Frank Kogan

The Jukebox commenter (James Errington) didn't say that the point — much less the entire point — was that "chicken" is slang for prostitute. He did say that it was the joke, though, and then added, "it's odd that the only people listening to the song are the ones who don't get it." Well, obviously for (most) of the people listening to the song, to the extent they think there's a joke, the joke is something else: like a whole bunch of chicken squawks, for instance. (Thought the second part of the comment was more interesting, where he talks about liking the track only for its being deliberately grating and he claims that this puts it at odds with most Chinese pop music: "Chinese pop music generally puts a priority on avoiding offending anyone.")

Btw, if you hadn't noticed, I've made a triage decision to generally disengage from the Jukebox — especially Jukeboxers' attempts at social analysis, in which they straitjacket themselves into mediocrity (it's like once someone has arrived at the position or reaction that's appropriate to the sort of person he or she is, the brain shuts off). It's not that I don't learn stuff from the site,* or don't think the people are worth engaging. If I had more time I'd jump into the discussions, which would become more bruising and ugly and unsettling as a result. But I've got other people to attend to, and I'm keeping an eye out for writers who will give me more back and whom I'm not as eager to hurt. (That isn't a comment on commenter Errington, whom I don't recall seeing before. And it isn't as if I myself wouldn't want to raise the issues that Patrick et al. tried to raise of which audience "Chick Chick" was courting, and which audiences it actually got, and to what effect. And if Wang Rong needs to get all aggressively cutesy and dress up like a chicken and come on ha ha ha like a prostitute** in order to unleash her best art, what does that tell us about the world?)

*Certainly learned from the Jukebox reviews of "Chick Chick," and learned from what you'd learned from the comments thread (I'd read the reviews when they were posted, unfortunately neglected the comments).

**If that's what she's doing.