Columnist

Elaine Yau

Based in Beijing, Elaine is a senior reporter on the culture desk. She covers food, fashion, travel, health and fitness, music, film and TV, arts, lifestyle, as well as insider tips on the best of Beijing. She studied translation in Hong Kong and taught secondary English before joining the South China Morning Post.

An oxygen emitter at Oxygym, a Beijing gym that has been installed with oxygen machines. Photo: Simon Song

Health & Wellness

Beijing gym’s selling point: oxygen boosters to counter air pollution

22 Sep 2018 - 11:16am 1

A vegan gathering at Zerogo in Wangjing, Beijing. Veganism is on the increase in China. Photo: Simon Song

Health & Wellness

The vegans in China spreading plant-based diet message

8 Sep 2018 - 7:10am 4

Artists who couldn’t make it in Hong Kong because of the city’s commercialism, high rents, small market and narrow-mindedness find a welcome in China

Arts & Culture

The Hongkongers who’ve found artistic freedom in China

6 Sep 2018 - 10:18am 2

In the digital age of instant everything, Wei Lizhong is dedicated to keeping alive an art form whose practitioners can take years to produce a single print. An exhibition of his work opens in Beijing this week

Arts & Culture

Chinese woodblock printer on making his art meaningful to young generation

4 Sep 2018 - 12:46pm 1

Sprint, Super or Beast – obstacle races of up to 20km in scenic hills outside Beijing draw a huge field of men and women. Spartan Race novice Elaine Yau takes up the challenge, and is thankful for some help

Health & Wellness

I stepped on the thighs of many a strapping man: our Spartan Race debut

30 Aug 2018 - 7:16am 1

World’s fascination with giant pandas goes back to French missionary Père David’s first account of them in 1869, and multimedia show in Beijing charts the measures taken since to conserve the iconic animals and their habitat

Culture

China celebrates giant panda success story in Beijing exhibition

25 Aug 2018 - 1:49pm

Players credit stints with the Hong Kong-based youth orchestra for helping them win places in professional orchestras, whose number in China alone has doubled to 80 in the past decade

Culture

Opportunity knocks for musicians in China; youth orchestra helps

20 Aug 2018 - 7:58pm

Fashion & Beauty

Chinese traditional fashion has a makeover for Made in China 2025

5 Sep 2018 - 11:31am

Hong Kong expat has never got used to his Beijing housing estate being a playground for scary-looking huskies, and scandal over defective rabies vaccine only adds to nerves about unleashed dogs

Opinion

China’s war on unleashed dogs unlikely to bring owners to heel

16 Aug 2018 - 12:57pm 1

Six-year-old Lu Pengyinou was paralysed last year after a six-storey fall. His mother left home when he was a baby and his father is stuck at home with depression. His grandparents turned to crowdfunding to continue paying his hospital bills. Photo: courtesy of Yang Cuiping and Lu Bingxing

Health & Wellness

Fall turns family’s life upside down, and they turn to crowdfunding

16 Aug 2018 - 7:28pm 2

Antique furniture collector scours ancient Huizhou for the finest examples of Hui architecture, taking the structures apart and transporting them to Beijing for safekeeping

Long Reads

One man’s quest to preserve China’s ancient wooden Hui buildings

10 Aug 2018 - 7:45am

A liquid nitrogen bank containing a suspension of stem cells. The potential uses for stem cells is endless, from increasing longevity to treating cancer and autism, scientists say. Photo: Shutterstock

Health & Wellness

China stem-cell conference offers a peek at future lifesavers

8 Aug 2018 - 8:21pm

Exiled artist’s staff say they won’t have time to pack up and move all the works stored at his studio in a former factory on the outskirts of Beijing, where pending demolition work began without warning late last week

Culture

Inside Ai Weiwei’s Beijing studio where art will be lost to bulldozers

6 Aug 2018 - 6:53pm 2

Students with residency rights in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan have an advantage when trying to gain admission to Chinese universities. Photo: Imaginechina

Family & Relationships

How Hong Kong residents bypass China entrance exam to enter top schools

4 Aug 2018 - 8:42pm 1

A man gets a free HIV test during a World Aids Day public awareness campaign, at a park in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China. Photo: AFP

Health & Wellness

The doctors crowdsourcing public’s help to solve medical problems

1 Aug 2018 - 9:56am

Group of 40 local young people ranging from three years old to 22 show fruits of gruelling lessons to senior officials amid art form’s growing popularity

Society

In a first, Hong Kong Cantonese opera students perform in Beijing

28 Jul 2018 - 9:24am

Naughty, irreverent and cool, Plastered 8 is an extension of Dominic Johnson-Hill’s personality, the fashion and art entrepreneur says. He muses on the weirdness of Chinese censorship and how he gets away with publicity stunts

Fashion & Beauty

Dumb buttons and Mao suits: a Briton’s quirky 25-year China odyssey

11 Jul 2018 - 7:45am

Scott Fan’s prototype Smart Bra device sends out signals to the police and other people preset by the users when a woman is being attacked. Photo: courtesy of Scott Fan

Lifestyle

Smart bra technology signals police when woman is being attacked

10 Jul 2018 - 10:54am 5

Visitors watch an interactive digital display of a masterpiece, the scroll painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival by 12th-century painter Zhang Zeduan at the Palace Museum in Beijing, China, on July 05, 2018. The painting, now housed in the Palace Museum, gives a panoramic portrayal of flourishing urban life in Bianliang (today's Kaifeng, Henan province), the capital during the Northern Song period (960-1127). Visitors can experience a moment of life in Song dynasty during this interactive show. 05JUL18 SCMP/Simon Song

Culture

Beijing’s Palace Museum brings classic Chinese painting to life in 4D

9 Jul 2018 - 7:43pm

Students practise traditional Chinese calligraphy at Ririxin School in Beijing’s Changping district, which offers an alternative to traditional education. Photo: Simon Song

Family & Relationships

Home-schooled in China: how parents beat system for sake of kids

5 Jul 2018 - 7:50pm 1

Eating crayfish is a favourite pastime in China, especially while watching the World Cup . Photo: Simon Song

Food & Drink

Could the American crayfish become a Chinese national dish?

2 Jul 2018 - 10:31am 6

Jiang Yunsheng made the documentary The Happiness of Tourette Syndrome. Photo: courtesy of Jiang Yunsheng

Health & Wellness

Film by China Tourette’s sufferer aims to change public perceptions

27 Jun 2018 - 7:05pm

In 2007, models from Fendi walked the Great Wall of China thanks to help from Terence Chu. Photo: Reuters

Fashion & Beauty

The man who turned Great Wall of China into a Fendi catwalk

25 Jun 2018 - 9:57am

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain recently hanged himself. People in the public eye are more likely to suffer from depression. Photo: Alamy

Health & Wellness

Why celebrities, CEOs and creatives are more prone to depression

23 Jun 2018 - 6:40pm 8

Graffiti is blooming in pockets of Beijing despite official disapproval of street art, and some of the artists trying to make a living out of it have found that corporate customers are willing to pay for their striking works

Culture

These Beijing street artists are taking graffiti in China to the next level

22 Jun 2018 - 8:15am 1

Racers speed around Red 1 Karting centre in Beijing. Photo: Red 1 Karting Beijing

Health & Wellness

Novel indoor sports in Beijing: fun and exercise without the pollution

16 Jun 2018 - 7:02pm 1

The Changsanjiao Migrant Workers Art Ensemble brings music into the lives of those working as labourers in China. Photo: Simon Song

Lifestyle

Chinese migrant workers’ band brings joy to hardworking labourers

13 Jun 2018 - 8:33pm

The Serpentine Pavilion Beijing 2018, the first Serpentine Gallery temporary pavilion outside London. Photo: Courtesy of the Serpentine Pavilion Beijing/WF Central

Culture

Serpentine Gallery Beijing pavilion inspired by Chinese archer’s bow

4 Jun 2018 - 3:25pm

Actress-turned-lawyer Mary Jean Reimer (right) confronting a fake monk on the streets of in London. Photo: Facebook / Buddhist Alert (International) / Mary Jean Reimer

Culture

Video: Hong Kong ex-actress exposes fake monk; 6 ways to spot one

29 May 2018 - 1:49pm 50

Derek Chan has become an amateur pharmacist and armchair doctor in his quest to relieve chronic conditions, after running up big bills in Hong Kong for largely ineffective medical treatments; it worked for him, but he doesn’t recommend it

Health & Wellness

After doctors fail, China exec self-medicates to beat his depression

17 May 2018 - 6:06pm 1

Entrepreneurs and global operators have rushed into the crowded bicycle rental business in Hong Kong, but all face issues of theft, vandalism, a lack of parking spaces and abandoned bikes that have angered the public

Lifestyle

Hong Kong’s bike-sharing start-ups struggle to shake off bad name

16 May 2018 - 9:11am 2

Beijinger Han Tong posted this picture on second-hand goods marketplace Xian Yu of her British shorthair cat, which she is offers to hire out as a model.

Lifestyle

Where next for sharing economy now you can rent mums and pets?

14 May 2018 - 7:46am

Simon Kwok, chairman and CEO of Sa Sa, with his wife, Eleanor, the firm’s vice-chairwoman, in Causeway Bay. Photo: Edmond So

Fashion & Beauty

The Sasa story: from tiny basement store to Asian cosmetics empire

12 May 2018 - 8:26pm 4

Culture

Art of traditional Chinese embroidery kept alive in Guangxi province

4 May 2018 - 6:05pm

A female climber ascending the Egg, a well-known crag in Yangshuo, Guangxi province, China. Photo: Alamy

Health & Wellness

Why Yangshuo is the best place to go rock climbing in China

30 Apr 2018 - 8:16pm

There’s no stand-out factor causing IBS, but health experts say reducing stress, cutting alcohol and coffee intake and switching to alternative foods can offer relief for the millions of sufferers worldwide

Health & Wellness

Irritable bowel syndrome: six ways to relieve its painful symptoms

19 Apr 2018 - 8:41pm 4

Blacksmith Books publisher Pete Spurrier. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Books

Hong Kong English books publisher on the secrets to a best-seller

15 Mar 2017 - 2:52pm

The dining scene in Wan Chai is among the most exciting in Hong Kong right now, with a plethora of new openings in recent months – so many it’s hard to sample them all

Food & Drink

Roundup: seven newly opened Wan Chai bars and restaurants

11 Jan 2017 - 12:19pm 1

From health-food-focused Japanese to Taiwanese hot pot, an Indian buffet bargain and a fusion feast, there’s plenty to like about these budget restaurants on Kowloon side

Food & Drink

Five places to eat for under HK$100 in Yau Tsim Mong

4 Jan 2017 - 4:29pm 9

You probably feel the need to economise for the next few weeks, so here are some inexpensive dining options to tide you over, from ramen to pizza, Taiwanese street food and vegetarian fare

Food & Drink

Five places to eat for under HK$100 in Causeway Bay and Central

4 Jan 2017 - 7:55am 3

A slice of rocketeer pizza at Mother of Pizzas in Causeway Bay. Photos: Elaine Yau

Food & Drink

Mother of Pizzas – a slice of Naples in Causeway Bay

21 Dec 2016 - 1:19pm

Japanese white clam ramen by Ton Kun Ramen. Photos: Elaine Yau

Food & Drink

Restaurant review: Ton Kun Ramen in Causeway Bay

3 Jan 2017 - 11:15am

Yuzu pepper grilled chicken and shrimp salad at Floom Floom in Tsim Sha Tsui. Photos: Elaine Yau

Food & Drink

Restaurant review: Floom Floom, TST – great-value Japanese

7 Dec 2016 - 12:03pm

Loaded nachos by M&S Cafe at Langham Place in Mong Kok.

Food & Drink

Restaurant review: M&S Café in Mong Kok – great value for money

1 Dec 2016 - 7:00am 1

Jacky Leung prefers to live on his boat rather than in his small Tai Po flat. He believes young Hongkongers frustrated with lack of private space should consider life on water, too. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Lifestyle

Can’t get a Hong Kong flat? Try boat, or shipping container instead

28 Nov 2016 - 5:50pm 4

Classic tuna at The Poke Co. Photos: Elaine Yau

Food & Drink

Restaurant review: The Poke Co – Hawaiian dishes with a Japanese twist

3 Jan 2017 - 10:53am

Jason Ng with a copy of his new book, Umbrellas in Bloom. Photo: Elaine Yau

Books

Author of book on Occupy protests criticises localists as ‘distraction’

21 Nov 2016 - 1:09pm 5