Double Bronzes for Hong Kong

Minnie Soo (left) hugs Doo Hoi-kem and Lee Ho-ching

 

The day started off really well with the Hong Kong women's table tennis team scoring a well deserved bronze in doubles. 

Hong Kong beat Germany for bronze today

They took revenge on Germany who had defeated them in the Rio Games in 2016. What's also interesting is that all the players are Hongkongers, not mainlanders who migrated to the city. 

"We are all home-grown and we have worked together and won medals in events other than the Olympics, such as the world Cup and world championships," said three-time Olympian Lee Ho-ching.

"The result carries a big meaning as home-grown players," Doo Hoi-kem said, hoping their bronze will inspire future generations in the sport.

Later in the day Grace Lau Mo-sheung also won bronze in karate, which made its Olympic debut. 

"I want to thank my family so much. Without their support, I could not even start as a full-time athlete," a teary Lau said after winning the bronze medal kata match against Turkey.

Grace Lau won bronze in debut sport karate

Hong Kong has now hauled in five medals for the Games, unprecedented for the city of 7.8 million.

Then many Hongkongers breathed a sigh of relief to hear that pop singer Anthony Wong Yiu-ming was spared a criminal record when the Independent Commission Against Corruption agreed to stop pursuing its claim that he gave a performance that broke the election law.

Wong and jailed former lawmaker Au Nok-hin were charged with corruption by providing entertainment at an election rally with the aim to sway voters in 2018.

A prosecutor for the ICAC said the agency agreed to settle the case against the two by imposing a bind-over order, which requires the accused to maintain good behaviour for a designated length of time, given the relatively minor nature of the offence.

Wong was spared a criminal record today

In this case, the order is for 18 months and they must pay HK$2,000 (US$257) each if they breach the terms, which included avoiding further election-related offences.

The 34-year-old Au is currently in jail serving a 10-month sentence for organizing and taking part in an unauthorized assembly on August 18, 2019. He is also awaiting trial on an alleged national security law violation.

After the ruling, Wong, 59, gave an impromptu performance outside Eastern Court of the Cantonese song, Ask Me, which he said reflected his thoughts.

The chorus is: "No matter if I am by all means correct, or if I am by all means wrong, I whole heartedly accept the consequences. To face everything in the world, no matter how it will be, I will preserve the real me."

Wong finished by saying, "Hongkongers continue singing. Hongkongers hang in there."

Au is still in jail for a 10-month sentence

The prosecution did not have enough evidence to show the court -- but promised it would when it had some. The prosecutor for the ICAC said she had no proof Au paid Wong for the performance or if the singer had been paid to appeal to voters.

Why this even went to court is curious. 

"After considering that the case involved only two songs and after reviewing the background of the case, we agreed to dispose of the case by way of a bind-over order," the prosecutor said.

There is no proof Wong and Au did anything criminally wrong and yet they must be on good behaviour for a year and a half.

The authorities are watching...

More Social-Distancing Restrictions Lifted

You can exercise in the gym from Friday but you must wear a mask

Gym rats, rejoice! You can finally go crazy on your workouts grunting loudly or sweating profusely from Friday now that the government has allowed them to reopen.

However -- you will need to wear a mask while you're exercising.

Ha!

Chan also announced dining can be extended until 10pm

Also group classes are limited to four, including the instructor.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee made the announcement early this afternoon. Other sports like badminton, table tennis, tennis, and outdoor bowling can be played again, but not squash or swimming. Snooker can now resume, if you consider it a sport.

It looks like the restaurant industry's hard lobbying efforts have worked and now dining establishments can stay open until 10pm. Apparently there were complaints some people finish work late and can't finish eating by 9pm. Perhaps these are people who can't cook and don't want to wash dishes either.

Not all restaurants are happy with the latest announcement because each table is still limited to two people. The other day I saw a family, two parents with a baby and toddler, eat at two separate tables. Very awkward, but they seemed used to this arrangement.

The wife ordered dishes and gave some food to her husband, who was carrying the sleeping baby in a pouch.

Tennis courts can reopen, but not swimming pools

Clubhouses and massage parlours can reopen as well, but basketball courts, football pitches, karaoke bars and mahjong parlours must stay closed.

Hong Kong had eight new coronavirus cases today, the lowest number since July 3 when five cases were recorded.

While relaxing more measures is great news for people who are experiencing serious pandemic fatigue after eight months, one has to wonder again why this is happening when universal testing is happening now?

One would think that it would be best to partially lift measures after the mass testing was completed, but this is happening in tandem, which, from a scientific point of view defeats its purpose.

"If we have to be scientific or to be accurate, you might have to do the test twice in a short period of time with a stay-at-home order, and that is more scientific if you want to go get the data that you use for reference," said Ivan Law, vice chairman of the Hospital Authority Employees' Alliance.

He cited the example of Taiwan that managed to keep the number of coronavirus cases low and economic activities have largely resumed.

Law says the mass testing scheme is not scientific

"I think it's not necessary to do a universal screening program for you to [ease] those restrictions," he said.

The alliance and other medical experts have questioned the need for universal testing, and Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor criticized them for having politically-motivated views aimed at discrediting Beijing.

Law hit back, saying the government should focus on reviewing and improving the scheme instead of hitting back at critics.

It's just more apparent the exercise is not meant to be scientific...  

In the past two days, 278,000 people have been tested, and those tested on the first day have results coming back negative. A total of 798,000 have registered to take part.

Open Day in Western?

Interested in seeing what's going on inside the liaison office this weekend?

Anyone want to go inside the liaison office in Western this weekend?

Apparently they are expecting 1,500 guests, but critics say select groups will be invited.

That's too bad!

Office director Wang Zhimin, who recently visited the Legislative Council and pushed for patriotism to the mainland, invited opposition pan-democrats to come visit the office, which was viewed with lots of suspicion.

New liaison office director Wang Zhimin

He said in February the liaison office would be open to the public on a half yearly basis. But it wasn't until yesterday that it was confirmed for this Saturday and Sunday.

Tour guides will show the 1,500 visitors around six floors of the 30-storey building, including meeting and reception rooms, exhibition space showing off the calligraphy of members of staff, and even the canteen, where guests can sample some snacks, or play a round of table tennis or snooker with employees.

However, it turns out only those who were invited by the liaison office or Beijing-friendly groups could come this weekend.

Groan.

This weekend the barricades will come down. Phew!

Democratic Party vice-chairman Lo Kin-hei, a Southern district councillor, said if the office was genuine about improving its public image, it should stop meddling in the city's affairs.

"I don't think Hong Kong people will believe the liaison office is sensitive to their concerns just because you can play ping-pong with them... I'll be happy as long as the office doesn't interfere with our issues," Lo said.

Musical Ping Pong

Whoa what a finale! Incorporating table tennis with music. How novel!

This evening YTSL and I had tickets to watch a concert by the Hong Kong Philharmonic called "Ping Pong Diplomacy", harking back to over 45 years ago when the table tennis team from the United States visited China.

It was considered a world-changing event in Sino-US relations, breaking the ice and paving the way for then US President Richard Nixon to come to China and meet with Mao Zedong.

Conductor Yu Long commissioned a piece -- featuring table tennis in the music! -- by Andy Akiho and it was performed for the first time two years ago by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Were the table tennis players going to use up all those balls?

But before that music. Yu led the orchestra in a rousing Tchaikovsky piece called Serenade for Strings, op. 48. I had forgotten Yu likes a fast tempo but was soon quickly reminded when the opening, which is supposed to be like a sonatina, seemed very rushed.

He tried to make the second movement, a waltz, markedly slower, but it too speeded up towards the end, as well as the finale.

I forgot to add that the musicians weren't dressed in formal wear, but black T-shirts and jeans instead which was a weird look, perhaps to make the audience not feel so bad to be casual either.

There was no intermission, and the stage was set for Akiho's Ricochet: Triple Concerto for Ping Pong, Percussion, Violin & Orchestra with three movements.

We the audience were forewarned that ping pong balls could fly into the crowd. This we had to watch.

The piece starts with a violinist making eerie sounds on her instrument, and then a percussionist stands by the ping pong table and starts playing on drums with it. Two actual ping pong players, both American, but one Caucasian male in a shirt and red bow tie, the other a Chinese woman, in a red sleeveless cocktail dress and black heels approach the table and actually start playing table tennis.

At times they rally, and then they start hitting balls towards the audience. They use tambourines to hit the ball so that they too make music, and she hits the drum on the ping pong table hard as a solo passage.

Imagine writing the music for this piece? Ping pong player hits drum; ping pong player uses tambourine to hit balls five times...

It was unpredictable when they were going to hit balls into the audience. In the end the violinist and percussionist each grab box of balls and dump them onto the table to end the piece. So crazy yet so fun!

Kids scrambled towards the stage to grab whatever orange balls they could.

It was just so interesting to see how table tennis could be incorporated into music and it works. The two ping pong players knew exactly when to hit and when to stop, catching the ball. They had several balls in hand just in case shots didn't work out to keep the momentum of hitting the ball going.

It was fun, lively and unpredictable!

Ping Pong Diplomacy

Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall

Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings, op. 48

Andy Akiho Ricochet: Triple Concerto for Ping Pong, Percussion, Violin & Orchestra