少年英雄

"一根草, 一点露
为了要有人照顾
明明知道是没前途
偏偏走上坏仔路

请你别跟我讲道理
三句话就要令伯醒
我也不知是为什么
有人说这是为兄弟

少年按作你中内伤?
是不是你要做英雄
为什么你按昵款憨
你明明知道是行不通

你的brother 叫你兄弟
为兄弟你该不怕死
哪是说你来中大事
你家的父母谁来饲 "

- <<少年英雄>>

when i was about 8 years old, my youngest auntie once asked me what i wanted to be when i grew up. without hesitation, i replied to her saying '我要当黑社会老大'. and even till today, my auntie never fails to poke fun at me for that rather unusual declaration of wanting to pursue a career in the triad. it was one of those passing phases, probably the result of being fed with an unhealthy dosage 英雄本色 and 上海滩 reruns, just as how i wanted to be a lawyer after watching 法外情 which starred the young Andy Lau.

gradually, i've grown up realising that there's neither a cause for me to champion for unlike those righteous gangsters you see in hong kong movies nor any impetus considering most of my friends back in school weren't involved in any of these. fleeting ambitions come and go, and 14 years on, i've still got no clue as to what exactly i wanna do with my life. yet some part within me is within me is still intrigued by the culture of the triads. the predecessor or the original triad, the Heaven and Earth Society (天地会) for one, was actually founded on rather noble nationalistic sentiments back in the Qing (Manchu) Dynasty in which sought to restore equity and overthrow the Manchu regime in China. It is arguably a socio-political movement with an ethos based on loyalty, brotherhood and chivalry. in fact, the original triad 三合会 (the subsequent contemporary incarnation of the 天地会 was hugely instrumental in raising funds for the Sun Yat-Sen's democratic revolution which eventually succeed in overthrowing the Manchus.

while most of the contemporary triads/gangs now bear little or no semblance to the original triad, nevertheless it is still rather interesting to know about the life in the underbelly of each society. Sugarbf offers a rather interesting personal account about his time in a gang in this entry. kudos to him for baring all. he is the true blue reformed paikia blogger. confirm qie toh rockson.

the lyrics in the start of the entry is from a song sung by Mark Lee and Jack Neo which was featured in the 粱婆婆重出江湖 OST. It was a wretched movie, and i would consider the song to be the only saving grace for the movie. The song was also featured at the end of Royston Tan's 15, a brilliant movie about the downtrodden youths in the underbelly of the singaporean society.
it's an awesome song which can be downloaded from kazza/ares/(insert random P2p software) by just searching for 'Shao Nian Ying Xiong' or 'Hokkien Paikia Song by Some Lame Idiot' for the other version of the song.

on a sidenote, i will be helping out a friend who is one of the organisers for the talent-time for the multi-cultural week this wed. apparantly there're not enough contestants for the talent-time so i was asked to join. if there's any consolation in the prospects of embarrassing myself in front of a crowd, it has to be the fact that there'll only be 7 contestents vying for the 300 bucks offered to the winner and 200 bucks to the runners-up. i've checked it out and apparantly hokkien songs are allowed so i guess i'm gonna sing 少年英雄. prize money aside, i just hope i'm not gonna embarrass myself big time. i'ma gonna need a paperbag over my head....