talk 747

Wishing you a Happy, Prosperous, and Healthy Chinese New Year!

jtkoo@hotmail.com

It has been half a year (Aug. 2007) since I have written on Hong Kong, a colorful and ever eventful city. Many things have happened in HK as you will see here.

Late last year, there was an election for the Chief Executive (the equivalent of the Mayor). “Bowtie Tseng,” handpicked by Mainland China, easily won. But the opposing party did receive a respectable number of votes.

Then Anson Chan, “the Conscience of HK,” ran for legislative council against Regina Yip and won. During the election, somebody dug up the fact that shortly before 1997, as the highest ranking official below the Governor, she got a 100% mortgage while then the government in an effort of cooling down the housing market, raised the requirement for down payment of 30% for mortgages. She defended this issue by saying that since Mainland China accepted her as the #2 person in the HK Government then; her character is beyond reproach. Ironically, pressured by Mainland China, she had to resign shortly after the Handover.

Just before the Chinese New Year, hundreds bedroom scene photos of several HK female starlets exposing themselves or engaged in cunnilingus and fellatio were uploaded on the Internet. These photos are all with a handsome, “rebellious” Canadian born singer/actor, Edison Chen around 2006. It became the headline news for almost a month. A survey showed over 95 percent people in HK are aware of this incident, and a third of population, and 2/3 of student ages have seen the photos.

These photos shocked HK. The police quickly throw the person suspected of uploading these photos to jail, then released him after protest of the heavy-handedness to a person with less means. The starlet with the simple, pure, clean-cut girl next-door image first claimed the photos are digital compilations, and then said she was stupid and naive then (she is 28 today). The rumors of cancellation of a wedding with a rich and famous for one, divorce for another, threats to the life or limbs of Edison ran rampant.

Most in HK, especially the women's groups are critical of the starlets and condemned Edison for taking the photos and running away to US. A well known rich and famous said while it is ok for a man to play around, but not to disclose it publicly. Thousands wrote to protest the co-hosting of this “naïve” starlet for a charity TV show. Finally on Feb. 21, Edison came back to HK. He admitted taking the photos, but they were appropriated without his consent when he had his computer repaired. He apologized to all and said he would give up his career in HK. After listening to his speech, a lot, especially women, forgave him, but are less charitable for the female celebrities, the “naive” one in particular. Sadly, their futures in HK or China are questionable at best.

Winnie and I were spending the Chinese New Year in U.S. with our new grandson (4 months old then), and were oblivious of the incessant headlines in HK. At a recent party in HK, I should open my big mouth saying that the private life, or what anybody do in their bedrooms are their business. The celebrities committed no crimes. Compared with the photos of rich and famous parading their mistresses, these pictures are less damaging or corrupting the youth and families in HK. Many at the party either were shocked or admonished my “liberal,” “deviate,” and “American” views. Winnie suggested I should stick to subjects like our grandson or semiconductor. OK, here are couple cell phone photos of Matthew by Winnie and a photo of us by regular digital camera. You can see Matthew inherited a lot from Winnie. Meanwhile my daughter Jackie said should he has less than a full head of hair, it is all my fault. However, his grandparents in Taiwan said Matthew looks like them.

While this celebrity photo incident was raging on, most people in HK did not notice the news on Chinese New Year eve that U.S. SEC has settled with David Li of HK for insider trading with a fine of US$8 million without him admitting any wrong doings. However, under pressure, he did have to resign from the cabinet of HK, but still kept his Chairmanships of Bank of East Asia, a public Bank in HK, and many other roles including a member of the Legislative Council, and Chairmanship of the Chinese Banks Association. By the way, this youth role model, the successful David Li was photographed with his then secrete girlfriend in Paris a few years ago after the reporters were tipped off by his wife. Most women in HK said his wife is stupid. Now people have seen three of them together. What was under the cover, now on the table.

Then otherwise would be a bombshell, but again overshadowed by the Photo event is that Walter Kwok, the Chairman of Sun Hun Kai, the 2nd riches family in HK, took a leave of absence suddenly. Purportedly he got involved with Ida Tong, a divorcee. Walter relies more and more on her business opinions though Ida is not part of the company. This caused rift with his two younger brothers (and his wife I assume, but nobody in HK seems to talk much about this), CEO's for two branches of the company. Their mother, the largest shareholder eventually stepped in and suspended him. Some papers in HK refer Ida, not particularly attractive, the Camilla (Bowles) of HK.

Also, a few days ago, the well-known, seasoned comedienne movie and TV star Lydia Shum (also know as Fei Fei due to her corpulence frame) passed away. During her final days, to avoid the death watch of the paparasies, she moved into the service apartment where we live. I saw her a couple times in elevators and should have greeted her with Shanghainese, but did not; an opportunity truly missed. The death normally would warranted several days of front page news, but it was for one day and quickly overshadowed by the celebrity photo incident.

HK is booming. The government has a large surplus this year. So the HK government decided to hand out HK$45 (Chinese paper) to $75 billion (SCMP) dollars to all HK resident. No, HK is not on the verge of a recession needs a stimulation, but due to budget surplus after a booming year. After 20 years, they just decided to go forth with a HK$36 billion bridge linking HK, Macao, and Zhongshan of China. Need I say more?

Along comes with the boom, comes the inflation. Contrary to US, the real-estate price has returned to the peak of the pre-Asian financial crisis days of 1997. The increase of rent of 100% is not unheard of, while the food price has increased by double digits percentage. If your income is in US dollars, then you would see either your cost of living going up by leaps and bounds, or your standard living is going down or both. But if it is Euro, Australian or Canadian dollars, things in HK are cheaper now. However, they also abolished the 80, then recently 40% import duty on wine. So I (income in US$) can drink to console myself at a lower cost.

Just a few days ago, the court here handed down a decision that a divorcing woman is entitled to half of their marital properties up from the traditional third. Believe even fewer rich and famous will get married. By the way, the court still routinely gives the custody of the children to the father, especially for male heirs. Now where does that leave the mistress(es)? Nor I see any woman's group comment on this court decision.

Return to the Lighter's scene, Tse Shun Kai ((C10) gave a dinner party to celebrated his close encounter with DVT (deep vein thrombosis), a life threatening problem of urgent nature. The final diagnosis proved negative. He talked about the over crowdedness at Queen Mary’s hospital where 60 people were crowded into a 30 persons’ ward. Often with 2 visitors per patient, 180 person were in that hall. Even in the private section, 6 people were put into a 3 persons room. All the doctors and nurses were overworked, and long wait for everything. He would have to wait for a month for the ultra-sound scan after being admitted in emergency with an ambulance. He finally paid HK$1,200 himself (after a $500 discount) to have it done in a private clinic. He then paid HK$450, 10% of the HK$4,500 bill for 4 days stay (The rest by insurance). When I told people there that the hospital bill (not including doctor’s fees) for 2 days stay in a California hospital for inserting a stents in an artery was US$105,000, most people there thought I drank too much or got confused with US and HK dollars. Again my better half suggested I should stick to our grandson or semiconductor. Any way, we toasted the Chinese New Year of Rat, and more importantly to our good health. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and have no photos to show you.

OK, I should learn from the smart starlets or Winnie keeping my mouth shut (or putting my pen down). Will write about committed article of dancing lesson or respond to Peter Tong and W.T. Pang's comment about me in their articles in due time. Anyway, should you be bored anytime, take a trip to HK. Wishing you all a very Happy, Prosperous, and Healthy Chinese New Year of the Rat!