Recalling the Far Eastern Economic Review
VIEW EVENT DETAILSEvening discussion
Drinks reception: 6:30 pm
Discussion: 7:00 pm
Close: 8:00 pm
For more than 60 years, Hong Kong was home to one of Asia’s finest media institutions. Created in Shanghai as a shipping register and commercial information sheet in 1946, the fledgling Far Eastern Economic Review soon moved to Hong Kong, where within a few years it established itself as a weekly digest of news for those conducting business and engaged in diplomacy in a region fast recovering from the ravages of war. Its staff and contributors were some of the most knowledgeable experts on Asia, and often led lives as colorful as the subjects they wrote about. To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the magazine’s closure, join the Asia Society for an evening of recollection and reflection on the publication and its storied past led by three of the magazine’s former editors, Philip Bowring, Nayan Chanda, and Michael Vatikiotis, as well as former writers Velisarious Kattoulas and Adam Schwarz.
Philip Bowring began writing for FEER from Sydney in 1972 and moved to Hong Kong the following year as business editor. After a stint at the Financial Times, he rejoined FEER in 1980 as deputy editor, later becoming editor until 1992. Subsequently he was a columnist for the International Herald Tribune from 1992 to 2012. Philip is currently a columnist for the South China Morning Post, helps run www.asiasentinel.com, and is writing a book.
Nayan Chanda began writing for FEER in 1970 from Calcutta. Sent to Saigon as the Indochina correspondent, Nayan covered the fall of Saigon in April 1975 and later became the U.S. correspondent, based in Washington, DC. After serving as editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, he returned to Hong Kong as deputy editor of the FEER and later editor. Since 2001 Nayan has been at Yale University where he is founding editor-in-chief of YaleGlobal Online. He is the author of Bound Together: How Traders, Preachers, Adventurers and Warriors Shaped Globalization and Brother Enemy: The War After the War.
Velisarios Kattoulas is a former correspondent at Reuters, the International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, FEER, and Time. He is now chief executive of the Poseidon Group, a financial advisory and political risk consultancy he founded in 2007. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Poseidon's clients have more than $USD500 billion in assets under management and administration, and they include leading investment banks, hedge funds, private equity firms, and corporates.
Adam Schwarz has been based in Southeast Asia since 1987, reporting for FEER from Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. He has written extensively on Indonesia, including A Nation in Waiting. Living as a journalist, author, and political observer in Indonesia before and during "reformasi," his books lifted the veil on Suharto’s Indonesia and chart the journey through the era of democracy. He is President of the Asia Group, which advises businesses on economic, regulatory and political issues in Asia.
Michael Vatikiotis reported for FEER from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand before moving to Hong Kong in 1999 to become managing editor and subsequently editor of the magazine. He has written two books on regional politics: Indonesian Politics Under Suharto and Political Change in Southeast Asia. His published fiction includes two novels set in Indonesia, The Spice Garden and most recently The Painter of Lost Souls. He is Asia Regional Director of the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.
Supported by the Asia Group & the Poseidon Group