CORY LAI WRITES – Hong Kong was rightly proud to welcome the 37th International Film Festival which premiered the long awaited “Ip Man: The Final Fight.” It’s a good film. But the Los Angeles-based Hollywood Reporter revealed that raunchy R- rated comedies are the real moneymakers with the city’s current…
Tag: Cory Lai
HONG KONG: Inbound Troubles Asking For Trouble?
Despite the growing amount of disputes between Hong Kong locals and Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong’s television channel TVB Jade recently aired its first episode of Inbound Troubles, which sparked an array of complaints claiming the show is deepening already severe cultural conflicts. January 14th marks the show’s first episode, presenting…
HONG KONG: Media Torn On US Election
Hong Kong media’s reaction to the reelection of President Barack Obama has proved to be diverse, to say the least. Just compare the Hong Kong edition of the New York Times Rendezvous Blog to the China Daily’s Hong Kong Opinion section! The two sources seem to differ significantly. While the…
HONG KONG: ‘Next Media’ Announces Goodbye to Taiwan
Following up on our “No Next Step for Next Media” article that appeared here in April, Hong Kong’s largest media company, ‘Next Media’, has recently confirmed the selling of its Taiwan-based Entertainment Services Ltd. Next Media’s largest Taiwanese publications, ‘Next Magazine’ and ‘Apple Daily’, are a huge part of the…
HONG KONG: Homophobic Chao Offers Inspiration
Cecil Chao, Hong Kong’s notoriously homophobic billionaire playboy, has recently become the inspiration for the outrageous Sacha Baron Cohen’s next movie. Famous for being absurdly offensive yet comical, Cohen’s last mockumentary, “The Dictator”, parodied the late Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Similarly, Cohen and his production company has made plans with…
HONG KONG: A Small City That the Police Look to Make Smaller
Hong Kong- IFJ has criticized Hong Kong’s tactics as a crime against freedom of press The Hong Kong government has been aggressively encouraged to end limitations of press freedom by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). According to a recent press release of the IFJ, Andy Tsang, Commissioner of Police…
HONG KONG: No Next Step for ‘Next Media’
Next Media, publisher of Next Magazine and the scandal-crazy Apple Daily, was reported by Forbes on April 7th to be considering selling its operations in Taiwan for a low $500 million. The Hong Kong based company founded by Jimmy Lai, known for his blistering critiques of Beijing, has become one of the largest Chinese language media companies in…
HONG KONG: Beijing’s Man Takes the Prize
“The so-called freedom of speech, freedom of the press [in China]- it is a joke.” This was the widely shared sentiment of one microblogger regarding mainland China’s persistent censorship of the bitter back and forth over the noisy and messy campaign for the position of Chief Executive of Hong Kong.…
HONG KONG: Mainland Professor Says Hong Kongers Have Gone to the Dogs
Public Radio International’s The World reported on February 21st, that two viral videos depicting a verbal altercation between a Hong Kong native and a mother from Mainland China have fueled further animosity between the island and the Mainland. The controversy began on a subway train when a Hong Kong man…
HONG KONG: Government Accused of Playing Favorites in Election
With the high-profile territory’s fiercely fought election only a month away, the Hong Kong government denies trying to damage the chances of Leung Chun-ying to be elected chief executive, the top governmental job. The South China Morning Post, the influential and delightfully aggressive English-language Hong Kong newspaper, has been all…
HONG KONG: Europe’s Turmoil Hits Asia’s Samsung
Widespread rumors have it that Samsung Securities Co., the South Korean multinational media technology corporation, is planning to shut down some of its overseas offices. Samsung has not disclosed this plan publicly. The company’s Hong Kong office, which opened in April 2001, is one that the company allegedly plans to…
HONG KONG: The Big Media Chill Fans Hong Kong and Macau
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has released its annual detailed report uncovering new curbs in China’s press freedom last year. The respected Sydney-based says they are increasingly worrisome, and not just for mainland journalists.
HONG KONG: Who Will Win the Olympic ‘Media’ Medal?
As the countdown begins to the 2012 Summer Olympics, the government and its media seem to be playing their own media games. A Hong Kong’s cable TV outfit says it is desperate for government approval of its free-to-air license for the Games. Without this approval, many of the city’s sports…