Daphne King-Yao, niece of Hong Kong’s first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, talks to the Post about growing up around art, joining her mother’s art gallery and opening a branch in the United States.
On embracing her mother s approach to balance. I did not think of my mum as a working mother as a label, or differentiate between her and full-time stay home mums. She was my one-and-only mother. One is a full-time mother whether you have a job or not and I admire my mother’s path in how she balanced the pursuit of her own passions as well as raised her children. My mum always said to me: you can have everything, just not all at once. I keep that close on my own journey now.
What she s learned from working together. So many things … I started shadowing my mum on her sourcing travels to artisan groups when I was much younger; from those travels I learnt about her incredible ability to connect with a range of people and problem solve on the spot, drawing collaboratively on multiple opinions for shared creativity. In other areas, when we have been in common panels or meetings together, I see her ability to facilitate and drive consensus, and yet show thought leadership to i
Galloping full speed into the Year of the Ox, art collectors Saniza Othman and Michael Yong-Haron hosted a private viewing of
Nature as Teacher and Model, an exhibition dedicated to Yong Mun Sen, a renowned Malaysian artist and Yong-Haron’s grandfather.
The February 19 event was a collaboration between the Singaporean and Malaysian chambers of commerce, the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre, M+ museum and the Michael & Saniza Collection, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting contemporary Chinese ink artists and furthering the development of female artists in Asia.
Held at the penthouse suite of Malaysia Building on Gloucester Road in Wan Chai, the exhibition showcased 26 works by Yong, including charcoal drawings, and watercolour and Chinese brush paintings. The highlight of the evening was Yong’s masterwork oil-on-canvas painting of two fisherman mending nets, evoking Gauguin in its colour and structure.