On his return to Hong Kong, Robert Hung Ngai was just starting out in his thirties and his new role appeared tailor-made for him: helping his father to run the Kung Sheung newspaper business. The Chinese language press in 1960s Hong Kong was sharply divided between papers supporting the communist Beijing-based government in the People’s Republic of China and the Kuomintang-led Republic of China in Taiwan. With his father’s prominent past role in the Kuomintang military and government, and on-going connections, the newspaper’s editorial stance was firmly pro-Taiwan. Yet, there was still room for criticism of Taipei if deemed necessary.

In 1964, the Ho newspaper operation moved to the new Kung Sheung Daily News Building on Fenwick Street in Wanchai. The daily and evening papers were popular, with circulation cited at 10% of readership, the third largest share in 1966 (readership tables, Carol P. Lai’s Media in Hong Kong: Press Freedom and Political Change, 1967-2005).

Pressure came in from the community at times, given the family’s wide business connections. One of several stories that Robert Hung Ngai can relate on such incidents involved the devastating 1965 bank run in Hong Kong, with one of the outcomes being that Hang Seng Bank was rescued and taken over by HBSC.

Under external pressure

“The run started with a small bank. Then it spread so that all the banks had queues of people taking money out. The Hang Seng Bank line stretched from Des Voeux Rd to the old Post Office Building (next to the Mandarin Hotel). That was how long the queue was. One of the Hang Seng Bank founders was on the board of our temple Tung Lin Kok Yuen and also a friend of the family. He was an elderly gentleman by then. He called me up and said: ‘Would you mind not covering the story?’ I spoke to him politely and told him, it would be very difficult not to run it. I said: ‘Uncle,’- in Chinese, a friendly way to address a senior person - ‘I can’t do that. The line is so long and everyone else is covering it. How can you ask me not to go with the story?’

“That was the kind of pressure you received. How about writing a story like this? Or killing a story like that? Although I was only chief reporter at the time of the bank run, people didn’t care about my title. They thought I was running the paper because the family owned it.

“That’s why I was uncomfortable on the cocktail circuit and at dinners. You didn’t want to get too close to people. That is the penalty you pay for being a journalist.”

East-west journalistic differences internally were also noticeable as Robert Hung Ngai gradually took over more responsibilities for the newspaper, moving up to an editor position from 1968 to 1982 and publisher from 1982 to 1987.

All quiet on the internal front

“It could be hard to get new ideas or critiques as people did not want to counter the boss. In western culture, it was easy. You held meetings, people exchanged ideas, and it was all very open. In a Chinese setting, you would sit there and say “A” and everyone else would say “A” because you were in charge. If you said “B”, everyone would say “B”. It was hard to induce people to give you their true opinion.

“People were very accommodating to your ideas. But you cannot be smart all the time. You need some input.”