Joyce Peng
Interior designer Joyce Peng was the woman behind beloved art and music bar Joyce is Not Here, which closed last year to much disappointment. Back with Orange Peel, a new music bar and lounge, she tells Yannie Chan about running live music venues and overcoming racism.
I am a Beijinger. My mother sent me to Canada to study while she moved to Hong Kong to work for an advertising company.
She had a big accident and she couldn’t move. I had to come back and take care of her. That’s why I moved to Hong Kong.
It was 1992, and Hongkongers hated people from the mainland. I didn’t speak any Cantonese. Everyone teased me. Some would hear me speak Putonghua and call me a prostitute. It was so rude and insulting.
My mother is perfectly fine now. As the Chinese saying goes, “One who survives a serious accident must be blessed with good fortune later in life.” After the accident, my career was great.
I left again for Canada to study interior design. For the first year, I couldn’t understand what my teacher said at all. I had to use my imagination to guess what the teacher’s assignments were about.
When I moved back to Hong Kong, no one knew I was an interior designer, so my ex-husband and I opened a coffee and stationery shop called Joyce is Not Here. Someone came to have a cappuccino and thought the interior design was great, which led to my next project.