The Economist’s Michael Brunt on doing business in this dynamic city as a gay man… and what needs to change.
As my partner and I check into our hotel, there is a furtive and awkward discussion between the receptionist and her manager in Cantonese about our booking of a king size bed. She looks from the screen to us, and asks discreetly, “Is this arrangement acceptable?”
It was, of course, totally acceptable to us, but Hong Kong in 2007 was still a city largely defined by the cultural values of its very traditional, and colonial, heritage.
At this point, my partner Colin and I had been in a relationship for seven years. With his consent, I took a position as Marketing Director of Asia in The Economist’s Hong Kong office and entered a culture that, though diverse, felt a decade behind London in terms of integrating the LGBT community.
Luckily, I had already met many of the team members I was to manage back in the UK, and they were aware that my partner was a man.
Sexuality wasn’t something readily discussed at work though so, in addition to being unaware of any other LGBT staff, there was no establishing conversation beyond the very sweetly-meant aside from a Chinese colleague; “We know that you’re different… but we don’t mind.”
A big part of my role was (and is) negotiating and socialising with partner companies, including ad agencies, suppliers, distributors and printers, and I realised relatively early on that my team had briefed them in order to spare me any embarrassment; for me not to lose face. What interested me was that they felt it necessary to do so when I was, in fact, very happy talking about my sexuality.
Business colleagues were advised to ask what I liked doing – golf, drinking, the arts – and been told that the best thing to do was to eat out as a group, sparing me any awkward, intimate questions or invitations along the lines of “please do bring your partner”.
Would clients have been as accommodating if I’d been more junior? Who’s to say.
Despite my presence at the HK office for just over a year, none of my colleagues came out. In an office of around 60 people from various international backgrounds, there was a statistically good chance that someone was gay. Perhaps it said something about the culture at that time that the closet was a well-utilised place. There was, after all, already a point of difference – I wasn’t a local, and in our other leading Asian business hub, Singapore, homosexuality was still illegal.
Today, we have a number of people across all our Asia offices who are “out”. Our Pride and Prejudice conference on March 3. 2016 will examine the economic and human costs of discrimination in debates across three cities (Hong Kong, London and New York) over 24 hours. We also have The Economist Pride Network for LGBT staff, which provides mentoring and advice, and communicates that the company is thoughtful about this sector of its workforce.
Walking along the lively stretch of Lan Kwai Fong now, I feel its venues still exude a very heterosexual atmosphere. That said, the bars and restaurants are modelled on Western nightlife where there’s a suggestion that anything goes. I wouldn’t think twice about openly socialising with my partner at any of Hong Kong’s nightspots, but both at work and play, I still feel there is room for improvement.
Though homosexuality isn’t illegal in Hong Kong, my own civil union is not recognised here and same-sex marriages are yet to be legalised. There are no laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation, and it would help to see diversity programmes and accompanying support as standard, rather than the exception, in the workplace.
I have talked to friends who say that Hong Kong remains a familial society with many young people living at home and hiding their sexuality from their parents. If Hong Kong could work on developing a second family for those in the LGBT community, then maybe the workplace would be a liberating environment opposed to another place where people feel they have to hide.
Michael Brunt is the Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Director of Circulation at The Economist. You can reach him on Twitter: @michaelbrunt.
