Hong Kong opinion leader
After graduating from NTU, he remained in Taiwan to work. He worked as a copywriter in an advertising company, and as a magazine journalist. He then went to America to earn a PhD in sociology, and in 1997 returned to Taiwan to teach at Shih Hsin University.
Around Chinese New Year that year, the well-known Taiwanese newspaperman and founder of the China Times’ literary supplement Kao Hsin-chiang called Ma from Hong Kong and said, “You’re a Hong Konger—what on earth are you doing in Taiwan? Why don’t you come and work at Ming Pao?” The next day, Ma was on a plane to Hong Kong, and went to take the job as Ming Pao’s deputy editor-in-chief.
Ma developed a supplementary section for Ming Pao. Supplements in Hong Kong newspapers had traditionally been focused on local gossip columns, but Ma widened the scope to include articles by well-known writers on Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China. He fashioned it into a major cultural publication.
He took up a teaching position at City University of Hong Kong in 1998, and when he wasn’t teaching he kept himself even more busy. As well as staying on at Ming Pao as a consultant, he also appeared on TV and radio, and put out a daily newspaper column. From 1998 to 2000, he hosted a talk show on Phoenix Television that aired Monday through Friday and was viewed by 200 million people. He was recognized everywhere he went.
Ma says that professors in Hong Kong usually remain aloof from society, but he threw himself into social reform and would often discuss politics and current events in public forums. His front-page opinion column in Ming Pao (which is like an editorial in Taiwanese newspapers, but carries a byline) caught the attention of Hong Kong’s former chief executive Tung Chee Hwa, who specially asked the paper’s editors and the administrators of Ma’s university to “have coffee” with him. The editors knew the value of free speech and told Ma to ignore it.
July 1, 2012 was the fifteenth anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from the British to the Chinese, and as in the past tens of thousands of Hong Kongers took to the streets to make demands of the local government and the PRC. Over the last 15 years, how much has Hong Kong changed?
“The protestors marching today have even less faith in the abilities of the region’s administrators to govern Hong Kong. The protestors’ demands are much more varied than they were 15 years ago. There are many more young people protesting than 15 years ago. The protestors’ chants are much more against the so-called ‘integration’ of the mainland and Hong Kong than 15 years ago.”
Ma Kafai expresses himself in his rich writing. He writes on places, underworld battles, romance, and film. He’s experienced at writing in many non-fiction genres.