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TITLE |
Hong Kong’s Crazy Rich and Mega Poor |
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PRODUCER |
WILL REID |
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TALENT |
MARC FENNELL |
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1.
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Welcome to the
land of the billionaires, Hong Kong has the highest concentration of ultra-rich
people of any city in the world, it just overtook New York, But not
everyone has won out of this and that is why we are here, because we want to
find out why is so much wealth being attracted to this city and more
importantly, what does it mean for everyone else that lives here. |
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TITLE: Crazy Rich and Mega Poor |
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00:00:07 - 00:00:58 |
Mabel: Let’s do something that’s a bit different from last time,
cos last time the back grounds was blurred out like the focus was on the person
- I like this place, just here? Here. This is Mabel
Lau - Instagram influencer, temporary traffic obstruction and heir to her
family’s fortune. Mabel: Do we have it? Oh, so good. MF: Hi, nice to finally meet you ML: Hello, nice to meet you MF: Hey I’m Marc ML: Welcome here MF: And…? Michael: Michael MF: Nice to meet you MF: Forgive me, so Is this all for social media? ML: Yes, it is, it’s quite a production for social media MF: you put more effort into social media than anyone else I
know. ML: Thank you MF: It’s a compliment |
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00:00:59 - 00:01:10 |
Mabel is one of
Hong Kong’s rich kids and she has no problem flaunting her lifestyle. In fact, she
gets paid to flaunt it by luxury brands trying to sell that crazy rich image |
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00:01:11 - 00:01:35 |
Marc: Do you think it's possible that part of the appeal of your
Instagram to brands is the fact that there is a sort of, there is an affluent
quality to it? Mabel: Yeah, I think it also reflects on the brands that want to
collaborate with me, they usually um like higher end lifestyle brands. |
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00:01:37 - 00:01:55 |
Marc: in the Hong Kong culture that you grew up in, how much
does status and wealth actually matter? Mabel: I have a lot of friends who are lawyers and doctors, not
because they genuinely enjoy doing it…I’m sure a lot of people do enjoy doing
it but a lot of people are doing it
just because of the money that comes with the job. |
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00:01:56 - 00:02:30 |
Mabel and her
friends are living a life of comparative wealth and status that’s not unlike
the one you would seein the movie Crazy Rich Asians. MARC: You said your dad had a few cars? What’s his taste? What is he
into? MABEL: He has an Audi sports
car and this car is more practical because my mum likes to drive her friends
around. There’s another car that my dad uses to drive to China, but usually
my driver he drives that car. And then we have the Benz which my dad drives
to work by himself. |
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00:02:31 - 00:02:47 |
Owning multiple cars is normal when you live here - in Repulse
Bay. Home to some of the most expensive real estate in the world - an
average 3 bed apartment can cost a cool $10million Australian dollars… |
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00:02:48 - 00:03:03 |
ML: Hi Laurdice MF: Hi, I'm good ML: So, this is my helper Laurdice, she’s been working with us for
more than 10 years MF: Beautiful place ML: Thank you. Laurdice, you can close the door now. |
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00:03:04 - 00:03:10 |
Like lots of new
money families in Hong Kong, Mable’s family emigrated from Mainland china |
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00:03:11 - 00:03:49 |
ML: So, this is my room Her Dad is a big
player in the textile industry... but
she is hesitant to tell me us exactly how much he’s worth. MF: If I was to ask you, if you had one purchase obsession, what would
it be ML: Can I have two? MF: yes ML: Handbags and shoes MF: How big is your handbag collection? ML: I don’t even have enough space to put them all. MF: So that’s not even the full collection? ML: No because I still have the wardrobe here. Well, they’re just all
over my room because I buy so many handbags all the time. These are my winter
jackets. |
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00:03:50 - 00:03:57 |
In fairness to
Mabel, which she may be super rich, she’s also ultra-humble… You see that bag
over there? That’s worth 17,000 dollars. |
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00:03:58 - 00:04:35 |
MARC: Why is this place so attractive to the wealthy MAB: I think it's because the barriers to do business here is
relatively lower than other places. But I feel like there is a very wide wealth gap in Hong Kong. The government has always been criticised for implementing policies
that are favouring the rich instead of helping the poor. I feel like we have
the financial capacity to be able to help these people so I wish more could
be done about this. |
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00:04:36 - 00:04:57 |
MUSIC CHANGE – sense of money, speed and business Extraordinarily
low taxes, no GST and miniscule corporate tax have helped make Hong Kong the
Free-est economy in the world. But if the government isn’t making money
from taxes, where’s the cash coming from, turns out a big part of the answer
to that question… is land. |
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00:04:58 - 00:05:41 |
You see while
Hong Kong has become home of the ultra-rich it’s also become the world’s
least affordable housing market. Hong Kong is just
a bit smaller than Hobart and there are 7.5 million people living here You might assume
real estate is so expensive because of land scarcity. But from above
you can see plenty of green space That’s because
70% of land is not being used. In fact, only 7%
of the city is zoned for housing. But here’s the
catch, every inch of land here is owned by the Hong Kong Government. And they make BIG
money by leasing it to property developers who in turn charge HUGE rents
sometimes for the smallest of spaces. |
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00:05:42 - 00:06:07 |
So, this is an apartment that is for rent. Two-ish rooms about 46 square metres
including the balcony for this you can expect to pay the equivalent of $1000
per week Australian. But it’s when you look at buying when things get mental, there
are apartments like this that are going for 2million Australian dollars and
the worst part, you have to put down a 50% deposit. |
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00:06:12 - 00:06:18 |
NATHAN: A
lot of our younger generation, they are frustrated with the housing problem. |
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00:06:19 - 00:06:43 |
This is Nathan Law, at 23 he was the youngest person to ever be
elected to Hong Kong’s parliament. He’s the voice of the cities increasingly frustrated youth. NATHAN: If you’re not coming from a wealthy family, then you
have no expectation or no hope of purchasing your own house. Like many people, Nathan believes Hong Kong’s problems stem from its nearest
neighbour. |
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00:06:44 - 00:06:57 |
N: You see that a
lot of our housing are being bought by the Chinese money and they are not
being used for residential needs but for them to get their money out They don't really care about livelihood issues in Hong Kong |
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00:06:58 - 00:07:15 |
MARC: N: Other than the
most unaffordable city in the world, Hong Kong is a lot of top ranking for
example, top working hours, the least joyful city and one of the least
hopeful cities. |
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00:07:16 - 00:07:38 |
According to a
recent survey, young people in Hong Kong are the unhappiest they have been in
a decade. In fact, 60% of
18 – 29-year olds are looking to pack up and leave Hong Kong for good. |
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N: A lot of my
friends and all of the younger generation they don’t want to have a child
because … they don’t
have room to raise them, it’s just like torturing the next generation |
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00:07:39 -
00:07:46 |
Hong Kong has one of the lowest birth rates in the world and this
housing problem, it’s related. |
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00:07:47 - 00:08:12 |
M: There’s a
social component to young people being about to have their own place, isn't there? N: Well
definitely. If you want to have sort of intimate behaviour with your partner,
then you have no room to do so and you are very embarrassed when your parents
are home and you can't do it so... It's devastating. M: So, the young
people of Hong Kong have nowhere to hook up? N: Yeah pretty
much. |
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00:08:12 - 00:08:20 |
Young people like
these university students who are tonight helping out in this soup kitchen. People, like
Frances. |
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00:08:21 - 00:08:35 |
MF: DO you feel like you have enough space? F: I share a room with my sister, so I think, I have suggested, I want
to have more personal space to be honest. But it's hard because we just have
three rooms in my house so my parents and my grandparents, and then it's me
and my sister. |
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00:08:35 - 00:08:41 |
Tonight, these students are delivering food to those most affected by
the housing crisis… |
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00:08:42 - 00:09:07 |
Follow the
one wearing a black jacket, jeans and green shoes. M: So, if
there is this ongoing problem with housing and not enough spaces and everyone
knows it, what’s the mood like here how do people feel about it? F: for the
young generation we feel so angry about it! We need to live and have a safe
place for us to maintain our life, but the government is just focus on how to
earn money in the maximum profit. |
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00:09:08 - 00:09:18 |
Whilst living with family is necessary to for many people in this
city. Some, don’t have that luxury. |
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00:09:19 - 00:09:35 |
M: can I
make and observation, overwhelmingly the people here are old, why is that? F: Most of
them live by their own, so they won't cope, and their daughter and their son
will not take care of them. |
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00:09:36 - 00:10:23 |
All of this forces you to wonder what happens to these people.
With no one to look after them. Where do they live? |
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Right now, Hong
Kong is projecting an image to the rest of the world and it’s an image of
extreme wealth and glamour… But then you
hit a place like this, this is Sham Sho Po, where a quarter of the population
live below the poverty line. |
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00:10:24 - 00:10:31 |
In a restaurant in the
heart of sham Sho Po, I meet Auntie Har … an elderly victim of the city’s
housing crisis. |
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00:10:32 - 00:10:42 |
Auntie:
I was born in 1944, springtime, I am turning 75. Auntie:
I'm nearly at the end of the end of my life |
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00:10:43 - 00:10:48 |
She’s taking us to see a sub divided flat, this
is the only kind of housing she can afford. |
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00:10:50 - 00:11:00 |
Auntie: I’ve lived here for
about eight years. Auntie: There are eight
rooms and eight families. I live in one of the rooms. |
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00:11:01 - 00:11:21 |
In Hong Kong, 30% of the
population live in public housing. But with a 5 year wait
list, a lot of people like Auntie Har are being forced to reside in dangerous
and often illegal living conditions like this. |
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0:11:22 - 00:11:49 |
Sometimes
you can see the rats running along the ceiling. They
just go around. You can’t do anything about it. Sometimes the rats are squealing
downstairs. They want to come up here,
so I use this to make noise. Auntie Har pays around
$300 Aussie dollars per month for this place… that is roughly a third of her
monthly government pension. |
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00:11:50 - 00:13:00 |
Auntie: All these are water
marks. I’ve covered them. It’s wet
here. See, it’s still wet here. It
leaks in up there. This is where it goes.
It’s leaking all over. Also,
over there. Auntie: The landlord won’t
fix it. This is an illegal structure and I dare not make this request. Marc:
do you think it’s fair that you have to live like this? Auntie:
It’s not fair to me; it’s not fair to my family. He took advantage of me Marc:
how would you feel if you can never get into public housing? A:
I feel
hopeless.
I need to move out but don’t know where to move
to. M:
you agreed to talk to us, to show us inside your house? Why is it important
that people know about this? A:
I hope the
government can improve the life of people in the lower classes. They should
be given basic living conditions I think it’s important. |
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00:13:10 - 00:13:34 |
I’m frankly amazed at Auntie
Har’s resilience and ingenuity… but the truth is, she has really limited
options. Everything about this
city, it wants you to be rich, it’s willing you to be rich, all the tax
stuff, but if you’re not, like her, in a sense it’s like the city doesn’t
know what to do with you. |
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AD BREAK |
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00:13:35 - 00:13:52 |
COMING UP… Hong Kong’s richest,
sharing the wealth MARC: Do you think it’s a
responsibility? Dr Sze: Almost an obligation. Giving hope to the poor. CHERRY: Then the poor will become
equally wealthy as the rich. |
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00:13:55 - 00:14:12 |
In Hong Kong, the richest earn 44 times more than
the poorest and that gap is widening. But there are some who believe that the
cycle of poverty can be broken… and their using wealth to break it. |
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00:13:55 - 00:14:52 |
M: Hi, Hi I'm Marc. Are you
Dr Sze? Nice to meet you, this is a beautiful, beautiful store. Dr Sze’s family have been selling jewels to Hong Kong’s
richest for the last century… and it’s made his family very rich. M: And your Dad started the
company? D: He started, with a
friend though, a friend in Shanghai. M: And then he came out to
Hong Kong and did he start from scratch? D: Not exactly, two baskets.
Two baskets full of jewellery. M: So, from two suitcases,
comes this. Wow. D: I can’t quit. |
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00:14:53 - 00:15:14 |
Sze: This one is almost
identical to the one that Michelle Yeo wear in the movie MARC: What she wears in
Crazy Rich Asians, amazing. |
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00:15:15 - 0:15:30 |
Dr Sze may be the heir to a jewellery empire, but
he also has a PhD from Harvard University. He’s funnelled some of his fortune into a project
called the hub an organisation to help underprivileged kids get an education. |
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0:15:31 - 0:16:06 |
D: The world will not be
stable when you have too many poor people opposed to rich people, that's my
belief. And the gap is not closing, it's widening. And that actually worries me. MARC: Why do you think it's
important that people that have wealth, they invest it back in underprivileged
areas? Do you think it’s a responsibility? DR SZE: Yes. Almost an
obligation. M: Almost an obligation? D: Obligation. M: Why is it an obligation? D: Because well educated
people you have a much higher chance to be successful. |
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0:16:07 - 0:16:16 |
Dr Sze wants to take me to see The Hub, but the
only way to get there he says... is by Ferrari. |
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0:16:30 - 0:16:38 |
M: How many Ferrari's do
you have? DR: Only 2. M: Only 2. Only 2. Marc: Alright – lets go for a drive. |
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0:16:40 - 0:16:57 |
Sze: Clear? Clear? Marc:
ahhhhh Sze:
can I go? Marc: Ahhhh. no. DR
SZE; Clear? MF:
Clear yeah. |
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0:17:01 - 0:17:17 |
M:
Its strikes me that money and status matters here a lot in Hong Kong. DR: Oh yeah, Hong Kong, yeah. M:
Why? DR |
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0:17:18 - 0:17:22 |
VO: It’s strange to think that we are still in
the same city as Auntie Har |
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0:17:23 - 0:17:52 |
DR:
There's also a very exclusive golf club okay, on your left. DR:
How much are the memberships selling for? M:
1 Million? DR:
Low. M:
That's low? DR:
Down. M:
4 million? DR:
35 mill. 35 million. M:
35 million dollars for a golf club membership? THAT’S 6 MILLION
AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS DR:
35 million Hong Kong dollars. M:
What the-? That's insane! |
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0:17:55 - 0:18:22 |
After safely stashing
the Ferrari Dr Sze and I head to the Hub. Sze:
I see so many beautiful kids. Everyone looks very happy. In Hong Kong 1 in 5 kids
live below the poverty line. A lack of adequate housing means this often is
the only place that kids can study or play. |
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0:18:23 - 0:18:35 |
Cherry is one of those
kids. SZE:
Cherry I want you to meet Marc? -
How old are you? -
I’m nine. You’re
nine. You’re very tall. |
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0:18:35 - 0:18:48 |
Sze: When I was young, I played the same game,
but it was very different. -You have to put it face
down. - I need to put the piece
face down. - Yes. -Put this face down too. Dr Sze: I have to put the
piece face down. Sorry. |
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0:18:49 - 0:19:11 |
As Cherry teaches Dr Sze
the ins and outs of modern chess, he’s getting a glimpse of his investment in
Hong Kong’s future. SZE: I think my investment
surely works, I’m very happy yeah, it’s really, it’s an opportunity for me to
interact… Everyone is full of hope, it’s a long path ahead of them |
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0:19:12 - 0:19:37 |
The hub is a lifeline to
many of these kids. It offers not only the chance of a better life, but the
prospect of being a kid. But for Cherry, the
importance of education is abundantly clear. C:
Because if you don’t study, you will end up like beggars on the street
begging for a living. |
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0:19:37 - 0:20:00 |
We are off to Cherry’s favourite place. MUM: We are going to the
park to read; do you know how to speak English to Marc? I just told her if you
study well, you’ll know what he said. Cherry and her mum spend as much time out of their
crowded apartment as possible. |
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0:20:01 - 0:21:00 |
Marc:
Just describe what your house looks like at the moment? What’s the size of
it? CM: My two sons occupy a
room. My husband, my daughter and I sleep in the living room. We lay our
folding beds at night and pack them up each morning. We stack our belongings
up to allow more space to sit or sleep. Our flat is really small. MARC: Hong Kong has the
highest number of ultra-rich in the world – do you think that money is fairly
divided? CM: For people who don’t have money, their
children need to study hard. Knowledge is money. Having a good education is
better. CM. If she doesn’t have a good
education, she’ll do a manual job. I believe using the brain is better than
doing a manual job to earn money. |
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0:21:01 - 0:21:20 |
For Cherry, there’s an added pressure to succeed. CHERRY:
At the moment, my parents are raising us and
when I grow up and they’re old I can earn money and
look after them. |
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0:21:25 - 0:21:45 |
But what about improving the welfare safety net for
the aging populations? The government has just raised that qualifying age
for elderly benefits from 60 to 65 forcing people to work for longer, and
many elderly are resorting to selling cardboard on the streets to make ends
meet. |
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0:21:47 - 0:22:25 |
Marc: If you didn’t collect cardboard could you
live? - The subsidies are not enough, so I need to earn
it. My son has a family and doesn’t earn much. I can’t expect him to look
after me. If you’re poor, you need to work. M: When you hear that Hong Kong has the highest
concentration of billionaires, how do you feel about that? K: Some people are born
rich and some are born poor in this world. If people have money, you
shouldn’t feel jealous or hate them. If you’re poor, then accept the fact
you’re poor. |
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0:22:30 - 0:23:01 |
The government does spend 92 billion dollars a year
on welfare, but the high cost of living is keeping Hong Kong’s most
vulnerable on the streets without enough support. The question is, will Hong Kong’s crazy rich price
tag continue to come at the expense of the poor? But Cherry, she’s optimistic about the future here. |
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0:23:02 |
C: Some people in Hong Kong. Are very caring and have a big heart. They’ll help people in need. If the rich can share the
wealth with the poor, then they can work together and earn money. |