Big property consultancy Colliers International has moved its regional managing director of North Asia, Alan Liu, up to Shanghai from Hong Kong. It is a sign major property consultants see a need to increase their focus on mainland China - a trend related to China having joined the World Trade Organisation, and the generally dreary state of the Hong Kong market. Mr Liu was enthusiastic about the move: 'As Shanghai continues to attract individuals and institutions interested in putting their investment in this important commercial centre of the world, I would like to personally attend to the opportunities that Shanghai and the rest of China presents over the next few years.' Colliers was keen to point out that Hong Kong would remain important in its overall strategy. The company said it expected the economies of Hong Kong, the mainland and Taiwan to become more and more integrated following the WTO deal. As well as handling Colliers' mainland business, Mr Liu remains responsible for the rest of the North Asia region: Korea and the all-important Taiwan, which has invested something like US$60 billion to US$100 billion in the mainland in the past five years. Twain shall meet: Reader Kevin Phillips has found an excellent 19th Century example of a scam letter which reminded him of today's Nigerian e-mail plague. 'This eloquent example of scamming by mail comes from an excellent book called Giants of Enterprise by Richard Tedlow,' Mr Phillips writes. The appeal for financial aid from the past is contained in a letter sent around the 1890s by Mark Twain to the prominent industrialist, Andrew Carnegie. 'You seem to be in prosperity. Could you lend an admirer a dollar & a half to buy a hymn book with,?' Mr Twain wrote, 'God will bless you. I feel it. I know it (see the religious appeal, later adopted by the Nigerian scammers?). . . 'P.S. Don't send the hymn-book, send the money. I want to make the selection myself.' Mr Phillips said the letter was dated February 6 but as no year was stated, the exact date is a best estimate. He suggested the message amounted to a tongue-in-cheek exchange between friends. Perhaps Mr Twain was sending out masses of these letters in the hope of collecting many times US$1.50. Book mark: Entering into the spirit of Lai See's enthusiasm for E. Annie Proulx's book The Shipping News, Sai Kung's self-proclaimed literary expert, freelance journalist Tim Metcalfe offers the following review. It is in the form of a newspaper headline, which make frequent appearances in the book from the mind of the main character, Quoyle: 'Disturbed Journalist Restores Sense of Order and Meaning to Chaotic Life as Columnist with Small Town Newspaper on Remote Island.' Thank you, Tim, we agree this fairly sums up The Shipping News. Let's see what headlines other creative Lai See readers can come up with, once they have read our chain-book copy. Check it out: Our banking correspondent notes some interesting spell-checking suggestions offered by his Microsoft e-mail software, Outlook Express: the crafty software suggests changing the Chinese family name Fung to Fungi, and banking industry regulator David Carse, deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, to Crass. This last suggestion would result in a complete misnomer, according to our banking correspondent Louis Beckerling, who finds Mr Carse to be a careful and articulate speaker, totally uncrass in fact. And the suggestion offered for his own surname of Beckerling? Bickering. Some of his detractors may agree. Footloose: American design guru Kenneth Cole is in town. For an amusing look at how he got started in the shoe selling business in New York, see www.kennethcole.com , under About Us. Graphic: whee14gbz
