Notes from a small Chantown

SMWHK – Future of Television

2012-02-15T17:15:00.012+08:00

This year's Social Media Week Future of Television event, hosted by Hong Kong PR Network, brings together a panel of industry experts, Jill Grinda (Vice President, Operations, CASBAA), Leslie Tang (the Hong Kong Correspondent for Channel NewsAsia, a regional TV news channel), James Ross (Director of Lightening International; previous Regional Director at ITN) and Doug White, Director of PRDA media agency). The list of topics set for examination includes the rise of web TV, second screen viewing, trans-media story telling and social TV apps, as well as Hong Kong's changing social media television landscape.

Jay's daily round-up
Before starting, Jay Oatway's daily round-up raises questions that put us in the mood: Where does this social information spread? How many times does it change format? How many links are via close friends? And more.

But the main theme of the day is Pepper, the rescued long-stay SPCA dog that Ali Bullock (Animals in Photos) wanted to have adopted before the end of SMW. Don't worry, she found a home (and a hashtag - #savepepper), by 5pm (Tuesday), in a 24-hour SMW campaign.

Define the future of TV
That's SMW news, not television. So, Tang starts the discussion, saying, "it's hard to define the future - there are endless possibilities. Traditional media is trying to stay relevant on a new playing field". White adds that emerging platforms leave a place for traditional medias, but consumers would find a greater range of content. "Even YouTube videos get re-posted - original placement isn't so important. Expect new viewing tools and to effect what we're viewing," he predicts.

But while these new platforms are changing the way we consume, Grinda says "TV is all about content - it's more important than how we consume it." Ross adds, "it'll be more exciting and interactive - more important. Regardless of the platform, content is important."

From YouTube to TV - and what is TV?
Have you ever seen Annoying Orange? It went from YouTube to a network hit. Before answering if that's going to happen more frequently, White asks, "what is TV? It's the content not the box. Shows will be viewed through different platforms and with so many new ones, there's space for this to happen more." So, can web-based companies outbid TV companies for shows? Grinda points out that major networks, like Time Warner, are driven by their business model: Subscription. While YouTube channels are niche, they average viewing of 15 minutes/day, while average TV viewing time (USA) is five hours. If YouTube want to make more advertising dollars, they need to up their viewing-time stats. "Can YouTube threaten major cable platforms? They need high-end content," she states, adding, "people are mindful of their business models."

Ross adds, "no major broadcast network will go down without a fight - they have major content like the Superbowl. Networks focus on 'water-cooler' content - if you haven't seen it, you can't talk about the one thing that everyone around you is talking about." Have you ever felt left out when your colleagues were talking about a TV show? (It's why I started watching Lost, which I hated). With perfect timing, Grinda chimes in, "Obama's State of Union speech was shifted so it wouldn't coincide with last episode of Lost. Note how they didn't shift Lost!"

Time for an ad break
So we've talked about content - what about advertising? Now, most ads have various formats for different platforms. But as the ways that we access 'television' changes, this could change too. "Advertisers still mainly focus on major platforms, but as platforms grow together, I think it will all come back to a single campaign for all platforms," Ross says.

Are you checking Facebook while reading this blog?
Do you second screen view? How often do you watch TV while you're Whatsapp-ing a friend, or playing a game on your iPad? People Tweet while they watch a show - divides attention - but can this be taken advantage of? Tang, as a news anchor, makes some interesting points. "New media has made news more like a conversation. You watch TV but check social media to learn more. We can attract audiences on various platforms- shows have their own Twitter feeds, which works well for news. We can receive real-time questions for reporters on site."

Brands: product placement, great TV and Jennifer Aniston
What does it take to make great TV? White has some experience creating content for himself. "We tried to do all things - humour, arty and webisodes. Product placement worked well for us, through subtle inclusion in shows. These days, viral gets you a wide audience, so you have to appeal to different people. Take the Jennifer Aniston Smart Water advert as an example. But brands are reluctant to let go of the idea that it's only about them - they don't think it can be funny, or stray from the point. Brands could promote more than their product - take social good or education as an example. Typically, ad breaks are our TV break. It has to change, we're bored - advertising hasn't changed in so long. Brand messages, display ads and TV ads are still very traditional."

Or, forget the product placement, try trans-media storytelling
Perfectly, the topic of trans-media storytelling comes in here. Cha Ching on Cartoon Network Asia, is a short animation (10 x 3-min episodes) teaching children to be smart about money. It was made by Prudential but is entirely brand-free and has been a massive success. Harsha Harjani, Manager of Communications at Prudential steps out of the audience to clarify, "it was a CSR program for Asia. It's innovative for an insurance company - and it went well for us - it's everywhere."

We also have TV characters with life beyond TV, through social media. The Coca-cola polar bears watched the Superbowl, with a Twitter feed airing their comments on the game. Beyond that, apps created for specific shows can extend content. "An app that interacts with your show has a huge power. It will happen more and more - perhaps slower on Hong Kong's terrestrial platforms but this is all tech development. TV is still about great content, putting messages across. What changed is the tech - how we put the message across," Ross explains.

And the downside of social media is...
So, what's the down side of social media for TV? Tang has specific concerns. "With social media, anyone can act as a citizen journalist. Apparently Twitter broke the news that Whitney Houston died, before Associated Press did. When individuals spread news, facts may not be checked. Quality control in content and production as well as authenticity could become a problem." She raises an issue that Grinda brings to the table: "Piracy is a huge problem for us - we must be careful." But it's not that simple. White asks, "what's the ground-base there? If I send an article from the Huffington Post, where am I? What's the boundary?" Since we share media so easily and often, perhaps we should all think about this. Ross gives a sensible response. "Citing!" He exclaims. "State the source. Bloomberg was small once - and quoted other sources because they had to. Our industry suffers a bit from old business models - it takes a lot of money to make great content but how can we make money from sharing content?" After all, production costs aren't slight. Did you know that an hour of great content costs about USD $3million?

Don't forget the PR touch
Finally, there's something for the PR fans in the room. "Whatever you're pushing, it has to be interesting. Touch the viewer; give them something. Not just a flat press release or video," advises Ross. "Know your customer. YouTube are great at that, whereas a network is more likely to know the customer's address," says Grinda. White prefers to take things slowly. "I don't usually let my customers jump straight to viral. Build a little long-term loyalty first, so you know them. Jokes keep it light but be honest and sincere or you'll be called on it." Finally, Tang adds, "be as interactive as possible, so viewers can create their own content too. In the news, we increasingly use images and video from witnesses."

With so much to go away and think about, it's hard not to be tempted to just sit and watch TV for a while.

Social Media Week, Hong Kong

2012-02-14T14:21:00.015+08:00

Ok, so usually, my blog is filled with quirky observations, documentation of weird happenings, or my little shrine-like collections. But I can be serious too – after all, I run my own organic creative services company.

It's Social Media Week again ([at]SMWHK #SMWHK), which means running all over the city to get to as many events as possible, learning, debating, listening and sharing all kinds of ideas and information about tons of topics that relate back to social media.

I've already had a piece in SCMP in advance of the event, promoting events like Blogging 101 and blogging for fashion lovers. You'll find it on my company Facebook page, here.

In fact, I'm also organising an event on Friday, February 17th 2012 under the PitchYrCulture banner, with many, many thanks to Andrew. (There's also an official Pitch Yr Culture blog and Facebook page).

On top of that, I'm an official contributing blogger for SMW. You'll find my profile on the main SMWHK site, where they'll also re-post my blogs.

In the meantime, help to re-post my blog entries until Twitter can't handle capacity (which it already seems to be struggling with and it's only day two of SMW).

Blog entries:
Future of Television – [at] SMWHK #SMWHK #SMWHKtv

© 2012 Vickie Chan

Only in Hong Kong...

2012-01-05T20:00:00.001+08:00

Lots of little strange things happen here and while some things may not be strange in other places, I say that context can be everything.

Trash can crime scene
Jan 2012

Life ring - on the 20-somethingth floor
Dec 2011

Weight machine - classifieds
Oct 2011

Dairy - HK style
Sept 2011
I thought that most Chinese people didn't really 'do' dairy, hence such products being over-priced or local versions being a bit rubbish.

But how this is appetising, especially on a hot day, I just don't know.

Thankfully, this will never be lost.
June 2011

Bruce who? Roll over Uma, I'm taking care of this one.
June 2011
Could we add more irony?

Tone Down Your Voice
April 2011
It's true – it's loud here.

Beach Digger
April 2011

Health & Safety-free Zone
March 2011
As if climbing that ladder with no-one to stabilise the bottom – and then climb onto the edge with no barrier isn't scary enough, two Banner Ad Implementation Workers (is that PC enough?) then climbed behind the banner to enable the removal. Albeit, behind the ad is probably the safest place for them and provides some kind of Jackie Chan-style stunt-action should they fall, it reaches to the third storey.

That said, this is a fishing country and most fishermen here can't swim.

Naked Lady (what else can I say?)
March 2011
This one came courtesy of a friend. She witnessed the woman depicted stop her car during a busy Monday morning in Central, take her clothes off and stand naked on top of her car.

Ok, so this might happen in other places, but the fact that it happened here is what's so amazing!

Strangely, we couldn't find any news reports about this...

Golden Dragon
September 2010
Checking out some taps on Lockhart Road, Wan Chai.
To be sure, this tap costs HKD $25,800. No kidding.

Fight Club
August 2010
As I said – Chinese people love to fight!

Frozen Coke
August 2010
Getting shaved ice at 12.15am from the local desert shop... eating it on a step nearby...

getting in the car to drive to the only frozen coke vending machine in HK.

We followed the instructions, taking a quaff before closing the bottle and tipping it upside down to watch the ice form... it worked pretty well, but I've heard it's hit and miss. Best of all, imagine all the extra chemicals we must be consuming in this latest artificial offering!

Bagpipes
July, 2010
Walking through Sai Wan (西環) on a Sunday, to see a Chinese man practicing bagpipes – playing Amazing Grace and in full kilt, no less – in the garage of a kindergarten.

© 2010-2012 Vickie Chan

Worldwide Graffiti

2012-01-05T17:16:00.002+08:00

No smoking I will crazy
A minubus, Hong Kong
2012

I'll pay you back
Tin Hau, Hong Kong
2012

It's not Lupus
Lamma, Hong Kong
2011

Where do the children play
Hong Kong
2011

Less Than Zero
Hong Kong
2011

Bad Bow Tie
Hong Kong
2011

Manila Fists
Manila
2011

Drill
Hong Kong
2011

Spray it, don't say it
Hong Kong
2011

Nothing out of the...
Hong Kong
2011

Who's afraid of the...
Hong Kong
2011

Hand One
Hong Kong
2011

Jealous US
Minibus, Hong Kong
2011

Density rises
Kennedy Town, Hong Kong
2011

Andybot
Lamma, Hong Kong
2011

Tattoo
Lamma, Hong Kong
2011

Bunnybot
Lamma, Hong Kong
2011

Underdog
Soho, Hong Kong
2010

Shut Up
Soho, Hong Kong
2010

Meat Cleaver
Bowen Road, Hong Kong
2009

My Melody
Soho, Hong Kong
2009

This moment
St Mark's, NYC
2009

Fuck Bill
The Warehouse (蒲窩), Hong Kong
2009

Untitled
The Warehouse (蒲窩), Hong Kong
2009

Untitled
The Warehouse (蒲窩), Hong Kong
2009

Untitled
The Warehouse (蒲窩), Hong Kong
2009

Untitled
Brick Lane, London
2009

Untitled
Brick Lane, London
2009

Word to Mother tag
Brick Lane, London
2009

Soldier
Somewhere near Brick Lane, London
2009

Faces
Naka-Meguro, Tokyo
2009

Sad/ Happy
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2008

Untitled
Stoke Newington, London
2008

Bunny
Yuangshuo, China
2008

Everything Will Be Ok
Downtown Gainesville Fl, USA
2008

Jew Punks
Joseph's Well, Leeds, UK
2006

This Place is Stupid
UK
2006

You Are Beautiful
Gainesville Fl, USA
2006

Made by Slave Labor
Gainesville Fl, USA
2006

Class War
Darnley, Wakefield, UK
2005

© 2005-2012 Vickie Chan

We live to sleep

2012-01-05T16:54:00.001+08:00

People in Asia work hard. Really hard. They also sleep, pretty much anywhere.

Pacific Coffee
Hong Kong
2012

News stand
Koh Lan, Thailand
2011

Car park security
LKF, HK
2011

Pacific Place bridge
HK
2011

Wet market, Chinatown
KL, Malaysia
2011

Old ferry pier
Hong Kong
2011

This comfy café, ironically called Simply Life
Hong Kong
2011

News stand
Sheung Wan, HK
2010

© 2010-2012 Vickie Chan

NTRST1NG NBR PL8S

2011-12-14T17:19:00.001+08:00

U R XCUSD
San Francisco (CA), USA
2009

U R GOD
San Francisco (CA), USA
2009

SNAKACHE
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
2009

SCARFACE
LKF, Hong Kong
2009

Z GUNDAM
Mid Levels, Hong Kong
2010

RANGERS
LKF, Hong Kong
2010

S1MBA (Someone loves the Lion King)
LKF, Hong Kong
2011

I Believe
Hong Kong
2011

MUSIC
Clockenflap, Hong Kong
2011

HIP HOP
Central, Hong Kong
2012

© 2009-2012 Vickie Chan

Love. Hate. Marmite.

2011-12-14T16:52:00.001+08:00

One year, for my birthday, I was given three Marmite cook books. The same cook book. My brother asked me if I thought I might be a little one-dimensional.

The affair
My love affair with Marmite began at a young age. I had a tendency to climb the kitchen furniture, which one day lead me to a large jar of Marmite. Aged something like 18 months (ask mother for confirmation) I ate the entire thing, with my hands. My mother was convinced I'd be really ill, and despite being a nurse, whipped me off to the local doctor. Happily, he told her that I'd just be really thirsty for a while and might have some nappy rash. My liver and kidneys both fared well, and a passion was born.

Marmite throughout my ages
When I was five, I was given my own pet Guinea Pig. He was brown, so given that his predecessors were called Toast and Marmalade, I felt that Marmite was a great name for him. At a similar age, I was given a Marmite plaque, depicting a traditional Marmite jar, which never got screwed onto my wooden bedroom door, because sometimes these things just never get down. I once tried to get a supermarket to give me their giant glass Marmite jar, which was used to serve up single portion packets in the supermarket café. I collected tokens to buy some Marmite socks – one with Love, the other Hate, stitched onto the bottom. I then collected tokens to get the Marmite fridge magnets, each with a different provocative word, that were used to make rude poetry in my student house. Now days, I have a collection of special edition Marmite jars... just not the one with the real silver lid (available in the UK). And for Christmas, my mother gave me what looks like a jar... but isn't!

Diversity
Despite the love/hate argument, Marmite is actually pretty diverse (and, if you whip it, it turns a paler colour and tastes sweeter). In my family, we eat it melted onto butter and rice, with a fried egg on top. This beats the more traditional See Yow Fan (豉油飯) any day of the week; it's my cure-all for homesickness, heart-break, flu, rain, hangovers, and generally moochiness. But Marmite also tastes good with banana, it's great with healthy-style peanut butter and lettuce on granary bread... Or eat it with cheddar cheese and raw onion. Spread it on toast and put the toast back under the grill, you'll have a giant Twiglet in your hand. Put it in a white sauce, or your morning porridge or congee (白粥)... No egg is complete without it, especially a boiled or poached egg... Marmite just makes breakfast. In fact, add it to almost anything you cook including Chow Mein (炒面) because it's always worth it. I recently learned that in Malaysia, where people love to eat crab in every kind of form, they even serve Marmite crab, which I can tell you, is amazing. Try not to lick the plate afterwards.

Other ways to get your Marmite hit
These days I don't have to eat an entire jar in one sitting to get my fill... Marmite is available in so many forms, every time I go to the UK my eyes pop out of my head! These cashew nuts are so insanely amazing... I couldn't wait to photograph the pack before chomping down...

But there's also Marmite flavour rice cakes, Marmite Cheddar, Marmite Stilton, Marmite Fudges crackers, Marmite bread sticks, Marmite Walker's Crisps, Marmite Rolls (a vegetarian Sausage roll made with rice, available only in Walkley Bakery, Sheffield)... There's even Marmite chocolate – which is Very Peculiar.

Then there's the special edition flavours, like Guinness, Champagne and XO (crafted by master brewers). None of this is available in Hong Kong, where we have Marmite with jar labels that include the Chinese phonetic translation (媽密). In Hong Kong, a 250g jar of Marmite usually costs about (HKD)$55 which is about £4.45. In the UK, that jar costs me only £1.99 (and lasts me about six weeks).

Don't compare it!
Marmite is nothing like Vegemite and people that compare them should have their taste buds checked. A comparison like this can lead to hours of debate – and even taste testing in extreme cases. The two products have entirely different textures, flavours and ingredients. Never buy a supermarket generic brand, it's just not the same... And no, it's not like Bovril – Marmite is 100% vegetarian/vegan and a high source of protein; Bovril is made from meat.

Political implications
During the last UK general election, the BNP used Marmite during a party political broadcast, apparently in relation to the love/hate marketing angle. The use was not requested or approved by Unilever (who produce Marmite) and as a result, Unilever moved to take action against the BNP. No comment.

For the love of Marmite, I wrote this piece, because one day I was telling my friend how great Marmite is and she stopped me and said, "you realise you've talked about Marmite for a full ten minutes?"

Easily done.

Hong Kong cafés that serve Marmite

Brunch Club, Peel Street, Soho – check if they are serving Vegemite or Marmite
Shelley's Yard, Shelley Street, Soho – serve both Vegemite and Marmite
Oola, G/F Centre Stage, Bridges St, Soho - serve a Vegemite and cheddar pizza. Which means you can ask for Vegemite on the side with most anything
The Globe, Elgin Street, Soho

And I don't believe these guys serve Marmite, but they named their restaurant after it (ok, so it's a French term for a large, covered earthenware or metal cooking pot).

© 2010-2011 Vickie Chan

PitchYrCulture Mix #1 – Before-it-all

2011-11-01T18:14:00.010+08:00

As people buzzed around Culture Club in Central (September 16th, 2011) it was easy to tell that the first PitchYrCulture event had gathered a mix of ages and races, all intrigued to see what the evening would be like. There was a comfortable hum of chatting, the sipping of beer and the scent of popcorn popping.

But before I get into how great the event was, let me tell you what it is. Organised by musical artists and artistic musicians (why differentiate?), PitchYrCulture launched a series of public-presentation forums, each dedicated to the exploration and explanation of recorded music in all its varieties. Events are themed and accept about 5-7 guest presenters. And here’s the hook – while each presentation delves into the song’s history, cultural impact, and artistic ambitions and/ or the presenter’s personal anecdotes or aimless digressions – the presentation must be the same length as the chosen song. And that’s not easy.

The first event was themed Before-it-all: Do you remember the first song that made an impression on you or meant something to you, when you were really young, before you started to care what other people liked, what other people thought of you, before you needed to be cool or fit in, before you cared what was ‘in’?

While we filed in and out, bought drinks and chatted, an audience member offered to sing us a song. Hailing from the Mainland, this Chinese student sung us a rendition of a traditional song, in Mandarin. With that under-way, it was time to get things moving, with MC (and founder) Andrew Guthrie. And what better way to start than with the Batman TV Theme song? Remember that jazz number? Guthrie does. Not only did it relax the mood and iron out any technical glitches, the theme song flowed nicely onto Clara Cheung’s presentation. Cheung (co-director of the innovative exhibition space, C&G Artpartment) picked an old favourite TV theme of her own. If we had asked for more perfect examples of East and West, we couldn’t have asked for better. Magical Angel Creamy Mami (我係小忌廉) had all the optimism, complete with synth sounds required to throw you into the nostalgia of 1980s Hong Kong TV (read: Japanese anime).

Keeping nostalgia alive – as was the point – we moved onto Anita Mui’s classic, Star, presented passionately and lovingly in impressive Cantonese and English by Singaporean, Arthur Wong. For those that hadn’t grown up in Hong Kong, or were uneducated about Cantopop, they were about to meet a legend.

Oliver Holtaway, musician and DJ, flew into Hong Kong specifically for the event. He neatly pushed us into the early 90s with Sesame's Treet by the Smart Es – delivering us into the heart of rave culture, posing the question: Did this song kill rave? His speedy, matter-of-fact presentation skills raced us through the political setting (Thatcher) and the history of how we worried about the youth in the UK during all those raves, in a manner that reminded me of a Tim-from-Spaced speech. Holtaway delivered his presentation within seconds of the song time – and was the only one to do so.

Alice Chik, Assistant Professor in the Department of English at City U (and co-author of the yet-unpublished English Pop, Hong Kong Style) took us further back in time with some rather amusing personal anecdotes and an apt reminder of how song can be used to teach English. Just how much is that _ _ _ _ _ in the window?

Mike Middleton, a partner of the Songs for Children indie music promotion organisation was one of the first people to ask if he could join the event. Presenting a song that encapsulated his teen years and the coming-of-age of “Indie Mike”, he started fast when telling us about Comin' Through by the Pastels. But then, he got quite absorbed by what he was saying. At one point, I had a vision of Middleton in full kilt (he’s Scottish), giving a speech at his son’s wedding. If he’d wanted a longer song, I’d have suggested Rush, but his manner, enthusiasm and changing pace made his presentation perfect, amusing and endearing.

Bringing the show to a close, Yan Yan Pang of Hard Candy and Tyger Feb took us back to the ‘90s one last time, reminding us of Richie Manic Street Preacher’s disappearing act and – uh oh, we’re in trouble… Shampoo. Growing up in the UK, there was no escaping that one (and I have the pink 7” vinyl) so I was glad to hear the song made it to Hong Kong as well. Pang later said to me, “I did see your smile when I said it's Trouble, so you must be a fan as well! I really enjoyed it, looking at my old CD collection again just makes me smile!”

Written with grateful thanks to Lennon at Culture Club.

For the full list of videos and songs: click.

Don't miss the next event:
Into-it-all
Videotage, Cattle Depot Artist Village, To Kwa Wan
Friday, November 11th, 2011, at 8pm.

For more about PitchYrCulture:
- Blog
- Fbook

© 2011 Vickie Chan

A hundred shades of yellow

2011-01-17T23:13:00.015+08:00

Writing a piece about being half-one-thing and half-something-else; mixed-race; ethnically diverse or half-caste is ridiculously tough. I have been part-this and part-that for all of my life, yet what that means in my life, what it means to me, constantly changes.

There are probably a plethora of reasons why it matters and why the implications change so much, but I'd place a fairly high emphasis on this: You don't fit into one neat box; you are internally contrasting; you are not normal.

Before I get too far, it's important to point out that there are probably many single-race people out there who feel similar to the way a mixed-race person feels – particularly when that single-race person is of an ethnic minority in a culturally different environment – because it equals this: You don't fit into one neat box; you are internally contrasting; you are not "normal" (for where you live).

When I was young, I never really thought about what I was, I was just proud because I was raised to be. As I grew, I started to realise that I perceived a lot of important-but-unspoken differences, like parental expectations, social etiquette and understanding. I questioned whether or not my friends really understood me, as they usually had to fence me in: "She is like me, white" or "don't pretend you're different to me". But the truth was, what would they know? They had only one main language in their lives, their families weren't spread half-way across the globe, their culture wasn't like two opposites melded into one. The older I got, the more I fought for just being who I am and not having to fit into either side perfectly.

I grew up in the UK and moved to Hong Kong in my twenties. Having experienced racism as both a child and adult in the UK (admittedly, nothing that bad) I had to learn all over again when I realised that now, I would be resented by Chinese people, especially those that disliked that I could understand their back-talk. According to most people, I "don't really look it", though I stand by the fact that I am who I am and we all "see" differently. This can often lead to scrutiny about where I'm from and what mix I am, why I speak Cantonese and why I'd care – because they think I look white, I am white. I battled with this for a long time and eventually a good friend (Hong Kong-Chinese/ American, I believe) said to me, "there are a hundred shades of yellow in this town. Don't try to fit in, you'll never be happy." If I'm honest, this phrase gives me great comfort.

Being mixed-race, particularly half-Chinese, matters a lot to me. I may have grown up in the UK with an English mother (mother Definition: Typical bestower of language and culinary skills – both vital in cultural identity, especially if Chinese) but I always felt different, I always experienced things differently and I always talked about these ideas and experiences with friends that could understand or relate to me. So, I was surprised to find that even in the huge melting pot of Hong Kong, friends laugh at my Cantonese or make comments that I look Western, feigning disbelief and inadvertently, insulting me.

While working on a series of paintings recently, I decided to finally read an academic study passed to me, about the identity of Chinese people growing up in Britain. I won't pretend that I have actually finished reading it yet, but what I have learned so far has not only made me feel less like the odd-one-out, but amazed me. Oh and did I mention, it also made me realise I was even more of a minority? Unlike the majority of Chinese people in Britain, my father has no family in the country. We do not own a takeaway and I am only half Chinese (yes, growing up I was often greeted with "so, which takeaway is yours then?"). Of those interviewed for the study, 76% of the parents were in catering and 66% were takeaway proprietors or catering employees. 0-50% of families spoke Chinese 11.3% of the time.* We spoke Cantonese about 1% of the time and I am the only offspring that learned it. My father, however, speaks better English than I do – albeit with a slight accent – and I have never had to translate for him.

But some things are exactly the same:

"Hybridity could be described as the co-existence of various forms of partial identification with none overriding the others."*

“British people like to stereotype Chinese people, things like saying Chinese people eat dog meat.”*

"It is not a fixed origin to which we can make some final and absolute Return… it is always constructed through memory, fantasy, narrative and myth."*

A book called The Eurasian Face (Kirsteen Zimmern) containing photographs of a range of mixed-race Chinese people, was recently published in Hong Kong. Each subject wrote their own entry about their feelings and experiences of being mixed-race emphasising the point that we are all so different-looking; we have had such different experiences; it means something to be half-Chinese. In fact, there were people who refused to be in the book, so bad were their experiences (during the '50s-'60s particularly) of being the truest "under scum" of society – something which I understand, but shocks me nonetheless, even though I grew up half-Chinese in a Muslim neighbourhood on the wrong side of town.

Over the years I have mused over a number of things with my ethnically-like-me friends. Questions like "have you ever seen a really old Eurasian person? What will we look like when we're older?" and "Man, I used to feel special being half-Chinese, but these days, we're everywhere!" Perhaps one day we will be our own race of different looking people with all kinds of blood – from the red-headed, white-skinned Miss Wong (黃小姐) in Lincoln and the guy who looks so Chinese, he can't get the right kind of job – to the girl who looks so little Chinese, she can't access her own bank account because she "doesn't look like a Chan" to the Indian woman behind the counter in England (true story).

*[Statistics and quotes from Through Different Eyes: The Cultural Identities of Young Chinese People in Britain – David Parker]

© 2011 Vickie Chan

This is how we brand it

2011-01-17T21:25:00.007+08:00

Branding, and what that is, is a mystery to a lot of people (sometimes, even those in the industry).

Branding in Asia
While I have my ideas and opinions on this matter, I'm much more interested in sharing some of the branding I've come across in Asia, home of the master copier, creating billions of fake or knock-off goods year-round. And don't get me wrong, I'm not actually knocking this activity because sometimes I don't personally believe in the monetary value of a brand when I know the actual production costs (another advantage of being based in Asia).

Fakes in Asia
One thing's for sure – sometimes you really can't tell when you're picking up a fake. I had a Nokia cellphone for a full year – with constant glitches, which I put down to cheap, modern technology ("nothing is made to last nowadays, not like in the good old days"). It was only when I was trying to sell it on in Sham Shui Po (深水埗) that I learned it was actually a fake. I guess I should've noticed the slightly wonky Nokia logo on the back and the fact that the megapixel label by the camera lens was a little different to my old phone. Or, you know, that the shiny black peeled off in about a week to reveal a dull black underneath and that the phone never really worked properly.

Shopping for fakes
One thing to look out for if you think you're buying a fake, is whether or not it's worth the money. Ok, this might sound obvious, but if you're buying a pair of New Balance for your eight-year-old and you think they might be fake, you might also be in luck – because they might have been made at the same factory, making them more of a "knock-off" or "back-of-a-van" purchase. But if you're buying a tech device and you're paying full price, you can pretty much guarantee that they've saved somewhere, and that the device won't work as well as you'd expect.

An even bigger problem with shopping in Asia, is that sometimes even a shop can be a fake. For example, Mongkok (旺角) is scattered with Nike, Reebok, Adidas and Converse shops. But for the most part, these are just shops with logos pasted on the front – not official stores – which doesn't make it any easier when you're trying to figure out if what you're buying is real or not.

So, if you're thinking of buying something (and especially if you don't want anyone to know it's a fake), make sure you intimately know every detail of the original, the finish, the combination of colours available, which logo goes where, what trimmings there are. Be prepared to sometimes pay quite a lot, but do yourself a favour and avoid paying the asking price of the real item – oh, and if you're feeling paranoid, check the branding of the store.

One of my favourite's is this New Balance store, complete with a cockerel sign.

And it's not just stores you should check the branding on – I love this Snoopy/Mickey Mouse bag too:

At least you can get all your favourite characters on one item.

But this is probably one of my true favourites – a fake pretending to be nothing other than a fake, no questions asked.

© 2011 Vickie Chan

Bus musings

2010-03-26T11:00:00.001+08:00

NOTE: This is an ongoing post and will be updated from time-to-time.

07-Mar-2010, #6
I recently read a letter from a reader — probably in HK Mag — in which the reader complained about the general attitude received when trying to access either empty seats or seats occupied by luggage next to the window on public buses. Having taken a group of blind people on an outing, he complained that he had to loudly request that passengers on the bus make room for the blind rather than shift a few degrees to one angle, forcing the seatless passenger to squeeze past to access the window seat (which, being blind, would not be so easy). I immediately sympathised with this issue but also knew that I was sometimes guilty of it myself.

With heightened awareness in the following few days, I boarded a busy #6 one Sunday evening. Finding very few seats free, I headed to one of the '2 facing forward, 2 facing backward' sections on the lower deck because it had two free seats. Of course, both passengers had left placed their bags on the seats next to them and I foolishly presumed that one of them would move their luggage, given how full the bus was, and it would not be considered an outrageous request.

As the bus pulled off I stood and waited as the two aforementioned passengers had a staring competition of "whoever looks away first must move their luggage so this annoying person can sit here". I asked once and again, "please could you move your bags so I can sit down?" Not to mention that I was carrying luggage of my own, this was going on far too long and neither had moved an inch! Finally, feeling fed up and somewhat inspired by the letter in the paper, I reached forward as if to move some of the bags, making it clear I was not interested in this game and had indeed paid as much as they had for my seat on the bus. I was pretty sure that their luggage didn't have it's own Octopus card in order to pay for a seat!

Finally, action! The moment I came close to touching one of the passenger's possessions, she lurched forward to grab it away from me, stood up, tutted loudly while looking wildly around the bus for witnesses to my insane behaviour. I couldn't be bothered to talk Chinese to her, but stated "I paid for my seat too, I doubt that your bags did." And as she grabbed her things so she could move far, far away from me — presumably because I am obviously crazy and/or dangerous — she gave me a firm slap on the head.

For more information on Chinese people who love to fight, visit the entry that tries to capture all that anger on tape.

05-Nov-2008, #973
There's this stench on the bus. I've smelled it before and I know it comes from this really overweight guy, because when he shuffles past to get off the bus it wafts by me and doesn't go, it doesn't go for ages so I have to breath into my cardigan. Women around me root through their bags for Tempo hankies to breath into. It smells like rotting flesh, and I can't get away from it.

Today, when he gets off the bus I am sitting in a seat near the door. I look over and realise... it is rotting flesh. He shuffles because his foot is injured, not because he is so overweight, and there is a hospital bandage around his foot but I can see skin and puss through it.

I feel sick. But what can you do?

21-Oct-2008, #970x
I am on the bus and this Chinese guy just pulled out a bag with like 10 of those yummy siropenwaffle things... from Amsterdam, that me and Liz love to eat, that me and Gair munched on during our last sojourn there. There's caramel syrup oozing out of them. They look so good.

Those things are so hard to find here, and I really want to ask for one but a Chinese person would only find that rude, and more importantly, unhygienic (a westerner would think I was a scabby chav).

It just crossed my mind that I could try to make some, but ironically, I think some things are meant to be mass-produced.

17-Oct-2008, #970
There's a woman sitting opposite me with a bag depicting a family of birds. It says 'Nestle Nutrition' on it. It makes me laugh because... none of the Nestle foods are that nutritious, and they certainly did a bad job at promoting nutrition when they gave all that milk powder to starving mothers to give to their starving babies in Africa.

I took a photo of it with my rubbish camera-phone, while pretending to text.

11-Oct-08, #5B
Man shouting on bus. MAN SHOUTING ON BUS!

This never happens, especially not in HK. I am on the bus and a man gets on, starts shouting, goes upstairs and continues to shout for about ten minutes.

People in HK don't know what to do about things like this. You could take your clothes off on the MTR and no-one would say anything. They would just look past you as if you weren't there.

People from upstairs start piling down, because they don't want to listen to the man shouting anymore. Meanwhile, the driver says and does nothing. In the UK, the bus driver would stop the bus, go upstairs and tell the man to leave. He would threaten to call the police. He would be a grumpy hardass.

I'm on the phone to my friend Katie in the US and she can hear the cacophony. She thinks it's hilarious that she can hear this man shouting all the way from Hong Kong.

After the famous Bus Uncle incident, people just don't want to deal with things like this.

Musings © 2008-2010 Vickie Chan

Chinese people love to fight

2010-03-26T09:44:00.006+08:00

It's come to my attention in the last year or so that there's a number of "angry Chinese people videos" out there on the Internet. I've titled this "Chinese people love to fight" which I think is a fair title. Living somewhere like Hong Kong you realise that there's a very odd kind of dichotomy — or should I say schizophrenia? — among locals here.

On the one hand, you could get on a bus naked and no-one would know what to do. They would most likely sit politely, without saying anything or even looking. On the other hand, often at the most surprising of times, uncouth screaming, shouting, hitting – yes, hitting – occurs. I was recently hit on the head by a woman on the bus who refused to move her bags so that I could sit down. After waiting for over a minute for her to finish her staring match with the woman opposite, also using a spare seat for her tired shopping bags, I went to move them for her in order to speed up the process of me sitting down. After a loud tut, she looked at me like I was crazy and hit me on the head before storming off (thus leaving me with two seats).

Anyway, enough preamble, enjoy the following international displays of fighting!

(This one is from San Francisco)

(This one is from New York)

© 2010 Vickie Chan

Year of the Tiger, hear me roar!

2010-03-13T20:54:00.005+08:00

Look at all the wonderful – and creepy – tiger things we made this year!

Go kitty...

© 2010 Vickie Chan

Weird Tees

2010-03-13T12:58:00.001+08:00

Untitled (McHitler)
Stanley, Hong Kong
2010

Untitled (Chairman Obama)
Stanley, Hong Kong
2010

Untitled (Fuck Off)
Mid Levels, Hong Kong
2010

Go to the womb of the Earth
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
2009

© 2009 Vickie Chan

Octopus takes the ice cream van

2009-10-07T10:38:00.002+08:00

I was rather bemused on Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) when strolling down Stanley Main Beach Road near midnight, I came across an ice cream van. Filled with nostalgia, I thought of the stories my aunty had told me about my grandfather (爺爺) driving them all out to the mountains around Stanley to look at the moon, some 60 or so years ago.

Passing the ice cream van, I was tempted to buy one, despite the huge family dinner I had already eaten that night. And then I turned, and saw...

It all started with a number of different types of transportation, and then it grew, and grew. I've always been impressed by the wide selection of places you can use your Octopus card, and the varying number of things you can purchase with it!

© 2009 Vickie Chan

The Time-Travel-Jesus Argument

2009-09-24T17:41:00.002+08:00

Chatting with friends a few weeks ago, we got around to the theme of time travel.

One friend — a successful, I’d say, artist and thinker turned the conversation over to meeting with Jesus, should he travel in time.

He felt that he would be disappointed if he traveled back in time only to discover that "Jesus turned out to be an A-hole." Later, he felt concern that we had the wrong impression, and clarified his thoughts further, sparking off another conversation. I found what followed to be an interesting and personal dialectic between a group of people — some religious, some not — who managed to be humorous while referring to their own beliefs about God and religion. What struck me most, was that genuinely no-one took offense over a topic that has caused endless family feuds and outright war across the centuries.

What my friend (the artist) clarified us with was this:

“What I meant to suggest was the possibility that it might not be that fun to hang out with the son of God. Upon further reflection, I started to realize how much my interactions with people rely on humor. Not necessarily "jokes" per se, but a certain element of surprise — a flouting of expected response. In an interaction with a deity, this would all go out the window. A deity would ostensibly know everything, and though Jesus would probably laugh out of courtesy, it wouldn't be sincere. For me, these ingredients would add up to a pretty awkward interaction. Again, my apologies if anyone was offended.”

And here’s a sample of what followed.

The first one, from a Catholic (Argentinian/ Italian, not a regular church-goer but definitely someone with “faith” in God):

“Well first of all, thank you for your apologies and clarification about your Jesus comments last Saturday. I think now I'll be able to sleep tonight, been praying for you ever since the junk trip for God to forgive your sins and have said 1000 rosaries.

But this morning I got a call from the bearded man himself and he says he thinks you are a bit of an A-hole yourself, but thinks your kinda funny, so he loves you none-the-less and has chosen to forgive you.

Oh he also said I should give you some tips on your art, cos you are lacking some creative inspiration… unlike me, he said.

If you wish, I am available for healing services on the weekends.

Peace be with you.”

What we see there is a very Catholic-yet-humored response — praying for her friend, saying rosaries. On top, she states that God would appreciate the artist’s humor and choose to forgive him — an all embracing God, perhaps? Finally, she admonishes her friend with her own brand of humor.

Not long after, came another response:

“I'm agnostic, cynic and at the same time Italian, that means have the Vatican's boss everyday on the first page of every newspaper giving his opinion (and sometimes he assures to be the will of God Almighty) about political and ethical topics. If you're agnostic that doesn't make feel better...

I believe if Jesus is the guy he should be to have the position he (supposedly) has/had he should be at least very open minded, charitable and definitely able to make laugh of himself, his family and his friends.

I found your comment of last Sunday interesting, of course you could have it express with other words and in a more politically correct way but I like the idea of thinking on Jesus like a guy with a lot of charisma but with also defects. I could almost believe in him.”

The agnostic raised in a devoutly Catholic place, reasoning that Jesus should, indeed, be the cool guy, the open guy — the guy you’d want him to be. And not the guy that means the neutral or negative things that religion itself has brought him to mean, to so many people. A paradoxical Italian.

And finally, from someone who was brought up in a rectory:

When it comes to a guy like Jesus, there's no way of knowing what he'd be like when you first meet him.

Maybe he's sick of being the serious guy and is waiting for someone to make frat jokes with, or shoot the bull for a while, talking trash about each others mum's (that'd be Mary) like in Stand By Me.

Alternatively, he could just be the cool guy that he was trying to be, before his stories were chronicled and turned into dogma. Maybe King Missile were right when they sang "Jesus was way cool".

Either way, I took no offense. My step-father is a priest, and I have had my earful of religion.

If I actually did travel in time I would not only use the cat-buttered-toast-paradox to create my own time vortex, but if I bumped into Jeebus (doubt I'd go looking for him) I'd give him the chance to be someone totally different to the person that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John painted him to be.”

So if you could travel in time, and meet Jesus, what would you expect, what would you do?

Gormley at Trafalgar Square — But Who is Making the Art?

2009-08-11T17:35:00.006+08:00

In case you haven't heard, Anthony Gormley is currently in "possession" of one of the plinths at Trafalgar Square. In making a piece of public art, he decided that any member of the public could partake — by applying to perform an activity on the plinth for an hour. All you have to do, is apply, and be accepted. With the piece running 24 hours a day, for 100 days non-stop, there are plenty of slots for people to join in.

I recently passed by and saw a man clad in a high-vis jacket, riding a stationery bicycle. He was lucky, it was a sunny day and the square wasn't too crowded. He seemed to enjoy his 60 minutes of fame, as much as waving at the crowds.

But what struck me was that it wasn't just that man or his activity that made the performance. It was the square, the tourists — voyeurs, the weather. It was the atmosphere.

Not far behind the plinth was a busker playing smooth, easy listening jazz on his saxophone. Without that music, the tongue-in-cheek vibe to the man riding his bicycle would have been entirely lost. I don't think it was a joint effort, but I do think that Man-on-bicycle should be grateful to the busker, for supplying the element that really made the experience what it was.

© 2009 Vickie Chan

Ad-free Trams

2009-03-15T13:40:00.002+08:00

In the capitalist commodities of Hong Kong it's almost amazing that there are still trams running with not a single advert, logo or company name inscribed on them. Painted the green that they have been for decades, with their wood-framed windows, these green trams provide a strange much-needed peace and silence to the colourful urban onslaught of Hong Kong streets.

© 2009 Vickie Chan

Austin Road skater

2009-03-15T13:39:00.001+08:00

This is a big-up to the dude skating down Austin Road on Thursday March 12th, middle finger birds flying down the street, showing off their spreadeagle wings to the honking drivers behind!

Live your heart and never follow.

© 2009 Vickie Chan

I'm Cheap Therefore I Am

2009-01-31T14:03:00.006+08:00

Hong Kong People Freed From City Regulatory Rules!

2008-11-29T19:39:00.008+08:00

If you haven't already seen it, Causeway Bay — Times Square to be precise — has been taken over by Carrie Chau's (鄒蘊盈) quirky cartoon-like characters. Our Winter Wonderland is very "Hong Kong" indeed — not a Christmas theme in sight, but adorable mini old-fashioned lampposts, white trees and benches, adorned with Chau's figurines in all sizes, poses and settings.

Although there are the obligatory security guards pacing around the location, the sheer number of visitors taking photos and posing with the statues makes it an impossible task to ensure the 'do not touch' rule. Best of all is the number of people thinking up new ways to pose with each different character — encouraging Hong Kong to get creative on the spot can only be a good thing. Not only that, people are able to sit around the sculptures and on the benches included in the installation without being told not to. Seeing local residents freed from the normal regulatory rules, and interacting with art is truly satisfying!

Go-Bama in the Year of Election: A New Face for USA?

2008-11-07T12:17:00.008+08:00

Thanks America, finally. America has a new president (and so does the world).

This election was certainly more exciting than the one in 2004. Even despite the accusations that Ohio’s voting procedures were tainted, the close results, the millions watching worldwide with bated breath — the 2004 election candidates somehow had less panache than this year’s. In fact, despite the electoral vote results, only three states changes allegiance in 2004, making the country appear to be around 75% Republican, perhaps thanks to the invasion of Afghanistan and the Iraq war.

Nonetheless, Bush and Kerry were harder to differentiate than Obama and McCain. Accusations regarding their respective ‘military’ services, talk of the secret Skull & Bones society that allegedly both Kerry and Bush belong to and their similar family backgrounds made it feel, to some, as though they belonged in the same kettle of fish.

The night of that election I was in San Antonio in a strange local burger bar that had a "middle-of-nowhere" feel, with a mixture of black and white locals, and me, accompanied by a collection of young Europeans traveling the USA. There was a freestyle open-mic event taking place next door, so as we watched the election and talked with the locals we heard prose creeping through the door every time it was opened. At first I thought that it was all anti-Bush — the rapping certainly was — but after a while I realised that the people in that joint had varying views and hopes for the outcome. I even had a very heated debate with a young English guy about why, in my opinion, Bush shouldn't be made president again. What I found with the locals was that I could talk to someone for about five minutes before fully understanding which side of the political fence they resided, because all the talking was wonderfully polite and euphemistic in that true American and ultimately patriotic, polite Texan way. I also found that nearly every American I met on that sojourn was surprised that a non-American would care about their election, because it had nothing to do with me — and when I tried to explain that America effects the whole of the western world, the response was always shock. So that was the bizarre atmosphere I found in a fairly warm burger bar in ol' "San Antone"…

On the plane home I had Americans come up to me and apologise, telling me they were ashamed of their country and how sore they were to admit that they were American, when in the past they could be proud and expect friendliness on their travels. I read an article in a British newspaper in which an author (I wish I could remember who) wrote about how the world (the western one at least) had always had respect and affection for America and its people, but that had changed, and if only the USA could go back to being the USA we all fell in love with… That he had met hundreds of Americans that echoed his sentiment.

On other travels after that I met Americans that had taken to sewing the Canadian flag to their backpacks in order to avoid hassle overseas and Canadians laughing at that, talking of the time when they had raised their hands and said, "no, I'm Canadian, eh."

So this year we enjoyed passionate debates between the two sides — some making more sense than others. We were entertained by Sarah Silverman, SNL and Tina Fey and of course Sarah Palin. And we watched, we watched a black man stand for president in the United States of America and win — by a majority. Even Florida didn't let us down.

I watched the whole thing live via the Internet from my office, a combination of ABC and BBC news — which I felt was a fairly balanced approach to the event. Justin Webb's comments on the BBC web were interesting and diverse; living in Hong Kong — mass producer of junky teeshirts — ensured that this was one of my favourites:

So what will happen in America now? Is it truly ready for a black president (and without meaning to sound cynical — is it because Bush f***ed up so much that Americans chose to elect this black president?)? Before my friend said it to me out loud, I had already thought 'Obama should be careful. As the fist black president, he's so much more likely to be shot' (after all we've all seen 24). I said the same to a friend of mine who's American. Her response was "that's true." And then, "gee thanks!"

On discussing the result with my father, he also said "I hope he's careful" and then said, "well, he's not really black, he's only half black." The race issue. It's so strange. I am half Chinese, I am not English, I am not Chinese, I am what I am — half. But people don't see you that way, and in my experience people in the US and the UK consider you black if you are as much as half. In any case, you certainly aren't white.

So far most non-Americans I have discussed the election with have echoed the same fears of a racial attack on the president-elect.

The road for Obama will not be easy, but let's hope that with his help America can again become the land that we had respect and affection for, and that American's can unpick those Canadian flags from their backpacks and go back to being American when overseas, and Canadians can be Canadian and the rest of the world can rest a little more assured that America will stop its neo-imperialistic bullying.

My sister who lives in San Francisco sent me a photo of my nephew at 8.11pm PST — just after the California result came through. He's fiave years old, yet his look of resolution, determination and 'HOORAY!' was perfect. My sister captioned the photo 'I hope he remembers this historic day'.

The Office (USA) Fitness Orb

2008-10-31T11:02:00.005+08:00

You may have seen this before — it would seem that the fitness orb featured highly in The Office (sorry for low res).

Here is a photo from my office

The Rough Guide

2008-10-23T17:03:00.003+08:00

The most-used word in The Rough Guide (any one of them) is "ubiquitous", followed closely by "eponymous".

© 2008 Vickie Chan

Toilets (what is it with...)

2008-10-22T15:58:00.013+08:00

Aside from the fact that in nearly every mall or cinema, the queue for the ladies toilet is usually around 4-fold that of the men’s, and town planning departments should make it a rule that there are always four ladies toilets to every men’s toilet (but don’t), toilets don’t need Marcel Duchamp to make them interesting. There is something about toilets — I just don't quite know what it is yet.

For that reason alone, I (artist, Vickie Chan) plan to make an exhibition about toilets. I am going to collect photo evidence of toilets all over the world and make a giant montage. I am going to build a dummy toilet where people can go in and write their own message to the world. I am going to ask people to write down their most interesting toilet story, to ask them where the coolest toilet they have ever seen is, and do they clean up after themselves?

One day I am going to make a toilet travel guide. There will be one for France and one for Japan.

Toilets encourage and display all kinds of bizarre, wonderful, terrible, funny, abusive, hope-filled, spite-filled, angry and kind words of sentiment in the form of graffiti written in eyeliner, lipstick, Biro, Sharpie or scratched in paint using a nail file, safety pin, earring — whatever is at hand. We feel so safe in there we can bare our deepest thoughts and tell our most buried secrets. And say the nastiest thing about the person we hate most.

When you watch a TV show or a movie, toilets mean something. When I watch a show like ER or CSI, if I see a main character alone in the toilet, I start to think something bad is going to happen. If the character is perhaps sitting on the toilet with the door locked, or leaning over a sink just looking in the mirror and nothing happens, I know it’s ominous: bad times ahead. Veronica Mars used her high school toilet as some kind of makeshift office for her PI work, Judd Nelson shoved Rob Lowe’s head down a toilet in St. Elmo’s Fire and they bonded over it. And if you ever watched Ally McBeal you will know all about the crazy happenings in the toilets where she worked. I’m telling you people, there is something about toilets.

Toilets also encourage the least of cleanliness, it seems. While at home, you would wipe the seat clean, flush the toilet, maybe even replace the used toilet roll with a fresh one, outside of the home is a different story.

In Asia we commonly have two types of toilet:

The hole-in-the-ground squat toilet

The Western 'throne' toilet

Asian people think the squat toilet is cleaner, presumably because you don't have to sit on anyone else's pee and your skin never touches anything. Western people think the squat toilet is primitive and hard work. Let's face it, there are plenty of western-residing folk who are too overweight to squat.

And there's a lot less graffiti here. On a recent trip to Melbourne I was quite overwhelmed and bemused by the scribbling — no, discourse — taking place in the toilets. Interestingly, Australia is one of the few places I have visited where they use UV lighting in the toilets to prevent people from shooting up in there.

If I thought toilets in the UK were gross, I was wrong. They are worse in HK, I promise you, worse by far. In a ladies toilet you’d think that people might be a little more considerate but 95% of the time I walk into a stall to find that the seat has urine on it. And how is it that plastic toilet seats have scratches all over them? Do all women but me have metal spikes on the backs of their thighs? And if the toilet lid is down — walk away, my friend, walk away. It doesn’t mean that someone polite put the lid down when they finished, or sat for a few minutes composing themselves before hitting the humid streets. It means there is something bad in there, something you don’t want to see.

Where I work, the ladies toilet is disgusting. Aside from the apparently obligatory urine-on-seat situation (we work together ladies, don’t we have more thought for our colleagues than that?) the floor and surrounds often look like a giant hamster has passed through there and bedded down for the night - balls and chewed-up-looking tufts of tissue paper on the floor, in the bin, on the seat…

To top it off, why do women insist on standing chatting in the toilets for hours on end? I can’t think of a worse place to be. Ok, as a non-smoker you may feel that you are owed some kind of break in the daily bore we call work, but honestly, can’t you think of a better place to catch up with a colleague? Surely even the sweaty cigarette break scented stairwell would be better?

In that respect, I would say the staff of Seattle Grace has it right - meet in the elevator people, the elevator. Don’t hang around in the hamster cage we call the ladies toilet.

[And here's a tip for the ladies: When using a squat toilet, face the wall, not the door. It's a lot easier.]

© 2008 Vickie Chan

Band Names (real bands that could have my name in their name)

2008-10-22T12:10:00.011+08:00

The Chan Pelt
Chanpower
The Fucking Chans
Chanson
Samichan
The Weakerchans
Chan of Horses
Chandy Flip
Chan of Four
Nachaniel Green
Propachandhi
Teenage Chanclub
The Gaslight Chanthem

Please add more...

Quotes

2008-10-21T17:36:00.019+08:00

Non-Fiction - Chuck Palanhniuk quoting Andrew Sullivan:
' "Someone once pointed out: 'Among straight people, you're a gay guy. Among English people, you're a Catholic. Among Americans, you're sort of English. Among the academia establishment, you're a hack. Among the hacks, you're a sort of academic. You keep distancing yourself out of any particular team." '

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Persig:

I'm a Cat — Adam Phillips:
"i'm a cat dressed as a bigger cat. what the fuck"

Not Fade Away — Jim Dodge:
"The ghosts spun from the silver thread the white lines thin to when you're running on the edge."

"The fourth wiseman delivered his gift and slipped away."

The Passion — Jeanette Winterson:
'There's no sense in loving someone you can only wake up to by chance.'

'You play, you win. You play, you lose. You play.'

'Somewhere between fear and sex passion is.'

'Hopeless heart that thrives on paradox; that longs for the beloved and is secretly relieved when the beloved is not there.'

'I say I'm in love with her. What does that mean? It means I review my future and my past in the light of this feeling. It is as though I wrote in a foreign language that I am suddenly able to read. Wordlessly, she explains me to myself. Like genius, she is ignorant of what she does.'

'It's hard to remember this day will never come again. That the time is now and the place is here. That there are no second chances in a single moment.'

Amrita — Banana Yoshimoto:
'Certainly my love was something shiny, like a UFO, and I knew that in order for us to change the future we'd have to bend the rules so we could be together. Regardless of what was destined to happen, if the two of us didn't take each other by the hand and jump into the unknown, we'd just get lost, losing each other somewhere along the way.'

The Red Pony — John Steinbeck:
'She said quietly, "Look at it this way, Carl. That was the big thing in my father's life. He led a wagon train clear across the plains to the coast, and when it was finished, his life was done. It was a big thing to do, but it didn't last long enough. Look!" she continued, "it's as though he was born to do that, and after he finished it, there wasn't anything more for him to do but think about it and talk about it. If there'd been any farther west to go he'd have gone. He's told me so himself. But at last there was the ocean. He lives right by the ocean, where he had to stop." '

CD Wright:
'First the light sinks to shadows...
Watch. As the dark comes
Entirely into its own
Watch...

Shantaram — Gregory David Roberts:
'But strangers that we were then, we stood for five long seconds and held the stare, while all the parallel worlds, all the parallel lives that might've been, and never would be whirled around us.'

Hong Kong International Art Fair 2008

2008-06-15T15:54:00.010+08:00

At last month’s first ever International Art Fair in the city, there were plenty of galleries and even more attendees. But amidst all the Asian art being sold by foreign galleries, Vickie Chan started to wonder what it all means…

Last month over a hundred leading galleries gathered for the Hong Kong International Art Fair 2008. A record attendance of over 19,000 made it a seminal event signaling the city’s arrival on the global art scene. Most of all, it raised awareness in Hong Kong on where to find art, which artists to check out, what is “in” and the biggest question of all: where is the local scene headed?

While culturally this should have been an important event for Hong Kong it soon became evident that its prime purpose was to sell and trade art. Educating and exposing the general public about modern art was a lower priority. While several “Hong Kong Conversations” and free, guided tours made the event more accessible than a trade fair, the fee-based entry might have discouraged some members of the public.

The attendees were an even mixture of local Chinese and westerners, some obviously there to buy and others just to look. You would expect the international galleries to surprise everyone, but instead you couldn’t help but notice more than one of the “Big Faces” paintings by Yue Minjun amongst several Warhol pieces. Many other galleries brought paintings by Mainland Chinese and other Asian artists. One gallery from New York even had a giant grey portrait of Bruce Lee. It begged the question: why was there so much Asian art on offer?

Wading through the diverse Asian collections at the Fair, Pékin Fine Arts of Beijing represented some newer styles of Chinese and Asian art. The piece by Huang Zhiyang showcased his incredible talent in the traditional Chinese method of painting with ink on silk. Rather than bamboo or lilies, Huang surprised everyone with wonderful organic patterns that were similar to a Rorschach print. It was modern without being blatant or obviously political. Star Gallery, also from Beijing, displayed intriguing photos of period western style furniture covered in colourful drips of paint — so delightful in part because they were not obviously drenched in political quandary.

Union of London brought more art by Asian artists, but with a kitsch feel that was better suited for a shop display in Mongkok, or even Harajuku. Zoo Inkyung’s bizarre and entertaining pink painting of naked Matt Groening style characters brought humour to the occasion while Yu Jingyoung’s Japanese-looking and ghostly Perspex figures attracted the most photographers. Finally, painted entirely in symbolic red, Sea Hyun Lee’s landscape reinterpreted the traditional Asian style landscape.

Even American galleries like the Frey Norris Gallery of San Francisco seemed to cater to what they perceived to be Asian tastes. Kate Eric’s Crossing Parallel Line was made entirely of embroidered Chinese fabrics that could easily have been an antique from the Mainland. “These are simply our best emerging artists,” explained a representative from the gallery. “They probably wouldn’t know an Asian artist if one hit them in the face — but they are all coincidentally influenced by Asian themes.”

GBK of Sydney brought mesmerising pieces by Hitesh Natalwala. Born in Africa to Indian parents, he lived in the UK before settling in Australia. His work evoked the emotional shifts in place and identity. He recreated his archaeology by cutting, re-positioning, and pasting different papers before drawing on them. Even here, there were statements of ‘福’, ‘樂’, ‘友’, and ‘囍’ amongst his pieces that were only finished a few weeks ago.

By way of contrast, M+B of Los Angeles stood out with a fantastic collection of photography-based work that didn’t have a single Asian theme! Massimo Vitali’s giant overexposed photos received a lot of interest from the public. Photographing people relaxing and interacting in public spaces (such as ski slopes or beaches), he manages to overexpose the photos while retaining saturated colours that form a strange perspective. The large format of the pieces accentuated a sense of voyeurism. It was reminiscent of a ‘Where’s Waldo’ illustration, or a modern ‘Sunday afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’ by Seurat. Opposite those were photos by Mona Kühn who created an interesting interplay between nature and man-made environments. Her nudes were magically dressed by warm light, dark shade and reflections of nature.

Most of the galleries reported that they expected to take few pieces home with them. But what does this mean for the artists of Hong Kong? Commerce and economy have always been paramount to Hong Kong’s existence. Ironically, there may be no better way to bring attention to the local art scene than to invite international galleries to an art fair where they sell… Asian art. Perhaps Asian style art sells better in Hong Kong because its themes and references are easily understood. But let’s hope that with more media coverage, emerging contemporary Hong Kong artists will be better represented at the Fair next year.

Most of the galleries reported that they expected to take few pieces home with them. Perhaps Asian style art sells better in Hong Kong because its themes and references are easily understood. But what does this mean for the artists of Hong Kong? Commerce and economy have always been paramount to Hong Kong’s existence. Ironically, there may be no better way to bring attention to the local art scene than to invite international galleries that represent Asian artists to an art fair in Asia. Let’s hope that with more media coverage, emerging contemporary Hong Kong artists will be better represented at the Fair next year.

© 2008 Vickie Chan

The Terrors of Monkey Mountain

2007-08-01T16:13:00.002+08:00

One sunny July Sunday, my best friend Gair and I decided to take a little trip to Monkey Mountain (Kowloon Reservoir in Sha Tin, for those of you that know better).

Off we toddled, two bus rides to Monkey Mountain, because, well, Gair loves monkeys and my cousin Justin, went earlier in the year. His pictures looked like something out of Dr Who and that really had me desperate to visit this part of Hong Kong.

After an excited and jolly ride Gair and I got off the bus and immediately realised we were both inappropriately dressed in pretty sun frocks and flip-flops, with no bug-spray whatsoever. The night before we visited a friend’s rooftop in Tin Hau (i.e. the city) and, of course, I had insisted we both protect our ankles and backs of knees like there was some kind of blood shortage amongst the mosquito population of Hong Kong.

We decided that as long as we were careful to avoid puddles and other sources of stagnant water we would be fairly safe from mosquitoes, and so we flip-flopped our way down an old disused road. Before long, a one armed monkey approached us. I have never been too sure of monkeys. They are clever and strong, probably capable of not only ripping my arm off but also sending it to my family while holding me for ransom (bananas). He seemed okay though, and so we took some photos and carried on and soon there were tens of monkeys, all ages and sizes, lolling around us. Some were carrying babies others were just lazing on a wall. ‘Okay,’ I thought, ‘this is fine. None of them have asked for money after having their photo taken, they seem friendly enough.’

“I'll have to bring Alice (my sister) and Benjamin (her four-year-old son) here, they would love it! And Ollie, and Ben and Christina, and everyone!” I remarked, now almost excitable myself. That's how secure the feeling of safety was that those little monkeys had lulled us into.

We realised that we had come to a dead end unless we walked into the forest of mosquitoes, which we did give our best efforts to, but soon left because we were beginning to feel as sapped as post-juicer vegetables.

Making our way back to the road we spotted a handy footbridge from where we hoped to get a view of the reservoir, so we climbed the stairs and appreciated the view. Then something caught our eyes - monkeys on the bridge!
"Er, Gair, there's a monkey behind us. I think it is following us," I hissed through gritted teeth.
"Oh it's ok," said Gair, "he's just having a look at us!"
Perhaps still not convinced I realised that I should try to appear relaxed in case the monkey sensed my fear and decided to rip my arm off. 'Ok, I can do this,' I thought.

We walked a little farther down the footbridge, relaxed and happy to be moving away from the monkey, when Gair muttered, “er, Vickie, it's following us.”
“Okay, don't run. Let's just go slowly.”
We ended up stopping (why?) and while I was thinking how narrow the footbridge was, Gair decided to get her camera out to take a photo of the cheeky little imp. That is when the monkey SHRIEKED and raised his arms (contact Gair to see a great impression of this).

At this point Gair began to panic a little too. I grabbed her and ducking, we ran-walked away from the monkey, while trying to maintain some air of calm to prevent the monkey from deciding to rip our arms off.

Personally I was so hysterically afraid that I burst into laughter/ tears and nearly wet myself. Gair however was in shock, because she liked monkeys in the first place. We also scared some people (who were at the other end of the footbridge) so much that they decided not to cross at all!

Still feeling traumatised we headed down a new, wide and safe looking driveway towards the reservoir. It looked beautiful and I really wanted to get closer to it. We passed a large sign with lots of information on how to handle monkeys, including 'DO NOT STARE AT MONKEYS' and 'DO NOT FEED THE MONKEYS' because apparently that could cause a frenzy amongst them leading to fights, and presumably, arms (mine) being ripped off. There was also a sign saying 'KEEP YOUR LARGE DOG ON THE LEAD' coupled with an illustration of a large dog with pointy ears and a big smile on his face. I am pretty sure that any real dog would not be smiling at these monkeys. This at least made me laugh, though I had the feeling that the trauma of the Evil Monkey had made me lose all ability to control my stomach. I then remembered something about pelvic floor muscles being ruined after childbirth. 'Must be like this,' I thought and amidst my hysteria I shivered.

The driveway was wide enough that I felt safe walking down it, though the monkeys sitting on top of the wire fence by the bridge didn't leave me feeling too happy. Gair was still pretty positive about the whole affair, acting as if it was just the monkey on the bridge that was Evil and Scary.

Once we had passed that bridge we came to a short stretch of road beyond which was another bridge, just wide enough to allow you to drive across the reservoir in a car.

On that short stretch of road we encountered a strange repetitive scene of a nasty man who was standing in the road, with his wife and son inside the car (engine running of course, because he would rather melt the world than his family). The scene went like this:

1. Son throws peanuts out of car window.
2. Monkeys - all ages and sizes –come running from their respective bushes to grab peanuts.
3. Nasty Man would starts beating monkeys with umbrella
4. Monkeys run back to the bushes.

And so the scene would repeat. Personally I didn't want to pass this scene for fear that an angry monkey would try to rip my arm off. We watched for quite a while, getting more and more annoyed with the Nasty Man, who by now had lured the monkeys in several times with the peanuts and then chased them away. Every time the herd came back, they grew in numbers.

Eventually, we dared to walk past the other side of the car, onto the amazing bridge crossing the reservoir. We passed a little doorway that said 1910 on it, and stopped to take photos of one another. The next thing we knew a car had pulled up behind us and wanted to get past. We had to stand on a ledge and clutch to the rusting railings in order for it to get by and once it had we spotted a couple of monkeys running after it. Not eager at the thought of being trapped on an even longer narrow bridge with a monkey that had been baited by Nasty Man, we walked as quickly as calm appearances allowed in order to get off the bridge, and away from the monkeys. Then another car, and another pulled up behind us. We let one pass us, and as it did a monkey came running behind it SHRIEKING.

This was far too much for me. Hysteria retuning fast, I stepped into the road in front of the car, a van of some kind, and made it escort me to the end of the bridge. Once there we sat down by a little pagoda, I trying to catch my breath (and missing pelvic floor), Gair deciding where to go next. I text my cousin Justin:

Been eaten by mosquitos,
nearly got attacked by monkeys
on footbridge, then saw man
luring monkeys with nuts then
beating them with umbrella.
Monkey Mountain is DANGEROUS.

His response was:

Oops, forgot to warn you.

All too much for me, I had to leave. We made it back across the bridge by following an aged and experienced local walker who seemed fearless of monkeys. Thankfully he just happened to wait at the bus stop with us too, and it wasn’t until we got on the bus that we saw that several monkeys had been sitting on the bus shelter, above us. I didn't feel safe until we hit Mongkok (i.e. the city) and even then I kept glancing over my shoulder to check for more monkeys.

Gair stated that Justin was not her favourite person of the day, and that he was “bloody useless.”
I asked her if she still liked monkeys, and she replied, "yes… when they are on TV."
"Well, at least we still have our wallets. And our arms. Can we go for a Jameson now?"

© 2007 Vickie Chan

POP ID: Collective exhibition showing work by Vickie Chan

2007-05-01T16:16:00.014+08:00

Ka-pok, Tin Hau, Hong Kong
May 2007

In Spite of Everything (a collection of 12" misunderstandings)

Whilst the name of the collection implies the emotional and temporal impetus we place on music as it passes through the airwaves and into our lives, this collection of LP-sized paintings question the sometimes heart-felt or seemingly innocent song lyrics that blister us on a daily basis.

With each piece named after a song, such as ‘Road To Nowhere’ (Talking Heads), artist Vickie Chan is taking the lyrics out of their musical context, and juxtaposing them with her own images to insinuate new meanings. Chan encourages us to look for new facets in what we know, give apparent innocence a second glance, and question simple relationships between image and text, as she pokes at pop culture. Chan hopes to encourage the viewer to make a new relationship with the songs, In Spite of Everything.

Paintings:
1. Ship Song — Nick Cave

2. Round The Corner — The Evens

3. So Warped — Papa M

4. The Lovecats — The Cure (Limited Edition 10”)

5. Road To Nowhere — Talking Heads

6. Bottomless Seas — Hot Water Music

© 2007 Vickie Chan