The Correspondent, March - April 2010 by The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong

WALL GUNS, DRUGS AND ROMANCE IN COLOMBIA

MEDIA JUST WHO IS HACKING THE HACKS IN BEIJING?

BI-MONTHLY • MARCH–APRIL 2010

SUZIE’S WORLD THE FILM THAT MADE WANCHAI FAMOUS TURNS FIFTY

IN REVIEW HONG KONG’S ANGRY GENERATION COMES TO THE FCC

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong 香港外國記者會

THE BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE PUBLISHED BY THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB, HONG KONG

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MARCH–APRIL 2010

SUZIE WONG, FIFTY YEARS ON

Nancy Kwan, the star of the movie that made Wanchai world famous, is coming back to Hong Kong in March to launch a documentary about her life. Mathew Scott spoke to her about fame, ﬁlm and the FCC

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THE REAL WORLD OF SUZIE WONG

hong kong

DESTROYING MEMORY LANE

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PROJECT OF PASSION

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WARZONES AND ROOFTOPS

CENSORING THE GOD WORD

HACKING THE HACKS

review

WHY ARE THEY SO ANGRY?

mulitmedia

PRINT PRESS, VIDEO EDIT: The Club runs a mulitmedia course

then and now

STILETTO: Max Kolbe on the dangers of journalism in the Philippines

meanwhile

ZOO NIGHT: A Harry Harrison cartoon plus a letter from The Bitch

RICHARD JONES AT THE CORBAN FESTIVAL IN KASHGAR

An extract from Arthur Hacker’s superb book about Wanchai Why is the government demolishing our heritage, asks John Batten? Photographer Jason Howe went to Colombia and came back with a book of incredible images plus barely imaginable life experiences Veteran BBC correspondent Lyse Doucet talks about change – across frontline journalism and within the BBC World Service Luke Hunt meets a priest who wants to be allowed to say Allah Gary Jones looks at who is hacking correspondents’ email in China Some of the youthful activists known as the post-80’s generation came to the FCC to explain their case. Jonathan Sharp was there

Cover: Harry Harrison

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong 2 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2521 1511 Fax: (852) 2868 4092 Email: fcc@fcchk.org Website: www.fcchk.org

President: Tom Mitchell 1st Vice President: Keith Bradsher 2nd Vice President: Francis Moriarty Correspondent Governors: Thomas William Easton, Anna Healy Fenton, Jim Laurie, Kees Metselaar, Colum Murphy, Christopher Slaughter, Stephen Vines, Douglas Wong Journalist Governors: Barclay Crawford, Jake Van Der Kamp Associate Governors: John Batten, Andrew Paul Chworowsky, Thomas Crampton, Steve Ushiyama Club Secretary: Douglas Wong Finance Convener: Jake Van Der Kamp Membership Convener: Steve Ushiyama Professional Conveners: Keith Bradsher, Colum Murphy Publications Convener: Kees Metselaar, Anna Healy Fenton House Food and Beverage Convener: Stephen Vines Wine Sub-committee Co-chairperson: Anna Healy Fenton, Stephen Vines FCC Charity Fund Co-chairman: Andrew Paul Chworowsky, Thomas Crampton Press Freedom Conveners: Francis Moriarty, Barclay Crawford Constitutional Convener: Christopher Slaughter Wall Convener: Christopher Slaughter Goodwill Ambassadors: Clare Hollingworth, Anthony Lawrence General Manager: Gilbert Cheng The Correspondent © The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong FCC MAGAZINE The Correspondent is published six times a year. Opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the Club. Publications Committee Conveners: Anna Healy Fenton, Kees Metselaar Editor: Richard Cook Produced by WordAsia Limited, Tel: 2805 1422, Email: fcc@wordasia.com www.wordasia.com

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From the Club President Dear Members, Many of you will be aware of a lively debate recently amongst some members concerning last November’s Mindanao massacre in the Philippines. For those who wish to catch up on the exchanges, or participate, please see the FCC’s LinkedIn group, set up last year by Christopher Slaughter. �e debate was sparked by the Club’s February 9 statement regarding the manhandling of Hong Kong journalists in Chengdu, where they were attempting to cover the trial of writer Tan Zuoren. It was the latest in a series of incidents in which our colleagues had been harassed by Chinese police in the course of doing their job across the border. �e most serious of these, in Urumqi last year, was the spark for the Club’s joint protest march with the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association on the central government’s Liaison Oﬃce in Western. Unlike foreign correspondents operating in China, our Hong Kong and mainland Chinese colleagues do so without the protections we take for granted passports, embassies, ambassadors, foreign ministries and even aircraft carriers, although I doubt the Obama administration would ever divert one to get me out of a spot of diﬃculty on the mainland. Some members, however, felt that the FCC had done comparatively little to demonstrate solidarity with our Filipino colleagues, who work in an even more dangerous environment. As the Committee to Protect Journalists has noted, the Mindanao tragedy, in which at least 57 people died including more than 30 journalists, ranks as the single deadliest event in history for our profession. Beyond a mention in �e Correspondent’s JanuaryFebruary issue, in the context of the cover article on the Kate Webb 2

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award, they thought the Club had been inexcusably silent on the tragedy in Mindanao. �e FCC’s initial response to the news in November was indeed muted, and easily missed. At the �rst Club function held after the news broke – a lunch speaker event – I expressed our condolences to the families of the victims and asked that the audience observe a moment of silence. Club Editor Richard Cook stopped presses on the November-December issue of �e Correspondent to insert a note about the massacre. If you didn’t see it, it’s on page 3 of that edition. �e convenor of our Press Freedom committee, Francis Moriarty, was also in communication with a Filipino journalist who decided at the last moment not to board the doomed Mindanao caravan and lost many friends and colleagues. While we were eager to arrange a speaker or panel lunch with our Filipino colleague when he visited Hong Kong in December, he did not feel comfortable doing so. Instead he asked to participate in a low-key event at Bert’s, where he joined our musicians in oﬀering a musical tribute to his fallen compatriots.

As it happened, Francis was working on a follow-up response, tied to the three-month anniversary of the massacre and approaching the end of the 100-day mourning period, when the LinkedIn debate sparked up in early February. �at response, in the form of a letter to Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was sent and posted on our website on February 22. Francis and I subsequently met with Claro Cristobal, the Philippines Consul-General in Hong Kong, to discuss the points raised in the letter. I’m all for rowdy debates on this and other topics – pressure from Club members to do more in the cause of press freedom can only be a good thing. And given Francis’ role as Press Freedom Committee convenor, I suppose it was inevitable that a few brickbats would be hurled in his direction during the Mindanao discussions. But please remember that no one does more for the Club on press freedom issues, with very little back-up, than he. So puhleeze guys, let’s cut poor Francis some slack. On a happier note, the Club rightfully prides itself on being a model of “hardware” heritage preservation in Hong Kong, having kept our magni�cent premises in such good nick. Alas we have been a bit more slapdash on the “software” side, with photos, old issues of the Correspondent, plaques and other artefacts stashed here, there and everywhere. We are taking steps to establish a proper, publicly accessible archive. We are also aware that members may be in possession of items they might want to donate to a Club archive. More on that after we get our own house in order… Tom Mitchell Club President

What’s on

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What’s on

New Year and New Record for Golf Society

Left to right: Paul Nazer, Roy Ying, Emil Chan and Frank Buck.

The FCC Golf Society kicked off the Year of the Tiger on a cold, windy and misty day at Kau Sai Chau. The Hong Kong natives played wearing fashionable ski wear and mittens while the Brits among us declared the 8 degree weather perfectly balmy and reminiscent of a summer day at St. Andrews. Couples and families were in the majority on the day at the North course. Robin Wong and Au Wing Tuen Yvonne, Russ Julseth and Sabrina Wong, Jeremy and Connie Bolland with son James all vied for the Texas scramble trophy. In the end, the North course was just too formidable and the eventual winners were the team of Emil Chan, Roy Ying, Frank Buck and Paul Nazer with a blistering nett 60. This was an all-time record for FCC. On March 19th we will return to the South course for a “Red Ball” tournament and a post St. Patty’s day celebration driving the snakes out of the Kau Sai Chau rough. April 16th will ﬁnd us on the challenging East course. Bring your cameras and your straight game.

Club Speaker Events

The Club’s Main Dining Room stage was, yet again, host to a number of highproﬁle speakers in February and March, including packed houses for Christina Loh, who spoke on the History of the Communist party in Hong Kong on March 1st, and Christina Chan and Mirana M. Szeto who talked about why Hong Kong’s so-called post-80’s generation is angry on February 4th (see review on page 32). Up-coming speakers include: David Mulford, former US Ambassador to India talking about “Global Financial Crises & the Emerging World” on March 23rd; Bill Fisher on “The Business of English in China” on March 29th and veteran journalist Mark O’Neill on “The Tze Foundation” on April 28th. For more information check the regular Club emails, the Club website at www: fcchk.org or talk to the Club Ofﬁce on 2521 1511.

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What’s on Reciprocal Clubs

Clube Militar de Macau Of all the FCC’s far-ﬂung collection of reciprocal clubs the one I use most is the one nearest to us. I know many other members are as fond of it as I am, writes Robin Lynam.

Cricket Club News

After a break for the Lunar New Year holiday, the FCC Cricket Club has started to resume midweek practice nets to sharpen up for a series of planned social games in the spring. A weekend game against the Hong Kong University and a mid-week one against the Hong Kong Cricket Club’s social team, The Taverners, are two of the possible tentative ﬁxtures. As the team’s reputation grows, then so too, hopefully, will its ﬁxture list. The team is still looking for a Hong Kong Island-based midweek cricket net – any offers or suggestions very welcome – but for now the nets at the India Club in Jordan will continue. The team is now the proud owner of a close tofully-stocked kit bag (which means borrowing sweaty items from the opposition is now a disdainful yet distant memory) and while the nucleus of a strong team has formed – and is clearly building on its invaluable net practice sessions and match-day experiences – new players, of whatever ability, are always very welcome. Any Club members who want to join the FCC Cricket Club please contact team skipper Neil Western: neil_ western@yahoo

Our arrangement with the Clube Militar dates back to 1994 when it reopened after a major refurbishment but its illustrious history stretches back much further. Founded in 1870 as a meeting place for officers in the Portuguese army and navy with membership extended, in the words of the club’s original regulations, on a discretionary basis to “those civilians and foreigners whom, by their social standing and education are worthy of frequenting the Club. (For purposes of the above, only civil servants of second-class clerk rank and above will be allowed to join as members)”. It is rather more inclusive today. The club’s restaurant is even open to the general public, although members and FCC members enjoy discounted prices. The rest of the premises however remain private, and the facilities include two bars and an almost ballroom sized colonial style drawing room, complete with a fine old grand piano. The club was intended by its founders for “the recreation and education of its members and their families, the organization of recitals, meetings and conferences” and to house a library. In some ways little has changed. The club is still a major centre of Macau’s social, business and cultural life, particularly for the remaining Portuguese. The building itself, completed in 1872, is one of the finest surviving colonial era structures in Macau, and as much of the town becomes indistinguishable from Las Vegas, it stands as an anomalous bastion of gracious living and a reminder of a more elegant past. There is a popular basement pub with a full size billiards/snooker table and video screens and a smaller ground floor bar which serves very reasonably priced drinks and is pleasantly perfumed by freshly ground coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice. The restaurant’s food has been inconsistent over the years, but was excellent on my last few visits and the lunch buffet offers excellent value. What never changes at the Clube Militar is the charm and courtesy of the staff, who do everything they can to make visiting FCC members Clube Militar De Macau feel thoroughly at home. No Av. Da Praia Grande letter of introduction is required. N.975 Macau Just show your membership Tel: 853 2871 4000 card at the reception desk in the cmm@macau.ctm.net entrance hall. http://home.macau.ctm.net/~cmm The bar is on your left.

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Kashgar, China: Muslim Uighur men at morning prayers during the Corban festival. 6

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November 2009. Richard Jones

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Suzie Wong, �fty years on

Nancy Kwan, the star of the movie that made Wanchai world famous, is coming back to Hong Kong in March to launch a documentary about her life. Mathew Scott spoke to her about fame, ﬁlm and the FCC.

AFP/The Picture Desk

ancy Kwan pretty much had her world mapped out as the 1950s were drawing to a close. At 20 years of age, Kwan was studying at London’s prestigious Royal Ballet School and thought life as a dancer beckoned, either in her adopted home over there or back here in her native Hong Kong. But it’s funny sometimes how the little decisions in life can turn everything upside down. Kwan decided on a whim to head home to Hong Kong for a family holiday in 1959 – and nothing in her life was ever quite the same again. It was during that trip that Kwan caught the eye of Hollywood movie mogul Ray Stark, here casting for the blockbuster �e World of Suzie Wong. “�e World of Suzie Wong’’ had �rst appeared as a novel written by English author Richard Mason and released in 1957, and then on stage in John Patrick’s Broadway adaptation of the book, which charts the tale of a struggling western artist who falls for a Wanchai hooker. But Stark had bought the �lm options and 8

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gathered a then staggering US$3 million to put a �lm version together.More than 50 years later, Kwan picks up the story. “I had come home to Hong Kong, back on holidays from school,’’ says Kwan, whose father was noted local architect Kwan Wing Hong. “I had heard they were screen testing some of my favourite actresses for the �lm and so I just went up to the studio because I wanted to see them. “�ey had been looking for girls all over the world to play in the �lm version of Suzie Wong and they were testing all these beautiful young actresses and I just went to have a look at them, like other people did too.’’ Turns out Kwan wasn’t the only one watching. “Now Ray Stark saw me there, just standing there, and he asked if I was an actress and if I was there to do a screen test,’’ says Kwan. “I immediately said “No, no, no’. But he said it was easy, I just had to do a screen test and I didn’t even know what a screen test was. “It was simple. �ey just asked my name, what I was doing there. I thought it was silly and just giggled

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my way through it and thought that was the end of it.’’ For a little while it was. Kwan returned to London – and to her studies - and the role of Suzie Wong went to France Nuyen. Stark and his crew joined forces with Hong Kong’s Salon Films and spent about three months shooting the exteriors for the �lm around Hong Kong but then health issues forced Nuyen out of the production. Rumours were that she’d fallen pregnant to Marlon Brando, but nothing has ever been con�rmed and, regardless, a new Suzie had to be found. By this stage, Kwan had joined the Broadway production of �e World of Suzie Wong musical – as understudy to the lead – and was holed up in Toronto when the call came through. “I had actually done a screen test at Paramount Studios in LA but nothing had come of it,’’ she recalls. “�en, when we were in Toronto I got a call from Ray and he wanted me to come to London to do another screen test. I knew they had already started shooting the exteriors in Hong Kong so I was confused, but Ray explained that France had left the production and all that.’’ So Kwan �ew to London – and met the �lm’s star William Holden. “If it were not for Bill approving I would never have gotten the role,’’ she says. “He was a huge star in those days so without his approval I would never have been handed the role. And we started shooting a few days later.’’ “�e World of Suzie Wong’’ was, of course, a sensation. For her eﬀorts, Kwan was nominated for a Golden Globe for best actress and picked up a Golden Globe for best newcomer. �e �lm was a box oﬃce hit and showed that large scale Hollywood productions could be shot overseas – with all the expenses that process brought – and still turn a pro�t. What lingers most still about the �lm is Kwan’s mesmerizing performance – and the part played by the city which surrounds her. Now, 50 years later, Kwan is returning to Hong Kong this month to help celebrate Suzie’s anniversary and to screen a documentary – To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen’s Journey – which charts her own quite remarkable life. Kwan, who now lives with husband Norbert Meisel in Los Angeles, returned home time and again over the past four year as the documentary was pieced together, gathering friends in the FCC to share their memories. “Of course I remember the old FCC very well,’’ says Kwan. “It was a place I spent a lot of time when we were shooting the �lm and when I would visit. “�ere were always a lot of interesting people there and for me as a young woman there was the thrill of meeting these writers and reporters who were hanging out there, people like that. It was a lot of fun and it still is.

“THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG’’ WAS, OF COURSE, A SENSATION. FOR HER EFFORTS, KWAN WAS NOMINATED FOR A GOLDEN GLOBE FOR BEST ACTRESS AND PICKED UP A GOLDEN GLOBE FOR BEST NEWCOMER. THE FILM WAS A BOX OFFICE HIT AND SHOWED THAT LARGE SCALE HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTIONS COULD BE SHOT OVERSEAS – WITH ALL THE EXPENSES THAT PROCESS BROUGHT – AND STILL TURN A PROFIT

All artwork, illustrations and photographs – Copyright: Arthur Hacker unless otherwise credited.

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Feature AFTER 50 YEARS I CAN’T BELIEVE PEOPLE STILL WATCH OR REMEMBER THE FILM. AT THE TIME I HAD NO IDEA THAT THE FILM WOULD HAVE ANY IMPACT AT ALL

“We were able to shoot some scenes for the documentary at what I call the new FCC – well, new to people like me – and gather some friends I have known for a very long time so that was all part of this wonderful experience.’’ �ose friends include Arthur Hacker and Ted �omas who both �rst met Kwan back in the 1960s and have remained friends ever since. �ese two were heavily involved in one aspect of Kwan’s career the actress might not want to remember. It was the advent of the Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign Committee in 1970 and it saw Kwan starring in a series of advertisements alongside Hacker’s immortal anti-litter mascot, Lap Sap Chung. “We hired a photographer who shall remain nameless,’’ Hacker recalls. “He wanted to take Nancy oﬀ to Lantau at dawn to take a photo of her by a waterfall. Like most photographers, though, his images weren’t quite as good as he had led us to believe they might be, in fact they were not even quite what you might call good.’’ �omas picks up the thread. “And then, a few months later when Nancy returned to Hong Kong, she was on the road leaving the airport when she started seeing all these garbage trucks with these huge posters of her face – that photo - on the back. I don’t think she has ever really forgiven us.’’ “�e World of Suzie Wong’’ though remains a motion picture of which Kwan remains �ercely proud. “I went to a screening not that long ago and I still love looking at those old images of Hong Kong, the Star Ferry and all that stuﬀ,’’ she says. “It remains a very charming �lm. It must have something because people still talk about it 50 years later. In its way it helped put Hong Kong in the spotlight and I still hear from people who tell me it was the reason they �rst went to Hong Kong. ‘’ And Kwan still gets fan letters – and still answers them all. “After 50 years I can’t believe people still watch or remember the �lm. At the time I had no idea that the �lm would have any impact at all,’’ she says. “I feel blessed. �is �lm gave me a career and life I have now followed for 50 years - I have been able to do something that I love and you can’t really ask for much more than that.’’ Nancy Kwan will speak at the FCC at a special dinner on March 20th AFP/The Picture Desk THE CORRESPONDENT

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�e real world of Suzie Wong

The illustrator, writer and expert on Wanchai, Arthur Hacker, penned the wonderful Arthur Hacker’s Wanchai in 1997. Here, this abridged extract from the book covers the 50s, the 60s and, of course, Suzie Wong.

part from a brief period in the middle of the last century during the Arrow War, when the European and Indian communities of Hong Kong were almost wiped out after breakfasting on bread laced with arsenic, Wanchai was little known outside Hong Kong except to a few thousand British and American servicemen. In 1957, all that changed with the publication of �e World of Suzie Wong. �e author Richard Mason was a small literary mystery. No pictures of him appeared on the dust jackets of his novels and, unlike other authors who wrote books with a Hong Kong setting, he was not lionized by the press. �e popular myth, both in Hong Kong and in literary circles in London, was that Richard Mason was a pseudonym and, like John Le Carré and Ian Fleming, he had worked for British Intelligence. Mason’s �rst book �e Wind Cannot Read is a love affair between a British officer and his Japanese teacher, set in Burma during the war. It was a best seller. Even in the 1950’s, there was still a tradition that any interracial romance must end with the tragic death of the exotic heroine. Mason used this formula in �e Wind Cannot Read, where he killed off the beautiful Japanese teacher. In �e Pool, a short story by W. Somerset Maugham, it is the man who dies. Even as far back as Elizabethan times, in Shakespeare’s Othello, both Desdemona and the Moor of Venice come to a sticky end. Morality seems to have dictated that one or other, or both, of the partners of a mixed marriage or love affair, had to suffer the death penalty for their indiscretion. However, in the �e World of Suzie Wong Robert Lomax and Suzie not only marry, but there is every indication that they live happily ever after. �ere was a story that, after the success of �e Wind Cannot Read, Mason had planned �e World of Suzie Wong, chapter by chapter, in London and then came out to Hong Kong, where he carefully selected a bargirl and cynically acted out the plot. �e spiteful literati could say anything they wanted to about him, because everybody thought he was dead. He was supposed to have been a �uent Cantonese speaker, who looked like the British �lm star Anthony Steel, who appeared in �e Dam Busters and other �lms of that ilk. Even today, his legendary resemblance to Anthony Steel is an oft-repeated canard. In 1989 the 12

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Both Pages: Arthur Hacker’s drawings of Wanchai. Above is a portrait of a dancer who worked the Winner Bar on Luard Road in the 1960s. In reality, her leg tattoo read: “God Bless the Durham Light Infantry”.

Hong Kong journalist Ken Barrett tracked down a very-much-alive Richard Mason, who had been living modestly in Rome for some years, shunning publicity. He looked more like Kermit the Frog than Anthony Steel and it seems that Richard Mason was his real name after all. He told Barrett that he was the son of an electrician and had been born in Manchester. During the war he was in the Royal Air Force. At the age of nineteen he saw a notice asking for volunteers to learn Japanese. He applied and, much to his delight, spent a year a the School of Oriental Studies in London, where he fell in love with a Japanese girl who was one of his tutors. Mason was posted to Burma, where he wrote �e Wind Cannot Read. His job was interrogating Japanese prisoners. When �lm producer David Lean wanted to make a �lm of the book, Mason wrote the script. Unfortunately Sir Alexander Korda, who was �nancing the picture, died and it was eventually made by someone else. His next book, �e Shadow of the Peak, was not a success. In 1955 he had a few months to spare between �lm assignments, so he bought a ticket to Hong Kong.

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IT TAKES HIM A HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN PAGES BEFORE HE FINALLY GOES TO BED WITH SUZIE. IN MODERN FICTION HE WOULD HAVE MADE IT IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH, BUT THINGS WERE DIFFERENT IN THE 1950’S. He told Barrett: “Arriving in Hong Kong I didn’t have much money and I really had no idea what I was going to write about, if anything. I put up at the Luk Kwok. I had no idea of the reputation of the place. It wasn’t until I went down to the bar, that I realized!” His room cost him HK$16 a night in 1955. Apart from one dinner at Government House, he seems to have spent most of his time at the bar. “It was fantastic, and I had stumbled right into the middle of it. Never in my life would I �nd such material again. I just had to sit there eating my fried rice and taking it all in.” Some years after Suzie Wong was published, �e Sunday Times correspondent Dick Hughes took Ian Fleming to the Luk Kwok bar. Hughes wrote, “Ian took a reporter’s interest in the signs: ‘Girls, But No Obligation To Buy Drinks! Take It Easy! You Are At Home! Fine Food And Wines! Enjoy To �e Maximum At �e Least Expenses!’ But he seemed more taken with the Siamese �ghting-�sh in the huge bowl than with the Suzie Wongs in their cubicles.” Later, “purely in a mood of curiosity and investigation”, Hughes visited the bar again in the company of his boss, Lord �omson. �ey pretended that they were a couple of American paymaster sergeants. Lord �omson enquired the price of everything. He scribbled down on the back of an envelope a few notes on costs and the hourly price of a room, with or without the company of a bargirl. After a brief chat with the girls, the two old gentlemen left the bar with their chastity intact. 14

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“We tipped the girls generously and they bowed us out to the door, where the �omson limousine waited to whisk the paymaster sergeants back to Fenwick Pier and the anchored carrier.” When Hughes asked Lord �omson if he was thinking of buying the place, the millionaire press baron replied: “No, but I think I could do worse, don’t you think?” In Mason’s book the Luk Kwok is called the Nam Kok. �e bar ceased to be a girlie bar in the late 1960s. �e old building was torn down in 1988 and today there is a magni�cent gleaming new Luk Kwok Hotel, which is a model of respectability. Richard Mason spent only three months in Hong Kong collecting material for his book. It was his �rst visit to the Colony.

Suzie Wong: �e Book

When Richard Mason started working on his novel he had absolutely no plot in mind. He would sit quietly in the corner of the bar writing. When there were no British or American warships in port and things were quiet, the girls would come over and talk to him and tell him their life stories. �e autobiographies of bargirls tend to change with each telling. A lot depended on what �lm they had seen recently. In Mason’s book they seem to have spent a lot of time knitting. It must have been one of those times when the Hong Kong Police, in a periodical �t of morality, had cracked down on gambling in bars. Wanchai bargirls loved to play pontoon. �ey played by “Macau Rules”, which are difficult to explain except that it was a sure way of losing your money if you were not familiar with them. If an unwary sailor was foolish enough to actually win a game, he was expected to buy a round of drinks. As the stakes were low, his winnings would not cover the cost of the girlie drinks. It was what is known as a “no-win” situation. Mason was an excellent scriptwriter and it is the dialogue that makes the book. Nick Demuth, who once lived in the Luk Kwok Hotel and whose band played in the Cactus Room upstairs, maintains that Mason captured the idiomatic English of the girls exactly. He added that, unlike Nancy Kwan, who played Suzie in the �lm, the Wanchai bargirls of the period tended not to speak with upper class English accents. �is observation is true today. It is difficult to identify with the character of the hero, Robert Lomax, if he can be called a hero, as it takes him a hundred and sixty-seven pages before he �nally goes to bed with Suzie. In modern �ction he would have made it in the �rst paragraph, but things were different in the 1950’s. �e Suzie of the book is a far more complex character and far more promiscuous than the Suzie in the �lm. Her numerous lovers include: a soft spoken Scotsman who gets eaten by a shark; a Hong Kong policeman who fathers her illegitimate child and runs away to Borneo to avoid marrying her; her uncle; an unpleasant neurotic American; a Taipan

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with an impotence problem; a dirty old labourer; a dozen ancient and decrepit Shanghainese millionaires and two or three thousand American soldiers. Few Old Wanchai Hands have actually read the book. �ose who attempted stop at page twenty-nine, when Lomax oﬀers to buy Suzie’s best friend Gwenny a drink. She refuses: “No, Chinese women don’t drink much you know. None of the girls here drink.”

Suzie Wong: �e Film

It is diﬃcult to understand today that making a �lm with a prostitute as a heroine was a rather daring thing to do in 1960. Of course the French did it fairly often, but it didn’t really count because they had a licence to be naughty. Interracial marriages were not considered good box oﬃce material at the time when Hollywood was still reeling from the McCarthy Era. Mason’s agent was convinced that there was absolutely no chance of the book being turned into a �lm. However, it was eventually made into a �lm by Ray Stark in 1960, after MGM and Rank had turned it down. Nancy Kwan played Suzie and Jacqui Chan, who toured Australia in the title role, played Gwenny. �ere is no doubt that the two girls stole the show, although expressions like: “You think me dirty little yum-yum girl!” tended to sound a bit strange when spoken with a Roedean accent and William Holden’s

portrayal of Lomax was totally unconvincing. Unfortunately Richard Mason did not write the script and his carefully crafted characters were turned into Hollywood stereotypes. In spite of this the �lm was a great success and is still entertaining to watch today; but it was not nearly so much fun as the play. Ray Stark took the position that Hong Kong society would be shocked to the core if a European or American man actually married a bargirl, but in easygoing postwar Hong Kong it was not a particularly unusual event. Couples were not ostracized and there were some very successful marriages: inevitably there were some spectacular failures as well. Suzie Wong must take her place among all the great tarts with golden hearts of twentieth century �ction: Sally Blowles, Sadie Homson and the delightful Holly Golightly. Without Suzie, Wanchai would be just another urban district of Hong Kong. Suzie gave the place a certain touch of glamour, if perhaps a little tarnished, an identity, an individuality. When Yau Ma Tei, Shau Kei Wan and Tsim Sha Tsui have vanished into the mists of time, the name Wanchai will linger on, simply because Richard Mason made the place immortal when he wrote �e World of Suzie Wong. To buy a copy of “Arthur Hacker’s Wanchai” contact Arthur via the Club Oﬃce or the Club Editor: fcc@wordasia.com THE CORRESPONDENT

Hong Kong

Destroying Memory Lane A charming movie about life in a 1960s Hong Kong lane is picking up global awards yet the ﬁlm’s location, Wing Lee Street in Central, is about to be redeveloped because it’s a “slum”. This makes John Batten angry.

Mei Ah Entertainment

istance often gives a clearer view; and the Alex Law Kai-yui and Mabel Cheung Yuenting movie Echoes of the Rainbow and its recent award-winning success at the Berlin Film Festival were a reminder that Wing Lee Street, the unique terrace of tong lau buildings sitting behind Bridges Street in Hong Kong Island’s Soho district, on which the �lm was shot will soon be demolished. Since the announcement of the �lm’s Berlin success, crowds of people have visited Wing Lee Street to see the �lm’s location 16

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and to appreciate the area’s unique quiet ambience before the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) undertakes to demolish most of the street and replace it with an investment portfolio of low-rise properties targeting high-end users and built in a faux-historical style. �e area on which Wing Lee Street is situated is within the H19 Comprehensive Development Area – an area declared a “slum” (read: old low-rise buildings) over �fteen years ago and which the URA wishes to redevelop. �e original plan, to build two or three huge tower blocks, has been severely

curtailed by a combination of concerted community opposition, a developer who won a judicial review and a determined group of property owners who do not want to move because they recently renovated their properties. �e URA will defend its latest development proposal (technically termed a Master Layout Plan) at a Town Planning Board meeting on March 19th – but the success of Echoes of the Rainbow may in�uence members of the Town Planning Board to demand further changes to the URA’s development plans for this area. Decision-makers in Hong

Hong Kong

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Urban Renewal Authority

Left and Above: Wing Lee Terrace needed little dressing to provide the backdrop for Echoes of the Rainbow. Right: An Urban Renewal Authority sketch showing what may happen to the terrace after redevelopment.

Kong are, as we know, sensitive to public opinion and the URA has been under the spotlight due to its questionable record in providing its developments with sensitive urban planning design solutions and good heritage conservation models. �e URA’s �e Masterpiece, done in concert with a property developer, destroyed a quiet section of Tsim Sha Tsui and now blocks views towards Lion Rock from Hong Kong Island; �e Pawn, a set of renovated shop-houses in Wan Chai now exclusively caters for the well-heeled while the real pawnshop continues operating in a small shop around the corner – and of course, the infamous Langham Place, with its mini-bus station at ground level, destroyed one of Hong Kong’s great streets: Bird Street (though it is a moot point that Bird Street would have survived the inevitable government cleaning frenzy during the later SARS outbreak, bird �u and other bird-related health scares). At a landmark speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club on 15 June 2009, the Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, articulated the Government’s bold-sounding heritage, urban planning and development policies.1 But, while there have been improvements in government attitudes to Hong Kong’s built heritage, seismic shifts in systemic

and administrative responses are still needed to make Hong Kong a better place in which to live. �e entire Kowloon peninsula, long protected by low-�ying aircraft landing at Kai Tak airport, is now under threat of destruction because Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei, Tai Kok Tsui, Sham Shui Po, To Kwa Wan, Hung Hom comprise older lowrise buildings. Property developers and the URA, however, see these older lowrise buildings as vacant airspace with great development potential. Recent protests about the demolition of Choi Yuen village in the New Territories and the construction of a high-speed railway line linking Hong Kong to China are just some of the many that have been staged by community groups over urban planning. Issues in dispute are often arguments over physical structures (the Star Ferry building, Queen’s Pier and, also in 2007, the wanton vandalism of a 1930s “Mandarin”styled house, King Yin Lei, by a property developer who wished to bypass building regulations; Graham Street Market; the former Central School), but at a deeper level it is a diﬀerence in perception about cultural expression (e.g. the retention of Hong Kong’s lowrise tong lau buildings and street markets) and a subtle tug-of-war of wills. Deeper still is the fact

that public demand for universal suffrage and greater democracy is never far from any issue where the public’s sentiments and government policy differ. In mid-2009, the FCC exhibited photographs by Tse Chitak that documented the threemonth occupation of Queen’s Pier by protesters in 2007. His book Heaven Queen Earth King - photos of Queen’s Pier (see �e Correspondent July/August, 2009) was a prescient survey of the frustrations that many young people feel towards in�exible and poor official decision-making. Many of us involved in this “battle of wills” over urban planning and heritage conservation have long argued that policy-makers have an excellent opportunity to make pre-emptive (rather than reactive) decisions about Hong Kong’s built heritage.2 By so doing, young people including Big Ears, played by eightyear-old Buzz Chung Shiu-to, in Echoes of the Rainbow (pictured top left) will return to Wing Lee Street in twenty years’ time and say “what foresight to preserve such a historic street of tong lau!” 1. Donald Tsang’s speech: http://www. info.gov.hk/gia/general/200906/15/ P200906150167.htm 2. For more see www.centralandwestern.org and www.designinghongkong.com

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The Wall

Jason Howe: a Project of Passion

After surviving ten years in photographic retail, Jason Howe decided he wanted to do something a bit more signiﬁcant and took off for Colombia, a country whose decades-old, under-reported civil conﬂict has provided him with a wealth of remarkable images as well as barely imaginable life experiences. Jonathan Sharp spoke to Howe as he launched his startling exhibition at the FCC.

nglishman Jason Howe, 38, is engagingly candid about what motivated him to set oﬀ for Colombia: he was in search of adventure. “I didn’t go because I believed this was a story that had to be told, I went because the life of a war correspondent looked very exciting and looked like something I would like to do.” And adventure and excitement is what he got. “In the �rst six months I was in my �rst �re�ght. I was living with the rebels and then with the right-wing death squads. It was at times very scary, but every little challenge that came up along the way, I seemed to manage to deal with it. So when the �rst people were killed in front of me, I didn’t fall to pieces, I was able to hold it together and make strong images so I thought this is perhaps what I’m cut out to do.” But it wasn’t something he could make a living from – in the early days Jason paid for his periodic South America travels by stacking supermarket shelves. As a photographer he started making good money, and racking up an impressive credits with all the main media outlets, when he went to Iraq in 2003. Lebanon and Afghanistan are among his many other datelines. But Colombia has remained his passion, and his groundbreaking work there in his preferred black and white format is captured in his self-published book Colombia: Between the Lines. “�is was a real project of passion, it was nothing to do with making money.” But why make one country a lifelong project? “Because when I look at the great photographers that worked in Vietnam – they worked there in the war and then went back during the reconstruction phase – it’s all they are known for. But they have done such a thorough job. �at to me seems much more important than being known as someone that hops from one con�ict to another. “And now there are so many photographers doing just that it seems to me better to do one story really, really well.” ( Jason says that his profession is harder now because it is so crowded. When he was in Lebanon, “at times there were more photographers than victims.”) 18

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Jason is deeply frustrated with the restrictions imposed on photographers embedded with the U.S. or British military in Afghanistan. No such constraints were around when he went to Colombia. Far from it. In one incident when he was with government forces, a bomb exploded, killing two soldiers who were almost next to him. “�e other soldiers, instead of pushing me away and covering my camera, they were asking me to photograph this and show the public what happened to them, the sacri�ce they were making on behalf of their people. “Now if you are with American or British soldiers in Afghanistan, if you do photograph a dead or wounded soldier, you are basically banned from publishing the pictures, and if you do publish them without permission you will never be embedded again. “So nowadays if you want to be close to the action, you are almost restricted to a set of rules that the government and military put into place. So there can’t be much honest, genuine, uncensored journalism in that case, which starts to make it feel almost a waste of time, as if you are shooting government propaganda.” Jason, whose brother is a British soldier serving in Afghanistan, adds that the authorities are happy for photographers to take pictures of soldiers handing out sweets to children. “But they don’t want any of the taxpayers to see what a soldier looks like when he’s had his legs blown oﬀ. “But that’s the reality of con�ict. How will the general public know how to treat soldiers who come home from war if they are never allowed to see what war is really like?” So how does Jason get round these limitations? “Sometimes I break the rules.” Jason spends part of each year in Bangkok, but the rest of the time he is in his beloved Colombia, where his current project is to chronicle the fate of the multitude of “disappeared” and displaced people. “It will be a struggle to make ends meet doing but the satisfaction is worth much more than the �nancial reward. I’d rather being doing that on a shoestring than earning lots of money standing next to 20 other photographers all photographing the same thing.”

Above: Two young boys playing war with a wooden toy gun. They are some of the countries more than 2 million internally displaced. The jungle area around their village is being fought over by both leftwing rebel groups and rightwing paramilitaries. Below: A US trained anti narcotics police ofďŹ cer crouches on a helicopter landing zone in a rainstorm whilst on an operation against drug trafďŹ cers in the Suerra Nevada Mountains, Colombia. All images: Jason Howe

Naval gunboats patrol along the Rio Atrato in an attempt to disrupt the movement of the left and rightwing militia groups ďŹ ghting in the area. Both groups use the river to move troops, weapons and drugs.

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The Wall

Top: US-supplied Black Hawk and Apache helicopters on a seach and destroy mission against insurgent forces. Above: An AUC paramilitary ďŹ ghter with a Kalashnikov assault weapon in a village near La Dorada, Putmayo.

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The Wall

Top: A family displaced by recent violence begin to construct a new home. Above: A mother and daughter play in a swimming hole near Puerto Asis, Putumayo. Many rivers in the region have been polluted by chemicals used in the aerial fumigation of coca plantations.

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The Wall

Marylin, a self-confessed assassin who worked with the AUC paramilitaries before turning freelance cleans her gun in her bedroom while her niece and cousin play nearby. She claimed to have killed at least 25 people and was herself murdered by the paramilitaries in 2004 on suspicion of informing. She had been Jason Howe’s lover.

Snapper Jason meets Killer Marylin

One of the more extraordinary episodes in Jason Howe’s crowded life began with a chance meeting with a pretty girl called Marylin on a bus in Colombia. �ey got talking and Jason, in his very basic Spanish, mentioned that he wanted to meet members of paramilitary death squads. Most obligingly, Marylin said she knew some paramilitaries, and would Jason like to stay with her and her family and be pointed in the right direction? “So I went to stay with her and over the next year or so we became quite close,” says Jason. But initially at least, Jason’s hoped-for romance did not materialize, at least partly because the simple home where Marylin, an unmarried mother with a four-year-old daughter, lived with her brother and parents had thin walls. However after a year they did become romantically involved and Marylin admitted that she was herself a paramilitary. And then later she acknowledged she was an assassin – she was killing informers. “When I �rst found out about this, I was living this

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fantasy life of a young war photographer in a romance with a beautiful Colombian girl who just happened to have a gun in her belt which she would put on the bedside table.” But then reality hit. “It turned out that she was killing just for money. People would come to her and say ‘I think my husband is being unfaithful and he’s going with this other woman. Here’s 300 dollars to kill the other woman’.” Adds Jason: “Our relationship ended fairly swiftly.” As did Marylin’s life – murdered in 2004 by members of her own group, allegedly for informing on them, although Jason thinks it more likely that she just wanted to leave that group. �at’s not quite the end of the story. A French �lm director and Universal Studios are working on a possible movie about Marylin. �e amazing story of her life and death (and Jason Howe’s role in it) may be coming to a cinema near you.

The Wall

Top: The family and friends of a school teacher who was assassinated in front of her class say their farewells Above: A dealer cuts out lines of cocaine for a customer to sample. For more information about Jason Howe’s work see his website – http://conﬂictpics.com

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Media

War zones and rooftops For more than 25 years as a foreign correspondent and presenter, Canadian Lyse Doucet has been a regular face on BBC World News television, often reporting big, breaking stories from difﬁcult, dangerous datelines. In an email interview with The Correspondent, Ms. Doucet describes how her role as a frontline journalist has changed, and cites factors behind the BBC’s decision to roll out its new look designed for Asian audiences.

dvances in technology have, according to Lyse Doucet, had the most dramatic impact on how television correspondents work, enabling them to venture further and faster, and to take audiences with them. For example she has presented from the border between �ailand and Burma and from devastated villages in posttsunami Aceh. “Contrast that to reporting from Chad in the mid 80’s when French and Libyan-backed forces were doing battle. I �led my reports on an old clattering telex and they were voiced over in London.” But she adds that at its heart, journalism is still about telling stories about people. “When I started in West Africa in the 80’s, the big headline stories were about military coups and drought in the Sahel. But there were also stories about extraordinary people like the talented but eccentric Nigerian musician and activist Fela Kuti, the only person I have ever interviewed wearing only his underwear (and who once married more than 20 women at once!). Now Ms. Doucet is often sent out to cover big stories like elections in Afghanistan and Iran, Middle East con�icts and natural disasters. “But wherever I go, I try to make time to explain complex political issues through people’s lives, the 26

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I HAVE ALSO HAD TO DO A LOT OF ‘ROOFTOP’ JOURNALISM... ONE OF MY JOBS IS TO INTERVIEW PEOPLE WHO COME TO ‘THE ROOF’... BUT YOU HAVE TO FEEL THE STORY ITSELF, FEEL THE ‘HEAT AND THE DUST’ TO REALLY UNDERSTAND IT

stories that make viewers say ‘I never knew that.’ For example, last year we did stories in Afghanistan about the only female governor in Afghan history, some Red Army soldiers who stayed on after the Soviet occupation ended in 1989, and women who risked their lives simply to give birth.” However she says that in some places reporting has become much more dangerous. For example there never used to be such a real concern about being kidnapped on assignment.

But is the new technology such an unalloyed boon to globetrotting correspondents? Some say technology can hamper rather then help good reporting. At the FCC we have heard from, for example, veteran correspondent Kate Adie arguing in typically forceful fashion that modern technology, and the demands of 24-hour rolling news, meant that correspondents in the �eld were required to �le reports hour after hour, with no time to do their own reporting, and were reduced to speaking to camera from hotel rooftops reading facts supplied by news agencies and local reporters. �ere is some validity to that charge, Ms. Doucet says. “I do feel for correspondents who may only be asked to do twoways, hour after hour. �at is when the journalist loses out and so do the viewers. I think we all have to be conscious of this, especially our editors. I have also had to do a lot of ‘rooftop’ journalism. “But as a presenter, one of my jobs is to interview people who also come to ‘the roof ’. So I always talk to them before we go on air, and spend time with them after. In fact, I often call people and say please come and do an interview so I can see you and talk to you. But you also have to get oﬀ the roof ! Of course, good journalists write those stories that run on the news wires.

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Lyse Doucet prepares to go live at the funeral of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in the West Bank town of Ramallah in 2004 (Image: BBC).

But you have to feel the story itself, feel the ‘heat and the dust’ to really understand it.” So why has the BBC decided on a new look and line-up for its World Service News? Partly it’s a cosmetic move. “Like a house, we need a new coat of paint now and then.” But it’s more about content. “We were also reacting to what our audiences told us they wanted – news that was relevant to them during the week. So, in addition to a new look, we wanted to work harder to target key regions across the world, including across Asia.” �e weekend output has also changed, with a larger range

of documentary and lifestyle programming aimed at creating a more relaxed feel. “Whether we have achieved that is really up to our viewers, to decide. And now that we are on Facebook and Twitter it’s easier to tell us what you think. (I’m on Twitter – BBClysedoucet).” However at �rst glance, while BBC World News certainly has a new look, the content, instead of targeting Asia-Paci�c, seems to be largely the same. So in what ways, �e Correspondent asked, are the changes more than skin deep? Ms Doucet pointed out that there was more focus on the presenters: “GMT at 1200” with George Alagiah and “Impact Asia”

with Mishal Husain at 1300 and 1400 GMT cater to viewers in the Asia-Paci�c. In addition, news teams work sort out which local and international stories are likely to go on to shape people’s lives in the Asia-Paci�c region. “But I would like to emphasise that we are not moving to personality-driven news. We are trying to draw on our presenters’ strengths, but the news itself will always come �rst.” Finally, �e Correspondent asked Ms. Doucet, on a personal note, whether after so many years in socalled hardship postings, whether she sometimes yearned for a more relaxed reporting environment. Her response: “I sometimes joke that I don’t get sent to places with 24 hours of electricity. It’s odd but I don’t think of myself in hardship postings. My career as a correspondent took me to West Africa, to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, and to the Middle East – all places I went to because I was curious about them. �en when I became a presenter in 1999, my life went in reverse. I kept going back to places I once called home because... that’s where the big stories of the day were unfolding. So I think of it as going back to my other homes where I have friends and a sense of place.” But she says that when she needs to get away to �nd calm and quiet, she often thinks of somewhere in Southeast Asia. “… Even thinking about some of your idyllic landscapes gives me a blissful feeling. If I can’t get to Southeast Asia, I try to go to the coast I grew up on, in eastern Canada, just to be next to the sea. And yes, these places have electricity!” Lyse Doucet has a new show in development for broadcast on BBC World News, which will launch in the spring. THE CORRESPONDENT

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Censoring the God word Father Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Malaysian Catholic newspaper The Herald, is leading a bitter ﬁght against the government’s ban of the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims. He talks to Luke Hunt.

s evening approaches, life in the Malaysian capital blossoms and bustles on the streets in and around Bukit Bintang. Here the catchphrase that sold a country to the world “Malaysia Truly Asia’”, has found a home. Malays, Chinese, Indians mix easily with tourists and expatriates from Africa, the Middle East and the West. Muslims mingle with Christians. Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs are plentiful. Among them is Father Lawrence Andrew, an urbane man of the cloth who divides his time between journalism from his oﬃce behind St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, and tending the spiritual needs of his �ock. He is rarely �ustered and holds the same smile he wore when meeting Pope John Paul II. A photo hangs on the wall behind his desk that marks this proud event. However, Father Andrew’s patience along with that of the vast majority of Malaysians – regardless of creed – has been tested recently, initially by a spate of bombings that erupted amid government eﬀorts to ban non-Muslims from using the word Allah. “It is unfortunate, it is irresponsible and there is no respect for the rights and property of others,” he says. “�ey should approach the proper channels and not �ex their muscles on the people. It’s becoming the law of the jungle and they should stop this.” 28

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“We have been using this word for centuries. It is not a new word. It is not something we have just thought about.” (Image: Luke Hunt)

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As editor of the weekly Catholic newspaper �e Herald, Father Andrew has led the legal �ght against a three-year government ban on the use of the word Allah for God by non-Muslims. Use of three other words – Kaabah for Islam’s holiest shrine in Mecca, Solat meaning prayer and Baitullah or House of God – were also banned under literacy laws. �e ban was imposed on �e Herald when its annual publishing licence was renewed amid claims use of the words could lead to confusion and conversions among members of the Islamic faith. Court challenges followed and Father Andrew was con�dent. �e ban, he says, defeats logic. And on New Year’s Eve the High Court ruled in his favour and overturned the law. �e paper’s readers were delighted, the Home Ministry was irritated and hard-line Islamic elements outraged. Nine Christian churches and a school were �re-bombed or vandalized, a Sikh temple – where the word Allah is also used – was stoned, law oﬃces for the Catholic Church have been burgled and ransacked and the High Court has suspended its verdict pending an appeal. �en three mosques were desecrated with dead pigs. �e bloodied remains of the pigs were left in plastic bags around mosques at Taman Dato Harun, Al Imam al Timizi and Sri Sentosa, leading to widespread �nger pointing that Muslims bent on in�aming tensions were responsible and not Christians looking for revenge. Underpinning that argument is an assumption that Muslims are not allowed to handle pigs, hence the plastic bags, a cultural anathema that does not exist among Christians. Father Andrew says the word Allah is part and parcel of religious

NINE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES AND A SCHOOL WERE FIRE-BOMBED OR VANDALIZED, A SIKH TEMPLE – WHERE THE WORD ALLAH IS ALSO USED – WAS STONED, LAW OFFICES FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAVE BEEN BURGLED AND RANSACKED AND THREE MOSQUES WERE DESECRATED WITH DEAD PIGS teachings within Christian churches around the world. It was introduced to the Malay Peninsula and Borneo just over 370 years ago by Arabic traders when no other word for God existed here. �e Malay-speaking indigenous tribes living in Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo are the main readers of �e Herald’s Malay-language edition. Here the government appears to be relenting and has signalled it may allow usage of the word in East Malaysia. Catholic oﬃcials say Allah is still the only word the tribes know for God. “We have been using this word for centuries. It is not a new word. It is not something we have just thought about. So that’s why we say that it is not so much a question of language here,” he said while producing a Dutch-Malay-Latin dictionary published in 1631 using the word Allah for God. About 60 percent of Malaysia’s 28 million people are Malay Muslims, while the rest are ethnic Chinese, Indians and indigenous tribes. �e minorities follow Christianity, Hinduism and other

religions. Malaysia has kept racial tensions under control since race riots hit the country in the 1960s. However, in the past few years, minorities have increasingly complained of government discrimination and that their constitutional right to practise religion has come under threat. Some observers have suggested elements within the United Malay National Organization (UMNO) are out to appease hard line Islamic demands in the northern states of Peninsula Malaysia to link the Malay race with Islam - in return for votes at the next election. �e UMNO, which has controlled political life in Malaysia since independence, has suﬀered a reduced majority in parliament and waning public support. Father Andrew said since 1980 a political battle had emerged between UMNO and the pan-Islamic party Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) with each trying to trump the other’s Islamic credentials. �at political battle, he said, “was there to establish that someone is more Malay, more Muslim, than the other... In order to strengthen your own identity and establish your own niche and stake in this place [the argument says] you have to create a kind of uniqueness about you and this uniqueness can only come about if we can now say it is Islamic to the race – We are Malays because we are Muslim and we are a kind of pure breed.” Across Malaysia non-Muslims are now being urged to turn the other cheek, not to retaliate in the �re bombings and the evidence suggests they are obliging. However, whether Malaysia’s cherished and well crafted image of a secular state – where the multitudes of diﬀerent race and creed can live and play under a truly Asian umbrella can survive – remains to be seen. THE CORRESPONDENT

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How they hack the hacks Correspondent members of the Beijing-based China FCC say someone is continually hacking their Gmail accounts, in a style that mirrors the muchpublicized human rights hacking cases that prompted Google to say it might pull out of China. So what’s going on? Gary Jones tries to ﬁnd out.

AFP

In January, with the discovery of the hacking of Beijing-based correspondents’ gmail accounts, the FCC China advised its members on how to tell that an account has been compromised: Log into your Gmail account Click “Settings” in the upper right hand corner. Then click on the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab. ● Look at the forwarding section. If there’s a mysterious email address you can’t recognize, then that’s cause for concern. ● You can check “disable forwarding” to stop future emails from being sent to this address, though other steps may also be necessary to make your account secure. ● ●

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ith Google’s assertion that its computers have been attacked by hackers based in China, and as the search giant seeks to pinpoint the source of such attacks, the Beijing-based Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) reports that a number of its members’ computers have also suﬀered unwanted intrusions. Correspondents’ Gmail accounts have been hacked, and journalists and their assistants frequently receive emails containing damaging malware attachments. “We con�rmed four cases of Gmail accounts related to Beijingbased foreign news oﬃces being hacked,”says Kathleen McLaughlin, FCCC board member, chair of the club’s committee on media freedoms and correspondent for Boston-based Global Post. “In each case, the situation was the same: the Gmail account had a mysterious forwarder added, sending a copy of all outgoing messages to an unknown address. �e details appear similar to what happened to China-related human rights activists, although Google did not address the issue as it relates to foreign correspondents.” �e cases were brought to light in January, when Beijingbased journalists, made aware of a potential Gmail hacking issue by Google’s shocking announcement, checked the settings of their own Gmail accounts and discovered

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they had been changed. �ere is no way of knowing, therefore, when their computers were initially compromised. “�ere was no pattern to the victims; they weren’t all working for the same agency or coming from a particular country,” McLaughlin says, adding that all are choosing to stay out of the spotlight. “�ey are reporters and don’t want to become part of the [Google] story because then it will become impossible to report it.” A more widespread problem suﬀered by journalists in Beijing comes in the form of targeted email viruses, says McLaughlin, who has received many harmful emails herself. �e most recent arrived on February 22, with the subject �eld reading: ‘CHINA MILITARY SPENDING BOOST’. �e emails contain malware attachments that, if opened, can commandeer a computer and, if computers are networked, potentially an entire news bureau. “I received three in February, and that was a light month,” says McLaughlin, who �rst began noticing the oﬀending messages in 2008. “I’ve been working as a correspondent in China since 2003. I’m sure I had strange emails in the intervening �ve years, but the volume and content became quite noticeable in 2008 – leading up to the Olympics and when I started working with the FCCC. Don’t know which event led to the volume.” Malicious emails containing viruses have also been directed at correspondents’ local assistants, and attachments have been opened on several occasions. “Perhaps it was because [assistants] were considered less aware and more of an easy target,” says McLaughlin, who even received one email marked

“THERE WAS NO PATTERN TO THE VICTIMS; THEY WEREN’T ALL WORKING FOR THE SAME AGENCY OR COMING FROM A PARTICULAR COUNTRY,” MCLAUGHLIN SAYS, ADDING THAT ALL ARE CHOOSING TO STAY OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT

as coming from the Hong Kong Journalists Association (subject: “Signature campaign on press freedom”). �e contained message begins, “Please read the attached �le for signature campaign.Hong Kong journalist Wong Ka Yu was alleged in procession [sic] of drugs in August so as to stop her from covering the trial of Dan Zhouren in Sichuan province, China.” “Sometimes the English in the emails is ridiculously bad,” McLaughlin says, “but sometimes they are very professionally done. �e emails received by the assistants were especially convincing.” McLaughlin recalls another email slugged with the subject, “I am Jonathan Watts”. �e Guardian newspaper’s East Asia environment correspondent, Watts was, at that time, the president of the FCCC, and he has suﬀered from comparable attacks ostensibly sent by fellow journalists. “I received a [virus-containing] message purportedly written by

a Reuters correspondent friend,” Watts says. “�e hacker had gone to the eﬀort of trying to write a fake letter from someone I knew about topics we might discuss. But the garbled English suggested it was not a native speaker.” Watts adds that the most sustained attack on his computer came in the �rst few months of his FCCC presidency. “It was a particularly sensitive time because of strong anti-Western media sentiment in the wake of the Tibet unrest and torch-relay protests, and because the club was lobbying hard to have the temporary reporting regulations made permanent after the Olympics. “During that period, I received several suspicious messages, my network connection was slower and more frequently disrupted than usual, there was a lag on emails and phone calls were frequently cut oﬀ. Perhaps these were all coincidental, but it was a remarkable cluster of communication interference that I have not experienced before or since. “In addition, several FCCC members received a virus from a fake club account on the eve of the Olympics. It came in a message from fcccadmins@gmail. com (very similar to our genuine fcccadmin@gmail.com account) with the header, ‘FCCC calls on C govt to live up to Olympic spirit with free reporting pledge’.” So who might be behind the attacks? “I’d hate to guess who it could be,” McLaughlin says. “It could be one nationalistic college student, or it could be part of something bigger. Whoever it is has a list of foreign correspondents and their assistants, but that would not be hard to �nd. And they appear to be politically aware – the email attacks increase in frequency around anniversaries and sensitive dates.” THE CORRESPONDENT

In Review

Why Are They So Angry? The youthful activists known as the post-80’s generation have made the headlines but what do they stand for? Two of the high-proﬁle activists told the FCC about their hopes and aspirations. Jonathan Sharp reports.

Speaking for the post 80’s generation: Christina Chan and Mirana M. Szeto talking at the FCC.

he post-80’s generation of activists has been given a rough ride by sections of the mainstream Hong Kong media, which have variously derided them as super�cial, too strident and violent, or as typically willful young people treating protests simply as a form of fun. An FCC lunchtime audience gave a more polite hearing to guests Mirana M. Szeto, an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong and spokesperson of the Stop Express Rail Link Alliance, and Christina Chan, the much publicized (and photographed) graduate philosophy student who has been a subject of sometimes 32

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invasive media attention. Ms. Chan, who has organised scores of protests concerning local and mainland China issues, was arrested over alleged assaults on police. She denies the charges and was free on bail and so able to join us at the FCC to put her views across in typically forthright fashion. But �rst to speak and to give insights into what makes the post-80’s generation tick was Ms. Szeto, who stressed that the protest phenomenon that we were witnessing was an exponential jump in the involvement of young Hong Kong people in activism. Moreover their commitment is deep, longterm and not a super�cial, passing

fad. “It’s a group of people who are not talking about a �ash mob or a sporadic, sudden interest that dies away easily. You are seeing the emergence of a new generation of young people who are thinking about a long-term commitment to change [and] making that change in their generation. “�ey are not going to be here one day and [singing] karaoke the next.” She spoke forcefully about systemic failure and corruption in Hong Kong’s government, whose senior oﬃcials, for example, did not need to bother how much they earned because upon retirement, and after the requisite interval, they

In Review

were hired by big corporations as expensive consultants for life. And according to Ms. Szeto, the kind of democracy campaigned for by the likes of former Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee was not enough. “What we are asking for is a lot more than Martin Lee’s generation is thinking about.” She spoke of a “deeper democratization” in which Hong Kong people can not only vote but also can have their views integrated into the entire decision-making process. One suspects that the post-80’s generation may have to age quite a bit before their wishes are met. For her part, Christina Chan took the media to task for labelling the new movement as a generation war or a class war, because, as she said, people of many generations and class backgrounds were joining her at the barricades. She also said that the “post-80’s generation” was a simplistic label, preferring instead “self-initiative citizens” (a term that cynics may suggest has a whiﬀ of the rare�ed atmosphere of jargon-loving academia, and perhaps should stay there). But like Ms. Szeto, Ms. Chan is fed up with the way that protests were conducted “in the past”, ie until very recently, and she is not afraid to say why she thinks so, even if she sometimes could be accused of overstating her case and belittling her activist forerunners. “In the past, you have a lot of political parties, with the best intentions, which are more like media stunts. �ey go out, waving banners and shout a few slogans, they get a few [photo] shots taken of them, then they get the sound bites out and that’s the end of it. We’ve seen that done for decades and decades and decades. “I’ve realised this is just not enough. When we say we’ve got to do something, we’ve got to do it.”

She says she respects people who hand in protest letters at Legco and government offices. But… “We don’t want to hand in a bland letter to a police officer, we actually want to get to the official, right? We don’t have democracy, there’s no other way of communicating with the authorities.” And on the delicate subject of how far are she and like-minded people were prepared to go to get their word across, Ms. Chan said: ”You get people emphasising being peaceful… But I think, in this time, we have come to a point when we actually have to ask ourselves, does being rational necessarily mean being completely peaceful?” She added: “At the end of the day, what I’m trying to say is that we are angry people, we are not just young people. We have been angry for a long time and now we have �nally found a way of expressing it, and we are actually determined to take that anger and do something to change Hong Kong?” Notably, in their calls for democracy plus denunciation of such institutions as the functional constituencies (which, as Ms. Chan pointed out, are sometimes elected by fewer people than those who vote for the Hong Kong University Student Union), neither Ms. Szeto nor Ms. Chan mentioned Beijing, the elephant in the room which, of course, dictates the pace of political reform, or lack of it, in this city. Finally, despite being dismissive of people who “get out their sound bites”, Ms. Chan had one of her own: “If you’re not angry, maybe you should ask yourself: why aren’t you angry?”

“YOU GET PEOPLE EMPHASISING BEING PEACEFUL… BUT I THINK, IN THIS TIME, WE HAVE COME TO A POINT WHEN WE ACTUALLY HAVE TO ASK OURSELVES, DOES BEING RATIONAL NECESSARILY MEAN BEING COMPLETELY PEACEFUL?” ...“AT THE END OF THE DAY, WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY IS THAT WE ARE ANGRY PEOPLE, WE ARE NOT JUST YOUNG PEOPLE. WE HAVE BEEN ANGRY FOR A LONG TIME AND NOW WE HAVE FINALLY FOUND A WAY OF EXPRESSING IT, AND WE ARE ACTUALLY DETERMINED TO TAKE THAT ANGER AND DO SOMETHING TO CHANGE HONG KONG?”

Footnote: Hong Kong’s Press Council criticized Oriental Sunday newspaper for publishing paparazzi photographs of Christina Chan in underwear in her home on Cheung Chau after receiving 49 complaints about the photos.

THE CORRESPONDENT

Club Multimedia

Print press, video edit For die-hard print journalists, venturing into the depths of digital media can be daunting. It doesn’t have to be – as participants at a recent, FCCsponsored course on online journalism found out, writes Colum Murphy.

Image: HKU Journalism and Media Studies Centre

he line between print and online journalism has all but disappeared in the United States. “�ere it is taken for granted that freelance writer means the same thing as multimedia producer,” says Reenita Malhotra Hora, freelance journalist and FCC member formerly based in the U.S. Not so in Hong Kong where the division between print and online worlds remains, says Malhotra Hora, one of 16 participants in a recent, FCC-sponsored training for members in online journalism. �e six-session course, which took place over three weeks in 34

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January, was held at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at Hong Kong University. JMSC instructors Diane Stormont and Rob McBride, together with Cedric Sam, Kevin Lau and Ka Ho Ng, covered a range of topics tailored to members’ needs including blogging, video shooting, and video editing using the Final Cut Pro software. “�e course was fantastic. It was right up my alley,” says Malhotra Hora. “My only complaint was that it was too short.” �is was the �rst such course arranged by the Club’s Professional Committee. Participation was open to all members with the Club contributing HK$15,000 to defray

costs. FCC members each paid HK$2,700 to attend. For many it was a bargain. “�e investment is very small and you learn a lot,” says Claudia Wanner, a freelance journalist who works mainly for FT Deutschland. Malhotra Hora suggests two possible enhancements for future courses. “While we got to practise editing, it would be great if we could have actually made a video clip that could be used for our portfolio,” she says. She would also like to see a career-counselling component added to the course to answer questions such as: “Where are the jobs and how do I �nd them?”

Club Multimedia

Getting Started in Multimedia Changing perceptions can be as important as mastering skills. “I think you should not expect too much from six mornings in one month, and we are not professional video journalists now,” continues Wanner. “But it gives you a very good overview and it’s a good starting point to see what else you can do. “�e course was a good way to broaden my offering,” she says, adding that now she can do more “than just sit down and write.” About one-third of the class was made up of non-journalists. Club member Graham Price is an engineer who heads up his own start-up company specializing in energy projects. “Newsletters and the use of media are key building blocks of our operation,” says Price. Smaller companies need to �nd ways to create a multimedia presence without breaking the bank, he says. “�e hints we were given on the course included many free-to-use web-based tools. I now know how to construct a newsletter or even a simple web site and I have seen how to link in audio and video clips and how to record them.” Despite different backgrounds, participants shared some things in common. “Most of the attendees were in the same boat—we all realised we need to know more about the use of online media,” says Price. Yet taking the class alongside working journalists had its bene�ts. “It was far more than an evening class for geeks and amateurs would have been. I think we were all there with different motives, but there was something for everyone,” he says. Ka Ho Ng, video technician and teaching assistant at JMSC, says it

is important for all journalists to be equipped with basic knowledge of video production. “If you are working in print, there is no need to be scared of video,” he advises. “It’s just like learning a foreign language to tell the same story,” he says. Yet gaining �uency in multimedia can be expensive. While prices of audio-video equipment have decreased rapidly over the past decade, getting the basic equipment together still can cost up to HK$50,000 (see sidebar). One possibility, suggests Malhotra Hora, would be getting a group of like-minded FCC members to purchase jointly and share equipment. “Even if there were only 10 of us putting US$500 in each, it makes it worth it,” she says. Wanner agrees with the need for freelance members to collaborate more, though not only on multimedia projects. “I think it would be a good thing to have a platform where free-lancers could meet and pool eﬀorts,” she says. Wanner also suggests the Club consider organizing more advanced classes further down the line that would allow novice online digital journalists to hone their skills. �e number of FCC members with multimedia skills looks set to expand. Given the popularity of the course – it was oversubscribed shortly after it was publicized – and the positive feedback from participants, the Club is considering running the course again in May. Colum Murphy is a correspondent member of the Board of Governors of the FCC and co-convener of the Professional Committee.

Here are the shopping lists for beginner online video journalists recommended by Rob McBride and Ka Ho Ng of JMSC:

Option 1: Tape less Workﬂow (with professional high-deﬁnition camera) for those who prefer working without video tape. 1. Computer: Macbook Pro 15-inch 2.53GHz with Final Cut Express: US$1,898 2. Camera: JVC GY-HM100U + SD Cards X 2: US$3,745 3. Tripod: Sony VCT-1170RM: US$313 4. Lavalier Mic: Sony ECM-77B with XLR Cable: US$445 5. Lighting: Lowel V-Light Kit: US$225 Total: US$6,626

Option 2: Tape less Workﬂow (with high-deﬁnition home camcorder) for those who already have home camcorders (with mic-in socket) or those who prefer a lighter camcorder also for home use or who need a lighter camera 1. Computer: Macbook Pro 15-inch 2.53GHz with Final Cut Express: US$1,898 2. Camera: Sony XR-520: US$1,390 3. Tripod: Sony VCT-1170RM: US$313 4. Lavalier Mic: Sony ECM-77B with XLR Cable: US$445 5. Lighting: Lowel V-Light Kit: US$225

6. XLR Adaptor (for using professional microphones with XLR plugs): Beachtek DXA-2S: US$150 Total: US$4,421

Option 3: Tape Workﬂow for those who prefer traditional video tapes. 1. Computer: Macbook Pro 15-inch 2.53GHz with Final Cut Express: US$1,898 2. Camera: Sony A1: US$2,650 3. Tripod: Sony VCT-1170RM: US$313 4. Lavalier Mic: Sony ECM-77B with XLR Cable: US$445 5. Lighting: Lowel V-Light Kit: US$225 Total: US$5,531

THE CORRESPONDENT

Press Freedom

Stiletto By Max Kolbe

Clan Ampatuan and Maguindanao As the Ampatuan clan in the Southern Philippines embarks on a dizzying array of pre-trial manoeuvrings, authorities have assured Andal Senior and his family members that they won’t be fronting the courts alone for the massacre of 57 people, including 31 journalists. Of the 197 people facing charges, 196 respondents, including 14 Ampatuans, were to be indicted for 41 counts of murder. Another 16 counts were yet to be ruled on in the November 23 Maguindanao massacre. Alleged ring leader Andal Jnr (pictured) has been charged with 56 counts of murder, one shy of the 57 victims, because one body has not been identified. Clan members charged are Andal Snr, Andal Jnr, Zaldy, Akmad, Anwar, Sajid, Jimmy, Kanor, Bahnarin, Mama, Saudi, Ulo, Ipi, Harris and Moning. They all share the same family name. In evidence already submitted to investigators, Kenny Daladag quoted Andal Snr as saying: “If the Mangudadatus pass by, kill them all, even the children, don’t leave anyone alive.” Daladag was a member of Senior’s private army and the comments were made on the eve of the massacre in the patriarch’s home. The Department of Justice has also found probable cause to charge Maguindanao police officers for alleged foreknowledge of the massacre, their failure to stop it and alleged participation by some officers. The massacre was the biggest single slaughter of journalists in history. Bail hearings had been postponed following a slew of motions filed by lawyers on

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AFP

behalf of Andal Jnr and Saudi. This includes a defence motion asking Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes to remove herself from hearing the case because of alleged bias. Andal Snr was the governor of Maguindanao while his son Zaldy was governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARRM). They were close allies of President Gloria MacapagalArroyo. The other Ampatuans also held government positions in the provinces of the ARMM. They were charged with killing members of the rival Mangudadatu clan who were on their way to Shariff Aguak to ﬁle a certiﬁcate of candidacy for Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu who intends to campaign for the governor of Maguindanao in upcoming elections. This would have pitted him against Andal Jnr. Mangudadatu’s wife Genalin, two sisters and an aunt were killed along with the journalists, lawyers, supporters

and innocent motorists who happened to be on the highway. More than 100 armed men allegedly led by Andal Jnr. stopped the convoy and carried out the killings. Amid the legal shenanigans the Ampatuan family has rejected reports that they were offering out-of-court settlements to relatives of the victims. Blood money is not uncommon in this part of the world. Philip Pantojan, lawyer for the Ampatuan family, said he would not advise his clients to take such action as it would indicate °guilt” and talk of a settlement may have stemmed from complainants having doubts about the guilt of his clients. However, outgoing Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said relatives of most of the victims in the massacre were not keen on accepting such offers. Devanadera reportedly said she had talked to relatives of the victims, and most of them remain determined to seek justice as opposed to accepting blood money. Finally, we move to Australia where former war correspondent John Kelly has died aged 82. Kelly was a prominent journalist who covered the Korean War before moving to Wollongong in Australia. There he worked as the ABC Illawarra news editor in the 1960s. Former ABC journalist Janine Cullen said Kelly would be remembered as a highly professional and compassionate man. “You work to a lot of tight deadlines and you know there can be tension but he was always calm, he always got the best out of his staff and he was just fabulous,” she said.

Then and Now

8 MacDonnell Road, Mid Levels. Images by Bob Davis

1971: This was photographer Bob Davis’s ﬁrst home in

2010: The vegetable farmers, who came every day to

Hong Kong. The 12-story staircase led to the roof from where you could see the entire span of Victoria Harbour.

sell their wares, are gone but the look and feel remains. This is the last “colonial” building on MacDonnell Road. © Bob Davis. www.bobdavisphotographer.com

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Meanwhile in the Main Bar

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Back Page Bitch

Send all media-related confessions and adulations to the Bitch. Don’t hold back: backpagebitch@yahoo.com

March, 2010

So here’s a story that shows the true wonder of the Main Bar. At the start of February, the lawyers – in between bites of steak sandwiches, slurps of Claret and low whispers about High Court scandal – told the journalists, sitting a mere few bar stools away, that they had seen a copy of a yet unserved police warrant to search Richard Li’s home. The talk of the warrant, to do with a 2009 attempt to privatize PCCW, made the journalists excited. They asked if the lawyers could get a copy of the copy. “No,” came the reply. “But it exists. Print the bloody story.” But they didn’t. Because they were the wrong type of journalists. They were Bloomberg journalists. Bloomberg, for those that don’t know, is part news wire, part ﬁnancial information service and part new age cult that will one day rule the world and make us all eat recycled mung bean salads. It is the earnest squeaky-clean new face of new media and won’t run a story without 78 sources who have all sworn authenticity in blood. “Some fat bloke just told me in the FCC” just won’t do – especially when the story is about the rich son of the richest man in Asia. So the Bloomberg journalists scurried back to Bloomberg Towers (owned by search warrant subject’s Dad – an irrelevant aside but one sort of worth mentioning) to make haste. But they couldn’t get the independent sources to corroborate the story. And the hours turned to days and the pesky lawyers kept shouting across the Main Bar: “Why haven’t

you printed that story yet, you useless bunch of muppets?” until some other journalists, woken by the racket, realised what was afoot and themselves ran back to their editors to say “some fat bloke in the FCC says the police are about to raid Richard Li’s home”, which was enough. The lawyer’s were right, the SCMP got the scoop, closely followed by AFP, while the Bloomberg journos were left to cry into their titanium iPods. It’s all about timing. Funnily enough, the SCMP has been at the heart of another story that’s been doing the Main Bar rounds recently – about none other than the paper’s CEO, Hui Kuok. The pretty Ms. Kouk, in her early 30s and the youngest of ruling patriarch Robert’s eight children, is known as the “Child Empress” amongst the few jaded staffers that remain at Tai Po’s finest newspaper factory. After the Lunar New Year holiday, Hui did the rounds of the newsroom, as is customary in these parts, and gave red packets generously filled with crisp HK$1,000 bills to her loyal workforce. What she would not have known as she glided merrily along was that the fawning managerial minions hopping behind her were, incredibly, taking the laisees back from those that they thought undeserving. First they snatched a red packet back from a startled intern and then tried to take one from a crusty downtable sub-editor, who resisted, and something of a laisee scuffle started on the Post’s news floor.

Oh dear - exactly what is the protocol when one boss gives you lucky money and another tries to take it back? One hack solved this thorny dilemma by actually posting his packet back, uninvited, to management. Why didn’t this witty yarn make it into the Post’s laisee column? Talking of protocol, the “career-journo of the month” award has to go to Evan Ramstad, a WSJ hack in Seoul who at a packed press conference questioned Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun about the possible correlation between Korean women’s low participation in the economy and the male-dominated drinking culture in South Korean business. Specifically he asked Korea’s top finance policymaker if he knew whether “your employees” are treated to free entertainment in “room salons”, the Korean karaoke bars where hostesses serve drinks and customers solicit sex. Apparently the Minister was not entirely overjoyed and after an ill-tempered flare-up outside the press conference – where Ramstad said something very rude to one of the Minister’s spokesmen – the remorseless hack said he only asked the question because it was International Women’s Day.

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