Over the course of its history it seems there was always opportunity in crisis for the South China Morning Post.
And so it was, at the height of the 1925 riots, which had begun in Shanghai and spread throughout the treaty ports, that a brilliant young man fostered by the paper, Shum Wai-yau, proposed starting a Chinese-language newspaper of credibility.
Three years before, Shum had led a group of colleagues to buy out the Post's lithography department. But during the 1925 strike, and the subsequent boycott of British goods in Canton that hammered the Hong Kong economy, their new company, South China Lithographic Press, was struggling to stay afloat.
Shum had maintained close relations with Ben Wylie, the Post's managing director. So when the government turned to the Post for help in disseminating information during the riots - when nearly all the Chinese newspapers had closed - Wylie called in his former assistant for advice.
Shum suggested his company be allowed to start up a new Chinese-language newspaper, one that would be dependable and reliable through difficult political times. The government agreed, and the Post decided it would help Shum to get the paper going.
The founders decided it was faster and easier to buy an existing newspaper and revamp it, so they approached the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, which had been publishing the Chung Ngoi Sum Po. The chamber sold it to Shum's group for a 'few thousand dollars', according to one of the founder's sons. The name was changed to Wah Seung Chung Wui Po, but a month later it was revamped and the name changed again to Wah Kiu Yat Po, or Overseas Chinese Daily.