Grief and joy in a year of living on edge

THE year began tragically: a New Year's Eve street party in Lan Kwai Fong turned into a stampede. Twenty people were killed within five minutes of 1993 beginning. Another died later.

Bar and restaurant owners held emergency closed-door meetings, the authorities clamped down on under-age drinking and unlicensed premises and the catch phrase ''to avoid another Lan Kwai Fong'' was coined.

Also, in January, the original Mad Dogs closed in Wyndham Street, tickets for the full-nudity Fringe Festival Show Don Juan sold out within days, and just after the so-called Camillagate tapes had been discovered in Britain, Dame Edna Everedge jetted up from Down Under and announced that she would not like to be in Governor Chris Patten's trousers.

Chocolate company Nestle apologised publicly for running an ad in the Hong Kong press that showed Prince Charles and Princess Diana ignoring each other, with the caption: ''Have a break, have a Kit-Kat''.

A similar advert featuring Mr Patten and Lu Ping, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, in a similar pose, attracted no horrified media attention.

In February, Lan Kwai Fong bar owners said they ''felt sick'' when they realised a small film company, Darwell Film Enterprises, was trying to re-enact scenes from the New Year's tragedy.

Carlsberg Brewery said it was looking for a new, watery beer to cut down alcohol consumption at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens.