CHINA DAILY HONG KONG EDITION Friday, August 24, 2018 HK | CULTURE 9 Music Bass elements create (center) of The

Paul Thompson Red Stripes founded Hong Kong and Stephane musical gold International Reggae Festival with DorisROY LIULo / CHINA DAILY HK’s fl edgling reggae and ska scene has a healthy pulse Wong. thanks to a well-regarded homegrown festival, writes Neil Li.

music magazine from Britain, helping to spread the hen people talk about music blues with Caribbean word about the music being created in the city. in Hong Kong, reggae and mento and calypso. From ska rarely enter the discus- their island home, they Connecting with local audiences sion. However, the city has have spread out and gained Hong Kong’s reggae and ska scene continues to hostedW a festival dedicated to these genres an international audience in grow. Reggae-themed parties and club nights are on since 2015. Hong Kong International Reggae places like the United King- the rise. MouseFX has noticed more and more under- Ska Festival (HKIRSF) is the brainchild of dom, South America, Indo- ground reggae and ska acts popping up as younger Stephane Wong, Paul Thompson, Doris Lo nesia and Japan. musicians are producing their own brand of reggae and Abe Law. It originated from a small lo- MouseFX was one of the music. Several local hip-hop artists such as Heyo and cal band festival that Wong began in 2011 fi rst people in Hong Kong MC Yan have incorporated reggae elements into some called Endless Summer. to do reggae music when he of their music, which introduces the style to new audi- In 2015, Thompson approached Wong started in the late 1990s. At ences. and suggested turning it into a dedicated the time he had much trouble Connecting to local listeners is key to growing the reggae and ska festival. “My ska band, The fi nding people to play with. reggae and ska scene in the city and performing in Red Stripes, and his reggae band, Sensi Eventually, in the early 2000s, the native language certainly helps. The combination Lion, drew good-sized crowds at shows so he was able to form his fi rst reg- of Cantonese and reggae might seem a bit odd but we thought we’d see if we could expand it gae band Crazy Lion, which was MouseFX explains that in every country where there’s and try to get a few more bands to play. We active for several years before dis- reggae, musicians have blended their own elements — weren’t really sure if there was a demand, banding. After a hiatus, in 2009 from language to culture — into it and made it their we just wanted to see if the local scene could he started Sensi Lion. The seven- own. grow,” says Thompson, who manages and person band, which will be playing Thompson “In reggae music the rhythm is connected to the plays the bass in The Red Stripes. an instrumental set at this year’s has noticed a simi- beat. There are many di erent sounds and intonations Wong, a professional musician and the HKIRSF, is currently the only dedi- lar shift at The Red Stripes in Cantonese, which actually makes it harder for me drummer in Sensi Lion, has seen local inter- cated reggae group in the city per- shows with more local people in to make a groove with because I need less sounds and est in the two music genres increase over the forming in Cantonese. the audience than before. “We’ve also no- intonations,” MouseFX explains. “However, maybe be- last couple of years, but believes that a lack “Right now the reggae scene in ticed that in Hong Kong more young people cause it’s my mother tongue, there’s a di erent sort of of promotion and knowledge are some of Hong Kong is being established. You are listening to the music as opposed to in the connection and feeling when I perform in Cantonese.” the factors limiting it. “It’s still a small audi- can no longer say that there isn’t one UK where there is generally an older demo- This year, HKIRSF is also working with local music ence but they fi nd the music easy to listen to here. You have promoters like Heavy graphic of people in their 50s and 60s,” he streaming app Joox to promote the event and reach and accept. It’s just that all they know about Hong Kong building up The Red Stripes, says. more listeners. A special playlist comprising tracks one of the few ska from this year’s performers will be made available to is Bob Marley and that’s it,” he says. With the the scene. They’re bringing interna- bands playing in Hong Formed in 2012, the 10-member band is festival they hope to build the knowledge tional reggae artists to the city to play Kong, have a following one of a handful of ska bands in the city. listeners to help them get familiar with the music be- PROVIDED and awareness among local audiences. “It’ll shows and work with local musicians among the younger While some audience members might not fore heading to the show. take some time. I think the progress so far like myself. And the local Hong Kong demographic. know too much about ska music, Thomp- “There’s great potential for reggae and ska in Hong has been good.” people who come to see the shows really TO CHINA DAILY son says the performance element and up- Kong, as long as we keep doing the festival and playing Around 300 people fi lled up the space at know their reggae,” he says. tempo sounds draw them in. Ska bands the music. I think people will continue to come out to the Fringe Club to watch six reggae and ska Sensi Lion’s bassist Baujah points out usually perform in suits and hats, with the see it, especially because there’s nothing like it in the acts in the fi rst HKIRSF in 2015. Since then that about eight years ago their audience large horn section being quite lively dur- city,” Thompson says. the numbers have steadily grown every year. was primarily made up of foreigners with ing shows. Overseas performers who have played at past edi- Around 600 people attended last year’s fes- a ratio of about 8:2. However, over the last The Red Stripes, who will also be per- tions of HKIRSF feel Hong Kong playing host to a reg- tival, held at PMQ in Central. Past perform- few years there has been an obvious change forming at this year’s HKIRSF, have gae and ska festival is quite extraordinary as there are ers have included well-known names like as the crowd sizes have grown and the ratio achieved a fair level of success at home not too many such events hosted in Asia, outside of Neville Staple of from England today is about six foreigners to four locals and abroad, playing at and representing Japan and Indonesia. and Singapore’s Masia One & The Irietones, or even equal in some of the Hong Kong in ska festivals around the “Machaco was among the fi rst groups of people pro- while this year’s line-up features The Toast- shows. world. Their debut album In the Ska moting reggae in Japan back in the day and she told ers from the United States, who have been East, released last December, has been me how happy she was seeing us put on this festival performing since the 1980s, and an all-girl sold in a number of countries and was because it reminded her of what they did in her coun- Japanese ska band called Oreskaband. listed in the top 20 new releases of 2017 try 30 years ago. It was like how they started and now by Do The Dog Skazine, an online ska their scene is the biggest in all of Asia,” Wong says. Slow and steady shift Reggae and ska originated from Jamaica in the 1950s and 1960s, combining elements of Ameri- can jazz and rhythm and

Sensi Lion vocalist MouseFX says adapting reggae to Cantonese is hard, given the language’s IF YOU GO many intonations. Hong Kong International Reggae Ska Festival PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Date: Aug 25, 5:30 pm Venue: PMQ, 35 Aberdeen St, Central www.hkirsf.com

Theater Going down the rabbit hole By CHITRALEKHA BASU But then this isn’t ex- terpretation. For most of with lush, fl uorescent actly a world of children, the show, Alice is seen as hues, enhanced by giant Hong Kong Ballet’s permeated by innocence. being manipulated and cutouts. The music (Mat- season-opening show Al- Its adult, skewed nature is pushed around — by Car- thew Pierce) runs the ice (in Wonderland) looks manifest in the presence roll, the White Rabbit, gamut — from a Swan like it could have been de- of the masked men wear- the Cheshire Cat (whose Lake-ish composition to signed by Baz Luhrmann, ing white body suits who grungy, weather-beaten match the dance of the with a nod to Tim Burton. string up Alice in a har- appearance seems to be fl amingos to more funky Artistic director Septime ness, carry the Red Queen a throwback to Andrew tunes. The Jabberwock Webre has not shied away around like slaves and lie Lloyd Webber’s musical is an improvised version from exploring the so- under the table at the Mad Cats) — until she comes of the contraption used called dark side of this Hatter’s tea party, enjoying into her own by fi rst slay- in Chinese dragon dance, children’s classic. a more hedonistic varia- ing the Jabberwock mon- providing a sweet local The show is as much tion of the same thing. ster and fi nally rebelling touch. about the spectacle as The scene in which piglets against the Red Queen’s Three dancers stood it is about dance. Alice’s in swaddling clothes are army of cards. out from among the enor- dream world in Lewis bandied about like tourni- From jaw-dropping mous cast of adults and Carroll’s 1865 novel and quets has an undertone of technical achievements to children. Brooklyn Mack its 1871 sequel has been cruelty to it. cuteness overload, there’s of the Washington Ballet, reimagined by Webre as Throughout the 20th plenty to love in Alice who played both the Dodo a luminous, sensuous, century, critics have (in Wonderland). Alice Bird and Joker (Knave of fanciful world that while scanned the pages of Al- is hoisted up to the level Hearts), was riveting. The being timeless also ref- ice’s Adventures in Won- of the second-tier gallery pirouettes performed by erences elements from derland, fi nding coded Alice (in Wonderland), created by Hong Kong in the scene where she him were a joy to watch. contemporary popular expressions of adult, even Ballet artistic director Septime Webre, is a luminous grows to an enormous Jin Yao as Mother/Red culture. For instance, the perverse, themes — from reimagination of the children’s classic by Lewis size after eating a piece Queen held her sti , pot-bellied twins Twee- acid trips to pedophilia. Carroll. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY of cake. Child dancers menacing facial expres- dle-Dum and Tweedle- It’s not impossible to dressed up as hedgehogs sion, befi tting a playing Dee who befriend Alice fi nd traces of a possible IF YOU GO roll over adorably when card persona, from start during her adventures on inappropriate relation- hit by the fl amingo mal- to fi nish — a perfect an- Alice (in Wonderland) the other side of the look- ship between young Alice Produced by Hong Kong Ballet lets in a game of croquet. tithesis to Chen Zhiyao’s ing glass appear on stage and Lewis Carroll, who Artistic director: Septime Webre The color palette (sets Alice who was completely riding a tandem bike up spun the tales to enter- Dates: Aug 24-26 by James Kronzer; cos- believable as a curious Venue: Yuen Long Theatre, in the air, dressed like the tain a little girl he was 9 Yuen Long Tai Yuk Rd, Yuen Long tumes by Liz Vandal) young woman with a McDonald’s mascot. close to, in Webre’s in- http://www.hkballet.com seems to be overfl owing spring in her step.