The Tourism Board's booklet about Hong Kong superlatives has one gaping omission - it fails to mention that this is one of the few places on earth that manages to have sex scandals without sex taking place. The latest of these, involving legislator Kam Nai-wai, contains not even a hint of bodily contact.
This is not to say that sexual harassment, proved or alleged, necessarily involves physical engagement, nor is there any reason to trivialise this matter. But, there is a curious hypocrisy in Hong Kong that elevates some sexual matters to heights of importance they do not deserve, while resolutely ignoring others.
It is, for example, well known, that many of Hong Kong's most prominent business leaders have relationships with what are coyly known as 'mistresses'. The fact that many of these relationships involve the exchange of cash is also quietly overlooked.
Equally well known is that one of China's most extensive sex industries is located across the border in Shenzhen and that, to a high degree, it is patronised by Hong Kong residents. Indeed, not only is there a thriving sex industry, there are also a large number of so-called 'second families', with children born to fathers who are supposedly happily married to other women in Hong Kong.
When a B-list Hong Kong entertainer was discovered having sex in clips splashed across the internet, there was an outbreak of self righteous tut-tutting, forcing him to temporarily retire from the industry. This is an industry where young female aspirants are regularly subjected to sexual harassment by those in a position to promote their careers and where, let's face it, the majority of performers are young and relatively attractive. It is hardly worth stopping the presses to announce that young people are sexually active.
Hong Kong is not alone in scaling the heights of sexual hypocrisy - far from it - as seen in the sex scandals involving holier-than-thou Christian charismatic preachers in the US. However, this form of hypocrisy is becoming institutionalised here. While the local media and community leaders are ever ready to express shock and distaste for extra-marital relationships, they are equally likely to dismiss the rights of single mothers, whose children are born as a consequence of these relationships. In Hong Kong, the subject of same-sex relationships seems to be viewed entirely through the prism of the sexual act as opposed to the wider meaning of partnerships which are denied any status in local law.