A video by Shanghai’s Rainbow Chamber Choir has gone viral after being uploaded on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.
The video, which laments youth wasted on working overtime, has been shared many times by Chinese netizens. The song features Hong Kong actor and Canto-pop singer Leon Lai-ming.
It tells the story of an employee who is displeased with their employer’s frequent requests for overtime from a first-person perspective. At one point, the choir sings: “there is a boss called David. He appeared at 6pm with a malicious expression. He held a pot of hot coffee in his hand [and said] hey hey hey, let’s have a meeting.”
The song later transitions into the employee’s inner monologue, urging the employer not to make him work overtime. The choir sang: “[you] clearly have nothing to do in the daytime, as I have seen you playing with live streaming. It’s like you don’t have a home. Please do not say that sentence -”
At this point, Leon Lai, as the voice of the boss, says: “baby, let’s work overtime.” The choir launches into the chorus from the employee’s perspective, singing “it is as if my body has been emptied.”
Members of the Rainbow Chamber Choir performed wearing dog ears in reference to part of the lyrics, which say that the employee is “as tired as a dog.”
“[This song] has spoken for our hearts, and it is, not surprisingly, spreading among the dog kennels of people who overwork like a virus,” said one Weibo user.
“I want to quit my job after hearing this song,” said another microblogger.
The Rainbow Chamber Choir was founded in 2010 by students studying at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, with members as young as 18 years old. The choir consists of people working in various occupations, including computer programmers, designers, accountants, and chemists.
The choir previously received online attention after performing their song “Zhang Shi-chao, where did you put my key?” in January 2016.
