Voting for Our Say

Today Hong Kong held its Legislative Council elections and for the first time I voted.

It is also the first time there are 40 of the 70 seats up for grabs which is why it's important for people to decide who they want to represent them, but also demonstrate to Beijing that we are responsible people who are ready for universal suffrage.

The polling station near where I live was clearly marked with a giant yellow banner and when I arrived around 12:15pm, there was a steady trickle of voters.

After checking in with our Hong Kong identification cards, we were given two ballots, one for the geographical constituency and the other for functional constituency, and a piece of board where a chop with a tick mark was attached to it.

It was strange for a polling station to have four makeshift cardboard booths, but oh well. Hong Kong isn't exactly known for flexing its democratic muscle.

The ballots were huge -- they contained all the names of the candidates in Chinese and English and included all their pictures as well. This is an interesting contrast to Canada where you are given a small piece of paper with the candidates' names and their party affiliation and that's it.

The ballots were then folded in half and inserted into the respective boxes.

However I have to say it was very difficult to decide who to vote for.

There are so many pan-democrat parties running that their platforms are quite similar, so why break out into different groups? Why not band together to make their voice stronger?

The other issue was that while most of the parties were concerned about national education (a dead issue for now), housing and the economy, none of them seemed to have strong opinions about the environment which was disappointing.

Some parties tacked on the environment at the end of their list of concerns as an afterthought than a priority.

While jobs, housing and the economy are important, so is breathing relatively clean air and having green environments to live in.

In the end none of the parties were particularly aligned to my beliefs, but I eventually decided on one.

It'll be interesting to see the results when they come out tomorrow. Some are predicting a strong pan-democrat reaction as a response to the anti-China sentiment, but which pan-democrats? With so many to choose from, they have certainly diluted their own vote.

In any event, it was also interesting to see candidates do their last-ditch campaigning today, speaking into bullhorns or their campaign cars and trucks going up and down streets.

I really hope more people come out to vote today. If anything we need to show Beijing we are a civil society that is mature enough to handle free elections.

It cannot keep holding us back. Because if they push back the date again (now it's 2017), we're just going to protest even more. If they were scared of Friday night's sit-in at Tamar protesting against national education, imagine what the turnout would be for universal suffrage?

The People 1, Leung Chun-ying 0

Does that look like 36,000 people to you or 100,000?

The people have spoken and the Hong Kong government has backed down -- sort of.

A day after organizers said 100,000 people descended on the grounds of the government offices in Tamar -- practically all of them wearing black in protest against national education, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said that now it was up to schools to decide if they were going to offer the controversial course or not.

He made the announcement the evening before civic elections tomorrow and some critics are wondering if this is the government's last-ditch attempt to give a boost to pro-government candidates. Otherwise tomorrow's vote would have been a referendum on national education.

Or was it pressure from Beijing to resolve the issue as soon as possible because it was getting too embarrassing to see students on a hunger strike? Even film director John Sham Kin-fun, media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun attended the rally.

Police had claimed the numbers were around 36,000 but from the picture, how many do you think attended?

In any event Leung tried to worm his way out of the issue, putting blame on his predecessor Donald Tsang Yam-kuen for passing on this hot potato in the first place.

"I would rather concentrate on housing, poverty and other livelihood issues, because there is no such thing as national education in my election platform," he said.

If there was no national education in his platform, then why did Leung wait until now to claim that?

His attempt to pass the buck makes him look complicit to Beijing; he could have tried to make it look like he was trying to get national education off the agenda, but he went along with it since taking office.

In any event Leung's announcement is not a complete victory to the protesters who will continue their occupation of Tamar until national education is totally scrapped.

National Education was totally flawed from the beginning.

While it's true Hong Kong students don't know much about China, there should have been greater discussion about the content and how it would be taught.

Making students learn the anthem is fine, but having flag-raising ceremonies is soo PRC.

They can learn the basics of how the Chinese government structure is set up, but when it's pretty opaque, how do you even teach that without a hint of derision? And not even mentioning June 1989 is completely absurd for Hong Kong.

And why were two pro-Beijing companies owned by one person given millions of dollars to set the syllabus?

The other big issue was how students would be graded for the course. There was talk about giving marks according to how fervent they were when singing the anthem...

The Hong Kong government totally misread this issue.

Officials probably thought they could easily take on students who would be more concerned about studying than taking to the streets.

But they were dead wrong.

The controversy over the issue, social networking sites and big names helped keep the fire alive for this protest.

The government should not underestimate any kind of dissatisfaction because people are are going to fight for what they want.

Perhaps if Hong Kong had universal suffrage things wouldn't be so contentious...

Playing His Own Tune

Pianist Yundi Li opens the HK Philharmonic Orchestra's season

Tonight was the season opener for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra with pianist Yundi Li as the headliner.

I haven't seen him perform in years and some of my colleagues worried Li was slipping in quality in the last few years.

Was it precipitated by recording label Deutsche Grammophon dropping him in 2008 or after?

And then there are the obvious comparisons between him and his contemporary Lang Lang... they could not be more different.

Nevertheless, I was still keen to see Li as were many others who packed out the Concert Hall at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.

The HKPO has a new music director, Jaap van Zweden, but tonight it was guest conductor Vassily Sinaisky setting the tone for the 2012-13 season.

He led the orchestra to a rousing Festive Overture, Op. 96 by Dmitri Shostakovich that was energetic and lively, particularly with the extensive percussion section.

Shostakovich wrote this a year after the death of Stalin, which for him led to the beginning of his rehabilitation after being officially condemned in the 1940s.

The piece was for the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1954 and the commission was originally given to a minor Russian composer named Vasili Nebolsin.

However Nebolsin freaked out and as the deadline approached, he still hadn't composed the score.

He turned to Shostakovich who agreed to help and what came next was a flurry of activity from the composer who apparently wrote non stop and talked and made jokes at the same time.

Talk about multitasking.

The next piece was also by Shostakovich -- Symphony No. 9 in E flat major, Op. 70.

This time it was the wind instruments that were featured in the score and again the first movement was full of energy and then dissipated into a slow movement, followed by a haunting third movement with lots of brass playing ominous-sounding notes and then ended quickly in a militaristic-sounding fourth part.

During the 20-minute intermission, I waited in line for the loo and overheard two angry "bus uncles" verbally sparring with each other.

One was complaining that the other made a lot of noise during the concert, while the other retorted that he was not allowed to get something out of his bag? That he was not allowed to drink something?

The latter sounded very defensive, as if his human rights were trodden on, while the former was trying to point out that this was a concert situation where you were supposed to sit quietly. The ironic thing was that both were wearing T-shirts in this battle of sophistication.

Meanwhile the Cultural Centre staff didn't seem to know how to diffuse the situation -- they were obviously not given training for incidents like these and the two men kept shouting at each other for a while.

Eventually the argument died down and I didn't see what happened in the end except the hallway was much quieter without them.

Finally the grand piano was rolled out and Sinaisky accompanied Li out onto the stage.

Li had cut his hair, which in a way took away some of his personality, but he was still his same skinny self.

He performed Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23, the first few bars of which most of us recognize.

At first it seemed Li was nervous, as he rushed at the beginning, but then he calmed down and focused on playing with the orchestra.

However, his chords and arpeggios sounded muddy or did he make a few mistakes? I don't know the score well enough to determine that.

He was very focused on the task at hand -- if he had a free moment, he was already working his fingers on the keyboard to prepare for his next entry into the music again.

Li is definitely not an exuberant performer while Lang would be very dramatic with his hand gestures and body movement, intently swaying with the music and taking his audience along with him.

On the whole Li still plays technically very well and after he got over his jitters he played well.

But when his performance was over, Li looked more relieved than elated which was strange.

We all clapped nonstop after he and the conductor exited and re-entered the stage several times and each time Li bowed until the lights went up and we realized we'd get no encore.

This was very disappointing, considering Li is the adopted son of Hong Kong, receiving residency in the city in 2006.

Would it have hurt to have played a short one to two minute piece for us?

Maybe Li prefers to project the image of a pure artist who will only play what he wants to play and that's it.

In interviews and profiles on him, it seems he shuns sponsorships and even talking to the media to avoid promoting himself, perhaps preferring his music speak for him instead.

In any event we enjoyed seeing Li again, though sometimes you have to give the audience a bit of a teaser to make them want more of you; Li didn't seem to want to flirt with the crowd.

Gourmet Gem

Crouching statues greet you at TRB in the courtyard

When I lived in Beijing, I would treat myself to a gourmet meal at Maison Boulud in Qianmen.

That was high-end French dining at its best -- in China.

And the personable manager at the time was Belgian Ignace Lecleir and he seemed interested in getting to know all the guests in the room in the hopes they'd come back.

The contemporary interior is a contrast to the traditional temple

Or come to his restaurant.

Not long after my second visit to the restaurant, he'd left and didn't know where we went.

It wasn't until after I left Beijing did he open his own restaurant called TRB or Temple Restaurant Beijing nine months ago.

He said it took him a while to find the space, and when he did, he didn't know what to do with it. He created his office in here and for a few months tried to figure out what to do with it, though he did know he wanted to do contemporary European cuisine.

Sardines done two ways with avocado salad

It is an exciting and scary venture for him as he poured his money into this restaurant and has some silent partners, many of whom are regular customers.

TRB is a bit hard to find, but once you do, it's all worth the effort and more.

Following the directions on the website, it's west of the National Art Museum of Meishuguan. Keep walking west until you see an ICBC bank. When you see it, turn right onto the street and keep walking down the small street filled with hutongs and small shops until you reach a gray building that has the TRB signage on your left.

And once you walk through the threshold you discover a place with dynamic contrasts of old and new. The shell of the 600-year-old temple remains in tact while contemporary Chinese sculptures greet you in the courtyard.

King crab and fine herb raviolis with celeriac puree

To get inside the restaurant, you pass through a glass door area where the long bar is and down a corridor on the left that leads to the main dining area filled with banquettes and table seating. The floor-to-ceiling windows allow natural sunlight in and modern art graces the white-washed walls.

And that's only the interior.

I managed to sample a number of dishes on my visit here on a Monday afternoon and the three-hour lunch paired with wines was memorable.

For starters the curried cauliflower soup with whipping cream had bits of apple hidden underneath for a bit of a crunch. It was light and smooth, not too rich.

Next came a refreshing dish of sardines done two ways -- one very lightly pan-fried, the other marinated and topped with pine nuts and raisins accompanied with an avocado salad. Although a tad salty, this was pretty much a winner.

Roasted seabass with black truffles was divine

The king crab and fine herb raviolis, celeriac puree and brown butter looked pretty on the plate, but was dry despite the cream sauce, which was a pity. Also the skins were on the tough side and could have been made much thinner.

Nevertheless we were thoroughly impressed with the roasted Australian black cod topped with slices of black truffle. The fish was perfectly cooked, resulting in a tender sweet taste in each bite.

The final main course was confit of suckling pig, with courgette, aubergine, pine nuts and raisins. We loved the presentation of the pork, a generous square slice with the russet-coloured skin that made it very enticing to bite into, the meat very moist. It was a hearty dish that summed up the ingredients for autumn.

While the restaurant has a selection of over 700 wines including local and overseas, it has also sourced locally-made cheeses and imports them too.

Roasted suckling pig with pine nuts and raisins

For dessert we had a dacquoise, or layered dessert cake, shaped more like a bar with Caraibe chocolate and hazelnut caramel that went well with Tawny Port.

After our meal we were shocked to discover through Lecleir that the chef is not an expat, but Chinese national. He'd worked with Lecleir at Maison Boulud and previous to that? Morel's, a Belgian restaurant serving mostly steaks with frites, stews and mussels.

Pretty impressive.

Lecleir believes his chef has talent and the passion to cook and so he is keen to take his chef to New York to get more exposure to what's happening in the food scene there and at the same time sourcing high quality local products. Ideally Lecleir would love to have his own farm to grow his own produce, but that will be a long-term project.

Dacquoise of chocolate and hazelnut caramel for dessert

He has also put enormous faith into his staff, as he doesn't speak Mandarin (though his young children do). And so he relies on trusting them to help him with his business and so far so good.

TRB
23 Shatan Beije, off Wusi Dajie
Dongcheng district
(86 10) 8400 2232
www.temple-restaurant.com