Social Commentator Chip Tsao
Chip Tsao is perhaps the most famous writer in Hong Kong. A former BBC reporter, he has edited several newspapers and won literary awards for his poetry. These days he’s a sharp and witty columnist for Apple Daily and hosts a social commentary show on Commercial Radio.
My parents worked for the pro-China newspaper Ta Kung Pao. They sent me to a pro-Beijing secondary school in Hong Kong until I was smart enough to say, “Enough is enough. Send me somewhere else before I get brainwashed and become a Red Guard like you.”
When I went to university in England, there were lots of Hong Kong students enrolled in science subjects. I made a rare choice to study English literature, and they said “What? English? What's the point?” I didn’t give a damn about what I was going to do in the future. It's not right for Chinese parents to encourage their children to enter the university with a purely functional purpose in mind. School should cultivate curiosity, so study something interesting without any mercenary considerations.
The BBC was a very fruitful eight years for me; a milestone in my life that I treasure and miss.
In 1993, I was in my early 30s, Chris Patten was in Hong Kong and I thought life was going to be exciting with him. So I jumped from London to support him.
But mainly I came back to Hong Kong to work – and, like most expats, earn good money.
I am a man of two cultures. I spent 16 years in Britain. I’m torn between east and west. But you get to see the good and bad sides of different worlds.
After the July 1 march two years ago, Hong Kong people boasted about being able to protest in peace and order, but that's not an ideal social outcry. Not that we need blood, but there must be some climax.