The Art of Foot Dragging

Hong Kong bureaucracy, in a nutshell:

... Jackie Chan has confirmed he will donate three of his antique houses from the Ming and Qing dynasties to Singapore - while the Hong Kong government is still studying the feasibility of setting up a collection of his historic houses.

[ ... ]

This comes after the Hong Kong-born movie star expressed frustration over his decade-long efforts to convince the government to create a display of his private collection of antique sandalwood houses in Hong Kong. Chan criticised the government's slowness, which ultimately prompted him to donate the treasures to Singapore. His seven houses, stored in pieces in a warehouse in Hong Kong for years, date from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing dynasty (1644-1911), and are thought be worth more than US$67 million. One house had been donated to the Shanghai government for the building of a Jackie Chan museum.

Now if Chan had been a developer wanting to build residential high-rises in place of a historically important old building, he'd have completed the project already.

← Older Posts · 早前 | →