Category: feature

Women’s 10s Debuts in Rugby Week 2023

It’s taken thirty-five years but the inaugural HKFC Women’s 10s Competition kicks off as part of 2023 Hong Kong 10s and will see five teams compete in a round-robin format. The top four teams will progress to the knock-out phase of the competition, with the winners of two semi-finals progressing to the Cup final and the losers to a Plate final.

The competing teams are Samurai Warriors, Ashbury Tropics, Tokyo Sankyu Phoenix, FindRugbyNow as well as hosts and Hong Kong Premier League champions, HKFC Ice. 

Samurai Warriors will be coached by two titans of England Rugby (a.k.a. the Red Roses) in Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Clark, who with 137 national appearances is one the most capped English players of all time, and 115-cap team-mate, Tamara Taylor.

Going head-to-head with the pair is fellow World Cup winner and legendary open-side flanker, Heather Fisher, who joins as part of the coaching team for Ashbury Tropics. Fisher is a veteran of both the Sevens and 15s having represented England and Great Britain in the 2014 World Cup and the Rio Olympic Games respectively.

Rocky Clark, who is also the Official Tournament Ambassador, said “I am massively grateful to Samurai for inviting me to coach the team. After the opportunities they gave me as a player back in the day when I started my playing journey, to now be coaching the team, it is a massive honour and where better to do it than the world’s best tens.”

The Red Roses’ involvement in the tournament reflects the calibre of the new Women’s Competition and HKFC Chairman, Neil Jensen, said “As a club, we are delighted to see that Hong Kong Football Club can still attract the biggest names in sport. We are really looking forward to seeing the return of the HKFC 10s to the Club and to once again present this exciting precursor to the Sevens which started over three decades ago.

We’re particularly pleased to see the introduction of a Women’s Competition which is an important milestone for the tournament and something we have been working towards for a number of years. Thank you to the teams that are making the journey to Hong Kong and we look forward to seeing a new dimension to the World’s Best 10s out on pitch.”

The 2023 HKFC 10s marks the 35th edition of Hong Kong Football Club’s flagship rugby event. It takes place at Hong Kong Football Club from 29-30 March. Matches are 10 minutes each way, gates open at 8.30am. Tickets cost $120 per day.

Hong Kong Tens
When: 29-30 March, 2023
Where: Hong Kong Football Club
How much: $120
More info: www.hkfc10s.com

Additional reporting and images: HK10s

Rugby Week 2023

After the individual creativity of Art Week, the wonders of team creativity are on display as Rugby Week 2023 scrums down.

Unfortunately, the traditional rugby week curtain-raiser Kowloonfest has been postponed again until 2024 – the old and venerable taking longer to recover and reboot post covid.

This year’s action starts with, perhaps the best rugby of the week, the Hong Kong 10s at Hong Kong Football Club on Wednesday 29 March. Proper scrums and brutal power forward play are features of the Tens, especially on Thursday night. It’s perhaps the closest we in Hong Kong can get to seeing modern rugby up close and personal. Select teams packed with talent and big names, new and old, from around the world put a physicality and rawness to images seen on television that really needs to be experienced in person.

Amidst the Sevens partying,  a rugby tournament takes place… After November’s empty stadium, harsh crowd restrictions and drab atmosphere – can the Sevens recover its allure as one of the world’s great sporting/social events?

Here are the dates for your Rugby Week 2023 diary.

Kowloon Fest
When: postponed to 2024
More info: www.rugbyfest.org

Hong Kong Tens
When: 29-30 March, 2023
Where: Hong Kong Football Club
How much: $120
More info: www.hkfc10s.com

HK Sevens
Date: 31 March – 2 April, 2023
Venue: HK Stadium
Tickets: $1,950
More info: www.HKsevens.com

Hong Kong Men’s Sevens Squad Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 Announced

The Hong Kong men’s sevens squad for the Rugby World Cup 7s in South Africa (9-11 September) has been announced by Hong Kong Rugby.

Hong Kong will kick off in the 16-team pre-round competition against Uruguay with the winner facing tournament favourites and new World Sevens Series champions, Australia.

Hong Kong head coach Paul John has named an experienced squad and commented that “We want them to enjoy the experience – this comes around every four years – and we earned the right to be here and this is a reward for that”

Hong Kong men will be making their eighth appearance sevens Rugby World Cup, two of which were hosted in Hong Kong (1997 and 2005).

All matches are streaming on the World Rugby website

Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 Captains

Hong Kong Men’s Rugby World Cup Sevens Squad
  • Russ WEBB (co-captain)
  • Seb BRIEN (co-captain)
  • Salom YIU Kam-shing
  • Michael COVERDALE
  • Cado LEE Ka-to
  • Alessandro NARDONI
  • Hugo STILES
  • Harry SAYERS
  • Max DENMARK
  • Liam DOHERTY
  • Pierce MACKINLAY-WEST
  • Callum MCCULLOUGH
  • James CHRISTIE

Photo credit: Mike Lee – KLC fotos for World Rugby
Additional reporting: RugbyAsia247

28 Anniversary, bc magazine

Happy Birthday to us!

Twenty-eight years ago today, bc magazine debuted on the streets of Hong Kong.

A lot of people – staff, friends, advertisers and readers have been involved over the years, thank you for your continued support and strength especially now.

Carpe Diem!

Tian’anmen Square Vigil – 4 June, 2022

Today we honour and remember those who died in and around Tian’anmen Square in 1989.

We take time to light a candle in their memory! Not to make a political statement but because honouring and remembering those who have died is an important and integral part of Hong Kong, Chinese and yes English culture.

That some would threaten violence towards those who wish to remember the dead says far more about them than us… What next, will Ching Ming Festival be banned as well?

HKPPA News Photo of the Year: The Pillar of Shame

The Hong Kong Press Photographers Association (HKPPA) has announced the winner of its annual “Focus on the Frontline” photo competition.

The 2021 winner is HK01‘s Liu Ngan Hung for his photo “The Pillar of Shame” depicting workers removing the Pillar of Shame from HKU. The statue remembers those murdered when the People’s Liberation Army opened fire on democracy protesters in Tian’anmen Square on 4 June 1989.

The “Focus On The Frontline” photo contest began in 1993 and has become one of the most prestigious awards for local photojournalists. Through the competition, the HKPPA looks for photographs that are important to Hong Kong’s history and which combine the elements of art and journalism.

Commenting on the winner “The jury thinks ‘The Pillar of Shame’ reflects the Hong Kong people’s sustained concern over June 4th, which is also a yearning and worries for the country’s democratisation. As workers removed the pillar in the twilight, it symbolises the freedoms of thought and expression once cherished in Hong Kong being dispossessed. The lighting condition and framing of the photograph gives it a baroque aesthetic, bringing tension to the work. The posture of workers lowering their heads to avoid being photographed and the darkness that envelopes the action are metaphorical, constructing a meaning that is more than the sum of all the visual elements in the image.”

Ming Pao’s Lam Oi Yee image of people drinking on a street, metres away from a fatal car accident came second in the Spot News category.

Lam Oi Yee

Project 4th June, a 24-hour Online Dance Commemoration of Tiananmen

Singaporean artist Ming Poon, aka Ming Apur, likes as he puts it to use choreography as a “tool to interrogate, disrupt and re-organise the social and political relationality of the body in time and space.”

Poon’s latest work is Project June 4th a 24-hour online commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests that looks to use dance to speak out against state censorship of peaceful dissent, criticism and the erasure and rewriting of history. For as Poon says “Once we forget, history repeats itself and the oppressors become emboldened”.

On 4 June 1989 the peaceful mass student protests in Tiananmen Square were ended by military force. Although more than 30 years have passed, the Chinese government still suppresses any mention or acknowledgement of the incident.

tankman 1989

On 5 June a single man stood against a column of tanks… Project 4th June commemorates those who were murdered, the movement and choreography of Tank Man represents as Poon puts it “the potential that lies within ordinary persons to stop the machines of violence and oppression. It is also a call-out to stand up against injustice, no matter how small we think we are and how insurmountable we think the task is.”

6 dancers will take turns performing Tank Man throughout the 24-hour commemoration. Each will attempt to interpret the choreography in a way that expresses their individual thoughts and relationship to the Tiananmen Square incident, state censorship and the fight for human rights and democracy.

The 6 dancers are:
1. Pink Tank: “Watch out, the world is not behind you.”
2. Tank Ghost: “Of Ghosts and Shells”
3. Tank Zheng: “No Tank On Rainbow”
4. Tank Sexy: “The Days Without Cigarettes / 沒有煙抽的日子“
5. Tank Plant: “Planting the Reality”
6. Tank Critique Critique: “Which Tanks Do You Need To Stand In Front Of?”

If you want to watch, join or participate (see the video above for the choreography) in the commemoration Poon has an event etiquette to help make it safe for everyone. Keep your identity, as well as others’ anonymous!

  • If you turn on your camera during the commemoration, put on a mask before doing so. Also, make sure that your background does not reveal any personal information, ideally sit with a blank wall as your background.
  • Microphones will be turned OFF by default throughout the commemoration, to avoid voice detection.
  • Before entering the commemoration room, replace your display name with an alias. Your alias should be written in the following manner: Tank ___ (e.g., Tank Person, Tank ABC, Tank 123, etc,). Do not include any personal information in it.

Project June 4th
Date: 4 June, 2022 (
Venue: live stream on Zoom and Youtube
Tickets: Free
More info: www.mingapur.com
live stream on Zoom and Youtube

David Bowie – Imagine, Live in Hong Kong 1983

The final concert of David Bowie‘s Serious Moonlight Tour was in Hong Kong at the HK Coliseum on 8 December 1983. It was also, sadly, the third anniversary of John Lennon’s murder and after performing Fame Bowie and spoke to the audience about Lennon.

“I co-wrote that song with John Len­non.And I asked him one day ‘How do you write your songs’, and he said ‘lt’s easy, you just say what you mean, and you put a back-beat to it’.
I said ‘What do you think of my kind of rock & roll’. He said ‘It’s great, but it’s just rock & roll with lipstick on’”.

Bowie pauses for a moment, as the audience cry out, “Last time I saw John Lennon was in Hong Kong, we went to a Hong Kong market and there was a stall that sold old clothes, and there was a Beatles jacket on the stall, and I did something that is not usually in my character – I asked him to put it on so that I could take a photograph, I took a photograph, and I’ve still got the photograph. The jacket doesn’t fit properly, it looks like John had outgrown it”.

Bowie then performs a beautiful version of Imagine in honour of his late friend. An upgraded 4K version of this iconic performance has been uploaded to Youtube – enjoy.

https://youtu.be/yo5W9ByBbrQ

There’s also an audio bootleg of the whole concert.

https://youtu.be/mKf2T1chytQ

image: screenshot