Like the metamorphosis from a caterpillar to butterfly, (coincidentally her favourite creature in nature), Bernice took time away from her work to heal. During this phase of her life, she spent time back in her home on the Canadian West Coast in the embrace of her home country, the love of her family and the serene beauty of British Columbia. It was in this cocoon of warmth and healing that she was able to breathe and slow down from the fast-paced life she had in Hong Kong.
Read MoreAfter returning to Canada from years of working at groundbreaking restaurants like the Michelin 3 Starred The Fat Duck in England and Liberty Private Works in Hong Kong, Chef Ken Yau launched k.Dinners, a pop-up supper club concept in Toronto. These were multi-course, experiential tasting dinners for just 16 guests in a different location every week. Those lively evenings of great food and convivial conversations around a communal table came to an abrupt stop when the pandemic hit. Suddenly, Ken was left scrambling to think of another source of revenue.
Read MoreMontreal artist Karen Tam worked with designer Jean de Lessard to create the vibrant “Place des Souhaits/Place of Wishes” in the Quartier des Spectacles. This joyous, intergenerational public space and artwork, reminiscent of a typical Asian Night Market, welcomed visitors of all colours and creeds, while supporting local residents, families and businesses during its four-month run. It shone as a beacon of positivity and hope, highlighting the resilience of Chinatowns everywhere.
Read MoreFor a long time, many members of the Hong Kong film industry, both on and off screen, have moved to North America or constantly traveled between the two places for work, education, or simply in search of a better life. You can find them on film sets and post-production studios all over Hong Kong and Asia, while simultaneously making their mark in many North American film studios or international film festivals.
Read MoreWe caught up with Chef Craig Wong, the Toronto-based owner of the award-winning restaurant Patois and upcoming Bar Mignonette, to explore his views on sustainability. We wanted to know what the actual practice of this word versus lip service means to him as a chef, restaurateur and cultural champion. During the pandemic, he was a part of a collaboration with IKEA that focused on cooking with scraps. That exercise, in turn, inspired the images in our feature. In this special conversation, we examine the concept of sustainability through three lenses: first as a culinary philosophy, then towards the preservation of culture and, finally, the conservation of the restaurant industry.
Read MoreStanding at 158 centimeters tall, this young Hong Kong-born New Zealand-trained ballet dancer is making the most of her time as part of the National Ballet of Canada. Tirion Law officially joined as a member of the Corps de Ballet in 2018. Her repertoire includes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Nutcracker, Anna Karenina, The Dream, Paquita, The Second Detail and The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude.
Read MoreAcademy Award-Winning Director, Ruby Yang, talks about her journey, the idea of time and pace in her work, and COVID-19. Yang is currently the Project Director of the Hong Kong Documentary Initiative (HKDI) and was the recipient of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council’s Artist of the Year for Film in 2018. Our Fête Chinoise editors first met Ruby in December 2019 at the film screening of The Last Stitch (2019) directed by Alfred Sung, which Yang served as the Executive Producer. Later, Yang shared that she saw the wonderful events featuring Chinese Canadian culture that Fête Chinoise had designed. It is truly our pleasure to share her thoughts.
Natalie’s work is never the same; it is continuing developing, adapting and evolving. I find it fascinating she cannot pick a favourite medium and experimentation tends to lead her to all sorts of new artistic dimensions. What is consistent however, is how Natalie seems to make pieces with cultural, whether localised or global, connotations. I would speculate whether it comes from Natalie’s outlook from splitting her time between Hong Kong and London. Natalie noted that “both cities are amazing in their own unique ways. Hong Kong is intense, efficient and it's easy to meet people.
Read MoreFor many second-generation Chinese Canadian children growing up in the 1990s and 2000s, Fairchild was one of the major avenues to connect with their parents’ home and Hong Kong culture. Fairchild TV transmitted dramas and soap operas from Asia to Canada, successfully bridging the gap between “home” in Asia and “home” in Toronto for immigrants and their descendants for over three decades.
Read MoreFête Chinoise contributor Jasmine Chen shares an up-close and personal interview with Samantha Wan, whom you may know from the award-winning series Second Jen. She worked with Andrew Phung in this new and intriguing series and has so much warmth and heart to share. “Being an actor, a writer, a producer, all of those things make the directing way easier.”
Read MoreThere is a reason why he has a nickname E神 or 歌神: God of Songs, admired by many like an immortal on his grand stage. Surpassing most performance careers — singer, songwriter, actor and producer, Eason Chan (陳奕迅) is now into his third decade of music-making since he began his career in 1995. Not many pop stars stay relevant for such a long and continuous stretch of time in the especially fast-paced Asian entertainment landscape, yet Eason has defied the odds. Winning multiple awards across Asia, and selling out for concert tours worldwide, he has been one of the top producing artists in Asia since the early 2000s.
From my series “The Quiet Spring,” the beginnings of the virus can be seen — at the time it wasn’t perceived as too serious and no one could predict that just two months later, it would become a global pandemic. The development of the epidemic inspired several series of large- and small-scale ink paintings with profound reflections.
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