People

Not everyone has the chance to visit North Korea, let alone meeting the country's supreme leader. But some people suspect they see him here. IF you think you have met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un occasionally in Hong Kong, don't panic. You have only met his look-a-like, Kim Jong "Um", a character created by Howard. Since 2013, Howard, who prefers not to reveal his name, started impersonating the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In fact, when Howard first saw Kim Jong-un with his father, Kim Jong-il, years ago on television, he already noticed that he looks very much like Kim Jong-un. But it was not until his friends also pointed out this likeness did he start impersonating Kim. "If lots of people recognize me as Kim," he said, "it means that I could become an impersonator and make money," He and his friends created a Facebook page called "Kim Jong ‘Um'-Kim Jong Un Look alike/Impersonator" and started posting pictures of him with Kim's signature haircut and black button up suit. Although Howard looks like Kim, it still takes him four hours to turn himself into Kim by changing his hairstyle and modifying the shape of his eyebrows. Other than changing his appearance, Howard has also learn to imitate Kim Jong-un's tone by watching all the speeches the real leader has delivered. But despite having done that, Howard said he knew nothing about Kim's personality. "Actually, I think no one knows for sure," Howard said. "Perhaps he is a puppet of the real governors behind the scene. Who knows?" Another obstacle for Howard is speaking Korean. Usually, he only needs to walk around and wave to people silently. But he feels horrible when he is asked to recite Korean lines. "I still do not know how to speak …

Star Wars cosplayers bring joy to countless kids   "May the Force be with you." If you can tell that this classic line is from the spiritual peacekeeping Jedi in Star Wars, and have been fond of helping the needy, you might want to join the Rebel Legion. The organisation is based in the United States and has spread all over the world. Star Wars costume lovers can team up and form a base in their community as long as they have passed the requirements set by the headquarter. RL members utilise their costume talents and give back to the community by dressing up as Star Wars superheroes for charity and volunteering activities. The quality of their work will be overseen by the headquarters. "The Rebel Legion Hong Kong Base" (RL) is a force formed by about 20 local members. Among them are Mr Edmund Tong, Ms Carmen Chiang and Mr Chris Chan. The members did not make a superhero entrance to our interview. They just came in casual wear. All the goodies were stored in the gigantic suitcases they brought with them. They showcased the delicate costumes while telling the story. "Cosplayers of Star Wars gather as friends to do good things together. This is what the RL aims at," said Mr Tong. The "good things" they did included visits to hospitals children wards. From the RL's point of view, cosplaying for hospital visits made it easier for children to accept them, he explained. Yet, it is not that easy for the adults. " Those well-known charitable organisations are used to doing things in a certain way. They have a lot of concerns when someone approaches them wanting to add in new elements to the volunteer programmes as they care very much about their image," said Ms Enid Lau, who has …

Hong Kong's sole hat designer talks about her passion for making a piece of clothing not commonly worn by locals To Ms Jay Cheng,"hats are poems", as a hat is the piece of clothing that highlights the personality of its wearer. For that reason, those words have adorned the business cards of Hong Kong's only millinery trailblazer,whose clients include many local celebrities, including actoress Carina LauKar-ling and singer Eason Chan Yik-shun. "A good hat can make a big difference. It can make a beautiful lady more gorgeous," said Ms Cheng, showing her love and confidence in hats. Despite having made a name as a milliner, Ms Cheng still cannot quite explain why she has fallen in love with hats. She had started as a freelance fashion stylist after studying fine arts and printmaking in Canada. Some years ago, having decided to go back to school, she came across a course on millinery while browsing through the courses of the London College of Fashion. She was instantly hooked and decided to give it a try. Ms Cheng still remembers how she was impressed by a room full of millinery blocks when she first arrived at the college. "I felt that place was paradise to me," she said. After learning the basic techniques of making hats in the seven-day course, Ms Cheng further developed her skills by receiving training from a renowned British royal milliner, Rose Cory. In 2005, after completing the training, she gave up her job as a stylist and became a full-time milliner."I would feel sorry for myself if I did not try to be a full-time milliner, as I have developed a strong love for making hats and nobody's doing it in Hong Kong," she said. To Ms Cheng, hats have a great power of subliming a person's temperament …

Ms Denise Yeung says that women can also be great racecar drivers Ms Denise Yeung, one of the very few female racecar drivers in Hong Kong, has been participating in this traditionally male-dominated sport as an amateur racer for five years.

Some years ago, when Ms Smook worked for "Next", a jeans retailer, she started to realize the problem of how manufacturers directly discharged the dyed water and waste fabrics into the river near the factory in Bangladesh. "I was absolutely shocked and I don't want to be part of the waste," Ms Smook said.

It is another ordinary night for the toy designer sitting in the Mong Kok occupy site with his pen, iPad and notebook, which is filled with sketches and astonishing soundbites and scenes. Mr White Water, the artist's alias, designs toys that bring children and adults into a dreamy world. But he is more well-known for confronting reality through his online political comics "Boiling Frog" that went viral among netizens in 2011. Published on Facebook, his humourous and sarcastic comics against the Hong Kong government and the mainland have become very popular, but the 33-year-old political cartoonist says he faced struggles. Working as a full-time toy designer and part-time political cartoonist, he says it is hard as he has limited time to create and could barely make a living through his artwork. "The nature of political comics is not easily accepted by society," he said. His brainchild springs from the parable of the boiled frog, the idea that if water is heated slowly enough a frog will boil to death without even noticing. This described Hong Kong's situation three years ago, he said. The comics depicts his inner struggles towards political issues through portraying the life of two frogs debating current affairs. "The brown one reflects my true feelings while the green one symbolises the inner cynic in me who justifies things with scepticism," he said. By using metaphors commonly used in ordinary life, he expresses his ideas in the four-frame comic strip using a minimal style. What prompts him to use lively comics to express weighty political issues are his friends, he says. They have detached themselves from reality and seldom read the news. His comics have touched on significant moments in Hong Kong such as the umbrella movement and the anti-national education protest. "I try to bring them back …

IMAGINE leaving your family behind on New Year's Eve to tell somebody that their beloved one just died. Adding fuel to the flame, you ask the relatives to donate the organs of the dead, allowing little time for them to come to terms with the death. For Ms Tong Yuen-fan, one of the seven organ transplant coordinators in Hong Kong, her job means a constant confrontation with death day and night. "It is essentially a 24-hour task be- cause death has no schedule," said Ms Tong. When she receives a call from the Prince of Wales Hospital informing her of a potential donor, she will need to talk to the relatives about their choices as soon as possible. Time is a critical factor in organ transplant because the organs will start to deteriorate rapidly once the heart stops. How to convey the imminence of this matter to the grief-stricken families without causing antipathy is a question with no definite answer. "I would say something in condo- lence with the family. I would not bring up the topic if I feel that they are not ready to accept the death of their loved ones," she said. For instance, people would demand the doctors to resuscitate the patient even after he or she was declared brain-dead. Ms Tong added that it is important for the family to understand what brain death means and how an organ trans- plant is carried out. The mother of a do- nor kept asking every doctor she visited whether her son's death was real. It is hard to accept the death of your beloved ones when you can still feel the warmth of the body. But they are gone, together with the neural responses and brain functions. "Sometimes just being a compan- ion is enough. They need …

Q: What do you think is the major obstacle for true democracy in HK? A: I think there are really two sides of it. One is that people in power are never willing to give democracy easily because to a lot of people in power it's addictive. The more power they have, the more they want and they don't want to share it with the people. The other obstacle in many ways is whether Hong Kong people are prepared to sacrifice, are prepared to fight for a share of the power, a share of the wealth. Q: Some see Hong Kong as one of the freest cities in the world and that Beijing is already making some great concessions. Why are you fighting for democracy now, with controversial civil unrest? A: Because things change. Don't think that what you are enjoying is given, or that it will continue... So for ordinary people, like you and me, we have no protection other than having a system whereby we are ensured a free and new choice in who would be deciding things like our social policies, our electoral laws, who gets to be our secretaries, what kind of policies they devise. If you don't safeguard "one country, two systems", it will become "one country, one system". I think Hong Kong people are increasingly aware that if you want your 50 years to remain unchanged, if you want to carry out with your way of life, you want to preserve things, like Cantonese and the way we write our Chinese characters and our culture or even our breathing and living space, you've got to earn it. Q: The pan-democrats are going to veto the Beijing model and boycott the next round of consultation for the Chief Executive election methods, but some say it …

The owner of Pumpernickel says it takes her years to come up with the right recipe for running her bread business Every Pumpernickel cafeteria keeps a memo which lists the names of all its directors. The name Joan Yuen stands out not only because it is at the top of the list, but also because she has two titles — "Director" and "Head Baker".