Picture of the Day: Totem Pole in HK

The totem pole is blocked by potted plants

One day during my trip to Hong Kong I had some extra time in the late afternoon before meeting a friend for dinner in Harbour City, so I went to Kowloon Park.

After all my years living in Hong Kong I have to admit I'm not very familiar with the park so it was a good opportunity to wander around and see the facilities that include a swimming pool, a mini soccer pitch, an aviary, piazza, a maze garden and sculpture garden.

These feral cats don't like humans

I walked up a hill and saw some feral cats that reside there; a cat lady was fussing over them and bringing them dinner. It reminded me of the volunteers who feed the cats that reside on the giant rocks by the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai...

But I also came across a totem pole! What was this doing here in Hong Kong of all places! I tried to get closer to it, but the tiled steps leading to it were closed off by potted plants in a bid to keep visitors away from it. Were people touching to cause the staff to prevent people from getting too close? This is why my picture looks so awkward.

As a result I could not find a plaque or some kind of explanation of why this totem pole was here.

An article by Christopher DeWolf gives a bit more information: "On the other side of the park is a totem pole carved by the indigenous Tlingit people of British Columbia in Canada."

Vancouver Special: Corner 29

Jumbo prawns cooked vermicelli in clay pot

Our newest restaurant discovery in Vancouver is called Corner 29, as in the Chinese restaurant is located on the corner of Main Street and 29th Avenue.

My parents' friend took them there last week and this time brought another round of friends including myself.

The restaurant has been open here for over a year, and it's definitely value for money for solid Cantonese cuisine. Here's the menu. 

Bits of red snapper in black bean sauce and tofu

The dinner started with egg white drop soup with crab meat, a bit on the bland side, but perked up with white pepper or vinegar. Across the room we could see another table had a whole winter melon soup.

Soy sauce chicken was very tender, the sauce not too salty. Even though there were eight of us, we couldn't finish the entire bird and packed up the rest of the pieces. 

We were told that the restaurant had red snapper and suggested it be cooked two ways -- filleted and stir-fried with kale, and another dish using the rest of the meat and bones with black bean sauce and tofu. Both were very good, though at least one piece of the filleted fish was not cooked! 

Another highlight was the prawns and vermicelli cooked in a clay pot. It arrived sizzling hot at the table, and there was a lot of vermicelli. We had to hunt around for the prawns (one per person) and they were jumbo sized, very meaty. I couldn't resist helping myself to more vermicelli.

Pork dumplings with noodles

We also had stir-fried Romaine lettuce with fermented bean curd, but this was quite salty and the more you chewed on the lettuce, the spicier it got. We returned it to the kitchen, thinking they would give us a less saltier version, but it didn't come back out again.

Instead we had pork dumplings with alkaline noodles in broth. We didn't really ned more carbohydrates, but someone at the table requested it, and even had another helping of the pork dumplings.

By now we were all pretty stuffed and requested the deep-fried egg twists or daan san. They were very light and fluffy, and came with the desiccated coconut and sesame seeds and the corn syrup separately to avoid them getting soggy.

In addition to that dessert, we also received the house dessert of sweet mixed bean soup. Needless so say I was so full and am still full hours later... 

One thing's for sure -- we will be back, probably trying the dim sum, which we hear is good...

Corner 29

4488 Main Street

Vancouver, BC

604 559 8660

 

Review: Mommy Dead and Dearest

An "ill" Gypsy Rose with mother Dee Dee

Another documentary I saw on the flight to Hong Kong was Mommy Dead and Dearest that was released in 2017, about the shocking tale of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard.

The film opens with Gypsy Rose at the police station and is told that her mother is dead.

She reacts with horror and fear, but the young woman is arrested -- for her role in her mother's murder, while her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn did the dirty deed.

Gypsy Rose was sentenced to 10 years in jail

But soon the motive becomes clear and viewers begin to realise what kind of life Gypsy Rose had up until this point.

When Gypsy Rose was a baby, her mother claimed her daughter had numerous illnesses, and constantly took her to see doctors, who prescribed medicines that would make her have those actual symptoms, and even underwent surgeries that she didn't need to have.

Dee Dee claimed her daughter had muscular dystrophy and couldn't walk, which led to charitable people and communities giving them free housing and donating clothes and necessities to them.

However in reality, Dee Dee had Munchausen syndrome, where a person fakes illnesses for attention, and in this case she forced her child to be sick for over two decades in a horrific form of physical and mental abuse.

There is a lot of archival footage and photographs of them in the film, which tries to be as objective as possible.

She married Anderson but are now separated

The documentary features long interviews with Gypsy Rose in her prison uniform, as well as with doctors and psychiatrists, police, lawyers, and her estranged father, grandparents and other relatives. It seems Dee Dee was shunned in the family as she stole from them and never seemed to tell the truth.

Gypsy Rose has picked up this trait as well to get what she wants, making one wonder how much they can trust what she says. 

But at the same time can you blame her? She spent so much time with her mother that it was the only behaviour she knew of, and her naivety is apparent in how she and Godejohn planned the murder. Gypsy Rose was desperate to get out of her situation but didn't think much of the future or the consequences. 

She didn't have much experience in making friends, let alone romantic relationships, and mostly went along with what Godejohn wanted in their sexual relationship. 

Therefore it's surprising Gypsy Rose married a Louisana teacher by the name Ryan Anderson while in prison in 2022, but it turns out last month she announced her separation from him after being released in December last year.

One wonders how much rehabilitation Gypsy Rose has had in prison and since she left jail serving a 10-year sentence. She has had a tough life and a skewed outlook that will greatly affect her future in her 30s and beyond.

Mommy Dead and Dearest

Director Erin Lee Carr

82 minutes

HK Market Sees Spectacular Trading Flop Debut

Chabaidao had biggest debut flop in Hong Kong since 2015

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which operates Asia's third-largest stock market, had a 13 percent drop in profit for the first quarter with fewer new listings and lower turnover. 

From January to March this year, net profit was HK$2.97 billion (US$380 million). 

Hopefully the second quarter gets better?

Bloomberg followed Chabaidao's first trading day

The city's largest IPO in 2024 was a Chinese bubble tea chain, Sichuan Baicha Baidao or Chabaidao (2555), which raised HK$2.59 billion (US$330 million), or HK$17.50 per share back in November.

How did it do on its first day of trading yesterday?

Soon after the markets opened, it plunged 38 percent to HK$10.80 before finishing the day slightly higher at HK$12.80.

It was considered the worst debut since 2015 for a company that had raised at least US$300 million, according to Bloomberg.

Yikes. 

Another company, Tianjin Construction Development Group also made its debut in the market and it also tanked, dropping more than 30 percent in value after having raised US$20 million in its IPO.

Not exactly what the Hong Kong government had in mind when it had hoped the stock market would help reboot the city's trading market, which has seen a drop in new listings for four consecutive years.

Lee optimistic the market will be bullish 

However, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu remains optimistic that new measures by China's securities regulator will help boost sentiment.

"Dozens of companies have applied to the mainland regulators for going public in Hong Kong, including large companies from traditional industries like manufacturing and logistics, as well as key companies from high value-added industries like AI and fintech," he said.

"We have also been actively promoting financing in Hong Kong to top unicorn companies in the mainland," Lee said, referring to startups worth at least US$1 billion.

Last year the Hong Kong exchange only saw 73 IPOs, raising HK$46.3 billion...

Picture of the Day: Xiaohongshu Photo Shoots

Everyone taking pictures of the street sign in Kennedy Town

Walking around Hong Kong I saw a lot of young Chinese tourists, mostly women in their 20s, dressed up and carrying cameras or their phones mounted on selfie sticks, posing in front of specific streets and landmarks.

They were taking pictures where others on Xiaohongshu or "Little Red Book", a social media and e-commerce platform somewhat similar to Instagram, had posted. 

This was their idea of a Hong Kong holiday, or any trip for that matter -- posing in front of places like Bakehouse, a popular bakery with the coveted blue paper bag, or in front of Arabica coffee shop with the coffee cup that has a percentage sign at its Kennedy Town location.

There are other better places to take photos...

While some of these shops may have a bump in business thanks to these visitors snapping up coffees and pastries, I've heard some of these tourists find empty bags or drained coffee cups to use as props.

Can we say these places have been Xiaohongshu-ed?

Why replicate the same angle as everyone else? Or why not create your own memories of the place with other kinds of pictures?

But no, they seemed obsessed with recreating the same picture (different outfits), and patiently waited for others to finish shooting before they set up their own shot. 

Meanwhile they crowd the sidewalks making it hard for local residents trying to get from A to B.

How long will this trend last? Asking for a friend...

Review: Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art

This "Rothko" was declared real, then not

When you have over 14 hours to kill on the plane you watch movies. In my case it's documentaries.

One that was fascinating to watch is called Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art that was released in 2020. 

It's a fascinating tale about how fake paintings were sold in a red hot contemporary art market, making both the dealer and the supplier very rich, thanks to the talent of a Chinese immigrant who had a way of making canvases look like the works of Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollack, and William de Kooning.

Freedman gives her side of the story in the film

Director Barry Avrich gets practically everyone to tell the story, from Ann Freedman, the art dealer who was working at Knoedler & Company in New York, to various art experts, clients like Domenico De Dole and his wife Eleanore, art forensic experts, and numerous journalists. 

The story all came out in a court case in 2016 so there isn't much new except Freedman gives her side of the story in several interviews, though the reporters pour skepticism on her claims. 

She said in 1995 an unknown Long Island art dealer named Glafir Rosales approached her with a Rothko painting that Freedman thought was so beautiful -- except there was no paperwork to certify that Rothko had painted it. Rosales gave a long concocted story that seemed plausible -- if you wanted to believe the painting was real.

Freedman also took the painting to a Rothko expert, who declared it was authentic. So she bought it from Rosales for US$750,000 and sold it at auction for a whopping US$5.5 million.

Rosales doesn't have her say in the documentary

Over the next 10 years, Rosales sold Freeman some 60 paintings that were eventually sold for US$80 million to not only private collectors, but also museums and galleries. 

Things began to fall apart when a wealthy collector was divorcing his wife and he needed to sell the painting he had bought from Knoedler.

But when he tried to get it authenticated by art experts, they refused to say it was real.

And that's when he demanded a refund from Knoedler, and caused the gallery, which had been around for over 165 years to suddenly close in 2011, and its clients wondering if they had bought fakes too.

Even though the court case was in 2016, the documentary is still fascinating to watch. However, there are two people the viewers really want to hear from and don't -- that's Rosales and the forger, Pei Shan Qian.

A Pollack painting that was later declared fake

In the end Rosales was sentenced to nine months of house arrest and three years of probation as well as being ordered to pay US$81 million to the victims of fraud. 

However in reality, it was her boyfriend, Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz who was the mastermind, as he had been involved in selling fake art before. He fled to Spain, and efforts were made to extradite him, but Diaz claimed his health was poor and could not travel to the United States.

As for Qian, he hightailed it to Shanghai and the film crew are seen knocking on several doors looking for him. At last Qian's wife opens the door, but she says he's not available to speak on camera. They apparently stalk him walking around freely, and living relatively well for the decade of "art work" that he'd done.

But Made You Look also reveals the murky trade of art, and how provenance is so important, though greed can get in the way of rigorously testing a painting to ensure it is real -- or not. It also shows the desire of private collectors to own a famous work of art as a status symbol, something most of us would never even begin to entertain.

Qian made money from his fakes over 10 years

The film also "discovers" Dafen Village in Shenzhen, where an army of artists produce fake art for customers around the world. It's not new, people! It's been around for years and yet filmmakers and journalists claim to have found it, just like Avrich.

Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art

Directed by Barry Avrich

94 minutes

Shanghainese Cuisine in Hong Kong

Stir-fried river shrimps are a classic Shanghainese dish

Hong Kong has some Shanghainese associations where residents with ties to the city can have their favourite Shanghainese dishes.

On this trip I was lucky to eat at two of them. At Ning Po Residents Association at the foot of D'Aguilar Street, my friend ordered stir-fried river shrimps, drunken chicken, stinky tofu and spinach with broad beans.

Two giant (and pungent!) pieces of stinky tofu

River shrimps aren't readily available in Canada, they are tiny, yet plump and sweet. I can't even imagine de-shelling them... stir-fried they are coated in a glistening cornstarch sauce and then dipped in dark vinegar. Delicious.

I haven't had stinky tofu in Vancouver either, so why not here, especially as my friend likes eating it too? At Ning Po we get two giant slabs that are deep-fried and before they even arrive at our table we can smell them. The tofu is piping hot, and then biting into it, it has a slightly crunchy exterior and then very soft and smooth inside.

For dessert we had Shanghainese deep-fried souffle balls filled with banana. The egg whites are whipped up, and then dollops of the mashed banana are added to the egg white to create a ball and then put in hot oil and cooked for a few minutes before they are scooped up, dried and then icing sugar dusted on top.

Lion's head meatball with cabbage in broth

The ones here were so light, fluffy and delicious. 

A few days later I had a chance to eat at Kiangsu Chekiang and Shanghai Residents Association also in Central. Our generous host ordered several dishes, like the stir-fried river shrimps, and giant lion's head meatballs in soup with cabbage. The meatballs were soft in texture, made with fatty pork but the broth barely showed any oil. 

For dessert we had lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice in osmanthus syrup and lotus seeds. This is a pretty laborious dish, having to clean the lotus root, stuff them with glutinous rice, steam them and braise in the osmanthus syrup. 

What a treat.

Stuffed lotus root with lotus seeds