Latest news with #Chuang
Business Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
Hong Kong developer sells HK$538 million luxury mansion at a loss
HONG Kong developer Chuang's Consortium International is selling a luxury mansion in the upscale Deep Water Bay area at an almost 20 per cent discount, as it seeks cash in a fragile property market. The house at 37 Island Road is being sold to Annex W Group, a British Virgin Islands vehicle owned by Wu Jingtao, for no more than HK$538 million (S$11.6 million), according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange late on Thursday. Chuang's Consortium will record a loss of HK$143.2 million, mainly due to accounting treatment based on the market valuation rather than the cost of development, it said in the filing. The sale would become the third-largest transaction for a new home in Hong Kong this year, after a HK$1 billion villa in the Mont Verra project and a HK$609 million penthouse at Mount Nicholson, according to property database EPRC. Chuang's said the main reasons for the sale included a need to improve the group's liquidity, uncertainty in the Hong Kong property market and the global political environment, and thin transaction volumes for luxury property, according to the filing. The developer, which specialises in high-end projects, is known for selling a mansion to mainland Chinese tycoon Chen Hongtian for more than HK$2 billion in 2016. The house was seized after Chen defaulted on a loan, and was recently on the market for 60 per cent lower than its purchase price. BLOOMBERG
France 24
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- France 24
Taiwanese war drama 'wake-up call' to Chinese invasion threat
The on-screen chaos is the basis of a new Taiwanese television series called "Zero Day", which creators hope will "awaken" people to the real-life threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Beijing has long vowed to annex Taiwan, by force if necessary. But rather than dramatise the cross-strait tensions, Taiwan's film and television industry has shied away from the topic for fear of losing access to the world's biggest Chinese language market. Lo Ging-zim, one of 10 directors involved in "Zero Day", said the war in Ukraine, resurgence of the China-friendly Kuomintang party in Taiwan and China's growing efforts to influence the island meant it could no longer be ignored. "Media around the world were talking about the next battlefield could be the Taiwan Strait," Lo told AFP, recalling 2022 when the idea for "Zero Day" emerged. "It started from a group of people all worried and anxious about the same thing, deciding to gather and take action." "Zero Day", which refers to the first day Chinese troops land in Taiwan, features 10 standalone episodes and is expected to premiere this year. The trailer shows chaos erupting across Taiwan as Chinese forces surround the island on the pretext of searching for crew members of a military plane that disappeared over nearby waters. Chinese disinformation floods Taiwan's internet, cash machines stop working, stock markets crash and families dragging suitcases seek to escape. The actor playing Taiwan's president urges people "to unite" in a televised address, warning "without freedom, Taiwan is not Taiwan". - 'Looming threat of war' - Real-world analysts have warned a Chinese blockade of Taiwan could precede an invasion, and China's military has practised cutting off the island during drills. Taiwan would be outgunned in any conflict with China and would need the United States and other countries to come to its defence. "Zero Day" producer Cheng Hsin-mei, who wrote one of the episodes of the series, said she wanted to "awaken Taiwanese people to the looming threat of war". She also hoped to inform the international community that Taiwan was not part of China. "We must tell the world we are not the same political system -- we are a free and democratic place and we elect our own president," Cheng said. "So when the regime launches an independent act of aggression, it is not a civil war, it is an invasion." The "Zero Day" cast includes actors from Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. Cheng said 70 percent of those approached for the series declined to take part, worried they would be blocked from productions hoping to enter China. Taiwanese actor Kaiser Chuang plays a businessman in financial difficulty who unwittingly receives help from Chinese collaborators. Chuang believes his involvement in "Zero Day" has already cost him one role, but he firmly insists the series "needed to be made". "A life of peace, security and freedom doesn't come through fear and submission," said Chuang, describing "Zero Day" as a "wake-up call". "It only comes from constant vigilance, making ourselves stronger, identity with our country and land, and unity among people living here." 'Not political propaganda' To make "Zero Day" more realistic, creators consulted military and political experts and shot key scenes on site, including a Taiwanese naval vessel and the Presidential Office in Taipei. Lawmaker Lin Chien-chi from the Beijing-friendly main opposition Kuomintang party criticised the series for creating "an atmosphere of panic" and blurring "reality and fiction excessively". "It inevitably leads to speculation about whether the filming perspective and thinking behind this series are related to the ruling party's political agenda," Lin told AFP, referring to the Democratic Progressive Party. While the production received NT$230 million (US$7.6 million) in funding from the government and private sector, the director Lo insisted it was not propaganda. "We are not making a political propaganda film, nor is it some kind of informational or civil defence educational video -- it's none of those," Lo said. "It is a drama. It should attract the audience through human nature, human emotions and human vulnerability." Cheng, the producer, said there had been strong international interest in the series and the team was now in talks with several online streaming platforms and television networks around the world. "It's also a way to prove that even without access to the Chinese market, Taiwanese drama can still break into other regions," she said.
The Guardian
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Filling in these gaps': Paul McCartney's recently rediscovered photographs
He is not drowning but waving. John Lennon's arms stretch at angles like the sails of a windmill. His face wears a toothy, incandescent smile. Beads of water dance around him like an upside-down waterfall as he swims off Miami Beach. 'He's so carefree,' says Joshua Chuang, director of photography at the Gagosian art gallery. 'It's almost like you've never seen him like that; he's always kind of joking around or brooding or being sarcastic. He's so happy. It's his best friend at the time capturing that and, when you know about what happened, it's so moving.' The best friend in this case is Sir Paul McCartney, whose recently rediscovered photographs go on display from Friday at Gagosian in Beverly Hills, California. The exhibition Rearview Mirror charts the rise of Beatlemania between December 1963 and February 1964 and marks the first time that 82-year-old McCartney has made signed editions of his photos available (a portion of proceeds from sales will go to Los Angeles-based fire relief organisations). A thousand images taken by the musician were found by his archivist during the coronavirus pandemic after being largely forgotten for half a century. An initial museum exhibition, Eyes of the Storm, organised by the National Portrait Gallery in London, contained 250 pictures and has toured various venues including the Brooklyn Museum and de Young Museum in San Francisco. If that show was a sprawling anthology box set, Rearview Mirror is more of a sleek Revolver or Rubber Soul. It presents 36 works, some previously unseen, some overlapping with the museum show but often in different formats, for example intact contact sheets versus individual frames. It emphasises the formal qualities of the photographs as art objects. Speaking via Zoom from Beverly Hills, Chuang says: 'The museum show almost had a scrapbook quality to it. We wanted to do something that was much more focused, much more object-driven with works that were beautiful, printed to the highest standards with the latest technology and, if you were to acquire one, you feel like you're owning a piece of history. I think we managed to do it. 'When Paul came into the studio to sign the first batch he was knocked out by them. What he kept saying as he was walking around was, 'I feel like I've never seen this before.' Visitors to our exhibition who have seen the touring museum exhibition at whatever venue will have that same reaction: 'Oh, yeah, I saw that show. But is that the same picture?'' Chuang knew he had to make the show's title distinct from Eyes of the Storm and settled on something that reflects both a literal perspective from car windows and the metaphorical act of looking back at this pivotal period. He jokes: 'Paul is the greatest lyricist of all time – can't you come up with it?! I started looking at the pictures that we chose and one of the motifs was of a mirror. 'There are self-portraits where Paul's trying to frame herself in a mirror. There's Paul caught in the reflection of a rearview mirror of the car; so many pictures were taken from inside cars because that was the only safe space in public. I suggested 'Rearview Mirror' both literally and metaphorically and he loved it.' The Fab Four remain an unstoppable cultural and commercial juggernaut. Late last year saw the release of Beatles '64, a Disney+ documentary about that heady conquest of America; last month there was Ian Leslie's book, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, study of Lennon and McCartney's marriage of true minds; last week it was the turn of One to One: John & Yoko, a Kevin Macdonald film about Lennon and Yoko Ono's time living in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s. So it is that McCartney's photographic oeuvre receives a second look. The pictures offer an intimate glimpse of the Beatles' adventures in London, Paris and the US through the lens of one of their own – a counterpoint to press images of the time. They preserve candid moments and intense fan reaction, from frenzied crowds in New York to the overwhelming greetings at airports. Chuang worked with McCartney's archivist, Sarah Brown, to drill down to the specifics of each day in the life. 'Whereas in the museum show it's very general – John and Ringo, Paris, January 1964 – now it will say this is John playing the guitar in the hotel suite at the George V on 16 January, hours before they get the telegram that I Want to Hold Your Hand is number one in America and hours later they're doing the famous pillow fight. It's like filling in these gaps in the visual narrative and from the most unique perspective you could think of, which is Paul.' Another such example is a colour contact sheet of the Beatles and their entourage at Heathrow airport before flying to America, offering something akin to 'stop motion sequence' of a band on the verge of global fame and cultural immortality. Chuang is impressed that McCartney had the presence of mind to run ahead on the tarmac, turn around and capture the moment. 'There's three pictures of John Lennon on there; it looks like three different people. It's like you're seeing these different facets of them basically hours before they're about to change the world. You can almost get a sense in those pictures they're excited, maybe they're tired – they had been touring non-stop leading up to that - and I'd like to think there's a good kind of nervousness, a sense that something is about to change.' Something did change. On 9 February 1964 the Beatles made their live TV debut on the The Ed Sullivan Show, watched by 73 million people. Less than 48 hours later they performed their first US concert at the Washington Coliseum (tickets ranged from $2 to $4) with more than 8,000 people in attendance, including future vice-president Al Gore. By April the Beatles had the top five spots on the US Billboard charts. Perhaps it was no surprise that McCartney wanted to photograph people and things that went before. Cameras run in the family: his brother Mike, first wife Linda and daughter Mary all became professional photographers. McCartney grew up admiring sports photography in the Observer newspaper and won a school art prize. Time surrounded by professional snappers during the Beatles' ascent further honed his eye. Chuang ventures: 'I would like to think – and Paul doesn't quite remember – that buying a camera was both a way to create your own memento but also a way to play with the photographers who constantly had the lens pointed at you. If you've seen the press conferences at JFK [airport], there's this banter with the reporters. They're giving as good as they're getting and the camera seemed to serve a similar function.' McCartney was using a 35mm SLR Pentax camera, a technology that enabled spontaneity and the 'snapshot aesthetic' of the 1960s. He told CBS News in 2023: 'We were moving fast. So, you just learned to take pictures quickly.' Chuang comments: 'He's a natural. The pictures have a sense of amateur zeal. The two self-portraits, if you will, which were both taken in a mirror, have this wonderful sense of amateurism but it doesn't detract from the power of the picture. You can see his skill level improve from December to February, in part because the light's different in America, especially in Miami, where it was super bright. Those tend to be super sharp.' One photo is taken in the attic of McCartney's then girlfriend Jane Asher. 'This is the room in which he woke up with a tune in his head. He starts jotting down the tune on the piano, didn't have words and came up with dummy words – scrambled eggs, oh, baby, how I love your legs. It took him about a year to come up with the actual lyrics, which became Yesterday. The fact he's in Jane Asher's house, he's got a camera – there's a kind of self-awareness of wanting to memorialise that moment. That doesn't exist anywhere else.' Rearview Mirror: Photographs, December 1963–February 1964 by Paul McCartney is at Gagosian in Beverly Hills from 25 April to 21 June.
South China Morning Post
10-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong industry leader says ‘impossible to do business' under shifting US tariffs
The erratic tariff announcements by US President Donald Trump have created an environment where it is 'impossible for anyone to do business', according to a Hong Kong industry leader, who has said the shifting policies mean local firms must 'wait and see' to decide on their next steps. Advertisement Steve Chuang Tzu-hsiung, chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, made the comments to local media on Thursday amid an escalating trade war between the United States and China, as a 125 per cent import tariff by the US kicked in on Wednesday for most Chinese goods while so-called reciprocal levies on most other markets were paused for 90 days. 'The current tariffs have already reached a point where it's impossible for anyone to do business,' said Chuang, who heads one of the four biggest business chambers in the city, said of the levy's paralysing effect on local manufacturers. 'Whether [the tariff percentage] continues to 125, 34, or 84 - it really doesn't matter any more … it's no longer a question of price, it's a question of a trade war.' He added: 'The biggest challenge for Hong Kong businesses now is, if you continue production in mainland China, do you ship or not? Will the American buyers cancel?' Advertisement Chuang said many Hong Kong companies operated under 'free on board' or FOB agreements, meaning sellers were responsible for loading goods onto vessels or other agreed modes of transport at the designated port of shipment.
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's New USAID Stooge Once Threatened to Gut a Girl
Jeremy Lewin, the newly appointed head of the remaining shreds of USAID, has a history of violent outbursts and making racist remarks, according to an exclusive report from Rolling Stone. Before Lewin was installed as the agency's chief operating officer earlier this month, he was DOGE's team lead overseeing the gutting of USAID. Six people told Rolling Stone that when Lewin attended Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, a prestigious high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he expressed explicitly racist views. 'I have a vivid memory of him telling me that he believed non-white people were inherently of 'lower value' than white people,' said one former acquaintance who spoke with Rolling Stone. That person described Lewin as 'blatantly racist.' Others who knew him then said that he espoused ideas such as the 'great replacement theory' and claimed that white people were biologically more intelligent than people of other races. One former acquaintance told Rolling Stone that news of Lewin's appointment gave them 'chills.' 'I thought he had no empathy. He was fashy, misogynistic, [and] really believed Western civilization was superior. I can see him enjoying taking away humanitarian programs in Africa. It's frightening. It's like letting Hannibal Lecter mind kids or something,' they told the magazine. In school, Lewin also had a penchant for violent outbursts, and allegedly threw things at other students. Outside of school he was violent too. One girl, who was a minor at the time, told police that she feared for her life after Lewin threatened her with a knife at a party, asking why 'he shouldn't gut [her] and cut [her] right now,' according to police reports. The 18-year-old Lewin had a hearing scheduled on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, but it was ultimately canceled for unknown reasons, according to Rolling Stone. Lewin went on to attend Dartmouth University and Harvard Law School, before clerking for Judge Judith Rogers, a progressive who was the first Black woman appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. His new position at USAID was announced as U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang barred DOGE from taking any actions at the agency without permission of a USAID official, ruling that DOGE's efforts to shutter the agency likely violated the U.S. Constitution. Lewin's appointment was likely an effort to skirt the order. After the government asked the judge to exempt Lewin from the order, the judge amended his order to specifically include Lewin. Chuang said his order purposefully included 'all individuals with a past or present affiliation' with DOGE to 'address the most likely perpetrators of constitutional violations.' 'Excluding Lewin from this class would undermine these purposes,' Chuang wrote in his order. Still, Lewin sent out a memo Friday announcing that the USAID would terminate the vast majority of its employees on either July 1 or September 2, likely violating Chuang's direct order.
