Author Victoria Finlay traces the fascinating origins of China’s silk industry, from moth larvae to an ancient emperor’s new clothes, in this edited excerpt from her latest book.

Vanessa Cheung, the granddaughter of Hong Kong’s ‘King of Cotton Yarn’, took a warehouse in Tsuen Wan and turned it into a co-working, retail and arts space. Now she’s done the same in the UK capital.

British choreographer Matthew Bourne talks about where he got his ‘Big Ideas’ for reimagining classic ballets The Red Shoes, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella and Swan Lake, films of which are being shown in Hong Kong and New York.

When the curtain rises for the second act of Czech composer Leos Janacek’s opera Jenufa, staged by National Theatre Brno, the audience sees four rooms, each with a sole occupant, like a quarantine hotel.

Pianist Wu Qian, from China, and Russian violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky duetted and dated as teenagers at the Yehudi Menuhin School in the UK. Later they reunited, married, and now play in a trio with German cellist Isang Enders.

Hotel Pro Forma and Cirkus Cirkör are among the line-up of performing arts groups set to present their takes on pressing global issues with Hong Kong audiences

Opera and film intertwine in a retelling of the Ingmar Bergman film that is set to premiere in Hong Kong this October

Michael Morpurgo’s moving testament to the thousands of horses that died during the first world war was based on a painting that never was; the stage adaptation will show at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in May.

Captivated as a five-year-old by a lone voice singing in a darkened barn, David Pountney has made a career of directing opera singers. He explains how he uses water as a metaphor for a character’s shifting mental state in Debussy’s opera

The West End adaptation of Mark Haddon’s bestselling book is coming to the 2018 Hong Kong Arts Festival. Joshua Jenkins talks about the sheer physical effort of playing the 15-year-old main character and the play’s positive effects on audience members who are on the autistic spectrum

Konstantin Lifschitz will do something few pianists have ever done – perform the cycle of Beethoven sonatas in sequence – over six days at the University of Hong Kong, beginning this week

From a fringe theatre in Islington, to the West End and Broadway, to a Royal Variety performance, this slapstick comedy is going from strength to strength

The People’s Liberation Army, the Hong Kong Police and the Hong Kong Association of Choral Societies bands will march into Hong Kong for an extraordinary gathering of musical might  

‘The Scottish play’ tells the tale of naked ambition, bloody murder, guilt, chaos and supernatural interference – themes which profoundly resonate with Asian audiences

After Hough was mugged when he was 12, his life went a little of the rails – until a teacher directed him towards an Elgar work that helped him reconnect with music

The Beauty Queen of Leenane is painful to watch in places but cast members say it reflects a culture used to darkness, violence and humour

A modern take on an eternal theme, this 1926 work – which has its Asian premiere in Hong Kong later this month – asks a profound question: what is the meaning of a life that never ends?

Czech composer’s work has unique qualities, says conductor Jaroslav Kyzlink, who’ll lead performances in the city of the religious work