The decision to become a journalist following graduation from Colgate did not come totally out of the blue. Since the late 1920s, the Ho family had successfully run the Chinese language Kung Sheung (Industrial and Commercial) newspaper group and while studying at Pui Ching after the Second World War, Robert Hung Ngai had served as a proof-reader and a cub sports reporter for the newspapers during two summer holidays. “At home, the conversation was always newspaper, newspaper…” he recalled, illustrating the important position of the paper among the family’s many business interests.

To gain extra qualifications as well as follow the family tradition of acquiring postgraduate credentials, Robert Hung Ngai sought to join Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York as a master’s student. At the time, work experience was required for those wanting to apply for such programmes. He did not want to work for his own paper at that stage - “That would be no fun” – so he took advantage of his English language skills and gained employment firstly in Taiwan in the international department of the Central News Agency and later for the Hong Kong Tiger Standard. “Those were good days. It was a young newspaper and very competitive,” Mr Ho said.

With such experience in hand, he was accepted at Columbia, graduating in 1958 with a Master of Science in Journalism after a one-year intensive programme. He then decided to stay in the United States and make his own way in the world rather than return to Hong Kong. He began his job hunt and, being young and ambitious, his first application aimed high.

The world of hard knocks and independence

“I was so proud of my Master’s that I applied to The New York Times and strangely enough they said I could have an interview. When I went there, I talked about graduating from Columbia and my international experience, and the interviewer’s response was I could start as a copy boy on US$75 a week, less various deductions for tax and other things. Well, I thought, I’m not going to be a copy boy when I have a Master’s degree so I walked out!

“I wrote around and finally The Pittsburgh Press gave me a job. The paper was the leader in Pittsburgh at that time and part of the Scripps-Howard chain, with around 20 papers in the US. I stayed around 18 months.

“After that, I got a job at National Geographic Magazine. Going from Pittsburgh to Washington was a big move for me. They put me in an editing department in a team of three working on natural history and expeditions. Manuscripts were stacked high. These articles would come in from famous guys who went on safari or did research. The editor would say ‘We only need 12 pages’ and we would slash it all down. In those days, I never left the building.

“One episode I remember involved a senior UN official, who had flown over the ‘Hump’ between China and India, including Mount Everest. He wrote a substantial story on this experience and the editor was under pressure to run it because of the name attached. Eventually, he said: “Eight pages.” Good thing I didn’t have to speak to the writer as the guy was really upset! But what can you do? It is the privilege of being a journalist to decide on the content. That was a long, long time ago but quite exciting!”

It was also influential, with Robert Hung Ngai adopting a similar uncompromising attitude toward outside interference when he later came under pressure himself at his family’s Chinese language newspaper in Hong Kong.