Jason Wordie

Feared for its ability to bring bad luck, the harmless broom – often the source of unflattering nicknames – is kept at arm’s length during Lunar New Year. Find out why

Opinion

How Regina Ip got her ‘Broom Head’ nickname

12 Oct 2018 - 3:01pm

Across Hong Kong, mango trees grow. Though it’s rarely acknowledged nowadays, they owe their existence to Sikhs and Punjabis who came to the city to staff its uniformed services

Opinion

Hong Kong’s mango trees mark an all but forgotten multi-ethnic past

5 Oct 2018 - 11:01am

A Vibrant Express train at the Shek Kong sidings, in Hong Kong. Picture: Edward Wong

Opinion

New Hong Kong-Guangzhou high-speed link outpaced by pre-1950s service

28 Sep 2018 - 3:47pm 40

The Nansen passport – named after a Norwegian Nobel laureate – allowed those left stateless after the first world war to escape, including famous names such as Marc Chagall, Anna Pavlova and Aristotle Onassis

Opinion

The passport that helped Jews, White Russians flee to China and Hong Kong

20 Sep 2018 - 6:23pm 1

As Hong Kong’s assembly sector flourished, workers sometimes shared the load with family members, including children, to increase production

Opinion

When child labour was part of Hong Kong’s piecework ‘gig economy’

14 Sep 2018 - 7:37am

Writer Stella Benson’s journals reveal much about European life in pre-war Hong Kong, of which she was emphatically not a fan

Opinion

British author’s cutting observations on colonial Hong Kong

8 Sep 2018 - 9:11pm 6

Brenda and Kai-bong Chau with their pink Rolls-Royce in 2002. Picture: Dennis Owen

Opinion

The original crazy rich Asians – gilded taps, pink Rolls-Royce

31 Aug 2018 - 8:32am 4

A shop selling sex toys in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Picture: SCMP

Opinion

Sex toys and the city: prudish Hong Kong’s kinky contradiction

1 Oct 2018 - 11:30am 3

Andy Chan Ho-tin, convenor of the Hong Kong National Party, speaking at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong. Picture: K. Y. Cheng

Opinion

Outrage over Hong Kong separatist leader’s speech only reinforces message

3 Oct 2018 - 1:28pm 29

The Chinese House in Potsdam, Germany, was built between 1755 and 1764.

Opinion

Tea, silk and porcelain: how the West fell in love with Asian culture

10 Aug 2018 - 6:46pm

Invented to expedite communication for travelling Buddhist monks, hand gestures eventually evolved into a less honourable means of communication and today are largely the preserve of mobsters

Opinion

What Buddhist monks and discreet dealings have in common: hand signals

3 Aug 2018 - 9:58am

Sailors in a Wan Chai bar in Hong Kong, in 1969. Picture: SCMP

Opinion

Called to the bar: why Europeans dominated Hong Kong’s bars

26 Jul 2018 - 7:47pm 1

How black-marketeers made tidy fortunes by selling adulterated pharmaceuticals to China in the 1950s

Opinion

Bad pharma: when Hong Kong was hub of antibiotic smuggling

20 Jul 2018 - 11:09am

Dye effluent on the bed of a marine channel in Tsing Yi in 1993. Picture: SCMP

Opinion

Nullahs running red, green and yellow: when Hong Kong was dyeing

13 Jul 2018 - 10:38am

Public inquiries into major incidents – to establish what went wrong and lessons learned – have been routine; the failure to order one after Mong Kok violence shows officials don’t want to hear answers to honest questions

Opinion

Refusal to order inquiry into 2016 Mong Kok riot is an ominous sign

6 Jul 2018 - 7:33am 6

Edmund Blunden was a professor of English at the University of Hong Kong, a post he clinched thanks to his love of cricket and his wartime experience

Opinion

1950s Hong Kong through the eyes of a Nobel-nominated British poet

29 Jun 2018 - 3:52pm

The Melbourne Hotel, on Mody Road, was popular with young professional bachelors in Hong Kong.

Opinion

From bachelors to families: the changing role of serviced apartments

21 Jun 2018 - 10:43am

Liu Yichang in 1996. Picture: SCMP

Opinion

Liu Yichang’s death closes chapter for post-war Chinese literature

15 Jun 2018 - 12:15pm

Happy Valley Cemetery in Hong Kong is home to many graves that belong to newcomers to the colony who succumbed to tropical diseases. Picture: Antony Dickson

Opinion

How dodging disease as a newcomer ensured a healthy Hong Kong life

12 Jun 2018 - 2:43pm

From the chilli and the sweet potato to sweetcorn and guava, hardy foods introduced by Europeans became invaluable to survival during conflict with Japan

Opinion

War, what is it good for? In Hong Kong, tomatoes apparently

31 May 2018 - 6:39pm

The Kowloon-Canton Railway Station and clock tower, in Tsim Sha Tsui, in 1977.

Opinion

Why so few old buildings are left standing in Hong Kong in 2018

26 May 2018 - 2:15pm 5

A man smokes opium in Peking, with an attendant holding a tobacco pipe, circa 1905. Picture: Alamy

Opinion

Why Hong Kong’s family fortunes stem from the opium trade

17 May 2018 - 8:10pm 19

“Hong Kong flags” flutter from the laundry drying racks of a public housing estate in Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong in 1986. Picture: SCMP

Opinion

Why Hong Kong is responsible for doing the world’s laundry

11 May 2018 - 12:58pm 5

A garment factory in Hung Hom, in 1978. Picture: SCMP

Opinion

How cotton once rivalled opium in importance for Hong Kong

4 May 2018 - 12:56pm

From India to Malaysia, changing the names of familiar routes has resulted in confusion, resistance and ridicule

Opinion

Renaming Hong Kong’s streets would be a politically correct mistake

28 Apr 2018 - 11:01am 18

From Goa to Penang, and Macau to Mombasa, the mixing of food cultures has created unique culinary memories

Opinion

Heritage-themed cookbooks a recipe for colonial nostalgia

21 Apr 2018 - 10:17am

Richard Arthur Brabazon Ponsonby-Fane. Pictures: Alamy

Opinion

A legendary Hong Kong eccentric and his love affair with Japan

12 Apr 2018 - 7:00pm 2

Sham Shui Po Barracks, in 1942, one of the main POW camps in Hong Kong. Picture: SCMP

Opinion

How Hong Kong’s POWs kept their spirits up under Japanese

5 Apr 2018 - 7:30pm

Writer Compton Mackenzie. Pictures: Alamy

Opinion

Post-war Hong Kong: through the eyes of a famous Scottish author

29 Mar 2018 - 6:37pm

Details are sometimes omitted in the rags-to-riches tales of the very successful.

Opinion

The truth behind the rags-to-riches stories of self-made tycoons

22 Mar 2018 - 6:51pm 4

Nanjing’s Ming-era city wall, which dates to the 14th century. Picture: Alamy

Opinion

China can teach Donald Trump a thing or two when it comes to walls

16 Mar 2018 - 11:59am

Sea otter pelts were one of few commodities the Chinese actually wanted in the 18th century, but overexploitation and cheaper rabbit fur from Australia put an end to what was a profitable trade within decades

Opinion

How Canadian furs helped redress a trade imbalance with China

7 Mar 2018 - 8:02pm

Residency status in post-colonial societies is never set in stone; a new sovereign power will always insist on the right to change its mind for reasons of political or economic expediency

Opinion

Hong Kong’s colonial remainers will overstay welcome, history suggests

6 Mar 2018 - 10:28am 25

The rear entrance of the Standard Chartered Bank Building, in Central, was daubed with red paint in 2005, allegedly by debt collectors chasing payment from an employee of the bank.

Opinion

Why debt collectors come calling around Chinese New Year

22 Feb 2018 - 11:00am 4

Cesar Guillen-Nuñez began his apprenticeship as a museum curator at the Hong Kong Museum of Art before moving to a similar role in Macau. Picture: Nora Tam

Long Reads

Macau-based author on his love affair with art history

12 Feb 2018 - 12:02pm

They once provided an escape from the tropical heat but now offer Hongkongers a respite from their cramped homes

Opinion

How Hong Kong cinemas serve as refuges for stressed-out urbanites

9 Feb 2018 - 12:16pm

St Joseph’s Seminary and Church in Macau. The seminary was built in 1728, with the church following in 1758. Photo: Macau Government Tourist Office

Books

How Macau helped European Enlightenment thought reach China

6 Feb 2018 - 6:46am

Various paths to ‘wellness’ have emerged to plug the spiritual void that mindless consumerism fails to fill, among them yoga, once a minor pursuit. For many of today’s practitioners, though, it’s just a fashionable ‘lunchtime fix’

Opinion

When yoga was an alternative to gin for Hong Kong’s bored wives

1 Feb 2018 - 6:33pm 1

An Indonesian food shop in Causeway Bay. Several mini hubs of Indonesian Chinese developed in Hong Kong. Picture: Antony Dickson

Opinion

The overseas Chinese who answered China’s call to return home

26 Jan 2018 - 10:12am 19

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (left) and newly appointed Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng meet the media on January 5, 2018. Picture: Felix Wong

Opinion

Whatever happened to ‘positive vetting’ for Hong Kong official jobs?

23 Jan 2018 - 12:39pm 21

A hawker carries cleaning products for sale in Sai Ying Pun in 1985.

Opinion

Why merchants had low social status in colonial Hong Kong

5 Feb 2018 - 5:33pm

“Freedom swimmers” flee the Cultural Revolution in China for Hong Kong in the 1960s.

Opinion

When Hong Kong shut its border and ‘freedom swimmers’ fled China

5 Feb 2018 - 5:44pm 2

The colourful Chinese-style baby carrier is all the rage again as a new generation embraces its practicality and ease of use compared with bulky strollers and shows new interest in their Chinese heritage

Opinion

Traditional Chinese baby slings back in Hong Kong vogue

28 Dec 2017 - 6:31pm

Officers from the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau of the Hong Kong police display seized items from a Sha Tin triad faction’s arsenal.

Opinion

Triad rituals in Hong Kong and how technology has changed them

16 Dec 2017 - 10:15am 1

Today’s society ladies have extended their influence from the cocktail circuit to social media, with their opinions now taken more seriously than ever

Opinion

Hong Kong’s modern socialites: new breed with new clout

12 Dec 2017 - 2:57pm 1

They swear allegiance to the city, rather than the country, but ‘Hongkonger’ is an inaccurate and misleading re-categorisation

Opinion

Why Hongkongers who reject their Chinese identity need a history lesson

1 Dec 2017 - 11:43am 12

Hong Kong fans boo the Chinese national anthem during an international soccer match this month. It’s probably only a matter of time before some fans are jailed for doing so, the writer argues. Picture: K. Y. Cheng

Opinion

National anthem law in Hong Kong will inflame anti-China sentiment

24 Nov 2017 - 9:58am 84