Our plea for an internationally recognised song for Hong Kong in this space last Saturday prompted plenty of tuneful suggestions from readers. Many involved ditties that have long faded from the collective consciousness. The most common suggestion has been for a song that is a blast from the past called Kowloon, Hong Kong. But judging by its lyrics - which we published earlier this week - it wasn't quite the stuff to capture the imagination of the intrepid traveller. One reader also reminded us about the Hong Kong Unity Anthem, co-authored by none other than our first lady Betty Tung - written just before the handover and barely heard since. For the record, it goes like this: Let the sun shine everywhere, countless people united in one, Hand-in-hand, for Hong Kong, unity is the direction. The beautiful sun of July shines forth on Hong Kong, The pride of homecoming will forever be carved in my heart. Wisdom of the motherland, Hong Kong people's perseverance, Together we realise 'one country, two systems'. No doubt enough to start the chest of many a local heaving - but the sort of stuff to appeal to an international audience? We think not. Lai See has, however, uncovered some fresh material that is down and dirty - and could just capture the imagination of the world at large. What we have found is not just a song; it is an entire Hong Kong musical production! And the name of the author will ring many bells in the local investment community. He is none other than John Donald, until recently Jardine Fleming's regional head of research. Mr Donald has for some time been well-known in the local broking community for two reasons: his abilities with a balance sheet, and the unexpected panache with which he sang 1960s and 1970s rock classics at regular corporate functions. After he left Jardine Fleming in July, he decided it was time to take his love of rock music one step further. He vowed to do something he had always wanted to: write a rock opera. The result is that he is well on the way to completing a heart-thumping, fist-pumping musical extravaganza about the Hong Kong broking and investment industry, tentatively titled: Fidelity on Line Three. The urbane Mr Donald describes it as being 'something like The Rocky Horror Show without the fancy dress - and with stockbrokers'. The rock opera is set in the boom times that preceded the handover and the dark days of the regional economic crisis. The picture he is presenting of the Hong Kong financial scene in boom times has a dark underbelly. 'It is all about people rolling around with a lot of money - and how they become increasingly confused by it all,' he said. 'As a result, their morals start to become a bit dodgy.' He noted that it is an 'occupational hazard' of the financial industry in Hong Kong that relationships are put under pressure. 'You know how many girlie bars there are in town,' he said. 'A lot of people are on their second marriage.' Contrary to what you might have thought, Mr Donald says Hong Kong investment houses themselves are also hotbeds of passion. 'I wanted to externalise all the emotion of what goes on in a broking firm, all the angst.' Nerves are frequently on edge, either because a trader has bought something that is going down, or made a wrong recommendation, he said. This pressure-cooker work atmosphere is the reason bad behaviour by investment types frequently ventures beyond broking terminals, and into private lives and pubs. Mr Donald's rock opera has at its core six key characters: a broking analyst, a fund manager, a salesman at an investment house and his wife, the chairman of a Hong Kong-listed company and a woman working in a Wan Chai girlie bar. Interestingly, it is the Wan Chai lady who is the audience's main window on the weird and wacky lives of the financial figures. We won't divulge too much, but let's just say the paths of these characters all cross in unexpected places: precipitating some musical and emotional earthquakes. Mr Donald is hoping to stage a production of the musical in the near future - although he has made no definite plans at this stage. Being someone who knows his dollars, he says rock operas are cheap to stage - because they require much less in the way of props than, say, a Broadway musical. After hearing all this, it will come as no surprise that he has no plans to go back to broking at this stage. Indeed, he may not need to. On the early evidence, this scorching story of sex, sin and securities has all the makings of a home-grown Hong Kong hit. Just the ticket for launching the SAR on to the world musical map.
