Surrealism Provokes with Arresting Images

Wolf Table shows the animal snarling at its tail

 

Yesterday my friend and I finally made it to "Mythologies: Surrealism and Beyond  -- Masterpieces from Centre Pompidou" at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. I say finally because two weeks ago we went on a Thursday and were surprised to find it is closed on Thursdays! 

In any event we were excited to see the exhibition, but we were soon in for a shock as surrealism explored the subconscious, repressed feelings, mythical animals and a lot of violence against women.

Max Ernst's sculpture with bull fight

The movement was founded in 1924 by French poet Andre Breton when he published the Surrealism Manifesto in Paris, which became the important centre of the movement. From there it spread all over the world, not only in literature, but also in visual arts, film, photography, as well as political thought, philosophy and social theory.

To set the scene of surrealism, the exhibition began with pictures of Paris by night, followed by other themes, such as chimera [fire-breathing monster], minotaur [half man, half bull], and acephale [headless].

One painting by Salvador Dali is in the show, called William Tell painted in 1930. Instead of the Swiss story of the father who risks his son's life by shooting the apple on his head with an arrow, he substitutes his father for castrating the artist, as he had castigated Dali for having an affair with a married woman.

There are a few sculptures in the exhibition, and they are all quite scary. One called Wolf Table by Victor Brauner features a wolf snarling at its own tail, but its body is a wooden table. It's quite jarring, to look at, the wolf or is it a fox? trapped in time looking fierce, and even the back legs of the table look similar to hind legs.

One work by Pablo Picasso is shown -- the debut cover of a magazine called Minotaure. The style of the drawing is very much Picasso, and thankfully the minotaur looks relatively happy, though it is holding a dagger in its right hand looking back at the viewer. 

Magritte's The Rape is disturbing

Another is an etching of a minotaur holding a champagne glass with a man as they enjoy the presence of naked women throwing themselves at them. Is it any wonder it is titled Bacchanal Scene with the Minotaur?

Spaniard Joan Miro also only has a painting shown here, The Bull Fight which is considered a seminal work featuring a textured background and an abstract representation of the bull.

Max Ernst's The King Playing with the Queen features the top half of a bull in an abstract sense, playing with large chess pieces. It was an interesting juxtaposition with a black and white film of a bull fight in Spain.

Rene Magritte was a famous for his painting of a man in a bowler hat with an apple covering his face. But at this show we have the disturbing image of what looks like a woman's face, but instead is her torso. Is it meant to look pleasant with its pastel palette? But the painting is called The Rape. It refers to his mother's suicide when he was 14 years old and he witnessed her body pulled out of the river, her nightgown covering her face, revealing her naked body.

Giacometti's Woman with Her Throat Cut

Another violent image is Alberto Giacometti's Woman with Her Throat Cut, a bronze sculpture of a woman with her legs spread out as she is being brutally murdered. It looks like the perpetrator could be a crustacean or an insect. It just looks disturbing all the same.

Interestingly there is one Jackson Pollock painting that isn't his abstract drip paintings, called The Moon-Woman Cuts the Circle. Earlier in his career the American artist was influenced by Miro and Picasso and was inspired by the idea of using the the unconscious as the source of art.

While it's interesting to see these works, particularly in a strange time like now during the pandemic, the vast majority of the art focus on violence against women. Are these really repressed feelings or was this a group of artists trying to outdo the other with more shocking images?

The show left us quite disturbed, but maybe that was the point as well? Hopefully the surrealism movement will not come back again in a big way. Much of what is going on in the real world is already too hard to comprehend...

Pollack's earlier surrealist painting

Mythologies: Surrealism and Beyond -- Masterpieces from Centre Pompidou

Until September 15

Hong Kong Museum of Art

10 Salisbury Road

Tsim Sha Tsui 

The Calm Before the Storm

The last hours before the national security law is enacted

There is a sense of uneasiness in the air... the reality that the national security law is coming down on Tuesday and there isn't much we can do about it without the threat of being arrested hanging over our heads.

The heavy-handed nature of how secretively and quickly this law has come about, encompassing any possible scenario shows the Party's determination of not messing about anymore, let alone depending on pro-establishment elites to get the job done.

The fact that even Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah don't even know the details of the legislation speaks volumes about the role of the Hong Kong government with regards to governing the city; they are just minions on a need-to-know basis.

Meanwhile the everyone else is hatching their plans. On the weekend my relatives bought a flat in Manchester, a place they have never visited before. They said there were a lot of people in the office in Jordan, snapping up whatever unit they could get their hands on.

Jimmy Lai says he is not fleeing Hong Kong

The flats, part of a new development, are being built and expected to be completed in early next year. While buying property doesn't secure citizenship, it is at least a place they can go to if they wish.

Some expatriate families are leaving, seeing the city in disarray and feeling that this is not a good place to raise children. It's understandable if you don't consider Hong Kong your home, but many of us do.

Apparently Chinese dissident Wang Dan has warned Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and Demosisto's Joshua Wong Chi-fung that the the Communists would get them first. Lai and Wong have stated separately on Twitter they are not going anywhere.

Talk about martyrdom.

Previously at the gym some middle-aged members were gleeful about the incoming legislation, that it would finally stop the protests; today there was not a mention of it. Perhaps they now see the implications of implementing such a law on Hong Kong, that it also applies to them?

Some people are sadly counting down the days until "freedom" is gone, others are defiant and won't let the law defeat them.

It's such a strange time to be here now, with a lot of uncertainty, all of us literally in the same boat.

Xinjiang women subjected to birth control

Hong Kong will now be divided into pre-national security law (pre-NSL) and post-NSL.

Heightening the stress levels today is the publication of a story that proves further repression in Xinjiang. Families with many children are punished, while women are forced to take birth control pills,  have IUDs inserted, or if they are pregnant to have abortions, all against their will. Some women have ended up sterile.

Previously the Chinese policy was that Han Chinese could only have one child, whereas ethnic minorities could have more than one. Now the government has twisted it to punish Muslims in Xinjiang for having more than one child, saying it is unfair for Han Chinese to have less children.

As a result the population of Muslims in Xinjiang has plunged significantly in recent years, in a bid to "control" them and possibly dilute them with more Chinese in the region.

Is this what will happen to Hong Kong?

Tonight's stunning sunset colours

This evening, there was the most amazing sunset. The colours were reflected on the clouds and the sky had a soft pink glow like a Monet painting that gave way to the dark blue night.

I had never understood what the phrase "achingly beautiful" meant until watching that sunset.

Sunsets are simple pleasures, but mean so much more when things are about to change forever.

Word of the Day: Die Wei

Die wei can be applied to many different situations

I recently came across this Chinese word die(1) wei(4) 爹味, which is literally "daddy flavour" or slang for "mansplaining".

Many young people use this term now to describe anyone -- male or female -- who claim unwarranted authority and give unsolicited advice.

According to Lu Pin, a feminist activist, the term's popularity shows growing resistance from young people -- mostly women -- to patriarchal culture.

But she adds the term is mostly used online, as hierarchy in reality is not going to change anytime soon.

What a great word that can be applied in so many situations!

Shocking Claims Condoned

Almost half of all the people in anti-government protests are women

At this morning's weekly press conference, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said she and her administration had noticed there was a lot of "fake news" on social media and cautioned people to be careful about what they read.

"Everyone of us, including government officials... have to be extremely cautious in ascertaining whether it is accurate," Lam said.

Carrie Lam says Fanny Law's views are her own

If people suspect people have broken the law, they should tell the police, she added.

What about her own advisor on the Executive Council, Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, who yesterday went on a radio talk show on RTHK and made the shocking claim that teenage girls were offering sex to frontline protesters, and gave the example of a 14-year-old student who later became pregnant.

"People are free to decide whether or not to believe it," said Law. "Of course, I can trace the origin of the information through a trusted friend's friend who knows the girl, but to reveal more details would be traumatic."

A friend of a friend? Isn't that second-hand information? Why didn't she check with the source to make sure the information was correct or not?

Fanny Law (left) with lawmaker Avery Ng (right) on RTHK

But Law claimed: "We have confirmed this is a true case. I am so sad for these young girls who have been misled into offering free sex."

When Lam was asked about Law's assertions, the chief executive replied: "Those comments are representing her own personal views."

These are highly speculative comments. How can the Hong Kong government allow a senior advisor to the administration to say such disparaging things publicly that may not even be true?

If this is Law's idea of trying to divide protesters, if anything it strengthened their resolution to stick together to unite against a government that seems completely out of touch with its own citizens.

An administration with integrity would have already fired Law from its inner circle, but Lam seems to think it's fine for Law to give her own comments.

Law's comments have only inflamed protesters' resolve

How is this crisis ever going to end when disparaging remarks are made and supported?

 

Women Surpass Men in Buying Suits

This show resonates with Chinese women who encounter gender bias daily

Women in China are snapping up more suits than men these days, thanks to a popular streaming TV series called All Is Well (都挺好 dou1 ting3 hao3).

It's about a typical traditional Chinese middle-class family that values sons over daughters. The protagonist, Su Mingyu 苏明玉 (played by Yao Chen) stands up to the gender bias in her own family by dressing in suits in every episode to show off her fierce independence.



The character Su Mingyu has struck a chord with Chinese women, who are following her sartorial sense on social media, sparking a national shopping trend for fashionable suits.

Since the show started in March, she has worn things like a Burberry suit, Max Mara coat, Erdos cashmere sweater and Stuart Weitzman boots. Su Mingyu definitely has expensive taste, but seems like she can afford it.

Su Mingyu wears stylish clothes that reflect success

She projects the ideal look of success that most Chinese women aspire to -- luxury suit-wearing, financially independent, and mentally strong despite going through gender discrimination all her life.

This coincides with the 2019 China Fashion Data Report issued by Alibaba, where the word "suits" was the most searched keyword on Taobao last year for women; the sales volume of women's suits surpassed that of men for the first time on January 27, 2019.

The search for "大哥廓西" literally meaning "big bro, shoulder-padded suit" in Chinese, grew 317 percent year-on-year, with sales up 39 percent.

And with All Is Well inspiring women to consider dressing in suits, perhaps the power suit will translate to even more sales than men's suits this year.

Women are keen to emulate Su Mingyu's fashion sense

Perhaps this is a sartorial way for women to achieve gender equality in China?

Chinese Women Buying Security

Successful women own property for security and also status in the family

The obsession to buy a home in China continues, but we're happy to discover that more Chinese women are realizing this dream.

Despite having to deal with the gender pay gap of earning on average 16 percent less than men, Chinese women have found ways to buy homes under their own name. Last year 46.7 percent of all homeowners were women in 2018, which compares to only 5 percent just two years earlier.

Over 47 percent of women over 30 bought their own homes

These numbers came from a report by real-estate broker platform Beike Zhaofang 贝壳找房, which surveyed thousands of women aged 18-50 in 12 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan. 

For single women over 30 years of age, 47.1 percent of them bought their own homes. More than one-third managed to buy their property without a loan, and 23.4 percent own more than two properties.

Either these women got a lot of help from their parents, relatives and friends, or they have high-powered jobs, or even really generous sugar daddies giving them lots of cash...

Media outlet Southern Weekly tried to find out why this phenomenon was happening and most women they interviewed cited "a sense of security" as the main reason for buying their home(s).

Wives usually do not have their names on the deeds

For successful women in high-paying jobs, home ownership is a statement of independence. Southern Weekly interviewed a female senior manager at a finance firm who owns three properties, which resulted in her having an elevated status in the family, making her even more confident as a woman.

Also as most families only have one child, the parents are more supportive in helping out their daughters in buying a home, or will even outright buy real estate for them. In addition, parents from older generations see buying a home as a safe investment that will give the daughters security when they retire.

Many women have parents helping them buy homes

The jump in female home ownership is also a result of high divorce rates. Typically when women get married, the husband has already bought a home and the woman's side is expected to contribute caili or betrothal gifts in the form of cash or gifts, such as furniture or cars.

And so in the event of a divorce, the wife is left with nothing, because her name is not on the deed.

But with 46.7 percent of home buyers now being women, they are actively protecting themselves (and their parents) from financial ruin. It's another big step in forcing Chinese men to confront the reality that yes, women do hold up half the sky -- for themselves.

Puffed Up Advertising

Would drinking this coconut milk make your chest look like theirs?

On the eve of International Women's Day, many Chinese companies still don't get how sexist they are in 2019 when it comes to their marketing slogans. But at least consumers are speaking up and shaming these companies into correcting their puffed up claims.

Wahaha said the "testimonial" was taken off the packaging

Case in point -- Chinese beverage giant Wahaha removed a "consumer quote" that claimed drinking a package of milk regularly would increase a woman's breast cup size from A to D.

The drink, called Vitamin A&D Calcium Milk, which is a popular drink for children, has a so-called testimony that reads: "When I was in high school, someone in my class said drinking Vitamin A&D Calcium Milk can help [your cup size] grow from A to D. That started a craze in our class and all the girls started drinking it."

Maybe it did increase their chest sizes from all the hormones injected into the dairy cows, but I digress...

Consumers complained, saying the so-called testimony was misleading and inappropriate for a product targeting children to carry a message about breast enhancement.

This milk product is actually geared towards children

Wahaha apologized on Tuesday and said it had stopped producing the packaging. It tried to explain that the testimonial was from actual consumers and got their permission to use the quotes.

But really? A story claiming apparent breast enhancement printed on a drink for kids?

Meanwhile another drinks company, Hainan Coconut Palm Group was also criticized for claiming that if women drank its coconut milk, then their breasts would get bigger.

The ads featured women frolicking on the beach with large chests with slogans like: "drink one can ever day, [your] curves will excite people, whiter and more plump", or "I drink from small to big", or "drinking more coconut milk every day can make [your] breasts fuller".

That's not the first time Hainan Coconut Palm Group got into trouble about unverified claims about its drinks. In 2017, it released an advertisement for its papaya juice, with large-chested women in bikinis on the beach with the slogan: "when I'm full of papaya, I'm ample-chested".

Claims of big chests after drinking coconut milk are false

It's quite obvious these companies don't have women in senior positions otherwise they would never have gotten into trouble with these silly marketing slogans in the first place. Do they really think women are gullible enough to consume these products to get a bigger chest?

How about just focusing on promoting how good it tastes instead of making such puffed up claims...

Cooking Up an Unappetizing Show

Sexist: Three male hosts watch three women cook

Last night I was reminded by how bad -- no atrocious -- the programs are on TVB when I watched an episode of Cooking Beauties.

Three male hosts and a guest judge observe three female celebrities prepare the same dishes for them to sample and decide who is the winner.

Cantopop singer Joey Wong has trouble handling a live fish

The women wear sleeveless tops so they have to wear "sleeves" that go up to their elbows in case they get their arms dirty or splattered with hot oil. And the dishes they are making aren't easy -- presumably there's someone behind the scenes instructing them on what to do.

However, not all the female contestants know how to cook -- some of them have very bad knife skills and they almost chop off their fingers, or they have no idea how to cut up meat, let alone fish.

Back in June when the show started, the Communications Authority received over 800 complaints from viewers about how the three contestants handled a tiger grouper.

In order to kill them, one fish was thrown into hot water, another thrown on the floor. This is meant to elicit laughs from the audience, but many viewers at home were not amused.

A statement from Happy Animal Lab and Hong Kong Veg Society condemned the "unnecessary pain to animals". It also criticized the amount of food wasted, as many of the dishes were inedible (again for laughs) and had to be thrown out.

The contestants wear "sleeves" and the men watch them cook

"When fish and crustacean are thrown on the floor or a heating saucepan alive, as they cannot make any sound, the audience would not realize their pain. Because of their silence, the audience ignore their suffering. Their silence also results in their sacrifice in a farce," the statement read.

"If the animals are replaced by a pig, a chicken or a cow, will the audience still find this interesting?"

All good points.

But my main beef is that the show is sexist -- why is it that the women have to cook for the men who will judge them? And why just expose these women's short-comings when it comes to their culinary skills? Why not make both men and women compete? And have the judging panel include both men and women?

Some of the female competitors were so bad in executing their dishes that some of the judges gave them negative points, again for laughs. How is that amusing?

These "interns" wear form-fitting chef jackets and short skirts

Another part of the show are about a dozen "interns" dressed in form-fitting chef jackets and short skirts. Sometimes they are called on to compete against each other in a 10-minute cooking test. Real female chefs don't wear short skirts and aim to look pretty in the kitchen. They are there to do their job and do it well.

Cooking Beauties is a horrific show on so many levels. The fact that it still isn't cancelled just shows how tone deaf TVB executives are and it send the wrong message about women, men, and cooking.

Actor Nicholas Tse who has a cooking show and is a judge is looking more credible even though he isn't a bona fide chef either...

Reality Check on "Ethnic Cleansing"

Fewer mainlanders are immigrating to Hong Kong each day

The same day Hong Kong National Party convenor Andy Chan Ho-tin spoke at the Foreign Correspondents Club yesterday, decrying China was performing "ethnic cleansing" in the city by having 150 mainlanders move here everyday, the statistics show otherwise.

According to figures released by the Census and Statistics Department on Tuesday, some 41,000 mainlanders moved to Hong Kong in the past 12 months ending on June 30, which is a drop of 14,700 compared to a year ago. It is the biggest drop in a decade.

The last steep decline was from 2005-06 and 2006-07 when the number fell by 14,900 to 44,700.

The one-way permit scheme allows spouses and children born across the border to be reunited with their families in Hong Kong.

Andy Chan claimed China was doing "ethnic cleansing"

Paul Yip Siu-fai, chair professor of population health at the University of Hong Kong, says it could be due to several factors, but one possibility could be the city becoming less desirable from before.

"For married couples that want their kids to come to Hong Kong, it must mean that the city has something better to offer to them," Yip said.

"But it's become more expensive to live here, especially housing, so it is worth looking into whether people are less willing to come because Hong Kong is less attractive to them," he said.

Anti-mainland sentiment is another possible factor deterring mainlanders from settling here, with the lowest number of people using the one-way permit scheme totaling 34,000 from mid-2013 and mid-2014, just before the Occupy protests.

Sze Lai-shan, a veteran social worker from the Society for Community Organization who helps new immigrant families settle in Hong Kong, said some mainlanders might not be as eager to move to the city, in part because of the improved living standards across the border. 

"It is especially the case for Hong Kong women getting married to mainland men. The husband won't want to come to Hong Kong. Usually the Hong Kong wife will go settle in the mainland," Sze said.

Accumulated there are over 800K mainlanders in Hong Kong

This is the trend Marion Chan Shui-yu, deputy commissioner for census and statistics is seeing. Such partnerships rose from 19 percent of all cross-border marriages in 1996 to 33 percent in 2016. In an interesting twist, the number of mainland women marrying Hong Kong men in cross-border marriages dropped from 81 percent to 66.7 percent in the same period.

It used to be that mainland women would marry much older Hong Kong men in the hopes of hitting the jackpot, but now it seems they have wised up after hearing many stories that not every Hong Kong man is rich. There are also many financial problems once the women and children move to the city -- the women cannot work right away and even then they are typically not well educated and can only find low-paying jobs.

So while there may be fewer mainlanders moving to Hong Kong each year, they are accumulating. There are over 800,000 since 2004, it's not a small number -- and growing.

China Wants Baby-Making Machines

China is trying to encourage couples to have more children... without success

Over 10 years ago when I was working in Beijing, a local colleague admitted his parents were severely fined for having another child -- him. They were anxious for a boy, and finally had one, but his parents were punished because they were senior Communist Party members.

He said their punishment was a very high fine and being socially looked down upon for not obeying the one-child policy that was implemented in 1979. In the end he managed to leave China to study an MBA at Duke University and now runs his family's company.

A financial penalty can make life difficult to make ends meet, but what about the horrific stories of women in rural areas who were forced to have abortions in their second and even third trimester because local officials wanted to keep the birth rates down in order to have good job performances?

A Chinese stamp showing a family with three piglets

The physical and psychological scars are indelible.

But now the Chinese government is doing away with the draconian policy and allowing parents to have not only two but more children. There are even propaganda posters of families of pigs, supposedly a metaphor that the more you procreate, the happier your family will be.

However, women aren't buying it.

Since the one-child policy, more young women are getting a higher education, focusing on careers and getting married later. There's also the rising costs of having a child; many can only afford to have one.

There is also the statistical problem of fewer women in the population thanks to the one-child policy, as families preferred boys of girls in almost 40 years.

According to He Yafu, a demographer and author of a book on the impact of China's population controls says the number of women between the ages of 20 and 39 is expected to drop by more than 39 million over the next decade, to 163 million from 202 million.

China needs more children for the workforce and pensions

"Without the introduction of measures to encourage fertility, the population of China will drop sharply in the future," he said.

This is a huge looming problem because the shrinking workforce won't be able to support the elderly not only in terms of manpower but also pensions.

As a result different provinces have their own incentives or punishments in order to get couples to have more children. For example, in Liaoning, one of the provinces with the lowest birthrates, is proposing several benefits for young families, including tax breaks, housing and education subsidies and longer maternity and paternity leaves, as well as investments in clinics and preschools.

Meanwhile in Jiangxi province, the government has reissued guidelines on when women can get abortions. There is a concern the rules will be strictly enforced, such as requiring a woman who is more than 14 weeks pregnant to obtain three signatures from medical personnel before an abortion.

Two other provinces have made it harder for couples to divorce, in the hopes that they will stick it out and have children.

The one-child policy from 1979 is over

Talk about not having control over one's body.

"Women cannot decide what happens to their own ovaries," one person complained on the microblogging platform Weibo, after Jiangxi announced its abortion guidelines in July.

The one-child policy has been slightly modified since it was instituted in 1979. Rural couples were allowed to try for another child if their first one was a girl, while ethnic minorities could have as many children as they liked. In 2013, if the husband and wife are only children, they were allowed to have more than one child. Then two years later, all couples could have two children.

This latest policy change didn't get the big baby bump the government was hoping for -- in fact the birthrate last year dropped, causing Beijing to worry.

On the one hand the government wants women to be educated and contribute to the work force, and on the other to pump out babies and look after aging parents. However, women get discriminated at work if they become pregnant and lose out on the career track if they don't go back to work after a period of time.

What about the men in all of this?

With a patriarchal government and society no wonder they think they can tell women what to do. But if they are having children, it's not to benefit the state.

Lives of Cardboard Grannies in Numbers

More than 80 percent of recyclable collectors are elderly women

Old women pushing trolleys stacked with flattened cardboard, or dragging around bundles of cardboard are common sight in Hong Kong, but they are still shocking reminders that there are some people in the community who are scraping by in one of the most prosperous cities in the world.

Most do not want to depend on the government for help

They are called "cardboard grannies" and concern group Waste Picker Platform has done a survey of 505 of these people. The findings are good background information for us to know more about them.

* They make on average HK$716 a month

* There are an estimated 2,900 people on the streets collecting rubbish daily

* 80 percent of them are women, where 82 percent are over the age of 60, the oldest 96

* More than 60 percent have scavenged for more three years

* They spend on average five and a half hours a day collecting recyclables

* Each time they pick up 35kg of cardboard and go to recycling shops 1.9 times per day

* Including financial aid and wages from other jobs, they still make less than HK$5,000 per month

* Almost 90 percent of respondents collect recyclables for economic reasons

* 25 percent rely on collecting garbage to meet basic needs

On top of these statistics, the cardboard grannies have to contend with being chased away by the government's hygiene staff and 9.5 percent of those surveyed experienced having their belongings confiscated.

Most cardboard collectors are over 60, the oldest is 96

How can we solve this issue? Many of these elderly women refuse to receive handouts from the government, and at the same time they are helping the city recycle, one cardboard sheet at a time.

The government really needs to learn more about these cardboard grannies and talk to them and find out their needs and concerns. Waste Picker Platform has started the ball rolling with insightful statistics, but meaningful dialogue needs to take place.

How can we help them understand they are entitled to fringe benefits as an elderly person, but also allow them to keep their dignity of earning their keep?

That is the question that needs to be asked.

Giordano Ad Criticized as Sexist

Are these four words the way you would sum up a "family"?

Hong Kong society's expectations of women are back in the imperial dynasties when it comes to images of them depicted in advertising.

A lot of the ads I see in the MTR station or on television expect women to look beautiful -- have flawless skin, a big bust thanks to her push-up bra, and she has to have a flat stomach, in other words not eat.

And if you have a family, then you have to be a perfect mother that dotes on her children and looks after her husband, because after all, he's the breadwinner.

But statistically some 52 percent of women in Hong Kong work, compared to 65 percent men. And many of those women don't know how to cook, let alone have time to clean because they're busy working. The cost of living is so high in the city -- look at housing prices -- that at least two incomes are needed to keep a family afloat these days.

So it was an affront to women in Hong Kong when they saw this ad for casual clothing brand Giordano a few days ago. Called "Team Family Series", it shows a "family" with each member wearing a different T-shirt. The father's says "work", mother's says "cook", while the two kids have "cry" and "play".

If that's how one sums up a family it's very pathetic. Don't kids "study" and not just "cry"?

An expatriate woman, who is also a mother was outraged when she saw the ad showing the mother as being stuck in the kitchen, and immediately went about shaming Giordano on social media for being sexist. Soon there was an onslaught of angry women criticizing the local brand for being way behind the times.

Giordano did respond and said it had received a number of complaints, but added it was proud of its clothing apparel that is designed for everyone regardless of ethnicity, nationality, culture or gender.

"We agree that the ultimate products could be a better way in presentation that is one of the many ways to presenting the love to family which did not reflect our entire true values," said a statement on Giordano's Facebook page.

It added the words chosen for the T-shirts were meant "to depict different, random aspects of life."

Hmmm that's truly random.

While many of the ads have been taken down, this one was spotted at Kowloon station, and the "Team Family series" is being sold in some stores.

The worst thing about ads targeted at women in Hong Kong is that many men have expectations that women should look beautiful, flawless and perfect in every way. Many of the ads in Hong Kong depict fantasy rather than reality, and if it is the latter, it's how sad or pathetic real life is.

Advertisers and advertising agencies have to take some responsibility for their depictions of people and life. Or is it consumers who can't face the reality of life and advertisers are trying to provide some kind of aspiration?

How sad is that?

Love Does Not Equal Money

Scammers take advantage of lonely women in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has a lot of lonely women. Part of it is statistically there are more women than men (in 2016 there were 3.96 million women, 3.37 million men), and also men prefer women who are younger, or may go across the mainland to find their mate.

That leaves some women in Hong Kong desperate to find someone and con artists are taking advantage of these lonely souls.

There have been 119 women duped by online romance scammers out of HK$75.9 million (US$967,000) in the first three months of this year, five times the amount of the same period last year.

They con Hong Kong women out of millions of dollars

The latest victim? A woman in her 40s who works in a financial institution and was swindled out of HK$14 million in a so-called online romance that lasted eight years, the longest scam recorded so far.

She first "met" the man in August 2010 in an online dating profile, where he claimed to be a white male and a film director. After befriending her for three months, he started to ask her for money, claiming he was detained by Malaysian authorities for being caught carrying £300,000 in breach of the country's laws.

He began by asking her to transfer HK$10,000 and then used various excuses to get her to give him more money. In the end she made a staggering 200 to 300 transactions in amounts ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Throughout the eight years, she never met him in person.

It wasn't until the victim talked to her family about getting more money (she had already spent her savings and borrowed some) that she realized she was duped and called the police.

These shadowy figures can hardly be found again

Official police data shows 93 percent of the victims in the first quarter this year were women, almost 12 percent of them professionals. More than 80 percent of them were between the ages of 31 and 60.

How lonely and desperate do you have to be to willing to part with your money? It's very sad to hear of yet another case of a women being cheated out of her hard-earned money, but this only motivates scammers to continue to focus on women here.

It also shows how warped their sense of what love is -- that it is closely tied to money. Another observation is that so many of these scams have been reported in the media and yet these women don't wonder if their so-called relationships are real. Maybe it's denial...

#MeToo 20 Years Later

Gao Yan was a top student at Peking University before she committed suicide

The fledgling #MeToo movement in China got a big boost recently when a literature professor at Nanjing University was suspended for allegedly sexually harassing and raping a student 20 years ago.

At the time 21-year-old Gao Yan, who was a start student, told her friends that professor Shen Yang, who was teaching at Peking University had forced her to have sex. He also apparently spread rumours that Gao was mentally ill.

Shen, 62, has denied the accusations.

Professor Shen Yang allegedly sexually harassed Gao

Her classmates have been pressing for justice ever since she died. During Qing Ming last week when Chinese families sweep graves to remember their relatives and ancestors, one of Gao's friends, Li Youyou posted an essay online, chastising Shen for not apologizing.

"Twenty years have passed. Your constant lies and crimes should be put to an end," she wrote.

In an interview with The Beijing News on Friday, Shen described the accusations as "malicious defamation".

The essay spread quickly online and some Chinese media wrote stories about it, which may have led to to him being fired.

Even Gao's parents complained to the university in 1998 about the alleged sexual assault, and while the tertiary institution did conduct an investigation that found Shen did have sex with Gao, it only issued him a demerit and did not terminate his employment contract.

Shen is the second prominent professor to be sacked due to allegations of sexual misconduct after Chen Xiaowu of Beihang University.

The movement is slowly growing in China (with other names)

Universities in China need to address the power imbalance between students and professors, but also the same patriarchal hierarchy in companies too.

Nevertheless, getting more people to talk about #MeToo or #MiTu or #woyeshi (the Chinese version) is important. And as some say, eventually truth prevails.

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...

More Women in Higher Places

Carrie Lam at the annual Democratic Party dinner where she donated money

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has revealed some interesting surprises up her sleeve these past few days.

Yesterday she was the first city leader to donate to the Democratic Party -- Hong Kong's biggest pro-democracy party. At their annual dinner, Cheng donated HK$30,000 of her own money to sponsor former Democratic lawmaker Fred Li Wah-ming as he sang a Cantonese song. Overall the performance raised HK$320,000.

Baroness Lady Hale will be joining the Final Court of Appeal

And then today Cheng announced that for the first time, two female will join Hong Kong's top court to become the first female non-permanent judges in the city's judiciary.

Baroness Brenda Hale of the UK and Beverley McLachlan from Canada were already pioneers in their respective countries to become the first female judges in their top courts.

As a result, the Court of Final Appeal will now have 14 foreign judges. While the appointments are pending approval from the Legislative Council, it is believed local lawyers and lawmakers across the political spectrum are pleased with the news.

Alberta native McLachlan, who is 74, was the first female chief justice of any top court in the British Commonwealth. She retired last December. Lady Hale, 73, is currently president of the UK's Supreme Court. Both are known to have liberal views.

...As will Beverley McLachlan of Canada

Finally Hong Kong's top court is getting with the times and it's fantastic news to have such qualified female judges. Now do they know what they are getting into, that the judiciary is being politicized, mostly by the government, and by extension Beijing?