The HK Story exhibition at the History Museum reopens today after more than 5 years. In one of many rewritten sections, the 1967 riots — when children were killed by Communist bombs — are celebrated as “anti-British resistance.” Meanwhile, the 2019 protests are the worst tragedy ever to befall HK.

Fact-checking pro-Beijing lawmaker Dominic Lee after he slams West, defends security law in viral UN speech 🔗 buff.ly/fCESpaq

State media behaviour

Yup re Dominic Lee.

𝐍𝐄𝐖 @asiancha.bsky.social—Ryan Ho Kilpatrick on 𝑅𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑇𝑎𝑖𝑤𝑎𝑛, which interrogates Taiwan’s asserted maritime identity: "... a volume refreshingly unafraid to confront the contradictions... underpinning Taiwan’s relatively new-found maritime identity." ⧉ 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃: chajournal.com/2026/03/16/i...

𝐍𝐄𝐖 @asiancha.bsky.social—Ryan Ho Kilpatrick on 𝑅𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑇𝑎𝑖𝑤𝑎𝑛, which interrogates Taiwan’s asserted maritime identity: "... a volume refreshingly unafraid to confront the contradictions... underpinning Taiwan’s relatively new-found maritime identity." ⧉ 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃: chajournal.com/2026/03/16/i...

“Through these legislative amendments, we hope to eliminate the inadequacies or plug those loopholes, so that Hong Kong will not become a haven for fugitives.” - Carrie Lam, 2019

I wrote the script for this doc on the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. Doing so was a challenge: my priority is always to pay tribute to the ships I write about and their crews, but the 活該 element can't be overlooked — this tragedy was a direct consequence of the hell America was visiting daily on Vietnam

American discourse on "Wasians" is so gross and weird. It really makes me appreciate how utterly unremarkable being Eurasian is here in Hong Kong, where families like mine have been mixed for generations, and we know way more Eurasian slackers and normies (like me, in fairness) than “Übermenschen.”

"The low level of reported sexual assaults in Hong Kong raises questions about how confident women are to report."

because when people from there talk to them and tell them it's not their socialist utopia, they say we are "westernised liberals", traitors, or whatever

Drawing fortunes for HK in the new year, Heung Yee Kuk chair Kenneth Lau says we must remain vigilant in peacetime and that the government’s Northern Metropolis and “mega event” economy will bring huge benefits. Didn’t someone say religion and politics had nothing to do with each other in China? 🤔

Literal mountains of slop

If weapon sales to Taiwan are openly on the table for US-China talks, then we are truly entering a new era of uncertainty. Even just Trump saying this out loud is trouble for the Lai administration and cannon fodder for American skepticism here in Taiwan. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

You can hate the CIA and MI6 all you want. But you really can’t hate a plan where the CIA, MI6, HK police, HK triad, movie stars, pop stars, ordinary people all worked together to smuggle survivors of the Tiananmen massacre out of China

The Sino-American convergence we can all get behind

No one is safe from AI history slop

Not Japan related but y’day I was reminded of how infuriating this is when I saw an American leftist posting about how Jimmy Lai got what was coming to him because he’s a right-wing Trumpist. I don’t get this fixation with applying a US lens to politics everywhere like we’re just NPCs in their game.

pretty incredible, making it sound like a guy who owned a newspaper was a serial killer with a fridge full of human heads

Mangling your body as a status symbol in a mania that all started because of an emperor’s disturbing obsession? It’s giving American foot binding.

Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai has was sentenced to 20 years in jail on Monday following his conviction on foreign collusion and sedition charges. Full story: buff.ly/6MkP1zn

Not usually of the school that authoritarian governments time their worst deeds to coincide with US holidays/major events — it only feeds Americans’ main character syndrome — but the extent that the Super Bowl is drowning this news out even on my feed is admittedly tickling my conspiratorial brain.

"On Thursday, state broadcaster CGTN reported that 'Dalai Lama' appeared at least 169 times in the Epstein files and mentioned an email in which an unknown sender told Epstein he was considering going to an event the Dalai Lama was set to attend." Did they mention "Xi Jinping" appearing 134 times?

Pro-democracy media magnate Jimmy Lai, 76, has been sentenced to 20 years for national security crimes. Since the day he was arrested, everyone has been predicting the government will make sure he dies behind bars. Everyone was, of course, right — but it’s still, to say the very least, a gut punch.

America is learning from the Chinese model of inflating box office numbers for patriotic films by organising mandatory viewings for government/SOE employees.

Americans talk about coriander like Cornish tin miners talked about saffron

For those in HK space and not on the other cursed site, Shibani Mahtani announced she has been laid off by the Post. I'm angry and heartbroken for her. A significant loss to journalism

If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff. Democracy dies in oligarchy.

Been in this industry long enough to remember when people said billionaires buying up media outlets would provide new jobs, long-term funding, and financial stability 🤡

The only one of its kind in HK, Tsing Yi's Chun Kwan Temple is a palimpsest of the migration patterns and maritime culture that shaped this island. Writing this story was a fun opportunity to learn more about a part of HK I'd spent far too little time in before. Hopefully, you enjoy reading it too!

Imagine how embarrassed the editorial board must be.

Zolima Magazine: Is West Kowloon Cultural District too big to fail? zolimacitymag.com/is-the-west-... Chairman Bernard Chan:

In more promising HKU news, the School of Chinese is also launching a new Master of Arts in Hong Kong Culture Studies. It is "the first postgraduate programme devoted to HK Cultural Studies, emphasizing humanities disciplines such as language, literature, cinema, media, and creative industries."

HKU's journalism school (now School of Future Media) continues to go full-tilt in AI, launching Asia's first master's degree in "AI filmmaking & media."

This is the exact same garbage Chinese state media and Western tankies were peddling about Hong Kong in 2019. The fact people can autonomously band together, pool resources, rally donations, and organise is truly unthinkable to some folks. Just because you couldn't do it doesn't mean others can't.

How The Philippine Star covered this story vs how SCMP did.

#1: 100 Meters First film of 2026! 100m comes to us from Uoto, the same mangaka responsible for one of my favourite things I watched last year, Orb. It asks why we run and why we dedicate ourselves and try to excel at anything. Not just one of the best sports anime I've seen but sports movie period

#1: 知人登陸日本 by 海部陽介 First book of 2026! This volume, translated from Japanese by 李雨青， documents the author's experimental archaeology project to determine whether humans settled the Japanese archipelago by paddling from Taiwan over 30,000 years ago — a fascinating insight into paleolithic seafaring.

HKU continues its tradition of hosting a flag-raising ceremony on New Year's Day — a tradition I was surprised to learn about because it only began two years ago. Apparently, it is now required for universities in HK and Macau, though: news.mingpao.com/ins/%E6%B8%A... www.um.edu.mo/zh-hant/news...

With cars from the Chinese mainland now allowed to drive into HK, many are concerned about regulatory gaps between the two jurisdictions — for instance, as regards tinted windows. But the same can’t be said about “patriotic” legislators who seem to be putting integration above local traffic safety.

Did you know the official language of Hong Kong is Dutch? Just one of the facts I picked up from this AI-slop Hong Kong trivia quiz on YouTube.

Literally the only 2025 Wrapped list I've been looking forward to

Due to return to HK for the first time in 7 years, Anime Festival Asia has abruptly announced it is “postponing” its February convention in the self-styled “mega events hub.” Many speculate — likely correctly — the regional event is the latest casualty of a gov’t-led boycott of all things Japanese.

If you don’t understand why so many Hongkongers are not satisfied by a handful of arrests and do not feel like justice has been done or that the system is working — read this.

It makes sense that the KMT reached back to Yuan Shikai as they launched impeachment proceedings today against Pres. Lai Ching-te, whom they accuse of being a dictator. Yuan's 1915 bid for total power was the last time the KMT was on the side of democracy against a dictator. CKS? We don't know her.

Ahead of the Jimmy Lai verdict today, state-run Ta Kung Pao has published this huge four-page spread on “Apple Daily’s 100 Lies.” Many deal with the tabloid’s notorious celebrity gossip rather than political news. AD was never the paragon of ethical reporting but some of these are really reaching…

I knew this China Daily opinion piece on the Tai Po fire was going to be a bit unhinged but I was not prepared for two paragraphs on 9/11 and the Iraq War. www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202512/11/...

So I just learnt that Musk's revelation about how we need "3D streets" and how his Boring Co. would solve congestion came during a trip to HK. This guy claims to have invented tunnels here, with probably the most efficient metro system on earth. We know tunnels are great, Elon, it's called the MTR!

The Wang Fuk death toll is now 160, with six still missing and one survivor in critical condition. That means we finally say where it stands in the historical record. Even with a maximum of 167 deaths, it is still surpassed by the 1948 Wing On godown fire and the 1918 Happy Valley Racecourse fire.