Чып Цао: Гонконгтық жазушы, журналист және сыншының өмірі мен шығармашылығы

Hong Kong columnist, broadcaster, and writer

Chip Tsao (born 17 August 1958), also known by his Chinese language pen name To Kit, is a multilingual Hong Kong based columnist, broadcaster, and writer. His writings are mostly in Chinese. He is well known for his sarcasm and wry sense of humour.

Tsao's family traces their roots back to Guangxi. His father was the vice chief editor of Ta Kung Pao, a leftwing newspaper in Hong Kong, whilst his mother was also an editor of the same paper. His maternal grandfather was a journalist of the Pearl River Daily. He was raised in Hong Kong's Wanchai district, and began reading early in his life. Tsao attended Pui Kiu Middle School and later Lingnan Secondary School in Hong Kong. During this time, his writing was once published in The New Evening Post. In 1983, he was awarded a BA in English and European Literature from the University of Warwick. Then he completed a Postgraduate Diploma in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He states that he never thought about becoming a writer in his youth, however, and that his parents discouraged him from this career because they felt it would be dangerous.

Tsao first began writing about Hong Kong public affairs in a column for English language newspaper Eastern Express. He is often perceived as pro British, and has been accused of looking down on China. On 27 March 2009, an article of Tsao's entitled "The War at Home" was published in the free HK Magazine. In it, he wrote that the Philippines was unworthy of claiming the Spratly Islands from China because "as a nation of servants, you don't flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter." Many Filipinos decried his article as racist, discriminatory, and demeaning, and the Philippine government declared him an "undesirable alien" as a result. His writings provoked negative reactions from various Philippine legislators; Senator Pia Cayetano stated that "instead of contributing to intelligent discussions on ways to resolve the Spratlys dispute, Tsao only succeeded in eliciting hatred and sowing more confusion not only among Filipinos but maybe even among his fellow Chinese who are not aware of the intricacies of the issue", while Parañaque Congressman Roilo Golez refused to accept Tsao's apology for his article, and challenged him to a boxing match. On 30 March 2009, HK Magazine issued an apology for the offence Tsao's article had caused. The following day, Tsao subsequently admitted his wrongdoing and apologised to the Philippine government and its people in an interview aired over Hong Kong’s ATV. He said, "I realized that I had crossed the line. I now offer my public apology." He has also indicated, however, that the article was meant as satire, and that it "was never intended to be insulting to the Filipino domestic workers."

In 2017, Tsao posted on Facebook mocking the Me Too movement one day after the revelation from Hong Kong athlete Lui Lai Yiu that she was sexually assaulted by a former coach. Tsao wrote that he was touched on the face without his consent by a female teacher when he was in kindergarten and now he realised that he was "one of the victims of low end sex abuse". "Thanks to the Facebook generation, by simply attaching a selfie, anyone can become a Harvey Weinstein or a Kevin Spacey," he added. Some praised him for his "good sense of humour" and recognizing that any man could be open to accusations over past inappropriate behaviour of which they may or may not be guilty. More including the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Association Concerning Sexual Violence Against Women criticised him for inappropriate analogy and ignorance on sexual violence.