The 1960s to the 1980s were times of huge swings of fortunes in politics and the economy in Hong Kong and an exciting time to be in the newspaper business. The riots of 1966 and 1967, oil crises and economic slumps in the 1970s, police corruption and the setting up of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the warming of relations between the United States and Mainland China, the deaths of leaders Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong in Mainland China and Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan, the rise of Deng Xiaoping and the launch of the open door economic policy in China, all brought fundamental changes in their wake.

As the 1980s got underway, and uncertainties over Hong Kong’s future grew more pressing, with 1997 – the end date for the original lease for the New Territories – less than two decades away, the UK and China started negotiations. They eventually agreed that sovereignty would be returned to China at midnight on 30 June-1 July 1997. The Joint Declaration was signed in December 1984.

Just ahead of this, the Ho father-and-son team at the Kung Sheung newspapers decided to stop the presses at their papers for good. The announcement was made to staff on 30 November 1984, bringing to an end a colourful 60-year presence in Hong Kong reportage. Given the timing and the paper’s editorial line, the closure created headlines in the following days.

Fenwick Street finale

“We looked at the political situation. We felt that our editorial stance was too much to the right – and we didn’t want to change our position. We didn’t want to be what is known in Chinese as a ‘bamboo tree’, always swaying. In addition, people were sensitive about our paper’s stance and didn’t advertise fearing they would alienate the leftist view. So we closed it.

Of course, I was sad, both as a journalist and a family member. But people working there were paid more than the required amount so they were happy. And that was the end of the Kung Sheung story.”