Ting Hai Effect Returns, Hong Kong Press Freedom At New Low, and New Basic Law Teaching Resource Kinda Weird
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Ting Hai Effect Strikes Again
The “Ting Hai Effect”—the phenomenon by which a TV or film appearance by actor Adam Cheng appears to cause rapid stock market declines—is seemingly at work once again. On April 13 TVB announced a re-run of Cheng’s 1992 series “The Greed of Man,” in which he played the character Ting Hai: The Hang Seng Index fell by 454.85 points. On the show’s first airdate on the 20th, the index initially rose 117 points before dropping 558 points, continuing to decline for the next two days. As of the sixth episode on April 27, the Hang Seng Index rose 1.33 percent. Cheng told the South China Morning Post that he does not believe in the so-called phenomenon, and is optimistic that the stock market will continue to rise.
Our Take: Sell! Sell! Sell!
SAR Press Freedom Reaches 14-Year Low
Reporters Without Borders has released its 2015 World Press Freedom Index, which ranks 180 countries by their levels of press freedom. The index is calculated based on factors such as pluralism of opinions, media independence, transparency, environment and self-censorship. Hong Kong ranks 70 this year, and holds an index score of 21.97—while deemed “satisfactory,” the SAR’s world ranking has fallen nine places since last year—reaching its lowest position in 14 years. China is number 176 on the list, falling one spot since 2014. Reporters Without Borders expressed concern over a seemingly global regression: two thirds of the 180 countries ranked have fallen in their ranking from previous years.
Our Take: Well, we’re not afraid to speak the [SENTENCE CENSORED]!