https://www.scmp.com/rss/268132/feed Vijay Verghese is a Hong Kong-based journalist and editor of the online magazines AsianConversations.com and SmartTravelAsia.com. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Retail therapy was such a reliable driver of Hong Kong tourism that few in the business contemplated the need for diversity. Why fix a wheel that wasn’t broken? Luxury brands gobbled up prime space, muscling out local designers and innovation. Now, that well-oiled wheel is grinding to a halt and klaxons are sounding. Yet it is not too late for the city to end its haute couture strut. A strong Hong Kong dollar and the dwindling allure of monoculture shopping has seen retail drop from 51 per cent... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3298120/hong-kongs-tourist-attractions-are-all-around-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3298120/hong-kongs-tourist-attractions-are-all-around-us?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Feb 2025 01:30:08 +0000 As pressure mounts on Hong Kong to align with the mainland, it is often forgotten that the city’s great strength has always been its freewheeling style. Hong Kong took risks, made fast decisions, and executed them with speed. It had a spirited attitude towards competition. And it learned from its mistakes. This anything-goes dynamism gave it the star power to attract adventurers and an endless supply of can-do talent and capital. Such traits may be getting harder to spot in the city. A survey by... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3276040/can-hong-kong-find-its-goldilocks-zone?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3276040/can-hong-kong-find-its-goldilocks-zone?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Aug 2024 01:30:10 +0000 As Hong Kong’s pivotal Article 23 security bill takes shape, public discourse surrounding the subject has drawn in city officials like moths to a flame. Talk on a variety of unrelated subjects is now couched in terms of security as lawmakers and administrators make haste to present patriotic credentials. This random-speak poses a problem. National security will feature as a core value in the revised civil service code. But critical thinking on pressing areas like housing, education, manpower,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/hong-kong/article/3254925/hong-kongs-security-rests-strong-economy-not-just-article-23?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/hong-kong/article/3254925/hong-kongs-security-rests-strong-economy-not-just-article-23?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Mar 2024 01:30:10 +0000 With the “Hello Hong Kong” campaign failing to lift off and tourism numbers sagging, the search is continuing for answers. Blaming the Covid-19 pandemic has been a regular feature of this exercise, but it does not explain why cities such as Bangkok, Tokyo and Macau – all emerging from their own pandemic woes – are packed with visitors. Copying the approach of other destinations would be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, but that is a common bureaucratic response when ideas are... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3248499/time-showcase-real-hong-kong-draw-tourists-back?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3248499/time-showcase-real-hong-kong-draw-tourists-back?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Jan 2024 01:30:16 +0000 We are obsessed with the future. No one more so than politicians. After all, that is what dream merchants sell. A “brighter future” is bandied about by think tanks, schools, healthcare professionals and the administration. It is de rigueur, yet few define it. As the National Day fireworks cast a glow over Victoria Harbour, the city was again awash with warm and fuzzy talk of a “better future”. So what exactly is this future? And how do we get there? As tech guru Alan Kay put it: “The best way to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3239034/hong-kong-mega-corporation-need-clear-vision-john-lee?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3239034/hong-kong-mega-corporation-need-clear-vision-john-lee?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Oct 2023 07:30:09 +0000 As Hong Kong grapples with steering its youth, it is encouraging to see Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu moving with speed to tackle fundamental issues. The government’s intent is articulated in its youth development blueprint unveiled in December last year and the creation of the new position of commissioner of youth. The contours of engagement and accountability are immediately discernible. The document’s foreword opens with a quote from President Xi Jinping’s speech on the occasion of the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3227942/put-wind-back-hong-kongs-sails-youth-outreach-must-go-full-speed-ahead?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3227942/put-wind-back-hong-kongs-sails-youth-outreach-must-go-full-speed-ahead?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Jul 2023 00:15:11 +0000 As Hong Kong struggles to entice tourists back, there is much head-scratching about what needs to be done. Bureaucrats are abuzz with talk of new attractions. The feeling is the city needs to be gussied up, Botoxed and set to work like some wrinkle-free circus elephant with a new bag of tricks. This sort of thinking is muddled and misses the point. Hong Kong, like any other city, has to evolve to meet the needs of its residents. But this does not mean blind emulation of places like Dubai,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3218290/bring-tourists-back-hong-kong-must-focus-what-makes-it-authentic-and-unique?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3218290/bring-tourists-back-hong-kong-must-focus-what-makes-it-authentic-and-unique?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Apr 2023 00:15:07 +0000 It is an odd reflection of our times that while several Hong Kong universities are rated highly on global lists, English proficiency in the city is generally seen as steadily dropping. Hong Kong has five institutions in the top 100 on the 2023 QS World University rankings (Singapore has two). The city also has top-100 placings in other major surveys. This was highlighted by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in his inaugural policy address, where he focused on “unleashing the potential of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3203186/good-english-hong-kongs-passport-back-world-community?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3203186/good-english-hong-kongs-passport-back-world-community?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Dec 2022 00:15:10 +0000 As the dust settles, a lone rider has emerged from the haze. He was duly anointed by the central government’s liaison office, thus saving a beleaguered Hong Kong from the onerous task of picking a chief executive. John Lee Ka-chiu was the sole candidate in the election and is now chief executive-elect. Case closed. Lee has a tough image that would not be out of place in a reimagined Marlboro ad. He set out on a career with the Royal Hong Kong Police Force in 1977, steadily making his way up to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3176795/john-lee-offers-chance-real-change-hong-kong-must-seize-opportunity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3176795/john-lee-offers-chance-real-change-hong-kong-must-seize-opportunity?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 May 2022 01:15:14 +0000 With Hong Kong aflutter in the Omicron crosshairs and pressure from the mainland to emulate its “dynamic zero-Covid” approach, the city is split once again along well-entrenched fault lines. Pundits argue that staying in lockstep with Beijing is necessary to reopen the border for quarantine-free travel and economic exchange. Not everyone agrees, but with medical frontiers heading into uncharted Covid-19 territory, they could be right. Maria van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3166865/hong-kong-needs-its-own-anthony-fauci-beat-politics-driven-fear?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3166865/hong-kong-needs-its-own-anthony-fauci-beat-politics-driven-fear?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Feb 2022 22:45:10 +0000 Much has been written on travel bubbles, rapid antigen tests and vaccine passports. The English language has been greatly enriched by terms such as PCR and PPE, both among the latest acronyms now resolutely lodged in our vocabulary. These acronyms spoon-feed science to us in bite-sized morsels. They make travellers sound like they know what they are talking about, hence the hasty adoption into living room conversation. PCR sounds so much better than polymerase chain reaction test. Few understand... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3148978/pandemics-persistence-means-carefree-holidays-abroad-wont-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3148978/pandemics-persistence-means-carefree-holidays-abroad-wont-be?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Sep 2021 06:30:18 +0000 Why would anyone say no to life? Yet, in Hong Kong, a bustling financial city with several universities ranked among the world’s best and no dearth of bright minds, there is a puzzling reluctance for people to roll up their sleeves and get a Covid-19 vaccine.  This stubborn refusal to help the world inch closer to herd immunity prompted Professor Lam Tai-hing, from the University of Hong Kong, to lament on RTHK that people “should be ashamed of themselves”. He is right. Singapore and Hong Kong,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/hong-kong/article/3136891/hong-kong-must-step-out-darkness-and-embrace-coronavirus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/hong-kong/article/3136891/hong-kong-must-step-out-darkness-and-embrace-coronavirus?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Jun 2021 22:45:00 +0000 Nietzsche was right – what does not kill us makes us stronger. Having survived oil embargoes, severe acute respiratory syndrome and market crashes – none of which inspired global solidarity – it took a clever and insidious bug to finally get airlines and governing bodies out of their bunkers to sing from the same song sheet. Come together they have, though, to sensibly script standardised travel and health protocols to replace the current approach, best described as a headless chicken. Top of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3111683/covid-19-passports-trump-travel-bubbles-digital-security-and-test?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3111683/covid-19-passports-trump-travel-bubbles-digital-security-and-test?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Nov 2020 00:15:20 +0000 Famous as the entrepot for trade with China and later a safe avenue for foreign investment, Hong Kong has long had another export up its sleeve that is rarely spoken of in polite company: capitalist greed. It is at the core of the city’s freewheeling capitalism, has changed much of Asia and attracted the attention of Deng Xiaoping, who was keen to lift China out of the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. This was when Hong Kong achieved lift-off and set about subverting its host with vast... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3097238/capitalist-greed-good-can-hong-kong-reinvent-its-economic-miracle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3097238/capitalist-greed-good-can-hong-kong-reinvent-its-economic-miracle?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Aug 2020 12:45:15 +0000 Frustrated by an increasingly hostile United States, the Covid-19 pandemic, a continuing protest deadlock in Hong Kong, and Taiwan’s dismissal of its “one country, two systems” overture, China has hit out on several fronts. From border skirmishes with India to tough posturing in the South China Sea, Beijing is flexing its muscles with a new go-it-alone resolve. On May 28, China’s National People’s Congress voted to pass on a weighty task to its Standing Committee – “establishing and improving... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087906/protests-national-security-law-and-donald-trumps-response-show-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087906/protests-national-security-law-and-donald-trumps-response-show-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Jun 2020 22:00:11 +0000 After Hong Kong declared a red travel alert over Covid-19, crowds have thinned and the once humming streets are largely empty. Schools are closed. Yet, amid the unruly stampedes for toilet paper, there is an opportunity for this beleaguered city. With citizens’ focus distracted by health and economic fears, the government – while deeply unloved and seen as transitional – has a curious chance to bridge divides and revive the community. Emergencies have a habit of creating common ground, bringing... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075962/coronavirus-crisis-creates-common-ground-carrie-lam-has-rare-chance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075962/coronavirus-crisis-creates-common-ground-carrie-lam-has-rare-chance?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Mar 2020 23:00:10 +0000 The United States’ Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which was just passed by the Senate, is remarkable as much for its attempt to champion a city far across the Pacific as for its unprecedented bipartisanship. Ironically, Hong Kong – with its sharply polarised society – has wrought political unity in a country riven by righteous rage. The act may have a limited positive effect on Hong Kong’s fortunes but will certainly drive a bigger wedge between Washington and Beijing in their... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3038307/far-ruining-hong-kong-americas-human-rights-and-democracy-bill?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3038307/far-ruining-hong-kong-americas-human-rights-and-democracy-bill?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Nov 2019 01:43:56 +0000 Given the escalating chaos on the streets of Hong Kong, it is an understatement to say the rule of law is under stress. Having caused “unforgivable havoc”, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her ill-starred government continue to muddle from one dreadful miscalculation to another. The October 1 celebration of the 70th anniversary of communist rule in China provided a logical watershed for a change in tack. This was the big protest crescendo, after which common sense would surely... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033253/hong-kongs-wayward-young-protesters-need-taking-hand-parents?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033253/hong-kongs-wayward-young-protesters-need-taking-hand-parents?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Oct 2019 22:30:10 +0000 Mass social upheavals since the guillotine-crazed Jacobin terror of the French Revolution have had a habit of getting out of hand. Along with violently jettisoning the status quo, they have demonstrated a perverse habit of devouring their own. A long list, from Robespierre and Danton to Trotsky will attest to this. To be sure, liberté, égalité, fraternité is etched on our minds, an inspiration for generations. Yet, in the end, too many revolutions are better known for their gore, not... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3027897/escalating-violence-not-answer-its-time-protesters-withdraw-dignity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3027897/escalating-violence-not-answer-its-time-protesters-withdraw-dignity?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Sep 2019 22:00:10 +0000 At the risk of being labelled outlandishly Micawberish, there is hope for Hong Kong yet. While the violence of past weeks has provided compelling fodder for headlines, it has distracted everyone from the underlying narrative – the great majority of disaffected Hongkongers have sought peaceful avenues of expression. When offered the opportunity, they have gathered and marched in orderly fashion, largely shunning smaller radical elements armed with petrol bombs and staves who piggyback on the main... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3024930/all-hong-kongs-sake-carrie-lam-must-reach-out-peaceful-majority?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3024930/all-hong-kongs-sake-carrie-lam-must-reach-out-peaceful-majority?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Aug 2019 12:00:13 +0000 Unprecedented peaceful protests – student marchers joined by parents, young children, the elderly, those with disabilities, Christians, labour and business groups – have brought Hong Kong to a halt. Not physically – the city is hard-wired for work – but philosophically. Embattled Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's clumsy attempts to assuage anger at her autocratic, seemingly uncaring style have stirred up a hornet's nest. Accusations have been flying over who is responsible for the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3015041/after-extradition-protests-its-time-be-pro-hong-kong-fix-leadership?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3015041/after-extradition-protests-its-time-be-pro-hong-kong-fix-leadership?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Jun 2019 23:00:10 +0000 The nomination of three Hong Kong activists for the Nobel Peace Prize by a group of US congressmen has put the cat among the pigeons. The trio – Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law and Alex Chow – in the news for having served time in jail for the storming of the government offices and notable for their role in the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests, were cited as “champions of peace and freedom and Hong Kong’s entire pro-democracy movement”. This first nomination for a Hong Kong candidate immediately... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2132031/hong-kongs-nobel-nominees-should-aim-bigger-prize-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2132031/hong-kongs-nobel-nominees-should-aim-bigger-prize-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Feb 2018 09:38:33 +0000