How're you lately? I have not seen you on MSN for awhile... just curious when we shall chat again... do we need wait for another year?
Hope you enjoy my yoga photos...
Cheers,
Candy
x
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
28點增強人際關係，討人喜愛的提示
1.長相不令人討厭，如果長得不好，
就讓自己有才氣；如果才氣也沒有，那就總是微笑。
2.氣質是關鍵。如果時尚學不好，寧願純樸。
3.與人握手時，可多握一會兒。真誠是寶。
4.不必什麼都用"我"做主語。
5.不要向朋友借錢。
6.不要"逼"客人看你的家庭相冊。
7.與人打"的"時，請搶先坐在司機旁。
8.堅持在背後說別人好話，別擔心這好話傳不到當事人耳朵裏。
9.有人在你面前說某人壞話時，你只微笑。
10.自己開小車，不要特地停下來
和一個騎自行車的同事打招呼。人家會以為你在炫耀。
11.同事生病時，去探望他。
很自然地坐在他病床上，回家再認真洗手。
12.不要把過去的事全讓人知道。
13.尊敬不喜歡你的人。
14.對事不對人；或對事無情，對人要有情；
或做人第一，做事其次。
15.自我批評總能讓人相信，自我表揚則不然。
16.沒有什麼東西比圍觀者們更能提高你的保齡球的成績了。
所以，平常不要吝惜你的喝彩聲。
17.不要把別人的好，視為理所當然。要知道感恩。
18.榕樹上的"八哥"在講，
只講不聽，結果亂成一團。學會聆聽。
19.尊重傳達室裏的師傅及搞衛生的阿姨。
20.說話的時候記得常用"我們"開頭。
21.為每一位上臺唱歌的人鼓掌。
22.有時要明知故問：你的鑽戒很貴吧！
有時，即使想問也不能問，比如：你多大了？
23.話多必失，人多的場合少說話。
24.把未出口的"不"改成："這需要時間"、
"我盡力"、"我不確定"、
"當我決定後，會給你打電話"……
25.不要期望所有人都喜歡你，那是不可能的，
讓大多數人喜歡就是成功的表現。
26.當然，自己要喜歡自己。
27.如果你在表演或者是講演的時候，
如果只要有一個人在聽也要用心的繼續下去，
即使沒有人喝采也要演，因為這是你成功的道路，
是你成功的搖籃，你不要看的人成功，而是要你成功。
28.如果你看到一個貼子還值得一看的話，
那麼你一定要回復，因為你的回復會給人繼續前進的勇氣，
會給人很大的激勵。同時也會讓人感激你。
From Wab Wab
就讓自己有才氣；如果才氣也沒有，那就總是微笑。
2.氣質是關鍵。如果時尚學不好，寧願純樸。
3.與人握手時，可多握一會兒。真誠是寶。
4.不必什麼都用"我"做主語。
5.不要向朋友借錢。
6.不要"逼"客人看你的家庭相冊。
7.與人打"的"時，請搶先坐在司機旁。
8.堅持在背後說別人好話，別擔心這好話傳不到當事人耳朵裏。
9.有人在你面前說某人壞話時，你只微笑。
10.自己開小車，不要特地停下來
和一個騎自行車的同事打招呼。人家會以為你在炫耀。
11.同事生病時，去探望他。
很自然地坐在他病床上，回家再認真洗手。
12.不要把過去的事全讓人知道。
13.尊敬不喜歡你的人。
14.對事不對人；或對事無情，對人要有情；
或做人第一，做事其次。
15.自我批評總能讓人相信，自我表揚則不然。
16.沒有什麼東西比圍觀者們更能提高你的保齡球的成績了。
所以，平常不要吝惜你的喝彩聲。
17.不要把別人的好，視為理所當然。要知道感恩。
18.榕樹上的"八哥"在講，
只講不聽，結果亂成一團。學會聆聽。
19.尊重傳達室裏的師傅及搞衛生的阿姨。
20.說話的時候記得常用"我們"開頭。
21.為每一位上臺唱歌的人鼓掌。
22.有時要明知故問：你的鑽戒很貴吧！
有時，即使想問也不能問，比如：你多大了？
23.話多必失，人多的場合少說話。
24.把未出口的"不"改成："這需要時間"、
"我盡力"、"我不確定"、
"當我決定後，會給你打電話"……
25.不要期望所有人都喜歡你，那是不可能的，
讓大多數人喜歡就是成功的表現。
26.當然，自己要喜歡自己。
27.如果你在表演或者是講演的時候，
如果只要有一個人在聽也要用心的繼續下去，
即使沒有人喝采也要演，因為這是你成功的道路，
是你成功的搖籃，你不要看的人成功，而是要你成功。
28.如果你看到一個貼子還值得一看的話，
那麼你一定要回復，因為你的回復會給人繼續前進的勇氣，
會給人很大的激勵。同時也會讓人感激你。
From Wab Wab
Monday, July 28, 2008
Beach Party 2008
Dear friends,
How's your summer? Going well and fun...
We will have a beach party on Aug 9 (Sat). Here is the detail.
Date: Aug 9 (Sat)
Time: 1:00pm
Meet up: 7-Eleven at Shau Kei Wan (MTR)
Run down:
1:00pm Meet up & grocery shopping
1:30pm Bus to Shek O
2:00pm Settle down in Shek O
2:15pm Chit chat, play, swim, reading, sunbathing & eat
...
* Bring your own mat if you want more personal space during sunbathing.
If you are interested, please feel free to contact Tony, Erika or me. Hope to see you there...
Cheers,
Candy
x
Sunday, July 27, 2008
SEPA darlings
CLC 15th Anniv. "Big Big Big Big.." Gathering Lunch Buffet
Good show, everybody!
I am glad to know you all thur CLC... may our friendship grow stronger!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
What is your Dance Style?
Candy has the moves of a Hip Hop Dancer!
Candy is a party lover. You have an attitude, in a good way, and are not afraid to show aggression when needed. You don't care what people think, you have your own style.
From Facebook
Friday, July 25, 2008
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
Closed off from love
I didn't need the pain
Once or twice was enough
And it was all in vain
Time starts to pass
Before you know it you're frozen
But something happened
For the very first time with you
My heart melts into the ground
Found something true
And everyone's looking round
Thinking I'm going crazy
But I don't care what they say
I'm in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don't know the truth
My heart's crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open
Trying hard not to hear
But they talk so loud
Their piercing sounds fill my ears
Try to fill me with doubt
Yet I know that the goal
Is to keep me from falling
But nothing's greater
Than the rush that comes with your embrace
And in this world of loneliness
I see your face
Yet everyone around me
Thinks that I'm going crazy, maybe, maybe
But I don't care what they say
I'm in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don't know the truth
My heart's crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open
And it's draining all of me
Oh they find it hard to believe
I'll be wearing these scars
For everyone to see
But I don't care what they say
I'm in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don't know the truth
My heart's crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open and I
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open and I
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
OMG! Making an important decision for health & sport
After three weeks "holiday" from the yoga studio, I have made up my mind to sign up the yoga and gym membership with Pure at Langham Place. The two year contract will start from today to Aug 28, 2010. I wonder how my body look like by then.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Nude Yoga
Found Peter Hegre's delightful nude asana shot from a local yoga forum. It really shows the beauty of yoga and body.
有機會, 沒機會
有些人一直沒機會見，等有機會見了，卻又猶豫了，相見不如懷念。
有些事一直沒機會做，等有機會了，卻不敢再做了。
有些話埋藏在心中好久，沒機會說，等有機會說的時候，卻說不出口了。
有些愛一直沒機會愛，等有機會了，已經不愛了。 ”呵呵~~~
人生有時候，總是很無助
一轉身可能就是一世。
說好永遠的，不知怎麼就散了。最後自己想想竟然也搞不清當初是什麼原使彼此分開。有一天，你會忽然醒悟，感情原來是這麼脆弱。經得起風雨，卻經不起平凡；風雨同船，天晴便各自分散。也許只是賭氣，也許只是因為很小的事。幻想著和好的甜蜜，或重逢時的擁抱，那個時候會不會是邊流淚邊捶打對方，還傻笑著說不出話。多美的一幅畫面。
沒想到的是，一別竟是一輩子。
各有各的生活，各自愛著別的人。曾經相愛，現在互不相干。
即使在同一個小小的城市，也不曾再相逢。某一天某一刻，走在同一條街，也看不見對方。先是感嘆，後來是無奈。
也許你很幸福，因為找到另一個適合自己的人。
也許你不幸福，因為可能你這一生就只有和那個人才真正的心有靈犀。
很久很久，沒有對方的消息，也不再想起這個人，也是不想再想起。
不知道你有沒有這樣的經歷，這樣的情愫，這樣的故事？ ？ ？
有些人很多機會相見的，卻總找藉口推脫，想見的時候已經沒機會了。
有些話有很多機會說的，卻想著以後再說，要說的時候，已經沒機會了。
有些事有很多機會做的，卻一天一天推遲，想做的時候卻發現沒機會了。
有些愛給了你很多機會，卻不在意沒在乎，想重視的時候已經沒機會愛了。
From Connie Pang
有些事一直沒機會做，等有機會了，卻不敢再做了。
有些話埋藏在心中好久，沒機會說，等有機會說的時候，卻說不出口了。
有些愛一直沒機會愛，等有機會了，已經不愛了。 ”呵呵~~~
人生有時候，總是很無助
一轉身可能就是一世。
說好永遠的，不知怎麼就散了。最後自己想想竟然也搞不清當初是什麼原使彼此分開。有一天，你會忽然醒悟，感情原來是這麼脆弱。經得起風雨，卻經不起平凡；風雨同船，天晴便各自分散。也許只是賭氣，也許只是因為很小的事。幻想著和好的甜蜜，或重逢時的擁抱，那個時候會不會是邊流淚邊捶打對方，還傻笑著說不出話。多美的一幅畫面。
沒想到的是，一別竟是一輩子。
各有各的生活，各自愛著別的人。曾經相愛，現在互不相干。
即使在同一個小小的城市，也不曾再相逢。某一天某一刻，走在同一條街，也看不見對方。先是感嘆，後來是無奈。
也許你很幸福，因為找到另一個適合自己的人。
也許你不幸福，因為可能你這一生就只有和那個人才真正的心有靈犀。
很久很久，沒有對方的消息，也不再想起這個人，也是不想再想起。
不知道你有沒有這樣的經歷，這樣的情愫，這樣的故事？ ？ ？
有些人很多機會相見的，卻總找藉口推脫，想見的時候已經沒機會了。
有些話有很多機會說的，卻想著以後再說，要說的時候，已經沒機會了。
有些事有很多機會做的，卻一天一天推遲，想做的時候卻發現沒機會了。
有些愛給了你很多機會，卻不在意沒在乎，想重視的時候已經沒機會愛了。
From Connie Pang
Friday, July 18, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
My friend's online business
Gurmit Pannu, my dear friend who has opened Taj Tailors, a custom made shirts business online and informed me to check out his company website. I am very pleased to share his joy and hear the company's expansion.
This is the way I practice yoga in the urban city
Dileep, my yoga teacher and friend who has shared his article from Yoga Journal with me. Wish you might know more about our practice.
Yoga Metropolis
Posh skyscraper studios. International teachers. Earnest students. And more showers than you can imagine! Yoga is booming in Hong Kong.
By Andrea Feretti
I'm sitting on a bright orange yoga mat in Studio 2 at mYoga (pronounced "My Yoga") in Hong Kong's Mongkok district. For the first time in years, I'm nervous as I wait for class to begin. The walls are mirrored; I stick out like a sore thumb—I'm the only Caucasian in the midst of this yoga hotspot for Chinese locals—and the mat situation has got me tweaked. I haven't used a communal mat since I came home with a plantar wart after a retreat in Costa Rica. But in Hong Kong, the mats are meticulously preset in perfect rows, so I have no choice but to surrender and hope the mats get a thorough cleaning between classes.
As the other students chat loudly in Cantonese, I have a mini-internal crisis about which way to sit. Presumably, our teacher will sit on the small platform in the front of the room, but facing it means I'm sitting sideways on my mat. So I turn sideways, then forward, then sideways again like a cat trying to curl up in the right spot. I have a desire to run back to the comfort of my hotel room to do my own practice, but I'm here on a mission: to learn about yoga in Hong Kong.
Over the past five years, yoga has been booming in this city. Like the famously frenetic pace and soaring skyscrapers, Hong Kong's yoga explosion has happened fast and on a huge scale. Ten years ago, just a handful of small studios existed; now, large studio chains offer hundreds of classes per week in Hong Kong and across Asia. MYoga is one of them, and Planet Yoga, Living Yoga, and Pure Yoga are the other big players.
Talking to yogis in Hong Kong, I find that the burgeoning yoga scene can be traced back six years to the opening of Pure Yoga. I first heard about Pure a few years back, when Western teachers returned stateside with tales of multistory yoga studios, eager students, and luxurious locker rooms teeming with hot showers (as many as 60 shower stalls in one location!). Then, last year Pure's subsidiary company, the Asia Yoga Conference, hosted an international yoga conference called Evolution, with 1,500 students taking classes from more than 30 masters who came from India, the United States, and Europe. It was an ideal opportunity to travel to Hong Kong and check things out for myself. During my visit I found the yoga scene in Hong Kong as complex and labyrinthlike as the city itself: It is vast, intense, hot, and at times flashy. I didn't unravel all of the complexities and inner workings in six short days. But I did glimpse how yoga is evolving in Asia—and the boom started with Pure Yoga.
Pure Impact
In the past six years, Pure Yoga has opened six studios—four in Hong Kong, one in Singapore, and one in Taipei. Pure opened two more studios in January, bringing its grand total to eight. These are not tiny, one-room bungalows. The largest Pure studio in Hong Kong is 35,000 square feet, and the largest of all the locations (in Taiwan) occupies a whole building, with nine floors and 10 classrooms.
And the company remains incredibly bullish on the prospects for more growth. "We've only just scratched the surface of yoga in Hong Kong," says cofounder Colin Grant (a former tennis player on the professional circuit and owner of Movieland, a movie rental company). That surface includes a reported 2,000 students coming several times per week to the 800 classes in the Hong Kong area. Pure says that it was profitable within three years of opening its doors. In addition to the Evolution conference, Pure offered a second in-house teacher training last year, and its roster of weekend workshops includes Western master teachers such as John Friend, Richard Freeman, and Ana -Forrest.
Most Western teachers see the irony of importing yoga to Asia when it originated so close by. As Frank Jude Boccio, a yoga teacher who has taught at Pure and who incorporates the Buddha Dharma into his classes, puts it, "Who would've thought an Italian American from New York would be sending the Dharma back to China?" But yoga teachers also see it as an opportunity. "There's so much stress and competition there, it doesn't take much for people to recognize that they can benefit from yoga," says Forrest. "I feel like I'm riding some of the first waves of bringing something exquisite to Asia, and I'm honored."
Key to Success
But why did the yoga population suddenly skyrocket when Pure set up shop? Grant is vocal about his passion for yoga and insists that it has done the work of selling itself. However, a small yoga community had been brewing in Hong Kong for years, but without Pure's impact. The key to Pure's growth, says Grant, is that he and his partner, Bruce Rockowitz (who owns Li and Fung, a large export and trading company), were businessmen first and yogis second. Unlike the yoga teachers who opened smaller studios in Hong Kong, Grant and Rockowitz had capital and saw yoga as a "market." This mirrors the growth of YogaWorks in the United States, which currently has 17 centers in California and New York combined, boasting more than 1,000 classes per week. YogaWorks' original owners, Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty, were yoga teachers who kept their business fairly small, with three Los Angeles studios. New ownership with greater business focus turned YogaWorks—like Pure—into a large-scale commercial venture.
Longtime friends, Grant and Rockowitz stumbled upon yoga when their wives insisted they take a class during a rained-out golf vacation in the Canadian resort town of Whistler. Grant fell in love with the practice and soon hired his teacher from Whistler, fresh-faced 30-something Patrick Creelman, to be the yoga director of the first Pure studio. "We didn't have a perception of what other studios were like, so we came from a fresh perspective. We thought, 'What would people like?' A nice counter when you walk in, a place to change, and a locker. Plus, a towel and a mat," says Grant.
Yoga Goes Upscale
With that vision, Grant and Rockowitz opened their first studio in Hong Kong's financial district with all the amenities of an upscale gym—and with that, the course of yoga was forever changed in the city. Whereas yoga in the United States came into the mainstream when it emerged from '60s counterculture, the practice took off in Hong Kong after it was made palatable for corporate culture. Grant and Rockowitz brought yoga to the fore by making it a centrally located, luxurious treat for busy businesspeople. Along with lockers, showers, and preset mats, the pair crafted a schedule with a steady stream of convenient class times, and, eventually, a lot of variety—classes range from Hot to Ashtanga to Anusara to Yin yoga and meditation. They also seeded the business with attractive, well-qualified teachers starting with Creelman, an Anusara-inspired teacher, and Almen Wong, a well-known former Chinese model and actress who runs the studio's Hot Yoga program.
The first thing I notice when I visit Pure is how the studio interiors differ from the funky little studios scattered about my hometown of San Francisco. At Pure's studio in the Peninsula Hotel, the design highlight is the stunning view of Hong Kong's harbor and skyline, while the rest of the lobby is minimalist or, as Grant puts it, not bohemian or gypsylike or quirky. There are no candles, no statues of deities, no inspirational quotes from Rumi taped to the walls. Instead, there are elegant black-and-white leather couches, black tables, as well as an abstract black sculpture. The locker rooms are black, too, with luxurious marble shower stalls.
Pure isn't alone in this design approach. Jean Ward, yoga project manager at mYoga, owned by California Fitness (a subsidiary of 24 Hour Fitness), says they created a neutral space that was more spa than temple. "We didn't want spiritual elements inside. We were very cautious, as we didn't want to offend anyone. We took the modern approach, with nothing too mystical."
Indeed, out of the six studios I visited in Hong Kong, only one had an altar—the Iyengar Yoga Centre of Hong Kong, a one-room studio that was opened in 1999 by Canadian Linda Shevloff. (Had I visited other small studios, I may have found more, but big studios shy away from outward displays of spirituality.) This seemingly small decision—to build a yoga studio with no Ganesh to watch over it and no visible homage to teachers—was noticeable, since a studio's intimate touch often helps visitors feel as though they're entering a sacred space. When I walked into mYoga and Pure, they felt a bit sanitized and washed clean of anything "too yogic." I also noticed an abundance of mirrors in the classrooms, and I struggled to focus inward. Try as I might, I couldn't get away from them—even the teachers who turned us away from the mirrors couldn't prevent the moment when I saw myself out of the corner of my eye in a Chair Twist, and my internal voice shouted in horror, "My neck looks like that?!"
Grant explained that they walk a fine line between being sensitive to their clients' comfort level and staying true to yoga's teachings. "A lot of the feedback is that people like coming because it's quite neutral. They don't feel we're bombarding them with anything too spiritual or religious. We're trying to lead, but not by being too far in front...It's a process," he says. As for the mirrors—in addition to being necessary for the prevalence of Hot Yoga classes in Hong Kong, they're also a cultural norm, which can be frustrating for the teachers. As Creelman pointed out to me, "You see them in every studio, every mall, every restaurant."
Mom and Pop Shops
Big studios like Pure and mYoga have yet to swallow up most of the small yoga studios that have dotted Hong Kong's Central, Sheung Wan, and Wan Chai neighborhoods since the 1990s. Most are still in business despite the new competition—but it hasn't been easy. Shevloff had barely built her student base when Pure opened up nearby and nearly put her studio out of business. "It was just devastating," she says. "I certainly lost some students. I had to start over." She did just that by moving from the Central financial district to the Sheung Wan neighborhood, which caters to locals rather than to the international business community.
These days, Shevloff's studio operates at a healthy pace, and she continues to focus on her mission of helping the Cantonese population become certified teachers in the Iyengar system (difficult to do, because certification tests are conducted in English). She has since embraced the direction that yoga has taken in a city with more than 6 million inhabitants. "It was hard not to be resentful, but at the same time, there was no reason to be. Because it's such a big, vibrant city, yoga is going to come in a big way. I say, 'Let there be yoga in this city,'" she says. Shevloff is hopeful that there is still room for the little guy, pointing out that even though the Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton stores take up city blocks, there are actually more small shops in Hong Kong than megastores. She even sees an upside to the large yoga studios' enormous growth over the past few years: "Now, so many people know about it," she says. "I never get the question, 'What is yoga?' anymore."
Home Away from Home
After hearing so much about yoga's growth in Hong Kong, I was curious to see how it has adapted to a city that bristles with noise, neon, shopping, and stimulation at every turn. So, I headed to mYoga.
MYoga has a big locker room, with towels and showers, and a packed class schedule that starts at 7:15 a.m. and ends at 11:30 p.m. The studio has three yoga classrooms, including one room filled with props for "equipment yoga" classes (a prop-heavy style similar to Iyengar Yoga) and a Pilates room. The basement-level facility isn't as sleek as Pure's, but it's cozier. Before my visit, Ward tells me that this is intentional. "People in Hong Kong are looking for a second home. It's not uncommon to have a whole family living in a 500-square-foot apartment. That's why the streets are so busy; the restaurants are always busy. People shop, people go out a lot. Now, they hang out here." When I tour the studio, I'm surprised to find that Ward wasn't exaggerating. The lounge is packed with young people clustered at tables reading magazines, chatting, and tossing back wheatgrass from the juice bar. The Internet stations are busy.
Yoga by the Numbers
The studio runs like a well-oiled machine. Flat-screen TVs show yoga videos and class schedules. Turning the corner toward the juice bar, I lose the grime from the street above and begin to take in long drags of the sweet-smelling purified air. Down a long, softly lit hallway sits the locker room desk, where I'm given towels and an opportunity to store valuables in video-monitored lockers. MYoga also offers just a bit of the gym experience in a cordoned-off soundproof area that has spinning classes and an array of group exercise classes (including dance classes called MTV and Bollywood). The place buzzes with energy, and it's clear that the typical gym protocols—locker key, towels, TV—that feel so foreign to me are completely natural to this clientele. The yoga etiquette, they tell me, is not so familiar. To prevent latecomers, they lock the doors five minutes after class begins.
Soon after I decide to sit sideways on my mat, facing the little stage, the teacher—a handsome, wiry young Indian man named Dileep Puiliully—strides into the room wearing loose-fitting black pants and a white T-shirt. There is no ceremony before he begins, no asking about injuries or pregnancy, no exchange of small talk. He simply clips a tiny microphone to his shirt, smiles at the class from behind his mustache, and tells us to stand up. We start by linking simple movement with breath. As we mirror him sweeping his arms overhead, he says in a singsong cadence, "In-hay-le." As we sweep our arms back to our sides, he continues, "Ahnd ex-hay-le." We repeat this several times to the lilting sound of his voice until he moves on to the standing sequence.
Puiliully's delivery is straightforward and deliberate as he leads us through a sequence of lunge Sun Salutations and simple standing poses. Because there's a language barrier, he demonstrates many of the poses and doesn't go into subtle detail. Instead, he counts. As we hold Warrior II to the right, he counts to 10; then to the left, and he counts to 10 again. I begin to feel as though I'm in high school gym class, just waiting for him to get to 10 so that I can move on. I look around, and it seems I am not the only one hanging on every number—but I try to suspend judgment. Later, Puiliully explains that he counts to comfort beginners, so that they know how long each pose will be held.
Cross-Cultural Connection
Puiliully adds some charm and personality, beginning with a partner pose about halfway through class. He demonstrates it with another student, and then we each find a partner. Mine is a beautiful young Chinese woman with a slight frame. Sensing my hesitation, she holds onto my wrists and prompts me to start the pose by asking, "Toes touching?" I press my toes against hers, and we straighten our legs into partner Paripurna Navasana (Boat Pose). Her hamstrings are tight and she struggles, so I pull my legs closer to vertical to give her more slack. "You are soft," she says quietly. It takes me a moment to realize this tiny woman is not referring to the consistency of my thighs—she's complimenting my flexibility. In the background I notice Puiliully counting. "Nine and a haaalf," he says playfully as the class groans, "Aahhhnd ten!" As we collectively release our legs to the floor with a thump, the students suddenly laugh loudly and let out a short, exuberant burst of applause. I laugh too, partly out of shock at their unexpected, unselfconscious expression of sheer joy.
For the rest of the class, the students giggle as Puiliully plies them with yoga jokes. When they try to balance in Natarajasana, he says, "Don't worry if you wiggle and dance around in this pose. It's Dancing Shiva Pose!" As he demonstrates a pose in which he wraps one leg over his shoulder while seated, they let out a sigh of awe. When he tells them that someday they too will be able to wrap one leg behind themselves and rest their foot on their neck, they look around at each other as if to say, "Is this guy for real?" This type of show-and-tell demonstration isn't what I'm accustomed to, but it doesn't matter—the enthusiasm and sincere interest of the students remind me that yoga doesn't have to be humorless to work.
Before Savasana, Puiliully gathers us in a circle and places a stack of foam blocks in the middle, with a small candle perched on top. "You will stare at the candle for as long as you can," he says. "Maybe your eyes will even start to water. Then close your eyes, and you'll see the flame here," he says, pointing to his third eye, the space on his forehead between his eyebrows. "Focus all of your attention on that point." I do as I'm instructed and stare at the flame without blinking. My eyes begin to water, but I don't want to close them. I want to witness the strangers around me. In my periphery I see an older woman with her glasses shining against the flame. I feel the presence of the middle-aged man beside me who had cringed at his tight body all during class. I think about the girl who constantly giggled because it was her first yoga class ever. I feel a surge of happiness. I am completely calm for the first time during my stay in Hong Kong, and I don't want the moment to end. I no longer feel out of place among a mostly Cantonese-speaking crowd. I feel connected. I feel how—for just a few minutes in a small, mirrored classroom beneath a pulsating melting pot of a city—we are one pulsating vibration of awareness.
India's Influence
I take several classes while I'm in Hong Kong, and my experience is as varied as it would be taking a handful of classes in the United States. Regardless of the studio's look and feel, the experience depends on the teacher. Grant seems to understand this: "It's nice to have towels and all that, but people will come back if they remember the class. It's easy to have nice studios, but we have to focus on the programs."
And Hong Kong, unlike the United States, has a large population of Indian teachers, whose classes have a decidedly different feel and focus than with Western teachers. The sequencing was more static and less flowing; they used the counting technique as Puiliully had, and many instructed us to shake out our arms and legs (which is thought to relax the muscles and joints and prevent injuries). The classes were fairly similar and thorough in format—all included pranayama at the beginning and end, and a brief meditation. Instead of talking about philosophical yogic principles, the teachers let the yoga speak for itself.
I asked Yogananth Andiappan, an Indian teacher at Pure, about the counting and the lack of overt spiritual or philosophical themes. "I don't believe counting is more like fitness," he answers. "In fact, I think playing loud music during class, as some Western instructors do, actually has an adverse effect on the mental and emotional state of the students and makes it more challenging to focus." Yogananth, whose family runs a therapeutic yoga center in Chennai, India, focuses on the practice as a path toward wellness and keeps outward references to spirituality out of the asana room. He points out that yoga was originally taught to the brahmin, or priestly class; now, it's accessible to everyone. "Some people don't want to chant mantras. What I teach, everybody can do—asana, pranayama, meditation. Nothing with Krishna or Shiva or anything else. People don't want to attain enlightenment. They don't need to walk on water. They just want to be healthy, you know," he says.
Work Hard, Play Hard
The universal thread in the classes I take is the attitude of the students, who are hardworking and boundlessly enthusiastic. "People in Hong Kong are very dedicated," says Andiappan. "If they tell you they will do this, then they will do it. I have students who practice every day."
When I take a beginner's class one morning at Pure Yoga's Mongkok location, I learn that most of the students have already practiced that morning. The teacher, Shyam, asks who attended his 8:30 class and a few raise their hands. At first, I think I've misheard; but I later learn that in studios all over Hong Kong, people often take more than one class per day—one studio owner boasted that some students take as many as five.
At Creelman's class at the Evolution conference called Hanuman Heart, the enthusiasm is at an all-time high. Creelman, who is affable and self-deprecating and speaks with a drawl that sounds more like he spent his youth surfing Venice Beach than growing up in Canada, begins in classic Anusara style. He sits on the stage and opens up with a little story about himself, which he then relates to the Hanuman theme. The students are serious, and they sit in rapt attention as he talks. When it's time to chant the Anusara invocation in Sanskrit, they sit tall and belt it out loud and clear.
Halfway through the class, Creelman plucks a young Chinese woman from the front row and tells us we're going to support each other dropping back to Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose). I panic—is this woman ready to be dropped back in front of all these people? Are the rest of the students, for that matter, ready to head off on their own and assist each other in this deep backbend that could land you on your head? The demo goes off without a hitch, and within seconds I am face-to-face with my partner, an Asian woman named Maryann. I try to figure out whether she is nervous, but she seems calm. I place my hands on her hips, and she peels back with ease. I count to three, and she feels so light that I nearly fling her across the room as I lift her from the backbend up to standing.
Now it's my turn. Backbends are not my strong suit, and they have never felt good without a lot of warm-up, coaxing, and prodding. Suffice it to say that Maryann almost topples over because the force of my backward bend is so strong. Then she lets out a surprised grunt as she pulls my stiff spine back to standing. Before I've had a moment to be embarrassed, I turn around and Maryann is back on her mat to practice dropping herself back. I look around the room, and at least half of the other young women, too, are laughing playfully as they peel themselves back gracefully into the backbend. I'd never seen anything like it, and I was inspired by how much fun they seemed to be having.
The students' capacity for both hard work and fun is something I take home with me. Whether beginning, intermediate, or advanced, most students are vibrant, fully present, and thirsty for knowledge. What's clear is how new and stirring the teachings are—and the students are hungry for more. As Forrest puts it, "Their delight is intoxicating." Mark Whitwell, who taught at the Evolution conference, agrees, "There are basic human understandings that haven't been presented to people in Hong Kong until now. When these bright, inquiring minds get the information that has been otherwise withheld from them socially, they go, 'Wow! Thank you.' And the graceful river of yoga flows around the room from teachers to students. That's what I like about teaching anywhere, but it's especially true in Asia because it is a comparatively new phenomenon for them."
Andrea Ferretti is a senior editor at Yoga Journal.
Yoga Metropolis
Posh skyscraper studios. International teachers. Earnest students. And more showers than you can imagine! Yoga is booming in Hong Kong.
By Andrea Feretti
I'm sitting on a bright orange yoga mat in Studio 2 at mYoga (pronounced "My Yoga") in Hong Kong's Mongkok district. For the first time in years, I'm nervous as I wait for class to begin. The walls are mirrored; I stick out like a sore thumb—I'm the only Caucasian in the midst of this yoga hotspot for Chinese locals—and the mat situation has got me tweaked. I haven't used a communal mat since I came home with a plantar wart after a retreat in Costa Rica. But in Hong Kong, the mats are meticulously preset in perfect rows, so I have no choice but to surrender and hope the mats get a thorough cleaning between classes.
As the other students chat loudly in Cantonese, I have a mini-internal crisis about which way to sit. Presumably, our teacher will sit on the small platform in the front of the room, but facing it means I'm sitting sideways on my mat. So I turn sideways, then forward, then sideways again like a cat trying to curl up in the right spot. I have a desire to run back to the comfort of my hotel room to do my own practice, but I'm here on a mission: to learn about yoga in Hong Kong.
Over the past five years, yoga has been booming in this city. Like the famously frenetic pace and soaring skyscrapers, Hong Kong's yoga explosion has happened fast and on a huge scale. Ten years ago, just a handful of small studios existed; now, large studio chains offer hundreds of classes per week in Hong Kong and across Asia. MYoga is one of them, and Planet Yoga, Living Yoga, and Pure Yoga are the other big players.
Talking to yogis in Hong Kong, I find that the burgeoning yoga scene can be traced back six years to the opening of Pure Yoga. I first heard about Pure a few years back, when Western teachers returned stateside with tales of multistory yoga studios, eager students, and luxurious locker rooms teeming with hot showers (as many as 60 shower stalls in one location!). Then, last year Pure's subsidiary company, the Asia Yoga Conference, hosted an international yoga conference called Evolution, with 1,500 students taking classes from more than 30 masters who came from India, the United States, and Europe. It was an ideal opportunity to travel to Hong Kong and check things out for myself. During my visit I found the yoga scene in Hong Kong as complex and labyrinthlike as the city itself: It is vast, intense, hot, and at times flashy. I didn't unravel all of the complexities and inner workings in six short days. But I did glimpse how yoga is evolving in Asia—and the boom started with Pure Yoga.
Pure Impact
In the past six years, Pure Yoga has opened six studios—four in Hong Kong, one in Singapore, and one in Taipei. Pure opened two more studios in January, bringing its grand total to eight. These are not tiny, one-room bungalows. The largest Pure studio in Hong Kong is 35,000 square feet, and the largest of all the locations (in Taiwan) occupies a whole building, with nine floors and 10 classrooms.
And the company remains incredibly bullish on the prospects for more growth. "We've only just scratched the surface of yoga in Hong Kong," says cofounder Colin Grant (a former tennis player on the professional circuit and owner of Movieland, a movie rental company). That surface includes a reported 2,000 students coming several times per week to the 800 classes in the Hong Kong area. Pure says that it was profitable within three years of opening its doors. In addition to the Evolution conference, Pure offered a second in-house teacher training last year, and its roster of weekend workshops includes Western master teachers such as John Friend, Richard Freeman, and Ana -Forrest.
Most Western teachers see the irony of importing yoga to Asia when it originated so close by. As Frank Jude Boccio, a yoga teacher who has taught at Pure and who incorporates the Buddha Dharma into his classes, puts it, "Who would've thought an Italian American from New York would be sending the Dharma back to China?" But yoga teachers also see it as an opportunity. "There's so much stress and competition there, it doesn't take much for people to recognize that they can benefit from yoga," says Forrest. "I feel like I'm riding some of the first waves of bringing something exquisite to Asia, and I'm honored."
Key to Success
But why did the yoga population suddenly skyrocket when Pure set up shop? Grant is vocal about his passion for yoga and insists that it has done the work of selling itself. However, a small yoga community had been brewing in Hong Kong for years, but without Pure's impact. The key to Pure's growth, says Grant, is that he and his partner, Bruce Rockowitz (who owns Li and Fung, a large export and trading company), were businessmen first and yogis second. Unlike the yoga teachers who opened smaller studios in Hong Kong, Grant and Rockowitz had capital and saw yoga as a "market." This mirrors the growth of YogaWorks in the United States, which currently has 17 centers in California and New York combined, boasting more than 1,000 classes per week. YogaWorks' original owners, Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty, were yoga teachers who kept their business fairly small, with three Los Angeles studios. New ownership with greater business focus turned YogaWorks—like Pure—into a large-scale commercial venture.
Longtime friends, Grant and Rockowitz stumbled upon yoga when their wives insisted they take a class during a rained-out golf vacation in the Canadian resort town of Whistler. Grant fell in love with the practice and soon hired his teacher from Whistler, fresh-faced 30-something Patrick Creelman, to be the yoga director of the first Pure studio. "We didn't have a perception of what other studios were like, so we came from a fresh perspective. We thought, 'What would people like?' A nice counter when you walk in, a place to change, and a locker. Plus, a towel and a mat," says Grant.
Yoga Goes Upscale
With that vision, Grant and Rockowitz opened their first studio in Hong Kong's financial district with all the amenities of an upscale gym—and with that, the course of yoga was forever changed in the city. Whereas yoga in the United States came into the mainstream when it emerged from '60s counterculture, the practice took off in Hong Kong after it was made palatable for corporate culture. Grant and Rockowitz brought yoga to the fore by making it a centrally located, luxurious treat for busy businesspeople. Along with lockers, showers, and preset mats, the pair crafted a schedule with a steady stream of convenient class times, and, eventually, a lot of variety—classes range from Hot to Ashtanga to Anusara to Yin yoga and meditation. They also seeded the business with attractive, well-qualified teachers starting with Creelman, an Anusara-inspired teacher, and Almen Wong, a well-known former Chinese model and actress who runs the studio's Hot Yoga program.
The first thing I notice when I visit Pure is how the studio interiors differ from the funky little studios scattered about my hometown of San Francisco. At Pure's studio in the Peninsula Hotel, the design highlight is the stunning view of Hong Kong's harbor and skyline, while the rest of the lobby is minimalist or, as Grant puts it, not bohemian or gypsylike or quirky. There are no candles, no statues of deities, no inspirational quotes from Rumi taped to the walls. Instead, there are elegant black-and-white leather couches, black tables, as well as an abstract black sculpture. The locker rooms are black, too, with luxurious marble shower stalls.
Pure isn't alone in this design approach. Jean Ward, yoga project manager at mYoga, owned by California Fitness (a subsidiary of 24 Hour Fitness), says they created a neutral space that was more spa than temple. "We didn't want spiritual elements inside. We were very cautious, as we didn't want to offend anyone. We took the modern approach, with nothing too mystical."
Indeed, out of the six studios I visited in Hong Kong, only one had an altar—the Iyengar Yoga Centre of Hong Kong, a one-room studio that was opened in 1999 by Canadian Linda Shevloff. (Had I visited other small studios, I may have found more, but big studios shy away from outward displays of spirituality.) This seemingly small decision—to build a yoga studio with no Ganesh to watch over it and no visible homage to teachers—was noticeable, since a studio's intimate touch often helps visitors feel as though they're entering a sacred space. When I walked into mYoga and Pure, they felt a bit sanitized and washed clean of anything "too yogic." I also noticed an abundance of mirrors in the classrooms, and I struggled to focus inward. Try as I might, I couldn't get away from them—even the teachers who turned us away from the mirrors couldn't prevent the moment when I saw myself out of the corner of my eye in a Chair Twist, and my internal voice shouted in horror, "My neck looks like that?!"
Grant explained that they walk a fine line between being sensitive to their clients' comfort level and staying true to yoga's teachings. "A lot of the feedback is that people like coming because it's quite neutral. They don't feel we're bombarding them with anything too spiritual or religious. We're trying to lead, but not by being too far in front...It's a process," he says. As for the mirrors—in addition to being necessary for the prevalence of Hot Yoga classes in Hong Kong, they're also a cultural norm, which can be frustrating for the teachers. As Creelman pointed out to me, "You see them in every studio, every mall, every restaurant."
Mom and Pop Shops
Big studios like Pure and mYoga have yet to swallow up most of the small yoga studios that have dotted Hong Kong's Central, Sheung Wan, and Wan Chai neighborhoods since the 1990s. Most are still in business despite the new competition—but it hasn't been easy. Shevloff had barely built her student base when Pure opened up nearby and nearly put her studio out of business. "It was just devastating," she says. "I certainly lost some students. I had to start over." She did just that by moving from the Central financial district to the Sheung Wan neighborhood, which caters to locals rather than to the international business community.
These days, Shevloff's studio operates at a healthy pace, and she continues to focus on her mission of helping the Cantonese population become certified teachers in the Iyengar system (difficult to do, because certification tests are conducted in English). She has since embraced the direction that yoga has taken in a city with more than 6 million inhabitants. "It was hard not to be resentful, but at the same time, there was no reason to be. Because it's such a big, vibrant city, yoga is going to come in a big way. I say, 'Let there be yoga in this city,'" she says. Shevloff is hopeful that there is still room for the little guy, pointing out that even though the Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton stores take up city blocks, there are actually more small shops in Hong Kong than megastores. She even sees an upside to the large yoga studios' enormous growth over the past few years: "Now, so many people know about it," she says. "I never get the question, 'What is yoga?' anymore."
Home Away from Home
After hearing so much about yoga's growth in Hong Kong, I was curious to see how it has adapted to a city that bristles with noise, neon, shopping, and stimulation at every turn. So, I headed to mYoga.
MYoga has a big locker room, with towels and showers, and a packed class schedule that starts at 7:15 a.m. and ends at 11:30 p.m. The studio has three yoga classrooms, including one room filled with props for "equipment yoga" classes (a prop-heavy style similar to Iyengar Yoga) and a Pilates room. The basement-level facility isn't as sleek as Pure's, but it's cozier. Before my visit, Ward tells me that this is intentional. "People in Hong Kong are looking for a second home. It's not uncommon to have a whole family living in a 500-square-foot apartment. That's why the streets are so busy; the restaurants are always busy. People shop, people go out a lot. Now, they hang out here." When I tour the studio, I'm surprised to find that Ward wasn't exaggerating. The lounge is packed with young people clustered at tables reading magazines, chatting, and tossing back wheatgrass from the juice bar. The Internet stations are busy.
Yoga by the Numbers
The studio runs like a well-oiled machine. Flat-screen TVs show yoga videos and class schedules. Turning the corner toward the juice bar, I lose the grime from the street above and begin to take in long drags of the sweet-smelling purified air. Down a long, softly lit hallway sits the locker room desk, where I'm given towels and an opportunity to store valuables in video-monitored lockers. MYoga also offers just a bit of the gym experience in a cordoned-off soundproof area that has spinning classes and an array of group exercise classes (including dance classes called MTV and Bollywood). The place buzzes with energy, and it's clear that the typical gym protocols—locker key, towels, TV—that feel so foreign to me are completely natural to this clientele. The yoga etiquette, they tell me, is not so familiar. To prevent latecomers, they lock the doors five minutes after class begins.
Soon after I decide to sit sideways on my mat, facing the little stage, the teacher—a handsome, wiry young Indian man named Dileep Puiliully—strides into the room wearing loose-fitting black pants and a white T-shirt. There is no ceremony before he begins, no asking about injuries or pregnancy, no exchange of small talk. He simply clips a tiny microphone to his shirt, smiles at the class from behind his mustache, and tells us to stand up. We start by linking simple movement with breath. As we mirror him sweeping his arms overhead, he says in a singsong cadence, "In-hay-le." As we sweep our arms back to our sides, he continues, "Ahnd ex-hay-le." We repeat this several times to the lilting sound of his voice until he moves on to the standing sequence.
Puiliully's delivery is straightforward and deliberate as he leads us through a sequence of lunge Sun Salutations and simple standing poses. Because there's a language barrier, he demonstrates many of the poses and doesn't go into subtle detail. Instead, he counts. As we hold Warrior II to the right, he counts to 10; then to the left, and he counts to 10 again. I begin to feel as though I'm in high school gym class, just waiting for him to get to 10 so that I can move on. I look around, and it seems I am not the only one hanging on every number—but I try to suspend judgment. Later, Puiliully explains that he counts to comfort beginners, so that they know how long each pose will be held.
Cross-Cultural Connection
Puiliully adds some charm and personality, beginning with a partner pose about halfway through class. He demonstrates it with another student, and then we each find a partner. Mine is a beautiful young Chinese woman with a slight frame. Sensing my hesitation, she holds onto my wrists and prompts me to start the pose by asking, "Toes touching?" I press my toes against hers, and we straighten our legs into partner Paripurna Navasana (Boat Pose). Her hamstrings are tight and she struggles, so I pull my legs closer to vertical to give her more slack. "You are soft," she says quietly. It takes me a moment to realize this tiny woman is not referring to the consistency of my thighs—she's complimenting my flexibility. In the background I notice Puiliully counting. "Nine and a haaalf," he says playfully as the class groans, "Aahhhnd ten!" As we collectively release our legs to the floor with a thump, the students suddenly laugh loudly and let out a short, exuberant burst of applause. I laugh too, partly out of shock at their unexpected, unselfconscious expression of sheer joy.
For the rest of the class, the students giggle as Puiliully plies them with yoga jokes. When they try to balance in Natarajasana, he says, "Don't worry if you wiggle and dance around in this pose. It's Dancing Shiva Pose!" As he demonstrates a pose in which he wraps one leg over his shoulder while seated, they let out a sigh of awe. When he tells them that someday they too will be able to wrap one leg behind themselves and rest their foot on their neck, they look around at each other as if to say, "Is this guy for real?" This type of show-and-tell demonstration isn't what I'm accustomed to, but it doesn't matter—the enthusiasm and sincere interest of the students remind me that yoga doesn't have to be humorless to work.
Before Savasana, Puiliully gathers us in a circle and places a stack of foam blocks in the middle, with a small candle perched on top. "You will stare at the candle for as long as you can," he says. "Maybe your eyes will even start to water. Then close your eyes, and you'll see the flame here," he says, pointing to his third eye, the space on his forehead between his eyebrows. "Focus all of your attention on that point." I do as I'm instructed and stare at the flame without blinking. My eyes begin to water, but I don't want to close them. I want to witness the strangers around me. In my periphery I see an older woman with her glasses shining against the flame. I feel the presence of the middle-aged man beside me who had cringed at his tight body all during class. I think about the girl who constantly giggled because it was her first yoga class ever. I feel a surge of happiness. I am completely calm for the first time during my stay in Hong Kong, and I don't want the moment to end. I no longer feel out of place among a mostly Cantonese-speaking crowd. I feel connected. I feel how—for just a few minutes in a small, mirrored classroom beneath a pulsating melting pot of a city—we are one pulsating vibration of awareness.
India's Influence
I take several classes while I'm in Hong Kong, and my experience is as varied as it would be taking a handful of classes in the United States. Regardless of the studio's look and feel, the experience depends on the teacher. Grant seems to understand this: "It's nice to have towels and all that, but people will come back if they remember the class. It's easy to have nice studios, but we have to focus on the programs."
And Hong Kong, unlike the United States, has a large population of Indian teachers, whose classes have a decidedly different feel and focus than with Western teachers. The sequencing was more static and less flowing; they used the counting technique as Puiliully had, and many instructed us to shake out our arms and legs (which is thought to relax the muscles and joints and prevent injuries). The classes were fairly similar and thorough in format—all included pranayama at the beginning and end, and a brief meditation. Instead of talking about philosophical yogic principles, the teachers let the yoga speak for itself.
I asked Yogananth Andiappan, an Indian teacher at Pure, about the counting and the lack of overt spiritual or philosophical themes. "I don't believe counting is more like fitness," he answers. "In fact, I think playing loud music during class, as some Western instructors do, actually has an adverse effect on the mental and emotional state of the students and makes it more challenging to focus." Yogananth, whose family runs a therapeutic yoga center in Chennai, India, focuses on the practice as a path toward wellness and keeps outward references to spirituality out of the asana room. He points out that yoga was originally taught to the brahmin, or priestly class; now, it's accessible to everyone. "Some people don't want to chant mantras. What I teach, everybody can do—asana, pranayama, meditation. Nothing with Krishna or Shiva or anything else. People don't want to attain enlightenment. They don't need to walk on water. They just want to be healthy, you know," he says.
Work Hard, Play Hard
The universal thread in the classes I take is the attitude of the students, who are hardworking and boundlessly enthusiastic. "People in Hong Kong are very dedicated," says Andiappan. "If they tell you they will do this, then they will do it. I have students who practice every day."
When I take a beginner's class one morning at Pure Yoga's Mongkok location, I learn that most of the students have already practiced that morning. The teacher, Shyam, asks who attended his 8:30 class and a few raise their hands. At first, I think I've misheard; but I later learn that in studios all over Hong Kong, people often take more than one class per day—one studio owner boasted that some students take as many as five.
At Creelman's class at the Evolution conference called Hanuman Heart, the enthusiasm is at an all-time high. Creelman, who is affable and self-deprecating and speaks with a drawl that sounds more like he spent his youth surfing Venice Beach than growing up in Canada, begins in classic Anusara style. He sits on the stage and opens up with a little story about himself, which he then relates to the Hanuman theme. The students are serious, and they sit in rapt attention as he talks. When it's time to chant the Anusara invocation in Sanskrit, they sit tall and belt it out loud and clear.
Halfway through the class, Creelman plucks a young Chinese woman from the front row and tells us we're going to support each other dropping back to Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose). I panic—is this woman ready to be dropped back in front of all these people? Are the rest of the students, for that matter, ready to head off on their own and assist each other in this deep backbend that could land you on your head? The demo goes off without a hitch, and within seconds I am face-to-face with my partner, an Asian woman named Maryann. I try to figure out whether she is nervous, but she seems calm. I place my hands on her hips, and she peels back with ease. I count to three, and she feels so light that I nearly fling her across the room as I lift her from the backbend up to standing.
Now it's my turn. Backbends are not my strong suit, and they have never felt good without a lot of warm-up, coaxing, and prodding. Suffice it to say that Maryann almost topples over because the force of my backward bend is so strong. Then she lets out a surprised grunt as she pulls my stiff spine back to standing. Before I've had a moment to be embarrassed, I turn around and Maryann is back on her mat to practice dropping herself back. I look around the room, and at least half of the other young women, too, are laughing playfully as they peel themselves back gracefully into the backbend. I'd never seen anything like it, and I was inspired by how much fun they seemed to be having.
The students' capacity for both hard work and fun is something I take home with me. Whether beginning, intermediate, or advanced, most students are vibrant, fully present, and thirsty for knowledge. What's clear is how new and stirring the teachings are—and the students are hungry for more. As Forrest puts it, "Their delight is intoxicating." Mark Whitwell, who taught at the Evolution conference, agrees, "There are basic human understandings that haven't been presented to people in Hong Kong until now. When these bright, inquiring minds get the information that has been otherwise withheld from them socially, they go, 'Wow! Thank you.' And the graceful river of yoga flows around the room from teachers to students. That's what I like about teaching anywhere, but it's especially true in Asia because it is a comparatively new phenomenon for them."
Andrea Ferretti is a senior editor at Yoga Journal.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
ASIIA News
Class of 2008 with Dr. Joanne Yip & Dr. Winnie Yu
Dr. Winnie Yu and me with the Traveling Scholarship Certificate
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Installations
"A body is a living entity.
It represents life, freedom, sensuality,
and it is a mechanism to carry out our thoughts.
A body is always beautiful to me.
It depends on the individual work
and what I do with it and what kind of idea lies behind it
- if age matters or not. But in my group works,
the only difference is how far people can go if it rains, snows etc.”
Friday, July 11, 2008
Nelly - Country Grammar
HOT SHIT
mmmmm
I'm goin down down baby, yo' street in a Range Rover
Street-Swepper baby, cocked, ready to let it go
Shimmy shimmy cocoa what? listen to it loud
Light it up and take a puff, pass it to me now
I'm goin down down baby, yo' street in a Range Rover
Street sweeper baby, cocked ready to let it go
Shimmy shimmy cocoa what? Listen to it loud
Light it up and take a puff, pass it to me now
Mmmmm, you can find me, in St. Louis rollin on dubs
Smokin on dubs in clubs, blowin up like cocoa puffs
Sippin Bud, gettin perved and getting dubbed
Daps and hugs, mean mugs and shoulder shrugs
And it's all because, 'ccumulated enough scratch
just to navigate it, wood decorated on chrome
and it's candy painted, fans fainted - while I'm entertainin
Wild ain't it? How me and money end up hangin
I hang with Hannibal Lector so feel me when I bring it
Sing it loud (what?)
I'm from the Lou and I'm proud
Run a mile - for the cause, I'm righteous above the law
Playa my style's raw, I'm "Born to Mack" like Todd Shaw
Forget the fame, and the glamour
Give me D's wit a rubber hammer
My grammar be's ebonics, gin tonic and chronic
Fuck bionic it's ironic, slammin niggaz like Onyx
Lunatics til the day I die
I run more game than the Bulls and Sonics
(Chorus)
Who say pretty boys can't be wild niggaz?
Loud niggaz, O.K. Corral niggaz
Foul niggaz, run in the club and bust in the crowd nigga
How nigga? Ask me again and it's goin down nigga
Now nigga, come to the circus and watch me clown nigga
Pound niggaz, what you be givin when I'm around nigga
Frown niggaz, talkin shit when I leave the town nigga
Say now, can you hoes come out to play now
Hey I'm, ready to cut you up any day now
Play by, my rules Boo and you gon' stay high
May I, answer yo' +Third Question+ like A.I.
Say hi, to my niggaz left in the slamma
From St. Louis to Memphis
From Texas back up to Indiana, Chi-Town
K.C. Motown to Alabama
L-A, New York Yankee niggaz to Hotlanta
'ouisiana, all my niggaz wit "Country Grammar"
Smokin blunts in Savannah
Blow thirty mill' like I'm Hammer
(Chorus)
Let's show these cats to make these milli-ons
So you niggaz quit actin silly, mon
+Kid+ quicker than +Billy+, mon
Talkin really and I need it mon
Flows I kick 'em freely mon, 'specially off Remi, mon
Keys to my Beemer, mon - holla at Beenie Man
See me, mon, cheifin rollin deeper than any mon
through Jennings mon, through U-City back up to Kingsland
wit nice niggaz, sheist niggaz who snatch yo' life niggaz
Trife niggaz, who produce and sell the same beat twice, nigga
Ice niggaz, all over close to never sober
From broke to havin bro-kers my price Range is Rover
Now I'm knockin like Jehovah - let me in now, let me in now
Bill Gates, Donald Trump let me in now
Spin now, I got money to lend my friends now
We in now, candy Benz, Kenwood and 10"s now
I win now (Whoo!) fucking lesbian twins now
Seein now, through the pen I make my ends now
(Chorus)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Happy Birthday to myself!
I got that... all of you are so kind to me this year!
Million thanks for your sweet birthday messages in person, by phone, sms, msn, facebook and email.
Also, thank you very much for the birthday gifts, cakes, parties and dinners...
I will make sure to tell/ write my age correctly.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
你是窮人還是富人
1.自我認知
窮人：很少想到如何去賺錢和如何才能賺到錢，認為自己一輩子就該這樣，不相信會有什麼改變。
富人：骨子裡就深信自己生下來不是要做窮人，而是要做富人，他有強烈的賺錢意識，這已是他血液裡的東西，他會想盡一切辦法使自己致富。
2.休閒
窮人：在家看電視，為肥皂劇的劇情感動得痛哭流涕，還要仿照電視裡的時尚打扮自己。
富人：在外跑市場，即使打高爾夫球也不忘帶著項目合同。
3.交際圈子
窮人：喜歡走窮親戚，窮人的圈子大多是窮人，也排斥與富人交往，久而久之，心態成了窮人的心態，思維成了窮人的思維，做出來的事也就是窮人的模式。大家每 天談論著打折商品，交流著節約技巧，雖然有利於訓練生存能力，但你的眼界也就漸漸囿於這樣的瑣事，而將雄心壯志消磨掉了。
富人：最喜歡交那種對自己有幫助，能提升自己各種能力的朋友。不純粹放任自己僅以個人喜好交朋友。
4.學習
窮人：學手藝。
富人：學管理。
5.時間
窮人：一個享受充裕時間的人不可能掙大錢，要想悠閒輕鬆就會失去更多掙錢的機會。窮人的時間不值錢的，有時甚至多餘，不知道怎麼打發，怎麼混起來才不煩。如果你可以因為買一斤白菜多花了一毛錢而氣惱不已，卻不為虛度一天而心痛，這就是典型的窮人思維。
富人：一個人無論以何種方式掙錢，也無論錢掙得是多是少，都必須經過時間的積澱。富人的玩也是一種工作方式，是有目的的。富人的閑，閑在身體，修身養性，以利再戰，腦袋一刻也沒有閑著；窮人的閑，閑在思想，他手腳都在忙，忙著去麻將桌上多摸幾把。
6.歸屬感
窮人：是顆螺絲釘。窮人因為自身的卑微，缺少安全感，就迫切地希望自己從屬並依賴於一個團體。於是他們以這個團體的標準為自己的標準，讓自己的一切合乎規 範，為團體的利益而工作，奔波，甚至遷徙。對於窮人來說，在一個著名的企業裡穩定地工作幾十年，由實習生一直幹到高級主管，那簡直是美妙得不能再美妙的理 想了。
富人：那些團體的領導者通常都是富人，他們總是一方面向窮人灌輸：團結就是力量，如果你不從屬於自己這個團體，你就什麼都不是，一文不名。但另一方面，他們卻從來沒有停止過招兵買馬，培養新人，以便隨時可以把你替換。
7.投資及對待財富
窮人：經典觀點就是少用就等於多賺。比如開一家麵館，收益率是100%，投入2萬，一年就淨賺2萬，對窮人來說很不錯了。窮人即使有錢，也捨不得拿出來， 即使終於下定決心投資，也不願冒風險，最終還是走不出那一步。窮人最津津樂道的就是雞生蛋，蛋生雞，一本萬利… 但是建築在一隻母雞身上的希望，畢竟是那 樣脆弱。
富人：富人的出發點是萬本萬利。同樣的開麵館，富人們會想，一家麵館承載的資本只有2萬，如果有1億資金，豈不是要開5000家麵館？要一個一個管理好， 大老闆得操多少心，累白多少根頭髮呀？還不如投資賓館，一個賓館就足以消化全部的資本，哪怕收益率只有20%，一年下來也有2000萬利潤啊！
8.激情 (能不能幹成大事，首先要看有沒有激情)
窮人：沒有激情。L總是按部就班，很難出大錯，也絕不會做最好。沒有激情就無法興奮，就不可能全心全意投入工作，大部分的窮人不能說沒有激情，但他的激情 總是消耗在太具體的事情上；上司表揚了，他會激動；商店打折了，他會激動；電視裡破鏡重圓了，他的眼淚一串一串往XL，窮人有的只是一種情緒。
富人：“燕雀安知鴻鵠之志？”“王侯將相，寧有種乎？”有這樣的激情，窮人終將不是窮人！激情是一種天性，是生命力的象徵，有了激情，才有了靈感的火花，才有了鮮明的個性，才有了人際關係中的強烈感染力，也才有了解決問題的魅力和方法。
9.自信
窮人：窮人的自信要通過武裝到牙齒，要通過一身高級名牌的穿戴和豪華的配飾才能給他們帶來更多的自信，窮人的自信往往不是發自內心和 自然天成的。
富人：李嘉誠在談到他的經營秘訣時說：“其實也沒什麼特別的，光景好時，決不過分樂觀；光景不好時，也不過度悲觀”。其實就是一種富人特有的自信。自信才能不被外力所左右，自信才可能有正確的決定。
10.習慣
窮人：有個故事，一個富人送給窮人一頭牛。窮人滿懷希望開始奮鬥。可牛要吃草，人要吃飯，日子很難。窮人於是把牛賣了，買了幾隻羊，吃了一隻，剩下的來生 小羊。可小羊遲遲沒有生下來，日子又艱難了。窮人又把羊賣了，買成雞。想讓雞生蛋賺錢為生，但是日子並沒有改變，最後窮人把雞也殺了，窮人的理想徹底崩潰 了。這就是窮人的習慣。
富人：據一個投資專家說，富人成功秘訣就是：沒錢時，不管多困難，也不要動用投資和積蓄，壓力使你找到賺錢的新方法，幫你還清帳單。這是個好習慣。性格形成習慣，習慣決定成功。
11.上網路
窮人：上網聊天。窮人聊天，一是窮人時間多，二是窮人的嘴天生就不能閑著。富人講究榮辱不驚，溫柔敦厚，那叫涵養，有涵養才能樹大根深。窮人就顧不了那麼多，成天受著別人的白眼，渾身沾滿了雞毛蒜皮，多少窩囊氣啊，說說都不行？聊天有理！
富人：上網找投資機會。富人上網，更多的是利用網路的低成本高效率，尋找更多的投資機會和項目，把便利運用到自己的生意中來。
12.消費花錢
窮人：買名牌是為了體驗滿足感，最喜歡試驗剛出來的流行時尚產品，相信貴的必然是好的。
富人：買名牌是為了節省挑選細節的時間，與消費品的售價相比，他們更在乎產品的品質，比如會買15元的純棉T恤，也不會買昂貴的萊卡製品。
13.回帖
窮人：一般窮人都只看帖，不回帖。想的是：我回帖自己不會增加財富。
富人：一般富人看帖後覺得有道理就回帖。想的是：我回一帖，將來自己可能會賺到更多的回帖。
From Wab Wab
窮人：很少想到如何去賺錢和如何才能賺到錢，認為自己一輩子就該這樣，不相信會有什麼改變。
富人：骨子裡就深信自己生下來不是要做窮人，而是要做富人，他有強烈的賺錢意識，這已是他血液裡的東西，他會想盡一切辦法使自己致富。
2.休閒
窮人：在家看電視，為肥皂劇的劇情感動得痛哭流涕，還要仿照電視裡的時尚打扮自己。
富人：在外跑市場，即使打高爾夫球也不忘帶著項目合同。
3.交際圈子
窮人：喜歡走窮親戚，窮人的圈子大多是窮人，也排斥與富人交往，久而久之，心態成了窮人的心態，思維成了窮人的思維，做出來的事也就是窮人的模式。大家每 天談論著打折商品，交流著節約技巧，雖然有利於訓練生存能力，但你的眼界也就漸漸囿於這樣的瑣事，而將雄心壯志消磨掉了。
富人：最喜歡交那種對自己有幫助，能提升自己各種能力的朋友。不純粹放任自己僅以個人喜好交朋友。
4.學習
窮人：學手藝。
富人：學管理。
5.時間
窮人：一個享受充裕時間的人不可能掙大錢，要想悠閒輕鬆就會失去更多掙錢的機會。窮人的時間不值錢的，有時甚至多餘，不知道怎麼打發，怎麼混起來才不煩。如果你可以因為買一斤白菜多花了一毛錢而氣惱不已，卻不為虛度一天而心痛，這就是典型的窮人思維。
富人：一個人無論以何種方式掙錢，也無論錢掙得是多是少，都必須經過時間的積澱。富人的玩也是一種工作方式，是有目的的。富人的閑，閑在身體，修身養性，以利再戰，腦袋一刻也沒有閑著；窮人的閑，閑在思想，他手腳都在忙，忙著去麻將桌上多摸幾把。
6.歸屬感
窮人：是顆螺絲釘。窮人因為自身的卑微，缺少安全感，就迫切地希望自己從屬並依賴於一個團體。於是他們以這個團體的標準為自己的標準，讓自己的一切合乎規 範，為團體的利益而工作，奔波，甚至遷徙。對於窮人來說，在一個著名的企業裡穩定地工作幾十年，由實習生一直幹到高級主管，那簡直是美妙得不能再美妙的理 想了。
富人：那些團體的領導者通常都是富人，他們總是一方面向窮人灌輸：團結就是力量，如果你不從屬於自己這個團體，你就什麼都不是，一文不名。但另一方面，他們卻從來沒有停止過招兵買馬，培養新人，以便隨時可以把你替換。
7.投資及對待財富
窮人：經典觀點就是少用就等於多賺。比如開一家麵館，收益率是100%，投入2萬，一年就淨賺2萬，對窮人來說很不錯了。窮人即使有錢，也捨不得拿出來， 即使終於下定決心投資，也不願冒風險，最終還是走不出那一步。窮人最津津樂道的就是雞生蛋，蛋生雞，一本萬利… 但是建築在一隻母雞身上的希望，畢竟是那 樣脆弱。
富人：富人的出發點是萬本萬利。同樣的開麵館，富人們會想，一家麵館承載的資本只有2萬，如果有1億資金，豈不是要開5000家麵館？要一個一個管理好， 大老闆得操多少心，累白多少根頭髮呀？還不如投資賓館，一個賓館就足以消化全部的資本，哪怕收益率只有20%，一年下來也有2000萬利潤啊！
8.激情 (能不能幹成大事，首先要看有沒有激情)
窮人：沒有激情。L總是按部就班，很難出大錯，也絕不會做最好。沒有激情就無法興奮，就不可能全心全意投入工作，大部分的窮人不能說沒有激情，但他的激情 總是消耗在太具體的事情上；上司表揚了，他會激動；商店打折了，他會激動；電視裡破鏡重圓了，他的眼淚一串一串往XL，窮人有的只是一種情緒。
富人：“燕雀安知鴻鵠之志？”“王侯將相，寧有種乎？”有這樣的激情，窮人終將不是窮人！激情是一種天性，是生命力的象徵，有了激情，才有了靈感的火花，才有了鮮明的個性，才有了人際關係中的強烈感染力，也才有了解決問題的魅力和方法。
9.自信
窮人：窮人的自信要通過武裝到牙齒，要通過一身高級名牌的穿戴和豪華的配飾才能給他們帶來更多的自信，窮人的自信往往不是發自內心和 自然天成的。
富人：李嘉誠在談到他的經營秘訣時說：“其實也沒什麼特別的，光景好時，決不過分樂觀；光景不好時，也不過度悲觀”。其實就是一種富人特有的自信。自信才能不被外力所左右，自信才可能有正確的決定。
10.習慣
窮人：有個故事，一個富人送給窮人一頭牛。窮人滿懷希望開始奮鬥。可牛要吃草，人要吃飯，日子很難。窮人於是把牛賣了，買了幾隻羊，吃了一隻，剩下的來生 小羊。可小羊遲遲沒有生下來，日子又艱難了。窮人又把羊賣了，買成雞。想讓雞生蛋賺錢為生，但是日子並沒有改變，最後窮人把雞也殺了，窮人的理想徹底崩潰 了。這就是窮人的習慣。
富人：據一個投資專家說，富人成功秘訣就是：沒錢時，不管多困難，也不要動用投資和積蓄，壓力使你找到賺錢的新方法，幫你還清帳單。這是個好習慣。性格形成習慣，習慣決定成功。
11.上網路
窮人：上網聊天。窮人聊天，一是窮人時間多，二是窮人的嘴天生就不能閑著。富人講究榮辱不驚，溫柔敦厚，那叫涵養，有涵養才能樹大根深。窮人就顧不了那麼多，成天受著別人的白眼，渾身沾滿了雞毛蒜皮，多少窩囊氣啊，說說都不行？聊天有理！
富人：上網找投資機會。富人上網，更多的是利用網路的低成本高效率，尋找更多的投資機會和項目，把便利運用到自己的生意中來。
12.消費花錢
窮人：買名牌是為了體驗滿足感，最喜歡試驗剛出來的流行時尚產品，相信貴的必然是好的。
富人：買名牌是為了節省挑選細節的時間，與消費品的售價相比，他們更在乎產品的品質，比如會買15元的純棉T恤，也不會買昂貴的萊卡製品。
13.回帖
窮人：一般窮人都只看帖，不回帖。想的是：我回帖自己不會增加財富。
富人：一般富人看帖後覺得有道理就回帖。想的是：我回一帖，將來自己可能會賺到更多的回帖。
From Wab Wab
I still have a dream...
The Dream
by Pablo Picasso
1932
Oil on canvas
51 1/4 x 38 1/8 in.
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Victor W. Ganz, New York
Thank you for the birthday treats!
but I have received many birthday treats from friends this week.
Thanks to Henny, Win, Maria, Jackie, Erika, Blanche, Mandy, Tulip and ...
I wonder when shall I pay all off. (Just kidding!)
Monday, July 07, 2008
Birthday week
Yes...
my birthday is getting closer...
glad to notify you here... got that?
Let's do something!
Sunday, July 06, 2008
像茶一樣的朋友
個中滋味...只有自己品嚐才能真正懂得...再細細回味一番吧!
像茶一樣的朋友, 清涼的可樂猛往杯子倒下去時，浮出了許多泡沫，總以為是滿滿的一杯， 等到泡沫散去了，才明白原來半杯不到，也才知道被泡沫的假象所蒙蔽了。
而茶，倒下去八分，就是實實在在的八分滿，而且真正解渴。
如果口渴與擇友都是無可厚非，那麼，茶與可樂，你選擇何者？
我真心希望告訴我的朋友：請不要把我當作你生命中豪華宴席上的可樂，歡樂過後，曲終人散；我寧願是你獨處時，細細品茗的一杯茶，喝到最後一口仍然甘醇。
而朋友，你知道嗎？
歲月流逝、年華老去，美貌也逐漸衰老了。
你是否曾經想過什麼樣的友誼才是你所憧憬的嗎？
我想友誼這東西，需要雙方用心的呵護經營，倘若一方覺得這段友誼可有可無時，那麼這段友誼就會有如流星般稍縱即逝的，要認識新朋友超級簡單，但要維持一段有默契的友情宇宙無敵困難，朋友靜下心來一起喝杯好茶吧 !
只願淡淡的情誼，能夠永永遠遠走下去 ...
雖有一點淡淡的距離，我的快樂只因有你 !
From Wab Wab
像茶一樣的朋友, 清涼的可樂猛往杯子倒下去時，浮出了許多泡沫，總以為是滿滿的一杯， 等到泡沫散去了，才明白原來半杯不到，也才知道被泡沫的假象所蒙蔽了。
而茶，倒下去八分，就是實實在在的八分滿，而且真正解渴。
如果口渴與擇友都是無可厚非，那麼，茶與可樂，你選擇何者？
我真心希望告訴我的朋友：請不要把我當作你生命中豪華宴席上的可樂，歡樂過後，曲終人散；我寧願是你獨處時，細細品茗的一杯茶，喝到最後一口仍然甘醇。
而朋友，你知道嗎？
歲月流逝、年華老去，美貌也逐漸衰老了。
你是否曾經想過什麼樣的友誼才是你所憧憬的嗎？
我想友誼這東西，需要雙方用心的呵護經營，倘若一方覺得這段友誼可有可無時，那麼這段友誼就會有如流星般稍縱即逝的，要認識新朋友超級簡單，但要維持一段有默契的友情宇宙無敵困難，朋友靜下心來一起喝杯好茶吧 !
只願淡淡的情誼，能夠永永遠遠走下去 ...
雖有一點淡淡的距離，我的快樂只因有你 !
From Wab Wab
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Friday, July 04, 2008
Rehab by Rihanna
Title: Rehab
Album: Good Girl Gone Bad
Artist: Rihanna
[Verse 1:]
Baby, baby
When we first met
I never felt something so strong
You were like my lover
And my best friend
All wrapped into one
With a ribbon on it
And all of a sudden
When you left
I didn’t know how to follow
It’s like a shot
That spun me around
And now my heart left
I feel so empty and hollow
[Pre Chorus:]
And I’ll never give myself to another
The way I gave it to you
Don’t even recognize
The ways you hit me
Do you?
It’s gonna take a miracle to bring me back
And you’re the one to blame
[Chorus:]
And now I feel like, oh
You’re the reason
Why I’m thinking
I don’t wanna smoke all
These cigarettes no more
I guess this is what I get
For wishful thinking
Should’ve never let you into my door
Next time you wanna go on and leave
I should just let you go on and do it
It’s not usual like how I’ll leave
It’s like I checked into rehab
Baby you’re my decease
It’s like I checked into rehab
Baby you’re my decease
I gotta check into rehab
‘Cause baby you’re my decease
I gotta check into rehab
‘Cause baby you’re my decease
[Verse 2:]
Damn,
Ain’t it crazy
When your love slams?
You’ll do anything
For the one you love
‘Cause anytime
That you needed me
I’d be there
It’s like
You were my favorite drug
The only problem is
That you was using me
In a different way
That I was using you
But now that I know
That it’s not meant to be
You gotta go
I gotta win myself over you
[Pre Chorus:]
[Chorus:]
[Ad libs]
[Chorus:]
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Happy Birthday to Erika!
Dear Erika,
You are my wonderful friend, sweet younger sister and excellent listener. I love hanging out with you. May our friendship grow stronger every day. Thank you very much for spending the birthday with Lung, Maria and me exclusively.
Love ya,
Candy
x
Do you know him?
Yeung Lung
My beloved classmate from Primary school.
We have not met for fifteen years...
until So Yiu Ming Brought us together last Sunday.
He is not changed much!
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Ernesto said
"You are my colleague now, not my student anymore."
I realize that I am back to work and should be professional. Can't act like a kid in Poly U.
Millions thanks to those who have helped in my job application!
I will be a research assistant for 'Blooming Style' (4-ZZ9Y), a research project for pregnant women with three cool supervisors from Malaysia , Canada and Korea. I will mainly work on desk research, data analysis subject recruitment and the 3D body scanner operation.
Ciao, Bella!
I realize that I am back to work and should be professional. Can't act like a kid in Poly U.
Millions thanks to those who have helped in my job application!
I will be a research assistant for 'Blooming Style' (4-ZZ9Y), a research project for pregnant women with three cool supervisors from Malaysia , Canada and Korea. I will mainly work on desk research, data analysis subject recruitment and the 3D body scanner operation.
Ciao, Bella!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)