Benjamin Cheung

Founder & Editor-in-Chief, The Typewriter

During his years at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia), Benjamin specialised in law and advocacy, global business, politics and international law. He was also an active member of the university Model UN team and in competitive mooting.

Before The Typewriter, most of Benjamin’s work focused on human rights and equality including his involvement with the Global Alliance Against the Trafficking of Women, Aids Concern (an LGBT rights group in Hong Kong), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and an Australian law firm that provides pro bono legal assistance to refugees.

Benjamin worked as a political staffer for the Ambassador of the Afghanistan in Australia. He assisted the high level meetings between Defence Ministers from both countries at the height of the military withdrawal negotiations of the west from Afghanistan in 2013. Benjamin’s research paper on the effects of Australian military involvement in Afghanistan is still referenced in the Afghan Ministry of Defence archives.

Benjamin has also been writing campaign speeches for British and European politicians since 2013.

The creation of The Typewriter was based on Benjamin’s belief that the only way to promote a true sense of global citizenship — genuine empathy towards one another across the boundaries — is to empower individuals from all corners of the world to share their own opinions and experiences with others, freely and without misinformation or misrepresentation.

“Every time I meet someone new, I always ask the same questions: (1) What is your story? (2) What do you think about your country and your surroundings?

And Sadly, whenever I read the papers, I notice a disconnect between how a story is told by ‘international media outlets’ and how it is told by those on the ground.

How can we truly understand each other if all we’ve got is, for example, an American press sending an American journalist flying all the way to Gambia, staying there briefly; talking to a handful of locals; and reporting back to an American audience?

There’s got to be a better way in connecting with each other. That is why I started The Typewriter, hoping to bring people together and change the world, one sincere dialogue at a time.”

Benjamin writes regularly on issues concerning social justice, equality, international affairs and local culture. Having received music training in his adolescent years and still being active in the classical music scene, Benjamin is an avid supporter of the arts (with a recent interest in taking up Noir films and oil paintings).

Benjamin will be launching an art magazine and an affiliate gallery in 2017, showcasing young talents from Hong Kong to the art world.