Monday May 19, 2008 Hong Kong Staff and artistes at ATV joined the many who observed a three minute silence today at 2:28 pm Beijing time to mark the start of a three day mourning period for the victims of the Sichuan Earthquake that devastated towns and cities in Central China a week ago. Led by ATV executive Ho Ding Kwan (何定鈞), over 400 staff gathered in one of their studios to pay their respects. Among them were Kenneth Chan (陳啟泰), Gilbert Lam (林韋辰) and Amy Fan (樊奕敏), who all found it difficult to hold back their emotions and feelings of sadness. Mr Ho announced that he will be calling upon his colleagues in the industry to suspend all advertising for three days and donate the revenue to the appeal fund. He also said that ATV will be supporting the HKPAG fundraising activity on 01 June and they will actively support any other events arranged to raise money for the disaster appeal. Kenneth commented afterwards that when he closed his eyes for the silence, many images flashed through his mind and this made him cry. He praised China's president Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) for bringing support and encouragement to the victims and doing his best to serve the people of China. Devout buddhist Gilbert chanted mantras for the spirits of the victims and hoped that they will soon find their way to nirvana. He said that there is a great importance of rebuilding the cities and with estimates of this costing HK$200 billion, he urged people to continue giving to the appeal fund. credits: batgwa.
