Steven Berkoff’s play Greek, a reworking of Oedipus Rex updated to contemporary London, set Sean Curran, co-founder of an innovative Hong Kong theatre company, on the path to a career in drama.

Reading The Joy of Small Things, a compilation of newspaper columns on the small pleasures in daily life, changed Rebecca Ling’s life. The lawyer and founder of womenswear brand Parallel 51 explains how.

Hong Kong designer toymaker and artist Michael Lau explains how Constantin Brancusi’s atelier at Paris’ Pompidou Centre gave a vivid understanding of the Romanian sculptor and inspired his practice.

As an art student, Hilarie Hon Hang-lam wanted to go against her professor’s wishes and paint for her final work. Reading Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s book convinced her to stick to her principles.

Contemporary qipao brand Qipology founder Julie Liu talks to the Post about watching the ballet Romeo and Juliet when she was around 10 and wanting to be a fashion designer because she liked the costumes.

Leading the charity HandsOn Hong Kong was a scary prospect for Catherine Tong Dannaoui. The work of motivational speaker Simon Sinek inspired her to become the leader she always wanted to be.

When he first watched Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 silent classic The Kid, WKM Gallery owner William Kayne Mukai enjoyed the comedy. He still watches it now and again and believes it opened him up to art.

Frederieke van Doorn, the founder and CEO of Hong Kong-based women’s tailoring brand Frey, explains how Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment changed her life.

Hong Kong contemporary artist Wong Kit-yi reveals how a residency with legendary minimalist Donald Judd’s Chinati Foundation taught her the importance of challenging herself.

Andrew Chan, artistic director of Hong Kong experimental theatre company Alice Theatre Laboratory, explains how Einstürzende Neubauten’s industrial album Halber Mensch changed his life.

The former World Bank economist’s sustainable clothing label, SukkaCitta, ensures better wages for the women working for it, while providing education to their families

Makayla Ng, Hong Kong fashion designer and founder of plus-size label Fashion Corner Plus, reveals how Korean-Australian musician DPR Ian’s EP Moodswings in This Order helped her accept who she was.

Hong Kong human rights lawyer and charity founder Patricia Ho explains how The Dive, by New Zealand-born Veronica Green, continues to empower her years after she fell in love with it at an art fair.

Ink artist T.K. Chan, a co-founder of Hong Kong’s Blink Gallery, explains how Chinese artist Water Poon’s innovative ink paintings, especially Get Together (2015), changed her life.

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s 2009 book Half the Sky opened the eyes of Natalie Chow, co-founder of Hong Kong-based sustainable and ethical shoe brand Kibo, to human trafficking and slavery.

I.M. Pei’s distinctive, angular Bank of China Tower, in Hong Kong, was a heavy influence on architect and artist Raymond Fung, who recalls seeing it under construction and later working for Pei.

Tabla founder and creative director Tania Mohan talks about her love of Genesis’ album Invisible Touch and going to Australia to present Phil Collins with an award on behalf of the Hong Kong people.

Barry Quek, head chef at Hong Kong Michelin-star restaurant Whey, talks about the impact cooking competition TV show Top Chef had on him, from teaching him techniques to the importance of ‘a plan B’.

Lucy Lord MBE, a decorated obstetrician who is also the founder and executive chair of mental health charity Mind HK, reveals the Jane Austen book that she has read over and over again for 50 years.

Ida Lam worked on the first Festival of Arts with the Disabled, in 1986, and was moved by the way it championed people with mental and physical disabilities, who often faced discrimination in the city.

Omega, famed for its elegant Constellation and De Ville collections, and Seamaster dive watches, continues to innovate with 2023’s Speedmaster Super Racing and the Coaxial Master Chronometer Calibre 1932

The founder of Splash Foundation, a Hong Kong charity that provides swimming lessons to people in low-income communities, reveals how the iconic 1961 photo ‘Muhammad Ali Boxing Underwater’ inspired her.

Flora Yu, executive director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, explains how the classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber, one of the world’s great works of literature, changed her life.

Tim Yu, founder and director of Hong Kong contemporary art space JPS Gallery, explains how Banksy’s so-called bemusement park Dismaland in the UK transformed his view of exhibitions.

Hong Kong poet-professor Belle Ling explains how Summer – a 2001 collection by Anglo-Australian poet Martin Harrison that is ‘an adventurous and bold exploration of the quotidian’ – changed her life.

The Black Bay and Royal models are much sought-after classics that make ideal gifts for discerning loved ones, presented in auspicious Lunar New Year colours

Nicolas Chow, chairman for Asia and worldwide head of Asian art at Sotheby’s, explains how French poet Charles Baudelaire’s book Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) changed his life.

Peggy Ho, research fellow at Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Art Museum, explains how an ink rubbing of the ‘Stele for Xia Cheng’, attributed to Chinese calligrapher Cai Yong, changed her life.

Gillian Howard, Hong Kong-based co-founder and global fair director of the Digital Art Fair, explains how selling a piece of video art to Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher put her on a new path.

Christine Chow, co-founder and creative director of Hong Kong sustainable fashion label Tove & Libra, explains the impact F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first book ‘This Side of Paradise’ had on her young self.