Hong Kong blogger HKMacs writes the following in his post on Hemlock’s latest antics:
I’m falling about laughing at Hemlock’s priceless gems. Truly the best blog in Hong Kong. He’s definitely been around as long as me. Maybe I even know him? Peter Man - reveal yourself! Actually the more I look at his site I realise that it is the work of a number of people – PhotoShoppers, researchers, writers etc. Nobody who had a regular job could possibly do this. Don’t be fooled, people.
It’s an interesting hypothesis. However from the very brief email exchange I’ve had with the enigmatic master-of-the-blogrolls (vaguely humorous lawyer joke! Huttah!) I’m going to have to say he’s a singular entity.
I’ve often considered it something of a fun time-killer to ascertain who Hemlock really is.
For a while I thought he may be a high ranking executive in Hutchison Wampoa.
I based this on a number of factors:
Firstly he commented at one point on the employees of ‘S-Meg holdings’ putting out little electronic watermills to coutneract negative Feng-Shui being generated from glass pyramids atop lower, neighbouring buildings.
If you look at central from about the 10th+ floor of skyscrapers there’s only one building (which I can see) which has these strange glass pyramids: Queensway Plaza. Queensway Plaza is the air conditioned mall-cum-walkway which connects via skywalk to Pacific place, Admiralty Centre (towers 1 and 2), The Eastern Finance Centre and via open air bridge, Hutchison House.
Now there are only so many buildings which have a view of these pyramids.
To my knowledge only the Supreme Court building, Hutchison House, Tower 1 Admiralty, the Eastern Finance Centre and at a stretch the Lippo Buildings have visual access to the pyramids.
(Discounting IFC 2 because despite the fact that you can obviously see everything in central from its peak, the building was only completed a few years ago and what used to be the Prince of Wales building for even more obvious reasons).
I’m basing this on the assumption that his office is in central. Given that he supposedly rides the mid-levels escalator down every day it would seem the most prudent deduction (it’s possible that he’s heading in the direction of an MTR station but I’d like to think he’d have more to say about the commute if he was).
Secondly, the building in which his company purportedly resides is known as ‘S-meg Tower’ or some such thing. Of the shortlist, only Hutchison tower is owned by a corporation who use it as their headquarters (although space is let to other lessees).
Thirdly Hemlock’s descriptions of the Big Boss match my (limited) experience of Canning Fok, the Hutchison Managing Director who does have a few Gweilo amongst his corporate cabinet.
However there exist a few problems.
Firstly, the Big Boss has a son who seems to match the Richard Li blueprint. Richard Li is son of Li Ka Shing who, although the owner of Hutchison Whampoa, does not exercise the same day-to-day operational control as Canning Fok. If the Big Boss is Canning then Hemlock has included the son for the simple purpose of making fun of Richard Li and is content to twist real life (as he no doubt does) to fit his own comedic specifications. Hemlock undoubtedly fictionalizes certain aspects of his day to day life, however I believe at least some of it is rooted in truth, the trick is to strip what is poetic license from what is straight allegory.
Secondly, Hutchison House has its own very capable Pacific Coffee Company outlet. Visiting a different locale for the purposes of explicitly seeking out a Starbucks coffee would make sense but not trekking elsewhere simply to grab a coffee which he could easily procure on the ground floor of his office building (Hemlock drinks PCC coffee or ‘brown water’). It is entirely possible once again that Hemlock has altered the true location of his ‘coffee haunt’ - scene of many entertaining discussions between himself and Odell the American - however this seems too much of a stretch.
At most, my position is little more than an educated guess but it’s one which I think has merits.
HKMacs certainly has one thing right - Hemlock’s been around Hong Kong for a long time; anyone who can pick me out as my grandfather’s grandson has a decent knowledge of Hong Kong pre-1997. Hemlock’s Hong Kong old guard - no question.
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at November 15, 2004 12:55 AM | TrackBack