The contributions of South Asians to Hong Kong’s rich cultural tapestry, from soldiers and traders to judges, has earned them a place in the city’s history – yet some feel they are looked down upon by locals, according to the authors of a new book on the subject.

Mark O’Neill discusses his latest book, ‘How South Asians Helped to Make Hong Kong – History, Culture, Profiles, Food, Shopping’. Photo: Sarah Graham/FCC

There are around 80,000 South Asians – among them Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, and Nepalese – living in Hong Kong. Their ancestors came to live in the city as far back as 1841 when the British first colonised Hong Kong.

Despite their huge impact on the development of the city, they feel like second-class citizens, said Kevin Lee, whose photographs of South Asians around the city appear in the new book, ‘How South Asians Helped to Make Hong Kong – History, Culture, Profiles, Food, Shopping’.

During his interaction with one South Asian as he photographed them, he was told: “You are unlike other Hong Kong people. Hong Kong people have the stern face in front of us. But you have a smile.”

Lee told the January 23 club lunch: “I asked them about their life in Hong Kong. I think Hong Kong people don’t really like them.”

The new book, written by Mark O’Neill and former FCC governor Annemarie Evans, delves into the contributions made by South Asians.

Indians who were here from the very first days worked as international traders, diamond merchants, police and soldiers. In later times they became professional in many fields including law, medicine, and finance. There are now 45,000 Indians in Hong Kong – double that of pre-1997. Notable Indians – many of whom were Parsees (Iranians who migrated when their homeland embraced Islam) – include Sir Hormusjee Naorojee Mody, the “founder spirit behind the idea” of building Hong Kong University. He was also a major donor. Jehangir Hormusjee Ruttonjee was another distinguished Parsee who made an indelible mark on Hong Kong when he founded the Ruttonjee Sanitorium following the death of his daughter from tuberculosis.

The contribution of Gurkhas, who were principally soldiers who patrolled Hong Kong’s border and were intercepting 16,000 illegals a month at the height of the Cultural Revolution, is also highlighted in the book.

Watch the talk here.

Taking an unblinking look at life, and capturing the moments of our shared humanity are the obligations of every photojournalist, according to a veteran National Geographic photographer.

Steve Raymer talked about life as a photojournalist during a talk at the FCC. Photo: Sarah Graham/FCC

American-born Steve Raymer shared his decades of experience as an award-winning photographer in capturing images of conflict, human migration and trafficking, endangered wildlife, and climate change across Asia. These photos and his recollections are documented in his new book, Somewhere West of Lonely, My Life in Pictures.

Now an emeritus professor of journalism at Indiana University and authority in media ethics, Raymer joined National Geographic in 1972 after completing military service which saw him serve as an artillery officer in Vietnam.

During his career, he covered issues including the famine in Bangladesh, the Chernobyl disaster, and the Soviet occupation of Kabul in Afghanistan. At the January 22 club lunch, Raymer talked about how photojournalism has changed history, in some cases prompting governments to create new policy around issues illustrated by hard-hitting images.

Recently, he said, photojournalism had come under fire for the increasingly explicit nature of images of suffering.

“The whole idea of the photographic truth of a picture is very much under attack in this era of fake news. Pictures can lie when a photographer sets up a picture or situation to make it appear to be an honest photograph.

“We photojournalists are constantly using people as a means to an end… We have to constantly ask ourselves can the ends ever justify the intrusive means of photojournalism? It’s a worthy question,” he said.

Raymer’s photographs are on exhibition at the FCC until February 17, open daily from 10am-12 noon & 3pm-5:30pm.

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The legacy of Louis Cha, Hong Kong media magnate and acclaimed kung-fu fiction writer, was discussed by the last person to interview him.

Nick Frisch discussed Louis Cha’s interlaced legacies in media, politics, and literature. Photo: Sarah Graham/FCC

Cha, the founding editor of Ming Pao Daily and chairman of Ming Pao Group, died in 2018. Nick Frisch, media fellow at Yale Law School and Asian studies doctoral candidate at Yale’s graduate school, interviewed the man known as the ‘Master of Kung-Fu Novels’ in 2014 for the New Yorker.

Cha was born in 1924 in a town along the Yangtze River to a family who for generations had worked for the imperial rulers. Frisch revealed that the family was held in high regard until the 18th Century, when an ancestor who had inadvertently offended the Emperor with a poorly constructed poem, had his severed head paraded on a pike. The family lived in an upscale compound but were forced to flee when the Japanese invaded during the Second World War. Cha was already living in Hong Kong in 1949 when his father was identified as an enemy of the Communist Party during the Communist Revolution and executed.

Working as a journalist and scriptwriter, Cha began producing kung-fu fantasy stories which appeared in newspapers. They were an instant hit. In 1959 he founded Ming Pao Daily and continued to write his successful fiction under the name Jin Yong while at the same time often writing news stories and editorials for the newspaper. Cha’s fiction, which was banned in China, often mirrored the political events of the time, and his editorials frequently criticised Mao Zedong’s Communist Party, earning him widespread respect as a commentator.

However, a softening in his political attitudes when Deng Xiaoping took power made some question his motives, particularly after the leader lifted the ban on the books of Cha and his contemporaries. As a supporter of the Communist Party, Cha became more politically active and participated in drafting the terms for Hong Kong’s 1997 handover.

Watch the full talk here. 

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger spoke of the dangers facing journalists around the world since President Donald Trump’s attacks on the press.

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