In 1962, Robert Hung Ngai and Greta gave up their life in the US to return to Hong Kong to assist with the family businesses. It was not a decision taken lightly. “I wanted to stay because it had been so interesting at the Geographic and being associated with journalism in North America,” Mr Ho said. However, after persuasion by his parents, he took up the obligation he felt to the Ho business empire as his father’s only son. Given his family’s leading position in the city, he also had to learn to survive the social circuit.

Maintaining a journalist’s reserve

“There were so many small points that eventually made me go back, but when I did I found it another culture. I am not a person geared for the cocktail circuit or the small talk that goes with it. It was so artificial to me. I am – or was when younger – more interested in going for a hike.

“At Columbia University, they stressed that journalists are always alone – because every day you might be writing something that is unpleasant about a friend of yours. When I was on the cocktail circuit, part of the inner me was feeling: ‘Let’s not be too friendly.’”