Alcoholics in Hong Kong: addicts tell their stories

The chances are that anyone reading this article in Hong Kong will know at least one alcoholic in the city. It’s also almost certain that this person won’t be sleeping rough, swigging from a can of Blue Girl beer during morning coffee break or slurring their words in conversation.

It’s more likely the alcoholic you know is your doctor, your child’s teacher, your lawyer, the taxi driver taking you to work, the university professor living upstairs or the pilot who’ll be flying you off on your next holiday. Or, of course, you.

“They’re drinking in the Hong Kong Club, at the FCC or you can see them from about 2pm in the bars of Lan Kwai Fong; they’re everywhere in the city,” says investment banker and long-term Alcoholics Anonymous Hong Kong member Phil G (everyone at AA is referred to by this naming convention), who was also an organiser of the most recent AA Hong Kong international convention, which took place in November.

Department of Health figures show that more than 2,500 people are admitted to the city’s hospitals with alcohol-related conditions every year and 15.9 per cent of young men are binge drinkers. The government scrapped all duty on wine and beer in 2008 and there is still no legally enforced age limit for the purchase of alcohol from retailers.

AA has been supporting addicts in Hong Kong for more than 40 years and traditionally refuses interviews and shuns media intrusion. So an invitation to observe the convention and talk to attendees offered a rare insight into the organisation’s work.

THE FIRST HONG KONG AA meeting took place in September 1969, at the Mariners Club, in Tsim Sha Tsui, which was also the venue for November’s convention. The group now has more than 1,000 members and holds about 40 meetings a week, in four languages: English, Cantonese, Putonghua and Nepalese.