New York: Sunday in the Country

Woke up to a glorious blue sky Sunday morning. After a 10K run around Central Park at 8am when a biathalon race was already in progress, AP, AL and I headed "upstate". The drive out of Manhattan through the Hudson Valley was great. Playing in the car was Bossa n' Stones (as the title suggests, Bossa Nova covers of Rolling Stones tunes). AP and AL started singing along: "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you might find, you get what you need". The song has quite a hook and it stuck with us through the rest of the day. What we all needed on this beautiful Sunday, was a bit of fresh air and a fresh perspective.


For the past few days, AP and I had been combing through the densely packed art fairs of Pulse, Bridge and Scope looking for emerging artists to include in the next Little Cream Book project. AP is an art consultant, so she does it for a living. In fact, she had just finished her rounds at the Dubai art fairs. Though I enjoy art, I was feeling a bit arted-out. So I wasn't exactly dying to go see more art all the way out in Beacon, but was lured by the promise of a nice meal at Blue Hill Stone Barns to tag along. As it turned out, dia: Beacon was just the fresh perspective I needed to see art through fresh eyes again. It's a contemporary art space with a collection of stunning works by iconic artists from the 60s onwards. All the pieces are brilliantly displayed in the converted paper factory. There is an incredible amount of natural light streaming into the galleries through 34,000 square feet of skylights. On this sunny day, all the artworks were bathed in sunlight. It's worth the hour-plus journey just to experience the gallery space. I sat in the Gerhard Richter 6 Gray Mirrors room meditating on my reflection. Equally meditative were Robert Ryman's white-on-white rooms and Agnes Martin's rooms filled with her rationally, straight-lined abstracts, also in shades of white and gray. But for me, the most uplifting experience was walking through the four Richard Serra sculptures. It would have been nice to have these set on an expansive grass lawn, look up from the expanse of towering spiral steel curves to see cloudless, blue skies, but the effect was not lost inside the gallery. This was art as its best, like walking into a vaulted Gothic cathedral -- moving, contemplative and transformative. It was the perfect antidote to the art supermarkets in which I had been immersed.


Next stop was Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Years ago, when I first had lunch at Per Se, I had asked one of the waiters what other restaurants were worth trying. Top of his list had been Blue Hill at Stone Barns (they also have a restaurant in Manhattan, but the Stone Barns experience is worth the journey). But because it's outside of Manhattan, several trips went by and I still hadn't made it to Blue Hill. Finally, I was going. I expected to have a nice Sunday brunch, but we arrived quite late in the afternoon. So we decided to stay for an early dinner at 5pm. We hadn't made any reservations in the restaurant, but the bar serves the same menu so we got seats at the bar. Stone Barns is a working farm and we had a bit of time to wander around the grounds. We were a trio of touristy city slickers snapping away at sheep, chicken, pigs and the beautiful surroundings.


When we finally sat down at the bar sipping their signature cocktails of elderflower royale (elderflower liquer and sparkling white wine) and blood orange martini, we were expecting a meal from fresh farm produce, simple and good. We got much more than simple and good. It was simple, elegant and a sheer delight for the taste buds. But what made it even better was having the company of Tomas Jacobsen who joined us at the bar. He's a Danish chef who was between restaurant stints in his native Copenhagen and decided to use the time off for an unpaid apprenticeship at Per Se. It's so much fun listening to chefs talk about food. They have such a passion for it. So for the next four hours, as we ogled his very, very special chef's tasting menu, sometimes even sampling bits off his plate, we grilled him about food, being a chef and his favourite restaurants. We were watching him taste everything with the deepest of concentration and waiting for his pronouncements.

Dishes in front of other people, especially when they are chefs and get special treatment, always seem tastier!

Chip envy got the better of us, so Tomas graciously shared one of his potato chips with a sage leaf with us. He also got to taste beetroot, squash and parsnip chips. Best potato chip ever!

He has sat through a 27-course meal at Per Se, but all the courses he was being served up were still delighting him. We got a different version of the chef's tasting menu, all excellent. I have never been one for eggs. I neither like nor dislike them, they just generally don't move me. Yet the morning's egg they served up with fresh farm greens and a thin slice of crispy cheek bacon was an egg like not other. The runny yolk was deliciously full of flavour. The slice of Berkshire pork belly was a little piece of heaven. The handmade pasta made from nearby harvest of spelt was a delight. All the dishes were beautifully presented.

This morning's egg with a thin slice of cheek bacon on top.

Berkshire pork belly & loin

Of course, I had to ask Tomas for his restaurant recommendations for Copenhagen. He highly recommended Noma (where he previously worked), a 2-Michelin star restaurant that highlights Nordic produce and culinary traditions. The chef at Noma had previously worked at French Laundry and el bulli. He leaves New York City today to head back to a job at the soon-to-open Nimb, which he describes as modern Danish. Asked for his favourite non-fine dining restaurant in NYC, he suggested Degustation (239 East 5th Street, T: +1 212 979 1012), where it's "a funny mixture of everything that inspires him (the chef)".

Chat with Alexandra Harney

I met Alexandra Harney last December over lunch at da domenico and we immediately hit it off. She's a journalist and now published author of The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage. She's one of those fascinating and entertaining people that can talk about everything under the sun and make you laugh non-stop. She speaks fluent Japanese, worked as an aide to a Japanese politician, taught herself Chinese so that she could talk to migrant Chinese workers and is also an avid snowboarder.

Penguin releases her book next Thursday (27 March). Because I haven't read the book yet, I thought it would be fun to have Alex talk about it herself. So I scheduled a gmail chat session with her. What I had originally anticipated to be a 20-30 minute session, ended up running an hour and a half. She had just gotten back from giving a talk at a Rotary Club luncheon and we chit-chatted a bit before eventually diving into her book:

2:48 PM me: so what gave you the idea to devote 2 years of your life roaming from chinese factory to chinese factory?

2:49 PM Alexandra: well, I grew up outside Washington, DC at a time when everyone was very concerned about Japan as an economic threat

and so I was very surprised, when I moved to Japan in the late 1990s,

me: this is back in the 80s?

2:50 PM Alexandra: to hear Japanese executives telling me they were worried they were going to lose their jobs to china. This was in the early 1990s that I first became aware of the debate about Japan.

2:51 PM So when I moved to Hong Kong with the Financial Times,

one of the first things I did was head up to mainland China.

I visited a clothing factory

and met this young woman, a worker,

2:52 PM who was sending most of what she earned home to her family every month.

All she had left over from the $100 or she earned was enough money for soap or tissues.

I thought she was pretty fascinating

and I looked around, and there were thousands of other women just like her

in that factory alone, and millions of others all around China.

2:53 PM I wanted to tell their story, and connect it to my life and the lives of my friends and family back in the US.

me: that's really interesting...so basically, it was a connection with a woman...and you wanted to understand her life

2:54 PM Alexandra: Precisely.

I wanted, actually, to move into a dormitory in China and work and live like a factory worker.

That wasn't really possible.

Chinese factories are busy places

and I'm not very efficient.

me: haha...i see a trend here...factory girl...sushi chef...

2:55 PM journalism really suits you

Alexandra: Yes - in Japanese, they call it "taiken"

me: what else would you want to be?

Alexandra: which literally translated means "body experience"

me: or rather, experience

Alexandra: well, there's the body character in there

but yes, it means experience

2:56 PM I'm not sure what else I'd like to try out

but when I was living in Japan, I did as many of those "taiken" experiences as possible

I made butter on a farm in Hokkaido

2:57 PM I made paper the old fashioned way

in a little village outside Tokyo

I handed out brochures on the street

2:58 PM me: it seems in this day and age...we are so removed from using our hands to make things

production is outsourced to others

Alexandra: Absolutely

And that's a pretty fascinating trend

2:59 PM Because whoever ends up making things for us benefits, but also pays a price

that's what The China Price is about.

me: but ultimately, we, as consumers, also pay a price too

Alexandra: Yes, completely.

3:00 PM me: so that leaves only one winner

Alexandra: Well, I think people win on both sides of the equation

One economist in the US estimates that China's factories have saved the average American family $500 a year

because their prices are so low.

That's a material savings.

3:01 PM And things like Ipods and mobile phones are more affordable because of outsourcing production to lower-cost areas.

On the other side of the equation, Chinese workers do generally earn money for their work

me: but we pay for it in terms of waste accumulation, damage to the environment etc.

Alexandra: if not perhaps as much as they should under the law.

3:02 PM Yes, definitely. To make things really cheaply, you have to sacrifice certain costs

and unfortunately, those costs have historically often been environmental protection

workers' rights

workers' health.

This is not specific to China - it's happened and happening everywhere.

me: do you think it's worth it?

3:03 PM Alexandra: Great question.

I think it depends on who you are.

me: start with the factory worker

3:04 PM Alexandra: Okay, if you're a Chinese factory worker who has used your earnings and experience to climb the economic ladder

3:05 PM and obtain a better standard of living for yourself and your family

then you're lucky: you are a beneficiary of globalization.

But if you're one of the unlucky factory workers

3:06 PM who has contracted an occupational disease

for example

and you're dying of silicosis

because of the dust you inhaled on the line, and you don't have insurance

because your employer never bothered to buy it for you

globalization wasn't worth it for you.

3:07 PM In truth, if you look at China's manufacturing workforce - 104.5 million people

clearly, many of these workers have paid a certain price

3:08 PM in terms of having had to work very long hours, for less than they should have been paid,

but many of them have, at the same time, helped to raise the standard of living of their family.

The true test is to ask the workers themselves.

A lot of my migrant worker friends

3:09 PM are not so sure working that hard is worth it.

And would prefer easier lives.

But they also want to earn money.

And the factories are where they can earn money.

3:10 PM me: but this is the story of progress

parents toil, so that they can put their kids through school, hopefully give them a better life

Alexandra: Yes, precisely.

3:11 PM me: generations of immigrants to America were looking for the same

Alexandra: Yes.

What I think is different today is the multinationals that are involved in this process.

These migrant workers in China are working directly to supply goods to big, international companies.

3:12 PM Who are looking for the lowest price possible.

me: yes, that's who i meant as the one winner in the equation

but even that is not so simple

Alexandra: Yes - not simple at all.

3:13 PM me: because many American consumers are also shareholders in these multinationals through their 401Ks

Alexandra: right

It's complex

retailers and brands answer to their shareholders and to Wall Street

me: a web

Alexandra: yes

me: the irony is that as China gets wealthier

Alexandra: and investors, of course, want improving returns.

3:14 PM me: more of their wealth is tied into Wall Street and multinationals

Alexandra: As shareholders, you mean, or as employees?

or both?

me: both

Alexandra: Right. Absolutely.

3:15 PM I think so far, a lot of Westerners have been concerned about labor rights and organic foods

environmentally-friendly cars

and most Chinese don't have that luxury.

But when they do, that could really have an impact on the way business is done.

3:16 PM me: so what was your big take-away after writing The China Price?

did it change the way you consume?

Alexandra: Yes.

It changed the way I think about shopping.

3:17 PM Certain prices are so low that the product cannot have been made under ethical conditions.

3:18 PM I know that for a lot of products, it's very difficult to tell precisely where and how it was made.

And that's troubling.

I do think more about buying less.

And I think about what I know about companies' buying practices,

3:19 PM and how open they are about them.

If a company can't tell me how many factories they have,

how do they know what's really happening in those factories?

I think a lot about my friends and contacts at the other end of the supply chain

3:20 PM and wonder how much of the price of what I'm buying went to them.

3:21 PM me: How many people did you talk to for the book?

3:22 PM Alexandra: I couldn't even count.

Hundreds?

Certainly more than a hundred.

3:23 PM me: Did you come across anyone you really disliked?

Alexandra: Ha! No, not really.

People were really generous, with their time, their insights, their advice.

3:24 PM Writing a book reminds you of the generosity of the human spirit.

me: That's very true...not just book writing

Alexandra: Yes.

me: I come across it all the time

Alexandra: Yes.

But as a daily journalist, you sometimes feel like nobody wants to talk to you or help you.

3:25 PM And stepping away from that to write this book helped show me that people are pretty extraordinary.

me: What's your next project? Or what would be your dream project?

3:26 PM Alexandra: Oh, I wish I knew!

I'd love to write another book someday.

me: Were there days you thought you'd never finish?

3:27 PM Alexandra: No - I had a contract, so I knew I'd finish.

But there were plenty of lonely days.

Being a daily journalist is a very social thing.

Writing a book is more solitary.

Which is funny, since I was in China for so much of the time.

Where there are plenty of people.

3:28 PM me: But you were connecting in a different way probably

Alexandra: Connecting to?

me: all the people in China that were around you

Alexandra: Right - that was great.

As you know, I love Shenzhen

3:29 PM love all of the craziness of southern China.

I find it the most fascinating place in the world.

And to have the time to explore it, to talk to people, to hear their stories,

me: i should get you to be my guide some time

Alexandra: was a real privilege.

me: i really don't like southern china

Alexandra: Really?

Why not?

me: yes, really

it's probably for all the reasons you love it

Alexandra: Ha ha!

me: it's madness

Alexandra: Yes - that's what I love.

3:30 PM me: i love japan though

Alexandra: I know you do. I love Japan too.

I just find Shenzhen kind of a hidden gem.

Everyone has a story.

me: since you speak both japanese and chinese

Alexandra: Yes, so there is that

and you know I love to talk.

So I enjoy hearing people's stories

me: it must be interesting, because the languages are so different

3:31 PM not in terms of sound

Alexandra: yes, the languages are totally different -

in terms of personality.

me: but in terms of how communication is carried out

Alexandra: I think we've talked about this before, but yes

me: yes, personality is the word

Alexandra: what do you think is the most different?

me: do you find you are a different person depending on the language you are speaking?

Alexandra: Yes, sort of.

3:32 PM All are versions of me. My Japanese personality is much more polite, more demure.

me: haha

Alexandra: My Chinese personality is much closer to my American personality.

I crack more jokes in Japanese, because I'm more fluent.

But I try to make sure people keep laughing when I speak Chinese, even if it is at me.

3:33 PM Are your Cantonese and English personalities different?

me: i think they are fairly similar, because fluency level is the same, but i think i tend to be more crass in Cantonese

Alexandra: Ha!

me: Cantonese is funny that way

3:34 PM it's a very crass, gritty language

Alexandra: Yes, from what I hear

me: or at least can be

Alexandra: Why do you think it is?

me: well, Putonghua is what was spoken in the courts

so it's more refined

Alexandra: right

me: although, when they were voting which dialect to use

3:35 PM Cantonese apparently only lost by 1 vote

Alexandra: HA!

me: or so i've been told, could be myth

Alexandra: Who was voting?

me: i assume the mandarins

Alexandra: Year?

me: not the people, of course

dunno...these are just stories my dad tells me

Alexandra: Interesting!

I will look that up.

me: tell me if it's true!

3:36 PM Alexandra: Okay, will do.

me: ok...better wrap this up...you must be busy

although i could sit here and chat with you all day

Celebration of Life

It's been a weighty yet inspiring 24 hours. Yesterday evening, before heading to the first Hong Kong Ambassadors for Design Happy Hour, I received an email with the most sad and shocking news. OW had passed away suddenly from a brain tumor. A couple years ago, he had quit his investment banking job to spend more time with his young children and pursue his love of Ironman and ultra-marathon races, raising money for many a worthy cause along the way. He was a geniune, good guy and a great cook. And he wasn't even 40.

I was still in shock from the news at lunchtime today when I wandered in on some guys in the office watching Coach Carter, a film I had never even heard of starring Samuel Jackson acting out the life of the real Ken Carter. Coach Carter had locked out the members of his undefeated high school basketball team because they had failed to live up to their agreement to maintain a certain grade point average in their studies. The parents and community wanted the team to continue playing and asked the school board to end the lock out. Let down by a community that valued basketball victories over the education of its students, Coach Carter quits. But in this scene, the students persuade him to stay. It made me think of OW and how brightly he shone and how many people he must have inspired.



The movie also reminded me of the power of one person to change lives; it just takes one person to have faith in another. As if the universe was somehow conspiring to make this message stick, the New York Times landed in my inbox with a special section on Barack Obama's "A More Perfect Union" speech. Obama's faith in the idea/ideal of America often gets derided by his critics as being naive, impractical and impossible to achieve. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone has said, "But he won't be able to change anything".

And his critics are half right. He alone won't be changing anything. It's the American people, as a society and as individuals coming together, that will make change happen. Obama is essentially playing the Coach Carter role. He's making Americans believe in our own ability to live up to the ideal. There will be no change unless we dare to hope. There will be no change unless we come out to vote. And even then, there will be no change without our own "blood, toil, tears and sweat" (apologies to Churchill). Yes, our nation is scarred from failing to live up to our own ideals, but as Obama reminds us, our strength as a nation is that we believe the ideals are worth striving for, no matter how far we may still be from their attainment: "This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected".

"The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country -- a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen -- is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation."



Obama's message resonates because he accepts that we are imperfect human beings, but he also tells us that is no excuse not to aspire and strive to become greater. Obama was speaking to Americans, but America does not have the monopoly on hope and change (even though we've somehow branded it "The American Dream"). OW's life is another inspiring example of a life lived in the passionate pursuit of perfection. He was a Kiwi.

-----
Postscript:
As I was writing this entry, I found out that British director Anthony Minghella, best known for directing The English Patient and scripting The Talented Mr Ripley, also passed away yesterday.

How Do We Give Our Heart Wings?

This post is dedicated to BDL since he was the one who posed the question that is the title of today's post. I was skyping him good morning and asking if he'd recovered from his recent relapse of stomach flu. He replied with a :-| followed by, "bored, tired, uninspired" and the question: How do we give our heart wings? It was a weighty question for a Tuesday morning before I'd even finished my morning Starbucks. I wasn't quite sure what the answer was, but thought it might make an interesting post and made a mental note to come up with a list.

A couple hours later, the answer was right before me:



I don't know what it is about cupcakes, but seeing them always puts a smile on my face; they're just so much fun! These cupcakes were all done up in cheery, Easter Spring pastels. And they were delicious too. I've had many a cupcakes where the cake was just a bit too crumbly and dry or the frosting tooth-decayingly sweet, but Babycakes' cupcakes were just right. The light, vanilla buttercream frosting was the right amount of sweetness and the chocolate cake was moist. Since I had the mini version, I didn't even feel guilty about indulging.

Babycakes only opened for business 10 or so weeks ago. Their current shop and bakery is in Ap Lei Chau, but hopefully they will soon open near my office in Delay No Mall. Founder Lachlan Campbell quit his investment banking job last April, learned the art of cupcake baking from a 66-year-old woman in Oregon and officially became Chief Cupcake Officer late last year. He said he had always wanted to start a business that was related to kids since he has two kids of his own. And kids love cupcakes. Women too, he added, to which I can attest.

So to answer BDL's question, there are lots of things that give my heart wings. On this particular day, it happened to be a cute, little cupcake served up with another story of a man living his dream.

Central's Alluring UFO

The UFO appeared in the distance, a vision of alluring beauty. Its pristine, white skin glistened amidst the pulsating coloured lights that are the life of this city. I walked towards the structure, perplexed and intrigued. What could this sleek, sensuous structure parked atop the old Star Ferry car park be? What lied within?

As I approached, I saw the name on the signboard that inspires in me the kind of delight akin to a teenage groupie finding out that her favourite band is about to roll into town: Zaha Hadid. The UFO in question is the Chanel Contemporary Art Container, containing works by the likes of Daniel Buren, David Levinthal, Michael Lin, Sophie Calle among others. The artists are all interesting, but what I really wanted to see and experience was the space.

The approach to the container, on this particular overcast day, made me think of Chris Marker's La Jetée, the image of the woman standing at the end of the jetty. The memory of the woman that comforts the protagonist through a post-apocalyptic present, we later find out, is actually the moment of himself, as a child, witnessing his own adult death.


Once inside Hadid's container, though, it was a warm and welcoming cocoon, with echoes of Eero Saarinen's TWA terminal. The deep, sultry, accented voice of a woman on the audio guide begins: "I was waiting for you...so impatiently...torn between pleasure and pain...I have such an overwhelming need to open up...to display my fantasies...open up my pack as the French would say...".

And so the show begins, 20 artists and their vision of what desires, insecurities and longings lie within a Chanel quilted bag.

Hong Kong is the first landing site for Mobile Art. From Hong Kong, it heads to Tokyo, New York, London, Moscow and finally Paris. The show runs here until 5 April 2008 and tickets (HK$10) can be booked via HK Ticketing.