11th Apr 2010 (8)
IMAGE MANAGEMENT
I have a distant cousin who was about ten years older than me, whose
career path was extremely extraordinary. In his earlier career, he was a
successful photographer and had built a name for himself in the art circle.
As we are descendants of families which did not originate from China, we
did not have Chinese surnames. Since we lived in Hong Kong, my
grandfather had given himself and members of his extended family a
Chinese surname. With a Chinese surname, it was more convenient to get
round with the Chinese community in Hong Kong. My parents were then
also known as Mr & Mrs Meng. This distant cousin of mine changed his
Chinese surname from Meng to Deng and called himself Deng Dai Ping,
which had similarity to Deng Xiao Ping, who was an important and
powerful political figure in China at that time. He did get a lot of attention
from his name and from his successful and creative work in photography.
After several years in this field, he started developing his career in
advertising and then business innovation consultancy. He was an extremely
intelligent and talented person and got himself a much sought after
qualification from Harvard Business School. He had this idea of combining
art and creativity in business management.
When I was in my teens, wherever he went, he always carried two or three
fat hard-cover books with him. I always wondered why he was carrying
books by hand and not putting them in a bag, even when he was seeing
friends. Now, I guess that it must be his way of managing his image.
Yuen-yee
IMAGE MANAGEMENT
I have a distant cousin who was about ten years older than me, whose
career path was extremely extraordinary. In his earlier career, he was a
successful photographer and had built a name for himself in the art circle.
As we are descendants of families which did not originate from China, we
did not have Chinese surnames. Since we lived in Hong Kong, my
grandfather had given himself and members of his extended family a
Chinese surname. With a Chinese surname, it was more convenient to get
round with the Chinese community in Hong Kong. My parents were then
also known as Mr & Mrs Meng. This distant cousin of mine changed his
Chinese surname from Meng to Deng and called himself Deng Dai Ping,
which had similarity to Deng Xiao Ping, who was an important and
powerful political figure in China at that time. He did get a lot of attention
from his name and from his successful and creative work in photography.
After several years in this field, he started developing his career in
advertising and then business innovation consultancy. He was an extremely
intelligent and talented person and got himself a much sought after
qualification from Harvard Business School. He had this idea of combining
art and creativity in business management.
When I was in my teens, wherever he went, he always carried two or three
fat hard-cover books with him. I always wondered why he was carrying
books by hand and not putting them in a bag, even when he was seeing
friends. Now, I guess that it must be his way of managing his image.
Yuen-yee
Central district in HK in 1960s
