The US Apollo 11 lunar mission is shown as Beijing's achievement in Hong Kong's official propaganda video. Photo: YouTube
Not too many people might have noticed it, but something is amiss with a propaganda music video that’s being shown every night on Hong Kong television since 2009.
The minute-long video, called Our Home, Our Country, shown before the evening news, seeks to promote love for the motherland among Hong Kong people.
With China’s national anthem as the soundtrack, the video pays tribute to the indomitable spirit of the Hong Kong and Chinese people and features some of their amazing achievements, including China’s first manned flight into space.
It’s well done, for sure — some would probably even say it’s stirring — except for one tiny detail: it contains a clip of the launch of the American spaceflight Apollo 11, the mission that ended the Space Race with the landing of the first humans on the Moon.
Now what’s Apollo 11 got to do with love for Hong Kong or China? Well, not much, really.
But the people behind the video, which was produced by Home Affairs Bureau’s Committee on the Promotion of Civic Education and the Commission of Youth, probably thought that no one would notice. After all, it’s just a miniscule part of the entire video.
But someone did notice, a netizen from hkgolden.com, who happens to be a space and science fan.
He says he’s quite familiar with the Apollo 11 mission video as he has watched it numerous times.
So he says there’s no denying that the rocket launch shown on the Hong Kong video is none other than that which took place at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida way back in June 1969.
It’s not only factually incorrect, but also politically incorrect.
Some netizens were quick to ridicule the blooper, saying that some US secret agents or “external forces” could have infiltrated the studio where the video was made and managed to insert the Apollo 11 clip.
Others said the Hong Kong government should pay copyright fees to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA.
Some also joked that the incident might be the real reason why Tsang Tak-sing was forced to resign as secretary for home affairs last month, although he is a dyed-in-the-wool leftist.
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