Tony Law's Website

Hong Kong Visitors

Jul 5, 2026

Toronto seems to be a hotspot for HK visitors this summer. A good friend’s dad, another good friend’s in-laws, and a high school friend who just arrived last week with his wife and daughter. I was delighted to be spending time with them, catching up and introducing them to the country where I now call home. Hong Kong seems to have moved down to be my second home now that I’m settled in TO, this is inevitable.

One of my friend’s in-laws flew back to HK yesterday, so they no longer need me as a chauffeur during their family outings. My old car seemed to know that it had accomplished its important mission of safely moving the HK visitors around for the past few weeks, one of its tires had suddenly gone flat yesterday. I didn’t notice it until a pedestrian pointed that out when I parked my car to buy takeouts. Two separate strangers told me about the flat tire shortly after. Canadians are in general nice and kind. I was concerned but still decided to drive the car carefully on flat tire to my friend’s place to catch the Canada game. Sadly, Canada lost the game.

With my chauffeur duty fulfilled and Canada’s soccer team out of the WC, I think it’s about time for me to pick up the slack and spend more time on my studio work. May God continue to guide me in doing meaningful and sustainable work in this country. 🙏🏻

A Week of Mourning

Jun 29, 2026

The weather was mostly cloudy and gloomy during weekdays this past week. After a tiring week at the studio and after knowing about the devastating news of a friend’s brother (also my friend) sudden passing away, I decided to take some time off work. The gloomy weather was good for me to watch World Cup at home during the day because I use a projector but I don’t have any proper projector screen nor any curtains to block off daylight. I figured this could help me from over watching too many videos during the day. Weather was cooperating and helped me mourn for a dear friend. There were a couple of days I would just lay on the couch all day watching whatever matches were being broadcasted. I was so unmotivated to the point that I didn’t even want to take a shower before going to bed and slept on the couch instead. I ended up sleeping on the couch Monday to Friday.

The lack of motivation didn’t stop me from engaging in some social activities however. A good friend’s dad was visiting from HK and I met up with the father and son again for wings and beer on Tuesday night. Another good friend’s relatives were visiting from HK, and after chauffeuring them to Niagara Falls last Sunday, I drove them to do some shopping on Thursday and treetop trekking on Saturday. On Friday, I met up with a couple of church brothers for lunch. One of them suffered from a major stroke a few years back and is still pushing hard on himself in rehabilitating, and the other lost his job recently and decided to take a little break for the summer.

After Sunday service today, my friend who had lost his dear brother opened up his house for some of us to visit and watch the Canada’s game together. He had been staying at his elderly mother’s home the whole week to care for her after his brother’s sudden passing away. We chatted calmly and casually about his brother and had a little whiskey in his name. Canada won the match over South Africa and made it to the round of 16 for the first time in World Cup. Watching the winning game and seeing my friend holding up okay seemed to be a good ending to the week of mourning. Life goes on.

Tiring Week

Jun 23, 2026

After a long tiring week of preparation for an event on Saturday, and a day of long hour driving chauffeuring a good friend’s relatives visiting from HK to see the Niagara Falls on Sunday, I was exhausted and slept relatively early (around midnight) on Sunday.

Had a refreshing sleep and woke up naturally at around 8am this morning and was ready to start and enjoy a less hectic week. When I was still in bed and switched off the sleeping mode of my phone, I received the shocking and saddening news that my friend’s brother (also my friend) suddenly passed away at home yesterday. I didn’t know how to process the sudden news. I decided to just stay in bed and try to make sense of it all. It felt surreal because I just met up with him last week when the close group of friends went out to watch the Knicks championship game at a sports bar. In fact, I had joined them to watch the last four games of the NBA Finals together and kidded that we had all seen each other too much and had to take a break before we arrange the next meet up for my post-bday celebration. How can a life be taken away so suddenly without any preemptive signs whatsoever?! I still owe him money for the sports bar meetup and he still owes me a Blue Jays game that he was trying to arrange! As I continued to try making sense of the sudden news, I dosed off and slept for a few more hours before waking up past noon.

I didn’t step out of my condo the whole day. The mood was dark and somber and I didn’t feel like doing anything that required a lot of effort. I don’t know how long this feeling will linger and how I can recover from it. But I know that if I’m feeling this way as a friend, it must be many times worse for my friend who had lost his dear brother. He will also need to take care of all the legal, financial, and funeral matters as well as taking care of his elderly mother. I don’t know how I can be of help, so I told my friend’s wife (who brought me the sudden news) to forward my condolences to him and to let me know if there’s anything at all I can be of help. My prayer goes to the lost soul of a dear friend and may God comfort his family and friends. 🙏🏻

Some Milestones

Jun 15, 2026

Turned 47 on Friday, how did I get so old all of a sudden?! Life moves on…

A few UW friends came out for a little celebration while watching the first Canada team game on home turf for World Cup. The Canada team scored its first ever World Cup point and tied the match. Apparently they had lost all their previous WC matches, so this historic tie game made the day extra memorable. The beautiful game that I used to love playing is teaching me to never lose hope despite the many past losses.

Went back to the studio after the game and worked past midnight, finally finished setting up the studio space after a full month of constantly moving stuff from home and buying, assembling, and rearranging all the necessary furniture and equipment. This is definitely a milestone for the start of my new career in Canada!

On Saturday, I joined a few friends to watch the NBA Finals game 5 at a sports bar. The Knicks came back from behind again and won the Championship! Though I wouldn’t consider myself a New York fan, I still felt happy witnessing them achieving milestone victory after more than 50 years! This is actually their first championship in my lifetime. Seems like basketball is also teaching me the same lesson that there is always hope despite the many past losses! Let’s not lose hope (and faith) my dear friends. 🙏🏻

One Month

Jun 8, 2026

It has already been a month since I returned from my HK trip, time really flies.

I had kept myself busy this past week with a mix of events, friends meetups, and studio work. On Thursday May 35th, besides meeting up a couple of good old UW classmates for lunch, I kept myself informed with livestream and news videos of what was happening at Victoria Park in HK where the annual candlelight vigil had been banned in the past few years. Nowadays, even the slightest gesture of signaling 6 and 4 with your hands was taboo and cause you to be escorted to a Police station. I admire the activists in HK who still persist the annual commemoration in their own creative ways despite the oppression. It may be just coincidence that my newly leased studio is at the intersection of Victoria Park (Road), but I felt an extra sense of responsibility in commemorating the massacre that happened 37 years ago when I was given the freedom to do so in this country that I now call home (maybe second home away from Home Kong to be exact?).

Met up with some friends on Friday night for wings and beer while watching Game 2 of the NBA Finals. Had a slight hangover the next morning and was late for an Editorial Cartoons Forum I signed up for. The sharing by 尊子 and 黃照達 of their long experience with editorial cartoons in HK was very interesting and precious at this day and age. I really miss seeing 尊子’s witty satirical cartoons that can often bring Hongkongers a little bit of stress relief by slapping those in power publicly in the form of a small single panel cartoon. Sad that any form of such representation is forbidden and can easily land you in jail in HK now.

Went back to my studio after the forum to join the opening reception of a sculpture and an exhibition. This was the first time I got to see the art sculpture and exhibitions at the growing Industrial Arts community since I started leasing the studio space there in May. Felt great to be immersed in art and being in an industrial setting where I’m not afraid to experiment and make a big mess. After nearly a month, I am now more or less finished in setting up the studio, will give myself another week to display some of my ongoing projects and design some business cards before opening the studio to friends and potential clients (upon appointment). I feel grateful and pray whenever I look back at the wonderful studio space I was entrusted with. May God bless this space and help me in doing good works serving others and the community sustainably. 🙏🏻

Hongkong-ness

Jun 1, 2026

Picked up the slack this past week and had spent more time setting up the studio space and less time staring meaninglessly at my investment portfolio value going up and down. Bought a couple of used furniture for the studio, felt good to be giving some useful objects a second chance before they end up in landfills. Also bought a couple of basic equipment to start my digital fabrication design work. Should be able to finish hooking up the machines this coming week and start designing and making functional and sustainable objects soon after!

Had a couple of lunch meetups with friends on Monday and Friday. Had some late drinks with some friends on Thursday again before one of them flied back to HK. While I was grabbing a quick dinner near the studio on Friday, I bumped into a couple of high school fellowship friends together with their teenage daughter sitting right next to me! The HK Cantonese community can sometimes feel small and closely knitted in this culturally diverse city. On Saturday, I met up with some friends to kickoff another season of bball fun. Overall, I had a very good dose of social activities this past week to balance the loneliness of living and working alone.

Went to a Talk on Friday night, it was about Hongkonger identity through HK history since 1841 with a bit of Christianity background. The speaker mentioned some studies saying that Chinese people are more keen on preserving their cultural identity after emigration, they sometimes hold more “Chinese-ness” than those who stayed in China. This got me thinking, with the mass exodus of Hongkongers since 2019, those who had left the city like me can actually be a key in preserving the “Hongkong-ness” of the city’s fast declining cultural identity?! Maybe my upcoming design work away from HK can actually be more meaningful than I think.

Joined a candlelight vigil yesterday night to commemorate a massacre that happened 37 years ago. The annual candlelight vigil can no longer be held publicly in HK since NSL was unilaterally imposed without public consent in 2020. Many original organizers of the candlelight vigil are still imprisoned to this day. It was bittersweet to be able to attend the commemoration last night and doing a Hongkonger thing that can only be done outside of HK. After returning to Canada, I feel an added responsibility to preserve the little “Hongkong-ness” in me in this culturally diverse and free country. I will continue to pray for the political prisoners in HK who had loss their freedom. May God be with them and that they won’t lose hope or faith while enduring the hardships.🙏🏻

Sluggishness

May 25, 2026

After the church’s 3-day retreat, I anticipated pulling myself together and get busy with work in the studio. But things turned out rather sluggish this past week. I still spent most of my time during the day at home trading stocks even though there weren’t many daily transactions. It’s an addiction that’s unnecessarily using up the precious free time I was gifted. I could have better used the time setting up the studio and starting new projects than staring at the screen all day looking at my portfolio value going up and down.

A little bit of accomplishment did however result in this sluggish week. My paper artist friend in HK needed some custom “cookie cutters” 3D printed for a workshop at a museum, I managed to create and print the items remotely from Canada and had my friend pick up the prints at the HK studio. The project was a bit rushed and I was glad that my HK colleague and I managed to pull it off the last minute! Another accomplishment that I managed to pull off was the completion of a (near) final draft of my church’s annual report after much delays. I felt a huge sense of relief after the draft was sent off for approval yesterday afternoon!

A friend from HK was in town for his son’s high school graduation, he didn’t let us know his visit in advance, but we did manage to arrange a spontaneous meetup. Spending time meeting up friends is definitely more rewarding than staring at the screen watching the stock values going up and now.

I’ve returned from HK for more than 2 weeks already, time can really slip away slyly without being noticed. I really need to stop lavishing the time away so easily, may God help me. 🙏🏻

Studio Setup and Church Retreat

May 19, 2026

Returned from HK for about 10 days already. My immediate task after returning to TO was to set up the studio I started leasing in May. After buying insurance, getting the key to the studio, a quick “orientation”, and many rounds of moving stuff back and forth from home to the studio, I had managed to complete the setup of a little corner in the studio to focus on my work. The studio space is much bigger than what I needed to start, I’ll slowly add in equipment, furniture, and artworks as needed.

Before I attempted to start any serious work in the studio, I joined my church’s annual 3-day retreat during the long weekend. This year’s retreat was relatively relaxing. I was arranged into a residence with 3 other guys and 2 extra beds. I took over an entire room and slept quite well in both nights. That made a big difference throughout the entire retreat! With restful sleep at night, I was able to sit through 5 seminars/ workshops without feeling sleepy. I also seem to be more observant, saw many beautiful cherry blossoms, squirrels, a hare, geese, robins, red-wing black birds, and even a beaver swimming back and forth along a stream building a dam! Now that I think about it, earlier I was a bit like the beaver moving stuff between home and studio 😂.

With the church retreat over, I felt like I had officially ended the vacation that was started more than a month ago when I visited HK. I now feel well rested and ready to move on to start a new chapter at the newly leased studio this week!

Blessed HK Trip

May 10, 2026

Managed to pull off a month-long trip to HK to see my parents before getting busy with setting up a studio in TO starting May. I was worried at first about needing to stay with my parents and causing all kinds of unnecessary conflicts during the short stay. To my surprise, my parents didn’t nag me at all this time around about finding a gf and getting married. I guess they were trying to avoid the unnecessary conflict as much as I did, or maybe they had simply given up nagging altogether which is good because I can’t see it helping one bit.

I also managed to stick to a rather strict routine of sleeping and waking up early during the entire stay. In most mornings, I left home for the studio at 7-ish before my parents even woke up from bed. This of course helped with avoiding opportunities of being nagged unnecessarily. Even though I was out and about during the day, I had dinner with my parents almost every other day, most of the time in the neighborhood restaurants near home with my sister and brother-in-law. My parents moved back to the WTS neighborhood before LNY and we all agreed that mom seemed happier in this new environment.

Besides seeing my parents, I accomplished a few less important tasks which included helping a friend bring back her passport and (unknowingly) celebrating her birthday, moving out some old stuff from my previous home in Kln Tong, completing a few adhoc projects at the studio and settling its finances, helping my mom with some online banking issues, drafted the annual report for my church, and meeting and catching up with some good friends.

The month-long trip was also blessed with good weather. Aside from a little rain, the temperature was mostly comfortable enough that I can wear shorts without sweating and didn’t need to turn on the AC during sleep.

Unlike my earlier trip to HK in December which felt drained to the last drop of energy, I felt re-energized and ready to start things anew here in Canada this time around. I am thankful for this blessed month-long trip. 🙏🏻

Wrapping Up Q1

Apr 5, 2026

Time really passed by too fast, just realized it had been nearly a month since I last posted. Many things, mostly happy things, happened in March. A friend was in town for work and I had a chance to meet some of her close friends here, it brought back some fond memories of my UW days. Finished the last class of a month-long weekly linoleum printmaking workshop, didn’t acquire a lot of new skill set, but it did trigger some new 3D printing design ideas. Had a couple of birthday meetups with a couple of friends separately, the meetups were a good reminder of how long our friendships have been as well as how old we have become all too quickly.

3 families (7 adults and 6 kids) visited my tiny condo one Sunday afternoon. It took me a few days to rearrange my home furnishings to comfortably fit all 14 people in such a small space. Everything seemed to have worked out at the end and I was happy with the newly reorganized living space setup which I would never had put in so much time and effort without the challenge.

Assessed my investment performance for Q1, despite a drop of about 1% in March, I still had gained more than 6% overall. That’s more than double my target of 1% gain monthly. I attribute the decent performance mostly to luck and grace from God as I still am very dumb regarding economics and finances and I don’t think I’ll be interested in learning about it any further at this point.

One of the happiest news for me in March was being approved to lease a subsidized studio space that I had been eagerly wanting for a long time. That will be a great stepping stone for me to establish and grow a creative career here in Canada. I thank God for the opportunity and pray that He will continue to guide my new life here.