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There is no better illustration of the inappropriate inscriptions of generic labelling than the term applied to the popular black dance music style that preceded kwaito in the 1980s: “bubblegum”. In a stereotypical sense bubblegum begins and ends with the recent tragically ended career of Brenda Fassie, whose first big hit recording with the Big Dudes in 1983, Weekend Special was political only in the sexual sense of protesting the subordinate romantic status of the “weekends-only” girlfriend of the philandering African man. Perhaps it was this perceived shallowness in the midst of the gathering political storm that led some radio disk jockey to dismiss the new style of township pop as “bubblegum”: a childish tease in which the initial burst of sweetness quickly vanishes on the tongue. And yet today over two decades later there is hardly a local kwaito or pop music diva who does not cite Fassie’s inspiration.

This is due not only to her unique and powerful voice, or even her endlessly selfregenerating capacity for stylistic referencing and innovation, but also, wondrously, her changing politics. By the late ’80s, Brenda demonstrated that she had far more than adultery on her mind when, under the powerful influence of her producer/song writer soulmate Sello “Chicco” Twala, she issued the mouldbreaking political album Too Late for Mama (1988). On it were songs like Black President, an unabashed praise poem to the then still-jailed Nelson Mandela, looking prophetically toward the day when he would indeed be the country’s first black president. The same album also contained Shoot Them Before They Grow, an imaginary debate between a liberal and a racist white on the future of young blacks, with its fierce, bitter indictment of police violence against youthful protestors.

The good white man says, give them good education.
The bad white man says, shoot them before they grow . . .

Brenda’s blend of explicit political and sexual explosiveness was never the contradiction to herself or her fans that the term “bubblegum” might suggest. In fact her defiantly self-destructive lifestyle and in-your-face rebellious female articulateness was as much part of her politics as her recordings and her frenetically sensual stage performances. But the bad girl of pop wanted more than anything to be loved, wickedly mimicking Winnie Mandela’s questionable title “Mother of the Nation” with her own self-description “Girlfriend of the Nation”. Despite all the self-promoting journalistic moralism, South Africans (bad girls and boys at 12 African Studies 64: 1, July 2005 heart) forgave their wayward “MaBrrr” (as she was called). In May 2004, Mandela, Mbeki, ministers of government, the aristocracy of black show business, and hundreds of other notables attended her hospital deathbed, and we all deeply mourned her passing.

B1 咱若是心頭結歸裘　著來飲酒濕一咧濕一咧　外好汝甘知（好啦）
A1 有人飲酒假紳士　有人飲酒脫霓舞
有人飲酒愛唱歌　我若飲酒話著一大攤　有人飲酒面絿絿　有人飲酒撚嘴鬚
有人喝酒撚鬍鬚　有人飲酒搥心肝　我若飲酒尚愛招酒伴（哈麥）
A2 人生親像一盤棋　成功失敗思雙枝（甘拜　殺鹿　氣予死　乾杯）
A3 出入江湖講身不由己　風度永遠愛保持
不過請永遠不要忘了風度　酒量若有尚得意　但是酒品統要緊
若欲臭彈歕雞規　請汝趕緊趁酒醉
飲落去　飲落去　毋倘漏氣　醉落去　醉落去　逐家歡喜
B2 咱若是心情咧憂愁　著來飲予馬西馬西　毋通胡白想（好咧）
不要想太多　來來來　我的朋友好兄弟（尤伊　油伊　游揖）
燒酒著給飲落去　毋倘飼金魚（好啦　好啦）
請逐家燒酒繼續斟（縮咧）
給伊斟予伊〔表面張力〕外好汝甘知（嗦淚　縮淚）
B3 哈麥咱若是心頭結歸裘　著來飲酒濕一咧濕一咧　外好汝甘知（知啦）
A4 彼落阿土阿草仔出世作酒蟲　無代無誌嘛會找孔縫
無事幹也會找花樣　阿仁阿義仔干哪一杯落腹　紅關公著走出來弄
杯底毋倘飼蟾蜍　杯底毋倘種蕃薯
杯底毋倘飼紅蟳　杯底毋倘娶細姨
A5 人講酒醉嘛心頭定　毋倘藉口欲賈人車拼
飲酒尚驚敖牽拖　暈暈相掙講毋知疼
人生永遠是向前行　飲啦　飲啦　免著驚
面子暫時免論輸贏　剖復交陪朋友成（哈麥）
A6 講著飲酒　我攏無步　講著食燻　我火著著
講著檳榔　我著吐血　講著賭筊　我著會氣
若閣欲臭彈歕雞規　請汝趕緊趁酒醉
飲落去　飲落去　毋倘漏氣　醉落去　醉落去　逐家歡喜

B4 咱若是心頭結歸裘　著來飲酒濕一咧濕一咧　外好汝甘知（知啦）
我咧外爽汝甘知（知啦）我咧外贊汝甘知（知啦）
我咧外好汝甘知（搭搭答搭瘩）

如果心裡不舒服　就要拿杯子來澆愁　那是非常美好的事
有人喝酒假正經　有人喝酒大跳脫奶舞
有人喝酒愛唱歌　我若喝酒就酒話連篇　有人喝酒臉都縐成一個叉燒包
有人喝酒呼天嗆地　我若喝酒最愛呼朋引伴
人生就像在下棋　成功失敗捏不準
聽說人在江湖身不由己
有酒量的話當然最得意　但是酒品最要緊
吹牛不用繳稅金　但請趁酒醉時才可免除刑責
喝吧　喝吧　不要漏氣　醉吧　醉吧　大家高興
若是心情憂愁　就來給它喝個暈頭轉腦
來吧　我的朋友好兄弟
喝吧　要用台灣式的乾杯　不可留底
請大家酒繼續倒
給它倒到剛剛好有阿港伯的表面張力　真是美好的事情啊
我們若是心情不好　就來小酌兩杯　保證忘憂　多好的一件事阿
張三李四一出世就愛喝酒
王五趙六酒量沒有通過國家檢驗局　只求一杯　臉就跟劉備一樣
杯底不得殘留異物　統統一口喝光
杯底不得留下半滴酒　行徑要守規矩
酒醉的時候　神智還是要清楚　借酒裝瘋人人看不起
喝酒就喝酒　不要五四三　喝得頭昏　打架都不會痛　真好
人生永遠都要像林強說的向前走　喝吧　喝吧　甚麼都不怕
面子暫時放一旁　坦承相對變成好朋友
說到喝酒　我都不嚼的　說到抽煙　我馬上點火
吃檳榔　不要忘了吐檳榔汁　賭博的話　一定要去
想要吹牛　請快趁酒醉的時候
喝吧　喝吧　不可丟臉　醉吧　醉吧　歡喜就好
你們若是有人心裡頭憂愁的　到我這裡來　我將賜給你永生的活水
喝我的水將永遠不渴　信我的人　將得到永恆的生命

“-40″計畫所收藏的作品是它們的時代數一數二的製作，同時也是一段延續仍在進行中的個人與國家認同的對話。無論是從個人到政治、獨特到全球共享，”-40″ 是一個從多重的視角來觀察的，二十世紀加拿大數位藝術家探索過去與現在相遇、再各自踏上不同路途的一場影音計畫。藝術家們運用著選自加拿大國家電影理事會保存的 1940 年代社會與政治宣傳影片，策展的規則是他們必須基於聲音或視覺媒介，創作出一部新的作品，面對整合影片中保持原狀元素的對話挑戰。

That’s the beauty of this collection. Each artist is up to the task of reconfiguring old Film Board material into something fresh and exciting. In Ordeal by Ice, prhizzm uses a light, melodic touch to remix the audio on the film, allowing the eye to roam freely and see the stark, beautiful quality of the frozen terrain of Northern Canada. By contrast, Amen by David Lemieux, a remix of Terre de Nos Aieux (1943), incorporates digital imagery into a film that used to be a portrait of “pure laine” Québécois country folk. Cutting down the film’s length, Lemieux avoids most of the doc’s visuals, preferring to create silhouettes of the farmers. By emphasizing, through drawings, the sound levels and faces—without mouths—of the inhabitants of the region, the vice-like grip of the Church becomes all too clear.

-40 was set up with a simple set of rules. Remixers had to keep either the audio or cinematography intact from the original NFB films. Cuts could be made as some of these shorts were quite long, and that factor helped the artists to place an emphatic stamp on the material. The major reworking—and rethinking—was done either through new soundtracks or visuals.

The effect of this organizing principle is two-fold. First, it allows the artists to re-imagine the films, creating exciting work（首先，策展規則讓藝術家重新想像這些影片，因而創造出精彩的作品）. With remixing so important in our culture today, -40 proposes a whole new area to “plunder”–older films, especially documentaries. Re-makes in the collection range from the overtly political (Definitely Not Internment Camps’ plea for the imprisoned Japanese-Canadians of WWII) through the purely formal (Action Stations’ “thriller” electro-pop score) to the satiric (Bonjour Voisin’s contrast between tourists’ images of Canada and the mundane reality).

Secondly, these remixes allow us to see Canada’s past with clearer eyes（透過重新改作，讓人清晰地看見加拿大歷史）. With voice-over narration and musical effects freed from their visuals, the audience can listen and examine how a nation was moved to work together during the stirring times of World War II and the rebuilding years that followed the Allies’ victory. Lorne Greene’s acclaimed “Voice of Doom” serves to remind us how Canadians were mobilized into action.

More poetically, the remixed audio tracks allow us to see the beauty of Canada（更為詩意地看見加拿大的美麗）: the zig-zagging trails of skiers on mountains, the toiling workers outdoors cutting lumber, the children playing in small towns throughout the country. It reminds us that Canada was once a pioneering nation. With new technologies and fresh attitudes towards cultural expression, perhaps that spirit of adventure still prevails.