Literally Changing Lives

Ruttonjee Hospital, where sex reassignment surgery is done in Hong Kong

We were very intrigued to read today that more transsexuals in Hong Kong are seeking sex changes mostly due to greater access to information, and are more willing to see doctors.

Another interesting observation is that more women want to be men and overall the patients are getting younger. Previously the majority were in their 30s, and now they are in their 20s, even some still studying in university.

The latest statistics come from Dr Albert Yuen Wai-cheung, chief of service at Ruttonjee Hospital's department of surgery, and the only specialist performing sex reassignment surgery in Hong Kong's public hospitals.

A Hospital Authority spokeswoman said that between April 2010 and August 2011, seven patients -- five of them women -- underwent sex change operations at Ruttonjee.

What's also interesting is that Yuen became an expert in this field "by accident". He studied plastic and reconstructive surgery in Glasgow, Scotland on a government scholarship and returned to Hong Kong at Queen Mary Hospital in 1987.

At the time his supervisor at Queen Mary asked Yuen to specialize in the area as not many doctors in the city had this expertise.

"This surgery really brings about dramatic changes in the lives of patients and so it is very rewarding," he said.

Since 1987, Yuen has operated on more than 70 patients with gender identity disorder, a condition when the patient does not accept the gender he or she is born with. The procedure requires up to three operations.

He explains in male-to-female operations, the surgery involves breast augmentation, and removal of the testes and penis. In order to construct the vagina, the skin of the penis is retained and pushed in to line the cavity.

The female-to-male procedure is more complicated, as the breasts, ovaries, uterus and vagina are removed. The penis is created by stretching the clitoris and allows the person to urinate and is capable of sexual penetration.

"It all depends on what the patient asks for," Yuen says.

One wonders if the women wanting to be men is because of Hong Kong's higher female to male ratio? Or does the city have more women coming out of the closet?

While the article did not cover the psychological and emotional effects of this life-changing operation, we wonder how much counseling these patients have before the procedure to prepare them for their new lives.

We live in interesting times.

Battling the Media Censor

Public enemy Guangdong propaganda chief Tuo Zhen

Journalists in southern China are declaring war against censors, calling for the resignation of Guangdong propaganda chief Tuo Zhen.

In every New Year's day edition of Southern Weekly, a progressive paper that is highly respected, is an annual editorial address. This year it was supposed to be called "China's dream, a difficult dream". It was written by longtime columnist Dai Zhiyong, in which he said Chinese people desire freedom and rule of law, and that the country has a chance to make a fresh start 30 years after the "nightmare" of the Cultural Revolution.

Instead, Tuo replaced the text with a bland message entitled "Dreams are our promise to what we need to accomplish", filled with typical propaganda jargon and repeatedly referring to incoming President Xi Jinping as the key for China to realize its dreams. The word "dream" is used more often now after Xi's inaugural speech he talked about fulfilling "China's Dream".

Southern Weekly staff were outraged by Tuo's actions, calling it a "rape". Propaganda chiefs seem to have full power when it comes to control over the media; however, in southern China, most publications are left alone and so this sly move caused quite a stink. Apparently Tuo made the change after Dai's essay had already been signed off by editors.

The two articles are here side by side; As you can see, the one on the left is the original and twice as long as Tuo's. Editors must have been scrambling to fill the rest of the space. Pictures, anyone?

The editorial staff signed an open letter calling for an investigation into how the changes came about, and now former journalists and interns of the paper are also joining in on the bandwagon calling for Tuo to step down.

In a rare direct confrontation with the authorities, the 51 former staff called Tuo's interference as "ignorant and excessive". 

"In this era where we see growing open-mindedness, his actions are muddle-headed and careless," they said in the letter. "Tuo is unable to hold his current position, and should be forced to resign and make an open apology."

The letter goes on to say, "We oppose this brutal media management style. This style partly originates from personal interest, and partly from bureaucracy. But this is catastrophic to the media and the party."

In addition, Tuo's column contains a factual error, stating that flood control work by the ancient ruler Yu the Great was done 2,000 years ago instead of around 2000BC.

So far most of the other mainland news outlets have been silent on the matter, except for the Global Times, which said that while old media regulatory practices could not continue, it was unrealistic to have independent media on the mainland.

Meanwhile Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said yesterday that China upholds press freedom. "There is no censorship of media in China," she said.

Uh huh. So why does China have propaganda chiefs in every province and autonomous region as well as an overall propaganda czar, now Liu Yunshan?

It's very brave of the Southern Weekly journalists to fight back in such a public way. We wonder if heads may roll as punishment.

In any event it brings attention to censorship on the mainland, that it's very much alive and well in China. While the country is becoming more open bit by bit, it's its control over the media that it zealously guards over.

And we can also imagine that Tuo is all too keen to rise under Xi with his brown nosing column.

Didn't Tuo get Xi's memo about less lavish praise and more concrete results that benefit the people?

The Art of Dumplings

Dumpling man? Din Tai Fung's mascot

This evening my friend YTSL and I had an early dinner tonight at the Causeway Bay branch of Din Tai Fung.

The team of workers in the kitchen to make the dumplings

I worried about getting a table, but YTSL was confident we would and she was right.

She arrived around 6.15pm and managed to get a small table for two by the window of the cavernous restaurant. It feels like one needs to navigate a maze in order to get to your seat.

In any event I arrived a few minutes later and the wait staff had warned my dining companion that we had to finish our dinner by 7.45pm. Popular place.

So we quickly perused the menu and ordered five dishes on an order sheet on the table to ensure freshness.

Pork and prawn wontons in a spicy sauce

For starters the spicy cucumber topped with chillis and fresh garlic were hot enough to cause some tongues to wag. The thick cucumber slices were crunchy and yet had a powerful kick.

And to carry on a hot theme, the shrimp and pork wontons in spicy sauce came soon afterwards, thankfully not as spicy in a soy sauce.

Then the signature dish -- the special six piece xiaolongbao arrived in the steamer basket and I was very impressed by the very thin skin. However, the filling was rather dense and lacked some flavour, making the taste bland and one dimensional.

A plate of stir-fried choi sum was welcomed at the table, the fibrous ends carefully pruned from the elegant-looking stalks. Not too much oil was used, but the dish could have used some cloves of garlic to add some flavour.

Xiaolongbao with extremely thin skins that were impressive

Our final dish was the highly-prized Shanghai hairy crab roe cooked with cubes of silken tofu. Again this dish only had a hint of the typically pungent flavour from the roe, though we were impressed by the smooth texture of the tofu. Perhaps this roe was previously frozen? Nevertheless, we enjoyed the dish because we didn't have to do all the manual labour of having to extract the meat and roe from the tiny crab ourselves.

We finished the meal before 7.45pm and could have even had dessert if we wanted. But we decided to continue our evening elsewhere.

In the end the bill came to HK$398 for two including a pot of tea.

When we emerged from the restaurant, there were many hungry diners trying to patiently wait for a table.

Overall service was prompt and efficient, though probably too much so for the table next to us.

Shanghai hairy crab roe cooked with tofu for a smooth treat

The couple had just barely settled down at the table to peruse the menu when an order of xiaolongbao arrived at the table.

Or perhaps the restaurant is reading its customers' minds?

Din Tai Fung
Shop G03-G11, G/F, 68 Yee Wo Street
Causeway Bay
3160 8998
www.dintaifung.com.hk

The Power of the Press

Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) at a typewriter

On the plane back to Hong Kong I watched several movies to keep me entertained and one of them was All The President's Men.

The 1976 movie is based on the book of the same name written by reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward of The Washington Post who were trying to track down what happened at Watergate.

Set in the 1970s, it's interesting to see how journalism operated then -- typing out stories on typewriters and then sent to the news desk to be edited before it was typeset. There were many female secretaries and assistants to help out with answering phone calls, used rotary phones and massive photocopying machines.

All that has changed now with computers and cell phones. Once stories are written and pictures taken, a page can be laid out very quickly on the screen; it is amazing that papers were churned out at all in the tedious way before.

In any event, the story is about how two "hungry" reporters who doggedly try to keep the Watergate story alive even though they at first have few leads that go cold. They persist, going through every shred of information and when they get a copy of a list of people on the fundraising committee to re-elect President Nixon, they try to personally visit every one in the hopes of getting something new.

Although they are denied the information they are looking for, their persistence is impressive. They also use interesting tactics including reverse psychology.

Finally they get a big break when Deep Throat, Woodward's source, begins leading them in the right direction with the big hint of "follow the money".

When watching that movie, one has to wonder if Woodward and Bernstein types would be able to do the same kind of investigating in China.

It seemed very similar with multiple people at first willing to give information and then all of a sudden changing their minds, or denying anything ever happened. The fact that they were able to even speak to high-level officials is practically unheard of in the mainland.

Some journalists in China have resorted to going through as much available in the public record as possible, such as The New York Times, Bloomberg and now The Wall Street Journal on their investigative reports on senior officials' families' accumulation of mind-boggling wealth. And when their stories are blocked, it's pretty certain the articles are true even though the government issues flat denials.

Others use the internet to expose corrupt officials and the information spreads like wildfire so the authorities have no choice but to sack the offending person in charge as quickly as possible to avoid further embarrassment.

While incoming Chinese President Xi Jinping started to make waves with his declaration to seriously clamp down on corruption and has already taken down a few corrupt officials, reforms can only go so far.

It is the freedom of the press that will be a viable counterbalance to keep power in check.

Until that happens in China, the country will continue to be ruled by an administration that will continue to protect itself instead of acting in the best interests of the people.

So we probably won't be seeing the Chinese version of All The President's Men anytime soon. But we can hope.