On Friday's Backchat, Hugh Chiverton, Danny Gittings and guests are talking about the latest developments in the current wave of civil unrest.

What do you make of recent developments, and prospects for peace?

Your thoughts please. Send us an email and we’ll do our best to read it in full, though may have to edit for length.

You can leave a message on our Facebook page, Backchat on RTHK Radio 3, email backchat@rthk.hk

Radio 3 is delighted to announce the winners of RTHK's very first Hong Kong English Poetry Competition. After receiving a fantastic response of 106 entries from our listeners, the judges selected the three prize-winners, with the results announced at a ceremony held on August 20 at Broadcasting House. The awards were presented by Acting Deputy Director of Broadcasting (Programmes) Kirindi Chan Man-kuen; Henrik Hoeg from Peel Street Poetry; and Hugh Chiverton, Head of English Programme Service at RTHK. 

For our inaugural competition, we called for entries under the theme of “Birth”. The winning pieces will be published on our website, as well as the Radio 3 Facebook Page and Noreen Mir on RTHK Radio 3. 

The MC for the Kong English Poetry Competition Awards 2019 was Gladys Chiu.

Award Winners:

First Prize: 
Johnathan SIU - "Pietà, or an Apologia to my Unborn Child"  

Second Prize: 
Wiency WONG - "Swimming Home"

Third Prize:

Stephanie STUDZINSKI  - "Mural" 

These days Chris Thrall is a successful British author. But, it wasn't always so. In the 1990s he left the Royal Marines to find his fortune in Hong Kong, but instead found himself homeless, and hooked on crystal methamphetamine. In a downward spiral, he also began working for the 14K triad society as a doorman in one of their nightclubs in Wan Chai. Dealing with psychosis and paranoia, this "foreign triad" had to survive in the world’s most unforgiving city, addicted to the world’s most dangerous drug. First broadcast in 2016 on Radio 3, "Eating Smoke" is his story, and you can hear part one (of three) this coming Saturday.

It’s read by Nicholas Atkinson, abridged for radio by Alan Sargent, and Directed and Produced by Phil Whelan, Pete Spurrier, and Chris Thrall. (Saturday, 8.30am)

This Sunday morning (August 25th) at 8.30, journalism lecturer and broadcaster Robin Ewing will take you back in time to meet some of the great women instrumentalists who made, played and changed jazz. Along the way, and over the next four weeks, you’ll hear a little blues, country, and rock-n-roll too in...Real Gone Gals

Produced by Phil Whelan

This coming Saturday afternoon at 12.05, join us for Good Ol' Country with Michael Lance. Apart from being one quarter of the amazing Metro Vocal Group, he's lived and breathed country music since he was small. Michael was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and raised on beef, corn, and potatoes. At a young age, he travelled North America with his family's Country and Western band, and developed a love for those great story driven songs, sung by some of the greatest story tellers of all time. Stand up, find a partner, and dance the two-step to some....Good Ol' Country. (Saturdays, 12.05pm-1pm, Facebook: @nebraskamike)

Join Annalie Chow on Saturday mornings for the Saturday Squad! We’ll be having lots of fun, with great music and regular guests, finding out what’s going on around town and talking to a range of professionals about what they do for a living. And after 11 every weekend we’ll be keeping up with the world of sports, with Danny Hicks. Get in touch - be part of the Saturday Squad! (Saturday, 9am-12nn) 

Radio 3 brings you a fantastic Saturday evening musical experience with the specialists! After the news at 6 join Mengzy. Shes a musician, a club DJ, and is currently studying for a PhD in electronic music. Through interviews with renowned producers and performers, interspersed with some great mixing, she takes you on a wonderful musical journey in The Breakdown. Stay with us after 7 as Simon Willson takes you back...way back, with two hours of the greats in Soul Sensations. And, after 9 Todd Harding is still rocking, but this time right into to the “Me” Decade, in Strictly Seventies.