Ooi’s 3-year-old business, ‘Nicki Ooi Structural Integration Practitioner’, has relied heavily on social media for marketing, but the response has been slow.

“It is still the personal touch, face-to-face interaction and client referrals that make up the bulk of the business,” said the 44-year-old. The unique nature of Ooi’s one-woman business demonstrates the limits of social media for small businesses that require a more personal “practitioner-client” relationship.

“With Structural Integration (SI), it’s a ‘trust’ process,” she said. “The client has to trust and feel confident to be able to stand in front of me in their undergarments in order for me to do a full body analysis on their postures and their movements to determine areas of restrictions in their bodies.”

SI is the creation of an American biochemist professor, Ida Rolf, over 50 years ago. Unlike chiropractic therapy that focuses on bone alignment and joints, SI involves the realignment of deeper connective tissues that surround and support bones and joins. The web of connective tissues, when aligned properly will support a good body posture. SI addresses the body pains and aches that arise from the poor posture by realigning and strengthening tissues. In Malaysia, Ooi is only one of six certified practitioners.

Client Lawrence Ang, 56, is a frequent business traveler. He comes to see Ooi because he has chronic shoulder pain from carrying his computer bag.

At Ooi’s brightly lit office, Ang lies face up on a massage table. Like many other clients, his first 90-minute session– out of a 10-session series was filled with pain.

As Ooi ‘worked’ on Ang, she pressed and kneaded away his tension and aches in deep long strokes, almost as if she were ironing out his connective tissues. An hour and a half later, Ang felt as if his rib cage had opened up. “I did feel more alert. Maybe cause I was more aware to be sitting upright, therefore I could breathe better.”

“It is very gratifying to see my clients leave, feeling better,” said Ooi.

Impressed by the vaunted effects of SI, Ang signed up his wife and one of his two daughters, each on a 10-hour series, and shared his experience via mass-email to his contact list.

“Confidence is something you can’t fake and with Nicki, I believe that is something that really comes across,” said Ang.

A former advertising executive who had senior roles at several international agencies, Ooi left her 15-year corporate career to pursue her passion. A yoga and Tai Chi enthusiast, she has always been interested in ways to heal the physical body and “how to get it to function better”.

Fascinated with SI’s effects on body posture, she attended three different schools in the USA – The Rolf Institute in Boulder, Colorado, Sedona School of Massage in Arizona and The Guild for Structural Integration in Boulder and Kauai – “to learn the different development and approaches to SI”.

Over two years, she refined her palpation, body viewing and analysis skills and extensively studied the human anatomy, physiology and kinesiology, qualifying her as a practitioner.

With an intimate therapy such as SI, Ooi said, “many clients, are more influenced by their friends – or people in whose opinion they trust – than paid advertisement.”

“Facebook served as a good media of awareness to this part of the world where SI is a relatively new therapy,” she said. “Although, enquiries from complete strangers via my Facebook page have been slow in converting into actual new business.”

According to Dr. Carol Tan, entrepreneurship lecturer at RMIT University, apart from providing a valuable product or service, building real relationships with customers is a key element of success for small businesses.

“Despite a growing number of entrepreneurs using social media as a vital part of their marketing strategy, many successful owners still agree that there is no substitute for personal contact,” Dr. Tan said.

Each session with Ooi costs RM250 (approximately USD82), while in the US, Ooi said practitioners charge between USD100 and USD250 per session.

Available by appointment only, Ooi works on 20-plus clients weekly, ranging between the ages 11 and 92.

“Many people have a lot of pain, in one form or another,” Ooi said.

With growing legions of laptop users across Malaysia, Ang’s problem, the slumped posture resulting from hours of hunching over notebook computer keyboards, has accelerated into the domain of the everyday city workers, she added.

Canadian-trained Dr Barry Kluner, a leading Kuala Lumpur-based chiropractor believes that the opportunities in this business area are compelling “because it does look at things in a complete concept.”

“But the trend of SI boom (in Malaysia) can only happen if they are more people with proper credentials.”

“In this wellness industry, marketing is unique because it is about educating the patients,” said Ooi.

With the backbone of her business and her differentiating factor – her confidence in her hands – Ooi makes it her priority to “continue to conduct workshops on the importance of good postures and how SI can help educate the body to re-organise and rebalance itself… Also, by meeting potential clients face-to-face, they can direct any concerns to me there and then”.

Established in 1986, Sri Nonya is a family-run restaurant that serves mouth-watering Penang Nonya cuisine, made from recipes that have been handed down over generations.

“What we are cooking today are recipes of my wife’s grandmother, which have been handed down over the last four generations and, usually, to the best cook of the family,” said James Kuok, the founder of Sri Nonya.

As a result of inter-marriage between the local Malays and Chinese immigrants approximately 400 years ago, Nonya food, also known as Straits Chinese food, was born. It is an eclectic blend of Chinese and Malay cooking and often requires hours upon hours of preparation, usually involving the elaborate blending of spices and herbs to create the perfect sauce for each and every dish.

Most visitors, frequent or new, to Sri Nonya have a tendency to leave as satisfied customers.

“I enjoy Sri Nonya food as it is very authentic in its cooking,” said Son Boy Au, 56, one of those statisfied customers. “This is my second time here and I hope to bring more friends the next time I come!”

Dishes such as nasi ulam, a traditional herb rice salad, or beef rendang, a type of beef curry, are popular.

The fame of Sri Nonya’s beef rendang has spread in Hong Kong. It’s served at the Aberdeen Marina Club (AMC), one of the city’s most exclusive private clubs.

A few years ago, the AMC organised a Nonya food promotion  and heard about Sri Nonya through word-of-mouth. Kuok and his wife were invited to perform several cooking demonstrations at the club.

“My wife and I cooked around 15 to 20 dishes and have done this either once or twice at the club,” said Kuok. “AMC has been using the rendang recipe for more than two years now.”

Angela Lee, 27, a member of the AMC, is a fan. “I love Malaysian food, especially the curries!” said Lee. “When I saw that they served beef rendang at Aberdeen Marina (Club), I had to try it. It was very fragrant and delicious.”

Kuok’s mother-in-law decided to pass the recipes on to him as he is known to be “the best cook in the family” and as a result, he decided to open Sri Nonya in her memory.

The restaurant, nestled in a housing estate filled with decades-old homes, remains low-profile after all these years, depending solely on word-of-mouth publicity and online marketing –- a website and Facebook page.

“I’m very lucky as I have customers who are very loyal from around the area. They come and bring their friends from quite a wide cross-section, who have the spending power,” said Kuok. “We also have a website, which is cost-effective and a Facebook page.”

Kuok, who is very particular about hygiene, has always remained skeptical about relocating to a more centralised location, including large shopping malls.

“We are particular about cleanliness and air-conditioning. Unlike malls, here we have temperature-sensitive air-cons, filtered water and even a fly-proof kitchen!” said Kuok. “And I bought this place so I am my own landlord. I don’t have to worry about rent.”

All that matters for Sri Nonya is to spread awareness of Penang Nonya food. Despite having established a name for his restaurant in Malaysia and Hong Kong, he has no aspirations to expand his operations.

“This is my hobby,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if we break even every year. I’d actually be very happy if my building of ten years appreciates in value and that would be my actual profit.”

Profit-driven or not, the business has done rather well so far.

Experience a taste of the concert by clicking on the arrows to view the audio-visual slideshow.

Among the performers, all wearing identical white T-shirts, were Hong Kong film stars, Jackie Chan and Eric Tsang, Cantopop singer Andy Lau, South Korean actor Kwon Sang Woo and Japanese singer Masatoyo Nakamura.

The audience swayed to the music, holding aloft lotus lights and slogans reading “Pray for Japan”.

Two young Japanese in the crowd were visibly moved. The wife wiped her tears silently while watching the performance. The husband put his arm around her. They said they had travelled from Shenzhen, where they live and work, to pray for victims by participating in this event.

The 311 Artistes Love Beyond Borders Concert was the latest of a string of charity events organized by the HKPAG, a non-profit organisation founded by Hong Kong entertainers in 1993.

HKPAG campaigns have raised funds for a number of disasters such as the SARS epidemic in 2003, the Southeast Asia tsunami in 2005, the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, Taiwan floods in 2009 and the Yushu earthquake in 2010.

“I had seen much of this kind of concert on TV before I came to Hong Kong. They are really helpful and meaningful for those who are suffering,” said Carol Zhong, a Hong Kong University student from mainland China.

Hear what she said:

Giving to charity is fairly commonplace is Hong Kong. According to Gallup’s World Giving Index, the territory ranked 18th worldwide in 2010 in terms of generosity.

Hong Kong’s richest tycoon Li Ka-shing announced last year he would allocate one-third of his assets to his charity foundation, which has disbursed over HK$10 billion in the past three decades, a report by the International Business Times said.

In 2005, Hong Kong people donated more than HK$620 million for tsunami relief, the largest amount in per capita terms worldwide.

This concept of “sharing fortune” has yet to become as established in mainland China.

Chinese donations per capita totalled RMB25 (HK$29) in 2010, accounting for 0.01% of GDP. This compared with 2.2% in the US, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

In Johnnie To’s movie, two men from Hong Kong fall in love with a woman from mainland China, and she ends up marrying one of them. Such cross-border unions, in reality, may be on the decline, according to Hong Kong statistics.

But of those couples who do get married in Hong Kong, more of them are staying here instead of going to China, a reversal from the pre-handover era.

There were 22,330 cross-border marriages in 2009, down 55% from 2006, when there were 34,628 such unions as the graphic below shows.

The number of cross-border unions since the 1980s appears to have peaked in 2006. The lowest year, of the eight years given in the data set, was 1986, with only about 16,000 such marriages. (The Census and Statistics Department provided data for only 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.)

Of those cross-border marriages in 2009, 81% were of Hong Kong men marrying mainland women. That percentage remains the same, for the most part, as far back as 1986. Marriages between Hong Kong women and mainland men appear to be in the minority.

The biggest change over the more than two decades is that more cross-border couples are registering their marriages in Hong Kong. That suggests more are staying in the city instead of going to China, which was the case more than 10 years ago.

The census bureau compares Hong Kong marriage registrants with applicants of Certificates of Absence of Marriage Records (CAMR). It interprets CAMR couples as having an intention or purpose of marrying in the mainland, but it also acknowledges that certificate holders may not always lead to marriages. The CAMR is official proof that a couple was not married in Hong Kong, allowing registration for marriage abroad.

In the visualization above, the left column is Hong Kong marriage registrants and the right CAMR holders. The size of each year’s circle is evidence of the reversing trend in cross-border marriages.

Maid cafés have become part and parcel of the Japanese culture since, according to Metropolis magazine they first appeared in 1998 at a marketing event for a dating simulation game, Welcome to Pia Carrot.

The cafés initially provided a pit stop for hardcore gamers and obsessed anime fans, known as otaku, to rest their weary feet and be doted upon by maids. Now they attract all sorts ranging from school-children to single women.
The first permanent café, Cure Maid Café, was founded in 2001 by the cosplay designer, Cospa, in Akihabara, a shopping district in Tokyo where computer and comic stores proliferate.

Cosplay is short for “costume play” and is usually considered as a Japanese phenomenon. It involves one dressing up as a fictional character, usually from sci-fi movie, video game or comic book.

Soon, Tokyo was awash in maid cafés, maid hair salons and even maid ear-cleaning. Currently, over 200 maid cafés exist in Japan alone.

Costumed staff normally greet their patrons with “Welcome home, master!” and engage them in quick-witted conversations – all of which are, unfortunately for foreign tourists, in Japanese.

Menus concentrate on desserts, which can best be described as adorable. Cuteness is, after all, what customers pay for when visiting a maid café.

At an additional cost, patrons can get extras like messages written in ketchup on their omelettes. They can also play games such as rock-paper-scissors or have personalised Polaroid photos taken with maids.

According to Metropolis, the boom for maid cafés began in 2003 when the Ministry of International Trade and Industry supported the idea of developing Akihabara as a destination for maids. The number of maid cafés ballooned from four to 40 establishments over the next few years.

This became a global phenomena when NHK TV featured @home café as a Christmas special in 2005, which aired in over 180 countries.

Established tour groups, including Akiba Map and the government-sponsored Japan Travel Bureau (JTB), now include visits to maid cafés in their tour packages.

Competition has led to the endless permutations of the form, where various kinds of service take place in differently themed cafés. A few have spawned butler cafés that cater to women, and even a mother café, which caters to those who like being treated like children.

A selection of maid cafés in Tokyo:

1) Cure Maid Café: First maid café ever
Cure Maid Café, Gee Store 6F, Soto-Kanda 3-15-5, Chiyoda-ku. Tel: 03 3258 3161.

2) MaiDreamin: No. 1 maid café
MaiDreamin, 6F Sumiyosi Building, 3-16-17, Kanda, Chiyoda-ku. Tel: 03 6905 7735.

3) @home café: Moe maid heaven
@home café, Mitsuwa Building 4F-7F, Soto-Kanda 1-11-4, Chiyoda-ku. Tel: 03 5846 1616.

4) Pinafore: Devilish maids
Pinafore, 1F Yamanaka Building, 1-19 Kanda Sakumacho. Tel: 03 5846 0778.

5) Nagomi: The ‘little-sister’ café
Pash Café Nagomi, Zenitani 2F, Soto-Kanda 1-8-4, Chiyoa-ku. Tel: 03 5256 8001.

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s biggest carrier, increased flight frequencies to and from Japan to meet travellers’ demands in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the northeast of the country.

Spokesperson Thomas Liu said Cathay Pacific was preparing for the worst situation, but has not taken any action.

“Right now, there has not been situation about radiation-affected passengers, aircraft crews, or airspace, but we are still working with the civil aviation authorities to stay alerted of what may happen in the future,” he said.

Cathay Pacific communications manager Maria Yu said the airline would refer to international practices should the situation worsen but there was no need at the moment.

“Cathay’s airspace is all clear and very safe to travel,” said Yu. “The degree of radioactive contamination should  depend on the number of people .. affected, and may not be related to the seats or other parts of the aircraft.”

Aircraft engineer Johnny Chung told the South China Morning Post that radioactive substances would have dissipated and would cause little harm at 30,000 to 40,000 feet up.

On March 20, the airline flew the last of its extra evacuation flights and ended temporary capacity increases on Tokyo routes.

The Standard quoted the airline as saying that seat occupancy of trips to Japan was declining, while travel in the opposite direction was “persistently high”, and that most of the passengers were returning Japanese.

Cathay Pacific’s website offered a special one-way fare, from Japan to Hong Kong, at HK$5,755 until March 27.

Passengers holding tickets issued on or before March 11 with departures to and from Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Sapporo and Okinawa, for travel between March 11 and June 30 will be eligible for a refund. Its sister airline Dragonair also said those with tickets to and from Fukuoka and Okinawa for travel between March 11 and June 30 could also get refunds.

Vox Asia correspondents explore the Lunar New Year specialities served up in two Chinese communities — in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, and in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, majority of the population are ethnically Chinese and the Lunar New Year traditions are heavily influenced by neighbouring Guangdong province.

About a quarter of the Malaysian population are ethnically Chinese, the second largest community after the Malays, who comprise of just over 50% of the total population.

MALAYSIA		HONG KONG
MALAYSIA		HONG KONG
Prosperity Toss (Yee Sing) Yee Sang, also known as the Prosperity Toss, is a Teowchew-style raw fish salad. It contains a range of ingredients ranging from strips of raw fish, commonly salmon, shredded vegetables and fruit, and a variety of sauces. Yee (fish in Chinese) is commonly conflated with its homophone abundance, while sang means increase or rise. Hence this dish is considered by Malaysians as a symbol of abundance in terms of wealth, health and happiness. Tip: The higher you toss it, the luckier you are!	cccc	The Big Bowl Feast (Pun Choi) Pun choi means a feast held in a big basin. Traditionally, 14 layers of food are placed in a wooden basin, usually starting from the least expensive items such as turnip or deep-fried pork skin to the most expensive — seafood or chicken. Auspicious ingredients, including hair moss or Faat Choi (signifying wealth) and fried fish (signifying surplus) are included during the Lunar New Year for good luck.
Year Cake (Nian Gao)		Nian Gao, Turnip Cake and Water Chestnut Cake
Nian Gao means year cake, and is commonly consumed during the Lunar New Year as it is considered to bring good luck. Despite numerous varieties, the glutinous rice, which is grounded into paste, is a key ingredient. Nian or year, sounds similar to sticky and gao, meaning cake sounds identical to high. As such, consuming Nian Gao symbolises that an individual will be able to raise him or herself higher in all aspects of life in the coming year.		The most popular New Year cakes are Nian Gao, water chestnut cake, taro cake and turnip cake.In Cantonese, turnip is called choi tau and choi sounds the same as wealth. The Cantonese name of water chestnut is ma tai, which means working actively. Consuming water chestnut cake symbolises good luck in one’s career in the upcoming year.
Love Letters (Kuih Kapit)		Laughing Sesame Balls (Siu Hao Jo)
Made from sugar, flour, eggs and coconut milk, Love Letters, or Kuih Kapit in Malay, are crispy wafers that are folded into fan or cigar shapes. These wafers are laborious to create and must be cooked at just the right temperature to obtain the perfect golden shade. The mould needs to be hastily placed over the flame and rotated in a timely manner for even cooking. Wafers must be folded into specific shapes while hot.		Siu hao jo are deep-fried cookie balls coated with a crispy layer of roasted sesame seeds. This delectable small ball of pasty is then deep-fried until it cracks open like a laughing mouth, which symbolises happiness and joy.
Kuih Bangkit		Taro Balls (Wu Ha)
Kuih Bangkit is another popular Lunar New Year cookie that crumbles and melts in the mouth. Made from powdered sugar, tapioca flour, rice flour and moistened with coconut cream, these tasty bites are often pressed into little animal or flower shaped moulds, baked and usually marked with a red dot for colour and good luck.		Traditionally, wu ha means spreading the laughter and joy to other families. Slices of taro are bundled together and rolled into a round shape. Despite the simple ingredients, taro slicing is a tedious task and much care is needed in ensuring that the temperature of the cooking oil is perfect for frying wu ha.
Pineapple Tarts		Red Melon Seeds
For the Chinese, these are a must during Lunar New Year, because the shape and colour of pineapple signifies prosperity. The salty, buttery, bite-sized tarts, filled with quarter-sized dollops of pineapple jam, are must-haves during festive seasons in Malaysia. Although fiddly to make, when done well, they are definitely well worth the effort. Typical shapes include the flat, open tart topped with pineapple jam or rolls filled with jam.		Rich in magnesium and phosphorus, these melon seeds are dried and roasted before being dyed a festive reddish colour, which symbolises prosperity. It is a tradition for hosts to serve guests a bowl filled with these dried melon seeds. The action of dipping a hand into the bowl is called yao en in Cantonese, which means making money.

The Choong family.

Every year the Choong family of Kuala Lumpur host a lion dance, usually on the first day of the Lunar New Year. They believe the ceremony brings good fortune, wealth and health to the family and their business.

“It’s a cleansing ritual, a good omen,” said P.C. Choong, whose family owns a law firm. “It’s  our family tradition to have a lion dance every Chinese New Year, and we have been having it for as long as I can remember.”

About a quarter of Malaysians are ethnically Chinese, second to the Malays who make up  just over half the total population. During the 15-day period of the Lunar New Year, it is common to witness troupes of lion dancers travelling from one place to another in Malaysian cities as Chinese families and businesses actively partake in such festivities.

The dish of fortune.

As the Year of the Rabbit dawned at the Choong residence, a lion dance troupe performed the traditional ritual of cai ching, which means “plucking the greens”.

This is to test the dancers’ skills in completing tasks such as peeling a pomelo or shredding the lettuce. The dancers earn red packets of lucky money. The amount is commensurate with the complexity of the tasks.

“This is a quest for the lion to search for the auspicious green vegetables like lettuce as they represent fortune and oranges or pomelos that represent  prosperity” Choong said.

“In return, the troupe is rewarded with red packets, which are bundled together with the vegetables and oranges.”

Two dancers form one lion: one dancer takes control of the head and its facial expressions while the other is engaged in the movement of the body and the tail. Aside from the acrobatic stances, the dancers give lifelike movements to the lion, adding to the success of the dance.

The dance movements are often accompanied by three main musical instruments: a large drum, cymbals and a gong. Every gesture of the lion, from the batting eyelids to leg lifts, is rhythmically choreographed to a particular beat of the music.

“Believing and having this on a yearly basis adds to the ‘feel good’ factor,” said Choong. “Psychologically it shows change in a year!”

Enjoy the Lion Dance in the Choong Family’s Garden