The world in which I live 一 人 世 界
鄧 永 鏘 （ David Tang ） 中 國 會 、 上 海 灘 創 辦 人
It's ten years since Princess Diana died. I was very lucky to have been a good friend of hers. She had telephoned me on that fateful August day on which she met her fate. As she was coming out to visit Hong Kong in September, I told her everything was ready for her. We were both excited by the prospect. She was also coming out with a secret agenda of taking her two boys to China. In any event, this was not to be; and the rest, alas, is history. I was never to see her again, and I have missed her. She was wonderfully beautiful and funny. I had first taken her to the Venice Biennale in 1995 when for the first time, two mainland Chinese artists, Liu Wei and Zhang Xiao-gang, had exhibits. She was mobbed everywhere she went, and I remember vividly our being allowed (or rather she was allowed and I followed) to go up to the dome of the church overlooking St Marco Square. There were just two of us - Diana having taken off her stilettos, and I looking down behind her striking figure. I wish I had a camera to register that moment, as her dress was caught by the faintest breeze of the Venetian sirocco.
Diana had also come to my house in Sai Kung for lunch on an earlier visit to Hong Kong. It was a small lunch and we were all very relaxed. Being relaxed is perhaps the best luxury anyone very famous could afford. They love it when they do not have to stand on ceremonies. The idea that anybody particularly grand is always formal is a ludicrous proposition. On the contrary, of all the grandest people I know, the grander they are, the more relaxed they want to be - certainly on informal occasions, but also on formal occasions. Anyway, Diana was marvellous with all my staff, taking umpteen pictures with them. We then flew off by helicopter to watch tennis at the Hong Kong Open with the Pattens. Those were very memorable days. Equally memorable is of course her celebrated sense of compassion. During her first visit to Hong Kong, she came to three of four charity functions, and at each of them, she was a constellation. Her natural sympathy and care for the less fortunate had properly made her an exceptional person who knew how to take advantage of her position to further the causes of those who would otherwise remain in helpless oblivion. Diana was glamour in a Nightingale. Quite rightly, we should be celebrating her life on this tenth anniversary of her death.
So our own tenth anniversary of the handover has come and passed. I was at the Variety Show on the 30th June at the Convention Centre. It brought back many memories, as the location was exactly where the handover took place. And I remember vividly of the excitement of that evening from 10 years ago. In Hall 3 (God only knows how anyone could have given this imposing space such a pedestrian number!), the Hong Kong VIPs packed themselves in. The stage was decorated in what I can only describe as the height of bad taste. Gold and yellow and pink fusing with a ghastly set of cream crimpled curtains on stage. Then a quartet of master-of-ceremony came on to begin the show. Together they looked rather ridiculous. It was quite clear they had not conferred on what each was wearing. The show was far too long. But I did enjoy the acrobats from Shenyang. They were absolutely wondrous. No wonder they slightly showed up our poor lot from Cheung-Chan coming on stage with three trolleys! I don't want to be mean to our own, but whoever devised the programme couldn't have found a more ridiculous juxtaposition! As for the rest of the programme, it all lacked a sense of spontaneity and gravitas. It was all rather frivolous and hackneyed, especially with our four best male singers （ 四 大 天 王 ） who sang syrupy and truncated songs. But most of all, there was a distinct absence of humour. Weren't we supposed to enjoy an evening of fun? Lang Lang played the Yellow River concerto, but that's hardly fun! As for all the costumes, the colour combinations were diabolical. Why do we continue to suffer these insipid settings? On the front rows, the big wigs had coffee tables and tea-cups. Very protocol conscious! But it was amusing to see a plethora of tycoons sitting off-centre and rows behind mainland cadres. For a change, they were put in their place!
