Dr Philip Beh, forensic pathologist Age: 40. Career path: I was born in Penang, but went to school in Kuala Lumpur. I came here in 1976 to study medicine at the University of Hong Kong. I was the first doctor in our family, but my two younger brothers have now become doctors. I graduated as a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1981, then specialised in pathology. I studied with the Department of Health's Forensic Services Department. In 1985 and in 1988, I went to Guy's Hospital in London to do a postgraduate diploma in Forensic Medicine. When I came back here at the end of 1988, I worked for the Department of Health. In 1995, I became a forensic pathologist at Queen Mary Hospital. Philip's day: I live in Kennedy Road and start work about 8 am. Each day starts the same way: by law, I have to interview the family of the person who I will be dissecting that day and request their permission. I also need to get them to identify the body. It is the most unpleasant part of my job although I have got used to the shock, anger, grief and denial. It is often difficult to convince an elderly person their loved one needs to be cut up. Sometimes it is useful talking to the family because I can get additional information about the deceased. Then I start work on the body and it usually takes all morning because it is slow and precise work. Towards lunchtime, I usually have autopsy results to show students. I grab a quick lunch box in my office and read newspapers on the Internet. In the afternoon, I either lecture, do practicals with students, write up reports and review histology slides. No two cases are exactly the same and I see a wide variety of diseases here so it isn't tedious. Each case is a challenge, a question waiting to be answered and I also find teaching students refreshing. My wife says I have become cynical and perhaps that is true because I am confronted daily by mortality and by how frail life is. I don't find my work upsetting because on the table I am looking at subject matter rather at than a person. I do get a bit sad when I autopsy a baby, but apart from that I am unaffected. It's not pleasant to smell decomposition, but even this helps me with my diagnosis. I appear in court perhaps twice a month to present my findings and it is always a challenge to get my evidence across convincingly and to avoid the traps being laid. Salary: As much as any other doctor within the health care set-up. Around $80,000 a month plus housing. Ambition: To stay here and develop pathology. The old-fashioned autopsy is becoming neglected as more imaging techniques like CAT scanning become available, but nothing actually answers the questions as definitively as an autopsy. Gong Si-fu, bone arranger Age: 43. Career path: I was born in Canton and came to Hong Kong in 1977 to work as a technician in an electronics factory. Then a relative invited me to join their tombstone-making business. I was soon asked to help out with bone arranging. I became a master bone arranger 20 years ago. I'm currently working for the Hong Kong Chinese Christian Association in their Pok Fu Lam cemetery, but I am now get jobs from all over Hong Kong and even from China. Gong's day: At the moment, I am busy because by law the bones of all people who were buried six years ago need to be dug up before Chinese New Year. Unless someone is buried in a very costly permanent grave - and there are not many of these - they are removed after six years in the month preceding Chinese New Year. I am doing around seven graves a day but then in May, June and July, I have almost no work and have to take part-time building work. I start work about 8 am and get my day's orders from the stone factory. I remove the tombstones and the stone grave top and open the coffin. If a body is not completely decomposed, I put the lid back on and leave it until the following year. I then remove nails, hair and remaining clothes, anything that isn't bone. The bones go into a name-tagged bag and I take all the bags to the area where I work near the hosepipe. I scrub all the bones one by one and then take them to a roof where I lay them out to dry. The trickiest part of this job is the arranging inside the cement box which will be put into the depository. The bones have to be arranged as though they were a standing person. Even toe nails have to be back in the proper place. I am not proud of my job, but at least it is a proper job. I get sneered at by passers-by and sometimes if I tell a new acquaintance that I am a bone-arranger, they steer clear of me. People are very concerned about the bad luck and dirt associated with this job which is why I don't have so many friends. The bodies don't bother me any more, though sometimes I feel a bit sad when I am doing a teenager because so much has already been invested in them and they should have their whole life ahead of them. Although arranging bones is an art, it is also a doomed business because more people are opting for cremation. Salary: $1,000 per body and I do around 300 a year. Ambition: To provide a good education for my four children. translation/additional reporting by dora chan