Hong Kong is often regarded, particularly by expatriate residents, as humorless and too money- and self-obsessed to appreciate anything as flippant as a satirical magazine.
Before Spike, only a sporadically published underground free-sheet called Specific Rim attempted to satirize the city's establishment. But it only had a print run of a few thousand, compared to Spike's initial run of 15,000 with a full distribution deal to sell weekly out of Hong Kong's newsstands, supermarkets and convenience stores.



