Colour me Funny: Interview with British comedienne Gina Yashere in Hong Kong

The adage is:"'Dying is easy, comedy is hard", and it rings true if you've ever had the misfortune of listening to a bad stand-up where even the alcohol can't help inducing laughter. But when they're good, as British comedienne Gina Yashere, 33, undoubtedly is, it can be belly-achingly brilliant. P.Ramakrishnan meets the woman who is a laugh-a-minute.

Born to Nigerian parents, with her red Mohawk and her distinct British accent, Gina Yashere, the fine celebrity impersonator and casual observer to the inanities of life has a faithful following. Ever-tickled by her take on all things in contemporary life, celebrity-dom and what's on reality television's latest burp, Big Brother, Yashere is never short of material to poke fun at.

"Big Brother is so stupid, I don't understand why I watch it," admits Yashere confessing to viewing  drivel on the idiot box. "There's no justice in this world - the no-talent freak parades on reality TV land up with contracts and are given shows - when others who've been working hard in this business for years can't get a meeting with producers. No justice. But then, they have a career lifespan of about a season, if even, and they die off don't they?"

If only.

Familiar to those with access to the comedies on BBC, with appearances on shows like The Lenny Henry Show and Up Late with Gina Yashere, she's getting more visible than risible, as cameos in films such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (as 'Polythene Pam' the murderess specialising in plastic bag suffocation) and in Mr In-Between. Then there's that penultimate testament to modern-day acting, a role in the highly successful play, The Vagina Monologues, at The West End in London.

But make no mistake, Yashere's a comedienne at heart and as her cracking performance at Punchline in Hong Kong proved, she takes no prisoners. Bulldozing in after an act that , um...er...didn't go well, she stood her ground, even though a semi-hostile and semi-inebriated crowd awaited her.

"I had a feeling things might get a bit iffy," she says, being one of the few female comics to make it on the jet-set league of a working stand-up. "The first act didn't go train 'em like dogs. There were a few in the front rows who thought they could heckle me but I let them know who's in control."

Control is key.

With a rich source of materials collected over the last decade ("I've got a mental Roladex of material"), she could be having a burger minutes before going on and never breaks into a sweat before heading to stage. The only time a doubt crept in, was in Montreal on an urban ("Can you substitute that word 'urban' with 'black' please? They call us 'urban' now!) comedy show. She followed a host of American comics, unsure and self-admittedly, a little shook up.

"Usually, I'm never ever nervous. I love it out there. I know my material. But at this event, all these Americans took the stage hostage, they were all bling-bling, mother****ers this and what up n***?!"

"And then I came on with my accent and there was a bit of a silence," she says with a dramatic pause and mouth agape. "They kept staring at my lips because they couldn't believe I could speak like this and I don't do sex jokes and politics and mouth off. But they came around. I wanted to do well because if I failed, not only would I flop in front of thousands of people, but also among a row of well-known comedians, my comrades. And I didn't want that.

It went really well. My material is pretty clean I guess, mostly from life and television and of course my mother! I'm not that political, except I think that Blair is George Bush's bitch and we should have never gotten into this war."

Riding through the labyrinth roads that lead from Le Meridien Cyberport to Central, ("nice hotel but it really is in the middle of nowhere ain't it?") in a speeding cab, Yashere 's as ebullient off stage as she is on. There is no topic that's taboo under the spotlight, so why would it be in an interview?

"When asked to go to Iraq to entertain the troops a few weeks ago, I originally thought, 'No way!' This is a stupid, pointless war that's brought nothing but death to our own people -  you can quote me on that Blair Bush bitch comment by the way - but then I kept thinking about our soldiers there, what were they doing all these weeks and months?" she says, playing with the diamond encrusted 'G' pendant around her neck.

"I was there for a week and there was nothing to do, and it did my head in. But I'm glad that I went, the guys were great, and the responses I got were brilliant, but am never going back to Iraq."

What made her decide to go to the war-torn venue in the first place?

"The money, of course!" The car almost shakes as everyone in the cab, laughs. "You don't think it was for the good of mankind do ya? No. Seriously, I'm so glad I did it. But again, I'm never going back! Can you write that down please? Never. Going. Back."

Winner of the best female Stand-Up at the Black International Comedy Awards in 2002, the former lift engineer is riding high and unshackled from a desk job. Looking back at her strict upbringing, her family, and mom in particular, is a rich source of material.

"My mother wants gadgets she can't use, 'What is theese idop? Everyone has one, I want one!' So I got her an ipod and its still in the box. Anything she sees at my place she wants. My mother wants. Wants me to get married, have kids, but once I was on television, she said, 'No she's busy having a careeeer. Keedz can come later!' Still in that thick, Nigerian accent She left Africa 40 years [ago] but still can't shake it off! But once the TV gigs run out, I'm sure she'll be back on the baby track."

Does mama Yashere mind being the butt of many a routine? "Oh God no. She always tries to come to my shows, I point her out, she stands up, and gets a standing ovation! Loves it. Loves the attention." she says with a laugh. "My brothers and sisters, they just want to hide! I'm the only one in showbiz, they have real jobs."

A decade ago, Yashere went the proper route of studying Physics, Maths and French, and was an engineer for four years but a comic sketch she did with two other friends, which she wrote, was staged for a small charity event. When the audience went wild for it, the trio went around small theatres and venues around the UK, performing the same skit again and again, and winning accolades and awards in competitions.


"One night, one of the girls couldn't make it 'cause she was working, and the other girl got sick so I ended up alone at the event," recollects Yashere as we walk up Lan Kwai Fong, looking for a place to eat. "I still had to go on, and I just started talking about all the funny things that happened to me. And they loved it. I really enjoyed the audience laughter. You know what? I was kicked out of that group even though I did all the writing. But I didn't get knocked down, I went solo. My own Diana Ross moment!"

Swinging out her arms in a dramatic fashion, lunch at Post 97 is suddenly a private performance of tales and anecdotes.

"But there's no bitterness. A while ago, I ran a comedy club in London and I invited them to perform. No grudges. I'm bigger than that!"

Were they any good?

"Utter crap!"

 Gina Yashere appears at The Punchline Comedy Club for two more shows - more info here.

Sound of Light: Jay Sean in Hong Kong: The Bombay Rockers hit the 852: Sean seduces Bipasha Basu in his music video

The Bombay Rockers and Jay Sean celebrate Diwali by putting the bang into bhangra, writes P.Ramakrishnan. 

Diwali may be the Hindu festival of lights, but it will be celebrated with a cavalcade of sound in Hong Kong this year with performances by two of India's biggest pop acts. The Bombay Rockers start off the celebrations in Cyberport's Ocean View Arena and Sea View Terrace on Saturday, followed by Jay Sean, at the Viceroy and DV8, in Wan Chai, on October 21. 

Both acts have had international success with distinctly non-Bollywood, Indo-western hybrid hits. "Part of the reason for the success of my music is because it's not anything like what's coming out of the musical films in India," says Sean. "I didn't want to repeat any of that because many in my generation of British-born Indians couldn't relate 100 per cent to it. We had to have our own sound that was a cocktail of cultures - just like we are. "I grew up listening to rap and hip hop, and I was writing music when I was 13. My point of view was different. We spoke English at home. The only time I spoke Punjabi was [with] my grandparents, but I couldn't hold an entire conversation in Punjabi," says Sean, who is Sikh by birth and wears his traditional, trademark kara (silver bracelet) at all times. 

"Like other Indian kids living in England, US or Canada, they hold on to their roots, but they're very much Western-ised. My music has that flavour they can relate to, especially since it has never been done before, not by a young Indian person. I found my niche and it's grown." 

Sean, 26, is the most successful Asian R&B performer to have hit the charts in India and UK. His stage name comes from the Indian word shaan, or "pride". He was born Kamaljit Jhooti in Southhall, London, and has never lived in India. Bollywood movies were a part of his upbringing, but he noticed that Indian singers struggled to succeed internationally. 

"When Indian singers try to get into the western market, from the listener's point of view, they don't quite sound authentic," he says. "It would be like me singing in Spanish or something - the accent wouldn't be right, the tone wouldn't be quite right. But I was born and brought up in London and my music reflects that," 

As Sean fuses British and Indian influences, the Bombay Rockers bring a Scandinavian approach to the sounds of the subcontinent. Thomas Sardorf and Navtej Singh Rehal, both 25, created Bombay Rockers three years ago in Denmark and have won a faithful following from Kolding to Calcutta. 

"I was brought up mostly outside India, but I did live in Delhi for about a year," Rehal says. "Culturally, of course, there's a fusion of the east and west, which is reflected in our music."

The Bombay Rockers have hit the big time with singles such as Ari Ari and Rock Tha Party, a Hindi-English song that entered the top 10 in the charts in India and Britain. Their debut album, Introducing, has gone platinum in India, with sales of more than 100,000. 

"Ari Ari was the first track we made," says Sardorf. "We started making tracks with a bhangra vibe and it worked out well. The production was more pop-R&B, and the mix of Indian and English vocals gave us an opportunity to vary it. The reason it's done so well everywhere, starting off in Denmark and then racing across Asia, is that it still has an Indian heart." 

The Bombay Rockers first went on stage in July 2003, at the Roskilde Festival, in front of 20,000 people. A month later, they were performing in Denmark's Images of Asia festival, and other gigs nation-wide. Ari Ari was only a lukewarm success on its release, but the impact of Rock Tha Party gave the duo new life and renewed interest in their previous work. Their third single, Wild Rose, was released in more than 32 countries last year. Sean also realises that his music no longer appeals only to the Southeast Asian market. 

"I've toured all around Asia - Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan - but this is my first visit to Hong kong, so I'm really excited about coming over and spending about a week there," he says. "Touring around has opened my eyes to the fact that the music isn't just for the desi [Indian/Southeast Asian] community. It's going over well across the board. My concerts always have a mixed crowd because hip hop and R&B don't belong just to one section of society." 

Sean's show will reflect his diverse musical tastes. "I grew up listening to a lot of hip hop and soul: Naughty by Nature, Lords of the Underground, Stevie Wonder, Boyz to Men, Michael Jackson," he says. "I was aware of bhangra, but I was also aware that I couldn't do that exactly the way it should be done because it wasn't authentic from my perspective. I didn't have the same life experiences as those brought up in Punjab, obviously, so I never tried to recreate that - but the essence of that is there, somewhere."

Although Sean has kept his distance from Bollywood, he enticed Indian film star Bipasha Basu to appear in a music video that won an Asian Music Award for best video in Britain. "My record company asked who we'd like in the video and Bipasha Basu was the upcoming young actress at the time. For those who didn't know who she was, it didn't matter, because she's very, very beautiful and for those who did, they could instantly connect. Now, she's the hottest actress in Bollywood. Even the local [British] tabloids list her as the hottest babe." 

Sean doesn't rule out working with a film studio. "There have been some offers, but none have been any good," he says. "They do come up with some strange ideas in Mumbai, don't they?"

The Icing Princess: Elayna Berean is the Greatest Pastry Chef Alive

As her steady, skilled hands squeeze and release swirls of pink icing from piping bags to make the most perfect little rosettes atop multi-tiered cakes, Elayna Berean has sliced and diced the title of mere pastry chef, to emerge as the princess of pastry. P.Ramakrishnan takes a bite out of the purveyor of culinary delights, whose confections are the sugar-filled talk of the town and her creations are - without exaggeratedly - unequivocally art.

It's a miracle that she doesn't weigh 300 pounds and is on a "before" shot on posters you see in MTR stations, heralding the benefits of diet pills, Elayna Berean, 32, makes cakes. Big, beautiful cakes. Cakes so exquisite that it breaks your heart to slice into them and destroy all evidence of their near-mythic splendour.

The opening of a high-end boutique at The Landmark was when the creme-de-la-creme of Hong Kong saw and tasted a sample of Berean's exquisite work, An intricate construct, the five-tiered little giant was garnished with what looked like a bouquet of fresh flowers (each flower made of sugar in fact). There were laminate, golden cherubs and swans circumnavigating the entire confection, and verdant vines (also made of green icing) draped across it. As they say, it was love at first bite. Not only were the delicate little angels picture perfect, they tasted like heaven too.

"The best part is coming up with the concept and designing, sometimes looking through fabulous design books, surfing the net, and making collage cutouts that I collect for inspiration," she says as we go over a carefully constructed booklet of her past creations, photographed and catalogued over the last few years, "And also, the end of it all, seeing the final product is wonderful. The process is great too, but sometimes in the beginning, when you start with your blank canvas, or when you're in the middle of it all - you think to yourself, my god how heinous will this be?! I'm glad it always works out!"

Berean, with the elfin joie de vivre of a college sophomore, has maintained an exuberant enthusiasm in what she does, despite spending long, lonesome hours, painting with edible colours, and sculpting with powdered dough. A one-woman enterprise, she creates, bakes and makes everything from start to finish all by herself.

"What most people are not aware of is the thought process that goes into designing custom cakes - the research, the collages - like an interior design board - how finely thought out the flavours are, how the preserves used are often hand made. The time that goes into making a perfect sugar flower, every single little thing that you see, I've had to make," she says. "Oh, and those who just look at them and don't taste them don't realise how delicious the cakes are either!"

An incredibly valid point - for all their good looks and photogenic appeal, at the end of the day, if the cakes tasted like Styrofoam, Berean would be out of business.

"Flavour is so important," says Berean and lists her inspirations. "I get inspired by fashion, magazines, design (interior, even industrial designers), flowers, colours, art, a certain herb or even a spice, I look at the outside decorative inspiration as much as the internal flavour. I must taste something infused with some strange flavour and immediately my thoughts go to 'Oh that would be great as a cake!'. Then, I might end up doing something like a Middle Eastern or a Persian cake, and use orange or cardamon and try a hybrid mixture of flavours to quite literally, spice up my creation."

Born in Taipei and raised in Hawaii, with her high school years in London and on the East Coast of the US, this half-Greek, half-Chinese confectioner's worldly travels and residence are as multi-flavoured as her ingenious mixes of dough and butter. Do note that her current profession is not the culmination of a life-long dream brought on by Barbie's kitchen accessories. Berean is an MBA graduate from Wharton and worked in New York for years before moving to San Francisco with her husband. She finally got a chance to take a break and put her erstwhile career on hold.

"I got the opportunity to pursue one of my dreams , to go to culinary school," she says describing her welcome pause from business. "I enrolled in a part-time pastry program, which was more geared towards older students looking for another career, versus those who were looking to attend culinary school instead of college. I worked at Aqua (San Francisco), in the pastry kitchen as well as at the Ritz Carlton - just to see what working in a professional kitchen was like. Needless to say, I didn't really like it."

Unlike her creations, Berean says she was bitter about the whole experience. "Well of course I was bitter, because I don't smoke and my colleagues were out puffing away on breaks that I wasn't taking, and it just wasn't the environment I wanted to be in."

Instead of caving in to the demands of the restaurant and hotel business, Berean went in for sweet surrender. "I started practicing and teaching myself about the various aspects of decorating a cake - making sugar flowers, piping designs with a piping bag, frosting a cake, using fondant - and I thought to myself that ultimately I wanted to move, live and work in Asia, either in China or Hong Kong. It's very similar to New York in terms of the way people celebrate - the opulence, the possible size of wedding parties and other big celebrations - and I thought 'Why not create custom cakes?' It is something I love, and something where there is a under served niche. When we, my husband and I, had the opportunity to move to Hong Kong, I couldn't have been happier."

From her lips to fate's ear the right mix of ingredients has brought Berean to our shores. She moved to Hong Kong just a few months ago and by simple word-of-mouth promotion and media interest, slices of her cakes have carved their way into some high-end table settings.

In her culinary journey across the region, she says she has found inspiration in local restaurants too, "It's very dependent on the caliber of restaurant we are talking about and I haven't really been inspired by the presentation of food, but I have been by the tastes. Suppose I've just tasted a well-composed dessert, my mind starts racing with ideas. I don't always get inspired by just cakes, it might be a tart, a certain combination of flavours, or even a mixture of seasoning."

Berean confesses that in her hunt for the perfect combination of texture and mouth-watering sensory stimuli, she's seen through some self-proclaimed bizarre-ness. "I have strange food phases - it's best to call them that. There was the one year when all I really wanted to eat were raspberry fig newtons, Diet Coke (in a paper cup, no glasses), red vines (those disgusting pseudo licorices) and cheddar cheese! Oh, and fat-free pretzels! Then there was the phase where I loved mini-Swedish fish. Then gummies that I could scoop out from various bins and were sold by weight! Recently, it has been fruit and nut and vanilla coffee powder from coffee beans."

Fortunately for those who've ordered the unique cake, the final creation is perfected in flavour and look - and the food phases are relegated to her personal file, not her professional.

"The right combination is important as well as the aesthetic. For example, with Tiffany and Co, I had to interpret a China pattern for a blue and white cake. I noticed that every plate was different and had some kind of fruit or vegetable on it. I remember thinking , 'God, I can't have blue tomatoes on a wedding cake!' that would be so unappetising! So I stuck to strawberries, oranges and other fruits."

In full disclosure, it needs to be said that in the role of investigator/reporter, I've had the utter joy to sample Berean's cakes and am a willing, obliging and grateful taster.

"You're very sweet," she says with a laugh. "I do taste what I make and until I'm satisfied, I do not deliver. If I'm not happy with what I make, why would anyone else be?"


For further inquiries, log on to www.elaynamariecakes.com

UPDATE: Sadly, Elayna left Hong Kong a while ago and think she put her cakes on hold for family life. Till date, she is still the best pastry chef I've ever met in my life! 

Sept 2019

High Heels: Hong Kong Ballet takes on The World of Suzie Wong

Hong Kong Ballet went for the bold as some of the best dancers from across Asia, together with a lead from Canada, got together for Stephen Jefferies' stage adaptation for Hong Kong's very own tale, The World of Suzie Wong. P.Ramakrishnan tried to match steps with the production's principal dancers and choreographer, as they tried not to break a leg during rehearsals.


There are neither girls in fluffy tutus nor men in tights in this dance adaptation of Richard Mason's The World of Suzie Wong. In Stephen Jefferies adaptation, women in tight cheongsams and high heels take over the stage. While men in suits and sailor uniforms jazz it up with nary a leotard, men's stocking or dance belt in sight.

As preparations are in full force leading up to opening night, the air is thick with anticipation in the labyrinth, monochrome annals of the rehearsal halls at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, in Tsim Sha Tsui. Mirrored walls brocaded with dance bars, high ceilings and tape decks speckle the otherwise bare rooms as dancers stretch and twist their bodies in pretzel shapes.


"This isn't as difficult to do as a pure classical ballet is," says danseuse Faye Leung, who essays the titular role. "Traditional ballets are very, very precise and there's no room for error. If we make a slight mistake in this dance, no one will notice, but in traditional ballet, it becomes so obvious. But there are other difficulties in this ballet - dancing in high-heel shoes and cheongsams. It's really unsafe, so slippery! With a tutu and a leotard, they flow with the body and aren't cumbersome."

Just watching the unit perfect their positions, pirouettes, and pas-de-deux, it's easy to spot Leung and see why she's got the lead role. She has that certain magical essence that makes her stand out in a crowd, a quality that has helped her land nearly all the leads in the past decade. Roles have included turns in classics such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, The Nutcracker, and Romeo and Juliet. So exquisite are her skills that the roles have created especially for her by a variety of choreographers; roles such as Suzie Wong, Princess Jade in Legend of the Great Archer and Tango Ballet Tango (Stephen Jefferies), Madame Butterfly and Turandot (Natalie Weir), Valeria in Spartacus (Irek Mukhamedov), Lady White in The White Snake (Domy Reiter-Soffer), and Dreams of
Tenderness and Solitude (David Allan).

Well of course she's limber and doe-eyed and has more grace than God intended to distill down to one petite frame of a body, and as she hops onto the table for the interview, clad in leggings, stretching out her long limbs, she has the countenance of a teen, not her 28 year-old self. But the body reminds her, she says, of her age. "It hurts. I'm in pain almost all the time!" she says revealing all the injuries incurred during the-making-of. "Big time injuries during this production, stress fracture - I had three months off and my foot has still not recovered fully. And I can feel the pain, but when I'm dancing, it somehow disappears. I feel nothing but the spirit of dancing. I've sprained my tendons and my arms hurt but somehow when I'm on the stage, it doesn't! There's no nervousness either. I've never been nervous in my life - since I was a little girl, I wanted to be on stage, to dance before a live audience. I look forward to it!"

Her onstage partner Bengt Jorgen, who dances the role of the gwailo in love with Suzie, agrees, "I've been dancing for the last 20 years and never got nervous and it's funny that as I get older, I do get that inkling of doubt. There isn't so much of that in this show because there's confidence. We've been training for a long time so we're well prepared." With a grin, Leung continues, "The only time I get nervous is when the doctor shows me a needle. I've been getting shots for pain and I'm allergic to them (she unfurls her socks to reveal her slender legs, dotted with red marks). Yeah, I hate needles but make me dance on stage alone in front of thousands of people - no problem. One man with one needle and I could faint."

Needless to say, the dancers are in incredible shape. The silhouette of Leung's legs jump out from the posters around town and I wonder if there's a particular dancer's diet that she's on? "I'm not thin, but I do have to watch what I eat because I don't want to trouble my dancing partner. I can carry my weight around fine, but then he has to do it too - quite literally and I don't want him to go 'Oww' every time he has to carry me."


With an easy grin, Jorgen, who also heads the Ballet Jorgen Canada, says "Faye has been a wonderful dancing partner and she's very gifted. I've been dancing for a long time and I didn't think that I'd want to take on the lead in a production anymore, but when the opportunity arose to work with this team, under the guidance of Stephen (Jefferies, Artistic Director), I agreed just for the experience of it, of coming to Hong Kong, where I have performed before, and see what kind of challenge it is to work for another production team. It's nice to be just the dancer and not to have the added stress of all that a production entails."

For someone of Jorgen's calibre (a graduate of the Royal Swedish Ballet, resident choreographer of George Brown College, Artistic Director of Ballet Jorgen, recipient of the Clifford E.Lee Choreography award), does playing secondary character to the title role seem like misstep? "The appeal was that when I read the story, I liked the part, the character I now perform," he explains as we walk around the Cultural Centre while the cast and crew break for lunch. "In a sense it's as much his story because he's the narrator and it's his point of view. And this is such a great production and essentially it's a story of Hong Kong, so it had to be done here in this city too which was an appeal for me to come over from Canada to do this. Being an observer, it's so interesting to see the different take that Stephen has on this show, and how he's doing it differently from what I thought."

As in sync as they are on stage, the leads even chorus what they enjoy about dancing too. "Rehearsals. Refining a dance and the creative aspect is the best part. Performing and having an audience is great too, but a greater sense of depth to the artistry of dance comes during production."



There's a comfort and camaraderie between the 43-member troupe that reveals not just the strenuous efforts put into the production, but the element of fun they have with it too. Discloses Leung, "I don't enjoy watching other dance shows at all, but what I really like to see is rehearsals, what's not on stage - everything that's done backstage, how they work out the routine, how they master it, how the flaws are covered, that's where all the real dancing is. By the time they are on stage, it is all done and people are going through the motion of what they're learned, but as a dancer, it's the learning that interests me. I love to ask questions. When I'm rehearsing and see myself, I ask 'Why is this step not working?"

Though she doesn't have the time to go and see other productions, Leung confesses she's enjoyed a few movies, "Most dance-based movies are fun but are not particularly realistic, but I did like Centre Stage and the one with the kid, Billy Elliot. I must say I also realy liked Honey. I heard Jessica Alba used to do ballet, and that girl can move! The movie was a fun look at the Hip-Hop and R&B music video scene, but it dealt with what all dancers go through - the training, the hard work, the long hours, just in a different format!"

When choreographer/director Stephen Jefferies walks into the room, people fall into place like a scattered puzzle which suddenly creates a unified picture. We stand aside and chat, "The production premiered for the first time last March, but when we put it up again I got the chance to make adjustments. I took time to fix things and get rid of some things and to make it all a bit tighter. It's a big production and we hope to tour with this and really show the world some of the best dances and dancers from Asia."

As the clicks of the high-heels punctuate the dance floor, I snitch on the dancers and tell Jefferies that they've suffered for their art by dancing in heels, "The dancers are in high heels and pointed shoes and I once toyed with the idea of making them wear one high heel on one foot, and a ballet shoe in the other - just to torture them!" laughs Jefferies, "I'm kidding of course!"

Changes were made from the film and the novel, to fit the stage format. "When the story first came out, it was quite controversial. A white man, a gwailo, in love with a prostitute and getting married to her, there was noise about that at first but it's not so dramatic anymore. Interracial couples are not a big deal at all and to heighten the drama, we've changed parts in this production. It's been quite a challenge as we've incorporated some innovative styles, and mixed-up dance forms. It's pretty experimental and not as disciplined as classical ballets are. There's a bit more freedom for the dancers."

So what's the barometer of success or failure for a ballet? The box office? Reviews? Audience reaction?

Says Jeffries, "I've been working in production for so long and when I sit down in the audience, does my spine tingle during the show? Then I know how good or bad it is. It's so important for me to see it all and say, I wasn't bored! That's the key."

Shattered Image: Jung Chang and Chairman Mao: Interview with Jung Chang

Soft spoken, sanguine and scholarly, Jung Chang never expected the term 'scandalous' to be applied to her. Her books are blackened and banned in China and yet she remains one of the most respected and successful Asian authors in the world. P.Ramakrishnan meets the writer, as translated works of her controversial book, Mao, The Unknown Story (originally released in 2005), hit bookstores this year. 

Images courtesy of Connoisseur Art Gallery, Wellington Gallery, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. 

Portrait of Jung Chang by Makoto Kuwata.


Officially, Jung Chang's mighty tome, Mao, The Unknown Story (released in 2005 by Vintage books), which she co-wrote with her husband Jon Halliday, is banned in China, as was her last book, the biographical Wild Swans which remarked on the great famine in China that devastated her own, and millions of other families, in the early 1960s. Having sold over 10 million copies since its release in 1992, Wild Swans remains one of the best selling non-fiction books of all time. The follow-up had readers waiting for a decade, as the formidable husband and wife literary duo teamed up to write the definitive book on the political giant, the Marxist military writer and leader of China, Mao Tse-Tung (1893-1976).


So wary is the Chinese regime of Jung Chang, 54, that the red tape extends to reviews, interviews and even a picture of her encroaching its way into newsstands across the continent; the distribution of The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Economist, and Dow Jones were all blocked by the government when they featured articles on her. It was little surprise that a quarter of the world's population would not be granted permission to read her writing, by administrative decree. Forbidden seems like such an archaic word to use in 2010 and yet... 

"Surprised that they banned my book? Me? Of course not!" says Chang with a succinct, omniscient laugh. "I did worry at first, and I can see that my worries were not unfounded, as I thought that the book might never see the light of day in China. Officially. But the opposite is true. When I was last in Hong Kong, I saw people buying it in the airport as they boarded flights to China. I'm very glad about the way things have turned out, it's most reassuring. Not only the English edition on sale but the Chinese version, published a few months ago in Hong Kong, sells well. I was there for its release and when I spoke about it, the Chinese press were all there and they covered the event, interviewed me, and more importantly, it was published too without a black marker crossing anything out. I've been told the translated version of Mao is selling extremely well in Hong Kong and I know it will permeate China."

And so it has. According to Asiaweek, Mao is the best selling book of the year, second only to the Harry Potter series. A brick sized biography that details Mao Tse-Tung's life in great depth, with historical data, figures, maps and rare vintage photographs, writer Frank Johnson called it "the first great political biography of the twenty-first century." TIME magazine simply said it was "an atom bomb of a book."

Explosive in content for demystifying the erstwhile leader of the world's most populated country, the book sets out to correct myths and historical inaccuracies long propagated as truth. The portrait, like the one on the cover of the book, is none too pleasant. It is easy to assume that the writing is an act of revenge, a verbal strike on the man who was responsible for her shattered family, but the author strongly refutes this.

"I wouldn't say revenge was ever in my mind. When I started writing this, it was a journey of discovery. I don't like the emotion of revenge and hatred. I have seen it consume people's lives and that wasn't for me - despite what happened in my past."

Chang was born in Yibin, Sichuan Province, China. She was a Red Guard briefly at the age of 14 and then worked as a peasant, doing a series of menial jobs before becoming an English language student. The studious type (which came in handy much later in life while she researched Mao), she went on to become an assistant lecturer at Sichuan University. In 1978, she left for the UK, having been awarded a scholarship by York University, where she obtained a PHD in linguistics in 1982. Her award winning book, Wild Swans, was published in 1991 and was subsequently banned in China for her recollection of the great famine brought on under the regime of Mao. As she clearly indicates in multiple chapters, vast number of deaths were brought on deliberately because of Mao's political and economic folly - where he chose to trade grain with other countries, despite the starvation of his own people.


"I lived through his rule, and my own father was in prison, tortured and driven insane. Why? Because he questioned Mao," reflects Jung in a narrator's tone, devoid of emotion as she simply states the facts of her life. "I was brought up in an environment of fear. When I was a child, Mao was like a god, and in school we said things like 'I swear to Chairman Mao, that I will work hard.' There was no alternative information. China was sealed off, and anything irreverent to Mao was burned."

"Of course there is nothing wrong with revenge on paper, there are plenty of people doing that, those who suffered. Why shouldn't they manifest revenge in their own way" she says, addressing critics that have charged that she wrote out off ill will towards a man who greatly affected her life. "But I've noticed that such writing becomes bland, bloodless, colourless. Our book is charged with passion, there has to be a greater sense of purpose than revenge when you're writing about a man who was responsible for the death of 70 million of his own people during peace time. When I think of what they went through I can't help myself from writing passionately, but it does not stem from something as simple as hate."

It's hard to say if it is love and devotion for the man that has kept Mao's looming portrait and his corpse in Tienanmen Square, in the heart of the capital city of Beijing, by a nation still fascinated by this iconic world figure who died 30 years ago. In effect, did the book ban pique people's curiosity? Did they want it more because it was forbidden? "There might be some element of that, but not entirely,"says Chang, fully aware of the great diaspora still intrigued by Chinese history and its iconic figures.

"People are interested in history, the Chinese revere their history and our culture is all about knowing our past. I have not personally met any Mainland or Hong Kong politicians to gauge their responses, but I've heard from valuable sources that those who are most interested in our book are Communist officials who lived under Mao. Particularly them because that period is very much still on their minds, and perhaps the book answers questions about what they themselves didn't know."

And it's the lack of awareness perhaps that makes Mao a figure less reviled than other political despots of the past. You won't find Y-shirts bearing portraits of those other controversial leaders on sale, but sketches of the Chinese dictator emblazoned on sweatshirts sure seem to sell well in various continents. "In the West, I think people have long harboured this illusion about Mao, mainly because they simply don't know what his rule was like. It's hard for them to imagine because they hardly knew anything of China, let alone its politics and politicians. Mao was very much a propagandist of himself. He skillfully created his own personality cult and allure abroad. This was extremely well executed to Edgar Snow (who wrote Red Star Over China, a flattering account of Mao) or Nixon and Kissinger in the 1970s when they met him."

"He rarely manufactured the attraction of himself within China but abroad he certainly cultivated an image of himself as a great economist, leader, and an avuncular figure to the Chinese people," cites Jung. "So no, I'm not surprised that the West's perception of him is off colour."


Not unlike Andy Warhol's Mao prints in multiple hues, a tribute he otherwise conferred to Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Onassis and other celebrities of the 70s.

"I hope this book dispels the illusions of 'The Great Leader' (she says with sardonic emphasis) not only in China, but the world over."

When CNN interviewed Jung prior to the book's release, the network asked why she chose to write nothing about his achievements, failing to mention either the economic development that occurred following his rise, or his popularity with the common masses - a figure in the billions. "That's one of the grand myths surrounding him - that he was charming or had an authentic following or a spontaneous burst of leadership - but in fact, Mao had trouble recruiting even Communists to his brand of Communism," explains Jung, having well documented his rise to the top in the book.

"He didn't build his own power base through charisma or inspiration, he built it through terror and it was a studied process. We had to write entire chapters on this to understand how he, with neither any charm or clout, went racing up the power ladder. He built power bases and the Chinese people had no choice but to follow him as the ramifications of not doing so were horrific. He destroyed not just people, but their entire families. From root to tree, all perished. You faced beating, execution, families were outcast, and the discrimination and suffering went on for generations if anything was regarded offensive to Mao."


The relevance to the past atrocities she sees as being repeated today by yet another self-titled 'great leader' Kim Jong Il. "If you look at the early days of China and North Korea now, it's almost identical. Or if you look at Saddam Hussein's Iraq, with the statues and endless portraits, the adulation, creating this mythology of being loved by the people... I think all tyrants over the last few decades acquired it from Mao."

One of many parallels Jung found among recent Communist leaders and dictators was their proclivity to swimming - in front of cameras well documenting the act. "I'm almost certain that Mao set the blueprint for this act of swimming to reflect the status of power. Mao loved swimming in his childhood and he was very good. It was a symbol to make a political point, showcasing his physical strength and the battle against the wind and the tides of the Yangtze River. He was making waves to send messages to his opponents and to the population if they ever questioned his age, power of virility. You know how the Chinese love symbolism."

Salsa Seduction: Interview with DJ Henry Knowles during his Hong Kong Trip: SCMP Exclusive

The world's unofficial No 1 salsa DJ Henry Knowles knows the power of a sensual latin beat - and plans to use it on his Hong kong fans, writes P.Ramakrishnan.


As the world's unofficial No 1 salsa DJ Henry Knowles is not used to seeing people sitting down at his gigs. "The only time when I did not get the reaction I expected - and I've been doing this for more than 20 years - was when I was the DJ at the wedding of some Jehovah's Witnesses. That was one tough audience. I couldn't play some of the sexier songs and they freaked a bit," the New York-based disc jockey says.

Fresh from a whirlwind tour of Japan, the salsero recalls the experience so vividly because it is a one-off. Normally, the response to his sensuous Latin-laced tunes involves something closer to wild abandon.

"Everywhere in the world, the music gets into the blood. It's an addiction. Whether they're in Japan, Korea, Italy or Belgium, the people just start dancing when salsa's in the air," he says, a few hours after landing in Hong Kong.

In the past two months, Knowles has touched down in Hawai, Germany, the Netherlands and San Juan, where he was part of the world salsa congress. He's used to setting such a pace with two decades of DJ-ing under his belt. He's also used to his No 1 salsa DJ sobriquet, which was bestowed on him by enraptured Italian fans years ago. "There was a time when I was flying to Italy every month and on one of the programmes, they introduced me as such. The label stuck. With the internet bringing the 'salseros' of the world together, it's brilliant to be recognised in the street when you're halfway aross the world from home."

Salsa, the Latin American dance characterised by Afro-Caribbean rhythms, Cuban big-band dance melodies and elements of jazz and rock, has found a fanatical following in Japan, South Korea and a number of hot-spots in Malaysia and Singapore.

A form of music and dance that could not be more of an alien culture and sound finds escalating popularity - marked by the repeated invitations for people such as Knowles and other latin music exponents.

"It is a form of liberation. When I meet some old friends in Asia, I hug them. I kiss them, ther's a very hands-on greeting which is completely different to, let's say, the Japanese culture where physical contact is completely avoided as a greeting.

"You shed inhibitions with the culture of salsa. You move, you get hot, sweaty and sticky," he says, trying to explain why he's frequent flier to Asia as Latin music's unofficial ambassaddor.

"People may not understand what the words are and they might get a better appreciation if they understood it, but this is really about the rhythm, the music itself," he says.

Though a New York resident, as a young boy he was sent to Puerto Rico to stay with his grand parents and developed an ear for the local music. "I bought all kinds of records. Even today, two thirds of my money goes into buying music," he says as he points out why in his luggage, at any given time, there are more than 200 CDs.

"When I was in high school, at a party I brought all my records and I played them. The reaction was so great that I've never looked back.

"I'm a manager for music acts, a promoter, I do the marketing, I do parties, I dance - everything I do involves music."

Like DJs of any genre, Knowles says his greatest skill is reading people - a talent that has overcome cultural differences across the globe. One of the keys, he says is not following the charts, but his audience.

"When we started off, radio stations came to us to find out what was hot in the club scene. We could make or break a track and, if we played the song often enough, we got people addicted to it. Now it's all about the marketing strategy, completely commercial. It's about the musician's look, not their sound.

"It makes no sense to play something just because it's the No 1 song in New York. That song might not necessarily work in LA or Brussels. Knowing the pulse of the audience is important. I don't prepare anything in advance when I have to work at a gig. I go in, feel for the audience and play something. No pre-recorded and pre-planned tracks - otherwise I might as well mail a compilation and not turn up. It is an art to understand the audience."

It's hard to pinpoint when a worldwide audience found a flavour of South American sounds and let it make merry on their eardrums, but it was well before the live-in-leather performance of Ricky Martin at the Grammys.

"The Ricky Martins and the Jennifer Lopez-es have opened the doors a bit wider for an international audience to get into this style of music that has been around for many years. Their music is Latin pop or rock but having brought in listeners, the more curious will do a bit more digging and find a world of sounds that come from Latin culture."

He adds: "Here I'm a one-man show. Sometimes I have musicians or dancers accompany me and we mix and match things. I love open-air events and am really looking forward to my first gig in Hong Kong."

So what can Hong Kong expect at the first official visit as a DJ on sunday in Harbour City to kick off the Salsa In The City festival? "A lot of fun. Apart from playing the music, I go out to the dance-floorr and mingle with the crowd. I work the auience and don't just sit up there with my equipment ignoring the world.

"I will dance with anyone who's willing. You don't have to be an expert and have taken lessons to enjoy this. If it gets hot, humid, sweaty and sticky, then it gets hot, humid, sweaty and sticky!"

With a sly grin he says, "That's the way all good things progress."

Indeed.

almost famous: Uncle Joe: Hong Kong's Inde Band: Ex South Island School-ers Included

Text: P.Ramakrishnan
Photography: Dominic Hardoon

Throughout the past weekend's downpour, a sober few on the street in Lan Kwai Fong might remember running into Andrew Gardener and Tom Read of the local indie rock band, Uncle Joe, handing out invitations to their CD release party at Queens. They are the artists formerly known as the "spoilt-brat expat kids who think they are a band".

At least, that's how some scathing reviewers would brand the group. And they would be wrong. As those who track the independent music scene would know. Uncle Joe have long since graduated from wannabes to proficient musicians. They've been around for eight years, building a respectable fan base on the back of an energetic live show. At long last, their debut album, From The Towers Of This City, I Can Still See All Your Promises, has arrived.

Lead guitarist and singer Read says: "Over the years we've constantly been playing at venues around Hong Kong and performed in festivals and made a compilation of our best work in this album. It's been tried and tested and we've registered what the audience response has been like. Every single number on the disc is something we genuinely like, and think our listeners will too."

Minutes before we sit down for a chat in a music room, drummer Ben Matthews the latest addition to the band, enters dressed in a bland blue shirt and tightly wound tie, several office files in hand. As the shirt and tie comes off, he quips: "English teacher by day, porn star by night!"

As the laughter subsides, he points out that all four members [including bass guitarist Ben Tse] have day jobs ; they're not counting on their intermittent gigs to pay the rent.

Gardener, 28, says : "DJs in Hong Kong get anywhere between $1,000 per hour to five-figure earnings per night. In the current scenario, it's trendy and hip to have a DJ at a party, so they get paid. But with bands like us, who create and perform our own music, bring in all our equipment, it somehow becomes every venue doing us a favour by letting us perform. Bands can bring in customers, a fan base, none of that comes into play. The only way to make any money here is if you were playing cover versions of other artists."

Their day jobs - Read works with youth groups, Gardener is an investment banker, Tse and Matthews are English teachers - keep them away from rehearsal and recording studios, but they try to jam at least twice a week in a rented, sound-proof studio in Wan Chai. "Between us, we took about 10 to 14 days off to record and put this album together. It's a real labour of love and it's a self-funded album that's cost us a lot, but we believe in it; our faith is in the music."

Having met through a church group, there's a spiritual element to the songs. But, as Read explains, they're not necessarily about religion. It's up to the listener to interpret the lyrics. "We're not trying to be preachy in any way, we're not ashamed or shying away from our church but it's not a religious album; it's about faith, believing in whatever it is you believe in," he says. "The album stems from a lot of awful things that happened in Hong Kong, with the economic downturn, Sars... it emphasizes that we've got to believe in ourselves, in our city, instead of just complaining all the time."

Performing at festivals around Asia has been eye-opening as well. Gardener says: "Playing in Singapore last year was a humbling experience. There is an environment that nurtures their local talent. We could see, particularly with the singers, that they're at a different level altogether. The government supports the music scene at events like Bay Beats, held by the waterfront in Singapore. About 3,000 people turn up independent bands from all over come to perform. Now there's encouragement for the music scene from the government here, but the motives are clearly different; they want people to come to Hong Kong, to show that we're Sars free and safe. That's fine but Hong Kong really needs a dedicated venue that attracts punter not just Canto-pop."