HK's small-town paper comes of age

By Chris Hogg BBC Hong Kong correspondent

The South China Morning Post, the biggest-selling English language newspaper in Hong Kong, is celebrating its centenary this month.

The paper held a unique position in British-ruled Hong Kong, fulfilling the role of small-town paper for expatriates, financial daily for the business community, while at the same time covering international and regional affairs.

One man who knows the paper better than most is Kevin Sinclair, who has worked for the Post on and off since the 1970's, and who is, by his own admission, a newspaperman of the old school.

Post photographers have snapped 100 years of news and drama

In pictures

Sinclair left his native Australia when he was 18 for Hong Kong. He started off working on an afternoon tabloid at a time when the Americans were bogged down in nearby Vietnam, and the Cultural Revolution was taking place over the border in China.

"Hong Kong was an exciting and dynamic place then. The British colonial government was struggling to create a fair and decent community. Yet they got roundly abused when they passed a law saying everyone had to take one day off a week," he said.

In 1972 he became news editor of the Post, a paper, he admits, that in the midst of all the excitement managed to be quite dull.

The problem was there was an expectation that it would provide extensive coverage of the expat community.

If you were a reporter it meant one day you could be covering the visit of a US president, the next day a flower show.

If you were the news editor it meant you could never please your readers.

"I got a lot more grief for not sending someone to cover the kennel club awards than any VIP visit," Sinclair said.

Colourful characters

"And I used to get abuse for all sorts of things. 'Why don't you put Canadian ice hockey in when you cover cricket?' they used to complain."

Sinclair said the Post was always seen as an establishment paper

The paper, which was owned by the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank, was the most profitable newspaper in the world. But it was also part of the establishment.

"I was never told what to cover, but you tended to accept what the government told you because almost always they told the truth. Now the approach is much more confrontational and questioning," he said.

"At last you have real politics here in Hong Kong. When it was a colony in the 60's and 70's there was no interest in politics because there wasn't any. There was only one candidate - the governor - and only one voter - the British prime minister.

"Nowadays you have politicians in Hong Kong who have no real power but have real big mouths," he said.

"I used to hate editing on Sundays because nothing ever happened. Now you just have to call a politician and you have a story".

Sitting in a bar in downtown Hong Kong, with a glass of wine in his hand and a plate of oysters in front of him, Sinclair recalled some of the more colourful staff the Post employed over the years.

I trained much of the present civil service, and off they went to make far more money Kevin Sinclair

"There was John Ball, an Aussie who every time he had a few beers would swim across Victoria Harbour.

"Then there was another Aussie, Lexie Fullerton, who combined reporting on the races at Hong Kong's Jockey Club with a spot of commentary on the side. One day he was so sozzled he realised half way through he was commentating on the wrong race."

Sinclair said the staff in his day were more often female than male. For a talented Hong Kong Chinese woman, a job on the Post was socially acceptable and sometimes high profile.

No traditional Chinese father was going to let his son waste his life as a reporter though.

A constant source of frustration was that the brightest would work for him for a couple of years and then go off to work for the government.

"I trained much of the present civil service," he said, "and off they went to make far more money."

Sinclair is still a columnist on the paper. He has also been editing a book which celebrates 100 years of the Post in photographs.

But what about those people who feel the Post is a shadow of its former glory in the run up to the handover in 1997?

Sinclair feels the paper had lost its way three years ago. Now though he says it is more forceful and perhaps even more sophisticated.

"Yes the paper has changed," he said, "but so has Hong Kong society. And at the Post they've worked it out. Tell people what's happening and you sell copies. It's as simple as that."