The Correspondent, November - December 2006

C***********T NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB, HONG KONG

THE

THAILAND: A PR COUP >> CULTURE CLASH AT THE SCMP

THE

CORRESPONDENT

contents

COVER PHOTOGRAPH: AFP

Thailand’s Latest Coup

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Then & Now

The Worm Turns in Quarry Bay Books Britsh, Lonely and Utterly Wierd

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Under Sail

Payday in the Land of Smiles Comment

Feature

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Underground Gold in Italy

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Golf as Landscape Art

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Media The Human Rights Press Awards

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The AWSJ Awards

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FCC Statement: Ching Cheong

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Obituary

34

Out of Context

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Letters From the President

Feature

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Tate Modern Odd

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

Merchandise Around the FCC Professional Contacts

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Letters

From Jonathan Mirsky, London

THE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS’ CLUB, HONG KONG 2 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2521 1511 Fax: (852) 2868 4092 E-mail: <fcc@fcchk.org> Website: <www.fcchk.org> President: Chris Slaughter First Vice President: Keith Bradsher Second Vice President: Kevin Egan Correspondent Member Governors Paul Bayfield, Jim Laurie, Kate Pound Dawson, Matthew Driskill, Ilaria Maria Sala, Luke Hunt, Keri Ann Geiger, Ernst Herb Journalist Member Governors Francis Moriarty, Jake van der Kamp Associate Member Governors Andy Chworowsky, Rob Stewart, David Garcia, Steve Ushiyama Hon. Treasurer Steve Ushiyama Finance Committee Convener: Steve Ushiyama Professional Committee Conveners: Keith Bradsher, Keri Ann Geiger House/Food and Beverage Committee Convener: Dave Garcia Membership Committee Convener: Steve Ushiyama House/F&B Committee Convener: David Garcia FCC Charity Committee Conveners: Dave Garcia, Andy Chworowsky Freedom of the Press Committee Convener: Francis Moriarty Wall Committee Convener: Ilaria Maria Sala General Manager Gilbert Cheng

The Correspondent © The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong The Correspondent is published six times a year. Opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the Club.

Publications Committee Convener: Paul Bayfield Editor: Diane Stormont Editorial and Production Hongkongnow.com ltd Tel: 2521 2814 E-mail: fccmag@hongkongnow.com Printer Hop Sze Printing Company Ltd Advertising Enquiries Sandra Pang Pronto Communications Tel: 2540 6872 Fax: 2116 0189 Mobile: 9077 7001 E-mail: advertising@fcchk.org

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I was early on the scene, some years ago, exposing Gavin Menzies for the liar and charlatan he is. It’s all garbage.

Never mind. It’s like the law; hard cases test it. Let him speak (To Speak or Not to Speak – The Correspondent, JulyAugust 2006) and let audiences take him apart.

Over the years I listened to, and occasionally introduced, other – what?

– questionable speakers. I notice that my old friend (truly) Anson Chan just spoke on democracy. Surely everyone can recall her attitude towards Hong Kong’s democrats in the days when she was Chief Secretary. Maybe some day Gavin Menzies will reappear at the FCC and say, like Robert MacNamara years after the Vietnamese war, “I was wrong”.

From Anthony Wong, Hong Kong The forthcoming FCC 9-Ball Pool Tournament is once again being sponsored by the Rocky Lane Foundation Trust. All prize money comes from this trust in order to further the interest in the sport for our members. The tournament start date is Saturday, January 6 (for the qualifying group rounds) and the finals are on Saturday, January 13.

We shall be splitting up the groups on January 6, with a morning and a late afternoon group, to reduce the amount of waiting time for the players. The FCC will lay on the usual fabulous buffet-style food and drinks as per previous tournaments, and the entrance fee this year is HK$150 per player.

The tournament is open to all members and their partners, including all players who participate in and represent the FCC Pool

Team. If you or your partner would like to participate in this event, please contact Anthony Wong at awong@asbroadcast.com or leave a message at the Front Office.

Please provide your membership number and mobile number when registering.

While most of our members do not play for the prize money (it’s more of a social gathering and a chance to meet other members), here is the list of prizes available: The winner shall receive HK$3,000 and have his or her name engraved on the FCC 9-Ball trophy. The runner-up shall receive HK$2,000.

The remaining 14 players who make it to the last 16 shall receive HK$200 each. We are expecting at least 32 entrants this year.

Spectators are welcome!

Contributions The Correspondent welcomes letters, articles, photographs and art-work (in softcopy form only, please – no faxes or printouts etc). We reserve the right to edit contributions chosen for publication. Anonymous letters will be rejected.

For verification purposes only (and not for publication) please include your membership number (if applicable) and a daytime telephone number.

Contributions can be e-mailed to fcc@hongkongnow.com. Disks should be dropped off at the Club or posted to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong and marked to the attention of The Editor, The Correspondent. FTP is also available and is encouraged for large files. Please e-mail us for the settings. The deadline for the next issue is January 20, 2007.

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

Club Activities xxxxx

> FROM THE PRESIDENT O

kay, cards on the table. I quit smoking about three months ago.

That hasn’t stopped me from backsliding from time to time, stealing the odd fag from a friendly nicotine addict at the bar, then remarking upon how nasty it tastes, and swearing that I really, really, REALLY was quitting. And then, a few drinks later, stealing another …

But most of the time, I remain resolute. Except when enough of that legendary Scottish resolvesolvent, Famous Grouse, has been applied to my otherwise iron will … I’m usually able to remember quite clearly that I’ve given ‘em up.

Which doesn’t make me any happier about the Government’s decision to ban smoking as of January 1, 2007. It’s been talked about for a long, long time, and most everyone agreed – whether they supported the legislation or not – that it was only a matter of time before the ban was passed and implemented. Well, now it has been. And we’re not exempt.

Personally, I wish we were; philosophically, I support the concept of smoking, even as I’m trying to shake the Marlboro monkey off my back.

And the Board has certainly worked hard to figure out different ways we could continue to have some sort of facility for our smoking members.

We’ve looked at renovating the building (unfeasible), we’ve talked to the Home Affairs Department (obdurate) and the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau (unwavering), we’ve considered simple non-compliance (impractical, not to mention illegal). But in the end, we’ve come to the conclusion that there’s nothing we can do. There are no loopholes we can exploit, no shades of grey we can employ, no cracks we can slip between.

So as of the New Year, we’re going to have to put all the ashtrays away, and FCC members who are smokers will have to take their butts outside the Club premises to indulge in that particular vice. I’ve already been given an earful from several of

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

my old schmogging cronies, the ones who remain staunchly committed to the weed; to them I have said, as I say to any others who wish to object, please feel free to vent. Just don’t expect the Board, the management, or the staff to be able to do anything about it. We’re happy to explore other avenues that we might have overlooked, but given the lengthy and wide-ranging discussions we’ve had on this already over the past several months, I think we’ve pretty much covered every angle.

Couple other items to bring up… nothing to do with smoking, really. The work room now has a different access system. Sorry if it’s sort of a pain, but it’s also much more secure.

We’ve also fielded critical comments regarding the note posted on the bulletin board about spam being sent from our IP address. I’m not sure I quite follow the logic here. Is there really anyone who thinks that it’s a good idea that our Internet service should be used to send spam? Look, we’re not going to be spying on people’s e-mail or recording what websites they go to or anything even remotely like that. But we will be doing what we can to make sure that nobody sends out kajillions of garbage emails from our IP address. I mean, I’m as much a defender of free speech as anyone else, but personally, if I’m not offered another source for low-priced Cialis, discount mortgages, or pictures of horny biker grannies with goats any time soon, I don’t think I’ll feel like my civil liberties have been irrevocably hijacked by some authoritarian regime. And if tightening up how we let people use our Internet service means the inboxes of the world have even a little bit less spam clogging them up, well maybe we should all be a little thankful.

Course, no matter how thankful we might be, we won’t be able to celebrate by lighting up around the bar… but that’s progress for you.

Christopher Slaughter president@fcchk.org

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Cover Story

AFP

Showtime: Thailand’s finest entertains the crowd

Thailand’s PR Coup Or how I learned to stop worrying and love martial law

BY TODD CROWELL

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HUA HIN, Thailand. – We learned the news at 5 am when one of my wife’s friends called from in Japan, which is two hours ahead of here. She had just read the news in the Asahi Shimbun.

“There’s been a coup d’etat!” she said.

“Where,” I answered stupidly.

“There, in Thailand.”

We turned on the TV, but the Thai channels were showing nothing except file footage of the King. Finally, we found an Australian channel that

informed us that the army had seized power in Bangkok and ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

I don’t live in the capital. I had come to Thailand to work for Asia Times Online (www.atimes.com) , a web news magazine which has its main office in this seaside resort town about 200 km south of Bangkok.

There were few signs of the coup in Hua Hin that day, except that the post office was closed. Two days later I took the van to Bangkok to renew my

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

AFP

AFP

Caretaker Prime Minister General Surayud Chulanont work permit, and we ran into a major military roadblock half way there.

Most of the pictures of the coup showed friendly soldiers in berets posing pleasantly with happy civilians and their children in front of their tanks. They had been ordered to smile. It reminded me of the People Power Revolt in the Philippines in 1986 that overthrew Ferdinand Marcos.

That image was accentuated by the yellow ribbons that the soldiers tied around their arms and the barrels of their guns. Yellow was the colour of People Power; here it is a sign of loyalty to the King.

But the soldiers we encountered on the way to Bangkok were dressed for business, helmets, flak vests, a humvee with a soldier manning the machine gun on top. Evidently they were looking for vehicles with suspiciously large numbers of young men being smuggled into the city to stage a counter-coup.

I don’t mean to say they were especially intimidating. The officer in charge gave our van a look over and then waved us on with a jaunty salute.

The next day my wife had to make a “Ranong run” to renew her tourist visa. It is something that expats living in Hua Hin do. Ranong is a village

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

Most of the pictures of the coup showed friendly soldiers in berets posing pleasantly with happy civilians and their children in front of their tanks.

They had been ordered to smile.

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Cover Story

AFP

on the border with Myanmar about 500 km south of here. People take a ferry across the bay to the very southern tip of Myanmar, turn around and re-enter Thailand with a fresh stamp in their passport.

But when she got there after a gruelling five-hour van ride, she found that Myanmar had, in the interval, closed the border. Then it was another five-hour trip back empty handed.

So now we live under martial law, although you would scarcely notice it. The soldiers have returned to the barracks, a retired general serves as prime minister of a caretaker government. Life goes on.

There is little or no censorship, as far as I can tell. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t submit our copy to the military for approval.

Strangely enough we were the beneficiaries of the coup. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because Asia Times Online is a small cog in the empire of Thai media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul.

Sondhi was in a kind of death

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AFP

So now we live under martial law, although you would scarcely notice it. The soldiers have returned to the barracks, a retired general serves as prime minister of a caretaker government.

Life goes on.

struggle with the prime minister.

Earlier this year, if you looked hard enough in the back pages of the newspaper, you might have seen small stories with headlines like: 200,000

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

demonstrate in Bangkok against the prime minister.

You could be sure that Sondhi was cheering them on, not just through his own vernacular news organs and talk show but also in person. You could say that the prime minister was not amused.

Of course, the government had plenty of levers to make Sondhi – and our – lives miserable. Sondhi was hit with numerous lawsuits and charges of lèse majesté (insulting the King, a serious offence here).

At the same time, Thaksin and his friends began to squeeze his sources of credit and income, some of which came from outside the country and thus under direct government scrutiny. It was as if somebody had put their big heavy foot down on the money hose.

For us payday came and payday went with nothing to show in our bank accounts. After two weeks we became restive, not knowing what exactly was going on – Hua Hin can be a little remote in that respect – or if we would ever get paid.

In September Sondhi was forced to close another English-language publication called ThaiDay, which appeared as a supplement with the International Herald Tribune. Sondhi told one website he was afraid that the New York Times, which owns the IHT, would face trouble if he were charged with “treason”.

We at Asia Times Online wondered whether we would be the next victim.

A couple of members of our small staff quit and looked for work elsewhere.

Then came the coup. Thaksin was deposed and exiled in London.

Suddenly our salaries were posted promptly. It was as if somebody had lifted its foot from the money hose.

So here we are today, publishing as normal, getting paid as normal. It is a strange feeling being caught up like this in Thai political struggle. But I supposed that if you must to be in a coup d’etat, it’s good to be on the winning side.

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

AFP

Checkpoint cheery: Eyeballing vans in search of crowds of young, armed men

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Please take a quick online survey at: www.ChinaWonk.com

Who is conducting this survey?

My name is Rebecca MacKinnon. I was CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief from 1998-2001. Now I’m a Research Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Ctr. For Internet & Society. In January I will join the faculty at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism & Media Studies Centre, where I will continue research and writing about public discourse on the Chinese Internet, global online citizens’ media, the future of journalism in the Internet age, and other related topics.

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Comment

The Worm Turns?

BY MAX KOLBE

M

ax’s regional round-up has been interrupted this edition by the soap opera playing out on The Correspondent’s doorstep at Hong Kong’s august South China Morning Post. The days when working there could be described, in the words of one ex-SCMP hack, as “luxuriating in a warm bath”, ended in the mid-1980s with the retirement of long-serving editor, Robin Hutcheon.

The advent of the s the “Pol Pot Era”, which saw the first of a number of sackings of staffers en masse. There’s since been a number of changes at the top, and a change of ownership. What hasn’t changed is the periodic Nights of the Long Knives that sweep through the newsroom, often apparently targeting those on the better pay and pension packages. Surprise, surprise.

But such is the nature of the business; they are soon forgotten by all, except of course, tthe victims themselves.

So it is interesting to see often docile SCMP staffers bite back.

The ripples appeared in November when new Editor-in-Chief Mark Clifford, poached from The Standard earlier in the year, suffered a sense of humour failure over the “leaving page” (top right) produced for sacked Sunday Editor, Niall Fraser.

Fraser, a hard-talking Scotsman, received the order of the boot allegedly for being “too tabloidy”. It was the headline on his spoof front page gift that “sent Mark into orbit,” according to one staffer who declined to be identified.

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Describing it as “not something that you would show to your mother,” Clifford fired off what is widely described as “a po-faced memo” (see box) and fired three staffers who played a minor role in its production – the main perpetrators having already left the paper. One was reprieved when his line boss threw down the gauntlet and threatened to quit unless the sacking was reversed.

Infuriated by the firings and the memo, 101 Post journalists signed a petition demanding the reinstatement of the pair. Newsroom or “town hall” meetings between the Post management and journalists failed to damp down the flames, serving instead as forums for grievances about the man-

agement style adopted by the new regime, which included a clutch of editors brought in from The Standard.

Unusually, it was the local journalists who proved most vociferous in denoucing the sackings, the memo. and the new editors parachuted in from Kowloon Bay. And they took full advantage of the open forums to nail their complaints to the mast. They named names and flagged examples.

In the past, such delicious details would have been hashed over with relish around the Main Bar and quickly forgotten. But thanks to the internet, this story won’t fade.

Quick on the uptake was the new South Park-style satirical news round-up blog, Hong Kong Copy News

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

- (http://hkcopynews.blogspot. c o m / 2 0 0 6 / 1 1 / 1 0 - c e l t i c - n ov 20.html and http://one.revver. com/watch/102591).

This irreverent animated weekly production, which bills itself as “just like the real news but cheaper,” decided that c**t apparently referred to Fraser’s ethnic origins. “Sometimes you have to lighten up, otherwise you risk becoming a bit of a Celt yourself,” the cartoon newsreader observed in a section titled N*t F**ny.

EastWestSouthNorth (http:// www.zonaeuropa.com) translated reports of the fracas carried in the Chinese press for the benefit of non-Chinese readers.

Misterbijou’s blog (http://misterbijou.blogspot.com/) attracted comments from SCMP staffers.

The story has also coomanded space in The Guardian of London’s media pages and other overseas industry publications.

It was the stories by on-line news magazine, Asia Sentinel (www.asiasentnal.com), founded by two senior former Standard editors fired by Clifford as he departed for the Post, that will probably prove most enduring.

They have been picked up wholesale by bloggers worldwide, including the respected Chinabased Danwei blog (http://www. danwei.org).

“There’s a feeling that the proprietors are not amused at the Post’s dirty linen being hung out to dry on the net and are worried about losing face big time in public,” said a long-serving SCMP journalist.

Staffers say that Leaving Pages are now permitted only if vetted.

The result is no one, for now anyway, bothers, even though Clifford himself had presented one, containing the usual off off-colour jokes, to a leaver only weeks before Fraser’s departure.

In any case, this consession was not enough. Clifford. was forced to

THE MEMO The South China Morning Post built one of Asia’s most prominent and powerful newspapers over the past century. The name symbolises quality, trust and integrity. We are a good newspaper on our way to becoming a great one.

Becoming great requires effort and thought from each of us, in everything we do. We’re lucky that so many of us do our best in every aspect of our professional lives. I have been enormously impressed by the intensity, the integrity and the pursuit of excellence by so many of you that I’ve seen in the seven months I’ve been here.

Unfortunately, not everyone understands what it takes for us to ratchet up to the next level. Some of this I understand. Change is hard.

Newsrooms are conducive to grumbling. And excellence takes effort.

But some behaviour I cannot accept and will not tolerate. There is no room here for people who flout journalistic ethics of fairness and accuracy, no room for people who treat the company’s name and property as if it were their own. And there are basic standards of decency that need to be respected in any modern company, standards that are enshrined in our code of ethics.

Journalism occupies a very special place in free societies. We have unusual legal rights and we enjoy many privileges. But we have this because we have the support of society. Trust is fragile and trust in journalists has dropped sharply. If we at the South China Morning Post are to keep society’s trust, to keep our reader’s belief in our quality and integrity, we must ensure that what we do meets those expectations. We must strive for excellence in everything we do in our professional lives, both inside and outside of the news room--every phone call, every photo, every press conference and, yes, everything we do internally.

We have a bright future. We have many challenges, but our problems are minor compared to those that many newspapers face. The extraordinary changes in China and our position as the dominant English-language newspaper China provide us with extraordinary opportunities as we cover a story of historical importance. I hope that you share my sense of excitement about our prospects but above all I need your commitment to excel in everything you do for the newspaper.

throw his capo Business Editor Stuart Jackson, to the wolves. Jackson and his fellow Standard transplants, swiftly dubbed the Jackson Five, had clashed royally with the existing Post culture, described by one ex-Standard sub as a “British-Australian cabal” that was resistant to change and disrepectful of the new leadership.

The final straw was the sacking of a junior photographer for a caption

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

error. It was a serious mistake, and Clifford personally apologised for the misidentification in a signed frontpage statement. But many felt the responsibility lay with Jackson and the youngster had taken the rap unfairly.

While the two fired subs have, by press time anyway, not been reinstated, Post journalists at least have the satisfaction of knowing that, for once, the management blinked.

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Cover Story Books

British, Lonely and Utterly Weird

I

t’s not often that the International Herald Tribune makes me weep with laughter. But it did with a report on a book that sheds light on yet another example of British weirdness. What reduced me to a helpless, shuddering mass of giggles (slightly unfortunately, I was on a crowded bus at the time; people started to edge away) was not so much the Tribune report, but its subject matter.

The book, which naturally I had to buy, is a compilation of personal ads placed by lonely Brits in the London Review of Books, an unapologetically intellectual magazine. Many of the ads take what might be termed a counter-intuitive approach to the search for a lover, soul mate or marriage. Instead of depicting the lovable qualities of the advertisers, these ads highlight their less alluring physical and personal attributes. In some cases, they make the author out to be downright repulsive.

For example: “Bald, short, fat and ugly male, 53, seeks short-sighted woman with tremendous sexual appetite.” Others candidly, and often cheerfully, acknowledge themselves to be either losers, drunks, humourless, sinister-looking, bankrupt, infertile, diseased, incontinent, flatulent, money-grabbing, gap-toothed or living with their mothers. One cuts directly to the chase: “Bastard.

Complete and utter. Whatever you do, don’t reply – you’ll only regret it.

(Man, 38).”

But the ads certainly succeed in attracting attention, which is what advertising is all about. It’s hard to resist reading an ad that starts: “Baste me in butter and call me Slappy.”

The book is called They call me naughty Lola, a title which is itself taken from an ad, placed by a “run-of-the-

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the first ad that was received was a clear sign of the sometimes terrible direction the ads were going to take. It was from a man “on the look-out for a contortionist who plays the trumpet”. mill beardy physicist (Man, 46)”. The compiler is David Rose, advertising director of the London Review of Books, who says in a witty introduction that the magazine started the personal ads section in 1998 with the simple idea of helping people with similar literary and cultural tastes to get together.

However the first ad that was received was a clear sign of the sometimes terrible direction the ads were going to take. It was from a man “on

the look-out for a contortionist who plays the trumpet”.

Rose says Monday mornings are a regular harvest time for his e-mail inbox, the result, he imagines, of lonely hearts spending a weekend of solitary wine-drinking while watching an old movie. “By mid-week the ads are much less gin-soaked and much less likely to mention the advertiser’s preferences for adopting naval ranks in the bedroom.”

Amidst the off-beat humour and silliness – “Love is strange – wait ‘til you see my feet” – a lot of pain lurks, particularly about failed relationships.

One ad starts: “I’ve divorced better men than you,” and another says: “A pretty Cancerian (35) will cook you a lovely meal, caress your hair softly, then squeeze every damn penny from your adulterous bank account before slashing the tyres of your Beamer.

Now then, risotto?”

Rose says the section is not the most successful lonely hearts column but has given rise to friendships, marriages, at least one birth – and at least one divorce after a marriage resulting from an ad.

One reviewer describes the book as “a riot of exuberant wit, messy emotion, lacerating self-knowledge and thwarted lust.” I would add: best not read it on public transport.

The book is dedicated to, among others, Evel Knievel, and at the back there is – inexplicably – a detailed chronology of his stunts and injuries.

Weird, the Brits.

– Jonathan Sharp

They call me naughty Lola ISBN-10 186197 829 4 and 13 978 186197 829 5N Publisher: Profile Books Edited by David Rose List Price: US$16

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

MARCUS OLENIUK

>> In Search of

Buried Gold N

ow we have the fruits of their journey: a book about the mysterious

tartufi bianchi or white truffles

In November 2005, FCC member Richard Cook flew to North Italy to explore a parallel universe, where white truffles take the place of the stars in the sky.

With him was photographer Marcus Oleniuk.

that grow wild below the surface of the earth in a particular corner of Italy, the Langhe region, around Alba, the ancient Alba Pompeia of the Romans.

Review by Angelo Paratico

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

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Books

“Of course truffles are unique.

You don’t actually eat the truffle, you eat its flavour and you cannot say that about any other food.”

The Emperor Nero adored them.

Plinius, Cicero and Lucullus loved them. Apicius, the authority on late Roman cuisine, mentions black truffles several times in one of the world’s earliest cookery books, De re coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking), but the prized white variety, alas, appears to have been unknown to him.

Magical properties have been attributed to truffles but the most constant one seems to be their power as an aphrodisiac.

The essence of this rarity is impossible to describe. One chef, interviewed by Cook, sums it up perfectly: “Of course truffles are unique. You don’t actually eat the truffle, you eat its flavour and you cannot say that about any other food.”

It is a pity that this work, so elegantly written and full of poetry, has been published as a coffee table book.

It deserves to be printed as a serious hardback on heavy handmade paper.

One day it will be a collector’s item, an important documentary of a vanishing world. People will look through

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these pages and murmur, “so that’s how it was!”

I was also unable to understand why on the cover there is a picture of a very small truffle, instead of the subject of this book, the tartufo d’oro or golden truffle, which set a world record at auction in November when tycoon Gordon Wu outbid connoisseurs from France Thus have I sung of fields, of flocks, and trees, and Italy to bring the large mushroom to Hong Kong.

And the waxen work of labouring bees; The story starts with a While mighty Caesar, thundering from afar, night expedition into the forest, following the footSeeks on Euphrates’ banks the spoils of war; steps of a humble truffle hunter and his dog, the With conquering arts asserts his country’s cause, essential tool of this trade With arts of peace the willing people draws; – a good truffle-hunting hound is worth his or her On the glad earth the golden age renews, weight in gold. Hunters sally forth after dark in And his great father’s path to heaven pursues. order to hide their prized hunting grounds from competitors.

Oleniuk’s beautiful black and white pictures move the reader into a sort of fairy world, full of shadows and mists.

While reading it, I remembered the final passage of the Georgics of Virgil:

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

Truffle hunter Giuseppe Giamesio knows that his world is an endangered one. “Year by year…it’s getting harder to find big truffles. The woods I have always hunted in are now surrounded by vineyards. The wine growers use a lot of chemicals…it doesn’t help the truffles grow.”

No one has yet managed to cultivate white truffles, not even in Alba’s National Truffles Centre, but they are trying hard to do so before it is too late.

Meanwhile, a small industry has grown up around the white truffle.

Organisation is key and timing and quality control are all-important.

Cook followed the auction of the largest truffle of the year, a monster weighing 1.2 kg and said to possess

a divine smell and a fine texture. The shape reminds us of scholars’ rocks, those intricate stones used by longdeparted Chinese literati to detach their minds from worldly affairs.

We now know that this particular truffle was bought by Wu on behalf of a consortium of local businessmen for 95,000 euros and was then donated to the Mother’s Choice charity. It was served up at the Toscana Restaurant at the Ritz Carlton in Central to 60 paying guests.

In charge that evening was Umberto Bombana, probably the most expert truffle chef in Asia. Unfortunately, I was not among the lucky 60 but I’ve been told by one who was that the truffle meal that evening was like knocking at heaven’s door.

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

Il tartufo d’oro. From Italian earth to Hong Kong table. The journey of a record-breaking white truffle ISBN: 988-97392-0-8 Publisher: WordAsia Ltd Author: Richard Cook Photographer: Marcus Oleniuk Paperback: 236 x 250 mm, 224 pages List price: HK$320

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Books

Masterful Landscapes Arthur Hacker reviews Robin Moyer’s magnum opus on Chinese golf courses from an art critic’s perspective.

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THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

Left: Hole Seven, Snow Lotus Mountain course in Urumqi. Above: Hole Nine, Zhongshan.

W

e all know someone who is passionate to an extreme about The Royal and Ancient Game. Personally I am not a fan of that particular sport. This is not because I am no good at it, but simply because I have never played a single game of golf in my life and lack the desire to shout “fore” as I gracefully hit a little white ball into a bunker. I have just never fancied it. My game was tennis, but I gave it up when it went professional and spectators at

Wimbledon started applauding drop shots which in my day were regarded as unsporting, sneaky and a legal form of cheating.

When Robin Moyer kindly invited me to look through a proof of his new book I put on my “Mr Polite Hat” and examined the massive tome. After a few minutes I was impelled by the quality of the pictures to replace my “Mr Polite Hat” with my more glamorous “Landscape Photography Hat”.

The change of hats changed everything. It is normally difficult to know

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

what to say when an author shows you a copy of his latest book. In this case I probably said far too much. It is a very impressive book.

I liked it because I enjoy looking at beautiful landscapes. The great British artist JMW Turner, who seldom included people in his pictures, is one of my favourite painters. The popular impressionist Claude Monet, like Turner, did not clutter up his garden scenes with human beings.

The unnecessary inclusion of people tends often to destroy the atmo-

15

Books

Above: Shanghai Siliport. Hole Seven West Course. Right: Hole 15, Mission Hills, Faldo Course, Shenzhen. sphere of a painting. This is equally true of landscape photography.

No people appear in the pictures in Moyer’s book to distract you apart from one of the inevitable Tiger Woods. Very occasionally tiny figures can be seen in the background, but they do not disrupt the mood of any of the photographs.

The absence of people in Moyer’s pictures seems to annoy the odd “wouldn’t it be better if” bar room critic, who would probably rather feast his eyes on an image of the delightful nymphet Michelle Wie in hot pants, than appreciate a more tranquil picture like Hole Seven of the Snow Lotus Mountain Course, which has recently been on display on the wall of the Main Bar together with a small selection of other photographs from Moyer’s book.

It is interesting to compare Moyer’s

16

pictures with those that appear in Donald Mennie’s classic work The Grandeur of the Gorges that Kelly & Walsh published in 1926 in Shanghai. Instead of using conventional photographic materials such as bromide paper or

platinum prints, Mennie made photogravure copper plates which he would burnish and enhance in the manner of an old-fashioned engraver working on an etching plate before making a print, thus pre-empting Photoshop by

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

half a century. Like Moyer’s work these images are pure landscape.

Photoshop has provided the skilled modern photographer with the means to control the colours, tone and mood of his pictures, following in the steps of those old masters of chiaroscuro, Rembrandt and Caravaggio. Chiaroscuro is all about modelling form by almost imperceptible gradations of light and dark.

Empty landscapes like golf courses and the Three Gorges are much easier to enhance than anything that is more complicated, but first you need a very good, well composed picture to work on. What I find incredible about Moyer’s book is that none of the 205 pictures resembles each other. Perhaps this may not seem so remarkable when you take into account that each individual course was designed to be different by the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo.

They follow in the tradition of famous English landscape architects such as Lancelot “Capability” Brown who laid out the great family estates for the gentry which he designed to create a romantic and natural impression.

With golf course design it is more a case of form follows function, but this does not seem to detract from their beauty.

I don’t want to put on any more arty hats but the abstract quality, colour and feeling of Hole Nine at Zhongshan makes it a favourite of mine. Some of the credit must go to the landscape architects, but it is Moyer’s brilliant use of colour, pattern and chiaroscuro that bring them to life on the printed page.

As a guide to golf fanatics it is a godsend. I am sure that they will appreciate the pictures as much as I do, but possibly for different reasons.

The Great Golf Courses of China ISBN: 988-98817-0-5 and 978-988-98817-0-2 Publisher: Pacific Empire International Ltd Author and Photographer: Robin Moyer List Price: HK$1,250 Hardcover: 280 mm x 380 mm, 348 pages

Impressions in Passing

K

en Ball, a former FCC stalwart and Second VP (199192), has just completed his self-published trilogy, Impressions in Passing. That’s three books in as many years which is not a bad average for any writer/photographer. The two previous tomes were Impressions of Nature (published in September 2004), and Impressions of the Female Form (September 2005). Each of the books was launched at the prestigious Blender Gallery in Paddington, Sydney, where most of the signed prints sold like the proverbial hotcakes.

As if photographing nature and nudes for the past four years was not sufficiently energetic, Ken has another two books scheduled for 2007.

Ken also had a retrospective of his work, Ken Ball: Then and Now, at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery,

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

New South Wales, in October. Having retired from Charles Sturt University this year, Ken will be spending most of his time photographing and working in his new, custombuilt photo-lab.

Ken can be contacted on ImpressionsPlus@hotmail.com or c/o Impressions Plus, PO Box 8274, Bathurst, NSW 2795, Australia.

– Saul Lockhart

17

Cover Story Arts

TATE

MODERN ODD

BY RICHARD S. EHRLICH London’s Tate Modern gallery recently discovered a woman who, wielding a sharp blade, obsessively cut more than 80 words from 123 books, including the non-fiction tome, Hello My Big Big Honey! Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews that I co-wrote.

She mutilated the books, amputating words in a relentless surgery of slicing and dicing. When she finally laid down her tool, the slashed pages looked as if they were paper shrapnel, salvaged from a crime scene after a schizoid word-killer, armed with a Wanchai meat cleaver, had chopped away words that were ripe with special meaning known only to the artist, and perhaps to conspiratorial Illuminati who might be visiting the Tate.

Conceptual artist Simryn Gill’s pile of meticulously plundered books ultimately became an installation at the Tate Modern in London called, perhaps ironically, Untitled (2006).

What fate would next befall our beloved book? Would it be crucified and submerged in a glass of urine, similar to the Piss Christ by American photographer Andres Serrano? Or chopped and hoisted like one of Damien Hirst’s dead sharks?

“Simryn Gill’s Untitled (2006) is made from over 100 books and pamphlets arranged into a specific order by the artist, and displayed so that viewers can leaf through them,” the Tate

18

Modern says on its illustrated website www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/ gill/thebooks.shtm which describes the bizarre exhibit.

“Alongside pocket guides, manuals and directories – which classify items as varied as venomous snakes, islands, combat vehicles and invasive plants – there are books on popular psychology, botany, religion and politics, as well as volumes of poetry and fiction. From this wide-ranging selection of books, the artist has chosen over 80 words, all of which have

been systematically torn out of each book. Gathered into groups, the culled words are presented as specimens, or collections, in transparent packages, with the publications from which they have been taken,” says the Tate.

The 123 books chosen by Gill for the Tate Modern’s March 18 – May 7, 2006 exhibit also included books by or about Bob Dylan, Hunter S. Thompson, Salman Rushdie, Sylvia Plath, Richard Brautigan, George Bernard Shaw, R. D. Laing and others. After cutting into the 123 books, Gill placed the targeted words in separate, clear DAVE WALKER plastic bags, as if they were evidence. For example, she filled up one plastic bag with the word “because”, so it became a bag full of because. Could this be symbolic of when people mouth a lot of reasons, they are simply offering a bunch of “because”?

“For the Level 2 Gallery, Gill has created a thought-provoking installation from a collection of books assembled over many years. Ranging from pulp fiction to academic writings, these publications provide the raw material which Gill then uses to tease out a supposedly ‘neutral’ set of words,” the Tate adds.

To create Hello My Big Big Honey!, Canadian screenwriter Dave Walker and I collected love letters written by men in Europe, the States and elsewhere, who returned home after falling for Bangkok’s bar girls.

Men were airmailing their hearts and confessions in

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

envelopes, sometimes with money, to the Thai women they previously rented. We deleted everyone’s names, and published the men’s best love letters alongside our Q and A interviews with Thai bar girls, helped by a Thai translator who became the girls’ mentor, and a Thai professor. In an expanded American edition, we included interviews with a bar’s mama-san and three very outspoken bar owners – a Thai, a Brit and an American – plus 25 colour photos. The text is extremely graphic because we didn’t censor the letters or interviews. Hello My Big Big Honey! examines love, sex, money, tourism, AIDS, Buddhism, Thai culture, family life, betrayal, trust, and a lot of West-bonks-East confusion.

I was ecstatic our book was exhibited in the rarified Tate, and told friends and colleagues who reacted in all sorts of ways, even though none of us saw the installation: “Time to get you a beret and cig holder,” a Canadian photographer advised.

A New Yorker touring London said, “I went by there yesterday in hope of personally witnessing this – and ideally, sneaking a photo for you – but I only had half an hour before I had to meet someone, and they charge 10 pounds to get in. Oh well.”

A French editorial cartoonist was less enthusiastic about the cut-ups, and suggested, “She should have done it with a Bible, a Koran, and a Torah.

Free worldwide publicity and a fatwa.

I’m kind of old-fashioned when it comes to art. Too much nonsense stuff with conceptual art. Just shit in the exhibition gallery instead of your usual bathroom and that’s it, it’s ‘Art’.

It’s easier to cut words out of books than actually write a book. I would not feel honoured if she was doing this with my work,” he sniffed.

Gill, however, is now hailed as My Big Big Gill With Delightful Membrane! at a small shrine honouring her – decked with purple incense, wooden doll heads, a spherical prism, and fake

A bag of ‘because’ at the Tate Modern currency to be burned if she ever dies – all wedged into a Shiva altar near my desk here in Bangkok.

Googling Gill reveals a lot about her work and life, but not an e-mail address or contact to enable me to interview her about which words she chose, and how our book inspired her.

Apparently, she was born in Singapore in 1959, grew up in Port Dickson, Malaysia, and currently resides in Sydney, Australia. In an exhibit titled, Forest she tore out pages from other famous books, cut them to resemble twigs and leaves, and stuck them in various locations around Singapore and Port Dickson, including an empty Chinese hotel, a mangrove swamp and a tapioca stall along a road, and photographed the results. In Pearls, she created big, hard beads from spirals of words printed on paper, and strung the beads of text into necklacelike strands.

If you’re wondering what you should be reading, the 123 books in her Untitled (2006) offer lots of Asiarelated titles, including: – Blue Monkish, by Zai Kuning, 1996 – Stick and Leaf Insects of Peninsu-

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

lar Malaysia and Singapore, by Paul D. Brock, 1999 – The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham, 1954 – The Power of Movement in Plants,

by Charles Darwin, 1880 – Poisonous Snakes of the World: A Manual for Use by U.S. Amphibious Forces, by the Department of the Navy, 1965 – Barrack Room Ballads, by Rudyard Kipling, 1914 – The Coconut, by Edwin Bingham Copeland, 1931 – Old Goa, by S. Rajagopalan, 1987 – Running in the Family, by Michael Ondaatje, 1984 – Report On The Trial of Xanana Gusmao in Dili, East Timor, by the International Commission of Jurists, 1993 – The Chronicles of Gujarat, by Captain A. C. Elliot ISC, 1970 – The Asian Highway: A Complete Overland Guide from Australia to Europe,

by Jack Jackson and Ellen Crampton, 1979 – An Approach to Vedanta, by Christopher Isherwood, 1963 – In Good Faith, by Salman Rushdie, 1990 – Oriental Despotism, by Karl A. Wittfogel, 1957 – Life the Goal, by J. Krishnamurti, 1928 – Tranquilisation with Harmless Herbs, by Eric F. W. Powell, 1974 – Chinese Magic and Superstition in Malaya, by Leon Comber, 1960 – Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad – Cambodia in the South East Asian War, by Malcolm Caldwell and Lek Tan, 1973 Richard S. Ehrlich is the Bangkok-based special correspondent for The Washington Times and other media, and has reported from Asia for the past 28 years.

Hello My Big Big Honey! is available from Amazon.com or by order at any Hong Kong bookshop (ISBN 0867194731).

Ehrlich’s website is http://www.geocities. com/asia_correspondent.

19

Cover Story Feature

The

Glorious Gรถtheborg Gently bobbing next to the entrance of Harbour City, the Gรถtheborg may have been dwarfed by the blazing white hull of the Star Pisces cruise ship moored further along the Ocean Terminal but she was nevertheless an amazing sight and everyone on the Star Ferry was riveted.

Words and Photos by Kees Metselaar

20

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

21

Feature

THIS THREE-MASTED, full-scale replica of the 18th century Swedish East Indiaman had just arrived from Shanghai via Guangzhou – or Canton as it was better known when the original Götheborg visited the Chinese city for the last time more than 250 years ago.

Built in 1738, the wooden sailing ship made three voyages to these waters for the Swedish East India Company, competing mainly with the British and the Dutch on the China route. Between 1731 and 1813, the Swedes launched a total of 132 voyages, losing only eight ships in the process. The original Götheburg was one; she sank in 1745, holed by a well-known rock as she approached the harbour of her home port of Gotheborg.

Much of her cargo was promptly salvaged. More was hauled to the surface by modern-day divers, particularly during large scale marine excavation projects in the 1980s. It was then that plans to build a fullsized replica of the Götheborg were formed.

Money had to be found, old

22

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

The 21st century Götheborg consists of not one, but two ships within a single structure. Beneath all the wood, an engine and modern navigation and safety equipment have been installed.

shipbuilding techniques re-learned and many other obstacles had to be overcome. To oversee the project, a new Swedish East India Company was founded, with the same name as the original trading company.

Corporate sponsors such as Volvo, SKF and SwedBank helped out.

It took a long 10 years, including many funding delays, to complete the vessel. Finally, in October 2005, she was seaworthy and embarked on her first journey to ports in China, this time including Hong Kong, where she arrived at the tail end of 2006.

As small as she appeared when

moored alongside today’s cruise ships, she felt huge when I crossed the gangplank. A total of 1,000 oak logs and 50 kilometres of pine were used in her construction. Most of the 55,000 nails used to keep the hull together were hand forged and the sails and ropes were handmade from linen and hemp.

The 21st century Götheborg consists of not one, but two ships within a single structure. Beneath all the wood, an engine and modern navigation and safety equipment have been installed. The crew does not need to live in 18th century style. Up to date kitchen gear, freezers, boilers

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

and showers have all been installed, mostly on the lower decks which, in olden days, stored cargoes.

The crew consists of a core of 20 professional sailors and about 50 volunteers.

For three days in early December, the Götheborg lowered her gangplanks and welcomed visitors. They flocked aboard in carefully organised shifts, setting foot on the sun-deck, getting a feel of the ship’s wheel and posing for photographs next to cannon on the gun deck.

She was a popular draw. So many turned up that they had to queue for hours in the sun bathing the roof

23

Feature

of the Ocean Terminal. Many never managed to get a ticket.

After Hong Kong, the GĂśtheborg set sail for Singapore for the New Year celebrations. From Singapore she will head

24

for Chennai (Madras) and then trim her sails for home. Her voyage back to Sweden, however, will traverse the Suez Canal â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a short-cut that was not available to 18th century traders!

Kees Metselaar is a Hong Kong-based photographer.

E-mail: kees55@attglobal.net Web: http://photokees.blogspot.com Skype: photokees

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

25

Photography

Then

The changing face of Hong Kong

Now

These photographs were taken by Bob Davis from the same spot in Central, looking across the harbour to the Star Ferry terminal in Kowloon. The picture on top dates back to1970, the shot top-right to 1980, and the one below it to late 2006. Š Bob Davis Web: http://www.bobdavisphotographer.com E-mail: bobdavis@netvigator.com

26

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

27

An Invitation For Entries

Closing Date 15 January 2007

Submissions are now invited for these prestigious awards,

now in their 11th year, which provide professional recognition to outstanding reporting in the area of human rights.

THE 11th ANNUAL

HUMAN RIGHTS PRESS AWARDS 2006 ORGANIZED BY THE HONG KONG JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION FOREIGN CORRESPONDENTS' CLUB, HONG KONG AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL HONG KONG See http://www.hkja.org.hk, www.fcchk.org and www.amnesty.org.hk

OBJECTIVES AND CRITERIA

The goal of the Human Rights Press Awards is to create increased respect for the basic rights of

all people, heighten general awareness of human rights issues and, where threats to those freedoms exist, to focus attention upon them. Judges look for originality, professionalism, amount of effort, depth of understanding of issues and, where relevant, courage on the part of the journalists or publisher.

Articles could, for example, highlight the rule of law; press freedom; government or corporate secrecy; equality; use or abuse of state power; or the treatment of employees, refugees, prisoners, the elderly, young people, or immigrants. Any area covered by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, e.g., equality, health, education, the family or justice is eligible.

All submissions must relate to Hong Kong or the wider Asian region.

Submissions are sought in both English and Chinese. They will be assessed by separate panels of distinguished judges. Photographs will be judged jointly. Material published online can be submitted.

ELIGIBILITY The competition is open to journalists in both print and electronic media. Submissions must have been produced either for publication or broadcast primarily in Hong Kong, or by a correspondent working in the region for a news organisation that maintains a presence in Hong Kong. This includes journalists or photographers working as correspondents for overseas media.

All prizes are awarded to individuals, not to organizations, although organizations may submit articles on behalf of their employees. Readers and viewers may nominate work they feel is worthy of attention, but for print articles they must supply a copy of the article. For broadcast articles they must provide the date, time and station on which the work was aired. For articles published online, please provide hard copies.

CATEGORIES 1. Newspapers (please specify whether news or features) 2. Magazines 3. Commentary and analysis (e.g. editorials, columns, opinion)

5. Television and Video 6. Photojournalism and photography (please specify spot news or feature story) 7. Cartoons 8. Materials published online

4. Radio

DEADLINE AND ENTRY PROCEDURE Submissions must be actually as they appeared or were aired, and must have been published between 1 April 2005 and 31 December 2006. Individuals may enter more than one submission, but each must be accompanied by a separate entry form. Entries must be postmarked no later than 15 January 2007. Photocopies of the form are acceptable. Late entries will not be considered.

❑

Print: Send two copies of article. (Originals preferred. Photocopies must be clearly legible.) If the entry is a series, select no more than two representative articles and an outline of the aims of the series.

❑

TV and Video: DVD or VCD (MediaPlayer/QuickTime version), or on VHS tape playable on PAL system. If the entry is a series, please supply one program that best typifies the series, along with a short note explaining the purpose and content of the other programs. No entry should be longer than two hours, except under highly exceptional circumstances.

❑

Radio: CDs preferred, high-quality audio cassettes accepted. If an entry is part of a series, please follow the rules for TV.

❑

Photos: Two professional quality b&w / color prints, min 8" x 10", max 14" x 20".

Please do not send original negatives or transparencies. Entries should have a caption and be clearly marked with the name of the photographer and identifying information.

If submitting a series of photos, please supply no more than two with an outline of the aims of the series. Unpublished photographs will not be accepted.

❑ ❑

Cartoons: Send one copy suitable for reproduction.

Material published online: See procedure for print category.

Entry materials will not be returned. Label all entries clearly.

JUDGING AND AWARDS The judging of articles, cartoons and programs will be done by panels of five distinguished judges drawn from the fields of journalism, academia and human rights. Photographs will be judged by a separate expert panel. The judges may award prizes according to their discretion, and may reassign submissions to categories or create additional categories as they see fit.

The winners will be announced and prizes awarded at the Awards Ceremony in March 2007 at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Central. All applicants are welcome to attend and lunch will be provided.

These awards are given not only to recognize outstanding effort that increases public appreciation of human rights issues, but also to honor journalistic work of the highest competency.

The decision of the judges shall be final and no correspondence will be entered into. Names of the prize winners will not be made public until the Awards Ceremony.

By agreeing to participate, entrants grant permission to the organizers to use their submissions for purposes of promoting the Human Rights Press Awards.

Panel of Judges Fred Armentrout, president, Hong Kong Englishspeaking branch of PEN International

Bobby Yip, chairman, Hong Kong Press Photographers Association

Liu Pui-shan, chairperson, Amnesty International Hong Kong Section

Serenade Woo, chairperson, Hong Kong Journalists Association

Dominique Muller, vice-chairperson, Amnesty International Hong Kong Section Christopher Slaughter, president, Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong Angela Lee, former board member, Amnesty International Hong Kong Section Jacqueline Leong SC, former chairperson, Hong Kong Bar Association Law Yuk-kai, director, Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor

Joyce Nip, assistant professor, Department of Journalism, Hong Kong Baptist University Joseph Chan, professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong Jim Laurie, former news editor, STAR-TV, board member, Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong Eric Cheung, assistant professor, Department of Professional Legal Education, University of Hong Kong Hubert Van Es, photographer, former board member, Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong List of judges is correct as of October 2006

Please send entry forms and submission materials to: Human Rights Press Awards

Human Rights Press Awards

c/o The Hong Kong Journalists Association

c/o The Foreign Correspondents’ Club,

Flat A, 15/Fl, Henfa Commerical Building 348-350 Lockhart Road

or to

Hong Kong North Block, 2 Lower Albert Road

Wanchai, Hong Kong

Central, Hong Kong

Attn: Lauren Ho

Attn: Rosalia Ho

Queries should be addressed to Lauren Ho at the Hong Kong Journalists Association at 2591-0692 or Rosalia Ho at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong at 2521-1511

Don’t forget!

Final date of entry is 15 January 2007

ENTRY FORM Please send one copy with each submission Photocopies of this form are acceptable Category entered:

Name of the entry:

Name of reporter / creator: (English)

(Chinese)

Employer and position: Name of editor: (English)

(Chinese)

If the nominator is a member of the public, nominator’s name: (English)

(Chinese)

PRINT MEDIA / CARTOONS / MATERIALS PUBLISHED ONLINE Title of publication or website: Date of publication: Remarks:

BROADCAST MEDIA Station or venue where broadcast: Date of broadcast: Name of producer (English)

(Chinese)

Name of director (English)

(Chinese)

Others who should be credited (e.g. cameraperson, researcher) Remarks:

PHOTOJOURNALISM Where published: Date of publication: When and where photo was taken: (Photographers: please note maximum print size is 14" x 20")

FOR ALL ENTRIES Address: Contact telephone number: Email address: Date of entry: Your Signature: (All entries must be signed)

Media

The Fourth Wall Street Journal Journalism in Asia Fellowship

E

ntries now are being accepted for the fourth Wall Street Journal Journalism in Asia Fellowship, organised by The Wall Street Journal Asia in association with New York University (NYU).

The winners, selected by senior editors at The Wall Street Journal Asia and professors at NYU, will enter an intensive 16-month master’s programme in business and economic reporting at NYU’s Department of Journalism, which enrols only about a dozen students each year.

The fellowship will cover tuition for two of the three semesters of the programme and provide a stipend of US$20,000 during the course of the school year. Airfare to New York, as well as incidental expenses such as textbooks, also will be covered.

Launched three years ago, the fellowship is open to journalists based in Asia who are currently working in the region, are fluent in English and an Asian language, and have at least two years of experience as a print or online journalist – including at least one year working for an English-language publication or service, as well as at least four years of undergraduate education (BA) or the equivalent.

By pairing The Wall Street Journal, a leader in global business news, with NYU, a leader in journalism and business education, the fellowship provides winners with a strong understanding of business, together with the skills to cover world events and global financial and business developments.

The winner of the third fellowship was Eva Woo, a special correspondent for the Shanghai bureau of The Washington Post, the first mainland Chinese journalist to win the fellowship.

32

The winner of the second fellowship was Jason Leow, a Singaporean reporter who previously had been China bureau chief for The Straits Times. The two winners of the first fellowship were Shefali Anand, an Indian reporter previously with The Indian Express in Mumbai, and Serena Ng, a Singaporean reporter with the Business Times in Singapore.

Winners attend weekly news meetings at The Wall Street Journal in New York, and are encouraged to take extracurricular opportunities for professional development.

“With each year, the fellowship is gaining enormous value, providing a unique set of professional and personal experiences for some of Asia’s most talented young journalists,” said Professor Stephen D. Solomon, director of NYU’s business journalism programme. “The fellowship winners re-enter their careers far better equipped to thrive in and contribute their skills to an ever more global economy.”

“The response to the fellowship continues to grow and the calibre of candidates is ever more impressive,” said Reginald Chua, assistant managing editor of The Wall Street Journal in New York and previously editor of The Wall Street Journal Asia. “The Journal is celebrating its 30th year in Asia and our mission to provide essential and authoritative news and analysis about the region and the world remains unchanged. To do that, we must continue to engage Asia’s most talented young journalists.”

The deadline for submissions is January 20, 2007.

Individuals interested in the fellowship can find full entry details and conditions at www.dowjones.com/ Products_Services/Services/awsj_fellowship_2007.htm#guidelines

“The response to the fellowship continues to grow and the calibre of candidates is ever more impressive.”

– Reginald Chua, assistant managing editor of The Wall Street Journal in New York

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

PHOTOGRAPH: STRAITS TIMES

STATEMENT REGARDING THE CASE OF REPORTER CHING CHEONG

T

he Foreign Correspondents’ Club,

charge. Nonetheless, Mr Ching has been

Hong Kong, expresses its deep

tried and found guilty under a process

disappointment and profound

that denied him the opportunity of an

regret at the decision by the Beijing High

open hearing at which he and his attorney

Court to uphold the verdict against Hong

could cross-examine the evidence against

Kong journalist Ching Cheong. This verdict

him. He was denied the chance to give oral

unquestionably damages the image of

evidence on appeal, and his final verdict

China abroad and bodes badly for press

was reached after a brief session of some

freedom in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing

30 minutes at which only written materials

Olympics.

were reviewed.

Mr Ching suffers from a variety of

This cannot be described by any

ailments, reportedly worsening during his

standard as fair due process, and from the

prolonged incarceration, and the FCC calls

start Mr Ching has been held in custody

for his speedy release on medical grounds

using a variety of procedural loopholes

so that he might return to his wife and

that sidestepped every protection promised

family and receive proper treatment.

under mainland law.

The accusation of spying against Mr

The FCC repeats what it has asserted

Ching has never been proven by evidence.

from the start: The only “crime” of Ching

Indeed, prosecutors had sent the case back

Cheong is to have been a journalist

to the investigating authorities, reportedly

engaged in the work of reporting. He

more than once, because it failed to meet

should be released forthwith and allowed

the standards required for bringing the

to return to his home and work.

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

33

Lives Remembered Books

Gary Coull (1954-2006)

I

t is not entirely uncommon at the Main Bar of a Friday night to hear the occasional snide reference by journalists to “the suits” who are also members.

What, after all, do foreign correspondents and stockbrokers have in common?

The one is an underpaid scribe who hopes to uncover the dodgy doings on the stock market of the overpaid other. That other certainly cannot have much concept of what it is to hunt up a story, tell it truthfully and get the copy in by deadline.

Gary Coull, the co-founder and chairman of stockbrokers CLSA, will never fit neatly into either these two moulds. Gary, who died at the age of 52 in October after a long bout with cancer, was both a journalist and a stockbroker and he was fully both of these.

What he did was apply principles of journalism to the business of stockbroking and, in doing so, raise the standards of the game for all stockbrokers in Hong Kong. He taught his recruits at CLSA to hunt for good stories on companies, research those stories thoroughly, write them up properly and then tell their clients as soon as possible. That stockbroking as journalism approach made CLSA the envy of its competitors. The clients loved it.

My association with Gary goes back to 1973 when we were colleagues on The Ubyssey, the University of British Columbia’s student newspaper, which was published three times a week and rarely ran to less than 16 pages an issue.

It could be a hard taskmaster but we were its willing slaves. No professor or university course of studies could teach clear thinking and writing quite like it could. My most valued degree is still the Masher of Journalism it awarded me. We had three such degrees, Basher, Masher and Doctorer of Journalism. Gary spent one more the

34

year there than I did and got the Doctorer degree.

He decided to travel when he graduated but then Hong Kong captured him as The Ubyssey had done and he put down roots once more. I came here after a long lunch with him on one of his visits to Vancouver and we worked together again for a period at the South China Morning Post in 1979 and 1980.

Then it was on to other things, stockbroking for me and, within a few years, for Gary too. I shall concede it now. Gary was the better stockbroker. He had an innate understanding of the business and a drive that could awe the people with whom he worked. More than that he had his understanding of journalism and how it could be made to work for stockbroking.

But most of all he had his sympathetic nature and that is how I really want to remember him. Many Club members will still recall how a friend and fellow member of ours, Ted Dunfee, developed encephalitis on assignment to a story on the ThaiBurmese border. It crippled Ted and he returned to Vancouver where he is still in chronic care.

Gary arranged for Ted to come back for a visit to Hong Kong, took care of his hotel, car, driver, people to escort him throughout his entire visit, and paid for it all from his own pocket. I still vividly remember Ted in his wheelchair in the lounge, which Gary had booked for a private party, laughing in delight to be back in his old haunts again.

The Correspondent carried that story on its front cover.

That was Gary, bluff, hard-driving and businesslike all the way when at work but, underneath it, one of the kindliest men I have ever known. All those who knew him remember him fondly and will miss him dearly.

– Jake van der Kamp

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

Travel

FCC Collection BOOKS A Magistrate’s Court in Nineteenth Century Hong Kong Asia’s Finest Hotels British Hong Kong - Fact and Fable Captain if Captured China Illustrated Cleaning House Expat International Golf Courses 2007 (calendar) The Finest Golf Courses of Asia & Australasia The Helena May Macau Watercolour Cleaning House Custom Maid Impossible Dreams John Doyle’s Overcoat / The Partisan’s Last Kiss Kyoto Journal Hong Kong Old & New Card Box Stretch your Life Sweat & the City Magic Cube The Ji Ji Chronicle The Little Red Writing Book The Poles Declaration - Bilingual Version The Quest of Noel Croucher

Pacific Century Tim Noonan & Chris Watts Hong Kong Writers’ Circle Pacific Century Wang Dawen Brandon Royal Rebecca Lee

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Gillian Bickley David Macfarlane Arthur Hacker Clare Hollingworth Arthur Hacker Barry Kalb Wendy McTavish Richard Caska James Spence Esther Morris Murray Zanoni Barry Kalb Peter de Krassel Sandra Burton Peter Finn

CDs Allen Youngbloodlines Outside the Box

Check out the wide range of FCC products

FCC tie (new) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $280 Umbrella (folding) . . . . . . . . . . $110

Bowtie: $145

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Computer bag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $165

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THE THE CORRESPONDENT CORRESPONDENT MAY/JUNE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 2006

Computer bag: $165

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35 35

People

BIRTHDAY WISHES

Friends old and new, young and old, gathered to wish Vernon Ram (left) many happy returns on his 80th birthday.

Photos: Bob Davis.

Left: Simon Martin gets the low down on Korea at his farewell party at the FCC ahead of his posting to Seoul for AFP. Photo: Luke Hunt

36

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

MANY HAPPY RETURNS

To Peter Berry (in the white jacket top and bottom right:) on his latest 21st birthday and to Clare Hollingworth (left) and with Anthony Lawrence (bottom left) on her 95th.

Photos: Bob Davis

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

37

Professional Contacts FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHERS BERTRAND VIRGILE SIMON — Editorials and corporate brochures Tel: 2526 4465 E-mail: info@red-desert.com.hk Website: WWW.RED-DESERT.COM.HK RAY CRANBOURNE — Editorial, Corporate and Industrial Tel/Fax: 2525 7553 E-mail: ray_cran bourne@hotmail.com BOB DAVIS — Corporate/Advertising/Editorial Tel: 9460 1718 Website: www.BOBDAVISphotographer.com HUBERT VAN ES — News, people, travel, commercial and movie stills Tel: 2559 3504 Fax: 2858 1721 E-mail: vanes@netvigator.com ENGLISH TEACHER AND FREELANCE WRITER MARK REGAN — English tuition for speaking, writing, educational, business or life skills. Also freelance writing – people, education, places, entertainment.

Tel/Fax: 2146 9841 E-mail: mark@markregan.com Website: www.markregan.com FREELANCE ARTISTS “SAY IT WITH A CARTOON!!!” Political cartoons, children’s books and FREE e-cards by Gavin Coates are available at <http://wwwearthycartoons.com > Tel: 2984 2783 Mobile: 9671 3057 E-mail: gavin@earthycartoons.com FREELANCE EDITOR/WRITER CHARLES WEATHERILL — Writing, editing, speeches, voiceovers and research by long-time resident Mobile: (852) 9023 5121 Tel: (852) 2524 1901 Fax: (852) 2537 2774. E-mail: charlesw@netvigator.com PAUL BAYFIELD — Financial editor and writer and editorial consultant. Tel: 9097 8503 Email: bayfieldhk@hotmail.com MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES MARILYN HOOD — Write and edit correspondence, design database and powerpoints, report proofing and layout, sales and marketing, event and business promotions.

Tel: (852) 9408 1636 Email: mhood@netfront.net SERVICES MEDIA TRAINING — How to deal professionally with intrusive reporters. Tutors are HKs top professional broadcasters and journalists. English and/or Chinese. Ted Thomas 2527 7077.

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38

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

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THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006

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39

Out of Context

Congratulations Ilaria!

What members get up to when away from the Club

P

ast President Ilaria Maria Sala has been conspicuous by her absence recently. She’s kept the reason quiet but now her secret is out. She was in Italy collecting the prestigious Bruce Chatwin prize for her new book, Il Dio dell’Asia. Religione e Politica in Oriente. Un reportage (The God of Asia. Religion and Politics in the Far East. A reportage).

The award, in memory of Chatwin, the author of In Patagonia, On the Black Hill, The Songlines and many other masterpieces, is sponsored by the Liguria region of Italy and is regarded by many as the top honour for travel writers using Italian as their means of expression.

The awards ceremony was staged in the city of Genoa on November 21 at the Modena Teatre where Ilaria was presented with her prize by Chatwin’s widow, Elizabeth.

British writer, Colin Thubron, was also honoured on the night for his work, Shadow of the Silk Road.

After studying Chinese Language and Arts at London University, Ilaria has spent most of her working life in Asia. Previously the correspondent for Le Monde, she now writes for il Diario and Sole 24ore.

Her 348-page book is the result of her explorations and studies in Asia.

Her style of writing is very fluid and precise down to the smallest details, close to the pictographic style used by the late Tiziano Terzani.

Some people tend to think that this is an easy task, a gift that is inborn in a writer, but this is not the case, especially for a multi-layered language like Italian which possesses the richness and the curse of a very complicated grammatical system.

The chapter of her book which I enjoyed the most is the one dedicated to North Korea, in which Ilaria vividly

describes her trip to the Hermit Kingdom. She writes movingly of the common people of that messianic, communist regime.

On entering that unfortunate place by train from Dandong, she records her impressions as such:

ing; the fields are flooded and no one can cross them. In the middle are lines of red flags which flutter in the wind; there are loudspeakers, propaganda posters and slogans everywhere. From time to time we spot a tractor engine, which looks as if it has been abandoned there since the thirties. Old factories dripping rust, a few sickly cows.

This is probably the only country in Asia where there is no demographic pressure: few people, houses are rare, nothing modern can be seen. A rickety train is coming towards us. It doesn’t have glass in the windows. Some passengers have hoisted plastic sheets for protection against the rain. The others simply get wet.

We at the FCC hope that her book will be soon picked up by a major publishing house and made available to non-Italian readers.

40

Misery in Sinuiju has the colour of the earth. In the town, few roads are asphalted, (there are) no cleaning products: dirt sticks to bodies and faces as if applied with a murky brush.

Welcome to the Country of Kim Ilsung. When the train starts, China looks suddenly very far. After three months of drought, hard rain is fall-

We at the FCC hope that her book will be soon picked up by a major publishing house and made available to nonItalian readers.

THE CORRESPONDENT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006