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Denise Tsang

The first day of my internship with the South China Morning Post’s business news desk in the 1990s was intimidating. It was a quiet office with a couple of editors around and everyone I came across was an expat.
An editor glanced at me for a second, turned back to the black-and-white monitor of his desktop computer and continued typing on a keyboard. When the phone rang, he answered it and said: “Grave diggers!” and hung up.
This was the newsroom.
During my six-week internship, I learned about the reporters’ work routine. They generally did not come into the office until noon at the earliest as they finished late in the day, and readers only saw the stories in the next day’s paper.

So who got the morning assignments?
As a newcomer, I was given those unpopular jobs. But I did not mind. My objective was to write as many stories as I could to build up a portfolio to bargain for a full-time contract and absorb as much as I could. I wanted to join the league of experienced reporters as soon as possible.
That internship was over soon but the good news was that I secured a contract. I was still assigned the jobs senior reporters would not touch, however.
A story that spans 120 years: the history of the South China Morning Post
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It sowed the seeds of my news sense. And increasing competition and the Post’s expansion overseas in recent years means the newsroom operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
My passion for journalism has kept me at the Post and I have grown with the newspaper which today celebrates its 120th anniversary.
The Post is still dedicated to journalism, 120 years later
Over the years I covered the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Sars outbreak in 2003 and the global financial crisis in 2008.
My transfer to the local news desk as middle management in 2014 gave me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to report on the unprecedented political turmoil in 2019 and later the Covid-19 public health crisis.

The ways of reporting each crisis varied, but common factors were teamwork and professionalism to give readers the truth and the facts. While exciting and intimidating, the work required setting aside all emotions for impartial reporting.
Following the 2019 social unrest and Beijing’s subsequent imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, I have lost most of my long-time friends and folks, who have chosen to migrate elsewhere with their children, including Britain and Canada.
Why the South China Morning Post is one great melting pot
But I have decided to stay. Wherever I go, I will not stop reading Hong Kong news. I love Hong Kong, my home, so much.
Staying is not easy – first one must brace for ongoing political, economic and technological challenges. In terms of technology, for example, I would not have foreseen more than 20 years ago that today I would use a handset to film a video clip at a crime scene and add it to an article to tell a better story about a gruesome murder case.

Delivering live coverage of news was also unimaginable decades ago without the help of technology. Breaking stories has become a daily routine, which I, as an news editor, enjoy by working closely with reporters.
At a time when I needed a break from our ever-hectic newsroom, I was selected as a Baptist University professional journalism fellow in 2022. It gave me a much-needed sabbatical and allowed me to return to the school campus to absorb new knowledge before moving on to my next mile.
Journalism in Hong Kong has been on a roller coaster. My career has come a long way, from writing business news and analysis in an elegant setting to rolling up my sleeves to cover breaking crime stories.
I hope the industry will continue to keep the light on.


Refreshed South China Morning Post homepage elevates reader-first experience

What the South China Morning Post was like in the 1980s and how it has shaped me as a person

120 years of SCMP: where the only constant has been never-ending change

Being the South China Morning Post cartoonist is possibly more challenging than ever before

SCMP’s 120th anniversary

120 years of SCMP: moving with the times but always with the same passion and pursuit of truth and facts

Denise Tsang back in the late 1990s working as a business reporter for the South China Morning Post. Photo: Handout

Denise Tsang asking the right questions at a press briefing in 2002 on CLP’s financial results. Photo: Handout

Denise Tsang, a senior business reporter at the time, makes a call in 2007. Photo: Handout

Denise Tsang at a fundraiser in 2004 with “Elvis”. Photo: Handout

120 years of SCMP: Hong Kong’s property, finance, ESG and technology through pens and strokes of our journalists

Staff group photo at the SCMP editorial office in Times Square, Causeway Bay. Photo: May Tse

Journalists of the Post celebrating at the 21st Consumer Rights Reporting Award on 31 August 2021. (L to R) Deputy Business Editor Peggy Sito, former Property Editor Sandy Li, former Senior Correspondent Lam Ka Sing, and Climate News Editor Eric Ng. Photo: Edmond So

Peggy Sito with two awards at the 4th Business Journalism Awards of the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong on May 4th, 2020. Photo: Robert Ng

South China Morning Post journalist Enoch Yiu won the 4th Business Journalism Awards of the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong on 4 May 2020. Photo: Robert Ng

Wader Securities’ CEO Tammy Shu Yee-nar (Left) and Shu Yee-har (Right), who owned Hong Kong’s smallest brokerage firm, on the final day of the local stock exchange’s trading floor before it shut for good on October 19, 2017. Photo: K. Y.

Eric Ng’s very first news report for South China Morning Post on 13 June1998, a four-paragraph story about Tomorrow International Holdings, taken over and renamed Talent Property Group 15 years later. Photo: SCMP Archive

Eric Ng moderated the South China Morning Post’s China Conference: Southeast Asia in Singapore on 29 March 2023. Photo: SCMP

Bien Perez (left) in action during a Redefining Hong Kong Debate Series on 21 April 2017. Photo: Jonathan Wong

The history of the South China Morning Post: a story that spans 120 years

Robin Hutcheon held the position of South China Morning Post editor from 1967 until 1986, writing a compelling history of the newspaper in 1983, “the first eighty years”. 

The front page of the first edition of the South China Morning Post. At the time, it was common for a newspaper’s front page to be entirely taken up by adverts. Photo: SCMP

Post co-founder Tse Tsan-tai was a prominent writer, campaigner, artist, inventor and secret revolutionary. Photo: SCMP

Fellow Post co-founder Alfred Cunningham was a prominent British journalist.

The South China Morning Post office, on the Hong Kong waterfront between Connaught Road and Des Voeux Road, circa 1908. 

The Post owes its survival to American dentist Joseph Whittlesey Noble. Photo: SCMP

Ben Wylie rose from the printing department to become general manager. Photo: SCMP

Alec Sturrock was the Post editor from 1961 to 1967. Photo: SCMP

Chinese-Malaysian businessman Robert Kuok in 2015. Photo: Nora Tam

Alibaba bought the Post in 2015. Photo: AFP

Police fire tear gas during a protest in Admiralty to demand authorities scrap a proposed extradition bill on June 12, 2019. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

The Post’s current office, in Times Square, Causeway Bay. Photo: SCMP

The South China Morning Post is still dedicated to journalism, 120 years later

Blake Pier in Central, Hong Kong, circa 1900. Photo: Staff photographer

Why the South China Morning Post, like the city we call home, is one great melting pot

The South China Morning Post is a veritable United Nations of journalists and related professionals. Photo: May Tse

Non-Chinese people make up about 8 per cent of Hong Kong’s population. Photo: Fung Chang

Immigrants from all over the world add to Hong Kong’s vibrant multicultural environment. Photo: Jonathan Wong

South China Morning Post: a Hong Kong story decades in the making

News

Hong Kong

Hong Kong economy

After starting as a business desk intern at the Post in the 1990s, Denise Tsang has seen big changes in both the news business and her home city
Her passion for journalism has kept her at the Post and she has grown with the newspaper


After starting as a business desk intern at the Post in the 1990s, Denise Tsang has seen big changes in both the news business and her home city.


Hong Kong media

Hong Kong society

Hong Kong culture

120 years of SCMP: moving with the times but always with the same passion and pursuit of truth and facts

After starting as a business desk intern at the Post in the 1990s, Denise Tsang has seen big changes in both the news business and her home city Her passion for journalism has kept her at the Post and she has grown with the newspaper

After starting as a business desk intern at the Post in the 1990s, Denise Tsang has seen big changes in both the news business and her home city

Her passion for journalism has kept her at the Post and she has grown with the newspaper