A great-grand daughter of the founder of KMB, Amanda Lui began her career with the family business, before launching Prime, now one of Hong Kong’s leading leisure and lifestyle public relations consultancies.
Click here to see Amanda Liu on video
What was your first job?
Working in the Traffic Department of the Kowloon Motor Bus Company (KMB). It was my job to go out and queue up every morning – come rain or shine, in the heat and the cold – and check if the buses were running on time. According to my father, this was the best way for me to get to know how the bus captains and passengers felt. It actually gave me a great grounding. When I later went to work in the PR section – and had to deal with complaint letters – I could really appreciate the overall situation.
What about your parents? What were their occupations?
Well, my great-grandfather founded KMB, so everyone on my father’s side of the family worked there. My mum, though, was born in Australia, then went on to work as a nurse in Sydney. She was just 18 when she married my dad. She then moved to Hong Kong and got heavily involved in charity work.
She didn’t just work as a fundraiser. She actually got directly involved with helping the disabled. A lot of her time was spent at the Caritas Hospital where she worked with cerebral palsy sufferers. Her training as a nurse meant she was able to teach the volunteers a lot about the special care required.
It was through her work that she met and fell in love with a little three-year-old boy with cerebral palsy. My parents went on to adopt him and he thus became my brother. He’s now 27 years old.
Later, when the Vietnamese refugees started arriving in Hong Kong, she used to go to the internment camps to teach the kids English. This improved their chances of being adopted and taken overseas. Even today, she still gets thank you letters from some of those children.
I inherited her commitment to charities. One that I always try to support is the Faith in Love Foundation, run by Gigi Chao – a very great friend of mine – and Sean, her partner. Gigi is now arranging to take my handicapped brother for a helicopter ride for his birthday. It has always been his dream and she’s making it happen for him. She does a lot of good work with severely handicapped children. She truly is one of Hong Kong’s unsung heroes.
Is there any profession you consider particularly overpaid?
Sports players. Especially those footballers who get transferred to clubs on multi-million dollar contracts. While I respect their ability, I genuinely doubt that the players are really worth that sort of money, especially when compared with other specialist professions. In the case of golfers, though, I don’t resent the amount of prize money they can win. They have to put in so much time and effort before they eventually turn professional. It’s really more like a return on their investment.
What is the worst piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
I seek advice a lot, but usually from my parents or other members of my family. I genuinely don’t recall them ever giving me any bad advice. Maybe I’ve just been lucky with the people I’ve asked. My folks have always been my “go to” people for advice. I’ve sought their take on just about everything – work, studies, boyfriends…
For my part, I am often quite hesitant about giving advice, especially with regard to relationships, as I feel I only usually know one side of the story. When someone talks about a problem, they are often really talking to themselves and looking for confirmation about a decision they have already formulated in their own mind.
Is there a particular TV programme that you actively dislike?
There isn’t, actually, really much decent TV to watch in Hong Kong these days. I definitely believe the market should be opened up. For the past few days I’ve been watching the new Viu channel. It is really quite good. I have a lot of friends who work at TVB, both actors and actresses, but many of them are now moving to China.
When I was living in Shanghai, I watched only local programmes, largely because cable TV was either too expensive or just not available in many areas. The dramas, game shows and other programme were really good and not because of the use of CGI or anything. They were just well shot, well thought out and had good dialogue.
Sadly, Hong Kong seems to be stuck in something of a time capsule, happy just to copy anything that is coming out of America. The mainland talent shows are just so much better. They put so much effort into them. It’s the same with Korea’s K-Pop shows. In Hong Kong, they just try to turn things round for a quick buck without making much effort.
Actually, I used to host my own TV show when I was Chief Operating Officer of RoadShow, the channel I set up while I was working for KMB. Initially, we bought programming from the likes of the BBC, but we really wanted to localise our content and decided to create some in-house programming.
At first, we struggled to find the right talent. We then started working with the Emperor Group (a Hong Kong based media and trading conglomerate) and their new singers would come on to do the hosting for us. Our 2.2 million audience of bus passengers meant they were bound to get noticed. By the time they produced their first album, they were already well-known.
I then started hosting my own programme, typically featuring sports, cooking, quizzes and facts about Hong Kong. I really enjoyed it and people began to think that I was a TV host, rather the COO of the company. Some of my friends said I should have had my own talk show. So, in answer to the question, I would love my own chat show, a comedic one like Conan O’Brien’s.
Do you have a Chinese saying you particularly treasure?
I do, but it doesn’t really make sense in translation. It’s chi sin, chi sin – literally meaning “crazy, crazy.” I use it as an off-hand reaction. When I was very young, my best friend – the singer Karen Mok – and I always used that phrase. We took the bus to the Diocesan Girls’ School together every day and we started saying this about anything that bugged us. It wasn’t meant in a bad way but just to vent how we were feeling. Once, after we hadn’t seen each for many years, we met up again in Hong Kong and we immediately started using that phrase again. It was chi sin.
Who do you regard as one of history’s most formidable characters?
Nelson Mandela. I went to South Africa about five years ago and took a trip out to the prison on Robben Island where he had been held. I stood in the tiny cell that had been his home for all those years and looked out of its tiny window. I was so amazed that, instead of becoming very bitter, he became such an inspirational leader and statesman.
Are you one of nature’s singers?
No. Listen to my voice. I don’t even have a very feminine tone. I clearly missed out on the singing gene. My cousins – James and William – both sing beautifully. James is always making recordings and William can just stand up and sing anytime, anyplace. And he often does.
Are you a keen diary keeper?
That was one of my habits when I was growing up, at least until I went to school in Vancouver. Then I realised that my parents had found them and read them while I was away. When I returned from high school, they knew so much about me that they weren’t supposed to. While they didn’t mean to pry, they did find what was in them hilarious.
What’s your astrological sign?
I am a Pisces. My birthday is at the end of February. Typically, we are supposed to be romantic, head-in-the-clouds types and super creative. I think that’s true of me. The sign for Pisces is two fish, one swimming up and the other swimming down. I’ve met several Pisces people that are very laid-back, like the downward swimming fish. I am one of those that is always swimming upwards. I’m very competitive.
When did you last go to a press launch?
Yesterday – I went to the launch of Ruco, Karen Mok’s new line of rubber shoe. She is collaborating with Judy Yu (the founder of Carsac, a luxury products distributor) on the design of a whole new collection. It’s a strange question as I now work in PR myself. After leaving RoadShow, I went off to Shanghai to study Mandarin. I liked the place so much I stayed and opened my own events management company. When I finally returned to Hong Kong, I decided to move into public relations, something I’d been involved with at KMB. The upshot of that was Prime, my own PR company.
Do you have a favourite book?
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It’s all about 9/11, but you only realise that when you’re quite far into it. It revolves around a little boy living in New York in this imaginary world. It turns out his father was killed during the Twin Towers attack. It’s very moving and one of those stories that draws you back in time and again. I’ve read it about four times.
What would you look for in an ideal partner?
Honesty, first and foremost. They would also need to have good sense of humour, one which matches mine, giving them a good outlook on life. They should also be driven and have a real aim in life, some goal they really want to achieve.
Have you been unfortunate enough to have a near-death experience?
No, but I have had an “awakening” experience while sky diving. I am normally a very happy sort person but, a few years ago, I was at a very low point. I went to visit my folks in Australia and my cousin suggested I do a sky dive. It proved hugely exhilarating. It made me feel so small, but so alive. It put all my problems into true perspective.