South China Morning Post - September 27th, 2007: a review
The South China Morning Post is published in Hong Kong, and is a newspaper that I am very fond of. So fond of that I took photos of the copy that my parents bought at the HK International Airport on the day that they came back from their four-week trip to China. September 27th also happens to be my birthday, being one extra reason to spend time on a petty newspaper copy (albeit one that comes from the city I love the most outside of Montreal, written in the one language spoken in Hong Kong that I am most familiar with)...
The sadly famous Melody Chu (Chu Mei-feng) affair, reminiscent of our Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson sex tapes stories. But Ms Chu was not an actress or showbiz star - she was in fact a TV journalist turned city councilor in Taiwan. We learn in this article that she has started a new life in... Macau!
One might be overwhelmed by this thing we call Cantopop, but it is not true at all that Hong Kong is a cultural wasteland. You just need to look really hard for it.
Cantopop star Jacky Cheung, the maid terminator... no less than 21 domestic helpers in three years!
SCMP's gossip page "City Seen" featuring Maggie Q!
Lust, Caution, Ang Lee's new movie, reviewed in the SCMP.
The West has was on terror, China has the war on corruption.
For the first time, a government official, as reported by the official press, admits that the Three Gorges Dam might pose serious threats to the environment.
The sports section is all about soccer and the Beijing Olympics...
Probably the most interesting paper in this edition, I find. China bashing is a popular thing to do, and they probably deserve some of it, but then, what about balance and perspective? The author talks about toxic toys and how the fault seems to come from American designers, rather than Chinese manufacturing firms, or China's foreign policy with suspicious countries like Zimbabwe or Sudan, when the USA deals with equally suspicious partners.
Perhaps not as piercing as usual, but Harry's humour is always very appreciated whenever I have the chance to pick up a SCMP (like this one that I picked up in '05). This is a link to the current cartoon by Harry that might change every day (Ming's). Harry also has a book.
And last but not least, an article on public spaces (by pure luck solely, as I regularly contribute to Spacing Montréal) from a series of articles on Hong Kong's most pressing social issues. This figure shows the clear lack of open spaces for Hongkongers, relates the culture at trying to fit so many people in so little developed space (I stress on the "developed", b/c green space and space in general is not what's lacking in Hong Kong - it's just the transportation lines bringing the people about), and solutions from various experts of urban planning.
Et voilà!
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