My Blog
Today, we had lunch with our godson Will, his younger brother Matt and their parents. It was our first outing after I was out of hospital, apart from the visit to my doctor’s clinic last Thursday. The children picked up my two latest blogs on my hospital stay and Will went on to demonstrate his IT prowess by reminding me that my first blog was posted in September 1999. What he didn’t know and which information was not available on the internet was that I had written my first letter on 26 July 1999, but my blogs were not posted of a website until two months later. In any case I had many people helping me with keeping up my blogs which were eventually put on a website under my name and to whom I am eternally grateful.
The internet indeed has helped to keep all my “letters” all these years and I had referred to it when I put together my first memoir in 2020, which was some four years ago. This afternoon, I re-visited my website to see whether and how I could make use of the materials therein to build up a sequel. Indeed, that was how the autobiographies of Mark Twain were complied. For example, Volume 3 comprised his dictations created between March 1907 and December 1909, which “present him at the end of his life: receiving an honorary degree from Oxford University; railing against Theodore Roosevelt; founding numerous clubs; incredulous at an exhibition of the Holy Grail; credulous about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays; relaxing in Bermuda; observing (and investing in) new technologies.” (Autobiography of Mark Twain – the completer and authoritative edition Volume 3). Readers familiar with Mark Twain will know that his uncensored autobiography was embargoed for a century after his death and not published until 2010.
In a similar state of mind, I looked at a blog posted on 2 August 2001 which I said I posted after visiting a meeting of the Rotaract Club of Kingspark. I was told by a member weeks before the meeting that he had invited Cao Renchao (aka Cho Yan Chiu) (1947 – 2. 2016) to speak at the Club’s monthly General Meeting. Mr. Cao of course was then a household name in town, best known for being the author of the daily column for the Economic Journal – Investment Diary. The following was what I had written at the time, slightly redacted today.
“Mr. Cao is reputed for his readiness to speak his mind without fear or favour. He is good news and good value. That he had agreed to talk to a bunch of Rotaractors amidst his busy schedule actually speaks volumes about this man. I am not about to record in very much detail what he said here, not only because I had not taken any notes, but also because I suspect that the Rotaractors would write an article in the next issue of Kingspark Link, as they normally would for any heavyweight speaker at their meetings. Kingspark Link, by the way, is their monthly bulletin. I would like to believe that it was inspired by Kingspark News, but they have certainly done well over the years in their own right and Kingspark Link has established itself as a very readable and reputable monthly, certainly in the Rotaract District.
For over 90 minutes, the seasoned writer, journalist and newspaper co-proprietor spoke ad lib nonstop and answered questions. He spoke without any script or notes. It seemed that he spoke from the heart with conviction, humour and intellectual pride. His message was clear and his words, sobering. The future belongs to the next generations. The young people of today will shape our future. If they believe they can make it, Hong Kong will have a future. Don’t lose heart on hearsay that Hong Kong is finished or has lost to Shanghai or the Mainland. Hong Kong is miles ahead of the Mainland in terms of economic development, human resources, legal framework and infrastructure and will continue to remain so if the people of Hong Kong, in particular the young people, are determined to succeed and if they would endeavour to equip, enhance and improve themselves on a continuing basis. There is no short cut to success.
In response to a question from the floor, Mr. Cao said that he spent on average four and a half hours each day on his daily column. I was impressed. That would be half of the time an average office worker would normally spend on deskwork each day. It proves the point that nothing good comes easy, and for that matter, nothing easy would be worth doing.
My mind drifted to a favourite pastime – my letters. People often asked me how much time I spent on each letter. I had never managed to give a definitive reply because it varied widely and wildly. By and large, I spent more time writing my monthly letters and the continuity column in Dipo’s year. That was because I was conscious that the readership of these articles was not homogenous, and that they were official letters. I never sent them off immediately after I had written them. I would read and re-read them a couple of times before sending them to print. On the other hand, I was much more relaxed with my letters. Often, I would simply type what comes to the mind and I would press the send button after typing the last phrase, normally without proofreading. A member of my Rotary Club had said that I had normally written those letters at 3 am in the morning. Well, not every letter. I wrote when I felt that I had something to say or when I was in the mood to communicate. Last week, I began reading my book as a third party, cover to cover, and I began to pick up various typos and mistakes. In some area, the flow was odd or disrupted. There could be two reasons at least. I could be called away halfway, or bits of a sentence could have been lost during editing. There was also the technical typos generated from transcribing word documents to the Mac format, something that would be very close to Tom Hui’s heart, from the days when he was editor and publisher of Kingspark News.
The point I was trying to make was that I had never spent four and a half hours each day writing an article, and probably won’t. I suppose it was an estimate which included related chores such as reading, research, writing, editing and so on. That is his work and main stay, whereas I am doing it as a pastime. On another front though, he would be doing it for the love of his work, his paper, his reputation, his readers and one hopes, for Hong Kong. The ultimate test of a journalist’s mettle is his readiness to uphold press freedom and defend the rights of the individual, particularly the underprivileged and the oppressed, and his recognition of his social responsibilities. That is probably self-actualization in its realization, not unlike the many selfless men and women that would work tirelessly and selflessly on the many community service projects dedicated to making the world a better place in which to live.”
Mr Cao had since passed away and was remembered as a phenomenal investor who had made 40,000 folds in investment in 40 years. One source said his initial capital of HK$5,000 had grown to HK$200 million while another source had it that his net worth in 2015 was HK$4.2 billion.
That could be an entry in my sequel. What do you think? Meanwhile, I continued to deploy a machine Su bought me to cool my leg and foot, and in between did as much stretching and exercises as I could.
