It's an honor to be here.

Thank you for having me at Google Hong Kong.

I hope today through this session

both parties can have a blast.

And at any time if you feel that you want to voice out or ask

questions, please feel free.

So when I first got the invitation

to come to Google Hong Kong, I was thinking to myself,

what the hell am I going to do at Google?

Seriously.

Because you guys are the people I go to when I look at my stuff.

Seriously.

It could be through the search engine.

It could be through maps.

I like to travel a lot.

I could throw on a backpack and just wander off somewhere into the world and see the world.

So I'm always navigating through maps.

And lately, actually, speaking of which,I've been trying to pick up on more Japanese.

So I do this a lot now every day.

Hey Siri-san.

I've been trying to pick up on more Japanese.

So lately I've made Google Translate my best friend.

So I've even...

I'm even forcing my smartphone to converse

in Japanese with me, because we only have 24 hours a day.

So yeah.

But I must say, sometimes the translations

are still a bit funky.

But 80% of the time it does the job very well.

So thank you for whoever out there that's

making my life a lot easier.

I do visit you guys very, very often every day.

But I'm not here to talk about what we can Google.

I think you guys out of everybody

knows best what we can search on the internet.

But maybe today we could touch on some other keywords where we

cannot fully understand through the internet.

Maybe keywords like creativity.

I think creativity for me, it's the biggest thing.

Either it be through my music, or my food shows, or movies,

or my business.

Because I think without creativity we cannot really

ensure our place in the market.

And eventually you will be left behind in the world.

Creativity comes in many different forms and styles,

I guess.

It doesn't have to be through movies

or that kind of artistry.

It could be through tennis.

It could be through agriculture, architecture, woodworking,

lecturing, whatever it may be.

It could be through programming or engineering.

I think if Google was not as creative when they were doing the algorithms back then,

it would not be what it is today.

So a lot of people would say, yeah,

I'm not the creative type.

No.

We all are.

We just have to find that one edge.

We have to find how we can synergize and capitalize

on that on our own strengths.

But it is getting harder and harder to be creative,

I think, in this world, because everyday we

are flooded by so much content in our phones.

All the blogs that we look at, all the comments,

all the likes, all the streaming, all the films.

Everything.

But unknowingly, unknowingly we are so almost

too inspired to a point where we are losing ourselves,

because we are taking in everybody else's ideas--

their thoughts, their voices.

Therefore, if we are not creative enough,

we tend to what we call--

we would ride on other people's ideas.

Let's twist.

Let's tweak.

Let's-- in Cantonese we would say...

But when we get into a habit of that,

we forget about being original, being really creative,

starting our own ideas.

And to me that is very, very dangerous, because if what

you put out is no different than the person next to you,

if what you contribute to the company

is just the same as everybody else in the room,

let me tell you something.

Next year you won't be here.

The company doesn't need you.

Eventually the market doesn't need you.

And the world-- they don't need you.

So constantly ask yourself how you

can contribute more than the person next to you.

I've been in my industry for more than 22 years now.

And I tell you, I ask myself that question every damn day.

Every day.

Through music, through film, through my shows,

through my business.

How do I be more creative?

That is very, very hard.

And maybe even in some fields, it's getting harder and harder.

Like in music, I would say that it is harder for me

now to compose a very good piece of music

than it was 15, 20 years ago, because the time

signatures or the combinations of the notes

are simply being taken up.

It is harder to write something original than now

and have it not sound like that it has been written by someone,

sometime, like some song back then.

Because it's been done.

But in our world, that's what is happening

is because all the ideas are being voiced up.

And we are seeing it.

So if we don't voice out loud enough, clear enough,

soon enough, we are actually behind.

So I urge you--

the first key word that I would want to touch on

is actually creativity.

Does anybody have anything to say?

Any other things that you want to talk about?

Another word I would say is--

a keyword for me is experience, especially--

well, experience in terms of the verb experience, not the noun

experience, especially for you lot

where your work requires you to sit

behind a desk and a computer the whole day, maybe

the whole year.

But I would say that it is very important

to get out there to the world and really experience it.

Because I think the phone still only brings you halfway.

And you must walk the other half.

You know, nowadays when I'm chatting

with a lot of the younger generation kids, what really

happens a lot is that maybe the topic would

be along the line of, man, I was in--

I was-- I was in Finland last weekend.

The Aurora lights, they were beautiful.

And then the kid would say something like, yeah.

I know.

I know.

I saw it on YouTube.

Or yeah, yeah.

That was really cool.

I saw it on Facebook.

Yeah.

OK.

Sure.

I'm sure it's an opening.

It's an idea.

It's a glimpse of what it really is.

But if that's how you see things,

you don't know...

Again, it's a great entrance to the world.

But it's halfway.

Please, when the opportunity allows, get off your butt

and walk the other half, which may be even more important.

Experience the world.

The phone is awesome.

The net is awesome.

But that is halfway, halfway.

Is it too early for you guys, because you

guys look kind of stale.

James, maybe we could start with a more Q&A.

If anybody wants, please jump in.

One of the things that is on our minds

is also giving back about creativity,

it's about experience.

A lot of that is because we're sort

of going through life through a screen,

and we're not interacting much.

Here at Google we spent a lot of time thinking about what

we're doing for Hong Kong, how we're supporting non-profits,

how we're providing services for schools--

training kids that code, for example.

What advice do you have for us, and also for the broader

millennial crowd who is interested in doing something

for Hong Kong?

How to get started.

How to think about that.

And what approach to take.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think keep doing what you're doing.

Really.

But we cannot lose the--

what we're trying to do is share, I think, in this era.

And of course, sharing comes in different forms also.

And that's what Chef Nic, the brand,

is trying to do is because I think even now,

when you see families going off to go out to dinners,

they're eating through looking through their--

looking through their phones the whole time.

Actually, that's losing the true essence

of why we are eating together.

And that's what we're trying to promote through the "Chef Nic"

show is 鋒味.

What is 鋒味 is to actually enjoy a meal together.

And that's why-- that's what cooking has also taught me.

is let me tell you.

I was in really, really bad terms with my parents

for the longest time.

I was in boarding school ever since I was 12.

And then at the age of 14, I was sent to Tokyo

to start training in music.

By 16, I started working.

And I never really got a chance to have

a relationship with my parents.

And we've been on bad terms for the longest time,

until, until I started cooking.

Because when you cook, it's the food-- you don't eat it alone.

You want to share it.

You want to get some feedbacks.

And it gave me a medium to know how

to talk to my parents...

Whatever you cooked back then was really cool.

And you want to teach me?

It became-- now it's a habit, you know.

Does the food matter?

Of course it does.

But what really matters is how you find your way to share.

And I think keep doing what you're doing.

But if you can think of the third party,

then I think that the whole picture is much bigger.

Cool.

Why don't you take a seat.

We'll chat a little bit and get comfortable.

It was very inspiring talk, hearing talk

about creativity and the journey where you just

mentioned how cooking brought you and your family closer

together.

Right.

So a little bit on "Chef Nic."

It's now in its fifth season.

We're seeing a lot of traction both online and offline.

But I want to kind of turn back the clock back to 2014.

What besides what you just mentioned about the parents

thing-- but what was the thing that made you transition

from the singer, the actor to Chef Nic?

And what was that transition like?

I didn't think I--

I wasn't looking for a transition, really.

I thought I could do everything together.

Right?

I'm still doing music.

I'm still doing films.

It's weird, because people look at this

like I'm moving from woodworking to pharmacy.

It's not that far.

I think what I'm doing with food, with movies, and also

music, and the business together, I

think, as a whole it has perfect synergy.

I don't think that they're really unrelated.

And that's how I do things.

If I cannot pull resources from somewhere,

somehow to contribute into a new thing I do,

then I really would reconsider to either do it or not.