L’ ECOLE VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

During the second edition of L’ECOLE Van Cleef & Arpels which run in Hong Kong from the 4th to the 14th of March, the venerable Maison introduced a Legacy Programme.

Van Cleef & Arpels invited each of their distinguished comittee members to nominate one candidate to participarte . This competition was open to young gifted artists from Hong Kong in any field, who were asked to interpret jewellery in the context of Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends in the perspective of Hong Kong.

We at Fast Management were delighted when PJ Lam was announced as one of the winners having been  selected by Ms Pansy Ho as her candidate

The Legend that inspired her shoot was that of Ching Shih and Cheung Po Tsai.

Ching Shih was a prominent Cantonese pirate and probably the only female pirate leader of her time. Her fleet terrorized the China Sea in the early 19th century. She commanded over 300 junks manned by reportedly 40,000 pirates. She challenged the empires of the time, such as the British, Portuguese, Japanese and the Qing dynasty. Undefeated, she would become one of Asia’s strongest pirates.

PJ Lam told us:

“The scene I wanted to capture was that of Ching Shih declaring her love for Cheung Po Tsai, whom she would later marry, in giving him her most valuable and cherished piece of jewellery. The piece of jewellery is symbolism for the most powerful fleet of pirates which is in fact what Ching Shih handed over to her soon to be new husband upon their nuptials. It is also a Chinese traditional way of passing the most precious heritage item to the person who continue one’s legacy”.