Economist.com Cities Guide: Hong Kong Briefing - May 2005

News this month

Ready to rise

Speculation that China is on the verge of revaluing the yuan has made Hong Kong's markets volatile. In response the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) widened the band within which the Hong Kong dollar may move against the American dollar, with an upper limit of $7.75 to the US dollar. Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, chief executive of the HKMA, thinks the move will help thwart “hot money” betting—trades which use the Hong Kong dollar to speculate on the anticipated lifting of the Chinese yuan's peg to the American dollar.

It was no surprise—politicians and economists began hinting at the move on May 6th. But markets were shocked to learn that the HKMA would not protect the currency until it weakened to $7.85 against the greenback. It previously stepped in at $7.80. The announcement came a day after America's Bush administration branded China's currency policies as “highly distortionary” and made clear that it wanted to see a “substantial alteration” within six months.

Beyond Basic

Even though many view Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the acting chief executive of Hong Kong, as an emissary from Beijing, he is proving popular. Two months after taking over from Tung Chee-hwa—who resigned in March after eight lacklustre years, citing poor health—confidence in Mr Tsang rose to 77%, according to a Hong Kong University poll released on May 10th. That was five percentage points higher than two weeks earlier, when Beijing ruled that the person elected chief executive on July 10th would only serve out Mr Tung's remaining two years, rather than a full five-year term.

So it looks like Hong Kong will hew to the timetable set out in the Basic Law, which calls for an election in 2007. Mr Tsang asked Beijing to rule on the issue, bypassing Hong Kong’s courts and raising concerns over the city’s autonomy. Still, his popularity proved resilient. The survey of 1,024 people found that Mr Tsang’s no-confidence rating fell two percentage points to 7%, leaving him with an approval rating of 71.2%, an improvement of 2.9 percentage points. He is expected to announce his bid to run on May 26th, a day after Hong Kong’s Legislative Council votes on a bill limiting the winner’s tenure to the remainder of Mr Tung’s term.

In the mood for more

Wong Kar-wai, a revered art-film pioneer and Hong Kong native, is blaming his hometown for the steady decline of its film industry. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Mr Wong says filmmakers and audiences were too lazy and impatient to appreciate innovative movies: “They just say ‘I don't get it’. They're not hungry.”

During the 1980s and 1990s, the Hong Kong film industry turned huge profits across Asia and exported martial arts films to a cult audience in the west. Little remains of the once-booming industry, but Mr Wong says the near future will herald the rise of Asian mega-films, with a niche for smaller movies like his own. Mr Wong's films—such as “Chunking Express”, “In The Mood For Love” and its recent sequel, “2046”—have presented a glamorous and eccentric vision of Hong Kong. His interview was timed to promote “Eros”, a trio of short films he helped write and direct, along with Michelangelo Antonioni and Steven Soderbergh.

Tower race

On May 15th a 200-year-old Hong Kong tradition returned, when 12 men scrambled up a tower grabbing lucky sticky buns during the Cheung Chau Bun Festival. The winner was one of the island’s own: Jason Kwok Ka-ming, a 23-year-old firefighter, who snatched 51 buns in three minutes. Only 1,000 tickets were handed out for seats at the midnight race, leaving some 30,000 people frustrated after a humid day that reached 32ºC.

The festival's origins are sketchy. Some say it was designed to appease the ghosts of islanders murdered by pirates about 200 years ago. Others claim it honours Pak Tai, the Lord of the North, who reputedly saved Cheung Chau's residents from a bubonic plague outbreak in 1777. The race had been banned in 1978 after a collapsed tower injured 100 people. Its return pitted revivalists against officials promoting another Hong Kong tradition: meticulous preparation and safety. The officials may have won the day. Instead of bamboo towers, there was a 14-metre steel structure, and race applicants had to undergo mountaineering training. Organisers said they would push for a race on the traditional bamboo towers next year.

Like Atlantis, with slots

Stanley Ho Hung-sun, a Macau casino mogul, and Kerry Packer, Australia’s richest man, are planning an underwater gambling complex on Macau. After paying US$214m for 1.21m square feet of land on Macau's Cotai Strip, the pair will build an “underwater casino hall showcasing tropical marine life”. When it opens in 2008, the casino will house up to 450 gaming tables, 3,000 slot machines, a 4,000-seat concert hall, a shopping centre, luxury apartments and a combined 2,000 rooms in two four-star hotels and one five-star. Mr Ho’s Melco International Development valued the complex at HK$8 billion. PBL said the US$214m paid for the site included US$64m for the Macau government.

Mr Ho’s Sociedade de Jogos de Macau has one of three gambling licences in Macau. He lost his 42-year Macau gambling monopoly in 2001, when Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson, two Las Vegas casino owners, were each granted licences. Mr Packer and Mr Ho are already building a Park Hyatt casino resort on Macau’s Taipa island.

Catch if you can

June 2005

Pearl River Delta: Movie, Culture, Life

Until July 9th 2005

To celebrate 100 years of cinema in China, the Hong Kong Film Archive is screening historic footage and films about the region. The programme has been extended by more than a month, with extra screenings of highlights such as “Early Sights of Guangdong and Hong Kong”, a collection of pioneering films.

The screening on June 5th includes footage of Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong province shot by the Edison Company in 1898. “A Page of History” follows Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Chinese republic, who later established the Kuomintang party and its government in what is now Guangdong. The footage was shot by Lai Man-wai, considered the father of Chinese cinema, between 1923 and 1927. “Early Sights” also features “A Trip Through China”, Benjamin Brodsky’s look at Victoria Harbour5.

Hong Kong Film Archive, 50 Lei King Rd, Sai Wan Ho. Tickets: HK$30. Tel: (852) 2739 2139. See the archive's website.

More from the Hong Kong cultural calendar