The world of Patti and Andy Wong's Chinese New Year parties
High society Orientalism in the y2k era
Lately I’ve been on a y2k research binge and ended up diving into old Tatler coverage of Patti and Andy Wong, the ultra wealthy Hong Kong-born, British-educated financier-socialites who ran with the London high society set of the mid-90s through the 2000s. Every year Patti and Andy - both of whose grandfathers founded Hang Seng Bank and the Bank of East Asia, respectively - would throw grandiose Chinese New Year parties with themes such as ‘Metallic Splendour’, ‘1920s Shanghai’, ‘Mystery Vamp and Seduction’ or ‘Bling Bling Divas and Gangsters and Assassins’. Always falling at the end of January rather than the actual date of Chinese New Year, Andy clarified in an interview with the Independent in 2005 that this was because ‘everyone goes skiing in February.’
The famed parties, thrown ‘for 700 of their closest acquaintances’, reportedly cost up to £50,000 and had a guest list that boasted anyone who was anyone, from Dame Shirley Bassey to Buzz Aldrin, Isabella Blow to Peter Andre, Tara Palmer Tompkinson to Martine McCutcheon. Alright, who’s feeling the y2k nostalgia now!? At one party, there were Yoko Ono and ‘Sean, mysteriously dressed exactly like his dead dad circa Strawberry Fields’. Also likely to turn up were triple-barrelled members of the landed gentry, minor European nobility and, er, one Duke of York - spotted here in the year the theme was ‘Eyes Wide Shut’.
Being at one of those events must have been like walking through the pages of Hello! magazine. Aside from finding amusement in some of the greatest crimes against fashion that took place at these parties, I’m hooked by the Wongs’ place in and impact on British upper class culture at the time - especially as that Independent article points out, ‘their background is blue-chip, discreet, traditional Hong Kong Chinese.’ Word was their parents were initially disapproving of their flamboyant and extravagant lifestyle. I’ve been around some of that conservative blue chip Hong Kong wealth and let me tell you: they would rather run a mile than touch a feather boa.
Indeed, it’s intriguing that two characters from old Hong Kong money and banking stock - as close to aristocracy as you could get in Hong Kong, I guess - were building their reputation abroad as societal bons viveurs, outside of their established careers. It is more so intriguing that this was the period when the borders of British ‘high society’ were heavily blurred; for in order to get in the VIP room it was no longer the exclusive domain of the well-bred upper class - having money or gaining fame could get you entry too. (See: Bourdieu’s theory of capital.) So much of this, of course, is symbiotic with the dominance of tabloid culture in the UK and the currency of both The Image and of Gossip.
Here’s my theory. Perhaps it was not enough to get in the room that Patti and Andy Wong boasted a distinguished Hong Kong background and were Oxbridge educated. Perhaps the only way they could get their foothold into high society was by performing lavish and public displays of generosity - which relied on titillating the public via tabloid media. From thereon, the desire to attend Andy and Patti Wong’s parties was self-generating. Everyone wanted an invite. Everyone wanted to be seen.
Right now in certain ESEA circles we talk a lot about representation and visibility, but only if it fits our idea of what representation is. Representation always looks like Gemma Chan, for some reason ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But other factors of class, politics and privilege - even notions of taste - seem not to count if we don’t approve of it.
With 20+ years of hindsight, I’m quite impressed by how the Wongs’ annual bash placed their particular version of Chineseness into the mainstream media. I’m also intrigued by their ambition to be in the celebrity limelight - because as wealthy bankers well connected in the finance world, there was no fiscal need for the Wongs to fraternise in this parallel society where ‘all is vanity, nothing is fair’, in the words of Thackeray. Other than for the thrill of it, I suppose. I imagine they very much relished breaking free from the smothering conservatism of Hong Kong’s own high society.
As someone who likes to appraise culture from a post-Oriental position, I find the images of their parties to be fascinating historical documents of the western consumption of all things Oriental - I include the Wongs themselves as something to be consumed. At these parties, fans and chopsticks in hair were de rigueur. Sushi was served on a naked girl. The India-theme brought out white aristos who chose to wear either saris or come dressed as… British colonials. The tone is very camp, very erotic.
Within the four very expensive walls of their annual party, the Wongs permitted this performance of debauched Orientalism, and their guests revelled in playing escapist dress up. I would not go so far as to say their self-Orientalisation was a form of self-deprecation or self-mockery, because they seemed far too assertive for that, but it was definitely self-knowing. The Wongs knew how to lean into their outsider position to get what they wanted: power and status.
so good!!! that class stratification of british society and how esea culture, ppl, intersects with it is something i don’t think about much… much more complex and more history than i sometimes lazily assume… so interesting to look back, thanks jenny