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Metro
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Spies, arrests and kissing Trump - meet the world's #1 Kim Jong Un impersonator
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Being followed home, having his house raided, getting his hair cut weekly and being deported from Vietnam are all occupational hazards for Howard X. When Kim Jong Un first entered the scene in 2011, taking over the role of supreme leader of North Korea from his father, Howard immediately thought 'he looks a lot like me'. 'Other people started saying the same thing, and I thought I should do something with this,' Howard explained, and so in 2013, using a suit he already owned he took pictures of himself as Kim Jong Un pointing at various items in supermarkets. He uploaded them to a Facebook page, which exploded in popularity, and within two weeks he'd booked his first professional gig as an impersonator and was flown out to Tel Aviv Howard, who is in his mid-40s and originally from Hong Kong, had been interested in global politics, especially that of dictatorships like North Korea, for many years. Combined with his enjoyment of satire and comedy, the music producer realised that becoming a Kim Jong Un impersonator was his ideal job. Speaking to Metro, Howard said that while interest in his work fluctuates depending on current events, he can see himself continuing his activism for many years to come. 'Whenever Kim launches a missile, my phone is ringing off the hook,' he explained. 'But I don't wait around for him to do something. I've noticed that the best way for me to get work is to do my own projects. 'I've always been political, I've always gone to protests for various causes I believe in, and I found that this is a very useful tool to satirise dictators.' Howard spoke to Metro from The Hague where he protested outside the Nato summit venue earlier this week. Posing with an inflatable nuke with 'Europe, my troops are already in Ukraine. Where are yours?' written on the side, it's safe to say his political views are clear. Howard said: 'People enjoy my satirical take on world events, and being in The Hague with all the action happening here it's been good for my career – unfortunately.' But this has got him in trouble in the past. After taking part in the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong in 2014 as Kim Jong Un, Howard's house was raided and he was arrested. Although the charges were dropped, he felt he had to leave Hong Kong for his own safety. From Donald Trump's inauguration to Olympic opening ceremonies, Howard has been all over the world to make a statement, but not everything has gone smoothly. He has previously been deported from Vietnam and detained in Singapore for his protests, and he says he was even followed and assaulted by North Korean agents. Thankfully, as he has Australian citizenship, he's been able to set up a secret base down under. In fact, the most bookings he's ever had came after he documented being kicked out of Vietnam. Howard explained: 'I knew my notoriety in the press would give me some protection, and even when the cops came in Hong Kong they said 'we're big fans, but our boss told us that we had to come'. 'I had to leave a life behind in Hong Kong, I miss getting some proper dim sum, but I have the privilege of being an Australian citizen, so I figured that since I have this privilege, I need to use it to speak up. 'We have two dictators now basically controlling the world, we've got Trump on one side and Xi Jinping on the other side, and everybody else is caught in the middle. 'I think for a lot of people who are not Trump supporters, they get sad and frustrated when every time they turn on their TV they see this idiot spouting his garbage. 'That's why I decided to satirise it, because the only way you can deal with that psychologically is to point out how ridiculous it is and make a joke out of it, which is extremely easy.' From Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator to political satire show Spitting Image, Howard has a wide variety of influences. He also rates Frank Sanazi, a comedian who impersonates Adolf Hitler singing the songs of Frank Sinatra. But how effective is satire at bringing about change? Howard argues it's vital. 'If I was just one protester with a sign, I would be ignored, it wouldn't have much of an impact, so I decided to use this impersonation to draw eyeballs to the cause of democracy, and it's very effective,' he explained. 'I think that's why dictators are so sensitive about it. All dictators fear being made fun of. 'A lot of protesters will be very angry, and a lot of people will get very turned off by that very aggressive way of protesting. 'If you're making a joke out of it, it's a gut reaction so people cannot look away, and the people you're making fun of, they feel they lose face. More Trending 'If you can make people laugh, it takes away the fear. 'I've even made supporters of China laugh, and as a protester and political activist, you not only want to get your side to be united but you want to change the minds of the supporters of the dictatorship, so I think it's very useful.' And if he was to ever come face to face with Kim Jong Un, he already knows what he'd say to the dictator. 'I'd say 'go kill yourself and make me the leader, I'll free your country',' he said. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: 'Epic' sci-fi series returns to streaming — and four more shows to binge in July MORE: We fear for the life of waterslide tourist who nearly soaked Kim Jong Un MORE: Favourite British comedian forced to cancel shows after saying he's quitting stand-up
HKFP
23-04-2025
- Politics
- HKFP
No alternative but to disband Hong Kong's Democratic Party, leader says
Hong Kong's Democratic Party chairperson Lo Kin-hei has said that there is no alternative but to dissolve the opposition party. Appearing on a talk show hosted by former Democratic Party chairperson Emily Lau on Tuesday, Lo said that the party had originally hoped to continue its work after it elected its central committee in December. At the time, the combination of factors it had to consider in determining whether to continue was still 'stable,' he added. 'But some situations came up, and we could all see that the balance had shifted, and we were forced to make this choice.' Lo also said that he would neither leave Hong Kong nor run for a seat in the city's legislature as an independent candidate after the party's dissolution. The 90-seat Legislative Council (LegCo) will complete its current four-year term at the end of this year. In March 2021, Beijing passed legislation to ensure only 'patriots' govern Hong Kong, in a move that wiped out opposition in the LegCo. Under pressure On April 13, the party passed a motion bringing it closer to disbandment after reports that Chinese officials had warned several senior members to dissolve the party before the upcoming legislative elections. The motion, introduced after the party initiated disbandment procedures in February, allowed the party's central committee to proceed with its dissolution. Lo said at the April press conference that the final motion to disband would likely be approved by party members in an upcoming general meeting, considering their 'understanding of the situation faced by the party and the central committee.' The Democratic Party was once the largest opposition party in the city's legislature, commanding as many as 13 seats in the then 60-strong legislature in 1998. Lo said on Tuesday that he recognised the party's influence had waned, adding that it would not drag out the dissolution procedure. 'What you do under this environment doesn't seem to actually affect much,' he said. The party was looking to donate its assets to organisations not involved in politics, such as green groups, he added. Lo, whose acquittal in a 2019 unauthorised assembly case was upheld by the Court of Appeal last month, said that the Department of Justice had no intention of overturning the decision. The opposition party was also the focus of a Tuesday Ming Pao opinion piece written by Terry Yip, deputy secretary-general of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). Yip alleged that the Democratic Party turned its back on its ideals of nonviolent protest during the 2014 Umbrella Movement and even took part in the 'black-clad violence' of 2019. In response to Yip, Lo said that he did not understand why other political parties were concerned about his party's affairs.
