Guy in the Closet

The word 'otaku' is from Japanese language which means a homebody who often with an obsession about something (usually anime, manga, games or other indoor hobbies). The original meaning of otaku means 'home' or 'you', written as お宅 in Japanese. But later, the meaning extended to its current modern slang form and written in hiragana おたく or katagana オタク to be distinguished from the original meaning.

In Japanese language, the word often carries negative meaning, but when used in a specific context, it can be an equivalent to 'geek', most of time it means an anime or manga fan, not necessarily with social ineptness.

In Chinese language, the word 宅, which is a valid Chinese character, is taken directly to mean the otaku-ness, or as an adjective of being an otaku (despite its original meaning in Chinese language which also means home). A male otaku in Chinese is called a 宅男, whereas the female equivalent is 腐女 (lit. rotten female).

Despite its loan nature from Japanese language, the word 宅男, when being used in Chinese language, is generally understood as a homebody, without the specific obsession part in the more often usage of otaku.

This song with the title '宅' by Leo Ku uses a very smart play of the word. The theme of the song is about a lonely guy who became a homebody due to being single (implying that he ended a relationship). The lyricist uses the word 宅 to replace all occurrences of 在 in this song for their similar pronunciation, and verbalises the word 宅, effectively emphasises the theme and the title of the song. Creative. I haven't seen this kind of wordplay in other songs.

That being said, I really like this song for its creative value, and also the relevance of its lyrics to me.

宅
作词：吴向飞;陈烈
作曲：曹轩宾

一个人的房间和一个人的枕边
喧嚣的世界被挡在外面
潜水是种习惯别人看不见
白天当作黑夜 黑夜当作白天

不想让谁改变也不想为谁改变
最害怕看见陌生人的脸
游荡网路之间从来不留言
很多时间没有谁看过我一眼

宅这个城市里 宅某一个角落
只有寂寞才不会拒绝我
想像这个我并不是真的我
是某个人在扮演我

宅这个城市里 宅一个人生活
只有寂寞才不会拒绝我
外面灯火栏栅 我已习惯了
关上门 这样静静的
关上我 这样静静的
一个人就这样静静的

空荡荡的房间和空荡荡的身边
不用为了谁再努力表演
同类已经不多我不怕寂寞
我害怕面对很多人无话可说

语言慢慢退化借微博宣泄一下
一想到聚会就莫名害怕
独处是好习惯别人看不见
我在这个城市陪着自己聊天

宅个城市里 宅某一个角落
只有寂寞才不会拒绝我
也许最安全的就是这一刻
没有人在乎的沉默

宅这个城市里 宅一个人生活
只有寂寞才不会拒绝我
外面灯火栏栅 我已习惯了
关上门 这样静静的
关上我 这样静静的
一个人 这样静静的

宅个城市里 宅某一个角落
只有寂寞才不会拒绝我
也许最安全的就是这一刻
没有人在乎的沉默

宅这个城市里 宅一个人生活
只有寂寞才不会拒绝我
外面灯火栏栅 我已习惯了
关上门 这样静静的
关上我 这样静静的
习惯了 就这样 静静的