PE O PLE
PE O PLE
Wong's joy
Wendy's a winner
IF the celebrated graphic designer and master of the pool table, Peter Wong, was seen happier lately than before and behaving a little out of the ordinary, there was a good reason for it. The sudden outpouring ofjoy was caused, of course, not by yet another gold medal for his design creation. The cause this time was creation of a different kind, " a 6lb 13 oz bundle of joy," as he puts it. Wong, a New Zealander, and Hong Kong-born Nikki Iri, r'ho were married at Hong Kong's Cotton Tree Drive Marriage Registry in October last year in the presence of many FCC mdmbers, are now the proud parents of Daryl Jason, their first child, a son, born,,to be precise, at noon on Sunday, November 19. Ageing parents amongWong's FCC friends who might have forgotten the thrill of entering parenthood, watched in utter amazement when Wong went about
"I
HAVE had
Lui at their wedding
but I feel the need to establish a permanent home and I can't
see that in Hong Kong," says Peter Bennett(righÐ who has lived most of
with Daryl
.ìt
Jason (lefr).
buying drinks for all his friends many times over during most of that week and enjoying a little of the beverages himself. Happiness was everywhere with everyone drinking to the health of "Deejay", the newborn. I
)
)t t'
D
¡
THE ladies in plumed headgear were not geared for the garden party at Government House. Wendy Gallagher, Dorothy Ryan (aboue lefr) and lrene O'Shea (aboae right), å1.
all pillars of the Red Lips Corner at the Club's main bar, had made a team entry for the lady with the most outrageous headgear at the Hong Kong version of the Melbourne Cup at the Australian Club. Gallagher pipped the lot to the post with a hat that had so much ostrich fluff that Dorothy Ryan was forced to make a plea to the World Wildlife Fund: "Think of
tallest building in Central was the City Hall,
the lobby of The Peninsula was not airconditioned but cooled by swirling fans; and David Perkins read the ne\MS on
those three decades in the British colony
Rediffusion
to
TV
Gallagher riposted with: rrNo Comment.rl Irene OrShea showed a bit of leg to invite a pull from anyone who dared. The Red Lips Corner turned tightJipped thereafter.
From China trade Bennett moved into media marketing in ttre late 1960s, joining the
sovereignty. So, the Englishman who is often mistaken for an Aussie will be heading south next month to build his castle in Sydney. He will join Boyden
Off Duty magazine,then moving to Ihe Far
Australia as a partner.
in Singapore during the Malayan emergency da)6. t-ee Ifuan Yew Bennett recalls, was then considered to be adangerousleftie.
Life has since been a string of exciting
experiences for Bennett. He had seen Bangkok's now infamous Patpong when it was just a quiet thoroughfare, stayed in a 'I-hai temple long before the word hippie
was even thought of, engaged in
carousing with Temenggong Jugah, the Dayak chief in the 1950s, spent six weeks travelling from Ðngland to Hong Kong on the same ship with the newlywed Barrie Wiggham and his bride Mavis and became their friend, represented Hong
Karate
Championship in Japan...the list goes on. læaving the army, Bennett spent one
I
Eastern Economic Reaiew and finally becoming the general marìager of Asiaweek.
The association with Asiaweek ended in
TJ.S. George, the foundereditor, and his deputy and managing dispute with
Bennett came to Asian shores in the 1950s, drafted into the British army to do secuill ¡xlols
Kong in the first world
all those bare-assed ostriches that feathered Wendy's
the forerunner of ATV.rl
China's
22
:*
(below); and
year with the BBC as a trainee studio manager, but later made his way back to Asia as an employee of the British China trader, Arnhold Trading Company, based in Hong Kong. 'Tl4ren I arrived in Hong Kong in 1961," remembers Bennett, "the
30
good years in Asia
which is in its final years before returning
Peter Wong and Nikki
editor(now editor-inchiefl , Michael Ol.[eill. "l was out on my ear," says BennetL This was when executive head-hunting was just emerging as a fascinating new area in Hong Kong and head-hunters were
hunting for managers to lead the hunt. Korn/Ferry International, which was looking for a man with Asian knowledge to manage its Hong Kong operation, took on
Bennett, but two years later Bennett himself was head-hunted by Boyden International for its Hong Kong office. But as he turned 50 this year, says Bennett, it is time to establish a permanent base for the family. "I don't want to wait until retirement, then move and wither. Now is the time to move." But in his regional role with Boyden he will be visiting Hong Kong frequentþ T
THE coRRESpoNDENT DECEMBER
198e
THE editor of the
In 1973, Roy moved to the Indian capital, New Delhi, to join the Press Institute of
Asian Finance maga-
India and edit its publication, Data India.
Barun Roy (right), is moving to new pastures after zine,
having spent nine
years with the monthly magazine. He will join the Manila-based Asian
Development Bank in early January as information officer.
Roy's career in journalism began in his home town, Calcutta, India, when he joined the Englishlanguage afternoon daily, Freelance, in 1953 as a subeditor. In the years that followed he worked as an assistant editor and leader
writer with Calcutta's Bengali-language daily, Juganta4 as well as with Lhe Straits Tivnes in Singapore.
Two years later he left India for Manila and
joined the Press Foundation of Asia as edilor of Data Asia. And, in 1980 he moved to Hong Kong to joinAsian Finance. About this latest move, Roy says that discussions with the ADB have been going on
for some time, but now is the most convenient time for all concerned to effect the move to the Philippines.
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VISITING Hong Kong recently was Mrs Cynthia Seymour-Jones, long-suffering spouse of Dr Derek Seymour-Jones, longtime fixture of the 15th Floor, Sutherland House, and the nearby Bowling Alley Bar. As they say in the society pages, the couple is at home to London visitors, at 7 Light Horse Court, Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London SW3 4SR. (Phone:01-730 0161,
Ext.231.)
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OVER a year ago when Steve Thompson (righÐ moved from
back on his brief
encounter
Singapore to join Hong Kong's Racing World as its editor, he was full of hope and enthusiasm. Soon after taking over the editorial reins from Racing World's publisher and founder Matthew Oram (riqht) in September 1988, Thompson set out to bring a new look to the magazine. "IT will be a lot clearer, a lot more
with
Hong Kong and the
Racing
World,
Thompson
now
says that as time went by he began
to realise that he
wasn't truly inter-
ested in horse rac-
to be very
ing. Now back in
pleased," he said then. However, that association did not last more than a year. Thompson is now back
MPH, he is working on a series of
modern. Werre going
Singapore
with
to his former base, Singapore's MPH
four travel books focusing on Singapore,
Magazines, where he had worked earli-
Malaysia, Thailand and Bali.
er, mainly on the Singapore Airlines'
Thompson's wife Shakti, who also had given up her work with Singapore's
inflight magazine, Siluer Kris. Racing Woild recrtited Thompson as editor after the internationa-l head-hunting firm Boyden Associates conducted a region-wide search and identified him
as a potential candidate. But looking
Community Chest to move to Hong Kong, has, like her husband, rejoined her former employer. Racing World has, meanwhile, named
Rupert Most',n
as
editor.
THE CORRESPONDENTDECEMBER 1989
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