If we learnt anything from the Boaty McBoatface saga, it is that getting the public to name something can either be a hit or miss, and the new name of Hong Kong’s high-speed rail line to the mainland is, for some netizens, a definite miss.
The name of the controversial train line was revealed by chief executive Carrie Lam and MTR Corporation Chair Frederick Ma as “Vibrant Express” at a ceremony at the West Kowloon terminal on Friday to mark the completion of main works on the line, HKFP reported.
According to Ma, the project is 99 percent complete and is expected to open in September.
According to a statement by MTR, the name was picked by a judging panel with “Vibrant Express” beating around 16,000 entries. Merit awards were also given to HKSPEED, “leap express,” and “fibre optic express.”
Shock news – there are 16,000 *worse* names than "Vibrant Express", allegedly. pic.twitter.com/C4llMq36ZN
— HK Hemlock (@HKBigLychee) March 23, 2018
According to ma, “Vibrant Express” was selected “as it can best demonstrate the Hong Kong’s characteristics – a vibrant city bursting with energy.”
Unsurprisingly, not everyone is a fan of the new name, with some saying that the name sounds more like a sex toy than the name of a high-speeed train, with some saying it should be called the “vibrator express.”
Some netizens have noticed that the slightly odd English name may have been because the entry was submitted in Chinese with no English translation.
On the #HK high speed rail train naming contest, it seems the winners were Chinese names and so "Vibrant Express" is prob #MTRC translation.
So what would they have called 光纖 ? Fibre-optic Express?
And yes, Trainy McTrainface is looking good right now pic.twitter.com/ulx2LbYowb— Yuen Chan (@xinwenxiaojie) March 24, 2018
Some have described the name as “very old-fashioned,” while others have noticed that the Chinese name for Vibrant Express (“dung gam hou”) is very similar to the Chinese name for a rollercoaster at Ocean Park called “the hair raiser” (“dung gam faai ce”).
Other names suggested by netizens include “the white elephant express” or “sick at heart express.” Others noticed that “dung gam hou” uses some of the same characters as the Chinese word for “exclamation mark” (“gam taan hou”) — which coincidentally is something you also see on road signs telling you to “stop.”
The high-speed rail line — also known as the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail link — has been a source of consternation among Hongkongers.
In July, the government announced a controversial checkpoint arrangement for the train line, which would involve “leasing” land to the mainland and effectively giving up Hong Kong jurisdiction in a part of the West Kowloon terminus, HKFP reports.
The arrangement has been met with opposition by the city’s democrats as to whether or not it is constitutional.
Speaking at the ceremony, the chief executive called on the city’s lawmakers to pass the joint checkpoint bill — which would allow mainland Chinese officials to be stationed in the West Kowloon terminus to carry out immigration and customs procedures — as soon as possible, SCMP reports.
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