Celebrity Life

Lawyer and philanthropist Michelle Chow has been sharing her love for the harp with underprivileged children since 2008. We find out why she decided to start her charity aimed at empowering the young.

When my friend introduced me to the harp 13 years ago, it wasn’t a popular instrument,” says Michelle Chow. “Only affluent families could afford lessons for their children. However, I fell in love with it immediately and started to learn it.”

The harp appears in many Disney cartoons, says Chow, and it’s a dream of many young girls to learn this elegant instrument. She says she feels extremely fortunate that she was at a stage in her life when she had the time and resources to learn how to play it.

“It’s a beautiful instrument,” she says, “and I love the music it makes. It makes me happy that I can bring the harp to schools, hospitals, elderly homes, churches and into the community – music connects everyone.” As she could already play the piano, which in many ways is similar to the harp, it wasn’t difficult for her to grasp the concept and learn the instrument, which she insists is quite versatile in spite of its soothing quality. “I particularly like the plucking and different effects one can do with the harp – you can even play jazz and rock music!”

Since her introduction to the harp, Chow wants the instrument to be available to all, irrespective of their economic background. “Music education, like all education,” she says, “should be available to everybody.” With a few friends, she founded Friends of the Harp (FOTH) to correct perceptions that the instrument is only be available for the wealthy; over the years the charity has empowered many students. “They not only learn how to play the harp, but also how to learn, which is a skill that’s transferrable to other studies,” says Chow.

[caption id="attachment_212282" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Michelle Chow is a lawyer, philanthropist and avid harp player.[/caption]

Her work as a full-time trust and charity lawyer has come in particularly handy, as she’s been able to navigate her way through the legal, tax and governance issues needed to set up and run FOTH efficiently. Chow is also the governor of two public hospitals (the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital and Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethershole Hospital), a trustee of the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital Charitable Foundation, a council member of her alma mater St Paul’s Co-educational College and its primary school, and a steering- committee member of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service Wisegiving. Her lawyer father, Roland Chow, was also heavily involved in philanthropy. “He’s my role model,” she says, “so I’m just taking after him. It gives me great pleasure to contribute to society with my legal expertise.”

Many of Chow’s clients run their own charitable family foundations or are in the process of setting one up. “My experience in charity operation and governance helps me to better understand the issues they may face,” she says. “Charities must do everything to match their own objectives and be in the public interest. I can share my experience in dealing with the Inland Revenue and other government departments, which my clients really appreciate.” Fortunately, her public duties nicely complement her day job, and she enjoys the full support of her law firm, Withers Worldwide. “My colleagues never complain when I’m absent from the office due to my charity work. I love both my profession as a lawyer as well as my role as a philanthropist.”

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, many charities have been faced with reduced fund-raising opportunities, due to the cancellation of charity balls and similar events. “We’ve also seen reduced corporate and individual donations,” says Chow. Although it’s difficult for charities to budget without a stable income, Chow says that good governance is key: “It’s as important for charities as it is for commercial businesses – but for charities it’s even more pertinent because they exist to do good.” Charities with a solid governance, a good and responsible board, a clear mission and passionate staff are more likely to weather such storms than those without.

Many charities also suffer, she says, as people don’t appreciate the fact that they necessarily incur administration costs. “Charities need to hire the right people – such as an accountant and an executive – to run smoothly,” she says. Many donors are reluctant to see their money go towards covering administration costs; they’d rather it were spent at the frontline, because that’s where they want to see the work done. But, counters Chow, “Do you think a charity – with a capital not much smaller than that of a listed company – can be operated by volunteers? While you do see adverse news about charity workers taking a big cut, these are very isolated cases. Generally, charity workers are paid less than with a commercial company, but their careers may be more rewarding, particularly if they have a passion for serving the community.”

[caption id="attachment_212281" align="aligncenter" width="733"] Michelle Chow is also the co-founder of Friends of the Harp, a charity dedicated to empowering the underprivileged through music.[/caption]

Chow cites an occasion a few years ago when FOTH sponsored a harp outreach event at the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital for physically disabled students at the nearby SAHK Jockey Club Elaine Field School. “It was such a meaningful event for both parties – the students could use their new-found skills as a gesture of thanks to the medical staff at the hospital, and their parents were so proud of them.” Chow was deeply moved that such a seemingly small and simple event could bring the community together. “The young students gained confidence, knowing that they had the ability to give back and perform, and the hospital atrium was filled with music, laughter, loud applause, love and tears that afternoon. I’ll never forget that.”

As for young, budding philanthropists, Chow says that she sees many second- and third-generation scions following in their family footsteps to contribute to society. “They have many creative ways to make a bigger impact with their dollars,” she says. “Philanthropy can bind the family together and create a common topic at the dinner table. It can even provide training for youngsters to have a taste of running a business, as charity is about balance sheets and deliverables too.”

Lastly, for those looking to start learning how to play the harp, Chow has one piece of advice: “Don’t hesitate,” she says. “If you like something, you’ll do it well. Be patient – practise makes perfect! I often say that I practise like a devil to play like an angel.

The post Lawyer, Philanthropist and Harpist Michelle Chow Aims to Make Music Accessible to All appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

If destiny hadn’t intervened, Rahul Akerkar would have become a biochemical engineer and the world would have been deprived of his stupendous culinary skills. After a falling out with his advisor at Columbia University and dabbling in various other professions such as real estate and selling silver jewellery, Rahul realised that the one thing that […]

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After serving elevated cuisine in Asia for eight years, executive chef Antonio Oviedo recently started something of a buzzing revolution at 22 Ships in Wanchai.

When the Jia Group decided to refresh its intimate restaurant-cum-bar, as well as a brightening its interior it also installed Oviedo, a veteran of some of the greatest teams in Spanish and modern cuisine, along with his newly picked team.

“I started to develop the new concept for 22 Ships in May,” says Madrid-raised Oviedo. “We wanted to have a place that’s like a real Spanish tapas bar, with aperitifs and fresh dishes that change all the time – to bring all the bites from Madrid and other cities where this scene serves super stuff, and to source premium ingredients from the greater area of Spain.

[caption id="attachment_212250" align="aligncenter" width="567"] Antonio Oviedo is the new executive chef at 22 Ships.[/caption]

“We’re trying to be authentic,” he says; “I think there’s a lack of authenticity in some restaurants here – not only Spanish ones. They try to change dishes for the local palate; that’s cool, but then you lose the [genuine] concept.”

Oviedo, whose initial foray into the Hong Kong dining scene began on his arrival from Singapore – he’d worked there as sous chef at the multi-awarded European-style restaurant Iggy’s, and as group executive chef at Una and The Garage – does concede to the regional preference for less salt in savoury dishes. In fact, he says, “In our seafood paellas we get so much flavour from ancient recipes using roasted lobster heads, tomatoes, almonds and dried peppers in the stock that we don’t need any salt at all.”

On the evening I visit, a paella of ultra-red-shelled Mediterranean Carabineros prawn with salmorreta sauce (a pungent paste recipe from Alicante, comprising dried ñora pepper, olive oil, garlic, parsley and tomato) has the requisite wow-factor intensity of flavour and umami quality – and all without salt. Rotated seafood rice-pan regulars include blue lobster with salmorreta, and grilled octopus with black ink-enhanced grains.

[caption id="attachment_212241" align="aligncenter" width="765"] Carabinero paella with salmorreta.[/caption]

To help ensure both kitchen quality and an upbeat vibe with diners, Oviedo enlisted Nick Gellon, a former staffer in his previous private kitchen and catering operation. “It was in the middle of the pandemic and Nick was working in Switzerland,” explains Ovivedo, “so it was very difficult to bring him over, but he made it five days before we opened. That was a relief, as it’s difficult to find committed people.”

A chalk board announces the restaurant’s frequently changing specials, from snacks to tapas, mains, cheeses and vermouth sodas, many of which have a contemporary savoury edge. The intimate yet vibrant new interior provides a backdrop to an open-kitchen bar counter, a prime spot to watch and engage with the new culinary and bar team. Around the counter and dining-room tables, restaurant manager and sommelier Alice Douine offers accessible information on wines, citric-foam topped white or red glasses of sangria and house- made spirit infusions.

[caption id="attachment_212242" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Bar-style seating at 22 Ships.[/caption]

With authentic flavours being served, then what – one might wonder – has the local palate best responded to in the few months since opening? “For the Hong Kong locals, the uni [sea urchin] and suckling pig have been very popular,” says Oviedo, enthusiastically. “They love both of these – and all seafood.” He’s referring specifically to the restaurant’s Rusa and sea urchin on toast, and the roast suckling pig – a large main-course sharing platter. Rusa refers to Spain’s popular potato-based “Russian salad”, sometimes featuring seafood, of which 22 Ships presents a very refined take.

When it comes to seafood, few dishes could be more Spanish than anchovies and sardines – though here they’re served with finesse. Take the cold ajo blanco almond-and-garlic soup, for instance, served with sliced Muscat grapes, just as it is in Malaga; Oviedo, however, tops it with grilled sardines, also enjoyed in the same region, adding herb- and spice-infused floating green and red drops to the white liquid for flavoursome and visual effect. Marcona almonds were originally brought to Spain by Tunisian and other immigrants from North Africa, who introduced the soup. Boletus mushroom and béchamel sauce croquettes have an airier quality than many served in Spain and are topped with fine aged Ibérico ham.

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Oviedo has bolstered the selection of small-production cold cuts – Ibérico hams and salamis – and cheeses, many of which are unpasteurised and all of which result from a tireless sourcing process. These can be enjoyed as a prelude to dinnertime during la hora del vermut (“vermouth hour”), where cocktails, wine, citric-foam-topped sangria and house vermouth sodas are served with prepared snacks and tapas. Oviedo thinks this Spanish habit isn’t truly replicated anywhere else in town – note that there’s no lunch service here: with dinner preparations from scratch beginning around noon and lasting six to eight hours, there’s simply no time.

Back to the small plates for dinner, a moreish starter dish is the Rubia beef tartare, made with prized meat from north-western Galicia that’s aged for more than 90 days; its lasting robust flavour makes Douine’s wine pairing with the Catalonian 2018 Xarel-lo Ca N’Estruc, L’Equilibrista, an intriguing one: a young white wine with such structure and length that it was in perfect balance with the seasoned aged raw red meat.

This grape – it’s a key component in Cava – also goes well with the house signature main of suckling pig with grilled gem lettuce and pomegranate. Like the Manchego lamb-shoulder main, the pork is slow-roasted for 24 hours and the meat falls off the bone. With the delicate lamb, Ninja de las Uvas, a light 2018 Garnacha (Grenache) red from the Bullas region by natural wine-maker Julia Casado, is a perfect match.

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Try to save room for dessert. The Basque cheesecake uses sheep’s- milk Idiazabal, a smoked cheese produced close to Oviedo’s father’s birthplace in Navarre. The smokiness of the cheese is further enhanced by being baked in a charcoal oven. For a lighter finish, lemon sorbet blended with Cava is zingy with a slight granita-like texture, topped with soft meringue. Both these sweets are ample for two to share.

Oviedo has certainly worked with some of the past and present greats of Spanish cuisine. So what stays with him from his time working with late Santi Santamaria – known for his classic Spanish recipes – and the Roca brothers – who helped elevate the nation’s modern culinary repertoire for years? “Santi Santamaria had a great traditional knowledge; his background was training in French cooking, so his way of thinking was very well organised,” recalls Oviedo. “I learned a lot about details in preparation from him. The Roca brothers were my first real chance to experiment with traditional Spanish dishes and bringing other ingredients and techniques into Spanish food.”

[caption id="attachment_212246" align="alignnone" width="900"] Basque cheesecake.[/caption]

Lessons didn’t stop there. Oviedo was also able to garner insights from other highly regarded kitchen heads and their teams. But his involvement and memories of cooking stretch back to childhood. “When I grew up, time was always spent around the kitchen table – I peeled garlic from a young age to help my mother. My grandmother, who was from the north of Spain, taught my mum how to cook some dishes. My mum came from the south, so this gave her an amazing selection of recipes. And the concept I have here of multi-regional tapas came from that.”

It’s been tough opening in summer 2020, but the plan remains just as it was at the start. “We opened in the middle of the third wave of Covid, so we’re still on our first menu, but we change two or three dishes every day,” assures Oviedo. “Sometimes the staff get mad at me because I try a new dish during preparation and then put it on the menu 30 minutes before we open – so we have quick training on it all together. But that’s what we’re about and I can see people are appreciating our produce and new ideas.”

The post Chef Antonio Oviedo on Dishing Out Hearty Tapas and Pursuing Authenticity at 22 Ships appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Catch Lake Worth Beachers Matteo and Julie Ferrer, founders of the shirt company Versattire, on I Quit on the Discovery Channel

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Catch Lake Worth Beachers Matteo and Julie Ferrer, founders of the shirt company Versattire, on I Quit on the Discovery Channel

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Benedict Cumberbatch is the quintessential English gentleman: Eloquent, well-dressed and sophisticated. Incidentally, he's also one of the most brilliant actors of his generation. But there's more to him than thespian talent and impeccable manners, as we learn from a thought-provoking interview.

From the stage to the big screen, Benedict Cumberbatch has treated us to some of the most memorable and brilliant performances in recent years: A cape-donning master of mystic arts, a gifted, sociopathic detective, a closeted mathematical genius, and one of Shakespeare’s agonisingly conflicted protagonists, to name but a few.

When Cumberbatch isn’t dazzling us with his methodically brilliant performances, or indulging us with his charmingly self-deprecating ways, he meditates and dives – as we learn from a short film he’s made in collaboration with Jaeger-LeCoultre, called In A Breath.

Shot off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand at the magical Rakino Island, it depicts Cumberbatch as he comes to terms with the parallels between meditation and free-diving, and the impact both have on our sense of time. As the stunning film reveals, in the otherworldly realm under water, all forms of external distractions disappear, and one loses all sense of the temporal world – a somewhat jarring yet cathartic experience.

[caption id="attachment_212121" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Benedict Cumberbatch free dives at Rakino Island in New Zealand.[/caption]

In the midst of preparing to reprise his role as Dr Strange, Cumberbatch is taking the time to sit down and speak with a select group of media from around world about this life-changing, first-time free dive and how, at this unsettling time of Covid, making value of your time is ever crucial.

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West Palm Beach's Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church's first Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway for the community on Saturday, November 21

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You might not expect country music’s next big star to hail from Buffalo, New York, but Rhea Francani is out to surprise you

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Aside from the recent release of Disney's Mulan, 2020 has been a relatively quiet year for actor and martial artist Donnie Yen and his wife Cissy Wang. The couple talk about life — family, love and professional.

Covid-19 has reshaped personal relationships in countless ways, bringing some partners, families and loved ones closer together, while causing stress, conflict and even worse to others. Yet to judge from the demeanour of actor and martial artist Donnie Yen and his wife Cissy Wang, who seem so close and intuitively together during our four-hour photo shoot and interview that it’s if they’ve fallen in love with each other all over again, the past half year of semi-lockdown appears to have been, if anything, way too brief.

Inevitably, the pandemic has caused a hiatus in Yen’s movie career. Although his Disney outing Mulan premiered just three months ago, filming on that movie had wrapped almost two years earlier and with subsequent projects put on hold, the actor has spent much of 2020 kicking his heels at home with his family. For someone who’s been hard at work on film projects for the best part of four decades – his many acting credits include four Ip Man titles, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Flashpoint, Iron Monkey, Hero, Blade II and Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen – it’s been an unusual though by no means an unwelcome change.

“My kids have got used to their father’s lifestyle,” says Yen of his daughter Jasmine, 16, and son James, 12. “Especially a few years ago, when I was constantly away from home, making three and even up to four movies a year. They understood their father didn’t have a nine-to-five existence, when he could be home every evening and at weekends.

“Unfortunately, they didn’t have that kind of normal family routine, but at the same time I tried to make up for it whenever I was free. And for the past six months we’ve been together every single day. By now they’re used to online learning and they’ve been really good with each other.”

Wang, too, admits that 2020 has proved to be something of a learning curve. “It’s certainly been different,” she says. “Usually [Donnie’s] back for a few weeks and then he’s gone again, but this has been a long year. For a lot of families it’s been different and though we have our ups and downs we do appreciate the time together – and the kids say that they’re so happy he’s here.”

“Cissy and I work together too,” Yen adds. “She manages our company, and the marketing and promotions for our products, too – she’s the boss, not me, haha! She always makes the better and more thoughtful decisions for my career and our family.”

Such a close and settled family life seems in marked contrast to the actor’s own childhood. Aged two, Yen moved from Guangzhou to Hong Kong with his father, leaving behind his mother, the martial-arts grandmaster Mark Bow-sim. The family only re-united in Hong Kong when Yen was 10, shortly before they all moved to Boston in the United States.

“I got to know my mother much later in my childhood, though I realised at the time that she had a special skill and that she was very unique,” he says. “So I didn’t have the same kind of childhood as kids in other Chinese families, who’d go home and eat their mom’s food – my mother was more like, in the morning you’d get up, go to the park and do martial-arts training before you went to school.

“After we arrived in America, she opened her own school, established her career and became famous and popular among the martial-arts community across the United States. And then I realised that my mom was a very renowned and respected person. But I never realised until later on that I didn’t have the same kind of lifestyle as my other friends.

“We were new immigrants,” Yen explains, “living in a 700-square-foot apartment – in America, that’s small – and existing on food stamps. My mother was always at the martial-arts school, teaching, making a living, and my father was helping her until he later took over Sing Tao newspaper’s Boston branch. They were both constantly working, new immigrants trying to improve their lives, so I was always alone. Aside from training in my Mom’s school I was out playing on the street, making friends with other kids, and I’d come home, open up a can of Campbell’s soup and that was my meal.

“I appreciate what my family went through but at the same time, as a parent myself I would not want my kids to go through what I had to go through. I want to give them the family life that I didn’t have.”

Nonetheless, Yen learned plenty of important lessons, not least from the self-discipline imposed by his mother’s martial- arts training – though his evident aptitude for hard work has been tempered by a rebellious, contrarian streak that’s persisted well into his movie-making career, one that’s probably helped make him the artist he is now. For example, when told to do something, he’d always ask why.

“If my mom or my father would tell me one thing, I’d always question them and go the other way,” he says. “I’d try to find an answer – ‘Why do you have to do it this way?’ Even in my film career – and I’ve been in the industry for 38 years – I’ve been constantly challenging the system. ‘Why does it have to be that way? I’d like to try this way.’ So on the one side there was this discipline but on the other, as I didn’t have a traditional family life I was always on my own, so I needed to find answers myself.

“When I came back to Hong Kong [in the early 1980s] it was difficult, because it’s quite old-school in the Chinese and Hong Kong film industry, especially in the kung fu and action-film culture. You don’t question, you cannot question. The director, or whoever the big brother is, calls the shots, everything, to a point where if the director is on the set, no one moves.

"And as a young rebellious kid, I was always questioning. I was always questioning [director and martial-arts choreographer] Yuen Woo-ping, my mentor who brought me into the industry – and he was in awe. ‘Why is this kid questioning me? No one dares to speak up.’ But I would speak up. He just thought I was a naïve kid.

“It was like the old Hollywood where – and it’s no secret – there were a lot of connections with the mob and back in the day in Hong Kong, there were a lot of connections with triads. And that’s the old school: you don’t ask questions, you just follow orders.”

If it took the local film industry some time to get used to this difficult young man fresh from the US – his first major role was in the 1984 martial-arts/action movie Drunken Tai Chi – the Hong Kong press and sometimes the public too were also slow to warm to him. He is, by his own admission, introverted and shy, and an unwillingness to engage was occasionally construed as a brand of macho rudeness.

“I was tough,” Yen says, “maybe because of martial arts, and I was never an outgoing person. I also felt insecure – I guess that’s the word – because in this industry in particular, you don’t know, you might be on top today and down at the bottom the next. And I was always a loner ever since I was young. So even with the press I never had a smile, I had a stone-cold face, and it wasn’t because I was macho or I wasn’t friendly or I was difficult to deal with. If fans were waiting for me, I’d look down at the ground and not even look at them. I’d walk away, and my wife would get angry with me.”

“He felt uncomfortable when people were looking at him,” agrees Wang. “And I’d say to him, ‘They’re fans, they’re actually excited to see you,’ but he was uneasy and didn’t know how to act. But over the years he’s got better.”

Yen was already an established star when he met his wife-to-be, and to say that theirs was a whirlwind romance is an understatement. “It was instantaneous,” he says about meeting Wang, who was then a striking young Hong Kong-born model who’d arrived back in the city after living with her jeweller parents in Peru and then Canada.

“I proposed to her after two weeks. The first week, we were just dating, but the second week, that strong feeling came and I thought, ‘This could only happen in movies.’ I couldn’t believe it – each day it was getting stronger and stronger, and I thought that I wasn’t going to let this opportunity go by.

“I’d been married once before and it wasn’t successful, so I wasn’t eager to get married again, but when we met I told myself, ‘I have to propose to her.’ Which I did. And she said, ‘Yes!’”

“It was really crazy,” says Wang, laughing. “It was two weeks and then he proposed, and my family was obviously concerned, because they’re conservative and traditional, and he’s in the entertainment business – and he’d had a previous marriage, etcetera. At that time my Cantonese wasn’t so good and I didn’t really know his background.

"But I felt very safe and secure with him. Something clicked and he was really honest – a good man. At that time I was opposed to marriage, because I was career-oriented and I always had a very strong and united family supporting me. But when I met him it was weirdly mutual, our feelings were getting stronger, we shared the same values and we both felt that if we didn’t commit we’d walk our separate ways.

“I was quite young, so I said he had to get approval from my parents, because I’m traditional in that way, and he said, ‘OK,’ so we flew to Toronto and he asked them in a very formal way.” After dating for just three months, the couple married in 2003.

As to his development as an actor and filmmaker, Yen looks back on his career with a surprisingly open and self-critical eye. “The early kung fu movies were the wrong entry to an acting career,” he says, “because there was no such thing as acting. Most of the old-timers came from Beijing Opera and then it was much more of a physical performance. There was no understanding of human emotion. It was TVB that helped to change that – you can’t fight nonstop for 20 or 30 episodes. But even TVB didn’t have a structured method of teaching.

“It was only after the new wave of directors came through that it became about characters, telling a story through acting. And I learned that halfway through my career. For the first 20 years of my career, if I shined on screen just by punching and kicking, then I was master of my ship. But I then I began to ask, ‘Where can I go from here?’ I’d wanted to be the next Bruce Lee, and I’d gained respect and recognition from the industry for that – yeah, Donnie Yen is the guy – but I realised, ‘Where do I go next? What am I going to do?’ You can only do so much as an action star: was I an actor or just a machine?

“I couldn’t go to film school,” Yen says, “but I could self-study. So I began picking up different books, reading on the Internet and just – learning, how to be an actor. So for the past 18 years, I’ve been learning about acting, directing and editing, because I realised they all went hand-in-hand. If you want to be a great actor you need to know the mechanics of movie making, how to tell a story in two hours or a TV series in 20 episodes, what you do with the camera and how you convey your message to the audience.”

In fact, Yen worked on his first film as action director on 1988’s Tiger Cage, when he was in his mid-twenties, and directed and produced Legend of the Wolf, which he also co-wrote and action-directed, nine years later. Being behind the camera as well as in front of it have become all- consuming passions for him, as have all aspects of cinema and filmmaking.

“In 1996, ’97, I produced two films,” he says. “I worked on scripts, I edited, I even put the music in – I did every single thing. So I found love and I also discovered a talent for making films. I was fascinated by every aspect – the camera, how you shoot something, how you place props. It was so much fun, like a theme park, and I developed a love for filmmaking early on. And then I realised how important this knowledge is, how it can help you develop as an actor, because you know how to build this building.

"And because of that, I was able to get my way much more easily, because I knew exactly what the directors, the producers and the cinematographers were thinking. And that helped me to achieve what I wanted.”

That combination of passion, hard work and knowledge has helped bring him an international audience, especially after his appearance in the critically acclaimed, 2016 Star Wars spin-off Rogue One, which doubtless led to a role in this year’s Mulan. So where, with audience bases in Asia and around the world, does the actor go from here, especially as the pandemic shows no sign yet of slowing down globally?

“I’m hoping we’ll get back to normal soon,” he says. “It looks like the industry in China, at least, is beginning to resume normalcy. Resuming life, your daily routine, is important for everyone, not just for the movie industry – we’re human beings and we’re all suffering. Throughout history, mankind has faced so many traumas that I’d like to think that, at the end of the day, humans have that natural instinct and positivity to overcome such issues, as we always have. Humans are very adaptable – we’re survivors, so maybe we’ll find another way of living.

“Cissy and I co-founded our own production company, Silver Bullet Pictures, in 2015, and we’ve produced films such as Enter the Fat Dragon, Big Brother and Chasing the Dragon. We’re also working on exciting new projects, like Sleeping Dogs, The Father (with Alec Baldwin), and Fear Is the Key, which is based on the novel and directed by Roger Donaldson.

"Sleeping Dogs is a blockbuster based on the video game about undercover Hong Kong cops and triads, and it’s coming along very quickly. I’m working with the producer Neal Moritz and there’s a possibility that Samuel L Jackson will be involved. The first draft is done and now they’re working on the second, so, hopefully, top of next year, if this pandemic gets under control.”

As well as English-language films, they’re also co-producing Chinese-language movies such as Benny Chan’s upcoming Raging Fire and Law Chi Leung’s Rescue. And away from the cinema, the couple has also developed their luxury eyewear brand, DonniEYE. “Donnie is an avid collector of glasses,” says Cissy, “and this is our first step in developing a lifestyle product. There’ll be plenty more to come.”

Actor, martial-artist, film director, producer, scriptwriter, devoted husband and father – but is there something that most of us don’t know about the man who’s surely the reigning superstar of the Hong Kong film industry? His wife lets us in on a secret.

“I’m very competitive,” says Wang, “and I remember distinctly that when we met there was a piano, and Donnie said, ‘Oh let’s play something.’ Usually I need my music sheets, so I played a simple song and he said, ‘Wow, you’re so good.’ So I said, ‘How about you, why don’t you play a little bit?’ So he sat down and suddenly, it’s [Chopin’s] Fantaisie Impromptu! I was in shock!

"Quickly I realised that he was an introvert; nobody knew he could play the piano – and he felt that nobody would care to know he could play. That’s why I think his choreography has such a tempo and a beat, because he’s so passionate about music. It all comes together.”

Martial artist and accomplished classical pianist? One wonders how the young Donnie Yen found time for anything else.

“My father was a violinist and before she became a martial-arts master, my mother was a soprano, so my family has always been musical,” Yen explains. “When I was a kid, they forced me to play classical piano and I hated it until I was 14 or 15, when I met a friend who told me he was learning to play.

“So I told him, ‘I know how to play the piano a little.’ At that time I wasn’t really into it – it was just something I did among friends. But we started competing, and I began to realise how much I loved to play. I just love music.

“Maybe my martial arts have certain characteristics because of my musical background, because everything has music. The way you talk and express yourself, the way you walk, your gestures, martial arts, dance – everything under the universe has a rhythm to it.”

CREDITS:
ART DIRECTION SEPFRY NG
PHOTOGRAPHY OLIVIA TSANG
STYLING HARRY LAM
MAKE-UP LITTLE WHITE
HAIR STYLING KENJI NG @ IL COLPO
ALL OUTFITS BY LORO PIANA
SUNGLASSES DONNIEYE AT LANE CRAWFORD
LOCATION FOUR SEASONS HOTEL HONG KONG

The post A Break in the Action: Donnie Yen and Cissy Wang on Family, Love and Life appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

The pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we live, including how sport is consumed.

Competitions and races had to be shelved for a while with participants testing positive and various border restrictions restraining movement.

Perhaps none bears the brunt more than Formula One where races are rotated among global cities, attracting millions of travellers revelling in the glamour and festivities revolving around each race. Not to mention, race drivers, engineers, mechanics, journalists and officials who have to shuttle between home bases and organising cities, along with the logistics planning to ensure every relevant part arrives on time for the subsequent race.

[caption id="attachment_211898" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Lando Norris & Carlos Sainz Jr from the McLaren F1 Team. Both wear the Richard Mille RM 50-03 Manual Winding Tourbillon Split-Seconds Chronograph McLaren F1. (Image: Philippe Louzon)[/caption]

After a four-month hiatus, F1 races have resumed in Europe and a number of races have admitted a small number of spectators – a far cry from usual standards – to enliven the atmosphere. Prior to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the McLaren F1 Team and its drivers Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris granted us some minutes for a virtual interview. Here, they speak about Lewis Hamilton’s record-breaking streak, adaptation to Covid-19 and Richard Mille watches.

With Lewis Hamilton achieving a new world record of 92 F1 victories thus far (Hamilton has since bagged his 93rd win at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix), setting a very high benchmark. Does it put pressure on young drivers such as yourself? Does it feel unachievable for you?

Carlos Sainz Jr: Not at all; at least not for me personally. I can only control what is within my control, but my target is to get a first win. I’m not even thinking about seven world championships or 92 wins, which by the time Hamilton retires, hopefully it will be more than 100 wins.

My target is to get a win, more podium finishes and one day fight for the world championship.

Now in F1, you depend a lot on the machinery, being at the right place, at the right time, having the best car. Hamilton being one of the best drivers in history has had the possibility to go after the world championship year after year with the best car on the grid. Kudos to him as he has managed to maximise it more than anyone else.

But for the future generation, I hope that the playing field remains super level and that we can all have a crack at the championship. We can fight between both drivers for the world championship and see who comes up on top.

How has Covid-19 changed your preparation as an F1 driver? How do you view the existential threat to F1 going forward from a driver’s perspective?

Lando Norris: I think the main thing is we are back racing. Not that many months ago, we weren’t thinking that we would be back racing this year at all. First of all, that (resuming racing) is a very good thing and we are already introducing more fans to the races, which is very nice to see again. It adds a lot to the atmosphere.

But from our side as drivers, I don’t think it changes that much. It is more about the travelling and the time spent at home, which is a bit different from normal. You can’t go out with your friends as much. You can’t go out and enjoy a lot more of your personal life, whether it is going to do different sports or going to watch different games – it is not the same for everyone right now.

But F1 is the priority over everything else. When I am at home, it is easy to just stay at home and not do anything else. Except perhaps a bit of golf every now and then, and driving on the simulator. There is not much else that I do in the meantime apart from the training, which I have to do for myself physically. These are the few things I do in my life now, which is part of the Covid-19 routine. I am sure it is the same for pretty much every other driver and probably for everyone that works in F1. It is a bit of a shame and it will probably continue for a while.

You (Norris) tweeted a photo back in July 2020, dismantling your own F1 car while wearing a Richard Mille RM 11-03 McLaren Automatic Flyback Chronograph. How confident were you that you weren’t going to damage it while doing so?

Lando Norris: I don’t know. It is still in one piece and I am wearing it right now. It is still my favourite watch I have worn. It is very scratch resistant. Taking apart an F1 car is very technical. There are a lot of gaps and little things here and there, and little bolts that you have to undo. But it is a watch that can withstand a lot of knocks, scratches and still remain in one piece.

I do worry sometimes though and I don’t do anything that serious or too far in packing up that I feel will risk damaging the watch. I do what I know.

This story first appeared on Prestige Malaysia

The post F1 drivers Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris on Racing, Covid-19, and Richard Mille appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Cristyle Wood Egitto's 111 Places guidebook to must-see destinations in Palm Beach will hit shelves on Monday, November 9

The post Read All About Palm Beach appeared first on Palm Beach Illustrated.

Cristyle Wood Egitto's 111 Places guidebook to must-see destinations in Palm Beach will hit shelves on Monday, November 9

The post Read All About Palm Beach appeared first on Palm Beach Illustrated.