To celebrate our 500th issue of Hong Kong Tatler, take a look back at the editions marking the four previous centennial milestones since the magazine’s founding more than 40 years ago

Face to face

Hong Kong Tatler’s social pages have long been abuzz with the hottest happenings and this was no different in the 1980s.

Tatler Asia
Above Photo: from the Hong Kong Tatler archives

The June 1985 edition takes us back to a bygone era of the region’s party scene, with what are now the Faces pages featuring celebrations of the second anniversary of the Green Parrot disco at the Hyatt Regency Macau (once managed by the late Andrew Stow of Lord Stow’s Bakery); a dinner given by Mr and Mrs Leo Lee in honour of the birthday of philanthropist and Kowloon Motor Bus founder Tang Shiu-kin; and the 17th annual ball of the American University Club and the Chinese British Return Students Association, which was held at the Regent Hotel ballroom and featured its traditional beer drinking contest as well as a performance by Cantopop superstar Elisa Chan.

Popular singers Teresa Tang and Agnes Chiang were in attendance and also took to the stage in the heat of the moment. These were wild times.

Tatler Asia
Above Photo: from the Hong Kong Tatler archives

Sevens wonders

Tatler’s tagline in 1985 proclaimed that it covered the “business, cultural, social and sporting life of Hong Kong.” As such, the Hong Kong Sevens had to feature. Australia were the hot favourite to win the tenth incarnation of the tournament, and they did what was expected of them, easily beating the Public School Wanderers in the final.

See also: Flashback: A Decade Of Hong Kong Tatler's Most Promising Young Ladies

Tatler Asia
Above Photo: from the Hong Kong Tatler archives

On the cards

From the use of playing cards by the Americans as a secret weapon during the Vietnam War—the Viet Cong reportedly believed that the Ace of Spades was a death card—to Nasa’s fireproof playing cards for astronauts, which were able to withstand the oxygen-heavy (and therefore flame-inducing) atmosphere in a spacecraft, this in-depth feature looked at the history of the deck of cards and its place in magic, medieval times and the modern day.

Tarot cards are touched on, as well as pictorial and educational decks, not to mention the earliest known complete pack of hand-painted playing cards, dating from between 1470 and 1485, which sold at a 1983 Sotheby’s auction for £99,000.

Celebrating Hong Kong Tatler's 500th Issue:

See more on Hong Kong Tatler's 100th200th, 300th and 400th issues.

Topics