HONG KONG BRIEFING March 2005

News this month

Out with the old...

Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's chief executive, resigned on March 10th, citing health reasons. He has been given a new appointment as an adviser to China's parliament, a position often offered to retired officials. Despite his denials, many believe that he was fired by Chinese leaders.

Mr Tung has been chief executive since China took control of the former British colony in 1997. He was due to step down in 2007, buAt Beijing has become increasingly unhappy with his performance. Mr Tung had little administrative experience before becoming Hong Kong's leader, and his tenure has been remarkable for its ineffectiveness. He impressed few with the way he handled everything from the Asian currency crisis to the SARS scare in 2003. Pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2003 and 2004 drew attention to his growing unpopularity, and hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have been urging for his resignation.

...in with the new

Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, Hong Kong’s acting chief executive, began his term denying that China forced the resignation of his predecessor, Tung Chee-hwa. Mr Tsang, a savvy statesman, said Mr Tung's departure—two years before the end of his second five-year term—would not hinder democratic reform. “There is no question of going back,” he explained. “The next stage will be more democratic than it is now.” Mr Tsang will serve as acting chief executive until July 10th, when formal elections will determine who will serve the remaining two years of Mr Tung’s ten-year term. He is favourite to win that election. A devout Catholic famous for wearing bright bow-ties, Mr Tsang was a surprise replacement, given his prominence in the British administration before the 1997 handover. In 1995, he became the first Chinese financial secretary, and was well regarded for his resolve during the Asian financial crisis.

Blue skies

Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong’s flag carrier, is flying steadily again, having recently reported a 2004 net profit of HK$4.42 billion ($567m). That surpassed estimates of HK$4.07 billion, and also the carrier's 2002 earnings of HK$3.98 billion. In 2003, the SARS outbreak dragged annual figures to HK$1.3 billion. But record 13.7m passengers flew on Cathay in 2004, along with 972,416 tonnes of cargo, raising revenues 32.1% to HK$39.07 billion. Profits would have been even higher, had it not been for a sudden jump in the price of fuel: it went from 19.8% of operating costs in 2003 to 23.9% in 2004. Cathay does not anticipate any relief soon: fuel prices are expected to stay high, and regional competition is intensifying. Philip Chen, Cathay's chief executive, has denied plans to increase ticket prices.

Smoking out the bad guys

By March 12th, Hong Kong police arrested 703 people in three days of raids designed to strangle funding for organised criminals, known as triad gangsters. Targeting illegal gambling, drugs, piracy, pornography and prostitution, officers involved in “Operation Windpipe” seized drugs and pirated goods worth $HK3m. The arrested included 351 women, aged between 15 and 86.
Triads are centuries-old secret societies. After fighting for the nationalist forces, triads were banished from mainland China when the Communist Party assumed power in 1949. The gangs resorted to organised crime in pockets around the world, and they are particularly prevalent in Hong Kong and Macau.

A high note

For the first time since the local film industry's 1960s glory years, a Mandarin-language musical is being made by a Hong Kong director. Peter Chan plans to shoot “Perhaps Love” in Shanghai and Beijing, at a cost of $10m. The project will star Takeshi Kaneshiro (star of “House of Flying Daggers”) and Xun Zhou. Ruddy Morgan, the firm producing the film, recently collected a best-film Oscar for “Million Dollar Baby”.

Andre Morgan, a principal at Ruddy Morgan, has some roots in Hong Kong—he first came in 1972, fresh from Kansas, as a 20-year-old Chinese-language student. Hired as a translator and errand boy for the Golden Harvest studio, Mr Morgan moved on to more impressive tasks, such as shuttling Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris to the airport. By 1973 he produced his first film, the martial arts classic “Enter The Dragon”, which was Lee's last film. Mr Morgan hopes Western audiences will adopt Chinese musicals, just as they have martial-arts films. Alas, musicals require far more subtitles than expertly plotted kicks and punches.

Down the drain

A $4.8m toilet, made of 24-carat gold and glittering with gems, was pulled from tourist maps after tourists griped about rude service in the jewellery store that housed it. The 3D Gold store, in Kowloon, claims it attracts 6,000 tourists a day. Since August, 41 of these people complained to the Hong Kong Tourism Board about pushy sales assistants who tried to keep them from leaving. The Tourism Board then rescinded its good-service accreditation. But a gold toilet is a gold toilet: a company spokesman said, “We don't think there will be any impact on our business because it is a must-visit destination.”

Catch if you can

April 2005

Hong Kong International Film Festival

March 22nd-April 6th 2005

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Chinese cinema, the 29th Hong Kong International Film Festival features 240 films from 41 different countries and regions. Among the highlights will be the world premiere of the digitally remastered version of “Centre Stage”, a stylised film based on the life of Ruan Ling-yu, a legendary Chinese silent-film star, directed by Stanley Kwan. Maggie Cheung stars in this production, for which she won a Silver Bear (Best Actress) Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. The festival will also present a retrospective of the work of Kinoshita Keisuke, a post-war Japanese auteur, whose films are rarely screened outside of Japan.

This year's festival will also inaugurate the world’s largest outdoor screen, which overlooks Victoria Harbour and the Kowloon skyline. Do try to catch “Kung Fu Hustle” and “Fist of Fury”, two martial-arts classics, which will screen as a double-bill on March 27th.

For more information, see the festival's website.

More from the Hong Kong cultural calendar