Little Cream Life

Meet Social Entrepreneurs in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Chiang Rai

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:53:00 +0000

Sowers Exchange is a new tour operator in Hong Kong focused on creating trips for people to meet innovative social entrepreneurs working throughout Asia. In the next six months, they have two unique trips planned:

21 to 25 May 2010 -- Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (Cambodia) with Pepy

30 June to 4 July 2010 -- Chiang Rai (Thailand) visiting Mirror Art Group, Population and Community Development Association, and Doi Tung Development Project

For details, feel free to email info@wanliluplay.com.

WANLILU Play is a bespoke travel planner that does not normally represent any particular travel product, but we'd like to support Sowers Exchange's innovative tours. So we are helping to spread the good word on these inspiring journeys, and donating the commission that is usually payable to a normal travel agency to the social enterprises visited on each trip. Each trip already has a mandatory donation built into the price, but if you book your Sowers Exchange trip through us, you will increase your impact by another 10% of the trip price.

Interesting Juxtaposition: HSBC on Values and Value

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:06:00 +0000

Last week, at an Asia Society event in New York, HSBC Chairman Stephen Green discussed morality in the marketplace. He was discussing themes from his new book Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World. You can watch his conversation with Asia Society President Vishakha Desai here: Do Values Matter? (Complete)

Today, scanning headlines in the Financial Times, there's two articles on HSBC's perceived value of its bank executives: HSBC fails to escape pay furore and HSBC retreats on chief's pay award.

Peace in the Year of the Tiger

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:57:00 +0000

I am sitting here sipping a hot cup of skim latte and my nose and fingers are still freezing. It is 8C in Hong Kong today. With 87% humidity, the cold just creeps into the bones and feels much colder than subzero temperatures in NYC. Then, my mind wanders to warm and sunny Basra where my brother and sister-in-law have just arrived for their assignment. They are both officers in the US Army.

Here in Hong Kong, it's the first week of the Chinese New Year of the Tiger. I've been wishing everyone health & happiness, love & luck, peace & prosperity. Sitting here, it's easy to take "peace" for granted. Hong Kong does not have armed forces of its own. China is not involved in any wars (that I know of, at least). But in so many other parts of the world, Iraq being just one, armed conflict is a fact of life and mere survival a luxury. It's so difficult to fathom what that reality is like. I think back to a dinner I had with my brother and his wife and their Army friends. I was the only non-Army person. They were all speaking English, but I felt like I needed a translator. My brother would act as my translator for Army acronyms, but even then, their experiences seemed so remote, so foreign, like trying to explain colour to a blind person.

We all want a world without war, but for many of us who, thankfully, have never experienced the horrors of war, we take peace for granted and assume that it is the default state of life and that it takes effort to wage war. In fact, I think the opposite is true. It takes conscious effort, hard work and difficult choices to keep the peace, whether on the individual, organizational or national level. President Obama seems to understand that peace is actually much more complicated an endeavour than we care to admit. In President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, he said:

I'm responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill, and some will be killed. And so I come here with an acute sense of the costs of armed conflict -- filled with difficult questions about the relationship between war and peace, and our effort to replace one with the other.

I share his sense of internal conflict. I have nothing but admiration for my brother and his wife. Theirs cannot be an easy job. They are not people who believe in the "business of war" or in simplistic "it's either us or them" rationales for war. As someone who does not believe war is moral, I accept with great difficulty our rationalizations for war. Every person has a right to defend him or herself from threats, both real and perceived. The question is, can we do so without paying the price of our humanity for it. That is a choice that should not rest solely on the shoulders of any one man or even the men and women in our armed forces. Peace is a state (and a very precarious one at that) in which every single person has a personal stake. It should be a responsibility that each of us bears. It seems paradoxical to make soldiers (i.e. other nameless, faceless people) our proxies for peace.

So heading into this Year of the Tiger, with family in a war zone, I'm reflecting upon the true meaning of peace and what it takes to achieve it. My wish for peace is really a personal wish that I might have the strength, courage and perseverance to strive towards peace, especially since I am fortunate enough to be living in a place like Hong Kong where my greatest discomfort at the moment is how cold it is. But most of all, I wish everyone in warm and sunny Basra (and by extension, everyone around the world) that their greatest complaint be the weather.

Some links that have inspired me:
Peace One Day

Charter for Compassion

Fetzer Institute

Arbinger Institute -- A discussion on forgiveness

A spectacular reason to layover in Dallas

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:13:00 +0000

On my way home for New Year's from Hong Kong to Phoenix, there was a 20-minute window when I thought I wouldn't make my connecting flight at DFW and I started to think of things I would want to do during my forced layover in Dallas. The only thing I came up with was a visit the Kimbell Art Museum, but that's actually in Fort Worth.

This morning, as I was catching up on TED talks, I finally came upon a reason to visit Dallas; a reason as good as the Seattle Public Library -- the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. Both buildings were designed by the same architects. Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus' talk contains a lot of food for thought that I hope the master planners (OMA being one of them) and developers of Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District will chew on and digest. More importantly, I hope they aspire to creating an infrastructure and environment that is as innovative, end-user sensitive and nurturing of culture, creativity and community as this:

I checked out the calendar at Wyly Theatre and was amused to see performances of It's Superman slated for this summer. What is it with this current trend for superhero musicals? It just seems like such a hokey concept. I am not a fan of musicals, but with Bono & The Edge writing the music, even I am intrigued to check out the big Broadway production of Spiderman that is slated to open some time soon, hopefully. Apparently, it is way over budget (it will take five years of full house sales each night just to break even) and late (original preview date had been set for 16 January this year). Will it be a superhuman hit or a fatal flop?

Obama & Kipling

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:51:00 +0000

I woke up this morning with much anticipation. First, there was the iPad. Then, there was President Obama's first State of the Union address. The first disappointed slightly -- I won't be able to ditch my iPhone and MacBook just yet, but the iPad does have the potential to be a Kindle killer and more importantly re-write how we read, making it a richer multimedia, learning experience. The second did not. Obama was the voice of reason, optimism, and a "we will get this done even if it kills my chances for re-election" determination.

I was reading reactions to his address and came across Bruce Reed's article in Slate referencing this poem by Rudyard Kipling: If. A tall order of a poem, but nonetheless, ideals I hope our Senators, Congressmen and women will aspire to in this year of mid-term elections.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

--Rudyard Kipling

Empire State of Mind

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:26:00 +0000

Am back in Hong Kong after two weeks in the Big Apple, and the first thing I was grateful for is Hong Kong's super efficient airport. From the gate to the Airport Express took just 15 minutes, including waiting for luggage. Flying to and within the US is just such a drag these days. Having said that, New York City still has a great vibe. As the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys song goes:

New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Hear it for New York, New York, New York

There is plenty of inspiration to be had in New York. While I was in town, I celebrated Hannah Seligson's book launch, was mesmerized by Anish Kapoor's Memory at Guggenheim, saw two hilarious plays (The Understudy and Present Laughter), and got to take a yoga class with Baron Baptiste who will actually be teaching in Hong Kong next weekend at Pure TST.

Baptiste's class did not disappoint. It was a killer. He enjoyed telling us to just "be" as he ran us through a 15-minute series of core exercises and made us hold poses for countless breaths. While I still enjoyed Jules' classes at Jivamukti, I was introduced to Marco's classes at Pure East by JGK with a warning the class would likely piss me off because he likes to have his students hold poses. I ended up going to four classes by Marco. It was not until the last class, when Marco spent the entire class telling us ad nauseum to "inhale into the upper lung, exhale from the mula bandha (pelvic floor) to get rid of what you don't need from the root", did I finally manage to cruise through his class without wanting to curse him.

Noël Coward's Present Laughter, just opened on Broadway last night to rave reviews with Victor Garber (aka ALIAS' Jack Bristow) in the starring role. Coward's play is about a narcissistic actor and the drama he manages to stir up with more than one woman who has "lost/forgotten my latch key". There's plenty of wit to fuel 2.5 hours of jovial laughs, and Dodge's luscious Art Deco set is eye candy (the grain on the wood paneling is all hand-painted!). The play runs until 21 March at the American Airlines Theatre.

As for restaurants, I re-visited many of my usual haunts: Via Quadronno (sadly, the one in HK just does not compare), Candle Cafe, La Esquina. But my favourite meal was probably the post-yoga falafel and baklava lunch at Hummus Kitchen, while the most memorable was evening post-flight nibbles at Rock Center Cafe the day before the tree was to come down. The food and drink were nothing spectacular, but the view of the skating rink made for a very warm, festive welcome to the city.

Chat with Hannah Seligson, author of "A Little Bit Married"

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:36:00 +0000

When I told Alex Harney that I would be in NYC for a couple weeks, she immediately made an e-intro to her friend Hannah Seligson, who just launched her new book A Little Bit Married: How to Know When It's Time to Walk Down the Aisle or Out the Door. When I chatted with Hannah last month, we touched on the inspiration behind her writing ALBM, her take on the "soul mate phenomenon" and why the stakes seem higher for her generation when they contemplate marriage. Last night, I finally met Hannah, in the flesh, at her book launch party. She's pictured here with her friends Trip and Edgar.

-- 16 December 2009

WS: so what are you doing in DC?
HS: i'm in dc because i can actually afford an office here
       and i thought i would try to break into some political reporting
       and i'm a little bit married (ALBM) and my boyfriend got a job here
WS: a little bit married?
HS: yes, it's the new romantic rite of passage for young people (born post 1980) today
       the unmarried long-term relationship
WS: is that why you wrote the book?
HS: in part. the book was inspired by a personal experience.
       but then it became about so much more
       it's such a murky life stage
       and i wanted to figure out how to wrap my mind around it
WS: how long have you been in this unmarried long-term relationship?
HS: we've been dating for about a year
WS: ah...in my mind...long-term is much longer
        i know people who have dated 12 years and still unmarried!
HS: yeah, there are many permutations of ALBM
       the baseline definition I came up with is a one-year monogamous relationship
       but it's really more about the attributes of the relationship than the duration
WS: what are the attributes?
HS: in other words, are you doing things that probably in another era would have signaled that you are headed for the altar
       intertwining in each other's families, living together, making career compromises and sacrifices for each other, plotting a future together
       but then there's always this sense that there are contingencies because you are "a little bit married"
       one of my favourite examples is of the couple that buys furniture together but splits the items "just in case"
WS: so why not just get married?
HS: great question
       there's a movement here in the US, among certain demographics, to put off marriage
       people want to establish themselves professionally before they tie the knot
   and cementing a career is a long and arduous process
WS: is it a guy or gal-driven phenomenon?
HS: it's both. but let me elaborate
       men and women are both pushing off marriage, but in most cases, women are still ready to get married before the guy is
       they want to focus on their careers, but they also have biology to contend with
       so being a little bit married has different implications for women
WS: i would imagine that guys don't even think of it in those terms -- ALBM
HS: how do you imagine they think of it?
WS: they don't?
        they just think -- i'm married or not
HS: i think that's true to a certain extent
       but from my research, i also found that men thought of it as batting practice for marriage
       they were not, as the awful saying goes, thinking "why buy the cow when you can get milk for free"
       one thing i found about men and marriage is that the time at which a man is ready to get married is very tied to his income
WS: why do people think being married hinders career advancement?
HS: well, for women, it actually does, because marriage is usually a stepping stone to children, which definitely stymies career advancement
       for men, i think it's a false perception
       because being married actually increases their earning potential
WS: but people can marry and not have children yet...no?
HS: that's definitely true - so i think it's about being tied to another person
       the notion that you can't just pick up and move to beijing on a whim
       you have to operate as a unit
WS: but you moved to DC
HS: i did and it was a tough decision
WS: why did you decide to move?
HS: ultimately, i had to decide what was really important to me. and living in the same city as my partner won out
       remember that hillary clinton followed bill to arkansas, hardly the epicenter of opportunities for a recent yale school graduate
       not that bill and hillary are a shining example of a marriage
WS: so what was on your mind when making the decision?
HS: i tried my best to think about different scenarios
       how i would feel if we broke up
       if i didn't like the city
       if i felt there was a lack of career opportunities
   so i did all the rational thinking
WS: but NYC & DC are not that far...what about long-d for a little while?
HS: that could have worked -- the other part of this was my own personal frustration with not being able to afford new york
       dc is a better bang for the buck
       but the deeper issue here is how two unmarried people try to harmonize and sync their lives
WS: so it sound to me so far that ALBM is an economic phenomenon
HS: that is certainly one read
       we've seen more couples move in together as a result of the economic downturn
       but it's also important to remember that ALBM is a function of the dramatic changes in the institution of marriage
       people get married for very different reasons now than they used to
       it used to be an economic contract
       women needed a man
       or it was too risky to have sex outside of marriage because of birth control
WS: or is it a function of the statistic that 1 in 2 marriages (in the US) end in divorce?
HS: and yes, the legacy of that statistic is very real
       young people today don't want to repeat the mistakes their parents made
       so they spend a lot of time searching out the "perfect" person
       that's, of course, a generalization, but speaks to the soul mate phenomenon we see
WS: can you elaborate on the soul mate phenomenon?
HS: of course. people are looking for that perfect person, someone who has the comedic timing of jon stewart, the looks of javier bardem, and the intelligence of barack obama. it's high-stakes dating out there.
       when you look at national polling in the US, most young people want to marry their "soul mate"
WS: how is soul mate defined by most?
HS: a soul mate is a factor of fun!
       while i don't think there is one agreed upon definition, i think the main attributes are that it's a person with whom you never feel lonely, sad, angry, disappointed, anxious or upset around
   but we all know that relationships are riddled with incompatibilities and tensions
WS: i believe in soul mates, but not your definition
HS: you do? tell me your definition
WS: i believe i have many soul mates
HS: right, i can buy into that
       but what i'm talking about is a version of a person that doesn't really exist
WS: soul mates are people that you just click with...kindred spirits
HS: yeah, i like the idea of a kindred spirit
       but see, the stakes today are just so high
WS: why are stakes so high?
HS: because people don't need to get married
       you don't need a spouse for economic support
       women can have babies on their own
WS: then shouldn't they be lower?
       men feel less pressure to provide?
       people can just "be"?
HS: marriage is no longer a necessity
       so people look for partners to fulfill them in every way
       as my friend helen said to me
       "i want a boyfriend who will be my career coach, gym buddy, stand-up comic, and constant orgasm supplier
WS: LOL
HS: so another reason for the soul mate phenomenon
       is that people are less connected to their communities than they were say even 40 years ago
       so there is more and more pressure on a significant other to fill the roles that were once filled by an entire community
WS: what did you get out of writing ALBM?
HS: great question
       i learned a lot about my generation
       i think looking closely at a generation's mating and dating rituals is a view into their soul
       so that was the intellectual part
       and even though it was inspired by a personal experience
       i was able to make it about something much bigger
       which is very gratifying
       to really delve into a subject and try to explore all the different facets
       it gave me a real appreciation for how difficult it is to write about relationships, not to mention dole out advice
       to answer your second question, yes, i am still ALBM
WS: advice is always clouded, or rather, limited by our own experience...whether lived/heard/seen/read
HS: right
       i think the other thing i got out of it was feeling like i was making a contribution by putting this relationship stage on the map
       so many young people drift in and out of ALBM for their 20s and into their 30s
       naming something is important
WS: LOL...that's another topic altogether...naming something...it's an attempt to control/understand what we cannot control/understand
       do you explain in the book your own process for answering: "How to know when it's time to walk down the aisle or out the door?"
HS: i don't really -- what i do say is the advice i'd follow for ALBM round 2
WS: thanks. loved the chat!

A New Decade. A New Question?

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:54:00 +0000

HAPPY NEW DECADE! Happy 20-10.

For the new year, my sister-in-law left me with her copy of What We Believe But Cannot Prove. While I've been reading it, I've been also eagerly awaiting the 2010 question. Finally, the question, and answers by "leading minds", were published today: How Is The Internet Changing The Way You Think? I have to think about how (or if) the internet has changed the way I think, but I know it has definitely changed the way I live.

Of all the questions Edge has asked over the years, my favourite is: What Have You Changed Your Mind About? One thing I changed my mind about recently was Battlestar Galactica. I had avoided watching BG for the longest time because the original series had not been that impressive. But on New Year's Eve, my brother persuaded me to watch the pilot miniseries with him. He had a blast watching me get sucked into the show all the way up to the end, five minutes into the new decade. So, into the new decade, the question that has been on my mind, no doubt inspired by BG and recent news events, is: What do we believe is our nature and the nature of our reality, and are they really true? Not exactly a new question, but perhaps we'll come up with some new and interesting answers? So I wonder, how is the internet changing the way we think about these questions?

Fairy Tales & Soulmates

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:43:00 +0000

The same day that I finished chatting with Hannah Seligson (author of soon-to-be-published A Little Bit Married), a male friend posted the music video of Taylor Swift's Love Story on facebook with the description: "song about fairy tales". I guess I have been living under a rock in the musical sense, because I don't know Swift or the song. But I couldn't help laughing as soon as I saw the video. Hannah's comment immediately came to mind: "The fairy tale is corrosive, as one psychologist I interviewed put it. We need to stamp out the notion of the soulmate like we did with smallpox."

Anyway, I will post my chat with Hannah when A Little Bit Married is launched on 15 January 2010, which will give a bit more context to her remark. In the meantime, I hope everyone continues to believe in Santa Claus at least!

CNNGo NoHo Party: 6:30-9:30pm, 15 December (Tuesday)

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:56:00 +0000

Check out CNNGo's unofficial launch party tomorrow: NoHo Streets of Your City.

Another yoga mat moment: intuition

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:20:00 +0000

I had an amazing yoga class yesterday. For the first time in my years of yoga practice, I did a one-legged wheel. But what was amazing was not that I did it, but how I came to do it.

It was towards the end of Wendy's yoga class yesterday. We were doing wheel (a backbend pose where both hands and feet are on the ground and the rest of the body lifts off the ground forming an inverted "u"). Normally, this pose puts a lot of pressure on my wrists (probably because I'm not grounding through my feet enough) and I can usually only hold the pose for a few breaths. While I'm coming down, the more advanced yogis in the class are usually going through other variations like lifting one leg or arm off the ground or standing up from the pose. Yesterday, as we were in our first wheel, Wendy, in her usual soothing voice, tells the class: "Sometimes we can't do something, because we tells ourselves that we can't. If we stop believing that we can't, we just might do it." Or some variation of the same theme; as I can't remember her exact words. As I heard those words, I decided to stop thinking I couldn't do it. Once that decision was made, I felt like I was somehow on auto-pilot observing myself. I observed my feet to moving closer together (normally, teachers only tell us to move our feet closer towards our hands). In that moment of shifting the feet towards each other, I suddenly felt that one leg could hold the weight and I lifted my right leg up. I got as far as getting my leg half way up. But as soon as I registered surprise and disbelief that my leg was up in the air, I panicked and tumbled down from the pose. But in the second set, I started first with my left leg and then right leg and managed both times to lift one leg up completely without falling out of the pose.

It was interesting to observe that once I stopped believing I couldn't do the pose, my body revealed the solution, which was to move my feet closer together. In hindsight, it's an obvious solution, because that's how one does a one-legged bridge. So essentially, the body knew what to do all along, only the mind was not ready.

We hear it all the time -- the power of positive thinking. But it seems we can cognitively agree with something without really believing in it. So perhaps the phrase is incorrect. It's not so much positive thinking, but positive belief. I'm not sure how much of yesterday's achievement had been primed by my dim sum chat with AS about vipassana meditation.

I have always been a bit of a meditation sceptic; wanting to believe yet not really believing that meditation is useful (I mean, how can sitting and doing nothing be useful?), at least not enough to give up 10 days of my life to it. Ever since AS went on the 10-day meditation retreat in 2007 and raved about it though, my curiosity about it has been piqued. AS only told me yesterday what prompted him to go on the retreat and the effects therafter. It had been a very stressful period in his life and he had started noticing that he was suffering from memory loss. He would wake up in the morning, go to the bathroom and walk out wondering whether he had brushed his teeth or not. His doctor suggested that he get tested by the specialists at UCSF's Memory & Aging Center. There's a long waiting time to get an appointment there. It so happened that he completed the vipassana retreat the day before flying off to UCSF. Once at UCSF, he was put through a series of concentration and memory tests (In one exercise, he would be told a series of numbers and was asked to recall them in reverse order. He managed to go up to 17 digits!). The tests revealed that, far from suffering memory loss or deterioration, AS was actually scoring off the charts! Of course, he acknowledged it could have been akin to the placebo effect. But nonetheless, it illustrates the power of the mind to manipulate itself into doing unexpected things if we just let it. And my little one-legged wheel moment on the yoga mat further confirmed that. All of which is convincing me to put a 10-day vipassana retreat onto my 2010 to-do list.

This point makes me think of my students as well. I've been grading their final exams and noticed that most had not been able to correctly calculate a per person cost when given total trip costs. It's a simple calculation, yet many ended up with a per person cost that was nearly as high as total trip costs for 25 people. As I graded the papers, I kept wondering why they would overlook/accept this obviously non-sensical number. I believe that most of the students, despite having previously done the calculations correctly in their own homework and group project assignments, continue to believe that they do not know how to do the calculation. I can only imagine that the belief in their own lack of competence clouded even their most basic common sense. I wish I could have taught them how to trust their own intuition and logic more rather than relying on standard formulas. But of course, I myself am still just a student learning to trust and have faith in my own intuition.

Tom Ford on Spirituality...

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:57:00 +0000

Love this quote: "Just because one is spiritual doesn't mean that one does not like crocodile and cashmere."

Tom Ford on His Midlife Crisis from The Daily Beast Video on Vimeo.

His film, A Single Man, starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, looks like a visual feast, but the trailer left me clueless as to what the movie is actually about. Google solved that: it's based on Christopher Isherwood's novel by the same title about a gay English professor dealing with grief from the death of his longtime partner.

Creativity and Status

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:40:00 +0000

I am sitting at the front of a lecture theatre at HK Polytechnic University watching over 36 students taking the final exam for the Travel Product Development & Distribution class (a ridiculously pretentious sounding name for a very common sense-driven subject). So I've been catching up on Jonah Lehrer's blog and which led me to this interesting article in Scientific American by Adam Waytz: The Psychology of Social Status. Waytz opens:

Nobel Laureate economist, John Harsanyi, said that “apart from economic payoffs, social status seems to be the most important incentive and motivating force of social behavior.” The more noticeable status disparities are, the more concerned with status people become...

His point seems so relevant as I reflect on the students' attitude towards learning. I had allocated the final, 3-hour session as a review session. I had asked the students to prepare their questions on anything they did not understand or needed elaboration. They came prepared only with one question: "What questions are on the final exam?" It was a total waste of a session and they knew it because half the class left after the break. It's all about the grade, getting the degree, how future employers perceive their worth etc. The students recognize and appreciate passion and creativity (they were all inspired by the four guest speakers who were doing new and creative things in the travel business). Yet, many do not feel empowered to be more than what is expected of them.

Waytz goes on to explain in his article that low status individuals can attain high status within a group by demonstrating worth ("competence and selflessness") among his/her social connections within the group. Note that the word is "demonstrate" (perception is key). Even if an individual is connected and competent, but does not demonstrate it, that individual will not move up the status ladder.

Both economic payoffs and social status in Hong Kong has been tied to maintaining stability/protecting the status quo. But if Hong Kong is really serious about tackling our problems (pollution, growing income gap, unmotivated and uninspired youth), we will need to nurture and accommodate a more creative, status quo-challenging culture. How can we confer creative people more status? It means giving them a voice and a hand in influencing and shaping policies both economic and political. There's a simple word for this, isn't there? Democracy.

This question is: are enough people willing to take on the added responsibility required for a real democracy?

Above the Table with Angie Wong

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:48:00 +0000

I've been a regular consumer of Angie's Under the Table column in Time Out HK. Lately, every time I see Angie, I've complained about the lack of surprising new restaurants in Hong Kong. Angie would dutifully throw out a few new restaurants. But ultimately, she would end up agreeing that there was really nothing new and exciting to rave about.

So when an email promoting a new Korean fusion restaurant popped up in my inbox, despite the fact that it was located in TST's Miramar shopping center, I forwarded it to Angie because I wanted to find out what Korean fusion is. We decided to check it out for lunch.

"Want to walk through K11 afterward?" she asked.

"sounds like a lovely lunch date! i wonder how i can script it to end up in your column? ;-)" I replied.

"Invite my ex-boyfriends? I'm sure we'll find debauchery at lunch," she emailed back.

"if we don't find it, we can surely create it," I wrote back.

In the end, the restaurant was nothing to write about. K11 is just another shopping mall. And we didn't find or create any debauchery. Instead, we had a discussion about the fate of media, how there really is no such thing as lifestyle journalism (assuming that journalism implies objectivity), and how all our moments and experiences seem to be brought to us by [insert brand here]. Angie recounted a recent Tiffany & Co. moment, and we chatted about how the way we experience travel these days is through so many media filters. When we go to a new destination, we already have in our minds an idea of what we should be experiencing as pre-packaged by whatever media we have consumed: FT's How to Spend It versus a show on Discovery Travel & Living versus television shows and movies.

"How can you accept it (advertising/marketing-driven editorial, the seeming lack of authenticity of our experiences)?" Angie asked with a how-can-you-give-up-the-good-fight tone.

And here, I felt another one of those I-really-must-be-getting-old moments. "Because I'm half a decade older than you are," I replied. "And I've had more time to come to terms with the fact that I'm just as avid and guilty a consumer, as well as a producer, of all this fakeness." Interestingly, our luncheon conversation left me feeling quite serene.

When I got back to the office, I came across these pages in a fascinating new book of interesting statistics culled from Jonathan Harris' We Feel Fine website. I found it interesting that Asians expressed more feelings of anger and fear than people on other continents around the world, while also expressing the least amount of joy (What are Asians angry and fearful about?). Unsurprisingly, Americans expressed the most joy (we are "hopeless optimists", as many of my non-American friends have pointed out):

BYOB Pop Up Party!

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:42:00 +0000

BYOB POP UP PARTY!

Come celebrate the completion of Daniel Wu, Edward Huang, Teddy Lo and LED Artist’s installation!

Date	Monday, December 7, 2009
Time	6pm - 11pm
Venue	THE STAGE, West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade
	Guide Map # W59

“We’ve created a very special and unique space with this bamboo structure and we want to share it with you! So…BYOB, bring your booze, bring your skate board, bring your bike, bring a chair, bring your ipod, bring your friends, bring some meat for the bbq that will going, but most importantly BRING YOURSELVES!!!”

Visit http://hkszbiennale.org for updates!

MAD 2010: 22-24 January 2010

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:38:00 +0000

I feel old. I just applied to attend MAD 2010 (MAD stands for Make-A-Difference), and at the end of the application form, it stated that applicants under 30 years old would be given priority for the 800 spaces for "selected young people". So I guess I am not a young person anymore. Having said that, I'd still encourage anyone interested in attending to apply. The line-up of speakers is amazing (Sir Ken Robinson, John Maeda and Alex Counts, just to name a few), and the three-day conference to be held at Kwai Tsing Theatre only costs HK$600.

It's a beautiful day in Hong Kong, but...

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:51:00 +0000

...air quality sucks. Support the Clean Air Network.

Hong Kong: An Innovative Society?

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:35:00 +0000

Last month, when M called to update me on the funding situation for the upcoming Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism \ Architecture, I was stupefied. M and her team of curators had laboured tirelessly for months to put together a world-class event, bringing together international icons such as Shigeru Ban and Diller+Scofidio Renfro with the leading lights of Hong Kong's creative scene to engage the public on issues of architecture and urban development at the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade. With a rich program of interactive, immersive exhibitions, M found that the original government grant was insufficient to fund everything. So she knocked on many a charitable doors for sponsorship, among them was one of Hong Kong's most well-endowed charities. Excitement was high when weeks ago, the charity was about to sign a cheque. And all of us volunteering to help out on various bits of the biennale were elated. But then came M's call -- the government was not going to give her the approval to accept the additional funding. The biennale had to be scaled down. "WTF??!!" was my reaction. I was at a loss to believe that this absurd situation was happening here in Hong Kong, a city that aims to be a breeding ground for innovation and creativity.

I had been reading John W. Gardner's Self Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society. Jacqueline Novogratz's article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review had inspired me to order the book from amazon. And at only 127 pages, I was motivated to read it as soon as it arrived. Like Novogratz, I found Gardner's words of wisdom resonating with me. At every opportunity, I have touted Gardner's book as though it were gospel. When in fact, it is simple common sense. His words resonate because they accurately describe the reality of our human condition, and not just at a moment in time but over the course of our development.

amazon

I had told M and E, both curators for the Biennale, about the book and they invited me to write a brief essay on my reflections for the Biennale catalogue. I still had the bitter aftertaste of M's funding news on my mind when I started to write the essay. I wanted to explain why so many Hong Kong people lament its rigid, almost anti-innovation atmosphere, and how it is no fault of those who settle on conformity and convention. Afterall, I would have understood if none of the four curators wanted to organize another government-funded Biennale. Thankfully, I was saved from my pessimism by my students.

I was reminded that renewal is not the result of one heroic creative act or innovative invention, it is the sum of many seemingly inconsequential decisions and actions (and on a societal level, by many people over lifetimes) that have probably, on balance, lead to more failures than successes. But I do believe that, on balance, the trend line points towards evolution and progress, rather than the demise of our species (that is, until the next gigantic meteor hits and we go the way of the dinosaurs). As a teacher, I have come to realize that the most important thing teachers can give students is not our knowledge but our faith in them. In fact, we all need someone to believe in us in our moments of doubt as we navigate our place in an increasingly complex world.

This is the essay I submitted:

What Teaching Has Taught Me About Creativity and Innovation

Creativity and innovation cannot be imported, transplanted nor taught; there is no masterplan or formula, right or wrong way, to being creative and innovative. These fruits are borne only when nurtured by certain values in a warm and open environment. As John W. Gardner explains in his incredibly insightful book, Self Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society, the difference between a vibrant, thriving society and a rigid and decaying one is simply whether it “provides for its own continuous renewal.”

And how does a society continually innovate and renew itself? The answer lies in its individuals, whether they themselves are self-renewing. Self-renewing people share certain characteristics – a sustained curiosity about themselves and the world around them (they understand that their knowledge of both is limited and continually strive to expand and break limiting patterns of their understanding), courage to fail and be wrong, capacity for compassion and an internally-derived motivation to persevere at an endeavour out of a belief that it is worthwhile or meaningful.

These past few months, I have had the pleasure of teaching a class at Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. It has been an enlightening and inspiring experience, where the teacher has been the student. My class of 36, final year Higher Diploma Tourism Management students have taught me to consider what we need to provide younger generations if we are to expect them to inherit the task of renewing our society.
The first day of class, by way of introductions, I asked the students to share their dreams. For most, it was to one day become rich. To understand why they wanted to be rich, I asked them to draw a picture of their image of “rich”. Most drew a free-standing house. In this class about creating and marketing innovative travel products, I also learned that most preferred to travel to new destinations with tour groups rather than explore on their own, because they feared the unknown.

Hong Kong has come a long way in its economic development since Gardner’s book was first published nearly half a century ago. In class, I introduced Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – at the bottom of the pyramid are survival and safety, at the top, self-actualization. For people to feel free and daring enough to experiment, they must first feel safe and secure. Can an individual feel safe and secure when the notion of a home of one’s own seems but a fantasy for most young graduates today?

When asked to share what their aspirations were, three students replied: “none”. Why have they lost the hope to aspire? Why are they fearful? And how can I, as a teacher, and we, as a society, create a safe and nurturing environment for the younger generation to freely explore, take risks, fail, discover, gain confidence and learn? While the students have raised these questions in my mind, the most important lesson I have learned from them is faith. Renewal is a process, not an event. This Biennale bears testament to that. BYOB -- Bring Your Own Biennale.

Thought from INSEAD Alumni Forum and Being on the Off-the-Beaten-Track Panel Discussion

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:46:00 +0000

On arrival in Singapore Friday evening, as I was withdrawing cash from the UOB ATM in Changi Airport's arrival hall, these words of wisdom by a Chinese philosopher flashed on the screen: "A path is made by walking it."

It was particularly apt since I was in town to participate on a panel discussion titled, "Off-the-Beaten-Track Alumni Stories" at yesterday's INSEAD Alumni Forum. When I was first approached to join the panel, two things flashed through my mind: 1. I don't like public speaking and 2. I don't consider myself to be off-the-beaten-track. So I jumped at the opportunity to challenge myself and the assumptions behind the title of the panel.

Preceding the panel discussion, Fabrice Desmarescaux (director of Spencer Stuart Singapore) gave an entertaining and interesting talk, "Debunking career management myths: straight-talking from a headhunter". He made a lot of points that our panel was able to build on: there are three phases to building a career (experience-building, leadership and freedom), it's good to have career accidents (as long as you learn from and survive them of course), and my favourite point was that those who have high ability and low interest in what they do are in "hell".

When I responded to a question about how people find out what their true passions are, I had simply remarked that people know deep down what they want, but simply lack the confidence or courage to admit or act. But it has never made sense to me that these same people, many of whom I would even consider brilliant, would let their fears get in the way of personal fulfillment: why do people who know they are in "hell" choose to stay in "hell"? It only occured to me this morning that the real fear for many people who have succeeded and shone within the system (schools, corporations, among friends and family) might be the fear of no longer being seen as a "star", no longer feeling the warmth and comfort of their brilliance reflected back to them through praise, rewards, recognition and status. It is different from a fear of failure, because they may know they can succeed in their desired endeavour, but they may also know that success does not come with a US$2 million a year package and all the attachments that such money can buy. The real fear is not that they will no longer be successful, but that they will no longer be told that they are successful.

Of course, I believe that each of us is here to make our own path by walking it (hence, there are an infinite number of paths, not just the two options of being on or off the beaten path). And I believe the only way to truly shine from within is to be true to who we are. Having said that, I know this is much easier said than done; it's a lifelong endeavour and one is never quite certain of having achieved it or not (but then, it's always about the journey, not the destination). We all have moments of self-doubt and insecurity. And in those moments, we all crave praise, recognition or even simply assurance that we are good. The trick is to be satisfied with being the best that we can be without chasing for the recognition that who we are is the best among all others.

As John W. Gardner quotes Josh Billings in his very inspiring book, Self-Renewal: The Individual & The Innovative Society: "It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one too." And that inconvenient thing is that we are all merely mortal; even the most brilliant star will one day die and fade into darkness.

6 November 2009: Support the Design Revolution in HK!

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:56:00 +0000

It's coming up to some exciting design-related events. First up is the Ambassadors of Design's annual Ambassador's Ball on 6 November 2009. If you've already got dinner plans but still want to join in on the fun and support Hong Kong's young, up-and-coming designers, get your ticket to the After Party. The party starts at 11pm in W Hotel's Living Room. And since it's all for a good cause, the ticket also serves as a tax-deductible receipt!

Towards the end of November, check out AoD's DETOUR (26 November - 9 December 2009). This year, local designers will takeover the old Married Police Quarters on Hollywood Road. It's going the be a lively venue full of interesting exhibitions (my fave is a student design project to "pimp a pushcart", the kind that little old ladies use to push enormous amounts of stuff with around HK's streets) and fun-filled events such as AoD's signature Pecha Kucha night set on an urban beach setting underneath a stunning, site-specific suspended bamboo bridge by William Lim of CL3 architects. DETOUR is a companion event of Hong Kong Design Centre's Business of Design Week (30 November - 5 December 2009).

And just as BoDW and DETOUR wrap-up, the 2009 Hong Kong/Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture opens on 4 December 2009. For the first time, in all the talk about developing West Kowloon into a viable cultural district, we're going to be able to see the site's true potential to bring out the local community's creativity. Its theme, in fact, sets the challenge: BYOB, or Bring Your Own Biennale. Expect lots of interactive exhibits and events set amidst a Shigeru Ban-designed pavillion and Diller+Scofidio forest of "joyful trees". The curatorial team needs all the help they can get to make this monumental event a true success. So if you would like to be a part of Hong Kong's creative community, volunteer with the Biennale team or submit your ideas (see the website for the two Open Call for submissions with a deadline of 2 November 2009).

CNNGo.com is Live!

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:32:00 +0000

It's always exciting watching new projects come to life. I first met the CNNGo.com team seven months ago during ArtsFest when we when to see a dance performance with Juliet Binoche with a set designed by Anish Kapoor. They had just rolled into town and were building up their regional editorial presence. Initial launch date had been set for May. But as is the norm with start-ups, launch dates get postponed once, twice, even three times as technical kinks get ironed out, editorial vision comes into focus and the website finds its voice.

As a freelance contributor, it's been nothing but fun for me; I get to write about fun stuff that I'm interested in, I can hardly call it work. But for the producers and editors -- Kim, Andrew, Chris and Zoe -- it's been months of 7-day weeks, epoch caffeine-fueled nights and days (i've contributed the odd sugar fix from Saffron Bakery too) as well as many a long conference calls. It's no easy task unifying the tone of a website that presents the local life of six vastly divergent Asian cities -- Bangkok, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.

CNNGo.com's ambition is to speak local, to track the pulse and vibe of each city. The editorial team's job is to manage the platform and facilitate the flow of conversation. But ultimately, it's the people who live in the cities and their contributions that will breathe life into the site, taking it from live to alive. Hope you'll enjoy browsing the site, but more importantly, please join the fun! Comment, critique and contribute.

Check-out this brilliantly produced video:

Cool Fall Trips that will Change Someone's Life: Social Entrepreneurship in Cambodia and more...

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:17:00 +0000

I'm always grateful for the many opportunities I have to meet fascinating people doing incredibly interesting things. It's especially wonderful when I get to share in the passion of someone just starting something up. Even better when their passions align with mine. So when Darius, the founder of SOW Asia, a venture philanthropy foundation, introduced me to Paul who was starting Sowers Exchange to create philanthropic travel opportunities, I was keen to help promote their trips.

Paul is an Australian who has been living in Hong Kong since he was 16. He speaks fluent Cantonese and has spent much of his time here working with marginalized and under-resourced people through faith-based organizations. But he realized that there were many well-meaning people outside of religious institutions with an unfulfilled desire to contribute. Most lacked the opportunities for lack of organizational capabilities. That was the seed for Sowers Exchange.

For Sowers Exchange's inaugural trip, Paul has put-together a short 4-day/3-night trip (23-26 October 2009) to connect with the people working at two of Cambodia's ground-breaking social enterprises: Friends International and Tiny Toones. This trip is a perfect primer for anyone who's ever been interested in understanding how social enterprises are different from charities, seeing first-hand how their innovative approaches to solving social problems often have an empowering effect on local communities.

The trip is open to 15 people. To join the trip: Sowers_Exchange_cambodia_Oct09.pdf

In November, there are two other trips worthy of mention. The first actually precipitated a reconnection with Anika, one of my Primary 1 classmates, whom I had not kept in touch with since I left DGJS after Primary 3! I had received an email from Habitat for Humanity calling for volunteers to join the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project from 14-20 November 2009 to build homes in earthquake-affected Qionglai, Sichuan. If you ever wanted to meet former President Jimmy Carter, here's your chance! It promises to be a historic build in scale as well as celebrity presence.

They are recruiting volunteers as well as donations to support student volunteers:
JRCWP_Habitat_for_Humanity_eFlyer.pdf

Last, but not least, is a very rare opportunity to drive (safely and comfortably, I might add!) through some of the most scenic areas of Yunnan through Laos and on to Thailand in brand-new Toyota Prados supplied by Avis. The drive with On the Road in China (a company started by Peter, a fellow b-school alum and former racecar driver) starts in Shangri-La and ends in Chiang Mai, with overnight stays in some of the most luxurious hotels around:

August Wrap-Up: Vancouver, Hamptons, New York City, Phoenix, Oxford, Geneva, Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:22:00 +0000

Summer holidays are great. For the past few years, I've had the luxury of being able to take off from typhoon-riddled Hong Kong in search of blue skies, cooler climes or even snow as I did last year.

This year, my travels took me around the world to see family and friends, as well as giving me the luxury of time to read three books cover-to-cover in three weeks -- Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, Paolo Giordano's The Solitude of Prime Numbers and Kazuo Ishiguro's Nocturnes. Plane rides are great for reading books, and I can often remember when I read them by flipping through and finding the flight ticket stubs that I used as a bookmark (I managed to read Nocturnes on the round-trip London-Geneva flights). In fact, the books themselves are often a reminder of the places I've been. I picked up Rand's tome of a novel at a bookstore in Vancouver's Yaletown. The other two I picked up in Oxford's Blackwell's bookstore. When I wandered into the bookstore, I had no intention of buying any books. I had only wandered in to browse their rare books collection and buy a milk shake from the in-store Caffe Nero. Along the way, after two weeks of travel, I had already picked up seven books. And books are heavy! I also managed to start, but not finish, two other books: Geoff Dyer's Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It and Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth. But back in Hong Kong now, I have yet to finish either.

In between pages, I had time to enjoy wonderful weather, fun conversation and delightful places. Here are some highlights:

Vancouver -- I walked past a hot dog stand on Marinaside Crescent (across the street from Provence) and couldn't resist trying their TexMex hot dog (complete with tortilla chips stuck in the bun along with the jalapeno cheddar cheese hot dog). While waiting for my hot dog to get cooked, I learned from the owner that one cannot just set-up a hot dog stand anywhere one pleases. There's a actually a lottery and he managed to win three locations. Operating a hot dog stand is not an easy job. He's up at 6am in the morning prepping enough food for three stands and doesn't get home till midnight. He enjoys it much better than drilling for oil in Calgary though. I could see why. It was a beautiful, summer day in Vancouver and strollers, roller-bladers, pram-pushing parents would stop by either for a hot dog or an ice cream cone or sandwich and have it served up with a view of the marina in Falls Creek.

From Little Cream Life: Almost a Photo a Day

Hamptons:
1. Wifi-enabled Hamptons Jitney (even if it did mean standing on a street corner at 7:50am by myself in front of a building with signs for "Body by Berle" and "Hooters") followed by lunch at Lobster Roll in Amagansett, building a sand castle at Wainscott beach, shopping in East Hampton and practicing yoga behind Rodney Yee in Colleen Saidman Yee's 8am class at Yoga Shanti in Sag Harbour the following morning. During class, she read out a quote that sticks in my head: "Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow." As I write this, Edward Kennedy's funeral has just taken place and his life exemplifies this so well.

From Little Cream Life: Almost a Photo a Day

New York City:
Candle 79 -- Surprisingly tasty vegetarian restaurant. I was told that outside of August, when most New Yorkers (or at least Upper Eastsiders) are holidaying in the Hamptons, it is very difficult to get a reservation. I understand why now, because it's not easy to serve a vegetarian menu that doesn't sound or taste like you are depriving yourself of some essential joys in life.
The Standard Hotel -- Andre Balazs' new hotel in Meatpacking. Grab a drink underneath the High Line or enjoy the views of the hotel from the High Line.
The High Line -- I'm impressed that a project like this got funded. An old railway line along the Meatpacking waterfront all the way up to Penn Station got a makeover by landscape architects Field Operations and structural support from architects Diller+Scofidio. I was walking the High Line with PC, who has been asked to consult the Norman Foster team that's working on the West Kowloon Cultural District. I, of course, complained that property developers in Hong Kong don't have the combination of civic-mindedness and foresight to contribute to a city-owned project such as this. Barry Diller and his wife Diane von Furstenberg are co-chairs of the High Line Trust. The building up from The Standard Hotel is being developed by von Furstenberg and Diller's Frank Gehry-designed IAC building is just off the High Line. Contributing to the beautification and preservation of heritage in the neighborhood simply makes good business sense. Be sure to enjoy the view in the mini amphi above 10th Avenue at 16th Street.

Phoenix -- I had dinner at the Wrigley Mansion for the first time, even though I've spent many years living there. Built by Wrigley of chewing gum fame, the mansion is now owned by Hormel of Spam fame. The place is quite a museum: I was intrigued by a telephone switchboard and amused by a very kitschy bathroom with red velvet and gold print wallpaper.

From Little Cream Life: Almost a Photo a Day

Oxford -- I always imagined the hallowed halls of academia to be tranquil, almost monastic, places. But Oxford in summer is a tourist/summer student zoo. Having said that, I managed to escape the hubub by staying at Old Parsonage Hotel and going for a run along Thames Path, where I found the quiet little village of Iffley.

From Little Cream Life: Random photos

Geneva -- I was in-and-out of this town within 24 hours. But I left with the sense that I had spent those hours in a sort-of lalaland, a little enclave where everyone seems to live the most charming of lives.

Back in Hong Kong, I've been playing around with my little flip HD video camera. I'd bought it back in April, but only now decided to put it to use. I'm hopeless at shooting, and have no patience for editing. For practice, I took it along to some of the past Luxury Week's fashion shows, but didn't manage to shoot any good footage. I fared a little better last night at Courtney Act's performance at Sevva. Act (or Shane Jenek when not in drag) was a semi-finalist in Australian Idol in 2003.

Hopefully, I'll get the hang of telling stories with moving images and really start to have some fun with it.

First Starbucks x G.O.D. 冰室 (bing sutt)!

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:05:00 +0000

I am a pineapple bun nut. It is one of my few credible claims to "being local". And I love Starbucks (not really for their coffee, but for the brand). And my BFFs are the founders of G.O.D. Roll all that into one and this is what I get on 13 Duddell Street (T: +852 2523 5685) -- a crisp, coffee-flavoured pineapple bun served in an ironic take on Hong Kong's old-fashioned coffee shop as interpreted by G.O.D. within an American coffee chain pretending to be local (hmmm...seems to describe me):

The coffee-flavoured pineapple buns and cocktail buns are only sold in this shop.

It's quite an amazing thing that Starbucks in Hong Kong (kudos to Maxim's) has managed to break-free (if only for just one shop for now...) of the cookie-cutter corporate Starbucks image.

I hope this is a sign of things to come for Starbucks (could this be the coffee chain version of HSBC's global-local claim); it's just what they need to bring some buzz back to their brand.

Mother's Day Conversation with James Mark: Hamlet's Mom Gertrude

noreply@blogger.com (10000miles) — Sun, 10 May 2009 13:29:00 +0000

I had a Barbara Walters moment today. Not sure if it was because it was Mother's Day, but 73-year-old theatre director James Mark (he's sort of the godfather of the Hong Kong theatre scene) got a bit teary-eyed as he talked about a mother's love as seen in Hamlet. I was interviewing Mark because he has just presented Sword of Vengeance, a Putonghua adaptation of Hamlet set in the Five Kingdoms era of Chinese history in Stratford-upon-Avon to celebrate Shakespeare's 445th birthday last month.

Mark mentioned that he had been a social worker with Caritas for 17 years. So for my last question, I asked him: "What does Hamlet, a play about revenge, have to say about love and compassion?"

Mark started beaming, as if I "got" him. "I don't emphasize revenge in Hamlet. I don't need to stress revenge, because love and passion create enough conflict as it is." Essentially, Mark's take on Hamlet is that the tragedy stems from Gertrude's conflicting love for her husband Claudius and her son Hamlet.

"It's Gertrude's love and passion, concern and consideration that is most moving. Imagine Gertrude is in a loveless marriage to Hamlet's father. And then there's Claudius, the brother-in-law, who has been nothing but kind, gentle, sympathetic and considerate towards her. So when Claudius kills Hamlet's father and becomes King, Gertrude has a choice. Does she give up her life as Queen and her son's future as King to begrudge a man who's been nothing but caring towards her or does he marry him and secure her son's future? But of course, Hamlet does not understand this and only sees his mother as betraying his father and therefore him. Gertrude loves both her husband Claudius and her son. In my production, I make sure Gertrude sees Claudius pouring the poison in the wine, because I want the audience to see that she drinks it to save her son. Hamlet is not about good or evil, right or wrong. It's about all the conflict that is created by love. Without love, there would be no feelings of regret, loss or pain. That's what makes it so tragic." And that's when Mark reached for a napkin to dab his eyes dry.

I didn't have time (I was already 45 minutes late to brunch!), but I would have argued that the conflict, rather than being created by love, was created by Hamlet's inability to have compassion for his mother. And I would have loved to ask Mark about his mother.