Reenita's Wisdom

This story was written for the Wall Street Journal Asia.

Fifteen years ago, Malawan Patamapongs, an interior designer whose clients have included members of the Thai royal family and a former U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, bought a 1,200-square-meter lot in the heart of Bangkok’s central business district.

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Classical Chinese paintings, contemporary Asian art and rare pink diamonds from India set the pace for a show of collectibles rooted in Asian tradition to be auctioned by Christie’s.

Christie’s autumn sales, which run from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, will offer more than 2,800 works of art; the estimated value exceeds 1.7 billion Hong Kong dollars (US$219 million).

For the full story in the Wall Street Journal Asia click here.

This story was written for the Wall Street Journal Asia’s “Scene Asia” column.

Chinese watch collectors have begun to shift their focus toward vintage pieces.

It boils down to heritage and nostalgia: “As the Chinese buyers grow older, antique styles remind them of their fathers and grandfathers,” says Pansy Ku, a watch specialist at Christie’s.

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Mayor Bloomberg at Hong Kong's C40 Workshop

Mayors Michael Bloomberg of New York City and David Miller of Toronto tell reporters what most impressed them about the Chinese Mayors’ discussion about increasing sustainability in their cities.

New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the new chair of the C40 Climate Leadership Group, applauded Chinese mayors gathered in Hong Kong last week for taking proactive steps towards building low carbon environments in their cities.

City officials and senior representatives from over 30 cities around the world and 120 officials from cities and provinces of mainland China gathered at a C40 workshop in Hong Kong last week to explore the challenges and opportunities of creating low carbon cities that offer a high quality of life.

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This story was written for the Asian Wall Street Journal’s “China Real Time Report.”

A new survey into consumer behavior in China overturns a commonly held belief: China’s biggest spenders live in big cities…and small towns, too.

Up to now, many global companies, especially luxury brands, have focused first on building a presence in China’s biggest cities such as Beijing and Shanghai — called Tier 1 in marketing-speak — that boast a population of 8 million or more. The thinking? The bigger the city, the higher the earning power and the more money there is to spend on luxury goods.

To read the complete story, please click on this link which will take you to the Asian Wall Street journal: In China, Even Small Cities Spend Big.