In Questions for Ada, Nigerian poet Ijeoma Umebinyuo talks about women’s experiences and being away from home. Manisha Wijesinghe cried the first time she read the collection, and often returns to the book.
Contemporary artist Sharon Lee focuses on themes of disappearance and transience. Reading a book about how cultural clichés can erase a place such as Hong Kong helped her with her work.
Sibling rivalry: Richard Mille’s two-in-one release of the RM 74-01 and RM 74-02 showcases the watchmaker’s latest technological achievements – so how exactly do the luxury timepieces differ?
When Olivia Dawn Mok watched the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, she was not impressed. Further watching hooked her in, and she says the series taught her about identity and authenticity.
Andrew Lau’s triad film Young and Dangerous tells the story of a group of young gangsters, and for rapper Nile Bun, who saw it aged 15, it typifies Hong Kong’s MK (Mong Kok) culture.
When he first saw Alex Katz’s City Landscape, at the age of 16, Ernest Chang had just gone through his first drug rehab. Looking at the painting took away his anxiety and taught him how to convey emotion through art.
The co-founders of experimental art gallery PHD in Hong Kong reveal how the 1986 essay ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’ by Ursula K. Le Guin changed their lives.
Two Hong Kong trams were turned into artworks, displaying images reversed using camera obscura on their interiors. When Art Basel Hong Kong director Angelle Siyang-Le rode one of the trams, it changed her life.
Avant-garde Hong Kong fashion designer Yeung Chin started appreciating the interlacing of beauty and ugliness after watching the 1974 film ‘Pastoral: To Die in the Country’.
Heidi Yu Spurrell, founder and CEO of Hong Kong-based food sustainability consultancy Future Green, explains how the 2017 book ‘Sustainable Diets’ changed her life.
Celine Kwan visited the Bacon exhibition during a school trip to Dublin and was amazed by the replica of the Irish artist’s studio on display and how messy it was. It inspired her to pursue a career in design.
Richard Hobbs, CEO of a Hong Kong metaverse fashion studio, got hooked on skateboarding as a kid. His first copy of the sport’s ‘bible’, Skateboarder magazine, taught him things that helped his business career.
Tapestries from the Gobelin family are widely considered to be the most outstanding pieces in the European tapestry tradition. British artist Stephen Thorpe explains how they changed his life.
Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is the bestselling jazz album ever, and for Hong Kong chef Richard Chaneton, who first heard it aged 11, it represents how technique combined with improvisation can have a profound effect.
Seeing George Clooney in Up in the Air led Audra Gordon, CEO of Hong Kong-based sustainable fashion brand Beam Bold, to be more curious, explore the world and to embrace minimalism.
Reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as a teenager inspired Jenny Quinton, who, after backpacking to Hong Kong, founded environmental education and permaculture centre Ark Eden.
The Matrix, starring Keanu Reeves, changed the life of Ricky Chiu when he was studying in the US, and taught the future Hong Kong biotech company CEO ‘that you shouldn’t just follow what other people tell you’.
Visiting the former home of painter Giorgio Morandi in Bologna, Italy, where she was a student in the early 2000s, set Patricia Crockett on the path to becoming a Hong Kong art gallery director.
Ford vs Ferrari charts the US carmaker’s attempt to beat Ferrari at Le Mans with a car built in 90 days. Watching it inspired Terence Hon to persevere with his struggling business.
Elizabeth Chu was a fresh graduate when she took over running a family-owned restaurant business, not long before the Covid-19 pandemic. She can relate to prisoner Andy Dufresne’s struggle in Frank Darabont’s film.
Lio Kuokman, resident conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and programme director of the Macao International Music Festival, explains how Mr Holland’s Opus changed his life.
Sensation show opened at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1997 and altered Britain’s view of art. A teenager at the time studying in the UK, now Hong Kong-based art adviser Yuki Terase reveals how it changed her life.
South Korean drama Designated Survivor: 60 Days deals with politics in a way that left a deep impression on Hong Kong NGO founder and aspiring politician Andre Kwok.
Watching Maria Full of Grace, about a young Colombian woman who ends up a drug mule, changed how Marianne Hughes thought about the well-being of workers and vulnerable women.
Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain is an upside-down urinal with ‘R. Mutt 1917’ written on it, and seeing it changed the way Danielle So looked at ordinary objects and artworks.
Olivia Chan had a variety of interests but no career path. Reading life coach Margaret Lobenstine’s book showed her how to balance different passions without losing focus.
Spotting a drone in the sky or seeing someone on a personal helicopter may be more reminiscent of a scene from a sci-fi film, but as these four products prove, the future has already arrived ...
Jacqueline Novogratz’s book approaches social investment with an entrepreneurial focus, and reading it inspired banker Katy Yung to set up a community of impact investors in Hong Kong.
Omega ambassador Nicole Kidman hosted a party in Nashville to celebrate women in watchmaking, while Cartier and Audemars Piguet launched exciting new limited-edition timepieces
American artist Barbara Kruger is best known for her bold collages that question subjects such as power and gender relations. A Hong Kong gallerist explains how they changed her life.
