Lai See | Hong Kong yearbook in shock upgrade

We see some changes have crept into the latest edition of the Hong Kong 2012 yearbook. For those familiar with the process, this is no mean achievement. For years, those tasked with editing this magnum opus have been told: "We'd like to do things differently this year. We want it brighter, fresher, livelier and more appealing." So suitably encouraged, the editor receives the material from the various bureaus and departments, turns this dross into a lively appealing read and sends it back to them for approval. Imagine the disappointment when the editor sees his sparkling prose has been turned back into turgid bureaucratise.

This year's editor, Stuart Stoker, a former government lawyer, appears to have had sufficient gravitas to stand up to this and produces a volume that is distinctly superior to those of recent years. Not only is it better-written, he has also managed to reduce it to 434 pages, about 77 fewer than the previous years'.

Indeed, the aim has been to at least make it resemble a year that most people can recall, rather than a ramble compiled from senior civil servants' diaries. The streamlined calendar of events is instructive. Gone is the tedious, meaningless litany of ministerial visits of little consequence, although they do have a certain grotesque fascination. Our favourite is the entry for April 19, 2011. "The Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, leads a delegation to Beijing to exchange views with the National Nuclear Safety Administration of the Ministry of Environmental Protection." Oh to have been a fly on the wall for that exchange of views.

We see that the usual picture of the Apec meetings showing the leaders uncomfortably attired in the national dress of the host country has been omitted. Last year's frontispiece was a photograph of then vice-premier Li Keqiang delivering a speech on his visit to Hong Kong. This year's is a sizzling photograph of cyclist Sarah Lee Wai-sze winning her bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

But the latest yearbook has been unable to expunge all textual curiosities. The section on housing in last year's book says: "It [the government] makes every effort to keep the average waiting time for public rental housing to around three years for general applications." This surely should read "to below three years". This has been changed slightly this year to "the government aims … to keep the average waiting time for public rental housing at around three years". But let's not quibble.