By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

At the height of World War II, amidst Japan’s occupation of Hong Kong, author and journalist Ian Gill was conceived in a prison camp where his parents were forced to stay. After the war’s end in 1945, the couple relocated to New Zealand and Gill was born.

As Gill was growing up, his family split their time in England, China, and Thailand. After finishing his bachelor’s degree and starting his career as a journalist, he worked in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and even Hawaii where he furthered his education by obtaining a master’s degree through the East-West Center.

Curious about his family history, Gill returned to Hong Kong with his mother Billie in 1975 and was surprised to come in contact with Billie’s friends and colleagues from her life leading up to and during WWII. He discovered much more than she ever told him, which led him to embark on a journey to trace his family’s lineage all the way back to the 1840s and write Searching for Billie, his latest book that was published by Blacksmith Books just last year.

Speaking about his book alongside Professional Committee member Philip Bowing at an FCC Club Lunch, Gill gave a detailed presentation on his ancestors’ lives leading up to his own birth. Naturally, the majority of both his book and his talk focused on the life of his mother, Billie.

“I used to wake up in the middle of the night, you know, terrified thinking I’ll never finish this book on my mother,” Gill said.

Despite being so determined to chronicle his mother’s history from wartime Shanghai and Hong Kong, all the way to the day he finally gave her grandchildren and her later passing, Gill joked that committing himself to such a lengthy endeavour was foolish on his behalf. 

“And I said, ‘No, no, no. I’m not going to let go of this book until every word is finished!’ That was probably the most stupid thing I ever said,” he summarised.

Given his close relationship with his mother and her unique, once-in-a-millenium life story, Gill was asked if Billie herself had ever considered writing a memoir.

“She wrote. She had letters… [but] she wanted me to write it. I took too long, but there we are,” he concluded.

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

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

Over the past several years, Hong Kong has been putting in more effort to boost its art scene. With the Hong Kong Palace Museum, Tai Kwun, and M+ all opening within the past 5 years, along with major auction houses doubling down on their operations in the city, Hong Kong has become a more welcoming and vibrant home for local and international art.

Still, the idea that the city is a “cultural desert” persists.

Enid Tsui, the Arts Editor of SCMP — and an FCC member — shared her insights and predictions for the city’s art scene alongside FCC President Lee Williamson at a Club Lunch promoting her latest book Art in Hong Kong: Portrait of a City In Flux (2025). This event was also held in anticipation of Hong Kong Art Week, which takes place from March 26-30.

She first explained that the idea of Hong Kong not being a cultural desert stems from a quote from famous Chinese writer Lu Xun who said during a speech that “Hong Kong is not a cultural desert.” Most people, Tsui said, only remember the final two words of his quote, leading many to believe that Hong Kong lacks an artistic ecosystem.

“This trope is still being rehashed over and over again, and you still see occasionally in actual, official press releases [that say] ‘Hong Kong is no longer a cultural desert,’” she said.

With her firm stance that the city does in fact have a unique cultural identity, President Williamson then asked Tsui to paint a picture of what the next ten years would look like for Hong Kong’s art scene. Her answer: a roller coaster.

“The roller coaster ride that is Hong Kong’s art scene will continue,” Tsui said while citing the major cancellations that have occurred despite the city’s push for more arts-related events.

The most recent cancellation took place on February 23 when the Digital Art Fair released a statement on their website saying, “Due to reasons beyond our control, we are forced to cancel the fair.” The fair was expected to take place during Art Week in the West Kowloon Cultural District. The government’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau said the next day that the fair did not secure funding from the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund.

According to Tsui, cancellations like this are likely in the next ten years as resources become “more selective”, with many of Hong Kong’s art organisations all competing for support from limited government finances.

In addition to resource constraints, Tsui mentioned another factor that may also fuel the rollercoaster of Hong Kong’s arts future — the shifting “red lines” under the National Security Law (NSL) that Beijing imposed upon the city in June 2020.

“Art practitioners, artists, curators, people who work in major venues, they are continuing to negotiate and discover what living under NSL means,” she said. “Censorship and the rules are not specific.”

Despite financial and political challenges, Tsui remained firm that Hong Kong’s art scene isn’t going to disappear anytime soon. In fact, she postulated that Hong Kong could become home to more artists from jurisdictions around Asia that have greater restrictions imposed on artistic freedoms.

Tsui specifically mentioned the queer art fair Myth Makers — Spectrosynthesis III that took place in Tai Kwun from December 24, 2022, to April 10, 2023. She explained how such a fair promoting LGBTQ+ artwork would be censored in places like the Middle East, and even in Singapore where same-sex relations between men were decriminalised in 2022 but same-sex marriage is still not recognised by the government.

“More diversity, perhaps more international talents, may choose to come to Hong Kong, [or to come] back to Hong Kong,” she said.

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

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

Mental health has become an increasingly important issue in Hong Kong. According to Mind HK, a local mental health charity, an estimated 1 in 7 people in the city will experience a common mental health disorder at any given time. Three-quarters of these individuals will not seek help.

Younger people in the city are more vulnerable with 24% of them facing mental health issues and the suicide rate for 15 to 24-year-olds doubling in the past decade.

Last month, the FCC held a Club Lunch panel consisting of three mental health experts who shared their views on how Hong Kong can tackle its growing mental health crisis.

Sitting on the panel was Dr. Scarlett Matolli, a clinical psychologist; Brenda Scofield, a certified counselor and board member for The Samaritans Hong Kong; and Dr. Paul Wong, an Associate Professor from the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at HKU. Moderating the discussion was FCC Charity Committee Member Jenny Hsieh.

First, each speaker gave their own definition of what mental health means to them.

“Mental health is misunderstood as something that you have separate from your physical health… it’s only in the absence of it that people can recognize the presence of it,” said Dr. Matolli when explaining how both mental and physical health are intertwined.

Scofield, on the other hand, offered an alternative phrase to mental health.

“If we called it ‘emotional health’, wouldn’t that be easier for some people?” she asked the audience. “Emotionally, you just can’t live your life the way you would like to at the moment.”

Also offering an alternative and broader definition of mental health, Dr. Wong explained how he believes good mental health shouldn’t just be the absence of any psychological disorders.

“A person’s mental wellbeing should be about finding purpose in life, reason for living,” he said.

Dr. Wong also talked about the changes he’s witnessed in Hong Kong’s approach to mental health since returning to the city in 2003 from Australia where he studied clinical psychology at Bond University.

Back then, there weren’t as many hotlines and services as there are in 2025, which he said reflects the city’s growing discussion on mental health. Despite this, he suggests that even more needs to happen in order to diminish the mental health challenges that Hong Kong faces.

“The field has changed, but still, we have to talk more about [mental health], make it more normal and common as a daily talk,” he said.

Just two years after Dr. Wong returned to Hong Kong, Dr. Matolli also arrived with her family. Her interest in mental health began when she kept getting referred to the public hospital system when seeking help for her own children. Finding that there weren’t very few services in English, she decided to form her own consultancy program targeted towards other expat families living in Hong Kong who also wanted mental health services.

There is now a much wider variety of mental health services that Hong Kong residents can choose from, yet similar to the other panellists, Dr. Matolli believes more can still be done.

“We can’t really rest yet, but we can sit more easily,” Dr. Matolli said.

As a board member for The Samaritans, one of the FCC’s partner charities, Scofield also clarified that their services are not just for people who are having any suicidal feelings, but for anyone going through a tough time who simply wants to be listened to.

“We are here for anyone who is having difficulties, for anyone who is in that dark place and they don’t know what to do about it,” she said.

The panel also discussed the barriers that may prevent someone from seeking mental health services, as well as men’s mental health and how shared backgrounds in support groups may help newcomers seeking help for the first time.

If you are in need of mental health support, you can call:

The Samaritans: 2896 0000

Suicide Prevention Centre: 2382 0000

The Mental Health Support Hotline: 18111

This year, the FCC is partnering with nine hand-chosen charities to give back. Members are encouraged to join our “One Day’s Work” programme. From September 2024 to September 2025, members of the FCC can pledge to donate one day’s work (8 hours) to volunteer with a charity of their choice.

For more information about the FCC’s Charity Committee: https://www.fcchk.org/charity-stage-2/

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

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

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:

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

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:

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

“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: