Police in Hainan province released an arresting video that has gone viral.
The music video of an anti-drug-themed adaptation of Mandarin pop singer Jay Chou's new track, Mojito, has been an online sensation. The timing was significant as Friday marked the International Day Against Drugs and Illicit Drug Trafficking.
The clip lasting 1 minute and 24 seconds had been viewed about 33 million times as of Monday on social media platform Sina Weibo. On short-video platform Douyin, it has been viewed more than 4 million times. Many netizens commented that the adaptation is quite good and the lyrics are funny.
In an encouraging development, Chou himself posted a screenshot of the anti-drug version of Mojito on his Kuaishou account on Thursday, commenting: "Well done! Everyone should stay away from drugs and protect themselves!"
Chou became the figurehead of a government anti-drugs campaign in 2014.
Instead of Havana in Cuba, the clip is filmed on location in Haikou, Hainan province. It finds policeman Xu Rui flanked by several colleagues in police uniforms, similar to the setting in Chou's video.
In the video, they dance-walk on a coastal road with sea wind blowing, and instead of a vintage car in Chou's shot, a police patrol car drives along the road.
Adapted from Chou's track, Xu, from an anti-drug unit under the Hainan public security bureau, changed the lyrics of Mojito to reflect police efforts in the crackdown on drugs, intending to raise public awareness on the drug problem and make saying no to drugs a cool thing.
He uses new lyrics-"Oh please give the drug dealer a mojito; I love the sorrow that his painful eyes have told; And my teacup doesn't need to be full, 'cause he has made the world suffer too much."
In the last verse over Latin-style brass instrumentation, percussion and guitar, the 32-year-old sings: "A world free of drug abuse is the best reward for police".
Xu says that the new lyrics inspired by Chou's new song which dropped on Tencent Music on June 12 only took him about five minutes to finish that day, which has won applause from friends and colleagues.
He Wenchang, who plays the ukulele in the video, says he hopes their performance can give people some relief during this stressful time. He is also the music producer who is in charge of the recording and mixing.
