Skip to main content

Tag: Cantonese media

Pulse HK Launches

Pulse HK (追光者), a news outlet serving Hong Kong audiences worldwide, formally launched on Monday, positioning itself as an information platform for the city’s expanding diaspora. “Let us continue to look to the world and chase the light,” said editor-in-chief Wu Lik Hon (胡力漢) in his founding message, echoing the outlet’s Chinese name, which translates literally as “light chaser.”

The outlet was initially formed in August through a merger of two exile publications, The Chaser (追新聞) and Photon Media (光傳媒). The combined newsroom now operates from Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and North America — a geography that reflects the scattering of Hong Kong’s once-vibrant media scene following the 2019 protests and the imposition of a sweeping national security law in 2020.

The launch comes as Hong Kong exile and diaspora communities have grown substantially abroad, particularly in the UK, Canada and the United States. More than 150,000 Hong Kongers have relocated to the UK through the British National (Overseas) pathway since its introduction, according to UK Home Office figures released in August 2024. Substantial communities have also formed in Canada and the United States.

Operating beyond Hong Kong’s jurisdiction, Pulse HK plans to cover local news, cross-strait developments, diaspora stories, and international affairs through articles, interviews, and podcasts. Wu, the former head of the China desk at Hong Kong’s i-Cable News who later worked for the Cantonese Service at Radio Free Asia, said the team would provide 24-hour coverage, with a daily news broadcast set to begin November 3.

RFA Reflections

In an interview last Friday with the independent Hong Kong media outlet InMediaHK, a former journalist for the Cantonese language service of the American broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA) reflected on three years in Taiwan after Hong Kong’s media crackdown forced her relocation. Despite RFA’s closure this year due to sharp funding cuts by the Trump administration, she views dispersing Hong Kong journalists globally as beneficial for covering diaspora communities. The journalist, who used a pseudonym for the interview, was the first RFA Cantonese reporter stationed in Taiwan and witnessed the closure of major Hong Kong outlets like Apple Daily and Stand News. In mid-2025, she submitted an application for Taiwan residency, but told the outlet she did not know whether she would continue working as a journalist or continue writing news about Hong Kong.

Image from the InMediaHK story on a former RFA Cantonese reporter now living in Taiwan.