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Magdalene Fung

Hong Kong Correspondent

Magdalene is The Straits Times’ Hong Kong correspondent. She was previously deputy foreign editor at ST, managing daily newsroom operations and producing in-depth features and data-driven graphics covering topics including the Ukraine war, the Covid-19 pandemic and “invisible” communities across Asia. She was also a markets editor at Bloomberg and a China news editor at the South China Morning Post. Her projects have picked up multiple global accolades, including a Human Rights Press Award.

Latest articles

How a 1920s fable can help us understand what went wrong in the Tai Po fire 

mfletter22 - As the sun sets and the lights come on in Hong Kong on Dec 17, 2025, the dark outlines of the charred towers of Wang Fuk Court look particularly stark, brutal even, against the Tai Po skyline, as if determined to remind every passer-by of the city’s recent sorrow.
ST PHOTO: MAGDALENE FUNG

‘My daughter keeps asking where’s grandma’: Son mourns Indonesian helper’s death in HK fire

Ms Darwati with her four-year-old granddaughter posing in matching pink T-shirts outside their house in Majenang district, Cilacap regency, Indonesia.

Hong Kong grapples with mental health crisis after Tai Po inferno

Volunteers sit in front of the flowers left by mourners for the victims of a deadly fire at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Tai Po district of Hong Kong on December 8, 2025.  PHOTO: AFP

People versus power? Hong Kong’s fire fallout risks reopening societal divide

mfsplit - The burnt buildings and the sole unburnt one (far left) of Wang Fuk Court housing estate, site of the deadly blaze in Tai Po, Hong Kong, on Dec 2, 2025. 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF BENJAMIN THAM

Simplified Chinese in Hong Kong schools? Pragmatic perhaps but surely a pity

mfnational - Primary schoolers run past a board at the national security exhibition gallery in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong fire: Is foam, mesh, bamboo, or blatant disregard for safety to blame? 

Police cordons are placed at the scene of the Wang Fuk Court housing estate fire in Tai Po, Hong Kong, on Nov 28.

Hong Kong fire: Where did it start, how did it spread so rapidly?

‘Hong Kong’s spirit has been revived’: Massive Tai Po blaze triggers wave of support from community

Volunteers gather to help distribute warm clothing at the nearby Kwong Fuk Estate.

‘Will I get into trouble?’: Hong Kong writers seek creative freedom in Taiwan

Hong Kong publishers have encountered an increasing number of obstacles in their operations. ST PHOTO: ONG SOR FERN

Barbs, jibes and spin by Chinese netizens over PM Wong’s remarks on Japan-China spat

PM Lawrence Wong was asked about the bilateral spat during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore on Nov 19.