Last Dinner of 2020

The Red Pepper Restaurant closed its doors December 31

 

One of the South China Morning Post's most loyal advertising clients is The Red Pepper Restaurant which serves Sichuan cuisine in Causeway Bay.

Practically every day it had a small ad in the paper with a picture of its signature sizzling prawns in chilli sauce.

However a few days ago I found out it was closing on December 31 because of the pandemic and decided my last meal for 2020 would be from this restaurant.

What's left of the dining area of the restaurant

Many other places have closed this year and admittedly I only know of the more expensive ones, like Pierre, Cafe Gray Deluxe, Nectar, John Anthony, Brickhouse, Craftsteak, Olive, Old Bailey, Jimmy's Kitchen, and Boathouse in Stanley.

Some of the above spaces are being changed into new concepts, or have already changed, in a way signalling the evolution of Hong Kong's dining scene.

I also went to Kwun Tong to see Hop Hing Noodle's customers line up to get their last fill of braised beef brisket and noodles, and now The Red Pepper Restaurant that admittedly catered more to non-Chinese diners, but had pretty authentic Sichuan dishes.

While the owner owns the restaurant space, the social-distancing restrictions does not make it financially viable to keep the place open, hiring many staff and cooks even though they have been there for years. 

The sad thing is that the restaurant has been around since 1971, when there were only a handful of norther Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong and the owner's father decided to bet his money there was a market for spicy Chinese food.

Mapo tofu, sizzling prawns, pea shoots and rice

The outside facade of The Red Pepper Restaurant is so striking -- you can't miss it. It looks like a kitsch Chinese place, the facade complete with red columns, turquoise Chinese-tiled roof, and green tiled "windows".

Inside the orange table cloths were gone with chairs around them with no one sitting in them, but the Chinese lantern light fixtures are still hanging from the ornate ceiling.

We ordered a few things for our takeaway dinner since no dining in restaurants is allowed after 6pm: those best-selling prawns, along with ma po tofu, and stirfried pea shoots with garlic, and some rice.

Not long after the order was filled and we took the food back to our office nearby to eat. The prawns were huge, and admittedly would have been better on a hot platter, but they were still meaty and delicious.

The mapo tofu was as I remembered it -- silky tofu cubes in a chilli sauce that had a touch of Sichuan peppercorns for a mildly numbing sensation. That's what makes this dish so addictive. It goes perfectly with rice.

And to balance things out the pea shoots were delicious, punctuated by the finely diced garlic.

The restaurant's old school menu

Depending on the pandemic, the owner may reopen the restaurant in six months, but most of the time when they say the closure is temporary, it usually is permanent.

For example, Jimmy's Kitchen closed earlier in the year with the promise of opening by summer and it still hasn't happened.

However, the owner of The Red Pepper Restaurant hinted that perhaps he would only focus on online orders for takeaway, but unless that happens, that may have been the last time eating those crunchy prawns and smooth but spicy tofu. 

The other interesting famous trivia about this restaurant was that it was one of the places Bruce Lee shot a film he directed, starred and produced called Game of Death. A fight scene with NBA basketball player Kareem Abdul Jabbar was shot in there in 1972, but the film was never completed because Lee died the following year.

 

 

Northern Dishes in Macau

Guests can watch their food being prepared in Beijing Kitchen

Beijing Kitchen in the Grand Hyatt Macau is a consistent restaurant in terms of food quality, pity about the service being sporadic. Nevertheless we had a good lunch here sampling several dishes before I went back to Hong Kong.

Green bean noodle with shredded chicken and sesame sauce

Some highlights: The jellyfish with sliced cucumber, grated garlic and aged malt vinegar was crunchy and refreshing, and we quite liked the green bean noodle with shredded chicken, chilli and sesame sauce, or at least I liked it and finished the leftovers.

The main event, the Peking Duck was presented table side and the chef immediately launched into carving it. He first gave us a small plate of just the skin that you dip into sugar and boy does that melt in the mouth! Quite amazing to try, but one piece is enough.

Then came the duck slices, some with a bit of the skin with visible fat underneath, some just meat. The steamed pancakes were thin, but stuck together and required some dexterity with the chopsticks to be able to daintily extract them from the bamboo steamer without ripping them.

Deep-fried chicken with chillis and peanuts

Condiments included pureed garlic, thinly sliced scallions and cucumbers with the sweet plum sauce. But overall the verdict was the duck was "too ducky", a bit too gamey for some people's tastes. I felt it didn't have much taste and needed the condiments to perk it up.

I suggested we order the panfried pork dumplings with yellow chives and they arrived in a delicate formation, bottom up with a web-like connection holding them all together. The dumplings themselves were crispy on the outside, and very juicy inside. So good.

Pretty presentation of panfried dumplings with yellow chives

For a spicy kick, the deep-fried chicken with chilli and peanut hit the spot. This is not gong bao ji ding, but small pieces of chicken that are deep-fried and then stir-fried again with dried chillis and Sichuan peppercorns for that numbing feeling.

Another impressive-looking dish is the crispy mandarin fish in sweet and sour sauce. It was covered in small mango cubes that were a nice complement to the thick sauce. The fish was very meaty, but didn't have much flavour, hence the sweet and slightly tart sauce. We really did finish every part of the fish in the end.

The last time I ate here was a year ago for a quick lunch just before the announcement of who got stars in the Michelin Guide Hong Kong and Macau. I just might do the same thing again in a few weeks' time. And having just eaten here, I already have in mind what I'd like to eat next time.

Peking duck, anyone?

Beijing Kitchen
1/F, Grand Hyatt Macau
City of Dreams
Estrada do Istmo, Cotai
Macau
(853) 8868 1930

Zhang Daqian's Masterful Style

On Route Switzerland-Austria, 1965

 

This afternoon I managed to catch the last day of a special exhibition of Chinese painter Zhang Daqian's work at Sotheby's Hong Kong. This year marks the 120th anniversary of the artist's birthday.

Dunhuang painting, 1942

Entitled "Zhang Daqian: The Master", the show features nearly 60 works from the artist's family and prominent private collections, many of these pieces either rarely or never before seen in public. Many of them are works that he gave to his daughter, Chang Hsueh-liang.

When I arrived at Sotheby's in One Pacific Place in Admiralty around 3pm, the place was already packed with people of various ages, eager to examine the artist's paintings and calligraphy. Strangely not all the works were captioned in English which were otherwise very helpful for me to further understand the paintings.

Nevertheless the pieces show an array of Zhang's styles that ranged from intricate line drawings to his famous splash ink paintings that verge on abstraction. He definitely pushed Chinese painting forward, still keeping with traditional philosophy, but very contemporary at the same time.

Zhang was born in 1899 in Neijiang, Sichuan province and learned traditional Chinese painting from several teachers, including his mother. He copied the works of ancient masters, refining his skills in painting landscapes, birds and flowers, and figures.

In the early 1940s he went to Dunhuang, Gansu province for three years, copying the Buddhist grotto paintings that deeply inspired him to learn more about art from the Tang dynasty. His observations of Tang-dynasty figures were later integral to developing his style.

The lotus is a favourite subject for Zhang, this painted in 1973

However, because of the impending revolution in China, Zhang left China in 1949 and went to live in places like Argentina, Brazil, California, and Taiwan. He became exposed to modern Western art developments, like the Abstract Expressionists, and even met Pablo Picasso. It was then that he began developing the splash ink style and using vivid mineral colours.

The exhibition has Zhang's line paintings from when he was in Dunhuang. There's a dynamic painting of a girl dancing with ribbons and it comes alive with elegance and grace. Another shows a woman presenting an offering in a flowing robe.

A particularly impressive painting is called Spring Clouds Amid Autumn Landscape done in 1948. He gave this painting to a friend of his (he had many friends he gifted with art) who turned 50 years old, and this particular painting is so detailed it's mind-boggling to think he painted every single pine needle on the trees and every wave in the sea. Not only does it show his attention to detail, but also his ability to paint so finely.

And of course Zhang is well known for his lotus paintings using the splash-ink style. The leaves are lively from his large brushstrokes, and yet anchored by the deliberate lotus flower stems that are detailed with dots on them. It's more about the leaves than the flowers themselves.

A screen of a landscape painting for Zhang's daughter

There is a screen that he gifted to his daughter Chang when she was getting married. It features an abstract landscape that spreads across several panels. Chang wrote that her father seemed sad about her leaving home soon and it took him a long time to finish the screen, as if hoping that if he didn't finish it, she wouldn't leave. But eventually he did finish it and her brother brought it over for her wedding.

The landscape paintings -- of places outside of China are very interesting because they are painted in a Chinese ink brush style, though viewers are encouraged to use their imagination. One called On Route Switzerland-Austria looks more like a Chinese landscape, but it has a brilliant colouring from the blue-green palette, evoking greenery, but also there is contrast from a waterfall in the distance that creates a giant mist further down, or are they clouds? that create a backdrop for the chalets on the mountains.

A woman Zhang painted that's printed on the foam of a coffee

What a treat to see all these paintings. I also got a cup of (cold) coffee -- with one of Zhang's paintings printed on the foam! A few of us took pictures of each other's coffee cups. One woman didn't want to drink her coffee to ruin her print-out of a woman's face. Eventually she did drink it...

Spicy Hot at Shisen Hanten

The signature stewed fish fillet in super spicy broth!

An ex-colleague I used to work with in Beijing has been working in Singapore for three years now and when I told him I was going to visit, he suggested we go to a restaurant he quite likes.

It's called Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro, a two-star Michelin restaurant -- that retained its two stars a few days ago -- featuring Sichuan cuisine cooked by a Japanese chef.

 

The dining room is rather quiet with many chandeliers

It's located on the top floor of Mandarin Orchard Singapore, a snazzy building along Orchard Road, the Rodeo Drive of the Lion City.

We were greeted on one floor, and then walk down the stairs into the dining area that's very large, dim and lit by large chandeliers.

The restaurant was started back in 1958 by Chen Kemin, who, according to the menu's introduction, is considered to be the "Father of Szechwan cuisine" in Japan.

The salted egg fish skin were crispy but quite oily

The reins were passed on to the eldest son, Chen Kenichi, who was best known as Iron Chef Chinese in the original TV show, Iron Chef. You may remember he was the one who wore a yellow Chinese jacket with black frog buttons on it.

Probably because of his fame, Chen Kenichi was able to expand the business outside of Japan. The branch in Singapore opened in 2014 with now the third generation, Chen Kentaro as executive chef. And since the Michelin guide has been in Singapore, the restaurant has retained its two stars for three years in a row.

To start our meal we had some salted egg fish skin. It's delicious, very crispy, but a tad oily. We munched on them throughout our meal. 

 

Something not spicy, vegetables with three eggs in broth

Next came the stewed fish fillet in super-spicy Szechwan pepper sauce (S$38 per portion). Indeed the black cast iron pot arrived covered in dried red chillis that signaled it would be a red hot dining experience.

One of the waitresses used a ladle to wade into the chillis to find the pieces of fish to put into our bowls. It came with bean sprouts and slices of cucumber. The fish was perfectly cooked, and surprisingly not too spicy, while the bean sprouts were too hot for me and I must have drank an entire tea pot of chrysanthemum tea in a pathetic attempt to cool down.

The fish was firm, not flaky and had the subtle mala taste, while the sprouts overwhelmed my taste buds.

 

The signature mapo tofu that was spicy with a mala numbness

To help me balance out the spiciness, we ordered stir-fried seasonal vegetable with trio of eggs in superior stock (S$22), which was basically potato leaves mixed with thousand year old egg, salty egg and egg whites in an orangey broth. Perhaps this dish wasn't quite finessed, but for me was a welcome respite from the spice.

Finally another signature dish, Chen's mapo doufu, featuring stir-fried tofu in hot Szechwan pepper-flavoured meat sauce (S$26 per portion). This was also fantastic, the silken tofu combined with the spicy meat sauce -- I mean really spicy meat sauce to have that mala taste that numbed the tongue.

In the end I managed to eat as much as I could without needing to call the fire brigade, and it made me wonder why the Japanese would be interested in mastering such a cuisine, when something technically difficult like Cantonese or dim sum might be more interesting for them.

Nevertheless, it was quite enjoyable, though the atmosphere seemed too quiet for a Sichuan restaurant where chillis inspire people to be hot-blooded, no? Oh wait we're in a Japanese restaurant...

Shisen Hanten

Orchard Wing Level 35

Mandarin Orchard Singapore

333 Orchard Road

Singapore 238867
(65) 6831 6262

www.shisenhanten.com.sg

Two Hong Kong Reporters Attacked in Four Days

This morning Now TV's Chui Chun-ming was violently handcuffed by police

In the span of four days, two Hong Kong journalists were attacked for doing their jobs -- reporting on stories in China.

The first happened on May 12 when Chan Ho-fai, a reporter with i-Cable News tried to cover the 10th anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake in Dujiangyan, near the provincial capital of Chengdu.

He was kicked and beaten by two men when he saw a group of men surrounding a car with a Commercial Radio reporter inside.

"I saw a group of men surrounding a car with a Commercial Radio reporter inside. When I wanted to take a picture with my phone, two men suddenly grabbed me by each arm and dragged me away," recalled Chan.

i-Cable's Chan Ho-fai gets a strange apology from two men

He was dragged from the scene to a nearby river where he was repeatedly kicked and kneed in the stomach at least three times.

"When I kept calling for help, they kept kicking me in the head, and kneed me in the stomach... They just kept kicking and wouldn't let me go," he said in a video recalling the incident.

It lasted between five to 10 minutes before officials from the city's propaganda department came to separate them.

Chan said the two men would not reveal their identities, and one of them said they were from the area.

Meanwhile today's incident happened this morning around 9am when Chui Chun-ming, a cameraman for Now TV was covering the Beijing Lawyers Association's hearing that had to do with human rights lawyer Xie Yanyi.

On Now TV's own footage, Chui was held down by at least four people and then handcuffed by two uniformed police officers, but not without Chui's left temple bleeding.

Chan reporting from Sichuan in this screenshot

Just before the incident, Now TV had approached Xie, but were stopped by officers. The crew cooperated with police and gave them their press passes and ID cards.

Chui felt the officers were holding their press passes and ID cards for a long time; when he asked for their info back, he was violently forced to the ground and taken away.

Xie's wife, Yuan Shanshan, who was there, said Chui was beaten by "five or six policemen," while dozens of officers stand by.

"The policemen asked [Chui] for his ID and promised to let him in after checking the documents. But after the examination, the officer refused to return the ID and pressed him to the ground when he asked for it," Yuan recalled.

"It was total chaos. Five or six policemen beat the reporter, hit his head until he was bleeding and forcibly dragged him into a police car. My husband [Xie] was beaten and dragged into a police car as well when he tried to stop the officers from taking the reporter away," Yuan said.

At 11am, Chui was taken to a local hospital by Beijing police. There he was uncuffed and his wound was examined. Two hours later he was released.

Speaking to Hong Kong media after his release, Chui said he was forced to sign a "statement of repentance".

Cheung the government was concerned for journalists' safety

"[An officer] insisted I was wrong and told me to admit it. He said if I don't, I will lose my press pass," Chui said.

The statement claimed Chui had tried to "grab" his press pass from an officer. Chui admitted he was emotional at the time, but denied any physical contact.

Although he initially refused to sign the statement, Chui said he "had no choice" but to sign it, as he was not allowed to make contact with his company at the time.

In Chan's case his employer i-Cable said in a statement the company was "enraged" by what had happened, and called the incident "unacceptable", while Now TV lashed out at Beijing police, calling the incident "unreasonable and violent obstruction" of its reporting crew.

On Saturday, Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip Tak-kuen said the city's leadership was "very concerned about the [i-Cable] incident".

Later that evening the two men were suddenly brought to Chan and apologized, saying they had lost family members in the earthquake. When asked to which family members they lost, one of the men gave a strange answer, saying they were from the surrounding area and were neighbours.

In Chui's case, acting chief executive Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said the Hong Kong government was concerned about the personal safety and freedom of Hong Kong reporters working on the mainland, and expected no more incidents to happen.

What is going on? What have these reporters done wrong that requires them to be violently handled? Were these two incidents meant to scare Hong Kong media into obedience?

It's shocking and terrifying to see any reporters being treated this way, and the Hong Kong government must work with the central government to ensure Hong Kong journalists are not harmed. How is there going to be any trust in China when they are roughed up like this?

Sichuan Earthquake 10 Years On

Many buildings collapsed during the magnitude 8 earthquake in 2008

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake that killed at least 87,000 and injured 370,000

I distinctly remember that day. I was in Beijing working in the office on the sixth floor of a low-rise building and at 2.28pm, I suddenly felt woozy, like I had drank something strong and was feeling the effects in my head.

Except I wasn't getting drunk, but feeling the powerful reverberations of the earthquake that was magnitude 8 on the Richter scale, the epicenter in Wenchuan county, in Sichuan province.

A memorial clock perpetually stops at 2.28pm

The following days and nights were constant updates of the horrific scenes of utter devastation, with many buildings leveled to the ground. It was discovered 7,444 schools were destroyed in the quake, while other buildings nearby were still standing.

Many of the dead were children (over 5,400), which led many grieving parents to ask about the construction of these institutions -- to them they seemed like "tofu schools", buildings that were shoddily built.

Premier at the time Wen Jiabao promised to launch an investigation to find out the truth, but 10 years on parents are still waiting. They are angry and disappointed not much has been revealed, let alone not much compensation, which probably makes them feel there's some kind of cover up.

Ai Weiwei began his activism with the Sichuan earthquake

The tragedy also sparked citizen reporting -- as many victims were not named at first, some people like Tang Zuoren and artist Ai Weiwei created their own activism with an army of volunteers by trying to find out all the names of those who died.

At first a large number of names were missing, but thanks to the efforts of volunteer       activists, as many people they could find were accounted for. I remember years later seeing a piece of work where Ai set up a small room and inside the walls were covered with computer-generated charts of the student's name, age, and sex.

It was a stark and factual reminder of a tragedy.

This marked the beginning of Ai's activism in China, that later led him to have a brain hemorrhage thanks to Chinese police beating his head because Ai dared to try to find the truth.

Shoes still lying around 10 years later.

Also this was the last time that reporters in China could go outside their city, county, province to report on a major story. Perhaps because there were so many negatives -- the roads were blocked and hard to get heavy equipment there, the chances of finding people alive were less apparent with each passing day.

As a result, since then, when tragedies occur, all domestic media outlets must use official state media, particularly Xinhua stories. No one can do independent reporting anymore.

Meanwhile the government quickly turned this into a national tragedy for propaganda -- with official days of mourning, and there was so much money donated. Did it really go to the victims? We don't know.

The government can't stop people from remembering this incident, But what happens from now on? Will the authorities finally tell the truth of what happened to the people who seemed to have died unnecessarily? What comfort can leaders give them?

Tearful Reunion

There was intense media coverage of the tearful reunion

Yesterday was an emotional day for three people -- two parents who lost their daughter 24 years ago were amazingly reunited.

Kang Ying, now 27, made an emotional journey to see her father Wang Mingqing and mother Liu Chengying yesterday afternoon with lots of media attention.

Xinhua News filmed the event live as Kang rode a special shuttle bus for over 40 minutes with her husband and two young children, and reporters were constantly interviewing her. She seemed emotionally exhausted, crying periodically that she was finally going to see her birth parents.

Kang Ying (right) hugs her mother Liu Chengying (left)

When she was three years old she went missing in 1994 from her parents' fruit stall in Chengdu, Sichuan. She was later adopted by a single man who lived 20 kilometres away. She was told at a young age that she was adopted and wondered who her real parents were.

Her adopted father drowned when she was 10, but his family raised her and then four years ago she got married and moved with her husband to Panshi in northeastern Jilin province.

Meanwhile father Wang did not give up -- he became a taxi driver in 2015 in the hopes that his daughter might be his customer one day. He also distributed flyers to his customers and asked them to help spread the word of his search for her on social media.

Then from news reports, a police officer who specializes in drawing portraits, read about the story and drew a composite of what he thought the daughter would look like now, based on the parents' facial features as well as a photo of Kang's sister.

Father Wang Mingqing with posters of his daughter

Kang saw the portrait and felt that it could be her.

"It was like I was under a spell during those days," she said. "I kept looking at those reports and the drawing. Like the reports said, I have a scar on my forehead, and I feel nausea when I cry."

She took a DNA test on Sunday and then contacted Wang to say she was his daughter. 

When Kang saw her mother, she cried out, "I'm a child who has a mother. I'm not motherless." Meanwhile mother Liu tearfully said, "It's all my fault", while her husband pushed away the crowd of reporters and onlookers to finally hug his daughter.

What an intense reunion! There was so much media attention that it wasn't fair to the family for something so private to be so public. 

"I really need time to absorb the change. Everything's happened so fast. It's like the people in my dreams have walked into reality and are standing in front of me," Kang said.

Hopefully the family will have some private time to get reacquainted with each other again. But this story really is a miracle. Many children in China who are kidnapped or stolen don't know they are adopted, or have no idea where their parents are because they were too young to know their parents' names or addresses and such. 

There is more attention on these children who were snatched from their parents, and hopefully through more awareness and DNA testing, more of them will find their birth parents.

With so much media attention on Kang's plight, perhaps the government wants to show that it played a crucial role in her finding her parents? Does this fall into Xi Jinping's China Dream? A harmonious society perhaps?

More happy endings please!

Clockenflap 2017: Day One

The 10th edition of Clockenflap kicked off this evening in Central

It's that time again -- Clockenflap, a three-day music festival that kicked off tonight at Central Harbourfront for the second year.

The chilled out DJ Kulu

It was unusually hot today -- 27 degrees and temperatures are expected to plunge to 19 tomorrow and Sunday with some rain patches.

We got to meet a gentle soul this afternoon -- the legendary DJ Kulu -- yep that's his name.

He's from Hong Kong and went to the UK in the 1960s to learn graphic design but ended up in fashion photography instead. He did quite well for himself and grew to have a passion for jazz.

In the 1970s he started DJ-ing. He regularly held parties once a month in his photographic studio and said one time his partner went to India and didn't come back -- so Kulu just started spinning the discs.

He came back to Hong Kong in 1999 and has been seen around town with his trademark looks Chinese robes, straw fedora and Chinese goatee playing at various gigs. He's such a gentleman too, so polite and chilled.

Higher Brothers rapping under the PLA gaze...!

In contrast, Higher Brothers, a hip hop group from Chengdu, Sichuan province was getting the crowd excited as they rapped in Mandarin and a few words in English.

The most ironic thing was them rapping provocative lyrics with the PLA or People's Liberation Army building behind them. I wondered if they could hear what they were rapping...

Zhang Daqian's Dunhuang Years

Mother and Daughter donors of five dynasties (1941-43)

A colleague told me about an exhibition of Chinese artist Zhang Daqian's work in Macau -- and by the way it would end on Sunday -- and so I made an effort this morning to check it out.

When I got to Shun Tak Ferry Terminal just after 10am, it was a zoo, with long queues for the Jetfoil. My only hope was to get tickets from a subcontracted ticket office and after quickly going through Immigration, I was able to get on the 10.30am ferry. Phew!

Yaksha Demons of Northern Wai Dynasty (1941-43)

After I arrived I took the MGM shuttle bus to the hotel, where I then walked a few blocks to the Macao Museum of Art.

The exhibition was located on the fourth floor and free admission too!

Some 100 works were borrowed from the Sichuan Museum, with a particular focus on his drawings during and after his visits to the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Gansu province.

He spent almost three years there, from 1941 to 1944, reproducing 309 cave paintings that feature Buddhist figures. Experts believe that his style of painting, particularly figurative changed significantly, making his visit to Dunhuang an important milestone in his career.

The Mogao Caves are known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes, made up of 492 temples located along the silk road. The caves have the best example of Buddhist art that spans 1,000 years.

Detail of Manjushri Boddhisttva (1941-43)

When he exhibited his work in 1944 in Chengdu and Chongqing, many of the viewers had never seen this kind of art before, as it wasn't even mentioned in the bible of Chinese painting, Painting Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden of the Qing dynasty.

Afterwards Zhang became interested in doing more research on the history of Chinese painting, looking at works from the Six Dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties.

The preface of the exhibition explains he learned painting from his mother, and that Zhang once said copying others is the first step to learning how to paint. He admired Shi Tao's paintings and they were copied so well that it was hard to tell the duplicate from the original.

Zhang is considered one of the grand masters in Chinese art because he excelled in painting works from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and could paint in various styles: gongli (meticulous brushwork), xieyi (freehand brushwork), ink wash painting, blue and green landscapes, and jinbi (landscapes with gold outlines).

He believed learning painting is 70 percent hard work and 30 percent in born gifts and abilities.

Detail of Su Shi in bamboo hat and clogs (1947)

The collection of paintings shown at the museum range from sketches to unfinished and finished paintings painted before, during or after his visit to Dunhuang. Some of the sketches are so detailed, it's hard to imagine they are just line drawings and have yet to be filled in. He made those drawings when he was in the caves, copying them. There are some on paper, others on silk.

Others have the figures drawn and painted in, and the only thing missing are the eyes, or the figures are drawn out in thick brushstrokes and sadly won't be finished at all.

One can see the progression he makes after having drawn over 300 works at Dunhuang and then seeing his subsequent paintings -- the figures seem more confident and allow the brush to freely express itself instead of being tightly controlled.

Also in the exhibition are other paintings around the same time or before, some of women looking wistfully outside the window or holding a plum blossom branch looking very elegant and serene.

As if excelling in painting wasn't enough, Zhang also carved his own seals, two of which are presented in this show. He apparently made many friends who were seal carvers, and they gave him seals as a sign of their alliance, and some of those are shown in the exhibition.

For me, it was an eyeopener to see what Zhang had done in the early 1940s, before he became known for his ink splash paintings, and to see that he had such a keen interest in Buddhist art.

It also helps me better appreciate the Mogao cave paintings -- as I will see some of them in person very soon...

The Art of Zhang Daqian

Macao Museum of Art

Avenue Xian Xing Hai

Macau

www.mam.gov.mo

Fact of the Day: 61 Million Left-Behind Children

There are 61 million left-behind children like these ones in China

In China, the latest survey by the National Health and Family Planning Commission reveals there's a staggering 61 million left-behind children, a third of them younger than 17, who are not raised by their parents.

The mothers and fathers have gone to mostly coastal cities to find work to send money home and only see their children once or maybe twice a year.

The lack of hukou or residence permit in big cities prevents parents from bringing their children with them because they don't have access to decent housing, schooling and health care.

Many are raised by grandparents or relatives in hometowns

So these children are left to mostly grandparents or relatives to care for, and there are many sad cases of them dying.

Last June, four left-behind children from the same family, ranging in ages from give to 13, committed suicide together by swallowing pesticide in Bijie, Guizhou province. And in November 2012, five boys died from carbon monoxide poisoning after starting a charcoal fire to keep warm inside a dumpster.

Experts believe these incidents happened because the parents were not around to raise them.

But at the same time, where else can these parents go to try to make a better life for their families? Provinces like Anhui, Henan and Sichuan are the sources for the most migrant workers, as 44 percent of rural children in these areas are left behind, way above the national average of 35.6 percent.

What is the central government's response?

In February, the State Council, China's cabinet, issued a guideline to local authorities to improve the physical and psychological health of such children. But there are no details on exactly how they would do that. And would Beijing come to check on the the local authorities to see if the have implemented any programs to benefit left-behind children?

They only have access to basic education which isn't enough

They are the most neglected people in society next to orphans.

Sixty-one million children is not a number to dismiss -- it's almost the population of Britain. And yet they barely get basic education and health care, let alone the emotional support they need to grow up to be confident and relatively happy people with decent jobs.

The government needs to do more for these children, but anything effective and immediate doesn't seem to be a priority. Beijing likes to parrot how it has lifted more than 800 million people out of of poverty.

But what about these 61 million children? They are the next generation who deserve at least a chance to thrive.

Carrie Lam: Mixed Signals

So what's the deal? Will she or won't she run for Chief Executive in 2017?

There was wide spread speculation that Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor would run for her boss' job next year, but she wanted to quash the talk yesterday, saying that kind of conjecture was a waste of time and that she had made her stance "crystal clear".

However, she did not categorically spell out her intentions when she spoke to reporters ahead of her trip to Vietnam.

"Some people have thought I am very ambitious to run for the post of chief executive... since I made a duty visit to Sichuan in May," she said. "But I want to tell these people that they are wasting their efforts as my stance over this issue has been crystal clear."

Those who intended to sow discord between senior government officials and civil servants would only bring more conflict to society," Lam said.

During that Sichuan trip, Lam did not reply to questions if she would run for CE, saying she would answer the question 12 or 13 months later. This compares to her statement in January when she said she would not stay in the administration, would not run for the top job, nor participate in politics after the end of her term next June.

So will she or won't she?

Guess the speculation continues...

One Cool Pole Dancing Granny

Dai is very happy to have taken up pole dancing for fun and fitness

We love this story about a 69-year-old grandmother from Chengdu, Sichuan province, who's also a pretty damn good pole dancer.

Dai Dali has made a name for herself, performing on CCTV, and even represented China in Asia's Got Talent, where she made it to the semi-finals. In June she won an award for a pole dancing competition, and since then has had lots of media attention.

Dai attends classes regularly and even has a pole at home

After she retired from working in a bookstore, Dai liked to practice folk dancing in a gym. It was next door to a pole dance studio. She always passed by but never really thought about it. Then one day five years ago, she walked into the studio and asked the instructor if she could learn. The answer? "Of course you can."

She says she didn't know much about pole dancing -- especially its sexual connotations -- she just thought it would be a good way to exercise.

"I'd never danced on a pole before so I wanted to give it a try," Dai says. "When the instructor let me have a go I started to learn. Gradually I learned how to climb the pole and turn around on it. I was very happy to be able to do that."

When asked what her family thinks about her pole dancing, she says they are all supportive. "My husband minds his own business. He likes to play mahjong and we rarely interfere with one another's hobbies," Dai explains. "My 12-year-old grandson is a very loyal fan of mine. I'll show him the new poses I've learned and he always takes pictures of me dancing. My sister used to think it was too dangerous and asked me to stop practicing. But after seeing my performance, she was very excited and also very proud of me."

Check her out in this Asia's Got Talent clip:

Dai has seen a lot of benefits from pole dancing, reporting that the inflammation and swelling in her left wrist has gone down considerably, thus improving her health and fitness level. She loves pole dancing so much that she's even installed a pole in her home to practice every other day for about 10 minutes.

Two to three times a week Dai has pole dancing lessons that are about 90 minutes long. While the vast majority of the students are young women, she doesn't mind, saying: "I don't feel any different from them. I can learn some moves very quickly. I always forget my age."

We love Dai's attitude. She'd rather be dancing -- doing something she enjoys -- than waiting to die, she says. She'll be turning 70 in December, and one thing's for sure, Dai will continue swinging around the pole and having fun.

Lack of Trust Pervades

People remember the victims of the Tianjin blasts

In Hong Kong there's lots of skepticism of what is really being told about the Tianjin explosions, particularly the number of dead.

As of today the total is 104, but many question the figure, saying that because the blasts on Wednesday were the equivalent to 24 tonnes of TNT, that there should be dozens more if not hundreds who perished in the disaster.

But it sounds like crews are still trying to contain the fires and figure out what chemicals exploded and which ones are still left lying around in the massive warehouse. Apparently the records of the chemicals were destroyed in the blast -- a big lesson there -- and now the authorities are going through the tedious task of going through transport records.

However, relatives of loved ones who are missing after the blast want to know what happened. Today some tried to barge in on a press conference, but were unable to enter, and they could be heard shouting from outside.

Anxious relatives want to know where their loved ones are

"Nobody has told us anything, we're in the dark, there is no news at all," screamed a middle-aged woman, as she was dragged away by security personnel.

Earlier Tianjin residents wondered if the government is telling them the truth, saying the air was fine to breathe, but many reported having headaches and dizziness; some resorted to wearing masks to try to mitigate breathing in possibly toxic chemicals.

But now those who were living within 3km of the warehouse were told to evacuate the area because the winds changed direction from moving towards Bohai Bay, to now back inland.

Xinhua also reported seven or eight fresh blasts that caused new fires to break out at the facility, but did not give further details.

There was another bright spot today, after a firefighter was found alive yesterday, a many in his 40s was found in a shipping container, 50m from the blast "core zone".

Fires are still smouldering in the warehouse facility

Staff from sodium cyanide producers were brought to the site to best determine how to deal with the situation, and an army of 200 nuclear and biochemical experts from the Chinese military were deployed to the area.

Unless someone is an expert in chemical reactions and can easily analyze what chemicals were involved in the explosions, 200 experts aren't going to be of much help if they only know theoretical equations.

It will take several more days to figure out what just happened in this warehouse facility and also possibly find human remains of those missing.

If the government is not transparent about how the explosion happened and punish those involved, this will be yet another thorn in its side as it tries to brush the incident under the carpet, like Tiananmen Square, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the Wenzhou train collision in 2011 and now this.

How much more can people bear?

600 Days Later

Ai Weiwei's selfie with his passport finally in his hand

I follow Ai Weiwei on Instagram and was surprised to see a selfie of him with his passport.

He finally got it!

He wrote: "今天， 我拿到了护照。"

"Today, I received my passport."

Ai has been waiting 600 days for this day to come, when he was detained at Beijing International Airport trying to fly to Hong Kong in 2011.

After that he was taken away and detained for 81 days and prosecuted for tax evasion, a charge that he was convicted of and his studio was fined 2.4 million yuan in penalties and back taxes.

Some may remember that many ordinary people came by his home and folded bank notes into paper planes to fly into his property to help contribute to the fine.

He also later exhibited dioramas, scenes that showed him being detained, and his bare living quarters, how guards would stand close to him while he showered and went to the washroom.

Ai believes the trial for tax evasion was really to punish him for trying to investigate how many children died in the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008. It seems that a disproportionate number of young people were killed because of shoddy construction of schools there.

Today the 57-year-old explained that when the authorities took his passport away, they gave him no indication of when he would get it.

"I only can say why not? They have promised for the past four years to give it back. Now they finally give it to me. They always say it's in the process but I just need to be patient," he told The New York Times.

Being unable to travel severely restricted his ability to organize exhibitions abroad, but his army of staff have been able to help facilitate this. He was not allowed to show his work in China either, up until last month when he had his first solo exhibition in Beijing, a sign that things were looking up.

Ai plans to go to Berlin soon to see his six-year-old son, Ai Lao, who has been living there for the past year with his mother. The artist also plans to get a medical check-up, to follow up on the 2009 emergency brain surgery he had there after he was beaten in the head by the police in Chengdu.

Things are slowly getting back to normal for Ai, which must be a relief for him, but knowing his rebellious character, he will probably continue to criticize the government through his art, though perhaps in a more subtle way. We shall see.

Bagging the Big Tiger

Zhou Yongkang in court saying he will not appeal the verdict

Former security chief Zhou Yongkang's trial apparently came and went because a few hours ago it was announced he was handed a suspended life sentence -- ie life in prison.

The closed-door trial apparently began on May 22 at Tianjin No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, and only now was it explained that the trial was not open to the public because "some evidence of his crimes involved state secrets".

It wasn't really surprising Zhou would be jailed for life, but seeing him with completely white hair was a shock. Depriving him and other arrested leaders of black hair dye really transforms them into remorseful looking creatures, unlike their power-trip days.

Zhou is the highest official to be arrested, put on trial and now in prison, and was convicted on many charges, including graft abuse of power, and intentionally leaking state secrets.

For abuse of power, he was given a seven-year sentence, and four for leaking state secrets.

When it came to taking bribes, the court revealed he and his family had taken 129.7 million yuan worth of bribes from Zhou's close allies.

There was the 731,100 yuan from Jiang Jiemin, former head of the state owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and former chairman of the state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), where Zhou was the top official for a decade.

Then his son Zhou Bin and wife Jia Xiaoye also benefited handsomely, receiving 129 million yuan from other people, including a Sichuan businessman, a former mayor, and former party chief of a subsidiary of CNPC.

The court said Zhou had abused his power by asking Jiang and former Sichuan deputy party chief Li Chuncheng to funnel more than 2.13 billion yuan to his son and other businessmen. This was somehow calculated as a loss of 1.48 billion yuan to the Chinese economy.

Zhou also apparently had six classified documents, and gave five of them to a "qigong master", according to mainland media. Sounds like there will be more about this supposed master by the name of Cao Yongzheng.

The court spared Zhou the death penalty because it said he confessed to his crimes, pleaded guilty and apparently all the money taken has been accounted for and confiscated.

Really? Every single mao and fen were accounted for? Everyone must have squirreled it away and not spent it on anything, or perhaps they made so much money from that capital that it was easy to return the original amount...

Nevertheless, it's interesting how long Zhou has been in detention (since two years ago) and last July there was a formal announcement of an investigation into alleged abuse of power and corruption.

Now that the big tiger has been bagged, his associates are next. The chances of them being let go are very slim mainly because of their links with Zhou...

Catching a Tiger

Zhou Yongkang was finally formally criminally charged today in Tianjin

After waiting for months, the big news out of China today was former security czar Zhou Yongkang being formally charged with corruption, abuse of power, and intentionally leaking state secrets.

The charges were laid by prosecutors in Tianjin, signally the Supreme People's Procuratorate has finished its investigation and that the case will be heard there.

Zhou has been accused of taking bribes during his tenures as the vice general manager of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, provincial Communist Party chief in Sichuan, head of the Ministry of Public Security, and as chief of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

"[Zhou's] abuse of power has led to great losses of public funds and has done severe damage to national and public interests, causing adverse social impact," the Supreme People's Procuratorate said in a statement.

There were no further details about the allegations Zhou had intentionally leaked state secrets.

It was last July that the authorities announced Zhou was under investigation for alleged abuse of power and corruption which was a big bombshell, and ever since, China watchers have been waiting for the next phase.

Ling Jihua tried to protect himself by covering up son's death

This is the first time in decades that the Communist Party of China has broken its convention of not prosecuting retired leaders for alleged wrongdoing.

He was a former member of the then nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, the group of top leaders who run China, and he oversaw the state's security system, including police and courts. Zhou retired in 2012.

Since he was expelled from the CPC in December, state media began piling on hints of his criminal prosecution, that he was also alleged to have "exchanged power and money for sex", and even People's Daily described Zhou as a "traitor" to the party.

The Supreme People's Court's annual work report released last month said Zhou had "undermined the party's solidarity and engaged in political activities [not approved by the authorities]", a rare accusation that some analysts suggest indicates that Zhou might also face charges for political offenses.

Bo Xilai was an ally of Zhou's and is now in prison for life

There has been a tightening of the circle around Zhou for a while, with many of his associates detained for alleged graft. One of them is probably Ling Jihua, who tried to cover up his 23-year-old son's death when his Ferrari crashed into a pillar on Beijing's 4th Ring Road back in 2012. Zhou was the one who tried to help Ling senior stop local police from investigating the incident.

Another Zhou associate, Jiang Jiemin, who was then chief executive of China National Petroleum Corporation, was also involved in the cover up, paying millions of dollars to the two victims' families to keep quiet about the crash.

Fallen leader Bo Xilai was also affiliated with Zhou, who tried to support the former party chief of Chongqing to the end. But it was too late and Bo is now serving a life sentence. There were also allegations that Zhou attempted a "coup d'etat" which may be brought up later in the trial.

There is no court date set yet, but at least for now the stage is set for a showdown between the state and Zhou in the court room.

The BBC tried to ask people on the street in Shanghai what they thought of the motivations behind Zhou being charged, but no one would dare speculate. They probably know, but don't want to tell a western reporter what appears to be a political system that's rotten to the core.

Will Zhou's legal charges result in the end of the purges in the senior ranks of the party? It's hard to say but it demonstrates how much rot there is in the system, but also how determined the party is to get rid of it...