【VIDEO】Kathy Mak | How a Parody Brought Laughter Amongst Chaos
Kathy Mak, a freelance digital marketer and performer, became the talk of the town after performing a parody about the coronavirus outbreak and panic-buying in Hong Kong. Kathy hopes to use her humour and talent to bring positivity to society during this difficult time.
“This parody was originally about what was happening in Hong Kong, but it now resonates with people around the world. ”
Journalist: Almond Li
Videographer: Wo Lei & JM
Getting viral with a viral parody
"I like doing parody because I think I'm a dork myself."
I'm Kathy Mak and I wrote a parody of the song “Torn” about empty shelves in Hong Kong supermarkets during the coronavirus outbreak.
It all began with one line in my head – “there's nothing left at the grocery store” instead of the original line “there’s nothing where he used to lie.” I was able to continue expanding it into a parody of a song made famous by Australian-British singer Natalie Imbruglia. As everyone had started hoarding supplies such as toilet paper and rice, I wanted to talk about it as everyone found the situation quite hysterical.
The coronavirus outbreak erupted in Hong Kong around Chinese New Year, and a lot of celebrations were cancelled. I felt like everybody was especially down because we had been looking forward to these things and suddenly we didn’t get to see our friends and families. I thought I could do something funny and make them laugh through this difficult time as I wanted to bring a positive and fun vibe. Keeping positive helps the immune system.
There are some internet trolls but I've received mostly positive comments for my performance, including from those fighting the virus on the frontline. Healthcare workers have told me that this has made their day.
This parody was originally about what was happening in Hong Kong, but it now resonates with people around the world.
The Hong Kong experience
I think compared with other countries, HongKongers were well prepared due to the lessons learned in 2003 from SARS. We knew what precautions to take due to our collective experience. I was young during SARS and it was a weird time as I didn’t know or understand enough to worry, but I knew it would pass.
However, as an adult, my awareness now has brought on worry, but I hope it will resolve quickly. In the meantime, I want to bring laughs to the public and keep their minds off the virus for a bit.
Who is Kathy Mak, really?
I was born in Hong Kong but studied back and forth between Hong Kong and New Zealand since I was seven years old. This has given me a multi-cultural upbringing and a more open mindset.
I’ve always been dancing since I was a child and had joined dance troops in school. However, my parents are very traditional and they didn’t encourage me to pursue performing arts as a full time career, so it’s not what I studied in university. Now that I’m a freelance marketer, I have the flexibility to perform arts gigs, but there aren’t many opportunities for performing arts or theatre in Hong Kong, let alone paid ones. I fall back on my marketing job to balance myself out and to support myself financially.
The arts scene in Hong Kong
Growing up in New Zealand has also allowed me to channel my inner desire to become a performer. We were often taken to theatres, but in Hong Kong, these experiences are not mandatory and are thought of as something extra. This is unfortunate as a lot of kids could excel in this area and find their true purpose and even reach their full potential.
I do want to see Hong Kong having a bigger arts scene. With the new cultural district coming up in West Kowloon, I do hope that area will boom and people will put more funding towards it because it could really help lift people's spirit up.
Besides physical infrastructure, funding is also severely lacking.
It should be promoted in schools from a young age so that kids are used to performing arts being a part of life. There should be more funding so that they can be taken to see shows and to learn themselves.
If I want to pursue this further, I might consider moving overseas, but since I was a little kid, I have said, and will always say:
“I am Kathy, I am a HKer.”
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