FADE IN.
Act 1
INT. SLEEPING ROOM - DAY
Phone in hand, PETER is pondering.
PETER (V.O.): How would I improve China's image in the pandemic?
Peter taps on a link to read.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Jack Ma has contributed a lot. He has the money and ability to get a plane to fly needed supplies anywhere. They're tangible and visible. He's quite the face of China.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): What I've done are insignificant stuff, like scenic images of China and my perspective of China's governance, shared over social media platforms.
Reflecting.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I've the value, but my capacity and support are limited.
Peter reads some texts on his phone screen.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He's 10 years junior to me. And it was in 1999 when he first started up as an entrepreneur.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I was then the Deputy Director of Intellectual Property, taking an interest on the intellectual property (IP) issues regarding the emerging e-commerce.
Act 2
INT. STUDY - DAY
Peter is watching a TV interview. We see the image of Bill Gates speaking with hand gestures.
PETER (V.O.): He talked about the re-opening the US high-value sectors first, like education and construction. But he didn't mention IP.
Pausing.
Peter (V.O.) (Cont'd): In the 1980s, there were quite a lot of discussion regarding possible IP protection of source and object codes of computer programs.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): If computer programs can only be protected as patents, there is the need to acquire them, country by country. It's costly and time-consuming.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Programmers can also protect their codes by trade secrets, but they need to manage them reasonably well.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The ingenious legal solution was to treat them as copyright literary works as well. Copyright is automatic and international, making computer programs high-value added.
Peter surfs the web and reads something.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He was born in 1955. I'm a year older than him.
Peter taps on the phone screen again.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): And Stevie Jobs was born in 1955 too.
Checking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He died in 2011.
Peter exhales a deep breath.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): When I was in my teens, I knew my values and explored my options. I planned my actions and created my career.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): To find a job, in particular, a civil service one, was the trend. The pay was good and it was an iron rice bowl.
Reflecting.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I worked in factories but had no thought to become an entrepreneur. I didn't have my first pot of gold.
Remembering.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): When I was young, I had a bitter taste of hunger. My dream was to become a university graduate, studying philosophy. I contemplated metaphysics.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I was fortunate enough that as a civil servant, I won a scholorship and made my dream come true to study at HKU. To read law was a windfall.
Reflecting.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): That was also my career turning point, as I became down-to-earth again.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): That I ended up specializing in IP was an accident. But I did design and build Hong Kong's IP system.
Peter takes a look of his phone notifications.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Here's a question for me that I haven't thought about: Is there going to be a famine during the pandemic?
Peter researches via the web.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Oh, my god, a geneal famine from 2020 and beyond isn't improbable, if no timely actions are taken. Living in Hong Kong, I'm so complacent with abundance!
Act 3
INT. SLEEPING ROOM - DAY
After mining images from his phone, Peter inserts them into a draft answer.
PETER (V.O.): On e-commerce in China, Jack Ma is the right entrepreneur in China at the right time. He gives back to society in his way, and I, in my way.
Peter taps Submit.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): As a humble civil servant, I've been facilitating creators, innovators and those who invest in them to become the rich and famous.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Having retired, I've been transforming myself as content provider, attempting to be entrepreneurial when conditions are ripe.
Reflecting.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Although I've nothing tangible to give away now, my stuff are viewed worldwide. Insignificant actions will accumulate compound effect. Improving China's image is the same.
FADE OUT.
THE END
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