To Kit

To Kit (born August 17, 1958) is the pseudonym of Chip Tsao, a Hong Kong-based columnist-broadcaster and published books author. As a broadcaster, he is famous for his wry sense of humour and sarcasm. His writings abound with metaphors, and his best works are notable for their poetical quality.

Tsao is married with two sons named Tsao Tai-Ching and Tsao Tai-Yee.

Family background and education

His home county is Guangxi. His father was the vice chief editor of "Ta Kung Pao," a leftist newspaper in Hong Kong, whilst his mother was also an editor of the same paper. His maternal grandfather was a journalist of "Pearl River Daily". He was fetched up in Wanchai, and began reading literary early in his life. To attended Pui Kiu Middle School and later Lingnan Secondary School in Hong Kong. During this time, his writing was once published on "The New Evening Post". He attended London School of Economics and obtained a Diploma in International Relations; and University of Warwick, where he was conferred Bachelor in English Literature.

Career

To worked for BBC as a reporter for eight years, and as a journalist of Radio Television Hong Kong accredited in the UK before writing professionally. When he returned to Hong Kong, he started working as a columnist for number of newspapers and magazines such as Ming Pao, Ming Pao Monthly and Oriental Daily News. The name of his column in Ming Pao, 'The Golden Venture' ( _zh. 黃金冒險號) (a.k.a _zh. 金色冒險號 by the Chinese press), derives from the name of the vessel that took Chinese illegal immigrants to the United States in 1993.

Later, he joined a team of broadcasters to host a weekly current affairs programme on RTHK named 'Free as Wind' ( _zh. 講東講西). In September 2003, he switched to the Commercial Radio Hong Kong, and host a daily radio of similar nature named 'Summit' ( _zh. 光明頂, literally 'the Peak of Light'). The name The Peak of Light derives from the novel "The Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Saber" by Jinyong, which depicted the Chinese headquarters of Ming Cult.

He currently writes for Apple Daily and HK Magazine.

Political viewpoints

To Kit did not hide his apparent disgust with the current Hong Kong administration, especially Tung Chee Hwa, the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong. In his newspaper column, he once openly called for Tung to step down.

To is unusual in that although he was raised in a leftist family, he praises the governance of the British colonial administration throughout his columns and maintains that it was superior to the current administration. An admirer of former American President Ronald Reagan, To is said to be one of the most conservative public figures in Hong Kong.

Works

His work, both on radio and in his columns, concentrates on the following subjects:
* Governance of Hong Kong and the difference between pre- and post-reunification of Hong Kong with mainland China
* The essence of classic Chinese and western civilization
* Difference between the Chinese and the Westerners (particular in terms of the politics and lifestyle)
* The 'peasant mentality' of the Chinese
* films
* Prominent women (he wrote a column on the achievements of some well-known Chinese women in "Ming Pao Monthly" between 1998 and 2003).

Publications

Major works of To: