
8) Chris Tang (鄧炳強)
9) Nabela Qoser (利君雅)
10) Chan Tsz-wai (陳梓維)
Hottest local headlines:
1) LIHKG (連登)
2) Education Bureau (教育局)
3) MTR (港鐵)
4) District Council Elections (區議會選舉)
5) Fugitive Offenders Ordinance (逃犯條例)
6) Glory To Hong Kong (願榮光歸香港)
7) Measles (麻疹)
8) HK$4,000 cash handout application (4000蚊申請表格)
9) Oppose send to China (反送中)
10) Lennon Wall (連儂牆)
