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SCMP Reporter

PUBLISHERS of unauthorised biographies of Tung Chee-hwa say the books appear to have flopped because of the Chief Executive's 'boring and hard-working life'.

 Some of the Chinese-language publishers also admitted they had been written to cash in on Mr Tung's appointment to the top job.

 Books produced by four publishers, including Ming Pao Publications and the East and West Culture Company, are said to have sold between 1,000 and 4,000 copies.

 Profits were below expectations, one publisher said.

 In contrast, British publishing company Little, Brown said its publication, The Last Governor by Jonathan Dimbleby, was doing well.

 Export sales executive Nicola Hill said the book, tracing Chris Patten's years in Hong Kong, had sold out its 8,000 print run in one month.

 The company was preparing to fill the empty shelves with a further 5,000 copies, Ms Hill said.

 Sales had probably been boosted by the highly publicised inquiry into whether Mr Patten had breached Britain's Official Secrets Act by providing information to Dimbleby, she said.

 The East and West Culture Company was having less luck with its Tung Chee-hwa's Biography, the first such work on the market.

 'I think Mr Tung's life is too boring, too straight-forward and too business-like,' said spokesman Hon Man-po.

 It is believed Mr Tung declined interviews for all the biographies, including Truth of Tung Chee-hwa, New Biography of Tung Chee-hwa, and Red Hot Tycoon: Seeing Through Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.

 Notable Publication (Hong Kong) publisher Cool Leng said he had made a profit from the sale of a Tung book, but would not consider another book.

 'Mr Tung will not be a talk-of-the-town figure forever. I also consider that none of the books on Tung was any good. I would give them only 50 per cent [a passing grade],' he said.

 The biographies cost from $63 to $80 and much of the research by writers from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan was done in libraries and in interviews with Mr Tung's friends.

 They discussed his family background, company profiles, business crises, international links and personalities, and all agreed the Chief Executive was 'patient, hard-working, sincere, controlled and conservative'.



'Boring' Tung biographies put in shade by Last Governor success