Blog | Hans Ebert

Fitting into the new Hong Kong: It’s being able to read the tea leaves.

There’s much perception versus reality involved, and speaking recently to a young overseas jockey who was considering applying for a license to ride in Hong Kong, I advised her that being part and parcel of Hong Kong racing first requires doing serious due diligence about how the city works and sees itself today and what the government is thinking about based on the financial and business objectives of China. It’s also about knowing exactly where a gambling driven pastime lik

Hans Ebert

4 min read

SOME THINGS REALLY STINK AND THIS GENERATION SHOULD HAVE SMELT IT AND DONE AWAY WITH IT MUCH EARLIER?

I was too young to understand the public outpouring of shock and tremendous sadness when John F Kennedy Jr was assassinated, and only felt something to what had happened listening to my parents and my uncle and aunties talk and talk about what had happened in Dallas. These were the times of black and white television and newspapers and they believed what they were told by a very limited media. When Robert Kennedy was fatally shot, I was a few years older and saw the events un

Hans Ebert

5 min read

DOES HONG KONG HAVE A…DREAM?

If there can be an American Dream, though this might be a bit fuzzy these days, why can’t there be a Hong Kong dream- or if there is one, what is it? To win the Mark Six lottery? To have all the money you’d ever need? And then what? Or are we Hongkongers scared to dream? Or don’t we know HOW to dream as a COMMUNITY? Is our one dream actually individual dreams, and though there’s nothing wrong with this, wouldn’t a Hong Kong Dream that we could dream together be stronger? Dr M

Hans Ebert

3 min read

If music is the food of love, who’s there in Hong Kong to play on?

Once upon a wonton, the television weather man in Hong Kong was an animated character named Freddy who would look up at the sky and either smile, put on his shades and happily walk off frame whistling or when the weather was getting cooler, his teeth would chatter and he would say, “It’s faaaaaaaaaaliiiiiiiiing!”. If Freddy was still around today, he could be used to use this line to describe the standards of everything in Hong Kong, especially creativity though it must be sa

Hans Ebert

4 min read

VINCENT HO AND BEING ON ANOTHER HOT STREAK!

Vincent CY Ho is so much more than just about horse racing He’s genuine and kind He cares about those around him And in the darkness he always manages to shine And flashes his trademark winning smile When Vincent Ho wins We aIl win Because he lifts us up with inspiration He’s been through the wars He’s fought off negativity By picking himself up And embracing positivity Vincent Ho Chak-Yiu might not have won the Hong Kong Derby at Shatin on Sunday, and if not inv

Hans Ebert

2 min read

HAS THE HONG KONG TOURISM BOARD FINALLY WOKEN UP TO REALITY?

Though good to read about its “strategic shift aimed at diversifying visitor demographics”, one wonders why it took the Hong Kong Tourism Board this long to realise that budget tour groups, mainly from China, and without the financial means for even an overnight stay, bring nothing to the city except for the now tedious narrative hammered out by the local media that there’s been a “surge in tourism”? Tourism without spending power is Oliver Twisted and worth diddly squat. It

Hans Ebert

7 min read

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES

Boredom with things around me and weather changes makes one either get a little loopy, or maybe it’s just knowing intuitively that it’s time to break with tradition and have a new reality wash over you, but last night, I dined at home by myself and on the leftovers of something I had eaten for lunch- fabulous steamed garoupa with peppercorns and something else in the sauce that was spicy to give it some extra kick and flavour. I was going to photograph the dish and post it so

Hans Ebert

2 min read