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SCMP Reporter

Weng Ling-wen is not too clear about dates. When someone has lived to 81 and is looking back on more than 60 of the most tumultuous years of Chinese and Hong Kong history, who can blame him?   But the public relations consultant is definite about one thing: coming to Hong Kong saved his life and gave him a long and respected career.

  Born in 1915 in Jiangsu, near Suzhou, Weng made the propitious decision to leave his homeland when he was 24 to seek a life in the territory.

  He has invading Japanese troops to thank for that, but it was a decision he has never regretted.

  'I don't think I would have survived until now had I not escaped to Hong Kong,' he said. Weng has many reasons for saying that; invading Japanese troops were just one.

   Weng was born of an aristocratic family. His great-grandfather, Weng Tung-ho, was not only a Ching dynasty prime minister but also a private tutor to the Emperor Kuang Shou.

  'For that reason alone, my friends said that I would not have lived past 1949,' Weng said.

  'My great-grandfather was not only the emperor's tutor and a minister, he was also a top scholar, and a feudal landlord. I would surely have been a target for the revolutionaries.

  'One of my younger cousins was sent to a re-education camp in the northeast. Had I stayed I would have suffered the same fate, I believe.

  'I think Hong Kong is heaven's gift to me to escape from suffering in China,' he said. 'Think about it, I lived through World War I, the warlord feudal system and the inter-war years. But I escaped much more - World War II, the Civil War in 1949, and the Cultural Revolution as well.'   At the time Weng escaped to Hong Kong, Japanese troops had already marched into Shanghai and were making their way inland towards Hankow, where Weng was then working as an editor with a news agency.

  Weng bumped into an old friend who was teaching at the Pui Ying Middle School in Kowloon.

  'The school was one of those which used Putonghua as a medium of teaching and he said they wanted teachers who had a good grasp of the language and asked me to join him.

  'It seemed like a good idea, especially since I had not been to Hong Kong before.

  'Besides, Hankow was getting to be too dangerous,' said Weng.

  Even the train journey to the territory was not without danger and anxiety. 'Every so often the train had to stop because the Japanese troops were fighting nearby,' he recalled.

  For the next few years, it seemed to Weng as if he was playing a game of tag with the Japanese military.

  He spent more than a year in Hong Kong before they came marching down to claim the territory and he set sail again, this time on a boat to Macau, where he took refuge until the marauding soldiers arrived again and he was forced to run back to China.

  'Looking back it does feel now as if the Japanese were just chasing after me!' Weng laughed.

  'When I got back to China, I taught for a while in Guangzhou Bay. After a year, the Japanese came again, so I ran to Guilin and they followed.'   But it seemed that all roads after that pointed south towards the fragrant harbour.

  In Guangzhou in 1945, Weng met another friend who offered him a job in Hong Kong.

  'This friend of mine was starting a film company in Hong Kong to produce Mandarin-language films.

  'It was the first film production company to be set up here after the Japanese occupation,' said Weng.

  The Great China Film Company was only the start of his association with the movie world.

  He went on to join Weng Wah Films and the Japanese-backed Dongbo Films, before he ended up doing promotions and editing the now-defunct Hong Kong Movie Magazine for Shaw Brothers. In 1981 he moved over to join TVB as a publicity man at the behest of the then public relations controller, Clarence Chang Ching-po. Weng has remained with the company to this day.

  Many others may long have enjoyed the benefits of retirement at his age, but Weng is still happy to be actively employed as the television station's public relations consultant.

   These days, he usually only goes into the office for half a day, editing their Chinese press releases and sometimes drafting them.

  At other times, he also writes art and history columns for the Oriental Daily News and Wen Wei Pao.

  'They have a lot of people who can write in English, but not many can write in proper Chinese grammar. I just make sure there is nothing wrong or embarrassing. You know in this business, you get ridiculed if you write something wrong,' he said.

  His present flexi-time job is the icing on the cake for the man whom movie critics in Hong Kong refer to affectionately as 'Uncle Yung'.

  The eldest, if not most respected, public relations man in the film industry is known to many as a walking encyclopedia of Hong Kong film history.

  Entertainment writers often find themselves beating a path to his door when they need information on some former superstar.

  'Uncle Yung is a very respected figure in the business,' said Chan Pak-sang, editor-in-chief of Hong Kong's premiere film magazine, City Entertainment.

   'Since the 1930s he has been involved with the film industry, doing publicity.

  'He's very familiar with the scene. We often refer to him for information on some of the older films and actors.'   After almost 60 years, Hong Kong has become more of a home to Weng than China. Hence he has no plans to return to the motherland.

   When his wife died in the 1960s, he brought his son and his daughter - both of whom are in their late 40s now - to Hong Kong. All that is left in China for Weng are two sisters, whom he visits when he gets the chance.

  'Hong Kong is a good place. There is the freedom to criticise anything without fear of police control. In China, it was not possible before and not possible now. It used to be the same in Taiwan.

  'Hong Kong is ruled by justice and law and most people obey the law. You not only need to have laws but also people to obey them.'   The only thing he misses about China is its rich culture and the history. 'But it has not been all that bad,' he laughed.

   'I have been able to collect a lot of artistic artefacts because I get a lot of film-and publications-related invitations to go back to China.

  'In fact, I think I have benefited by not living there. In Hong Kong, I get to read a lot of contemporary Chinese literature. I think essays written after 1949 are much better because people have gained more living experiences. Hibiscus Town is a good example. At least I have been able to keep in touch and bridge the old and the new.'   Despite having run from a fast-changing China all those years ago, Weng is not too fearful of the coming handover, although he doubts China will be able to keep its vow of 'no changes for 50 years'.

  'That is illogical. Even the US cannot say it won't change for 50 years. You don't know what trends or ideologies will take over. Sometimes changes cannot be predicted.

  'One can only hope that change will be for the better, not for the worse.' 



A man who made the right call