29/03/2023

After three years of draconian lockdowns Hong Kong is back in business. 500 guests assembled at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on March 29th for the modestly titled “Greatest Rugby Dinner in the World” in aid of the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation. The event was timed to coincide with the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens - sorry, important business conference - which some guests had flown specially out for. Not a mask, socially-distanced seating plan or plastic partition was anywhere in sight at the evening. In fact the only plastic item to feature was the interval entertainment act: Belgian punk singer Plastic Bertrand, who serenaded the guests with “Ça plane pour moi”, his solitary record to trouble the UK chart compilers from 1977.

Alex had produced a special cartoon for the dinner, celebrating Hong Kong’s newly-reclaimed social freedoms, and the original artwork was featured among the five items in the live auction. Bidding was brisk, and once it had passed HK$100,000 only two doughty bidders remained. The eventual victor was a well-known Hong Kong research analyst, the winning bid falling narrowly short of the world record for an Alex original (set at the same dinner back in 2019), but nevertheless netting a hefty HK$140,000 (£14,500 US$18,000) for motor neurone disease research.

The evening raised a total of HK$3.1m for the charity and afterwards the guests headed out to continue their good work by providing financial stimulus to the local economy in the bars of Wan Chai.

Here's the full cartoon