Chief Executive John Lee once said that the government needs to explain Hong Kong’s advantages and achievements to the world in an explicit manner.
It seems like the Law Society is taking up his call for unabashed approaches to promoting the city by producing a song about Hong Kong’s rule of law that is dedicated to the general public, particularly young people.
The professional association for the city’s solicitors recently posted a music video of the song, titled “Love for Hong Kong” on its YouTube channel, which features vocals and hand gestures by the Eastern District Youth and Children’s Choir as well as its president, Chan Chak-ming, and some of its council members.
The song begins with lyrics saying how we should not “just hide in your heart” the “love for Hong Kong”, but rather “sing it out, speak it out” and “let everyone know”.
The young children then go on to sing: “What can we do to protect Hong Kong from unfounded wrong allegations?” (Kids nowadays are already singing about “unfounded wrong allegations” at such a young age. We don’t think we even knew what “allegations” means until we were in high school.)
And how do we do that? As the children sing: “Tell the world we’re working well. Rule of Law is strong.”
The song — which is already giving us quite a bit of second-hand embarrassment — then continues with a bunch of legal jargon and the professing of trust in the legal system in Hong Kong, including how “we’re all equal before the law”, “rule of law is the pillar of Hong Kong” and “we have trust in” the “lawyers and judges” who are “defenders of the law”.
The song, which is sung in English throughout, then makes an abrupt switch to Mandarin for its final line, saying how “the new generation of rule of law is me”.
The song is penned by former Law Society president Melissa Pang.
The Law Society, which has disabled comments on the song, said in the description of the video that “young people are our future” and “rule of law education and appreciation should be nurtured from an early age”.
Hence the song is “dedicated to the learning and protection of the rule of law amongst the general public, in particular young people”, it added.
The Law Society, which has pro-establishment links, also said the music video is accredited as an event in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule and will be played at some of its upcoming events.
