Singapore 2047

Recently I've been listening to Billy Joel's 1976 song "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)", almost on repeat. His song imagines an apocalyptic ending devouring Manhattan.  Though now it comes off as alternative fiction, when he wrote the song in 1975, New York was verging on bankruptcy and crime was rampant. The title of the song refers to him moving to Florida in this dystopian future, and telling future generations about the destruction of New York. The September 11 attacks and the collapse of the Twin Towers brought renewal and new meaning to the song.

I've been listening on repeat because the song invokes similar sense of despair of a dystopian Hong Kong. I have rewritten the lyrics to localize it to Hong Kong. It is titled Singapore 2047 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Causeway):

I've seen the lights go out on Causeway
I saw the IFC laid low
And life went on beyond New Territories
They all bought Xiao Mi 9s
And left there long ago

They held a concert out in Tsuen Wan
To watch the island bridges blow
They turned our power down
And drove us underground
But we went right on with the show

I've seen the lights go out on Causeway
I saw the ruins at my feet
You know we almost didn't notice it
We'd seen it all the time marching down Admiralty

They burned the temples down in Tin Hau
Like in that Spanish civil war
The flames were everywhere
But no one really cared
It always burned up there before

I've seen the lights go out on Causeway
I saw the mighty skyline fall
The boats were waiting at the ferry pier
The union went on strike
They never sailed at all

They sent a carrier out from Hainan
And picked the LegCo up for free
They said Kowloon could stay
And blew Lamma away
And sank the Island out at sea

You know those lights were bright on Causeway
That was so many years ago
Before we all lived here in Singapore
Before the 黑社會 took over Tseung Kwan O

There are not many who remember
They say a handful still survive
To tell the world about
The way the lights went out
And keep the memory alive