What’s wrong with our values now?

11.05.2011/12.38

Alistair Kwun always ﬁnds great articles on personal identity. The latest is from Wesley Yang in New York, discussing the Asian-American experience, and why, despite having such good grades at school, are there so few Asian-American leaders in the US? (Incidentally, this is a strange term: what do Americans call non-oriental Asians?) I applaud […]

Parts of Japan are decimated, and I think back to my grandfather

11.03.2011/22.02

My grandfather, Col. Tung Wan Yan, of the Chinese Constitutional Army, had a very interesting war. He was on a Japanese hit-list and was hiding in trees when some soldiers opened ﬁre on him with automatic weapons. By some miracle, he escaped unharmed. It’s one of the close calls he had in China […]

Chloé chief sees China moving to more understated luxury—or is it?

28.02.2011/09.17

Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye of Chloé believes the mainland Chinese market is moving toward more understated luxury. I believe there’ll always be a mixture. The understated buyer is emerging probably because of saturation by more extrovert brands—and often, buyers want to get something different, rather than conform. And the top-end luxury brands have […]

Giving our young people a fair go

26.02.2011/10.34

Earlier this month, I gave a workshop talk to the Leadership and Development Conference for the New Zealand Chinese Association in Auckland. I’ve just uploaded the speech notes, and as I did so, I wanted to append a few more thoughts. The topic was identity—not just branding, but personal identity. My self-critique […]

Trade not supplied

17.02.2011/07.55

In November 1993, while my mother was dying of cancer, I went and bought 12 cans of Wattie’s baked beans from Woolworth’s in Kilbirnie. She said it would be an easy breakfast to prepare for her, so I should go and get some. There was a limit of six, but there was a misunderstanding about […]

Surely something all Chinese can agree on

18.01.2011/00.08

It’s 2011, which, by my calculations, is the centenary of China kicking out the corrupt Ching dynasty. It’s the one event that both Republicans and Communists can agree on as being positive. It’s why Dr Sun Yat-sen is such a uniting ﬁgure for all Chinese, as the father of the nation. I can’t […]

Chatting to TV, radio and internet journalists for the mayoral campaign

11.06.2010/01.29

There have been a few times in the history of this blog where I stepped away from writing regularly. At the end of 2006, I had a pretty good excuse: I was in France. This time, my reasons for stepping away for a few weeks do not include: (a) I was spending too much time […]

How could the Chinese republic celebrate its centenary?

21.02.2010/03.54

Next year marks the centenary of the founding of the Chinese republic. We got rid of our rather hopeless Ching Dynasty, and ushered in Asia’s ﬁrst democracy. Both the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China see 1911 as an important year, and Dr Sun Yat-sen as the founder of the nation […]