Patriotic speeches took a backseat on National Day yesterday. Instead, we had the X Factor, Hong Kong edition.
Public relations minders scored a big one for the Hong Kong government by putting Celine Tam Tsz-kwan on stage. Boy, the seven-year-old girl can sing!
Performing effortlessly, Tam sang Secret Garden's hit You Raise Me Up, Beyond's Truly Love You, and the patriotic My Motherland in multilingual succession.
It was the patriotic highlight that stole the whole patriotic ceremony. And everyone went away talking about the girl, oblivious of the speeches given by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and friends.
That was just as well. Anything associated with Leung these days automatically gets booed. But who could be so heartless as to pick on a little girl, even if you were the most hardcore nativist or diehard pan-democrat?
The overnight sensation had been well-rehearsed.
For each song, her father Steve Tam had her practise 10 hours over three days.