VIFF -- Review: We Are All Strangers

One of two wedding scenes in We Are All Strangers

We Are All Strangers (2026)

This film with seven Golden Horse nominations is the third in the trilogy by director Anthony Chen who also wrote and produced this drama about a father and son and how divergent their lives are despite living in the same social housing flat in Singapore.

Father Boon Kiat (Andi Lim) is a hardworking, humble cook who makes bowls of noodles at his hawker stall. His wife died 10 years ago, while his wayward son Junyang (Koh Jia Ler) doesn't know what he's going to do after completing mandatory military service, and refuses to help his father out, believing it is too lowly a job for him.

Tensions between Bee Hwa and Junyang

Instead Junyang romances an academically-minded girl called Lydia (Regene Lim) in senior high school, whose mother is a teacher and expects her to go to university. However, things go awry when Lydia gets pregnant and wants to keep the baby...

Meanwhile Boon Kiat has his eyes on Bee Hwa (Yeo Yann Yann), a "beer auntie" who sells beers to customers at the hawker centre. She is desperate to find a place to live after her boyfriend ran off with her savings which results in her having to stay with her younger brother's family.

The relationship between Junyang and Lydia is fast and intense, whereas Bee Hwa slowly develops a fondness for Boon Kiat, who has wanted to be with her for a long time, but is patient and kind, which she reciprocates.

Early on Bee Hwa remarks Singapore is so wealthy, but she isn't. It's a theme played throughout in We Are All Strangers, a fictional snapshot of characters near the bottom of society struggling to stay afloat.

Seven Golden Horse nods

The only character that isn't fully developed is Lydia, which is a pity because viewers may find it hard to understand what she sees in Junyang, and how she sees her life now that it has gone from privilege to struggle because of him.

Nevertheless director Chen's We Are All Strangers is a kind of winding morality play over two and a half hours: what happens when you don't work hard, don't know what you want to do with your life, or the consequences of not listening to your father's advice. 

We Are All Strangers

Directed by Anthony Chen

157 minutes

Will Shein be Third Time Lucky in IPO?

Shein gets ready for its Hong Kong IPO, third time a charm?

E-commerce fast-fashion retailer Shein is filing its IPO in Hong Kong, and now for the first time is shedding light on who exactly is behind it.

Chair and CEO Sky Xu Yangtian is an elusive billionaire, but if he wants Shein to have a successful IPO, he'll have to reveal more about himself.

Even his biography is sketchy: There's one story that he was born in 1984 from a poor family in Shandong, but managed to graduate with a Bachelor's of Science at Qingdao University of Technology; another suggests he studied at George Washington University in the American capital and has American citizenship. 

The company's CEO is an elusive billionaire

From a corporate communications point of view, one would expect Xu to clarify this with some kind of official biography; just leaving rumours to fester is not helpful, particularly for the IPO application.

The company moved its headquarters from Nanjing to Guangzhou in 2015, then in 2022 to Singapore, where Xu apparently has permanent residency.

This is Shein's third attempt at an IPO, after New York in 2023, and London in 2025 were no-gos, according to a Reuters podcast entitled "Shein's fraying profit sets up drab IPO". Ouch. 

The company is known for being cheap and fast fashion; it works with suppliers by ordering in batches. If something sells well then Shein orders more, if not, it drops the product so it doesn't get stuck with too much product. 

Another interesting aspect of Shein is that its customers are outside of China -- mostly the United States and Europe. 

But because the clothing is so cheap, the US and Europe are now implementing import duties on these packages, which is making Shein less appealing than before and drastically shrinking its profit margin.

Shein is criticised for its labour practices

Then there are the numerous allegations of its clothes manufactured by people working in slave-like conditions, using Xinjiang cotton, and infringing on intellectual property among others.

As a result, Reuters points out Shein's prospectus is not particularly enticing to prospective shareholders, in particular that Xu is both chair and CEO, which is not good in terms of governance, and that existing shareholders that include him will have more controlling power than new shareholders. 

Also not ideal is that Shein has revealed in its prospectus that it is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, though both parties did not reveal what was being investigated.

Shein's current valuation is around US$40-$50 billion, a significant drop from the US$98.2 billion value in 2022. 

Guesses are that Shein's IPO may not be as appealing as its clothing...

Easy Way to Make Bak Kut Teh

Pork ribs floating in the broth with 25 cloves of garlic!

In Singapore and Malaysia one of the must-try foods is bak kut teh, or pork rib tea simmered in a medicinal broth that is meant to have a warming effect on the body.

Some of the spices in the broth include star anise, cinnamon, cloves, and pepper. Cloves of garlic are added along with pork ribs and simmered for hours.

A friend visiting from Singapore gave me a box with several packets of the bak kut teh soup base and I made it a few days ago. Thankfully this version from Song Fa does not have the strong medicinal taste!

Singaporean brand of bak kut teh

I followed the directions of putting 900g of pork ribs in a pot of boiling water and then rinsing them to get rid of the scum.

Then I cleaned the pot and added fresh water to boil again, and then put in the soup packet which contains two sachets of spices and 25 cloves of garlic! I boiled them together for 15 minutes. 

The broth started to have a slight white pepper taste, and I put the pork ribs back in along with one half teaspoon of dark soy sauce and one half teaspoon of light soy sauce and let the broth simmer for about an hour.

I periodically checked the broth's taste, and the directions said the sachets can be removed whenever you feel the spice level is enough, which I did after an hour.

The soup had a dominant peppery flavour, not too spicy and the pork ribs were very tender to eat. And yes the garlic gloves pretty much disintegrated by this point! The broth had a comforting effect and it's even better removing some of the oil accumulated.

This recipe worked really well and I have a few more packs to enjoy!

A Very Chinese Time in People's Lives

Jellycat's red plush horse with a golden mane 

Everyone's getting into the Year of the Horse -- Snoopy, Mr. Men, Sesame Street's Elmo, Miffy, Paddington Bear, even Jellycat issuing a red plush horse with a golden mane.

Are they all in a "very Chinese time in their lives", or Chinamaxxing? 

Or is it all a marketing ploy to appeal to Chinese fans that they are wishing them all the best in the Lunar New Year?

In some ways it's amusing to see non-Chinese recently discovering the benefits of drinking hot water, or demonstrating that they know to take off their shoes once they enter a home, and these days posting on social media, "Kung Hei Faat Choy"!

Snoopy celebrating the new year

It's great people are more accustomed or accepting of Chinese habits, but it doesn't make them experts on Chinese culture overnight.

It was brought to my attention that a guy from San Francisco on Facebook was explaining or maybe "mansplaining" that people should say "Lunar New Year" instead of "Chinese New Year" to make it more inclusive, as people from Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia also celebrate. 

He even talks about how this year is the "Fire Horse", elucidating about the five elements of water, wood, metal, fire and earth, and that a "Fire Horse" only comes around every 60 years...

Hence Chinamaxxing or being in a "very Chinese time in my life" is so bizarre. The latter assumes that one is Chinese for a period of time, unlike say ethnic Chinese who are Chinese their whole lives.

The former are those who look at all the cool things about China -- electric cars, high-speed rail, online payments, AI and Shein, without taking into account or even knowing about, say, the lopsided ratio of men to women, the high unemployment rate for fresh grads, and the restrictions of living in an authoritarian environment.

Elmo with his Korean and Chinese friends

All this just only a few years after China finally lifted its draconian lockdown measures to control the Covid-19 virus from spreading. People were literally sealed in their own apartment units, while everyone else got bags of food delivered to them, and people queuing up and opening their mouths to have their saliva swabbed.

And now China is super cool?

Quite the transformation, but now that Canadian and UK passport holders can travel to China visa-free until the end of the year, it would be great for people to see the country for themselves and then figure out of they really are Chinamaxxing.

If anything, they would be able to legitimately say their visit was a "very Chinese time in their life."

TeamLab's Immersive Art Experience

Golden-coloured fish swim around the room

Yesterday morning we woke up relatively early to get to teamLab Borderless in Azabudai Hills, located in a swanky undulating building designed by Heatherwick Studios.

One could tell they were in the right vicinity with so many foreigners trying to figure out where teamLab Borderless was, as the signage only said "Digital art museum". But take the escalator down into the basement and around the corner painted on the ceiling was "teamLab Borderless".

Art is projected around the walls and floors

All visitors had to place all their belongings (except their phones) into lockers, including umbrellas, as it's quite dark inside and would be near impossible to find things. 

That's because teamLab is a collective that brings together art and technology that goes beyond a frame or wall. Images are projected on walls and floors, while mirrors are used extensively to give the impression of going on and on, or maximising special effects.

Visitors are told there is no specific route, and are encouraged to revisit rooms over and over as they will change completely over time. It's a completely immersive visual and audio experience that can overwhelm the senses and one can't but help try to record videos of everything. 

At the start there is a fun procession of mostly frogs on their hind legs, walking, with the odd rabbit. The frogs bring blessings and protect travellers, ensuring their safe return. Frogs are also related to prosperity. They were a recurring motif in some of the rooms.

Spheres give a feeling of limitlessness

Not all the projections were interactive, but fun nonetheless. One fun room had amateur drawings of sea life and it turned out to be contributions from visitors themselves. They were scanned and then projected on the walls moving around and if you "touched" them, they would move away. People were lining up to have a chance to draw something. Some put their names on the fish or whatever sea creature they drew so that they could easily identify them.

Another room was completely immersive, like being in a fantasy underwater scene, with a school of golden carp swimming in and around sea plants. My friend felt a bit dizzy, while I was transfixed by how fantastic it felt to be inside this other world.

We stopped for a tea break... one of the rooms is a tea house and so we ordered two cups of barley tea. We were ushered into a dark room where we sat in chairs that we easily slipped into sideways and then waited for the staff to prepare our drinks. She first came out with a glass bowl and then returned later to fill it with the tea that had an oat taste. But wait -- flowers were projected into the bowl and the petals began spreading behind the bowl and onto the table. Again more content you had to commemorate on video and post on social media.

Sea creatures drawn by visitors projected on walls

It's quite amazing that teamLab has several projects in Japan, like Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka, as well as in Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Macau, and Miami. It probably get more fun to create as technology improves, though a lot of accurate set-up and production needs to be made to ensure a flawless execution.

A lot of manpower is needed just to control crowds or ensure visitors are OK, and all the staff speak English.

It's probably become a prestige thing to be able to say you have visited specific teamLab projects, though if you have had the chance to see one, then you can see what all the fuss is about. It's not what art purists may think is art, but it is certainly art for the masses that is extremely popular, beautiful and fun.

teamLab Borderless

Mori Building Digital Art Museum

Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza B1

5-9 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Kidnapped Actor Reveals Shady Scam Centres in Myanmar

Wang (right) was rescued from Myanmar on January 7

The disappearance and subsequent rescue of a Chinese actor has shone a spotlight on the shady scam centres that have proliferated along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Wang Xing, 22, went to Thailand on January 3 on the promise of film work, but was driven 500km to a scam centre in Mae Sot, where his head was shaved and was trained to make scam calls, also known as "pig-butchering scams" to persuade victims to part with a lot of their money through text messages.

After not hearing from him for days, Wang's girlfriend went online begging for help, and after it was reposted by some famous Chinese actors, the Chinese authorities stepped in, and Wang was rescued on January 7. He returned to China on January 10, but not before thanking the Chinese and Thai authorities, but said nothing about how he was rescued.

He was held in a scam centre like this one

His swift return is not like the thousands of other people who were also lured to Thailand with promises of work, but were then swiftly kidnapped and taken across the border to places like Myanmar and Cambodia where they have been forced to scam people around the world, around the clock. 

There have been stories from former "prisoners" that if they don't perform these scams they are physically beaten and given little food, and it's near impossible to escape these camps. Only a handful of people have managed to escape and lived to tell their horrific experiences.

When news broke of Wang's rescue and return, families of other Chinese nationals started a petition to have the authorities also rescue their loved ones. Initially there were 174 cases, and now there are more than 600.

"We are desperate to know if the remaining Chinese nationals [who were] with him have been rescued," wrote one commenter on Weibo. "Other people's lives are also lives."

Wang had said there were about 50 other people who were held together with him.

Wang thought he had film work in Thailand

However, Beijing has not said whether it will follow up on these other cases, while the Thai government is keen to reassure Chinese tourists that Thailand is safe, as it relies heavily on visitors from China.

Wang is extremely lucky to have a persistent girlfriend, and for the internet community to clamour for the Chinese authorities to do something. But what about the rest of these people from China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore who are essentially imprisoned and forced to scam innocent victims? 

It is believed these scam centres that get victims' money from cryptocurrencies and money transfers are run by Chinese syndicates, so why doesn't Beijing want to crack down on them? Surely it wants to protect its own citizens, who believed a job overseas could bring in money when they couldn't find work in China?

There are more questions than answers, but in the meantime Wang's harrowing story serves not only as a warning to others, but also helps bring more attention to scam centres in Southeast Asia and how they trick people into handing over millions of dollars.

Happy New Year!

Can't believe it's 2025!

For me, 2024 was a challenging year, but came out with some positives: I did a lot more walking than the year before and a bit more swimming. Pilates class is something I am enjoying a lot, where once a week for an hour I get to challenge my muscles and core in a fun way and entertained with dad jokes from our instructor.

I finally got a family doctor and was given a clean bill of health which is a relief, after not having had any comprehensive check-up in years.

This year was great professionally, writing more stories and being able to interview people from around the world.

On the travel front, I was able to fly to Hong Kong and Singapore to catch up with friends and family and had such a memorable trip. I also went on an Alaska cruise for the first time and seeing icebergs and glaciers, and even black bears! I also went to San Francisco to see extended family, and an annual trip to Palm Springs.

I hope to be able to travel again in the new year.

Wishing good health and happiness to everyone in 2025! 

Chinese Money Flows into Hong Kong Again

Hong Kong is again attracting mainlanders with deep pockets

In April this year a huge money-laundering scandal rocked Singapore -- where 10 Chinese nationals were charged with laundering US$2.2 billion involving real estate, watches, luxury handbags, jewellery, and lots of bottles of alcohol.

It was revealed in court that these men, with passports from Vietnam, Vanuatu, Cyprus and Dominica managed to live a crazy rich Asian lifestyle in the Lion City, paid for by money made from scams and online gambling.

The fact that they were able to live in Singapore without any scrutiny for years shocked residents and resulted in a massive review in policies, particularly banks tightening rules, particularly around clients with multiple passports.  

As a result, the Chinese are moving their money by the truckloads back to Hong Kong, where there is less scrutiny of the source of wealth.

How much is coming in? US$44 billion, three times the amount last year. 

With lots of money, come the wealth managers and banks in Hong Kong are on a massive hiring spree these days.

Swiss private banker Julius Baer has expanded its office space by 40 percent to house all the staff they are adding, while Bank of Singapore in Hong Kong is boosting its number of staff by 30 percent. Standard Chartered wants to double its staff in wealth management, and same with Citigroup.

It's also not just the uber wealthy looking to move their money to Hong Kong, but even those with assets ranging from US$5 million to US$10 million.

The Hong Kong government is also enticing the rich to come over -- those who invest HK$30 million in the city can get residency -- and 500 have applied.

However the tricky part is for banks to verify the applicants' assets over the past 24 months, which won't be easy.

Nevertheless, it seems that the wealth management sector in Hong Kong is seeing lots of dollar signs in the long run.

"I'm getting three to four calls daily from clients regarding immigration-related matters including the capital investment entrant scheme," said Patrick Yip, vice-chair for Deloitte China. "Many of the wealthy Chinese are looking for options. They want to be able to travel with a 'user-friendly' passport and get education overseas for their kids."

Jollibee Fully Takes Over Tim Ho Wan

Tin Ho Wan is known for cheap dim sum with little quality

When I landed in Hong Kong earlier this year for my first visit in two years, my first meal was at Tim ho Wan just above the Airport Express.

It was quite busy at dinner time and my friend and I waited for about 20 minutes before we were seated at the back. The dim sum was meh, but the location was convenient and a quick meal before we went our separate ways.

It was opened by a former Lung King Heen chef

Interesting that Jollibee Food Corporation was interested in Tim Ho Wan in 2021 buying shares then, and in January purchased more to make it 92 percent ownership of the dim sum chain that has 80 restaurants in 11 markets, including Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Melbourne, Tokyo and Manila.

The latest news is that the Philippine-based fast food company Jollibee Food Corporation has now snapped up the remaining 8 percent of Tim Ho Wan and fully owning it.

Tim Ho Wan was started in 2009 by chef Mak Kwai-pui, who formerly worked at Lung King Heen in the Four Seasons Hong Kong. The tiny restaurant in Mong Kok was awarded a Michelin star a year later and quickly became the talk of the town.

It was then known as having quality dim sum at reasonable prices and maintained its one Michelin star until 2021, when it was downgraded to Bib Gourmand.

Perhaps peach mango pie at Tim Ho Wan?

Singaporean broadcaster and businessman Robert Chua and his brother Harry bought a stake in Tim Ho Wan in 2013 and brought the dim sum chain to the Lion City. They sold their stake in 2022.

Now what will Jollibee do with Tim Ho Wan? Offer peach mango pies for dessert? Open Tim Ho Wan next door to every Jollibee? How about deep-fried xiaolongbao? 

Picture of the Day: Tim Hortons in Singapore

A 12th Tim Horton's will open in Singapore

The other day my friend in Singapore told me she saw yet another Tim Hortons opening in the Lion City!

And looking at the company's website, there are 11 locations in Singapore already, serving double doubles and Tim Bits along with ice roasted macadamia oatmilk latte, maple cinnamon latte and Belgian chocolate mocha. Or if you're not fussed about your coffee, then you can order the "daily brew".

Interestingly the donuts available include yuzu cream, kaya filled, along with honey cruellers, maple glaze and caramel Biscoff. 

Wonder what makes Tim Hortons so appealing to Singaporeans?!

For some it might be the intriguing taste of Canada (or nostalgic for others?). Tim Hortons has only been in Singapore since November 2023. 

The Canadian brand is one of the largest coffee chains in the world with over 5,700 stores in 14 countries, with the first outlet in Hamilton, Ontario in 1964.

Canadian soft power in the form of donuts and coffee...!!!

Wind-Swept Parade of HK Athletes

HK fans wave to their Olympic athletes on the parade route

The other day fans got to cheer Hong Kong athletes who competed in the Olympics in Paris in a whirlwind parade across town.

It started at 10.15am in Sha Tin and then they were at the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower by 11am, followed by Central Pier by 11.35 and Tamar Park 10 minutes later.

Fok hastily fixing his hair with a comb

The athletes, accompanied by Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, president of the Hong Kong Sports Federation and Olympic Committee sat on the open top deck of a double-decker bus.

How did they get from Sha Tin to Tsim Sha Tsui so fast?

It was quite the roller coaster ride.

Footage of the top deck shows the bus barreling at full speed along the highway as Fok, sitting in the front row, has his comb-over hair flying all over. It's quite the sight.

Once they arrive, he quickly whips out his comb to comb down his hair. Lucky for him he came prepared!

Of all the Olympic athletes who won medals, the ones from Hong Kong gained the most monetarily.

Kong (front) and Haughey waving flags

Gold medallists were awarded HK$6 million (US$768,000), silver US$384,000, and US$192,000 for bronze. Singapore was close behind with US$745,000 for gold, US$373,000 for silver, and US$186,000 for winning a bronze.

Hong Kong had its best ever Olympics with fencer Cheung Ka-long defending his title with a second gold, and fellow fencer Vivian Kong Man-wai winning gold in the women's epee individual event, and swimmer Siobhan Haughey clinching a bronze in the women's 200-metre freestyle. 

Review: Mui Ngo Gai Offers Singaporean and Vietnamese Dishes

Interesting decor choice for this Singaporean/Vietnamese place

On Thursday an acquaintance invited me to check out a relatively new restaurant on Kingsway near Victoria Drive called Mui Ngo Gai, which serves Singaporean and Vietnamese dishes. Walking in was a bit jarring because the decor was very western, with a colour palette of burgundy and teal, floral murals on the walls and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. 

A white guy in a tank top came in looking for a cheap bowl of pho and was frustrated he couldn't get one and walked out, while another group of non-Asians also left when they didn't understand the restaurant concept.

Grilled eggplant with tomato and shrimp

It's interesting Mui Ngo Gai offers these two different cuisines pretty much equally and in this western-style interior, where the wait staff wear uniforms that make them look like flight attendants.

Flipping through the menu you are overwhelmed by how many dishes there are; some are carefully explained, while others assume diners know what they are. The menu has lots of pictures which helps see what's in the dishes, but in some ways makes it harder to decide what to eat.

My friend likes to sample food so we were over ambitious when we ordered and probably lucky for us, one that we wanted wasn't available, so we ordered four dishes. Since we requested so much food, the waitress suggested we change tables, and we moved from the back of the restaurant to the front, by the window with banquette seating.

First to arrive was our only Vietnamese dish, grilled eggplant with prawn (C$25) that was presented on a very pretty plate and the eggplant looked like a fish, its flesh (alternating pieces of shrimp and tomato) covered in a tomato sauce. The eggplant was delicious and didn't need the prawns, or tomatoes for that matter. 

A bowl of congee with frog legs and dried chillis

Next came two small claypots, one with "porridge" or congee, the other was a black concoction with frog legs and dried chillis (C$23). We were instructed to put some porridge in our bowls and then add the frog legs and mix together before eating. 

The frog legs were delicious, very tender and had a spicy kick. Because everything was covered in a black sauce (not explained in the menu) that I didn't know I had bitten into a chilli. I had to order another glass of sour sop to douse the metaphorical flames burning in my mouth.

We also had a plate of lady fingers fried with sambal (C$25) that were on the stringy side even though they were sliced lengthwise -- they could have been poached first. 

By this point we were pretty full when a giant pot arrived with our fish head curry (C$68)! It was a big head of a snapper, but it was unrecognisable except for a giant pectoral fin hanging off the bowl. The curry had pieces of more okra and eggplant in there. Again the okra could have been chopped up instead of in whole pieces.

Fish head curry with eggplant and lady fingers

The fish head actually didn't have that much meat and sadly was a bit overcooked. Nevertheless the sauce was pretty appetising; we used roti prata (C$5) to mop up the sauce, but it was a bit too buttery for our taste.

Our waitress explained the restaurant didn't have desserts available yet (even though they were printed on the menu), but we were much too stuffed to try any; she also suggested next time we try the chilli crab, which sounded tempting!

Perhaps Mui Ngo Gai is trying to make Southeast Asian food more upscale with this kind of decor and service. The food almost matches this ambition, though the crockery used is very inconsistent. Nevertheless we hope to be back!

Mui Ngo Gai

2052 Kingsway

Vancouver, BC

(604) 876 8885

When Your Goal in Life is Public Housing

Some young people climb housing ladder by public housing

Young Hong Kong people continue to "lie flat" by making it their goal to get into public housing, even taking lower-paying jobs or adjusting their salary on the application to be eligible.

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has disapproved of these tactics, telling them to chase their dreams instead.

"If you waste your possibilities and your dreams for a public housing unit, I believe that [young] people will regret it. For a lot of people, their success today is created from their own struggle and their own hard work," he said.

Lee says aim for public housing is "inappropriate"

"The final result of what they achieve [with hard work] is better than what they imagined in the first place."

He said that instead of working hard, Lee noted some young people have deliberately adjusted their income to be eligible for public housing, and he called this "inappropriate".

"Having a roof over your head is important, but one should not waste their development potential and opportunities simply for a public housing unit," he said.

"That's because it is possible that your final results and achievement will be a hundred times or even unlimited times greater than what that unit would give you."

Does Lee know how much a flat costs these days? A tiny 300 sq ft one-bedroom flat is at least HK$5 million. Those who can afford to buy one have wealthy parents who have either given them a down payment or have bought a flat outright for them.

HK tops list for least affordable homes

If they don't have a rich family, the next option for a young person is to try to get a public housing flat. When they get one, they can rent it for a few years and save up money to buy a place. 

The government is not doing enough to help young people get their foot in the door of the housing market, and Lee is chastising them for not chasing their dreams? When people have housing, then they feel secure to focus on their work, get married, have a family and so on. But if they can't even get a roof over their heads because it is so far beyond their reach, they either give up and live with their parents, or they are "ambitious" by trying to get a public housing flat. 

According to Demographia, in 2023, the least affordable market in the English-speaking world was Hong Kong, followed by Sydney, and Vancouver in third place. 

Singapore has the highest homeowner rate at 89 percent, then Ireland with 70 percent and Canada at 67 percent. Hong Kong was at the bottom at 51 percent.

Perhaps Lee and his administration should look at these numbers and wonder why its homeownership rate is so low compared to Singapore? If he wants to improve people's livelihood that would be a great place to start.

Review: Blue Smoke in Singapore

Crispy Iberico pork belly

A restaurant in Singapore I was introduced to is called Blue Smoke, run by chef/owner Ivan Yeo. It's located along Joo Chiat Road, on the east coast of the Lion City. Before dinner my friend and I wandered along the street checking out the various boutiques and shops. 

There were vintage shops selling clothes from the 1980s to antique brooches and jewellery, a biodynamic wine shop where the wines had no sulfites in them, and clothes made by young designers. 

Succulent miso shiitake brioche buns

At the appointed time we reached Blue Smoke, and it's a casual place with an open kitchen at the back. Yeo was there with a bandana on his forehead, as I can imagine it gets pretty hot there as he cooks with open flames and grills.

He's a maverick in that he did not come up through the ranks in the restaurant world -- instead he was in advertising, got jaded, then switched to music, and that was where he saw how restaurants and bars were run from the back-of-house point of view that interested him. Yeo had also had a taste of the restaurant business as his grandparents had opened eateries and he helped out as a kid.

Then he has an uncle who made his own beers and Yeo and his brother were interested in pairing food with these beers, hence Blue Smoke. The concept is that everything on the menu is smoked, but not in the American way of marinating for ages and then smoking it for over 12 hours. Yeo prefers to experiment with various ingredients by grilling them, throwing them on open flames and then seeing what happens.

Hands-down favourite grilled cauliflower

We tried some of his dishes and for the most part they were pretty good. We started with the miso shiitake buns, where brioche buns are cut open and brown butter spread on the insides with smoked shiitake mushrooms. They were a delicious combination.

Next came the crispy pork belly, reminiscent of the Cantonese roast pork. Here they used Iberico pork smoked over lychee wood and then roasted over charcoal, then served with wasabi sour cream to add a subtle kick and attempt to cut the oil. This was a bit too fatty for me but the skin was crispy.

The grilled cauliflower steak was arguably the best dish. It was grilled with miso butter and served over a bed of yuzu sauce and crumbled pistachios sprinkled over it for a bit of a crunch. We all raved about this humble vegetable that tasted so good.

Grilled lamb marinated with a Sichuan spice rub

Another meat we tried was the grilled lamb shoulder that arrived beautifully presented before we attacked it. The lamb was marinated in a mild spicy Sichuan-style spice rub before it was grilled over both wood and charcoal before being served with a side of wasabi sour cream. 

The wood smoked stingray steak was another winner. The fish was marinated with traditional Filipino shrimp paste, homemade sambal belachan (chillis) and then smoked over lychee wood. For me it was at the high end of my spice tolerance, but it was so good that it was addictive and I kept eating it.

Finally the highly anticipated wood-smoked beef brisket... fell flat. Perhaps we were expecting something similar to American smoked meat, but this one arrived at our table looking pale and tasted bland even though it was marinated with garam masala and smoked for 20 hours. 

The smoked beef brisket was bland and flat

Nevertheless the dessert of deep-fried Del Monte banana tempura style with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream helped us have a nice finish. The outer layer of the banana slightly crunchy, warm and combined with cold ice cream was just what we wanted.

In terms of Chinese medicine, Blue Smoke is very heaty! We talked to Yeo after who told us they cook Teochew or Chiu Chow off-menu dishes! He described their fish porridge which made us all salivate, but we were too full and the kitchen was closed for the evening.

This is how Yeo entices customers to come back again and now we know!

Blue Smoke

261 Joo Chiat Road

Singapore

  

Singaporean Artist's Versatility on Display

Cheong focuses on life in the countryside 

Also at the National Gallery Singapore was an exhibition on artist Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-1983) who used several different mediums in his art. This particular show, Cheong Soo Pieng: Layer by Layer, wanted to demonstrate his artistic process, and that things would change from the initial sketch on the canvas to the finished product.

Abstract II could be a landscape

This is not new -- artists have always worked and reworked their paintings to get the composition right or started over with something else. We can discover this thanks to X-ray scans, infrared photography, and even microscopic analysis to give us a better understanding of artists' work and thought process.

Cheong's paintings are figurative, and the paintings shown are mostly when he and fellow artists travelled to Bali in Indonesia in 1952 and later in the 1970s. He made numerous sketches that became the basis of several paintings. They are rustic countryside scenes of farmers working in the fields, a boy lying on a buffalo's back, and mothers looking after their babies.

The figurative style becomes three-dimensional in Singapore Scenery, where he coated a wooden board with a layer of resin and then fixed thin copper strips to create shapes kind of like stained glass. Resin was then poured between the copper strips to form layers and brilliant colours in yellow, brown and red.

Singapore Scenery uses resin and copper strips

He also made some multimedia pieces. One called Abstract II uses painted and shaped aluminium sheets, zing plated iron rods, and metal tacks mounted on a board. It looks like a three-dimensional collage that could be interpreted as a landscape or an organic form. 

Another painting called Landscape was made on jute, a fibre made from coarse threads. He took the jute and mounted it on canvas to create more texture in the work. The composition of the painting evokes Song dynasty ink paintings with the meticulously painted landscape, though the topless women in the painting featured prominently in the foreground are from Southeast Asia.

This ink painting is made on jute

Cheong's various styles reveal his versatility and interest in experimenting with different mediums. The one using resin and copper wire is impressive and tedious, but he is determined all the same. 

National Gallery Singapore's Provocative Art

The Supreme Court Building and City Hall make up the gallery

The National Gallery Singapore is definitely worth a visit when in the Lion City, as it holds the world's largest public collection of Singaporean and Southeast Asian art totalling over 9,000 items. 

Supreme Court with its wood panelled ceiling

Not only are the works hung on the walls or placed around the rooms interesting to look at, but the buildings themselves. The museum is housed in the former Supreme Court Building and City Hall, and they are linked together with short walkways shielded from the heat outside.

You can even go into the Supreme Court chambers, a dark room with beautifully precise wood panelling on the ceiling, and the room has a dock for the accused, and some items are behind glass cases to make use of the room.

I had visited the museum before so I went to see some new exhibitions. Some of the post-modern art are curious to consider. Take The Pleasure of Being, Crying, Dying and Eating by Montien Boonma from Thailand.

The cyclical nature of life and death in this work

There are round tables set up for dining with what look like chopsticks made of slender bones on top of the red tablecloth. Nearby is a giant column made of bowls stacked up and taking a closer look, the bowls have what look like dinosaur bone designs on them.

The cylindrical shape of the installation signifies the cyclical nature of life, and the title refers to the Buddhist belief that life has the stages of pleasure (eating), and suffering (crying), from birth (being) to death (dying), and then rebirth. Montien uses the ordinary objects to explore his Buddhist views, and also to mourn his wife who succumbed from her illness.

Poor farmers with their musical instruments

Another Thai artist, Paisal Theerapongvisuanuporn, shows the massive gap between the rich and the poor in Music, Lives and Peasants. Fantasies of being wealthy are beyond the reach of poor farmers who are worked to the bone. They carry musical instruments with them playing folk songs in a bid to ease their sense of displacement. 

Meanwhile, there's a voice coming from Michael Shaowanasai's Exotic 101, with a pole on a small round stage for supposedly a woman to perform pole dancing or some kind of suggestive dance.

This is Shaowanasai's commentary on sex tourism, as the voice gives instructions on how to become an exotic dancer. This work was made in 1997, during the Asian financial crisis when the Thai baht was devalued over 20 percent and the country faced a financial meltdown. As a result, sex tourism relies on exploiting women from the countryside who are poor and desperate for money.

What would you do with a pink pistol?

From Indonesia is Jim Supangkat's Ken Dedes, which shows the replica bust of an ancient Javanese goddess, combined with a woman who is topless; the work draws attention to the multiple and conflicting layers of Indonesian identity.

While Supangkat wanted to use the myth of the goddess to extol feminine power, his work was actually criticised for insulting Indonesian culture. 

One curious work shows a bunch of pink crackers shaped like pistols that are randomly placed in a mound on the floor. Indonesian artist FX Harsono called this work What Would You Do If These Crackers Were Real Pistols? 

Also part of it is a desk inviting the viewer to sit down and write their opinion, but no one did!

Controversial Indonesian art

It was fascinating that a museum like this in Singapore exhibited such provocative works that had such strong and critical opinions about their respective countries!