Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam on jail, torture, and why he won’t stay silent

Shahidul Alam is a Bangladeshi photojournalist and activist whose criticism of his government landed him in jail in 2018. But that hasn’t silenced him, as Rob Gerhardt discovered when he caught up with him in New York.

Shahidul Alam speaks at the opening of his show, Truth to Power, at the Rubin Museum of Art

Photojournalist Shahidul Alam sits in a lecture hall at the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York, a long, long way from the Bangladeshi prison where he was jailed for 107 days in 2018.

His time in prison and the torture that he endured haven’t slowed the activist down or taken the ever-present smile from his face. But Alam still faces the possibility of a 14-year prison sentence in Bangladesh after an interview with Al-Jazeera in which he criticized the government for its violent response to road safety protests.

He was let out of prison on bail after an international backlash, but the case is still winding its way through the judicial system. The High Court in Bangladesh issued a stay on the police investigation until Alam’s petition to the High Court is concluded. When we met, he was confident the case would be dropped at a court hearing scheduled for December 18.

But the Bangladeshi court did not respond to his case on that date, and made no statement about it. Sofia Karim, his niece, told me afterwards that she thinks this is the government’s attempt to keep the case dragging on – and hanging over him. She felt it also allows the government to keep pressure on Alam without admitting that they don’t have a case against him. So, as we went to press, things remained in a state of limbo, without even a future court date.

Students protest in Dhaka, August 2018

Alam’s visit to New York coincided with the first major exhibition of his work in the U.S., at the Rubin Museum of Art. Titled Truth to Power, it follows the publication of his new book, The Tide Will Turn (published by Steidl).

The book is in four parts; the preface and first section, Keranigani Jail, tell the story of Alam’s arrest, his time in prison, and the work done by those both named and unnamed who worked to get him out. Sections called Art, Politics and Letters follow.

The book reads like a memoir, interspersed with sections of photographs from all stages of his career. The text and photographs are tied together through telling the stories of the people involved, whether they are in the frame or not.

Singer and performer Smriti Azad at a rally at Central Shahid Minar in Dhaka, 1994

Alam’s photographs work not just to inform the viewer, but to raise awareness of the stories he covers. Whether it is poverty, refugees or the disappeared, the formal labels of art, activism or journalism are separated only loosely.

“I will show where I can, as I can, as effectively as I can, to bring about the changes my work is aimed at bringing about,” he told me. “One of my most successful exhibits, Crossfire, has been shown on museum walls, galleries specializing in photojournalism, art festivals, and hung on trees and pasted on public walls.”

At his talk at Columbia and running throughout The Tide Will Turn is this intersection between journalism and activism, and his belief that you can walk the line between them without sacrificing journalistic ethics to try and drive change.

Famous image of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Bangladesh by Alam’s former
student Taslima Akhter

“As a journalist I insist on being fair and accurate. That is also what I adhere to as an activist. However, while as a journalist my primary motive is to inform, as an activist I want to stimulate change in behaviour. These motives can co-exist.”

This decision always to be truthful to the story while bringing change is the heart of Alam’s work, and the power behind it. Working within journalistic standards makes his work hard to refute.

Those who don’t agree with what he is saying try to silence him, most noticeably by hacking or shutting down his social media, as happened the morning of his opening at the Rubin Museum. But Alam continues to speak out and tell the stories that others want silenced.

“I want my work to have impact and I will use any method that works. I will sing and dance if I have to, but at the end, I will make sure that the audience cannot walk away unmoved.”

Rob Gerhardt is an absent Club member and a freelance photographer based in New York

Revealed: Why the FCC’s Indian food is SO good

Casey Quackenbush met up with Indian head chef Pardeep Kumar Ray to find out.

To the unseasoned vegetarian, a plant-dominant diet can seem perplexing. Preconceptions of hunger and protein-deficiency quickly set in, and the furrowed brow says it all: But what do you eat?

Luckily for veggie-friendly eaters at the FCC, there’s no shortage of vegetarian options with head Indian chef Pardeep Kumar Ray around. The Punjabi-born cook started at the FCC in 2000 when the club didn’t even have an Indian kitchen and has played a major role in building the Club’s renowned reputation for its Indian cuisine.

Chef Pardeep speaks at the FCC’s Diwali celebration in October

Now, as meat-consciousness grows, Chef Pardeep is helping to transform the menu once again by incorporating more vegetarian dishes. Chef Pardeep isn’t a vegan — he enjoys his bedtime turmeric milk too much — but he’s a big fan of the club’s chickpea spinach and he dabbles in vegetarianism now that he cooks it so much.

As a chef who started cooking at age 14 and has worked in kitchens all over India and Hong Kong, Chef Pardeep brings plenty of flair, authenticity, and variety to the FCC’s Indian menu, especially for vegetarians. In honour of Veganuary, Chef Pardeep here shares some veggie recipes, the secrets to his curry, and traces the history of the club’s famous cuisine.

How did the FCC get its reputation for its Indian food?

The people here are very powerful you know, it’s a media club! We take care of all the food, hygiene, everything [in the Indian kitchen]. Every year we have to change the menu, sometimes the barbecue dishes, some curry items also. This year we started Beyond Meat (the plant-based meat substitute). Every year we change something.

How long did it take for the Indian kitchen to take off?

I started in 2000. Three months after, it was crazy good. People loved the food. When I started the first day, I had 70 portions of curry. Some people tell me my curry is a little bit thin. I said, “Okay, I do my style okay?” Next day I do my own style and, oh my god, it was crazy good. Every day, 100, 150, nearly 200 orders. Now, with the protests, a little bit less.

Where did you learn to cook Indian food?

In India, from Kashmir to Punjab, working, in small, small places. We know south Indian food, Punjabi food, Sindhi food, Nepali food, and Pakistani food.

What’s your favourite Indian cuisine?

Punjabi.

What’s your favourite dish?

Chicken tikka makhani. And onion naan.

What’s the best vegetarian dish at the FCC?

Chickpea spinach. This is very healthy for you. We cook with spinach so it’s more healthy. People care about that, people are healthy. Next maybe we’ll start some new buffet. Always change the food. There’s not just one thing we do here.

Have you ever tried to be a vegetarian?

Now, after cooking it, I start eating like a vegetarian, because my belly is too big!

What’s your favourite alternative to meat?

Punjabi paneer.

When did you first start to cook?

When my mother was getting fat, she didn’t want to make anything! So slowly, slowly I started cooking — egg, chapati — and after that, I loved the kitchen.

What’s the secret ingredient for your curry?

I make a whole spicy blend. That aroma is very good for you. Like cinnamon stick, cloves — very good for the health.

Why did you pick these two recipes to share with us?

Aloo gobi is like homemade food. And my mother made a very good palak paneer. The aroma is very good.

What do you hope to bring to the FCC’s menu?

I always want to bring something new. I don’t like to do the same stuff every day. I always want to change. Change is very good for life you know! I believe in surprises. I don’t want people just coming here and seeing the same old food. There must always be change in life.

Chef Pardeep’s recipes to try at home

PALAK PANEER (Vegetarian)

Palak Paneer

With thanks to Chef Pardeep’s mother

To serve four people

Ingredients

1kg Spinach, pureed

400g Paneer

400g Onion

20g Green chillies

10g Red chilli powder

200g Tomatoes, pureed

100g Amul butter (ghee)

8g Garam masala

4g Cumin seeds

4g White pepper

20g Turmeric

20g Coriander powder

2g Methi (fenugreek)

10g Ginger (crushed)

10g Garlic (crushed)

100g Oil (ghee, sunflower etc)

Heavy cream (whipping cream) to flavour

Method

Add the Amul butter (or ghee) to a skillet over a medium heat. Keep back just over two tbsp of the butter/ghee for later.

Add cumin seeds and stir until the seeds start to darken and smell fragrant (10 to 20 seconds).

Add the green chillies, onion and half a teaspoon of salt, and cook until the onion is dark brown and soft (approx. 10 minutes).

Add the ginger, garlic, turmeric and methi, coriander powder, red chilli powder, white pepper and 1/2g garam masala. Stir for approx. two minutes, then add the pureed tomatoes, stirring occasionally until the mixture starts to look dry (approx. 6 minutes).

Add the pureed spinach, a cup of water and the remaining garam masala (the mixture will become thick).

Simmer for 8 minutes, then stir in some cream and the remaining two tbsp ghee.

Add the paneer cubes and cook until the paneer is warm, finish with some cream as thickening and add a few drops of Amul butter or ghee before serving.

ALOO GOBI (Vegan)

Aloo Gobi

To serve four people

Ingredients

400g Potatoes

400g Cauliflower florets

200g Onion

8g Red chillies

20g Green chillies

4 Garlic cloves, crushed

5g Ginger, ground

4g Garam masala

200g Tomatoes

20g Turmeric powder

20g Cumin powder

4g Cumin seeds

20g Methi (fenugreek)

4g Coriander seeds

100g Oil (ghee, sunflower etc)

Coriander to garnish

Method

Pour the oil into a medium-hot skillet and add the cumin seeds. Stir until the seeds start to darken and smell fragrant (10-20 seconds).

Add the chillies, garlic, and ginger. Cook for approx. one minute then add onions and cook until onions are brown and soft.

Add the garam masala and turmeric and cook until brown for approx. one minute more.

Add the potatoes, cauliflower and all other ingredients, seasoning with salt and pepper.

Turn down the heat, cover with a lid, and cook until the potatoes and cauliflower are tender.

Garnish with coriander.

Looking back over the last decade at the FCC – and in Hong Kong

As the new decade gets under way, The Correspondent looks back at events inside and outside of the club over the last 10 years.

Macau looks for a delicate balance rather than a roll of the dice

Macau, ‘poster child’ of the One Country Two Systems policy, celebrated the 20th anniversary of its handover to China last month. José Carlos Matias reflects on the ‘fragile but hopefully resilient’ city.

The 20th anniversary of Macau’s handover from Portugal to China came at a critical juncture for China, at the end of a challenging year for Beijing due to the seemingly never-ending crisis in Hong Kong and against the backdrop of the U.S.-China trade war.

For the Central Government and for the local Macau SAR Government it was high time to affirm the success story of the implementation of the One Country Two Systems (OCTS) policy in the former Portuguese colony. Macau is lauded as the “poster child” of OCTS.

The contrast with Hong Kong is conspicuous. In his speeches during the three-day visit starting December 18, President Xi Jinping highlighted the local residents’ respect and embrace of patriotism and the huge economic progress that was achieved since 1999, thanks to the full support of Beijing.

China’s President Xi Jinping speaks during his visit to Macau as part of its 20th anniversary handover celebrations

In fact, Macau has experienced staggering growth and development that few could have anticipated. The city’s gross domestic product skyrocketed, posting an eight-fold increase, while the unemployment rate declined from 6.2 per cent to just 1.8 per cent and the average monthly income of citizens more than tripled.

The opening of the first post-monopoly foreign-owned casinos – Sands in 2004 – was the game and gambling changer, transforming the city’s urban landscape and socioeconomic dynamics.

In 2002 Macau approved the new gaming law, paving the way for the opening up of the casino industry; in 2003 the Central Government launched the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and the Portuguese-Speaking Countries, with the headquarters in Macau; and in 2009 the local Legislative Assembly gave the green light to the national security law, fulfilling what is spelled out in Article 23 of the Basic Law.

In sharp contrast with Hong Kong, where the attempt to enact a national security act ignited large-scale protests [in 2003] that not only defeated the bill but ultimately led to the demise of the Tung Chee-hwa administration, in Macau the bill was approved without significant opposition; it in fact had wide support among local social and political groups.

What we have witnessed over the past seven months in Hong Kong could not be more telling about the divergent paths followed by the two cities. There was not a single rally or assembly in support of the Hong Kong movement here, as there is a broad sense of belonging to the People’s Republic of China. This is explained by significant improvement in the people’s livelihood and public security coupled with historical, sociological and demographic factors.

José Carlos Matias is a Macau-based journalist and researcher. He currently serves as president of the Board of Directors of the Macau Portuguese and English Press Association.

However, another reason stands out: authorities rejected three bids for assemblies and rallies in condemnation of police violence in Hong Kong. Civil rights groups and some lawyers denounced the decisions as unfounded restrictions to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression, enshrined in the Macau Basic Law.

The situation in Hong Kong is starting to impact Macau’s economy; visitor arrivals saw an 11 per cent decline in November, the first year-on-year decrease of 2019.

As Macau enters the third decade of the 50-year special period, the city’s stability and prosperity seem sound and solid. Still, a number of challenges loom. The most noticeable one regards the SAR’s dependence on the gaming industry, which accounts for more than 80 per cent of public revenue. The much-needed diversification is yet to take off. There have been hints that new financial services will be launched alongside other moves to bring the development of Hengqin Island more in line with Macau’s to meet the aim of turning Macau into a world tourism and leisure centre.

The development of the business and cultural platform with Portuguese-speaking countries is taking shape but it is still far from being fully utilized. In the meantime, Macau’s participation in the Greater Bay Area plan is regarded as a key path to bring about a more sustainable and diversified economic model.

However, the goals may not be attainable without improved governance and a more efficient government. At the same time, it is necessary to tackle the side effects of the gaming boom such as income inequality, unaffordable housing or human resources shortages.

While moving forward Macau also needs to strike a delicate and crucial balance between the benefits of regional integration and the risks attached to it, namely in terms of autonomy, as the rule of law, local culture, individual freedoms and way of life are, in some ways, increasingly under pressure.

The city’s distinctive features are priceless but also fragile, like porcelain, and hopefully resilient like a lotus flower (the city’s symbol) with its roots based in mud, submerged at night but re-emerging every morning without residue on its petals.

The author is a Macau-based journalist and researcher. He currently serves as president of the Board of Directors of the Macau Portuguese and English Press Association.

MODEL OF STABILITY WAS ONCE IN THE VORTEX OF VIOLENCE

Keith B. Richburg

These days Chinese officials from Beijing are fond of holding up Macau as a role model for stability, compared to Hong Kong which has been wracked by more than six months of unrest.

But in the late 1990s, as the two territories were separately preparing to revert to Chinese control, Hong Kong was largely peaceful, the only rancour being the political and legal debates about the makeup of the Legislative Council and future direct elections.

In Macau, there was literally blood in the streets.

In 1997, just before Hong Kong’s handover, at least 14 people were killed in Macau as the notorious 14K triad and the rival Shui Fong, or Water Room triad, battled for control of the lucrative gambling industry. One of the more sensational attacks was the May 4 ambush slaying of three 14K members gunned down in their car on one of Macau’s busiest commercial streets. Among the victims was the righthand man of 14K’s leader, Wan “Broken Tooth” Kuok-koi.

In an earlier brazen assault, gambling kingpin Lam Pui-chang was killed with three bullets to the stomach close to the Hyatt Regency Hotel. In a horrific attack meant to maim and not kill, 11 teenagers were slashed with knives in a video game parlour in a dispute over protection payments.

Portuguese officials trying to control the chaos became targets. The chief gambling inspector was gunned down during lunch. In 1998, a bomb was placed under the car of Portuguese police chief Antonio Marques Baptista, known as “Rambo,” who was saved by his dog who sniffed out the device before his car exploded.

On a single day in May 1998, two dozen firebombs exploded across Macau in retaliation for “Broken Tooth” Koi’s arrest. He was convicted in 1999 and spent 13-plus years in prison. He’s now out hawking cryptocurrency and investing in Cambodia.

Chinese rule and the internationalisation of the casino business has largely sidelined the Macau triads. Chinese officials now look at Hong Kong and decry the violence and unrest, compared to staid and stable Macau. But 20 years ago, the situations were reversed.

As the Hong Kong Standard wrote in a 1997 editorial: “The once sleepy hollow of Macau is waking up. To the sound of gunfire.”

Ex-BBC journalist who conquered the closed world of jade carving in China

Former BBC reporter Andrew Shaw is proof that there is life after journalism, even if it took extreme changes for him to achieve it. Kate Whitehead tells his unusual story.

Master jade carver Andrew Shaw in his workshop in Suzhou

Plenty of hardened hacks fantasise at some point or other about getting out of journalism. For veteran BBC reporter Andrew Shaw that urge had been gnawing at him for some years before he made the leap. The Londoner had no interest in taking the well-trodden route to the dark side, PR, and his transition was such a radical shift it took everyone by surprise.

The seed for change was planted in 2002, when Shaw took a four-month sabbatical from a job he no longer enjoyed and much-needed time out from caring for his mother who was seriously ill.

“I was fed up with journalism, I’d got everything I wanted to out of it, I’d done everything I needed to do, I was just repeating myself, it was time to do something else,” says Shaw.

For four carefree months he lived in Thailand in a hut on the beach, did yoga, went to a Buddhist retreat and laughed at the sheer joy of being alive – and not at work. On the last day of his trip, while visiting Wat Doi Suthep, the temple overlooking the northern city of Chiang Mai, he stumbled into a small jade shop. A beautiful lavender jade Buddha caught his eye.

“As soon as I touched it, it just sang to me, such a beautiful stone, I fell in love with jade at that moment,” says Shaw.

From there it was back to the grindstone at the BBC and his filial obligations, but his holiday romance with jade didn’t fade, it became a fully-fledged obsession. Every time he was sent on assignment overseas, he went looking for jade. In Hong Kong, he spent three days haggling over a piece. In 2006, his mother died when he was in Vietnam covering the trial of disgraced British pop star Gary Glitter. He knew it was time to do something else.

“I put my affairs in order and the next year got a plane to China, and went to Suzhou, where I heard there was a jade carving centre, and started looking for someone to teach me to carve jade,” says Shaw.

It was a bold move. It was 2008, the year of the Beijing Olympics, and it took some sweet talking to explain to immigration why a former BBC reporter suddenly wanted to live in Suzhou. What’s more, the then 51-year-old didn’t speak a word of Chinese. But he was determined. He enrolled in a Chinese class at the local university and then set about trying to find his way into the carving industry.

“The words to ‘carve jade’ and ‘go fishing’ are very similar, so quite often people would say, ‘Oh, you like to go fishing’. Even when I showed them a piece of jade, they’d say, ‘So where do you go fishing?’” says Shaw.

After seven months he had a basic grasp of the language and found the city’s network of jade carving alleys where thousands of jade carvers worked in small workshops.

“I went from workshop to workshop for six months asking people whether they’d teach me to carve jade. People don’t like to say no, they drink tea with you. Most jade carvers retire at 50 and I was already over 50,” says Shaw.

Eventually, he found a man who agreed to let him use a spindle and gave him old pieces of jade to carve and Shaw went there every afternoon for two years. Then he set up his own workshop and sold his pieces in the local market.

All the hard work paid off in 2016, when he won a medal in the Zi Gang Bey Jade Carving Competition in Suzhou. The following year, he invited international carvers to enter and it’s now the world’s only international jade carving competition. When he proposed to his wife, Ann, who he met in Suzhou, he gave her a flawless piece of white jade.

“A flawless piece of white jade is difficult to get hold of and cost a lot. She’s never taken it off since I gave it to her,” says Shaw.

Today the couple runs Ann’s English Tea House and Restaurant, a cafe with jade gallery attached, beside Jinji Lake. Although Shaw has turned his back on journalism, he hasn’t stopped writing and this year released Jade Life: An
Englishman’s Love Affair with China’s National Treasure, published by Earnshaw Books.

“It’s about the Chinese jade industry as told from the perspective of a Western jade carver. The book has a journalistic rigour to it, with plenty of interviews, and I’ve fact-checked all the sources,” says Shaw, the only foreign master jade carver in China. n

Right time, right place for Walter Kent’s clock

Carsten Schael and John Batten with the newly-installed clock.

Long-term FCC member, the late Walter Kent, will be remembered for his punctual time-keeping now that part of his bequest to the club has been put in its rightful place, at the Ice House Street end of the Main Bar.

It was Walter’s favourite drinking spot and an obvious choice as the permanent home of the Jaeger-LeCoultre clock that Walter, who died in 2016, received as a 25th anniversary gift for working at Chase Manhattan Bank.

“It is a fitting memorial for one of the FCC’s most loyal recent members,” said John Batten (pictured right being helped by Carsten Schael) when they fixed the clock to the Main Bar in August.

Obituary: ‘Tank Man’ photographer, Charlie Cole

The photojournalist who took the picture that will forever represent the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 died in September in Bali aged 64. Charlie Cole’s Tank Man was included in the FCC’s June Wall exhibition marking the 30th anniversary of the protests.

Charlie Cole in the early 1990s

Born in the U.S., Cole spent more than half his life living outside the States in seven different countries. His career began at the Black Star Photo Agency and then later the Picture Group in New York, before he moved to Tokyo “because it was in the heart of a dynamic region and not well covered”. This led to a 10-year contract with Newsweek magazine, covering Asia. Cole said: “It was a period which saw some of the most dramatic events and changes in the world’s history. From Afghanistan to Beijing to Jakarta to Tokyo, it was an amazing time.”

He was one of four photographers who captured the moment one man faced up to a row of tanks in Tiananmen Square, but it was Cole who won the World Press Photo of the Year Award 1990. He regretted the picture becoming the iconic symbol of the protests, and felt that other photographers covering the event deserved equal recognition.

Cole lived in Bali for the last 15 years of his life, often battling pain after a motorcycle accident in Tokyo that left him with serious leg injuries. He leaves a widow, Rosanna.

Book Review – The 100 Burgundy: Exceptional Wines to Build a Dream Cellar

As a trading hub for wine, Hong Kong has seen the price and volume of Burgundy coming into Asia rocket. The region’s first Master of Wine – who’s an FCC member – has just launched a book on the subject. Colin Simpson reports

Jeannie Cho Lee with her book, The 100 Burgundy: Exceptional Wines to Build a Dream Cellar

Global demand for Burgundy has soared in recent years, along with the prices of the finest wines – and Asia has helped drive this trend.

Exports of Burgundy to Hong Kong rose 8.8 percent by volume and a whopping 24.5 percent by value last year, according to the Bourgogne Wine Board.

Data from Liv-ex, the global marketplace for the wine trade, show that the prices of top Burgundies have rocketed ahead of those of other leading wine regions and countries.

The most sought-after wines routinely command eye-watering prices. For example, this year Romanée-Conti 2015 sold for HK$198,400 per bottle at an Acker auction in Hong Kong, which is a major regional trading and distribution hub for wine.

However, Burgundy is a tricky, complex region, and for buyers there is the added problem of counterfeit wines.

Given all this, the appearance of a helpful guide in the form of The 100 Burgundy: Exceptional Wines to Build a Dream
Cellar by Jeannie Cho Lee is timely. Hong Kong-based Lee, an FCC member, is the first Asian Master of Wine.

The book has descriptions of 100 of Lee’s favourite Burgundies with information about the domaines that produce them. In her introduction, Lee says that rather than going into the microscopic details of terroir, viticulture, fragmented vineyard holdings, or winemaking choices, she aims to provide an “impressionistic” portrait of the wines.

Despite this, there is some talk of “cool pre-fermentation maceration” and the like, which may not interest the general reader. Also, the exact dimensions of the featured domaines’ many tiny parcels of land are listed, something that wine buyers might not find particularly useful.

The descriptions of the wines, based on knowledge built up from countless tastings over many years, are authoritative and give a good sense of what they are like.

For example, she compares two wines from Domaine de la Romanée‑Conti, Burgundy’s greatest property – the extremely scarce Romanée‑Conti, mentioned above, and its stablemate La Tâche: “La Tâche is clearly more forceful, more vigorous, and well defined; it is also earlier maturing and much easier to enjoy young.”

The book is handsomely illustrated, and there’s lots of useful advice on buying Burgundy, building up a cellar and serving the wines. On the subject of counterfeiting, Lee says the growing number of fakes is a concern for Burgundy lovers.

She adds: “My personal experience with wines in Asia shows that we need to be more vigilant than ever… as prices increase for all Burgundy wines, fakes will expand quickly.”

The 100 Burgundy: Exceptional Wines to Build a Dream Cellar, by Jeannie Cho Lee (Assouline, HK$580).

WHY IS BURGUNDY A SUCCESS STORY IN ASIA?

An affinity between Burgundy and Asian food is one of the reasons the wines have become more popular in the region, Jeannie Cho Lee said at the Hong Kong launch of her new book at the Mandarin Oriental on September 4.

“With Cantonese food, with Japanese food, with a lot of Asian cuisines, Burgundy reds are actually more suitable than the tannic, bigger Bordeaux reds,” she said.

A disenchantment with Bordeaux in 2010 and 2011 also gave Burgundy a boost in Asia, she said. Prices set by leading Bordeaux producers were seen as too high, and collectors who bought the wines as an investment found that values did not increase.

In addition, some felt Bordeaux had become commonplace, while top Burgundies – which are produced in much smaller volumes – had an attractive rarity value.

Battle to cut former Central Hospital plan down to size

The FCC recently sent a message to members to support its representation to the Town Planning Board on the proposed 25-storey hospital and development across the road from the Club. John Batten brings us up to date.

Artist’s montaged rendition of a proposed 135-metre building on the site

Town planning in Hong Kong can take ages to complete and the process can be complex. The proposed redevelopment by the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui (Anglican Church) of the former Central Hospital next to the Bishop House and across from the FCC is currently going through another stage of its planning.

I outlined in The Correspondent last July the historic importance of the entire Bishop Hill site with its four heritage buildings, trees and greenery. This is an update on efforts to protect it from overdevelopment.

The Government Hill Concern Group (GHCC) is a group of heritage advocates who came together to campaign against the demolition of the West Wing, one of the three wings of the former Central Government Offices (CGO), sitting on Lower Albert Road adjacent to the Bishop House, Government House and the FCC. Demolishing the West Wing would have destroyed the modernist architectural integrity of this historic site, the city’s original seat of government administration from the first days of British colonial rule in Hong Kong.

After a concerted campaign, culminating in a meeting with then-Development, now Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, the West Wing was saved. Its renovation for the Department of Justice is nearing completion and it will soon reopen. FCC members may recall that the West Wing previously had an elevator that gave public access from Queen’s Road Central up to Lower Albert Road. Once the West Wing reopens, this lift access should again be available to give FCC members an alternative, non-hill route to the Club.

The integrity of the former government hill site is now assured and the GHCC has regrouped to campaign for the adjacent Bishop Hill site to be similarly conserved. A planning application was made last year requesting the Town Planning Board properly plan the site rather than immediately allow the Anglican Church to redevelop it without additional public consultation.

The Town Planning Board agreed with the concern group, and an Outline Zoning Plan (OZP) has been prepared by the Planning Department and was recently open for public scrutiny. In this OZP – which outlines broad-brush statutory planning details for all areas of Hong Kong – a height restriction of 135 metres (about 25 storeys) has been recommended for Bishop Hill by the Planning Department.

The GHCC argues this height is too high and any new development of consequent scale and bulk would overwhelm this sensitive heritage site. The group has now submitted a considered counter proposal in a submission to the Town Planning Board. The GHCC argues that the entire site has a height restriction of no higher than 80 metres (about 20 metres higher than the former Central Hospital’s current height), and that any new development only be allowed to be built on the footprint of the current buildings.

This proposal will still allow the Anglican Church to develop, or renovate, the former Central Hospital, but will not overwhelm the site’s heritage and greenery. This restricted height will also contain the bulk and form of any new building, alleviate traffic congestion, and retain the unique historic ambience of the entire Bishop Hill.

The GHCC and the FCC will make oral submissions to the Town Planning Board at a hearing to discuss the OZP in the next months. Anyone else who has made a comment on this application can also address the Town Planning Board – which makes a decision after hearing all submissions.

*A Point of View, https://issuu.com/fcchk/docs/the_correspondent_july_2018

The Peace Hotel: Bund masterpiece still standing tall at 90

The Peace Hotel on Shanghai’s Bund has seen it all over 90 years, from glittering guests such as Charlie Chaplin and Noel Coward, to the Gang of Four and Communist officials settling in as the wheels of history turned. Jonathan Sharp went along for birthday celebrations.

View of the Bund in 1934

China has many significant anniversaries to mark – or ignore – in 2019. One that does not appear to have politically sensitive overtones is this year’s 90th anniversary of the opening of the Peace Hotel, the Art Deco masterpiece on Shanghai’s Bund.

Originally called the Cathay and now part of Fairmont’s global stable, the Peace has been witness, and sometimes party to, some of the most remarkable and momentous changes of fortune that have studded China’s modern history.

And, externally at least, it still looks much the same as it did when it opened in 1929, complete with the distinctive copper-sheathed green pyramid on top that glows at night.

Sir Victor Sassoon with actor Laurence Olivier and actress Greer Garson

The hotel was the brainchild of real estate tycoon Sir Victor Sassoon, the most notable of the Jews of Iraqi origin who took their chances in Shanghai. He used an 11th floor penthouse in the hotel as his pied-a-terre.

Perhaps most renowned for its front and centre role in Shanghai’s heyday of hedonism and decadence in the 1930s, the hotel also weathered rogue bombs and Japanese occupation, and the Communist takeover in 1949. During the Cultural Revolution members of the radical Gang of Four availed themselves of its services.

Once the tallest building in the Far East, the granite-clad hotel now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with a parade of other magnificent historical relics that once housed foreign banks, trading houses and consulates, strung along the elegant curve of the Bund.

First ad in 1919

Facing directly opposite them across the Huangpu River is the glitzy cluster of skyscrapers of Pudong, totems of today’s China. This graphic counterpoint between past and present China is best viewed, as I did recently, from the terraced bar on the ninth floor of the Peace.

The hotel, like other buildings along the Bund, had a difficult birth because of the treacherous nature of the construction site, a swamp scores of metres deep in mud. The solution employed by venerable Hong Kong-based architects Palmer & Turner – still going strong today – was to saturate the site with masses of timber piles covered by a giant concrete raft. It worked.

Once completed as the height of opulence, extravagance and state-of-the-art facilities, the hotel hosted and boasted a glittering roll call of celebrity guests. It was one of the places in Asia for the famous to see and be seen, to preen and be preened. So, the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard stayed, Douglas Fairbanks tested the sprung timber ballroom floor. And Noel Coward drafted his play Private Lives in his hotel room while recovering from ’flu.

Zhou Wanrong, 99, original Old Jazz Band member

Sir Victor’s costume parties were legion and legendary. But one went hilariously awry, as chronicled by Taras Grescoe in his superb book, Shanghai Grand. At a circus-themed dance, Sylvia Chancellor, wife of Christopher Chancellor of the Reuters Far East bureau, and Henry Keswick of Jardine’s smuggled a live donkey into the party. The donkey duly defecated amidst the dancers. Sir Victor was not amused. Mrs Chancellor’s high jinks did not harm her husband’s career one jot. Sir Christopher rose to run all of Reuters for 15 years.

In those days Shanghai gloried in the title as the “Paris of the Orient”, but it was also described as the “Whore of the Orient” for its prostitution, drug dens and corruption. Evidence of the city’s squalor and crushing mass poverty was right outside the hotel. One of the best known of the army of beggars was called “Light in the Head”. He kept a lighted candle, dripping wax, on his shaved head.

On August 14, 1937, the war with Japan came shatteringly close when two stray bombs from Chinese aircraft aiming at a Japanese warship in the Huangpu River shook the hotel to its foundations. The bombs devastated Nanjing Street outside the hotel, but spared the guests. Seemingly the party was well and truly over.

James Cowan on the hotel’s restored Steinway piano

When the Communists came to power in 1949 the hotel was used by municipal officials before being reconstituted as the Peace Hotel in 1956.

My first stay was in 1971 when an air of faded glory pervaded the hotel. I recall large rooms with overstuffed armchairs and original bathroom fittings made in Wolverhampton, a gritty industrial town near where I grew up in the UK. The plumbing still worked (good job, Wolverhampton!).

A memorable milestone was reached in 1980 when the hotel’s legendary Old Jazz Band performed once again. Live jazz in Communist China! The evident joy and enthusiasm of the six elderly musicians more than made up for any technical rustiness resulting from their years in the shadows.

The sextet’s successors still soldier on nightly, although in today’s more relaxed cultural atmosphere they inevitably lack what was once a highly marketable novelty value.

In 2007 the Peace Hotel closed for three years of extensive, and expensive, renovation undertaken with solemn pledges to restore it as far as possible to its former Art Deco glory.

And, as far as my untutored eye can judge, the multi-million dollar facelift for what is now the Fairmont Peace Hotel (although Shanghai residents including taxi drivers stick to the old name) has been a success.

Ribbon dancer at 90th anniversary party

Of immediate impact is the stunning octagonal rotunda in the lobby with a copper and yellow-tinted glass skylight that for decades was hidden.

However, throughout the revamped hotel, authentic touches abound in the furniture and fittings, not least the huge claw-foot bathtub in the bathroom of the spacious double room where my wife Betty and I stayed. Betty’s tutored eye also approved of the eighth floor Dragon Phoenix restaurant. Rates and prices were, by Hong Kong standards at least, pleasantly reasonable.

So, I am guessing Sir Victor would have approved of the makeover of his masterpiece. Perhaps he would be less happy with a sour note that intrudes, one that is entirely out of the hotel’s control. When we tuned into the BBC World Service in our room, the screen periodically went blank – footage of the Hong Kong protests, then in full swing, was being aired. The programme resumed when the world’s other dramas and disasters less close to home were reported.

August 1 saw the launch of grand celebrations of the hotel’s 90th anniversary. Blasts from the past included an appearance by 99-year-old Zhou Wanrong, leader of the Old Jazz Band when it was revived in 1980. Another reminder of the hotel’s extraordinary history was a recital played on the Steinway piano that was ordered by Sir Victor for the hotel’s opening.