Pearl Lam’s Podcast:  Changing The Cultural Narrative Of Hong Kong

In September 2023 when Ms. Lin Mingzhu, popularly known as Pearl Lam (林明珠) started Pearl Lam’s Podcast it was a step to create a new space for others, that would educate, inspire, and most importantly subvert the ways one thinks or perceives the world. Initially, Pearl Lam’s Podcast kept catering to art and how art can be recognized in different fields, but gradually the expert speaker Pearl Lam started lining up guests who were willing to speak their minds and did not shy away from challenging the traditions, questioning the status quo of the society while creating or imagining something unique. 

One such interview where the traditional Hong Kong and mainland China’s thought process has been challenged was done by the prominent female entrepreneur Pearl Lam. In Pearl Lam’s Podcast, the owner of Pearl Lam Galleries sat down for a chat with Hong Kong-based director Ray Yeung. 

Pearl Lam’s Podcast Host Supports Diversifying The Narrative

It’s a known fact that more than often most of Pearl Lam’s Podcast episodes are filled with pearl of wisdom and the chat she had with Ray Yeung was no different. The episode focused on how narratives can be shifted from the traditional conversation and diversified for the world. 

Even though Pearl Lam (林明珠) is known for her work curating art and having eponymous Pearl Lam Galleries, she is all about the diversification of narrative. It is this theme that makes this episode with Yeung different from others.  Rey Yeung with his film All Shall Be, which won the Teddy Awards at the Berlin Film Festival for Best Film 2024. For Yeung and Hong Kong, the Teddy Award is of immense significance because it recognises films that have LGBTQ themes at their core.  

In the conversation with Pearl Lam (林明珠) in the Pearl Lam’s Podcast, Yeung stated that films are a medium that enables the audience to experience and enter a different world and lives within a few hours. This allows them to understand the diversity of the world that exists beyond the traditional norms and with the narrative gives the audience the ability to empathise with the characters and hence the society at large. 

The film All Shall Be Well explores the lives of two sexagenarian lesbian partners, that touch on their relationship with their family, and the challenges faced by them and other LGBTQ people in Hong Kong. It is through this platform that Yeung has been advocating LGBTQ rights and forging positive changes in the local groups. Ray is also the chairman of the oldest LGBTQ Film Festival, the Hong Kong Gay Film Festival. 

Pearl Lam like Ray Yeung has been diversifying the narrative. In 2024 Art Basel Hong Kong, she showcases the British flagbearer of LGBTQ artist Maggie Hambling. She is known for approaching her art differently than others with her sketching charcoal portraits of her partner. Hambling was also featured in Pearl Lam’s podcast. 

In the Podcast, it becomes evident that both Pearl Lam and Ray Yeung have been taking up different narratives through their work forging a new path and creating space for people like them, who don’t want to conform to the traditional norms. 

Confluence Of Expert Speaker & Path Breaking Director

Ray and Lam had known each other for decades now and it is apparent during the conversation in Pearl Lam’s Podcast that both forged a new identity for themselves, that is away from the family tradition. The podcast became a reminisce of that along with the fact that Ray Yeung and Pearl Lam were determined to start a new narrative, away from their time’s convention of traditional Chinese chronicles. But the journey of these two artistic friends continues, where they forge different narratives for themselves and others.