The End of a Year

Up until now, I've been pretty good about updating my blog at least once or twice a week. So what happened? It's been over two weeks since my last blog entry. Simply put; I've been busy. So busy that I missed that last days of the WTO. I did manage to snap this picture of the fully assembled sculpture. It was nice to see this put together after seeing it in various stages of assembly. I found this image of starving Africans balanced with one cow against the backdrop of modern Hong Kong to be a very interesting image. It's got great contrast, balance and a strong message. (Almost sounds like settings on a TV).

So what'd I miss? Oh not much. Just many Koreans jumping into the Hong Kong harbor in protest and trying to swim to the WTO meeting. I heard they got sick from the polluted Hong Kong waters afterwards. There was also the siege of Wanchai (the neighboring disctrict that's about a 10 minute walk from me). One of my friends participated in the siege and said it was great fun. The Korean farmers were really nice and gave him a mask and goggles (kind of a makeshift protester riot gear) and he taunted the police as they tear gassed him and the protesters. While he was playing with the police and protesters, his wife waited nervously at home! I heard from another friend the final day was very peaceful. She told me the Korean farmers made peace with the police and danced in the streets with them on the last night of the protests.

How the heck did I miss all this fun? Well, I took my first trip into China since I've arrived in Hong Kong. I went to Shenzen to visit an animation studio. Since I spent all that money on a single-entry Visa, I decided to stay through the weekend. It was an awesome experience. But the most memorable thing about the trip for me was the food. It was good and cheap. My former coworker has been officialy dubbed "The Restaurant Hunter" and brought me to the most amazing places. For about $6 USD you could feed 3 people. The food was amazing. It was so colorful, flavorful and spicy! This shot was the first of many meals I had there. Every dish rocked! My favorite in this meal are the barely pictured bowls of noodles that cost about 60 US cents. I'm lucky to have my friend show me around, because Shenzen is known to be the second most crime-ridden city in China. There are many horror stories of people getting knocked out on the street or attacked by gangs in public bathrooms to get your ATM card. Luckily, I left with only good experiences. In fact, I left with a final, pleasant experience waiting in the immigration line to return to Hong Kong. I bumped into "Roller Girl" who I met at a Halloween party. What a small world! Because the prices are so much cheaper there, she was in Shenzen to do some Christmas shopping.

So that was my business/pleasure trip into China. Work has been quite hectic. I did a talk at a digital entertainment conference last week. Next week I will be teaching my first class; a 2 day workshop. I'm nervous about it as I haven't had much time to focus on preparing for it. I've just got so many other projects I'm juggling at the moment. So I'm trying to be efficient about it. For example, yesterday I filmed a blue screen test with some students which I hope to use in the workshop and also for a film project I'm developing with a local director. The old two birds w/ one stone, yet I'm still overwhelemed with too much to do!

So here I am in Hong Kong at the end of year. I started 2005 in San Fran and recall thinking to myself; "'self you've got to make a change this year." So I guess I succeeded in that regard. It's been a hell of a year. But I have to say that the first two and a half months I've been here stand out as the highlight. Incidentally, this isn't my first New Years Eve here. I was here almost 15 years ago with my mom and brother. That time, my mom took off to celebrate and left my brother and me in a hotel room where we almost slept through New Years Eve. That sure as hell ain't gonna happen this time! I've got a full day ahead of me and an even fuller evening planned. I'm pretty sure it'll be several days until my next blog entry as I'll need a few days to recover from tonight.

Until next year; I wish all my friends and family a very Happy New Year!

An Interesting Place and Time

Tonight, I took off from work earlier than I had planned to. That's because my coworkers checked out traffic conditions and told me things looked scary due to the WTO. The Webcams showed HK streets and highways that were empty. HK is a city that really never sleeps. There's always traffic of some sort, so it was a surreal image to see. It was something out of a sci-fi/horror day after type of movie. So I took off 'early' (7:30pm) to allow for traffic time.

It wasn't very bad at all. I got home in the usual time. But when I got home, I saw many police officers in the street right by my apartment. I didn't see any protesters and the streets were pretty empty. I thought that perhaps HK might be overreacting. Afterall, don't protesters go home late at night too?

After dinner, I grabbed my camera and headed to the park to see what 'award-winning shots' I could snap up of the anti-WTO activities. Then I saw the real reason why the cops were blocking the street. This next picture pretty much says it all. I guess someone was about to jump or perhaps this was some WTO protest stunt? I don't know, but I thought to myself: "Self, you really live in an intersting place at an interesting time."

I mean, just last week I witnessed the pro-democracy march going through my neighborhood. This week I'm seeing the parts of the anti-WTO movement. Then I see this image tonight on the street I walk on everyday! What's next? Well, keep reading...

Quite a crowd had gathered to look up at what that giant cushion was setup for. But unlike Hollywood movies, there was no dramatic spotlight on any jumper. A crowd had gathered (of which I was now a member of) on th street and foot bridge where I took the shot of the firetrucks and giant cushion thingy (i don't know what the official name of that is).
Everyone was looking up and focused on the top of the building by this cushion thingy. No one could really see anything and there was a lot of speculation going on. So being the artsy-fartsy person that I am, I thought it would be intersting to snap a few shots of the people looking and taking pictures of the spectacle. The results includes this next shot which is my absolute favorite shot that I've taken since coming to Asia. I love the colors and composition. If only I had a SLR camera w/ fishbowl or wide angle lens and a tripod. But it ain't half bad for a point and shoot with a few manual settings; if I say so myself.

So enough self lauding. This all happened on my way to the park. The park by contrast seemed anti-climactic. But was nontheless quite interesting. The WTO talks start tomorrow, so it looks like people are still setting up here. Tonight, there were many colorful tents setup all over the park, which gave the park a very carnival-like appearance. It's too bad I have to go to work tomorrow. It looks like a very festive environment. That is other than the increased security. Last night police were walking around in groups of three. Tonight, I saw them patrolling in groups of four. And I just heard on BBC World that 1/3 of the HK police force is dedicated to WTO related activities.

Tonight, I also saw what those emaciated statues I saw last will be used for. They're part of a sculpture series that makes a point about the unfairness of farm subsides. At least one group of them will be used in a large scale with a cow on one side outweighing 6 starving human beings on the other side of the scale. While not obvious by what I saw, I received a pamphlet with a picture of the sculpture in it's final form. For this piece, they adapt a quote from George Orwell's "Animal Farm" in the pamphlet:

All people are equal but some people are more equal than others.

I was going to end this entry with that quote, but then I just saw these sculptures on BBC World. Is it synchronicity, coincidence, and/or surreal? I don't know. It's late, I'm tired and I'm heading to bed now. An interesting time and place, indeed.

WTO Prologue

After a very rough week, I needed a break. So tonight I took my break of choice; A late night walk through Victoria Park. Upon approaching the park I noticed 3 police officers at the park's entrance. There were many other groups of 3 police officers patrolling the park. There were also many park workers, stages and signs written in 5 or 6 languages spread all over the park. It appears the local Pro-Democracy demonstrations may have been a dress rehearsal for the WTO this week.

I have to admit that I expecteded to see something as a friend told me that Victoria Park will be packed with WTO protesters this week. So I brought my camera for some shots. While not a great shot, I thought this first one I took right outside of the park looked kind of like cops from a Sci-Fi show.

On the main lawn I saw this stage with sort of a bullet point list of issues. Most of them having to do with immigrant and labor rights which ultimately came to the conclusion that there shold be no WTO agreement. If their point is to cause the WTO talks to fail, then I'm not sure this gathering is necessary. From what I understand, the talks have been failing. It's so hard to get a couple of countries to sign a trade agreement, that difficulty is obvioulsy multiplied several times over when it involves over 149 nations. So in all liklihood, these talks will fail unless there is a plan B of some sort. I hope that plan B represents some views from the protesters.

I do think it is good that all these people will gather here (and around the world) to represent and stand up for the common laborer. The commodification and exploitation of the common laborer by those in power (namely multinational corporations and governments) is a trend that has existed for far too long. I don't think it will end in my lifetime, but it is worth bringing these issues up while the world spotlight is on Hong Kong.

The protesters don't have nearly the money and resources that the multinationals and governments do, but they do have passion, compassion and creativity. Tonight, I snapped a picture of these statues of emaciated, starving human beings lined up in a row. I'm not sure how they'll be used this week, but their imagery says a lot to me about what these people will be speaking against.

The WTO and their protesters are dealing with issues that are very complex, with so many layers. There are no easy solutions. But unlike the pro-democracy march in the previous week; these are issues that I can not avoid. Gino is sending me to China to talk to a few animation studios. Their obvious advantage is their low cost of labor. Since coming to Hong Kong, I've met several western digital entertainment executives who have come to Asia to explore the low cost labor opportunties. As I meet and help shape relationships between Eastern and Western companies, I will seek the best win-win deal for all those involved. But I believe I will bring with me to these meetings, the images, sounds and ideas that will be presented this upcoming week in Hong Kong.

The March of Democracy

Yesterday, I went to a Shanghai-style dim sum restaurant at Lee Gardens in Causeway Bay. It was the best dim sum I've had in Hong Kong yet! Content and full, I began a leisurely stroll back home.

The streets of Causeway Bay are usually extremely crowded on Sundays, because many maids who have the day off just hang out in the streets. So it seemed quite normal as I approached Victoria Park to see a very dense crowd gathered. But as I passed the park on the way home, I encountered an extremely large crowd congesting the main street by my home. This picture is what I saw from my street.

I couldn't read 95% of the signs as they were written in Chinese (I'm a Chinese illiterate), but then I saw one that read something to the affect of "6 billion people want to leave the communist party!" D'uh! This was obviously a pro-democracy march.

I have seen many large demonstrations in San Francisco. None of them even approached the size of this one. It was an amazing event to witness. As I snapped picture after picture, I was at first just excited to be witnesesing my first pro-democracy event in Hong Kong. But then I couldn't help but feel the energy. Yes, there was passion and even some anger in the crowd. But overall, there was electricty in the air. The marchers were all very peaceful and for a crowd of this size extremely well behaved.

The authorities were obviously expecting a march as there were dividers in the street to guide the crowd. This picture was taken at a foot bridge down the street from me. Despite such a large crowd, a lot of public transportation could still move down the street. I later read that no one expected the crowd to be this big. The police estimated the crowd to be 64,000 in size, but the march organizers estimated over 250,000 attendees. I've been to many stadium concerts and I've been to a Central Park concert in NYC where an estimated 250,000 people gathered on the Great Lawn. I believe the marchers ' estimate was closer to reality.

I make it a point not to get involved in local politics until I undestand the local POV and local issues. So I behaved as a mere observer. But I couldn't help but wonder if I was witnessing something historical. Does this happen often and will this mean anything in the long-term? I don't know, but I later read that there have been many marches in the past few years, but this was the first that focused only on democracy and universal suffrage.

This would obviously never fly in the mainland. The world press says there has been no coverage of this in the China's Chinese language press and the English language Chinese press merely say a few thousand people gathered to protest the Hong Kong governor. To say that was not even a half truth would be an understatement. This type of censorship is nothing new in China. But as Bob Dylan wrote, "The Times are a Changin'"

Today, China has to deal with the Internet. China has effectively censored the Internet from the masses. But for the tech savvy, there are easy ways around that. For the masses there are an explosion of blogs where millions of Chinese are expressing themselves. Many blogs cleverly use tongue and cheek humor to make observations and even criticsms. Finally, there are an enormous number of mainlanders who travel relatively freely into and out of Hong Kong. Try as the communist government may, they can't erase the memories of mainlanders who witness the free media and the hundreds of thousands who participated in the march of democracy.

Certainly there is much to think about here. But one quote came strongly to my mind. It is from an upcoming movie, based on one of my favorite graphic novels of all time, V for Vendetta:

"People should not be afraid of their governments; Governments should be afraid of their people."

Oh What a Beautiful Evening

Today, I worked a full day @ Cyberport with over 15 other people in the office. That's the most people I've seen in the new office since we've moved in. This group represents one of the first companies to be incubated at MERECL. They are really cooking and are on the verge of landing another project.

I stayed at the office until 9:30 pm and took this picture from the balcony. Hong Kong lights up like a Christmas tree at night and this secluded area of Hong Kong is no different. The blue lit building is Cyberport 3, E Core which is where MERECL is. The 3 story buildings in the center and right are very expensive houses that I'm told cost about $10 million USD each!

Hong Kong really gets into the Christmas decorative mood (even though I think most people here are Buddhist) and I'm seeing all sorts of huge decorations pop up. Some of them border on cheesy. Believe it or not I think the only holiday decorations in this picture are the lights on the top of the luxury apartment walls. Everything else is exactly how it looks and feels every night. Well, at least for the winter. The air is very cool and there's a very pleasant breeze blowing in from the bay.

As I left the office, looked at the beatiful harbor view and felt the cool breeze on my face, I thought to myself: I really enjoy working here!