TELLY WAS OUR BUDDY

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periscope
Chriz chan
TELLY
WAS OUR
BUDDY
The colossal collection of kid songs by Mr Oldkid
W
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“They simply suck. Just take a look at
Dejiko(�����
數碼子) or PichiPichiPitch(�
唱
K小魚仙). They are just so stupid and
senseless,” said Isabella Wong, 21.
Provided with so many choices and
ways to obtain TV programs nowadays, watching TV has become more
personal and less collective. Memories
are more ‘dispersed’, as Isabella described.
“(Now) a person
downloads ten
manga series on
an average. We
have very little in
common to talk
about”
“I miss the old days when all of us
were watching the same cartoon series at the same moment. We chatted
about the same stuff and we had a lot
more resonance,” she said.
“Now we can download TV shows.
We watch different stuff, at different
times. A person downloads 10 manga
series on average. We have very little
in common to talk about,” Nathan Lau,
22, said.
The manga series Sailor Moon, created in 1992, did certainly find immense popularity among kids at that
time. “The big entertainment for me
during holidays was to re-watch the
whole tape of Sailor Moon. Just sitting
in front of the TV for the whole day
would make me very satisfied,” said
Krystal.
Its theme song has a Cantonese
version and was sung by Karen Tong
Bo-yue, Linda Wong Hing-ping and
Vivian Chow Wai-man. Krystal even
recorded it and listened to it over and
over again until she could sing it.
“The old tunes are still in our collective memories because they can
remind us of some incidents and invaluable memories”, said Mr Oldkid,
a children’s songs collector who declined to disclose his real name.
Describing himself as nostalgic, he
loves to retrace things in the past from
time to time by recalling the old melodies. The Japanese cartoon “Captain
mandy chi
e are lucky to have grown
up in an era before memories became too personal.
At those times, we all spent our childhood basking in television rays. Four
o’clock was our prime time, when we
met our buddies – characters from
cartoons like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball
Z and kid’s programmes like Flash Fax.
“I was deeply into Sailor Moon and
I watched it every afternoon,” 21-yearold Krystal Ting Suet-ching recalled
television as a significant part of her
childhood.
At that time, Henshin “transformation” cartoon series were a big hit. Sailor Moon was one of the first series to
have females as main characters. The
ideas of transformation, ordinary girls
combating the evil, with a little bit of
romanticism added, had indeed fascinated a lot of girls.
“The morph process, the baton, the
sailor uniforms, the magic case and
even their nail polish…everything
was so glamorous!” Krystal excitedly
recalled. She said she used to emulate
the transformation and memorise all
the spells.
On the other hand, the cartoon series on TV nowadays are less popular.
chriz chan
Television was the buddy of those growing up in 90’s.
by Keith Yuen
Tsubasa”, which is about the adventure of a Japanese soccer youth team,
reminds a lot of boys, including Mr
Oldkid, of their good old days on the
football field with friends.
“Every boy at that time plays football, as the television is showing ‘Captain Tsubasa’. And all of us would sing
the theme song together,” Mr Oldkid
said.
However, he said the popularity of
children programmes and songs has
been declining since the mid 1990s.
Children nowadays are very different
from those born in his era. “The kids
these days spend their time on tutorial schools and online games, while
we spent ours on cartoons.”
That was the time when Pluto was
still one of the nine planets in the Solar System. From Sailor Moon, through
Sailor Jupiter, to Sailor Pluto – the heroines in Sailor Moon were all named
after the moon and the planets.
Sailor Jupiter, who has a tomboy
image and attacks enemies with thunder bolts, was adored by many girls,
including Vince Lam Shuk-man, now a
21-year-old university student. “She is
such a cool fighter. I was desperate for
a pair of green go-go boots like hers.”
Another cartoon series which can
still be vividly remembered is Dragon
Ball Z. We still remember the number
of late nights we spent watching it, as
it was not shown in the after-school
time.
“‘A Saiyan was show Flash Fax was something in our
born in this place. He memories that can never be replaced.
is called Son Goku!’”
The locally produced children’s telthe first line of lyrics evision show, running from 1989 to
of the theme song 1999, was memorable for its songs. At
immediately came that time, they were not always availto Isabella Wong’s able on CD albums. Pheonix Cham Kamind when talking ling, now 21, said she cut out the lyrics
about Dragon Ball published in children magazines and
Z. She said she was memorized them. That was “kid’s intelso amazed by the ligence”, as she termed.
fiery hairstyle of
Vince Lam was also a children’s song
the Super Saiyans fan. As a small child, she was greatly
(超級撒亞人).
influenced by the meanings behind
Freeza (���
菲利�), the lyrics. One of the songs which
Artificial
Human touched her deeply was “The Story of
No. 17 and 18, to Majin Buu (���
魔人布 Ah-Fa”, about the friendship between
歐), the hero Son Goku and other char- a girl and a cat.
acters combat these evils through the
“I couldn’t help crying whenever I
291-episode series.
heard about the death of the cat at the
“Cell is the green villain
who absorbs others’ power
by opening up his tail and
engulfing an entire creature.”
Nathan Lau, 22, recalled.
Other villains include Freeza,
with a purple brain that
elongates when he grows
to his final form. Majin Buu
is pink, can stretch, shatter
or liquefy himself in any way
he likes and can even form
himself into a cannon ball
and shoot at his targets.
Flash Fax was memorable of its kid songs.
Cartoon characters were
not our only buddies. While many of us end,” she said.
today declare that “We grew up with
Another tune that stayed with her
‘Flash Fax’ instead of ‘After School ICU’” is “Life is of value”, which is a bright
(a group in Facebook with over 20,000 and encouraging song sung by all the
members), the long running children’s hosts of Flash Fax.
Though most of the
songs revolve around
the themes of friendship and family, some
could be as funny as
“The Cat and Rat Duet”
and “Twelve Dinosaurs
Go Picnic”. V
The characters in Dragon Ball Z stay in our memories.
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