Revolution always on the mind of South China Morning Post co-founder Tse Tsan-tai
Driving force behind establishment of newspaper did not see it as just commercial endeavour, it became platform for advocating the reform movement
The South China Morning Post, a leading English-language newspaper that has reported on Hong Kong, China and Asia for more than a century, might not have come into existence if its co-founders, Tse Tsan-tai and Alfred Cunningham, had only profits or commercial viability on their mind.
Tse’s colourful life went beyond running a newspaper and making business deals, which he was adept at, before teaming up with Cunningham, a veteran British journalist, to found the Post.
Tse was also a political cartoonist and inventor, as well as one of the first liberals calling for democratic reform in Hong Kong.
At the turn of the 20th century, Hong Kong had three English-language newspapers vying for the few thousand readers in the city literate in English. China Mail, established in 1845, was the oldest and by far the most popular in the colony. The other two were the Daily Press and Hongkong Telegraph.
Andy Tse Kwok-cheong, grandson of Tse, said much about the Post’s was still unknown and some basic questions had been left unanswered.
“Nobody in his right mind would have come up with the idea of founding an English-language newspaper at the time,” he said. “Why on earth did my grandfather found this newspaper, when the readership and market was so limited?”
