Where is Peng Shuai?

Tennis player Peng has not been heard from since November 2

A growing chorus of people are asking, "Where is Peng Shuai?"

However, no one has personally or publicly heard from the Chinese tennis player, who, according to videos issued by state media, apparently had dinner with people on Saturday, and showed up at a junior tennis tournament today.

She apparently appeared at a tennis event today

No one in the West believes these videos for a second, pointing out it is strange that Hu Xijin, the chief editor of The Global Times would some how obtain these videos without explaining how, and adding that she would show up in public soon enough.

She did, at this junior tennis tournament, but somehow the live feed to the event got cut off...

Meanwhile people around the world are asking on social media #whereispengshuai, including former World No 1 Chris Evert, who wrote on her Twitter: "Yes, these accusations are very disturbing. I've known Peng since she was 14; we should all be concerned; this is serious; where is she? Is she safe?"

Even the Women's Tennis Association chairman and CEO Steve Simon has taken a very strong stand against China, threatening to pull the WTA's events out of China, which means almost a dozen next year, including the WTA final.

WTA's Simon threatening to pull out of China

"There's too many times in our world today when you get into issues like this that we let business, politics, money dictate what's write and what's wrong," Simon said in an interview with CNN.

"And we're definitely willing to pull our business and deal with all the complications that come with it because... this is bigger than the business."

If the WTA really did pull out of China, that would be a major loss of face for Beijing, and Simon knows it.

What is also interesting to note is that Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympics Committee has been silent on this issue the whole time. And the Beijing Winter Olympics will be starting on February 4.

Everyday on Twitter people continue to ask where Peng is, while state media tries (but fails) to convince that she is "fine" and doesn't want to see anybody, that she is just "resting".

An unverified photo of Peng with her cat

Those were the same words used when the Hong Kong booksellers were missing in 2015.

In an explosive post Peng wrote on November 2 on her Weibo that was quickly deleted, she alleged that former vice premier Zhang Gaoli coerced her into having sex.

About three years ago, after Zhang had retired, the post alleges Peng was invited him to play tennis in Beijing.

Afterwards, she wrote, Zhang and his wife brought Peng to their home, where Peng claimed she was pressured into having sex with Zhang.

Senior official Zhang Gaoli

"That afternoon I did not agree at first and was crying all the time," Peng wrote. After dinner with Zhang and his wife, and following much persuading by Zhang, she relented, according to the post.

To be sure, the West will continue to put pressure on China to answer to their concerns and allow Peng to answer freely.

The longer she is not allowed to speak of her own accord, the more skeptical the world becomes.

Record Number Hongkongers Opt for Canada

Record number of people are seeking study permits to Canada

Although the steady exodus of Hongkongers to the UK continues, there are more people interested in heading to Canada -- including those in their 50s and 60s.

Education and immigration consultants are seeing a record number of people obtaining study permits. Official figures from Canada showed 4,915 Hongkongers were given study permits from January to September, up sharply from 1,975 from the first three quarters of last year.

Of the 4,915 permits, 1,670 were issued in August alone, a new monthly record since 2015, a three-fold increase from 520 in August last year.

More middle-aged people interested in studying

From 2015 to 2020, Canada issued about 200 study permits each month. The monthly figure jumped to an average of 630 from March to September this year.

The sharp increase happened after Canada announced new immigration pathways for Hongkongers in February this year in the wake of the national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing last June.

Canada has two routes for Hongkongers to emigrate. One is to complete post secondary education at designated Canadian institutions in the past three years to apply for permanent residence.

The second is for those who have worked in Canada for at least a year in the past three years, provided they attained recognised post secondary qualifications within the past five years.

As these offers are available until August 2026, people who start studying soon will have enough time to complete their studies and apply to remain there.

Canadian immigration faster than in the UK

This is a much shorter way for Hongkongers to gain foreign citizenship than compared to the emigration programs offered by the UK and Australia. However, Canada has said that the offer could be revoked at any time, which is why there is a rush to apply now.

Jeannie Tse, country manager in Hong Kong and Macau for EF Education First, said the number of inquiries about studying in Canada tripled as soon as the schemes were announced. She also noted fielding questions from people over 50, something she had never seen before.

Immigration consultant Chan Yuet-sum also observed more middle-aged Hongkongers inquiring about studying in Canada, including someone in their 60s.

"They can apply for permanent residence in Canada right after graduation and the processing time of around six to 10 months is shorter than Britain's BNO visa scheme," she said.

Many have opted for the UK with BNO passport

Another reason for the growing interest in Canada is that because of the coronavirus pandemic, Australia has closed its borders for two years and so students looking to study overseas are choosing Canada instead as it has opened its borders earlier.

The Real Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh died at the age of 37 in 1890

Last night my friend took me to see a play called Vincent at the Hong Kong Arts Centre.

We didn't know much about it except that it was written by actor Leonard Nimoy, famously known for playing Spock on Star Trek. Apparently Nimoy had a life-long fascination of the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. Not only did Nimoy write the play, he also performed it. 

He liked to paint scenes of everyday people

Vincent is based on more than 500 letters between van Gogh and his brother Theo, who were known to be very close. Theo owned an art gallery and was the one who financially kept his older brother afloat.

It turns out this is a one-man play was performed by Adam Harris, who I later found out during the intermission that he's a veterinarian by day! And this is not his first production! He previously performed Educating Rita, The Unknown Soldier, and Underneath the Lintel.

Harris is explosive from the start, with lots of energy to sustain the two-hour production. 

He plays Theo, who gathers us, his audience, as his friends to give his own personal memorial for Vincent who had recently succumbed to a gunshot wound in his chest. Theo says he was too distraught during the funeral to say anything but now seems prepared to speak, with several letters to help him paint a fuller picture of his brother.

There are some interesting details about van Gogh's life: He was hoping to become a minister and did preach in really poor parishes. Theo recounts that one time there was a terrible fire in a mine and one of the miners was left for dead but Vincent nursed him back to health.

A bandage around his head after cutting off his ear

And then he was socially awkward, falling in love with a cousin who was a widow, making the family mortified and terrified, as van Gogh could be emotional and stubborn.

He later fell for a "woman on the streets", who had two children and another on the way. Again his parents were hardly pleased and Theo had to financially look after all those mouths. Van Gogh finally left her.

Eventually he turned to painting but he was self-conscious and didn't want Theo to sell his pieces yet. He was emotionally fragile and doctors diagnosed him as being epileptic and was sent to recover in Arles, France.

That is where he became prolific in his paintings, and Theo reports Vincent would paint one or maybe even two canvases a day. We are then shown on a large screen a slide show of his works, some of which are famous, like The Starry Night, Sunflowers and Irises, and a few I have never seen before.

He then has an encounter with fellow artist Paul Gaugin, who Theo despises, because the meeting resulted in Vincent cutting his ear off and gifting it to a prostitute. His depression got worse and it is believed that contributed to him going into the fields to paint and shooting himself in the chest.

The Starry Night was shown during the play

Theo recalls in detail what they talked about before Vincent died, their childhood memories and asking for forgiveness for having his younger brother supporting him this whole time.

In the post script, Theo was so overcome by his brother's death that he too died less than a year later. Eventually Theo's remains were buried next to Vincent.

Harris as Theo is quite intense, with bursts of emotion that are explosive and thoughtful. He also sometimes plays Vincent, with darker lighting to illustrate this. He also reads Vincent's letters in his voice.

When Harris walked off stage to signal the intermission, we the audience had no idea what was happening until a female voice said there would be a 10-minute intermission!

My friend's friends who also went all said it was an intense play!

He was diagnosed as epileptic and depressed

Apparently Harris likes to do these one-man plays, perhaps making it easier for him to control the situation and not having to depend too much on others.

At the very end a woman came up on stage and sang Starry Starry Night which was a nice (and less emotional) finish.

Learned a lot more about van Gogh and glad to see this performance!

Vincent by Leonard Nimoy

Hong Kong Arts Centre McAulay Studio

November 18-20, 2021

Gov't Defends Culling Wild Boars

The wild boars were lured down with bread by the authorities

Animal rights groups are up in arms after the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department captured and killed seven wild boars in Wong Chuk Hang.

In plain sight of the media, the AFCD lured the wild pigs with bread -- which the government has repeatedly told the public not to feed them -- and then tranquilized them with dart guns.

Seven wild boars were culled 

It seems the AFCD is now taking drastic action after a wild boar knocked down an auxiliary policeman before biting him in the leg and then the animal plunged 10 stories to its death in a residential car park in Tin Hau last Wednesday.

There had been numerous complaints from the public for the authorities to do something about the wild boars, capture them and take them to remote areas, instead of ignoring the problem and worse having ignorant people feeding the animals as if they were pets. The number of sightings involving wild boars rose from 225 in 2011 to 1,002 last year.

When criticized for using food to lure the wild boars down, Simon Chan Kin-fung, the department's assistant director for conservation said on a radio show: "Even if we did not use food to attract them down from the hill yesterday, they would still come [to urban areas]."

Perhaps what made the optics even worse was that several of the boars had young ones with them when they were "compassionately" put down.

Police officer bit in leg by boar

"Some other parts of the world have been using the hunting method. We are using a very humane way to put down the wild boars, with dart guns and medicine injection. We will continue to use food to capture the wild boars in the city area," Chan said.

Last week the department announced that wild boars in urban areas would be "regularly captured for humane dispatch with a view to reducing their number and nuisance"... in other words cull them.

The previous strategy was to capture them, neuter them so they would not be able to breed and then relocate them to a remote area. 

About 20 staff were involved in capturing and euthanising the seven animals, which weighed between 50k to 170kg.

Chan said the department only targeted wild pigs that were frequently found in urban areas, not the ones in rural places.

However, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals condemned the AFCD for its actions, accusing officials of ignoring suggestions on how to manage the problem.

"The SPCA reiterates that a non-lethal approach to wildlife management is always preferred, and is against the idea of hunting boars, as this has proved to be problematic on several fronts," it said.

The boars had young ones with them last night

Roni Wong Ho-yin, a Hong Kong Wild Boar Concern Group committee member who witnessed the operation, described the use of food to capture the animals as "despicable and bloody".

He said the bait could attract animals that humans were not regularly feeding.

"The department has been educating people not to feed the wild boars," he said. "But they are doing something self-contradictory. This could change the behaviour of some wild boars which are not used to being fed by humans."

Others felt the public must be educated not to feed the animals because it gives them an unnatural food source that encourages them to reproduce. 

So if they are, then it seems they are reproducing at a much faster rate than the AFCD can neuter them, or the authorities are not capturing enough of them to really make an impact on the population numbers.

An artistic impression of the wild boar cull...

In any event, while there was a lot of outrage online, one artist took to his blank page and created a riff off of artist Wang Xingwei's riff off of the Tiananmen Square massacre picture of people riding bicycles and taking two penguins that were shot in the chest.

Instead a Hong Kong artist showed boars riding a bicycle with a wooden board behind, carrying another wounded boar, one in the foreground wearing a yellow helmet and tears dripping from its eye.

Even wild pigs have feelings too...