Marvin Farkas tells Matt Fleming about his hedonistic highs (and lows) in Hong Kong

Some people have lived incredible lives, packed with dramatic, exciting experiences. Marvin Farkas is one of them. The 84-year-old American has been a photographer, cameraman, Broadway actor, sailor in the US navy, traveller and news correspondent. And he has bags of stories – many of them documented in his new memoir, An Eastern Saga.

Farkas first came to Hong Kong in 1946 as a young sailor. He then returned in 1954 on the cargo ship Eastern Saga, after missing the city and leaving his role as an actor on Broadway. What followed were bizarre encounters, harrowing experiences and life-changing events. An Eastern Saga is a memoir of Farkas’ life in Hong Kong and Asia in the 1950s and 1960s – from the highs on the Peak and hedonistic days at the beach, to the lows in the city’s opium dens and the dives of Wan Chai. His experiences range from Malaysian independence to the early years of the Vietnam War, as well as encounters with esteemed Asian heads of state.

Farkas, who suffered a stroke about nine years ago, spoke to Time Out as he launched the book at Bookazine in Central. He has written eight novels in his life – but this is his debut memoir. He says, when he arrived in 1954, he took up lodgings at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, starting an association with the club that has lasted until the present day. He had brought just US$200 and a camera which he had taken from his father’s New York studio.

“I was in the navy when I first visited Hong Kong in 1946, and it had not changed in the eight years I had been away,” he says. “The harbour was picturesque with junks and sampans skitting around. I remember remarking to a friend, after one look, that I was going to be there a long time.”

Farkas stayed at the FCC and worked for a year for the Tiger Standard as sub-editor. “I didn’t even know what a sub-editor was,” he admits, “but I soon learned.” He then chanced his hand at news film work – and never looked back. Since then he has made a successful life as a news correspondent, cameraman and documentary maker. But, in those early days, he was cash-strapped. “I scrounged meals wherever I was able to,” he tells us, “and was invited to Bob Godkin’s on the Peak to take a dinner there, and I was involved in a bizarre murder case.”

Farkas’ life as a correspondent took him across Asia. “The most interesting of my trips were to meet world leaders,” he says. “I had an episode with Zhou Enlai (first Premier of the People’s Republic of China) where he showed he had a lot of patience. I met Sukarno (first president of Indonesia) and had a talk with him after meeting him in a bar, and Satiyajit Ray (legendary Indian film director) at his house in Calcutta, and had a tête-à-tête with Henry Cabot Lodge (American statesman) about boy scouts.”

Farkas’ book includes many encounters, including a girl who had been abused as a teenager by her husband in China. She falls into Farkas’ arms. In fact, there are plenty of sexy – yet sometimes harrowing or downright bizarre – stories in the book.
And Farkas’ view of Hong Kong now? He says he doesn’t like it due to the ‘plain government offices’ which have sprung up. “I loved Hong Kong under the British. It had an ambiance,” he says.

The idea for An Eastern Saga came after Farkas’ daughter said ‘you’ve got a book up there’. And he wasn’t intending to sell it. But it’s turning heads, so, despite his age, he says he isn’t going to stop writing just yet. “I have a few more ideas. I think I’m going to write about Shanghai.”

An Eastern Saga is published by Make-Do Publishing priced $120.