By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

Indonesia’s ongoing protests began late last month in response to controversial legislation that aimed to reserve power for outgoing President Joko Widodo’s two sons and prevent a leading government critic from running for governor of Jakarta.

At many locations across the world’s third-largest democracy, young protesters, mostly university students, demonstrated outside government buildings. Protests in capital city Jakarta took place at the gates of the House of Representatives, with violence breaking out between police and demonstrators in the afternoon and lasting through the late evening.

Some protests in Central Java featured banners with the words “Kita Tolak, Masa Pahit” written on them. The phrase translates to “We Reject Bitter Times” and its historical reference was instantly recognised by author Herald van der Linde.

“They say, ‘We do not want to see the dynasty stuff that we’ve seen in the past. We reject that,’” he explained.

“Masa Pahit” is a direct reference to the Majapahit Empire that lasted from 1290 to 1520, a near 200-year period where dynasties and power struggles dominated Indonesian life. Majapahit also happens to be both the title and subject of Linde’s latest book, Majapahit: Intrigue, Betrayal and War in Indonesia’s Greatest Empire (2024).

Sitting alongside Professional Committee member Philip Bowring, Linde delivered a detailed explanation on the history and cultural significance of Majapahit, as well as the writing process that brought this book to life.

Linde works full-time as HSBC’s Chief Asia Equity Strategist, but in his spare time, he travels frequently to Indonesia. He’s even fluent in Indonesian, as well as English and Dutch, and has earned the nickname “The Flying Dutchman” for his frequent travels around the region.

He spent three years digging into historical archives across Indonesia, searching for everything he could find, including not just information about the Majapahit era, but also historical events leading up to this empire and its impact on the rest of Asia.

None of the information he found was in English, yet his book is. Majapahit has now become the first-ever English-language publication on the subject, a fact that Bowring pointed out early on in the discussion.

“In the English language and among English-language academics, there is a profound ignorance of the whole history of the Indonesian archipelago,” Bowring said when recalling trying to write a chapter about Majapahit for his own book Empire of the Winds (2019).

Majapahit’s long history can be summarised into two themes: division and reunification.

Pre-Majapahit leaders attempted to divide Indonesia in order to distribute power, but could never truly accomplish this task due to the legendary tamarind tree that once stood in what is now Jakarta.

While the country was never truly divided, Linde explained that there are major differences in culture, language, and religion that stretched across Majapahit — differences that are still reflected in modern Indonesia. He specifically referenced West Java.

“Even today, West Java is separated to a certain extent,” Linde said.

Despite its differences, Linde elaborated on how Indonesia preserves itself by remaining tolerant towards all of its ethnic and religious groups. This value was instilled after the fall of the Majapahit Empire, which coincided with the “birthday” of modern Indonesia.

“Majapahit, to a large extent, created Southeast Asia as we know it very much today. That’s why I think it deserved about three years of my life to write the book,” he concluded.

To watch the full discussion, please visit our YouTube channel:

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

The geopolitical competition between the world’s two most powerful countries, the United States and China, is expected to continue for years, if not decades. China’s Xi Jinping shows no signs of retiring, while Americans will be heading to the polls in November to select either current vice president Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump to be their next leader.

Regardless of November’s outcome, Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani believes that the US-China contest is too “baked in” and will be followed by an eventful decade he hopes to see.

“That’s why I’m trying my best to stay alive for the next ten years,” Mahbubani said, adding that he is now 75 years old.

Mahbubani, the two-time Singaporean Representative to the UN and two-time President of the UN Security Council, recently published his tenth book, Living the Asian Century: An Undiplomatic Memoir. While touring Hong Kong to promote his book, he spoke at the FCC alongside President Lee Williamson and commented on the ongoing power struggle between the US and China.

Standing at the FCC podium before an audience of correspondents, diplomats, and associates of various professions, Mahbubani first listed three strengths and two weaknesses each for the US and China when it comes to their ongoing rivalry.

China’s population of 1.4 billion people and their psychological motivation to overcome the Century of Humiliation (1842-1949) were two of the country’s strengths, yet it was China’s status as the world’s oldest and continuous civilisation that Mahbubani highlighted the most.

“This is not a contest against the Communist Party. This is a contest against a 4,000 year old civilisation,” he said.

From his experience, Mahbubani said he finds that many Americans are unaware of this fact, especially those in charge of US foreign policy.

This directly ties into what Mahbubani’s finds to be the first weaknesses of the US: lack of long-term strategy. China’s long history, Mahbubani believes, is able to outlast American diplomacy.

“As the United States applies pressure and imposes sanctions, imposes tariffs on China, the Chinese say, ‘Well, you’ve done this before. We understand what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to dominate us, and we’ll make sure that this time, you don’t succeed,’” he said.

However, Mahbubani believes there are weaknesses in China’s strategies as well. The central government’s alienation of the American business community has removed the country’s internal shield from aggressive US trade policies, said Mahbubani.

Also, China’s population is ageing in parallel with declining birthrates. Mahbubani believes the combination of these factors now forecast a further demographic drop in what was once the world’s most populous country (India now hosts the world’s largest population).

He also figures that the US, with a population of just over 300 million, could outshine China in its ability to attract professional talent from nearly every corner of the world — making this the first US strength that Mahbubani listed.

He noted companies like Google and Microsoft whose CEOs are both originally from India, and even joked about the ambiguous background of Elon Musk, leader of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly known as Twitter).

These high-profile companies are also unique to the US, a place that Mahbubani described as “the most Darwinian society on Earth.” The consistent competition amongst Americans themselves is what Mahbubani believes leads to the other two strengths he believes that the US has over China: a culture of innovation, and ultimately, becoming the most powerful nation in human history.

Power and — arguably just as important — income are not distributed equally or fairly across the US.

The US’s final weakness, Mahbubani contends, is its metamorphosis into a “functional plutocracy” that has stagnated the financial status of the bottom 50% of Americans for several decades. The alienation of this group, especially the white working class and their “white-lash” against the rising power of racial minorities, is what Mahbubani believes has led to Trump’s election in 2016 and potential re-election in 2024 — which would then make Trump the No. 1 weakness of the US.

In further discussion with President Williamson, Mahbubani explained how Americans’ emotional responses to internal politics have also carried into US-China relations.

Noting past US legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and recurring themes of “yellow peril” in American entertainment, media, and various fictional characters, Mahbubani believes that it’s important to dig deeper into the American psyche and unroot the emotional aspect that continues to affect US policy towards China.

“I’m trying very hard to persuade the United States and China to behave rationally towards each other, but if you are driven by an emotional fear which is deep and dark, then frankly, you may do things that are crazy. That’s why I want to surface this emotional dimension. I want it to be understood, dissected, and analyzed so we can say, ‘Are you seriously being influenced by your emotion or your reason in this contest against China?’” he explained.

Many of Mahbubani’s critics label him as “pro-China” and “anti-US” for his various comments on US-China relations and China’s overall relation with the West. Given these comments and public feedback, Williamson also asked about whether or not Mahbubani believes in the “intrinsic value of democracy” in the current geopolitical climate.

His answer was a clear yes, but not without a few caveats.

“Western liberal democracies today are in serious trouble,” Mahbubani began to explain — another opinion of his that he admitted is not widely accepted by the West.

To him, Mahbubani believes that as society evolves and becomes smarter, people will want more of a say in their government’s decision-making, which will ultimately lead to democracy.

However, he finds the West has ignored warnings from over 2,000 years ago, from Greek philosopher Plato who ultimately rejected democracy due to its ability to usher tyrants and dictators into positions of power. It is precisely this concept that Mahbubani believes led to Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and his ongoing re-election campaign to become 47th President of the US.

“When the West goes through this worship of democracy, it is actually doing democracy a lot of damage because democracy is a very difficult political system to manage,” Mahbubani concluded.

To watch the full discussion between Kishore Mahbubani and Lee Williamson, which covers media, disinformation, and a range of political topics, please visit our YouTube channel:

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

Thomas Gnocchi has been the Head of the European Union Office to Hong Kong and Macau since September 1st, 2020 — arriving amidst the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic and just a few months after Beijing’s National Security Law (NSL) was introduced in Hong Kong.

Now, just four years later, he will soon be departing Hong Kong for a new assignment in Tokyo, Japan. Before leaving, Ambassador Gnocchi spoke at an FCC Club Lunch event alongside First Vice President Morgan Davis to summarise his experience during a pivotal period in Hong Kong’s history.

“It’s a real pleasure to address the FCC Club Lunch. This is my last public event before leaving, so I’m particularly happy that this is taking place here at the FCC,” he began.

To kick off the discussion, Davis first asked Gnocchi how he would characterise his past four years in the city.

“I think it would have been even wilder had I come the year before,” said Gnocchi.

Gnocchi referenced the anti-government protests of 2019 that were caused by a now-withdrawn amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, which would have allowed suspected criminals from Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan to be extradited to mainland China for trial. Protests were fueled further by the Hong Kong Police Force’s alleged use of excessive force against demonstrators.

After months of large-scale protests that extended into the first half of 2020, Beijing pushed for the NSL in Hong Kong, which stamped out nearly all forms of criticism towards the local and central government. In early 2024, the Hong Kong government then enacted Article 23 of the Basic Law which aimed to “plug the gaps” not covered by Beijing’s NSL. Article 23 has been criticised by various sectors for its seemingly vague definitions of national security and state secrets.

These events ultimately set up Gnocchi for a new political landscape in Hong Kong unlike anything the EU Office had previously experienced.

“I think my job here in the EU Office here was very, very different to that of my predecessors [who] weren’t dealing with these more political topics. We’re out of the pandemic, but [these] political changes have changed Hong Kong quite a bit in this relatively short period of time,” Gnocchi said.

Some of the new changes that Gnocchi noted in his talk were the amount of self-censorship that journalists now engage in while reporting under these new conditions, as well as the city’s declining press freedom environment and the closure of various independent news organisations.

Apple Daily and Stand News are just two of the many media outlets that have been shut down since the implementation of Article 23 and the NSL. Also, Hong Kong’s ranking in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index has fallen to 135 out of 180, and many of the city’s journalists have confirmed in various indices and surveys that they have censored their work more often over the past few years.

“I’ve had several instances where a reporter says, ‘Well, we can’t really carry that.’ I’ve seen it first hand, this self-censorship,” Gnocchi recalled.

Davis then asked if it’s possible for these laws to be undone, which Gnocchi agreed is possible but would take a tremendous amount of effort to change the legal framework that Hong Kong currently utilises.

“Theoretically, yes it is reversible. But I think it would take something pretty substantial to roll this back,” he said.

Despite being the Head of the EU Office and noticing media censorship in the interviews he has given over the past four years, Gnocchi said he hasn’t gotten specific feedback from European journalists working in Hong Kong. Regardless, he emphasised that press freedom in Hong Kong is still a top concern for the EU.

“I think that the general realization that a thriving media environment — an environment where there’s true press freedom — I think that’s good for business and many organizations that rely on objective news and free information. Steps taken in that direction would be very, very welcomed,” he summarised.

On a positive note, Gnocchi also shared what he would miss about Hong Kong after he soon relocates to Japan. Food and nature were the first things that came to the outgoing ambassador’s mind.

“Well, the food has been a particular highlight — and spending time in the FCC. I’ve tried to balance the food by walking in the great country parks, which are just around the corner. That is something that I’ll really miss about Hong Kong – the fact that you have this international finance center and you walk two minutes and you’re in a country park. Certainly I’ll miss that a lot,” he said.

Despite this, Gnocchi also shared his excitement for the new range of cuisine that will be available to him once he reaches Tokyo.

“There’s good food in Japan, too. I’m not out of the woods yet!” he concluded.

Watch the full discussion between Morgan Davis and Thomas Gnocchi on our YouTube channel:

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

“An easy life does not always correspond to a good one.”

Standing at the FCC podium, Justice Richard Bernstein began his opening speech with stories of pain and triumph. Going to law school, becoming elected and re-elected to serve on Michigan’s Supreme Court, and completing multiple endurance races — all while being born visually impaired— has been no easy mission.

Despite such a life-altering setback, Justice Bernstein has chosen to persevere, to overcome the challenges he faces every day and become a leading figure in disability rights.

“Life is all about doing things because you’ve got to want it. You’ve got to believe in it. You’ve got to choose it, and you’ve got to decide that you’re going to make this happen,” he said.

Justice Bernstein, with the help of the US Consulate, completed a recent tour of Hong Kong. While meeting with consular staff, local radio stations and journalists — and even joining a run with Fearless Dragon, a running group for people with visual and hearing impairments — he also spoke at an FCC Club Lunch alongside President Lee Williamson.

The pair talked in depth about Justice Bernstein’s professional life and athletic career, as well as Michigan’s role in the upcoming US presidential elections and how voting systems can differ from state to state.

Williamson, as an avid runner himself, first asked Justice Bernstein about how he was able to complete 26 marathons and a full IronMan competition, which consists of a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile bike ride and another full marathon.

Justice Bernstein’s advice was simple — just take one step at a time.

“Ultimately, if you do everything one day at a time and one step at a time, things usually tend to find their way,” he said.

Williamson highlighted the New York City accident that Justice Bernstein suffered from before his 18th marathon. A cyclist struck him while going over 35 miles an hour, shattering his pelvis. The accident required 10 weeks of hospitalisation and left the justice with chronic pain, yet he still continued running.

“It [running] is something that you build over time. It becomes a part of what you do and who you are, and it becomes a part of your lifestyle, and it becomes part of what you tend to focus on each and every day. Like I always speak to, it becomes part of your life mission,” Justice Bernstein summarised.

Williamson and Justice Bernstein also discussed recent developments in US politics, starting with the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump on July 13th. Justice Bernstein explained that the incident could potentially strengthen the energy and passion of both Trump and his dedicated supporters.

Justice Bernstein also briefly commented on the landmark Supreme Court ruling that grants Trump immunity for core presidential duties he conducted while in office during his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.

“If you create an environment where the president isn’t required to have to hear or to follow the rules that are set forth that everyone else has to follow, then what are the consequences of that?” Justice Bernstein asked.

He then added that the upcoming litigation against Trump will certainly continue for a long time, and that each new wave of litigation must be studied carefully to address all the nuances and degrees in which federal laws may or may not have been violated.

The conversation then transitioned into Justice Bernstein’s role in disability rights and lawmaking. As a Supreme Court Justice of Michigan, the cases he decides on can impact the rest of the country.

Justice Bernstein gave the example of how transportation is designed. Whether it’s an airline or a bus system, he finds that the accessibility of these modes of transportation need to be considered at conception. Mandates from US Congress or the Supreme Court could also be applied, yet Justice Bernstein clarified that most of the decisions that will affect everyday Americans will be done at the state court level.

These state and federal dynamics also came into play during Justice Bernstein’s experience with Michigan’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

With each state being able to determine how to use its own laws, resources, and police force to combat the pandemic, Justice Bernstein said the US Bill of Rights is ultimately the core consideration for how Michigan, or any other state, should implement new laws. What he found was that certain states created more restrictions than others during the pandemic, which treaded a careful line between protecting citizens and preserving the Bill of Rights. These decisions weren’t easy, yet they are precisely why Justice Bernstein believes that the courts are where they need to be made instead of by the executive or legislative branch.

“It’s really the job of the courts to be unpopular. It’s the job of the court to make decisions that people don’t like. And it’s the job of the courts to do things in difficult times that people really hate,” he said.

When asked if he would be willing to become a non-permanent overseas judge in Hong Kong if he were asked, Justice Bernstein gave a resounding yes.

“Absolutely! In our court, we have a lot of time off. We pretty much get July and August off, and also have February off. I would actually have the time to do it, and would be honoured to do it if asked,” he said.

Learn more about Justice Bernstein and his thoughts on the upcoming 2024 US elections by watching the full discussion on the FCC’s YouTube channel:

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

From 2020 to 2021, China took sweeping regulatory actions against their biggest tech players. The government canceled the IPO of Ant Group, Alibaba’s financial arm, and cracked down on the ride-sharing app Didi and online tutoring. To understand how these regulations affect the mainland economy and tech industry, the FCC held a panel discussion with three Chinese tech industry experts: HKU Law’s Angela Zhang, The Information’s Juro Osawa, and venture capitalist Michael Chow.

The three panellists sat alongside FCC Journalist Governor Joe Pan and shared their views on China’s changing regulatory landscape.

“What I have seen over the past several years is just so striking in that a lot of those things changed very quickly,” said Osawa when commenting on the seemingly overnight changes in mainland’s tech policies.

These actions shook Chinese stocks and caused investors (primarily from the US) to pull out and reinvest their money elsewhere. The dip in revenue was further exacerbated by China’s strict zero-Covid policies which further isolated the country’s finances from the rest of the world.

“This is kind of like a wakeup call for the top policy makers,” said Zhang.

As one of the leading academics in Hong Kong that specialises in antitrust law, Zhang found herself answering calls from journalists covering China’s tech crackdown after the Ant Group incident. Before then, she felt relatively anonymous and was quickly thrust into the media spotlight with appearances on Bloomberg and other financial news outlets.

Through further writing and research, most notably her latest book High Wire (2024), Zhang was able to summarise her model of China’s legal system, which functions as a three-part process where political hierarchy creates market volatility that leads to increased fragility across the entire techno-legal ecosystem.

“Very often, you’ll see [that] these regulatory measures were well-intentioned, but they generate a lot of side effects,” she explained.

Using this model, Zhang demonstrated how a feedback loop is created, leading to even more volatility and less accountability or confidence in China’s tech investment.

“It took a long time for the regulators or the top policy makers to realize the problem. By the time they address the problem, it’s often too late and that’s why I call the Chinese regulatory outcome tends to be very fragile,” she summarised.

Also, Zhang’s model has the capability to be applied to other areas besides technology.

As an experienced venture capital investor, Chow was asked by the panel if Zhang’s model can or has already been applied in his daily work. He noted the government’s continued efforts against corruption as the primary driver of market volatility — not the government’s rigid structure and control.

“Volatility comes whether there’s a hierarchy or not. I think it’s more to do with what’s happening in today’s China. I think it’s a lot to do with the corruption-fighting, and that’s why you see a lot of tightening of power. They don’t tend to give the so-called authority to the lower ranks anymore because of corruption,” Chow said.

Watch the full panel discussion on our YouTube channel:

As American society becomes more polarised over events such as the Israel-Hamas conflict and the 2024 US presidential election, Executive Editor Joe Kahn aims to continue producing well-rounded and fair journalism at The New York Times.

Kahn’s journalism career has spanned almost four decades now, with his most recent assignment being to guide and oversee all aspects of the Times’ global newsroom since 2022.

At an FCC fireside chat with President Lee Williamson, Kahn spoke about his humble beginnings as a local news reporter in Texas to becoming a China correspondent and eventually leading the Times — ultimately sharing how his career has shaped his philosophy on how the Times should handle the challenges that modern journalism faces.

A two-time Pulitzer winner, he embarked on his journalism journey at The Dallas Morning News in 1987 and subsequently took on the role of a China correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, a move that his career benefitted from in the long run despite not being apparent at the time.

“That was the bet that I made, and that was a pretty good bet. I wish I had some sort of monetary way of betting on China at that time, but for me, it paid off journalistically,” he said.

Kahn joined the Times in 1998 and has held positions in New York, Washington, and China. He has led the Times’ coverage of some of the world’s most complex events — wars in the Middle East, terrorism attacks and political turmoil in Europe, and much more.

Kahn’s tenure as a Managing Editor from 2016-2022 culminated in his appointment as Executive Editor two years ago. He described his current role as both executive and strategic, yet still highly focused on content.

“The word ‘Executive’ in the title is actually somewhat misleading. The tradition at The Times has always been for its top news editor to remain involved in daily content creation. The core product is the news that we’re covering, and its relevance, competitiveness and urgency are my main responsibility,” he said.

The importance of the 24-hour news cycle has altered the nature of day-to-day operations, and for Kahn, this means his day begins much earlier than it would have done in the print-only era.

“In those days, as an editor, you’d be heavily involved in presiding over the process of deciding which of the many stories we were covering would make the front page, and that process would load later in the day as journalists began completing their stories. It’s now very different and my day is very front-loaded, as we need to stay competitive, relevant and urgent,” he explained.

President Williamson touched upon the numerous global challenges currently facing newsrooms — continued economic headwinds, the war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and fraying US-China and bilateral relations. Kahn acknowledged the finite resources available and the critical decision-making process that the Times endures when choosing what to cover.

“Even for a newsroom as well-equipped as The New York Times, we have daily, weekly, and monthly debates about what our top priorities are internationally, and we try to put resources behind all of the big issues. Most of them we will continue to invest in and produce a high level of coverage, even if we’re not getting direct feedback from readers.”

When asked about what he has learned after two years into the role, Kahn noted the sensitivity surrounding the subject of Israel, especially in the US.

“I guess I’ve never witnessed a global issue that has divided Americans as much as this particular one has. The tensions are evident even with our own staff. It’s just an incredibly divisive conflict and the ethnic issues around it are extremely polarising,” he said.

Kahn then elaborated on why the Times is hesitant to officially refer to the Israel-Hamas conflict as a “genocide”, unlike other news organisations and political figures/groups that have adopted the term.

“We don’t embrace that term. We can quote people as saying it, but we don’t, in our own words, label something. ‘Genocide’ is a legal term that has to be judged by international courts and even in the event that a particular situation is perceived to equate to that word, we wouldn’t necessarily use it ourselves,” he clarified.

Kahn cited former President Trump’s “misstatements” being officially described as “lies” in the Times’ reporting to demonstrate the necessary justifications in using such a term.

“That’s also a very high bar,” he began. “We use that term only in certain circumstances where he continuously repeated a known falsehood, like his allegation that former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States. I think setting a high bar is the essence of the standards process.”

Commenting on the state of polarisation in the US, Kahn also said that despite such massive divides in American society, the Times has still developed a devout readership. 

“There is a curious center among readers who are still hungry for good quality, well-rounded, fair journalism on the issues that they care about. I think that’s why we’ve been able to continue to grow our readership and our subscriber base even during a time when people are seen as moving into these unbridgeable camps of public opinion.”

President Williamson also asked Kahn about his observations of a changing Hong Kong, and what he had surmised during his recent meetings with people across the spectrum of Hong Kong society.

“I’m somewhat encouraged by the tone of the discussions that we have had with some close China watchers who are trying to understand what’s happening across the border, and I think the essence of Hong Kong is still very much present,” he said.

With the increased risks and uncertainties for both local and international journalists operating in the region, Kahn acknowledged the challenges faced by media outlets, citing legal advice that has prompted the Times to reduce its presence and relocate some staff to Seoul.

Despite these challenges, the Times’ international print edition remains in Hong Kong, which consists of a small but dedicated number of journalists who continue to report on critical issues both within Hong Kong and across the border in Mainland China.

“The safety and protection of my journalists is my number one responsibility and we would throw all of our resources into a security issue, a safety issue, or a legal issue for any member of our staff who encounters difficulties of that kind… The types of issues that we’re facing here tend to be more long-term legal and bureaucratic and less about physical safety, but it is something we watch very closely,” he concluded.

The reporting for this article was a collaboration between Hugo Novales, the FCC’s in-house journalist, and Ann Tsang, Editor of FCC magazine The Correspondent. The print edition of this piece can be found in The Correspondent’s July 2024 issue. The full discussion can be watched on our YouTube channel:

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

Long before Bruce Lee, Michelle Yeoh, Jackie Chan, and other Hollywood stars brought attention to underrepresented Asians and Asian Americans, there was Anna May Wong.

Born on January 3rd, 1905 — Year of the Dragon — in a Chinese laundromat her father owned in Los Angeles, Wong’s life story falls into what author Yunte Huang describes as the “Epic Journey of Asian Americans,” one of many such lives he has chronicled throughout his writing career.

In his previous two books, he wrote about Charlie Chan and the conjoined Bunker twins “Chang and Eng”, and now has completed this trilogy of prolific Asian Americans and their “rendezvous with American history” with his newly-published biography of Anna May Wong – Daughter of the Dragon (2023).

Speaking at an FCC Club Lunch alongside NY Times reporter Tiffany May, Huang first admitted that he didn’t initially plan to write a trilogy.

“Of course I didn’t know that. Like many things in life, they came by accident, by chance,” he said.

He became intrigued by Anna May Wong and her career, which first began with her “toehold” opportunity as an extra in silent film The Red Lantern (1919) and then her “foothold” opportunity with The Toll of the Sea (1922), which thus paved the way for her to become the first-ever Chinese-American movie star.

She subsequently starred in several more Hollywood silent films but after becoming unsatisfied with being typecast in stereotypical Chinese roles, she left the US for Europe in 1928. From there she starred in more plays and silent films until the development of sound films. Daughter of the Dragon (1931) — where Huang got his book title — and Shanghai Express (1932) were two of her most notable films from the new sound era.

While her acting skills and Chinese representation were primary contributors to Huang’s desire to write a biography about Wong, her status as a fashion icon also garnered his interest.

“One thing I admire about Anna May Wong is that she is not just a beautiful, talented film star. She has the unique ability to turn working class symbols such as [the] coolie hat and [the] coolie jacket into high-class fashion, and that’s really part of her charm,” he said.

The “coolie” hat and jacket that Huang referred to are the conical hat and overcoat that were common attire for East Asian migrant workers during the 19th and 20th century. These pieces of  clothing were originally associated with hard manual labour, yet Wong attempted to change public perception of these items by wearing stylised versions of them in her films and public life.

Despite a successful start to her career, Wong was ultimately snubbed from the lead role in The Good Earth (1937), based on Pearl S. Bucks’ bestselling novel, due to Hollywood rules that prohibited white actors from kissing non-white actors.

“The kiss is the soul of 20th century love in film,” Huang said when explaining the societal norms of Wong’s generation that negatively impacted her career.

Examining not just a person’s life, but also the world they lived in, is key to Huang’s strategy in writing biographies. In the case of Anna May Wong, he knew that many other historians and journalists have already documented her life, but by looking at the bigger picture, Huang can differentiate his work from everyone else’s.

“Of course this story has been told before, but my take is really to look at the large canvas out of which she came,” he said.

As her career slowly dwindled, Wong spent most of her final days drinking and smoking in the aptly-named Dragon’s Den, a bar in Los Angeles’ old Chinatown. She died of a sudden heart attack on February 3rd, 1961. She was 56 years old.

A year before she died, Hollywood honoured her with a star of the Walk of Fame, making her the first Asian-American to receive such a distinction. In 2022, the US Mint also released commemorative 25¢ quarters with Wong’s face and name on the tail side of the coin. 

When the coins came out, Huang made sure he ordered a batch for himself. Despite the coins being released over 60 years after her death, Huang didn’t feel that the coins were “too little, too late” in recognising Wong’s contributions to American society.

“To speak in a Happy Valley term, I always knew she was on the money,” Huang concluded.

Learn more about Anna May Wong’s life and Yunte Huang’s discoveries by watching the full discussion on our YouTube channel:

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

When it comes to proper table manners and social cues, there are endless questions that one could get lost in — Which fork should I use? How long should I maintain eye contact? When should I end a conversation? What should I do if I forget someone’s name?

For Sara Jane Ho, internationally-renowned etiquette expert and host of the Daytime Emmy-nominated Netflix series Mind Your Manners (2022), answering these questions has become her life’s mission.

Speaking with President Lee Williamson at an FCC dinnertime talk to promote her new book Mind Your Manners: An Insider’s Guide to Social Fluency (2024), Sara Jane first clarified what is and is not etiquette. In her eyes, it most certainly has nothing to do with whichever fork someone uses.

“For me, etiquette is really about making other people around you feel at ease, which is what makes you feel comfortable with them. That goes back to what makes us human beings: a sense of belonging and inclusion,” she explained.

Sara Jane’s awareness of social norms and our human desire to connect with one another started in childhood. Her mother, a typical Hong Kong “Tiger Mom,” often held lively gatherings for family and friends and set the example for what a good host should be — and made sure young Sara Jane refilled everyone’s teacup.

From her father, she received more straightforward advice: “The world is your playground. Go explore.”

“My parents really encouraged me to follow my passions and that as long as you have a passion and you work very hard, you can pretty much achieve whatever you want,” she said.

Sara Jane went on to study English Literature at Georgetown University despite her family’s perception that her English-speaking skills were already good enough. But during the final year of her studies, her mother passed away from cancer and the spirit of regularly hosting guests at their home had gone with her.

“Holidays were particularly painful because it was a stark reminder of what I had lost,” she recalled.

After graduating from Harvard Business School in 2012, she decided to combine her goal of passing on her mother’s legacy with a unique market need in mainland China: social skills for a society that has modernized rapidly since the economic reforms of 1978 without the knowledge to navigate through their new, prosperous world.

Sara Jane moved to Beijing in 2013 and shortly thereafter opened up China’s first-ever finishing school, Institute Sarita. The school focused on teaching not younger, but older women the basics of everyday etiquette.

So how should people carry themselves at work, with family and friends, in romantic relationships, or the various other “microcultures” that Sara Jane dives into throughout her new book? The first step is observation — looking around at what people in these different environments say and do, what they wear, and then slowly adapting oneself to cultivate the “feeling of belonging” she described early on in the talk.

When it comes to making and breaking conversation, Sara Jane also offered some practical tips. Introducing another person to a rather dull speaker serves as a handy way of excusing oneself from the conversation, while asking open-ended questions about a person’s life easily shows someone that you’re interested in them — even if you actually might not be.  

“I like to see each person as a flower bulb and through conversation, you let them blossom,” she said, and added later that, “When you show interest in somebody, they will think that you like them and when they think you like them, they will like you back.”

Smiling and a sense of humor are also two of Sara Jane’s secret weapons to defusing potentially awkward situations.

“I don’t like to take things too seriously. I always feel like you learn the most when you’re having fun,” she said when describing a dirty joke that astonishingly made its way onto the very first episode of her Netflix series.

The joke, while risky, was instantly defused by a smile she flashed seconds later, a subtle acknowledgment to her audience that she wants them to have fun with her as well.

Sara Jane then admitted that she uses her signature smile — often coupled with her self-described “superpower” of raising either one of her eyebrows individually — in any situation where she doesn’t know how to immediately respond. Some of these situations include not understanding what someone has said or, quite conversely, being utterly shocked by what someone has said.

“I call [smiling] the Swiss Army Knife of responses — people can interpret it in any way they want,” she summarized.

Sara Jane also elaborated on the article by The New York Times that highlighted her text message breakup. To the surprise of Lee Williamson and the rest of the attendees, she revealed that the aforementioned ex-boyfriend is an FCC member!

“It’s a shame he didn’t sign up [for] tonight!” she exclaimed.

While beginning filming for her Netflix series, Sara Jane found herself at odds with a career that brought her joy and a relationship that did not. She decided that a text would be the quickest and easiest way to move on with her life, but uses this experience to also highlight the fact that despite being an etiquette expert, she’s still not perfect.

Hosting her talk at the FCC didn’t faze her either. Sara Jane actually welcomed the idea of potentially running into her ex and explained that she would still be quite cordial and interested to see what he had been up to since their breakup.

“Honestly, I would treat him as though he were a long-lost cousin because that’s how I feel about him — he’s like some distant relative. I’d actually be very happy to see him, and I’d say, ‘I’m so happy to see you. How are you? I hope you’re well.’”

Learn more about Sara Jane’s life and her social fluency tips by watching the full discussion on the FCC’s YouTube channel:

By Hugo Novales, FCC In-House Journalist

Hong Kong, despite its well-established reputation as a global finance center, fell on the Hang Seng Index for the fourth year in a row in 2023, and also fell just behind its regional competitor Singapore in the 2023 Global Financial Centres Index.

In parallel, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange dropped to tenth place in global IPO rankings in the first quarter of 2024. Some financial experts remain optimistic, while others doubt that new capital markets and investments will be enough to improve the city’s financial future.

To discuss potential solutions to the city’s market issues, the FCC held a panel discussion in early June with Dr. Renu Bhatia, Arnold Ip, Stacey Wong, and Professional Committee Member Richard Winter.

Winter, Senior Advisor of Quam Plus International Finance Limited, opened the discussion by sharing a few positive facts about Hong Kong’s economy.

“We’re very fortunate to be part of China,” he began. “China’s got a growth rate of 5%, which is one of the tops amongst major economies. Hong Kong itself last year grew by 3.3% and this year it’ll be between 2.5-3.5%.”

These statistics have also been widely shared by the Hong Kong government as a testament to the perseverance of the local and mainland economies.

Winter continued, adding that Hong Kong is in a prime location within China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA) with a GDP of 14 trillion RMB — making the region economically equivalent to Italy and Canada.

The GBA also includes Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Huizhou, Zhaoqing, and Macau — Hong Kong’s neighboring SAR.

Stacey Wong, COO of Quam Plus, also shared an overview of Hong Kong’s financial status, albeit from a critical standpoint. He pointed out the decline in daily turnover from HK$166 billion in 2021 to HK$105 billion in 2023, as well as Hong Kong’s 18% drop in the 2023 Hang Seng Index. Other competitive markets, he mentioned, all increased over the same time period.

Despite these disturbing facts, Wong said that the government’s new measures that were announced in the first quarter of 2024 gave “some hope” to the industry, primarily the April 18th announcement that the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will increase their ties with mainland China’s economy.

Just the next day after this announcement, Hong Kong rebounded by 16,400 points on the Hang Seng Index.

“We are seeing more hope, we are seeing the brighter side of things, but we are still way off our heyday. It’s not enough,” Wong summarized.

On the note of Hong Kong’s “heyday,” Arnold Ip countered the idea of looking backwards, noting that what the city used to do might not be the best solution anymore.

“The market keeps changing,” Ip reminded the panel. “First of all, we have got to recognize that things will keep changing. What we were doing in Hong Kong’s heyday won’t be what we will be doing in 5 years time or 10 years time. It will be very different.”

The fact that more attention has been brought to Hong Kong’s capital market is what Ip finds to be another positive aspect to this situation.

“Everyone is getting together to talk about this subject. This is encouraging,” he added.

The panel also discussed the initial requirements for companies, particularly “pre-revenue” biotech companies that need government and private funding and wish to be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As research and development companies, the panelists — especially Dr. Bhatia — believe that given their unique situation, a separate set of listing requirements should be made for them to make it onto the Main Board.

“This, I think, is a true recognition of the fact that economies are evolving,” she said.

“With the new companies coming through, we need to have a listing regime that allows them to potentially list here without necessarily meeting the same kind of requirements that were initially for the Main Board.”

Circling back to Winter’s initial point that Hong Kong benefits from its close linkage to the mainland economy, Wong admitted that while it is helpful we shouldn’t ignore the geopolitics that also impact the local economy’s performance. To him, Hong Kong should also explore other market links to better its chances of improving.

“We all know that the Chinese economy is not going to come back very soon. The Sino-US geopolitical tension will still continue for a couple of years. So, I believe we need to look at new products,” Wong concluded.

Watch the full talk on our YouTube channel below: