left to right: Andy C. Neilson, Co-Founder, King & Country; Malcolm Offord, Founder, Badenoch & Co. Photo: FCC/Sarah Graham

Go with your gut instinct in business and learn from your mistakes – that was the advice from serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Wan Chai’s famous Joe Bananas bar at a lively club lunch.

Andy C. Neilson, also co-founder of military and civilian miniatures shop King & Country, joined fellow entrepreneurial Scot and founder of Badenoch & Co. Malcolm Offord in sharing the secrets of their successes – and failures. The pair spoke during the event titled From Scotland to Hong Kong: How Entrepreneurs Compete On the World Stage on October 25.

Both are at the helm of several thriving businesses, though Offord is based in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he is chairman of Badenoch & Co, which invests in emerging Scottish manufacturing companies. Among the many titles he holds, he is also a director of Cashmaster International Ltd which supplies leading retailers with top-of-the-range count-by-weight cash devices; and chairman of the National Museums Scotland development board.

Neilson, on the other hand, is a Hong Kong stalwart. He left his job as a Royal Marine Commando in “depressing” Britain in 1977 to join what was then Hong Kong’s Royal Police. After two years on a paltry junior inspector salary of HK$2,500 per month, Neilson, who had studied graphic design at art college in Scotland, moved first to the public relations arm of the police, then to the Government Information Service.

It wasn’t long before new opportunities came his way – opportunities that would only have been available in Hong Kong. “The one thing that impressed me once I got here was the wealth of opportunity,” he said.

With Laura, his first wife, Neilson set up a freelance graphic design studio which soon led to a weekly cartoon in the South China Morning Post. Not long after Laura took a job in the popular Bull & Bear pub in Hutchison House, the couple decided to open their own bar. Mad Dogs in Wyndham Street, named after the Noël Coward song but without the Englishmen – “…we wanted a British-sounding name but, being Scottish, there was no way we’d keep Englishmen.” – opened its doors in 1984.

It was such a success that Neilson and his wife went on to open the legendary Joe Bananas – named after an infamous gangster – in Wan Chai. King & Country, one of the world’s major designers and producers of all-metal, hand-painted 1:30 scale military and civilian miniatures, was their next venture.

By his own admission Neilson said he had made plenty of mistakes along the way despite managing several thriving businesses. One such error of judgment was not buying the building which was home to Mad Dogs. The owner offered it to him in the late 1980s for HK$6m. Because Neilson had only recently opened Mad Dogs, into which he’d ploughed all his money, so he said no. He was offered it again a year later for the slightly increased sum of HK$8m. This time all his cash was tied up in Joe Bananas, so he again was unable to take up the offer. The building later sold for HK$80m. “That’s a case of when you miss the boat,” Neilson said.

Offord started out as a law graduate at Edinburgh University but he “hated the subject”. Nonetheless, he went on to have a successful 27-year career in the City of London. But his passion these days is a focus on encouraging Scotland’s growth through manufacturing. To that end he is also chairman of Borders Whisky Distillery in the Scottish Highlands, with its newest distillery undergoing a £10 million refurbishment to turn a disused industrial site in Hawick into a modern distillery.

As chairman of the National Museums Scotland development board he has also been instrumental in the ambitious 15-year refurbishment project taking place there. The museum is home to several exhibitions with ties to China, including the largest collection of bones outside the country. He wants to highlight the success of Scots abroad. He said: “It’s about collections sent back from around the world by Scots who went overseas and were successful in foreign lands.”

During the lengthy whisky distilling process Offord said he would produce gin using plants from Kew Gardens that were harvested from overseas by the top ten ‘plant hunters’, all of whom were Scottish.

A lot of practice and a lot of study is the secret to becoming a successful opera singer, according to China’s first Western diva.

Soprano He Hui said it also helped to have passion when singing as she addressed the October 11 club lunch, revealing the story behind her rise from teenage singer in Xi’an to acclaimed international star of opera.

Soprano He Hui talked about her rise to fame as an opera singer. Photo: Sarah Graham/FCC

He Hui, known as a Verdi soprano – meaning her powerful voice suits the composer’s unique pieces – has performed all over the world, her vast repertoire including the role of Amelia in Un ballo in maschera; Leonora in La forza del destino; Liu in Turandot; and the title role in Manon Lescaut. She has frequently appeared at leading opera houses including Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Paris Opéra-Bastille, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

After receiving applause at the FCC following the showing of a short clip of her performing in Aida – which she has sung more than 160 times – He Hui recalled how she was discovered at the age of seventeen when her mathematics teacher heard her sing at school. Her parents – a doctor and a teacher – we not keen on He Hui’s decision to begin studying music, she said. “But they saw I was so strong and they accepted my decision and they helped me and gave me a lot of love,” she added.

At 18 years old she first saw Puccini’s La Bohème, which brought her to tears. She immediately fell in love with opera: “I heard something that touched me… it gave me a huge emotion,” she said. Not long afterwards He Hui joined Beijing’s prestigious Conservatory of Music. Her big break came when she was chosen to star in the all-Chinese production of Aida at the opening of the Shanghai Grand Theatre in 1998.

Two years later she placed second in Placido Domingo’s Operalia competition and was recruited to move to Italy. He Hui has remained close to the legendary maestro and sees him as a mentor, describing him as “one of the greatest artists of our time”.

After a debut as Tosca at the Teatro Regio in Parma, she remained there, living in Verona, where she is a staple of the performances in the city’s famous Roman Arena.

He Hui admitted that at times it had been hard as a Chinese woman to break into Western opera, most notably because she had to learn Italian in order to find the passion to perform the compositions. She added that 30 years ago there were no Asians in Western opera but it was now a growing phenomenon.

He Hui is the subject of new documentary entitled Soprano from the Silk Road and is currently cooperating on a new biography entitled Journey to the West: A Chinese soprano’s path to prima donna.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which specialises in gender-based violence and sexual and reproductive health, has published the following media guidelines for reporting on GBV in humanitarian contexts such as the Rohingya Refugee Emergency.

I. Purpose and Audience

Survivors’ Best Interests

II. Guiding Principles for Media Professionals

• Avoid judgmental language. Writing about a survivor’s history, her/his sexual practices or sexual orientation, what she/he was wearing, where she/he was, what she/he was doing, or what time of day the abuse occurred could imply survivor blame. Generally, contextual factors such as those just listed should be avoided in all media reporting on GBV. Additionally, forms of GBV should not be presented as “normal” or part of the culture of the crisis-affected context. Unless justifiably relevant to the story, survivor and perpetrator ethnicities should not be reported. It is also recommended to avoid using the term “alleged” rape or sexual assault or referring to a survivor as an “accuser” as this could reinforce the disbelief that a crime actually occurred and has the potential to reinforce negative stereotypes.

• Never report details that could put survivors at further risk. Names, photographs, or other identifying information of survivors, their family members, or even at times those actors who are providing assistance (depending on the context), should not be used. Other information including certain specifics of the incident and the physical characteristics of the survivor may also put survivors and those helping them at risk and should be avoided. Any breaches to this best practice can put survivors’ lives at risk.3

• Consult GBV experts who are familiar with the context.The input of local GBV experts will always increase the depth of understanding by providing relevant contextual information. These experts are usually well-placed to support journalists and other media professionals to ensure survivors’ rights are protected. If there is ever a question of a story’s potential for violating survivors’ rights (or a “grey area” in terms of safety and ethics), these experts can also guide media professionals to ensure that they are presenting their story in such a way so as to not increase the risk of further abuse or retribution against survivors, their families, or others who are helping them get care.
• Provide information on local support services and organizations who are addressing GBV in the context. With the consent of service providers, media reports can include the contact information of local support organizations and services in order to allow survivors/witnesses, their families and others who may have experienced or been affected by GBV to access the care they need. It is critical to obtain the consent of service providers prior to printing or broadcasting information on services. In countries where parties to the conflict have been implicated in perpetrating GBV, media professionals must use caution to ensure that service-providing entities do not face retaliation (including violence, threats of violence, and/or getting shut down by the host government).
• Ethical and Safe Survivor Interviews
• Sensitive reporting means ensuring that the media interview meets the needs of the survivor. When interviewing female survivors, a female interviewer and interpreter should be on hand. It is important that the interpreter is briefed about confidentiality and agrees to it before meeting the survivor. Too often interpreters are found at the last minute and may not understand the dynamics and consequences of GBV. They also may not have the vocabulary needed for the interview. If interviewers are trained they can also function as cultural brokers and re-phrase questions so as to minimise harm.
• Ensure a secure and private setting. In recognition that stigma may be associated with any step of an interview process. Media practitioners must do everything they can to avoid exposing the interviewee to further abuse. This includes avoiding actions that may undermine their quality of life or standing in their family or community.
• Treat the survivor with respect. For journalists this means respecting privacy, providing detailed and complete information about topics to be covered, and fully informing the survivor on how the information will be used. It also means informing the survivor before the interview begins that she/he does not have to answer every question the reporter asks and that she/he has the right to ask the interviewer to skip a specific question or to take a break if the interview becomes upsetting.
• Survivors have the right to refuse to answer any questions or divulge more information than they are comfortable with. Journalists and other media professionals should provide contact details to interviewees and make themselves available for later contact. This will ensure interviewees are able to keep in touch if they wish or need to do so.
• Avoid questions, attitudes or comments that are insensitive to cultural values, that place an individual or group in danger, that expose an individual or group to humiliation, or probing for details that reactivate an individual’s or group’s pain and grief associated with their exposure to GBV.
• Pay attention to where and how the survivor is interviewed. Try to make certain that she/he is comfortable and able to tell his/her story without outside pressure, including from the reporter/interpreter or other media professional. Survivors should also be allowed to have someone with them whom they trust and who can act as a survivor advocate. The survivor should be asked where and when to hold the interview. Survivors may face increased risk of harm just by being seen with someone who is foreign and are best placed to determine the most appropriate and safest context for the interview. It is also important to consider who may be within hearing range of the survivor who is telling her story. Sometimes rooms may only be partitioned by a curtain. The time of day of the interview should ideally also be determined by the survivor: it may be easier for her to leave the house un-noticed at certain times.
• The use of images, footage and photographs to illustrate GBV is complicated. Except in cases where survivors have given their informed consent, photos should not include any identifiable information. Any use of images should present the subject in a way that upholds their dignity. Where possible, images should be used to illustrate a general situation, rather than a specific incident of GBV. It is not recommended to take pictures of survivors. If pictures are taken by photographers, it is important to obtain written consent from the survivors and to stay in contact with photographers to review and select images, clarify any information, and discuss possible uses. Unless the individuals represented in the images have given their written, informed consent for use of their image in association with a story on GBV, the use of stock footage to illustrate a story on GBV should also be avoided. Photos of child survivors should never be used.
• III. Guiding Principles for UN, NGO and other Survivor Advocates

How to ensure a decision is “informed”

1. Explain the objective of the interview, the context of the news story, the background on the media outlet, the steps in the interview, who will interview, who will be present during the interview, where the interview will take place, how interview will be published, name of translator, etc.
2. Explain the potential risks of undertaking the interview.
3. Explain that he/she has the right to decline or refuse any part of the interview and interrupt the interview at any time.
4. Explain what will be kept confidential and the limits of confidentiality.

• Secure consent from the survivor for all interviews and audiotaping. Informed consent5 is obtained when a survivor has demonstrated understanding of all potential known positive or negative consequences of divulging his or her information, and can explain exactly how his or her information will be used, including what, if any, identifying information may be shared. Humanitarian personnel should be aware of actors who may be intentionally or unintentionally exploiting the power differential between the interviewer and survivor, family or community members who may be pressuring the survivor to tell her story against her will, or any other factors that might make consent not truly informed.
• Even when survivors consent to being photographed, photos should not be taken that could enable survivor identification (thereby putting them at risk of further abuse and/or retaliation). This equally applies to stories that will appear in local press as it does to those stories that will only be published online.
• At all times, secure a written agreement from the reporter to remove identifying information from interviews. This will include changing the name of the survivor and obscuring the physical identity and voice. The exception to this is if, after having all of the potential implications clearly explained to him/her, the survivor explicitly agrees to have her/his identity divulged. NGOs and service providers should also receive a written agreement that the name of the provider and organization will not be used publicly and not be mentioned in the report. It should be assumed that nothing that is said will be “off the record”; rules of engagements should be negotiated before any information is divulged. As feasible, media professionals should share the story in advance with a GBV expert as well as any other actors (survivors or their helpers) who have been featured in the report to review. This applies equally to an in-house story and a story that’s being reported by an external actor or entity.
• Even in the few cases of when a survivor’s identity is used based on their full and informed consent, he/she must still be protected against harm and supported through any stigmatization or reprisals. Some examples of these special cases are when a survivor initiates contact with a reporter or when a survivor is part of a sustained program of activism or social mobilization and wants to be identified.
• Children: Except in very limited circumstances, journalists or other media professionals should avoid any direct interviews with children. If an interview is required for the story, in addition to applying all of the principles described above, the following steps should be taken when it comes to children
• 5 “Informed consent” occurs when someone fully understands the consequences of a decision and consents freely and without any force. There is no consent when agreement is obtained through deception, or misrepresentation or when a promise is made to the person to provide a benefit (even if this promise is implied).

1. 1) The interview should never take place without another adult being present. The adult would normally be a parent, but might be someone else who is acting in the place of a parent, such as a teacher, or someone working for a children’s protection agency.
2. 2) Older children can speak for themselves, but there is a danger that even young people in their teens may be misled or make a snap decision they later regret. Journalists should consider whether even older teenagers properly understand how material is to be used and whether they can give informed consent. Indeed the older the child, the more necessary it is to explain the use of material fully and let them make a decision.

IV. GBV Terminology