A unique and memorable time in Hong Kong

Jono Hutchison was awarded Asia:NZ's media internship to the International Herald Tribune in the second half of 2010. Below is a summary of his impressions as a working journalist at the New York Times' global edition and one of the most respected media authorities on the Asia-Pacific.

My trip to Hong Kong was an educational and meaningful experience. It certainly was not a holiday, and I found it challenging and difficult at times, but it was undoubtedly worthwhile.

I spent six weeks working at the International Herald Tribune (IHT), which is a publication I enjoyed and respected well before my time there. Being able to meet and speak with people in their newsroom, and attend editorial meetings, was not far off living a dream of mine.

Before I begin writing about my time at the paper, I should mention that the day after I arrived in Hong Kong I was sent out to shoot a story for TV3 about a missing Air New Zealand pilot. This turned out to be a sad but important experience for me as a journalist. It was a tragic story, but seeing the efforts mounted by searchers in Hong Kong - both professional and volunteer - was moving.

It was also the first story I had worked on overseas, so it was good experience. I was able to follow up the piece a couple of days later, when the body was found, with a live cross into Nightline back home. If I had not been in Hong Kong, the story likely would not have received the coverage I was able to provide as a reporter on the ground.

When I arrived on the first day everyone at the paper was very friendly. Within a day or so I had some tasks to carry out. Once I had met and spoken to most of the news staff, they had a better idea of my background. They were pleased to have an intern who was a native English speaker with some journalism experience.

The upshot of my early conversations was that I was welcome to chase my own ideas for stories, and that the fact I was new to Hong Kong would mean I had fresh eyes, and I should use that as inspiration for stories.

With this mandate, I set out to find things to write about. The office was always busy (and also eerily quiet, which is something future interns should expect!) and I didn't want to interrupt people all the time with my pet projects. I ran my ideas past various editors, who seemed to endorse them.

Initially, I was also asked to help a staff writer with a story he was putting together. After a couple of days the reporter decided he was too busy to pursue the project, and handed it over to me entirely. This was a humbling gesture!

I finished up the story, and submitted it to be edited. It was returned with a litany of changes and queries, which I appreciated greatly. It's not often that my work is so fastidiously edited, and it was a great experience. I made a number of changes and answered questions that were raised, then re-submitted it. The editor said she thought it was almost ready, but had a couple of extra suggestions.

Unfortunately, at this point the editor I had been working with left the paper to return to Los Angeles. The next editor to whom I submitted the piece seemed to have very different ideas about the story, and so I re-wrote it again. This dragged the process out further, and eventually the story seemed to be forgotten. I did not pursue it from this point because it had become out-dated.

After this, I started working on my own stories in earnest. This was a valuable time of getting to see different parts of Hong Kong and to experience the culture. It was a challenge to find and organise interviews in a country where I had no contacts and was getting used to the culture of humility and shyness in response to the media. This differed to the types of responses I would expect in New Zealand.

I visited different areas to interview people, and was invited to a charity ball in honour of animal welfare veteran Jane Goodall, as part of a story I was working on about pets in Hong Kong. This was a wonderful experience, and one which was recommended by my main point of contact at the IHT as an interesting facet of Hong Kong culture. It was an experience I would never have had if I had been merely travelling in Hong Kong by myself.

I managed to make the most of my time. I met with journalists and employees from all sorts of news agencies, including the BBC, CNN, Bloomberg and the Associated Press. It was wonderful to talk to reporters working in another country about their experiences and perception of journalism in the area.

During my trip, I also took an extended weekend to visit mainland China. While I was in Hong Kong my parents moved to Guilin, in Guangxi province, to teach English. I flew up to visit them and had an incredible time experiencing a tiny part of the country. This was one of the many highlights of my trip, and it was also a great chance to see where my parents are living now. The trip helped me feel much more comfortable about them being in China, and I will certainly make an effort to visit them again before too long.

While I was in China, I met up with a New Zealander who runs a company in Guilin. He was very generous in taking my parents and me to visit his factory, which was fascinating. Kiwis doing business overseas is something I read about on many occasions, but it was great to have such a clear firsthand example.

Despite the editors’ decision that my stories were not entirely in line with the editorial direction of the pape, in hindsigh, I enjoyed the experience of working on them and believe I improved my writing. I am conscious that the level of journalism at the IHT is extremely high, and I am not so proud to expect to be able to compete with their writers so early in my career. If anything, the experience served as an important reminder of how much I could still achieve, and it has inspired me against complacency.

I greatly appreciated my time in Hong Kong and China, and I am most grateful to Asia:NZ for providing the opportunity and support which made this possible. I am also grateful to my employers at TV3 who supported this trip and allowed me to take the time off. It was a unique and memorable experience, and invaluable to my career as a journalist in an increasingly globalised world.

- words and photos by Jono Hutchison