Preserving local history is a key objective of both historians and government officials in Hong Kong. The city hosts a number of museums and heritage sites, including the FCC’s very own Grade 1 historic building in the heart of Central. All of these landmarks are meticulously maintained to preserve their cultural legacy and to educate residents on their significance.

New technology and artificial intelligence (AI) has reshaped how Hong Kong historians track, update, and share their work with the public.

To talk about how these new technologies have impacted their work, the FCC invited three experts for an exclusive dinnertime talk. Speaking on the panel were Dr. Chi Man Kwong from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), FCC member and writer Billy Potts, and Ani Mohan, a Japan-born Indian tech entrepreneur. Moderating the discussion was FCC Journalist Board Governor Joe Pan.

First to speak was Dr. Kwong. His research focuses on mapping out the aerial and naval battles of World War II, particularly the events that took place in Hong Kong. He explained that roughly six years ago, he began using more geographic information systems (GIS) and historic geospatial data in his daily work. By using these programs to process three sources of data — aerial photographs, maps and urban plans, and volumes of recorded data — Dr. Kwong is getting closer towards his goal of mapping out pre-WWII Hong Kong.

“That’s exactly the advantage of combining detailed study of a certain place through the traces of the past. It really humbles me as a historian,” he said.

Dr. Kwong’s WWII project also led him to collaborate with Billy Potts on his Hong Kong Ghost Signs project.

Throughout his presentation, Potts explained the meaning and significance of ghost signs he found around the city, and also pointed out how making your mark in history is uncommon for the majority of society.

As described by Potts, ghost signs are “defunct” and “shouldn’t exist” but still remain as faded relics of previous iterations of local society. He, along with FCC member Ben Marans, embarked on a unique project to record all the ghost signs across Hong Kong. Their photography was on display for January’s wall exhibition.

“It’s a very privileged thing to leave a record of yourself in history. Most people do not. Most people just disappear. But ordinary lives are not insignificant — they’re important, too,” he said.

In the final part of the Club Dinner, Ani Mohan shared how his family’s involvement with the Indian Foreign Service sparked his interest in learning more about Indian impact on Hong Kong’s history. He recalled a series of memoirs his grandfather left behind which detailed his experiences in the Foreign Service, which included sections on Hong Kong and other parts of Asia. For Mohan, this was eye opening and unlike anything he had ever learned in a history class.

“Everyone has an attic. Everyone has grandparents who have very valuable stories to share,” he said.

To watch the full discussion, please visit the FCC’s YouTube channel:

The year is now 2025.

Donald Trump has been inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. Meanwhile, California residents are trying to rebuild their lives after massive wildfires worsened by climate change left their homes in ashes. Israel and Hamas have declared a ceasefire, and hostages from both sides of the conflict are being released. Ukraine continues to fight back almost three years after the Russian invasion, which is now being supported by thousands of North Korean soldiers. In Asia, China is struggling to kickstart its economy while South Korea remains mired in political instability after impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol’s botched attempt to declare martial law.

As 2025 begins, there is a mix of excitement and nervousness across the world for what the year has in store.

At a sold-out Club Lunch discussion at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong, an expert panel shared their predictions and hopes for the next 12 months. Jennifer Jett, Correspondent Board Governor and NBC News’ Asia Digital Editor, was the moderator of the talk.

Still looming over global affairs are two grinding conflicts: the Israel-Hamas war and the war in Ukraine.

Speaking hours before Israel reached a ceasefire agreement with Palestinian militant group Hamas, Michael Bociurkiw, a former journalist and current Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council who is based in Ukraine, was skeptical.

“The one person who does not want peace to happen is Benjamin Netanyahu,” he said. “As long as this continues, it will keep him and his wife out of prison for a massive corruption scheme that they cooked up over the years.” (Netanyahu has rejected the charges.)

Peace also seems out of reach in the Ukraine war as it expands to Russia, where Ukrainian forces launched an August incursion in the region of Kursk and have been carrying out long-range drone strikes.

“You can’t blame Ukrainians for wanting to bring the war to the doorsteps of ordinary Russians,” said Bociurkiw, who pointed out that no civilians were killed in a Jan. 8 drone strike on a key Russian oil depot, in contrast to the scores of Ukrainians killed by Russian airstrikes.

The panelists also discussed the economic situation in mainland China and how a second Trump presidency might affect U.S.-China trade.

Juliana Liu, senior business editor at CNN International, said she was “not optimistic” about a Chinese economic turnaround this year, especially with Trump’s return to the Oval Office and the series of tariffs he’s expected to place on Chinese technology and other goods.

She said Trump was likely to maintain and even strengthen U.S. export curbs on strategic technologies, such as those on AI chips that were issued by President Joe Biden during his final days in office. Though the U.S. cites national security concerns, China says the restrictions are aimed at hobbling its development.

“So far it’s still a ‘cold’ war, it’s not a ‘hot’ war,” Liu said. “But anyone in this space will know that this is massively consequential. Computer chips are the oil and gas and gold of our age.”

Wang Xiangwei, a former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post who now teaches journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University, said China’s financial troubles are caused not by any external factors, but by an over-reliance on the country’s infrastructure investment and exports, as well as the government’s struggle to spur domestic consumption.

“They will have to do something more than providing subsidies for households to upgrade their electrical appliances. To boost domestic consumption, you have to put money in the hands of people,” Wang said.

He also said both the mainland and Hong Kong governments have done a poor job of explaining themselves to the outside world, fueling misconceptions and misunderstandings. Wang said the invitation Chinese President Xi Jinping received to Trump’s inauguration, though unusual, was “a great opportunity that China missed.”

“The two leaders should really meet as soon as possible to avert another war over trade,” he said, “and then to talk about how the two countries could really seek a durable coexistence.”

To watch the full discussion, please visit the FCC’s YouTube channel:

“Macau is a place where legends are born, [where] the stories are written,” said Matthew Marsh when describing how Hong Kong’s parallel SAR has impacted the world of motorsport. 

Marsh never holds back when sharing his insights with the Club’s motorsport enthusiasts at the annual Formula One themed lunches. However, his most recent Club Lunch to preview November’s Macau Grand Prix was alongside Dr. Philip Newsome, a former HKU Professor of Dentistry who has spent the past 33 years writing and photographing the Macau Grand Prix. Dr. Newsome has also authored several books on the event, including Macau Grand Prix: Photographs 1954-2023, which was published earlier this year. 

Photographs from Philip’s latest work were also featured on the FCC’s Hugh Van Es Wall for the entire month of November — coinciding with the 71^st Macau Grand Prix and this fully-booked Club Lunch on the eve of the event. 

Like Marsh, Dr. Newsome agreed that the Macau Grand Prix is like no other motor race and is one of the most high profile events for up and coming drivers, many who have competed and benefited substantially from a good performance round the daunting streets of Macau. 

“If they win, they have to be good. But winning in Macau isn’t just about talent, it requires a lot of luck .There are many great drivers who’ve raced in Macau and haven’t won it, but have gone on to great things,” he said, citing the examples of multiple Formula One champions Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen who put in hugely impressive performances in Macau but failed to take the winner’s spoils. 

Marsh and Newsome also discussed how they initially discovered the Macau Grand Prix. 

Marsh had often heard about the race during his own racing career in the UK, but he never considered attending — and racing there himself — until he moved to Hong Kong. Through contacts made by visiting the event, he eventually found a drive in one of the support events and went on to become a regular competitor there. Marsh experienced the highs and lows of this most demanding of circuits, winning the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia championship in 2004 at the final round in Macau but also surviving a first corner crash which took out much of the field a couple of years later. 

For Dr. Newsome, he had frequented motorsport events in Europe before moving to Hong Kong and attending his first Macau Grand Prix in 1985, yet he felt that the viewing experience wasn’t fun enough. Not having the ability to be a successful driver, he figured that pictures and writing were his ticket to a better seat. 

“Sitting in the stand is fine, but it can get a bit boring. And I thought, ‘I want to be over there. I want to be where the action is,’” he said, referencing the activity in the pit lane and garages.

His early ventures into motor sport journalism included interviewing Sir Stirling Moss at his home in London, initiated by the fact that Sir Stirling’s father had not just been a competitive racer but also a dentist working out of a mobile surgery in bomb ravaged wartime London. Newsome has also penned the biography of Teddy Yip, the Macau casino mogul who went on to successfully run racing teams all over the world.   

To watch the full discussion, please visit the FCC’s YouTube channel:

Henry Steiner moved to Hong Kong in 1961 and only intended to stay for nine months at his job as a graphic designer for The Asia Magazine. Finding Hong Kong full of more career opportunities than New York City or other popular destinations for designers, he stayed and ultimately became the “Father of Hong Kong Design” for his work with some of the city’s most recognizable brands. Visuals for Cathay Pacific, HSBC, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Standard Chartered, Wellcome, and many more companies have all come to life through Steiner’s creativity.

Zolima CityMag, a local publication that covers Hong Kong culture, recently published the first volume of its new series Zolima Culture Guide. This first edition features the city’s history through the work of Steiner and the cultural legacy of his designs.

At an FCC Club Lunch attended by Steiner himself, the two writers behind Zolima Culture Guide – Henry Steiner’s Hong Kong sat down with Correspondent Board Governor Jennifer Jett to talk about their new book and how the legendary graphic designer’s work influenced their own lives.

“From the very beginning, we didn’t want to do a biography of Henry Steiner or even a catalogue of his work. It was the story of Hong Kong through his work,” said Christopher DeWolf, who has been writing about the city’s architecture, culture, design, and history for over 20 years.

During the talk, DeWolf explained Steiner’s history in Hong Kong and how his designs were originally formed. Steiner had already arrived with the idea to express himself creatively while still preserving a deep respect and care for local culture, which led to his unique take on blending Western and Chinese visuals in his work.

While “East meets West” concepts have been used by previous designers, Steiner’s work stands out in that he highlighted the extreme differences between each and combined them in unique ways.

“We’re talking about Henry’s perspective as an outsider, somebody who could interpret Chinese characters without even being able to read [them], and yet being able to articulate [their] nuance[s] as a symbol,” said Billy Potts, the co-author of Henry Steiner’s Hong Kong.

Like DeWolf, Potts is also a writer covering Hong Kong’s design heritage. During the talk, he explained that he was a huge fan of Steiner’s designs when starting off with his own design works.

In his first interviews with Steiner, Potts said, he worried that the famed designer wasn’t giving him enough to work with. But upon reflection, Potts realized that Steiner was speaking about himself through the lens of Hong Kong’s design and how he fits into this specific part of the city’s history. It’s this specific angle that helped Potts and DeWolf write the book.

In Potts’ opinion, Steiner’s work, especially the media work he did for various magazines early on in his career, is not just about design, but communication as well. Potts went on to say that every designer in Hong Kong can, at some point, be linked back to Steiner.

“You can see from all of this how Henry is a focal point for design and communication in Hong Kong. If we were — and it wouldn’t take long — to seek out any creative person in Hong Kong, any designer, you wouldn’t have to push very far before you realize that it connects back with Henry,” he said.

Henry Steiner still lives in Hong Kong to this day, over 60 years after his arrival. If one were to walk through Kowloon, much like the walks Steiner, Potts, and DeWolf took when in the process of writing the book, Steiner’s influence is apparent in everything from signs and billboards to bus ads — ultimately shaping daily life in Hong Kong.

“Over 60 years, if you look at all the projects that Henry Steiner has worked on, you’re understanding the story of Hong Kong and how this thing has evolved through the years. That’s what I think makes his work so interesting,” DeWolf said.

From October 21-25, Hong Kong hosted its 2024 StartmeupHK Festival in efforts to boost local investment and interest in the city’s start-up ecosystem. With such government-led initiatives and local leaders’ praise for the city’s supportive environment, one may have the impression that Hong Kong is doing everything it can to support start-up businesses and their founders.

However, three experienced founders believe otherwise.

Coinciding with the 2024 StartmeupHK Festival, the FCC held a Club Lunch panel with three founders with decades of experience — Jordan Kostelac, founder of Deploy; Arthur Lam, founder and CEO of Zero2; and Ryan Manuel, founder and CEO of Bilby.ai.

All three panellists shared their views on how Hong Kong is performing as a start-up hub and how the city can change its strategy and mindset to better aid in-need founders.

Lam first pointed out that a few decades ago, Hong Kong had virtually no competition when it came to start-up markets. Now, the city is in fierce competition with cities such as Shenzhen and Singapore and increasingly, other major cities across Asia.

“That is the problem — we didn’t have to compete with anyone else 20 years ago. Obviously now, we cannot have the same mindset,” Lam said.

Coinciding with Lam’s views were that of Kostelac, who also believed that Hong Kong should expand its interests and variety of start-ups in order to create a more supportive environment.

“This market, Hong Kong, as a capital market, urgently needs to diversify and needs to be capital allocated. That’s the only identity that makes sense. Building close to Shenzhen and hoping we become the center of tech doesn’t work,” Kostelac said.

Manuel also commented on Hong Kong’s overall desire to be the centre of multiple initiatives, not just start-up companies. In his opinion, he feels that the city should focus on key industries versus trying to be the best at everything.

“How do we make something the best in the world? Pick something and just go for it,” Manuel said.

The trio also discussed the complications in how founders acquire funding for their start-ups, local start-up hubs like Cyberport and Science Park, and how to discern serious start-up founders and investors from superficial opportunists.

To watch the full discussion, please visit the FCC’s YouTube channel:

Pokémon GO, the smartphone game based on the beloved animated series that also features collectible trading cards and videogames, was launched globally in 2016. Unlike any other game before it, Pokémon GO forced players to get outside and search for their favourite characters in real time while the distance they covered helped hatch the Pokémon eggs collected on their journeys.

One similarity between old Pokémon games and the new Pokémon GO was that players could also battle against each other both casually and competitively. Similar to other esports championships, contestants in the World Championship must qualify through regional tournaments or receive invitations or exemptions from qualifiers. Ultimately, 200 out of over 15,000 qualified Legend elite players from a pool of 24 million global players compete in the annual World Championships.

This past August, Hong Kong finally came in first place at the World Championship event in Honolulu, Hawaii. The winner was Cheng Yip-kai, a 16-year-old secondary school student who began playing when the app first launched but didn’t dream of becoming a champion until just two years ago.

To learn more about how Cheng became the best like no one ever was, the FCC held a Club Lunch panel with the young champion, as well as Samuel Chueng, the manager of Hong Kong’s Pokémon GO team. Moderating the discussion was Journalist Board Governor Joe Pan.

“Pokémon GO battles are like a game of speed chess. You have to make a decision every half-second,” Cheng said.

On the Verandah screen behind him, Cheng played a clip from his championship-winning game. He pinpointed the exact moment when he calculated a decisive move just 4 seconds before defeating his opponent and becoming this year’s champion.

It was a moment of redemption for Cheng, who had also competed at the 2023 World Championships but lost at the first round of the tournament.

Last year’s defeat didn’t faze him, though. Instead of feeling upset, he took the experience as a learning opportunity and continued practicing with the World Championships’ “show 6, pick 3” format which requires players to initially choose 6 Pokémon, examine their opponent’s 6 Pokémon, and then choose a final 3 to officially battle with. Cheng mastered this playing style over a year full of matches in regional Pokémon GO tournaments.

As Cheng won more matches, his skills and his online fanbase grew, and he quickly climbed higher and higher on the Pokémon GO global ranking system.

“I saw the global ranking system as a way to train my basic skills. I tried to make zero mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes in Japan last year, so I knew I had to perfect my skills to increase my chances of winning,” Cheng said.

While it may seem like Cheng was able to pull off his World Championship win on his own, in reality he had — and needed — a lot of support, primarily from his manager Sam Cheung.

Cheung, a full-time tutor, spoke at length about the financial hardships that anyone must endure in order to not only qualify for the Pokémon GO World Championships, but also to afford the travel expenses required to attend these competitions. He recalled a previous year where  several Hong Kong players qualified for the competition but forfeited their opportunity because they were unable to purchase plane tickets and hotel stays.

“I knew I couldn’t let that happen to Yip-kai and Team Hong Kong,” he said.

Cheung admitted that he worked 7-day work weeks in order to help cover some of the expenses, but that it still wouldn’t be enough. He tried to network as much as possible to hopefully find a sponsor, but most people weren’t convinced and said they needed hard proof that Cheung’s team would win. It wasn’t until Dr. Lai Ching-lung, a 75-year-old liver expert who is also a fan of the mobile game, donated HK$10,000 for the team travel costs.

“It’s not much, but I hope it helps,” Dr. Lai told Team Hong Kong.

Cheng also had a lot of support from his teammates who cheered for him all throughout the World Championship event. In his final match, the champion admitted that his opponent had a stronger set of Pokémon, but the support from his friends made a big impact on his performance.

“He might have had a stronger team of Pokémon, but I had a stronger team of people. This is where Team Hong Kong really made a difference,” Cheng concluded.

To watch the full discussion, please visit the FCC’s YouTube channel: