Newsletter Issue No. 6 (Fall 2013)

  

HK HORNS
Enhance public’s understanding of and interest in UT ‧ Improve Participation ‧ Re-ignite the passion of old members ‧ Recruit new members ‧ Provide opportunities to UT alumni to network in Hong Kong ‧ Serve UT ‧ Have Fun!

A Triannual Newsletter

Issue No. 6 (Summer 2013)

Know Your Alumni: Japhet S. Law
In the last issue, we started this feature to introduce successful alumni of UT from Hong Kong to our readers. In this issue, our featured alumnus is Dr. Japhet Law…

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Letter from the President

A new year has just started and it means that this term of the Executive Committee is going to end very soon. To me, serving in the Exco for the past years was a rewarding experience. So I urge those who are interest in serving our school or interested in organizing activities for our fellow alumni to stand for election. Mr Arthur Cheung (MPA 1996) is our Election Officer. You will find useful information about the election in his email.

During the year, the Exco had done a lot for our alumni. We had published three newsletters which included two “Know Your Alumni” articles. We have organized activities for our current business and communications students who took their courses in Hong Kong. We have upgraded our career related program. We have organized other gatherings including two Happy Hour Gatherings and three Texas Football Watching Parties. We had a fruitful year.

The Chinese New Year is just around the corner, so I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a prosperous Year of the Horse and all your wishes come true! Until next time, may the ‘Horns be with y’all!

Victor K. Nip
MBA 1996

Thanksgiving Dinner
In a warm Saturday evening (November 23, 2013), our Thanksgiving Dinner took place at Oolaa Petite in Admiralty…

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Texas Football Watching Parties

Page 3

Texas Bowl Game Live Watching Party

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Election of Executive Committee for Year 2014/15
For members who are interested in running for office and for those who wish to offer help to the Executive Committee of the coming year, it is time to show your interest?
Page 9

Those Were the Days
We organize Texas football watching parties because we want to use football as a common interest to connect our alumni with one another…

Page 9

HKTX Career Connection
…we started our mentorship program for new UT graduates who repatriate to Hong Kong or come to Hong Kong to work…

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HKTX Needs Your Help Again!
Football watching has always been an integral part of UT college life and Hong Kong Texas Exes’s activities…
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Thanksgiving Dinner

The alumni and the guests at the dinner

In a warm Saturday evening (November 23, 2013), our Thanksgiving Dinner took place at Oolaa Petite in Admiralty. Admiralty is always a hectic area during weekdays. In the weekend, the atmosphere is entirely different. The streets normally packed with suits and high heels are deserted. The restaurant is located at a quiet street next to the busy Queen’s Road East. There was music with just the right volume that would not make chit-chatting difficult. The food was delicious as usual. The pizzas were the favorite.

Apart from the usual alumni and friends gang, we had some fresh faces joining us that night. The two daughters of Celine (our Vice President) were definitely the most adorable guests of the night. We were also joined by two UT exchange students studying in CUHK. Even more, there were two current Korean UT MBA students came straight from the airport to share the happiness of Thanksgiving with us. Not to mention that one of our alumni, Wilkie Tsang, dropped by the event even though he had a dinner appointment with his family. As we had a much better than expected turnout, the long table we reserved was so crowed so that some of us had to move to another small table. After a night of happy gathering with the Longhorns family, we all went home with a fruitful Thanksgiving experience in Hong Kong.

To see more pictures of the event, go to hktx.org/nl0203 or scan the QR code at the end of the newsletter, and follow the links there.

Texas Football Watching Parties

On October 12 we hosted the “Texas Football Watching Party – Red River Rivalry” for our members to see our team play our arch rival Oklahoma. The party was hosted at Old China Hand in Wanchai. We had a private corner where we found almost exclusive. We had about a dozen Texas fans joining the party. We were also joined by some of the bar’s patrons who were also college football fans.

In the end our team beat ou by more than 2 touchdowns. By that time, our winning streak accumulated to 3 and we went on to win the next 3 games.

On November 17 morning (HKT), our football team had to face Oklahoma State on our own turf. The live feed of the game from Texas Exes was given to another chapter so we organized a party for 9am (4.5 hours after the kick off) so that we could watch the game “as-live”. We once again had the party at Old China Hand. We suggested our members to switch off their phones?data connection and not go look at the Internet after 4:30am before going to the party, because with it is almost impossible to avoid knowing the results from social media before going to the party.

It was a smaller party than the previous one, but those who were there still enjoyed the thrill until the latter part when it looked like our team would not be able to beat the opponent. Despite the loss, Texas still had a shot at the Big 12 Conference title by winning the game that followed while OSU blew their chance by losing to the ou team. The rest is history.

To see more pictures of the event, go to hktx.org/nl0203 or scan the QR code at the end of the newsletter, and follow the links there.

Joint Happy Hour Gathering with UCLA Alumni Association

On October 18, we had a relaxing happy hour gathering at a different location than Priv?this time. Graffiti offered a laid back environment for us to meet up with some old friends and new UT alumni and UCLA alumni as well. It was a relatively small happy hour gathering, but those who were there had a very good time.

We also had a new alumnus or two who took advantage of our free first drink offer for UT alumni that had not previously attended our HKTX events. We shared some stories about good times at UT, and what brought some of the UT expats to Hong Kong. The night ended with a live band playing some famous oldies.

Changes in the Executive Committee

Calra Hong, previously our Internal Relations Officer, had decided to leave the Exco. Her resignation was effective on October 14, 2013. Calra started helping the Exco for 10 years since 2003. We thank her for her continuous support of our organization’s activities.

Benjamin Chang, co-founder and previously our Social Event Officer, has left Hong Kong and has no scheduled return date. He has resigned as a result. We thank him for his contribution to the organization and hope one day he will come back and rejoin us.

Texas Bowl Game Live Watching Party

The participants of the party took a picture together at the half-time break

Our football team faced Oregon Ducks (#10, 2nd Pac 12) in the Alamo Bowl on December 31 HKT. The game was the last one where our team was coached by Mack Brown. Last year, we went to the same bowl game with the same regular season record (8-4) and faced an opponent which was also ranked higher than us and was from the same state (Oregon State in 2012). So we were hoping that our team would also come on top to be the winner of the Alamo Bowl this season.

What we get from what we paid for. It is a breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

We originally planned to host a live watching party for ourselves, but the venue manager had difficulty to staff a morning shift of a holiday eve, so we did something even better. We joined the party of University of Oregon Alumni Association in Hong Kong to have the party at Trafalgar on
Lockhart Road. Despite the two groups of alumni supported different teams, the atmosphere was friendly and all participants enjoyed being there. Perhaps the Ducks enjoyed it more because their team came on top, but for true Longhorn football lovers like those who were there treasured the time supporting the team together in any case.

Mascots of the teams

Our prediction of the results before the game

To see more pictures of the event, go to hktx.org/nl0203 or scan the QR code at the end of the newsletter, and follow the links there.

Know Your Alumni: Japhet S. Law

In the last issue, we started this feature to introduce successful alumni of UT from Hong Kong to our readers. In this issue, our featured alumnus is Dr. Japhet Law.

Japhet had not previously accepted any invitation for interviews by the press. Actually, his son, who also went to UT, predicted that Japhet would not accept our invitation. It is therefore our honor that he agreed to take the time for our interview and share his success and experience with our fellow alumni.

Japhet’s bio:
Professor Law left his career in the U.S. and returned to Hong Kong in 1986, in response the signing of the Joint Declaration. He has actively participated in the affairs of Hong Kong and China throughout these years, and has also extended his reach into the international arena in matters related to Poverty, Disaster Relief, and Business Education.

He was the Secretary General of the Hong Kong New Alliance, an organization which has made very significant contribution to the preparation of the return of sovereignty to our Motherland to the Chinese Government. In 1995, Dr. Law and a few of his friends Founded the Hong Kong Policy and Research Institute, a cross-sector policy think-tank providing a much needed third voice for Hong Kong during the transition years of Hong Kong. He has served on many of the government’s committees, providing his professional service to the community in the years following the handover, including serving as a Regional Councilor.

He has devoted much of his time in establishing new strategic directions for Oxfam Hong Kong as its Chair from 1997 to 2003, successfully growing the size and impact of the organization’s work in Asia and China. His tenure as the Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong witness the quick ascent of the faculty’s international reputation and ranking, cumulating its success to be ranked as the top Business School in the Asia Pacific Region when he stepped down from his deanship.

Dr. Law has continued to serve the international business school community and is widely regarded as a leading figure in matters relating to business education in Asia.

Road to UT
Before going to UT, Japhet had studied at other universities. A few schools had accepted him and he was not able to differentiate one school from another. At first he chose Long Island University to study mathematics. His uncle from New York City visited him, and asked him why he wanted to study mathematics when it would not land him any jobs. He advised Japhet to study engineering. So Japhet applied for more schools and two schools accepted him: Northrop Institute of Technology (which was closed in 1993) in California and Georgia Institute of Technology. He chose Northrop because he knew Northrop Corporation (now Northrop Grumman), which manufactured fighter aircrafts, since he was a kid. So he left Long Island just two weeks after he moved there. However, when he went to the campus of Northrop, his heart sank because of the environment was not quite what he expected. He stayed in the university for two quarters before he moved on to another university. Again, two schools accepted him, and he chose Texas A&M because of how the promotional materials portrayed the school, such as that the campus was the biggest in the world, that it had the tallest flag pole in the world, and above all it was inexpensive. And the offer that he declined was Stanford’s because Stanford was much more expensive. It cost him US$400 a year to study at Texas A&M (and get all the biggest stuffs in the world) or would cost him US$6,000 a year to study in Stanford. A&M was a cadet school at that time and there were no female students. It was a boys?school. He found life in College Station too boring so he left College Station after one semester, and went to Austin to study at UT and stayed there until he got his PhD. Japhet said that looking back, he should have gone to Stanford rather than A&M, but he enjoyed his time in Texas. (We are sure that he meant Austin!) After going to Austin, he also brought his younger brother and younger sister to Austin and they both studied at UT afterwards. Japhet’s family is a UT family. Apart from his brother and sister, his brother-in-law went to UT, his son went to UT, his nephew went to UT, and his niece just graduated from UT.

When Japhet was in graduate school, he worked 20 hours a week for his teaching/research assistantship, plus other grading and research jobs totaling 39 hours per week, the maximum allowed for students. So he already had some decent income before getting his PhD. His office was located in Gregory Gym, and that explained how his basketball skills improved a lot during that time.

Japhet on a crabbing trip to Galveston (on the Galveston Ferry) with a few UT students

Start of His Career
After getting his PhD, Japhet went to work at Johnson Space Center of NASA in Houston. At that time, he was the only person from Hong Kong working there. There were two major things that he did at NASA. On the management side, he developed a system to manage the complex operations at NASA. On the technical side, which he spent the majority of his time on, he designed the algorithm of orbit navigation in the Space Shuttle program. Eventually, he resigned because he found out that the project was not purely intended for peaceful purposes. A colleague of his team was seconded to the Department of Defense for 6 months, and when the colleague came back to NASA Japhet found that the technology was used for missile rendezvousing with its targets using the same mathematics.

After Japhet left NASA, he went to teach Industrial Engineering at the University of Houston (UH). Again, he was the only employee from Hong Kong in the teaching staff at that time. There were quite a lot of Taiwanese in Texas at that time, while not many people were from Mainland China. Japhet mentioned that he learned Mandarin in Austin. He felt it was funny to talk to ethnic Chinese from Taiwan and Mainland in English.

Horseback-riding at a horse ranch on FM2222: He went there almost every week to ride, and sometimes helped the ranch to take care of the horses. He brought many UT Chinese students to go there to ride often. It was a big and beautiful place.

Returning to Hong Kong
In 1985, the British Government and the Chinese Government signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Hong Kong faced a brain drain problem at that time because many people feared that Hong Kong would fail after handed over to a communist country. Those who could afford to leave Hong Kong in pursuit for better lives would move the whole or part of their families to English-speaking countries such as US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Japhet went against the flow. He felt that he needed to come back to Hong Kong to witness the historical event of Hong Kong being handed over from the British’s reign to the Chinese government. His mother was not very happy about his move even though it meant she would be able to see him more often. She thought in the US he had everything that everybody wanted to have: a good job and a good life. However, Japhet wanted to be involved in the transition. He came back to Hong Kong in 1986 and started to teach in the General Business Management (GBM, now split into the Department of Management and the Department of Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics) of the Faculty of Business Administration (CUBA), The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He said he would have done the same if he had to choose again, as he was able to do a lot more to the society by being in Hong Kong, such as in the setting of the government policies and involving in the transition of Hong Kong in 1997.

Teaching at CUHK
As Japhet is from an Engineering background, he had a very different perspective of what a business school should be teaching than the other lecturers of CUBA at that time. Actually, he had never taken any business courses before. He joined the Faculty to teach mathematics models. So, he did not have any preconception of what a business school should be like. He had asked a lot of questions about why something in the school was done in a certain way. Sometimes the Faculty could not answer and that inspired the Faculty to re-think their ways of teaching. At that time, the Faculty was hierarchical. Decisions were made top-down. People did not speak out in meetings. Japhet did. NASA was the opposite of CUBA. People could join NASA because they could contribute. For example, in the Space Shuttle Program, the failure of a small part because someone did not contribute would cause the failure of the whole project. Everyone was important, he said. The most junior staffer would be respected for his contribution in meetings. He thought that people here should have more equal footing as well. We had a lot of good values but there was a lot for CUBA to learn from the West. His experience in America also helped to shape how he viewed business education, which trained him to have diverse viewpoints and be open, to be innovative and willing to challenge the status quo. Eventually he became the Dean of the school.

When he was the Dean, he had changed a lot of things in CUBA. And when asked about what he thought was his biggest achievements he had in CUBA, Asia Pacific Institute of Business was the first one that he mentioned. He started the Institute within three years after he joined CUHK. He saw that the business school was not interacting with the society. So he set up the Institute to do executive training and interact with business community. And on the side the Institute made a decent amount of money. Japhet considered the institute was doing quite well in this area.

He remembered that the first major project of the Institute was the executive training for Proctor and Gamble (P&G) in Mainland China. It was when P&G just started their big operation in China. P&G was hiring 150 managers a year from all parts of China, and the Institute helped P&G to do the training for 3 years. Other achievements that Japhet is proud of are the starting of the joint MBA program of CUBA with Tsinghua University and the establishment of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management in CUBA. It was Japhet’s idea to build a hotel in the university. Now when you take a train on East Rail you can see the Hyatt Regency Hotel situated at the University station. And above everything else, the fact that CUBA improved its ranking to be the number one MBA school in Asia and Oceania by the business magazine Asia Inc. when he stepped down from his deanship in 2002*. He said many of his professors in CUBA went to the US or Europe to get their PhD’s and came back to Hong Kong to work, but they had not been exposed to the society there. A few other professors had worked in the US. He could tell the difference between the two groups. Those who had worked in US were ready to have open discussions, would not feel threatened when challenged, and understood that the discussions were nothing personal. These were the people who were innovative and were able to build things. Now he tells those students who are heading to the US for their education that they should not just hang out with friends from Hong Kong and eat their instant noodles in their dormitories, and that they should not just fly there to spend four years living the Hong Kong lifestyle. They should go and mix with the Americans. Otherwise, they would be wasting their time because studying abroad is not solely about getting credit hours and high grades. Japhet mentioned that his academic training played an extremely minor role in his accomplishments. It was more about the soft skills, that he was able to work with other people, work for people, and get people work for him. He told his engineering students at UH that whatever he taught them, they could hardly use 5% of it. Less than 5% even for engineering! A successful engineer is not someone who can calculate how much cement should be used, but someone who can gain the trust of his clients, he said, and all that matters has nothing to do with engineering as an academic subject.

So, it is not the academic training that Japhet gained at UT that contributed most to his accomplishments, but the environment, the experience, and the people. Diversity was high in Austin, unlike in College Station where all students were male soldiers. On the other hand, the way that Texas handles things was sort of “brute force”. He said it is good for him to have a clinical psychologist as his wife who tunes him down a bit, as sometimes you can use brute force, but many times you should not.

This was probably taken at the same ranch on FM2222. Japhet was having a picnic with members of the Chinese Student Association. From right to left: Johnny Kwok (PhD in Aeronautics Engineering), Japhet, Yip (from Macau), Eddie Wong (from Macau, BSc in Architecture, first Chinese Architect qualified in Macau, now Executive Council Member of the Macau Government and Vice Chairman of the University of Science and Technology in Macau), David Hui (B. Pharmacy, owner of a pharmacy in LA).

“Retirement”
Japhet has now retired as a professor at CUHK, but his life is far from a retiree’s. He is travelling 40-50% of the time for business. He is still serving in business school organizations. He is an advisor in school accreditation. He pointed out that there are only a few Asian deans around the international community, so he does his part. He is a board member in seven listed companies and some more non-listed companies. He also serves in a number of government committees although not as many as before.

One major recent change for him was that he stepped down from the board of Oxfam Hong Kong after serving there for almost 20 years, as he wanted to allow someone else to take the lead. Oxfam is an NGO that focuses on poverty and disaster relief and to help the poor to help themselves. Back in the 90’s, Japhet was the first non-expatriate Chair of Oxfam Hong Kong. He championed the growth of Oxfam in China and throughout Asia. When he became the Chair, Oxfam Hong Kong was the only Oxfam affiliate in Asia. He participated in the establishment of Oxfam International in 1995, after which he played a major role in the board for a few years.

One of Japhet’s major pushes in Oxfam Hong Kong was to have the organization focus its efforts on China, and let other Oxfam affiliates to focus on areas that Oxfam Hong Kong used to serve such as Africa. Under the leadership of Japhet, Oxfam Hong Kong is now operating on a budget of HK$230 million, and in China it has 4 offices and 150 staffers including one office in Beijing which is working on reducing urban poverty. Japhet pointed out that during disasters Oxfam would be one of the last organizations to ask for donations because they wanted to first analyze the situation in order to help most effectively and efficiently. Oxfam does policy research to help the government focus on solving the right problems in the most efficient ways.

He wanted Oxfam to be a “thinking agency”. One of the key things when Oxfam goes into an area to help is that the local government must participate and work with them, and if not Oxfam will move on to help another place. He mentioned that once you understand the causes of poverty in a specific place you can think about how to solve it and solve it quickly in many cases.

Interest and Opinions
Japhet has a diverse range of interests. We already mentioned above that he played basketball a lot when he was in graduate school. He was the UT Intramural Champion of Table Tennis in the year 1972/73. He played regularly the game that most of us are just interest to watch than to play: (American) football. He played the flag with tackle version of the game with the members of the Chinese Student Association. In fact, he played a very serious annual competition with the Chinese students of Texas A&M. Apart from that, he taught Chinese martial arts in Austin with his brother. He used to play violin. Now that he has “retired” he is picking up violin again.

Since Japhet has a lot of interesting experience, we asked him a few questions with topics closely related to what he done before.

Japhet took 24 hours of credit a semester during his undergraduate studies and he managed to graduate within 3 years even though he was moving around the country attending different schools. He took so many hours per semester because the schools charged a flat rate no matter how many hours a student took. We knew, however, that when he was the dean of the business school, he did not allow students to take more than 21 hours. He explained that from his experience he knew that he did not learn as much as he should have with that many credit hours taken at the same time. Getting many credit hours with good grades does not mean you have learned.

Japhet playing violin in a Chinese Student Association Annual Gathering concert with Ms Pricilla King, an accomplished pianist/prodigy from the Mainland studying for a master’s degree at UT’s Music School

As he has worked at NASA, we asked him what he thought about the recent soft landing on the moon by the China National Space Administration. Given that he was not happy about the non-peaceful use of his research at NASA, he said he was happy to see that happening. He appreciated that China’s ascension has followed a peaceful path, and that it is important to find a peaceful way for all people in the world to coexist.

Japhet is still a Director of Research of the Aviation Policy and Research Center. The Center advises the Hong Kong Government on aviation related issues, such as the 3rd runway issue and Jetstar application for a Hong Kong airline operator license. Since Hong Kong people interact with their mobile devices all the time, we asked him if Hong Kong will adopt the FAA’s new rule to allow mobile devices to be used during takeoff and landing. He explained that if the FAA thinks something is safe then other countries will usually trust their judgment. But he said that the new rule probably will not affect him because when he gets on planes he just sleeps!

Since Japhet came back to Hong Kong to be part of the transition of Hong Kong in 1997, we asked him about his thoughts of the development of Hong Kong since then. He said he is not very happy about the current political environment, but he is pragmatic about the situation. He explained that in Hong Kong there is a power vacuum. In the past, the British made all the decisions, and the local people did not ever have to manage themselves. Compared to other former British colonies, the retreat of the British had cause little trouble. Now that the British are gone, the “opposition” wants to have their say.
Looking at the current political environment, Hong Kong may be stretching the limits. Japhet said that Hong Kong is a city, not a country. Politics in a city should be different from politics in a country. We need to worry about administrating a successful city. For now Beijing has been suppressing the development in Shenzhen and Shanghai for the benefit of Hong Kong. If we continue to tire Beijing, Beijing may reduce the support for Hong Kong. In any case, he considers things are okay, not something that he does not expect.

Before we ended the interview, we asked Japhet what message he would like to pass on to our fellow alumni. He said “Lead a healthy balanced life. Work life pushes people too much. Do things that are good for your body and soul, and leave time for your family.”

We would like to thank Japhet again for taking the time for this feature, giving us valuable insights, and sharing his stories with us!

Election of Executive Committee for Year 2014/15 Traditionally, the elections of the Executive Committees of Texas Exes chapters occur on Texas Independence Day which falls on March 2 every year. Hong Kong Texas Exes follows this tradition and we have our Annual General Meeting around March 2. For members who are interested in running for office and for those who wish to offer help to the Executive Committee of the coming year, it is time to show your interest. This year, Arthur Cheung (MPA 1996) has been appointed as the Election Officer for the coming election. If you are a member registered through our web site at HKTX.org, you should have received an email from him. Excerpt of Hong Kong Texas Exes Constitution related to Executive Committee Election 5.5 Election 5.5.1 The Executive Committee is elected or confirmed as a cabinet. Each cabinet candidate should consist of a President candidate, a Vice-President candidate, a Treasurer candidate, and candidates of other offices as the President candidate sees fit. The maximum number of candidates in a cabinet candidate is eight (8). 5.5.2 Subject to section 4.1, all candidates must be Ordinary Members of HKTX whose membership fees are in effect at the time of election and have joined HKTX for one (1) year or more at the time of election or as at March 2 of that year. 5.5.3 If there is one (1) cabinet candidate running for election, the cabinet candidate has to be confirmed by a simple majority of votes. 5.5.4 If there are two (2) cabinet candidates running for election, the cabinet candidate with more votes is elected. 5.5.5 If there are more than two (2) cabinet candidates running for election, the exhaustive ballot system should be used, and the whole election should be finished within the same meeting. 5.5.6 If for any reason no candidate is elected or confirmed, an Extraordinary General Meeting shall be held within one (1) month to resolve the issue. The outgoing Executive Committee shall continue to be the Executive Committee until the Extraordinary General Meeting is held. The complete Constitution can be found in HKTX’s web site at https://hktx.org/Constitution.

Those Were the Days:
The History of HKTX Football Watching Parties (Part 1)

– Victor K. Nip

In this issue’s Those Were the Days, we want to do something different. This is the first part of a two-part miniseries about the history of our football watching parties. Our President Victor Nip is going to talk about our football parties from his personal point of view.

We organize Texas football watching parties because we want to use football as a common interest to connect our alumni with one another. While we were considering buying a Slingbox to bring all Texas football games to our football fans, I looked at the history of our football watching parties. From VCR tape to Slingbox live feed, we had experienced a lot of changes in how we bring the games to our alumni in Hong Kong from the US. I think it would be fun to take a look at this part of the history of Hong Kong Texas Exes.

We had our first ever Texas football watching party in January 2002. Our member Brent Barnes taped the Culligan Holiday Bowl that was played on December 28, 2001. He brought the VCR tape back to Hong Kong for the enjoyment of all our members. We booked a karaoke room at Neway in Tsimshatsui for the party. It was when indoor smoking was still allowed and pictures were taken on APS films. It was that long ago!

This picture was taken during our first ever Football Watching Party. It was taken on APS film.

The next one was held exactly one year later when we went to the same place. Not only did we watch the game together, we also sang together.

Having a football watching party in Hong Kong back then was so much more difficult than today. It took another 2 years before we had the next football watching party. It was the Rose Bowl game on January 2, 2005 HKT and the game started at 5:30 am. Our opponent was the Michigan Wolverines. ESPN was to broadcast the game live in Hong Kong. We booked a room at Skitz Bar in Wanchai (which is now closed). To my surprise, an alumnus who visited the venue called me 2 days before the party and told me that the bar was double-booked, and our booking was canceled. I called the manager and he told me that they lost my business card and could not contact me, or so they said. So, I booked another venue nearby. In that early morning at 5:10 am, when I arrived at the venue, I almost had a heart attack. The reception of NOW TV, which carried ESPN, at the bar was down. I ran along Lockhart Road to try to find another venue, but all places nearby were closed or were about to close. What happened next was that I found Skitz Bar became available again since the other party had finished. So, 30 of us marched to Skitz Bar at the same time. We were able to catch the opening of the game, and we left the place happily with the Rose Bowl trophy handed to our team.

This picture shows some of our alumni who watched the Rose Bowl game at the Skitz Bar.

The next one was in September 2005 and was quite unexpected. A bunch of Texas A&M (boo!) alumni would order licensed DVD’s of the Aggie (boo!) games from Europe. Because it took a few days for the DVD’s to arrive, they would watch the game at the Keg in Lan Kwai Fong together on Thursday evenings. The week before was a bye week for Texas A&M, so our alumnus Paul Coonrod asked their organizer to order the Texas vs Ohio State game instead. This was the first time we watched a regular season game together. A month later, we ordered the DVD for the Red River Rivalry and organized a party of our own.

The American Club was so crowded with the alumni of both Texas and USC.

In the small room at the American Club, Texas football fans were thrilled about the progress of the game.

And then in January 2006, we had the most memorable Texas football watching parties of all time. Texas was to face USC in Rose Bowl which was designated as the National Championship game for that season. The alumni organization of USC had invited us to join them in their party at The American Club Hong Kong. It was a huge party. My estimate was that there were more than 50 alumni from Texas and more than 100 alumni from USC. Don’t forget that it was a work day! There were so many people there that American Club had to move us to a smaller room which USC had not booked. We were supposed to order at least one drink each but their staff was so busy that many of us could not order anything! In the end, the alumni of USC left the scene with their heads down while we stayed to party a bit more. Right! We were the National Champion of the season!

Since we found out we could order the games on DVD, we had organized a few football watching parties at Kangaroo Bar and Club (which is also now closed) in Lan Kwai Fong.

Our alumni were enjoying a Texas game on DVD’s at Kangaroo Bar and Club.

At that period of time, ESPN was offering Game Plan where people around the globe could watch the live steaming of selected NCAA football games through the Internet. We were about to take advantage of that service for bringing our alumni the Alamo Bowl where Texas would face Iowa. However, the earthquake in Taiwan in December 2006 had damaged some major internet cables which ran across the Pacific Ocean, causing the Internet to be slower than the dial-up era. We had no choice but to cancel the plan. I personally bought that game and watched at home. The video turned out to be a total disaster. I actually got a full refund of US$15 that I paid.

End of Part 1

HKTX Career Connection

In the middle of last year, we started our mentorship program for new UT graduates who repatriate to Hong Kong or come to Hong Kong to work. We have decided to expand our career related program to include helping alumni to connect with experienced professionals in their interested fields and also one another.

The objectives of the program are as follows:

• To help our fresh graduates explore different career opportunities, build their careers, and build connections with other members and people in their interested fields
• To help alumni to get connected with experienced professionals of their interested career paths
• To build relationships among UT alumni in Hong Kong
• To build the membership of HKTX

Mentorship Program
The mentor-mentee relationship will officially last 12 calendar months. Mentors may give mentees advice on resume writing, exploring career paths, and interview techniques. Mentors can also take their mentees to meet other people in the industries that the mentees are interested in. Apart from career advice, mentors can also give advice on adapting to living in Hong Kong and on other issues. While there is flexibility in the eligibility of the mentors and mentees, below are the guidelines:

Mentor

• Has minimum 4 years of working experience, of which at least 1 year gained in Hong Kong
• Is a member of HKTX
• Normally resides in Hong Kong
• Is willing to meet each mentee at least once a quarter for 4 consecutive quarters

Mentee

• Graduated from UT less than 2 years ago
• Is a member of HKTX
• Normally resides in Hong Kong
• Wants to build his/her career in Hong Kong
• Is willing to meet his/her mentor at least once a quarter for 4 consecutive quarters

If you are otherwise eligible but are not a member yet, you may join us now.
To apply to become a mentor or a mentee, please visit https://hktx.org/Mentorship.htm.

The Horns Network
If you are a UT alumnus in Hong Kong interested in a certain field and want to talk to a Longhorn in that field, maybe we can help. If you are an alumnus planning to come to or come back to Hong Kong to work and want a lead, maybe we can help, too. Let us know what you want and we will try to connect you with members who are experienced professionals in your interested industry. We will also look into our Exco members’ UT connections and experienced professionals from other circles to help.

If you are a member who is an experienced professional in your field, we ask for your help. What we need from you is to take the first call from the help-seeking alumni. It will be up to you to decide whether you want to provide further help after taking the first calls.

To participate in Horns Connect, please visit https://hktx.org/TheHornsNetwork.htm.

Eligibility for help-seeking alumnus

• Is an alumnus of UT
• Is a member of HKTX if already in Hong Kong
• Is interested in developing his/her career in Hong Kong

Eligibility for Experienced Professional

• Is a member of HKTX
• Is experienced in his/her own industry

Connect thru LinkedIn
We have been using LinkedIn to connect our members (and our members only) for about a year. While the LinkedIn HKTX group (https://hktx.org/linkedin) is underutilized, our co-founder’s profile (https://hktx.org/connect) has connected more than 100 members in the professional network. LinkedIn is the best way to make your own connections with our fellow members on a DIY basis.

If you are a member and you have not connected with us through LinkedIn yet, please take action now. No forms required! If you are not a member yet and want to connect with our members, you may join us and get connected.

The brochure of the program can be downloaded from here:
https://hktx.org/CareerConnection.htm
Thank You!!!

We asked for your donation in the last issue of the newsletter and we have received a donation of HK$1,000 from Wing Tin. The amount covers a major part of the annual administrative expense. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Wing for his generosity and also his continuous support to our organization over the years!

HKTX Needs Your Help Again!

Football watching has always been an integral part of UT college life and Hong Kong Texas Exes’s activities. After hosting many Texas football watching parties in the past few years, the two biggest obstacles for hosting such parties are: (1) finding a venue that charges reasonably for an unknown audience size, and (2) getting the live video feed of the games. Now that we have found a venue that is open 24 hours during the weekends, it would be possible for us to watch every single Texas game in the coming season if we want to, and if have the live feed every time.

However, it has become increasingly difficult to get a reliable live feed for the games. We are at times unable to view an important game live because the game is not broadcasted in Hong Kong and the live feed from Texas Exes is allocated to another chapter/network. We are given the option to watch the games after they were over, but the fast flow of game results on social networks has made this option almost meaningless. Remember the Texas Tech game and Baylor game parties this season?

Here comes the good news: Texas Exes agrees to host a Slingbox for HKTX at the Texas Exes premises so that we can secure a reliable live feed for EVERY Texas football game. Even better, with the Slingbox we will be able to view important games of other UT sports. To leverage this offer, we are raising funds for the purchase of a Slingbox to be installed at Texas Exes. We estimate that this is going to cost HK$3,000 in the first year. That would include the purchase of the Slingbox, accessories, and local mobile internet charges.

We encourage you to support us by making donations for the Slingbox purchase. If you are willing to contribute, please deposit to the following HSBC account:

Hong Kong Texas Exes
400-634101-838

and notify us by email at hongkong@alumni.utexas.net with the following information:

• Your name
• Date of deposit
• Amount of deposit

Suggested donation amounts are $200, $300, and $500. If you donate $300 or above, we will buy you a standard drink in the first time we see you at a Texas Football Watching Party. If you have any question or opinion about this call for contribution, please do not hesitate to let us know.

We are going to have a (Charlie) Strong team and we will have a strong team in the next season. Let’s start contributing so that we can bring all the games to you.

May the ‘Horns be with y’all!

HKTX Merchandise

There are only a few Ted (Texas Exes Dragon) mugs left! We will have a new design for the next batch of mugs. If you like this design, act now before all stock is gone!

Coffee mug: HK$100

Write to us at hongkong@alumni.utexas.net if you are interested in the merchandise. The profit on the sale of our merchandise will help us in the running of the club.

Final Words

This concludes the final newsletter of the year. We have put a lot of effort in our newsletter, especially in the last two where we put tremendous effort in writing the “Know Your Alumni” articles. So, we hope that you enjoyed reading these newsletters. If you have any comments about this newsletter, please do not hesitate to write to us at hongkong@alumni.utexas.net.

The Editorial Board plans to continue the newsletter and we also would like to urge you to contribute articles or photos for the next issue. It can be any news about yourself that you want to share with our fellow alumni. If you want to tell them about your business in the form of an advertisement, we can work that out, too. The next issue will be published in April. Until then, may the ‘Horns be with y’all!

Contact Hong Kong Texas Exes

Phone / WhatsApp: +852 6481 6005
Email: hongkong@alumni.utexas.net
Website: https://hktx.org/
Facebook: https://hktx.org/facebook
LinkedIn: https://hktx.org/linkedin
Photos: https://hktx.org/photos

About this Newsletter

Editorial Board

• Winson Chan
• Logan Hairgrove
• Victor K. Nip
• Carl Sung