Interviews

2013-08-01

On 23rd Jul 2013. Our company founder, Miss Man Hin Nam, accepted the “metroPop" magazine interview. The content include “Detective beside Galileo", a popular Japanese Drama, comparing and contrasting the detective in reality. As the times evolve, detectives also hold multiple roles as psychologists, love consultants, and mediators.

2013-07-26

Our company founder, Miss Man Hin Nam, accept the no-charge parenting magazine “Kids Steps" interview. The content include teens with extra time during summer time will easily fall into the trap of drug addiction and compensated-dating to alerts parents to keep eyes on teens.

2013-07-12

Private detective agencies in Hong Kong, which are facing a slowdown in business, have found a booming market on the mainland, where, ironically, their operations are not legal. Li Yao writes. 

It was not like in the movies at all. Here you walked in and a receptionist hurries over to seize hold of your wet umbrella, offers a seat on a cushy sofa, and asks if you would like a cup of water, whilst you wait for the director who is “preparing.” This is a private detective’s office? This looks like a clinic. Then out comes “herself,” no slinky red head femme fatale dangling a cigarette, but the boss, Philic Man, a private eye. At 27 she is fair of complexion, feminine, offset by her dark hair. Slight of stature, but erect, she is about 1.6 meters tall. Hard boiled private dick? Not really.

“You are too young to be competent at this job,” Man, smiling through rimless spectacles, mimics a former detractor’s condescension. “I’ve eaten more salt than you have eaten rice,” a man told her not long after she opened her private investigations emporium four years ago, at the age of 23.

It seems a long time since she was offered that jibe and since then, some 20 senior detectives have joined her firm, operating in Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland, and abroad.

Her company’s success inspired her to take up a personal crusade to uplift the shabby, shady stereotypes — the standard depictions of smoky, dimly lit offices drawn from the pages of pulp fiction. She’d like to burnish its reputation — make the business more transparent, professional and even law abiding.

The clinical looking office décor is a declaration of her rebellion against the cheesy atmosphere of some of the places she worked.

“The PI companies I worked for had neither training nor career paths for employees. The offices all looked very mysterious. Superstitions were followed and statues of Chinese folk gods were worshipped by the staff,” she said.

Man set about building her agency in an organized way — flow charts, on the job training, even drawing up career paths for her employees.

  Her interest was seeded while she was in primary school. Two of her uncles ran a private detective agency. Man would beg to ride along with them so she could watch them operate.

By the time she moved on to high schools her uncles had closed the agency. Japanese detective mangas became her surrogates.

The interest stayed with her. Man decided to become a PI after completing a degree in English.

She got a day’s training on her first job — a ride along with one investigator who admonished that she not interrupts his work. Day 2, Man was given her first assignment to the mainland, alone.

“I resisted. It could have been dangerous. They just ordered me to do what I was told,” Man said.

Unregulated snoops
The boss pressed Man to take a needy client to a money-lender, adding that he’d simply take the money from the client and then report no findings of any import.

Man knows many PI companies are dishonest. They use phony credentials. Some boast that they are government-registered, as if that were some stamp of approval. Actually, what they’re talking about is a standard business registration that doesn’t mean a thing. And there’s really some strong arming — extortion, intimidation — used sparingly, of course.

It happens, Man carried on. Victims who get blackmailed by detectives usually swallow their embarrassment and keep silent. They’re hardly likely to mention this to their friends. People would start asking questions.

Man denied she had taken up bad mouthing in her own cause — to promote her own business. “I want people to know what they may get themselves into. If they need an investigator, be mindful of the tricks and find a reputable company,” she said.

The skill set
What does a qualified private investigator need? Here goes one Hollywood myth — a good detective shouldn’t be too good looking. People notice. A bland visage allows the private eye effectively to blend in with the crowd.

Mastery of disguise is important. Man hires more women than men. Women are adept at changing their appearances. They can fit in seamlessly to different places, without drawing unwanted attention.

“People in general are less guarded and more likely to open up to a woman. A woman listens sympathetically and shows sensitiveness to a wife who feels insecure about the husband’s loyalty,” she theorized.

Male investigators are dispatched to nightclubs or karaoke bars. They pair up with female colleagues and pretend to be couples.

PIs have to be adaptable, be able to improvise. If a target driving a car pulls an abrupt 180-degree turn, the seasoned detective has to make an unhurried turn and catch up to the target without attracting notice.

Discipline matters, Man stressed. Being late is unforgivable, because the target may be gone in less than five minutes.

Marked increase in mainland cases
Man said mainland clients take up one third of her company’s caseload, usually they are referrals from former clients, lawyers, accountants and other counselors.

One recurring problem Man found are mainland parents’ worries about their kids using drugs or hanging out in bad company.

One client’s son was doing a Master’s Degree in Hong Kong. Three months after enrolment, the kid became remote, contacted home less often and started asking for 10,000yuan (HK$12646) at a time for “pocket money.”

His rent was paid and he was getting a rather generous allowance of 25,000yuan a month. The suspicious parents later visited him were shocked to find him palm, eyes sunken, and his manner sluggish

The parents hired Man’s company. Investigators put a tail on the son ─ found him skipping a lot from classes, going to bars and using drugs.

Another typical concern from wealthy mainland parents is to keep an eye on what kind of girlfriends their sons are dating. They are aware that there are gold diggers abroad, targeting their son and the family fortune.

In June, Man took a case from a mainland couple whose son is studying in Canada where he has a girlfriend. Man’s sent investigators to Canada to check out the woman for telltale signs of avariciousness.

Hong Kong parents have also come to Man to find out if the children are drug abusers or engage in compensated dating under coercion or cajolery. Those calls multiply during summer holidays and a lot of the time, the parents intuitions prove right on.

 “Young people look for fun and an exciting nightlife. Some form the habits under peer pressure because they don’t want to lose face,” Man said.

2013-06-26

Our Company’s Director, Miss Man Hin Nam, accepted the interview of a RoadShow programme , which was broadcasted on 26th Jun, 2013.

Online Version

2013-06-12

Our Investigation Director, Miss Philic Man Hin Nam, was interviewed by Face magazine on 14th May, 2013 and 3rd Jun, 2013.It was published on 12th Jun, 2013 in《vol.1116》of《FACE-Trading express》. It was explaining our company’s summer job opportunities and qualification.