The HK$4 Billion Heist

Seen this postage stamp? It was recently stolen and worth a lot of money...

The coronavirus pandemic in Hong Kong has resulted in a surge in burglaries, believe it or not. The police have recorded 1,156 cases in the first six months of this year, up 47.1 percent, compared to 786 cases in the same period last year.

But last week has to be the biggest robbery case in the city by far if it is confirmed, and it did not involve giant sparkling diamonds or expensive watches, but old postage stamps. And calligraphy that happened to be penned by Mao Zedong himself.

One item stolen was a calligraphy written by Mao Zedong

Last Thursday apparently three men broke into the apartment of a well known collector of revolutionary stamps and art in Yau Ma Tei, and allegedly stole HK$4 billion worth of items.

These include a two-metre tall poem written in calligraphy by Mao that collector Fu Chunxiao claimed was worth HK$2 billion, and a postage stamp that has the words, "The whole country is red".

Fu is not in Hong Kong but on the mainland, and it seems the thieves knew what they were taking.

"I was dealt a huge blow and feel so sad," he said by phone. "The lost items are invaluable indeed, but I cannot tell in detail what they are right now, as my mind is racing."

Apparently Fu is well known in certain circles, a member of the Hong Kong Philatelic Society and in 2018 even organized an exhibition of Mao stamps in the city, featuring more than 200 items from his own collection.

Fu Chunxiao is a collector of revolutionary stamps and art

He also seems to be very connected.

"I appreciate the help of the Hong Kong government and police, the Beijing liaison office, and the national security office, which were all involved in the case," he added, without explaining which national security office he meant, or how precisely it was involved.

The robbery came to light when a building security guard noticed the iron gate and the wooden door of the flat open.

Will the items ever be recovered? And who committed this crime?! And was it purely because these items were valuable or was there a political motive?!

Surely the police are on the case...

Study Xi Jinping for Money

Get brownie points by studying Xi Jinping

The Little Red Book has gone digital.

The famous pocketbook of quotations supposedly spoken by Mao Zedong has been upgraded to studying "Xi Jinping Thought" through an app called Xuexi Qiangguo, or "Study Powerful Country".

Once people open the app, they are supposed to read the articles in it -- but they are also quizzed too.

Xuexi Guoqiang is an app for people to read more about Xi

It doesn't matter if you get the answers wrong -- you still get points for trying.

And of course the more time you spend on the app the better, because it's all about amassing lots and lots of points to show how dedicated you are in studying Xi Jinping thought.

It turns out this activity is not just for individuals to show how devoted they are to the Communist Party of China and Xi Dada or Grandpa Xi, but even companies can get in on this and reap some big benefits.


A company called Zhejiang Taida Miniature Electrical Machinery Co, that produces ventilating fans, received a so-called "red impetus loan" of 3 million yuan (US$447,000), said chairman Qiu Rongquan at the recent bi-annual Canton Fair.

The loans are given to companies that have solid businesses after promoting the Communist Party, Qiu explained.

Xi's app is the digital version of the Little Red Book

According to Huzhou city government, where the company is based, the loans are guarantee- and collateral-free, with reduced interest rates to help private companies develop. Qiu said his company received the loan at the benchmark interest rate, whereas it would usually pay 20 to 30 percent above the rate.

What a bonus! And just for promoting the CPC!

Previously the Chinese government would freely give loans to state-owned enterprises, but now it seems more interested in dangling carrots in front of private companies that badly need the capital injection.

Qiu encourages his employees to use the Xuexi Qiangguo app, and apparently it has paid off, receiving government support.

The "red impetus loan" may be used to be part of the 5 million yuan Qiu planned to invest in research in development, upgrade machinery and attract talent. In this way he hopes to more effectively compete with Germany and Taiwan and increase the company's market share from 10 percent to 30 percent.

Devotion to the app can lead to company loans

See it's so easy to study Xi Jinping thought. You could hit the jackpot!

Review: One Child Nation

Just a few of the supposedly abandoned babies advertised in the newspaper

I am still trying to process One Child Nation, a documentary I saw today as part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

China's one-child policy began in 1979 and was only relaxed in 2015, but since then there hasn't been the baby boom the government was hoping. After one of the filmmakers, Wang Nanfu has a baby boy, this prompts her to delve into the how this family-planning policy impacted her family and others.

Filmmaker Wang Nanfu with her son

Wang narrates and explains that when she was born, her parents were expecting a boy, as she has the word 男 nan, or "man" in her name. But the baby was a she and they gave her the name anyway, hoping their daughter would become a strong person.

They lived in a rural area, and local officials wanted to sterilize her mother right after she gave birth, but Wang's grandfather prevented it from happening; that's because there was a rule that those living in rural areas could have two children as long as they were five years apart.

And indeed she did have a brother, much to her parents' and grandparents' delight.

But having grown up bombarded with propaganda everywhere saying how the one-child policy was great, how it was a sin to have more than one child, Wang felt ashamed of having a brother.

She then tries to find out what happened to the women who were sterilized or were forced to abort. Wang interviews the midwife who helped with her birth. The elderly woman claims to have done at least 50,000 abortions and sterilizations.

Wang finds this hard to believe, but then the woman tells her she now focuses on helping couples who are infertile to get pregnant. She shows Wang two rooms in her home filled with maroon-coloured banners with yellow embroidery showing their thanks to the midwife and pictures of the babies taped on each one. She explains she is doing this to try to atone for her sins for killing so many fetuses, as she believes in karma.

Then Wang manages to coax her uncle and aunt to tell about their personal experiences of losing their baby girls because of the draconian policy. Her uncle doesn't want to look into the camera and seems numb talking about it over 20 years later.

Zhang and Wang win at Sundance

There is also an artist by the name of Peng who has painted fetuses on every page of Mao Zedong's little red book, for every unborn child that has been murdered under his leadership. The artist was originally doing research on garbage when he found lots of plastic bags with dead fetuses in them labelled as medical waste.

People in the audience started sniffling after seeing those disturbing scenes. But Wang doesn't end her research there.

She also tracks down a man surnamed Duan and his family who were jailed for selling babies to orphanages. He, his mother and sister picked up abandoned babies and then sent them to orphanages who gave them money for them -- this was in 1992 when China began to allow overseas adoptions. The demand was so high that they needed more babies and would pay for them. Duan was just trying to give these babies a home, and why not make money out of it too?

These overseas adoptions were done under sketchy circumstances too. Brian Stuy and his Chinese wife Long Lan live in the United States and adopted three Chinese girls. When they adopted the first girl, Stuy tried to find out as much information from the supposed "baby finder" where she found the girl.

Later Stuy finds out the story was completely fabricated and the couple begin creating extensive databases to see if there is a pattern. They also interviewed Duan and his mother before. But how would they remember where exactly they picked up which baby if they sent some 10,000 of them to orphanages?

Also disturbing are revelations that some children were taken away from their families by local officials and adopted overseas to make some money. One case features a girl who lost her older twin sister to an overseas adoption against her and the family's consent. The Chinese journalist who reported the story was immediately fired and he fled to Hong Kong where Wang interviewed him. He wrote a book about his research but no one wanted to publish it in Chinese. Eventually it was printed.... in English.

Throughout One Child Nation, Wang shows people's anguish at what they did, and how a government policy will drive people to do inhumane things. She also questions why she was so naive, believing that the one-child policy was the right thing, but she shouldn't be so hard on herself, when that was the only thing she knew.

I had many more questions about Wang -- her father died when she was young and was forced to give up school and work so that her younger brother could study instead. So how did she manage to go to the United States without much of an education? And does she know that after making this film she will probably make life difficult for her family in China because One Child Nation is critical of the government?

At the end of the film the audience clapped in appreciation for the film. One Child Nation was not at all what I had expected. It was deeply personal about Wang's extended family, but at the same time we wondered about the millions of babies who were "abandoned" and what happened to them.

One Child Nation (2019)
Directed by Wang Nanfu and Zhang Jialing
85 minutes
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the US Documentary competition at Sundance

Wanda Gets on Red Tourism Bandwagon

"Red" tourists take part in re-enacting the Long March in Yan'an

Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin is back in the limelight again -- this time to show off his patriotism.

His company Wanda Group announced this week it will build a theme park in Yan'an, the birthplace of the Communist Party to cash in on "red tourism".

The description of the project already sounds like an eye-roller -- located in the loess plateau of Shaanxi province near Gansu and Shanxi, the theme park will feature shopping malls, indoor parks, theatres and hotels built in the style of the 1930s, when Yan'an was the headquarters of the Communist Party.

Wang Jianlin's Wanda will promote "red tourism" in Yan'an

Construction on the 1.26 square kilometre project will begin in the first quarter of next year and expected to be completed in 2021, in time for the party's centenary celebrations, Wanda said.

"Wanda is committed to the Yan'an spirit and will turn the Yan'an Wanda City into a new brand for red tourism," Wang said in a statement.

For the past year the developer, China's wealthiest man in 2017, according to Forbes, was laying low, after he dispersed his US$9.4 billion in hotels and tourism assets to rivals Sunac China and Guangzhou R&F Properties to relieve Wanda from its heavy debts.

In October, Wanda disposed of its last remaining stake in its tourism projects for 6.28 billion yuan.

The company had attracted the scrutiny of China's banking and securities regulators for over leveraging acquisitions it made overseas, such as for yacht builder Sunseeker, AMC chain of cameras, real estate around the world, and even Iron Man races.

Mao Zedong's modest cave in Yan'an during the Long March

But now it seems Wanda and Wang are back in the government's good books with another 20 billion yuan project in Lanzhou, the start of the ancient Silk Road, and this Yan'an theme park, that would take advantage of the 484 million tourists who pay homage to 436 historical sites around China that hold special significance to the Communist Party.

Yan'an is revered in particular, as it was here towards the end of the Long March that became the focal point of Chinese Communism. In 1935 Mao Zedong took the Red Army from Jiangxi province on an over 9,000-kilometre trek to Yan'an in 370 days.

We can't wait to see what Wanda does with its "red" theme park...










Wanda came under the scrutiny of China’s banking and securities regulators for the outsize leveraged acquisitions it undertook overseas, for such assets as the Sunseeker yacht builder, the AMC chain of cameras, real estate around the world and even the Iron Man races.

Security, Everywhere

Beyond these gates is Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the CPC

It was nice to be back in Beijing, a city I had lived in for three years.

However the growing anxiety over safety is growing more paranoid. Before the Olympics 10 years ago, it was mandated that everyone had to have their bags scanned in machines before entering the subway system.

We assumed it would just be for the Olympics, but no, the practice continued. At the time the roped off area was large enough so that some people with bags could slip through, but this later tightened up and everyone had to have their bags checked.

Intense security checks just before entering Tiananmen Square

During rush hour, those not carrying anything could go into a faster line. Kind of discriminates against women...

Then this year security was stepped up even more with metal detectors at every subway entrance -- and if that's not enough, some even have staff with metal detector paddles just in case the metal detectors weren't enough.

Many of the people manning these security check points are young people, which makes me think this is a make-work project for kids who couldn't find a job or aren't university graduates.

Twice this week my friend had to open up his bag to be checked because the person manning the screening machine saw a bottle in his bag. He had to demonstrate it was cologne and not some kind of Molotov cocktail in a black flask.

The young people are just doing their job, but it is a hassle. Not even New York or Paris have these kinds of security checks.

The square wasn't packed, but there was lots of surveillance

Security was extreme near Tiananmen Square when we visited on Tuesday. Our plan was to walk east from Xidan along Chang'An Avenue, make a pit stop at Tiananmen Square and then head to Wangfujing.

Before we were even close to Tiananmen Square, we encountered one of many check points. Everyone was corralled into a single file metal maze so that there was no getting out of the line. Citizens had to have their ID cards scanned into a machine, while foreigners like us had our passports checked.

After that check point we passed by a brightly coloured building with the Communist Party of China round logo at the top and the Chinese sign below "Xinhuamen (新华门)" or "New China Gate" which is actually the entrance to Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the CPC and where Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party works. Too bad we weren't allowed in.

The biggest check point just before Tiananmen Square had its own stand, complete with digital messages on a ticker tape screen, saying people had to go through checks for safety reasons, complete with screening our bags.

Food trucks like these sell snacks, drinks and souvenirs

Finally we made it into Tiananmen Square, where parts of it were covered with floral designs for Mid-Autumn and/or National Day. These decorations give a lively atmosphere, but gone were the residents who flew kites in the large open space. We only saw one person attempting to fly a kite.

Swept off the street were the migrant workers selling Chinese flags and snacks like water and popsicles. They were replaced with mini food trucks on the square selling the flags, Pocky sticks, cookies and a variety of drinks.

For some reason Mao Zedong's mausoleum wasn't open -- it was barricaded off and looked dark inside. Maybe he was getting a touch-up.

Who knows how many undercover policemen were in the square, but definitely lots of cameras at every lamp post...
 

The Power of Propaganda

In 1941 Mao forgot when the CPC was founded and chose the date instead

History lesson, folks. When was the Communist Party of China founded?

Chinese leaders would like you think it was on July 1, 1921, but the reality is that it was on July 23, 1921.

The wrong date is apparently due to Mao Zedong's bad memory and the senior Chinese leadership not being sticklers for detail.

July 1 just sounds easier to remember and what do you know! It coincides with the same day as the handover of Hong Kong back to the motherland!

The actual date is July 21, 1921 in Shanghai in this building

While historians know the exact date, the general public don't thanks to intense propaganda about July 1 thanks to outdoor billboards and news media propagating the date.

However, according to a Russian-language document of the Communist International, published in June by the Party Literature Research Office, 12 people -- 10 Chinese and two Soviet organizers -- attended the party's founding congress in Shanghai on July 23, 1921.

That document was held by the Soviets and with having to fight the civil war and the Sino-Japanese war, Mao didn't really remember the official day.

When he was living in the caves in Yan'an, Mao wanted to commemorate the party's 20th anniversary in 1941, but forgot the exact date. He wrote to Zhang Baijia, deputy head of the Party History Research Office, according to an article published in May in History Reference, a magazine belonging to People's Daily, the Communist Party newspaper.

"No one remembered the opening date of the first party congress," wrote Zhang. "They just remembered it was in July so they decided on July 1."

Even Hu Jintao propagated the date of July 1 in 2011

For historian Zhou Xun at the University of Hong Kong, the mistake matters.

"This is a good example of how the party makes up all kinds of things, such as events, historical figures, and how they eliminate facts. It's just a constant thing," she says.

For someone like then President Hu Jintao in 2011 to declare the Communist Party of China was founded 90 years ago on July 1 -- the wrong date -- "is pretty amazing, really", she adds.

So if you hear or read the Communist Party of China was founded on July 1, 1921, it's factually wrong. Yes, Mao was wrong.

And no one was brave enough to correct him or successive leaders...

Fact of the Day: 70% Divorces Filed by Chinese Women

More than 70 percent of divorces in China are filed by women

In the age of #MeToo or #mitu in China, it's hard to see how attitudes towards women will change much in this patriarchal society when men believe they have or are entitled to more power than women.

Although Chairman Mao Zedong claimed that "women hold up half the sky", in reality it's not true at all.

In 1986, 460,000 couples registered for divorce, while 20 years later the number jumped to 4.15 million.

A new report that uses divorce statistics from 2016 and 2017 by the Supreme People's Court shows two things. The first is that women filed more than 70 percent of the divorce cases in the past two years, with most couples splitting up after three years of marriage.

The second is that domestic violence was the second most common problem, cited as the major factor in 15 percent of divorces. "Incompatibility" was cited for 75 percent of divorce cases.

Tencent News did a survey in 2016 about the high divorce rates. Some 70,000 internet users gave their responses which found the following: About 60 percent of male respondents had cheated on their partners in a relationship, while it was around 30 percent for women respondents.

Another interesting result was that one-third of male respondents didn't think sex with prostitutes was cheating. What is it then? Having an intimate playmate? A way to work off stress? It's paid so it doesn't count?

Ah, men. Always finding an excuse to have it their way...

Xi President for Life

The Communist Party is changing the rules for Xi Jinping to rule for life

The big news today -- there have been rumblings about it for a while -- the Chinese Communist Party is going to abolish its two-term limit for the presidency to allow Xi Jinping, 64, to effectively rule for life, making it the biggest political change in decades.

Previous leaders typically had two five-year terms, but Xi's ability to consolidate so much power since his ascent in 2012 puts him in the ranks of "paramount leader" Deng Xiaoping and the "Great Helmsman" Mao Zedong. 

"Xi Jinping thought" will also be added into the constitution, making any challenge against him a threat to Communist Party rule.

Wang Qishan may replace Li Keqiang as Premier

Originally the two-term limit was meant to prevent the cultivation of cult of personality like what happened with Mao.

But with no heir apparent in sight, or perhaps Xi isn't interested in cultivating one, it seems the authoritarian Xi is keen to continue his grip on power for a while yet. And why not with his signature project Belt and Road still underway, perhaps he wants to see it through.

Sinologists have also been discussing the possibility of Wang Qishan, Xi's right hand man in the anti-corruption campaign, to become his next Premier, replacing Li Keqiang, who has been really quiet for a few years. Maybe he and Xi didn't see eye-to-eye.

With Xi amassing so much power, one really doesn't want to mess with him.

Social media post of Winnie the Pooh making the rounds

As China expert Willy Lam, adjunct professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong and in 2015 wrote a biography about Xi, notes, the Chinese leader needs to be careful with his even greater power.

"Xi Jinping is susceptible to making big mistakes because there are now almost no checks or balances. Essentially, he has become emperor for life."

Meanwhile on social media in China, there's an image of Winnie the Pooh (in a Disney cartoon reference to Xi), hugging a big honey pot.

It says: "Find the thing you love and stick with it."

Makes sense, no?

Mao's Grandson not Invited to Party Congress

Mao Xinyu usually gets followed by the media in public appearances

The 19th Party Congress is set to start on October 18, but some notable faces won't be there, including Mao Zedong's grandson.

Major General Mao Xinyu is one of five senior military figures descended from or with close family ties to revolutionary generals or former state leaders who will miss out on this important political event that is held every five years.

General Liu Yuan won't be at the Party Congress in October

Those who are not invited to attend are effectively ruled out of any future promotions within the military.

Previously people like Mao Xinyu were practically guaranteed a seat at these events, but it seems President Xi Jinping doesn't put much weight on associations with "princelings".

Macau-based military watcher Anthony Wong Dong was diplomatic in explaining the reasoning behind Mao Xinyu's absence by saying perhaps it was because Xi didn't know these people to trust them in key roles.

"Rather than deliberately suppressing [the influence] of the descendants of party veterans, Xi might simply think they are not reliable enough, or that they don't have the right skills to lead the army," he said.

A total of 2,300 delegates from all sectors will attend the party congress, where they will vote to select the powerful Central Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Xi Jinping hasn't invited five princelings in the PLA

Other princelings that were excluded are: General Liu Yuan, the son of former president Liu Shaoqi; Admiral Liu Xiaojiang, the son-in-law of the party's former general secretary Hu Yaobang; General Zhang Haiyang, a son of former Central Military Commission vice-chairman General Zhang Zhen; and General Liu Yazhou, the son-in-law of former president Liu Xiannian.

Other than being known as Mao's grandson, Mao Xinyu had the honour (and the criticism) of being promoted the youngest major general in the People's Liberation Army in 2009.

He is also a member of the Chinese National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory group to the government.

Very interesting that Mao Xinyu is not invited to this year's congress -- he always got the paparazzi treatment during these events, just because he is Mao's grandson.

But guess that pedigree doesn't get you far anymore...

Musical Ping Pong

Whoa what a finale! Incorporating table tennis with music. How novel!

This evening YTSL and I had tickets to watch a concert by the Hong Kong Philharmonic called "Ping Pong Diplomacy", harking back to over 45 years ago when the table tennis team from the United States visited China.

It was considered a world-changing event in Sino-US relations, breaking the ice and paving the way for then US President Richard Nixon to come to China and meet with Mao Zedong.

Conductor Yu Long commissioned a piece -- featuring table tennis in the music! -- by Andy Akiho and it was performed for the first time two years ago by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.

Were the table tennis players going to use up all those balls?

But before that music. Yu led the orchestra in a rousing Tchaikovsky piece called Serenade for Strings, op. 48. I had forgotten Yu likes a fast tempo but was soon quickly reminded when the opening, which is supposed to be like a sonatina, seemed very rushed.

He tried to make the second movement, a waltz, markedly slower, but it too speeded up towards the end, as well as the finale.

I forgot to add that the musicians weren't dressed in formal wear, but black T-shirts and jeans instead which was a weird look, perhaps to make the audience not feel so bad to be casual either.

There was no intermission, and the stage was set for Akiho's Ricochet: Triple Concerto for Ping Pong, Percussion, Violin & Orchestra with three movements.

We the audience were forewarned that ping pong balls could fly into the crowd. This we had to watch.

The piece starts with a violinist making eerie sounds on her instrument, and then a percussionist stands by the ping pong table and starts playing on drums with it. Two actual ping pong players, both American, but one Caucasian male in a shirt and red bow tie, the other a Chinese woman, in a red sleeveless cocktail dress and black heels approach the table and actually start playing table tennis.

At times they rally, and then they start hitting balls towards the audience. They use tambourines to hit the ball so that they too make music, and she hits the drum on the ping pong table hard as a solo passage.

Imagine writing the music for this piece? Ping pong player hits drum; ping pong player uses tambourine to hit balls five times...

It was unpredictable when they were going to hit balls into the audience. In the end the violinist and percussionist each grab box of balls and dump them onto the table to end the piece. So crazy yet so fun!

Kids scrambled towards the stage to grab whatever orange balls they could.

It was just so interesting to see how table tennis could be incorporated into music and it works. The two ping pong players knew exactly when to hit and when to stop, catching the ball. They had several balls in hand just in case shots didn't work out to keep the momentum of hitting the ball going.

It was fun, lively and unpredictable!

Ping Pong Diplomacy

Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall

Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings, op. 48

Andy Akiho Ricochet: Triple Concerto for Ping Pong, Percussion, Violin & Orchestra

The First Monday in May

Remember that Guo Pei dress Rihanna wore to the Met gala?

On my flight back from Beijing to Hong Kong, I watched the documentary The First Monday in May, which follows how the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour put together the 2015 exhibition and gala, China: Through the Looking Glass.

It's a huge undertaking, combining Chinese-inspired fashion with museum pieces from the Asian Art collection, pairing outfits inspired by or look similar to actual works of art in the museum's archives. But it's not just about ancient China, it's also about Communist China, and contemporary China, featuring today's designers.

Andrew Bolton is the Costume Institute curator at the Met, his dream job since he was young. He strongly believes that fashion is an art form, something some of his colleagues in other departments don't necessarily accept, but the massive gala is a big fundraiser for the museum, something they can't ignore or look down on.

However, many heads of other departments take the opportunity, as the exhibits shape up, to express their concerns that they don't want the clothes to overshadow the museum pieces.

One exhibit showing the inspiration from Ming vases

It's a telling insight into the politics at the Met, and watching how Bolton navigates through it all.

Meanwhile clothes are already arriving at the museum for the costume department to carefully document and decide how they will arrange them in the exhibits. Different designers are interviewed, and Jean-Paul Gaultier admits he has never been to China, but in a way doesn't want to go, because he wants to have a fantasy in his mind of what China is to him.

John Galliano's fantastical dresses are also featured, Coco Chanel's vintage pieces of gold and black sequinned jackets remind you of sleek lacquered cabinets, and Vivienne Tam's homage to Imperial China and her pop-art tribute to Mao Zedong.

It's disappointing Tam wasn't interviewed in the documentary, as she would have given an interesting perspective about how her clothes shape her identity as a Hong Kong designer.

Vivienne Tam's fun Mao dress

While Wintour argues that art moves people, fashion can as well, though Gaultier says he never imagined his clothes would be in a museum.

The petite woman is a powerhouse, fierce, decisive and meticulous. Wintour is in charge of the invitation list and features all kinds of people from philanthropists, to actors, singers, artists, businessmen and politicians. Imagine having to figure out where everyone sits! Her assistant tries to keep her cool the whole time, but there's a huge snag when Rihanna and her entourage are going to cost much more than they budgeted for...

And then there are many mini crises along the way in setting up the exhibition, making deadlines even tighter and working around the clock...

There are also concerns the exhibition is a gweilo perspective of China, and the only Chinese person working directly on the project is film director Wong Kar-wai, who doesn't seem impressed by how things are panning out. He is rightly concerned that the exhibition isn't authentic enough, and also how everyone seems to want to have a hand in things.

Wong Kar-wai is concerned how the show will turn out

To an extent Wong must be familiar with these kinds of situations, or perhaps as a revered director, he is used to having everything his way?

The exhibition generated a lot of interest, and a lot of coverage of the gala, thanks to Rihanna showing up in a yellow gown by Guo Pei that many immediately pronounced it looked like an omelette or scrambled eggs, and criticized Sarah Jessica Parker's hideous headdress that looked comical.

It's a documentary that keeps your interest throughout and if anyone is interested in event planning, fashion, museum curation and art, then The First Monday in May is for you. It's a riveting eye-opener...

The First Monday in May (2016)

Directed by Andrew Rossi

90 minutes

A Big Dose of Art

Tang Jie's Stone Story at Art Central this year

The two biggest art fairs are back in Hong Kong again -- Art Central and Art Basel.

I got a quick peek of both and will give a few highlights here.

Art Central located at Central Harbourfront is a neat venue, featuring over 100 galleries, 75 percent of which are from Asia Pacific, though ironically, not many Hong Kong artists are featured.

Performance Art at Art Central

Nevertheless, it's a good place to check out emerging artists from the region. On the whole on a few things grabbed me. One Indonesian artist partnering with a Hong Kong gallery, produced a large canvas of graffiti-like art, very colourful and cartoonish.

But get this -- the work is carved up literally into squares and for HK$300, a person can buy a piece of the art. You can buy more than one square of course, but there's another interesting part -- you can consign the piece(s) that you have bought back to the gallery to resell to another person. And if it's sold you give a 10 percent commission back to the gallery.

That is the commercialism of art at its purest.

Already there were a few squares cut out of the far left hand side of the piece... what would you do with a square piece of art? Is it still art if it's a section of it?

One piece that is particularly impressive is called Stone Story by Tang Jie. It features rocks that are suspended from wires that lightly "fall" onto a large drum below. They fall rhythmically one after the other and then come back up again. It's a combination of old -- the rocks and the traditional Chinese drum, to the new of technology manipulating the rocks.

Does he look like Mao Zedong? Like the body in Beijing?

We also saw a performance artist, Anida Yoeu Ali with The Red Chador: Ban Me! She wore a red sequinned chador, or fabric that is a full-body robe covering her body, and carried the sign "Ban Me".

Over at Art Basel at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, it's overwhelming to try to take in all the art on two floors, but definitely one of the most provocative is Summit by Shen Shaomin.

There are five "corpses" of Communist leaders in history -- Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung, Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro. They are all apparently life size, and quite life like. Oh my mistake -- Castro is not encased in a glass coffin, but on his death bed apparently faintly breathing! I missed that clarification.

In any event one must wonder what mainlanders think of their great leader as a piece of art!

Murakami's Tan Tan Bo aka Gerotan... is one of his new works

Another provoking piece is Not a Shield, but a Weapon by Philippine artist Pio Abad. There are 180 handbags that are copies of late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Asprey handbag.

These ones were all made in Marikina in the Philippines, which used to be a thriving area for leather manufacturing. But because of trade liberalization policies introduced by Thatcher, Marikina has been in decline ever since.

There's also a colourful ovid shaped object sitting on a mirrored surface. Entitled Deductive Object by Kimsooja, the piece is inspired by the Indian tradition of Brahmanda stones that are polished into an ovid shape.

Here it's a large one painted in traditional Korean colours called obangsaek.

Deductive Object by Kimsooja

And for those looking for big names, Takashi Murakami is here with a large piece, and we spotted a few Picassos for sale.

So this is a critique of only the fraction of the things that can be seen at Art Central and Art Basel... if I have time I'll go check out Art Basel further...

Mao Porcelain for Grabs

Looks quite ordinary but worth quite a lot: Mao porcelain bowl up for auction

A hot ticket item is up for auction by a Hong Kong collector in May in the UK.

It's a rare porcelain bowl that was commissioned by then Chinese leader Mao Zedong for his own use.

The bowl is part of a collection that includes cups and other tableware, and were made towards the end of the Cultural Revolution when Mao's power was considered at its height in China.

He ordered 4,000 pieces of porcelain, including bowls, cups and other tableware be made under demanding conditions in Jingdezhen, the well-known porcelain-producing town on the mainland.

Mao commissioned his own porcelain made in Jingdezhen

"In order to make sure they were safe for Mao to use, all porcelain made in Jingdezhen had to be lead-free," said the collector, who would only give his name as Alex.

"Two hundred artisans spent a full two years making the porcelain, and in the end 900 pieces were chosen to be sent to Beijing for the use of Mao and other official dignitaries," he said.

"The rest were ordered to be destroyed. However, the director of the Institute of Arts which made the porcelain did not want them to be destroyed, so he made up an excuse to put them into storage -- so that the institute could send replacements to Beijing if the cups and dishes were broken."

The institute later fell into financial difficulties and gave some of these porcelain pieces to staff in lieu of salaries -- meaning that some items made for state leaders were now in the hands of ordinary people.

With this bowl being up for auction, there's going to be a big buzz around it, as "Mao porcelains" are considered special because of their historical significance and fetch high prices at auction.

In 2013, a set of about five rice bowls commissioned by Mao was sold for HK$8 million by Poly Auction Hong Kong, but they were made in his home province of Hunan.

The Hong Kong collector's family bought a few dozen of these rare items when they did business on the mainland.

The items were put in family trust, but they decided to put the bowl up for auction "to test the market".

In 1996, a 68-piece set of Mao porcelain fetched 7.9 million yuan (HK$10 million) when it was sold in Beijing.

Mao's Loyal Army

Fans of the Great Helmsman make sure critics are silenced

It used to be that criticizing Mao Zedong would result in disaster for one's entire family, so the younger generation is shocked to find that criticizing him can still ruin careers.

Television producer Liu Yong was fired after he defended a critic of Mao online around December 26, the great leader's birthday.

Liu, a producer at Luohe Television in Henan province, was suspended for "wrongful speech that violates political discipline and morals", his employer posted on social media.

The statement didn't exactly explain what triggered the sacking, but Liu apologized on social media on Monday for "having hurt the feelings of the public".

A massive gold statue of Mao in Kaifeng, Henan province

Oh that wonderful phrase of "hurting the public's feelings" has been trotted out yet again.

Previously Liu had posted criticism of the Party and government, and on Sunday posted support for a professor who was forced to retire after criticizing Mao publicly on the eve of the late leader's birthday.

Deng Xiangchao, a communications professor at Shandong Jianzhu University, reposted a joke about Mao on December 25. Without naming Mao, Deng's post compared the late leader to an imperial ruler.

"Being an imperial ruler in China takes skill," the post read. "You should call hereditary rulers revolutionary comrades, and change the emperor's edict into a supreme instruction. But don't be honest about it."

The post angered Mao supporters, who held protests at the university last week. They held banners and yelled slogans such as "down with traitors".

Although some academics supported Deng on the grounds of freedom of expression, the professor, who was one year shy of retirement age, was forced to retire and stop teaching only a day after the protest, when the university accused him of posting "wrongful speech".

And now Liu is also a victim of this purge.

Let this be a fair warning to all!

The incident demonstrates that the country and its people still have very strong feelings about Mao. His followers are disappointed that rampant corruption and the widening wealth gaps were caused by market reforms and the intrusion of Western values.

But there are those who see Mao as a merciless and Machiavellian dictator who was indifferent to the loss of innocent lives, and who uprooted traditional culture and purged intellectuals and his colleagues.

And a posting on social media is enough to get you sacked!

Written Loyalty to the Party?

A newlywed couple began their new life together copying the constitution...

The Communist Party of China is demanding its 88 million members show their loyalty by copying out the 15,000-character constitution -- by hand.

In an article published by PLA Daily, it warned members against just mindlessly copying the text, that they should use the opportunity to fully understand the meaning before they published their final product on social media.

"If copying out is just about moving the pen and is not done wholeheartedly... if it fails to touch the thoughts and the soul, the well-intended campaign will lose its meaning and be reduced to a form of delicate formalism," said the PLA Daily article.

Did they spark a trend endorsed by Beijing or was it staged?

"The purpose of transcribing is to study and to be awakened, to remind yourself of your original intention [of joining the party] by engaging full-heartedly," it added.

The campaign first got attention after a newlywed couple was photographed writing paragraphs on their wedding night.

Didn't they have more important things to do on their wedding night than copy of several hundred words of the constitution? Many thought the photos were staged.

Chen Daoyin, an associate professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said the campaign was eerily similar to people studying quotations from Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution.

"This reflects a societal turn to the left since Xi rose to power," Chen said. "But society is progressing, and the new generation is under an age of rapid development of the media and information, is no longer the same. These campaigns nowadays often end up as a target for sarcasm by society, as the propaganda apparatus is always falling behind social development."

He added the campaign had already been abused, saying there were 20 migrant workers in Jiangxi province who were hired by a company to hand copy out the constitution in front of a high court to protest the court's handling of a case involving the company.

Some sections of the constitution copied by others

It does seem kind of Cultural Revolutionary to have to copy out the constitution -- does that prove one is "more red" than the next person?

Or is it evidence the person is more of an obedient sheep?

Does anyone in the United States have to write out the Declaration of Independence to prove their patriotism to the country?

Are China's leaders doing it too? Or just laobaixing (ordinary folk)?

Surely there are other ways to prove one's love for their homeland -- unless they really want to practice writing Chinese characters by hand...

Remembering Harry Wu

Harry Wu was a tireless critic of China after he became an American citizen

I read in the International New York Times yesterday that human rights activist Harry Wu had died last Tuesday. He was 79.

Wu had a very compelling story -- at the age of 23 in Shanghai he was accused of criticizing the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 and being insufficiently supportive of Mao Zedong's regime.

He was forced into hard labour in farms, mines and prison camps for 42 years and was released three years after Mao died.

A picture of Wu paraded on TV in 1995 after he was arrested

In 1985 Wu moved to the United States and after becoming an American citizen in 1994, he began exposing the laogai or "reform through labour" system. He compared them to the Soviet gulag and Nazi concentration camps, claiming hard labour caused the deaths of many political prisoners.

A year later he returned to China undercover many times to expose prison conditions as well as the sale of organs from executed inmates. He was originally sentenced to 15 years in prison, but thanks to pressure by human rights advocates and then First Lady Hillary Clinton, Wu was released after 66 days.

Soon after he was released, I was in Vancouver trying to bide my time as my Hong Kong employer applied for my work visa. To keep myself occupied, I tried to pitch the odd story and one of them was an opportunity to interview Wu.

I called long distance to ask my colleague if someone would be interested in the story and I could hear him relay the message to a senior editor.

One of two books Wu wrote about China

That editor said something to the effect that Wu was not a big deal -- that even he had Wu's number in his wallet and could call him at anytime.

I just remember my heart sinking, because I had thought it would have been a good story, and it was shot down as a silly notion.

Was it because Wu was overexposed in the media? Did he make comments that people considered were outrageous and over the top?

And so reading his obituary, I remember wanting to do a story on Wu, but was denied the opportunity. It's one of the few times I regret not being able to talk to him.

Wu may have been what journalists call a "media whore", for doing whatever it took to get press attention, but no one can deny that he made the world more aware of human rights violations that happened then and are still continuing in China.

Chinese Hi-tech Firms Highly Sexist

Adult film star Sola Aoi was cited in Alibaba's recruitment ad

China likes to say that "women hold up half the sky", back in Mao Zedong's days, and even then that wasn't true either.

Seems like the country has hardly moved ahead when it comes to gender equality, but perhaps these days criticism may finally get things going in the right direction.

JD.com's ad for International Nurses Day last month drew ire

Nasdaq-listed online marketplace JD.com promoted International Nurses Day with images of health workers in lingerie-like uniforms.

"I will never buy things from JD again. What disgusting behaviour!" one woman wrote.

The firm quickly yanked the ad and apologized.

Meanwhile on e-commerce giant Alibaba's official recruitment website, its ad said the company was looking for support staff for computer programmers, mentioning porn star Sola Aoi.

"You can be like 'Teacher Aoi' whose virtue and skills comprise a doubly strong and pervasive fragrance, the world in her breast," the ad read.

"You can be like Song Hye-kyo, from a respectable family, a heavenly beauty, who makes fish sink and birds alight, who obscures the moon and makes flowers blush," it said, referring to a mainstream South Korean actress.

Nothing mentioned about what office-related skills they should have or language ability...

It turns out Chinese technology companies have a history of inviting Japanese adult film stars to events. While the authorities ban online content they deem pornographic, illegal downloads have allowed adult film actresses to have huge followings in China.

Rola Takizawa on stage at an event hosted by Qihoo

In 2013, NetEase invited Anri Okita to its offices, where she ate lunch and took pictures with male staff. Shanghai-based gaming company Dream invited Yui Hatano to its annual company party last year, and internet security company Qihoo 360 hosted Rola Takizawa.

One wonders what the female staff at these companies thought of the company fueling their male colleague's carnal desires in the workplace... or they just shook their heads and continued working...

"In mainstream [Chinese] society, there is objectification of women and gender inequality," said Wang Ping of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences. "It might be more serious in technology companies."

For now, though it seems Alibaba has learned its lesson. Following criticism, it removed the ad and apologized.

It was "intended to be an attempt at humorous marketing to recruit IT talent," the company said. "We apologize to anyone offended... Alibaba is committed to providing equal opportunity and fair treatment to all employees on the basis of merit, without discrimination."

Until attitudes seriously change from the top, sexism will continue to be rampant in China's companies... which means with men in charge, it probably won't change anytime soon...