Pseudo-models for Pseudo-book fair

Published at the Libertines Pub, Hong Kong

Last week the Trade Development Council lifted the ban of teen models, which was proposed earlier, from its book fair in July under the pressure of the models’ publishers. However, book-signing sessions are still not allowed because the council argued that the models’ risque photo books are of bad taste and too vulgar, which contradicts the fair’s image as being family oriented. They don’t want the chicks to hijack such significant cultural event as they did last year.

I can’t help worrying about the fair if it no longer allows some boob-flashing and legs-flaunting from the bikini-clad models. Who would then pay to see the show? Booklovers? Well, as an old-fashioned booklover who insists on 15-minute bedtime reading every night, I don’t feel the urge to cram myself into the venue to see Haruki Murakami or Stephen Fry for real. I am drawn to their writing talents, not their physical looks and autographs. Besides, most people nowadays just read everything from the Internet and their iPhones. Or worse, they don’t read, they watch videos. Taking a long way to Wan Chai and paying a fee to read something new is so 1990s. Only some jaw-dropping cleavages would provide enough incentives for lads to bother.


I also wonder if the panel members of the council are sexually mature enough to make sound judgements. As a woman who is capable of being turned on by the same sex as long as they’re hot, I looked through Chrissie Chau’s last year’s photo book and find it far from being ‘risqué’. It can’t even compete with American Apparel’s catalogue. The photos are just Chrissie in curve-hugging flesh-revealing clothes, doing harmless poses to accentuate her shape. Calling it vulgar would be like calling Sex and the City porn. In fact, if I were a parent, I would be pretty happy if my son found these photos the most stimulating materials he ever came across. At least I wouldn’t need to worry about becoming a grandparent by accident.

In fact the problem with teen models’ albums is that their albums are not erotic enough to be qualified as adult products. Yet they are not intellectual or aesthetic enough for booklovers to purchase on Amazon.com. That’s why these pseudo-models found their perfect match – the pseudo-book fair. When these pseudo-porn publications are worshipped by sex-deprived chaps and condemned by moralists as the culprit in failing reading culture and sex education, one would not be surprised that Hongkies always rank last in every international sex survey. We are just damn suppressed.