Compradores and Eurasians of Hong Kong
Hong Konger Andrew Tse explained the complex history of Eurasians in Hong Kong and the role of compradores. Eurasians were the offspring of Europeans and middle Eastern Jews with local women.
During the 19th century, Hong Kong was segregated. Mixed race couples couldn’t marry. Eurasians didn’t easy fit in with either the Chinese community or westerners. This segregation also had its advantages. Information didn’t flow between the communities.
Eurasian families looked more towards the Chinese community and over time built up status within it.
The compradores were people who acted as an agent for foreign organisations engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation. They even helped finance deals when there was low trust. The compradore was a valuable person for western trading houses based in Hong Kong and the families built multi-generational wealth.
After the second world war, Chinese community understanding of English increased with education. China became closed off with the civil war and Hong Kong itself became a manufacturing hub. With the rise of Hong Kong manufacturing there would be a further decline in the need for compradores to help navigate business deals. Hong Kong also had the common law legal system for contract disputes. The compradore role faded away. Instead of becoming compradores, Eurasians worked within the major companies rising to senior positions. Mr Tse’s own career in the aviation sector is empirical evidence of their success.
They became prominent business people and philanthropists in their own right. The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals benefited from their philanthropy. Tung Wah Group of Hospitals is the oldest and largest not-for-profit organisation in Hong Kong.
Over time, mixed race marriage was no longer restricted and Hong Kong had its native-born entrepreneurs like Li Ka-shing to govern the old Taipan businesses like Hutchison-Whampoa.
A century after the Eurasian community had first formed in Hong Kong and became compradores their identity was still a sensitive subject. Peter Hall’s book In The Web that outlined this history was restrained from being published until after the death of certain prominent community members who didn’t wish to be ‘outed’ as Eurasian.
As a synopsis of the book puts it:
Peter Hall’s book, ‘In the Web,’ brings to light the mysteries that lay behind his family and the other Hong Kong Eurasian families intertwined with it. Because it attempts to lift the stone firmly left in place for over a century, this work will not be welcomed by those who prefer conjecture to be left to outsiders.
Hall himself came from a Eurasian background, was interned by the Japanese and worked for prominent property developer Hongkong Land.
The prominence of the Eurasian community has dissipated, for a number of reasons:
- Some of them moved overseas, in common with many richer Hong Kongers in the run up to the handover.
- Some family lines have became re-assimilated in the Chinese community.
- Many of them died defending Hong Kong during the Japanese invasion.
Branding
Q&A: Juanita Zhang on How Chinese Brands Can Win Globally | Branding in Asia – One critical insight is the power of unapologetic differentiation, especially as Chinese brands move beyond the ‘outbound 2.0’ era. The initial wave of success often rode on e-commerce efficiency, providing commodity-level products and leveraging vast data insights. However, we’ve observed that many brands then dwell too much in ‘end-user insight,’ optimizing for existing demand rather than proactively building aspirational gravity. The brands that truly succeed don’t try to be all things to all people; they identify a unique, compelling value proposition and own it fiercely.
McDonald’s US sales drop by most since height of pandemic | FT – Kempczinski said his company had surveyed consumers in top global markets about their views on the US, American brands and McDonald’s. While there had been no change to public opinion on the McDonald’s brand, he said more people signalled they would be cutting back on buying American brands. The surveys also revealed an 8 to 10-point rise in “anti-American sentiment”, he said, notably in northern Europe and Canada.
China
‘Hanger war’: Italy’s fast fashion hub becomes Chinese mafia battlefield | Hong Kong Free Press
Ikea Shanghai becomes a hot spot for senior dating | International | EL PAÍS English – the problem for Ikea is that they can’t monetise these consumers. They bring their own food, drink the free coffee and keep their wallets tightly closed.
Consumer behaviour
Economics
Greedflation Is Back as Corporations Use the Tariff Excuse to Hike Prices | BIG by Matt Stoller
The Death of the Amex Lounge: Why the Upper Middle Class Isn’t Special Anymore – There’s something happening to the upper middle class in the United States that no one is talking about. They are going through an existential crisis. I first noticed it at the airport. A line 20 people deep for the American Express lounge. Then, once you get inside, more lines for food/drinks and not an open chair in sight. Then I saw it in the housing market. I have friends with $10,000+ monthly mortgage payments on modest homes. Ten grand a month and they still don’t own a mansion. Today, buying a 3-bedroom apartment in Jersey City (where I live) would cost me anywhere from $9,300-$14,000 a month (all-in). I could rent the same unit for around $6,000-$7,000 a month.
Ethics
The 50something man has a PR problem | Influence Online – “Ageism is the last ‘ism’ we need to tackle. Anecdotally, I’m hearing a lot about the 50+ demographic struggling to find new roles because employers perceive them as being so old that they can’t learn new skills or that their tech isn’t up to scratch. All their knowledge is being lost – and because AI is replacing entry-level jobs – there’s a lack of new people coming in to learn from them. Acknowledging ageism exists would be a great start…”
Finance
Buy now, pay later, in debt forever? – The Face – or how generation Z credit rating is being impacted by Klarna, Affirm et al which are the digital equivalent of the ‘tally man’ of the early to mid 20th century. Reading all this reminded me of working at MBNA as a student and hearing people’s horror stories as they tried to transfer over scorecard debit to pay it down at a more rational rate.
FMCG
Domestos: a masterclass on how legacy brands can still cut through
Unilever Acquires Dr. Squatch: What This $1.5B Deal Reveals About Modern CPG Brand Strategy | Mintel
The story of Nongfu water is the story of the wild, wild west of Chinese business. The health claims still shock me, despite everything I knew about the Chinese market.
Hong Kong
Nike sues HK star Edison Chen over alleged breach of contract | Marketing-Interactive
HK Ghost Signs – beautifully made site documenting historic advertising and industrial signage from back when Hong Kong was a light industrial titan.
Hong Kong’s busy bankers give its office market a lift | FT contrast this with Collers more sober take on the Hong Kong market Singapore office demand soars 12-fold while Hong Kong remains ‘subdued’, Colliers says | South China Morning Post
Japan
Japan’s Hardworking Yakuza — The Viagra Job (2010)
Luxury
Is petcare the next luxury opportunity? | Vogue Business
Luxury blingflation creates opportunity for cheaper challengers | FT – are these premium or luxury? And have the consumers pivoted from luxury to premium?
Media
Why Brands Like State Farm and Argos Are Going All-In on Social-First Episodic Videos | AdWeek – storytelling
Amazon Breaks Up Wondery Podcast Studio, CEO Jen Sargent Departs | Hollywood Reporter – issues with the business model for audio offerings, curious to know if Vox will follow suit? The shows that moved to SiriusXM are interesting, SiriusXM is a subscription-based satellite and internet radio service
Chinese ‘vertical dramas’ are booming in America. Should Hollywood be worried? | SCMP – Hollywood has done a poor job of having compelling mobile media
TVB Introduces AI Short Series – JayneStars.com – this follows on from TVB running an AI avatar to host Miss Hong Kong 2023
Forget about the AI Guess model — let’s talk about Range Rover’s Vogue ad – The Media Leader
Online
What Is “Broke Man Propaganda?” | Cosmopolitan & Yes, it is classist to dehumanise ‘broke’ men | Dazed – “Poverty is not the fault of the poor,” she continues. “I find it very cruel to talk about John – a character who loves Lucy, a beautiful character being played beautifully by Chris – in such cruel terms as ‘broke boy’ or ‘broke man’.” She goes on: “I think that is a very troubling result of the way that wealthy people have gotten into our hearts [and convinced us] it’s your fault if you’re poor, or you’re a bad person if you’re poor. So, it doesn’t make me laugh, actually. It just makes me feel very concerned that anybody would talk about my movie and my characters [like that], and think about it in such classist terms.”
Why Is TikTok Overflowing With AI Country Music Erotica? | Pitchfork
Philippines
Poblacion is the old part of Makati, the central business district of Manila in the Philippines. I have been to Makati for work in the past and to my regret missed visiting Poblacion.
Otherwise Makati is full of anonymous office blocks, business hotels that look the same the world over and Starbucks coffee shops.
Retailing
Security
China Is Winning the Cyberwar: America Needs a New Strategy of Deterrence | Foreign Affairs
Axios Future of Cybersecurity: 1 big thing: A tale of two generative AI futures – differing opinions from Defcon in Vegas on the impact of AI on hacking and cyber-defence
Israel Secretly Recruited Iranian Dissidents to Attack Iran From Within — ProPublica
Inside Beijing’s quiet campaign to sideline Nvidia’s H20 AI chips | DigiTimes – China has told domestic companies to steer clear of Nvidia’s H20 processors, particularly for government and national security projects, raising the stakes for US chipmakers
Colt Telecommunications Struggles in Wake of Cyber Incident | Dark Reading
New Zealand spy service warns of China interference | Spacewar
FBI Warns of Russian Cyber Hackers Targeting Critical US Infrastructure | The Epoch Times
Colombian Black Hawk shot down by FPV drone | Defence Blog
EU fires warning shot at Spain over Huawei reliance | FT
DaVita tells 2.4M people ransomware scum stole health data • The Register
Software
Google to provide Gemini AI tools to US government | Robo Daily
Companies Are Pouring Billions Into A.I. It Has Yet to Pay Off. – The New York Times
Technology
Google and IBM believe first workable quantum computer is in sight | FT
Nigeria deports 50 Chinese nationals in cybercrime crackdown | Reuters
Tech war: DeepSeek hints China close to unveiling ‘next generation’ AI chips | SCMP
Tools
Lumo: Privacy-first AI assistant where chats stay confidential – Proton’s AI assistant
Is the Flipper Zero the next big car theft gadget? The Verge & Inside the Underground Trade of ‘Flipper Zero’ Tech to Break into Cars | 404 Media
Web-of-no-web
Amazon Digital Signage Solutions for Business – interesting AWS / product hybrid