獅子山
Lion Rock Hill

獅子山 Lion Rock Hill
釋文
獅子山，一作獅子嶺，又作虎頭山、雞冠峰、麒麟頭，或作煙墩嶺，別名甚多。《新安縣志》曰：「獅子嶺在六都龍塘村側，逶迤里許。有一石，屹立崢嶸，雲掛則雨。康熙年間，移遷分界在此，煙墩故址猶存，又名煙墩嶺。」據民間傳說，獅子山乃一神獸下凡，命降伏九龍後則匍匐於九龍以北。
上世紀七十年代初，香港電台有一系電視劇，名曰《獅子山下》，寫社會現實；其主角，名德叔，為九龍橫頭磡徙置區一家主人，以寫信為業，乃一代知識份子。至八十年代止，此劇皆以社會草根為背景，寫生活之辛酸，記港人百折不撓之精神。
同名主題曲，始創於七十年代末，乃顧嘉輝曲，黃霑詞，羅文唱，歌詞勵志，以書面語夾雜廣府話為之，云：
「人生中有歡喜，難免亦常有淚，我哋大家在獅子山下相遇上，總算是歡笑多於唏噓。
人生不免崎嶇，難以絕無掛慮，既是同舟在獅子山下且共濟，拋棄區分求共對。
放開彼此心中矛盾，理想一起去追，同舟人，誓相隨，無畏更無懼。
同處海角天邊，攜手踏平崎嶇，我哋大家用艱辛努力寫下那不朽香江名句。」
本世紀初，香港經濟痿靡，零二年春，時任財政司司長於宣讀財政預算案之末，引此曲作結，籲各方同舟共濟。同年秋日，羅文病逝，歌曲再成熱潮；及冬，時任國務院總理亦引用此曲於演詞之中。零三年仲夏，香港「七一大遊行」前夕， 此曲則配以新聞片，製成短片，甚囂網上。零四年秋，香港「和平佔中」，十月下旬，數和應者展巨幅橫額於獅子山獅首之巔，上有「我要真普選」五大字。今後，獅子山則為港人理想追求之精神象徵。
丁酉，偉邦記

Inscriptions
The Lion Rock Hill has many aliases such as Lion Rock Ridge, Tiger Head Mountain, Cock Crest Peak, Kirin Head Mountain and the Beacon Tower Ridge. In the Sing'an County Gazetteer, it was reported that the Lion Rock Ridge was longer than a li and located by Lung Tong Village of Luk Dou. It featured a big rock erecting stunningly on the mountaintop, and could summon rains when clouds were encircling the rock. In the time of the Qing Emperor Kangxi, the ridge set the boundary of emigration. Because the ancient beacon tower still remained, it was also called the Beacon Tower Ridge. It was said that the Lion Rock Hill was a celestial lion sent from the sky for quelling the upheaval caused by nine dragons. The lion then ended up sitting in the north Kowloon and became the Lion Rock.
In the 1960s, the RTHK produced a TV series entitled Below the Lion Rock for depicting the social reality. The show focused on the main character Uncle Tak, who was an intellectual working as an epistolarian and living in the resettlement area of Wang Tau Hom, Kowloon. Against the background of the grassroots’ strata, each episode before the 1980s was principally based on the misfortune and dismay of Hong Kong stories in the hope of highlighting the indomitable and unyielding spirit of Hong Kong people.
Composed by Joseph Koo, lyricised by Wong Jim and performed by Roman Tam, the theme song sharing the same name as the show was produced in the last 60s. The Chinese lyrics combine the formal language and Cantonese tongue together without compromising the encouraging quality of the song. They are roughly translated and showed as follows:
'Life is a mixture of laughs and tears, but the happiness tends to overwhelm the sadness as long as we run into each other below the Lion Rock Hill.
Life is tough and apprehension is inevitable, but we, sailing below the Lion Rock Hill, should help each other in seek of a consensus by abandoning divergences.
Blurring the lines between contradictions in pursuit of a utopia, we, as shipmates, have to take a vow to get along with each other and face challenges undauntedly.
Residing together in a distant place, we should pacify the upsets hand in hand so that we can achieve the golden motto of Hong Kong through the hardship and the diligences.'
At the beginning of the millennium, Hong Kong encountered the economic slowdown. The then Hong Kong Financial Secretary concluded the Budget Speech with a few lines of the lyrics in a bid to implore people to get together in the distress. It ran the headlines of all the papers and the media. In the autumn of the same year, Roman Tam passed away and the song became a big hit again. And then the Premier of the People's Republic of China addressed a speech in the winter with appropriating part of the lyrics again. On the eve of the Hong Kong First July March in the mid summer of 2003, the song was edited as newsreel footage and hugely clicked in the Internet. In the autumn of 2004, the Hong Kong Occupy Central with Love and Peace launched and few protagonists put up a huge banner on the mountaintop of the Lion Rock Hill at the end of October. On it, there were five big Chinese characters, literally meaning ‘I Want True Universal Suffrage’. Since then, the Lion Rock became the emblem to represent the spirit of utopianism of Hong Kong people.
Written by Wai Bong in the dingyou year



2017
水墨絹本
ink on silk
八屏
octaptych
25 x 25 cm each