Dr Tommy Kwan: A life woven with writing, radio hosting, teaching and politics

 

Dr Tommy Kwan Chung-yin

Lecturer

Department of Asian and Policy Studies

Sometimes, I like to see life as a random assortment of happenings, events and experiences. But in the midst of this randomness, one can still find a theme, a motif or a direction towards a certain destination. To me, writing about humanity subjects and doing research about how society works – in particular through the lens of political science – somehow weaves the threads of my life into a noticeable pattern.

If there was a point when the pattern began to evolve, I’d say it was the summer I had just completed my Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE, replaced by Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education in 2010). Even though I chose the science stream for HKCEE, physics, chemistry and mathematics were definitely not my favourite subjects. When I sought to break away from such subjects in the summer before moving on to my sixth-form studies, I picked up fiction and other non-fiction books on humanities.

When I first entered the world of humanities during my matriculation years, I happened to read books by Chan Koon-chung (陳冠中), Ma Ka-fai (馬家輝), Chow Po-chung (周保松), Dong Qiao (董橋) and Leung Man-tao (梁文道). It was a coincidence that all these writers contributed to newspaper columns. Some of them even talked about cultural, social and political affairs on TV or radio programmes. At that time, they were called public intellectuals.

Their essays opened my eyes to things I had never considered before. In addition to reading their books, I also started to read their newspaper columns. These authors ignited in me a passion to write, and an aspiration to become an intellectual in humanities. When I was a sixth former, I made my first attempt to become a writer by sending articles to a random selection of newspapers. My endeavour as a writer started off pretty smoothly, as I soon had my first newspaper article published.

While many of my secondary school peers looked up to football stars like Cristiano Ronaldo or NBA superstars like LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, I was more interested in learning about the authors I admired. I even proactively reached out to one of them. As a result, Ma Ka-fai invited me to talk in his radio programme. It was very encouraging to me, as a teenager, to be able to discuss things on-air with someone I respected. If experiences shape a person, this was probably one of my defining moments. Interestingly enough, I became the radio host of a RTHK programme years after talking in Ma’s programme, and I still host a programme for CR881.

Political science was almost a natural choice for me when I entered the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). At university, my affinity for reading and writing drove me to recommend myself to Mr Lam To-kwan (林道群), the then editor-in-chief of Oxford University Press (China) and a well-known figure in the publishing field. My efforts were rewarded; I was given an opportunity to work as an intern at OUP. At the press, I worked under its humanities section which published books on literature, history, philosophy and sociology. The experience led me to conclude that authors and publishers are two reliable references for picking up good books.

Another experience that was subtly woven into the pattern of my life was my work at the Public Affairs Unit of RTHK. It started with a part-time job as a Programme Assistant (PA) at RTHK during the second year of my university studies. After that, I worked for various current affairs programmes at the radio station all the way through to my university graduation. Years later when I was studying for my postgraduate degree, I became the host for “中國點點點” (China on the Dots), a programme about mainland Chinese current affairs. From being a PA to a programme host, the years I spent at the radio station familiarised me with how current affairs programmes are run, and gave me first-hand experience on how public discussions are conducted in mass media.

In parallel with my interest in sharing views and engaging in discussions of public affairs through writing and hosting radio programmes, I find myself equally engrossed in the world of academia. Knowledge is an ocean full of endless excitement, satisfaction and challenges. After graduating from CUHK in 2015, I went on to pursue my master’s and doctoral degrees about Greater China Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. I then spent a year in Germany and Taiwan for my postgraduate studies.

Besides working on my doctoral project, I attended concerts and travelled frequently, making observations in my everyday life while living abroad. Throughout my exposure to these new experiences, interesting ideas and even profound reflections on human society, cultural differences and politics kept drifting across my mind. I turned many of these inspirations as well as my academic findings into newspaper articles during that period of time.

From my sixth year in secondary school onward, I never stopped contributing articles – most of them about politics – to local and mainland Chinese newspapers. Since the senior years of my undergraduate studies till now, I have written my own column, which has been in the feature section of a local newspaper for almost six years. The column, initially called “英國通訊” (My own translation: Correspondences from the UK) in Ming Pao Daily, covered a wide range of topics that interested me, from classical music, travel, to politics. What I wrote in this column reflected how I lived my life during those years. As my academic interest is about Taiwanese politics, I also write in response to current issues related to social and political developments in Taiwan, besides my regular column contributions.

In 2019, collections of my articles written for newspapers over the years I studied abroad were published. While the first book is a collection of essays about my life in the UK, the second records my life in Germany and Taiwan. The third book, which contains essays written during my stay in Hong Kong, is scheduled for publishing at the end of January 2023. By that time, I should have formally obtained my doctoral degree. Publication of these three books, which could be called a trilogy, marks the end of my long academic journey of earning my doctoral degree.

I joined the Department of Asian and Policy Studies, EdUHK in 2020. Teaching is without a doubt my main job. I truly enjoy teaching whenever I can inspire my students with deep thoughts from some of the greatest minds in human history. I also see it as a process of discussing and exchanging ideas and arguments. Teaching is akin to writing, which is also about conveying thoughts and ideas. I see both being a teacher and a writer constituting the important parts of who I am. In trendy terms, I see myself as a scholar-slash-public writer. I work hard to manage these two simultaneous “careers”, both of which I find incredible fulfillment in.

Everyone knows Hong Kong has undergone substantial changes over the past few years. Age-old systems have been reformed and boundaries have been redefined. People love asking me whether I will continue to write when the city has already entered a new era and the public administration has experienced a kind of paradigm shift. I believe an oversimplified answer to this question will easily cause misunderstandings. Sometimes, I have a feeling that society doesn’t need a writer and commentator like me to throw out advice and lead discussions on social issues. Other times, I still believe a healthy society needs opposing voices and checks and balances, for the sake of enhancing public governance and policy credibility.  

If life has a pattern, mine is still evolving every day. What I can say for sure is that writing and teaching at university, to this today, still occupies a central position in the pattern of my life. Looking back, I still believe reading books and newspaper columns written by my favourite authors enlightened me a lot. They led me to a world of history, literature, music and political science, and gave me the passion to become a writer. Though it might be a slight exaggeration, there is a certain truth to me saying that my life found its course the moment I sent my articles to newspapers and they were accepted for publishing. From that moment onward, my desire to write has never weakened. Till now, I still believe writing is my professional job, and I can put forward my arguments as far as they are supported by facts. And I will continue to write as long as the situation allows.

Writing is not only a means to express your ideas; it is a thinking process through which you reorganise and refine your understanding about yourself and the world. But understanding comes at a price. The deeper the understanding, the dearer the price. British philosopher John Stuart Mill said in Utilitarianism: “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question.” I still believe that Socrates lived a happier and more meaningful life. 

(Dr Tommy Kwan collaborated with Tam Siu-man on this piece)