New Directions

ung hei fat choi to you all. I, for one, am delighted to see the back of the pesky Fire Monkey that wreaked havoc upon the world. But whether the Fire Rooster is kinder to us all is yet to be seen. After all, this is the year when a certain controversial world leader settles into office, a leader whose resemblance to a coiffed rooster was bespoken by a giant sculpture unveiled in the mainland city of Taiyuan. Inflatable versions are now the hit item on Taobao.

But we go from roosters to lovebirds, as February is the month of Valentines. You won’t be able to resist the charm of this month’s cover stars, Victoria and Christopher Owen. From the inventive way Vic engineered an encounter under a table at a friend’s party (ahem!) to Chris’ almost-bungled engagement proposal in Japan, their story is a sweet testament that, in life, you need a partner you can laugh with.

And they’ll need a good dose of humour to get them through the big changes that are happening, from career changes and the establishment of their own creative agency to the arrival of their first child in a few months, an event that they hope will finally put an end to the constant scrutiny of the local tabloids’ baby watchers.

With this new stage of their lives before them, Chris and Vic make the perfect couple to feature at the start of this lunar year (p.104). I have no doubt that they’ll make wonderful parents. They’re already well prepared, with Vic having designed her own range of baby accessories when she was creative director of her family’s lifestyle brand, Tang Tang Tang Tang. There’s one thing that their bundle of joy might want though—an inflatable Trump rooster perhaps?