Q&A Session on Proposed Reforms to Disciplinary Process Postponed
Q&A Session on Proposed Reforms to Disciplinary Process Postponed
The Q&A session on proposed changes to the club’s disciplinary process scheduled for 6:30 p.m. tonight, Monday November 11, has been postponed. It will be rescheduled for Monday November 25 at 6:30 p.m. in Bert’s.
The FCC will operate with limited service today, with only bar and lounge service. The Dining Room and Verandah will be closed.
Thank you.
FCC
Florence de Changy announced as new FCC president after Juliana Liu steps down
Florence de Changy has been elected President until the end of this term (May 2018).
Dear Fellow Members,
At last Saturday’s board meeting FCC President Juliana Liu stepped down as her employment with BBC was ceasing on the same day. Her new job does not allow her to keep her “Correspondent” status, a sine qua non to be President of the Club.
The board passed a unanimous motion of thanks to Juliana Liu to acknowledge the tremendous work achieved during her time at the helm of the FCC.
As First Vice-President, in accordance with the Articles of the Club, I stepped in to chair the meeting. I was then elected President until the end of this term (May 2018). Victor Mallet (Financial Times) was elected First Vice-President. And Daniel Ten Kate (Bloomberg) was co-opted to fill the vacant Correspondent seat, as the non-elected correspondent with the highest number of votes at the last elections.
As far as I am concerned, I have been a Foreign correspondent since I left France in 1991 where I worked for Le Figaro and RFI. I currently report for the French daily Le Monde and RFI (Radio France International). I have been based in Hong Kong since 2007 after Taiwan, Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia.
It is a great honour and a privilege that has abruptly fallen on me. I’ll do my utmost to be up to the tasks and challenges ahead, with the help and support of all the other board members and the wonderful staff of the Club.
Best regards,
Florence de Changy
Hong Kong Handover Anniversary: The FCC welcomes visiting correspondents!
The FCC HK is looking forward to hosting visiting correspondents and journalists covering the 20th anniversary of the Hong Kong handover.
If you would like to use the FCC as a base during your trip to Hong Kong (or wish to enjoy a meal or drink at our famous bar), you are very welcome to do so. But please first apply for a temporary guest membership at the Front Desk during office hours (9am to 9pm on weekdays, 9am to 12:30pm on weekends). Or better yet, let us know ahead of time that you will be coming by emailing [email protected].
To obtain a temporary guest membership, you will be be asked to fill in a form and submit proof of your status as a journalist (such as a business card or official press card) as well as proof of overseas residence (such as a passport or return airplane ticket.) Once approved, the visiting journalist may use the FCC’s downstairs workroom and other facilities.
Club notice: Typhoon and club operations
When the Hong Kong Observatory announces that Signal No. 8 or above is hoisted, which means limited operations at the club today.
The Club will open at 12:00 noon and the ground floor and main bar will open with a limited menu and will close at midnight.
Stay safe everyone!
Club notice: Typhoon and club operations
When the Hong Kong Observatory announces that Signal No. 8 or above is hoisted, which means limited operations at the club today.
The Club will open at 12:00 noon and remain normal operation.
If the T8 is lowered between 12:00 noon and before 5pm, the Club will be back to normal operation in three hours after the T8 is lowered.
If the T8 is not lowered before 5pm, the ground floor will open with a limited menu and will close at midnight.
If a Black Rainstorm Warning is hoisted during normal operating hours, the Club will remain open.
Stay safe everyone!
Club notice: Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight broadcast is carry on
Typhoon No. 8 will hoist around 8:00 hours this morning, just news from TVB.
The Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight broadcast is carry on as per the schedule.
Stay safe everyone!
Typhoon and club operations
A Typhoon Signal #8 signal has been raised, which means limited operations at the club today.
The Club will open at 12:00 noon and remain normal operation.
If the T8 is lowered between 12:00 noon and before 5pm, the Club will be back to normal operation in three hours after the T8 is lowered.
If the T8 is not lowered before 5pm, the ground floor will open with a limited menu and will close at midnight.
If a Black Rainstorm Warning is hoisted during normal operating hours, the Club will remain open.
Stay safe everyone!
Club notice: Typhoon and club operations
When the Hong Kong Observatory announces that Signal No. 8 or above is hoisted, which means limited operations at the club today.
The Club will open at 12:00 noon and remain normal operation.
If the T8 is lowered between 12:00 noon and before 5pm, the Club will be back to normal operation in three hours after the T8 is lowered.
If the T8 is not lowered before 5pm, the ground floor will open with a limited menu and will close at midnight.
If a Black Rainstorm Warning is hoisted during normal operating hours, the Club will remain open.
Stay safe everyone!
Pro-democracy election success ‘a result of Beijing’s interpretation of Hong Kong Basic Law’
Dennis Kwok and Ronny Tong talked about the reverberations of Beijing’s interpretation of the Basic Law at the FCC
The record number of seats won by pro-democracy candidates in elections to select the committee that will choose Hong Kong’s next Chief Executive is one of the implications of Beijing’s recent controversial interpretation of the Basic Law, according to barrister and Legco member Dennis Kwok.
On the day after Hong Kong voters went to the polls, Kwok told a packed FCC club lunch that Beijing’s interference after two pro-independence candidates refused to swear allegiance to China following their election to the Legislative Council was an overt political move and warned the next battleground in this ‘far from over’ saga would be about whether others have breached their oaths.
Kwok joined former chairman of the HK Bar Association and Legco member Ronny Tong to discuss the reverberations of Beijing’s interpretation of the Basic Law – Hong Kong’s mini-constitution – at the club lunch on December 12. Tong kicked off the talk by outlining how Beijing’s interpretation merely reinforced what was already written in local law about what an oath meant and how anyone who makes a false oath or acts in breach of it should be dealt with.
However, he added that what the rare interpretation did “was reinforce the perception that Beijing is not trustworthy of our judicial system or the integrity of our judges”.
Kwok, who organised a protest of more than a thousand lawyers after Beijing stepped in following the oath controversy in October, criticised pro-independence ‘Youngspiration’ candidates Sixtus “Baggio” Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching for their ‘irresponsible and childish’ actions when, during their oath-taking ceremony, they refused to swear allegiance to China, used bad language and sported banners that read “Hong Kong is Not China”.They were later disqualified from taking office.
Kwok added that Beijing’s actions had divided a society “that’s already polarised”.
Next battleground in oath-taking saga will be whether you have breached your oath, warns Dennis Kwok pic.twitter.com/CjDBM0ZlOw
Both Kwok and Tong agreed that the pair’s behaviour had presented an opportunity for Beijing to step in and flex its political muscles, with Tong adding that he thought the Chinese government had been genuinely afraid that its Hong Kong counterpart would lose a court case requested by Chief Executive CY Leung in which he directed judges to disqualify them.
Dennis Kwok talks about Beijing’s recent interpretation of Hong Kong’s Basic Law at the FCC
The club lunch talk, entitled The Implications of Beijing’s Recent Interpretation of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, came just days after Leung announced he would not stand for a second term as Chief Executive. In a Q&A after the talk, Tong and Kwok were asked their thoughts on this latest development.
“I was flabbergasted,” said Tong: “I thought it’s just too good to be true.”
Kwok added: “I was happy for about five minutes, then I thought about all the other candidates who would come out.”
At Last… Bert’s, Hong Kong’s best jazz club, is back in business after refurbishment
The Red Stripes performing at Bert’s. Photo: Wyng Chow
Recarpeted, repainted, and for better or worse now adorned with video screens, Hong Kong’s best jazz club is back in business.
There’s nothing like having something unavailable for a while to help you appreciate it properly, and the excellence of the live music in Bert’s is something, perhaps, we sometimes take for granted.
Allen Youngblood, who originally came to Asia in the early 1990s with a band playing at the Grand Hyatt’s now defunct JJ’s nightclub, has been the FCC’s music director since before Bert’s opened. As well as performing there himself, he is responsible for booking everybody else who does.
“My idea was to call it “Round Midnight”, to single it out as a jazz club within a club, but then the suggestion was made to name it after Bert Okuley, and once I knew who he was, that seemed fine. We use the best people in town we can get, and we try to catch the best people coming through town, whatever they play. Sometimes it’s jazz, sometimes it’s R & B and soul. It depends what’s available,” he says.
Bert Okuley was a talented jazz pianist, as well as a distinguished foreign correspondent and former club president, and from the outset the bar named for him has had a jazz and blues theme, fully reflected in its decor.
Like most jazz-oriented venues worldwide, though, Bert’s also accommodates other styles, and although Youngblood and his trio Jazbalaya are comfortably settled back in residence, he chose performers from different genres for some of the reopening gigs.
“Bert’s reopened officially on October 22 with the band Red Stripes, which plays ska,” says Youngblood, “but it actually opened before that. We had a little Oktoberfest thing with an accordion. Full dress.”
In addition to the Tuesday, Thursday and Friday live band performances, Bert’s has developed into a special events venue on otherwise generally quiet Saturday nights, and Youngblood plans to build on that.
“Saturday is a day for special functions, once a month when possible. You have to give people a reason to come back into town” says Youngblood. “Usually they sell out.”
Quite often those evenings are sufficiently popular that Bert’s cannot accommodate the numbers, and the bigger draws migrate upstairs to the Main Dining Room – as was the case in November with British Jazz Singer Ian Shaw, who played the club on November 5.
He was accompanied by Youngblood and bassist Scott Dodd, who then joined him on a tour of China, including gigs at the new Blue Note Club in Beijing and the newly relocated JZ Club in Shanghai.
Shaw, a two-time winner for Best Vocalist in the BBC Jazz Awards, is a good example of the Club getting the best, and for visiting jazz musicians Bert’s is what has put it on the map.
Over the years many notable names have dropped in to play, including, since the reopening, former James Brown drummer, Erik Hargrove. “A really musical drummer – just passing through,” says Youngblood.
The Club is also a favourite gig for such high-profile permanently locally based artists as guitarist Eugene Pao, singer, bassist, bandleader and FCC member Elaine Liu, and blues harmonica virtuoso Henry Chung, for whose appearances Bert’s transforms into a juke joint. In the past six months all have sold out either Bert’s or the Main Dining Room.
Performers who have appeared at Bert’s in recent weeks include the Orlando Bonzi band, the Jason Cheng Trio, Skip Moy and his band, and vocalists Jennifer Palor and Miriam Ma – not forgetting the performers who unobtrusively do so much to create the early evening atmosphere including singer and guitarist Mary Jane, guitarist Moy who also performs solo, and pianist Sizwe Peter among others.
The common factor? Not so much jazz as quality, says Youngblood.
“It’s a music room. We try to make it not just jazz, but that said there aren’t that many groups doing other stuff that I’d hire. It’s not what I think about their music. It’s a question of what’s available that’s good.
“Nothing against places like The Wanch, where you get people who can play and people who can’t play, but that’s not what we are. We want people who are seasoned. Don’t be down here practicing.”
New kitchen, full menu
While Bert’s was closed for music during August and September it still operated as a temporary kitchen and food storage while the FCC’s main kitchen, buried deep in the bowels of the building, underwent a HK$6 million refìt.
All major fittings and appliances were ripped out and replaced with modern equipment without needing to redesign the space. The kitchen is now a fully modern working environment allowing the CIub far more flexibility to add new styles of cuisine.
Since October 11, when it was also free bubbly time to launch the renovated Bert’s, a full menu has been in operation under Chef George and his team.