Looking into the future: three artists predict their fortunes for Chinese New Year

The fortune cookie is recognisable across the world: crisp and sugary, often flavoured subtly with vanilla and sesame oil, and always containing a piece of paper inside proffering a fortune to the lucky eater.

The fortunes often take the form of an aphorism or a prophecy, a Chinese phrase or a list of lucky lottery numbers. Whilst now enjoyed as dessert after dinner at a Chinese restaurant, fortune cookies didn’t, in fact, originate from China. The exact origin of fortune cookies is unclear; however, it is believed they first appeared in California in the early 1900s.

Such is the beauty of culinary traditions: often evolving, changing with immigration and the tides of time. Which brings us to now. In celebration of Chinese New Year, one of the biggest festivals in the Chinese calendar, Hakkasan invited writers, poets, actors and wordsmiths to pen 88 fortunes each to be included in a fortune macaron, an evolution of the humble cookie into a delicate and light French biscuit flavoured with auspicious ingredients to honour the coming year.

We asked three of the guest fortune writers for Hakkasan to tell us about what fortune they’d like to receive in 2019.

Will Self
Hakkasan London

Will Self is an English author and journalist who has written 11 novels, five collections of short fiction, three novellas and five collections of non-fiction writing. His fiction is known for being satirical, grotesque and fantastical, and is predominately set within his home city of London.

“Well at my age, I’m afraid much of what I wish for is quite conservative: the preservation of my own health, that of my family and friends – while for the wider world, which seems beset by a certain volatility at the moment, I also wish for calmness, good collective health – mental and physical – and a resistance to the forces of darkness and destruction that all too often shadow human affairs.

“I do have specific ambitions for 2019, though: I wish to undertake significant journeys to the deserts of North America and Australia this year, to research a book about the psychology of these great and empty places – and, as a crowded-city-dweller, who spends most of his waking hours sitting and typing, I find the idea of being somewhere quite that remote hugely exciting. I’m also looking forward to the launch of the Hakkasan fortunes, and going into one of the Hakkasan restaurants in London, eating a lovely meal, receiving one of the special cookies, opening it, and, by some strange and quirky miracle, finding that this fortune has been interpolated among the 88 other ones I wrote, so that I have indeed foretold my own future!

“So, now that I’ve – as it were – rigged my own future, I suppose I should begin thinking about what I want to do with it; however, I’m enough of a student of Chinese thinking to appreciate a little of the Dao, and to think of life less as an object, to be enjoyed as one might a new consumer durable – or a meal for that matter – but rather as process, an art, and a mode of being in this fantastical and ever-mutating world of ours. And on this basis, I’m looking forward simply to more of the same – more of being an Ukiyo-e: a Japanese word, which refers to the skill of print-making, but which can be literally translated to mean ‘an artist of the floating world’.

“The Anglo-Japanese writer, Kazuo Ishiguro used this as the title for one of his novels. But I don’t mean by this to say that my own wishes relate to my own writing, or other creative work – rather I believe that we’re all artists, and should all live our lives as if we’re making something beautiful, both for others, and for ourselves.”

Vincent Fang Wen Shan
Hakkasan Shanghai

Vincent Fang is a Taiwanese multi-Golden Melody Award nominated lyricist, best known for his collaboration with singer-songwriter Jay Chou. He is at the forefront of China Wind music, with his work often treated as poetry of artistic merit that garners high critical regard.

“I would like to experience more in the coming year.

“Daily life experiences inspire most of my work. Through different working environments, we can easily observe various lifestyles and the pursuit of different people’s dreams. Observation motivates writing. Feelings and experiences give me a peaceful mind to write smoothly – of course, late at night mostly.

“I wrote my fortunes for Hakkasan on a tranquil late night, imagining myself dining at the restaurant with some close friends, having gourmet food and good wines whilst talking about memories and the new year.

“Meanwhile, as a lyricist, I also want to have more time to read, especially real books instead of reading online. This is because I always feel that what has been written on paper shows more of a rigorous attitude to work, and also more ceremony. It represents responsibility towards both the author and reader. Moreover, reading is an activity which has high return on investment, since an author spends a long time putting his perspectives and effort onto paper; however, as a reader, we could just spend an afternoon to learn it all. It is the strength that words could give us, anytime.”

新的一年期待能够体验更多的工作经历，尝试更多人生中不曾体验到的新经验。个人而言，写作的灵感常常来自于生活，通过不同的工作环境和工作内容，可以观察到不同人物的生活状况、对于梦想的追求，而观察是写作的动力。通过这些日积月累的感受和体验，在绝对安静的深夜时分会下笔流畅。本次和Hakkasan合作的签语也是在静悄悄的深夜时候写下的。想象自己置身于Hakkasan的餐厅，与两三好友一起享受着美食，畅聊着过去一年的回忆与新年的期许，没有截稿压力、也没觉得是一种任务，非常顺利的写出来。

与此同时，作为一个擅于写文字的人，也希望新年能有更多的时间来阅读。相较线上阅读，纸质的书会更有仪式感，也会更严谨，它出版后就是白纸黑字在这里，无论对作者还是对读者都是负责任的。同时纸质阅读是投资回报率最高的事情，一个作者写一本书，会花费很长一段时间将他的价值观、专业性浓缩到一起，但作为读者可以用一个下午的时间把作者几年的心血占为己有，这就是文字给予很多人的力量。