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Kate Whitehead

I was born in Beijing in 1987 and am from the generation of China’s one-child policy.
My mum did the accounts and payroll for a factory and my dad was a car mechanic. Although they weren’t musicians, there was always classical music playing in our small flat, Mozart and Bach.
My parents didn’t set out for me to learn music. It was quite by chance that the only music kindergarten in the city at the time was on my dad’s commute, so that’s where I went.
We sang in a choir and were taught to play simple songs on the piano. The teachers discovered I had perfect pitch, something I was born with, and they encouraged my parents to buy a piano so I could practise at home. Our flat was too small for a piano, so they bought me a 1/16 violin.

A natural performer
I was a regular four-year-old kid – I enjoyed playing but I hated practising. My parents encouraged me to play, especially my father, who was quite strict about making me practise.
John Prymmer of Hong Kong’s The Wanch bar on beating drink and drugs
I entered my first competition when I was five. I was the youngest in the under-nine category and wasn’t at all nervous about playing in front of an audience.
I won first prize and went on stage to collect my trophy. It was so big that my mum had to come on stage to help me carry it. I noticed that she was shaking, but I wasn’t nervous at all. I really enjoyed being on stage and playing music for people.
My parents love to tell the story about how when I was six or seven years old, if it wasn’t a full house, I’d be unhappy and refuse to go on stage.

Under pressure
I did my first three years of education in a regular local school and, when I was 10, I was accepted to study with Professor Lin Yaoji, who was known as the Chinese Galamian (Ivan Galamian was an American violin teacher whose pupils included virtuoso Itzhak Perlman) because so many great Chinese violinists had come from his class.
He had learned in Moscow and was a traditional music professor of the Russian school. It was a great honour to be in his class and it was understood that I would become a professional musician.
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I was at the middle school attached to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. I stayed at the school during the week and shared a dorm with three other girls and went home at weekends.
School was intense. I was studying with the best musicians in China, so, of course, it was very competitive. We all went to competitions together, we played student concerts together, so there was a certain pressure and you wanted to be the best.
We had lessons in the morning, and from 2pm the students went to practice rooms. Each room had a small window and a teacher would check to make sure we were really practising. If you weren’t, you’d get a warning.

Keeping a promise
When I was 13, Professor Lin wanted to see if it was possible to teach a teenager to play the 24 Paganini Caprices, which are technically very demanding. To apply to university you are required to play just one of the Caprices.
I was the lucky – or unlucky – one to be chosen. I began learning in May 2000. At the beginning I felt quite relaxed – if my teacher thought I could do it then I could – and I studied and practised.
I’d grown up surrounded by people, traffic and noise, so my first impression of Germany was that it was quiet. Once I got used to it, I enjoyed slowing down the tempo
Tianwa Yang
Then the professor arranged four concerts, including one in Hong Kong, and a recording date for December that year, and the pressure was on. Four weeks before the concert dates I was terrified, as I couldn’t play them all.
I was let off school to go home and practise for the last four weeks. I practised day and night, getting up at 2am, practising for a few hours, then sleeping a bit and waking up at 8am and continuing to practise.
I learned so much through that. Cancelling the concerts wasn’t an option. In this profession there is responsibility, if you promise something you have to do it. I learned all 24 Caprices in seven months and did the concerts and recording.

German precision
When I was 14, the German violinist Jörg-Wolfgang Jahn came to the school as a guest professor, to teach chamber music. I immediately loved chamber music and the way the musicians worked together.
I decided that was what I wanted to study and Professor Jahn helped me get a scholarship when I was 16. Most of my classmates were going to amazing music schools in America, like Juilliard, but I wanted to go to Europe.
I wanted to experience the culture where the great musicians and composers like Bach and Beethoven had lived and worked. I got a scholarship to do an exchange programme at the Karlsruhe University of Music, which was where Jahn taught.
Over the course of two years, I spent six months there as a guest student. Initially, I stayed with Jahn and his wife, who taught me to speak German. Their two daughters were in college and I became a third daughter to them. It was like a second family.

The big chill
I’d grown up surrounded by people, traffic and noise, so my first impression of Germany was that it was quiet. Once I got used to it, I enjoyed slowing down the tempo and having time to think about life and music.
In Germany, no one cared whether we practised or not; you just did it because you loved it. The teachers were so nice and friendly and didn’t apply any pressure. When the sun came out, the students would take a half-hour break outside.
They enjoyed life, which was something new to me. In Beijing, it didn’t matter if the sun came out, if it was your practice hour you had to practise.
It was really nice to switch off and realise that life isn’t just about practising and working, you also have to enjoy it and think about what you are doing.
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Professor Yang
When I was 18, I became a full-time student (at the Karlsruhe University of Music). I’d already been playing concerts in Germany and I continued to do so as an undergraduate, which gave me the money to cover my university fees.
I quickly felt comfortable in Germany, with the art and the way people work, and I’ve been living there ever since. German folks are not the friendliest, but I like their honest way of speaking.
I played a lot of concerts through my university years and that continued when I graduated. I knew I wanted to teach because I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience with young people. In my final year at university, in 2012, I taught violin at the Music Academy of Kassel and continued after I graduated.
In 2015, I got my first professorship, at the University of the Arts Bern, in Switzerland. Three years later, I got another professorship, at the Würzburg University of Music, in Germany.

Work-life balance
I live in Munich. I’ve been with my German partner for eight years. He works in radio. As a musician, my work is also my personal life. I love music, it brings me so much joy.
I recently finished two weeks of chamber music festivals. We started every day at 10am and if we weren’t playing concerts until 11pm then we’d be in rehearsals until 10pm.
The whole day is full of music but it’s also full of joy because I get to play with great musicians. If things go really well, you have a lot of nice exchanges.
I try to plan for a holiday every year. When I have time, I enjoy being in the mountains in Switzerland, Austria or north Italy. But there hasn’t been time for that this year.
I’m happy with what I’ve achieved, and I hope it goes on and on
Tianwa Yang
A happy place
I played my first concert in Hong Kong when I was 11 years old, so of course I knew about the Hong Kong Philharmonic and dreamed I’d play with them one day. That time came in 2010.
I was looking forward to playing with the Hong Kong Phil for their 50th season with a tour in Shanghai and Nanjing (last month) and staying on in China to play with the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra.

Then I’ll go back to Germany to play concerts and then in early October I’ll perform with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in New York. And so, it goes on.
Nearly every week there is a new programme, which is demanding but exciting. There are so many repertoires I still haven’t performed that I’d love to play with great musicians and colleagues.
I’m happy with what I’ve achieved, and I hope it goes on and on. I enjoy playing concerts and teaching. I’m happy.


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Profile

‘Cancelling wasn’t an option’: violinist Tianwa Yang on the pressure of being a child prodigy in China

Violinist Tianwa Yang on her start in music, the demands of her Beijing teachers and discovering peace in Germany. Photo: Andrej Grilc

Yang on stage in 1992. She entered her first competition when she was five. Photo: courtesy of Tianwa Yang 

Yang on stage in 1993. Photo: courtesy of Tianwa Yang 

Yang practising in 1993. When she was 10, she was accepted to study with Professor Lin Yaoji. Photo: courtesy of Tianwa Yang 

Yang did an exchange programme at the Karlsruhe University of Music as a teen. Photo: Irene Zandel

Conductor Case Scaglione, Yang and the Hong Kong Philharmonic receive the audience’s applause after their 2014 concert “American Monuments”. Photo: HK Phil 

Yang now lives in Munich, Germany. Photo: Andrej Grilc

Health, nutrition, wellness – she wants to help people ‘make better choices’ in all three

Japanese raw food and fermented food chef and founder of Foodcraft, Shima Shimizu in Kennedy Town, Hong Kong. She tells Kate Whitehead how teaching people to eat better can improve society as a whole. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Shimizu photographed in Kennedy Town. She did a degree in Osaka, Japan, in international relations with English and Mandarin. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Shimizu in a photo taken around 2012 during a pop-up cooking class. Photo: Shima Shimizu

Shimizu established Sesame Kitchen in 2010. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Shimizu with two Thai chefs at Rasayana Retreat. Photo: Shima Shimizu

Shimizu around 2014 during a pop-up kombucha class. Photo: Shima Shimizu

He dressed Michelle Yeoh and Deng Xiaoping’s daughters: Barney Cheng on the super-rich, family, and finding God

Hong Kong fashion designer Barnie Cheng with Michelle Yeoh at the 2019 AMFAR Gala. Yeoh is wearing a gown he created especially for her. Photo: Barney Cheng

Fashion designer Barney Cheng at his studio in Hong Kong’s Central district.  Photo: Jonathan Wong

Cheng was born in 1966 in Hong Kong. Photo: Barney Cheng

Cheng as a child. Photo: Barney Cheng

Cheng enjoys a moment of leisure as a child. Photo: Barney Cheng

Cheng building fortresses at Akakura Kanko Ski resort in Japan. Photo: Barney Cheng

Cheng during a summer in the south of France. Photo: Barney Cheng

Cheng in his studio. Photo: Barney Cheng

Cheng, one of the winners in the 1993 Hong Kong Young Fashion Designers’ Contest, was given his own showcase (pictured), which was an afternoon tea show at the Marriott Hotel. Photo: SCMP

Cheng with Michelle Yeoh, dressed in one of his creations, at the 2019 AMFAR Gala. Photo: Barney Cheng

(From left) Britain’s Prince Charles, Hong Kong’s last governor Chris Patten, then British prime minister Tony Blair, and Lavender Patten attend a farewell ceremony in Hong Kong for the British military on June 30, 1997. Cheng designed Lavender Patten’s outfit for the handover event. Photo: AFP

Cheng with actress and singer Celina Jade at his studio. Photo: Barney Cheng

Wallace Chan, jewellery artist, on success, finding light in dark and his guiding principle

Hong Kong-based jewellery artist Wallace Chan during an appearance at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, where he shared his thoughts on his own success, why we fear darkness and what guides his artistic endeavours. Photo: Wallace Chan

Chan (right) and Emefa Cole, the V&A museum’s curator, speaking in a public talk about Chan’s career. Photo: Wallace Chan

Chan at Christie’s headquarters in London, where his solo exhibition, “The Wheel of Time”, was held from September 4-10. Photo: Wallace Chan

Chan’s V&A appearance was part of events accompanying his solo exhibition. Photo: Wallace Chan

One of Chan’s proudest creations is the “Secret Abyss” (2014). Photo: Wallace Chan

“The Legend Of The Colour Black” is a black diamond shoulder brooch. Photo: Wallace Chan

A close-up of “The Legend Of The Colour Black”. Photo: Wallace Chan 

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Pierre Sauvadet on his boat moored at Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter. &#xA;31JUL23 SCMP / Jonathan Wong&#xA;&#xA;

Sauvadet in Resolute Bay, in the Canadian Artic, in 2012. Photo: Pierre Sauvadet

Sauvadet with his personal Arctic vessel, the Aurora Magnetica, in 2008. Photo: Pierre Sauvadet

Sauvadet in Nanisivik, in the Canadian Arctic, in 2007. Photo: Pierre Sauvadet

Sauvadet with the Aurora Magnetica in 2009. Photo: Pierre Sauvadet

Sauvadet in 2001 works on the restoration of a large racing boat from the first Whitbread Round the World Race, held in 1973. Photo: Pierre Sauvadet

Sauvadet with his wife Morris “Mor” Wong in Qaqortoq, Greenland, in 2014. Photo: Pierre Sauvadet

Sauvadet prepares to dive in Frobisher Bay, in the Canadian Arctic, in 2007. Photo: Pierre Sauvadet

Sauvadet in the Arctic in 2008. Photo: Pierre Sauvadet

Wong with a local in Arsuk, Greenland, in 2014. Photo: Pierre Sauvadet

She overcame civil war and dad’s early death to lead a charity pushing human rights for domestic workers

Human rights lawyer and HELP executive director Manisha Wijesinghe, in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Raised by a single mother amid Sri Lanka’s civil war, she decided aged 14 she would work in a human rights capacity. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Manisha Wijesinghe with her parents. An accident when she was 9 months old led to her father’s death.

Wijesinghe with her mother in 2019.

Wijesinghe with her former boss Kamalini De Silva (seated) and some of her Ministry of Justice colleagues. 

Wijesinghe in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. In 2014, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and her mental health nosedived when she first arrived in the city, she said, because of guilt about leaving her mum. Photo: Jonathan Wong

In 2019, Wijesinghe switched to HELP for Domestic Workers (above) as the head of case management. 

Wijesinghe conducting a HELPing Hands Education programme for domestic workers in Hong Kong. 

Wijesinghe with Lily Layug, one of the HELP community leaders. 

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Virtuoso violinist Tianwa Yang gave concerts aged 5, practised day and night in Beijing, but began learning to enjoy life when studying in Germany, her home now


Virtuoso violinist Tianwa Yang tells Kate Whitehead about her serendipitous start in music, the intense demands of her Beijing teachers, and learning to enjoy life while studying in Germany, her home now.
