Haka for Singapore National Cheer Day deemed cringe worthy and disrespectful

[ignhelper]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12096971

Original video got taken down. Here's a mirror:

https://www.facebook.com/rjlaurence/videos/10214453075413820/

Cringey af. Normally cultural appropriation stuff are bullshit, but I'm ashamed af in this case.

[purvisdavid1]

That fucking guy leading it dear god my sides

[Anteep]

Ouch. I think Singaporeans probably look cringey at everything they do though, so, I wasn't expecting much.

[Jechtmania]

And it devolves further into patty cake, I don't know if I can get mad at this self deprecation.

[SaintBaron]

I thought it was general knowledge that the Haka is like some super culturally sensitive thing so you just generally leave it alone if you're not from NZ

[Samiam]

No less so than other cultural artifacts from anywhere else, in my opinion. You can do it if you want but you should actually at least know what the moves are supposed to be before you try.

[Nachy]

As someone who have hardly any idea on what Haka is, the video just looks like an endearingly funny and cute team cheer

[SIRIUS]

Which is tbh why a lot of actual cultural appropriation isn't taken seriously, and is seen the same way as the dumb stuff

[Elstumpo]

Heres a video of school children doing it for comparison.

https://youtu.be/Wz7DzheCeuQ

[Deathtrooper]

If we go to war with an alien race, we're adapting this shit immediately.

[Weirdness]

I remember when the whitest, skinniest kid in my Intermediate school joined the Haka group.
Everyone laughed.
Now he's the tallest, most masculine guy with women hanging off of him.
Mana works in crazy ways.

[wewt!]

Wow, that has to be the most badass thing I've seen in a school assembly, ever.

[Tayley]

the haka started off as a war dance funnily enough

[Deathtrooper]

Exactly

[AxeI]

Meh, there doesn't seem to be malicious intent behind it. At least it means the haka's badassery inspires others, even if they fail at it.

I'd say the only instances where this sort of thing is truly awful is when the imitation is much more popular than the original and end up taking over. No risk of that happening there, though.

[Pilotguy]

This shit happened all the time in high school. It actually became a problem because our math class was regularly interrupted by the maori class practicing hakas out in the courtyard

We also had similar stuff at both my high school award ceremonies and my university graduation. During the award ceremonies we had some maori prefects wearing traditional clothing who would bless any maori students who got an award, and during my graduation maori families would stand up and yell blessings from the back rows when they saw their children collect their degrees. We thought it was over the top back then but it's really quite endearing when you look back on it.

[proboardslol]

Asian countries are immune to western ideas about liberalism and cultural appropriation. A Korean actress can go on TV in blackface and face mild international backlash and the locals will forget about it in a day. They can do or say ANYTHING

[Crimor]

If you ever get the chance to witness a proper haka in person, don't miss it, I'd say that video captures like less than 10% of how amazing it is.