The Correspondent, April - May 2002 by The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong

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TII THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS'

CLUB 2 Lower Albert Road, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2527 15\7 Fax: (852) 2868 4092

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E-mail: <fcc@fcchk.org> Website :

<m.fcchk.org> Laurie

President

Kate Pound Dawson Firet Vice President -.fim Ray Rudowski, Second Vice President (Hon Sec.)

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Correspondent Member Governors Paul Ba¡,field, Thomas Crampton, Hubert van Es, Luke Hunt, Akiko Kâto,

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C o NTENTS

I 5 I 0 r

Letters & Announcemenls

Joünalist Member Governors

G wine&chess 7 B,ar ia By The Numbers

C P Ho, Francis Moriarty

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The President

Cl tU Activities

Mark Landle¡ ArthonyJ Lawence, Sarah McBride

Shougùang

Asociate Member Governore Kevin Egan. David Garcia.

T¡anj¡n

otography FCC Photographer of the Year Awards

Martin Merz, Mariìyn Hood Finmce Comittee

Urumq¡

Cmamor: Kzte Pound Dawson (Treasurer) Hefe¡

Professional & Entertaiment Comittee Conv enor:'î homas Crampton

Photo Feature bv Laurie Gilbert

Mæketing Comittee Conumor: lim Laurie

¡ingzhou \Nuhan

Club Speakers 14 Chin-ning Chu

Comtitutional Comittee Conomu: Kevin Egan

Nanitng Ningbo

Conumor: David Garcïa

Freedom of the Press Comittee Conu enor : Francis Morimty

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Wall Comittee

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Cuconuenor:

Htber[ van

General Mæager Gilbert Cheng

The Correspondent O The Foreign Correspondents' Club

of Hong Kong The Correspondent is published 6 times a yean Opinions expressed by writers in magazine are not necessarily those of

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FedEx delivers to over 19O cities in China' onlíne use FedEx to Ghina and you w¡ll get more than fast, reliable express sefv¡ce' we also give you 24-hout

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Editorial Editor: Saul Lockhart Tel:2813 5284 Fu: 2813 6394 Mobile: 9836 12l0

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THE CORRESPONDI,NT APRIL/MAY

Zb ltckect (Jut 26 Macau's New English Weekly

Obituary

Conamor: Patl Baltreld Edllor: Saul LockharL Production: Terry Duckham os

t"otu Mission Ends 31 TV in Korea

the Club.

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27 AnAsian

Publicatiore Comittee

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Press Veteran Remembers

17 Annie Wang Tiananmen Veteran 18 Joe Studwell Is Shanghai a Potemkin Village? 20 Literary Festival 23 Nury Vittachi Male Member Skirts Trouble 24 Christopher New On Writing

Howe/F&B Comittee

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On The Warpath

-Woman 15 John Roderick An Associated -

Membership Comittee Conumor: Hwbert va¡ Es

2OO2

-Joan

Boivin

evening before when police were preparing to arrest

Two letters to the The Hon. Tung Chee-hwa Chief Executive, HKSAR

several men suspected of blocking the Secretary for Security's vehicle outside the Legislative Council. So, it was already obvious from that occasion that reporters

On The Handcuffing & Removing of Journalists The Foreign Correspondents' Club vigorously condemns the handcuffing and forcible removal of journalists covering the police eviction of the right-oÊ abode claimants and their supporters from Chater

Garden Thursday afternoon (April 25). This is an unacceptable action, far below the standards of professionalism generally associated with the Hong Kong Police Force. It also is a serious blow to press freedom in Hong Kong, which is not lessened by the fact that the journalists were later released on condition that they accept confinement in a pen set up by police to keep reporters far away from the scene. Police commanders knew that pictures of officers surrounding, intimidating and in some cases dragging many of away claimants and their family members would be beamed around the them elderly and frail world. Their strategy- appeared to be to limit the damage by keeping photographers far enough away that images of the drama would be diluted or blocked. Such a strategy is both abhorrent and selÊdefeating. Now, the world also can see pictures of journalists in Hong Kong being manhandled and dragged away. A similar effort to control journalists occurred the

were committed to fulfilling their professional

obligation to get as close to the story as possible, and would resist efforts to move them. We deeply regret that the police chose force over other alternatives, and we salute the journalists who stood their ground. As chief executive, you are now calling for the creation of a system of accountability. This would be an excellent and early opportunity to demonstrate exactly what accountability means in practice, by assuring that those responsible for the maltreatment of reporters are appropriately disciplined and required to apologize to the reporters. On HarryWu's Denial of Entry

On behalf of the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong, we would like to express our serious concern at reports that a New Zealand reporter in the company of Harry Wu has been denied entry to Hong Kong and deported, along with Mr. Wu himself.

The incident raises doubts in many quarters not only about the autonomy of Hong Kong's border control, but also about its commitment to the free flow of ideas and information. As an organisation of professional journalists, we

view with particular alarm the apparent refusal to allow a journalist into Hong Kong. As this is a matter of deep concern, we request that a complete explanation of the facts and the reasons for such a refusal be made public

of urgency. There should be no doubt concerning the potential damage that would be done to the international image of Hong Kong, and to the vibrancy of the news media here, if journalists cannot move freely into and out of the SAR in the course of their professional duties. The FCC is also a major venue for viewpoints of every kind, including those of government ofhcials. Dissent is a critical ingredient of free speech and a free as a matter

press, and

the right both to impart and to

information

including opinions of individuals, like - are unpopular with authority is Mr. Wu, who guaranteed by the International Declaration of Human Rights and other covenants to which Hong Kong is party. Banning such individuals effectively silences them and muzzles a free press. We look forward to a full and prompt reply. Regina Iþ, Secretøry for Security,reþlies: Thankyou for your letter of 16 April addressed to the Chief Executiae regarding our alleged decision to refuse a New Zeala.nd journalist and Mr Hamy Wu entry into Hong Kong. I haae been authorised,

First of

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and Buffet Provided

VEI\UE : FCC Verandah and/or Main Dining Room DAIE & TIME : Thursday 30th May from 6pm - 7pm SPEAI(ERS z Díffùculf Cltoices to be ma.de by today's inaestors - William Tung - Managing Director, W Falcon Does low rísk mean lou return? - Trevor Srnith - Area Sales Manager, Clerical Medical Places are

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clarity, scholarship and insight and he has lent considerable personal weight to your paper's coverag-e

of the mainland. His dismissal, therefore, cannot

There can be no question that losing a person of Mr. Becker's stature is a serious blow both to the quality of the China coverage and to the paper's reputation. Mr. Becker has alleged, with a list of supporting examples, that there has been an increasing pattern of selÊcensorship at the SCMP and that this is the basic reason for his frring. This is a

of course, have noted the denials by you and a spokeswoman, who said Mr. Becker was sacked for serious assertion on a highly sensitive subject. We,

insubordination. These responses, we regret to sa¡ have so far fallen short of persuasive. In some places, a paper's decision

to fire a staff member

decisions

While Hong Kong welcomes uisitors, and no fewer than 13.8 milli,on uisitors entered Hong Kong last yea4 the Director of Immigration, like his counterþarts all oaer the world, has the þouer to refuse landing where he has any reasonable (Joubts about the þurpose of entry of any uisitor Indeed, in the interest of safeguarding the security, safety and stability of Hong Kong, it is imþortant that he maintains a high leael of uigilance regarding the bona f,des of all claimed uisitors, and refuses entry where he has grounds to belieue that the admission of any þarticular þerson is not in the interest of Hong Kong. As you well hnoq ue haue a uilrant press and Hong Kong remains one of the freest cities in the uorkl, uhere inhctbi.tants are free to associate, assemble or otheruise demonstrate their uieus þrouided that the law is not breached. As in other þIaces,

even a star reporter or

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Thomas Abraham, Editor, SCMP We write concerning the dismissal ofJasper Becker from his post as t}ae SCMP's bureau chief in Beijing. As a general rule, the FCC respectful of the autonomy

2OO2

THE CORRESPONDENT APzuL/MAY

2()O2

viewed lightly.

On The Dismissal of Jasper Becker

PENSION/SAVING CAPITAL APPRECIATION SCHEME I'SøOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE A REGUIAR MARKET COMMENTARY MORTGAGE OR RE-FINANCING

THE CORRISPONDENT APRIL/MAY

The position of bureau chief in China's capital is alone of sufficient importance to warrant paying close attention to the person who holds the job, and to how he or she is treated. In this case, the position has been held by an individual who is a prize-winning journalist, distinguished author and respected China scholar. Readers around the world admire his work for its

for uarious reo,sons, to be made time to time to safeguard the oaerall interests of Hong from Kong. Rights and freedoms in Hong Kong and refused landing decisions are two entireþ seþarate matters. There is no justification whatsoeaer to suggest that reÍused landing decisions, as and when thq need to be taken, refl¿ct a diminution of nghts and freedoms within Hong Kong.

Tìtle

Company Name: Contact Number:

all

rarely comments on of Mr. Becker, however, is deeply distressing and compels us to make an exception.

refused entry decisions haue,

or Email : lnfo@qlfalcon.com.hk to trook your seat.

attend the seminar on Thursday 30th May

Name

Chief Executiue to reply on his behalf.

all, to set the record straight, the New Zealand

entry. Secondly,

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receive

of news-gathering organisations

personnel decisions. The sacking

Goes

The

would not give rise to concern popular columnist about fundamental- freedoms. But that is not the environment in which we in Hong Kong work. And the earlier case involving your former China editoa Willy WoJap Lam, has led many observers to question whether now, with the sacking of Mr. Becker, we are seeing tll'e Post undergo a realignment of its coverage based on political factors. The FCC sincerely hopes that you will take the time to address these concerns. If you wish to discuss them in person, we invite to you to use the Club's facilities as a venue for expression. From: Tony Nedderman #3419 Your Prisoner at the Bar (CorresþondentFebruary/ March 2002) clearly spent rather too long there when writing his piece for the issue. Discreet enquiry would have revealed that none of we senior teetotallers became so voluntarily. We all look forward, however, to seeing how your correspondent reacts himself when told that his days are numbered. He could hardly be aware of course that the expressions of distaste he mentions only appear upon his entrance, as fellow members are subjected to the blatant use of the premises for business to a degree which would warrant exclusion at less tolerant institutions. Perhaps an odious flack tax could be levied? (He may also be unaware in this context that one of the meanings of the word curmudgeon is "ill-bred".) The Board might

"To learn and to practise what is learned time and again is pleasure, is it not?..." -_cqüqçjUs;,!rq!¡tetjg41-rL9qIþ-e-Ly4.\ü.,Chqpte¡-1,,yqr-s,e1

Mandarin study: for business and pleasure

usefully extend editorial responsibilities rather than mere format.

content

From Don Carkeek #7137 The FCC Board has rightly asked members not to

use cellphones in the Club as a courtesy to all members. I would like to propose a corresponding courtesy be given to members/guests in the Main no smoking! Last evening, we Dining Room attended the "Movin Marvin Brown" dinner and show. With approximately 60+ guests in the relatively small dining room, there were seven smokers in the audience. Their smoking polluted the air and ruined many dinners and the enjoyment for ourselves and others. The room is too small to allow smoking and the stink that came through the air significantþ distracted a great show. Given our Club has many other facilities that allow dining/drinking/smoking, specifrcally in the Main Bar and Bert's, I would like to request that this proposal be brought to the Board for resolution: "make the Main Dining Room non-smoking". Itwill be applauded by all members including non-smokers. From the General Manager: The FCC d'oes haae a policy regardi.ng smoking. The Verandah and half the Main Dining Room are non-smoking areas. Thne are no restrictions in the Main Ba6 the Chinese Rzsta,urû,nt and Bert's. In þractice, we try to seþar&te smokers and non-smokers in the Main Dining Room, but that is not alutays successful. We d,o undsrstand the þroblem and uill make an ffirt to separate the areas euen more. We uill also þut uþ þosters asking smohers to be more considerate and þnhaþs smoke

the lobfu.

FromJohn Neill #7484 It was astounding to read George Russell's letter ( C or re sþ ond,ent F ebrwar y / l1.ar ch 2002 ) obj ectin g to the slip in using his wife's married name when reporting their post-wedding celebration. I'm not sure if the "error" was all that unreasonable given the occasion, but his later declaration that also he, like the wife, writes under the (maiden) name of Margot Cohen, took my breath away. Now really George, you can hardly have it both ways, mate! As someone once observed wisely: What's in a name?

In that same issue the President's unwelcome pontification on his headgear dislikes highlights the problem of any organisation entering the fashion Save Septemher ?th

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Correspondent's Club. For the first time since 1997, elections for President are being contested: A vigorous contest between our outgoing First Vice-President, Kate Dawson, who has doubled as Club Treasurer this last year, and Board member Thomas Crampton, who has energetically thrown himself into the task of organising dozens of dinner and luncheon speakers and special professional events.

As outgoing President, I am pleased that we have been able to keep the Club on track and out of trouble these last 12 months. The Club has a new seven-year lease, so we needn't fret about a new home. Although we will never please all members, we have managed to begin work on both a new fitness centre and an improved kitchen.

Our hnances remain sound and while we have suffered some losses due to hard economic times, our membership numbers remain reasonably healthy. Still, the health of our Club rests, as it has for some time, with the strength of our Associate Membership... and to them, we owe a debt of gratitude. What has begun to worry me, however, is the steady decline of Hong Kong as a regional or international media centre. Numbers appear to be holding in the broadcast media with CNN, CNBC, and STAR holding their own. But there is a very mixed picture in the print arena.

In December 2001 we lost Asiaweek and with it - in this city's more than 70 jobs putting quite a dent place as a regional news hub. On March 3).st, Neusweek shut down its Hong Kong bureau. The next Washington Posú correspondent dispatched to Asia will go to Shanghai, not Hong Kong, and the Post bureau once headed by former FCC President Keith Richburg will close down. \A¡hy is this happening?

media centres. Both cities constantly improve their facilities for journalists. Both cities are arguably less expensive to work in. Both cities are vibrant jumpingoff points for covering either regional stories or those across the vastness of the Chinese Mainland.

While Hong Kong remains a conduit for international business interests into southern China and hundreds of Hong Kong-based businessmen hold multiple entry visas to the Mainland, that privilege is not afforded to foreign correspondents resident here. Foreign reporters living in Hong Kong, five years after the Handover, still cannot travel easily on the mainland as working journalists. If the HKSAR government cares anything about maintaining this city as a media centre, it ought to take some action. It could approach Beijing to encourage it to extend to foreign correspondents in Hong Kong the same privilege businessmen enjoy: multiple entry visas to carry out work in China. Then the vastness of southern China and the many stories it offers would be open to journalists here. h yes, reporters could, as they have been doing for years, travel to China arrryay on tourist or business visas. But technically, under Chinese

law, that is illegal.

It is in both China's interest and even more so in Hong Kong's interest to encourage greater access to southern China and to preserve Hong Kong as a media centre. Incidentally access to China for the local Hong Kong media has-steadily improved in the last few years. TVB and Wharf's I-Cable News have recently opened bureaus for the first time in Beijing. Newspapers, the Apþlc Daily being the stunning exception, enjoy greater "official" access. Local reporters on home visit permits fan out all across southern China.

The reasons lie in large

economics and cost-cutting in difficult times. But that is not the whole story. While Hong Kong has declined, Singapore and Shanghai have grown as

measure

continued, Jrom þage 4

Keep the 7th of September open on your calendars for FCC's first annual Charity Ball. Motown recording star Martha Reeves will be performing so you will have to book earþ as this will be an event to remember. Watch this space for details.

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

the time most members read this, there will be a new President of your Hong Kong Foreign y

Letters

For the FCC's first annual charity ball

ExecutiveMondorin

From the Presídent

2OO2

business (Comesþondenl Feb-Mar). Why for instance is not Arthur Hacker's tweed number any more absurd than a reverse-worn (baseball) cap? It is a yawning chasm waiting to claim its victim. And I cannot see why

shorts on men are banned upstairs. No one will challenge a mini-skirted female in our Club, I bet, no matter how silly that person might look to the THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

appraiser's eye. And jeans and rotten old crimplene bags are also OK no matter what! It's farcical that in a

climate like Hong Kong, members' shorts aren't indeed encouraged. I must say it's time women showed some sense and covered those bare arms...how lacking in what Mr. Laurie says is the need to "exercise restraint and good taste"! Huh! allowed

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Crus Acrrwrrrs - WrNn & Crrnss

Pnisoner at the Ban

An tGG Memhen Pnoduce$

Glassy Wines in Bondeaux

Lost Property

Wine convenor Barry Kalb reports on the Koo family's vineyard

Ralph Pixton strange when you think that the dear departed Pixie,

Against Him in its day was something of a classic for the

whose mellifluous voice was the most distinctive in Hong Kong broadcasting for more than three decades,

vicarious best from the bar of the FCC when China was a closed shop.

has now been dead over a year.

Ancient Order of China-watchers who did their ome people like a bottle of wine now and then. Some people are avid collectors, laying down dozens of bottles at a time. Some, like the Koo family of Hong Kong, go out and buy their own winery. According to Beverly Koo, she and her parents, Norman and Anna, are the only local Chinese family to have taken ttre current rage for good wine so far as to own their own French chateau. In fact, she says, her father has been drinking good wines since spending the decade of the 1970s in Canada. After returning to his native Hong Kong in 1979, Norman Koo went into investment and financial planning...and collecting good wine. "He has tons of wine here," she says. "He collects it to drink, notjust to display." He also joined the FCC in the early 1980s and daughter Beverly is also a member in her own right. In 1997, Beverly says, her father decided to indulge

his passion to the fullest, and began looking for a winery to buy. He found an old estate named Chateau La Bourguette for sale outside the famous SainteEmilion district of Bordeaux. It's not in one of the prime districts, and was not producing particularly distinguished wine, but it was the fulfìlment of a dream. Respected winemakers were called in as consultants, and the Koos began to turn things around. "The wine was not that great when we bought it, but we improved it," says Beverly, who now manages the business side of the winery. In Februar¡ the

FCC Bordeaux? The Koo family vineyard

authoritative Wine SþectatorgaveLa Bourguette's top of the line wine, Cuvee Prestige, a rating of 86 out of 100 no small achievement, and a portent of good things -to come. The family began bringing its wine to Hong Kong in a small way in December of 2000. They currently sell to private customers and a couple of Hong Kong restaurants. The family imports wines and spirits into China as well. The Cuvee Prestige 2000 will arrive here your assiduous wine convenor this coming summer has tasted it and found it thoroughly delightful, and extremely well-priced for a decent Bordeaux. It will be featured in one of the club's monthly wine promotions. I

Rather querulousl¡ Clare informed me that she did not have a single copy left as her only remaining copy had been purloined by a "friend" who had now left Hong Kong taking the book with him. Ir was with some surprise therefore that during my monthly browse through that bibliographical treasure trove the Hong Kong Club Library I came across a copy in mint condition. On settling down to read it, I was less than amused to find that the copy in my hand was the very copy that had been hijacked from the Grand Old Lady's flat. On the fTyleaf, written in her own distinctive handwriting, was the statement, "this is the author's copy" and this was signed by Clare. Now I know that there are those who say that the Hong Kong Club is peopled by thieves and vagabonds, but this is a view held mainly by those who fail to get in. However, an explanation might be in order.

development which has rocked the FCC Chess Club to its foundations, defending

champion Bob BehuII has declined to enter the 2002 tournament, citing work pressure. Behull, who cantere d through the inaugural tournament last year winning every game, will be missed, but the field for the 2002 version is nevertheless a competitive and interesting one.

UK television producer David Barrie was in Hong Kong shooting a documentary on the subject of Ralph

and his bizarre friendship with that grouchy old curmudgeonly actor Wilfred Bramble whose characterisation of the grumpy and dishevelled Dad in Steptoe and Son was one of the BBC's television classic comedies of all time. Wilfred Bramble came to Hong Kong often in the 1970s and stayed with Ralph, and the

two were a familiar sight in Ned Kelly's Last Stand, Waltzing Matilda, The Green Room and a number of

other Kowloon watering holes. This is not

Ted Thomas c

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Booklover Card

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played in last year's championship and Graeme frnished second. We have therefore installed him as hrm favourite for the 2002 title. The 2002 championship will be a double roundrobin, giving 10 rounds, to be played on Wednesday nights over the next three months. It will have innovative scheduling, in acknowledgement of the frequent need of Hong Kong people to travel at short

The conf,rrmed entrants are Sarah Henderson, Feng Chi-shun, Graeme Hall, Anthony Wong, Andrew Hart and Chris Champion. Anthony Wong joined the Chess Club last year and proved himself very competitive. He is among the early favourites. Andrew Hart has entered via e-mail and we

notice, in that each competitor will be allowed two time outs. That is, by giving no less than two hours' notice, any competitor may defer twice. Special rounds will be designated for the playng of deferred games and for

know nothing about him, which is ominous. Sarah Henderson, Feng Chi-shun and Graeme Hall have been supporters of the chess club right from the start. All

Chris Champion Convenor

to win great prizes!

completion of any adjourned games.

chamþs@netaigatorcom THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL,/MAY

2OO2

muckraking, fly on the wall titillating story of a couple of old chums, but a serious tribute to a man who did a great deal for radio and another who did a great deal for television. Anyone with any information can contact David Barrie through me.

ooklovers

Chess Club n a sensational

Ralph Pixton is alive and well, which is kind of

Clare Hollingworth's book Mao and The Men

Hl easuF¡n g ü t i s i u RG Süre:

FCC Photographer of the Year Awards

How ya been?

t: Another way of looking at the num-bt* l::i: some perloo compare cities, but to com"pare each wirh in the past, to gauge now w.tt incomes -" tltii9:::1t"i (comrac.e¡1 1993 þarliestiomplete data), the nse '?"qhi. in a dozen cities have seen individual incomes three-fold, and only seven of those - ,TÏ17

Mcrsuring Consumer Merkets

RMB bìllioa

250 Sùrnghail

200

t50 100

ano Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Jinan'- Guangzhou nadonal ilgher than. the have t";#, Shenzhen tttrease is a very large average. \Alhen you're ;;;;, ln ^"y the same extra uguin*i

Hang¡hou

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p"...ät a

¡f 6 I 10 12 l¡[ Siæt PoPul¡tìo¡r

ur first FCC Photographer of the

BvDavid o,Rear

(nìllìus)

ne of my brothers in the dismal science recently showed me exhaustive data (for what it's worth) on personal incomes and spending in various parts of China' Call it a \-t standard of living, or market opportunity scorecard, if you will. The numbers may not be right, but at least they're official, and fairþ consistent over time"l'hree years

ago (The Conesþonilen¿ April 1999), this column took oir much the same subject, and a review is now in order'

The figures for 35 cities show three - Beijing' are serious markets: each Shanghai,ãnd Chongqing has more than RMB100bn (HK$94bn) in annual consumer spending. The next six are not to be sneezed at, but havè yet to achieve this lofty level: In Tianjin' Hangzhou, Ningbo, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and

Chengdu shoppers spent at least RmbS0bn last year (over RMBT6bn in Guangzhou).

Flang on, what's this about Chongqing being a bigger market than Guangzhou? After all, everyone knows that Guangzhou's RM814,734 per proletariat

nse,

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wealthier cadre's e

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more money mignt ne p"ersuaded r spend they didn't but these numbers ;;;;;st 'isiory; spend it last year. Call it forensic analysis' i

'tne Lau hard-core consumers' -:i:l bai xing(Zhou six pack) who not only havg lore t::T:::t"t: their see,n have than most, .p.rtd -or", and comparcu more, but aìso have spent a whole lot more to what they did back in the Deng and So, we

g.i do*rt to the

And the winners are: Beiji al for Shenzhen. These three cities have mPle consumer markets comPanies, b to city the formula comparing ,""rJtf."aing withln order' in three' how fast that out flow'it .ititi*.. in"iext rs a are Guangzhot, Hungrhon

i.,d Ningbo' The chart

will travel towns' Ditto something unavailabíe in ¡..i' own home Tianjin' and Beijing for Guangzhou and s;;;;;, As a ""d regi rnal markeß' So, finally *. ;;;; nttjtl!. market, shanghai ;nã ;;"oås out-class

perhaps Hangzhou)

D by n"ry-:ilTjil. ? respecttu"'7' RMB149bn' and RMB244bn to RMB178bn (and the booming That doesn't taLe intåä;ä;;^*" does

kuai for sickly sweet bread, eye-damaging fashion Guangzhou's seven million people can't hold Lucky candle to Chongqing's 30 million'

Daaid' o'Rea| a freelance economist and, then' l)isited China in 1981. ie tiked, it bet¿ff back

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THE CORRESPONDENT

photography awards to be sponsored in Hong Kong. The FCC is certainly something of an icon in Hong Kong and international media circles...and not just for having the best bar and music in our part of the world. The Club provides a forum for international speakers and free speech

it this year, although it may be brought back again as the Awards grow. Photographers can choose to enter two single entries or a series of up to six images in each category, the same as last year. But it is worth noting though that

year and we will be dropping

many photographers missed out on awards by entering the whole six images when a careful edit to three or four of those images would have better represented

their theme. If photographers wish to enter

series

entries then careful editing is a must. Please remember that images are judged on their merit and impact as a series, not as individual images.

in Hong Kong. We have

been a major sponsor and the venue for the }Iuman Rights Press Awards for the past seven years. Now we have taken on a new responsibility. The response to the first FCC Photographer of the Year Awards demonstrated the need for professional and industry recognition of Hong Kong's photographers and the high standard of their work. The support our sponsors put behind POYA made the

awards possible and demonstrated their of the need to recognise and

understanding

encourage photographic excellence in Hong Kong. Of our 269 entries, photographers from the Chinese media were extremely well represented and a Redemption First Runner-up: Asia Magazine Features: Rose lVagno, Time

to the top awards. The judges were faced with a

you' but it frlthy rich) P..tl R;;öä,",îta 'the centre of a is il;;lhighlight the fact ,t* "äi-.irt--ätkets' our, Cantonese concentrated hub per ,,if i-t more fake Rolexeswhere speaking neighbours",h.'ilñf nexus rian¡in comrade, but it tt warrets are fatteninl *:

accessories and gut-wrenching lunch boxes. Turns out

what was the first comprehensive, non-partisan

good balance of both local and Hong Kong-based foreign photographers continued all the way through

graphic illustration for the innumerate' Wait a minute. Do PeoPle re their own cities? Well, mostlY Yes' H companywith limited resources to d China Market, the odds are that Pe

Tianjin and Guangzt o,r-Sn..t,ftt the national average. You did know that, didn't you? Well, incomes are just one side of the story. There's also how much of that income is actually spent (76%, in the case of Guangzhou,, BTVo in Chongqing). More important for fìguring the total market size, howeve¡ is the number of people shelling out their fen, mao and

Year

Awards certainly got off to a great start 269 individual entries, something in excess of 1,200 images and a total of 54 awards and now we have to do it again. The POYA committee had estimated a response of some 100 or so entries our first time around and needless to say we were overwhelmed by the response from Hong Kong's professional photographers (and our FCC members) to

A?NL/MAY

2O(]2

formidable task. Not only did they find rhat rhey had to put an extra day and a half into frnalising the judging, but they had to stop and make some very hard decisions about which image to choose. Most of the images on these pages didn't win and are just a small selection of the high standard of images the judges were forced to choose between. We expect much more of the same standard of entries for POYA 2002. We made a number of mistakes in our first year, the biggest of which was not expecting the huge response and number of enfries we received. We are trying to correct these problems this year. Entry to the NonProfessional division will be expanded to include

members of some of Hong Kong's more active photographic clubs and the categories will also be expanded. Entries in the Non-Professional division can now be taken during the past hve years, a wider time frame than the one year limit to the Professional division. The advertising category was poorly supported last THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

POYA 2002 will also see the Young Perspecrives division expanded and we plan to invite students from several of Hong Kong's schools to participate. We are hoping to see all of our 2001 sponsors as well as a few new faces supporting POYA 2002.Lastyear, the support from Cathay Pacific Airways and the Hong Kong Tourism Board was a major contribution to the success of the Awards. Ditto the support from media sponsors RTHK Hong Kong iMail, Aþþle Daiþ and Action Asia, as well as the great prizes from Apple computers, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Fuji, Polaroid, Action Asia and Heli Hong Kong. Corporate Communications kept the Awards in the public eye,

Crown Pacif,rc Moving looked after the exhibition transportation and ColorSix provided the prints.

Our Photographer of the Year 2001, freelance

photographer Christian Keenan, picked up an Apple iBook and jetted off to London with his wife courtesy of Cathay Pacific. First Runner-wp, Time photographer

John Stanmeyer, and his wife visited Down lJncler with a trip to Perth on Cathay. Second and Third overall Runners-up David Wong and Kuan Weng

Kun, SCMP and

Economic Digest photographers

respectively, took home some serious photographic equipment courtesy of Canon and Nikon. Other category winners and runner-ups were presented with cameras from Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Fuji and Polaroid. Action Asia Adventure Travel Award winner Charles Perlwee was also awarded with a trip for tlvo to Bali and the "City of Life - Hong Kong is it!" winner Chan Wai Hing took off for an hour of aerial photography over Hong Kong with Heli Hong Kong in their new AS350 83.

onS

K-S ยกt it

With all these great prizes we are expecting to many more of Hong Kong's photographers and FCC members participating this year and will structure the judging over three days to accommodate the expected number of entries. Our judges who did such a great job in 2001 have all been invited to join us again in 2002 and once again I would like to thank professional photographers llubert van Es, Bob Davis and see

Afghanistan Women Second Runner-up: Asia News: Tsang Hin Wah, Apple Daily.

Cheung Chau Bun Festival Third Runner-up: City of Life - Hong Kong is itsl: Carsten Schael, Carsten Schael Photography.

Unemployment in China First Runner-up: Asia News: Grischa Ruschendorf Assignment Photography

Leong Ka Tai, Peter Cook, Managing Director of

PPA Communications, Sin Wai

Keung,

Chairman, HKPPA, Donna Mongan, Public Relations Manager, Hong Kong Tourism Board, and Robert Houston, Publisher and Editor of Action Asia magazine.

Entry forms will be available from the club and will be distributed to Hong Kong photographers in June. Entries will close on Saturday, November 9. This year there will be no extensions and we would appreciate getting your entries earlier rather than later. Last year 90% of all entries arrived in the last week, making life very difficult for the Front Office staff who had to process them. So get out and get snapping, or dust off your photo files and start some serious

First Runner-up: Hong Kong Magazine Features: Joan Boivin, Joan Boivin Photography,

editing. We want to

ร onourable mention: Hong Kong

THE CORRISPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

see

your work.

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

Volcanic Lakes Honourable Mention - Travel: Philip Nourse, Chesterton Petty Ltd.

Laurie Gilbert and Turkish camera assistant Alpers filming cockpit controls,

Formation over lhe Mediterranean coast

Roll over Kenya

Formalion Ïurkish Stars

TopG

ol lhe Soclely of Come.o Ogglolors

seen from underneath Boelng KC135 lanker acting as the camera ship,,,

SingaPore-based

atrie Gilbert was the On the ground Ëo"e' Ai' Turkish images are jråî cockPi'' '1." sele ction small "e ¿ir.atY' A I

PhotograPh

î*o^t

.and with a Boeing KC.l35 tanker ready to refuel the flight

Laurie Gilbert on a Phoenix crane.

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL,/MAY

2OO2

Johfl RsdG:Fi,Elt

WaHr,&lt 0n With her books available in 60 countries and in 17 languages, Chinaborn American writer Chin-ning Chu has a formidable reputation as an advocate of strategies for each woman to become what she calls the

The Associated Press' veteran correspondent talked about his life and the stories he's covered. This excerpt from his speech talks about his first meetings with the Communist leadership

"new renaissance wom arf' . Jonathan Sharp reports ome male bottoms may have been forgiven for shifting uneasily in their seats as they prepared to listen to a typically forthright address by author Chin-ning Chu, the best-selling author who, as the publicity for her appearance at the FCC said, "can show you the strategies of hghting victorious

warfare

in a

first came here in 1948 on the way to other climes in the east. I appear at home because to my astonishment tonight, I have discovered old friends who I didn't know were here... So tonight I am reminded of an old story...about huge floods in America. A local newspaper sent a

male-dominated world". Those same

young reporter down to report on the floods. He got there to see the devastation and sent his telegram

male hindquarters may have been further discomfited in her and reiterated when Chu declared

presentation that the twenty-first century was "the women's century" that. would see women forge ahead by leaps and bounds.

True to form, she had some sharp comments on past discriminatory iniquities (she noted that the very word history was "his story, not her story"). llowever, the focus of much of her presentation was not to dwell on the past, but to dispense common sense wisdom, laced with references to Chinese mystical elements, on how women can help themselves, drawing on her expertise in that famed (male) Chinese strategist Sun Tzu and his classic work on rJl'e Art of War' This was one

of the two books Chu took with her when she left Taiwan in 1969 to live in the United States. Appropriatel¡ her latest book is entitled The Worhing Woman's

Art of War.

Moreover Chu does not hesitate from taking women to task for attitudes that she says hinder rather then

promote the cause of female empowerment' '1Ve can't

just blame the men." Women who fought the war against discrimination in the twentieth century need new strategies for the next 100 years, she said. As Sun Tzu preached the techniques of winning wars without having to fight battles, so "the new feminism is about winning without having to frght."

And it's no use resorting to protest, she said' "Winners do not protest, only losers protest. If you

protest, you have already lost...beating the war drums really hurts your position." She described her ideal strategy for women, one in which they should, speaking in terms of the ideological luggage they carr¡ "travel light, instead of taking the whole of womanhood with us." As in crowded cities like New York, Hong Kong or Shanghai, the way to get ahead was to "sneak between the cracks. Then you get ahead before they even notice you are there." Chu preached the necessity of keeping one's distance from colleagues in the work place to avoid being stabbed

back to the home office: "God is looking down

in the back by people you ffLay yearr' to see as friends or fellow sufferers. She illustrated her point with an analogy from the kitchen: when live crabs are being cooked there is no need to keep a lid on the pot because if the stronger ones try to escape, the weaker brethren will drag them back to die miserably together. So it is in the workplace, Chu said. Your instinct may be to be buddy-buddy with your coworkers and do everything together. "Butwhen you do that, you look like one of the crabs inside the pot. They (co-workers) will get you first, so you have to keep a professional distance, so you don't look like you belong on the same level'" Chu signaled she had no patience with women who complain about a "glass ceiling" blocking their path to success. "Glass ceilings exist for those females who see it. If you believe there is a glass ceiling for you, the glass ceiling will be there for you. If you don't believe it, it's

not there for you." She cited the example of a "little girl" she had met who is a prominent figure running a circus company' Canada's Cirque du Soleil, who said she saw herself neither as a man or a woman worker, just as a person doing the job. "She sees no glass ceiling." Chu also had some hard-nosed advice that could apply for both working men as well as women in these uncertain economic times. You may feel like a round peg in a square hole at work and want to change jobs. But: don't change jobs and until you have another one line up. I Working Womøn's Art of Wør

tonight on a site of extreme devastation and horror." And he got a telegram back in a few hours later from his editor saying, "Forget the floods, interview the God!" I joined the Associated Press in 7937, staying in Maine lor a few years and then went to the Washington bureau where I stayed for six months

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for you than PR Newswire and

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before entering the Army. In the Arm¡ I studied Japanese. I was picked up by the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services the initials which I laughingly described as 'Oh -So Social' and 'Oh So Suicidal'. They were both. The OSS sent me to China within about four months after the war ended. I ended up in Kunming after flying over the hump of the Himalayas (where) I had my first experience of China. The war ended with the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We all felt relief at that. We never thought of the implications. It was just that the war was over. And then I decided I was curious because I was in West China Chongqing and Kunming and all that area. It was-not real China, I thought. I thought I would like to go to Beijing and I would like to go to

th.

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THE CORRESPONDENT APR]L/MAY

2OO2

Tiananmen Veteran

John Roderick and Mao Zedong, with interpreter, Yan'an, 1946.

ù !

dinner." The Communists, as you all know, were encircled by the Nationalist Army and so for years on end they had no means to rePlace their clothing or get good food. They were very poor...So when the food was laid on the taLrle that night, I was astonished. I said to Mao rather jokingl¡ it's very nice Mao told me that the fish came from And and so on. away. I said this is very nice, but I miles a stream 50 Communists lived this well. He the didn't think and he said, "Mr' Roderick, I me, smiled looked a[ you are our guest and nothing is that have to tell you for a guest." too good Then he said, "I also want to add that although we are Communists, we are also Chinese and we like good food." And added, "Of course, we don't eat like this everyday." So that was my frrst introduction to Mao. We had this talk and he sort of faced me. I sat down and the man was a little bit different. I had seen the pictures... where he was rather lean and with a kind of deep eyes...But he was quite different...He was 53 (and) like a Kewpy doll, round-faced' Hair came back like a Samurai and he was rather baldish, dimples on his cheeks and dressed in sneakers, laces untied. His clothes were patched. He had worn them for years. They kept being washed and so on. So I was

l\ñi'ljt

was a good

Hong Kong and I would like to go to Nanjing, see all of these places, maybe spend three years and just satisfy my curiosity.

o I sent a telegram to the AP chief in New I was in Kunming (saying) that I had studied Japanese...I know the history and background ofJapan and so and so on,

York when

and I would like to rejoin AP overseas. So he sent me back a message saying, "Report to Chongqing." I have a feeling they weren't quite sure which country this

in Kunming, I moved o Chongqing. At the press hostel, I met one of

was! So after a month t

the survivors of the 1927 massacre, Zhow Enlai... he came down to give a talk...I felt I was living some kind of page in history. The thing that I noticed after the lunch was that Zhou pulled out an ivory toothpick and picked his teeth. (It) was not something I was cabling, but it has still stuck with me. He was an

extraordinary man.... urbane, good-looking, a graduate of the universities, a man who spoke not very much English but had an extraordinary

in Chongqing in the months that followed. You go to a restaurant with him... he would walk in with maybe two or three of us, take one look around the restaurant, sit down and never waiver after that, looking at us as if we were the most important people there. It was sort of flattering, (something) correspondents were prone to appreciate. He was a man who seemed to talk straightforwardl¡ tell you what was happening. He represented the Communist line, but he also would be critical which was astonishing. We didn't expect that. Mao Zedong...the war was over by a few months and Mao moved out of his cave into a house of his own, a one-storey house made of wattle. The furniture was simple.,. chairs and tables and all sorts of things...In the beginning, we had a two-hour talk and during the dinner Mao said to me, "I thought it

presence. We met many times

very impressed by this man and all of these people, and the way they were living and so on. So he asked me quite a few questions and said, "Please warn the American people that Chiang Kaishek can't be trusted. We will cooperate with what you are trying to do. We are grateful to President Truman

for making this effort to prevent the continuation of civil war. But we are rather worried that it's not going to succeed."

Mao said, "I want to ask you a question about when we come to power, when we have the coalition government." He asked, "We would like to do something when we are in power to arrange a better transportation system, communication system, because China is a big country and the communication is poor and we would like to be able to deliver goods to various parts of the country. Would Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward be interested in coming to China?" It was not a question I could answer right away... I THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

A student veteran of the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989 turned novelist and journalist, Annie Wang, is the author of Lili. Her first novel in English, it is the story of a "bad-girl's" maturation

\li A¡lG

and adventures in the post-Mao era would like to talk a little bit about people of my

left the country

generation who grew

mysteriously disappeared.

up after the

Chinese

Cultural Revolution. We grew up in the heyday of Western influence. In China, I would be called a member of the "new" New Generation, a Generation X-er. Unlike the older generations of Chinese, people like us didn't suffer political upheavals like the Great Leap Forward or the Anti-Rightist Campaign of the 1950s or the Chinese Cultural Revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s. We grew up in the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping's Open Door policy.

While the older generations spent their youth reciting from Mao's little red book and learning from the peasants in the countryside, we were urged to grasp the Four Modernisations, took courses in world history, chemistr¡ biology, geography and English... Liliis abott that time period... I got my first taste of Western culture from my fathe¡ a top journalist in China (whom) t}re New

York

hardliner because he said he would be willing to die for the cause of communism. I don't know if he still believes so. But to me, I always remember him as a big fan of Western culture...he liked (and)...took us to see operas or to ballets by foreign troupes, to see basketball games and photography exhibitions.. Of course, not everybody at that time wanted to embrace the West. The government elites, the conservatives and the liberals never stopped hghting among themselves. At the high school I attended in Beijing...many of my classmates were children of highranking officials...Regardless of what our parents' political positions are, we the children were totally fascinated with the bourgeois. We became familiar with the Beatles...our idols were James Bond and John Lennon... instead of Chinese revolutionary martyrs. Times once called a

trade

d newly available translations of

and Madonna tapes... Almost everybody my

age

dreamed of enrolling in one of the Ivy League schools

in America....

After Tiananmen, many friends I knew either 2OO2

of them gave up

writing and went into

business. Some of the authors and philosophers I loved lived abroad and their new writings were not allowed to be published in China. So I felt that the key people were g'one, no more vanguard, no more national debates. People became very careful about what they said because they were afraid of being turned in. The newspapers were filled with cliches that were no longer read or trusted...That was the same year I was voted by *y peers as a role model and one of the ten outstanding top students in China. But I felt it meaningless. What was the point of always striving to be the best? I wanted to be bad. I think it had to do with being a teenager. I wanted to do something outrageous to get attention. So I became a rebel. I met a lot of people. I slipped into the counterculture... I quit school...That same year I received invitations from American universities (and) in 1993 I moved to the United States and enrolled in the University of California in Berkeley. Most of the Chinese students switch their majors from subjects requiring a high level of English into practical ones like computer science after they come to the United States in order to get a job. But I was determined to blend in American society. So I was stuck with journalism. But I soon realised that in China my knowledge of America was totally outdated...In China, the knowledge of United States was still in the 1960s and 1970s. By studying at Berkele¡ I tried really very hard to compare

(Jack

Kerouac's) On the Road, I D Salinger's) Catcher in the Rye, and tll'e Diary of Anne Frank, and Michael Jackson

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

Some

continued, on þage 19

Liti ByAnnie Wang Macmillan, London ISBN: 0-333-90710-8 PB: 308 pp, HK$135

Crus SPnarnns

Annie Whng continued, from þage 17

the two systems. My biggest discovery was that in

China raw emotion often takes over. But the IJnited States, I frnd it a country of well-defined law and rationality, something that China doesn't have...

Cht,na Economnc {ua;r.rcrty,

editor of the

..,r.,".1 in Hong Kong

YY in this book?,ÏJ,i,i:ï;;';;y

\\¡riat's

1991

r"" write a

',",rrnuf^r:-*. +hink for.journalists^-writing I think for.¡ournatts" about w'ttng ir,s think about

hook. because a lot 't*:^iTT;ì;d'ro pull everything I books' (ln) this o.nt l".,ichinu quite early because I tosether.l äJ''t rir.. the place. Kong t' to Hong rv"5 .u-" to,trlollg came

f".T:d::T1il,iä

There was lot

v,.

between the local

foreigners... (most of political uncertal soon decided that here... and in M

Beijing".I had border with mY literallY just took everlwhere, everY

:i/t

and looked and t

on' out what was soing tn^":t1; see to 0",0"1îìurt ^t long I hadn't sort ol -

,ri.o'äiì-".e "''ri '

'r^i^h

wnar said, their expectations'

"""

"---

4'.

:l{* o ,f,t

,cllcvc'

SU. -C-xLcIPts

The idealism of the 1980s is gone and China is more pragmatic than ever. Tiananmen is but a clouded bitter memor¡ idealistic and irrelevant to the new capitalism...many young people only believe in mone¡ nothing else. I also realise that I have become quite Westernised although emotionally I think I am still very Chinese. I cherish the lives of each individual and I believe in individualism. But in China, the word individualism does not have good connotations. It

IlUllI ItIs L.II\.

the market...expectations, the investment, the US$300 billion that was pushed into China in the 1990s. In the second part of the book I call it "miracle - gap between deconstructed" I look at the

expectations and reality...One (chapter) is about statistics, about numbers and about how people strategise China, which personally I think is a very bad thing to do. It's a place to react, not a place to strategise at all. I talk about things like purchasing power parity... You probably remember all those stories about China is already the third biggest economy in the world. I explain why purchasing power turned out to be wrong, why the World Bank never talks about purchasing power any more with respect to China ...In a sense it is boring, but it is also terribly important. If you really want to know what goes on in China, you have got to look at some of this technical stuff. (For example), people bang on about 20Vo growth a year in the Chinese car market, but they fail to make the observation that the number of cars sold last year in China was only slightly greater than the number sold in Australia, a country of 19 million people. a Trojan Horse" section is all The "Socialism in the 1990s when China fact that about the "socialism with Chinese like things spoke about people seem to think this a lot of characteristics", that they couldn't say for capitalism was a code Communists...But that because they were the C-word I It a misperception. talk the case. was was never China is still a socialist extent to which about the country run by a Politburo and the Central Committee with a parallel government, but which is nonetheless essentially under the form of the Communist Party. At the moment, there is the Western Development Programme. A lot of money is again being thrown into real estate. People go to Shanghai and sa¡ "Look at these skyscrapers. Look at these roads. Isn't it fantastic, all its economic development?" Milton Friedman had it down in 24 hours...I can't remember exactly when, THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

equals to self,rshness.

in the mid-l990s I think it was. They...feted him..took him to Pudong to show him the place. He just turned around to me and said, this is the biggest Potemkin Village that has ever been built.

ou probably know the story. Catherine the Great in Russia had a first minister called (Prince Grigori Aleksandrovitch) Potemkin. . . Every time the Empress wanted to see what

A childhood friend who comes from a similar family background is doing very well. He has his own company, drives a Mercedes, wears...a Rolex, carries a Nokia mobile phone...He is tlpical of China's nouveaux-riches. He challenges me, "Hey tell me two things that China doesn't have, but Arnerica does." Guess what I tell him? "Reason and clean air."

was going on, he would take her down to a Model Village paid for with state money and say this is pretty rypical. Well that's kind of what Shanghai is like... One thing I was very careful to do in this book is not to write about China collapsing or anything like that. I don't know what that means. I mean, countries

don't collapse, they don't die...life goes on. I believe China will face a frnancial crisis and it will be on a scale considerably greater than the Asian financial crisis because the financial system is so nationalised. There is no short-term foreign money that gets pulled out when the foreigners get worried and make the thing come down. So they can actually build the biggest debt boom in the history of the world, because it's not until the local population wants its money out of the banks that they have got a problem. This I discuss at some length in the book as this is why you can't make scenarios.

I just want to make an observation about Hong Kong...There is a lot of stuff in Hong Kong at the moment about how Shanghai is going to eat Hong Kong's breakfast. It seems to me to be absolutely rubbish. I The Chinø Dream

ByJoe Studwell Profile Books, London ISBN: r-86197-370-5 PB, 288 pp, HK$195 THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

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tival

None of them liked conversation before they

to work. They described a familiar started

intention of getting from the bed to the desk in a pure and uninterrupted dream state. Amazingly

erar1 Festival

and delightfull¡ Ghosh and Kureishi do not write on computers. Believe it or not, they

with various authors speakinf at Club n one of those occasional and

encouraging collaborations between the two Clubs in the Ice F{ouse, the FCC set up four panel or speaker lunches for visiting authors and poets who were

ffit*s

a.fapanese village and was on his

Amitav Ghosh

town for the 2002 Standard Chartered Literary

says

IndiaProducingmen --,----L:-Lnegotiate a^ seem to ffi;J me becáuse I cannot falling over a stack of Üï ¡ã.ottt.p without Indian lady finding young fr-¿¡u.t t from a ancl inevitable perhaps that the Writers with straightaway in stuck got should have

government censorship' even though

¿;;;;.

fr].fri-.o"ittlled that

censorship

of one sort or

another was near

if not a li uP locked been session

matched the oPPressrve'

ãi ,n"

an-d Becker Chinese security apparatus Itting betteq but onlY bY force e and by no real will of

lmprovisations Emcee Nury Vittachi (/eft) leads Club members in storytelling.

who it seems,

s most telling was an I left by poet Yang Lian, part' decided not Lt-l risk taking

later. Learning to -write is coming to terms with inhibitions over what your mother, real or conceptual, wouldn't like to read." Hill liked to read other fiction whilst he was writing. By doing this he is hoping to inject something of Stephen King into a coming work. The other two were having none of that. Kureishi avoids reading fiction because he does not want others messing up

his thoughts. Ghosh was emphatic. "It is unbearably painful to read other frction when I am writing. Every sentence of the other work is wrong. " Inevitabl¡ they were asked for tips on how and what to write. Ghosh dispatched that one quickly. "Motivation comes from within. There can

Hill thought it was 907o }i,ard work, but that it had to

has a storY. THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

dead end," claims the intensel¡ compellingly articulate Chaudhuri. "It has to be broken down. I am

COCOCABAI{A

Alfretæ df'vurlry

úw

Me /a't

Wa¿,u

hosh rejected the idea that writers create while thinking of themselves as in an ethnic category. "No, I don't look at the paper that way. I write about what I want to write about. Nobody sits down usefully and thinks of themselves frrst as a gay or a black." Kureishi registered terror. 'You can't write without terror and guilt. You must write down the total truth even if you chuck some of it out

be no tips."

¡utfrroo-dooropenontheregularmorningroutine' "''î"..*Li u lirit of Pakistan origin and of My

Both agreed on the importance of their

backgrounds. "The sad history of h¡¡entieth century China bears heavily on Chinese-US immigrant writers," says Sze. "Other contemporary US poetry lacks a sense of the tragic, of an urgency." He put a harsh poet's perspective on the émigré memoir as literature. "I don't want just a Chinese memoir sob story. You can take that but transform it into art. Think metaphor. Think on layers. That story then becomes a vehicle of something more resonant." "Of course I am Indian, but the word Indian is a

Ghosh. "I cannot compose directly on to a computer.

Kureishi. "I continue to write by hand because it is writing from a part of me that is still young. It is a beautiful, physical action."

poiù.,

"I have a lined yellow pad with a fountain pen,"

Handwriting slows you down and makes you think about a sentence. A computer takes away that delay." "Kids don't learn to write on computers," claims

vorce' her ""i;;^t

Beijing bureau chief Ja the exiled Chinese poe publisher and Merle Wo documentary fìlm producer. On the 18th, Amitav Ghosh, Justin Hill and Hanif Kureishi chatted to a packed Main Dining Room about the process of actually getting fiction down on paper. Next afternoon, Bengali ,rou.1i.t Amit Chaudhuri and Chinese-American poet Arthur Sze read from their works and took questions on how they conceived of themselves and what they wrote. Sadly, they spoke to a crowd small enough to be relegated to the sunny Verandah, probably because the lunch was advertised to start at mid-da¡ which of course it did not, but would have been enough to give members with serious day jobs pause for thought and refusal. Finally on the Saturday came Pico Iyer, the travel writer, novelist and critic, a very Brit sort of South

write longhand.

Festival held at the Fringe Club in mid-April. There was also a Writers' Wit night, emceed by one of the FCC's own, humourist and novelist Nuri Vittachi, which this

writer, who likes to raise a chuckle too occasionally, could not get back into town in time for. The lunches began on the with a session on 'lVriters and Politics" including Moris Farhi, the Vice President of Internatinal P.E.N., author and the SCMP's former

I il

sometimes had to put the whole thing out of his mind by writing criticism. "Better than a walk," he says.

be accepted that some manuscripts had to be given up on and put under the bed. Kureishi, who believes that the novel is the deepest exploration of human life, had some rather monastic advice. "Sit in a room on your own for 35 years. Find out if people like what you're doing and, if not, do something else. Perhaps this will put an end to literary workshops." The following day, Arthur Sze and Amit Chaudhuri were quite forthcoming on writer methodology or - till lack of it. Sze got up at 5 a.m. and wrote in two shifts late afternoon. Chaudhuri could not manage fixed schedules, had terrible problems with structure and THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

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as turning round at the airport, they detained Wu Harry China critic hour without explanation. Though an for Chaudhuri it the SCMP that was racial and that to clear he made it it not to feature back, was allowed come he may never for more tl:rarr a moment in a very amicable lunch. This rush of literati ended with the wonderful madness of Pico Iyer. It was all about "global souls" people living in the "cracks between cultures", picking ãnd choosing benveen heritages and being so richly confused about where they came from they didn't

distinguishing itself that week. As well

knowwhat to put as home address on a disembarkation form. Iyer is so taken with the cross-cultural power of the airport terminal that he wants to go and live in Los Angeles International Airport for two weeks. As someone who became unfairly familiar with that dump

Arthur Sze

over recent years, I wished him luck.

Hong Kong "reflects different ways of not belonging," he told us gleefully. 'Yet all this travel

going back to my uPPer which has been a taboo s sense for me." He pointe Bengal alone makes Indi

ouickens a hunger for silence, solitude, space." Well ,'h.." *u, a deep murmering of 'yeah" to that from a oacked house who had been on a verbal rollercoaster irith Pico for an hour, hearing an intense, speedy almost breathless delivery of intriguing imagery without a note. Afterwards the audience fell on him with books to sign in such numbers that the little chap disappeared under the bodies, scribbling away and taking the money. And after all, that is what most wrirers earnestþ pray it will be all about. I

miniscule b)' comparison'

well have been discussed i the Bengali and the En

-in style. Out of that hYbri period, the Indian novel became glamorous. There

there is a divided feeling'

by the West. outside. The Immigrati

presented

Male Memher $kints Tnouhle FCC penman Nury Vittachi learns to keep his legs together while touting his book Down Under he shocking truth needs to be told. A longterm male member of the FCC spent a week wearing a dress in which he scandalised diners at numerous transport cafes in Australia.

The eateries concerned were usually full of truckers who were clearly traumatised by the revolting sight of a bald, middle-aged man in drag. How do I know this is true? Well, dear reader, I have a confession to make: It was me. Why flounce around in a dress? It's a long and sordid story which, in a perfect world, would never see the light of day. So here it is. Your not-very-humble narrator once made the error of satirising a gentleman to whom he likes to refer as Tongue Chihuahua in a newspaper in Hong Kong. Finding himself suspended on full pay, he

wrote a book called

T'he

Feng Shui Detectiue.

One of the purchasers of the rights was an Australian publisher. He complained that since I was an utter nonentity in Australia, he needed to put extra imagination into the marketing effort. I scornfully pointed out that I was an utter non entity in Hong Kong too, but this hadn't stopped people with no taste buying my books. His plan: instead of "positioning me" as an Englishlanguage author who learned a bit of esoteric Asian mysticism, he would present me as an esoteric Asian mystic who learned a bit of English. Thus I was sent on a book tour of Australia and New Zealand wearing floor length robes (actually a green velvet dress purloined

been released in Hong Kong, and will be published in Australia later this yéar. And yes, I will be heading back Down Under. But my wife is concerned. She thinks I am doing it

because

I like wearing women's clothes. This is

I dress up in skirts only once a year, and purely for marketing reasons. But I must admit, she bought a hgure-hugging Thai silk wrap in fuschia and chartreuse lastweek thatl have my eye on... I complete crap, of course.

The Feng Shui Detectiae Goes South By Nury Vittachi Chameleon Press, Hong Kong

ISBN 962-86319-34, PB, 376 pp, HK$72 <www.f engshuidetective. com>

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from my wife) and a collection of mystic apparatus, some of which would have frtted perfectly into a Victorian sex shop, had Victorians had sex shops. The ruse worked. I was immediately booked on 30 radio and television talk shows in the land Down Under. By the end of the week, I was still a complete non entity, but I was a famous one; people were recognising me in the street. Yours Truly, even if I say so myself, got the role of eccentric mystic down pat. Every time I arrived in a studio, I would refuse to sit down, growling

lree email trade alerts "' Tradenews profiles " ' and much more' FAST matrttt " topical webc;;;

menacingly: "How dare you! This chair faces southeast." This caused enormous problems for stage managers who had to quickly rearrange lights and but bo¡ did it win me respect. microphones I'm pleased to say, were remarkably Australians, about sharing their cafes and studios with a tolerant Kong itinerant Hong man in drag. I had so much bald, fun that the follow-up book, called The Feng Shui Detectiae Goes South, is set partþ in Sydney. It has just

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Novelis

t Christoþher

[JS-based China critic Harry Wu alleging Wolfendale covered the FCC's longlr{ew

disønce Press

explains how his latest

effort

tottryt"*

LnesdaY APril 17th' the '. L, - ^j-tr-+ --r n the night of Wed

The Road To

Maridur came to be lvere

train. China

ow did

come to write this book? Long years ago, not so many after India kept its tryst with destiny (15 in fact), I met two

Indian undergraduates at Oxford who introduced me to curry, Ravi Shankar and the films of Sa$ait Ray. So began a fascination with India that has endured to the present day. Eventually they went back to India. We corresponded for years, but the addresses changed,

letters were returned and we lost touch. When I finally

F--::----:---:--J-::

---,iî,5JiiÌ.!-: Waterskiing rBig Bananal

managed to visit India, I could not trace them. Their friendship became a casualty of time.

However, they left their mark on me, and it was owing to them that I always wanted to get to know the country. The chance came in the early 1970's, when I was asked to lecture in what was then Madras. Near there I met a number of other Indians with whom I became closely involved. I have shared in their lives for the past 20 years. It was during those years that the seeds of this novel were planted. But it wasn't till the 1990's that I actually planned to write it. Some plans take a long time to mature. Although I draw on the experiences of many years, the months the novel focuses on a few months only which a young Englishman spends with a tninor aristocratic, devoutly Hindu Indian farnily for whom his grandmother was a g-overness in the last days of the Raj. Agnostic, sympathetic, innocent, he is by turns

enchanted, amazed and dismayed by the sociery he fìnds himself in, so utterly different from the one he came from. Values are questioned, assumptions challenged, on both sides of the cultural divide. There is room here for both comedy and tragedy. Does the book represent real people and events? No, but it couldn't have been written without my acquaintance with real people and events. Realiry is the soil in which imagination flowers best. \Arhat next? Another novel set in India, this time at the end of the nineteenth century. But that's a \¡ery different story. I

at the lir.Port the day clissiclent HartyWu's turnaround in Washington' DC o¡ so before. W" nu¿ u"ived-back FCC Beliing the and the idea was that we and press

(+852) 9733 8303 Aberdeen, HK. 24

The Road Tb

uulu.., *t-tirtles and steam bothered'

First

of all, the glto" Hotel

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/ù'I'\Y

grandstancl try-on.

ry Wu at a press conference in Washington,

with American politicos and former Chinese political prisoner Wei Harry denied that of course' but not very his of none Jingsheng (right) in attendance told carefully. He said that he had said minutes. within friends he was coming, yet Country, Two Systems". Harry coming in and conceivably friends and enjov the food' ,i';;À; nìnl"'ä-;%,,;. putting on a fedora and false beard and springboarding that The sacl thing for tn. ur,"-¡led journos was into the Mainland with a view to maximum the by Harry l'rad not been actually miitreated embarrassment later is not part of the Two Systems'deal. being to Immigration D"pu.t-.rt. He hâd to confess Hence the turnaround. [ed, waterecl and looked aft Harry wants an apology from Chief Executive Tung However he had lost his di Chee-hwa and I want a month in an Amari resort. as "an

- his chances of receiving that He reduced

American citizen." Wel

an A¡abAunerican

trying to on a bad-tempered day and

in shreds' EverY Tom' as a brush with this Place

He he faintest Provocadon' should undersrand thar all immigration authorities at 2OO2

concerned

" was

rsBN 962-8783-23-8 PB,524 pp, HK$195

I T

connectlon so failecl to provide ttl,e carnera it must be clear and Hur.1' .u-. through, loud said, in voice onlY. T seemecl rellrctant to ask gave the imPression of owtl involvement. Th venerable HarrY that c SCW Street were very light vanilla' Only the the that queY her correspondent hinted in a was Kong Hong whole attempt to get into

Maridur

By Christopher New Asia2000, Hong Kong

discretion to deal and be mute about what they do no more so than in the US. He claimed he was kicked out on the authority of a low-level official. Nonsense. Secretary for Security Regina Ip's phone would have been ringing off the hook if that makes him feel any as soon as he was detected better. Somebody should have pointed out to him, admittedly probably me, that Hong Kong has a host of dissidents, exiles and critics living and complaining within its shores. That is a constituent of the "One

*å"rã have a joint video hook-up treatment' ;.;¡;;.".; to disãuss his abominable for e-nthusiasts You have to wonder why these

Day and Evening trips, ring

Elsie lp

ports of entry anywhere have unusual executive

THE coRRtspoN t)uNT ApzuL/MAy 2002

apology considerably by pointing out to an increasingly restless and embarrassed room of journos that his father and Tung's father knew each other in China. His father did not run to Hong Kong in face of the Communists, but Tung pere did, thus making him a coward in Harry's eyes, ald, mostimportant, disquaJifying the Chief Executive from calling on people to be loyal to the'Motherland. Oh dear, Harry. Next time, please try the Russian

border.

Ma,cau's New

An Asian Mission Ends The demise of Asiaweek in December 2001 created shock waves in Hong Kong journalistic community. Two writers look at the newsweekly's death.

Macau's ll/ew Times reflects the renaissance of the former proúnce of Portugal. Keuin Sinclair reports t a time

By Peter Cordingly

By Todd Crowell

trap on your seatbelts, because we're in for an incredibly fun ride. It's the kind of opportunity that doesn't come down the pike very often in

hoftly after I joined Asiaweek as a staff writer in when journalistic blood is running

thicker than printers' ink, it's refreshing to f,rnd a new EnglishJanguage weekly newspaper rolling off the presses. The hard-pressed corps

of Hong Kong freelancers are not going to make a lot of money from Macau's Neu Times, with its weekly circulation of 600 copies.

But after the past horrendous year with its massacre of famous titles, the haemorrhaging of staff from major publications and the slimmingLown of once advertisingcrammed lifestyle magazines, any new paper is welcome. The New Times lxings a fresh feeling to the former Portuguese

province which under the rejuvenated leadership of Chief Executive Edmund Ho is looking

towards a casino-fuelled tourism boom.

The weekl¡ with its crisp, neatly formatted layout, is basically a digest of what's made news in the MSAR over the past

week. Published on a Friday morning, it's welcome weekend reading for Macau's growing English-speaking expatriate community. It's a sister

thinking about calling tt The Times," the editor laughs. "But, he¡ that's a bit pretentious for such a tiny paper. So I thought about what was happening in Macau. We're on a brink of huge change, transformation, with the three gambling syndicates and the big players of Las Vegas coming with entertainment and convention centres. Times are going to change here, and fast. So I settled on a name that reflects the reality of Macau today." Neu Times is a mixture of social news (violence in the home), it'r-rportan t issues (blasting standards of English teaching), government policies (the police chief warning triads to keep a low profile) and tourism and entertainme nt features. It's strictþ local news. Carlos Morais Jose arrived in Macau in 1990 as a sub-editor on the trilingual, governmentpublished Reuieu of Culture. Born in Lisbon, well-travelled,

1987, I made the mistake of describing something in Asia as being "exotic." This promptly elicited a snappy little note from Senior Editor Bob Woodrow to the effect that the quaint customs of the natives of Washington state in the US from where I hailed might be called exotic. "Nothing in Asia is exotic!" It was on such a simple and basic premise as this Ihal Asiaweek was founded in 1975 and on which it

based much of the claim

made

in its

mission

statement. The magazine's claim to be that authentic voice of Asia was often derided. Were not the editorin-chief, managing editor, assistant managing editor from New Zealand and Australia, people would ask? Were not many of the editors and writers from Britain,

journalism. I feel lucky to be part of the process and of our team. With such a strong one, I foresee nothing

but

success.

Those were the words of new Asiaweeh editor Dorinda Elliott in a message to staff shortþ before the magazine

in May 2001. The old magazine was being dumped and replaced by a New Economy publication specialising in information technology and

was relaunched

little more than six months later, it was gone closed down by its American owners. \À/hat happened? And who was to blame? The line pushed by the Asiaweek management was that the magazine was finished off by the Nine Eleven

business. A

for good

interested in the arts and, educated as an anthropologist, he found the job interesting. He stayed three years before accepting a job on the Portuguese dally Porto Final,

publication of the well-established

then on other local newspapers. Hoje (Today). Carlos Morais Jose His interest in the arts Happy days Carlos Morais Jose, editor of Hoje is editor of both newspapers. persisted and he left newspapers (Today) and the latest edition of New Tìmes Sitting on the refurbished to carry out his own cultural Macau waterfront sipping a red wine, Morais Jose can projects, including a detailed translation of the works relax briefly on a Friday afternoon; the English paper, of Camilo Pessanha, one of the most famous his baby which he started in February, has been Portuguese poets of the twentieth century, who spent printed. Deadline has been met. Time for a chat. Hoje most of his career writing in Macau. sells about 1,000 copies daily to the dwindling number MoraisJose was in Lisbon where his wife was having of Portuguese-speaking Macanese and expatriates from a baby when he got a call from the former editor and Portugal. The real big sellers are Chinese dailies, some publisher of Hoje. Would he like the top job? He's been as lurid as their counterparts on the other side of the editing the Portuguese daily for a year with a Pearl Estuary. growing reputation for honest, fair-handed coverage. But the Macau publishing future is in the English"Macau is on the verge of an exciting new era," he language press, he believes. Hence the name... "I was stresses. "We're going to report itin Nnu Times." l

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

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THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

050f Ð SPCA

although there Canada and America? Yes, many were' Ric Saludo' as were also many "authentic'iAsians such Mutsuko' Tom Polin, Ceðar Bacani and Murakami

still a nd when I first came, there was from of indoctrination of new writers

cefiain

ñ;;i ;;br;

(most of them westetn:")f øti*ing me toì calling something 1,-?Y:t ðartv on' ro illus.trate l¡iiË't¡ti"r."

i-t;;;

Kong business story I enclósed a table

o-f

t'^1::

:t:'l:j Hons a

fig.ures in the

said the outliñe of a sailing junk' A Western cliché' ship container editor, who insistéd that a modern outline be substituted. even forbade ÈornOing editor Michael O'Neill once

of his any picture of a street hawker' Like many had

similarly it decrees it was a little over the top' but business of the its own kind of logic. We were not in for the poverly picturesque

publishing pictures

that a slump in advertising revenue terrorist attacks caused by the shock to the world economic system had made prohtabiliry too distant a prospect. '\Me were struck by lightning," was how publisher and managing director Peter Brack put it to stunned staff on the morning the closure was announced. Brack may believe that, but not many former Asiaweek staff do. \A{rile September 11 did make a bad situation worse, the magazine was almost certainly a goner well before then. Part of Elliott's style as editor was not to share information, so even now reliable figures are hard to come by. But conversations with ad sales staff in the wake of the relaunch were enough for editorial to get a feel for what was going on: it was clear the new Asiaweek was the llrong magazine at the wrong time. \i\4ry? For the simple reason that Asiaueeåjumped on the information technology (IT) bandwagon just as the

wheels were coming

off.

Nasdaq was

in free fall,

dotcoms were turning to dust all around

Asia and international magazines that drew their revenue from IT advertising were showing signs of distress. And yet Brack and Elliott pushed on with their folly. Perhaps they had no choice. Vast sums (we never knew how much) had been squeezed out of the owners, AOL Time Warner, for a redesign, staff hirings

hering in the late 1990s' with former towards the front). Morrison's departure ñnrin¡la Elliott trllinTl --r^^ ,,^¡^r under successor Dorinda magazine was the signal for a repositioning o1 tne

A street benefit of Aunt Minnie back in Minneapolis' hawkerWaSinAsiaascommonplaceaSaTacoBellin the US. ln an odd way, that summed '?. asiaweek's as philosophy. Everything about Asia.:lo'11 be seen we Asia; arein being normal, móOeríand with-it' We the world' are of Asia. Asia may not be the centre of now seems but it is the centre of our world' That of the obvious and almost mundane, but in the context Asiaweek time, it was almost revolutionary' When Asia stafted, most English publications often analysed exotic well' to death as if they were examining the' habits of the natives. as a kind of It is tempting to see lhe Asiaweekstory olg,l m o ral ity p ay n-th e arge r co ntex' l

"¡t¡""áiy 28

*"lt "li"^l lT: foïnder ediìôrs, lndian T'J'S' George and i

and a fancy relaunch, including TV spots. More than that, New York had bought the line that IT and business were the only possible salvation of Asiaueeh, which had made money only a few years in its quarter of a century. To underscore this point, Brack ceremonially burned a copy of the old-style magazine in front of a gathering in Macau of ad sales staff. When news of that grotesque gesture reached editorial, senior journalists were outraged. Some had devoted their lives to the magazine, often at considerable cost

to their families. It was bad enough that the old editorial beliefs were being abandoned, but for the publicaúon they had built up to be torched in public by its brash new American publisher was a shuddering blow to selÊesteem. For some of the old hands, the pain didn't last long. Salman Wayne Morrison, Ric Saludo, Tom Polin and Todd Crowell disappeared one after the othe¡ sacked or dispirited, taking with them decades of irreplaceable knowledge of Asia and the subtleties of its ways. Their skills were not needed in the new Asiaweeh, wlticb. dropped its mission statement: "To report accurately and fairly the affairs of Asia in all its spheres of human activity, to see the world from Asian perspective, to be Asia's voice in the world." The magazine became American in style, attitude and terminologH with many stories reported by a flurry ofyoungsters hired to produce the "edgy" IT copy

Elliott wanted. But their job wasn't

easy.

The new

THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

New Zealander Michael O'Neill, set out to give Asia an independent English-language editorial voice. Of necessity, to keep the magazine afloat, they made pacts with the devil, twice, by selling most of the shares first to the American publisher Reader's Digest and then in 19841o Time Inc. To be sure, the "devil" did not intedere very much in editorial content of Asiaweek through most of those years. And there are those who would argue that it ensured the independence and indeed the Asianness of the magazine for many years by obviating the need to find another supporter with a bankroll and an ax to grind (such as former President Ferdinand Marcos, who is often rumored to have given the founders some start-up cash.) Some of my former colleagues, especially the Asian ones, see a conspiracy behind the closure. ln this theory, New York never wanted Asiaweek lo succeed because it might compete with Time. The owners took advantage of the economic downturn to finally close it down. This theory gets some support from the fact that New York apparently is not interested in selling either the name or the mailing list to potential

competitors, even though it did sell Asiaweek's Chinese version lo Ming Pao several years ago.

erhaps. But I think Asiaweek may have ended the way that orthodox communists always said

capitalism would collapse - from its own internal contrad¡ctions. lt was always hard to see the point in having two competing newsmagazines in the same market. The extensive revamping of the magazine last year was a way of trying to find a profitable niche that did not compete directly wilh Time. ln any case, when I came to work there we scarcely were even aware that we were paft of a larger media empire, and, of course, we were not

encouraged to think of ourselves as being real Time lncers. Our offices were far removed from the other offices, and we hardly ever met our colleagues except at the annual (and much missed) end-of-year party at the old Hilton Hotel. Over time, this changed until the relationship with Time became almost incestuous, and not just because

the two successors to Michael O'Neill, who was removed as editor in 1994, were married to the two successive editors of Time. Logic and economics

seemed to dictate consolidations of various kinds from sharing offices to merging various operations on the business side. By the end, everyone was living cheekby-jowl so that you could see T¡me's cover story on the bulletin board as you went to get coffee. lt became harder and harder to think of these as competing magazrnes. Meanwhile, Time was going through its own metamorphosis expanding progressively from TimeLife to Time Warner to AOL Time Warner. Little Asiaweek must have seemed a progressively smaller cog in the giant empire, and one that hardly could be THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

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l(oFea Both the English-language TV sÞtions in Korea seem to have a public service bent. Michael Mackq reviews the situation

Mystery guest (lr) Peter Cordingly (left),fim Healy and "friend" at a party in 1998. Bþhl; Potential World Cup the 1998 Asiaweek leam.

material

called a serious profit centre. lndeed, if it ever did make a profit, it was hardly more than a million or so, mere pocket change in the AOL Time Warner scheme of things. I doubt that anybody in New York ever cared much

aboul Asiaweek's purported Asian mission, except in so far as it defined a readership that was loyal to the magazine. ln time, though, many of the executives became entranced with what they perceived to be a different and untapped readership, anxious for more

business and technology news with an edge. That became the genesis of its much-touted makeover last year. Out went the mission statement; in came a new mission of "redefining business." I suppose nobody will ever know whether this formula would have succeeded in a more forgiving business climate. lt was hit almost immediately by the double whammy of the dotcom meltdown and the attack on America on September 11 . Who can say that the old Asiaweek would have fared any better, although it did weather other serious advertising droughts, such as in 1994, when salaries were temporarily cul by 20"k. What can be said is this: Asiaweek once had a mission, then it had a business plan. When the business plan didn't work, never mind whether the concept was flawed or simply undermined by bad luck, then the magazine was left dangling in the wind. There remained no real rationale left to continue publishing. Live by the business plan; die by the business plan. Its demise leaves open the question whether there is still a need for some authentic Asian editorial voice to balance the American monopoly of the news. My sense is that there is a niche, not for a general news magazine or a business magazine, but for an opinion magazine, sort of along the lines of the New Republic. It would be the exact opposite of the Asiaweeklhat just died: heavy on commentary, politics and, of course, Asian-owned. I Author/writer/editor Todd Crowell editor with Asia 2000 Ltd.

is currently

IT was changing be heroic would There the face of Asian business. profiles of young techno-entrepreneurs pushing Èoundaries. But as the dotcom bodybags built up, the magazine was soon running out of signifìcant stories to tell. In what seemed like a desperate attempt to salvage

Won Yongjoo (left) and Kim Kiho

Asiaweehwas supposed to record how

Asian affairs to a journalistic irrelevance.

it Elliott's fault? Not really. She proved to be a talented journalist with courage, stamina

and an astute sense of what makes a story rvork though she was utterly unskilled at managlng -people und *u. generally not liked by her staff' No' in the end Asiaweek died úecause, after the merger of AOL and Time Warner, it became just a tiny dot on

Main anchors Arirang fV's Korea Thìs Week programme is anchored by

ne of the interesting, almost intriguing,

things about Korea is that it has it not one, but tr,vo Englishlanguage TV stations, both with a public service bent' American Forces Network (AFN)' is a these, One of troops and their coLrrtesy service is staple American secur dependants with L JaY Leno, TV TV fur.; soaps, service of Public mo1,ies, comedie personnel' service American at pitched arlrìouncements These are eithèr dreadfully earnest or absolutely hilarious depending on what your sense of humour is

Associate Manager for International Distribution and Marketing. This is a worldwide task with the company

using satellites to supply cable operators anywhere. "Our job is to get into local cable," said Ms Park. ifferent regions of the world are interested in different things. Asians are more interested in the fiction and entertainment being offered because they in part understand it already. Korea having a certain hipness at the moment

real story ¡.nm¿ ih.i, -uguzine's closure' They and suspect that Asiaueeh was sidãlined into an IT

Economtc

and the Far Eastertz tvay Reuieu ior advertising dollars while leaving the end open for Time's.*pår.rion in Asia' Wheri the losing came, it was a blow of course. No one likes BusinessWeeh

their job, particularly j

(another sensitive touch but for many journalists it was better that Asiaweek than for it to live on in become. There were com night, as well as anger at t the mood was of relief on been finally laid to rest. I Peter Cord,ingley was a senior editor at Asiaweeh'

THE CORRESPONDENT APRII,/IVIAY

has also helped in this market. Eastern Europeans have

Korean politics. "\4/e don't deal with political scandals," she said adding "It's not like we don't report on the facts but we

focus on the positive." Whilst this might be a big opportuniw lost it is not all bad news as the newsroom is rvilling to Uring into the open some of Korea's other problerns largely it must be said the social ones not - oipolitical ones. the economic 'We do deal with them, not as extensively not as rnvestigatively as other stations but we are a newsroom and rve havé to report," she said when asked about Stt *.r.h u, .po.tr^l abuse and environmental

the 2OO2

Korean families. There are some who grew up and studied in the States like Ahn, whereas others grew up with parents in the diplomatic ser-r¡ice. This is probably useful not just in itself but in the case of Arirang's

"Our mission is to promote Korea with an entertaining taste to it," said Jumi Park, Arirang's

counters who recommended closure had never even seen a copy of the magazine. But they knew all about the Time. Anð'-u.ry p.opi. at Asi'aueekbelieve that is

challengË

for Arirang tend to come from internationalised

overall approach.

the outer rim of the media giant's radar screen' Indeed, it's fairly certain that the New York bean-

buùness publication for entirely cynical reasons

problems. However those of you reading this who just fancy a change and think that this less demanding approach to journalism would suit you very nicely and look good on your resume, forget it. To work at Arirang you have to be perfectly bilingual both speaking and writing Korean because as Ms Ahn said, "We mostly deal with Korean news-sources." As a result most of the 25 or so reporters working

IHE coRRESPoNDENT ApRrL/MAy

2oo2

more interest in Korea's culture so tend to go more for documentaries and frlms. Arirang is also free to airmeaning these less well-off parts of the world are more likely to take it over pay-for channels like HBO.

There is though another possible explanation. "Eastern Europeans are more interested in Korean affairs because they are ex-socialist countries. They are

interested in Korean affairs and inter-Korean affairs,"

said Nicholas Hong, Head of Distribution

and

Marketing. He adds that Korea's economic reach and its tradition of emigration have created Korean populations in many countries., I

erhaps by then the authorities felt some guilt. They gave him a suit of clothes, three months' spending money, a two-room flat on the city's outskirts and an undemanding

job with the local Foreign Languages

Former FCC president and editor of the Far Eastern Econonxic Reuiew Derek Davies looks at the life of this extraordinary individual who exemplifies the perils that can befall a freelancer he remarkable man known as

"Kost"

fìnally died in a Sydney home for the aged on May 10, 1999. It has taken almost two

for the news of his death to reach his friends and former colleagues. The immediate cause of death was a stroke which followed a total hip replacement. In fact death came as a welcome relief from the dementiawhich had long since reduced him to a vegetable. Kost was born Sergei lvanovich Kostrometinoff, of Russian emigrés, Ivan and Irene, in Harbin, Manchuria in 1909. As a young man he worked for the British American Tobacco Company (China), but after the Japanese invaded Manchuria, he moved to Shanghai which became his home town for the.next 55 years. There he worked for che USowned Shanghai Power Co and westernised his name to Serge John. He travelled little, apart from accompanying his mother on a visit to Russia in 1914 and a couple of trips to Japan. When Kost went to Peking in 1983, it was his first visit to the Chinese capital since 1936. His wife Alexandra left in 1958 for Moscow to enable his son .|ohnny to continue his education (he went on to become a successful TV journalist) After the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Kost had become a consultant to some of the foreign firms struggling with the flood of new regulations and emergency decrees, also working as a translator and interpreter (he was fluent in Chinese, Russian, English and spoke some Japanese). He also made some pocket money as a freelance journalist, writing for the South China Morning Post and tl¡.e Far Eastern Economic Reaiew. His articles were generally non-political and factual, mostly sketches of daily life in Shanghai. This peaceful coexistence came to an abrupt end in the spring of 1967 when the Red Guards went on the rampage. As a Russian and as a contributor to the Western press, Kost became a target. He was arrested and thrown, without trial, into a house of detention. There he was to spend the next eight years in solitary confinement. His isolation was broken by occasional years

visits from the Red Guards, dedicated to rooting out "freaks and monsters," class enemies and " revisionists,"

with only contempt for the law and

China's

constitution. Kost was interrogated, humiliated, slapped in the face and kicked in the shins, but otherwise was not mistreated.

After holding Kost for eight years in solitary confinement, the authorities finally got around to paying lip service to the law by holding a "trial." The charges were vague: Kost's "counter-revolutionary activities" consisted of collecting information about China and passing it on to the revisionists (i.e. the Soviet Union) and the imperialists,/capitalists (presumably Hong Kong). The only evidence produced in court were copies of his unobjectionable articles for the South Ch'ina Morning Post and tl:'e Far Eastern Economic Reaiew, but in those day "not to extol the Revolution" was "counter-revolutionary." The carefully rehearsed trial lasted one-and-a-half hours; Kost was pronounced guilty and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. FIe was transferred to Shanghai jail to serve out his remaining seven years. uring his early time in solitar¡

Kost

glimpsed another ration of Europeanstyle food on the trolley for delivery and guessed that another non-Chinese was a fellow prisoner. It was only at his "trial" that he learned of another of the authorities' gratuitous cruelties: unknown to Kost, his daughter Irene had been incarcerated in an adjacent cell for four years before being deported to the Soviet Union where she joined her mother (who was to die

Institute, revising a Chinese-Russian dictionary. Later, in 1984, they finally admitted their mistake: clearing daughter Irene of all charges and handing Kost a document of rehabilitation. Generosity did not mark their offer of reparations: the most he could expect was RM815,000 or the equivalent of US$310 for every year spent in prison. To leave with some gesture had become a matter of pride for Kost; after all, the city's capitalists had been recompensed as had other victims of the Red Guards. But on Monday, February 3, 1986, he was summoned to the Shanghai City High Court and informed there would be no reparations. He had been selÊemployed; there was no work unit from whose funds he could be recompensed. Instead he was offered the sum of RM81,000 (US$310) as an ex gratia payment granted to those in need. Meanwhile, Kost had begun putting his life together again, contacting his family and old friends. His passport had been destroyed by the Red Guards and a fresh one had to be obtained from the Soviet Embassy in Peking. He would not go to Moscow himself: he was unwilling to become a burden on his family there and know that once he entered the Soviet Union, he would never get out again. A visa for New Zealand which his old passport had contained could not be revived and he set about getting on to an Australian programme offering refuge to Russians exiled in China. One day, in an effort to recontact the Hong Kong publications he had once written for, he walked into the office of the Hong Kong Bank which he knew held shares in both t}re SCMP and the Rcuiew. The Shanghai branch was then managed by Tim Cotton, who provided rympathy and support, and alerted t}l'e R.euietx and the

1980).

The cruelties multiplied. Kost was judged to owe 96 months' rent for his apartment and so was forced to agree that all his furniture- and personal belongings, including his precious collection of books, should be sold off for a song to the state second-hand shop. Of the proceeds, he received RMB100 (then about US$31). There was no remission; Kost served the full 15 years and was released in early 1982. THE CORRESPONDENT APRIL/MAY

2OO2

SCMP the frrst news we received of him for 15 years. Th,e Reuiru sent aid (including books and a typewriter) via the late David Bonavia (then Peking correspondent)

I and my wife paid him a visit and, with money voted by the Reuiru board, refurnished his flat and bought him some basic luxuries. It took nearly three-and-a-half years to get him out of Shanghai; he was understandably nervous of leaving without a passport and a defrnite place to go. In 1986 he accepted the RMB1,000 from the authorities and prepared to take up the residential rights in Australia and a place on the programme for refugees offered by Australia, while we prepared to welcome him to Hong Kong. FIe was a revelation to all who met him. Short, sturd¡ white hair en brosse, pink cheeks glowing and with no trace of bitterness about the 15 lost years. "FIow can I be bitter?" he asked. "The people in charge in China today are the same people who suffered as I did, even worse, during and after the Cultural Revolution." His only resentment was that those people, then trying to undo some of the harm of the years of Mao's chaos, would not pay him recompense, but instead offered token charity. He still thought of Shanghai as his home and was proud of its progress. Only with reluctance he admitted that Hong Kong was richer, its buildings taller, its lights brighter, its people more prosperous. Ironically I forecast that Kost's independence of spirit and unsagging cheerfulness would do well in Australia. It was not to be. Possibly his external resilience concealed psychological wounds which his brain suffered and rejected, and he slowly sank into complete withdrawal. It is sad that neither of the two Hong Kong publications to which he contributed has so far seen frt to notice his passing. His contributions to them had after all supplied the only "evidence" against him in court. I while

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THE coRRr,spoNDENT

ApRrL/MAy 2002

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Happy Ea ter

IV ' ''Ă&#x152;tii ,l " ,- "'i

Magic Movin'Marvin Brown played to two packed kouses

Farewell New York Times-man lVlark Landler (right) handed over the bureau to Keith Bradsher (left), seen with wife Robyn Meredith, Forbes magazine's new Senior editor in Hong Kong, and Clare Hollingworth

Ă¸

Welcome back Y B and Suzie fang (left) and Hugh and Annie van Es (right)welcome Mr Liao (Liao Chien-ping), the famed FCC barman back to the club

Crossing paths During a vacation in Thailand, Hugh van Es finally met the pilot who flew the helicopter in his famous photograph of the evacuation of Saigon on April 29, 1975, Bob Caron (right) was in Bangkok to visit old friend lzzy Freedman (left) a relted Air America helicopter pilot After 27 years, lzzy finally managed to inlroduce the pilot and the photographer

Bert's brother The brother of the late Bert Okuley, Jim Okuley, visited the Club and spent the evening at Bert's From Germany The Jurgen youth Band

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