2024 has certainly been a busy year for Hong Kong. We saw major sporting events, several popular foods, a good dose of nostalgia for old Hong Kong, and some failed government schemes. Here are some of the topics that you were all interested in, as well as things that were popular enough to be trending worldwide.
Messi
My my, it was certainly a Messi situation. Football legend Lionel Messi was supposed to play a friendly match with Inter Miami CF against Hong Kong’s First Division League stars, so of course, the city was whipped into a frenzy with tickets rapidly selling out. Unfortunately, the Argentine footballer never even made it onto the pitch, citing health reasons. Luis Suárez, who was also widely namedropped in the promotions, was also benched the whole time, and Hong Kong’s football fans were left sorely disappointed. The match organiser, Tatler Asia, ended up having to issue an official apology and issue partial refunds in efforts to quell the public outrage.
Badminton
This innocent racquet sport much beloved among East Asian schoolchildren acquired a whole new NSFW meaning this year. In August, sex education teaching materials for Secondary 3 students suggested that instead of giving into sexual urges, students should “play badminton together” instead. So much for teaching about sexual health in a productive and useful way. Needless to say, the whole thing immediately became a laughingstock in Hong Kong, with people quickly adopting ‘badminton’ as a slang phrase for sex.
Paris Olympics
The 33rd Summer Olympics dominated headlines worldwide from July to mid-August. Who can forget Celine Dion and decapitated Marie Antoinettes at the opening ceremony, that French pole vaulter with the huge dong (bro lost the Olympics but won in life), the Norwegian swimmer who made the Olympic Village’s chocolate muffins go viral, Raygun’s ridiculous breakdancing performance, and the return of Simone Biles?
In Hong Kong, all eyes were glued to early-morning screens as our fencers Edgar Cheung and Vivian Kong brought home gold medals, and swimmer Siobhán Haughey bagged two bronze medals. In light of Cheung’s fencing gold being contested by his Italian opponent Filippo Macchi, the whole of Hong Kong gathered to protest against Italy by consuming pineapples on pizza in a hilarious show of solidarity.
Wicked
The film version of the popular musical burst onto screens in late November and at least half the city suddenly became theatre kids. You couldn’t go anywhere without randomly hearing someone belting out a line or two of Popular or that final long ‘whoa-aaa-whoaaaaaa’ in Defying Gravity, and you certainly couldn’t scroll on social media without every other Reel being a Wicked parody. We’re still walking around quoting “we deserve each other, me and BAWQ”, to be fair. Are we ready to cry our eyes out when part two of the movie comes out towards the end of 2025? Not really, but we can’t wait.
Brat summer
Not to be confused with chowing down on brats in Christmas markets, summer 2024 was inundated with brat energy, thanks to Charli xcx’s Brat album. Even though the word typically brings to mind tantrum-throwing, recalcitrant children you’d like to take a slipper to, ‘brat summer’ was all about accepting imperfections while embracing a good amount of chaos. Think sleeping in your makeup so you get smudgy, smokey eye makeup, or prancing out and about braless and free. We loved unleashing our inner brat; did you?
Very demure, very mindful
Straight after the unapologetically messy brat summer, the pendulum swung the other way and suddenly we were all about being demure. TikToker Jools Lebron coined the catchphrase ‘very demure, very mindful’ in her satirical videos about how to appear more presentable in life. For example, showing up early to the airport is “very on time, very considerate, very demure”, while showing up to a job interview “looking like Marge Simpson and [going] to the job looking like Patty and Selma – not demure”. In a Hong Kong context, getting drunk enough to roll down Peel Street and then throwing up in the Uber home would really not be demure, mindful, and certainly not cutesy.
Hong Kong’s waste-charging scheme
A municipal solid waste (MSW) charging scheme was supposed to be implemented this year with a six-month phasing-in period. The ‘polluter pays’ principle required Hongkongers to buy special rubbish bags for domestic waste, operating under the idea that the public would then practice more waste reduction and recycling if they were being charged for the amount of waste they throw away. In typical Hong Kong fashion, the uptake was slow with plenty of complaints, and the scheme that was supposed to launch in April got delayed to August after a trial run. In May, the government decided to indefinitely postpone the scheme, saying it will be revisited in mid-2025. Let’s see what happens to this rubbish state of affairs.
SLDPK
We all know slang is fast-evolving, often changing and adapting faster than an octopus under threat, and Cantonese slang is no exception. This year, so many Hongkongers searched the meaning of the new Gen Z slang phrase ‘SLDPK’ that it became the top trending cultural phrase in Google among our territories. In case you’re not chronically online, this is essentially the Canto equivalent of ‘LMFAO’, meaning ‘I laughed so f*cking hard’.
McGriddles
After years of Hongkongers hitting up Japan for this popular breakfast item, McDonald’s released their McGriddles in Hong Kong in July this year. To no one’s surprise, our trend-happy citizens eagerly formed massive queues, both digital and in real life, to get their hands on these sweet and savoury treats – a million McGriddles were sold within a few short days. After a few months of stopping sales, the hotcake burgers are now back in McDonald’s across the city, so if you haven’t tried them the first time round, here’s another chance.
US presidential elections
In November, the world watched in anticipation as the electoral college polls came in from American states. We kept an eye on the live updates and the presidential election results map on a split screen while in office, and we’re sure you did too. Donald Trump ended up winning with 312 electoral votes against Kamala Harris’ 226 votes, with all the swing states turning red. So in 2025, we’re looking at Trump becoming the president of the United States again, with JD Vance as his vice president.
Kowloon Walled City
In September, the martial arts blockbuster Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In was chosen to represent Hong Kong at the Oscars. Our city’s second highest-grossing domestic film, the movie is set in the old Kowloon Walled City and follows an illegal migrant as he ingratiates himself with the triads for survival. A host of experiences themed after this now-demolished corner of Hong Kong popped up afterwards, the most popular being a large-scale exhibition on the film and its real-life setting held in the airport and now the Airside mall in Kai Tak. Interest in the old Kowloon Walled City reached an all-time high as Hongkongers got swept up in a wave of nostalgia for a gritty, bygone era.
Coldplay
The British alt-rock band Coldplay almost broke Hong Kong when they announced in September that they will be playing in our city as part of their Music Of The Spheres world tour. (We were definitely smarting from Taylor Swift’s snub earlier this year when she decided to play in neighbouring Singapore for her Eras tour and chose to forego Hong Kong.) As to be expected, Coldplay tickets sold out almost instantly, with people even booking out hotel rooms near the Kai Tak Stadium in the hopes that they can peer into the concert grounds from a high enough vantage point. Last month, the five-piece band even added an extra night in Hong Kong due to overwhelming demand.
APT.
Bruno Mars and Blackpink’s Rosé are already huge in their own rights, and when their stars collided in October, the result was out of this world. Their collaborative song ‘Apt.’ captured everyone’s attention with its earwormy pop-punk melody and catchy chorus. The fact that the rhythmic chanting is based on a Korean drinking game only made it more popular with the party-going crowd, with DJs gratuitously spinning this song often in clubs to roaring approval and so many spoofs and dance challenges on social media.
Panda mania
Hong Kong went absolutely panda crazy this year. Over the summer, our giant panda Ying Ying gave birth to twin cubs after several false pregnancies over the years. Then in late September, we were gifted two new pandas by the mainland Chinese government – after a period of quarantine and adjustment, they have been available to visit in Ocean Park from the beginning of December. The city was absolutely plastered with pandas, from public transport and plush toys, to stamps and public art. The twin cubs should be ready to meet the public in the first quarter of 2025, so keep an eye out for news when we have them!
Check out what else Hong Kong has been most interested in during 2024 by visiting Google’s Year in Search.
Recommended reading:
The MTR will run overnight on New Year’s Eve for partygoers
Your ultimate guide to celebrating New Year’s Eve 2024
Direct flights from Hong Kong to Paro, Bhutan will launch in January 2025
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