04-020 The USD 2.3 million analogue show

04-020
The USD 2.3 million analogue show 

Last Sunday, my son and I watched a show with a production cost of more than 2.3 million USD!

It is now 2023. Most visual entertainments have long been switched to digital, completely. Computer game is the pioneer. Cinemas have not been showing any film but movies for more than a decade. In Hongkong, we have our digital TV broadcast since 2007. With the completion of digital switchover 2 years ago and the shutdown of our last traditional cable TV network in this year, all big and small screens in the city are now digital.

But the show we watched on last Sunday was completely analogue. No, we were not watching movie or TV. It was a firework show celebrating the 74^th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

The USD 2.3 million analogue show

Fireworks on top of the Victoria Harbour is an icon of Hongkong. It has been 5 years since the last firework show. Many things happened in these five years, many. I have not watched any firework in all those years. And it was also the first time for my son to watch a firework show.

Many people watched the firework. Both sides of the harbour were packed with people. I have never seen so many people gathering on the street since 2019. Last time, people were protesting against the government. This time, people were celebrating the anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Yes, they celebrated with the same government that they were once against with.

I was not in the crowd. I was lucky. My company is located in an office block next to the harbour and I was invited to watch the show through the window of my office. With a black frame, the window just looked like a big TV. But the “screen” is not digital. It is analogue.

Here are some photos of the firework that I took through the window of my office. I am glad to see that Hongkong is back.

My son? He was excited in the first 5 minutes but got bored afterwards. He grew up in a digital world. He spent the remaining 20 minutes playing Roblox on his tablet.

You can also watch the show on YouTube if you missed it. Different medias have captured the show and uploaded to YouTube. I put the one uploaded by Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP), a free non-profit independent news website. Distinguishing from those professional video clips made by different TV channels or large news agencies, HKFP’s clip is more amateur. The clip shows a realistic view of what you can see and hear if you were standing on the harbourfront in person.

The show is around 23 minutes long. Enjoy!

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