Instead, the crowd has gathered for the latest boy-band frenzy sweeping the troubled city, where many are desperate for both a happy escape and a source of local pride.
The occasion is an appearance by Edan Lui, one of the 12 members of local band Mirror who have taken Hong Kong by storm. He has arrived to promote an animated children’s movie screening in local cinemas.
A glass-shattering scream erupts as he takes the stage and the placard-waving crowd goes wild.
Among the excitable fans is Chan Yuk-kwai, 74, who decided not to tell her daughter she would be spending her Saturday trying to catch a glimpse of a man her grandson’s age.
Until recently, Cantonese opera was about the only music she consumed – but Mirror awakened something new. She has spent months devouring what she can find about the troupe, often bombarding family group chats with selfies when she spots a billboard featuring the band’s uniformly good-looking members.
“This upsurge is a miracle,” she beams, contrasting the excitement of Mirror-mania with the months of depressing political and coronavirus news. “They are my source of positive energy and happiness.”
Relief and belief
Hong Kong has had a tough couple of years, with huge democracy protests in 2019, followed by a crackdown in which Beijing swiftly moved to remodel the finance hub in its own authoritarian image.
The city has also remained closed to the outside world for most of the pandemic and has only just emerged from its worst recession in decades.
Mirror offers some much-needed relief, as well as belief that the city’s Cantonese culture is still thriving.
Their official Facebook fan page boasts 140,000 followers, while a tongue-in-cheek rival page called “My Wife Married Mirror and Left My Marriage In Ruins” boasts more than double that number.
“While society is feeling suppressed, people’s awareness of supporting local things has also increased,” Melody, an administrator of Edan Lui’s fan club, says. “That drives the motivation to support a homegrown boy band.”
The band came out of a 2018 TV talent show, and while many democracy supporters have embraced their upbeat lyrics, the group steers well clear of showing any political colours.
Huge queues
Public gatherings of more than four remain outlawed in Hong Kong, ostensibly to guard against the coronavirus, although the city has had no major local outbreak for more than two months. Protests are all but illegal.
But police show little appetite for taking on Mirror’s fans.
A few hours before Lui’s mall appearance, a huge queue of fans had formed on the city’s harbour to take selfies next to a new McDonald’s advertising board featuring Mirror band member Anson Lo.
Police officers showed up, but soon moved on after advising the fans to save enough walking space for others.
Amy, a medical worker in her 40s, posed for a picture holding two cups of a special pink McDonald’s drink that Lo has endorsed.
“Many people in Hong Kong have grievances that can’t be easily unloaded,” she said. “Mirror gave us the ‘wow factor’ – that Hong Kong still has such great young talent.”
Kitty Ho, a cultural commentator and recent Mirror convert, said the boy band has allowed Hong Kong residents to realise they can still produce “Asia’s best” music acts.
Hong Kongers, she said, don’t need to look overseas to find musical inspiration. “These 12 men, coming right out of us, are capable, too.”