Rebirth of Cool

“I used to be the naughty one, in their eyes,” Gilbert Yeung, owner of some of Hong Kong’s most prominent nightclubs, including Dragon-i, Tazmania Ballroom and Cassio, tells me, speaking of the government officials who have been as much a part of his daily life as wild revellers are of his nights.

For the past year, Yeung, along with fellow entertainment magnates including Allan Zeman, the “father of Lan Kwai Fong”, has met with regulators every three weeks to discuss how and when the city can safely reopen its bars and nightclubs as the pandemic continues.

“The government usually looks at me, or people like me, and assumes I’m the bad guy. So to have this open dialogue, to have these conversations, has been a silver lining during Covid-19,” says Yeung. “Back in the