Chris Kyme: Postcard from Hong Kong
Chris Kyme (pictured) continues his ‘Postcard from Hong Kong’ series and this time his topic is New Year resolutions…….
Despite the fact that we’re a couple of weeks into January it’s not too late to wish everyone a Happy New Year (I think. It’s always a good time to catch up with a few people you haven’t seen for a while, and so it was this week when I got together with a few industry folks here in Hong Kong. Hosted by dear Onie at the Hong Kong 4As office (which as it happens is a brilliant place to polish off a few bottles of wine with good friends).
And what a nice turnout we had, let me introduce you to them. The legendary Kitty Lun (pictured below), Head of Creative Shop, Greater China, Facebook, who is no stranger to Campaign Brief Asia what with her past award-winning prowess, Paul Chan (not that one the other one) of Chan Tsang Wong Chu & Mee Advertising, Sandy Choi of Sandy Choi design, Ringo Tang photographer, Ron Cheung, ex Hong Kong super duper art based CD, Kasey Lin, suave gent about town and ex copy based CD, Mahmood Rumjahn, veteran composer and musician who used to do loads of Hong Kong’s ads, and his famously popular DJ and presenter missus Audrey Winsome, and later on, Henry Chu of Pill & Pillow (his own digital studio). Another mountainman Stanley Wong was meant to be there but as he was travelling so he sent his tablecloth to represent him.
So while everyone was there and tongues were getting looser and looser, I thought, hah!, time for me to do my journalistic thingy and extract some soundbites from these esteemed guests. So I asked everyone (well most) “What’s your New Year’s resolution. Now, events unfolding as they did, I lost the piece of paper with my notes on it which coincided with more wine being opened funnily enough, so I’m having to work from my increasingly rusty memory and use my wayward imagination to fill in the blanks. I do remember Kitty saying “I want to create a project, the social impact of which becomes bigger than the project itself”. For the others I’m a bit foggy, I think Ringo said, “I plan to stop my habit of leaving my bag in places like the 4As office after I’ve had a drink”, and Sandy Choi “I’m going to improve my joke-telling ability so I can get to the level of Chris Kyme”. I think Kasey said he planned to increase his trips to the hair salon to be more than just once a week. And Onie, who said she wants to connect the 4As with more and more Hong Kong creatives. And therein lies the potentially most meaningful nugget of an idea to emerge from our merry-making.
We discussed turning the occasion into a once-a-month- regular thing, open to anyone from the creative circle in Kong Kong who fancies dropping by. Because right now there is little or no connectivity in this town. People have lost touch for one reason or another and, well, it’s not a bad idea to have some sort of dialogue going on, especially over a few glasses of something pleasurable. And who better to host it than the 4As, given that their office makes a really good bar. So that, perhaps, is the best New Year resolution of all. Getting the creative community together. Good things can come from this. Debating important topics, raising industry issues, sharing work with guest speakers etc. I truly hope this happens.
Let’s see how that develops, meanwhile, now for Happy New Year part 2 – CNY! So, Kung Hei Fat Choy or Gong Xie Fa Cai depending on from which part of Asia you’re reading this.
Chris Kyme is Co-founder and Creative Director at Kymechow, Hong Kong.