This is the place where random thoughts and observations are posted. Usually I don't have enough material to expand what are written here into articles. (In most cases, it is probably a good thing that I don't). Usually I make a post whenever some interesting notions hit my head.
Be warned! This may (and probably does) look like an on-line confessional and the things I post here may be even more confusing than my articles and can be quite depressing. So for the sake of your mental health, please set aside your faith in others and optimism before reading these posts.
Enjoy these "short" musings. Hopefully they won't make your head spin or drive you sleepless or confused.
February 21, 2026
Hong Kong's participation in the Winter Olympics is little more than that (and there is little expection of the athletes representing the city). So when a Hong Konger reached the final in a short-track speedskating event, one is inclined to ask "what happened to the other athletes?" It turned out that, in her quarter-final and semi-final, she managed to advance after most of her competitors slipped or crashed. Expectedly, she finished last in the final, about 2 seconds behind the other finalists (while the racer in front of her was within one second of the gold medalist). This is probably the first time Hong Kong has reached the final of a multi-round elimination event in the Winter Olympics, but the only coverage I can find are still photos from the Olympic Committee because no local station (public or private) bought broadcast rights to the Games. Not sure if it is due to the lack of expectation (of the athletes' performance), interest (from the public) or resources (in terms of money and professional commentators), but we may never see another Hong Konger reach the final of a Winter Olympic event again. One may say the TV stations slipped and crashed into the wall (padded or not).
February 13, 2026
The student who launched an online petition demanding a thorough investigation into a deadly fire which killed 168 at a housing estate was expelled from the university he was attending for "committing multiple acts of misconduct". The decision was made after a disciplinary hearing, after which he was imposed two demerits for showing "impolite and disrespectful attitude towards" the panel. While he was arrested by "national security" police for questioning after he launched the petition, he is yet to be charged, let alone convicted. Sure, he made a online post in which he referred the panel as "kangaroo panel", "disgrace," and "circus", but is this an expellable act? (Perhaps the panel concluded that he has to be punished severely, but suspension would be meaningless as he has earned enough credits to graduate.) One can say the administration is acting as if they are running a high school and this incident would bring disrepute towards the university rather than the student.
February 9, 2026
Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-shutdown Apple Daily received a 20-year sentence for colluding with foreign foraces and sedition. Given that he is 78, it is likely he will spend the rest of life in prison. As expected, officials in Hong Kong and Beijing praised the sentence. (After all, they handpicked the judges presiding in the trial.) Their statements contain a series of four-word idioms painting Mr. Lai as unrepentant, just short of being treasonist, and got what he deserved. If one can sit through such statements (or those condemning foreign media/politicians' criticism of the "national security law" and how it is applied), one can play bingo by replacing the numbers on the cards with such idioms and similar phrases. (I can think of at least 25 such terms without much trouble.) The only trouble is that players would have trouble keeping up with the annoucer if the annoucer reads an official statement (in which the phrases may appear in quick sequence) instead of drawing phrases one by one.
January 30, 2026
The government suspended the law requiring bus passengers to wear seat belts, after numerous complaints from riders and a few incidents where the seat belts were involved — cutting a seat belt, passengers getting into a fight and, most dramatically, deploying ~20 firefighters to rescue a man unable to release the seat belt on his bus seat (so that the seat belt would not be damaged, the bus operator claimed). The reversal was made after a former legislator "discovered" that the law only applies to buses first registered after the law came into effect — January 25, 2026. Why didn't she, who voted for the law, and any officials/legislators realize this while the law went through the legislative process? Did the legislators fear obstructing the government and risk labelled part of "the soft resistance"? (Or they just simply wanted to end the meeting early.) It is too much to ask to fire the officials involved in drafting the law (including two cabinet ministers who served as the Director of the Transport Department at the time) or fine the legislators/officials for missing such a key article. Good thing sedition laws do not apply to laws, government officials and (patriotic) legislators, since this law may have incited many Hong Kongers' hatred towards the city's government.
January 24, 2026
Starting tomorrow, all passengers riding on-road vehicles (including buses, minibuses) have to wear seat belts while sitting if one is available. Anyone who are found not wearing seat belts would be subject to fines and imprisonment (up to $5000 and three months respectively). The law is not applicable to trams and MTR. Would passengers stand instead of sit on buses, further crowding them, to avoid wearing them? Does a driver have the right to refuse driving if any passenger sits on a seat without buckling up? With parking fines increasing soon and larger enforcement of traffic violations (such as jaywalking), Hong Kong should consider selling its own version of Singapore's "The Fine City" products. (Officials in Hong Kong desires to be ahead of Singapore in any ranking. So why not take the title often associated with Singapore away from the city's main rival?)
January 16, 2026
The Lunar New Year is about one month away. So stores are starting to sell new year pastries such as sticky rice cake and white turnip cake. Recently food inspectors visited a store owned by a former (pro-democracy) district councillor after receiving complaint from someone who had upset stomach after eating new year pastries bought from the store. The store told the inspectors that the store is currently only selling coupons that can be exhanged for pastries later on and the pastries would not be available for pickup until the end of January. So did the complainer fall sick after eating the coupon or seeing the pictures of the pastries on the coupon? Was the complainer someone who works at the plant that manufactures the pastries and tasted the product (while no one was watching)? If it was the latter, shouldn't he file a compliant against the plant instead of the store? Sometimes one has to pity the inspectors responding to such complaints. (Just the little though.)
January 7, 2026
The government minister in charge of innovation's trip to the US (which includes attending Consumer Electronics Show, meetings in Silicon Valley and events organized by the External Trade Office) was cancelled, 4 hours after the trip was annouced. Had the reversal happened later, would the plane he would have travelled in be forced to return. A government statment claimed that the trip was cancelled "following an active assessment". A veteran commentator claimed that the trip was cancelled due to the capture of Nicolas Maduro, a major Chinese ally, by the US. (While the operation was highly questionable, I am glad it happened.) Visiting the US by a major official at this moment, he claimed, would be highly inappropriate. Was the trip cancelled because the government fear that the minister might be captured by the US had the trip went on as planned? Anyone who doesn't dismiss the idea right away would be massively overestimating the minister's importance. (What? You expect he knows a lot about the Chinese techological masterplan, or officials in Hong Kong/China would accept his return conditional on the release of major figures imprisoned on "national security" charges？)
January 2, 2026
Hundreds welcomed the new year by pitcing tents at a scenic beach within a country park. Those who visited the beach later in the day may wonder if they were visiting a place where a refuse truck flipped over. The beach was filled with all kinds of litter (including, ironically, right below a banner asking visitors not to leave their waste in the country park) and the toilets were in such a state that photos showing them had to be blurred. (Let's just say that they were covered with a mixture of human food and waste.) Officials stated that they would consider sending extra staff to clean the beach during peak periods, but that would not deter visitors from trashing the place. Perhaps the police should deploy officers at popular camp sites and issue fines to anyone (and I mean anyone, regardless of where they come from) who desecrate the site the same way they catch jaywalkers, minibus riders who don't wear seat belts and visitors to "yellow stores". (Whether they will do that is, of course, another matter.)
December 31, 2025
The Guangdong-Hong Kong Cup, a home-and-home football competition contested between the men's and, starting a few years ago, women's teams of the two locales. The leg hosted by Hong Kong was played at a stadium that regularly hosts Hong Kong Premier League matches. The match caught my (and a few others') attention after a social media post from Hong Kong's coach showing the team's equipment table next to a row of urinals （meaning their dressing room was in fact a men's changing room). The team ended up discussing strategy outside their dressing row. Did the tournament organizer (the Hong Kong Football Association) have no knowledge of the stadium's facilities (and lack thereof)? Why wasn't the match played at a stadium with better facilities (such as those hosting matches of the men's team or major league/cup matches) which assumably have proper facilities? At least the team can take solace that the visitors' dressing room was regularly used by men as well (since the organizers deemed the women's changing room too small to accommodate either team).
December 19, 2025
After a four-month review (a process that normally take less than a month), authorities rejected the application for public screening of film director Kiwi Chow's latest work, Deadline, claiming that the film "would be contrary to the interest of national security". There was no elaboration on how the film, a story about a suicide threat within a school, would endanger "national security". Perhaps the decision is related to the director's previous work, one segment of wild-fantasy-turned-grim-prophesy Ten Years and Revolution of Our Times (a documentary about the 2019 democracy protests). Interestingly, Deadline is the fifth film directed by Chow, while Ten Years and Revolution of Our Times, both of which are effectively banned in Hong Kong, were Chow's first and third film respectively. Since Chow's second and fourth films, romance films Beyond the Dream and Say I Do To Me, can be legally viewed in Hong Kong, Hong Kongers can legally watch Chow's next film (his sixth) without leaving the city, right? Or should Chow become a director of romance films (and nothing else) in the future?
December 16, 2025
As expected media mogul Jimmy Lai was convicted on "conspiracy to foreign collusion and publish seditious publications" by publishing articles supporting the 2019 protest movement, calling for sanctions against officials in Hong Kong and China as well as end of Communist rule in China. was no mention of any. While this trial and verdict is completely political motivated, the designated "national security" judges did not even try to make their decisions more convincing by naming any foreign individual and group he had been "colluding" in the verdict. He had been in custody for 5 years, the closing arguments were presented over a year ago and everyone knows he would be found guilty, so on may wonder on the timing of the verdict. With the Mayor going to Beijing to report his past year's work (one may call it his appraisal), it is natural to wonder if he ordered to time the verdict so that he can boast his work in protecting "national security" and to boost his case to be reappointed re-elected. With the Mayor named in the shortlist of an online poll for Tyrant of the Year (alongside Trump, Putin, among others), one may wonder if he is campaigning for the title by adding this verdict to his list of accomplishments.
December 8, 2025
About 1.3 million voted in yesterday's general Legislative Council election. The turnout was about 31%, slightly higher than that for last general election. The names of those elected don't matter much, since they all "love the country, love Hong Kong", with one exception — the former Olympic champion fencer, who didn't answer any reporter's questions after her victory, can serve as the legislature's unofficial mascot instead of sitting in the chamber. The turnout in the 3 elections since the electoral system was "improved" had been steady at around 30%. Coincidentally(?), "patriotic" candidates received votes from about 30% of the registered voters in the last freely-contested election in 2019. So there was little growth in the amount of support the government receives and few who supported the "yellow" camp had been won over. If the turnout remains at similar levels for the next major election in 2027, when the youngest voters would be subjected to national education throughout their high-school years, the government may consider mandatory voting. (Would the government introduce "smart" ballot boxes which blare loud signals when someone casts a spoiled ballot?)
December 3, 2025
The Mayor has annouced that he will form an independent committee (instead of a statutory commission of inquiry) to investigate the causes of the fire that torched a housing estate and killed more than 150 as well as making recommendations on preventing future tragedies. Setting up a statutory commission of inquiry was one of the four demands in an online petition set up by a student, who was arrested by "national security" police on sedition charges. The demands in the petition sounded reasonable. Perhaps the petition reminds the government of the five demands, one of which was setting up a statutory commission of inquiry to investigate police brutality (among others), from the 2019 protests. Since the Mayor rose the his current position by quashing the protests (never mind that he had a major role in drafting the extradiction amendment that triggered the protests in the first place), it is natural for him not to set up a statutory commission of inquiry (which may find the government at fault) and to silence anyone wanting to create one.