(2013 September) You have probably heard that our world is shaped by 3 apples: Adam’s forbidden fruit, the apple that felt on Newton, and of course Apple Inc. For Hoi Chiu (Choy Kam Chiu), three ladies changed the course of his life.
Hoi Chiu has always loved to draw, but did not believe that he could earn a living as an artist. So he chose the next best thing – to work as an interior designer. He became a well-paid senior staff of a small company which specialised in partitioning old apartments into “butchered rooms”. “I was bored with what I was doing, so when I was offered the chance to take up a summer job with a theatre company, I wanted so much to jump to it. But I was apprehensive about actually giving up a decent job for an uncertain future in the arts.” Some people resolve such dilemmas with the toss of a coin, some consult their horoscopes, others seek out fortune tellers at Wong Tai Sin Temple. Not Hoi Chiu. One day when waiting for the bus, he could bear it no longer and poured his heart out to a reluctant audience - a mature lady, a total stranger, standing next to him in the queue. Startled but unfazed, the lady sagely said, “Whatever you choose to do, as long as it does not become a burden on others, it won’t matter, will it?” It was a moment of epiphany. He quit his job to follow his true calling and never looked back.
The next time he met a lady who changed his life was a few years later while on tour in Canada with a theatre troupe. He probably would not have met the talented and beautiful Maggie, a Canadian singing dancing professional voice actress, if he had not gatecrashed a stranger’s party in a moment of inebriated excitement. Although he hardly spoke any English, their love blossomed. They eventually married and settled in Hong Kong, but life was hard. "I loved puppetry and worked passionately to create my own puppet theatre but got nowhere. I knew it was hopeless to carry on but I didn’t want to let go. It was Maggie’s encouragement which helped me realise that I needed to change my creative medium.” Success came in the form of Sand Painting. It became his signature as an artist and made him a household name after guest appearances in MTVs and primetime sitcoms.
The third lady is a little girl called Bella Star. She is Maggie and Hoi Chiu’s two-year-old daughter.“ She completely changed my life and brought me new creative impetus. She is the inspiration behind my upcoming show ‘Spiral of Life’ which ponders on the meanings of life and death. In fact, she will be in the show.” Talking about having stage parents!
Asked about his future plans, Hoi Chiu said he will be dividing time between the theatre troupes he has established in Hong Kong and Bali, but will probably focus more on production and nurturing young talents rather than acting. His studio at JCCAC will be transformed into a Sand Painting studio which offers jamming sessions for enthusiasts.
Postscript: Hoi Chiu literally means “ocean tide” in Chinese. It is quite an apt and poetic name for an artist who works with sand. While it conjures up all kinds of images and ideas related to water, what brought to my mind was Bruce Lee’s “be water” philosophy. Perhaps the ability to preserve ones integrity and substance while being fluidly adaptive to changes is an attribute important to Kung Fu masters and creative artists alike.
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