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I came over in 1984 to see the beginning of the negotiations for Hong Kong’s future. I was so fascinated by it that I decided to come and live here.
I was quickly aware that this was not the heart of Asia.
Chris Patten and I had an argument about this – I’ve always maintained that although I love this place, in the China of fifty years from now, Beijing will be the Washington DC of China and Shanghai will be its New York. Hong Kong, and this is what angered Chris, will be New Orleans.
In other words, a gateway to the south, full of fascinations – leaving aside Katrina – but no more and no less than that.
The end of British rule in Hong Kong was somewhat inglorious.

We should have accepted the situation as it was. The Chinese are simply not going to allow full-scale democracy in Hong Kong, so just get on with it.
I’ve decided that I want to spend the next few years of my life in and around China. Just to get to grips with it, to try and understand it.
I used to be a geologist. I was living in Uganda and I read a book by James Morris called “Coronation Everest.” James was a Times correspondent, and not only managed to get up to 27,000 feet, but also managed to get the news of the climb back to London in time for the Queen’s coronation. 

So I wrote to James from my tent in western Uganda, to say, “Dear Mr. Morris, I’m a 21-year-old geologist living in east Africa, and I don’t know what to do with my life, but I’ve just read your book and it’s a life-changing moment. Can I be you?”
He wrote this tremendously nice letter back saying, “If you’re serious, give up being a geologist on the day you receive this letter. If you become a writer, you’ll never make a fortune, but you will have the richest and most fascinating life imaginable.”
I resigned that afternoon, flew back that evening and eventually got a job as a reporter. I wrote to James again, and there was this gulp of, “You took my advice?”
I sent him all my clippings, and they would come back annotated.
Then in 1974, I was in Britain and I rang him up and he said, “You must come for tea tomorrow.” There was a moment which I will never forget I rang the doorbell, a woman appeared, and I said, “Oh hello, I’m Simon Winchester, you must be Mrs. Morris,” and this person said, “No, I’m James, actually.”
My hero, James Morris – twinset, cardigan, pearls, little handkerchief, big boobs, legs decorously crossed, court shoes, clean skirt.

And of course, being Britain, nothing was said.
Two days later came a letter saying, “Dear Simon, I’m sorry to have put you through what must have been a somewhat awkward social ordeal. But I’ve decided to become a woman, and if everything goes well in the surgery in Casablanca next week, I will be reborn as a woman, and I’m taking the name Jan Morris.”
I love her books. I am a completely besotted fan. I owe my entire career to Jan. James, if you like.
If I remember the sentence, it was, “Young men from the cadet branches of Swire’s and Hutchison take their Cathay Pacific stewardesses - known in the local argot as LBFMs, initials I will not translate for you gentle reader - to the local bars and discotheques.”
Oh, God. Has it really been fourteen years? 

But I stand by the reportage. The reality that western men regarded Asian stewardesses as LBFMs is an uncomfortable truth, but it is nonetheless a truth.
The bosses of Cathay came down on me like a ton of bricks.
To be remembered in Hong Kong for that one thing is somewhat embarrassing. I would hate for that to be the defining moment in my career in the East.
I love Cathay. I think it’s a great airline.
I just dread what’s going to be written about this.
I spent three months in an Argentinean jail. Long enough.
When you take your morning ablutions squatting next to two murderers, then you somehow think you’re in a different universe.
I could not be happier with the way I’ve lived my life.
Never lose your sense of wonder. I’ve seen too many reporters getting cynical and jaded.
I think I’m increasingly being guided by one thing: “Be kind.” I think it’s hugely important. I’m not always kind, but I think it’s a good way to run a life.
So that’s my ambition. To remain amazed, and to try and be kind.


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Simon Winchester

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Simon Winchester is a journalist and author of books such as “The Surgeon of Crowthorne” and “A Crack in the Edge of the World.” He was based in Hong Kong for a decade as a correspondent for the Sunday Times. He chats to Adam White about his time here, meeting Jan Morris, and that whole LBFM thing.
