Tiger's Taste for Maotai Takes him Down

Wang Xiaoguang is the latest official to be jailed for 20 years for corruption

While you may think Chinese President Xi Jinping has been busy with Belt and Road, and the Greater Bay Area, don't think he hasn't had time to bag more tigers. One more was recently taken down, the former vice-governor of Guizhou province.

Wang Xiaoguang, who was in power from 2009-2016 was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined a record 174 million yuan (US$26 million) for taking bribes, embezzlement and insider trading.

Wang was known as the "Maotai collector"

The prosecution claimed that Wang had taken advantage of his position to receive 49 million yuan in bribes, made 163 million yuan from insider trading of stocks and embezzled 4.8 million in land sales proceeds in 2000.

What did he do with all that money? Apparently he liked to collect rare orchids and Maotai, a kind of baijiu that is distilled from sorghum.

The court said Wang's sentence was light because the 57-year-old pleaded guilty to all charges.

In a confession, Wang said he was "addicted to orchids" and the National Supervisory Commission or anti-corruption watchdog said he had amassed so much Maotai that he became known as the "Maotai collector" and even obtained liquor licenses for his relatives to help him sell it. His wife reportedly dunked a lot of the prized Maotai down the sink before the authorities came to arrest him.

Another no-no was that Wang had "enthusiasm for reading politically incorrect overseas publications", a veiled reference to books and journals about Chinese political gossip that people would buy on their trips to Hong Kong.

He also had a penchant for collecting rare orchids like these

But sadly those days are over for Wang.

While a number officials were caught for having mistresses or too much sex, Wang was nabbed for too much Maotai and orchids. Guess each to their own...

Learning More about Georgia O'Keefe

Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills encapsulates O'Keefe's art and life

Yesterday we went to the Brooklyn Museum to see Georgia O'Keefe: Living Modern that ends July 23. She is an artist I have admired for a long time and many years ago copied her paintings in pastel. She encouraged me to be fearless, using big strokes, and express myself through vibrant colours.

Four cream-coloured outfits O'Keefe made early in her life

We caught the museum's 1pm tour through the exhibit and the docent was very knowledgeable about O'Keefe and picked certain pieces to show how the curators presented the show.

It wasn't just about O'Keefe's paintings, but also her clothing, a few miscellaneous things from her home and many photographs of her in the clothing, hats and shoes that were also exhibited.

She was born in Wisconsin in 1887 and at a young age showed a talent for art. The family moved to Virginia and when she was a teenager studied at the School of Art Institute of Chicago.

Later she taught art and as our guide explained, after work she would work on her own art, creating abstract watercolours. A friend showed them to Alfred Stieglitz, a well known photographer and art dealer in New York who was impressed by such modern art by a female artist.

This painting was first shown at the museum

He sold some of her pieces -- over US$1,000 in the late 1920s which was a lot of money in those days -- and eventually the two fell in love. Stieglitz was married at the time with a daughter, and was 23 years older than O'Keefe, but he divorced and married O'Keefe.

They lived in Manhattan and one of the paintings shown in the exhibition was of the New York skyline -- something that was usually depicted by men and not women. But O'Keefe was keen to show that she too could do it too -- and just as well. Not only did she paint the skyscrapers, but also in pink, and with three flowers to give them a feminine touch.

At the time she was known for her flower paintings. Women usually painted flowers, but they were small most of the time. O'Keefe felt if she painted flowers really small, no one would notice, so why not big too, like skyscrapers?

She also insisted there wasn't any deeper meanings behind the some 200 flower paintings she made, as some tried to insinuate there were sexual meanings behind the works.

Pink skyscrapers and flowers

One of the paintings on show is called Black Pansy & Forget-Me-Nots painted in 1926 and our guide explained it was first shown in a solo exhibition O'Keefe had in the Brooklyn Museum in 1927.

At the show, one of her friends bought the painting and O'Keefe managed to persuade that person to donate it to the museum afterwards. O'Keefe also gave some of her works during her lifetime to the museum, and after her death.

Our guide pointed out that many of O'Keefe's clothes were monochromatic -- she didn't want to have to worry about colour in her wardrobe when she would rather focus on the colours of her canvas.

Featured in the exhibition are several items of clothing, cream-coloured dresses she made and they are very delicate and reveal her skill in dressmaking. There are also a trio of white blouses, one of which shows very fine tailoring and could very easily be worn today.

She also had a penchant for black with a bit of white contrasting, be it from the collar of a shirt or the cuffs of shirts sticking out from black blazers. Later on she was obsessed about the V-shape and many dresses and jackets had this shape, whether the neckline or pattern on dresses.

One of the delicate blouses O'Keefe made

As more of her work was sold, she and Stieglitz would move to higher floors in the hotel apartment building they lived in. And this wealth would also help O'Keefe become even more independent, buying a car and buying a home and then another one in New Mexico.

She first went there in 1929 thanks to the patronage of an heiress, and O'Keefe immediately fell in love with the place and kept going back there every year until she finally settled there.

In New Mexico she stopped wearing suits and adopted denim as her fabric of choice, wearing shirts, jeans and even fashioned a Chinese-style dress out of the blue cotton.

However, after O'Keefe's first visit to New Mexico for six months, she came back to New York to find Stieglitz was having an affair with another woman; O'Keefe was devastated and even suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized in 1933, mostly because her husband was continuing with the affair.

O'Keefe then finally moved to New Mexico in 1940, purchasing a home there, but then Stieglitz fell ill in 1946 with cerebral thrombosis and she flew back immediately to tend to him until he died in July that year.

A Chinese-style outfit she had made in HK

It took her three years to finally finish dealing with his estate before she permanently moved to New Mexico in 1949. There she was obsessed with painting a mountain called Cerro Pedernal.

One of her works, Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills painted in 1935 encapsulates O'Keefe with the animal skull, a flower and her favourite mountain.

Interestingly there are two outfits shown that have a Hong Kong connection. In 1959 and 1960 she traveled there and got some outfits made, one very east-meets-west, the other looking like a very masculine Chinese robe.

In 1972 she lost most of her eyesight due to macular degeneration and couldn't paint anymore, though photographers would make pilgrimages to New Mexico to take pictures of her. The show has portraits of her by Yousuf Karsh, Bruce Weber, Ansel Adams and Todd Webb.

Andy Warhol also wanted a piece of her and invited her to come to New York to The Factory where he made a silkscreen of her in the same colour as the adobe home she lived in, and was sprinkled with diamond dust. Wonder what she thought of that.

A portrait of O'Keefe in a kimono by Bruce Weber

O'Keefe died in 1986, just shy of her 99th birthday. Art historians like to say she was the first American contemporary artist. Apparently she bequeathed all her things to a very young assistant called Juan Hamilton and her siblings went to court to fight for estate. In the end it was settled out of court.

Learned so much about this remarkable woman and feel inspired by her artistry in art and in life.

Georgia O'Keefe: Living Modern

Until July 23, 2017

Brooklyn Museum

200 Eastern Parkway

Brooklyn

www.brooklynmuseum.org

A Migrant Worker's Story

Migrant worker Fan Yusu chronicled her life in a 7,000 character essay

Fan Yusu has had a hard life as a migrant worker and single mother in Beijing.

She left her village in Hubei province and did odd jobs in the Chinese capital as a domestic helper, and went home in a rented 80 square foot flat without running water and raising two daughters.

The 44-year-old penned her experiences in an autobiographical essay entitled, I am Fan Yusu and posted it on a social media literary site on Monday last week.

Within 24 hours, the essay was shared more than 100,000 times and had more than 20,000 comments.

The 7,000 character essay chronicles her experiences over the last 30 years, detailing how a rural woman's life was shaped by massive social and economic change. Her story also raises the issues of the widening gap between the rich and the poor, the urban-rural divide, and the violent seizure of farmland to make way for development.

Fan is originally from Xiangyang, a village in Hubei, and began working as a teacher in the village school when she was 12.

When she grew older, she tired of village life and decided to move to Beijing. There she married and had two daughters, but her husband was often drunk and beat her. She couldn't take it anymore and went back to her village, but her brothers would not accept her, because "a married daughter is no longer a member of her parents' family".

So she returned to Beijing, and leaving her daughters in the care of a nursery, she worked as a nanny in a wealthy home.

The tycoon owner had bought the property for his mistress and had borne him two illegitimate children, and Fan looked after a three-month-old girl.

"The mistress lived like a concubine in an imperial court," Fan wrote. "She must please her master without dignity; and lower herself to beg for food."

Fan also wrote about her pain of leaving her own children: "I often had to wake up at midnight to look after the baby girl... and at those moments I couldn't help but miss my own daughters. I often cried. Luckily it was usually midnight and nobody noticed."

She also wrote of her 81-year-old mother, who went to the local government to protest against the seizure of land without sufficient compensation. Her arm was dislocated in the scuffle with officials, but she felt fortunate because younger protesters suffered worse injuries.

In an interview with Beijing Youth Daily, Fan said she was not a writer, and made a living by "working as a coolie". But she said she had a story to tell.

"If by living one means eating, simple people like me can survive by eating sweet potatoes," she wrote. "But what is the meaning of living without thinking of one's soul? You've got to have a dream. Like the traveller who sees light far ahead, you feel happy."

Fan was brave to even upload her story online and now everyone has a good idea of what she has gone through in her first-person account. We need to hear about more of these stories to have a better understanding of not only what migrant workers are going through, but every other person in China -- to have a more comprehensive picture of the people who live in the country, and learn about their struggles and dreams.

Finally the Showdown

Thousands showed their support for John Tsang on Friday evening in Central

This is it -- the campaigns by the three candidates to become Hong Kong's next chief executive are over and the voting begins tomorrow.

There wasn't much mudslinging unless you call Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's husband having to come out and deny he had a mistress digging up dirt a mini scandal.

On Friday her rival John Tsang Chun-wah had an open double-decker bus roam around Hong Kong spouting his campaign slogans and in the evening ended in a huge rally in Central by City Hall.

He gave a passionate speech that appealed to several thousand people who showed up.

Carrie Lam's last day on the campaign trail

"Most of you here don't have votes, but still I yearn for your support. Without your support, how would there be any meaning even if I win all Election Committee votes?"

Tsang definitely came across as the every man to the middle class -- oh wait -- his definition is that they drink coffee and watch French movies. And probably eat from food trucks.

But does anyone remember he was conspicuously absent during the Occupy protests? What does he have to say about that? Does he really represent us? Or is he filling the void that Lam can't be bothered to, or isn't capable of doing because she has no clue where to buy toilet paper?

Meanwhile there are reports that on paper Lam has secured 750 votes for tomorrow, but Tsang believes a good chunk of those votes could at the last minute switch to him, seeing as he has a greater popularity with the public than she does.

While public opinion does matter to a degree, Beijing has strongly hinted it wants Lam to become the city's next leader.

Is Tung Chee-hwa showing who his preferred candidate is?

From former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa giving her a bear hug early on, to senior Chinese officials having meetings with some of the Election Committee in Shenzhen that its preferred candidate was Lam, it's quite obvious she is expected to win tomorrow.

Then why even bother having this "small circle" election, when only less than 1,200 people get to vote?

If this is Beijing's idea of a "democracy", we want no part of it, which is why the pan-democrats voted down the electoral reform. While everyone would be able to vote, they would only be able to choose from approved candidates by Beijing.

It's kind of a no-win situation for Hong Kong -- Beijing will always insist it get things its way. There are no compromises.

Protests have been planned tomorrow if and when Lam wins... maybe that's enough to scare voters into putting their money on Tsang. While he has the popular vote, would he have Beijing's blessing?

We will find out tomorrow...

Out on the Hustings

Carrie Lam's husband (left) denies having any extramarital affairs in the UK

The race to become the next chief executive of Hong Kong is well underway, and all three candidates are out on the hustings trying to shore up as many votes as possible for the March 26 election.

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's husband has already come out to quash rumours that he has a mistress in Britain. Lam Siu-por was asked by Citizen News portal if he had had any affairs before, to which he replied: "I can tell you all that I have no such problems. I have a very close relationship with Mrs Lam."

What kind of question is that?! If there were any pictures or videos of Lam Siu-por with another woman then maybe the media would be justified in asking that, but to ask that outright is bizarre.

Pan-democrats already vow to vote for John Tsang

He had told Apple Daily that such rumours probably arose because he spent so much time in the UK looking after their two sons while she was working in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile the pan-democrats on the Election Committee have decided en masse to put all their 326 votes towards Lam's rival John Tsang Chun-wah. While that's a nice gesture, he would still need 275 votes to win.

All of his nominations were from the pan-democratic camp so he'll have to work hard to get some pro-establishment votes...

Although Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee is out of the race, she is still focusing her energy on criticizing Lam as running a "shallow campaign".

"[The campaign] is insincere, making people feel that it is a facade," Ip said.

Regina Ip continues to attack Carrie Lam in the media

Ouch.

Ip added she felt Lam would not govern Hong Kong well even if she had 800 votes.

"It's too simplistic to say a high vote count could result in effective governance. It is ignorant of the deep-seated problems facing Hong Kong," she said.

Sounds like someone is either a sore loser, or is trying to prove someone is a paper tiger, or trying to piss off Beijing for not cutting her losses earlier.

The next three weeks are going to have a lot of fodder for people to chew on...

Corruption Begets Salacious Tale

The party's over for Ding Qingping who was extradited back to China

A trickle of Chinese fugitives are being repatriated back to the motherland as part of Operation Skynet, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption.

This tale you're about to read reeks of gobs of money, sex and blackmail.

Ding Qingping started out as a small contractor, but became a big player in the property sector after starting Zhonggang Group in 2003. The company developed real estate projects in several cities in Zhejiang, including Hangzhou, Ningbo, Yiwu and Jinhua.

In order to raise money for a project in Jinhua, Ding secured bank loans worth as much as 200 million yuan and took another 90 million yuan from individual borrowers, according to the Qianjiang Evening News.

However, Ding was not able to pay the high interest.

On September 28, 2008, he sent all his employees on a holiday in Hainan province, took the company's money and boarded a flight from Shanghai to Canada with his wife, leaving behind his huge debts and an unfinished high-rise in Zhejiang province.

In Canada he obtained residency through an immigration investment scheme. But then he ran out of money and then got vindictive.

He began contacting his mistresses -- note more than one -- back in China, asking to meet him in hotels in Hong Kong and elsewhere, where he secretly taped their sexual encounters and the blackmailed them for money, the report said.

In 2011, mainland police issued a red notice to Interpol requesting member countries to locate and arrest Ding.

He was finally caught in Spain in December, and then earlier this month, a Spanish court agreed to the Chinese authorities' extradition request and was just sent back to China recently.

Jackie Collins (left) would have loved this tale, right?

While it's game over for Ding, we have to admit extorting money from his several mistresses is surely creative. One wonders what his wife thought of his scheme.

In light of this incident, we mourn the passing of Jackie Collins, who made a name for herself writing titillating tales of sex, money and power.

Surely she would have found stories like this perfect for novel fodder... and they're apparently real!