Every now and again there are news reports about monkey trouble in urban Hong Kong. The macaques of “Monkey Hill” – formally known as Kam Shan and located within a country park – have been known to act aggressively, grab food from the backpacks and bags of hikers and picnickers. Urban areas have also had their fair share of simian sightings which cause no end […]
The meaning of “achievement”
A lot has been made about Fu Yuanhui’s adorable personality and the way she completely embraced and owned “merely” getting a bronze medal in the Olympics. Well, that’s a bronze medal. At the Olympics. The summit of international elite sports. So the treatment of this cialis side effects issue ought to be done as per the instructions of the health expert. for sale levitra This […]
Mother-tongue Squeezed Out of the Chinese Classroom in Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong
Several years ago, when I found out my daughter might not get into the primary school affiliated to her kindergarten, I panicked. I had only applied to one school and now, I had to look for alternatives. I was not looking for a famous or prestigious school. Instead, I wanted to find a school that did not have a high-pressure test culture, one that instead […]
Protecting children in the news
As a journalist, a parent and a teacher, I was concerned and troubled by the handling of coverage of a protest at a Wong Tai Sin primary school this morning (23 May 2015) at which a pupil was photographed and recorded while crying and upset. As a journalist and a journalism teacher, I firmly believe it is the duty of journalists and news organisations to […]
From the archive – Why Hongkongers are rooting for HKTV
It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here and as a High Court judge ruled in favour of HKTV in its judicial review of the government’s decision to deny the company a free-to-air TV licence back in 2013, it seems timely to re-post something I wrote before this blog was up and running. It might be a useful read for those coming to the […]
The New Lion Rock Spirit – how a banner on a hillside redefined the Hong Kong Dream
Two days after the largest occupation site of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement was cleared by police and two days before the last one was returned to “normalcy”, a large yellow banner appeared on a mountain in Kowloon called Lion Rock. It bore the by now familiar image of an umbrella, along with the words “CY Step Down”, referring to Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed Chief Executive, Leung […]
Words fail me
Why haven’t I written for so long? Well, for one thing it has been a difficult and crazy term. Despite the class boycott and then the occupation of Admiralty, Mong Kok and Causeway Bay, we decided we would stick to our normal Varsity schedule in producing two print editions and one multimedia edition. And we’ve done just that – December issue is online at http://varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk, our […]
The crazy, inspirational, exhausting days of Occupy HK
So much has happened since I last posted here. There is so much I want to say and yet I have so little time and energy to say it. I will write again, that much I know. But for now, in between editing Varsity, teaching and much more besides, this is all that would flow: The days the days we dare to hope and deign […]
Politics divides families, friends in Hong Kong
Generational divide across political lines lead to frayed tempers around the dinner table and arguments in WhatsApp groups When Leung Chun-ying campaigned for Hong Kong’s top job against the doyenne of Hong Kong’s established moneyed elite, he stressed his humble beginnings as the son of a colonial policeman and his stated purpose of unifying Hong Kong society under the slogan “united in heart”. After his […]
Tertiary Teachers’ Statement on Students Arrested in Chater Rd Sit-in
An unprecedented mass arrest of protesters who staged a sit-in in Chater Rd, in Hong Kong’s Central district after the annual July 1st protest, has set off alarm bells in the city. The protesters, many of them university students, were demanding the government pay heed to the community’s calls for genuine universal suffrage. This is a statement by teachers in tertiary education in support of the […]