Celebrity Life

As the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children marks its 95th anniversary, philanthropist Jacqueline Chow tells us why the charity speaks to her heart.

For 18 years, Jacqueline Chow has been a leading light of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children (HKSPC), a tradition she’s carried on from her mother and great-grandmother, and is proudly passing on to her two daughters as well.

Jacqueline Chow on the HKSPC's 95th Anniversary

“My great-grandmother, May Woo, wife of Dr Arthur Woo, used to be a member of the Women’s Auxiliary in the 1930s, which is now the fund-raising committee of the HKSPC,” says Jacqueline Chow. “My mother volunteered for the fund-raising committee for more than 20 years.”

Like their mother, Chow’s daughters have also been aware of the HKSPC since early childhood. Chow tells me she takes them to the centre regularly. “What they observe themselves is more significant and memorable than what I can tell them in words. They’ve helped to sell flags on our charity flag days since they were toddlers.”

Her elder daughter Gabriella helped the charity raise more than HK$200,000 when she auctioned one of her paintings at the HKSPC Little Artists fundraising event earlier this year. “They know very well that being able to give is a form of blessing,” says Chow. “They’re very grateful and feel fortunate to be able to help underprivileged children in Hong Kong.”

This month, the HKSPC celebrates its 95th anniversary, marking a significant milestone since Thomas Maynard Hazlerigg, a former British army officer, established the society with a mission to build a healthy, happy and safe environment for children from all backgrounds.

The longest-established organisation of its kind, the HKSPC serves around 3,000 children and families each day

The society, which opened its first baby health centre in 1951, today operates 29 units serving children aged up to 16, as well as providing support for working and single parents, and low-income, newly arrived and ethnic-minority families, as well as those on social-security assistance (CSSA). The longest-established organisation of its kind, it serves around 3,000 children and families each day.

Chow sat as the chairperson for the fundraising committee between 2014 and 2017, and today, along with her brother Evan, continues to take an active part in the society’s executive and finance committees, and management sub-committee. She proudly tells me she helped bring in almost half the current fund-raising committee members. “I’ve lined up many notable individual donors, institutions, and luxury and local brands to have a wide range of collaborations, along with organising various fund-raising activities,” she says.

The pandemic didn’t dampen the society’s efforts, even as physical fundraising events couldn’t proceed. “We turned every challenge into new opportunities,” says Chow, who quickly adapted to hosting online fundraising series, including Little Musicians and Little Artists, in which young philanthropists were encouraged to take part. During the peak of Covid in early 2020. when supplies were lacking, the HKSPC also rallied members and the public to donate anti-epidemic items to support the needs of children and their families.

Much has been done to safeguard children’s rights, but there’s still a lot to do. In celebrating the 95th anniversary with a Game Night at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club on December 12, Chow hopes that funds will continue to come in to support the society’s various missions.

“Covid has changed the world in many aspects,” says Chow. “Children and their families are facing a completely new lifestyle and unexpected challenges.”

One such challenge was for both parents to find work, which led to day-care shortages, as the HKSPC quickly realised. By March 2020, it had received 1,959 applications for the 329 places at its five-day crèches, almost six times its service quota. Depending on continued funding from patrons and cooperation with the relevant government departments, the society is hoping to open a sixth-day crèche, in North District, to cater to an urgent need from dual-income families.

With pressures continuing to rise on children and families in need, Chow believes maintaining good mental health is also key for the HKSPC’s future campaigns. “Parenting education will be one of the highlights in the next few years,” she says. “We’ll focus on promoting the appropriate parenting style and attitudes towards child-rearing and education issues.’

Aside from her 18 years of active participation in the HKSPC, Chow’s philanthropic efforts include a seat on the board of the YWCA, membership of the Hong Kong Ballet Guild and her work as an independent school manager at the Ebenezer School and Home for the Visually Impaired. Evidently, philanthropy not only runs in her blood, but it also brings her joy.

“I get so much happiness and satisfaction through volunteering for various charities and helping others,” says Chow. “It’s more precious to me than monetary rewards. To me, the more giving you are, the more you will receive.”

The post Jacqueline Chow on HKSPC’s 95th Anniversary appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The Carlyle hotel-inspired bolthole -- slated to open on the uppermost floors of Rosewood Hong Kong later this year -- will offer a blueprint for the eponymous group's vision of "a new kind of international members' club". We venture north of the harbour to discover just what that entails...

Hitherto, the Hong Kong ecosystem of private members' clubs has been split broadly between two camps: at one end, you have venerable institutions catered to the needs of the city's professionals (the FCC) and those who surround them (the KCC); at the other, a burgeoning array of social haunts meant to profit from the growing number of Silicon Valley types -- hawkers of crypto, CBD cafes, and other speculative investment opportunities -- who reside here.

Call me Debbie Downer, but neither feels like an especially glam place to visit. After all, such clubs justify their patronage by way of mostly pragmatic considerations: a convenient location; access to business networking opportunities; affordable gym membership; and so forth. This, as Rosewood Hotels CEO Sonia Cheng well knows is where Carlyle & Co. can break the mould -- by conjuring a little glamour into Hong Kong's mostly comatose members' club scene.

Best thought of as a kind of pied-à-terre to the Rosewood Hong Kong (spanning the 54th-56th floor of the hotel) Carlyle & Co. is, in effect, Cheng's answer to the boutique members' clubs that have dominated pop culture these last 20 years. In Hong Kong -- where bureaucratic red tape is frequent; and decent-sized real estate scant -- her hotel group's latest venture feels especially impressive -- if for no other reason than the sheer audacity of it all.

In recent weeks, the first details of the club's leviathan 25,000 sq. ft. premises have begun to emerge, inspired in broad strokes by the "intriguing, inimitable and ultimately indefinable" style of The Carlyle in New York (incidentally also a brand owned by Rosewood Hotels). To orchestrate this vision of Hong Kong-via-Manhattan, Rosewood turned to British designer Ilse Crawford, whose approach has imbued the club's many rooms with a light, playful sensibility -- affording each a healthy dose of individual personality.

For fusty decadents like yours truly, the gentlemen's spaces -- including a barber, shoeshine, and capsule store by an award-winning haberdasher -- hold immense charm -- even though they espouse just one of many eclectic visual styles members will enjoy each time they navigate the club. The aforementioned differ significantly from spaces like the Cabaret Bar and Sitting Room, both of which employ the medium of painting (by artists Jean-Philippe Delhomme and Christina Zimpel respectively) to celebrate The Carlyle hotel's legendary Bemelmans murals.

Supper & Supping

In the spirit of its progenitor, the various dining venues at Carlyle & Co. seem to be accompanied by an august sense of occasion. The crux of the action happens at the brasserie, which (like any decent club restaurant in Hong Kong) serves a medley of Western, Chinese, and all-day delicacies. Here, the focus is on simply cooking the freshest produce the club can source -- various of the small plates are smoked, cured, or otherwise preserved in-house -- yet it's hardly the most theatrical outlet. That honour belongs to Café Carlyle, an intimate supper club intended as the local chapter of the eponymous tippling destination in New York. Members can expect this to be the repository of the club's live musical programming, which (consistent with the historic acts that have taken to the stage at the Carlyle hotel) will include an assortment of uniquely American artforms like jazz, funk, and blues.

Members craving a dose of sunshine can also take a selection of food and drink on the club's 55th-floor terrace, which (much like the Rosewood property at large) enjoys the sort of view that's conducive to sonnet writing or spontaneous tears of joy. Flanking one end of that terrace, you'll find the local chapter of Bemelmans Bar. Like its namesake, the menu here is split roughly equally between fine wines, punchbowls and classic cocktails; though, at the weekend, you can expect a certain frenetic atmosphere to take hold, as the space merges with the terrace for live DJ performances against the backdrop of Victoria Harbour.

Cosy quarters, brimming with personality

Though Carlyle & Co. members can easily book themselves into one of the 400-plus rooms at the surrounding Rosewood property, the entire 54th floor of the club is given over to eight themed suites -- all of which celebrate the history of The Carlyle hotel. More or less equal in size, each offers an inviting and distinctive interior personality. If you're retiring following an evening spent drinking (one too many) Martinis for instance, the 'Tommy' seems an apt choice -- named for and inspired by the legendary Bemelmans bartender Mr. Tommy Rowles. Other known personalities include Dorothy Draper, the original 'modern Baroque' decorator of The Carlyle's interiors; and Eartha Kitt, the renowned actress and Broadway musician. For dedicated students of café society, a stay in every single suite would seem like money well-spent.

A variety of membership packages are available at Carlyle & Co., with or without health club membership. To learn more about rates (or inquire about eligibility) visit Carlyle & Co. online.

The post Little Artists Exhibition: Children Express Togetherness Through Art in Times of Covid appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.