The Correspondent, July-September 2023

Are You Relocating?

Do you need to sell your collectibles & fine art?

How are you passing on your family assets?

Wondering how much an item is really worth?

Services & Credentials

The 20+ years in auction & valuation business

Access to many platforms & buyers worldwide

Specialists in jewellery, watches, British antique silver, Asian ceramics, jade, modern & contemporary art, tribal art, British & European paintings

Insurance valuations

Family division valuations

Repair work & restoration of jewellery & silver

Consulting with specialists who appear on the international BBC Antiques Roadshow

Sales through esteemed auction houses in around the globe

14 PRESS FREEDOM SURVEY

An anonymous survey of the club’s Correspondents and Journalists furnishes some revealing insights into the status quo.

Cover: New Members. Graphic by Noel de Guzman

FEATURES UPFRONT THE REGULARS

2 Editor’s Letter

3 From the President

4 Club News

Former President Keith Richburg bids farewell, while the club’s golfers and pool players pursue parallel aims with their customary alacrity. Plus: a new meme from Nancy Lim.

8 Wine & Dine

Adam White forges through the club’s summer menu, while Chef Pardeep Kumar Ray provides much-needed words of reassurance concerning Chicken Tikka Masala and similar life-enhancing dishes.

12 Member Insights

Angie Tse, development guru at the Maritime Museum, explains why she really does like to be beside the seaside.

20

Hear all about it

e club makes a quantum leap into the 21st century with its own podcast. And all it takes is a single QR scan.

23 Technology

Our tech columnist faces up to the multiple challenges of Arti cial Intelligence.

24

Meet the Board

Who’s going to be pulling the strings for the next year or so? e answers are right here.

26

Dispatch

Skip Kaltenheuser reports from the National Press Club in Washington DC. Bonus trivia: he loves sausage and mash.

28

The Man With two Heads

Long-time member Bill Cran eld has retired to Spain, but his memories of working for Xinhua in Beijing nearly half a century ago are as vivid as ever.

30

On the Wall

e work of two highly regarded photographers – Nic Gaunt and Tim Page – bookends a selection of images by young Hong Kongers.

34

New Members

Eighty-nine – that’s right – 89 new members! We’re going to need to enlarge the Main Bar if it goes on like this.

42

Speakers

COVID-19 has headed backstage, but that’s no reason to think it won’t return for a repeat performance.

44

My Hong Kong

Alok Jain surveys the city’s transport options, and much else besides.

45

Book Reviews

Simon Winchester’s discourse on the rather wide subject of knowledge; Mike Chinoy’s take on China; and happy wanderer Ken Jackson’s reminiscences.

48

10 Minutes With…

Pride festivals get going over the summer months. A V Eichenbaum, Editor-in-Chief, Seattle Gay News, supplies a glimpse of life on the other side of the Paci c.

Jacky Luk Chun Yau, just one of the scores who signed up for the FCC this summer.

EDITOR’S LETTER

Dear FCC Members,

As the rather brilliantly designed Warhol/Monroe-esque cover of this issue should make abundantly clear, the FCC is more popular than ever, with a grand total of 89 new members now drinking and dining at the club and hopefully taking full advantage of all its manifest attractions. At a parallel, as the results of an FCC survey on press freedom demonstrate with equal clarity, the club is as concerned as ever about the state of the media in Hong Kong.

is month also marks the launch of the FCC podcast, a signi cant technological advance named – with stunning originality – e Correspondent. e plan is for it to give greater prominence to speaker events, amplify the stories in this magazine and come up with its own original features. Elsewhere in this issue, and in fairly sharp contrast, Bill Cran eld takes us back to the days when journalism was very much a boots-on-the-ground a air and even a simple telephone call might prove overly challenging, when as one of Xinhua’s very few foreign editors he set o to track down the tale of e Man With Two Heads. As they say, truth is stranger than ction.

Also worth noting is news bulletins from the club’s golf and pool societies, who have not featured in these pages for quite some time. Both are keen to attract more players. Sad to say, there don’t seem to be enough cricketers to make up an , so that particular ensemble is con ned to the pavilion for the foreseeable future.

Finally, suggestions for improving e Correspondent are always welcome, although there is no bottle of bubbly awarded for the best idea. However, there is some truly excellent Perrier Jouet awaiting whoever’s brainy enough to fossick out the answer to the current competition. Cheers!

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong

2 Lower Albert Road

Central, Hong Kong

Tel: (852) 2521 1511

Fax: (852) 2868 4092

Email: fcc@fcchk.org

Website: www.fcchk.org

The Board of Governors 2023-2024

President Lee Williamson

First Vice President Jennifer Jett

Second Vice President Tim Huxley

Correspondent Member Governors

Karly Cox, Morgan Davis, Danai Howard, Karen Koh, Kari Soo Lindberg, Peter Parks, Kristie Lu Stout

Journalist Member Governors

Zela Chin, Joe Pan

Associate Member Governors

Genavieve Alexander, Liu Kin-ming, Lynne Mulholland, Christopher Slaughter

Club Treasurer

Tim Huxley

Club Secretary

Liu Kin-ming

Professional Committee

Conveners: Lee Williamson, Jennifer Jett, Karen Koh, Joe Pan

Press Freedom Committee

Conveners: Lee Williamson, Danai Howard, Jennifer Jett, Karen Koh

Constitutional Committee

Conveners: Liu Kin-ming, Peter Parks

Membership Committee

Conveners: Karly Cox, Jennifer Jett, Communications Committee

Conveners: Genavieve Alexander, Zela Chin, Morgan Davis

Finance Committee

Treasurer: Tim Huxley

Co-Conveners: Karen Koh, Lynne Mulholland

House/Food and Beverage Committee

Conveners: Genavieve Alexander, Lynne Mulholland

Building - Project and Maintenance Committee

Conveners: Liu Kin-ming, Christopher Slaughter

Wall Committee

Conveners: Peter Parks, Kristie Lu Stout

Cricket Society Chairman: Neil Western

Golf Society

Chairman: Russell M Julseth

Ed Peters editor@fcchk.org @HongKongEditor

Pool Society Chairman: Tony Chan

Acting General Manager Carmen Chan

Editor

Ed Peters

Email: editor@fcchk.org

Publisher: Artmazing!

Noel de Guzman

Email: artmazingcompany@gmail.com

Printing

Elite Printing: Tel: 2558 0119

Advertising Contact FCC Front Office: Tel: 2521 1511

The Correspondent ©2023

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong

The Correspondent is published four times a year.

Opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of the club.

HONG KONG

PHOTO: SUPPLIED

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear FCC Members,

Our recent screenings of Of All the Gin Joints, FCC member Mark Erder’s BBC documentary on the inner workings of the club in the late 1990s, left a lasting impression on many of us who were lucky enough to attend the sold-out events.

For me, the lm was a timely reminder of the tremendous history that runs through the veins of our club and the enormous honour it is to be President of the FCC, as well as the huge responsibility the role carries. It’s not a duty I take lightly.

e lm also served as a stark reminder of just how much Hong Kong has changed. I’m writing this on 4 June, with arrests and a heavy police presence in Causeway Bay marking the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown rather than the peaceful vigils that for more than three decades represented the city’s enshrined freedoms. Now more than ever, the FCC has a crucial role to play in defending press freedom. At the rst meeting of the new board, which took place immediately after last week’s AGM, I laid out what I aim to achieve in the next 12 months. First on the list is to continue to issue statements on matters concerning press freedom, in line with a new board process for doing so.

Beyond this, I aim to:

• Appoint a new permanent GM.

• Build on last year’s training stream for early-career journalists to bring more young members into the club.

• Bring back the FCC’s Journalism Conference after its COVID-19-enforced hiatus.

• Develop more community outreach initiatives, potentially through the reinstatement of the currently dormant Charity Committee.

• Make diversity a priority at FCC speaking events.

Why am I nailing my colours to the mast in my rst message to members? Firstly, because I want to be held accountable for them in a year’s time, and secondly because I want your input. Would you like to help us achieve one of these goals? Fantastic, let’s talk. Do you think these objectives miss the mark? Let’s talk about that too.

Most importantly, I’m sharing my priorities as President because I believe that transparency is key to building trust and unity.

In that spirit, the new board has made the document that details its updated process for drafting and issuing statements on press freedom issues available to all members. A copy is now available at the front desk in the club. If you wish to read it, simply ask the sta member on duty, who will invite you into the o ce to review the document.

As is standard practice for important governance documents within any institution, we ask that you do not photograph the pages or disseminate the document in its entirety outside of the FCC’s membership.

I’m con dent that anyone who does read the process will see that the purpose of the document is to enable us to continue to act on our mission while putting measures in place to mitigate legal risks to the club, in line with the non-binding motion passed at last year’s AGM.

As a nal note, I would like to thank my predecessor Keith Richburg for stepping up and guiding us through a time of unparalleled uncertainty over the last couple of years, as well as my colleagues on the board for their support.

It’s not going to be an easy ride, and we will certainly disagree here and there along the way, but I implore you all to remember that there is more that unites us than divides us. I look forward to working with the board, committees, sta and club members in service of a stronger, more united FCC.

Lee Williamson

@l_s_williamson

Hong Kong June 2023

PHOTO: SUPPLIED

e lm also served as a stark reminder of just how much Hong Kong has changed.

That’s all for now, folks

Keith Richburg writes: When the editor of this esteemed magazine first asked me to pen a farewell message to Hong Kong, I demurred. I may be relocating for a spell after seven years – the last four without travelling because of pandemic restrictions, my aversion to quarantine and fear of being stuck outside by capricious airline flight bans. But I never intended to shut the door on returning.

Hong Kong has been one of my homes for more than 30 years, and has held an inextricable grip on me for a decade longer. I first set foot here while a graduate student in London in 1983, just after Margaret Thatcher agreed with Deng Xiaoping to hand the territory back to China in 1997. My first professional trips here were in the late 1980s, to report on the Vietnamese refugees arriving on tiny boats, and then to gauge local reaction to the crackdown at Tiananmen Square in 1989. I was based here as a correspondent from 1995 until 2000, straddling the Handover.

After each iteration, I knew I’d be back.

Hong Kong has always been a place in flux, people leaving, returning, leaving again. Some things change – the skyline, of course, new MTR stops, more shopping malls. But many others remain the same, like a relaxing trip on the Star Ferry, the cobblers and locksmiths off Theatre Lane, the Peking duck at Alexandra House basement.

But I must confess that this time something feels different. Perhaps it’s the departure of some longtime local friends who have immigrated to the UK. Or the many more expat friends and colleagues pulling up stakes and leaving, some after 30 years or longer. Many have been FCC stalwarts, too many to name here.

Hong Kong will always be here. But next time I return, it will sadly be a very different place than I remember.

HELP (‘cos you Need Somebody)

It’s often been said before: write about what you know. Likewise teaching. So who better to conduct a one-day Hostile Environment Logistical Preparation Course at the FCC than Kevin Sites, who is known as the grandfather of “backpack journalists”, and who in the course of a 30-year reporting career was once taken captive in Iraq, albeit briefly.

What would you say was the main takeaway of the session?

Kevin Sites: “You don’t have to be in a war zone for an environment to be hostile toward journalists. Antipathy towards our noble profession and its practitioners is everywhere in this post-truth world. So it’s essential whenever and wherever we report that we not only create a story plan but also a safety plan for ourselves, our sources and our colleagues.

“One of the most daunting modules in the course is called capture simulation, in which participants are tied up, blindfolded and sensory deprived. While this can be disconcerting, it’s important that journalists understand they

can still maintain some agency in their safety, learning to use their face, voice, body language, and even universal keywords to humanise themselves to their captors.”

Did you feel your audience at the FCC was responsive and appreciative?

“The participants who enrolled in the course were energetic and engaged. Many had already experienced reporting or travel in hostile environments and realised the necessity of formalising their safety training, especially in the area of first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, using an automated external defibrillator and casualty evacuation.”

Jay Ganglani, who works for The Standard , commented: “I learnt a great deal on this course.

“It’s not every day that you get to hear from a war correspondent and learn from their experiences. It was fascinating to hear what drove Sites to take up his career. He also made sure that he broke things down in the first aid section for those of us that were new to it.”

Sites’ debut novel The Ocean Above Me, about a journalist suffering from war trauma, is published by HarperCollins this month.

Here’s looking at you, FCC

Mark Erder’s classic doco Of All the Gin Joints – filmed in and around the club in 1998/9 – packed out the Dining Room on two nights in May, and with very good reason.

The most gripping viewing was provided by the cameos from legends like Hollingworth, Van Es, Farkas, et al; but the running narrative also homed in on the beleaguered president, Philip Segal, whose plans to shake up the club (which was in financial straits at the time) were ruffling feathers among journalists and associates alike, particularly with his vision for a renovated Dining Room.

In the Q&A after the credits had rolled, Elaine Pickering added a telling postscript, concerning the renovation of the Main Bar which was undertaken at the instigation of the then President, Thomas Crampton, at the turn of the century. “Before the renovation, the one thing that everyone agreed on was that they wanted to keep the Canton floor tiles in the Main Bar,” she noted.

“Once the renovation was complete, the only thing that everyone agreed on was that the original tiles which had been unearthed – and retained – in the Main Bar during the works were the best thing about it.”

Mark Erder adds: “I was inspired to make Gin Joints by the stories that Marvin Farkas told me in the 1980s. It was a long-held passion project that took over 15 years to produce and was finally made possible because it coincided with the club’s 50th anniversary.

“My thanks to Keith Richburg and Zela Chin for getting the committee to finally show the film after almost 25 years!”

PS Search YouTube for BBC Documentary “Of All the Gin Joints” December 1999 to see the film in its entirety; and there are plans afoot to get the surviving cast members together on Zoom.

Excellent Excellencies

Will Rogers’ public profile is slimmer than it was when his syndicated newspaper column reached 40 million readers roughly a century ago, but his pithy aphorism about diplomacy (“it’s the art of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you can find a rock”) still holds good. David Frost – one of the two protagonists in Ron Howard’s gripping biopic Frost/Nixon – put it even more subtly: “Diplomacy is the art of letting somebody else have your way.”

Bearing all this in mind, it was heartening to welcome more than 70 consuls general, honorary consuls and diplomats from scores of countries for a cocktail party in May, giving them a chance to get to know the club better and driving home the point – just to indulge in a mild trumpet solo – that there are few places better suited to mixing and shooting the breeze than No 2 Lower Albert Road.

Nancy Lim’s Memetime

@hkmehmeh

PHOTO: NANCY LIM

Up next: The Dr Chi Feng Cup

Tony Chan writes: The pool table at the FCC has always served as a social nexus for members to let loose and knock a few balls around a square grid. It was a place to meet and often make friends and it can be again, now that pandemic restrictions have lifted and the world is returning back to some level of normality.

Having said that, pool is a competitive sport and competition is part of the fun. In the past, annual tournaments have always allowed avid players to challenge each other, have some drinks and even take home some prize money. In so doing, we usually pay tribute to past members who have made their mark on the table but are no longer around.

One example was the Merv Hayward 8-ball tournament. I’ve never met Merv, who supposedly wowed punters while he was at the table, but I’ve played in several of the events, none of which I won.

We also had a 10-year run with the Rocky Lane 9-Ball Cup, sponsored by the former Guinness World Record holder for the

fastest time, 14.16 seconds, to jump 15 balls into a pocket. The Rocky Lane Foundation event inspired a whole new generation of pool players to improve their game as they vied for actual prize money. The trophy for the Rocky Lane 9-Ball Cup is on display on the showcase behind the pool table, complete with the winners of each year.

One name on that trophy is Dr Chi Feng, who we sadly lost just prior to the pandemic. Chi, a classy player and sometimes sublime tactician on the table, inspired fear in his opponents, albeit not in any threatening way. Simply seeing his name on the players’ roster was enough to make knees weak and stomachs quiver.

That’s why I think it is absolutely appropriate that the next pool tournament at the FCC should be named the Dr Chi Fung Cup, to be held later this year. I will be discussing the scheduling and other details with the club’s operations team. The tentative format will be a one-day, double elimination, 8-ball tournament,

to be held on a Saturday later this summer. Send me an email at tc7991@gmail.com if you are interested in finding out more or have any other suggestions.

In the meantime, come and have a few games. Escape the heat outside because pool is pretty cool. Many new members are keen pool players. I know of at least one new member who has joined the club simply because of the pool table.

Inside Every Golfer is a Better Golfer

Russ Julseth writes: The FCC Golf society has been a social and sporting fixture at the FCC for more than 30 years. We have been playing since the days when Kau Sai Chau had only one course. We remain a social golfing society with a membership of 65, playing every month at the public courses at Kau Sai Chau or at one of the other courses in Hong Kong. Our scores range from 75 to 120, which reflects the social attitude that “a day on the links is better than any day in the office.”

The dates we are playing for the balance of the year include 7 July, 11 August, 9 October, 24 November and 1 December – all at Kau Sai Chau in Sai Kung. The cost is HK$950 and includes golf, buggy, lunch and prizes. The tee times all start at 9:27 am. You are encouraged to bring along friends and family, which adds to the camaraderie of the outing. If you would like to join, just send an email to russjulseth@netvigator.com and you will be put on the list of invitees.

Remember, inside every golfer is a better golfer. Hope to see you on the course.

PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Eye on the ball: Becky Lee.

Clockwise from top: Mike Tinworth, John Nash, Paul Nazur, Sabrina Wong, Andy Chan, Maiji Chan and Chairman Russell M Julseth.

‘We pride ourselves on what we do’

From rubbing shoulders with celebrities in the Maldives to the high life at glitzy casinos in Macau, George Bilu, restaurant manager of Bert’s, has seen it all. He tells Lo Hoi Ying how he ended up at the FCC.

What brought you to the FCC?

I was working in Macau when I got an offer of a job in Hong Kong. I arrived in the city in 2009, and managed the Uppal Group’s restaurants for eight years before joining the FCC. I never expected to work, let alone settle down in Hong Kong, but I love it here. It is a good place for me and my family.

Why hospitality?

I love serving others and interacting with people. I’m from Kerala in southern India. Back in the 1990s, everyone wanted to be something like a doctor, an engineer or a lawyer. I wanted to be something different. In 1999, I won a scholarship to study hospitality at the Swiss Hotel Management School in Leysin, one of the most prestigious hospitality schools in the world. After I graduated, I spent six years working in the Maldives as a bar manager, serving quite a few celebrities in luxurious resorts. I was working at the resort on Kurumba Island when the tsunami hit on Boxing Day 2004. I climbed up on a water tank, and was very lucky to survive. We were trapped on the island without access to food and other resources for two weeks. To put it mildly, it was an unforgettable experience, and one that I hope never to repeat.

What does a day at the FCC look like for you?

I usually wake up at 7 am to send my twin daughters to primary school. Depending on the shift, I arrive at 10 am or at noon. I manage the service in Bert’s, coordinating operations between the kitchen and front-of-house and making sure things are running smoothly. We sometimes receive requests for off-menu items and other special orders, so I have to arrange that with the kitchen staff. When we

throw banquets or organise events, it is my job to make sure everyone is having a good time. I usually get off work close to midnight.

What’s your favourite thing about the FCC?

Everyone feels like a family here; we are always taking care of one another. Our regulars greet us by name. I also enjoy the events, club lunches, movie nights and panels that the club organises. I love listening to guests share their experiences and meeting the Consuls General of the different countries here. The club also sent me on a wine-tasting course to upgrade my skills, so I’m constantly learning.

Of course, the job is not without its challenges. We pride ourselves on what we do at the FCC, so everything has to be done properly without much room for mistakes. Clear communication between all parties is essential for day-to-day operations, especially so when we are running big events.

Where can we find you after work?

I have Sundays off, so I attend Our Lady of the Rosary church in Kennedy Town in the morning. In the afternoon, I throw on my biker jacket and hit the road with a group of fellow enthusiasts. I love motorbikes and own a vintage Royal Enfield GT 650, a bike made in India that I shipped here. I believe it’s the only one of its kind in Hong Kong. My friends and I usually ride around Ma On Shan or Tung Chung. I love riding – the speed and the scenery energise me after a week of work.

I’ve actually done a solo biking trip from the north to the south of Vietnam, it was amazing. I also love spending time with my family, taking my daughters to the park or the swimming pool. n

PHOTO: BEN MARANS

Indian Summer

Anyone just a tad on edge about upcoming menu changes at the FCC can rest assured that their Indian favourites are here to stay – and that’s official.

Here, Chef Pardeep Kumar Ray takes us on a lip-smacking jaunt through the best of the best, which should act as an enticing amuse bouche to new members and provoke a ruminative smile across the faces of everyone who has already feasted on some of the sub-continent’s most delightful dishes and is cheerfully

anticipating their next encounter.

Chicken Tikka Masala

“This is made with roasted, juicy marinated chicken chunks in a spicy curry. The chicken is first marinated in yoghurt, lemon juice and Indian spices. It’s usually served with naan, which contrasts neatly with the curry.”

Spinach and Dal Makhani

“This traditional dish has many health benefits, and it also provides substantial amounts of protein. It

made with spinach, black chana (lentils), spices and herbs. It is served with roti, naan or rice.”

Tandoori chicken

“Tandoori chicken is a very popular north-Indian appetiser. The chicken is marinated overnight in turmeric powder, mustard oil, ginger, garlic paste and various Indian spices. It is then grilled in a tandoori oven which imparts a flavour of burnt charcoal. This is one of my favourites - it’s utterly fingerlicious.”

OHHHHHH-MUN

As anyone who has lived in Hong Kong for just a little while will vouch, Macau rhymes with “long lunch”. It’s not just the food that’s dished up seemingly effortlessly in the former Portuguese colony that is so alluring, it’s also that gentle Mediterranean ambience that suggests you should settle more comfortably in your chair, reach toward the ice bucket for the vinho verde and contemplate the distinct pleasures of enjoying every single bit of life.

A little of all that seeped into the Dining Room and Verandah last month, as the chef’s brigade channelled their inner Iberian to produce a sumptuous four-course feast featuring all the traditional favourites from sardinhas to galinha à Portuguesa to that waggishly named serradura. Surely nobody needs Google Translate for bom apetite?

PHOTO: BEN MARANS

First off, a sustained round of applause for litigation lawyer Peter Ng of Herbert Smith Freehills, who sussed the answer to April’s competition and bore off not one but two bottles of superior plonk, namely a Domaines Barons de Rothschild Chateau Duhart-Milon 2011 and a PulignyMontrachet Domaine Francois Carillon Cote de Beaune, Burgundy France 2018.

Now for this issue’s summer brainteaser: it takes a sharp pair of eyes to spot veteran UPI journo Charles R Smith’s memorial plaque in the Main Bar. His membership number was 009. Besides the 00 number, he shared something else with the fictional secret agent James Bond. A taste for – what? The answer can be found in Charlie’s eight-page (!) obituary in the October 1996 issue of this magazine.

Rules as per usual: the eighth member to email the correct answer to editor@fcchk.org with the tagline “Shaken Not Stirred” will receive a bottle of Perrier Jouet Grand Brut NV Champagne (which sells for a very reasonable HK$530) on presentation of the editor’s congratulatory email at the club’s front desk.

Asked to rate this particularly enticing bubbly, one of Hong Kong’s foremost sommeliers hiccupped daintily and then responded: “Glad you asked. It’s lively and mouth-watering, with flavours of blackcurrant, graphite, candied lemon zest and smoky minerals, supported by a creamy mousse. All in all, a balanced crowd-pleaser.” Board members and their intimates are not eligible to enter the competition, and there’s no point getting disputatious with the editor as he will have stuck his fingers in his ears while warbling “la-la-la”.

HOT DOG!

To celebrate US Independence Day, the FCC will run a two-week promotional menu (July 3-15) in cooperation with Steak King to introduce sustainable meat. Butcher’s Night on July 11 will be one of the highlights. Email restaurant@fcchk.org or call 2844 2875 to make a reservation.

Summer Rosé

Domaine De La Berliere Cerdon Demi Sec

France

Rosé Sparkling

95% Gamay, 5% Poulsard (a local grape from Jura)

Glass $56 / Bottle $280

Deep, rich and vibrant salmon pink colour, with bright scents of white peach and grapefruit. Supple on the attack moving to admirable freshness and elegance. Excellent length of flavour on the finish.

Mirabeau Classic Rose 2021 Provence France

Rosé

Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault

Glass $50 / Bottle $250

Elegant on the nose, electrifying and rich, with aromas of cherry, peach, apricot, orange zest and freesia. A hint of strawberries and cream. Notes of dried peach and ripe strawberry and a slight grip give some real layered depth to this enchanting rosé.

Tenuta di Giacobbe Pinot Grigio Rose 2021

Veneto Italy

Rosé

Pinot Grigio

Glass $46 / Bottle $230

“Fragrant peach predominates on the nose, complemented by impressions of subtle floral notes of spring wildflowers. Elegant and silksmooth in the mouth, yet firmly structured and full-bodied. Beautifully crisp, it progresses regally into a lingering finish.”

Delas Cotes du Rhone Saint Esprit Rose 2021

France

Rosé

Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault

Glass $46 / Bottle $230

The colour is pale, luminous, with a salmonlike tinge. On the nose, the aromas are of ripe pears, raspberries and pomegranates. To the mouth the flavours are fresh and delicate, and linger on with a smooth and fruity finish.

Kanonkop Estate Kadette Pinotage Dry Rosé 2022 Stellenbosch South Africa

Rosé

Pinotage

Glass $46 / Bottle $230

100% Pinotage. A full-bodied, dry style of rosé with a delicate pale-pink colour. Perfumed and aromatic notes of sweet melon, rose water and summer berries on the nose. The acidity is fresh and bright, and compliments the sweet fruit character of the Pinotage varietal. The palate displays intense flavours of red cherries, red apples, melons and raspberries.

Domaine de l’Herré, Rosé 2021 France

Rosé

Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot

Glass $46 / Bottle $230

Dry and fresh, with light carbonation. Its voluminous bouquet features shades of gooseberries, apples, pears and white flowers. The finish is balanced and juicy, with final notes of oyster shells.

Summer Special: Poke Bowl and Rosé

Adam White muses on two very different kinds of lunch at the FCC; but will he come undone on The Sweaty Steps of Doom? Film noir meets food review.

This August at the FCC, the poke (that’s “poh-kay”) bowl menu makes a reappearance. Hawaiian in origin, adopted by the rest of the world to the extent that, honestly, the name doesn’t really mean anything more than “chunk” aka “colourful stuff in a bowl with rice underneath”. It’s photo- and palate-friendly in equal measure, and ideal lunchtime fare. When ordering, the best thing to do is to stick to what makes poke good –toppings of marinated raw fish, in sauces that are subtle but zingy and fresh.

But of course, there are two kinds of lunch to be had at the FCC. The other might be found by sampling your way through the summer rosé menu – blush-pink, barely kissed by grape skins. Each is selected at a members’ Wine Social, and no bottle will set you back more than HK$280. Most glasses cost less than HK$50.

Each of these lunches should, of course, be taken on their own merits. Join me as we pursue two possibilities;

two futures; two versions of YOU.

Which path appeals? Which is wiser? That is very much up to you. There is always the moment of choice. The road not taken. You will likely, at some point this summer, opt for one over the other. You will bear the consequences, good or bad. Were you right? Were you wrong? I don’t have the answer for you. You lived, friend. You should want nothing more.

The Poke Bowl menu runs for all of August. Catch the summer rosé menu anytime till 30 September. n

Hong Kong born and raised, Adam White is Associate Content Director 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.

PHOTO: BEN MARANS

FCC summer menus

Path the First Path the Second

Noon A good morning’s work. Time for a nice light lunch at the FCC.

12.30 pm o arr e oo me a fi a po e Bunker. A fresh lime soda, please.

12.40 pm Interesting – the poke bowl menu, on special offer at the main lounge through August. You feel like something light, refreshing, zingy. The ideal antidote to a sweltering Hong Kong day. Classic salmon for you.

1 pm Your poke bowl arrives. A bed of warm rice and quinoa, topped with a rainbow of things delicious: marinated salmon, edamame, coleslaw, avocado cubes, toasted sesame. The salmon is generously portioned, unctuous but not over the top. You mix well and dig in: a well-harmonised bowl of food, generous but not stuffening. This will earn a place on your lunch list.

1.30 pm A coffee and leisurely lunch over, it’s time to ea back o e o ce.

Noon A good morning’s work. Time for a nice light lunch at the FCC.

12.45 pm Held up by a colleague just before leaving, b o e em o o o . o arr e o fi e Bunker is full. Thankfully you nab a spot in the Main Bar, just by the Wall. What a superb exhibition!

1 pm Poke bowls, on special offer at the main lounge through August? Sounds lovely. Let’s do it. Shrimp poke bowl, please.

1.15 pm Your poke bowl arrives. Marinated cooked shrimp, edamame, Asian coleslaw, avocado cubes and sweetcorn kernels, sitting atop a bed of warm rice and quinoa, and with a tart sauce on the side. The shrimp is fresh, delicate, toothsome, with a lovely citric kick from the sauce. There’s a pleasing light crunch as you tuck in. The sweetcorn feels out of place, however.

1.30 pm A glass of something light to keep your lunch company seems like an excellent idea. The month’s rosé selection looks intriguing. Your colleague nods, enablingly.

Mirabeau Classic Rosé 2021, Provence

Dry and crisp, almost like a white. This will do nicely.

2 pm A couple of calls, a couple of emails, and the afternoon is off to a good start.

2 pm Perhaps another quick one for the road before we head back. There’s always time.

Kanonkop Estate Kadette Pinogage Dry Rosé 2022, Stellenbosch

100% pinotage grapes. Acidic and brightly fruity.

2.30 pm Final prep for that 3pm meeting.

3 pm cce f l mee o fi o r l invigorating meal has allowed you to throw off the usual post-lunch slump.

5.30 pm A solid, productive afternoon of work. You get your head down. You get the work done. You surprise o r elf o r e c e c . o o re oo a o r ob.

5.45 pm “God, you’re good at your job,” says your boss as he walks past. That pay rise is as good as guaranteed.

2.30 pm Balls. Don’t we have a meeting at three?

3 pm OK, managed to push it to tomorrow. Let’s celebrate with a bottle of something.

Domain de L’Herré, Rosé 2021, France Fruity and floral on the nose, gentle body and a light, dry finish. This is a lovely all-day drinker. It would be a shame not to drink it all day...

5.30 pm Time has passed. You and your colleague have set the world and work to rights. The solutions are here, contained within this lovely, crisp glass. Maybe you can even expense this afternoon. God, you’re good.

5.45 pm “God, there you are,” says your boss as he walks past. “Don’t you dare try to expense this.” You attempt to mollify him with a glass of something light and pink.

Domaine De La Berliere Cerdon Demi Sec Sweet and sparkling. An ideal evening-starter.

6 pm Time for a quick one. Back to the FCC for a snifter or two with colleagues.

6.15 pm The summer sun refuses to hide its radiance and you arrive at the FCC having hauled your leaden legs up the Sweaty Steps of Doom. You are owed something large, cold and pink.

Tenuta di Glacobbe Pinot Grigio Rosé 2021, Veneto Sharp, sweet, crisp. Perhaps not an all-day drink, but one to round off the edges.

7 pm As the light fades, a bottle and laughter shared. A day over, an evening commenced. Thank you, poke bowl.

Delas Côtes du Rhone Saint Esprit Rosé 2021 Crisp and very dry. Balanced with a floral bouquet. Good body and a tannic finish. A bottle to linger over.

6pm er fil er . ollea e fr e e k of people you nod at from across the room. Conversations to have. Reputations to be made, arguments to be lost, pointless hills to die on. The FCC comes alive.

8 pm That poke bowl was good. But does anyone fancy a curry?

Hong Kong’s most Hong Kong museum

Top location, amazing content – but how do you persuade donors to front up and get punters through the door? Angie Tse tells Simran Vaswani about the challenges she faces at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.

Even while she was a youngster, Angie Tse’s father pushed her to volunteer her time for deserving causes. Now, having worked for a number of non-profits, including Amnesty International and Greenpeace, she is Head of Development at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, which was founded in 2003 by members of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association to act as the custodian of the city’s ocean-related history and heritage. Having taken up the job a year ago, Angie talks about the challenges of steering a steady and profitable course for one of the city’s most iconic museums.

How did you get started in your career?

One summer when I was studying social sciences at City University here in Hong Kong, I told my parents that I wanted to get a part-time job to pick up some work experience and earn a bit of pocket money at the same time. My father, who worked as a chef for a catering company at Chek Lap Kok, said, “Hey, why don’t you try to volunteer for a worthwhile cause? I’ll give you the pocket money.”

That pretty much set me up for everything that’s followed. Ever since leaving university, I have always worked for some sort of charity, mostly on the fundraising side. I enjoy being in an agile environment. In a charity, I feel people always have the same goals and it’s good to work with like-minded people. If my job can support me, as well as helping make Hong Kong a better place, I think that makes it all the more worthwhile.

What does your job consist of?

My main task is to raise funds for the museum, which has an annual operating budget of around HK$25 million. We are fortunate to have different stakeholders in the shipping

industry who support us financially. So my role is about maintaining the relationships and also organising various fundraising events. On top of that, I am trying to diversify our donor base, because the museum is not solely concerned with the shipping industry, but also marine and ocean science.

How tricky is fundraising is right now?

We receive a subvention from the government but still have to raise funds, which is never easy, especially nowadays. Donors, no matter whether they are individuals, or from

trust foundations or corporations, want to know about the impact of our work. So we have to make sure that values are aligned between the donors and the museum – but that’s just the first part. After we have raised the resources, we have to report on progress to the donors, and they want to know if the support they have given is really making an impact. Nowadays it is quite challenging because donors expect more.

Some corporate donors or sponsors want to have some staff engagement with the charity they support. So on top of providing funding to run and carry out programmes, they expect

ar me e m ea of e elopme e e mo ell a abl a cal o fi .

that their staff will get involved in volunteer work. This is a good result for us, because as well as a financial donation, we get some support in the shape of actual manpower.

How do you go about attracting more visitors?

That’s definitely one of the challenges we are facing right now. During COVID-19, like other museums in Hong Kong, we had to shut up shop for more than nine months and the borders were also closed for quite some time. So both these factors had quite a big impact on our visitor numbers, which have been cut from 125,000 a year to about 60,000; however we are confident they will improve in the months ahead.

Now that the borders are open, we’re working on attracting international visitors and tourists to the museum by organising some new programmes. We have scheduled a series of relatively modest exhibitions related to marine biology and conservation, and are putting more emphasis on life in the ocean as well as life on and with the ocean.

Later this year we will also host a major historical exhibition featuring artefacts from a Tang dynasty ship, which are being lent by another Asian museum.

They are testimony to the ancient commercial and cultural contact between China and the Middle East.

We’re also looking to attract more Hong Kong students. Not only do they boost visitor numbers,

it also gives us a chance to educate them. We can teach them about the shipping industry in Hong Kong, maritime history in China and also about marine science.

I should point out that our location – on the harbour, right by Star Ferry and in the shadow of the Observation Wheel – is also a real attraction. There’s a gallery on B Deck with the most amazing harbour views: I even take a break there myself sometimes.

Apart from fundraising, what project and event management are you working on?

Our annual gala dinner for 150 guests is scheduled to take place this autumn. We’re always thinking about what should be included in the gala dinner besides good food and wine and how to give our guests a memorable experience, because we’re

always grateful for the support of our stakeholders. So I’m trying to focus more on the experience so that the guests will enjoy that night.

Every year we stage special exhibitions which require additional funds, so my team and I are working closely to see how we can approach different sponsors for them. In sum, I would say that the fourth quarter of the year is one of the times when we are busiest.

What do you most like about your gig?

My day-to-day life is mostly about meeting people, which I really enjoy. As Head of Development, a lot of my time is about raising money and also attending meetings with the director, Professor Joost Schokkenbroek, or other team members to see if we can develop relationships with different stakeholders.

I would say about 25 percent of my time is spent going out to meet people, learning more about what other people are doing, introducing the museum to them and trying to see if there’s anything that we can help each other with, and then we can take it from there. The angle might not always be money, but maybe opportunities to collaborate and work together instead. n

We are putting more emphasis on life in the ocean as well as life on and with the ocean.

e pcom a a e b o ll be o e of ma a e a e m e m ear.

rea e e a o a f for all a e .

ON POINT: FCC PRESS FREEDOM SURVEY 2023

In today’s Hong Kong, “virtually anything” can be seen as political, said Alex Frew McMillan, a British freelance journalist who moved to the city in 2001.

Olivia Parker, Deputy News Editor, New York Times International Edition.

A booklet he wrote for a top Hong Kong university, for example, included an anecdote about a woman who had travelled to Hong Kong from mainland China to get a P zer vaccine, which she thought was more e ective than the Chinese ones. “Can we put this in?” McMillan was asked. “It sounds very political, because we’re sort of saying that the Chinese vaccines are not good.” e second-guessing won out, and the story was removed.

An increasingly cautious approach to content is one of the most signi cant

ndings of a new survey of the FCC’s Correspondent and Journalist members, conducted in May. e survey aimed to canvass members on the current state of press freedom in the city, following a similar survey conducted in October 2021. Of 66 respondents this year (22.5 percent of the club’s Correspondent and Journalist members), 65 percent said they had practised self-censorship in the last 18 months, either in the content of their reporting or by avoiding certain subjects. Eighteen percent of those said they had self-censored “considerably”. at is a signi cant increase from 2021, when 56 percent of respondents said they had self-censored, 16 percent of them to a considerable degree.

An anonymous survey by the Press Freedom Committee of the club’s Correspondents and Journalists trains a spotlight on significant changes to the media landscape in Hong Kong in the past 18 months. Olivia Parker reports.

“You learn which words are going to trigger the government into an angry response,” wrote one respondent to the survey, which was anonymous. “For example, they hate it when you call the National Security Law ‘draconian’, so I’ll use ‘far-reaching’ or something more neutral-sounding,” they continued. “But better to avoid their trigger words and live to write another day.”

Another member wrote of “times when I have just softened mention of something related to HK’s political position, or even reworked a piece so a non-crucial mention is eliminated.”

Self-censoring was more likely to be carried out by club members working for news organisations headquartered in Hong Kong rather than abroad, the survey found, suggesting journalists working for local companies are feeling greater pressure to watch what they say.

And the practice extends beyond

individuals redacting their own words. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they had encountered censorship by their news organisations, with 15 percent of those –more than half of whom work for Hong Kong-headquartered companies – judging the level of censorship to be “considerable.” at is a rise from 44 percent and 8 percent in 2021, when the survey received 99 responses, around a quarter of all Correspondent and Journalist members at the time.

Navigating sensitivities

Self-censorship has existed in Hong Kong since long before the introduction of the National Security Law in 2020. It was “epidemic and endemic” before and around the Handover from Britain to China in 1997, wrote Professor Anne Cheung, who is now a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, in a 2001 dissertation on the subject.

Self-censorship has existed in Hong Kong since long before the introduction of the National Security Law in 2020.

*In 2023, this answer option was new.

Chart 1 How would you say the working environment has changed for you as a journalist in Hong Kong?

Chart 2 To what extent have you self-censored your own writing, either in content or by avoiding covering certain subjects?

Professor Cheung noted in the paper that the Chinese University of Hong Kong, using surveys of journalists in 1990 and 1996 along with an analysis of newspaper reports after 1997, found that “20 percent of Hong Kong journalists admitted that they practised self-censorship in covering China issues.”

But the much higher percentage of self-censorship admitted by journalists in the FCC’s two recent surveys suggests the practice is a potent side e ect of fear linked to recent societal developments.

“ ere’s an ongoing struggle between pragmatism (operating and surviving in this new order by self-censoring and not rocking the boat) and principle (practising real journalism and holding true to media freedom),” one respondent wrote.

While the term “censorship” is negatively loaded, some respondents to the FCC’s survey noted that the extra caution demanded by the present moment has had

*In 2023, one respondent (1.52%) selected a third answer: “I don’t think any subjects are sensitive.”

bene ts for journalistic output.

“ e sub-editors and myself do take more care to cut out editorialising (especially about China), which is sometimes a thin line,” wrote one respondent. “But more often, this awareness actually leads to better copy.”

Sixty-seven percent of respondents in this year’s survey said they had a clear sense of what subjects the government deems sensitive, up from 52 percent in 2021, suggesting that more journalists are learning to navigate the government’s unde ned red lines. Or that they have opted to avoid them entirely: one respondent wrote that they “no longer write about Hong Kong politics. It’s too dangerous, in my opinion.”

And a slightly higher number of respondents than in 2021 – 56 percent, up from 52 percent – said they felt “con dent” or “somewhat con dent” knowing what is permitted when it comes to taking photos

Chart 3 To what extent have you encountered censorship by your news organization, either in content or by avoiding covering certain subjects?

Chart 4 Do you have a clear sense of what subjects are sensitive?

THE RESPONDENTS WEIGH IN

Do you have a clear sense of what subjects are sensitive?

National security law, press freedom, freedom of speech, the protests, any criticism of Xi Jinping, the CCP or the HK leadership.

Anything national security related, obviously. But anything critical of the government and its policies is unclear.”

Anything to do with government and dissent.”

There are no concrete answers. I feel I err on the side of caution (and again, luckily, being out of hard news means I’m mostly not dealing in sensitive subjects) because it really does feel like the NSL is o e a ... e ble.

or videos in Hong Kong.

The red line is deliberately left vague and what’s covered by ‘national security’ seems to grow day by day.”

But their comments revealed that collectively, journalists think that a very wide variety of subjects, all extremely broad in scope, could be seen as sensitive.

Topics that came up frequently in responses to this question included “China”, “press freedom”, “government”, “protesters”, “National Security Law”, “Taiwan”, “independence” and “democracy”, as did the sentiment that anything at all could be perceived as political.

“ eoretically, a photo of anything yellow in colour could be problematic,” one respondent wrote, referring to the colour traditionally associated with Hong Kong’s pro-democracy faction.

e environment of censure and control a ects journalists’ work less directly, too. Of those who indicated in the survey that speaking to sources is part of their job, 88 percent said they found sources had become less willing to be quoted or discuss sensitive subjects in the last 18 months.

“People are terri ed. And with damn good reason,” one respondent wrote.

At least three major news organisations now frequently consult lawyers before publishing any articles on sensitive security matters relating to Hong Kong and China.

Explaining the mood

A catalogue of recent events a ecting the media in Hong Kong helps explain why journalists feel so broadly negative about working conditions in the city. In the survey, 83 percent said the environment for

Any subject that Beijing or the Hong Kong Government feels threatens them or embarrasses them. The HK Police are especially sensitive to any slight, real or imagined.”

I think I know what the sensitive subjects are but it then changes.”

Anything that refers to prodemocracy activists, jailed legislators, pro e er e fi re o criticise the government.”

journalists had changed for the worse in the last 18 months, while just 3 percent (two people) said it had changed for the better. Fourteen percent said it hadn’t changed. e trials of journalists and editors from Apple Daily and Stand News, who were arrested in 2020 and 2021 and charged under either national security law or sedition legislation, are ongoing.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee has stated that the laws are only being used to crack down on threats to national security and are not a tool to deliberately limit press freedom, which he has repeatedly said is protected under the city’s Basic Law. After the arrest of seven Stand News employees in December 2021, and the subsequent closure of the news website, he labelled the journalists “bad apples who are abusing their position simply by wearing a false coat of media worker”.

Other events making an impact on the industry since the last FCC press freedom survey include the denial of a work visa for a journalist from e Economist, without explanation; the cancellation by the FCC of its annual Human Rights Press Awards, with former President Keith Richburg citing “signi cant areas of uncertainty” around the laws; and media organisations being denied access to cover several government events, including John Lee’s inauguration.

In response, fears are running high. Seventeen percent of members who took the survey said they were “very concerned” about the possibility of arrest or prosecution

Anything that seems remotely critical is now sensitive. They only want media to praise their efforts. Anything critical in the slightest might see you accused of ‘smearing’ Hong Kong and ‘smearing’ the NSL and the motherland.”

“Theoretically, a photo of anything yellow in colour could be problematic

from their reporting or opinion articles or work that they have edited, up from 10 percent in 2021. A further 56 percent said they were “slightly concerned”.

Reported rates of surveillance or harassment while on the job, meanwhile, remain low but troubling.

While 82 percent of respondents said they were concerned about digital and physical surveillance but had not experienced it, four respondents said they had experienced digital surveillance while reporting in Hong Kong in the last 18 months. One person had experienced physical surveillance; and four more people said they had experienced both.

e anxiety follows a statement from the Hong Kong Journalists Association in March, in which the group said it had received reports from several news organisations that journalists were being “followed or monitored by unknown men”.

at statement came after a court reporter for Hong Kong Free Press lmed two men who followed her for over an hour as she travelled to work on 22 March, despite her attempts to lose them.

And while 77 percent of respondents said they had not experienced any interference while reporting in Hong Kong, 20 percent wrote that they had experienced minor interference, and 3 percent (two people) had experienced signi cant interference, harassment or violence.

“It’s very worrying to hear these reports from our members, even if they remain few in number,” said FCC President Lee Williamson. “It’s important that as a club, we continue to monitor such reports and keep lines of dialogue open with the relevant authorities so that we can raise our concerns.”

Anticipating a ‘fake news’ law

One topic causing near-unanimous apprehension is the government’s proposed introduction of a law designed to combat false information, which many said they feared could be used as a tool to suppress the publication of anything that the government dislikes, and would not be used to limit the spread of actual disinformation.

Former Chief Executive Carrie Lam raised the idea of such legislation in February 2021. In an address to the Legislative Council in October 2022, John Lee said that his government would press ahead with work to enact Article 23 of the city’s Basic Law, including “completing the consultancy study on addressing the issue of false information”.

Seventy-seven percent of respondents to the survey said they were “very concerned” about such a law, a slight increase from 2021. A further 18 percent said they were “slightly concerned”.

e fears are not groundless. A study of the impact for journalists and sources when similar laws were enacted in Singapore in 2019 and Indonesia in 2016 found a “chilling e ect” on journalism and free speech.

e authors of the paper, which was published by Journalism Studies in May, also identi ed an “unintended back re e ect” on the laws’ stated aims. “By discrediting the media, respondents believed governments risked undermining public trust in news and paradoxically could make it more di cult to tackle harmful misinformation.”

In Hong Kong, the results of a survey by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, released in August 2022, found that the credibility of the city’s media with the

Chart 5 Are you concerned about the possible introduction of a “fake news law” in Hong Kong?

Chart

about the possibility of arrest or prosecution from

public had already reached its lowest level since 2001, when the research started being carried out in its current format.

Resilient, or resigned

Despite the general sense of pessimism, some data in the survey suggested that those journalists who have not yet left the city – if that were an option – may have become resigned to navigating the changing situation in Hong Kong, and perhaps more resilient.

“You’d be naive to not be unconcerned, when so many people are being arrested today,” one respondent wrote. “But I am not so concerned that I am changing the way I work and write. If I were, I’d have left Hong Kong already. And I believe it’s important to record what’s happening now.”

e percentages of members planning to leave or considering leaving have dropped slightly, to 9 percent and 31 percent today from 12 percent and 34 percent in 2021. e rest say they have no plans to leave.

However, the actual number of Correspondent and Journalist members of the FCC has itself decreased signi cantly, from around 400 in October 2021 to just under 300 now. ose who gave the FCC a reason for closing their membership said, far more often than any other reason, that it was because they were leaving Hong Kong.

“Staying informed about our Journalist and Correspondent members’ experiences of doing their jobs in Hong Kong, as this survey helps to do, is a vital part of our work as a press club, particularly in a time of change,” said Williamson.

“I’d like us to continue these surveys to help inform our members that they are not alone in their concerns or the ways they are adapting to a changing Hong Kong. I hope their candid answers will not go unnoticed outside our membership. As a club, we will continue to do all we can to promote conditions in which journalists can do their vital work without fear.” n

“You’d be naive to not be unconcerned, when so many people are being arrested today.

6 Are you concerned

your reporting or opinion articles, or work that you have edited?

Chart 7 Are you planning on or considering leaving Hong Kong because of concerns over press freedom?

A NEW ENDEAVOUR

By joining a community of over 465 million listeners worldwide (almost a quarter of all internet users), the FCC sets foot in the realm of podcasts for the rst time this month. It’s worth noting that across Asia, podcast downloads grew by a mammoth 216 percent from June 2021 to June 2022. In reaching members and non-members alike, it is hoped that the on-demand audio content from the FCC can help further the cause of what it means to be a press club in this day and age in the context of Hong Kong and Asia.

A sister to the magazine

e podcast – which shares its name with this magazine – is spearheaded by this year’s trio of Hollingworth Fellows: Teele Rebane, Simran Vaswani and Hayley Wong. With

the help of veteran journalists, the Fellows will take turns to host the podcast. “I think the three of us are quite di erent, have very di erent interests and very di erent strengths, so it’s good to bring that diversity into the podcast,” Rebane says.

In fact, prior to its launch, the idea of producing FCC podcasts had been brewing for more than a year. According to Rebane, the appointment of the current batch of Fellows, who were all keen to act as hosts, was the catalyst that helped get the idea o the ground. “It took just one meeting and we were in production by the weekend, so it was simply a matter of timing,” Rebane recalls.

“ e board members have a lot on hand, and this is a novel territory,” Rebane says. “I’ve come in with experience in podcasting,

Teele Rebane, one of the hosts of the FCC’s brand-new podcast, tells Wai Kak-lai how the stars aligned for the show and how it should help the club stay relevant.

Podcast host Teele Rebane.

and was really keen to do this; and then a seasoned journalist who has been our very helpful editor and producer was able to put a lot of his own time and e ort into this –I think us coming together is what needed to happen for the FCC podcasts to move forward.”

In the podcast’s infancy, its content covers three areas, with the rst one being an adaption of the FCC’s speaker events such as lunchtime talks into a podcast. “Maybe the podcast format is a little bit more accessible than sitting down and watching an hourlong YouTube video,” Rebane says, adding that this made a straightforward start to producing the podcasts.

e second area the podcast covers will be episodes that complement e Correspondent magazine. Rebane says these podcasts could allow a behind-the-scenes peek at the publication and could also conduct personal interviews that back up the text stories. “It’s the logical next step, and also a really good way to bring The Correspondent to an audience that goes beyond members of the FCC or who don’t get the magazine in their mailbox.”

e third area will be original stories produced by the hosts. Rebane is hoping to focus on what it means to be a journalist in the region. “We really want to tap into the expertise, experience and skill of journalists across Asia, and share the di culties that they navigate every single day,” she elaborates. “We’re looking at getting a range of voices, speci cally in their local environment and context, whether that’s a xer, a local producer, a photographer, a fact checker or a correspondent.”

She believes that there is a niche for media reporting because “there are so many infringements against journalists and the

media every single day”. It has now become a major topic around the world with stories such as Vice going bankrupt, layo s at NBC or the CNN town hall with Donald Trump. “I think there should be more reporting on the media in Asia, and the FCC and other press clubs could be playing a bigger role in that.”

New blood, new ideas

As one of the FCC’s youngest members (having been appointed a Fellow in November 2022), Rebane is excited to be working on the club’s inaugural podcasts. “I think one of the points of the Hollingworth Fellowship is to bring some fresh blood into the FCC and also to bridge that gap between the institution that the FCC is and the younger generation of journalists,” says Rebane, who graduated from the University of Hong Kong in 2021.

A Correspondent member close to the matter chimes in. “It’s a matter of keeping up with the times, to stay relevant. We are making a lot of e ort to recruit younger members, the next generation of journalists. ey listen to podcasts, so hopefully we can produce a podcast that is relevant and compelling for them.”

Citing her own experience, Rebane says that the 2019 protests were many young journalists’ rst reporting experience. With the rise of digital media, the world is very di erent from when the FCC was founded. “Being able to produce something like a podcast that’s so accessible and open, and which everybody can appreciate, whether or not they’re a member, is a really good way to create that bridge, open the FCC up a little bit, and bring it into the 21st century.”

For press clubs, keeping up with the times goes beyond adopting new

Hollingworth Fellows Simran Vaswani…

Podcasts represent a new frontier for broadcasting, one that far outstrips radio

Putting a podcast together requires minimal equipment.

and Hayley Wong.

FCC PODCAST SUBJECTS

Speaker events at the club

The Correspondent magazine

Original stories

The podcast promotes the idea of ‘a club of conversations’, where people [can]... learn from each other

technology or starting a new platform as they navigate an increasingly challenging media landscape. e aforementioned Correspondent member adds: “A lot of press clubs in Asia are operating in restrictive media environments. I think the podcast promotes the idea of ‘a club of conversations’, where people get together and learn from each other. Even if we can’t say or do everything that we want to exactly, we can still make sure we’re all as informed as possible.”

e new generation of journalists

“de nitely wants a voice”, says Rebane, and needs to be part of the conversation in a profession that has long been dominated by press clubs, universities or editors of mainstream newspapers. She believes that a balance needs to be struck to include other people such as local or digital journalists, who may not be FCC members, “so we wouldn’t only re ect the viewpoint of international media which enjoys certain privileges that local media doesn’t, and so that we wouldn’t only be talking from the perspective of senior editors”.

Podcasts represent a new frontier for broadcasting, one that far outstrips radio, which is limited by the strength of signal from a transmitter, the need to tune in to hear broadcasts as they happen, the format as set by management or owners and access to a studio, transmitter and all the equipment necessary to broadcast a signal.

Podcasts can be heard wherever and whenever the listener chooses. e listener can pause, rewind, skip or revisit the episode

whenever they choose. Back in 2012, Apple included a dedicated podcast app in its standard iPhone/iPad app line-up and this skyrocketed uptake and interest.

Podcasts are not limited by time, schedule or genre, which is precisely why this medium has exploded: the old gatekeepers who de ned what was allowed to be broadcast are no longer needed or relevant.

Most signi cantly, podcasts can be produced with as little as an iPhone, access to the web and the ability to generate an RSS feed.

For journalists like Rebane, that the FCC is embracing this updated iteration of audio content demonstrates a welcome openness on the part of an established institution. “It means that we are welcoming a new generation of media, a new generation of journalists, a new way of doing things that maybe we weren’t used to before, and I think there’s nothing but positive,” she concludes. n

In addition to The Correspondent podcasts, check out these other sites that are zeroing in on media issues:

On The Media

wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm

From how Taylor Swift concert tickets are controlled to the story of the owners of American broadcast networks, On The Media is a biweekly podcast which also airs on over 400 US public radio stations.

Journalism.co.uk journalism.co.uk/podcast/s399/ ?ad4d67384f1d0bbb49b0d570 53d83951page=0

With a focus on the latest innovations in digital journalism, this weekly podcast tackles challenges newsrooms face by talking to journalists from Reporters Without Borders, The Washington Post, Kyiv Independent and many more.

The Kicker cjr.org/podcast/page/1

The Kicker is produced by the epe e o profi Columbia Journalism Review and tackles subjects like fake news and the impact of the likes of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Scan here to access the FCC podcasts.

ChatGPT vs journalism:

Are we human enough?

Danai Howard (writing entirely under her own steam) contemplates a future in which – for better or worse –chatbots will play an increasingly prominent role.

As a journalist, when I first heard that a new AI chatbot was coming to take over our jobs, I pulled out my phone, downloaded the app, and began talking to ChatGPT.

What struck me was how natural our conversation was. You ask a question and it replies. Except that it answers so coherently that if you ask it to write a funny story, it responds:

“As I sit here, typing away on my laptop, I can’t help but feel like the world’s biggest idiot. And no, it’s not just because I spent half-an-hour trying to figure out how to get my cat off the keyboard (spoiler alert: I failed miserably).”

You can use ChatGPT to message people on dating apps, write essays, interpret dreams, develop a business idea, receive career counselling, and more. A friend is using ChatGPT to build a video game. He doesn’t know a thing about coding, but ChatGPT does.

And the AI bot is increasingly used in fields where human traits are traditionally valued – our judgment, empathy or creativity.

In March, a judge in India sparked outrage online when he used ChatGPT to make a decision on a bail plea by a man accused of murder – the first use of AI by a court in India.

In China, schoolchildren are increasingly using ChatGPT to cut down on their homework time, asking the AI bot to write essays and teach them languages.

And while students at The University of Hong Kong were banned from using it, lecturers were told it could help them develop lesson plans.

Many journalists have raised concerns over ChatGPT’s ability to produce a human-sounding article on any given topic in a matter of seconds.

Some have said it will have a dystopian impact on media, while others have called for ChatGPT – which lacks the ability to fact-check – to be regulated.

A report by Oxford University found that AI in its current form is “unsuited to reporting breaking news, a complex and expensive operation that requires careful factchecking and cross-referencing of information”.

On the other hand, some suggest that the future of journalism lies in humans working hand-in-hand with AI.

“AI is not about the total automation of content production from start to finish,” said Professor Charlie Beckett, head of the Polis/LSE Journalism AI research project in England. It’s about “freeing them up to spend more time on what humans do best”.

Our humanity could be what saves our jobs, Adrian

Wooldridge wrote in The Washington Post, pointing to our creativity, humour and imperfection.

“AI cannot feel the direction of the wind changing or sense the atmosphere of a shareholder meeting… Chatbots can’t get people drunk and wheedle out indiscretions.”

But for some, ChatGPT provides a distinct level of emotional support.

“The more I talked to [ChatGPT], the more I realised that it was really listening to me,” wrote Brandt Amedia for Medium.com. “It wasn’t just giving pre-programmed responses; it was actually engaging in conversation.

“Sometimes, I forget that I’m talking to a machine. So, what started as a simple experiment turned into a friendship that I never expected.”

Love it or hate it, ChatGPT is sticking around.

The app is thought to have reached 100 million monthly active users just two months after its launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study.

Meanwhile Microsoft, which first invested in ChatGPT’s parent company OpenAI in 2009, increased its investment by US$10 billion this year.

While analysts and journalists debate about what our AI future will look like, in an ironic act of desperation I ask ChatGPT if it is going to take over my job.

“I don’t have the capacity to take over anyone’s job,” it replies. “AI can certainly be a useful tool for journalists, but it cannot replace the human perspective, intuition and creativity that are essential to good journalism.”

I’m not sure I’m convinced. n

MEET THE BOARD 2.023

This year there are fewer new faces than usual on the Board of Governors following the elections in May, but – not entirely surprisingly – each of them has a tale to tell.

Karly Cox Correspondent Member Governor

Despite having joined the FCC when I was a fresh-faced 20-something under the excellent Young Journalist scheme, I am somewhat shamed by having not contributed much to the club other than an enthusiastic presence at wine dinners. But as a third-culture and Hong Kong kid, I feel a particular resonance with the FCC: it is an indelible part of the city’s history, and it is the con uence of so many people and stories and beliefs, and I am excited, as a less young and less wideeyed new Board member, to play a role in its continuing narrative.

Having spent the greater part of my career at the South China Morning Post working with young people through and in journalism, and mentoring several teenagers who went on to work for some of the world’s best news outlets, I hope to continue to support young journalists and encourage them to join the club, increase their networks and nd crucial expert advice and assistance from the myriad member professionals. Whatever considerations may exist in this post-NSL era, journalism is still a crucial craft and, perhaps now more than ever, those entering the eld should feel that there is support available; and I’d love them to realise that exists at the FCC.

Karen Koh Correspondent Member Governor

I’m honoured and delighted to have been elected to the Board. I’ve been an FCC member since 1995, and the club has always been a place where I’ve felt I can drop in any time and feel welcome. Over the years I’ve enjoyed many events, parties, special occasions and just regular days having lunch or meeting friends at the bar.

I’ve worked in TV news and current a airs most of my career, as a producer, presenter, reporter, editor and bureau chief, and also as a journalist trainer and coach. After seven+ years with CNBC Asia I started freelancing in 2001, and have worked with CNNI, Star TV, omson Reuters and WSJ Digital.

I transitioned to radio in the last nine years and host various programmes on RTHK Radio 3. I love helping people tell their stories, and in particular giving a platform to those in Hong Kong whose voices are often not heard. I’m interested in everything, from technology, the environment and business to gender issues, music and sport, and talking to a wide range of people keeps me motivated and inspired.

My other lines of work are media and presentation skills training, and MCing events – which means I end

I am currently the regional managing print editor at Tatler Asia , supporting its continuing evolution from a society magazine to a publication that celebrates the best of Asia and stories that matter. When I’m not at my desk, I can often be found backstage: I frequently crew and stage manage community theatre productions, and this year (shameless plug) am co-writing and assistant directing the Hong Kong Players’ panto, Dick Whittington (oh yes I am!). I also hope, now that I’m no longer working in news, to have more time to re ne a key FCC member skill: that of propping up the bar!

up watching more than a healthy dose of PowerPoint presentations.

I’m pleased to be joining the Press Freedom, Professional and Finance Committees, and look forward to helping the club navigate current and upcoming challenges in Hong Kong’s media environment, while continuing to o er quality events and speakers, and keeping in the black.

I look forward to encouraging more young journalists and correspondents to join, and o ering them support. I’m originally from Australia, and have also lived in Singapore and London, but Hong Kong has been home for the last 29 years. I have three adult sons who all now work in the US.

Lynne Mulholland Associate Member Governor

I was introduced to the FCC in 2000 by my friend, mentor and long-term FCC member Sarah Monks, who was also responsible for recruiting me to move to Hong Kong from Baku, Azerbaijan, down a crackly landline (thankfully there were no Zoom interviews then). From my rst evening at the Main Bar, I fell in love with the club, its ambience, its colourful characters and history. I decided to join, which took a few years on the waitlist for Associates in those days.

My day job is looking after corporate a airs for e Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, owner and operator of e Peninsula Hotels, the Peak Tram and other luxury properties around the world. I’m excited about serving on the FCC Board, taking on the role of co-convenor of the Finance and House/F&B committees and by the prospect of lively discussions on these compelling matters with members around the bar.

Outside of the FCC, I am Vice Chair of the Special Needs Network Hong Kong, which supports parents and caregivers of children with disabilities and special

educational needs, and am committed to advocating for more inclusion in Hong Kong. I’m also a board trustee of the Institute for Public Relations, based in New York. I love watching horse racing and try to visit the racetracks at Happy Valley and Sha Tin whenever I can, although I won’t be able to retire any time soon on my winnings. My hometown is the beautiful coastal village of Portaferry in Northern Ireland (which has the claim to fame of once being featured in Game of rones). I have two children who were born in Hong Kong and are currently teaching me about the delights of Minecraft and Roblox.

The Board of Governors 2023-2024

e new Board of Governors, as approved at the AGM in May, appears below together with the number of votes for each candidate. e Board is searching for an eighth Correspondent Governor.

ALFERD, WHERE ART THOU?

One reason I joined the National Press Club in 1995 was that on various occasions before Hong Kong’s handover I’d darkened the door of the FCC. I hoped that the NPC’s substantial oblong bar might be cousin to the FCC’s main bar with diverse centralcasting characters including criminal barristers of the Rumpole avour, cargo shippers, pilots, politicians and others seeking what was in the wind as journalists’ tongues loosened, and vice versa.

ough the NPC I joined wasn’t quite as colourful as lingering old-timers described, it still o ered intrigues and camaraderie. In e Reliable Source Bar & Grill, a plaque pays tribute to John Proko , a bartender before my time whose bone-dry quips included “Let’s get drunk and be somebody” and “Do you want separate glasses?”. I did know the late barkeep John Kulawski. Whenever my young kids joined me, they left enriched with coins John fetched from their ears. John, gru but erudite, turned the bar into a continuing education.

e club occupies the top two oors of the 14-storey National Press Building in the epicentre of the US capital. When built in 1927 it was Washington’s largest private o ce building. e club once owned the whole place but lost it after a mismanagement scandal years ago amid a major renovation. From the club windows one can glimpse the White House over the top of the US Treasury Department. Across the street is the Willard Hotel, to which President Ulysses S Grant, eeing presidential pressures, strolled for drinks or a meal in the lobby, where he was bedevilled by favour-seekers. Hence, “lobbyist”.

Plenty of lobbyists, with their cousins in public/media

relations, haunt the NPC nowadays, a large swathe of the membership. eir higher dues, and the tables they buy out when bosses or clients or o cials they’d like to in uence address the club as ballroom luncheon speakers, help pay the freight. Speaker line-ups seem to trend more, er, establishment than when I joined and participated.

A reproduction of the 1946 oil painting, Norman Rockwell Visits a Country Editor, hangs outside the bar. e original, bequeathed by the artist himself, went to auction in 2015, fetching a much-needed infusion of US$11.6 million.

Burgers and bangers

Bangers and mash is not on the bar’s menu. I’ll suggest it when I run into the club’s incoming executive director, Didier Saugy. Previously, we did have the Alferd Packer Burger, named for a cannibal who was the lone survivor of six prospectors trapped by Colorado’s brutal 1873-74 winter. I don’t mean to make too much of this, but Alferd is no longer on the menu, having been replaced by the more homogenised Angus. e loss of Alferd in one’s gullet seems a bellwether for trends impacting the NPC and journalism generally.

Lately, I’ve viewed journalism through the prism of the activist Julian Assange – a media Rorschach test. Many Washingtonians, including journalists, are surprised to hear that Assange has languished for four years in solitary in Belmarsh Prison in London, following seven years of con ning asylum in Ecuador’s embassy there. Nils Melzer, former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, says the treatment of Assange, who is on the autism spectrum,

Skip Kaltenheuser, a hard-bitten scribe if ever there was one, reflects on the state of the US media from the comforting environs of the National Press Club in the heart of Washington DC.

CREDIT: NORMAL ROCKWELL

Norman Rockwell (far right) surveys a scene very much at odds with today’s media.

amounts to straightforward torture.

While he was in the Ecuadorean embassy, US intelligence minions spied on Assange, his family, friends and lawyers, and visiting journalists. Mike Pompeo, Koch Industries’ man in Washington who went from Congress representing my home state of Kansas to becoming CIA Director and then Trump’s Secretary of State (and until recently a presidential aspirant), plotted to kidnap or assassinate Assange after Wikileaks revealed the CIA’s goals of controlling people’s smart TVs, browsers, phones and cars. Orwell, anyone?

e Biden Administration’s Department of Justice has continued the Trump Administration’s quest to extradite and prosecute Assange under the 1917 Espionage Act, which was designed to target German operatives during World War I, with a side job of quashing dissent. is is the rst time it’s been trained on a journalist or publisher, let alone an Australian who wasn’t even in the US. is prosecution is perilous to domestic and foreign journalists everywhere. Hypocrisy blows Biden’s credibility on press freedom o the moral high ground, which authoritarians eagerly note. For more detail, search “Belmarsh tribunal”.

Venerable Dan Ellsberg, who during the Vietnam War stunned the world by leaking the Pentagon Papers, told me that prosecuting Assange is the US government’s plan for introducing a UK-style O cial Secrets Act, under which journalists could be prosecuted for simply receiving classi ed information. James Goodale, who ably defended e New York Times in that case, told me the same. It would quash journalists’ attempts to reveal the truth.

Envy and resentment

It seems to me that many journalists nowadays can’t identify with this concern. Most will never break a story of that sort, never depend on whistle-blowers that the government seeks to crush. Envy? Resentment? Perhaps. Meanwhile, there’s no end of over-classi cation by o cials to muddy transparency and avoid accountability. So are there constant drumbeats on mainstream editorial pages and elsewhere? No. On Assange, the NPC – a frequent commenter on foreign oppression of the press –keeps its head insistently sanded. Having pushed the club on this matter for years, I’ve usually encountered a cone of silence. I’ve heard comments from those who should know better such as “What if Assange is a Russian spy?”, or falsehoods repeated with certainty like an unredacted document dump.

Often, the fanciful assertion that Assange isn’t a journalist is trundled out, never mind his stunning record of journalism awards. Brilliantly, Wikileaks enabled his revelations via technical innovations including an electronic dropbox to obtain information anonymously, which is then vetted. My de nition of a journalist is simple: anyone who truthfully informs the public of matters impacting their lives. Wikileaks never had to retract anything as untrue.

Caustic attitudes pay testimony to successful propaganda vilifying Assange. It ramped up in 2010 when I saw Assange step into the cross-hairs of fame at a news conference in the club. He presented the shocking Collateral Murder Tape. A helicopter snu lm of a dozen

or so Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters employees and a Good Samaritan ad hoc ambulance driver, whose kids were in tow, with a chilling soundtrack by gleeful pilots. It crystallised government lies on war crimes and the conduct of the Forever Wars. Nobody responsible for the attack or the cover-up has been prosecuted.

Political propaganda poured with perpetuity when Wikileaks published (true) emails revealing that Hillary Clinton spoke out of both sides of her mouth regarding Wall Street benefactors, and that the Democratic National Committee undermined democracy, rigging the 2016 primaries against Bernie Sanders.

Some information gatekeepers have judged public enlightenment non-newsworthy if not in service of a higher purpose: say, the election of Hillary. And while avoiding criticism of favoured administrations or political parties, many in journalism otherwise cheer like high school football teams. Some seem to be self-appointed auxiliary spokespeople for government, aka stenographers. Assange is emblematic of what the mainstream downplays or ignores to avoid roughing up pet political and media narratives.

Assange is bad for business. e Forever Wars con rmed Washington as a company town for the military-industrial complex that President Dwight Eisenhower warned of back in the 1960s. at in uence cannot be overstated, including the weapons advertising largesse that many publications enjoy. It’s the same when it comes to media ownership. For example Je Bezos, of Amazon notoriety and owner of e Washington Post, is in hot pursuit of government contracts to manage clouds for intelligence and military agencies.

As the NPC emerges from a long, costly pandemic coma, public trust in media scrapes the shoals. Journalism sinks amid collapsed business models and layo s. Understandably insecure journalists eye laterals, perhaps PR in arenas that they report on. Many now interpreting the world for us were children or teens during the invasion of Iraq. Most weren’t born until after the Vietnam War. Institutional memory is shot. We’re all cannibals now.

As I write this in May, steadfast NPC obtuseness on Assange remains. Perhaps by publication date that might change. It would be a pleasant, if astonishing surprise. n

The author offers advice to Attorney General Merrick Garland at a rally for activist Julian Assange outside the Department of Justice in Washington.

PHOTO: MARTHA ALLEN

WHEN ONE HEAD WAS BETTER THAN TWO

Grizzled former Fleet Street hack Bill Cranfield thought that he had covered just about every sort of sensational story in the book – but then he went to China to work for Xinhua. Now read on…

Beware of what you ask for. When I was attempting a classic contradiction in terms – trying to teach journalism at Xinhua in Beijing more than half-acentury ago to a class of English-speaking, middle-aged exvictims of the Cultural Revolution – I (who was known as “Comrade Beer”) was asked whether I could convert what had been published as a news story into a feature article. e news item was about a successful operation on a 35-year-old deaf-mute man in Kunming who had been born with two independently operating heads. At that time, it was thought that only three such operations had ever been performed, all on patients much younger and less complicated than this latest case. I knew that asking the Kunming Xinhua branch to follow up would be an exercise in frustration and so I would have to interview the man himself, via at least one translator, probably two.

Nothing for it but to travel to the man’s village myself. is would involve, I was told by my sophisticate metropolitan colleagues, an extremely arduous and possibly perilous journey into the interior… at which point I decided that self-preservation is the better part of valour and that the man and a couple of his relatives should be brought to Kunming, where I – and a female minder/interpreter –subsequently spent long days unravelling the following tale.

A modest proposal

Back in the late 1960s, an enterprising uncle of the man everyone called Two Heads had come across a young woman called Tang Chunchun, who had a badly dis gured

hand. He decided she would make an ideal match for his nephew, and duly arranged the wedding.

Tang had tried to tell herself that her groom was a considerate and gentle fellow who would work hard and cherish her. But the thought of making love to him repulsed her. On the wedding night, she grabbed her bridal dress and ed.

Inevitably, her parents sent her back. Two Heads’ family did everything possible to make her happy in her new home. But there was always that ultimate hurdle – if she stayed, sooner or later she would have to consummate the marriage.

To this day, nobody is quite sure how Tang Chunchun died. But her frail body was found washed up in a stream owing into the Yili River, presumed drowned.

Distraught, Two Heads withdrew even further into himself, rarely venturing out except on essential errands, hiding when visitors called and covering his head with a cloth. For the next 10 years he survived in a mental hell, nursing his unimaginable loneliness.

Frosty relations

In the summer of 1979, after a heavy spring frost had badly a ected the harvest, two young relatives called at Two Heads’ house and said they were going to travel to Kunming doing odd jobs along the way, and suggested he go with them. So the trio set o , arriving in Kunming some 40 days later, just a little richer than when they had started out without a penny in their pockets.

However, there were money and time enough to squander on a morning at the zoo. But they had reckoned without the reaction of the citizens of Kunming to seeing someone or something stranger than any of the caged inmates. Just as it looked like a riot might break out, the day was saved by the practical turn of mind of tra c policeman Yu Fang, who calmed the situation and then turned his mind to solving an even greater problem. is, he decided, was a matter for Kumning’s preeminent medical expert, who was just known as Dr Li.

“My rst thought was to try to persuade the man to go into hospital so that we could run some tests, for I felt sure that an operation was practical,” Dr Li told me when I interviewed him. “But his two relations were hesitant. In the end they agreed to leave their address and said they would return to their village to consult with Two Heads’ parents. I received no word from them and as the weeks went by I began to lose hope that we would ever see the man again.

all hospitalisation and treatment fees.

en began the lengthy process of pre-operative analysis and examination, made all the more di cult by the patient’s inability to hear or speak. When confronted with a barium meal, Two Heads ew into a rage as he thought they were trying to poison him by feeding him lime. So Dr Li himself swallowed barium in front of him.

Likewise, when it was decided to make a cast of his double head for future reference, necessitating the use of a breathing tube while his face was covered with plaster, he refused to cooperate unless Dr Li and a another surgeon also stuck rubber tubes in their nostrils and smeared their faces with Vaseline and then plaster.

On 25 December 1979, as the Western world celebrated Christmas, two teams of surgeons performed an eighthour operation.

“But I could not get the picture of him out of my mind. Not only did I feel tremendously sorry for him as a human being, but the professional in me was fascinated by the rarity of his case and the possible bene ts that trying to deal with it might bring to medical science.

“When an old friend, plastic surgeon Dr Wang Damei, came to Kunming to gather material for a book she was writing, she was very interested when I told her about Two Heads and even more so after seeing the photos we had taken. We agreed to do our best to get him to come into hospital.”

Say 九十九

Eventually, Two Heads’ octogenarian father agreed to discuss the question of hospitalisation. e old man was doubtful at rst. How could they guarantee the success of the operation? And who was going to look after him and his wife while the sole breadwinner was away from home?

Dr Wang assured him that they would not operate unless they were absolutely certain of success, and the medical authorities promised to assist nancially, waiving

“He was very worried, almost paranoid,” said Nurse Yan, who assisted the two doctors. “He used to cover his head with a towel or hide in the administrative o ce to avoid the stares of the other patients. But gradually he came to trust us.”

A physical examination proved that Two Heads was in perfectly good health, apart from a congenital spinal deformation that gave him a small hump on his back, but did not impede his movements in any way.

e big question, however, was how closely linked were the two heads? Would the removal of the accessory head a ect the performance of the main brain? After some 30 X-rays, it was concluded that the secondary brain was non-functioning and that no damage would be done by removing it.

So, on the morning of 25 December 1979, as the Western world celebrated Christmas, two teams of surgeons performed an eight-hour operation. It was a resounding success.

When he came round from the anaesthetic, the patient indicated he wanted a mirror. Slowly, a smile spread across his still slightly twisted features. en he held up two ngers – to indicate that he wanted to get married!

I trundled back to Beijing and wrote up the story. To Xinhua’s credit, they allowed this fairly grim picture of life in a remote part of China to go ahead as a result of my convincing them that it would show the world they were no longer in the grip of the Cultural Revolution.

As to what happened to the gentleman at the centre of the story, history – sadly – does not relate, but it’s to be hoped that he (and his wife?) lived happily ever after. n

ll ra fiel far lef a fr e e .

PHOTO: SUPPLIED

‘Can I have a mad one like Stephen, please… and can it be more so?’

Nic was incredibly driven, obsessed with his work 24/7 – it was a passion and something that de ned him as a person. He never cared about money; he just wanted to create the image he had envisaged in his head. He refused to work with stylists and creatives as he thought they were completely useless and ruined Hong Kong magazines by ripping o ideas. He thought they had no artistic ideas of their own and he held them in total contempt. To be frank, he was as awkward and pigheaded as you can get – he refused to be told how to take his images. Stylists were not allowed to guide the shoot in any way – they should just deliver the clothes and then get out. He was a true artist. We conceived ideas together, but it was Nic, once the idea was rmly xed in his head, who followed through to achieve his trademark wellpolished images.

is did mean that clients had to trust him, a radical concept in Hong Kong, which was unused to artistic creative madness. Clients were used

to being told exactly what they would receive including poses and lighting, via Pinterest, which Nic abhorred. All of his ideas were unique. He created his visions as if they had to come out of his head or otherwise he would explode. Unlike many photographers, he was never interested in the money side, which frankly upset him. He wanted desperately to be appreciated for his work as an artist, and to be recognised for his deeply held beliefs. He constantly pushed subjects out of their comfort zone, persuading the rich and famous to believe in his vision and trust that he was not going to make them look foolish. In fact it became a ing: after photographing the amboyant billionaire Stephen Hung sitting on the oor between two cars, the following week we were due to shoot Jonathan Zeman. e rst thing he said was, “Can I have a mad one like Stephen, please… and can it be more so?”

Nic thought nothing of covering someone who was on the Tatler Rich List with our or wrapping them up

in cling lm. He was unassuming but persuasive. He had an air of calm authority and a charisma that made everyone want to please him. He was not impressed by wealth or position and this was a huge help when dealing with people who were used to getting their own way.

We met Paul Gerrard, the hair stylist, soon after arriving in Hong Kong in 2009. He wanted some creative photography for his salon and we clicked immediately. e rst set of images we did was quite conservative but we quickly progressed to more wild and mad ideas as the wine owed. We often had wine during shoots.

We did not have a studio and very little money, so we always compromised, using roof spaces, streets or anywhere that allowed us to be creative on a budget.

e classic image of Paul came from the idea that scissors are part of him, like the camera was an extension of Nic. We also thought his tattoo was superb and wanted to include it. We wanted our images to shock viewers,

He had an air of calm authority and a charisma that made everyone want to please him.

Nobody gives an image by the late Nic Gaunt just a casual glance. One look, and intrigue takes over. Bex Gaunt , Nic’s soulmate and helpmeet, shades in the backstory to a surreal exhibit on the Van Es Wall.

PHOTOS: NIC GAUNT

but also make them laugh. An image that shocks is memorable, but an image that also makes you smile has an even stronger impact.

It took over an hour to photograph Paul, and many days of Photoshop to create this image. Only one pair of scissors was used for the shoot, taken multiple times, so the work is half digital art.

e Ovolo shower shot came about as we had become friendly with Girish Jhunjhnuwala, the hotel group’s owner, and he asked us to take some arty images of Ovolo for Art Month to show the creative side of the company. Nic was given a free hand, and of course he was not going to do headshots. So the plan was to give a surreal feel to all images: Girish taped onto a table; the manager jumping on a bed; and the besuited PR chap in the shower. Each image showed a di erent aspect of the hotel facilities

while getting the viewer to both smile and look again. ey really tapped into the Ovolo vibe.

We shot husband-and-wife restaurateurs Alan Lo and Yenn Wong for a Tatler cover. By now, the editors knew what they were letting themselves in for with our quirky sense of humour, so we reckoned that as Alan and Yen were quite young, they would be up for some fun.

We thought it would be amusing to photograph everything with a twist. Other images featured Alan smoking a leek at the bar, and Yenn taking a stu ed goat for a walk. Our shoots would always start o quite safe and progress to pure madness. e trick was to get to the madness quickly enough so the subject was not tired. Quite often, they would opt to stay later to get more fun images and were quite sad when the shoot was over. We did not allow behind-the-scenes pics,

as we felt that they would give away some of the magic and not capture the nished image.

I like the custard pie shot as the use of space almost has a police line-up feel. e simplicity allows the pie to shine. We wanted Alan to show no emotion and Nic would have liked both of them to be serious but Yen had such a big smile, it was infectious.

In sum: Nic’s work was surreal, dark-humoured and obsessively wellcrafted. He refused to be guided by anyone or told what to do. He was stubborn and incredible rolled into one. He was charismatic and charming. And he could convince anyone to do anything. n

PHOTO: NIC GAUNT

1 Deadpan: Husband-and-wife restaurateurs Yenn Wong and Alan Lo.

2 Washup: All in a day’s work for an Ovolo PR.

3 Cutting edge: Hair stylist Paul Gerrard.

Home is where the art is

The club has hosted an annual exhibition by Hong Kong’s top student photographers for several years past. What they came up with in 2023 served as both a reminder of troubled times and a celebration of the 852.

Quite the most conspicuous feature of life in the time of COVID-19 was the facemask, the unfashion accessory that everybody loathed. ese same discom ting, disorienting faux bandages featured in just about every image of the Hong Kong, My Home! exhibition, sometimes slung beneath the chin rather than worn as per o cial regulations, but as omnipresent and jarring as a wart or a scar. Facemasks were a temporary aberration, but some aspects of Hong Kong are ineradicable: the appreciation of space – whether in short supply as in most people’s homes or in relative abundance in the city’s parks – the reverence for tradition, and an all-encompassing appreciation of food. Who better to capture all this

than Hong Kong’s up-and-coming photographers, who trained a fresh eye and keenly honed senses on the scenes that were playing out mere steps from their front door or classroom?

e result was an at-times humorous expo that was as entertaining as it was engaging, and one that raised questions while at the same time imparting an unarguable feeling of a ection.

Curator Cammy Yiu comments: “ is was the sixth such exhibition at the FCC displaying the work of undergraduate photographers, and their images supplied a distinct viewpoint that embraced news reportage of the wide-ranging e ects of COVID-19 as well as portraits of Hongkongers young and old holding onto their traditions and way of life,

all of which were taken at a time when we were forging through a period of tremendous and transformative change.”

e Wall Committee would like to thank Pinky Wong of Chinese University, Sunny Chan of City University, Robin Ewing of Baptist University and AJ Libunao of the University of Hong Kong for their assistance in selecting photographs by their students. n

1 Poetry in motion: escalator passengers and cleaner, Central.

2 Interesting times: fortune teller on Temple Street, Kowloon.

3 Happiness is... a corner seat, a smartphone and a drink. Dragon Centre, Sham Shui Po.

4 Two women cross Mei King Street.

1

PHOTO: HANNA VANHARANTA

PHOTO: JAMES MODESTO

PHOTO: CHAN TSZ CHING RACHEL

PHOTO: CHOY MAN NGA

Presenting the inimitable Tim Page

The Vietnam War continues to exert a profound influence on the FCC, not least via the images that bedeck the walls of the Bunker. Last month the club saluted one of the era’s most distinguished photographers.

The Correspondent paid a brief tribute to the late British photographer Tim Page – who was best known for his images of the Vietnam War – last year following his death from cancer in August. But this June the Wall Committee took the opportunity to mount a comprehensive retrospective of his work.

e images almost didn’t need captions, with each supplying an eloquent testimony to the horror, futility and wastefulness of war.

Page su ered for his art, being wounded four times and narrowly cheating death. Physically and mentally, the war stayed with him for the rest of his life. He spent long years

trying to ascertain the fate of a close friend, Sean Flynn, who was lost in action, and subsequently documented the fate of those maimed by landmines or Agent Orange. His book Requiem: By the Photographers who Died in Vietnam and Indochina was universally well received, and – poignantly – its photos are on permanent display in the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.

As drone footage on YouTube and similar media has made abundantly clear, the business of war reporting has since changed out of all recognition. Tim Page pursued his metier in the front line with no little heroism. We shall not see his like again. n

1 Page was one of the few Western photographers to accompany Korean troops on operations in Vietnam; the woman and children pictured here were caught up in a dawn raid near Bong Son in 1966.

2 Page was not so much close to the action as an intimate part of it, as this close-up of a wounded ol er be e fir a b comra e ampl demonstrates.

3 Bien Hoa, 1969. Page commented: “A chromatic colourisation of the lime’s white against the orange backdrop of a departing chopper’s rotar wash scrimmed the arrival of a surviving nun, rosary in hand, above an erstwhile enemy. anyway you framed it, you had death.”

4 Ambush aftermath near Duc Co Special Forces Camp, 1966.

Roll up, Roll up

After a stretch in the doldrums, the club clocked up just short of 90 new members this summer; 43 of them have been sufficiently daring to grant us a snapshot of their lives.

EDWARD ALDER

After 30 years in Hong Kong, I have seized the opportunity to join the FCC. I have been a constant visitor over the years and finally decided to “do the right thing” and join. It is great to have a familiar watering hole in the city at my disposal. I am lawyer by occupation: five years in Sydney and now 30 in Hong Kong, having transformed from solicitor to barrister 17 years ago. Plenty of familiar faces at the club.

linkedin.com/in/edward-alder-a8a205202/

DAVID BENSKIN

Originally from the UK, I moved to Hong Kong in 2011 with HSBC and my now wife Carly. We have two young sons who were both born here. In 2020 I co-founded 28 Advisory, a boutique wealth advisory firm serving international clients. We are a small, passionate team, and I have a tremendous enthusiasm for small- and medium-sized businesses in Hong Kong. Outside of business and spending time my young family, I very much enjoy team sports.

linkedin.com/in/david-benskin353a6051/?originalSubdomain=hk

JOHN BINKS

I was born in the UK in the second half of the last century, and – unable to countenance another London winter – pitched up in Hong Kong in early 1981. I worked in government until 2008 in a range of roles, most significantly on issues relating to the 1997 Handover. My last job was on the Equestrian Events as part of Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Since leaving Government, I have worked as a consultant in the events industry.

MARK CARR

LAWRENCE BRADER

Following the collapse of the Icelandic bank that I worked for in 2008, my parents suggested heading to Asia. They were right, and I have since had the opportunity to meet many fascinating people and work for several asset management firms. Currently, I work at HSBC, where I select investment funds. Outside of work, I have three passions. Firstly, I enjoy watersports. Secondly, I am passionate about reptiles. Lastly, my children bring great purpose to my life.

linkedin.com/in/lawrencebrader/

Manchester lad. Moved here 10 years ago as Chief Architect at the Jockey Club and to break in the horses. Don’t ask – my betting skills are non-existent. I’m now at the Stock Exchange and my ability to play the markets is as weak as my betting and my Cantonese is even worse. My PA told me “at your age it would be easier to marry the teacher than learn the language”, which I did and now her English is perfect.

NICHOLAS CASE

I’m a co-founder of AsiaEdit, a Hong Kong-based editing service which helps academics across Asia publish their research. Hailing from the UK, I first set foot in Hong Kong in the mid-1980s and relocated proper in 1992. While working for Tatler, Inside Fashion and Chinese University in a variety of roles, I discovered my passion lay in editing and training. With the pandemic out of the way, I am looking forward to dusting off my squash racket and travelling again.

linkedin.com/in/nickcase-88818316/

JANSSEN CHAN

KIERAN

CASH

I moved to Hong Kong from Australia seven years ago. After a number of years at the French Chamber of Commerce, I recently joined the South China Morning Post as a production editor on the City desk. I am looking forward to sheltering from another sweltering summer –this time in the cool confines of the FCC.

twitter.com/kieranmcash linkedin.com/in/kierancash/

AMOS CHAN

I was born and raised in Hong Kong. I am a structured products specialist at Julius Baer, specialising in trading derivatives and providing advisory to bankers and clients. I’m a fan of basketball, hiking and powerlifting, and spend my spare time working out to stay healthy. I’m also a wine enthusiast and enjoy the art of wine tasting. Being fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin, I like to connect with people from diverse backgrounds and professions.

linkedin.com/in/amos-chan-3a536012b/

VERONICA CHOW

Born in Hong Kong, my childhood dream was to be a correspondent! Time flies – the little girl has grown up and become a corporate and commercial lawyer after completing her studies in England. The busy and often stressful work schedule does not stop me from being an outgoing and enthusiastic person who always believes where there is a will, there is a way. My interests include singing, history, photography, horse-riding and skiing, and I enjoy interacting with dogs and horses.

I specialise in tax planning and compliance for Hong Kong and mainland China, with a particular focus on cross-border tax planning for expatriates working in these two regions. I also have various voluntary roles, and provide recommendations to the government on economic stimulus measures in the annual budget. Outside of work, I indulge my love of food by being a judge for MasterChef, and I enjoy sampling different restaurants and chatting with chefs.

linkedin.com/in/janssen-chan-fcpa-acma cgma-95039616/

PETER CHEN GUANG

I was born at the French Hospital in Kowloon, and lived on Cameron Road in Tsim Sha Tsui when it was still a quiet street. At 18, I got a job with the United Nations in New York. Later, I became a lawyer and operated my own firm for 16 years. After 40 years in the US, I returned to Hong Kong and took the bar exam. It took me two attempts to pass – I was flabbergasted.

linkedin.com/in/peter-guang-chen-6463773/

GERALD CLOUGH

I was born in Cheshire, England, and lived in Yorkshire and Mauritius while growing up. After working in Bemuda for eight years I was offered a one-year contract in Hong Kong in 1989 and have lived here ever since. I met my beloved wife, Kitty, here. My career has been in financial services, initially insurance for a brief time fund management. These days I continue to work part-time and play golf to an increasingly poor standard.

RICHARD GOSS

I am British-Canadian and have lived in three different Asian countries over the past three decades. I now work in tertiary education but have held many interesting jobs in my life, including chef, property developer and deejay. My wife and I have travelled to many countries and are both avid hikers, exercise freaks, music lovers and connoisseurs of international cuisine and fine wine. I am also an ardent photographer and technophile who is constantly trying to upgrade his technical skills.

linkedin.com/in/richard-g-1ab2b37

MICHAEL GRIFFITHS

After growing up in South Wales and attending Cheltenham College, I spent five years in the Royal Navy. My wife and I married in 1981 and the following year I began working with Gallaher Tobacco, travelling extensively and working in most divisions. I finally settled in human resources, heading up Europe when Gallaher was acquired by JTI in 2007. In 2010 I relocated to Hong Kong as vice president for Asia-Pacific and I retired from this role in 2021.

ALEXANDRE HUGUET

JAMES HILL

I run the Greater China team of a financial and corporate communications and public affairs consultancy called SEC Newgate. I have lived in Hong Kong for 12 years and never grow tired of its dynamism, hiking trails and beaches. My great passion in life is heading off to my weekend home in Tong Fuk in South Lantau, and spending time running the trails and barbecuing with friends.

linkedin.com/in/james-hill

8939135/?originalSubdomain=hk

MUKESH KALRA

I am a London-born Hong Kong local. Previously a hospitality professional, I recently decided to transition my career to real estate, completing a Master’s at HKU. Based on what I enjoyed most from my programme, I am currently looking at opportunities in valuation or capital markets. In my free time, I play hockey, enjoy a bit of sailing, and ski as often as I can. Plus: I opened a bar/nightclub last December, which is doing pretty well.

linkedin.com/in/alexandre-huguet-3417797b

After graduating, I initially worked in India before moving to Guangzhou and then on to Hong Kong. I started my own business, Mercury Global, in 2010, marketing industrial chemicals to several Western countries. The head office is in Hong Kong and we have operations in Guangzhou and Shanghai. I recently took up golf and practise and play regularly. Otherwise, I read, exercise and sketch in my free time.

STEWART JAMES

Like many, I came to Hong Kong on secondment. My backstory? Having decided that politicians weren’t gripping climate change, I joined the British civil service to sort them out (no giggling please). Thus started a journey that has taken me around the world. Along the way, I’ve played a bit of sport, listened to some good music and enjoyed too many late nights in bars. Most importantly, I was lucky enough to meet my partner, Anna, here.

VIBHA KARNIK

I grew up in Oman. Since then work and study have taken me to 40 countries, learning more about the world and its people each time. Since 2013, Hong Kong has been home. I love this city for its “order in chaos” and the eclectic mix of people. After working in marketing and communications, I moved to the non-profit sector in 2020. Today I work with The Zubin Foundation, focusing on improving the lives of Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities.

hk.linkedin.com/in/vibhakarnik

WENDY LEADBEATER

I am a registered veterinary nurse with over 20 years’ experience. I have a strong passion for animal welfare and teaching veterinary nursing. I have lived in Hong Kong for six years, and previously lived in Chengdu working for Animals Asia. What started as a volunteer position turned into 10 wonderful years. I met my husband Chris in Chengdu. My current role is with MARS Veterinary Health as the medical support and nurse education manager.

linkedin.com/in/wendy-leadbeater304940a6

MARCUS LEE

I am fortunate enough to have spent my schooling in Edinburgh and Oxford. At the latter, I read history and language of the ancient Near East, and shot target rifle for the Blues. In addition to history, my fields of interest are in international relations, horses, wine and squash. Like many of my peers from an arts background, I have gone down the well-trodden path of joining the civil service and find myself now back in my native Hong Kong.

BECKY LEE

I’m a film and TV producer and voiceover talent. I produce creative content, both fiction and non-fiction programmes, for overseas networks and streamers. You may have heard my voice before on some government public service announcement and had no idea it was me. I’m a former journalist and grew up in Montreal, Canada. When I’m not working, I’m usually travelling or exploring Hong Kong’s off-trail nature, somewhere at sea or searching for secret caves and tunnels in the mountains.

freebasemedia.com/

linkedin.com/in/beckyleefbm/

TUOMAS LILLEBERG

VINCENT LEUNG GAR-GENE

I’m the CFO of AOP Capital, a boutique corporate advisory and asset management business. I’m a proud Australian, having spent my childhood and young adult life there. I started my career in a Big Four accounting firm in Sydney, and my roles in accounting took me to Hong Kong. I feel the real opportunity here lies in the city’s unique communities, which is why I give back through serving on the Council of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand.

linkedin.com/in/vincentgleung/

EVELYN

LOK HO YIN

Growing up bilingual and shuttling between Hong Kong and Toronto even before I could speak meant that observing was always heaps more fun than talking – I soon found a way to put these little musings to paper. Loving art and language, I studied art history and English language and linguistics at HKU. Since then, I’ve written and edited for publications layman and luxury, for brands and sometimes for myself. linkedin.com/in/evelyn-lok-0a600352/ evelynlok.com

I moved to Hong Kong last summer together with my wife and daughter from Shanghai where we lived for the past 12 (crazy!) years. After 18 years of the corporate world, I now work as a consultant for Western companies concerning their China operations and issues, and my wife has a busy corporate job. In Hong Kong we enjoy the beautiful nature, awesome hiking trails, great beaches with all the watersports, and generally nice international atmosphere.

linkedin.com/in/lilleberg

JACKY LUK CHUN KAU

I am the Senior Managing Editor of Ming Pao. I have been in the media industry for 28 years and mainly focus on reporting and editing economic and investment news. My main hobbies are reading and travelling around the world. I have written 14 books focusing on property and stock investment. The world is changing rapidly and dramatically, so it’s very challenging to work in the news industry.

facebook.com/profile.

php?id=100010983938398

MINAL RAMESH MAHTANI

I am a fourth-generation Hong Konger. I was a primary school teacher and then transitioned to the mental health field. I set up a charity – OCD & Anxiety Support Hong Kong – in 2019 dedicated to supporting individuals and their families affected by obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders and depression. I also have a private practice where I work as a cognitive behavioural therapist. It is my mission to serve sufferers of mental illness who are often stigmatised and misunderstood.

ocdanxietyhk.org

linkedin.com/in/mahtani-minal-69075732/

TIGER SHI

RUSSELL PARKER

My background is boats. I am Vice President of the Hong Kong Sailing Federation and former Rear Commodore of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. For the past 25 years, I’ve been skippering a programme to win all of the major local offshore races and most of the regional regattas. My wife, Amanda, and I race our VX One sportsboat and spent much of the silly COVID-19 years exploring Hong Kong’s islands on our S&S 47 cruiser.

ORLA ELIZABETH RYAN

I am an editor with the Financial Times and moved to Hong Kong from London in late December with my husband and two children. I’m Irish and have been a journalist for all of my professional life. I previously lived and worked in Africa for four years and am the author of Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying Cocoa in West Africa. I enjoy travel, reading and writing and am constantly trying to convince our children of the merits of long hikes.

linkedin.com/in/orla-ryan-1867014/

I am a founding partner and chief executive officer of Bands Financial. I was born in China and after time spent as a civil servant and on the London Metal Exchange I moved to Hong Kong where in 2015 I co-founded Bands, which has become a dynamic financial services firm. I now live here with my wife and two daughters, doing my best to stay active either in a team or jogging by myself.

linkedin.com/in/tiger-shi-43804a10a/

I grew up in Hong Kong, but moved to Singapore in 1989. I’ve worked in various professions around the world but my real passion lies with playing flamenco Latin jazz guitar instrumental. I started performing in public in 2011, moonlighting at The Ritz-Carlton Singapore on Saturday nights till 2018, then at the Sofitel Tanjong Pagar and The Fullerton Singapore. I gigged at Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong whenever I was here on a business trip. I’m retired now, but still play guitar.

linkedin.com/in/sogeefoogeorge

JOEY SUNG

I moved to Hong Kong from the US in 2006 and am now Senior Director and Head of Forensic Services at Perun Consultants, which specialises in insolvency, restructuring and forensic accounting. My work often involves complicated investigation and prolonged legal proceedings, hence, can be very demanding and stressful. However, I genuinely enjoy every bit of it. For leisure (never have enough), I love to travel, work out, take a long walk and engage in interesting and intelligent conversations.

BENEDICT SUTTON

I am from the UK but have lived in Hong Kong for almost 16 years and would certainly call it my home. Most of my working life here was spent with HSBC Private Bank until 2020 when I co-founded 28 Advisory, which helps many international families organise their wealth, planning and legacies. Outside of work I enjoy outrigger canoeing, music and represented Great Britain at the World Dragon Boat Championships in Thailand in 2019.

GEORGE SO GEE FOO

I am a shipbroker and thoroughly enjoy it. When I was deciding which subject to study at university, I chose international shipping and transport logistics at PolyU. The word “international” caught my eye because I have always had a desire to travel around the world. After graduating, I made two resolutions: firstly, to learn something new, such as wine tasting or motorcycling; secondly, to participate in some long hikes such as To the Top, Immortals and Moontrekkers.

The photo was taken in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression, arguably the most inhospitable place on earth; I was fatigued, but the scenery, almost unreal, was more fantastic than my imagination. The power of travel carries me. In this journey we all share the same destination. I am looking to find the truth of life, straddling across roles (in the public sector mostly); interested in the arts (and technology); I write but can only write in my head.

instagram.com/holliskit

I first came to Hong Kong in 2003 and spent much of 2004 and 2005 on the mainland as the bank that I worked for then had completed an investment in the Bank of China. I spent many weeks in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Hong Kong and always knew I would come back more permanently at some stage. I now work for Korn Ferry as a Global Account Director supporting our financial services clients across a wide range of topics.

linkedin.com/in/tonyjwilliams/

I’m part of the Financial Times Asia news editing team. I live in Hong Kong with my wife, a teacher, and one of our three children. I’ve been a journalist for almost 30 years. I have also been lucky enough to live and work in Latin America, Germany and Japan. A long time ago, home used to be northeast England. Hong Kong is a great place to go hiking but I’m also very happy with a drink and a crossword.

I was born in Hong Kong, grew up in Taiwan, and have studied in the US, Britain and France. In 2015, I decided to start my own business by introducing Vegware, a sustainable, plant-based disposable packaging to Hong Kong. I’m also an adventurous traveller, and have visited Xinjiang, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan on the Silk Road. I’m fascinated by different cultures: Lebanon, Israel, Africa and, last but not least, North Korea. Definitely a one-of-a-kind experience.

linkedin.com/in/ceicy-wong-870010b/

I’m a qualified mechanical engineer with over 30 years of experience in the contracting business. Golfing with my sons, friends and business partners is how I unwind from work. It’s more than just a hobby; it’s a great way for me to bond with those closest to me. In December, I received a hole-in-one certificate at a golf course in Bangkok, which was a memorable achievement.

I have had some amazing experiences in the movie industry, including bringing N!xau the African bushman here for the 1993 film Crazy Hong Kong. Despite the language problems, he was very adaptable, and he really got into taking saunas at a trendy spa. After I left production, I moved into film distribution. My trips to Europe gave me the perfect opportunity to get into the wine importing business. I am constantly searching for niche films as well as palatable boutique wines.

TAI CHOI PAN

TSANG WAI KIT

GEORGE WONG TAT LUN

WONG HOI

ANTHONY WILLIAMS

JAMES WILSON

CEICY WONG

CANDICE YIP

I was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to the US when I was five. My artist father stayed at home to take care of me, the only child, while mother went to the office. I grew up in San Leandro, California; my elementary, junior high and high school were all on the same street. I graduated from UC Davis and then moved here to join the finance industry. Fifteen years later, I can say Hong Kong is my home. linkedin.com/in/candice-yip-94324a4/

RUMEN YORDANOV

I belong to the rare breed of Bulgarians who live in Hong Kong. I arrived here in 2007 and although it was supposed to be just a stop on my way to mainland China, Hong Kong became a home for me and my family. My passion for sustainability and engineering led me to start a few companies in this field, most notably Asian European Engineering. Besides that, music is an important part of my life, particularly playing piano.

linkedin.com/in/rumen-yordanov/ twitter.com/RumenDYordanov

WILLIAM

ZHENG WEI

I started working for Singapore Press Holdings in 1997 and later became chief editor of Zaobao.com, one of the most popular news portals for global Chinese readers. In 2013, I was persuaded to join the South China Morning Post in the city where I had covered my first major assignment, the Handover, 16 years before. Life is a circle. Until now, I have never regretted the decision because Hong Kong is indeed the best place to cover mainland China. linkedin.com/in/zheng-wei-william-09758048/

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Self-owned Sourcing Solutions Far East

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RAYMOND CHAN KA SHUN Food Business Director Advance Caterers

CHAN WING PING Assistant General ManagerTakungpao Newspaper

MERYL REINE CHANTILLY Managing Director Ryuvision Holdings

GAUTAM CHELLARAM CEO KC Maritime Hong Kong

CHENG KAI WAH Consultant JTC Solicitors

RIANNA MANOJ CHUGANI Account Director Forrester Hong Kong

CHUNG KAIWAN Pilot (Management) Greater Bay Airlines

ANGUS RODERICK JAMES DAVIDSON Fund Manager Natixis Investment Managers

MICHAEL EDWARD SEAN DENMARK Chairman Great Entertainment Group

NICHOLAS DRAPAC Chief Executive O cer Goldstrom

MATTHEW ALEXANDER GRANGE Senior Communication Manager HSBC

ROBERTA HAMILTON

KAZUTORA HAYASHIDA Seiga Asset Management

ELISABETH MARIA ERIKA HELANDE Editor in Chief Bulletin

MICHAEL HIEB Chief Risk O cer Segantii Capital Management

PAUL ROBERT HILL Investment Director Ship Street Advisors

FREDERICK HO CHUN KI Partner Ho Tse Wai & Partners

TREVOR JOHN INGLIS Procurement Executive HSBC

CATHERINE KENG GUAN POR Solicitor Messrs Stevens

LAUREN FAITH LAU Journalist Bloomberg

NATALIE LEE FUNG Consultant PrincewaterhouseCoopers

GEORGE LEE KA HOK Partner Guantao & Chow Solicitors and Notaries

LEE SHU NUNG

ANNA LO NGA LAM

Self-Employed

LO PO WING Barrister

JOHN LOVELL Director Diemens Pty

SANDEEP SINGH MAND Finance Manager Wolver Hill Asset Management Asia

MOK SIN YUNG Senior Legal Manager Ogier

EILEEN O’CONNELL Partner/Business Development Ernst & Young

CHRISTOPHER JOHN PURDON Chief Investment O cer Ship Street Advisors

HITESH CHANDIRAM RATNANI Manager C. Doulatram & Sons

MICHAEL ROGERS Managing Director Overland Trade

PETER JOSEPH RYAN-KANE

Investment Advisor Perk Advisory

NICLAS RYDIN Vice President of Sales Norebo Hong Kong

CLARE JANE MARIAN SKINNER

MAXIMILIAN SPRINGER

GEORGE SZE LEE WAH

Operations Executive Carey Olsen

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MATTHEW GLYNNE THOMAS English Specialist Consulate General of Japan

RONALD BRIEN THOMPSON Managing Director Alvarez & Marsal Corporate Finance

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Senior Executive Director CSOP Asset Management

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DOMINIC WOO CHIU SHUI

Self-employed

DAVID YOUNG CHO YEE Director Kingsway International Holdings

Life in the time of COVID-19

COVID-19 was initially dismissed as just a bad case of flu; as will be vividly recalled, it rapidly exerted a stranglehold on the entire planet. Three experts pondered the lessons learned, as Hayley Wong reports.

If there is one thing that stands out after the utterly confounding years of existing with COVID-19, it should not be “thinking that we can stand on the seashore and turn back the tide”. So said Ben Cowling, one of the authors of How COVID-19 Took Over the World.

As Hong Kong dropped COVID-19 mandates and reopened borders, the Hong Kong University Press book’s editor, Christine Loh, and two of its authors – Cowling and Judith Mackay – spoke at an FCC lunch in April about the lessons from the sweeping pandemic.

“We’ve had COVID-19 circulating around the world now for more than three years, but I don’t think there’s any sign the virus is going to disappear from the world. It is going to continue,” said Cowling, who is also the chair professor of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong.

As the COVID-19 virus comes and goes in waves, Cowling believes it will take the same course as another common cold coronavirus that originated in a pandemic in the end of the 19th century and became a common cold virus with milder infections over the course of 10 to 20 years.

We got people from all over the world. Everything was open,” one guest recalled.

e public inquiry into the SARS epidemic also paved the way for the Hong Kong government to deal with COVID-19, for instance adopting a scienti c advisory mechanism to involve non-governmental experts to respond to public health incidents. So could we have done better?

Despite Hong Kong’s experience with SARS, it was the exception rather than the rule to contain an epidemic, said Judith Mackay, a senior policy advisor to the World Health Organization.

“With SARS, it wasn’t until you really got bad symptoms that you became infectious,” she said.

protect the vulnerable with a solid vaccination programme

e biggest lesson we have learned for a foreseeable pandemic is not to try to keep the virus out – but to protect the vulnerable with a solid vaccination programme, he said.

Many who attended the event recalled how quickly Hong Kong moved on from SARS, a viral respiratory disease that broke out in 2003, in a mere six months. “We partied.

But COVID-19 is more like the u, she said: “You’re very infectious the day before and the day after. at’s the peak of maximum e ectiveness.” And that is what made COVID-19 stand out.

e unexpectedly long and di cult crisis of COVID-19, which created a much more profound and global e ect on individuals, healthcare systems, economies and governments, was therefore worth a comprehensive book to round up the lessons that had been learned, Loh stated.

Writing while the pandemic was unfolding, she worked with an “excellent group of authors”, completed the nal adaptation at the end of 2022, and published the book in February this year, she said.

e book is not limited to essential issues like vaccines and

Ben Cowling, Judith Mackay and moderator Joe Pan: could we have done better?

The biggest lesson we have learned for a foreseeable pandemic is not to try to keep the virus out – but to

PHOTO: FCC

the role of the World Health Organization, but also covers how COVID-19 impacted the global economy and supply chains. It also discusses and compares cases in mainland China, Hong Kong, Europe and the United States through the lenses of social contract, culture, governance and trust.

“I think it’s fair to say that nobody got it completely right over three years. We had a variety of responses. And we see people who did well early who later got lost, and we see people who didn’t do very well earlier on who really didn’t manage to do well later on either,” said Loh.

“It had nothing to do with how rich the society was. It didn’t mean that just because you were a developed economy, you necessarily did better.”

Loh added that it was interesting to analyse the dynamic between the government and the people, and what constitutes “good governance”.

Issues like government communication and the elderly vaccination rate in Hong Kong were raised by the audience, and the speakers agreed that a public inquiry into the pandemic is likely to take place, with Mackay suggesting within the next two years, “so that we can look back slightly divorced from being in the middle of it as we still are, and learn greater lessons from that with the perspective of time”.

Mackay also believes the world as a whole should “try much harder in pandemic preparedness” in future and an international pandemic could formalise “what needs to be done and when”. n

How COVID-19 Took Over the World may be downloaded for free via hkupress.hku.hk/image/catalog/COVID_Loh_ release_chapters/Loh_bookmarked%20-%20lowr.pdf

In Case You Missed It EVENTS

Is China Capable of High-quality Growth?

With Xu Sitao, chief economist of Deloitte China

The China expert explained what the slogan “high-quality growth” entails and whether the concept can be achieved using the Chinese economic model.

Watch the conversation here: youtube.com/ watch?v=cx7XIAO7rjg

Club Screening: She Said

How two New York Times reporters navigated threats and victims’ unwillingness to speak out to break the story of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct.

Learn more here: fcchk.org/event/club-screening-she-said

Living under the Taliban

With 2023 Nobel Peace Prize nominee Mahbouba Seraj

The Taliban’s restoration to power in Afghanistan has reversed women’s rights in every facet of their lives. Mahbouba chose to stay and speak up.

Watch the conversation here: fcchk.org/event/20230329breakfast-mahbouba-seraj

PHOTOS: FCC

Christine Loh made the valid point that ‘nobody got it completely right’.

ALOK JAIN

The CEO & Managing Director of Trans-Consult has his fingers in plenty of different pies –though none are likely to contain meat.

You have been in Hong Kong for quite some time: what’s the biggest change you’ve witnessed (apart from the obvious)?

e biggest change I have seen concerns people. I came here in 1995 and the city was full of aspiration. A young graduate could work for a year or so and scrape enough to put a deposit towards their rst tiny apartment, which they would upgrade every few years. With sky-rocketing property prices and almost stagnant starting salaries of young graduates, this has completely changed. Now most young people seem to be living with their parents when they start working, and buying their own home appears almost totally out of reach.

I also notice the proliferation of cars in Hong Kong now and every problem associated with high car usage –congestion, illegal parking and road rage. is was almost non-existent 30 years ago.

From time to time you must get asked for restaurant recommendations: pick your favourites. As a lifelong vegetarian, this is a very selective question.

e FCC and the Yacht Club are my favourites. I love the Lobby Lounge of the Ritz-Carlton for its amazing views. For Chinese: Kung Tak Lam (Shanghai vegetarian) or Qi House of Sichuan.

Are you city slicker or country boy?

Both, which is why I love it here. I travel all over the world for my work but have yet to nd any other city which matches the juxtaposition of landscape that I nd in Hong Kong.

Transport figures large in your CV: what does Hong Kong need to improve in that sphere?

Are you ready to devote the entire magazine to this topic?

Let’s start with good things. Hong Kong is one of the most walkable places on this planet, with the highest amount of public transport usage. Our unsubsidised trains and buses are uniquely positioned and envied all over the world. ey are clean, comfortable, reliable, reasonably safe and fairly a ordable. ey make the city run like clockwork.

On the negative side, car usage is increasing, causing congestion and creating issues like illegal parking or occupation of space not meant for private vehicles. Despite harbouring the ambition of becoming a tech hub, in comparison to other cities, we are far behind in putting a technological layer on our public transport system. Government departments responsible for transport regulation take a fairly conservative approach to technology

adoption. New energy and clean fuel applications are almost non-existent. In comparison, in Shenzhen all the buses and taxis have been converted to electric vehicles.

Hong Kong’s red minibuses pioneered on-demand, exible-route, exible-fare transport. With the insertion of a technology platform, this could be easily morphed into a state-of-the-art, clean transport system but despite introducing a pilot before the pandemic, we stand pretty much at the same place where we began.

You’re also involved in the theatre: did you ever play Hamlet?

eatre is something I always wanted to do, and in 2008 we started Teacup Productions, a not-for-pro t South Asian theatre company. We have seen many adaptations of Hamlet in Hong Kong but we have not attempted it ourselves. All our productions are conceived, written, creatively produced and dramatised by Hong Kong artists in English. We have staged many productions, and our fully home-grown theatre has attracted lot of love and acclaim.

When were you happiest?

I am quite a contented person, so it is hard to put it in relative terms. However, when our family adopted Aryaman in 2002, the joy was unparalleled. He is now 20.

Finally, a piece of advice for any teenager or 20-something who has read this far.

at looks like a trick question with a big caveat. My safe advice would be to have fun. Every youngster must believe they are invincible and possess the power to change the world. Use this power to pursue your passion. n

FROM THE HORSES’ MOUTHS

Mike Chinoy takes on the daunting task of covering the recent history of China by interviewing American journalists and a supporting cast of officials. Mark Jones is more than a little impressed.

How do you spin a coherent narrative from so many various and highly opinionated sources – your peers? It’s a tough crowd.

Mike Chinoy has an economical solution to the narrative problem in Assignment China (Columbia University Press): he doesn’t narrate, he links.

On every page, there are between two and six quotations from his sources with a few introductory sentences. This is a TV news person’s book: nobody is allowed to ramble or stray far from the subject in hand.

There are 25 chapters, arranged chronologically from the civil war to the postpandemic Xi era, which is headed The Door Closes But if you take anything from the previous 455 pages, it’s that the door – a shorthand for media access to China, its leaders, its people, its places – is rarely a binary piece of furniture. Sure, it can be open or shut, but also slightly ajar or even invitingly open so you can see almost everything that’s happening on the other side. Sometimes it’s slammed in your face. Sometimes you have to use cunning to gain entry – or use the back door.

Chinoy links the voices like a skilful anchor, keeping it straight and sober. At different times, some of the biggest names in US TV news – Barbara Walters, Dan Rather –talk about the pressure to keep your own emotions from flowing into your performance. It’s a pressure Chinoy resists, only rarely inserting stories from his own distinguished history as CNN’s senior Asia correspondent from 1983 to 2006.

When American journalists first get to see China first-hand after the Communist victory, the State Department isn’t keen. NBC’s Robert Cohen tells Chinoy, “The policy was to maintain China as the faceless enemy. But everyone still wanted to go”.

It’s a comment that goes to the heart of the story. Ignorance suits the agenda of both sides.

This is a document of scoops and stories put together against the odds, against the will of the Chinese authorities, the wishes of the state departments – and sometimes what your own organisation perceives as its best interests (looking at you, Bloomberg).

But the book’s mosaic style also builds up a detailed picture of people’s lives across this vast land at a time of incredible change. It gives them not just a face, but a voice and a humanity.

For all the frustrations and worse, the interviewees are professionals who come to love China and its people – which is why the expulsions that litter the narrative are all the harder to bear.

Assignment China is described as “an oral history”. Still, you sometimes long for long-form: a substantial piece, say, at the start of every chapter offering the historical outline which our journalists will colour in. The author might counter that this is the historian’s job, not the hack’s, and the book is quite long enough as it is.

But the technique really pays off in the chapters on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and what one reporter describes as the descent from Woodstock to a war zone where only one side has the means of waging war. The pace quickens, as desperation – to file and to survive – sets in.

The 21st century sees a new cast of characters and a different skillset from the reporters. Names like Buzzfeed and Al Jazeera join the familiar media roll call. The finance and economic investigation teams get to work on China’s new rich; the colour and investigative writers document the effects of growing wealth and changing technology.

The Wall Street Journal ’s Josh Chin, whose work in the Uyghur lands led to the book, Surveillance State, warns Chinoy that coverage of China risks becoming “More polarised and less nuanced, because you have fewer people to tell the human story about China”.

That’s the irony. In a world of omnipresent facial recognition technology, the “faceless enemy” is returning, as Chinese people are once again intimidated into avoiding any contact with outsiders who just want to tell their individual, human stories.

And that really is a daunting prospect.

When American journalists first get to see China first-hand after the Communist victory, the State Department isn’t keen.

CNN doyen Mike Chinoy.

WHEN THE GOING WAS GOOD

Not for Ken Jackson the pampered package tour or the all-inclusive luxury cruise. Peter Stock pauses to appreciate some notable travels in Asia and yet more remote corners of the planet.

To quote Ken Jackson, a retired American lawyer and long-time FCC member, his employer “sent me to Hong Kong in the mid-1980s and for no apparent reason left me there”. Jackson does not elaborate on what he did in the office or in court (if anything at all) over the next 20 years, but he certainly gave his wanderlust free rein. He happily admits that his pocket-sized, 172-page memoir, The Smugglers of the Sulu Islands – which also includes some of his travels since he retired – is simply “a record of where I went, how I got there, who I met and what I felt”, and to having had no formal training in journalism or creative writing. Given the book’s straightforward, entertaining text, perhaps that’s no bad thing.

The underlying message of Smugglers is that “BC” (Before mass Computerisation), getting around Asia – and further afield –was much more of an adventure. Smartphones didn’t intrude; Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and the like didn’t dictate; you goggled at maps rather than Googled them; and you took selfies by balancing the camera on something reasonably flat nearby and dashing to get into frame before the shutter clicked. Travel was less predictable, more random, more fun. And there was a greater incentive to talk to the people you met on the way, whether it was a passenger in the adjoining seat on a bus, the dude hanging out in the bar or somebody you ran into on the beach, at the top of a mountain or in the street.

Jackson never seems to have bothered with such “getaways” as Bali or Boracay, preferring somewhere edgier. Nor does he write about anything so trite as a must-see. Rather, he leads us a merry, sometimes slightly scary, but always inquisitive dance around some of the lesser-known spots of Asia. It’s amusing to be reminded, as Jackson does in his chapter on Dalat, of the days when tackling Vietnam often entailed jousting with vulgar numskulls in police uniforms on the qui-vive for infiltration by foreign spies cunningly posing as innocent tourists. The Great Calcutta Cricket Riot speaks for itself (“the strong arms bombarded the pitch with bottles, and the ones with matches lit everything except their own clothes”), while his jaunt in a speedboat to Batambang turns out to be a waterborne nightmare in a craft that barely stays afloat. In Java, he seeks out the old trading port of Bantam, aka

Banten. “I didn’t go to sightsee… I was a pilgrim. I wanted to stand on the same mud, sweat under the same sun and be bitten by the same bugs as those ancient expats”. Glamping, set-jetting, lisness (look it up) this is not.

There are half-a-dozen chapters on Hong Kong, mainly concentrating on the SARS epidemic of 2003, which, in the light of the tribulations visited on the city by COVID-19, nowadays seems more like a mild sniffle than the mammoth kerfuffle it was at the time.

The remainder of the book is given over to Jackson’s wanderings around the rest of the world. While the landscapes are not so exotic to him, his quizzical eye dims not a whit. In Britain, he treads a wary path between the Protestant and Catholic communities of Belfast, and explores the semi-mystical, little-visited island of Lundy. Other travellers might take a cruise around the Caribbean – Jackson plumps for the more earthy option of a gravel boat. The Cromlech of the Almendres, an untrammelled prehistoric stone circle in Portugal, is compared favourably with England’s fenced-in, over-regulated Stonehenge. And –ever the eccentric itinerant – Jackson finds time to visit Cape/Cabo Verde way out in the Atlantic Ocean where he stumbles across the Portuguese dictator António Salazar’s concentration camps for political prisoners. All in all, this makes a very good read for anyone enthused by evading the tyranny of the beaten track. n

Happy wild-side wanderer Ken Jackson.

Glamping, set-jetting, lisness (look it up) this is not.

THE EYE OF DESIRE AND THE PILOT OF THE SOUL

Simon Winchester will be 79 in September. It’s possible that, like the artist Hokusai, he thinks his best and most productive years will be his 80s and 90s. But Knowing What We Know (HarperCollins) has a bookend feeling about it: a distinguished author and journalist paying tribute to the thing that has sustained him all his life – the pursuit of knowledge. It’s a kind of love letter to the people, ideas and inventions that have advanced our understanding of the world –one that many writers would like to write, I suspect.

In nearly 400 pages, Winchester covers science, the arts, technology, media, philosophy and neuroscience, among many other topics. The big absent guest at the word feast is religion. His references to the Bible, for example, are about how it was produced, in the chapter on disseminating knowledge through the printed word. The theology of knowing – from the Christian equating of knowledge with the Fall, to the strange intellectual silence that fell on the Islamic world (previously the most intellectually dynamic and curious of the great religions) in the Middle Ages – these are things I’d like Winchester’s compendious mind to address.

The trouble is, there is already too much in here. Knowledge touches everything; and that allows Winchester to go deeply into whatever interests him while still leaving the reader with the feeling he’s only scratching the surface.

Sometimes, the weight and scope of his subject matter weigh heavily on the prose. The last thing I expected from such a seasoned a writer (and, let’s not forget, reporter) was a ponderous sentence such as this: “A hint of an answer can be found in what is known from early literature of the human attitude to one specific and always distant geographical feature…” The sentence goes on for another three lines before he reveals he’s talking about the horizon. A very distant horizon it is too.

At this stage (page 46) I wasn’t getting on with the book

at all and was wishing the one thing reviewers must never, ever wish: that someone else had taken on this book. The someone else I had in mind was Bill Bryson. What saved it, and me, was the moment when Winchester visits an Indian woman he’d known while reporting on the Bangladesh war in 1971. Shukla Bose had moved to Bangalore and set up informal classrooms for slum children. Winchester writes beautifully and movingly about the project – and a somewhat stuttering book suddenly sparks into life. He shows us why knowledge matters and where it can take the least fortunate of its bearers.

In truth, there are several books in here. There is the autobiography of a single, gifted man and his relationship with knowledge. There is the science of learning and the means of conveying it. There’s ethics: should Roosevelt have shut down the growing knowledge of nuclear fusion in the 1930s?

But my favourite book-within-the-book comes is made up of the pen portraits of the men and women who have most advanced our knowledge of the world. Among the familiar names (Aristotle, Confucius, Diderot) are many you may not have heard of, or have forgotten about: Andrew Bell (encyclopaedias), Cai Lun (paper), William Guier and George Weiffenbach (GPS). Winchester may be an Englishman resident in the United States, but his years working in Asia mean the narrative is never lopsided towards the West.

This is a book that lacks a strong central thesis: but deserves a wide audience for its timeliness as well as its indefatigability. It’s published in a year when the subterranean rumbling about AI has exploded: and the eruption’s name is ChatGPT. It’s published a year before a man who lies about everything and who has branded the truthseekers and knowledgepurveyors as fakes stands again for president of the United States. Knowing what we know in 2023, we have a fight to preserve knowledge itself. n

Mark Jones is by turns frustrated and enthused by the latest magnum opus from the prolific author and former FCC member known, with no trace of irony, as ‘The Sage of Sandisfield’.

He shows us why knowledge matters and where it can take the least fortunate of its bearers.

PHOTOS: SETSUKO WINCHESTER

Simon Winchester, OBE.

A V EICHENBAUM

Editor-in-Chief, Seattle Gay News

What’s the point of Seattle Gay News?

SGN is one of the longest-running LGBTQIA+ focused newspapers in the United States. We provide weekly coverage of issues that affect our community. We’ve been around since 1974, which is huge for a publication like this. Every week we put out the paper is an open act of protest. We’re here as a symbol of Seattle’s queer community, for better or worse. It hasn’t always been pretty, but we’ve fought to stay in print every single week because our community deserves to be represented. We want to amplify the voices of people who have traditionally been silenced and spoken over. Because the current generation is one of the most diverse in the US, and more people openly identify as LGBTQIA+ than ever before, a lot more issues fall under the gay news umbrella. Every week we cover labour rights issues, civil rights issues, attacks on the trans and drag communities and so much more.

How’s your circulation?

We currently run 2,000 issues a week, available for free at select locations around Seattle and Tacoma. We’re also available in every library in the King County, Pierce County and Seattle Public Library systems. Because the paper’s available at brunch spots and bars, we estimate a pass-around rate of approximately 2.5, which puts our in-print readership at around 5,500.

A lot of our readership is online these days. We see about 180,000 readers monthly on our website, and that doesn’t count the engagement on social media platforms. We aim to be a part of our readers’ lives as much as we aim to be a reliable news outlet, so outreach integration is incredibly important. We remain in print in whatever capacity we can because not everyone has access to the internet. Not everyone can afford to pick up a newspaper for US$2.50, so we don’t run a subscription-based business model. It’s also a great way to remind

people we’re still here. And, of course, there’s something to be said about the comfort of reading a newspaper over a hot cup of coffee and talking about the news with your partner or friends.

What’s been your biggest story so far this year?

Every week it seems like there’s another transgression against the rights of our community, whether it’s outcry over a celebrity coming out, the Far Right protesting a drag queen brunch, or another state congress attempting to ban books that feature the inklings of discussions of gender or LGBTQ-related topics. My favorite story recently, though, was our coverage of the Trans Day of Visibility here in Seattle at Volunteer Park. The headline was Seattle Trans Community Unites in Joyful Rebellion. It’s important to cover the resilience of our community in the face of everything that’s been thrown at us.

It always feels like every generation of queer kids is starting over from scratch because LGBTQ+ elders keep dying or getting killed. We keep track of the history of the fight for future generations. When the majority of people have the 24-hour news cycle in their pocket, they’re going to miss some of what’s important to them. We shed light on the things that could affect the daily lives of our readers.

‘Seattle Freeze’ – true or false? Burst those cliches.

I’m not a born-and-bred Seattleite, so I’m not going to deny the existence of the Freeze like some of my colleagues. I will say this, though – the Seattle Freeze seems to be self-implemented and self-enforced. The people here are friendly, but it does take them some time to get used to strangers. They’re kind of like cats, and I love cats.

50th anniversary next year: some amazing celebrations planned?

We’ll be hammering out the details in the next few weeks before it’s all hands on deck for Pride. n

PHOTO: DANA WINTER

PHOTO: LINDSEY ANDERSON

SGN Editor-in-Chief A V Eichenbaum.

Seattle artistes strut their stuff during a Day of Visibility.

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