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Opinion
Alice Wu
Alice Wu
Asian Games: Hong Kong’s story of triumph gives off all the right vibes
- Our athletes haven’t just made history, they are telling the stories Hong Kong needs to hear about overcoming the odds and showing hard work pays off
- John Lee’s promise of celebrations is good but there must also be real support for sports in the city
I’m glad Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has declared the “Night Vibes Hong Kong” campaign a success even though it isn’t technically over until early next year. The campaign began with the Mid-Autumn Festival launch, continues through Christmas and wraps up with the Lunar New Year.
But enough of the technicalities. Lee is a master of setting himself up for success. It’s one more tick to add to his key performance indicator (KPI) scorecard, ahead of his policy address later this month.
With “Night Vibes” crossed off his list, he can devote more attention to organising celebrations after the extraordinary performance of Hong Kong’s athletes at the Asian Games – something he has vowed to do, but for which we need to hold him accountable.
Our athletes haven’t just made history; they are giving this city all the right vibes. Overcoming the odds, displaying resilience and showing that hard work pays off – these are exactly what the city’s residents need to hear. There are endless good Hong Kong stories to tell about our athletes.
And Hong Kong’s record-breaking medal haul is something to be excited about. I really wish there was more excitement and noise about the Games.
Our team had such a run of success, it’s almost unbelievable. We were getting medals and seeing our flag raised on the podium every day in the first half of the Games. Where do we even begin to celebrate and honour what our athletes have done?
The first gold won by the men’s pair in rowing? The football team’s incredible and completely unexpected win over Iran, one of the region’s best teams, and their eventual fourth place – their best-ever finish? Both our men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams bringing home medals? Our women’s cycling team breaking the city record and winning a podium place?
How about all the first gold medals for our athletes in swimming, fencing and, of course, golf? Athletes like swimmer Siobhan Haughey and fencer Cheung Ka-long did not disappoint. Haughey broke yet more records. Cheung won the city’s first fencing gold medal.
Home-grown golfer Taichi Kho also won the individual men’s tournament, beating world-class competitors. Kho, who only turned professional in February, took out South Korean pro golfers Sungjae Im and Si-woo Kim, who are ranked 26th and 40th in the world respectively. He also took home a bronze medal in the team event. His win has been described as “improbable”.
It was seen as improbable because sports has never been a priority in Hong Kong, even though this cutthroat city is an ideal breeding ground for competitive sports. Growing up here, you’re competing before you’re even out of the womb. Parenting is a contact sport.
Building the Kai Tak Sports Park is an improvement, but the lack of government support is apparent. The authorities went through the motions of setting up an Asia Games webpage with information on live broadcasts across the city and released congratulatory messages in press releases – but how often did we see officials actually cheering on our athletes? Their attendances were brief and hardly enough.
Lee was at the opening ceremony and a few matches and award ceremonies, but what about drumming up support? He did go on Facebook to say he and his team were “cheering and clapping for the athletes wholeheartedly to show our support”. Yet, at the time of writing, the dedicated Asian Games Live Zone website didn’t even have the city’s medal tally. So much for being a live zone.
Destroying historic Hong Kong golf course for flats would be supremely foolish
Destroying historic Hong Kong golf course for flats would be supremely foolish
Perhaps, after the golf team’s wins, the government is finding it hard to answer questions about its role in supporting the sport, having taken back 32 hectares of land at the Hong Kong Golf Club, part of which is being used as a park for pets. Golfers, unlike other sportsmen, have no government facilities to train in.
The club has pointed to the 20 per cent drop in available training time because of the loss of the old club course, while the golf association has asked the government for more support instead of “cutting back on already scarce golf resources”. Clearly, the government played little role in the golf wins.
Officials needs to do more than just roll out the red carpet for our athletes. There needs to be real support, and that begins with recognising that our athletes exude the very Hong Kong spirit we need.
Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA
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