Ordinary Gweilo

It's not big and it's not clever, it's just a Brit in Hong Kong writiing (mainly) about Hong Kong

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  • Sensible changes

    The government has given the go-ahead for the so-called "Sha Tin to Central Link".

    When this was first announced it was going to be a new railway line from Tai Wai (in Sha Tin district), via Hung Hom, to Central.  You might not realize this from newspaper reports, but it has become two separate extensions to existing lines – the Ma On Shan line will be extended south to Hung Hom, and East Rail will be extended south to Admiralty (but not Central, or at least not yet). 

    This certainly seems more sensible – a direct line from Lo Wu to Central makes more sense than asking passengers to change at Tai Wai or Hung Hom, whilst the East Kowloon stations become part of the Ma On Shan line. 

    In addition, there is a proposal for the Kwun Tong line to be extended to Whampoa via Ho Man Tin (where there will be an intersection with the Ma On Shan line extension). 

    The other interesting thing about this is that the government has decided to fund the construction directly rather than the normal roundabout method of allowing the MTR to raise money by property development.  Of course it’s easier for the goverment to do that when they have a huge surplus, but it’s good to see someone making sensible decisions.

          

  • Panic?

    No scaremongering in the SCMP today (Flu fight recalls dark days of Sars), oh no:

    Health authorities announced a string of contingency measures yesterday to combat flu that recalled action taken during the Sars emergency five years ago.

    The measures, including shortened visiting hours in public hospitals, daily announcements of outbreaks and a public-education campaign, came five days after the death of a three-year-old girl in Tuen Mun.

    Controller of the Centre for Health Protection Thomas Tsang Ho-fai  announced the measures in the midst of the peak season because of “general community concerns”.

    So how big is this flu epidemic?

    In the week ending on Saturday, the centre’s laboratory surveillance system confirmed 166 people had contracted flu.

    This compared with an average of 144 cases a week during the winter flu peak season in 2006 and 177 a week last year.

    So it would be fair to be fair to say it isn’t an epidemic at all, just the normal flu?  And no need to start mentioning SARS?

  • MusicXS – what’s the point of that, then?

    There’s a full page ad for MusicXS in the SCMP today, so I thought I would check it out.

    It’s a music download service, but you can only listen to the music for as long as you maintain your subscription.  For HK$56 per month you can listen on your PC.  For HK$96 you can also listen on your mobile phone (but only if you subscribe to Smartone 3G). 

    That’s right – you’re out of luck if you wanted to listen on your iPod or any other MP3 player.

    Well, thanks very much, Smartone-Vodafone.

  • Hong Kong digital TV – not too bad

    I am rather surprised by this, but I think I have to report that digital tv in Hong Kong isn’t as bad as some people have suggested.

    The digital channels have been allocated to TVB and ATV.  TVB’s Jade HD is one of the two high-definition channels, and (no surprise here) it is basically a high definition (HD) simulcast of Jade.  The obvious problem is that, well, this is TVB Jade. Eating a Big Mac and fries from the finest china does not make it any more delicious.    

    However, as luck would have it, they only have a few hours of original HD material, and so outside prime time they also show US drama series (currently Heroes and Lost) that were made in HD, and even the odd NBA game or two, complete with English soundtrack. 

    TVB Pearl is only available in standard definition (SD), but with potentially better picture quality and widescreen.  This means that US drama shows, such as Desperate Housewives & ER (which are filmed in widescreen HD) look much better here than on traditional analogue TV – as do feature films (when they remember to put them out in widescreen format, which isn’t all the time).

    Of course, other programmes look less impressive, the picture quality of the original being the limiting factor.  For anything that is in the traditional TV format of 4:3 the black bands on each side of the screen are rather distracting (though you can stretch the picture to fill the screen). 

    J2 is the sole digital-only channel from TVB (as far as I can tell).  The listing are all in Chinese, but they do seem to have some English language content.

    The “other” TV company in Hong Kong is ATV, and so far their embarrassing digital effort demonstrates why they are so far behind TVB.  ATV’s high-definition channel is only on-air for 2 hours per night.  And when it is on-air, most of their other digital channels stop broadcasting.  Eh?

    ATV World is also available on digital, but (unlike TVB) when they show something that was filmed in widescreen, it seems to appear with black bands at the top and bottom and at left and right, so it actually looks worse than on the analogue version of the channel.  Blimey.

    However, ATV have at least made the effort to provide new digital-only channels.  One is a news channel, and another is a “cultural” channel with material from RTHK and bought-in documentaries (with English soundtrack usually available).  The other two appear to be called ‘His TV’ and ‘Her TV’. 

    One other advantages of the digital service is that it comes with an Electronic Programme Guide (EPG).  This is moderately useful if you want to know what’s on (especially as the SCMP doesn’t publish listings for the digital channels), but more importantly it should also enable someone to produce a more user-friendly HDD/DVD recorder.  In the UK I believe you can buy devices that record multiple channels, and will also ‘buffer’ all the channels for an hour or two – so you even if you missed the beginning of a show you can still watch it from the start. 

    Well, yes.  Maybe not such a big advantage after all.  I’ll get me coat. 

  • Delete it from the Internet

    More wise words on the Interweb from SCMP readers (subscription required):

    First, I suggest the government should set up an authority to monitor the internet.

    It should consist of people from various occupations, such as social workers, teachers and psychologists. Through the experience they have accumulated in their respective professions, they can judge whether information is obscene or not.

    Then they would have the right to delete it. Of course, the authorities cannot monitor everything. Therefore, a hotline should also be set up for citizens to publish or report their opinions on this issue. In addition, the government should promote the message warning people of the risks they bear when reading obscene material.

    It is the moral responsibility of everyone not to handle obscene material.

    Eunice Chan Yu-sze, Kwun Tong

    Well, good luck with deleting material from the Internet…

  • As clear as the pictures on Cable TV

    The Standard reports that “a pay tv operator” wants to be allowed to re-transmit the digital channels on its network:

    If successful, the change would be a boon for i-CABLE Communications’  Cable TV service and PCCW’s Now TV, essentially expanding their content offerings for free and allowing their subscribers to watch the Olympics in digital format.

    One pay-TV operator is pushing the government to amend the Copyright Ordinance so that both Cable TV and Now TV can carry TVB and ATV channels without threats of copyright infringement from the terrestrial broadcasters.

    If pay-TV operators were allowed to deliver the terrestrial television channels, more Hong Kong residents would be able to watch the Olympics in clearer digital format, the operator argued in a letter to the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau.

    The lobbying effort revives moves made in 2004 by Cable TV to carry the free-TV channels over its system, a practice that was ended when Television Broadcasts won a court case saying the retransmission was illegal.

    Ho hum.  Mention a “clearer” picture to subscribers to Cable TV or Now TV and I think you will be greeted with hollow laughter.  When Cable TV converted to digital, it was all about stopping piracy and adding extra channels, not about improving picture quality – which remains very disappointing.  Now TV are just as bad, except that they are rolling out an HD service, and I suppose that adding the new ATV/TVB HD and other digital channels would enhance their offering.  So I rather doubt that this is an altruistic move to help TV viewers who want to watch the Olympics.

    Yet it clearly makes sense.  In the UK, cable tv is required to carry the 5 terrestrial channels, and currently the only way you can get BBC HD is on satellite or cable.  So I’m not clear why TVB would want to prevent their channels being re-broadcast when surely this can only bring in more viewers, especially in the interim period whilst digital is being rolled out.  What can they possibly lose by allowing this?

    Mind you, it’s the sort of strange thing that is always happening here in the “world’s freest economy”.

  • Celebrity culture gone mad

    Amazingly, the “nude photos scandal” is still front page news in Hong Kong newspapers.  The latest non-news is that Edison Chen has admitted he did take the photographs, and also announced that he will quit showbusiness “indefinitely”.  Beats me how that is worth more than a few paragraphs in a gossip column, but the SCMP has given the story half of the front page of the main paper and all of the front page of the city section, and most of page 3 as well.  And not for the first time, either.

    This follows on from the blanket coverage given to the death of “Fei Fei” (Lydia Shum) after her “long fight with cancer” as the SCMP put it.  I felt sure it had been a “courageous battle”, but what do I know?

    Anyone, everyone knew that she was seriously ill, so this was not a shock by any means, and yet there was a huge (and very undignified) media scrum at the hospital on Tuesday, and it occupied the first 7 minutes of Cable TV news (with a long follow-up item later in the bulletin).  Both TVB and ATV cleared their schedules for tributes in the evening, so we were able to see what a warm and truly funny person she had been.  The SCMP filled us in on her career (and numerous health problems): 

    Shum, who was also known as Lydia Sum, was a much admired Hong Kong comedian and actress – famous for her plump size and dark-rimmed glasses. Hong Kong people affectionately called her Fei-fei (Fatty).

    Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said he was greatly saddened by Shum’s death and extended his condolences to her family.

    Liberal Party’s Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee said: “She was such an important and talented actress in Hong Kong. Her positive, happy image always set a great example,” she said.

    And there I was, thinking she was just a jolly, fat, woman who made people laugh.   

    Shum was born July 21, 1947 in Shanghai. She made her film debut in 1960 with the Shaw Brothers. She became well-known in widely televised TVB variety show Enjoy Yourself Tonight, first singing with the female group Four Golden Flowers in the 1970s.

    Shum subsequently established herself as predominantly a comic and dramatic actress, appearing regularly in films over the past 40 years. These included The Lotus Lamp 1965, Three Women in a Factory 1967, The Country Bumpkin in Style 1974 and more recently In-Laws, Out-Laws 2004 and Where Are They Now? 2006, among others.

    Somehow I seem to missed those cinematic classics.  Except that it’s possible that The Country Bumpkin in Style was the film that ATV showed on Tuesday night, and I did catch 5 minutes of that. 

    Yes, I’m afraid that I just don’t get it.  Why does TVB fill its schedules with variety shows peopled by their roster of artists doing unexceptional things with enthusiasm and little more.  How did Shum win”Best Comedy Performance by an Actress” award at the 2003 Asian Television Awards (for Living with Lydia).

    I feel like the bewildered foreigners in London in September 1997 who must have wondered why “Diana mania” seemed to have overtaken the whole population.

    Back to the other big story, the one that Albert Cheng rightly called “nothing but a farce“. 

    The newspapers look foolish because they have devoted huge amounts of space to a story that is really very trivial.  When things like this happen in the USA or UK, you can read about it in the tabloids for a few days and then the story goes away.

    (more…)

  • Still no legal downloads

    It’s progress of a sort, but it’s no use to those us who live outside the UK.

    The BBC is going to start selling downloads of shows through the UK iTunes store.  Which means that if you forgot to watch a show, and you forgot to record it, and you couldn’t be bothered to watch it for free on the iPlayer during the following 7 days, you can pay a rather steep £1.89 per episode to download and watch it on your iPod or through Apple TV whenever you want.

    Meanwhile, those of us who don’t live in the UK, and therefore couldn’t watch these shows on TV (and  can’t record them), and who cannot access the iPlayer, will now also not be able to download the shows. 

    That’s because BBC shows are only available from the UK iTunes store, and  anyway there is no iTunes store in Hong Kong.   

  • Nothing better to talk about

    Today the Hong Kong Observatory lowered the “cold weather warning” that has been in force for more than 3 weeks.  Apparently that isn’t quite a record, as this warning was in place for 27 days in 1968, but normally it’s only in force for 2-3 days.

    In the past I have been rather scornful about this, but frankly it really has been quite cold for the last few weeks.  The problem is that apartments in Hong Kong really aren’t designed for cold weather (wooden floor, thin walls, single-glazed windows…), and some people feel an odd compulsion to open the windows just so that everyone knows that it’s winter.

    Shut the windows!!  Buy a heater!  Switch it on!

    Anyway, it’s getting warmer now.   

  • Rude register

    The problem with Talkback (the SCMP’s 2nd letter column) is that they clearly don’t have enough material, and so they will print almost anything, however muddled or irrelevant.  Yesterday there was a marvellous example on the subject of the dodgy photos “scandal”: 

    The widespread distribution on the internet of immodest photos of celebrities has generated controversy. I see this as an alarm bell, reminding us that we have to control indecent material on the internet.

    A lot of indecent material on the internet appears on websites that are popular with teenagers. To protect youngsters and prevent their minds being corrupted by what they see, we must take measures to control the uploading of this material.

    All website owners wishing to display any obscene material in Hong Kong should have to register first. These registered websites would have to indicate clearly that they contained indecent material, so that people were alerted and did not enter the sites unawares.

    This would minimise the confusion surrounding certain websites and also make it easier for concern groups to censor them. People running websites accessible to the general public would be legally responsible for monitoring the material on them.

    Unless a site was registered, the operators would have to ensure no obscene material appeared. It would be their responsibility to immediately delete any unsuitable material. Internet surfers could report any breaches of the regulations.

    Adolescents may have misconceptions about sex, and they want to know more about it. The government should not just get tough with obscenity on the internet but also promote sex education in schools, so that young people can develop a healthy understanding of sex.

    Emily Kong, Wong Tai Sin

    I don’t know where to start.  What can you do with someone who thinks that Hong Kong can control or censor what goes on the Interweb?   

    Not that the government doesn’t try.  Obviously websites outside Hong Kong are not subject to Hong Kong law, but it is theoretically against the law for a Hong Kong citizen to post a link to obscene material (which is bizarre when search engines will help you find whatever you want).  However, it seems that it is not illegal for the photographs to be sent by email, and presumably sending a link via IM would also be OK. 

    Could Hong Kong websites be required to register in order to display obscene material?  Not really, because the law in Hong Kong does not allow obscene material to be published.  Not that it matters, because everyone in Hong Kong can access websites that are based overseas and which would not be subject to these rules.  

    Ban the Interweb, that’s what I say.