Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Hava Nagila in Hong Kong

Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District is a center for arts and culture, education, entertainment, tourism – and a public space – all rolled into one. Its vision is to become a cultural zone that promotes the collaboration and development of local and international artists.

Last month a masked outdoor crowd gathered at the West Kowloon Cultural District to enjoy a concert by the popular Hong Kong duo Maria and Sunny that included their rendition of Hava Nagila.

This is the 99th performance of Hava Nagila that we've posted from countries all over the world and today we add Hong Kong to the list.

Maria, the lead singer of the duo, is a former winner of a Hong Kong singing contest.  She also plays the guitar, kazoo, tambourine and shaker. The genres of songs she sings range from folk songs, popular, soft rocks, soul, Asian pop and others. She sings in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. And occasionally, also in Japanese, Spanish & French. And now we know that she also sings in Hebrew.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

Enjoy! 

Hava Nagila Around the World: RedBricks Harmonica Ensemble Performs in Hong Kong Reservoir

Today we're adding a 97th version of Hava Nagila to our series of its performances all around the world. This one is a rendition from Hong Kong.

The RedBricks Harmonica Ensemble was formed by five enthusiastic musicians from King’s College, a secondary school for boys in Hong Kong. They have been frequent winners in the World Harmonica Festival in Germany. However, winning trophies and awards are only the very start of their music journeys. They have performed as members of Hong Kong Harmonica Association in Shanghai, Singapore, Malaysia and Germany and Bahrain. 

In the same year, RedBricks was the 3rd runner up in World Harmonica Festival Trio Category. In August 2018, the group was the 1st runner up in the 6th Seoul International Harmonica Festival Trio Category. In October 2018, RedBricks was invited by the Hong Kong Home Affairs Bureau to join the 1st China International Import Expo in Shanghai, showcasing Hong Kong harmonica music in the National Exhibition Area. During the tour to Shanghai, RedBricks also performed at the Hong Kong Dinner hosted by the Chief Executive Mrs. Carrie Lam, demonstrating harmonica music as the soft power of Hong Kong.

In this video, RedBricks performs Hava Nagila in the Shing Mun reservoir in Hong Kong.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

 

Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Chinese Hava Nagila at the Hong Kong Spring Lantern Festival

The most widely celebrated festival in China as well as Hong Kong, the Spring Lantern Festival is on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year. The festival is also known as the Yuan Xiao Festival, because of the popular Rice Ball that is eaten during the festival. 

The event is marked by lighting the iconic Chinese Red Lanterns and this year by the singing of Hava Nagila in Chinese.

This year's festival for the Year of the Ox was celebrated in February. Among the many performances was a Chinese version of Hava Nagila by the Yang Ming Cantonese Opera featuring Hong Kong Red Actress Liu Huiming as lead singer.

Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.