In this episode, we are thrilled to be joined by one of Hong Kong’s best-known public figures, Allan Zeman – businessman, philanthropist and king of the city’s entertainment industry. Allan talks about his upbringing in Montreal, his early success in the fashion industry, and how he turned a sleepy area called Lan Kwai Fong into the centre of Hong Kong’s nightlife. He speaks with our Senior Partner Colin Cohen.
Host: Colin Cohen
Director: Niall Donnelly
Producer and VO: Thomas Latter
In this episode, we are thrilled to be joined by one of Hong Kong’s best-known public figures, Allan Zeman – businessman, philanthropist and king of the city’s entertainment industry. Allan talks about his upbringing in Montreal, his early success in the fashion industry, and how he turned a sleepy area called Lan Kwai Fong into the centre of Hong Kong’s nightlife. He speaks with our Senior Partner Colin Cohen.
Host: Colin Cohen
Director: Niall Donnelly
Producer and VO: Thomas Latter
[00:00:32] Colin: Welcome to Law & More. Today I'm delighted to have Allan Zeman as my guest. Allan is so well known to everybody. He goes by the name of the godfather of Lan Kwai
[00:00:44] Allan: Fong.
[00:00:44] Colin: He's a major property owner, developer.
[00:00:47] Colin: He is a high profile businessman, a philanthropist, and has been a key contributor to the city's business community for well over four decades. Allan welcome, I always ask my guests this question, what's been keeping you busy recently?
[00:01:05] Allan: Not enough hours in the day, Colin.
[00:01:07] Allan: Basically, I sit on so many different government committees. I'm part of John Lee's policy advisory committee. I sit on so many boards and also the chairman of Wynn, the non-executive chairman and Macau. I have many projects in China and Shenzhen. In Zhongshan, we're building 600,000 square meters. Commercial projects including Lan Kwai Fong and that thing with the Greater Bay Area, which I feel very, very strongly about. We have a project here in Hong Kong in Sai Kung that we're building Urban Resort Villas in Sai Kung, which hopefully will be up for sale in 2025.
[00:01:47] Allan: I sit on Fosun's Board in Shanghai. I'm on Sino Board. I'm on TVB board. I can go on and on. I've got projects in Thailand and Phuket. We have a hotel there. I have a new, condominium project going up called Sudara. We have a golf course, also a project called Aqualo, together with Richard Lee. It's a golf course, 2.5 kilometres of beachfront selling villas there as well.
[00:02:13] Colin: I think my listeners are very privileged that you found a spot in your diary to come here.
[00:02:19] Allan: Well, Collin, you're an old, old, old, old friend who I've known for many, many years from the old days of California restaurant.
[00:02:27] Allan: And so I couldn't say no.
[00:02:30] Colin: We very happy. Now, before I go into your distinguished career in more detail, I'd like to know a little bit more about your background.
[00:02:37] Colin: I know you were born in Germany
[00:02:39] Allan: Yeah. But I'm not German, everyone thinks I'm German. I left two months old when I left, cause my parents were just during the war, I guess they were travelling through Europe and gave birth to me In Germany. I have an older sister she was born in Russia, but we're not Russian either.
[00:02:55] Colin: And then you went to Canada. So tell me a little bit more about your upbringing in particular.
[00:02:59] Allan: Well, when they came over, they went to Canada, they went to Montreal, in Quebec, which is predominantly French. And my younger years normal upbringing came from a moderate family. Unfortunately, my father died when I was about seven or eight years old. So I can't really say I remember him that much. I have a picture of myself with him.
[00:03:21] Allan: That's probably my memory of him. And so I lived with my mother. My sister got married and she was living in New York at the time. And so it was just my mother and myself and obviously I was going to school when I was 10 years old. I decided I want to earn some money and so I started delivering newspapers in the morning before I went to school.
[00:03:43] Allan: And I was earning about 25 US a week. Which was a lot of money cause my friends were getting like a dollar allowance when I was 12. I decided to lie a little bit about my age. I said I was 16 cause you could only get a job at 16. And on weekends, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I was a busboy in a steakhouse restaurant cleaning tables.
[00:04:03] Allan: With tips, I was also earning about $25 a week. So together I was earning $50 a week. My teachers were earning about $35 a week. More than my teachers at that time. And of course I was very popular with everybody in the school, but I was in what they called the brain class, the top class. But I never studied. I used to just use my brain to use it for common logic. That's the way I went through life. And then when I was 16, I graduated from school and I was gonna go to university. I had marks to go to university, but then I thought, I don't want to be a professional person because I already had the taste of money. When I was also 16, I bought my own car. I was the only kid in school. You had a driving license out. Yes, you can be 16, you can get the driver's license in Canada at that time. And so I was the only one in the school with, with a car. Even my teachers, most of 'em couldn't afford a car. And it was a convertible.
[00:04:55] Allan: Of course, I was very popular with all the women at the time in the school. But that really prepared me, for my career ahead. I guess also not having a father. You realized you can't be dependent on parents and so, at a very young age, you learn what life is all about.
[00:05:11] Allan: So at 16 when I left school, I was looking through the classifieds and there was a lady's lingerie company looking for a shipping clerk. Now, I didn't know what shipping clerk meant, but I knew what lingerie sounded like to a 16 year old. So I went and applied for the job and I got the job.
[00:05:29] Allan: I was paid like $50 or $60 a week. Started off there and then I saw all the big salesmen with their big fancy cars coming and worked on commission and getting their commission checks at the end. And they said you know how much we ship today, Sonny, and so I figured at the end of the month they get big commission checks.
[00:05:47] Allan: I wanna be a salesman. So I think I was just about 17 at the time. I was looking through the classified for a sales job and the largest lady's dress company in Canada was looking for a showroom dress salesman. I had no idea what a dress looked like, but I decided to dress up and go to HR to apply for the job.
[00:06:08] Allan: While I was sitting with HR, they said what do you do? Well, I was the perfect candidate for HR. I just made it up. I figured I took, a chance, and they asked me. Oh, sounds very interesting, I say, I sell ladies lingerie, and they said, how old you, I couldn't say, I'm 17.
[00:06:24] Allan: I said, I'm 22. There's no internet in those years. I took a shot and they said, what's your salary? It was like, at the time, $60 a week. I said, 200 as a salesman, 200 a week. They said, okay, when can you start? I almost died. I was 17 years old, and I said, I didn't think it's cool if I say it right away.
[00:06:42] Allan: I said, I'll start. Tomorrow, right? I'll call you tomorrow and tell you. And so I started working there. I did start to do very, very well. I was watching what other salesmen were doing and at the age of 19 I always felt if someone else can do something, why can't we all come from the same place, our mother's womb and death was a great equalizer.
[00:07:03] Allan: So I always, I thought I wanna start my own business. And that's what brought me to Hong Kong. So the age of 19, I came to Hong Kong because all the factories at that time were in Hong Kong and Kwun Tong, Kwai Cheung, San Po Kong. China was still communists, were still very, very closed.
[00:07:20] Allan: So I came here and it was a British colony at the time.
[00:07:23] Colin: Was in 1975, I recollect.
[00:07:25] Allan: Yes, I think it was even before that. But when I first came to Hong Kong, it was like going to the moon. And I started to import lady sweaters from Hong Kong company. A start up called Jumper Charlie in fashion sweaters in a tie up with another young guy from London. Richard Gering at the time, and the two of us didn't know what we were doing, but we, we went to Swire, McLean, and Swire was our buying office that took us on. Lydia Dunn, who was the first female executive in Hong Kong. She took us on, basically, she liked our moxi, stamina, whatever you wanna call it.
[00:08:00] Allan: And at the end of my first year in business I was importing ladies sweaters to Canada and a bit to the United States. And I made my first million US profit. And I sat down with the accountants at the end of the year. I said, I'll have a check for a million. I thought I'm Rich. And they looked at me, they said, not so fast. They said, why you gotta pay tax. Tax? You're kidding. Who gets the tax? Well socialized medicine, socialized and social. I said, so how much is it? 50% in Canada? At the time, I started to think to myself, wow, 500,000, still a lot of money to a 19 year old. I said, I can have a check for 500. No you gotta pay tax again, just pay tax. That's corporation tax. Now you gotta declare a dividend for a personal tax and a lesser rate. I think I wound up with 425,000 up by million. It was a lot of money, but I was in Hong Kong on one of the buying trips. I said, how's anyone get rich in this country?
[00:08:54] Allan: They said, everyone pays tax, you know? And so I was in Hong Kong on a buying trip and I asked Lydia Dunn at the time, I said how much is a tax in Hong Kong? She told me 15%. One five, 15%.
[00:09:06] Colin: And now it's very high at 16%.
[00:09:09] Allan: A bright light went off in my head and I said 15%. Wow. If I move to Hong Kong for a few years I can put away some money and then go back to Canada and so I decided to move to Hong Kong at the time, my late mother, she said, you're moving to Japan. No one knew where Hong Kong was in those years back in North America.
[00:09:29] Colin: It reminds me of the story when in 1981 I arrived here and I didn't tell my parents where I was going cause I wasn't qualified as a lawyer. And at that time I saw a massive advert in The Times saying, come to Hong Kong, an extortion amount of money and low tax. And I said to my parents who were a good sort of very religious Jewish family, I'm going to Hong Kong. They said, you are going to be kidnapped by pirates and everything.
[00:09:51] Colin: And I thought, I'll come out here for two years for the similar reasons that I would pay low tax as well.
[00:09:56] Allan: Your parents must have talked to my mother, cause that's exactly what she said. I said, no, it's not Japan. I said, it's China. Oh, even worse at that time, cause that's the way she grew up. And I came out here. And I just loved this. My biggest problem was trying to understand the language. Not the Cantonese language, not the Chinese, the British, their accents, the career diplomats of the Brits were so thick.
[00:10:20] Allan: I never used to understand what they're talking about. He said, just shake my head.
[00:10:23] Colin: So you came to hong Kong, you settled here, you had your clothing business.
[00:10:27] Allan: Yeah, we opened up an export company, trading. Yeah.
[00:10:30] Colin: And you did very well. And then I arrived in 81 and then I was always at the youngster single, where were we going? Lan Kwai Fong.
[00:10:38] Colin: For obvious reasons on a Saturday night too, sort of meet a person or two. How did you get into the entertainment business in the California Tower? Tell us a little bit about that.
[00:10:47] Allan: Well, I'll tell you the truth, basically I had a trading company that we set up and Hong Kong. The business was governed by quotas.
[00:10:54] Allan: And so we had to keep opening offices to export more and more. I built it up, it was called Colby International. I built it up the second largest trading company in Hong Kong. Lee and Fung was number one. We were number two.
[00:11:07] Allan: I had many, many designers, buyers coming out to Hong Kong all the time. Under the British, if you want to get a good meal, you had to go to a hotel.
[00:11:16] Allan: And they were quite formal. They gave you a jacket and a tie. And in those years I didn't wear socks. I never wore a tie in my life, I didn't know how to make a knot, to be quite honest. And I thought to myself, Hong Kong is an international city.
[00:11:30] Allan: The British were here, and people from all over the world were living here, always travelling to do business. It needs an area, needs a place like Lan Kwai Fong because I grew up with it in Montreal, we had a street called Crescent Street. That was same kind of thing that all the restaurants, bars were in the area. New York had at that time, Soho. So I thought to myself, Hong Kong is international, why not here? And one day to speed it up, one of my designers came to me, who I'd hired from the US, brought her out here cause there wasn't a lot of expats in the fashion business at the time. After training her up for three or four years, she said Allan, I want to go back to the US to San Francisco. I said, why? And she said I miss my boyfriend. I said, I thought to myself, oh God, after training somebody up and we used to travel together. I said, what does your boyfriend do?
[00:12:23] Allan: Oh, he runs a restaurant. Oh, bright light went off in my head. Well, instead of you moving back, why don't you bring him out here and we'll open a restaurant? And that was the brainchild between behind Lan Kwai Fung. And so he came out and he never told me that he was actually a bartender. And as little as I knew nothing about running a restaurant or a bar or anything, I don't even drink. So I sent him out looking at different areas, and he came back with Lan Kwai Fong, which at that time was just a backstreet, one block up from Queens Road, which was center of business area at the time.
[00:12:57] Allan: And I looked at it and I thought to myself, wow, I liked this area even though it was on a slope and all the places that you didn't need to or you shouldn't be. And I rented at California at that time was the Yat Fung building, I think it was called. And the owner was a Malaysian guy that had a girly bar on the second floor.
[00:13:15] Allan: The ground floor was actually a grocery store. And so I just liked the feel of the area. For some reason I always say, I look at things not for what they are, I look at things for what they could be. And most people that do well always see things different than other people, and there's a lot of old warehouses around selling Linen Tablecloths from and that kind of thing. And so 1997 was just opening up as well. So I just felt there was a little buzz there and the flower shops were there, cause Lan Kwai Fong was actually Matchmaker's Lane, in Chinese.
[00:13:51] Colin: And let me sort of make full and frank disclosure to everybody here. I met my wife in 1997, in 1987, so for all of us, expatriates there, it was a center of the universe.
[00:14:04] Allan: Tell you so many stories of the same thing. So I rented that space and we called to California. I went to Tokyo at the time cause Tokyo was quite fashionable at the time coming outta the fashion business.
[00:14:16] Allan: We used to travel and I noticed one thing in Tokyo while I was there, restaurants, bars, clubs. The rents were so high on the ground floor, they'd be up on 10th floor of the building, an office building the 15th floor. And I thought to myself, I've never seen this before because in North America where I come from, everything's on ground floor, and nothing is higher up in a building.
[00:14:37] Allan: But then I thought to myself, Hong Kong has so many buildings, rents are very, very expensive on ground floor, even in those years. So I thought, I wonder if we can do the same thing. I rented the space, we called it California, and became an instant hit, because, at that time, everyone, all the stars, now everyone was in California. It just had that buzz.
[00:15:00] Allan: There was a club in the basement called Disco Disco that was a gay club. And it was always getting raided.
[00:15:05] Allan: It was a gay club, the British believed it was illegal to be gay, and so police used to have to raid it almost every other night. And the area just became something very, very special. As I say, people like Danny Chan, the singer who's who passed away, unfortunately, he grew up there.
[00:15:22] Allan: Leslie Joan used to hang out there, unfortunately he passed on. But Faye Wong, Wong Fay. And Michelle Yeoh, who just won the Academy Award for five years. She spent it in the back of California all the time. And actually so many things happened in California.
[00:15:39] Allan: I mean, if you could write a book about it, there was a guy called Michael Johnson, an American hung out in the back of California restaurant all day. He had brought, at that time, the satellites were new thing in the world. And the Asia sat was born there because Hughes satellite was launched in the US and went astray, and then they rescued it and they did a place that they thought they could put it up. And he used to hang out in California. I didn't even know what a satellite was. He used to talk to me all the time, and I think that's the way Star TVs got started there with Richard Lee.
[00:16:15] Colin: Are you surprised by a huge growth in Lan Kwai Fong and then Soho, the whole area? You were the founder of the area and look at it today.
[00:16:22] Allan: Well, because I'm very proud of it because it's been more than 35 years basically. I grew up in the fashion business and so everything's fashion. And to me, I built the New California Tower, which is very, very successful at the moment. And we keep on reinventing ourselves and keep on bringing in new tenants. Cause people's tastes are always changing.
[00:16:42] Allan: Now, of course, the mainland visitors are here and they're a very, very big customer in Lan Kwai Fong. They're the best at the moment. Post Covid days, you know January, February, March so far, in April, have been record months for Lan Kwai Fong basically. I'm the landlord for many of the places, and so I know their turnover.
[00:17:02] Allan: It's incredible. Better than pre Covid days. Yeah, and it basically because the mainland. tourists are coming and they spend God bless, they love the mainland tourists. They're the best.
[00:17:13] Colin: I think the great thing about what you have done was your ability to diversify and to move from the garment trade. Cause I've had many clients of mine when I first came here, I was acting for them and a lot of them wouldn't diversify. But you seem to have changed your move to the times all the time. How did you do that?
[00:17:32] Allan: Always changes, you know. And when you're in fashion, when you grow up, I'm 16 years old, I grew up in fashion.
[00:17:38] Allan: You always think ahead, what are you gonna be wearing next year? What's women are gonna be wearing skirts above the knee, below the knee. men's ties are gonna be thick, thin. So you're always thinking ahead a year and ahead. And so my mind always was trained to think ahead. And so I always look at what the trends are, what's coming, what's new, today, whether it's technology, the forefront of everything, you know.
[00:18:03] Allan: I'm very open minded, very positive, very confident, and I just think of things, think things through. I mean, obviously today, not having gone to university, I have six honourary doctorate degrees.
[00:18:16] Colin: That's it. I apologize not calling you Doctor Zeman, but I think I prefer to call you Allan.
[00:18:20] Allan: No, I know, but you don't mean before. Yeah, but I'm just saying it's so funny. I have a lot of speeches in universities, I work with governments, I've been with everyone,
[00:18:28] Colin: I mean, what I always find quite intrigues me is that, the early stages, how you actually got yourself and appointed to so many government boards and of course the most important one, how you all started off is Ocean Park. And in one great article described you as Hong Kong's Mouse Killer. And for our listeners, that is a sort of little rebuff for Disney. What got you into that? Into the Ocean Park.
[00:18:49] Allan: Well, basically I'd never been to theme park in my life and I'd never been to Ocean Park in my life. My kids grew up there, but I never went there. I'm a businessman. And so one day at that time Tung Chee-hwa, was the chief executive of Hong Kong, and I had a close relationship with him and because of Lan Kwai Fong became a real enigma here in Hong Kong. And so he called me one day and he said, Allan, we have Ocean Park, it's losing a lot of money every year. Disney's coming because they decided to bring Disney here. And Disney's coming to Hong Kong and we're worried Ocean Park going to continue to lose money. It's a government run park, it's taxpayer money. And so we don't know what to do with it. Some people are saying close the park, other advisors are saying sell the land and build condominiums or homes. And so I said, Let me think about it. But I know nothing about theme parks. Why are they calling me?
[00:19:46] Allan: One thing about CH he was very persistent. He calls me six times. By the sixth time I figured I better give him face. I said, CH, let me go and look at the park and see what I think. And I'll tell you right after. So when I went to the park, the location is amazing.
[00:20:03] Allan: It's on the hillside. And the previous CO at that time, our chairman was complaining we're losing money because it's on a hillside and it's very difficult to operate. And the park was falling apart. The pavement was broken.
[00:20:17] Colin: It was very tired.
[00:20:18] Allan: Really tired, looked like it was going outta business when I came there, coming outta the fashion business, I thought.
[00:20:23] Allan: Well, if this is coming, it's really gonna kill Ocean Park. The only way is we have to rebuild it and really make it first class. My world's all about first class, always. I always aimed to be the best. And so I told CH, I called him, I said, CH, if I don't take the job wholly, give it to, see he named that owner, named who it is right now.
[00:20:46] Allan: But a government official who I thought, oh, I'll be the end of the park. And so I said, okay, I'll take the job, but you've got to really support me. And so first thing I knew, I knew nothing about a theme park, but I knew these help. The staff, the uniforms they were wearing, it looked, they were like 1950s, a typical government uniform and a lot of unhappiness and that kind of thing. The food was, as far as I was concerned, was unedible. It was actually a subcontract sub tendered out to a big group here in Hong Kong, and I kept saying to them why can't you give better food? Like, sell better food. Oh, it was a lot of mainlanders at that time. They don't need better.
[00:21:26] Allan: For me, where I come from, everything's gotta be the best. And so, I got rid of them quickly and we took it in-house and I built a strong management team, people who were experienced. So at that time we got Tom Merman, who we interviewed and hired. He had 25 years of experience in theme park business.
[00:21:45] Allan: And we put together a management team, both between expats and locals, and we went about redoing the park, not closing it down, but really doing open heart surgery on a patient.
[00:21:56] Colin: I had to say, it was a great job.
[00:21:57] Allan: For 13 years in a row, I'd beat Disney. That's why I'm called the mouse killer. But it's never happened before where a local theme park has beat the best theme park name in the world. After six years of opening, we won the Applause Award, which is like the Academy Award in theme parks, best theme park in the world.
[00:22:15] Allan: Which was really, again, no local theme park in the world has ever, and suddenly I became an expert in the theme park business. Everyone was calling me from all over the world who was in the theme park business. I became a very well-known personality.
[00:22:30] Colin: And outta that, I remember you did so well that you got many gongs from the Hong Kong government, Hong Kong Bohemia Star, Grand Bohemian Medal. Loads of appointments, businessmen of a year, all of them. But it's one area which interests me and this is Law & More, you're a Justice of the Peace, that's the JP. And JPs have to do one important job and visit the prisons. Now. Mr. JP, tell us a little bit about your experience and getting to the Hong Kong prisons and your views on.
[00:22:59] Allan: I can tell you, when I first appointed to a JP I didn't even know what it meant basically. But I went to my first prison and I think we're supposed to go once every quarter pre covid days and you're assigned to different prisons.
[00:23:13] Allan: You don't know where you're going, together with a government person. Two people usually go and you don't announce beforehand that you're going to the prison. It just, when you arrive, it's JP visit. They announce JP visit, and then of course the warden of the jail meets with you.
[00:23:30] Allan: And then they take you around and they sign people to take you around to all the prisoners. The idea is that you meet every prisoner even those in solitary confinement and they say JP visit, and they ask if If any prisoner has any complaints or anything like that, and then you have to make a report out at the end you take 'em in a private room and they make a report and then it's investigated later after you leave by a special committee. But the thing I realized about prisons, cause people think you always have in your mind prisons to, well, America, US or some of these other places you think they're draconian. But I can tell you to me, being in prison in Hong Kong is not dissimilar to being in the Army because basically the prisoners, you have a normal routine, and you wake up in the morning, you're assigned a job, whether it's sewing uniforms or doing cement or license plates or whatever it is.
[00:24:24] Allan: And then you have breakfast, lunch, go to the mass hall, you have lunch there, and then you have a recess time where you can have a half hour or 20 minutes of recess playing. They've got what do you call basketball? They've got tennis.
[00:24:39] Colin: Did you get complaints from the prisoners?
[00:24:41] Allan: Oh, yes. And a lot of them are really people who don't come from Hong Kong that have been put in and they don't speak the language, whatever. But I really, really understand the penal system here is actually not bad. Then nighttime, you've got a library, they can watch TV before they go to bed. So it's not as draconian, but hopefully it brings out. better people.
[00:25:05] Colin: Yeah. And I can tell you a story. I had a client of mine who spent seven, eight years in London, fighting extradition to Hong Kong, and all the time he was in prison in Pentonville, Onesworth Prisons, comes to Hong Kong. And he did say to that the Hong Kong prisons were way, way, way better than those in London.
[00:25:23] Allan: I've never been to the ones in London or in US, but from what I've seen, and read about, it's just totally different.
[00:25:30] Allan: And so I really admire the Hong Kong government for it. And some of them are in very nice places. Some of them are on a hillside overlooking the water. Even Stanley Bay, Stanley looks over the water and you have good views, but I'm not advocating the people go to prison, but a lot of people are happy, who really can make living outside. Some of them break the law so that they go back into prison and get fed well.
[00:25:55] Colin: Now in 2008, you took a decision and one of my last guests on here sometime ago Mike Rowse, took the same decision, you have applied for Chinese nationality.
[00:26:06] Colin: That means you give up your Canadian passport and you become a Chinese Citizen. What made you do that?
[00:26:12] Allan: What happened was, as I go back to my days in the fashion industry when I had a trading company. I opened my first office in Hunan, in Chong Sha, 45 years ago. And at that time, that was the birthplace of communism. Chairman Mao was born there and it was the hotbed of communism. And the reason I opened up there, cause I bumped into a guy from Hunan at the time in Hong Kong. And I said we're gonna open office in Hong Kong in China. And he said I'll go to Hunan. I didn't even know where it was, but we went and It was very backward. I could write a book about my experiences at the time, lights off, no power, no food. It was really difficult. But the people were very, very nice. The system was difficult, very poor. But we lived through it and it was very exciting. I was really young, at the time, I loved it. I loved the people. And then I saw, 45 years ago, over the years, the life of the people got better and better and better. And I just saw more so than most Hong Kong people who'd never been to and many escaped from China, ran away. They always had bad memories of the old communist system. I just saw it got, better and better and better.
[00:27:24] Allan: And I really became a believer in China and I knew that, China, right now, they're number two in the world. They'll become number one very, very, very shortly, five or six years. I believe just myself that the western so-called democracy systems don't really work anymore. You see what's going on in the US. You've got Republicans and Democrats, nothing can get passed. No bill can get passed. Everything's filibustered. And it reminds me of the first 25 years we had here in Hong Kong after the British days, when Hong Kong returned to China, that everything in LegCo was filibustered.
[00:28:00] Allan: And in the end, who winds up suffering the middle class and the lower class, people just in general cause you can't get bills passed to make their life easier, better. And that goes on the same in the UK right now. Everybody's on strike. You read the horror stories of what's going on in the UK and so you realize that too much freedom.
[00:28:18] Allan: And in the US you've got 335 million people, you have 465 million registered guns. Because it's my first amendment, my constitutional right. And you can't tell me what to do. And now more and more people, because every day you open the TV or you look on the internet, there's another killing or, school killing.
[00:28:39] Allan: Just the whole society has gone too much. What I call so-called Western democracy has gone crazy. China, on the other hand, it's a only country in the world that's taken 600 million people out of poverty in 30 years. No system in the world has ever done that. And I mean, yes, the mantra outside is that China's bad in their system. They got 1.4 billion people. With 1.4 billion people, I can tell you, you need a system like China has. It just has made their life better and better. Harvard University, pre Covid days, did a survey in China and 92% of the people in China love their life, love the government, love everything. Contrary to the problem with social media today, which, really gives bad vibes about China, about Hong Kong. Obviously Hong Kong has suffered collateral damage because of it. And I just say now I'm part of the Hello Hong Kong, slogan, I work with the government on that and what we say, seeing is believing.
[00:29:41] Allan: Come to Hong Kong and see what's going on in Hong Kong. You'll be totally surprised.
[00:29:46] Colin: We all know that, let's say Hong Kong has endured some very challenging times, the troubles, COVID, economics. The geopolitical issues are happening in our planet at the moment, and its difficult times, and yet Hong Kong is beginning to come out of matters as well. Where do you see it going in the future for hong Kong?
[00:30:07] Allan: I see a very, very bright future ahead. I mean, the hardest thing that Hong Kong has to overcome, of course, is the reputation that has been built up by the west, about Hong Kong because we are part of China and so they lump us together with the spat that's going on between the west and China. And the news is always skewed. That's why I do so many interviews with foreign press all the time, and they expect me to say, cause I have a Western face, a Gweilo face.
[00:30:36] Allan: They expect me to say bad things, but I don't. And they're very surprised. It hurts me, because they're sending the wrong message up. But what's happening is post COVID days, which were very, very difficult for the world, basically, including Hong Kong and China. What I've realized is that people overseas, cause I get calls from so many friends, people overseas.
[00:30:58] Allan: What are you still doing there? It's so bad there. I say please come out and see for yourself. But, it all started once Covid was lifted once the regulations were lifted. We had the shows, all the events now, the jewellery show was the first one. And jewellery show had 2,600 exhibitors in Hong Kong at the convention center, and they had buyers from over 60 different countries, and they did amazing. The numbers were really good. I mean, there's so many people, for first time if you weren't registered, it took two hours to register to get into convention center. Because what happened was last year, cause everybody was saying, oh, everybody's going to Singapore and everything, people are moving to Singapore and expats and all that things.
[00:31:43] Allan: Well, the good thing is they went to Singapore when we had the covid restrictions here and Singapore had opened up and they only had about 450 exhibitors in Singapore and the show was a disaster, basically. And so they decided even with all the restrictions, to come back to Hong Kong and that's why they opened up here.
[00:32:01] Colin: Yeah.
[00:32:01] Allan: And they did so well. And following that we had the financial, markets, people from all the convention here, from all over, all the bankers coming out. And that was really, really successful. And then Clockenflap, the weekend concerts that were sold out first time and of course Art Basil that just finished a few months, last month.
[00:32:22] Allan: In the first day they sold 50% of all the paintings to both South Koreans and Mainland Chinese, and they've never had a show like that. And many exhibitors that didn't come out because of Covid and whatever. They're all signed up for next year in a big, big way. And so I say to you, Colin, seeing is believing. And so those people that are coming out are now saying, wow. What's going on in Hong Kong? This is great.
[00:32:49] Colin: You know what exactly. I was in Australia and lots of friends were saying, oh, I always used to transit through Hong Kong. And they come up to me, is it safe to come here? You get it? I get it. And I just say to them, just get on that plane and come.
[00:33:04] Allan: And I tell the government it's gonna take time as seeing is believing. When they go back and they tell their friends, oh, it's not what the West has put on. I mean, realistically, if you look at things, I've looked at the internet, only 15%, one five percent of the world practices, so-called Western democracy, 85% is non-democratic.
[00:33:26] Allan: I mean, India, half-half, Singapore's, half-half. But at the end of the day, the future and now China's getting stronger and stronger. And so when you ask me the future of Hong Kong, if the western countries don't wanna buy from us. Saudi Middle East now, was talking about opening an office here and they're buying the oil many, many things.
[00:33:45] Allan: And then you've got the ASEAN countries, all coming up very, very strong. 30% of the world's population, all young population, very, very good. So the dynamics are shifting now, I say now, in the old days was go west, young man, now it's go east, young man, you know?
[00:34:02] Allan: And in the future you're talking about the Greater Bay Area that China has deemed for Hong Kong. You're talking about 11 cities Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The four key cities. And seven other cities are all peripheral cities, to Guangzhou. And I don't know if you've ever taken the high speed rail to China, but it's amazing. Hong Kong to Shenzhen is 14 minutes on the train. 1, 4.
[00:34:25] Colin: And let me tell you something else, if you wanna go to Shanghai, it is not that long. By the time you go messing around the flight, get the train up to Shanghai.
[00:34:33] Allan: And they're going faster and faster. So you're talking about 86 million people in this Greater Bay area. And in 2021 they had a GDP of 1.9 trillion US dollars. The ninth largest GDP in the world. This is what's coming. In one country, two systems, Xi Jinping has come here, July 1st in 2022, on the 25th anniversary to tell the world that One Country Two Systems was a system that's been tried and tested. Some good, some bad, but it's a good system that in the end, that prevails and will continue past 2047. And that's really what gives us the strength, because in Hong Kong we have the common law system, independent judiciary, all these things are really, really important for Hong Kong, and China of course. Practice of civil law. And so it's totally different. So I can tell you going forward Hong Kong will only get stronger and stronger. Cause this insanity is Western countries think that, oh, China's taken back Hong Kong.
[00:35:36] Allan: China has 1.4 billion people. Hong Kong is seven and a half million people.
[00:35:41] Allan: And so, The last thing China needs is another seven and a half million people. But as one country, two systems, Hong Kong is very, very important. We're the window to the world for China and the window from China to the world. And so that's the important test that Hong Kong will have. And the west doesn't understand that, but more and more companies now are opening up in Hong Kong, coming to Hong Kong. The economy's getting better and better and better. And I can tell you, I see bright, bright days ahead because of China, because of the strength of China going forward. Even with all these sanctions that the US put on with chips and semiconductors trying to slow down the growth of technology. I can tell you, China's at the moment, they're on a drive to really have more chips and semiconductor factories. They'll become self-sufficient. In the old days, globalization was great for every country because every country traded with one another and everybody did well. Of course, when President Trump came into power, decided America first, and cut everybody else off, the whole world off.
[00:36:46] Allan: And that continued under Biden. So I just see a great, great future for Hong Kong. And even now you can just see that presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Zelensky just had a call yesterday actually. And for an hour call, China's been a peacemaker, even though the west was trying to say that it's selling weapons and all the other stuff. The biggest problem is, in the US 75% of the people don't have a passport. Have never had a passport, and so they've never traveled outside. And the problem is the media now, social media has really changed everything because it's dangerous and people believe whatever's on the internet, unfortunately, and whatever they're fed.
[00:37:27] Allan: And so that's why, I say to you that slowly things are gonna be shifting. The world is gonna be shifting. I encourage young people always to come out here the same way like I did when I was 19 years old. And you'll make a great life out here. And the other thing is, it's safe.
[00:37:43] Allan: I don't have to worry. You can let your kids out all night. They can be in Lan Kwai Fong, overnight you'll never have a problem. And that is the beauty of Hong Kong, and that's a very, very important thing in Hong Kong. And with this new government, with John Lee, he is just a breath of fresh air.
[00:38:00] Allan: I served with him and I can tell you, because growing up in the security forces before. They get results. Police always catch the guy and he does the same thing in government.
[00:38:11] Colin: I have to say, he's added a bit of realism.
[00:38:13] Allan: Oh, he really has. And the best thing was the security law, the national security law, which Hong Kong got trampled on with oh, Hong Kong. All the freedoms have been taken away from Hong Kong, but that really brought, a stability to Hong Kong.
[00:38:28] Allan: I mean, those of us that were here in 2019, the protests were not fun. The first 25 years, the system was broken. Pan Democrats and Pro-Beijing were fighting one another in Legco. Again, filibuster, nothing. Bills that should have gotten passed in two or three days, some took six months, seven months, nine months, and never got passed, you know?
[00:38:49] Allan: And so I can tell you going forward, this new system where, People swear allegiance to the flag. Which every country, every person assists in Legco, in different countries. Everyone swears allegiance. We never had that in the past. The first 25 years was really an experiment because, there was no country has ever gone from one to another back to another country.
[00:39:10] Allan: So we lived the experiment. But after 2019, China took things in hand. The national security law, I know we've been criticized by the west around the world, but under 200 countries around the world, 120 countries have a security law. I've read that Hong Kong security law, I've read the Singapore security law. It's much stricter than Hong Kong, the UK security law.
[00:39:33] Colin: Actually, there's a new security law, which is the bill going through Parliament at the moment, which is pretty, pretty strong. I'll tell you that.
[00:39:40] Allan: US has 20 security laws. Three of them are draconian, basically. But again, the security law really, really helped to stabilize Hong Kong, especially being in business, you need stability.
[00:39:52] Allan: 2019 was not a fun year for business, because it wasn't safe. You couldn't even go on the streets and this was not Hong Kong. And so that's why I do feel going forward, we've got all the mechanism in place and with China behind us. I really do believe that Hong Kong will only get stronger and stronger and stronger cause China needs Hong Kong and the world needs Hong Kong. Greater Bay Area, everybody will be coming to do business with this newfound area. And I can tell you Hong Kong will have a very important place.
[00:40:25] Colin: You've contributed immensely to public life in Hong Kong. You love this city, it's been wonderful chatting with you. Thank you. It's been a privilege. It's been a great honour. Thank you for joining us on Law & More.
[00:40:37] Allan: Well, it's a pleasure to be here, Colin, and a pleasure to see you again, and hopefully I can tell your listeners that, not to worry and tell your friends overseas that Hong Kong is back. Capital B, capital A, capital C, capital K.
[00:40:53] Colin: Thank you very much.
[00:40:54] Allan: My pleasure.