Chinese New Year Cultural Appropriation

Don't decorate a CNY dish with funeral paper

Late last night, a former colleague now based in London had a freak out on Twitter when she saw the UK newspaper The Guardian post recipes for the upcoming Lunar New Year, but the accompanying pictures demonstrated no Chinese person was consulted to see if the decorations were culturally appropriate.

One picture shows a plate of pork and crab potstickers -- they should really be boiled dumplings -- on a piece of batik fabric -- not really Chinese -- but worst of all decorated with joss paper that are usually burned to pay respects to ancestors when grave sweeping.

Funeral envelopes mixed with lai see packets...

In addition, the chopsticks look like joss sticks, another not really good thing to do, and what's with the ancient Chinese coins?

Meanwhile BBC Food also posted recipes by School of Wok founder Jeremy Pang. One of them is lo mein with scallops and tenderstem broccoli. While it's fine to have the lai see envelope as a decoration, next to it is another envelope -- given out by the grieving family to funeral attendees, which usually includes a coin, tissue and a piece of candy.

May we also point out the turquoise chopsticks are really ugly?

These ignorant gaffes sparked or rather led to an explosion of complaints from Chinese people about how everyone else is so ignorant of Chinese culture, sometimes even stabbing a dish of noodles with chopsticks that again look like joss sticks.

One person remarked: "I'm absolutely horrified by this. This is like putting up a Christmas tree at a funeral."

Stabbing dish like joss sticks

Others also remarked how whenever Thai or Filipino food is styled, chopsticks are always placed next to the dish, when they typically eat with a fork and spoon.

For me at least, this incident just shows how there is a lack of diversity in these two news organisations, and no one bothered to check to see if these pictures were culturally correct.

The people who created the recipes were Taiwanese and a second-generation British-Chinese. Or if they weren't available, how about some professors in Chinese sociology or culture?

The Guardian has since apologised for the mistake, and BBC Food is looking into its gaffe.

Wonder how the Year of the Tiger will turn out for them...

Review: Little Door Gods

A movie poster of Little Door Gods, a Chinese full-length animation

Hello I'm back to Hong Kong! I have finally completed an epic journey, and am ready to tell more stories again.

I'll be going back and rewriting about my Silk Road trip in more detail, though there will be some Hong Kong new stories interspersed in between.

Raindrop learns about tradition and culture in the story

In the meantime on the plane I watched a few movies. From Urumqi, Xinjiang to Beijing, I watched a full length animation feature called Little Door Gods.

The premise is that all Chinese gods have lost their jobs because people nowadays don't believe in them anymore. They range from the God of Earth, Guanyin or Goddess of Mercy, Insect King, Wine God, Dragon Mother, and so on.

They have to take retraining courses otherwise they will lose their job, except for the God of Wealth, who has spun himself into a DJ-like character who sits on a flashing casino-like pedestal and wears modern clothes.

Raindrop befriends Shentu, who is looking for brother Yulei

Other than the God of Wealth, the only other gods that seem to be able to keep their traditional jobs are the door gods, brothers Shentu and Yulei, though their popularity is waning.

That story line is juxtaposed with today, featuring a girl called Raindrop and her mother who take over her grandmother's wonton shop. Raindrop encounters the two door gods in a wild adventure and she learns the importance of having Shentu and Yulei on your door.

It's an amusing but also informative story with lots of action to keep kids interested. The evil monster Nian looks like a precursor to Te Ka in Disney's Moana, both looking like nasty wood-like characters, though both films were released in 2016.

Shentu and Yulei are the door gods posted on people's doors

Perhaps even more intriguing is that Little Door Gods was distributed by Alibaba Pictures, eager to get into the cultural sector.

There wasn't any buzz of this animation feature that I know of in Hong Kong -- it would have had a decent play here, being kid friendly, though humour-wise it's not non-stop like The Lego Movie or hilarious like Moana with the rooster sidekick.

Regardless we enjoyed it and are curious to know what else Alibaba PIctures has up its sleeve. It's already a good step in the right direction.

Little Door Gods (2016)

Written and directed by Gary Wang

Produced by Light Chaser Animation Studios

Distributed by Alibaba Pictures and The Weinstein Company

107 Minutes

Remembering the Creator of Old Master Q

Joseph Wong's felt-tip drawing of Old Master Q

I woke up to the news this morning that the creator of Old Master Q, Alfonso Wong, had died in California at the age of 93 of organ failure on January 1.

A giant poster in the courtyard of Comix Home Base

It was very sad news, as I heard he was not in good health for a long time.

For many Old Master Q was the comic strip they read as children, they really liked him, along with characters Big Potato, Mr Chin, Mr Chiu and Miss Chan.

The last three characters contrasted with Old Master Q and Big Potato, who were from a bygone era and helped provide social commentary in a humorous way about how society was changing from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Wong used his son Joseph's Chinese name as a pen name, Wong Chak, and he followed his father in not only learning how to draw Old Master Q and his companions, but also continuing the comic strip a bit longer and later set up a company to retain the copyright of the characters.

Joseph drawing Old Master Q

Last month I was very fortunate to speak to Joseph, 68, and ask him about his father. His memories of him when he was a child was watching Alfonso drawing all the time, and he assumed that all fathers did this.

One time in school the teacher asked each student in the class what their father did, and that's when Joseph realized his father was the only one who drew for a living.

And because his father used Joseph's Chinese name as a pen name, whenever the phone rang for Wong Chak, they had to ask which one.

Joseph explains that Old Master Q is actually his father, that he drew himself into the comics, and the way he acted and interacted with people was very similar to the cartoon character.

It's amazingly coincidental that there is an exhibition of Old Master Q at Comix Home Base, featuring not only archival cartoons, but also local artists reinterpreting the comic strip.

An artist's interpretation of the famous comic book character

The show was supposed to end today, but will be extended until January 5. Hopefully it will be further extended to give people more time to visit and appreciate Alfonso Wong's contribution to Hong Kong culture.

Where's the Tourists?

Mickey Mouse must be wondering where all the tourists went...

The Hong Kong government is desperate for tourists.

This is even more evident now with Hong Kong Disneyland (of which the Hong Kong government is a main shareholder) reporting its first loss since 2011, with expectations that visitor numbers will drop even further this year.

This is unfortunately coinciding with the amusement park celebrating its 10th anniversary, as it lost HK$148 million last year, compared to HK$332 million in profits a year earlier.

The park has seen a drop of 23 percent fewer mainland visitors.

"This year will be difficult," said Andrew Kam, Hong Kong Disneyland's managing director. Total visitor numbers to the park were down 9.3 percent to 6.8 million in the fiscal year ending in October 2015 compared to the year before.

Ocean Park is also seeing its profits cut in half. For the fiscal year that ended last June, profit was down 53 percent at HK$45.2 million, and revenue fell slightly to HK$1.97 billion, a drop of HK$600,000 from the previous year.

Competitor Ocean Park has also seen a drop in visitors

Failed chief executive candidate Henry Tang Ying-yen believes the best thing to do is to open the floodgates to allow more mainlanders in Hong Kong. Is this really the solution? This will only get more localists enraged, but really, all those who have been to Disneyland and Ocean Park aren't interested in going again.

And besides, they are probably waiting for Shanghai's Disneyland to open in June, with domestic travel there much cheaper.

Who are we kidding?

Kam is trying to brush off the impending challenge, saying "once you've established your own brands, I think you don't need to worry about the competition", adding there was enough regional demand for both parks.

Really? Surely people will be more interested in Shanghai, as it's brand new and three times bigger.

This is a case of Hong Kong's authorities putting all of its eggs in one basket.

Depending on mainland tourists was naive and hardly prudent. The Hong Kong Tourism Board should have been promoting the city to every other viable market just as aggressively as the Chinese one.

Meanwhile dai pai dongs are a dying breed in the city

And now with the shocking violence that happened last Monday, who wants to go to Hong Kong? Wasn't it supposed to be a safe city?

The HKTB has a lot of work to do to repair the city's image, and also persuade the government that if it wants to bring more tourists in, Hong Kong needs to preserve its cultural heritage and that means street food.

Food is one of the best ways for people to understand a culture and what Hong Kong has to offer cannot be found anywhere else. To kill street food by putting so many restrictions on hawker licenses and dai pai dongs, is killing the city's culture and potential tourism draw.

Hong Kong people are so passionate about their food, why not make this a vital cultural industry? Originally these hawker foods existed to sustain a living, but some are very good and deserve to be encouraged to continue.

Tourists visit Taiwan and Singapore for the food, why not Hong Kong?

It's not all about shopping... and besides, tourism now is about memorable experiences.

Or did the HKTB not get that memo?

Paris is Crying

The Arc de Triomphe was a remembrance of those who fought for democracy

It is shocking what happened in Paris -- so far 128 people killed and hundreds injured after coordinated attacks were made on the City of Lights.

Bars, restaurants, a concert and football match were targeted and Islamic State has claimed responsibility.

We will find out more in the coming days, but we find this particularly sad having visited the city only a few months ago.

Practically everyone we came in contact with was very warm and welcoming, and the city wasn't too difficult to get around by metro (aside from the taxi strike against Uber the day we arrived). Paris has such history and culture, that one cannot help but appreciate how it influences the rest of the world.

There are too many questions now, but in the meantime we pray for Paris and its people, and hope this is not the start of more horrific things to come.

Li Na's Story Plays Out on Screen

Li Na holding the trophy after winning the 2014 Australian Open

Tennis star Li Na has retired and is expecting her first child later this year. But the tennis player who was the first Asian to win a Grand Slam tournament at the French Open in 2011 and did it again at the 2014 Australian Open, is going to have her career played out on the big screen.

Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Ho-Sun Chan will make a biopic of Li and she will act as consultant on Li Na: My Life, based on her autobiography.

Tang Wei is a possible contender for the role of Li...

Her story is compelling because she went through the state-sponsored system, got frustrated and broke through to have her own say in her training and managed to prove to not only China but the world she could win on her own terms.

The relationship between her and her husband is also intriguing, as he helped her build her career and upended the typical male-female dynamic, particularly in Chinese culture.

"The story between her and her husband is very atypical, in fact a lot of things with Li Na are very atypical for Chinese people. It shows a very different side of contemporary China," Chan said.

"She broke the rules and defied conventions and, against all odds, became a legend. I'm mesmerized by what she has been able to accomplish and what she represents as a symbol of hope for millions of people around the world," the director added.

... and so is Fan Bingbing...

"I had to make a lot of sacrifices in my life in order to become the best tennis player I could be and the film project makes it all worth it. Hopefully, the film will be able to inspire others to believe in themselves and follow their dreams," Li said.

Filming will start this fall with a release date in 2016. Chan is looking at either having an actress play Li or get a tennis player to play her. Some names already mentioned include Li Bingbing, Fan Binging, Tang Wei, Vicky Zhao Wei and Hong Kong actress Isabella Leong Lok-sze.

If one of those actresses are chosen, they will have to ditch the salad lunches and reall start to gain those muscles in the arms and legs otherwise who will believe she is Li Na?

Hong Kong's Intangible Heritage

Did you know making mahjong tiles is an intangible cultural heritage?

Hong Kong has come up with a list of 480 examples of "intangible cultural heritage" that it promises to protect.

Following three years of research and four months of public consultation, the list includes things like dim sum and dragon boat racing to making snake wine and Cantonese opera.

The list even includes the Hindu festival of lights called Diwali, and Nepalese Teej festival where women wear traditional dresses and sing songs and dance.

It's nice that there are other ethnic groups included in there, but perhaps not everyone in Hong Kong knows about Diwali or Teej since the government doesn't exactly promote multiculturalism.

Nevertheless the list was divided into five categories: oral traditions, festivals, performing arts, skills, and social practices.

The city is supposed to protect the cultural heritage under the United Nations Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage that was ratified by China in 2004 and implemented in 2006.

Some interesting ones:

Hakka dialect

Pixu dance

Funeral laments

Man Cheong (God of Literature and Bureaucracy) Festival

Li Ling Divine Festival

Lung Mo (Dragon Mother) Festival

Chai Tin Tsai (Monkey King) Festival

International Mother Language Day

Traditional jade stone knowledge

Fisherman's knowledge of the universe and nature

Making fermented black bean

Making Chiu Chow sugar loaf

Making Hong Kong style milk tea

Mahjong tile making

Coffin crafting

Fishing net plaiting technique

How Hong Kong intends to protect all these seems highly ambitious, but it's a good way to make the government accountable.

Some pan-democrats asked why events like the July 1 march and June 4 candlelight vigil at Victoria Park were not included, but an academic replied the tradition needed to be at least 50 years old to be considered...

Drawing Some Fun

Comix Bubble on the left is Comix Home Base's official mascot

Last week YTSL and I had dinner at Tai Hing in Wan Chai and we ordered the five-spice chicken (leftovers the next day), broccoli and rice made in individual clay pot bowls.

Afterwards there was a sprinkling of rain and we wandered to the nearby Comix Home Base on Burrows and Mallory streets. It is located in a series of pre-war tenement shop houses built around 1910.

Comix Home Base is located in renovated shop houses

Now they are reworked, keeping most of the facade and the structural beams and integrated with modern architectural elements to create new spaces which is fantastic. The shop houses are connected by steel walkways and the way it's designed encourages visitors to walk through every floor (when you start from the top).

One would have thought since Hong Kong is a place that loves comics so much that there would already be some kind of comics museum -- but this is the first one opened in July, a joint project between Hong Kong Arts Centre and Urban Renewal Authority.

It is hoped that Comix Home Base will be the centre for people in the industry to connect and also for fans to have a place to share their interest, as there's even a comic book reading room that also acts as a good resource.

Currently on display is "Tribute to Masters Series: The Birth of a Hero -- Exhibition of Ma Wing-shing's Comics Works". Ma is considered one of Hong Kong's best comics artists and is best known for his Storm Riders and Chinese Hero series. I don't know much about them, but know that Ekin Cheng and Aaron Kwok starred in the movie version of Storm Riders, with the flowing locks and determined look on their faces.

Ma Wing-shing's fluid ink drawing is like a work of art

We got to see draft story boards of Ma's comics as well as concept drawings that are practically works of art on their own. His deft use of ink and brush show he's not just a comic book artist.

There were also many small working models of the various characters he has created as well as a series of weapons -- swords that one wouldn't want to be impaled with...

At the end there's a small room where visitors can make their own drawings, and there were some fantastic ones pinned up on the wall, proving Hong Kongers are very much into comics. There were also some stamps people could use too for fun.

The interior of Comix Home Base

However we arrived at Comix Home Base late and there was only 15 minutes left when a staff member encouraged me to draw something. I said that there were only 15 minutes left and I couldn't think of anything to draw since there was such a short time left!

Nevertheless this is a cool new place to take out-of-town guests, and comics fans to show some local culture. We particularly love the mascot, Comix Bubble, a black bubble character made from ink with a few drips behind him. Hopefully we'll see him star in a few things too!