To Kit

To Kit (Chinese: 陶傑, pinyin: Tao Jie) is the pseudonym of Chip Tsao (Chinese: 曹捷, Cantonese Romanization: Tso Chit, pinyin: Cao Jie), a Hong Kong-based columnist-cum-broadcaster.

Career

He stated as a columnist for the renowned Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao (明報); the column is called 'The Golden Adventure' (黃金冒險號), the name of a vessel that took Chinese illegal immigrants to the United States. He also writes a column for the Oriental Daily News (東方日報) and another for Ming Pao Monthly (明報月刊), an intellectual magazine. Eventually he joined a team of broadcasters to host a weekly programme on Radio Television Hong Kong called 'Talking East, Talking West' (講東講西). The hosts of the programme would choose one topical issue, and discuss it critically. In 2003, he switched to another radio station, the Commercial Radio Hong Kong to host a daily radio show similar to 'Talking East, Talking West' called 'Bright Peak' (光明頂), at which point he also switched his newspaper affiliation to Apple Daily.

Content of his works

His work, both on radio and in his columns, concentrates on the following subjects:

• Governance of Hong Kong and the difference between pre- and post-reunification of Hong Kong with mainland China
• The essence of classic Chinese and western civilization
• Difference between the Chinese and the Westerners (particular in terms of the politics and lifestyle)
• The 'peasant mentality' of the Chinese
• films
• Prominent women (he wrote a column on the achievements of some well-known Chinse women in Ming Pao Monthly between 1998 and 2003).

Political viewpoints

To Kit did not hide his apparent disgust with the current Hong Kong administration, especially Tung Chee Hwa, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong. In his newspaper column, he once openly called for Tung to step down.

Born in a leftist family, To Kit is unusual in that he praised the governance of the British colonial administration throughout his columns, and its alleged superiority over the current administration. An admirer of former American President Ronald Reagan, To was said to be one of the most conservative public figures in Hong Kong.