IF THE FUTURE IS NOW, EXACTLY WHERE IS HONG KONG?

Speaking to some people from overseas, it was obvious that they were “riffing”, something one does when unsure about what they are saying because they have had zero experience about the subject- in this instance, Hong Kong 2025.

There are those who apparently describe me as being “difficult”- and worse- which I wear like a badge of honour. This is for the simple reason that I have actually “been there”, done it, won awards for my work in advertising and music, met my heroes, started things others take credit for, been sucker punched knowing full well what was going on, and pretty much seen everything worth seeing/visiting in Hong Kong and able to read the mood of the city.

And? And, I don’t like where Hong Kong appears to be heading and what seemingly looks like down a one way street to nowhere.

Meanwhile, here were some people talking to me about horse racing- again- and Everest Day at Randwick in Sydney, and how they were there with over 51,000 including thousands of well dressed “younger people” singing “Sweet Caroline” and how this same atmosphere should be replicated in Hong Kong.

Did they realise that a horse from Hong Kong had won the main event?

Of course not, which is perhaps something to bother discussing another time- about effective and sustainable marketing to a mainstream audience who wouldn’t know Ka Ying Rising from sago pudding.

Did these people realise that they were talking about two completely different cultures with equally different tastes, communicate in different languages, have different life priorities and different everything else?

As I keep saying over and over again, it’s people who make anything work including a city, and despite what some might want to believe, Hong Kong has changed forever and is continuing to morph into some place that it never was- at the moment, a rapidly aging city that’s part of China and where the standard of everything continues in free fall without a safety net.

Once known as “Asia’s world city”, Hong Kong had great character- and an international cast of characters from brilliant entrepreneurs, the film and advertising industries, to the media and entrepreneurial restaurateurs, great hoteliers and so much more.

Today, other than the international horse racing twice a week with riders and trainers from South Africa, Australia, Europe, Mauritius and home grown talent, Hong Kong is no longer international nor cosmopolitan and finding interesting new people in a very much financially divided city is Mission: Impossible.

Like Stella lost her groove, Hong Kong has lost its edge and putting Humpty Dumpty together again is going to be an arduous task.

Singing “Sweet Caroline” at the horse races in Shatin and Happy Valley? Seriously?

Who in once bilingual and now trilingual Hong Kong cares? Most just want to win. Do they even know how to enjoy themselves? Maybe if they win the Mark Six lottery or win a few dollars at the races, but other than that, it’s a game of smoke and mirrors.

Making money: This appears to be the major motivation for too many in Hong Kong and which isn’t exactly being good role models.

Before anything else that’s random is thrown for the sake of appearances, which often is a sign of running out of ideas and only playing for time, Hong Kong in 2025 needs to find its own brand personality, something that should have been done almost ten years ago during the reign of terror of Carrie Lam.

This brand personality should then be marketed internally and externally.

Still with me? Doesn’t matter…

I still spend time in the city though finding it difficult to recognise what it has become. 

I find communicating with the people left in Hong Kong and seeing the growing wealth gap and the widening rift between the arrival of newcomers from the mainland and the hardcore local community. 

This does nothing to create an environment conducive to creativity…

I would rather much rather be working on my own writing and creating and sailing into the mystic or heading out to Oslo or Colombo or some other journey that will come my way.

Also, I would loathe to be seen as some one trick pony in Hong Kong who refuses to look behind and see how the world has changed, how many decades have passed me by and why it’s time for the organ grinder to play a new tune. 

It’s time to try and create something that is relevant to Hong Kong- something commercial enough to attract international tourism and investors and which is not going to take years to build. We’re running out of time.

Hong Kong has hit a brick wall: It doesn’t know what it is and what it can be and what it wants to be which means the blind leading the blind over the precipice.

Over the many decades, huge amounts of money have been spent on things that have been proven to be unnecessary and equally unnecessary has been the attention and opportunities given to every foreign grifter who has passed through Hong Kong and taken it for a ride. But that was then and when Hong Kong was anything one wanted it to be.

Today’s Hong Kong? I really don’t know what to make of it.

Chief Executive John Lee is doing the best he can to make Hong Kong a safe and secure city and is seen interacting with the elderly and the rest living in “the poor side of town”. 

Do I see much teamwork? 

Not really, because I don’t see good enough talent to make good enough teams.

I see “factions and fractions” unable to give this once great city what it needs most: Inspiration and having this start from within and which the next few generations can inherit and fine tune to suit their needs.

Who knows better about what building blocks are needed to create a bright future for Hong Kong than these young people?

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