The Correspondent, October - December 2022

CONTENTS

LEAD STORY

16 UNDER PRESSURE

A survey conducted by the FCC reveals some stark truths about Hong Kong journalists’ state of mind: six-page report by FCC governor and Mind Hong Kong board member Olivia Parker.

Cover: FCC Scholar Ernie Szeto and husband Joseph Li pose for wedding photos – for more on this story, see page 3. Photo: Supplied.

FEATURES

2

Editor’s Letter

3

From the President

4

Club News

When was the last time you got a letter from a prince? ere’s news from Cli Buddle too; and an upcoming mental health workshop.

8

Wine & Dine

Oktoberfest, Halloween, rugby Sevens: there’s a slew of excellent reasons to celebrate with a drink and something to soak it up at the FCC in the next couple of months, and then – blimey – it’s Christmas.

12

White’s Bites

Who better to get his chops around some turkey and steak this anksgiving than the FCC’s very own Hungry Caterpillar Tractor, Adam White?

14

Member Insights

Ben Lau reveals everything you always wanted to know about Arti cial Intelligence but didn’t really know how to go about asking.

22

An Extraordinary Trinity

How three club members from very disparate backgrounds joined forces to help refugees in Hong Kong.

26

Committee Insights: Food and Beverage

Who decides what goes on the menu, and how does it get onto your plate/into your glass? Amy Sood tucks in her napkin to investigate.

30

On the Wall

Presenting some of the best of ve exhibits on the Van Es Wall: the war in Ukraine; students’ perceptions of Hong Kong life; Formula One thrills; the 1997 Handover; and climate change.

36

New Members

ey’re fresh! ey’re eager! ey’re (almost) innocent! Say how d’you do to 28 new chums.

40

Speakers

Recent developments have added a new dimension to the long-standing rivalry between Hong Kong and Singapore. Morgan M Davis weighs up the arguments at a club lunch.

42

Tribute

Tim Page: outstanding photographer, unique human being.

43

Obituaries

Requiescat in pace Ewen Campbell, Suzanne Pepper and Tad Stoner.

46

Book Reviews

Our Man in Alba, Mark Jones, peruses Chris Patten’s diaries and Philip Bowring’s study of the Philippines.

48

10 Minutes With… Michael Peel

After postings to Lagos and Brussels, the executive editor of Nikkei Asia talks about life in Tokyo on secondment from the Financial Times.

1OCTOBER 2022THE CORRESPONDENT UPFRONT THE REGULARS

EDITOR’S LETTER

Dear FCC Members,

It’s sometimes been remarked that in Hong Kong, time’s winged chariot doesn’t so much hurry near as overtake on the inside lane. We live life here with the fast-forward button rmly pushed down most of the time, and the pressure has ratcheted up in the past few years for all sorts of reasons, whether it’s because of having to dodge tear gas, working yourself to a frazzle from home, being barred from a seemingly innocuous beachside barbecue pit or – mondo bizzarro – having to scan your mobile phone to enter a public library, even if it’s just to renew an Enid Blyton.

So Olivia Parker’s survey of journalists’ mental health, the lead story this month, is very much On Point, not least because 10 October is World Mental Health Day. And while it might be said that journalists in particular face increased challenges in these – how to phrase it? – stirring times, so does pretty much anyone for whom the numerals 852 have a special resonance.

Older readers will need no introduction to the late gonzo photographer Tim Page, who made his name in the Vietnam War; he was wounded several times, and required a year’s neurosurgery after being struck in the head by a four-centimetre piece of shrapnel which took out part of his brain. While he was not a member of the FCC, he more than deserves the tribute which appears up at the back of the book.

Another character from the same era, Nate ayer, merits a sustained round of applause not only for his stellar journalistic career, but also for his long dawn-out battle against a major American media organisation which sought to sidestep its nancial obligations to him. As noted in Club News, he’s a bit under the weather (to use a rather quaint Anglicism) at present. ere’s a crowd-funder. ‘Nu said.

Finally: I’m racking my brains over what to put in the next issue. Haven’t got a clue. Anybody?

Ed Peters editor@fcchk.org

PS Abject apologies to Club Secretary Liu Kin-ming, whose name was spelled incorrectly in the July issue due to a fit of editorial idiocy.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club 2 Lower Albert Road Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2521 1511

Fax: (852) 2868 4092

Email: fcc@fcchk.org

Website: www.fcchk.org

The Board of Governors 2022-2023

President Keith Richburg

First Vice President Hannamiina Tanninen

Second Vice President Tim Huxley

Correspondent Member Governors Morgan Davis, Olivia Parker, Jennifer Jett, Rebecca Bailey, Peter Parks, Kristie Lu Stout, Kari Soo Lindberg, Lee Williamson

Journalist Member Governors Joe Pan, Zela Chin

Associate Member Governors Genavieve Alexander, Liu Kin-ming, Christopher Slaughter, Richard Winter

Club Treasurer

Tim Huxley

Club Secretary Liu Kin-ming

Professional Committee

Conveners: Hannamiina Tanninen, Keith Richburg

Press Freedom Committee Conveners: Jennifer Jett, Hannamiina Tanninen, Keith Richburg

Constitutional Committee Conveners: Liu Kin-ming, Richard Winter

Membership Committee

Conveners: Jennifer Jett, Rebecca Bailey, Lee Williamson

Communications Committee Conveners: Genavieve Alexander, Jennifer Jett Finance Committee Convener: Tim Huxley

House/Food and Beverage Committee Conveners: Hannamiina Tanninen, Genavieve Alexander

Building - Project and Maintenance Committee Conveners: Christopher Slaughter, Liu Kin-ming Wall Committee

Conveners: Kristie Lu Stout, Peter Parks

General Manager

Didier Saugy

Editor Ed Peters Email: edapeters@yahoo.com

Publisher: Artmazing! Noel de Guzman

Email: artmazingcompany@gmail.com

Printing Elite Printing: Tel: 2558 0119

Advertising Contact CC ront ffice: Tel: 2521 1511

The Correspondent ©2022

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong

The Correspondent is published four times a year. Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the club.

PHOTO: WILLIAM FURNISS

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear FCC Members,

When Ernie Szeto was planning her late-April wedding this year, she had one request of her ancé; she wanted to have a pre-wedding photo shoot outside the FCC.

It wasn’t just for the history or beauty of the iconic clubhouse on Lower Albert Road. For Szeto, 34, a project manager at a medical devices company, the connection was personal.

From a humble background, she was able to get an Associate Degree and then a Bachelor of Science from the University of Hong Kong thanks to two FCC scholarships in 2007 and 2009. (She went on to get a Masters degree at HKU.) e mentorship opportunities, she said, opened doors she never knew existed. And she still calls her fellow scholarship recipients and the professionals she met at the club “my FCC buddies”.

“Whenever we needed support, the FCC stood up and helped us,” she told me. “ e FCC is not only a building with lots of history, but it also connects to locals.” rough its charity work and mentorships over the years, she said, “the FCC gives lots of opportunities to others”.

Recently those opportunities have included workshops for journalists, covering everything from hostile environment training to protecting personal data. e Clare Hollingworth Fellowship each year awards a free membership and the chance to participate in club events to two young early-career reporters. Local photographers, including students, have had a chance to display their work on the FCC’s exhibition wall around the main bar.

At the height of the fth COVID-19 wave in March, the FCC provided three meals each day to domestic helpers who were sheltering with an NGO having lost their jobs and accommodation. And in August, the Club arranged two complimentary screenings for domestic workers of We Don’t Dance For Nothing, a movie about Filipina helpers and how they escape their sense of entrapment through dancing. We also provided complimentary soft drinks and snacks.

e word “Foreign” features prominently in our club’s name. But I always like to say that the FCC has been part of the fabric of the Hong Kong community for more than seven decades.

With the COVID-19 restrictions in place last April, Ernie and her husband Joseph Li, a banker, had to delay their wedding banquet to the last Saturday in August. In her speech at the banquet, she gave a shout-out to Celia and Dave Garcia – “Aunty Celia and Uncle Dave” – who were the main movers behind the Charity Ball from 2002 to 2015, which raised millions of dollars to support young Hongkongers in need.

“ e FCC and my FCC buddies always backed me up on everything, especially during hard times, to shape me as a better person,” she said. “My parents weren’t there for me at a young age – thank you for being that one-of-a-kind special someone in my life.

“When people look at the building, and see the ‘Members Only’ sign, they might think it’s a club for foreigners. But it’s a place for locals to connect. e FCC brings people together.

“I don’t know if in 10 or 20 years I will still be able to see this building in Hong Kong. I hope it’s not going anywhere. e building has to be there. It’s a landmark. Even if I’m not in Hong Kong then I hope when I come back, I can still see it.”

Well said. I couldn’t agree more.

And congratulations, Ernie and Joseph! I couldn’t be more proud of you, and of the FCC.

Keith Richburg @keithrichburg Hong Kong September 2022

e FCC has been part of the fabric of Hong Kong for more than seven decades

PHOTO: SUPPLIED

PHOTO: CHK

Hail Fellows not yet met

e coming year’s two Clare Hollingworth Fellows have yet to be nominated as the adjudication process was delayed by COVID-19 (it says here); however, at the time of writing it had nally got under way and an announcement is expected before the end of October. An in-depth pro le of the two new Fellows will be published in the January 2023 issue of e Correspondent.

e fellowship, named after the FCC’s doughtiest female ag bearer, who was born 111 years ago this month, grants a brace of tyro journalists a terri c kick-start, with a strings-almost-free entrée to the club and the glorious opportunity to schmooze, er, network with industry leaders. In return they are required to contribute a witty, stimulating article that borders on the poetic to this magazine, help present speaker events and generally get stuck into club life. More details can be found at fcchk.org/clarehollingworth

Farewell, Ma’am

Nothing quite says grace, dignity and sheer regal presence like this image of the late Queen Elizabeth II visiting the newly opened Oi Man Estate in Ho Man Tin in May 1975. Note the distinct absence of water- lled barricades and posses of security goons. Her Majesty made a second trip to Hong Kong in October 1986, two years after the Joint Declaration had been signed. She reigned for 70 years, having ascended the throne in 1952, the year the FCC was established here.

e Van Es Wall will host a memorial exhibit featuring Queen Elizabeth II later this month.

Cry Freedom

So far this year, the club’s Press Freedom Committee has issued a series of statements, descrying the di culties of reporting in China (1 February), lamenting the arrest of an Indian journalist under anti-terrorism laws (10 February) and the following month calling for time to remember journalists killed in Ukraine. e committee spoke out again when restrictions were imposed on the media around the Handover anniversary in July and also in September following Ronson Chan’s arrest. e question is – what sort of reaction do they provoke? Speaking on behalf of the committee, President Keith Richburg said: “ e FCC issues public statements in support of press freedom because that’s a core component of our mission, to which we remain strongly committed. We do not always get the response from the Hong Kong government we would like. But we will continue to do so when we see questions or issues of concern and if we think our voice might make a di erence.”

Now Hear This

e Correspondent bursts upon an unsuspecting world every quarter, while the Communications Committee, which oversees its publication, meets roughly once a month for an hour or so’s riveting discussion.

Any and all genius ideas for the former are clasped warmly to the editorial bosom (metaphorically speaking): while attendance at the latter is open to any member who feels that he or she has something interesting or worthwhile to impart. Note the italics.

e editor may be contacted via editor@fcchk.org

PHOTO: KO TIM-KEUNG

Billets doux

Letters to the Editor are rare beasts in the exacting era of social media, so the following missive from Life Correspondent Member #6498 – and former Chief Information O cer for Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee – Mark Pinkstone was especially welcome. He writes:

“ e suggestion that press freedom in Hong Kong ‘is hanging by a thread’, ( e Correspondent, July, page 40) is a bit extreme. Government statistics indicate there are 94 daily publications in Hong Kong (as at September 2021).

Of these, two have been subjected to national security laws. A couple of other online publications have ceased operations for undisclosed reasons. ere are also 451 periodicals published in the city.

“A good example of press freedom is Hong Kong Free Press, which puts across its strong points of view without inciting dissent.”

President Keith Richburg replies: “I disagree.”

On a more regal note, HRH e Prince of Wales – now King Charles III – sent his best wishes as part of a 173word letter on 3 August responding to a request for “this (sic) recollections” of the Handover (see e Artist Formally Known as Prince, page 17, July’s Correspondent), which was despatched to Clarence House on 3 May.

Head of General Correspondence, Mrs Jan Hook, wrote: “His Royal Highness is most grateful to you for your request, I regret he must decline. As I am sure you will appreciate, e Prince of Wales receives many more requests than can possibly be accepted.”

Most courteous, but not entirely grammatical, mind you.

Mental Health 101

An appeal on behalf of Nate Thayer

Nate ayer, who pulled o a sensational scoop by interviewing the Khmer Rouge mass murderer Pol Pot for the Far Eastern Economic Review in 1997, is facing serious health problems in Washington, DC.

He writes: “I can’t walk anymore. My argument with that Chinese antitank mine has come back to bite me in the butt. I had major surgery on my foot early this year and sepsis infection spread throughout my body. I’ve two heart attacks and two strokes and the doctors say I will never walk again, at least as I de ned walking.”

“It is OK. I am fond of my feet.

ey have tolerated a lot over the last 62 years, but they want to lop o the right one.”

ayer has twice been struck by COVID-19 and was facing homelessness as this issue went to press. Donations can be made online via gofundme.com/f/dqbmr5-natethayer-support-fund.

Mind Hong Kong will run two 90-minute training sessions (one in English, one in Cantonese) at the FCC next month, designed as an introduction to mental health, covering topics like stigma, common mental health challenges and advice on supporting yourself and others.

Location: Bert’s

Date: Saturday 12 November, 10-11.30 am (English) and 1-2:30 pm (Cantonese)

e club will email members about booking arrangements later this month. See pages 16-21 for this issue’s lead story on Hong Kong journalists’ mental health.

PHOTO: LANCE WOODRUFF / AFP

Ex-Prince Charles, Keith Richburg, Mark Pinkstone - but not necessarily in that order.

PHOTOS: FACEBOOK

/ THE WHITE HOUSE

O, to be in England

After 28 years in Hong Kong, long-time member and occasional FCC governor Cliff Buddle headed sort-of home in August. We caught up with him while he was still unpacking.

Where are you?

In a cottage in a hamlet deep in the Kent countryside south of London. e nearest shop is a mile away and it takes 30 minutes to drive to the railway station. ere are no street lights even; but there is a nice little pub just around the corner.

What are you doing?

I took a break in August – my rst proper holiday for almost three years – enjoying the clean air, peace and quiet, and trips down to the coast. I was still writing my column for the South China Morning Post and began work in earnest again in September, looking after (very remotely) the paper’s graduate trainees.

re you usin one y anet to fin your ay a out? I last lived in England in the 1990s, so I’ve come in for some surprises. I use SatNav to get around – but it likes taking me down narrow country lanes which challenge my driving skills.

he ni ht at the you est an t re a ? ere were so many, from New Year’s Eve celebrations to charity fund-raisers. e best are probably the unplanned ones, popping in for a quick one and staying late. I do remember celebrating the last time the lease was renewed.

Silver screenings

Club screenings are set to run regularly for the rest of this year, following the showing of e Six , No Ordinary Life, We Don’t Dance for Nothing and Hong Kong 1942, which all garnered an enthusiastic reception. Rather than setting up an extra-large bed sheet and a projector in the garden – as was the practice in days gone by at the former FCC on

est thin a out ritish peop e?

A total lack of concern about COVID -19. It took some getting used to. No masks, no vaccine pass, no LeaveHomeSafe, no health code. e virus is barely a topic of conversation. It is all about the cost of living now.

Are you missing Hong Kong yet?

I do miss our elder son and my cat, who both stayed in Hong Kong. I felt sad to miss the Mid-Autumn festival, my favourite. And, of course, I miss friends, colleagues and –especially – the club.

Conduit Road – (digital) lms are shown in the Dining Room, with plenty of refreshment, alcoholic or otherwise, close at hand. e icks’ subject matter is usually either journalists or journalism, or something that would interest a Hong Kong audience. e Professional Committee welcomes any and all suggestions.

PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Unforgettable Memories

Many members think of the FCC as their second home in Hong Kong; Carman Chung Pui Kei , Assistant Membership Manager, tells Lauren Lau that she couldn’t agree more.

What does the FCC mean to you?

Carman Chung : e club is my second home. It has supported me for more than 20 years and I have built a strong relationship with many di erent members. It’s one of the major parts of my day and has steadily become part of my life, as have the people here. I feel ful lled when I create a bond with our longtime members but also when I can welcome new faces. I love it when members drop by to say hello to me in my o ce.

What as your most memora e intera tion ith a mem er?

CC: ere are lots of unforgettable memories from these years, but the most signi cant was when I met Marilyn Hood.

We worked closely when she was on the Membership Committee.

She was friendly, optimistic and passionate, and she taught me a lot, especially communication skills and how to organise logistics. She was always happy to give pointers. She was an excellent listener and a true mentor to me. No matter how di cult the situation, she always tried to give me a helping hand and cheer me up. Outside of work, we found that both of us loved exploring the world, and we would always share our travel experiences after spending summers away. She always took a couple of trips each year and came back with fascinating stories. Later, she taught my children English and they developed a special friendship. Although she passed away in 2019, I will never forget her and still miss her so much. is bond can never be broken. She will always be one of the esteemed members in my life at the FCC.

What is your fa ourite part a out or in for a usy press u ?

CC: It is interesting when members share their experiences from other press clubs around the world. I also like welcoming members from our reciprocal clubs. I enjoy hearing about their clubs and seeing how the FCC might incorporate similar features to make members’ experience even better. I also love hearing their travel stories: it’s very inspiring.

o o you re a after or in some here that s essentia y so ia ?

CC: I spend my time with my sons and daughters – I’ve got two of each. We explore di erent places in Hong

Kong, or around the world in the days when we used to be able to travel. I hope travelling can be made easier soon so we can have some new adventures. I also like trying out new recipes with the kids and cooking up a storm in the kitchen. Our go-tos are homemade pizza and pasta. We have a sweet tooth, so we are keen on making desserts too.

What ou you say to anyone onsi erin oinin the ho ou you es ri e the u ?

CC: Our building is a Grade I protected monument. So we have a special home here in the city. Within the club, we have a large social circle and you can meet people of di erent backgrounds and nationalities easily, and it is a place where people get together and share ideas. We also have some of the best dining in town and regular beverage promotions, and our network doesn’t stop here in Hong Kong, as members enjoy visiting membership rights with reciprocal clubs all around the world. n

Our building is a Grade I protected monument. So we have a special home here in the city.

PHOTO: FCC

Bye-bye Shanghai

It made for the perfect pairing – a Shanghainese banquet set o with a selection of wines recommended by the club’s very own tasting group. e gala dinner on 28 September set the seal on a two-week Shanghainese cuisine promotion that by all accounts was a resounding success.

Lederhosen optional

Sadly, there won’t be a live oompah band, but there will be a great deal of beer as the FCC marks Oktoberfest between 3 and 8 October, with a special party livening up the night of the 6th Tables for eight will garrison the Dining Room, and partygoers will be encouraged to eat all they can – that’s the likes of ham hock, sausages, pretzels, potato pancakes and sauerkraut. e tune you can hear going round your brain is most likely “ e Birdie Song”. Prost!

PHOTO: BEN MARANS

Lights, camera, and then some!

Is there a single sentient human being in Hong Kong who doesn’t realise that the FCC serves the best curry between Stanley and Lo Wu, and Sai Kung and Tai O? Surely not. Searingly spicy, gorgeously gentle or somewhere in between, curry in many of its delicious forms will heading the bill of fare during Diwali from 23-27 October, with a special celebration – to be marked with a cocktail conjured up speci cally for the Festival of Light – on the evening of the 25th. Leave room for some toothsome mithai (sweets).

A toot for tea

Weekend afternoon tea proved a hit over the summer, with trad English clotted cream, scones and jam gaining some useful international allies: brownies, grilled cheese and ham sarnies and – an Asian garnish –noodles with sliced beef satay. How’s that for cosmopolitan cuisine? And a bargain at HK$65 per item, including tea and co ee.

It’s All Saints’ Eve all over again

It’s only one night of the year, but – boy –what a night. The Main Bar & Lounge goes all creepy for the evening of 31 October, with Halloween décor suggesting ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night. Themed snacks and cocktails will be on offer for the stout of heart. Leave that broomstick in the umbrella rack in the lobby.

The full turkey monty

Not very much in the way of harvesting crops goes on in Hong Kong nowadays, but that’s no reason not to go the full turkey monty (see White’s Bites on pages 12-13). Turkey takeaways will be available for the whole of November, and Chef Johnny Ma and his brigade will be pulling out all the stops on anksgiving Night, 24 November, with a special menu starring Meleagris gallopavo plus potatoes, yams, pumpkin, cranberries and other native American comestibles. It’s a superb opportunity to celebrate friends and family: why not invite them along too?

All at sixes and…

Nothing has made Hong Kong feel quite so odd in the last couple of years as the absence of the annual rugby sevens tourney, which previously so often fortuitously coincided with imperative, unshiftable board meetings the week prior. So, rejoice – for the slightly-scaled down 21st-century Saturnalia is nally back on the sporting calendar, running from 4-6 November. e club’s screens will be angled to catch all the action, some rugby themed specials will be on the menu, though not fashioned like odd-shaped balls. All together now: “Oggie, oggie, oggie.” And best of luck to Hong Kong head coach Paul John and his talented players.

PHOTOS:

PHOTO: LAKSHMI HARILELA

That beautiful game

Nobody’s ever bettered Pele’s one-liner, and this year’s World Cup (20 November – 18 December) in Qatar is going to be a stand-out a air for a number of reasons. It’s the rst to be held in the Arab world, the second to be staged in Asia and the last with just 32 teams – it grows to 48 in 2026. General Manager Didier Saugy is already rubbing his hands in modi ed glee: “It will be a great time for the bar,” he chortled. Given the vehour time di erence, the club’s opening hours may be adjusted to accommodate the more nail-biting matches.

Surely it ain’t Christmas already?

Amazing as it may seem, plans are already in hand to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve with all the trimming and quite a few to spare. Turkey will be back on the menu again, and anyone with kids’ party, Christmas Bazaar, hampers, takeaway meals, banquet packages, mince pies and mulled wine on their bingo card is very much on the right track.

Christmas Eve should see a set menu in the Main Dining Room, while it will be buffet right the way through the club the following day. And of course the entire building goes more than slightly doolally on 31 December as we bid farewell to 2022 with a humdinger of a party.

While all the events listed here were firmly inscribed on the club’s calendar at the time of going to press, even Man Mo Temple’s savviest soothsayers have been unable to predict what restrictions COVID-19 may occasion for the last three months of the year. Browse fcchk. org/events for prices and the most up-todate information.

Gratefully yours

Overindulgence? That’s so 2020. Adam White organises a correctly indulged Thanksgiving for himself, embracing turkey and surf and turf with his characteristic aplomb.

Some holidays are easier to celebrate than others. Your own birthday, if you are young and still ooze joy and hope; Christmas, if you’re not devoutly Jewish; Chinese New Year if you’re single and like receiving money. Some holidays are harder: your own birthday, if you’ve reached the point where you emit an involuntary groan every time you stand up or sit down; Christmas, if you are Jewish; Chinese New Year if you’re married and have had to start doling out the lai see

But there are few holidays it’s easier to get on board with than anksgiving, even as a non-American. Obviously, let’s not dig too hard into a disconcerting past of colonialism and genocide; let’s keep this on the level of sweet potatoes and turkeys. But if we do, then it’s a celebration of thanks for the bounties of the year gone by; a time to take stock and then pour that stock into stu ng, place it inside a turkey and roast at 350°F/180°C for about three hours.

It’s said that Americans eat more at anksgiving than at any other time of year, which is a curious kind of national achievement but an attainment nonetheless. It’s also just a fact that instinctively feels true: anksgiving is a day of overeating and belt-buckle loosening, of arguing at the table and falling asleep in front of the TV and blaming it all on the turkey.

and your portions are at the whims of the chef? Isn’t that counterintuitive to the entire ethos of anksgiving?

Well – yes, perhaps. And yet you should absolutely do it, and do it at the FCC. Here are three reasons why:

One) Cooking anything larger than a chicken drumstick is quite hard in the average tiny Hong Kong kitchen. e turkey, conversely, is an implausibly large bird.

Adam White Hong Kong born and raised, Adam White is group editor at Cedar Communications, where he is in charge of content for Cathay. He is a former FCC board member of slightly too many years’ standing and previously worked at the SCMP ’s Inkstone and ran city-living bible HK Magazine.

Two) It is much harder, although by no means impossible, to have a family-rending disagreement over politics, religion or the state of Hong Kong while out in public. ree) It is very, very nice to have a good anksgiving meal and to feel sated, not stu ed. Content and able to move from the room. is unheard-of pleasure can be yours for HK$278 to HK$418 (depending on the number of courses), because the anksgiving Menu at the FCC exhibits the kind of intelligent restraint that I do not.

Observe:

1) Quinoa and dried fruit salad , one topped with Cajun shrimp and one with Cajun tofu. A light start, well textured with nutty quinoa and bursts of soft sweetness from dried apricot. e vinaigrette is pomegranate and hazelnut, all tart and crunch. e Cajun spices are a little light, but I don’t know that I’d want more here.

All of which is a slightly complicated way to say: isn’t it curious to have a anksgiving meal outside of the home? Where someone else will plate up your food,

2) Soup, but this is no rib-sticking stew. Instead, consommé, which is Posh Speak for “clear soup”. e oxtail consommé is full- avoured, a beef tea with the slightest

hint of Asian spice, warming but not lling. e tomato consommé is rich and deep, with layers of avour hidden in clear broth. Both have beautiful hits of umami with every spoonful, o set by julienned vegetables for a gentle crunch. It’s smart to serve something this delicate but punchy before we get to the main event, which is:

3) anksgiving turkey, served with mashed sweet potato, Brussels sprouts, buttered rutabaga, caramelised chestnuts, giblet gravy and a cranberry marmalade. is plate is generous and avoids two of the classic errors of turkey, which are insu cient gravy and insu cient dark meat. Instead, it’s liberally doused in a beautifully earthy sauce, one of real depth of avour and richness. And respect has been given to the dark meat, the true hero of the turkey world. A herbed stu ng lurks beneath, while candied chestnuts provide a level of saccharine sweetness that’s almost overwhelming. (At least they’re not marshmallowtopped sweet potatoes, which the Justice Department

should be investigating as a federal crime.) e rutabaga – or swede, if you prefer – leaves me a bit at, but I have yet to meet an invigorating rutabaga. Or Swede, if you prefer.

For those uninterested in turkey (and I concede it’s the most inferior of the roasting birds), our other plate is a surf-and-turf classic: roasted hanger steak and a grilled king prawn, with sweet potato fries. Hanger is a cut that delivers phenomenal avour when cooked well, and this one is ideally charred. e prawn, too, is smoky from the grill, tender enough to still be creamy.

And after all this, here is the curious thing: I do not feel ill. I do not feel like withdrawing to the sofa for a postprandial snooze, or descending into Bert’s to nurse my expanded gut. Instead I welcome the slice of pumpkin pie which Jackson slides in front of me, cinnamon-laced, soft and light. It is a smart, satisfying meal.

I realise now, several days later, that we didn’t observe that most saccharine tradition of anksgiving, marshmallow-topped sweet potato notwithstanding: we

didn’t go around the table, saying what we were thankful for. Well, let me tell you now. I am thankful for my life. I am thankful for my wife and my son. I am thankful for The Correspondent , for printing this nonsense. And I am thankful for the FCC, which knows the limits of my stomach far better than I know myself. Happy anksgiving, then. May it bring you overwhelming joy – and just the right level of indulgence. n

e anksgiving Menu runs at the FCC from 21-27 November, with a special menu on anksgiving itself on ursday 24th.

Thanksgiving (and Christmas) at home

If you do want to pursue the path of indulgence at home, anksgiving and Christmas turkeys and hams may be ordered from the FCC from 15 November. All you have to do is supply the guests.

PHOTO: BEN MARANS

Thanksgiving menu:

In Pursuit of Truth:

The Future of Artificial Intelligence

Ben Lau, senior scientist at Shell Street Labs, sheds light on whether AI is going sentient and how free speech plays a part in its future. Ambrose Li is intrigued.

With a PhD in physics from Princeton University and stints in investment banking under his belt, Ben Lau now specialises in arti cial intelligence (AI) research and machine training. To most, journalism and AI might seem to be entirely unrelated subjects, but Lau says that access to veri ed and unbiased information is vital to the development of AI.

Debunk AI for us – what is the technology behind AI’s abilities?

Ben Lau: How I see it right now is that a lot of AI is statistical learning, meaning that vast amounts of data are used to train an AI model. Based on the data, the model would then likely produce an expected outcome when asked to answer a question or perform a task. ree areas are doing particularly well at the moment.

e rst one is natural language processing. By getting computers to read trillions of academic papers, newspaper articles and text messages, such as the entirety of WhatsApp conversations in the world, and more, it is able to learn to comprehend the context of the words. With that database, it enables AI models to imitate human speech and writing in a colloquial manner.

ere is also image recognition – which is self-

explanatory. For instance, AI is now used to detect [the eye disease] diabetic retinopathy because it can identify the features and patterns of it based on the large amount of medical images in its system. It is also able to read a large number of images quickly, accurately, consistently and without getting fatigued.

e last one is reinforcement learning – it is trained to recognise a situation and accordingly know what it needs to do. ink about chess playing, where the model is taught all steps and rules that are available to win given any situation. By repetition and self-play, it could gure out and learn di erent patterns or strategies.

However, because AI learning is based on vast amounts of statistical data, it’s not completely foolproof. Tesla spent ve years making driverless automated cars, but they ended up shutting the unit. Do you know why? ere was one real instance where the AI model thought a woman was a plastic bag and crashed. It’s a chance of one in over a million. But you know, that is still not acceptable.

oo e en ineer as fire for aimin is sentient – is it?

BL : at is a very deep and, in fact, philosophical question. e best thing AI can do, but also its drawback, is that it

CREDIT: ML CONFERENCE

Princeton PhD and former investment banker Ben Lau preaching the glories of AI at a conference in New York.

can absorb trillions of pieces of information. However, what it can do is highly dependent on that very information.

What AI cannot do is think. What it is doing is simply giving an answer or performing a task based on the dataset in the system, even when it cracks a joke because it might be in someone’s WhatsApp message. So, a lot of probability theory is involved – it is not something that mysterious.

I always refer to Descarte’s adage, ‘I think therefore I am.’ AI is able to digest and interpret thousands of millions of pieces of information, but for it to think – well, it’s not there yet. inking is what makes us human.

What would constitute thinking in AI? If it starts to ‘think’ out of the parameters. For example, if an AI model is only fed atheist literature but says that a god might exist, I would start to suspect perhaps AI could think. en we can start the sentience discussion.

What in of ata ets put into ma hines?

BL : If you input racist slurs or politically incorrect remarks, that is what will come out. If I feed all of the Terminator lms into it, it will think that humans are useless animals, so I am sure I would be killed. If the training data is contaminated or biased, there could be far-reaching consequences.

You want AI to be true and unbiased. However, like humans, depending on what AI takes in, its views could be skewed by, say, reading a certain newspaper or being unknowingly fed false information.

erefore, free speech is very important. If you don’t have accurate or true information, with a lot of media control, your training data might be biased or untrue. Imagine if you train an AI model with data from di erent places with varying degrees of media control: the response will be very di erent.

ere’s now also a very hot eld called ethical AI, but the ethical guidelines are not universal. What kind of values do you inject into AI? What is acceptable to some might not be acceptable to others. It’s a topic that’s still up for debate.

After all, AI is a neutral tool. How it is used depends on the users.

imitations an impa t?

BL : Data might be biased and might expire, which a ects the accuracy of AI. Propaganda is another limitation. AI could be used to in uence elections and generate fake news or disinformation.

AI also knows what you want to read, especially on social media, and it will refer similar things to you, so you can become increasingly biased. You can hardly access information from other perspectives and live in an echo chamber. is is the worst for society, especially when it involves very di erent values and perspectives.

Having worked in AI for years, I know that I can’t blindly trust whatever AI comes up with. I have to decide for myself for an accurate judgement. But in society, very few people do so. at is why I respect reporters a lot because they go on the frontline and dig up the truth.

To me, whether it’s for scienti c research or for living in the complicated world we nd ourselves in, having news outlets and journalists to nd out the truth is the most vital thing in society, and that is what motivated me to join the FCC. n

To

enerate art or from te t

Create an image with AI using any text on this website, such a dog playing a ute .

Note that the images might not entirely translate what the text indicates, meaning the model may not have grasped the concept just yet.

www.craiyon.com or openai.com/dall-e-2/

The latest with AI

Watch this TedTalk by Google’s head of AI research, Jeff Dean, who has been working in the field since the 1990s, on how AI got to where it is now and where it is going.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-FzHIQ7SOs

p ore the po er of This site is a collection of simple experiments with AI that enable anyone to start exploring AI and machine learning through a whole host of media, from language to music to art.

experiments.withgoogle.com/collection/ai

BEN’S TOOLKIT

AI think, therefore I am, as René Descartes, the inventor of analytic geometry (and much else besides), almost said.

UNDER PRESSURE

With World Mental Health Day falling on 10 October, an exclusive FCC survey conducted this summer sheds light on Hong Kong journalists’ troubled state of mind. Olivia Parker reports.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February gave David, an editor at a Hong Kong news outlet, an unfamiliar feeling. For the rst time in over two decades in journalism, he no longer wanted to look at the news.

“It’s too horri c to contemplate,” he says. It brought back memories of the 2019 protests in Hong Kong. He started sleeping badly and went through bouts of feeling “consistently depressed” for a week or two at a time.

David, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive topics, attributed these symptoms to the cumulative e ect of three years of extraordinary uncertainty in Hong Kong. Protests. Pandemic. COVID restrictions. e National Security Law (NSL). Adding to the impact was a nonstop out ow of colleagues and friends.

David’s experience of unsettled mental health is widely replicated among journalists in Hong Kong, who have been more immersed than many in the ways the city is changing. e impact on their general wellbeing has been seismic.

Of 165 journalists surveyed online in July and August by the FCC, over threequarters (78 percent) said their mental health had got worse over the last year, with a quarter saying it had got “much worse”.

e respondents, including freelancers and student journalists, work for local media as well as publications headquartered overseas; all spoke vividly of their struggles to maintain mental wellbeing.

“ e restrictions and lockdowns in HK made me reach total breaking point,” one wrote.

“ e last 12 months have been one of the hardest periods mentally for me over a 16+ year career,” wrote another.

Others described feeling “brain fog”, “hopeless” and “permanently angry”.

Twenty-eight respondents reported that they had had suicidal thoughts in the last three months.

e survey included clinical screening tests, widely used by mental health professionals to indicate levels of anxiety and depression. Some 85 percent of the respondents showed symptoms of mild-tosevere depression, and 76 percent showed symptoms of mild-to-severe anxiety.

ese scores are substantially higher than those of the general population in Hong Kong. Even at the height of the fth COVID wave, in March, the same tests given by the mental health charity Mind Hong Kong to 1,000 adults showed

49.4 percent of people with symptoms of mild-to-severe depression, and 41.3 percent with symptoms of mild-to-severe anxiety.

is doesn’t mean that the majority of journalists would be diagnosed with clinical anxiety or depression, says Carol Liang, a counsellor and deputy CEO of Mind Hong Kong. Surveys only capture one moment in time, and a person’s assessment of their mental health could change from day to day, she says.

Even scores that indicate moderate or severe symptoms may in fact be capturing normal variations in mental health, says Dr Hannah Sugarman, a clinical psychologist and a lead clinical advisor at Mind HK. She recommends seeking help if high scores or concerning symptoms persist over two weeks or more.

Still, Liang says, these numbers are “very high”.

“I’m not too surprised that it’s worse than the general population,” she says. “What I am shocked at is how much worse it is.”

e consistently high scores indicate that circumstantial factors are playing a major role in journalists’ mental health, she says.

Responses from the survey suggest that mental health is intrinsically linked to the job; 86 percent of respondents said that their work in journalism as a whole has either “some impact” (50 percent) or a “very signi cant impact” (36 percent) on their mental health.

“How could it not?” one respondent wrote. “It feels like a ticket to exile or gaol.”

In other comments on the relationship between work and wellbeing, many wrote about the gruelling impact of ongoing

A person’s assessment of their mental health could change from day to day.

- Carol Liang

Journalists wear protective gear and high-vis vests during the 2019 protests.

Dr Hannah Sugarman

Carol Liang

industry issues, such as the pressure to keep up with breaking news and prolonged exposure to negative or traumatic information, as well as heavy workloads, low salaries and a lack of resources, exacerbated by hiring freezes and people leaving.

Some, however, described their work as having a positive impact on their mental health, in terms of feelings of achievement or ful lment.

But the sense of Hong Kong becoming an increasingly troubled working environment for journalists came up repeatedly.

Wrung dry

Lee Cobaj, a travel writer who grew up in the city, has watched the severe COVID restrictions annihilate virtually all her work trips for over two years. As the rest of the world has opened up, she has feared losing her standing to writers outside the city who don’t have to factor in hotel quarantine. As a freelancer, those costs come out of her own pocket.

Her brain has felt “wrung dry” trying to come up with travel pieces that she can write from Hong Kong, she says, but the political changes have made it more di cult to get them accepted. Some of her regular publications have stopped carrying travel content about Hong Kong, for fear of it being seen as a tourism advert for a government that is cracking down on dissenting voices.

e NSL and fears of censorship and arrest were referenced repeatedly in interviews and the survey as a cause of journalists’ poor mental health.

MIND HACKS

Journalists supply their personal tips to support mental wellbeing:

• Exercise on a regular basis – every day if possible. It’s a very effective way to combat nerves and anxiety.

• Processing. Time. Re ection. riting.

•Giving up the alcohol crutch.

• I find talking to my friends most therapeutic since they know me well and are aware of my behavioural habits, I trust their advice.

• Visiting art galleries.

• Sauna.

“

e NSL has been a constant source of anxiety because I have to be more vigilant and make sure that nothing is published inadvertently that could get any colleagues in trouble,” one respondent wrote.

Another reported that a person they interviewed was sent to prison for political reasons after the journalist’s story was published. “I know he chose to speak to me and that he was aware of the risks, but I still feel responsible for what happened to him.”

Feelings of guilt or con ict like this are consistent with an emotional response called “moral injury”, which can occur “following events that violate a person’s moral or ethical code”, according to a study published in e Lancet in 2021.

Moral injury is not considered a mental illness, but it can lead to “challenged beliefs and altered appraisals that are thought to lead to the development of mental health problems”, the researchers found. e risk of being exposed to morally injurious events is considered to be higher among frontline professionals, including armed forces personnel and journalists.

Galileo Cheng, a freelance reporter and photographer, says he has noticed responses among his journalist friends that may match up with moral injury.

“ ey were very stressed about the situation in Hong Kong and feeling

• Time outdoors, and dogs.

• Seeking professional counselling, discussing mental health among peers in the industry.

•Listening to classical music, watering plants, remembering to be good to myself.

•Accepting that while the world is crazy and out of my control, what I can control is my own kindness to individuals, strangers or otherwise. Remembering to pause the day for a deep breath also helps.

The NSL has proved a constant source of anxiety.

PHOTO: AFP

Galileo Cheng (centre, white t-shirt).

powerless about their [ability] to bring change or to reveal some of the truth about the situation here,” he says. “Sometimes it would turn into trauma or even the [desire] to attempt suicide or to harm themselves.”

Since the closure of Apple Daily and Stand News last year, and the arrests of some of their sta , Cheng says that journalists he knows feel scared whenever they see the police. He has noticed himself getting angry, too, at policing responses he witnesses that appear overly severe, a carryover from the protests.

Sudden emotional or physical reactions when reminded of a harrowing event can also be a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unlike depression and anxiety, it is not common. “It can only be diagnosed if someone has been exposed to a terrifying event, usually as a victim or a witness,” Sugarman says.

While rates of PTSD rose dramatically in Hong Kong at the height of the protests in autumn 2019, a study by Hong Kong Polytechnic University that ended in February 2021, a year into the pandemic, found the number of people showing signs of trauma had dropped to about 12.4 percent.

However, the FCC journalists’ survey returned a number that was almost double that. Of 151 respondents who took a clinical screening test for the disorder, 37, or 24.5 percent, had scores that indicated possible PTSD.

“In journalism, you do experience a lot of traumatic events, so it is likely that the number would be higher,” says Liang. One person’s perception of an event as traumatic, she added, may di er widely from another’s.

Triad attack

Cheng, for instance, was badly beaten when stick-wielding thugs – widely believed to be triads – wearing white t-shirts attacked dozens of unarmed people at Yuen Long MTR station in July 2019. But he did not experience any residual trauma from it, he says, and he found he was able to return to the station right away. “People would normally expect that I would be very angry, tortured or distracted, but I don’t think I need to be that way,” he says.

is sometimes confusing discrepancy between individual reactions to events might help explain a lingering sense of secrecy and shame around mental health, which the journalism community, like Hong Kong in general, still has a way to go to neutralise.

Some 19 percent of respondents said that a “fear of looking weak” stops them from seeking help when they are struggling with poor mental health, for example, and 20 percent think they could be penalised if they talk about their mental health at work. at’s despite the fact that one in four journalists surveyed have been diagnosed with a mental health condition before.

Liang says that factors that in uence how well people cope with poor mental health include the strength of their support system, and how well they understand their own triggers and coping mechanisms.An

T

Mind HK’s seven-point guide to getting a conversation going about mental health.

1. Start simple. If a face to face conversation feels too difficult, make a phone call or send a message.

2. Avoid distractions. Find a time and place where you are comfortable to talk.

3. Use caring, non-judgemental statements. For example, “I have noticed you seem down recently – is everything alright?” Or even simply: “How are you?”

4. et them set the pace: opening up takes a lot of courage you might be the first person they are speaking to.

5. on t make assumptions. Try not to come to conclusions on their diagnosis or thoughts. They are the expert on themselves.

6. Focus on feelings. Providing an outlet for someone to share their feelings might be more helpful than trying to solve their problems.

7. Treat them the same. If someone opens up to you about their mental health, they don’t want to be treated differently. Be your usual self and act in the same way that you normally would.

For more tips and resources, visit www.mind.org.hk

Lee Cobaj

A passenger wears a face mask and plastic food bags on her face as a precautionary measure against COVID-19.

Journalists' wellbeing vs. the Hong Kong average

The average wellbeing score in Hong Kong is 47.23 (according to a March 2022 survey by Mind Hong Kong).

A score of 52 or below indicates poor mental wellbeing and testing for depression is recommended (WHO).52

0 Lowest Mental Wellbeing

41.99

Hong Kong Journalists

Scored using the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index.

Depression screener

Number of journalists showing symptoms of depression.

Severe 7.2%

Moderately severe 8.5%

None-minimal 15.1% Mild 37.6% Moderate 31.5%

Overall, 85% showed symptoms of mild-to-severe depression, and 47% showed moderate-to-severe symptoms of depression.

Highest Mental Wellbeing 47.23 Hong Kong Overall

Anxiety screener

Number of journalists showing symptoms of anxiety.

Severe 15.1%

Moderate 24.2%

No anxiety 23.6% Mild 37%

Overall, 76% surveyed showed symptoms of mild-to-severe anxiety, and 39% showed symptoms of mild-to-severe anxiety.

Scored using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 survey. Scored using the Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 survey.

Post-traumatic stress disorder screener

Of 151 journalists who took the screener, 37 reponses indicate possible PTSD. 24.5%

Scored using the PTSD-8 scale.

20 OCTOBER 2022 THE CORRESPONDENT LEAD STORY IN FOCUS - A GRAPHIC PORTRAYAL OF KEY RESPONSES TO THE FCC SURVEY

understanding, exible workplace also makes a signi cant di erence, she says, especially if the employer covers the heavy cost of therapy. Across all age groups, nancial concerns are the most common reason journalists don’t seek help.

Many publications in Hong Kong still fall short in o ering support, however. One-third of survey respondents said that their employer does not provide any mental health support, while another third said they didn’t know if any was provided. ose who work for publications headquartered abroad were more than twice as likely as journalists who work for Hong Kong publications to say their organisations o ered mental health support.

Even if it were accessible, the type of support is also of critical importance to whether journalists can bene t. “ e con dence in the institution providing the service is the most important factor,” says Ronson Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association and editor at Channel C HK, the online news site

DIAL M FOR MINDFULNESS

founded in July 2021. He underwent 12 free therapy sessions with the Red Cross, a non-pro t, during the protests, for example, but says he thought many wouldn’t feel comfortable talking to a public health sector counsellor.

Greater trust and awareness about mental health are unlikely to grow unless senior newsroom sta set the tone. Leaders talking about mental health can open up the conversation, says Liang, paving the way for other measures like workshops and internal campaigns.

Others say they hope the journalism community can be a better source of support. “Get rid of any shame you might feel,” says Cobaj. “It’s important to know we are all here for each other.”

Cheng agrees. We share so many of the same concerns, he says, but journalists lack the platform to speak freely to each other. Peer support groups might be more e ective than mental health professionals, he added.

“ e only way is to get people to come together and talk to each other.” n

– Lee Cobaj

For immediate support: The Samaritans’ multilingual hotline is open 24 hours a day. Call 2896 0000 or email jo@samaritans.org.hk

Otherwise: The Hong Kong Red Cross Psychological Support Service. Make an appointment via the website, or book via WhatsApp at 5164 5040 or Telegram @hkrcshallwetalk

St John’s Cathedral Counselling Service provides affordable counselling with a sliding-scale payment system. Book a session at 2525 7207 or email info@sjcshk.com

If you think you may act on suicidal feelings, call 999 or go to the nearest A&E department.

To find more service providers, organised by language, type of treatment and service hours, visit www.mind.org.hk/community-directory

It’s important to know we are all here for each other.

Employers need to offer mental health support to their journalists.

Olivia Parker is a Correspondent Member Governor and deputy news editor on the International Edition of The New York Times She has been a board member at Mind Hong Kong since 2018.

Ronson Chan

PHOTO: BEN MARANS

AN EXTRAORDINARY TRINITY

One afternoon back in the late 1980s, as golfers teed o at the Shek O Country Club, over the hedge and down the hill from her rambling garden, Anne Marden penned a cri de cœur to her friend Lady Wilson, the governor’s wife.

“Dear Natasha, much as I hate to write to you like this,” she began, “I wonder if you could possibly arrange to pay a visit to the San Yick Closed Camp for Vietnamese refugees?”

Anne – elegant, petite wife of former Wheelock Marden taipan John Marden, trailblazing social service volunteer and redoubtable champion of the helpless – was deeply concerned that “a terrible tragedy” like a re or epidemic would engulf the 4,000 refugees crammed into the converted 12-storey factory building in Tuen Mun. About half of them were children, Anne’s particular concern. “I know I’m taking a rather unfair advantage,” her letter ended,

“but I’m only doing it because the situation seems to be so desperate.”

As a realist, Marden knew that – at most – Lady Wilson could only make a few enquiries or pass such letters to her husband, Sir David. But this did not deter Marden from a shrewd and persistent use of her position at the pinnacle of Hong Kong society to press for a change of heart and government policy towards more than 200,000 Vietnamese who sought asylum here between 1975, when Saigon fell to communist forces, ending the war, and 1999, after which the Hong Kong government allowed some 1,400 stranded Vietnamese to settle here.

Many languished for years in closed camps tightly controlled by the Correctional Services Department. Marden argued cogently and tirelessly that Hong Kong was on the wrong track with its incarceration approach, especially with thousands of children growing up behind barbed wire.

The death of Anne Marden last May prompted Sarah Monks to compose a tribute to three FCC members who played an enormous part in relieving the plight of Hong Kong’s refugees.

PHOTO: ISS -HK

Marden made sure that Vietnamese children living behind the wire at the Pillar Point Refugee Centre, Tuen Mun, had a playground.

Her comrade-in-arms was former BBC Far East correspondent Anthony Lawrence (FCC president 2000-01, membership #6), a quintessential English gentleman with a deep understanding of Hong Kong and China.

As local resentment grew over the nancial and other costs of housing Vietnamese refugees, Lawrence used his BBC-honed eloquence to argue for more humane treatment. “Never mind the politics”, he said, getting straight to the point. “It can never be wrong to teach a child to read and write.” is quote won many arguments for the right to education of children in refugee camps across the world.

Marden and Lawrence campaigned through the advisory positions they held at the Hong Kong Branch of the Genevabased NGO International Social Service (ISS). ey were very hands-on, recalls ISS-HK’s chief executive Stephen Yau How-boa. In 1986, for example, when he had been in the job for less than a month, Marden spirited him aboard her family’s pleasure launch to inspect a refugee detention centre on Lantau Island.

Right to play

e Marden Foundation, which the couple had set up in 1973, provided funds for incamp schools run by ISS-HK. Marden was adamant that refugee youngsters should also have a child’s right to play. So she organised the construction of playgrounds in the camps and helped found TREATS, a charity that took refugee children out for a carefree day at the beach or a picnic in a park.

Marden served as an Advisory Committee member of ISS-HK from 1973, then vice-patron from 2015 until she died in May this year, aged 96. Lawrence became an Advisory Committee member in 1974, then ISS-HK chairman from 1988 to 2002. He was still on the Advisory Committee at the time of his death in 2013, at the age of 101.

e third member of the trinity was former Reuters’ newsman CP Ho (a former Correspondent Governor and FCC membership #25), who took over from Lawrence as chairman of ISS-HK’s Advisory Committee. He held the position until his retirement in 2019 and remains its honorary president.

Marden, Lawrence and Ho helped steer ISS-HK through different eras and challenges.

Anthony Lawrence, Anne Marden and CP Ho at an ISS-HK Cultural Night in 2016.

PHOTO:

Between 2015 and 2018, Ho also chaired the ISS Governing Board in Geneva, overseeing the entire global service network which had been founded in Europe after the rst world war to help displaced people and separated families. He served the two full terms allowed by the constitution and worked with the General Secretariat in Geneva to expand the membership of ISS to nearly 120 branches and correspondent organisations all over the world.

Ho, the rst Asian to take up the chairmanship in Geneva, was also the man behind modernising its logo. It is no surprise that he turned for assistance to another FCC member: graphic design guru Henry Steiner. e logo is distinctive in that the organisation’s name abbreviates in English facing forward and in Spanish looking backward – two of its o cial languages. (For the record, Ho also enlisted thepro bono assistance of FCC member Jonathan Sharp, once Reuters’

man in Beijing, to help raise the standard of English in ISS-HK’s annual reports and public statements.)

Karma, fate or... Perhaps it was karma, fate or the Hong Kong factor that brought about the trinity of Marden, Lawrence and Ho at ISS-HK.

Ho rst met Lawrence in Singapore while on assignment for Reuters. ey became o ce colleagues of a kind in 1960, when the BBC posted Lawrence to Hong Kong and he rented an o ce in Reuters’ bureau in the Gloucester Building (long since replaced by e Landmark). Lawrence’s BBC work included the highly popular “Roving Report” series.

Ho had the enviable job of re ghting, dashing about to trouble spots around the region. In one of his earliest forays in the 1960s, he made what Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew considered an “unwarranted” guess at Lee’s intention to make Singapore – which was joining Malaysia – a separate sovereign state. As Ho tells it, one of Lee’s aides called him in the wee hours and he soon found himself in schoolboy mode facing the headmaster.

“Where are you from?” Lee demanded of Hong Kong-born Ho, as if he didn’t already know. “Did I say that [I was going to separate Singapore from Malaysia]?” Ho was left umming and ahing. Perhaps Lee took pity on the abject gure in front of him, for he said: “I’ll give you one more chance.” e incident left an impression on them both. During a visit by Lee to Hong Kong, Ho – by then head of news and public a airs at TVB – wanted him as his guest for that week’s “Meet the Press” programme. Lee’s rst words when they met again were: “Yes, I remember you. You are doing well…”

It can never be wrong to teach a child to read and write.

– Anthony Lawrence

Saigon, 1963: Reuters fireman CP Ho comes face to face with the powerful Madame Nhu.

ISS-HK Advisory Committee meeting in 2012, with CP Ho in the chair and chief executive Stephen Yau on his right.

In the early 1960s, Ho made regular trips for Reuters to Vietnam as the situation there worsened. He still has a front page of the Times of Viet Nam depicting Madame Nhu, aka Trân Lê Xuân, powerful sister-in-law of President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam, staring xedly at him at a press conference before leaving Saigon in September 1963 to seek a papal audience in Rome. Ho had asked her what sort of assistance she wanted from the Vatican. Whatever the reply, less than two months later, while Nhu was still abroad, Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu, her husband, were assassinated in Saigon during a military coup.

Deep empathy

Looking back, it seems as if Lawrence and Marden were similarly destined to meet, for they both had deep empathy with people impacted by war and upheaval.

Marden, who had been born in Shanghai, was a 21-year-old bride when, in 1947, she made the trip to Hong Kong from the UK by ying boat with her new husband.

At their rst home, in Pok Fu Lam, they were surrounded by refugees who had recently poured across the border from China. In 1960, by then mother to three daughters and a son, Marden was invited by Lady Black, wife of the Governor Sir Robert, to become unpaid director of the Hong Kong Red Cross.

During her ve years there, she presided over the inauguration of the Princess

Alexandra Children’s Residential School, Hong Kong’s rst such school for physically disabled children. She also encountered ISS, which was pioneering social work for disabled schoolchildren here.

According to Ho, around this time Marden heard a report by Lawrence on “Radio Newsreel”. Captivated by his authoritative voice, she invited him to a Red Cross event. Lawrence would have been equally interested in the Red Cross as a source of human-interest stories coming out of China’s great famine, which slew millions between 1958 and 1962. When Lawrence retired from the BBC, Marden invited him to join ISS-HK.

Marden, Lawrence and Ho formed an extraordinary trinity, helping to steer ISSHK through di erent eras and challenges and, under Yau’s executive leadership, to enable it to take on other pioneering roles in cross-boundary social services. Today, among its many tasks, ISS-HK serves some 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers from many countries.

In later years, Lawrence and Marden often met in the FCC “bunker” for afternoon tea with the legendary Clare Hollingworth. Marden also gave generous nancial support to the FCC Human Rights Press Awards, which will be hosted by Arizona State University’s journalism school from next year. It was mainly for this reason that, in 2013, the FCC granted her a rare honorary membership. Ever self-e acing, she responded: “I feel totally undeserving of this really nice honour.” n

Ho helped expand the membership of ISS to nearly 120 branches and correspondent organisations all over the world.

Arriving from Sydney in 1978, Sarah Monks joined the FCC under the watchful eye of godfather Richard Hughes. Her working life has encompassed SCMP reporter/news executive; promoting Hong Kong internationally for 20 years; corporate communications; and authoring Toy Town: How a Hong Kong Industry Played a Global Game.

PHOTOS: MARDEN FAMILY /

Above left: Anne Marden in the early 1990s at the Whitehead Detention Centre at Ma On Shan, speaking up for the rights of refugee children to education and play. Above right: The Skyluck , which ran aground on Lamma Island carrying thousands of Vietnamese refugees in 1979, became something of a causecélèbre in Hong Kong and made headlines around the world.

FEATURE ‘TAKE THREE MANAGERS, A BRACE OF CONVENORS AND ONE CHEF, MIX THOROUGHLY TOGETHER AND…’

Co-Convenors:

Hannamiina Tanninen

Genavieve Alexander

Members:

Jean-Paul Gauci

Kismet Singh Harnal

Nan-Hie In

Shainal Jivan

Nigel Sharman

Rory Thomson

The FCC’s F&B Committee is in charge of the mammoth task of overseeing the club’s everyday food, beverage and house operations.

is includes handling an array of issues that concern the general running of the club behind the scenes, such as service quality, sta ng and building maintenance, as well as front-of-house matters like entertainment and the upkeep of member facilities.

Once a month, the eight-strong committee spends a fair amount of time discussing the club’s renowned dining and drinking experiences – looking back at the previous month to talk numbers and logistics, unpacking members’ comments and deliberating on what improvements can be made as well as

what is coming next.

For General Manager Didier Saugy, open dialogue among the committee members and the club’s wider F&B team is very important.

“ e more people we have, the more brains we have, the more ideas come to us and that is very important in the F&B Committee,” says Saugy. “We get our best ideas when all the committee members pick each other’s brains.”

Convenor Genavieve Alexander concurs, adding that the committee bene ts greatly from its members’ diverse backgrounds.

“We have a variety of committee members, including people from di erent professions such as chefs and restaurant owners, all of di erent ages, backgrounds and nationalities,” she says. “We’re lucky

The journey from larder to gullet at the FCC is by no means

straightforward. Amy Sood takes a deep, toothsome dive into the fine rint o the lu s re i e or dining and drin ing su ess

PHOTO: BEN MARANS

General Manager Didier Saugy and his merry catering men – the driving force behind the club’s celebrated F&B.

F&B

to have a group of very passionate foodies and wine-drinkers, who relish events like August’s Trans-Tasmanian Wine Dinner with Flying Winemaker Eddie McDougall.”

Compiling menus

Across six dining spaces, the club serves a wide range of cuisines, including Chinese, Indian and Western, while a multitude of new dishes and cuisines appears in themed promotions or weekly specials.

Executive Chef Johnny Ma, who has been at the club for four years, says that the menu at the club has not changed much, but there are other ways to keep things fresh and interesting for the kitchen sta .

“Where we can introduce changes is the styles and techniques that we use in cooking,” says Ma. “ rough all the events, promotions and themed dinners, we can introduce new styles of cooking from di erent countries to our sta and that is always an exciting time for us and the members.

“For example, we hire guest chefs with expertise in certain countries for our promotional dinners, and these chefs train our sta members on their preferences and methods of cooking.”

It doesn’t stop there. When planning menus for themed events or promotions, a lot of thought is given to providing varying dining experiences for members. For example, during a national food promotion, a menu will be created for the main dining room to provide a ne dining experience, while smaller snacks and discounted drinks following the promotion’s theme will also be served.

“It is a really important task for us to package our promotions so they provide multiple di erent dining experiences for the

members,” says Club Operations Manager Carmen Chan.

Saugy’s experience as a professional chef helps him work with the dining sta at the club when making decisions about the menu.

“It’s a very collaborative relationship, but I am of course very grateful for the creativity and expertise of our chefs and kitchen sta for executing the large menu and implementing new things,” he says.

Saugy and Ma both agree that making changes to the FCC’s longstanding menu, however, is a challenge, and something that can drive up tensions among members.

“We have to be careful because we have a lot of members who have been coming here regularly for years, and they have their favourite menu items that we feel we can’t take away,” says Ma.

Part of the committee’s job is to strike a balance between ensuring members are satis ed, while also keeping track of logistics and looking at sales reports presented by the club’s nancial team to assess how menu items are selling. Alexander says the committee looks at both quantitative and qualitative feedback when thinking about any future changes.

“ is shows how carefully we make our decisions,” she says. “We need to have authentic reasons to make any changes to our menu or operations.”

However, Saugy does see some shifts in the club’s demographics that may suggest menu changes could be coming.

“What I can see more and more of is that the club is changing: for example, we have more younger people joining us,” he says. “At some stage we will have to dig our feet in and make changes to the menu, perhaps making some people unhappy but also some others very happy.”

he lu is hanging for example, we have more younger people joining us

– Didier Saugy

PHOTO:

Genavieve Alexander and Flying Winemaker Eddie McDougall.

Carmen Chan

27OCTOBER 2022THE CORRESPONDENT August’s Trans-Tasman Wine Dinner, starring Eddie McDougall.

A round-up of popular food items, showing average monthly consumption January –July 2022.

345.7 kilos

US Baking Potatoes

13.4 bottles

Tabasco Sauce 60 ml

7.9 kilos

Parmesan Cheese

162.9 kilos

Chicken Breasts

253.3 pieces

Naan Bread

161.1 packets (182g)

Lay’s Potato Chips

563.6 kilos

Button Mushrooms

114.4 kilos

Broccoli

24.9 kilos

Mixed Salad

22.7 litres

Vanilla Ice Cream

33.3 kilos

Strawberries

Wining and more wining

F&B Manager Michael Chan works closely with the GM, the kitchen sta and the marketing and promotions team in managing daily operations.

He also has the herculean task of being the club’s sommelier and runs the Wine Tasting Group. e group – made up of nine FCC members who are passionate about their wine – meet regularly to taste a selection of wines sourced by Chan.

e members then decide on a selection of wines that are promoted extensively as the club’s “wines of the month”.

“Our wine menu changes quite often, depending on the wines’ age and quality,” he says. “Most importantly, we keep a close eye on our sales, and see if certain wines are slow-selling and remove those that aren’t popular. Basically, we let the members’ choices direct us.”

Chan also works closely with the kitchen sta , matching appropriate wines to suit the dishes being sold during national promotions and other events.

Cocking an ear

A huge part of the committee’s attention goes on seeking out and listening to feedback and suggestions from members.

is feedback comes in the form of comment cards left by members during events, emails to the GM and other committee members, and sometimes even the odd WhatsApp message.

“It’s very important to us that we take the members’ suggestions into consideration, whether this feedback is positive or negative,” says Saugy. “Negative comments can be especially helpful, as we take them in a positive and constructive way and try to make improvements.”

Sometimes this feedback can prompt lengthy discussions about menu items – Saugy recalls a particularly amusing meeting when the committee members discussed the club’s bread selection for a full 90 minutes.

Convenor Hannamiina Tanninen says committee members make sure they go through each and every comment card. Normally, this tends to be around 10 to 20 cards every month, depending on the number of events held at the club.

“We also try to talk to members face to face,” she says. “People also approach us with their thoughts, especially since they know you’re part of the F&B team.

“Personally, I’ll speak to the members but I also try all the dishes and new

menu items myself – at my own expense, obviously. Let’s call that part of the research.”

Speaking to members and understanding their sentiments can also help the committee members generate new ideas for events or promotions.

“We have been trying to move with the times and give really good value and variety to our members,” says Alexander. “For example, as a lot of our members have not been able to travel much over the past few years, we have had ideas like Around the World in Flavours to o er di erent cuisines to our members.

“We now also have winemakers coming back to the region which will be great for us in the coming months. ey can help bring a piece of their culture and cuisine, and hopefully that helps our members feel a bit more connected and transported to those other regions around the world.”

Alexander also came up with the idea of Afternoon Tea at the Verandah, aiming to provide a relaxing yet tempting interlude at the weekend and on public holidays.

“ e Verandah provides a great environment for that, especially in the summer months,” she says.

Pandemic woes

e committee has been faced with some challenges and curveballs as a result of changing COVID-19 restrictions in Hong Kong.

A number of logistical issues cropped up over the past two years, including the rising costs of produce and ingredients, as well as

Hannamiina Tanninen

As the old saying goes: wine ies when you re having fun.

PHOTO:

shipments. Dining restrictions after 6 pm meant that the number of people coming to the club was signi cantly lowered and group events like banquets or weddings at the club came to a shuddering halt.

“We have had quite a few challenges lately with availability of produce and sourcing,” says Alexander. “We don’t want our members to take the hit of the cost, and we have to make decisions so we as a club don’t also take a big hit from rising costs.”

Tanninen adds: “As much as we want to o er a good service and exciting new menu items and events to our members, we really have to keep a close eye on that bottom line.”

With the restrictions nally easing over the past few months, Saugy and Chan have also been faced with the challenge of ensuring their F&B teams are in good spirits and adjusting to the busier environment.

“If a machine has been working slowly for a few months, and then suddenly it goes into overdrive, things can be a bit di cult,” says Saugy. “As managers, it’s important that we let our sta adjust to that busy routine again, and look after their wellbeing.”

Still, the club has been able to navigate the changing restrictions without once being shut for breaking any rules. It’s a great feat for any large F&B operation in Hong Kong – and a testament to the hard work put in by the sta .

“Working around the grey lines and

making sure we’re following the rules set by the government is obviously something we have to pay attention to,” says Chan. “ is has even led to strange conversations about whether having a Santa Claus during our Christmas event would count as a ‘live performance’ and whether it would be safer to replace him with a cardboard cut-out.”

What’s next?

Alexander says the committee members have been consistent proponents of introducing online measures to ease members’ access and improve their experiences at the club. is includes upgrading the club website to o er online bookings, online takeaways and a section to order wine and club merchandise.

“We are now looking to launch an app which stretchess across F&B and communications,” adds Alexander. “ is app is an extension of our website and will incorporate more new features for our members to use.”

e rollback of restrictions also promises a number of exciting events for the committee to sink their teeth into during the coming months, including Oktoberfest, Diwali, Halloween and anksgiving.

“We are preparing and hoping for a busy end of year with our upcoming events and all the festivities,” says Saugy. “Improving on previous years and introducing new events can be a challenge but is always exciting for all of us.” n

PHOTO: LAKSHMI HARILELA

Amy Sood is a Clare Hollingworth fellow and a reporter on the South China Morning Post ’s Asia Desk. Before her current role, she was a digital verification reporter at AFP and has written for CNN and NBC News.

Chefs put the finishing touches to Argentinian dishes, one of the many international cuisines that they tackle each year.

nu er o logisti al issues ro ed u o er the past two years, in luding the rising osts o rodu e

When Language Fails

AFP photojournalists have been documenting the horror visited on Ukraine since Russia’s unprovoked assault last February. This double-page spread is presented in tribute to their work.

Ukraine has been called the rst TikTok war. Yet despite the avalanche of amateur video freely available worldwide since Russia’s illegal invasion, the truth rests with images taken by bona de professionals.

Apart from anything else, it’s their ability to seek out the kernel of the story that brings the most arresting results

– witness the AFP team who uncovered the suspected massacre of civilians in Bucha in April.

To end on a chilling note: according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 12 media professionals have been killed in the cross re, including photojournalists and camera operators.

4

5

1 Fleeing an artillery bombardment, a man wheels his meagre possessions along on a bicycle through the streets of Kharkiv.

Photo by Aris Messinis/AFP.

2 Separated by a railway carriage’s window pane, evacuees mouth their farewells to a young man on the platform at Odessa station. Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP.

3 Russia’s ambassador to Poland, Sergey Andreev, contemplates his paint-smeared hands after protestors attacked him at a ceremony to commemorate Soviet soldiers in Warsaw on 9 May.

Photo by Wojtek Radwanski/AFP.

4 Displaying rather less composure than usual, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky inspects Bucha, where civilian corpses were found in the streets after Russian forces were driven out of the town.

Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP.

5 Ukrainian refugees – some of the 11.5 million who are estimated to have ed their homeland cross the border into Poland at Zosin-Ustyluh.

Photo by Daniel Leal/AFP.

6 A Russian soldier climbs the stairs at the Mariupol drama theatre.

Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP, taken during a tour organised by the Russian military

2

Hong Kong, my Home!

It’s a very simple recipe for success: set a bunch of student photographers loose with their cameras on their home turf – then sit back and relish the results.

Astimulating selection of photographs by students from four of Hong Kong’s universities made for an expo with a di erence – delivering images that ranged from merry harbourside snaps to more poignant portraits of people struggling to make ends meet.

e aim was simple: to showcase a snapshot of how the younger generation views the lives, livelihoods and political changes unfolding in the city they call home.

e FCC Wall committee would like to thank Eric Poon of CUHK, Sunny Chan of CityU, Robin Ewing of HKBU and AJ Libunao of HKU for their assistance in selecting photographs by their students for submission to this exhibition.

1

2 Dwarfed by high-rises, a man makes his lonely way along a fetid alley pushing a trolley laden with cardboard for recycling.

Photo by Zhangqi Ye, CUHK.

3 When masks became Hong Kongers’ second faces, many chose something colourful to express creativity and personality.

Photo by Lance Shuting, CUHK.

4 Soaking up the sunshine - and the ambience - on West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade. Photo by Gaia Guatri, HKU.

1 Perched on a stepladder, a worker trains a hairdryer on ags stretched above the steps of the Centrium Building on the morning of the National Day Holiday. Photo by Adrien Carat, HKU.

5 A contender for The Iconic HK Shot: a butcher in Chun Yeung Street market dozes beneath his wares, photo-bombed by a brace of smiley Cyclops drawers. Photo by Wong Yee Shan, CUHK.

Formula One – The Speed Of Light

Who could fail to be thrilled by one of the world’s sexiest spectator sports? It’s certainly been a passion for Brit photog Clive Mason for the past quarter-century.

Attracting a global television audience of over 1.5 billion every year, and with individual events drawing crowds of up to 400,000, Formula One is rmly established as one of the world’s most popular spectator sports. As a showcase for cutting-edge technology, Formula One attracts companies from beyond the motor industry as well as showcasing the talents of the world’s nest drivers, with a new generation of stars now emerging.

“Formula One – e Speed Of Light” showcased 25 years of Formula One photography by Briton Clive Mason, from the historic tracks of Monaco and Monza to the modern autodromes of the Middle East.

Mason (“My hobby is my job”) has been a sta sports photographer with Getty Images since 1994. He has covered ve Olympic sailing regattas, ve winter Olympics and over 400 Formula One Grands Prix, in addition to numerous other sports events. Recognised with numerous awards, his work can be found at gettyimages.com.

3 Incredibly, Lance Stroll of Canada walked away unscathed after being ipped upside down in a collision in Bahrain in November 2020.

4 Everyone loves a winner: adoring fans hoist Italy’s Giancarlo Fisichella aloft in Monza, Italy in September 1997.

5 See the conquering hero... Michael Schumacher of Germany pitches up for a Ferrari team photo in Barcelona in May 2005.

1 The money shot: Finland’s Valtteri Bottas pops his cork at Sochi, Russia, in September 2020.

2 Sparks y behind utchman Max Verstappen’s Aston Martin in September 2018 in Singapore.

It was the Best of Times

The spotlight was trained unerringly on Hong Kong: but how to avoid the cliches, and come up with a single crisp image that encapsulated the hopes and fears of the 1997 Handover and everything it portended?

It was something everyone had known was going to happen for a long time: but nobody quite knew how it was going to turn out.

As it transpired, there was great deal of rain; ga es giving rise to diplomatic incidents were conspicuous by their absence; and certain parties stole o into the night rubbing their hands in modi ed glee.

A quarter-century on, certain images still have the power to resonate, while others border on the comical or quaint.

For anyone who was actually in Hong Kong on 30 June 1997, the date was de nitely – to climb aboard the most obvious metaphor – something of a watershed.

2 It’s the student demonstrator’s stare, as much as his haircut, that makes this photograph such a sign of the times. Not a pose to be recommended nowadays.

Photo by Dan Groshong/ AFP.

3 Some bamboo scaffolding, two blokes in shorts and a couple of buckets of whitewash were all it took to delete the Royal Hong Kong Police logo at Western police station.

Photo by Lois Raimondo/AP.

4 Nothing said ‘Hand it Over’ louder than a People’s Liberation Army convoy motoring through the streets of Hong Kong. Photo by Robin Moyer.

5 Don’t give up the day job. People’s Liberation Army dancers strut their celebratory stuff on 1 July 1997.

Photo by Birdy Chu.

1 Countdown to midnight: the gubernatorial Rolls-Royce bearing Chris Patten leaves Government House.

Photo by Franki Chan/AP.

Setting the World on Fire

Climate change really should be at the very top of the news agenda, as these images of heatwaves and ildfires ro around the orld a e a undantl lear

For the past three years, wild res have ranged around the world, sparked by sky-high temperatures which in turn are the product of global warming.

In Australia, North America and Europe, images of re ghters outlined against a backdrop of scarlet have become all too familiar.

According to a recent United Nations Report produced by more than 50 climate scientists, the frequency of such devastating wild res will continue to surge, with a 30 percent increase predicted by 2050.

“Burning Planet” documented the destructive force and tragic human toll of these increasingly common events.

2 Baiao in northern Portugal was one of many parts of continental Europe to be ravaged by wildfire this summer.

Photo by Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP.

3 irefighters work to control ames from a backfire during the Maria fire in Santa Paula, California.

Photo by Josh Edelson.

4 In southern England, the seaside resort of Brighton, with its stony beach and choppy seas, is not used to blazing sunshine, far less to temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius.

Photo by Daniel Leal/AFP.

5 An aircraft drops fire retardant over California in August 2020. Photo by Josh Edelson.

35OCTOBER 2022THE CORRESPONDENT 3

1 An injured koala is treated for burns at Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park off the coast of southern Australia in January 2020. Photo by Peter Parks/AFP.

Presenting This Autumn’s Star-studded Line-up

Apart from a plastic surgeon, a martial arts whizz and a chap who set up a cold storage business, the club’s e ers no e ra e a ianist a autist and a o oser ti e to or that and

HELEN AU

I was born and bred in Hong Kong. I am a litigator and an arbitrator, and I embrace my work with passion and enthusiasm. I am lucky to have easy access to the mountains for trail-running and to the sea for sailing. I like the outdoors, and being immersed in the tranquillity and energy that nature bestows. I also enjoy classical music – how I wish I could be a better pianist, and be able to spend more time playing it. Brahms and Chopin are two of my favourite composers. Jazz is a species I enjoy, but don’t understand.

www.linkedin.com/in/helen-hl-au/

JUSTIN CAMPBELL

I’m excited to be a member of the club’s vibrant community. I arrived from London last March and have no regrets. I rst set foot in Hong Kong at Kai Tak Airport as a child and stayed at the now-defunct Excelsior before moving to Indonesia for several years. I have visited Hong Kong many times since then and was happy to choose it over other places. I’m in the insurance industry and a director at the BelgiumLuxembourg Chamber. I think my oddest skill is that I speak Luxembourgish. My main hobbies are hiking and foreign languages. I have also proven useful when it comes to quiz nights in Hong Kong – although I wasn’t as clever at these in London.

linkedin.com/in/justin-campbell-digital-transformations

HING CHAO

AARON BUSCH

With 30,000 followers on Twitter, I report daily the COVID-19 situation in Hong Kong for Englishlanguage users. After studying journalism at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, I embarked on a career as a radio newsreader, newspaper journalist and nally a breakfast radio DJ before pivoting to a stay-athome dad to his two children. I do not like wearing long trousers.

@tripperhead

Over the past 20 years, I have pursued careers in the elds of shipping, arts and culture, and education. My main job is running a shipping company, but I am perhaps better known for my work in the cultural sector, particularly in relation to martial arts. I have produced and curated several exhibitions in Hong Kong and internationally, including “Way of the Sword: Warrior Traditions in China and Italy” at Tai Kwun in 2021. I have also written books, organised competitions and was responsible for building the rst 3D kung fu archive. Beyond martial arts, I have broad engagement with the arts and culture community in Hong Kong. I founded the annual Hong Kong Culture Festival in 2015 and continue to run it today.

linkedin.com/in/hing-chao-64a10216b/

TOM FU

I was brought up in Hong Kong, and started my career here as a lawyer in the 1990s. Following my clients’ move to the mainland, I went to Beijing in 2006, and was based there until I relocated to Hong Kong last year. For my work, I get to meet many interesting people from all walks of life, which I enjoy very much. Exploring hiking trails and the outlying islands with my family are my favourite pastimes. I also write articles occasionally.

linkedin.com/in/tomfu instagram.com/tomfutomfu/ facebook.com/tom.fu.397

KELLY HUTCHISON

I’m a counsellor and psychotherapist in private practice, focused on helping people live rich, purposeful lives. is was after a 25-year career in human resources, which took me all over the world. I have a lot of amusing work stories – good for a chat over a beer at the Main Bar.

Music pulled me out of life in small-town USA. At 13, I was selected to join a national youth orchestra for a tour of Europe. I was both excited and terri ed. It was my rst time on a plane and my rst real sense that there was a world out there beyond the corn elds of Iowa. I later studied ute at Florida State University before realising that a life of auditions and practice rooms was not for me.

I moved to Australia in 2000, thinking I’d be there for 12 months, but never looked back. I met my husband Nick in Melbourne. e story of our wedding is another one for the bar. We came to Hong Kong in 2009 and have been here pretty much ever since. I love this city and the can-do spirit of Hong Kong’s people. It is my home.

linkedin.com/in/kelly-hutchison-1692232/

CLEMENT LAM

I am a generalist leader with rich experience in managing various functions and businesses in aviation and cold-chain logistics. Having spent almost all my career with Cathay Paci c Airways and the Swire Group, in 2019 I went to Harvard University and became its Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow. is is a programme researching the delivery of social impact for a selected target group. Right now, I am involved in the travel business, working in entrepreneurship education for higher education students and consulting for non-pro ts and SMEs.

During my career I’ve lived and worked in a variety of places, including ailand, the UAE, Indonesia, mainland China and the UK. I set up a cold storage business in China from scratch. I have also been through events such as the rst Gulf War in 1990 and the 1998 socioeconomic crisis in Indonesia, which should qualify me as a crisis manager, too.

linkedin.com/in/clement-lam-a190161a

PAUL LAM

I was born in Hong Kong and spent most of my teenage years in Stanley. en I trained as a pharmacist in Australia, returning to Hong Kong shortly after 1997. I was a pharmacist at the erapeutic Goods Administration and the Hong Kong Drug O ce. A few years after my return to Hong Kong, I also developed a passion for – and started working in – investments. Currently, my main work is in asset management and brokerage (equity and derivatives). My passion for healthcare inspired me to establish DHPSiO with fellow pharmacists, an information platform advocating for increased public awareness of drugs’ and health products’ safety.

instagram.com/dhpsio/

NEW MEMBERS

JANET LEE

I moved to Hong Kong eight years ago after marrying my husband Daniel. Our daughter Harper was born just a few months ago and we live together with our Labrador Cheddar. Hong Kong is home to us and we hope to live here for a very long time. We are extremely happy to join the FCC and look forward to contributing to the community.

JULIAN LIM CHUNG-YI

I am Malaysian and grew up in the UK. I moved to Hong Kong in 2006 from London after becoming curious about life in Asia, espcially its politics and culture. I thought that living in this city would be interesting, and I was by no means wrong.

Now I live here with my family. I run a consultancy called Alpha Calibration, advising nancial institutions and developing technology and compliance systems. What I really like about my job is building things and helping people, so I am looking for ways to do that outside of work – perhaps by getting more involved in the cultural and political development of Hong Kong, as well as in Malaysia. When I was studying law at university, I wrote and produced music, so I am hoping that will be a big part of my future also.

linkedin.com/in/juliancylim

BEN LO

I double-majored in marketing and management before embarking on a career as a CPA in Hong Kong. After almost seven years working in banking and investment management assurance and regulatory advisory practices, I moved to Shanghai to take up a nancial controller role in a US freight forwarding company, which was truly an eye-opening and inspirational experience. I am now based in Hong Kong, focusing on business processes and controls in the nancial services industry.

I believe knowledge and skillsets are mostly transferrable. As long as we are motivated to step out of our comfort zones and put in extra e ort, we will reach greater heights in life. I enjoy indoor cycling, playing badminton and spending quality time with my loved ones.

PAUL MCSHEAFFREY

I am a partner at KPMG, working in our nancial services practice. I am also the British Chamber of Commerce’s treasurer. I have lived in Hong Kong for 18 years with my wife and have two boys, who are 11 and 14 and were both born here.

In my spare time I hike around the trails of Hong Kong – I am currently working my way through the four longest. I also coach mini-rugby at the Hong Kong Football Club.

I have visited the FCC many times over the years as a guest of friends and always enjoyed my visits. I am looking forward to visiting the club more and getting to know the members better.

linkedin.com/in/paul-mcsheaffrey-718197b/

AND YET MORE NEW MEMBERS:

MLADEN ANTONOV Photo Editor-in-Chief for Asia-Paci c, AFP

VANESSA BARRS Chair Professor of Companion Animal Health, City University of Hong Kong

CHIA AN-PEI CEO, SingAlliance (Hong Kong)

MARK DE SILVA Senior ESG Engagement Analyst, HSBC Asset

DORON GROSSMAN Managing Director, Crawford (Hong Kong)

MARTIN KRONBORG Fund Manager, Torq Capital

JEFFREY LAM Analyst, Goldman Sachs

PATRICK LAMOINE Video Live Producer, Agence France-Presse

ANTHONY LANGRIDGE Chairman, OneGlobal

LEE LI-HSIEN Architectural Project Manager, Allied Properties

JONATHAN LLOYD Group Corporate Secretary, Jardine Matheson

SAMUEL MAK Public A airs Consultant, Madison Communications

JORGE MARRERO Chief Operating O cer, BTIG Hong Kong

RAYMOND TAM YU-MING Investment Banker, Investment Management

ADRIAN VALENZUELA Chief Executive O cer, MCM Partners

PHILIP WIXON Head of HR Transformation, e Hong Kong Jockey Club

How to become a member

As might be surmised, you don’t have to be foreign or a correspondent to join the FCC – just clubbable. The monthly subscription is HK$1,100. Full details of how to join are available at: fcchk.org/membership/how-to-become-a-member/

PROFESSIONAL CONTACTS

PHOTOGRAPHERS

CARSTENSCHAEL.COM – Award-winning Photographer. People - Corporate - Stills - FoodArchitecture - Transport. Tel: (852) 9468 1404 Email: info@carstenschael.com

JAYNE RUSSELL PHOTOGRAPHY – EditorialPeople - Food. 18 years Fleet St, London experience. Tel: (852) 9757 8607 Email: jaynerussell@me.com Website: www.jaynerussellphotography.com

Singapore vs Hong Kong: the battle of the Asian hubs

Contrasts and comparisons between Singapore and Hong Kong are nothing new, but the competition, perceived or real, between the two cities has only heated up since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. As many expats are choosing to leave Hong Kong for mask-free pastures in Singapore, there is increased focus on Singapore’s o erings.

“Hong Kong is really committing economic suicide with many of its COVID-19 restrictions,” says Donald Low, professor of practice in public policy at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, adding that Singapore isn’t striving to overtake Hong Kong as a hub as much as Hong Kong is losing its footing due to its own choices. “ e fact that we’re even asking this question… says a lot about how Hong Kong is screwing up.

“Singapore doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be better than its rivals.”

But anyone seeking a less paternalistic government should not look to Singapore for relief. e Southeast Asian city is even more thorough in its approach to overseeing the lives of its citizens, and the city’s popular principles, such as social housing, stand in contrast to its often hardline autocratic approaches, which sti e political opposition.

“Singapore and Hong Kong have always been an interesting, though somewhat abstract, study in contrast,” says Cherian George, professor of media studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. “Now people are asking, ‘Is today’s Singapore the Hong Kong of the future?’”

Over the last few years, that contrast has taken on a more practical signi cance for the people and businesses deciding their futures in Asia. Politics is sure to play a part in decision making, particularly for those working in journalism or other industries that may abut the government.

“Hong Kong has gone through this ugly period in 2020,

Back in July, local experts at a club lunch debated how political changes could position the Lion City to overtake Hong Kong as the region’s hub for talent and economic success.

By Morgan M Davis

“Politics is sure to play a part in decision making, particularly for those working in journalism or other industries that may abut the government.”

EVENTS

In Case You Missed It

2021, with unprecedented attacks on media,” says George. “Singapore, in contrast, is a sea of calm. at sea of calm is only a sea of calm because Singapore did a Hong Kong 50 years ago.”

If Singapore is an example of what Hong Kong could become, people should either be comforted or terri ed, depending on their political views.

“[Singapore] has created an electoral system that is not fair,” says George. “But it’s free enough to continue to be accepted by the opposition and its supporters as the only game in town.”

Recently, Singapore has made some political concessions as it adapts to shifting cultural views. Most notably, the republic repealed a ban on sex between men. But as the speakers pointed out, the liberalisation of the city goes hand in hand with an underlying conservative approach to politics and social norms. For instance, the legalisation of gay sex was paired with a doubling down on the sanctity of marriage being between a man and a woman.

While human rights may not be constitutionally important for Singapore, the economy is still a priority and decisions that will bene t business are sure to nd strong support, in stark contrast to Hong Kong’s COVID-19 policies.

Says Low: “When it chooses to be, the Singaporean government can be extremely… open.” n

Interested in the FCC’s online and offline conversations? Check our calendar of upcoming events: fcchk.org/events.

COVID-19-19 in Hong Kong: What next?

With Dr Ben Cowling, infectious diseases specialist; and Aaron Busch, Twitter’s @tripperhead

While Hong Kong has already made twists and changes in its approach to COVID-19 since this July talk, the core of the conversation remains relevant. Will the city remained tied to China’s “zero-COVID-19” policies, or will the government edge toward a more international approach?

Watch the conversation here: https://www.fcchk.org/event/club-lunchCOVID-19-in-hong-kong-what-next

Club Screening: ‘We Don’t Dance for Nothing’

A film about the entrapment and freedom experienced by domestic workers in Hong Kong

Stefanos Tai has created a lm that shares the experiences of Hong Kong’s Filipina domestic workers in the rapidly changing environment of the last few years. is popular event was repeated for a total of three showings at the FCC, including two screenings open to domestic workers in the city.

Learn more here: https://www.fcchk.org/event/club-screening-wedont-dance-for-nothing-a-film-about-the-entrapment-and-freedomexperienced-by-domestic-workers-of-hong-kong-2

Hilton Cheong-Leen: First Chinese “Mayor” of Hong Kong

With Gary Cheung, author and assistant editor-in-chief of Ming Pao; and Oliver Chou, author and music historian

Before his death earlier this year at the age of 100, Cheong-Leen wrote a memoir with Gary Cheung and Oliver Chou. e coauthors shared their take on the legendary advocate of the Hong Kong people.

Watch the conversation here: https://www.fcchk.org/event/clublunch-hilton-cheong-leen-first-chinese-mayor-of-hong-kong

Top: Cherian George. Above: Donald Low

‘A newspaperman, and a brilliant one at that’

by Jon Marsh

Ewen Campbell at the Eastern Express.

Warm, funny, generous… A great colleague, an even better friend… e bloke you wanted beside you in the o ce as deadlines loomed, and sitting next to you in the pub afterwards. e tributes to Ewen Campbell have owed thick and fast since Hong Kong lost one of its most talented and best-loved journalists.

An FCC stalwart, he lunched at the same table in Bert’s with the same close friends almost every Friday for more than 15 years; popular rants included Trump, Brexit and Boris. On Sunday afternoons, he was a regular at the China Bear in Mui Wo.

Hong Kong took to Ewen the moment he stepped o the plane in 1986 to join the South China Morning Post. And, despite a typically brutal introduction to Murdoch journalism – he was shafted before he even started – he returned the favour to the city with all that lust for life everyone loved in him.

Hired as sports editor, he arrived to nd that seat taken and was shu ed o to the back bench before eventually taking over the sports editor’s role. At the time, Murdoch executives ruled the Post via a mix of fear and stupidity. Ewen (among others) took particular relish in winding up an especially thick deputy editor nicknamed BIFFO – Big, Ignorant Fucker from Oz.

Ewen next found himself at the centre of the launch of Eastern Express by the Oriental Press Group in 1994 where editor Steve Vines was quick to recruit him as production editor.

ey were exciting, stressful times. “ e launch deadline was very tight and the new technology shaky,” says former managing editor Jon Marsh. “His relentless energy and extraordinary ability to get people to work together pulled us through. He was the glue. Without Ewen, Eastern Express would never have met that deadline. He was a force of nature, and a wonderful friend and colleague.”

Despite the teething problems, the new daily was an editorial success. Relations with the management were at rst cordial, with chairman CK Ma playing the role of generous patron. Over drinks one evening Ma asked: “Would you like a cigar?” Ewen replied: “A car?” Amazed, Ma countered: “You want a car?” He then gave him a second-hand runabout, a very slight upgrade on his old banger.

However, bolting an English-language newspaper onto a large, family-run Chinese newspaper group proved to be fraught with di culties. Relations with management soon soured, leading to an exodus of senior sta , and it closed within two years.

By then Ewen was in Bangkok, working on another newspaper, Asia Times. Launched in 1995, the project was the brainchild of Sondhi Limthongkul, a amboyant ai media mogul. Again, Ewen helped muscle the publication into life despite working with an eccentric, almost comically inexperienced production team. But the newspaper su ered commercial challenges and fell victim to the 1997 Asian nancial crisis.

Next stop was Auckland, where Ewen became sports editor of The New Zealand Herald before returning to Hong Kong in the early 2000s. He went on to work for the iMail and the satirical magazine Spike before re-joining the SCMP, leaving as night editor in 2012. Ewen later moved into corporate communications before helping to resuscitate the online version of Asia Times as an editorial consultant.

At the start of his career in England, he initially worked for the Whitley Bay Guardian and e Northern Echo and in 1979 joined the Daily Star. Close friend Gordon Watts said: “Ewen was always a newspaper man, and a brilliant one at that. He was also one of life’s good guys.” Another former colleague, Steve Wolstencroft, nailed it when he said: “ ere aren’t many people in the sometimes-backstabbing world of newspapers who never have a bad word said about them. Ewen was one of them. He was the bloke you’d want to have beside you in the o ce and next to you at the bar in the pub.”

Ewen died from cancer last July, aged 69. He leaves his beloved partner Teri, daughters Sarah and Molly, son Hamish and grandchildren Malcolm and Edie. n

EWEN CAMPBELL:

The China Watcher who China Watchers Watched

by Frank Ching

Suzanne Pepper, a noted China scholar who called Hong Kong home for more than half a century, died in late June, days after a week-long hospital stay for a battery of tests. She was 83 years old.

Suzanne arrived in Hong Kong in the 1960s to study Chinese, and promptly met fellow student Virupax Ganesh Kulkarni – known as VG – an Indian army o cer attached to his country’s consulate. e pair decided to marry. VG left government service to become a journalist. He and Suzanne tied the knot in New York in June 1970.

VG studied journalism at Columbia University and interned at United Press International. Suzanne got a PhD in politics from the University of California at Berkeley.

e couple returned to Hong Kong in the 1970s. VG began his journalistic career while Suzanne renewed her a liation with the Universities Service Centre (USC) on Argyle Street, where she had previously done research. It had been set up in 1963 by American scholars to study Mao Zedong’s revolutionary China and was funded by various foundations.

In a history of the centre that Suzanne wrote in 1988, she said: “In its prime… the USC served as the main research base in the eld for several generations of China scholars... as interest quickened during the late 1960s and 1970s, a period of a liation with the USC became de rigueur for American social scientists in particular.”

She was to be associated with the centre for the rest of her life.

As John Dol n, the USC’s longest serving director, said of Suzanne, she and the USC “have become synonymous in the minds of virtually everyone in the international China studies eld.”

Hong Kong was long the China-watching capital of the world, and western scholarly e orts centred on the USC.

However Beijing was highly suspicious. On 27 December 1979, the People’s Daily, in an article on a di erent subject, mentioned in passing that the USC was a “national front organisation of spies.”

is remarkable charge was followed by a rare retraction the following month and a letter of apology to the centre’s director.

e opening-up of China led scholars – and foundations – to shift their interest northward. e USC’s loss of

nancial support led to its closure in 1988, when its holdings were taken over by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Suzanne, too, moved to the university.

CUHK kept the centre going for three more decades. Last year, its holdings were placed within the university’s library, but Suzanne, a ery writer and speaker who lived up to her patronymic, managed to cling onto her perch.

She authored major books on the Chinese civil war and education reform in the 1980s. In 2008, she brought out Keeping Democracy at Bay: Hong Kong and the Challenge of Chinese Political Reform.

VG died in 2014, after which the FCC made Suzanne an honorary lifetime member.

About that time, Suzanne started her blog, Hong Kong Focus, and began publishing articles in the media. When Hong Kong Free Press launched in 2015, she became a contributing writer, providing analyses on political a airs; she later became a columnist, bringing her knowledge of China to bear while analysing Hong Kong politics.

In a recent piece after John Lee emerged as Beijing’s choice for Chief Executive, Suzanne examined the implications of the move.

“Beijing is making the rules and Beijing is deciding up front who will be Hong Kong’s next Chief Executive,” she wrote. “No more niceties about public opinion, consultations and the like. ere must be no doubt as to the source of authority for this decision.”

Suzanne was at the university six days a week. She did not have a computer at home. She also did not have a mobile phone.

is made it di cult for people to contact her during her nal days. Several, including her sister, Patricia in California – another sister, Katie, lives in New York – and close friends Jean Hung and John Dol n, were able to speak to her. eir later inability to reach her resulted in the police being called, who subsequently found her body at home.

Suzanne’s death brought forth a torrent of accolades from the academic community.

“Suzanne Pepper deserves honour in our eld, and I believe that scholarly attention to her works will increase further in later years,” said Lynn White, a Princeton University scholar. “We will miss this spicy person too.”

He won’t be the only one. n

SUZANNE PEPPER:

Suzanne Pepper lived up to her fiery patronymic.

TAD STONER:

‘Hot as a pistol, but cool inside’: journalist, publican, guitarist and very much more by Paul Ehrlich

Tad – Bartine Albert Stoner III – was a character of the highest order. He was loud, witty, smart and kind-hearted, though he would have denied this with a deep, full-throated laugh. What he wouldn’t deny is an a nity for whimsical braces (aka suspenders), a sartorial ourish for which he became renowned.

Born in Philadelphia in 1951, Tad attended Swarthmore High School and Pennsylvania State University. He later studied journalism as a postgraduate at the University of Missouri, where he met his future wife, Iris. “Tad was a cutie,” she recalls. “When I met him, he had long hair and the most amazing blue eyes. Hard to resist!”

Tad travelled to Beijing in 1981; Iris arrived six months later, and they were married the day after she landed. Following two years sub-editing at Xinhua News Agency, they spent a holiday in Hong Kong and fell in love with the place. “It had everything Beijing didn’t,” says Iris, “including a vibrant press, an abundance of energy and a thriving entertainment scene. Plus, back then, it was free of the oppression that was prevalent all over China from both a journalistic and social perspective.”

e couple moved to Peng Chau, living in the same hilltop home for 20 years, raising their three children – Erin, Ben and Adam – and, at one point, co-owning and operating e Forest bar and restaurant. “It was the rst place in Hong Kong to serve the Belgian wheat beer, Hoegaarden, which required e ort to ensure its continued freshness,” recalls Iris. “Tad would happily regale each patron with the story of the beer, regardless of whether they were ordering it, asked about it or were there for a completely di erent drink.

“He also was in charge of the music and kept a tight rein on his CD collection. As time went on, he loosened up a bit and would take requests. But when Jerry Garcia died in 1995, he played his very extensive collection of Grateful Dead CDs nonstop for several days, which did not go down well with all of the regulars.”

A talented guitarist himself – playing his much-loved Martin acoustic – he’d join fellow journo friends dubbed e Sti Picks: Nigel Armstrong on bass, Robin Lynam on guitar, Karin Malmstrom on ddle, and Steve Shellum on steel guitar and banjo. “Tad always led the way with a seemingly bottomless well of songs and was also a strong vocalist,” says Shellum.

Tad’s rst job in Hong Kong found him reporting for Commercial Radio. He also wrote for the South China Morning Post, TIME and e Hollywood Reporter. He put in a stint as executive speechwriter and corporate communications o cer for STAR TV, and later became chief reporter for the Eastern Express. After selling e Forest in

1998, he joined PCCW as corporate communications o cer.

After more than two decades in Asia, in 2005 the couple decided they wanted to be closer to their ageing parents and their daughter, who was at university in the US, but they didn’t want to live there. Iris had a connection to the Cayman Islands through a friend, and after a successful interview with the then-daily newspaper, Caymanian Compass, they moved there and worked as reporters. Other jobs followed.

Over the last few years, Tad renewed his focus on playing the guitar, despite having lost a few ngers to a rare, chronic autoimmune skin disorder. “He and our son Adam practised enough to develop quite a repertoire of mostly classic rock,” says Iris. “For the last year or so, they performed together at open-mic nights every week around Grand Cayman.”

Tad bravely fought several medical battles over the years. at he lived with courage and grace and humour throughout is an inspiration.

Tad died on 17 June, aged 70. He leaves behind his wife Iris, daughter Erin and son-in-law Chris, sons Ben and Adam, grandchildren Max and Lyla – who called him GrandTad – mother Elizabeth Welsh and brother Jonathan. n

Top: Tad Stoner at an office Christmas party in 2017. Above: Iris and Tad outside their house in Peng Chau, around 2004

Photographer Tim Page (1944-2022)

Tim Page lived a life unparalleled.

He left England aged 17 with just £15 and overlanded to Asia, where more by luck than judgement he landed a job with United Press International. Never far from the frontline during the Vietnam War, Page shot alongside other media stars like Sean Flynn and Neil Davis and was severely wounded four times. Described as “the most extravagant of the wigged-out crazies running around Vietnam”, he partly inspired the unhinged photographer played by Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now Page photographed other con icts in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Israel, and worked tirelessly to commemorate the memory of journalists who had perished in IndoChina. e nine books he wrote about his experiences were well received; as professor of photojournalism at Gri th University in Australia he captivated his students; and he also mentored young Afghan journalists as a UN photographic peace ambassador.

Never one to be constricted by the dictates of polite discourse, Page was quite frank about what drew him to his metier. In 2013 he told Vice magazine: “I shouldn’t really say this, but Vietnam was fun… it was a fun time. We would go to the gun range… smoke great opium and get a cold beer. It was dangerous… but the rewards were quite reasonable. In terms of a place to have a war, Vietnam was a great place.”

Page died of cancer in August at his home in New South Wales. One obituary described him as a “gonzo combat photographer who would venture where others feared to tread”. He was certainly a distinguished man of his time – and utterly removed from the frou-frou social media reporting of today. n

PHOTO: LUKE HUNT

Page in the gardens of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh in January 2013.

A swarm of helicopters buzzes above a South Vietnamese patrol in the Thap Muoi Plain, 1965.

South Vietnamese troops and an American soldier surround two captured Vietcong suspects.

An American tank fords Ben Hai River, south of Con Thien, Vietnam, 1968.

A RIDDLE, WRAPPED IN A MYSTERY, INSIDE AN ENIGMA

Whither the Philippines, and how did the country go from the heady optimism of the 1950s to the turbulence of today’s Marcos presidency? Mark Jones delves into an exhaustive study.

Perhaps the saddest paragraph in this book occurs in the chapter on the huge Filipino diaspora. e author is writing about the sizeable (but invisible) community in California.

Filipino Californians, he writes, are “not seen as Asian even by themselves”. With their Spanish heritage, Catholicism and names, they might belong more properly to the Latino subculture. But geography and physiology tell a di erent story.

Philip Bowring chooses the wellworn image of the jigsaw puzzle to describe the unmet challenge of piecing together the Philippines’ fragmented geography and anomalous history (this was the only Spanish possession in Asia and a rare American venture into a sort of colonialism). You wonder if the question is not more one of GPS: where can the Philippines position itself in global culture and international a airs?

He o ers an exhaustive account of the country and the personalities that have shaped it. He conveys an overwhelming sense of failed potential and missed opportunity. Post-war, supported by a United States then at its most creative and generous as it sought to build a better world order, the Philippines was in a much stronger position than its near neighbours. In 1950, it had a higher GDP than Japan, ailand, Taiwan, Korea or ailand. It would shortly inaugurate a president, Ramon Magsaysay, whose period in o ce saw his country become something of a beacon of transparency and honest dealing.

But Magsaysay was killed in a plane crash in March 1957. His successors have enshrined a political culture where dynasty and authoritarianism, plus a dash of celebrity, ensure that personality always trumps policy. Bowring, a business journalist by trade, documents in exhaustive detail how a competent technocracy has continually lost out to the interests of the big families in almost every area of economic and social policy. He nished the book just as the son of one authoritarian leader (Ferdinand Marcos Junior) was elected president, with the daughter of another authoritarian leader (Sara Duterte) as his vice-president.

e rise of social media – especially “BongBong” Marcos’s skilful manipulation of Twitter and Instagram in uencer memes – nds no place in the book: a rare but signi cant omission in an otherwise comprehensive account.

But Bowring does lay part of the blame for the vacuous power of dynasty and celebrity at the door of an underresourced education system and the feebleness of conventional news media.

In that sense, this country that seems so often to be dragged backwards, forwards (very occasionally) and sideways by di erent major powers, was ahead of the curve. Duterte – a strongman whose public image of toughness and espousal of violence masked an overhyped economic performance and a vacillating and compromised foreign policy – was elected in 2016 only a few months before Donald Trump.

is is a book designed for libraries and o ces rather than bedside tables and long-haul ights. e long paragraphs of -isms, abstractions and acronyms (note for future editions: add a glossary, please) can make for heavy going. Bowring tells us he has been a regular visitor to the country since 1973: but you don’t get any sense of what it’s like to breathe the air and live the lives of the people. He might reasonably argue that is not the kind of book he set out to write. But as I ploughed relentlessly through the years and the crises, I found myself craving a pause to stand back and re ect. e deaths of Magsaysay and Marcos, the two gures who de ned the modern Philippines in their di erent ways, are recorded in subclauses.

In his conclusion, Bowring valiantly attempts to nd a place and a role for this displaced country, where nine percent of GDP comes from 13 million citizens who have voluntarily displaced themselves. He wants them to ally themselves with the wider Malay culture and polity where they have their origins; to reform the federal system and lessen the power of the families; and believes they need to follow the examples of more robust neighbours in resisting the lure of Chinese money in return for political supineness – especially after they were awarded a spectacular result in the South China Sea arbitration in 2014.

Still, Bowring concedes that the Philippines does much better than its socio-economic plight would suggest in the Global Happiness Index – “for what it’s worth”. It’s pretty clear that for this author, happiness at that cost is worth precious little. n

e Making of the Modern Philippines: Pieces of a Jigsaw State by Philip Bowring is available at the FCC’s Front Desk.

THE FINAL WORD FROM THE LAST GOVERNOR

Chris Patten’s posting to Hong Kong was never going to be a sinecure – Mark Jones finds leafing through his diaries entertaining and (up to a point) educational.

When Chris Patten was weighing up Prime Minister John Major’s o er to become Governor of Hong Kong in 1992, two friends advised him against taking it. e reason, he writes: “I would get bored very quickly”.

As any expat who chooses a posting in Hong Kong knows, boring is one thing it never turns out to be. Patten, the last Governor, would be at the centre of some very interesting times, as he relates at length in e Hong Kong Diaries.

He does su er from ennui as the Joint Liaison Group negotiations grind on and on. As the 15th round of talks opens in October 1993, he writes: “Paint drying on wall. Will to live disappearing fast”.

Patten, in another life, would have made a rst-class newspaper editor or columnist. But his diaries are a historical document, so he feels beholden to take you through every stage, every wrangle. Readers wanting to avoid their own ennui should follow the advice he o ers ministers: “know when to skim and when to concentrate hard”.

Within these 500-plus pages there is a terri c 200-page memoir. You have Patten’s battles with his own Foreign O ce interspersed with his struggles to keep his dogs, Whisky and Soda, from attacking guests. e lists of the o cials, tycoons and civil servants might be leavened with passages on the celebrities and royals who are invited (or, you suspect, invite themselves) to Government House.

It’s 25 years since Patten committed these thoughts to paper, so the Contemporary Patten has worked closely with his spin doctor, Hindsight Patten. e problem for the reader is, we’re never sure what’s straight and what’s deviating from the documentary straight and narrow.

To take just one minor example, he marks down one young visitor from the Conservative Research Department as a bright talent to watch in the future. at talent was the future PM, David Cameron. Contemporary Patten, or Hindsight Patten?

Yet Patten is honest enough a writer not to cast a rosy glow over everything that occurred and every call he made in Hong Kong. You’re pretty clear who the heroes are. At their head is Anson Chan, his chief secretary, followed by her loyal Hong Kong civil servants. John Major is stalwart and supportive at a time when he and Patten’s wing of the

Conservative Party was fast losing ground.

e villains are led by Britain’s former ambassador to Beijing, Sir Percy Cradock, and any other sinologist (you can almost hear Patten hissing the word) urging the dying British administration to get real about China’s wealth and power. Hong Kong’s business community are also cast as appeasers and cynics: don’t expect to see this book in the reception areas of Jardine and Swire.

As for his opponents (correct term) on the Beijing side, Patten’s judgements swing between respect, contempt, frustration and exasperation. But mostly, he is plain ignorant of their machinations. “As ever, who knows?” he writes as he tries to untangle Chinese hidden motives and public statements for the umpteenth time.

History can be in no doubt about the motives and behaviour of Christopher Francis Patten. e surviving members of Jiang Zemin’s team don’t get to publish their diaries, and don’t expect the Chief Executives who followed the last Governor to publish their no holdsbarred memoirs anytime soon.

No doubt that is the hallmark of a far stronger and more disciplined political system, one which has no time for weak individualism.

But for anyone who’s interested in the human side of these great historical events, that is a shame. Patten’s is a poignant story in many ways. e Better Hong Kong Foundation chairman Nellie Fong reminds him that he is dealing with people who have the mandate of heaven. Patten notes disconsolately that he doesn’t even have the mandate of Bath, the English city whose voters turfed him out in the 1992 General Election.

He gets used to playing second ddle to his wife, his three daughters and, of course, the dogs. He worries about his weight and his tennis game.

But he also worries a lot about Hong Kong and Hong Kongers – the disadvantaged and disabled, the people who want to own a at as well as have the right to vote.

“People won’t forget the price Hong Kongers have paid for Hong Kong’s own autonomous and free spirit,” he writes. at those words come from a governor appointed by a power which couldn’t ultimately bequeath Hong Kong either real autonomy or lasting freedom is a pretty bleak postscript. n

MICHAEL PEEL

Executive Editor, Nikkei Asia

What does your role involve?

It’s a wide-ranging job helping Nikkei Asia’s editor-in-chief Shigesaburo Okumura and publisher Daisuke Arakawa build on the group’s growth and development. I’m the third person to ll this post on secondment from the Financial Times , which is a Nikkei company. I am involved in commissioning, recruitment and sta development, among other matters. I still even write occasionally, when inspiration, time and demand allow.

Journalism has always been something of a contact sport: how is Nikkei trying to attract more eyeballs? We have a very distinctive o er as an English language publication with a pan-Asian focus. is means we want to be on top of the biggest stories in the world’s most populous region – which are of course global themes, too. ese include energy shortages, surging in ation and disruption to international supply chains, as well as security and political tensions.

ere are of course big di erences, apart from the obvious cultural ones. Japan doesn’t have the feeling now gripping the UK of a profound breakdown in public services. Japan also doesn’t have to contend with having just ripped itself out of its key regional economic and political alliance. But Japan faces many challenges in common with Britain and other European countries: an ageing and increasingly urbanised population, a battle to achieve sustainable energy supplies and security problems around its borders.

Where were you when former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe was shot in July?

On a business trip in the US. It was a huge shock, especially given how rare gun crime is in Japan. It has had political repercussions, including the resignation of the national police chief. It has also focused attention on links between Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic party and the Uni cation Church, which the shooting suspect allegedly held a grudge against. Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida has vowed to sever those connections.

You were previously in Brussels for the FT. How do policy debates and preoccupations compare between Europe and Asia?

Revelatory, accurate journalism has never been more important, given the slew of misinformation online

I’ve been struck by how much impact the Ukraine war has had since I arrived in Japan, three days after Russia’s invasion in February. It’s immediately visible in changes such as the hours added to ight times to Europe, as aircraft avoid ying over Russian territory. But it feels like there’s also a deeper sense of the war as a harbinger of an era of international con ict, including in Asia. Taiwan and the Korean peninsula are obvious ashpoints, while others include the China-India border.

We’ve also recently introduced the digital storytelling platform Shorthand, which has added a new visual dimension to our coverage. Early highlights have included the Feeding Asia series on the region’s food crisis and its potential solutions. We’ve also taken an in-depth look at problems facing China’s Belt and Road initiative, which included satellite imagery of Pakistan’s strategic port city of Gwadar.

What are your first impressions of Japan? As a Brit, I see certain similarities in debates over how island nations deal with the wider world.

You’ve lived in various places around the world and written A Swamp Full of Dollars, about the murky world of the oil industry in Nigeria, and The Fabulists, about leaders who mislead. How do these experiences inform how you do your job now? It’s a truism to say that revelatory, accurate journalism has never been more important, given the slew of misinformation online. at means providing the context and history behind events, particularly when they contradict assertions by governments or other powerful interests. All this should of course always be approached with a certain humility – including an awareness of one’s own biases. n

PHOTO:

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