The Song of Hawkers Becomes Popular, Singer is a Student
"Today, the tools for making a living have become the achievements of the city management officers. No matter how hard we try, we can't escape. Tonight, I can only cry alone. I cannot be discouraged and negative, for the sake of my beloved wife and child. No matter how hard or difficult it is, I must be strong, just so that my child can go to school. As long as there's life, there's hope. To resist violence, I can only use my body.
I kneel down, begging the city management officers for mercy, wishing them a lifetime of wealth..."
— The Song of Hawkers
Following "The City Management Manual," recently, "The Song of Hawkers" quickly became popular on various online forums. This song, sung to the tune of Liu Huan's "Start Over Again," has even started to gain popularity in real life. Yesterday, our newspaper interviewed the lyricist and recorder of "The Song of Hawkers." Unexpectedly, while netizens were praising the creators of "The Song of Hawkers" for their talent, the recorder expressed that he had never paid attention to whether the song was popular online.
The Song of Hawkers Gains Popularity Online
"The Song of Hawkers" was first uploaded at 4:00 AM on May 9th to a local forum in Yunnan. The poster's online name was "Jianghu Shiyiren" (A Disappointed Person in the World), who was a moderator of the forum. Eight hours after the post was made, netizen "Xizi" posted a song with lyrics from "The Song of Hawkers," sung by his classmate "Yingjia" to the tune of Liu Huan's "Start Over Again." Afterward, more and more people responded to the post.
Netizen "Yungang Taofen Gong1" then posted a set of lyrics titled "The Song of City Management Officers," which read, "We are all members of the city management team, every operation eliminates a group of hawkers. We are all flying armies, no matter how tall the buildings or deep the alleys are. In the dense streets, comrades drive五十铃everywhere. In the high carriages, there are countless spoils of victory..." Netizen "lcsljc" suggested recording "The Song of City Management Officers" in a rock format, which received enthusiastic responses from many netizens.
Most Netizens Support the Hawkers
After "The Song of Hawkers" was posted, it was reprinted on websites, including several local forums in Yunnan, with click rates continuously increasing. Most netizens stood on the side of the hawkers. Yesterday, through a search engine, we found 272,000 web pages related to "The Song of Hawkers." "The Song of Hawkers" once became one of the hottest imitation songs on the internet.
Besides online, "The Song of Hawkers" has also begun spreading in real life. In some universities, this song has been stored in students' MP3 players. A student surnamed Chen from Kunming University of Science and Technology told reporters that three days ago, a classmate sent him this song via the network, and he kept it. "I think the singing is pretty good, and the lyrics are excellent. There are many imitation songs on the internet, but few combine with social phenomena."
The popularity of "The Song of Hawkers" has also sparked heated discussions among numerous netizens. Forum moderator "Wo Ben Wu Xin" (I Have No Ambition) asked, "In theory, we neither run stalls nor have had any direct conflicts with the city management officers. Even everyone dislikes having a crowd of hawkers near their homes. The city management officers clear out hawkers to keep the city tidy and return the sidewalks to the citizens. But why do we still detest the violent actions of the city management officers?"
Some netizens remain neutral. Netizen "You Jian Xi Feng Qi" (Seeing the West Wind Rise Again) believes that hawkers and city management officers should understand each other. One is trying to make a living, and the other is performing their job responsibilities. Both parties should find a win-win solution.
Creation Process
"If More Than 30% of Internet Users Support the City Management Officers, Then I'm Really Out of Line"
Yesterday, we contacted the lyricist of "The Song of Hawkers," "Jianghu Shiyiren," whose real name is Duan Wenjie. Duan Wenjie told reporters that on May 8th, he and several well-known online writers saw violent enforcement by city management officers on Renmin West Road. Recalling many incidents of conflict between city management officers and hawkers within the province and across the country, he felt extremely angry about such enforcement practices, so he wrote "The Song of Hawkers" that day.
"I created 'The Song of Hawkers' not because I support hawkers, but because I disapprove of the brutal enforcement methods used by city management officers," said Duan Wenjie. "That officially published 'City Management Operation Manual,' if you're interested, you can search for it and take a look. I've roughly read a section of it, and my first impression was that it could be used for battlefield combat military teaching."
Duan Wenjie emphasized that posting was merely to express his thoughts, not to attract netizens' attention. Regarding whether the content of the post was too intense, Duan Wenjie stated, "If more than 30% of internet users support the city management officers, then I am indeed out of line."
The recorder of "The Song of Hawkers," "Xizi," whose real name is Duan Ke, is a sophomore student at Yunnan Normal University. Duan Ke has his own expertise in music and usually gets along well with the moderators. That day, Duan Ke received a request from a friend asking him to record "The Song of Hawkers." Subsequently, Duan Ke found classmates skilled in singing to help him.
Duan Ke replied in the post, "The hardware used for this recording was really inadequate—a pair of headphones costing just over ten yuan, an ordinary laptop, and a regular duplex sound card. The headphones were directly connected. The sound field selection was a very small classroom at school (this was already the best sound field we could find)... For the first two hours, nearly twenty recordings resulted in incorrect lyrics due to mistakes. Finally, because the computer battery couldn't hold out, I forcibly recorded it with a strained voice. Additionally, the singer had a cold recently, resulting in broken notes in the high-pitched parts of the song, which is truly embarrassing."
"During the recording process, I always felt dissatisfied, spending over three hours without finding the feeling during actual city management enforcement. Later, combining with the real situations I've seen, I gradually got the feeling," Duan Ke frankly admitted that recording "The Song of Hawkers" was purely helping a friend, so he didn't pay attention to whether it would become popular. "This song directly points at the city management officers. I don't care about netizens' evaluations of the song itself; I focus more on public opinion."