To Our Readers

Foreign correspondents are a wonderful lot, but they do have a habit of needing help. They’re stuck in a war zone, desperate to get a story out; their computer runs out of power; they’re sick as a dog; they’re spending a week in some feverish hellhole and just want someone to talk to.

That’s where Yuman Wong comes in. Yuman’s title at TIME Asia’s headquarters in Hong Kong is newsdesk manager, but that doesn’t even come close to describing all the aspects of his role — answering queries, tracking down correspondents, keeping them supplied and informed. “He’s the one person in the magazine you know you can rely on completely,” says Southeast Asia bureau chief Hannah Beech. “No matter what developing-world backwater I’ve been in, he’s sent me power cords, backup batteries, surgical masks, even a bottle of grand cru wine I won in an in-house contest.” His skills know few bounds; Jerusalem bureau chief Tim McGirk remembers that when he was living on a junk in Hong Kong, Yuman helped him get rid of a rat that had swum aboard.

Yuman, in short, is the indispensable hub around which TIME Asia revolves, and he has been that way for four decades. His initial contact with the magazine was Cheung Yuk-sing, a close family friend whom Yuman considers an uncle. Cheung had been one of the two drivers in TIME’s Shanghai bureau; when Shanghai was on the verge of falling to the communists in China’s civil war, the bureau was shifted to Hong Kong, and Cheung went with it. He was friendly with Yuman’s father — they were from the same region northwest of Shanghai — and in 1965 Cheung encouraged Yuman to apply for a job at TIME. He has been with us ever since, the first in the office every day, and the last to leave at night. Those habits are a long-standing tradition; at the time of the fall of Saigon in 1975, Yuman logged a legendary 76 hours nonstop transmitting files from correspondents who had arrived in Hong Kong. Then, he says, he went home, took a bath, and came back to the office to close that week’s edition of the magazine.

It’s when putting issues like this one together that you really appreciate what Yuman does. As a capstone to the celebrations of our 60 years publishing in Asia, we decided to look at the region’s heroes over the past six decades. With files coming in from all over the world, with our art and photo departments working overtime to make the pages look great, the Hong Kong office has been a hive of activity. As always, Yuman has been, as he puts it, “the steward of the family, making sure nothing slips through the cracks.” Asia editor William Green led the team that made the issue happen, ably assisted by Zoher Abdoolcarim, Jim Erickson and Liam Fitzpatrick. The issue was beautifully designed by international art director Cecelia Wong, together with Nilanjan Das and May Wong. Picture editor Lisa Botos, along with Maria Wood and Wei Leng Tay, are to thank for the stunning photos. Associate editor Hanna Kite oversaw Austin Ramzy, Ling Liu, Tim Kindseth and Ishaan Tharoor in the gargantuan task of researching and fact checking the stories. From Tokyo to Delhi, Shanghai to Manila, everyone on our far-flung staff has played a part. But they all know that the magazine you have in your hands wouldn’t be there without Yuman Wong keeping us all on our toes. At TIME Asia, he’s our own personal hero.