https://www.scmp.com/rss/147088/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com How the mighty have fallen! I have my problem with Donald Tsang Yam-kuen – he chose to do nothing when something effective could still be done about the runaway property market, apart from halting land development and ceasingHome Ownership Scheme flats altogether. But watching the 72-year-old former chief executive handcuffed and taken to a maximum security prison, I couldn’t help but feel traumatised and diminished. This is what happens when political leaders so publicly and so spectacularly... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2073470/doing-it-just-because-you-can-spells-trouble-powerful?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2073470/doing-it-just-because-you-can-spells-trouble-powerful?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Feb 2017 11:01:22 +0000 As the chief executive race heats up, it’s time to ask ourselves this sobering question: what, if anything, have we learned from the last three elections since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997? Say what you will about Beijing, but it is apparent that it has the capacity to rectify and learn from the mistake it made in betting on the wrong horse in the last election. Five years ago, it let it be known early on that Henry Tang was its favourite candidate. This was not only... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2063608/beijing-has-learned-lessons-past-and-playing-chief-executive-election?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2063608/beijing-has-learned-lessons-past-and-playing-chief-executive-election?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Jan 2017 09:32:04 +0000 According to Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby, a sense of fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth. He may be right. But if you decide to go into politics, you have no choice but to develop that sense. It is a political virtue that one day may save your ass as well as your job. That, in short, is the object lesson of the oath-taking saga that resulted in two pro-independence lawmakers being kicked out of the Legislative Council. Hong Kong people are not known for their... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2052957/barred-hong-kong-lawmakers-overstepped-mark-and-offended-publics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2052957/barred-hong-kong-lawmakers-overstepped-mark-and-offended-publics?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Dec 2016 09:00:25 +0000 Hong Kong may no longer be a city under colonial administration, but as demonstrated so vividly by what took place in the Legislative Council recently, the colonial mentality is still very much with us. Who would take such perverse pride in using the imperialist language to so publicly insult their own country but a colonised people who had internalised the values of their colonial master? There are people who suggest that we should ignore the oaths of the two Youngspiration lawmakers as... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2042703/hong-kong-oath-taking-saga-shows-ugly-side-citys-colonial-legacy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2042703/hong-kong-oath-taking-saga-shows-ugly-side-citys-colonial-legacy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Nov 2016 09:00:15 +0000 Though the term “information age” first appeared some 40 years ago, it was the more recent popularity of smartphones that turned “having information at your fingertips” from a sci-fi fantasy into an everyday reality. So, with so much information so readily available, are we more capable of making informed choices and decisions? Not necessarily. The United States is the internet capital and its smartphones are selling like hot cakes around the world. According to The New York Times , however, the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2023667/information-overload-makes-dangerous-world-internet-age?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2023667/information-overload-makes-dangerous-world-internet-age?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Sep 2016 08:00:30 +0000 These are critical times for Hong Kong. While next Sunday’s hotly contested Legco polls will be the focus of attention, the most anticipated political event is the chief executive election on March 27, 2017. Much hope is invested in a process that may produce a Moses who can lead the city out of the wilderness of internal strife, generational conflict and ideological infighting. Hong Kong is in crisis and people are crying out for a strong, unifying leader. The theory of leadership holds that... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2008924/hong-kong-urgently-needs-great-leader-just-dont-hold-your-breath?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2008924/hong-kong-urgently-needs-great-leader-just-dont-hold-your-breath?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Aug 2016 08:07:25 +0000 One of the dominant grand narratives of our time is how the elites betray the interests of the masses. It is a story that people around the world not only understand but can relate to because they are all part of it. When Britain’s new Prime Minister Theresa May gave her first speech last week, she was of course addressing the British people. But how could Hongkongers not feel a pang of recognition as she talked about the “burning injustice” that the blacks, women, workers, youngsters and the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1992900/betrayal-masses-sure-spell-failure-those-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1992900/betrayal-masses-sure-spell-failure-those-power?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Jul 2016 11:48:18 +0000 Are Hong Kong people crazy about sport? There seems to be evidence aplenty that they are. Every time Hong Kong’s football team pulls off a win in a World Cup qualifier, the entire city goes into a frenzy. Lee Lai-shan, the windsurfing gold medallist at the 1996 Olympics and Sarah Lee Wai-sze, who won a bronze medal at the London Olympics, have become Hong Kong’s favourite daughters. And 19-year-old Rex Tso Sing-yu, having gone through 19 professional bouts without defeat, is now a local hero and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1976245/lets-celebrate-sport-no-other-reason-sheer-joy-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1976245/lets-celebrate-sport-no-other-reason-sheer-joy-it?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Jun 2016 08:08:08 +0000 After making some critical remarks on her Facebook account about Alfred Chan Cheung-ming, the newly appointed chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission, University of Hong Kong (HKU) associate professor Petula Ho Sik-ying received an email from Chan which she found “deeply disturbing”. “I have been working closely with X, Y , Z [Ho’s HKU colleagues] and T [head of HKU’s Department of Social Work and Social Administration at which Ho teaches]. I hope they take me from a different... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1944070/hong-kongs-new-equality-chief-guilty-intimidation-no-just-bad-english?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1944070/hong-kongs-new-equality-chief-guilty-intimidation-no-just-bad-english?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 May 2016 08:14:38 +0000 If there is one thing parents, students and teachers in Hong Kong seem to have in common, it’s their heartfelt hatred of the Territory-wide System Assessment or TSA, a standardised test used to measure the competence of local primary students. It may give them some pleasure of recognition to know that in New York State last year, 220,000 students refused to take the state tests. This is called “opting out” of the test. It’s true that Hong Kong’s public education has been swamped by bad ideas and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1934211/second-thought-hong-kong-not-only-place-where?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1934211/second-thought-hong-kong-not-only-place-where?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Apr 2016 08:59:08 +0000 More than three weeks after the Mong Kok riot, one of the most frequently asked questions remains: what is the point of putting the blame solely and squarely on the rioters? What is seldom raised is the much more essential question of what is wrong with a society whose members cannot even agree on what has happened after its worst unrest in years, let along bring themselves to condemn those who planned and participated in the event. This, in a nutshell, is the most urgent problem Hong Kong is... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1920110/second-thought-hong-kong-losing-its-moral-compass-after-mong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1920110/second-thought-hong-kong-losing-its-moral-compass-after-mong?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Mar 2016 09:19:58 +0000 Since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, two competing, mutually exclusive discourses on the city’s position and future have emerged. One celebrates the reunion and recognises it as a great opportunity. Now that tiny Hong Kong has become a part of the world’s second largest economy, it is guaranteed an almost endless supply of profit opportunities in the future. Its people will have everything to gain from the motherland’s sustained economic growth, unrivalled market size and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1906444/hong-kong-booksellers-disappearance-provides-more-fuel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1906444/hong-kong-booksellers-disappearance-provides-more-fuel?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Jan 2016 08:21:28 +0000 Hong Kong has no social problems, only political problems. Or to be more accurate, Hong Kong has no social problems that cannot be solved, only political problems that are too hot to handle. Take, for example, the housing problem that has rendered millions of people “homeless”. Its long-term solution, as everybody knows, lies in the increase of land supply. This can be done by reclamation, land use rezoning or altering the current designated boundaries of country parks to make more land... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1892402/hong-kongs-political-problems-are-simply-too-hot-handle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1892402/hong-kongs-political-problems-are-simply-too-hot-handle?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Dec 2015 08:17:29 +0000 These days, students - full of righteous indignation, swearing and pointing accusing fingers at people they regard as moral inferiors - have become a fixture on television. What I find both perplexing and disturbing is how utterly convinced they seem to be of their infallibility. They would not back down or apologise, insisting they are in the right. They have absolutely no use for self-doubt. It takes courage and commitment for students to throw themselves into the dark and dirty valley of... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1878242/societal-calling-check-hong-kong-youth-all-its-daring-and-righteous?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1878242/societal-calling-check-hong-kong-youth-all-its-daring-and-righteous?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Nov 2015 16:01:45 +0000 Though profit and fear have always been the two major motives underlying human behaviour, there is a critical difference between a profit-driven society and a society primarily motivated by fear. When opportunity knocks, the profit-driven society quickly rises up and answers the door. But by the time the fear-driven society unhooks the chain, releases the lock and shuts off the burglar alarm, opportunity has left without a trace. That's why when I hear people say that Hongkongers are profit-mad,... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1865294/hitting-fear-button-politicians-and-anti-beijing-media-are-preying?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1865294/hitting-fear-button-politicians-and-anti-beijing-media-are-preying?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Oct 2015 16:00:30 +0000 In a report released earlier by the Legislative Council Secretariat, Hongkong Post was chastised for failing to diversify its services to meet market demands and relying too much on traditional mail business to generate revenue. But our post office is certainly not the only government department which can't keep pace with change. The descent of the Information Services Department into irrelevance after 1997 is a case in point. The government has been getting so much bad press since the handover... https://www.scmp.com/news/article/1855068/second-thought-hong-kong-government-departments-must-move-times?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/article/1855068/second-thought-hong-kong-government-departments-must-move-times?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Sep 2015 16:00:15 +0000 Here's the million-dollar question - What's on the mind of Beijing regarding Hong Kong? When, in the eyes of the Chinese leaders, will our city outlive its usefulness not only as a model of economic success, but also as a demonstration of the validity of the "one country, two systems" concept? By and large, Beijing has been on its best behaviour and refrains from interfering with Hong Kong's internal affairs. But will it eventually say "enough is enough" and shows the city its iron fist? In the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1845271/hong-kong-must-view-beijing-partner-not-enemy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1845271/hong-kong-must-view-beijing-partner-not-enemy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Jul 2015 18:57:19 +0000 Hongkongers are a miserable lot, according to the 2014 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Based on a survey of about 146,000 people aged over 15, it ranked Hong Kong 120th among 145 countries and territories, far behind Taiwan (59th), Japan (92nd) and Singapore (97th). That Hong Kong people seem to be getting less happy by the year is not exactly news. The UN-based World Happiness Report listed the city at 72nd last year among 158 countries and territories, down from 64th in 2013 and 46th in... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1831771/increasingly-unhappy-hongkongers-need-take-reality?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1831771/increasingly-unhappy-hongkongers-need-take-reality?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Jul 2015 18:43:14 +0000 Perhaps it's time to call the whole thing off. It's getting clearer by the day that what separates the Hong Kong and central governments from the pan-democratic lawmakers over the electoral reform package for 2017 runs so much deeper and is infinitely more complicated than the "You like to-may-toes and I like to-mah-toes" kind of disagreement. Their differences are as much ideological as they are epistemological. While one side seems to care only about what is politically possible, the other... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1816791/hong-kong-pan-democrats-exhibit-suffocating-sense-moral?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1816791/hong-kong-pan-democrats-exhibit-suffocating-sense-moral?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Jun 2015 21:15:30 +0000 Just what was on the mind of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying when he said, on a number of occasions, that Hong Kong needed to strengthen its image as a "tourist city"? Is there any real substance to the term? Or is it just another vainglorious idea designed to sell Hong Kong to the world, as empty and meaningless as slogans such as Asia's World City or Events Capital of Asia? This is no idle question. Tourism and hospitality are among pillars of the local economy on which the livelihoods of many... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1788674/hong-kong-must-learn-be-real-tourist-city?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/1788674/hong-kong-must-learn-be-real-tourist-city?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 May 2015 18:56:58 +0000 I am no expert on parenting. In fact, I am not even a parent. But parents are in general so desperate for parenting tips that the brains of even people like me are sometimes picked. The best advice I have given to eternally curious mothers and fathers in search of the secret to parenting success is they need to let their children take a little risk. With a sparkle of excitement in my eyes, I would declare to them: "The best way to ensure your children grow up to be losers is to give them all the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1762697/second-thought-give-children-freedom-grow?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1762697/second-thought-give-children-freedom-grow?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Apr 2015 16:00:45 +0000 People have been predicting "the death of Hong Kong" since the infamous cover story published in Fortune magazine 20 years ago warning that the prosperous days of the city would be over after the 1997 handover. To this day, the city is still very much alive and kicking and, one must say, getting better and better at harassing and abusing visitors, as can be seen from recent protests against parallel-goods trading. But if you are looking for signs of Hong Kong's troubles or sources of its... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1736167/second-thought-hong-kong-becomes-bogged-down-culture-suspicion?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1736167/second-thought-hong-kong-becomes-bogged-down-culture-suspicion?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Mar 2015 16:15:45 +0000 Our government, like God, sometimes moves in mysterious ways. For the longest time, ATV has been failing spectacularly to carry out its duties as a licensed broadcaster by filling its airtime with endless reruns of age-old shows (shamelessly promoted as television classics) and self-advertisements (it never tires of reminding whoever still watches during commercial breaks that ATV is - savour the irony - "the conscience of Hong Kong"). Despite frequent complaints from a disgruntled public, the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1703789/second-thought-its-time-hong-kong-government-get-tough-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1703789/second-thought-its-time-hong-kong-government-get-tough-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Feb 2015 15:06:19 +0000 Kailash Satyarthi, who shared this year's Nobel Peace Prize with 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai for their struggle against the suppression of children and for young people's rights, said in his acceptance speech that the single aim of his life was that "every child is free to be a child, free to grow and develop, free to eat, sleep, see daylight, free to laugh and cry, free to play, free to learn, free to go to school and above all, free to dream". These words, at once heartfelt and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1677421/tiger-parents-forgetting-kids-are-people-not-projects?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1677421/tiger-parents-forgetting-kids-are-people-not-projects?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Jan 2015 18:15:00 +0000 According to Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the new mediocre has become the new normal. She was referring to the global economy, which, she thought, would just "muddle along with subpar growth" for some time. But the new mediocre reigns in other areas of our lives as well. Culture, for example, has defined excellence down to such an extent that fewer and fewer people seem capable of distinguishing between commercial success and artistic merit, surface... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1655729/increasing-acceptance-mediocrity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1655729/increasing-acceptance-mediocrity?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:15:00 +0000 The Occupy Hong Kong movement has been with us for some time now. What came as a revelation isn't how much the protesters love democracy, but how much they hate the status quo. You can tell by their impossible demands and intransigence that the last thing they want is for things to return to normal. It's apparent that they consider themselves not only fighters for democracy, but also victims of the oppression and tyranny of the status quo. Many people didn't see it coming, for the protesters had... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1633701/occupy-sites-front-line-generation-got-ripped?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1633701/occupy-sites-front-line-generation-got-ripped?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Nov 2014 22:30:44 +0000 Hongkongers are not known for their sophisticated understanding of the intricacies of politics. But it has always been their folk genius to know where interest lies. And it is by doing the right things - things that are useful, advantageous and constructive - time and again that the small city transformed itself into one of the world's financial centres. There is a reason Hong Kong is often cited by economists as a showcase for the superiority of free-market capitalism: the profit motive, the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1613129/protesting-students-have-much-learn-about-compromise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1613129/protesting-students-have-much-learn-about-compromise?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Oct 2014 21:15:56 +0000 Why? Why would anyone in her right mind put herself through something like this? It's a question I can't help asking myself while watching the heroines of reality shows swearing, crying, confessing and despairing across the screen of my television - whether they are the Bride Wannabes or the Nowhere Girls trying to break free from the cocoon of their dismal existence. What satisfaction can there be in putting one's physical and character flaws on display? Why subject oneself to the public... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1585316/realities-reality-tv-put-audience-spotlight?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1585316/realities-reality-tv-put-audience-spotlight?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Sep 2014 19:55:00 +0000 Hell, as the place of eternal torment and punishment, repeats itself endlessly. If there is something hellish about the chamber of the Legislative Council building, it is because what takes place there day after day - the filibustering, the name-calling, the swearing, the pelting, the glass-breaking and the use of the silliest of delaying tactics - begs the question: is there no end to this? If this is political theatre, it is time to bring down the curtain. The pan-democrats and radicals act... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1563634/democracy-worth-fighting-if-only-politicians-knew-how?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1563634/democracy-worth-fighting-if-only-politicians-knew-how?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Jul 2014 20:03:09 +0000 If you want to know how smartphones have made people less and less smart, just look around when you travel on the MTR. You will see passengers' faces set in fierce concentration as they work on an urgent task: swiping at their phones and tablets to place colourful candy icons in rows. They are playing Candy Crush Saga, an insanely mindless game that has been downloaded more than half a billion times by smartphone users all over the world. It can be played for free, but many people find the game... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1541186/phones-are-only-smart-people-who-use-them?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1541186/phones-are-only-smart-people-who-use-them?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:45:00 +0000 There are books that you read and there are books that hit the nail on the head so hard that you want to get your teeth into them. Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which according to The Economist, could "change the way we think about the past two centuries of economic history", clearly belongs to the second category. It has not changed the way I think about Hong Kong - on the contrary, it confirms what I have always thought about the city - but it helps me articulate my... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1518004/critique-capitalism-hits-nail-head?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1518004/critique-capitalism-hits-nail-head?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 May 2014 20:15:45 +0000 Hong Kong may have the most advanced urban mobility system in the world. But as far as social mobility is concerned, the city is certainly more still waters than rapids. An increasing number of Hongkongers are struggling with poverty. According to Professor Nelson Chow Wing-sun of the University of Hong Kong, approximately 1.3 million - nearly 40 per cent of the local workforce - could be classified as the "new poor" as they earned in the range of HK$10,000 to HK$20,000 a month yet could not... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1486129/without-social-mobility-our-city-can-go-nowhere?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1486129/without-social-mobility-our-city-can-go-nowhere?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Apr 2014 19:16:53 +0000 Be careful when you demand an apology, for your turn will come. The Hong Kong government has been relentless in trying to extract a top-level apology from the Philippine government for its criminal incompetence over the 2010 Manila bus siege. Yet, it has apparently not given even a momentary thought to saying sorry to the Indonesians for mistreating their compatriots who have come to the city to work as domestic helpers. This can only be attributed to a colossal failure of moral sense. When... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1447924/its-pointless-bully-philippine-president-benigno-aquino-apologising?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1447924/its-pointless-bully-philippine-president-benigno-aquino-apologising?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Mar 2014 20:32:15 +0000 These days on television, when you see a reporter hit the streets with a cameraman for impromptu interviews, the chances are the response will be given in heavily accented Cantonese, betraying the mainland origin of the speakers. The tremendous growth in the number of mainlanders now living in Hong Kong is a significant part of a larger narrative that is transforming Hong Kong. Should it be cause for alarm or celebration? Some people may point to this as an unmistakable sign of the city's... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1422149/big-apple-offers-hong-kong-good-example-why-it-should-embrace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1422149/big-apple-offers-hong-kong-good-example-why-it-should-embrace?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Feb 2014 20:47:00 +0000 Can a publication promote arts and culture by taking a critical stance on it? If you have pledged your allegiance to arts and culture, should any criticism on your part be termed "unpatriotic"? These are the questions inadvertently raised by critical reviews one often finds in such authoritative literary-intellectual magazines as The New York Review of Books or The New Yorker. In a recent issue of The New York Review, for example, Professor Lorrie Moore, a frequent contributor, has this to say... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1386085/apathy-not-criticism-true-enemy-culture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1386085/apathy-not-criticism-true-enemy-culture?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Dec 2013 20:29:37 +0000 In practice, politics has always meant the systematic mobilisation of support and organisation of hatred. That's why no government in power can resist the temptation to wrap itself in the flag and preach patriotism. Yet patriotic education is an oxymoron because the love of one's country is 90 per cent passion and only 10 per cent education. In essence, patriotism is an enlarged, extended and exaggerated form of self-love - you love your country not because your government tells you to or your... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1349983/patriotism-just-cant-be-taught?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1349983/patriotism-just-cant-be-taught?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Nov 2013 20:07:58 +0000 What is it about the English language that makes usually sensible people stop making sense? A former spokesman for the Education Ministry suggested China should abolish English classes in primary schools as a means to "free the children and save the Chinese language". Instead of being booed off the stage, he was taken seriously. Call it gung-ho silliness. But this is the kind of silliness that George Orwell would have understood. Orwell, one of the finest British prose writers of the 20th... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1318422/banning-foreign-words-crazy-anyones-language?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1318422/banning-foreign-words-crazy-anyones-language?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 I have a few scores to settle with the local press. First, I hate the sight of uniformed ladies in the street giving away free papers like they are promotional leaflets of a shampoo. For me, this signals the defeat of local high-quality - and high-cost - journalism, and it never fails to dampen my spirit. Call me old-fashioned, but I still believe that newspapers are quasi-public institutions with an obligation to their communities and are beholden to the public. But for most free papers, profit... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1296960/enough-gossip-just-give-us-real-news?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1296960/enough-gossip-just-give-us-real-news?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000 In one of my favourite television commercials, a compact, smartly dressed and middle-aged woman gives her female friends a grand tour of her elegant flat. They are polite and well mannered, but as they enter the woman's huge, walk-in closet, they can hardly contain their excitement. Like teenage girls screaming and crying in front of their idols at a rock concert, they whoop and holler at the sight of what must be the woman's very impressive, jaw-dropping wardrobe. But any excitement they feel -... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1280495/we-have-dig-deep-find-type-pleasure?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1280495/we-have-dig-deep-find-type-pleasure?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 It should come as no surprise that the History of the Eagles, the new DVD from the band that defined the "California easy" lifestyle of the 1970s, is topping the bestselling charts the world over. Who wouldn't be curious about the story of a group that has sold more than 120 million albums? Everybody loves a winner. But I find Hong Kong people's worship of the rich, famous and overachieving sometimes bordering on the ridiculous, hence the city's most successful businessman is known as... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1249923/losers-can-teach-us-some-valuable-lessons-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1249923/losers-can-teach-us-some-valuable-lessons-life?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000 If we wanted applause, we would have joined the circus," says the CIA chief to the agent played by Ben Affleck in the Hollywood movie Argo, meaning people like them should take professional pride in being unsung heroes. By the same token, if you want to be a crowd-pleaser or Mr Popularity, don't try your hand at criticism. Indeed, if you've never found a perverse pleasure in offending people, challenging conventional wisdom and questioning prevailing attitudes, you are probably not cut out for... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1223083/art-critics-need-speak-without-political-correctness?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1223083/art-critics-need-speak-without-political-correctness?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Oscar Wilde famously said that he could resist anything but temptation. If there's one thing Hong Kong viewers can't resist, it's bad television. It came as little surprise, therefore, that they fell head over heels for Inbound Troubles, TVB's drama serial which ended its month-long run a few weeks ago, making it the highest-rated network show so far this year. There's nothing extraordinary about this typically bad television drama serial, except that it's overloaded with stereotypes of mainland... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1196530/bad-tv-does-not-really-save-us-boredom?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1196530/bad-tv-does-not-really-save-us-boredom?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Why can't Hong Kong students write well in English? I've been asked this question so many times that I've long given up trying to come up with an answer and have learnt instead to look at the issue from a different perspective. Rather than obsessing over the reason our students can't write well, I've been giving a lot of thought instead to how English writing is being taught in our schools. One observation I've made: many teachers think they're teaching writing when in fact they are teaching... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1111664/secret-writing-well-lies-learning-think-and-feel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1111664/secret-writing-well-lies-learning-think-and-feel?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Dec 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The Chinese author Mo Yan may have won the Nobel Literature Prize, but the most popular, talked-about and imitated Asian artist of the moment in the United States is a pudgy South Korean guy with a goofy dance by the name of  Psy. Gangnam Style, the music video in which Psy shows off his hilarious, or embarrassing - depending on how you look at it - horse-riding dance skills, has been viewed more than 420 million times so far on YouTube. It has been shared on the internet by such celebrities as... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1071888/gangnam-style-loved-america-all-wrong-reasons?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1071888/gangnam-style-loved-america-all-wrong-reasons?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000 No critic worth his salt would fail to appreciate how a little controversy, or just a heated argument, can spice things up and get people's attention. When I saw the headline "Art critics prize under fire" on the front page of the South China Morning Post on August 25, therefore, my heart was filled more with gratitude and relief than terror or dismay. The story made no mention of it, but the prize, whose official name is ADC Critics Prize, is the brainchild of the Arts Development Council's... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1028392/criticism-cash-award-chinese-art-critics-misses-point?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1028392/criticism-cash-award-chinese-art-critics-misses-point?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Sep 2012 16:00:00 +0000 What is so outrageous about the row over broadcasting rights for the London Olympic Games among three local TV stations is that nobody, least of all the government, seems to understand that this is, first and foremost, a public interest issue. For the TV stations, especially iCable, which has bought the rights to televise the Games, live broadcasting of the Olympics may be a weapon of mass destruction in the ratings war and a sure-fire marketing ploy to sign up new subscribers. But the Games,... https://www.scmp.com/article/1006924/tv-stations-bad-sports-over-games-coverage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1006924/tv-stations-bad-sports-over-games-coverage?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000