A Literary Giant Passes Away

Wuxia novelist Louis Cha or Jin Yong has died in Hong Kong at 94 years old

Big apologies for not blogging everyday -- I have been on a cruise where internet service is spotty not to mention expensive!

But before I continue writing about my trip to Italy and Spain, there's sad news in Hong Kong that Chinese martial arts novelist and journalist Louis Cha Leung-yung has passed away at the age of 94 after a long illness.

Tributes have been pouring in from the likes of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to Alibaba chairman Jack Ma Yun.

I only knew Cha as a wuxia novelist who used the pen name Jin Yong and lots of people loved reading his stories about kung fu masters in ancient China that combined Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. His novels -- over 100 million copies sold worldwide -- were transposed onto the big screen and even made into video games and graphic novels.

Only now did I know that he was the founder of the Ming Pao newspaper, after having made money from serializing his novels in the New Evening Post. Ming Pao was apparently started by four people in 1957, including Cha, who was its editor-in-chief and the paper was mainly a vehicle to serialize his stories.

Cha was born in Hangzhou in 1924 and graduated from the Law School of Suzhou in 1948 in international law with the intention of becoming diplomat. To make some money as a student, he began working as a journalist and translator for Ta Kung Pao newspaper in Shanghai and then a year later continued working for the same paper in Hong Kong.

He then left Ta Kung Pao in 1955 and published his first martial novel, The Book and the Sword in the New Evening Post that became an instant success, which spurred him to write 14 other very popular martial arts novels, the last one called The Deer and the Cauldron in 1972.

On appreciating his novels, Cha admitted readers would need "some training in Chinese thinking to understand", describing his books as "traditional Chinese novels in their themes, morals or philosophies".

Cha's 15 novels have been translated into English, French, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, Malay and Indonesian.

"Martial arts for me are just an instrument, a sugar coating. They can be used as a way of expressing my artistic ideas," Cha said. Those ideas, according to him, were distinctly anti-feudal and liberal.

When it comes to his political stance it seems it was not so straight forward.

His editorials in 1966 were critical of China's Cultural Revolution, writing that it threatened the destruction of Chinese culture and tradition. He was said to be on a list of prominent people targeted for assassination that was published in left-wing newspapers during the 1967 riots in Hong Kong because of his critical stance against Beijing.

However, when China and Britain reached an agreement on Hong Kong's handover in 1997, Cha was appointed by Beijing in 1985 to be a member of the Basic Law Drafting Committee, Hong Kong's mini constitution. But after the Tiananmen Square massacre, he resigned in protest in 1989.

He later was part of the Preparatory Committee set up by the Chinese government in 1996 to monitor the transfer of sovereignty. Perhaps it was because then leader Deng Xiaoping was a fan of Cha's novels; Cha was the first non-Communist member from Hong Kong to meet Deng.

But others felt the best-selling author was a sell-out for agreeing to Beijing's proposal of that the first three Hong Kong chief executives should be elected by a "broadly representative" committee, a move that hindered the timetable for universal suffrage.

Nevertheless, Cha will be remembered more for his novels that transported readers into a chivalrous fantasy past and his massive contribution to Hong Kong and China's contemporary literary culture. 

Taking a Chance on Hainan

Tourists in Hainan will soon have horse racing to play along with surf and sand

The Chinese government is keen on developing Hainan into more than just "China's Hawaii" -- it's going to add horse racing and lotteries to the mix of entertainment that seems to be welcome news in the region.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club said in a statement that while "there has not been any discussion" so far with the Hainan authorities, but it would be pleased to exchange views on the promotion of equine sports there, if invited.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club welcomed the latest news

"The club is aware of the news reports that... the State Council... supports Hainan province developing equine sports," the club said.

Late on Saturday night the guidelines were released, a day after Xi Jinping announced plans to develop Hainan to have more economic freedom and greater market access.

While Beijing bans all kinds of gambling, it allows two types of lotteries, including one where punters predict the outcomes of international football [soccer] matches. It also allows horse racing but not betting. Sounds like an oxymoron, but that may change soon.

Since the 1990s there were attempts to get horse racing off the ground in China, with proposals in Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing. In 1992 a race course opened in Guangzhou, but was closed seven years later as an "unsatisfactory experiment".

Hainan's development will not impact Macau too much

Meanwhile analysts in Hong Kong believe this latest development will not impact Macau much, as the former Portuguese enclave has a fully developed industry that includes entertainment, conventions and exhibitions.

Hong Kong legislator Yiu Si-wing from the tourism sector believes the city can benefit from tourists who get a resort atmosphere from Hainan, and then the international city experience from Hong Kong.

With the central government's blessing, horse racing will happen soon -- but can you bet on it? Hard to say.

Hong Kong Votes and Obama's Apparent Snub

Taikoo Shing earlier this evening, where lots of people were waiting to vote

The polls for the Legislative Council election have technically closed as of two minutes ago (10.30pm), but there are still people out there queuing to vote. They will allow them to vote, but only those who were in line before 10.30pm.

It's pretty amazing to hear reports like this, that people have come out in droves and I hope this demonstrates to the Hong Kong government and to Beijing that we care about who we vote for and we don't want to lose this right to vote directly for people to represent us.

Last minute checks at the polling station on who to vote for

Apparently social workers were out in some elderly homes to make sure seniors weren't coerced into voting buses to cast their ballot for a certain candidate or party, though Apple Daily reported some elderly had numbers written on their hands of which candidates to vote for.

I voted this morning at 11am in Kennedy Town and there was no line-up. I gave them my poll card, but they didn't want it -- they just wanted my Hong Kong Identity card. Surely they should at least match the two together? And take the polling card to cross-check later just in case? I find this a very strange practice.

A friend, YTSL, had asked if there would only be names on the ballot or numbers. It turns out EVERYTHING is on the ballot -- the person's name in Chinese and English, their political party AND their picture. Surely you can't get your vote wrong so hopefully there won't be many spoiled ballots.

US President Barack Obama emerges from Air Force One

In the next several hours the votes will be counted at AsiaWorld Expo, and the results will be out in the wee hours of the morning.

It's pretty exciting to see so many people come out, though it's expected that those in their 60s and above probably voted pro-establishment, while those 50 and under voted pro-democratic, and probably those in their 20s for localists.

Another big story today was the arrival of American President Barack Obama in Hangzhou for the G20 summit and things didn't work out too well because he didn't come out onto the rolling staircase, but instead emerged from the belly of the plane, which is usually reserved for high security risk areas.

A White House aide and Chinese security official arguing

Then the New York Times reported a shouting match between a White House member of staff and a Chinese security official. When she pointed out this was not normal protocol, he could be heard clearly saying to her, "This is our country".

Also the media had trouble on the tarmac too. The Times reporter who said he had covered the White House for six years, and never had he seen a foreign host prevent media from watching a US president disembark.

Then at the West Lake State House, where Obama would meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, White House aids, protocol officers and secret service got into another shouting match about how many Americans would be allowed into the building before Obama's arrival. The reporter said there were fears things could escalate to a physical confrontation.

"Calm down please," an American official said, according to the pool report. A Chinese foreign ministry official said, "Stop please... there are reporters there."

However, a Hong Kong media outlet claims the "staircase snub" was not that at all, but that it was Washington's decision.

"China provides a rolling staircase for every arriving state leader, but the US side complained that the driver doesn't speak English and can't understand security instructions from the United States; so China proposed that we could assign a translator to sit beside the driver, but the US side turned down the proposal and insisted that they didn't need the staircase provided by the airport," the official was quoted as saying.

That reasoning is hard to believe -- what happens in every other foreign country that the US President arrives in?

It still seems like a deliberate snub at Obama to show him who's boss. He didn't make much of a fuss about it in front of the media, advising them not to "overcrank the significance".

But one can't help but wonder, the arrival of every other state leader in Hangzhou was fine...

Corruption Begets Salacious Tale

The party's over for Ding Qingping who was extradited back to China

A trickle of Chinese fugitives are being repatriated back to the motherland as part of Operation Skynet, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption.

This tale you're about to read reeks of gobs of money, sex and blackmail.

Ding Qingping started out as a small contractor, but became a big player in the property sector after starting Zhonggang Group in 2003. The company developed real estate projects in several cities in Zhejiang, including Hangzhou, Ningbo, Yiwu and Jinhua.

In order to raise money for a project in Jinhua, Ding secured bank loans worth as much as 200 million yuan and took another 90 million yuan from individual borrowers, according to the Qianjiang Evening News.

However, Ding was not able to pay the high interest.

On September 28, 2008, he sent all his employees on a holiday in Hainan province, took the company's money and boarded a flight from Shanghai to Canada with his wife, leaving behind his huge debts and an unfinished high-rise in Zhejiang province.

In Canada he obtained residency through an immigration investment scheme. But then he ran out of money and then got vindictive.

He began contacting his mistresses -- note more than one -- back in China, asking to meet him in hotels in Hong Kong and elsewhere, where he secretly taped their sexual encounters and the blackmailed them for money, the report said.

In 2011, mainland police issued a red notice to Interpol requesting member countries to locate and arrest Ding.

He was finally caught in Spain in December, and then earlier this month, a Spanish court agreed to the Chinese authorities' extradition request and was just sent back to China recently.

Jackie Collins (left) would have loved this tale, right?

While it's game over for Ding, we have to admit extorting money from his several mistresses is surely creative. One wonders what his wife thought of his scheme.

In light of this incident, we mourn the passing of Jackie Collins, who made a name for herself writing titillating tales of sex, money and power.

Surely she would have found stories like this perfect for novel fodder... and they're apparently real!

Crash Course on Deadly Statistics

One of the many road accidents that happen daily across China

The World Health Organization has revealed the shocking statistic of 10,000 children killed in traffic accidents in China each year. This is directly due to the ongoing increase of car ownership.

"That's almost 30 [children dying in road accidents] each day... They're kids just doing what normal kids do -- traveling in cars with their families, walking or playing in the streets, going to and from school," said Bernhard Schwartlander, a WHO representative who spoke at the UN's Global Road Safety Week, held in Beijing.

In the majority of cases, that's 10,000 families who have lost their only child.

He urged lawmakers to put stricter road safety laws in place and ensure they were enforced. Schwartlander also called on manufacturers to produce good quality cars, and parents to make sure their children wore helmets when riding bicycles.

The figure did not take into account children who were injured by not killed.

The WHO said at least 200,000 people died each year on the mainland due to road accidents. Interesting to note the figure was much higher than the country's official statistics.

The Ministry of Public Security said about 87,200 people died in about 426,000 road accidents in the first 10 months of last year.

Last year a global study published in medical journal The Lancet found road injuries were the third-leading cause of death in China, ahead of a range of cancers, compared with eighth in the developing world.

Experts said the high fatality rate was due to poor driving behaviour exacerbated by the rapid rise on car ownership. They also said traffic accidents were becoming more alarming than other disasters like mining accidents.

In 2003 there were 24 million cars in China, but by last year it had grown to 154 million, according to the public security ministry.

Thirty-one cities had more than 1 million cars each. Eight cities including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hanzhou had over 2 million cars, while Beijing had 5 million.

One would think these statistic would shock mainlanders into improving their driving habits, but until an accident happens to them, they will not care.

Meanwhile those who grieve loved ones they lost probably have anger bubbling near the surface. And until they explode with frustration and grief, the public will never understand how crucial it is to drive safely on the roads.

Jack Ma Yun Speaks his Mind

Jack Ma talked about a wide range of topics at the World Economic Forum

Charlie Rose interviewed Alibaba founder and executive chairman Jack Ma Yun at Davos at the World Economic Forum. The video is here.

Someone did not brief Rose on how to pronounce Chinese words and names... it was excruciating hearing him say Hangzhou wrong as well as tai chi! Hello?! Who is your research assistant!

Nevertheless, it was a wide-ranging 44-minute interview asking Ma about his background and how he became successful with Alibaba. Ma was born in 1964 in Hangzhou and grew up during the Cultural Revolution and around the age of 12 fell in love with English.

But he said there were no English books so he went to what is now the Hangzhou Shangri-La and would take foreigners around on tour of the city for free to practice his English.

This was how he got the name Jack -- a tourist from the US suggested it, and after practicing for years, people were impressed by Ma's English, saying he sounded much like a native speaker. Ma added he also learned different things from visitors, who taught him things he never would have learned in school or from his parents.

Charlie Rose interviewing Jack Ma in Davos

He talked about being rejected many times, not only in his application to Harvard (10 times), but also Alibaba's IPO the first time around. "I don't know anyone else who was rejected 30 times," he says humbly.

In 1995 he visited the US for the first time and tried the internet for the first time in Seattle. The first word he typed in? Beer. He found there were beers from different countries, but beers from China were not mentioned.

His second search word was "China" and there was no information on the country, so he suggested to his friends that they create a website that he admits looked hokey.

Ma came up with the name Alibaba in the US. He asked a waitress in a restaurant what she thought of the word Alibaba and she said, "open sesame". He asked more people o the street, and they said the same and so the name stuck. "It also starts with A," he said with a smile.

The company has 100 million buyers online everyday and has helped create 14 million jobs. Some 800 million use Alipay.

Rose asked Ma about his relationship with the Chinese government, and the response was direct. He said he didn't want to do anything with the authorities when it came to business, but felt it was important to keep them abreast with what's going on with regards to ecommerce and the internet. "Be in love with the government but don't marry them," he said.

When it started, many wondered if Alibaba would work because most transactions in China relied on guanxi. But now the company does 60 million transactions a day so there must be some kind of trust, he says. Customers don't know who the seller is and yet they give them money in the trust that they will get the product they want.

For the first few years Alibaba was just surviving, but he saw how the company changed people's lives. Ma wasn't making money, but he would go to restaurants, and later find out his bill was paid by a happy Alibaba customer.

Not only does Alibaba sell Chinese products to the world, but vice versa. He gave the example of American cherries, where the fruit was pre-ordered and then sent over to China within 48 hours of being picked. He also cited selling 300 tons of nuts to the mainland as well as Alaska seafood.

When Rose changed the subject to Hollywood, Ma immediately said that his favourite character was Forrest Gump. "He's simple and never gives up. People think he's dumb but he believes in what he is doing," Ma explains. "Life really is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get."

Towards the end of the interview, Rose says Ma is one of the richest men in China. Ma is humble about it, and tries to explain it's not his money, but investors who believe Alibaba can do better with the money than the government, which is why he feels he must be responsible.

Ma also feels it's crucial to spend more resources on young people, because he observes they lose hope, vision and complain. "We were also depressed at the time, but we found opportunities," he says.

Interesting to hear Ma trying to inspire young people to keep going, and he is the poster boy for being China's Forrest Gump in his determination. He definitely is a trailblazer -- not without his stops and starts -- but can others follow his example?