Mong Kok culture

Mong Kok culture (MK) is the local term in Hong Kong noting a specific culture in Mong Kok district which has become a widespread phenomenon among some Hong Kong teenagers. As Mong Kok is a place that sells trendy stuff and provides many entertainments to the youngsters like cinema, it attracts many teenagers who want to be trendy to hang out and have datings.

In the MK culture, a group of teenagers are known as MK people who always stay in Mong Kok but do not necessarily live there. This group of people are usually at the age range from 14-25, who share a special and similar dressing style but without understanding the background of them, such as Hip Hop, punk and skateboard style.

The term MK people is mainly used by others calling them. It is actually quite negative or even insulting, implying that they are just following the trend blindly and have poor taste or bad behaviour, and also that they have nothing else to do in their spare time.

The MK people have also been known as MK guys and MK girls regarding their gender under the same category.

Image of the MK (Mong Kok) people

Appearance

The origin of their dressing style is believed to be the movie series Young and Dangerous produced in the 1990s which describes the lives of Hong Kong gangsters and their triad activities. However, some people believe that it is because this group of people purchase their Hip Hop clothing in Mong Kok only.

The characteristics includes their hairstyles, which they would like to have their hair dyed into some bright colors like gold and silver, also they would tend to have longer fringes that as long as covering their foreheads or even eyes. They would wear sleeveless shirts, dress in black color, bell-bottom trousers, and carry a number of accessories such as chains around trousers, earrings, and necklaces.

Also, they tends to have tattoos, especially in their upper arms so the sleeveless shirts can help show their tattoos.

Behavior

The MK guys are considered to be active on the social-networking sites and online forums, where they can share their own lives actively. This gives them a sense of majority for their shared values, such as the terminologies and abbreviations created. The exaggerated dressing style and actions are considered to have relation on their beliefs and personalities that aims at seeking attention and attempting to behave in a mature way.

Features of their spoken language and written language

People who are perceived as a representative of Mong Kok culture always have similar characteristics on their verbal expression and written language. There are several types of features on their use of language, especially the choice of words:

Create new words

They like to create some words that normal Hong Kong people will not understand.

Example: call men who always ingratiate women as “gourmet”.

Like to use abbreviation

Example: call “Fa Yuen Street” as “Fa Street”, “Argyle Centre” as “M Centre”

Like to use swear words

In order to shows their special personality, they like to mix swear words in every sentence meaninglessly.

The above features also appear in their written language. Apart from these, they also like to use Martian language, which is formed by using words have similar or exact pronunciation in Cantonese to replace the original words, or the extensively use of symbols to illustrate their facial expressions when they chat online. It is hard for other people to understand their meaning and incorrect typing always occurs because of their educational level or to act intentionally to follow their culture and reinforce their identities.

Media portrayal

Since Mk culture is a special trend in Hong Kong, we could find that MK culture is being discussed in many media products, for example films and news articles. Many of them show some stereotypes of MK people, while reinforce the image of the MK people.

Films

Young and Dangerous

This famous Hong Kong movie series is about a gangster Chan Ho-nam. His clothing, behaviours and hairstyle in the films became a trend that teenagers in 1996-1997 liked to imitate the looks of those characters in the films and it was the beginning of MK style.

Lan Kwai Fong (film)

A movie series that talks about the lives of people who go to Lan Kwai Fong at night frequently. Although the films are more about pubbing and having sex, the lifestyles of characters are also regarded as MK style nowadays. The series fully shows what MK culture is.

Stars

MK-pop

In 2014, there are some signers and pop groups, for example, FAITH. They try to replicate the style of K-pop, but their performances receive negative comments by the netizen and being teased that they are MK-pop indeed. Those groups show people's stereotyping towards MK people like they are stupid and follow the trend blindly.

News

The Apple Daily tabloid always use MK culture as a topic in their news. They would mock about nowadays MK people on the net, and make it as news. Those news enhance the stupid image of MK people, and also shows the society's point of view on the MK people.