It’s been six months since protests erupted in Hong Kong in June. Four international students studying in New York, from Hong Kong and mainland China, spoke to South China Morning Post about their thoughts on the ongoing civil unrest. To protect their privacy, all names are pseudonyms at the interviewees’ requests. 

Artist Siyan Wong’s exhibition, “Five Cents A Can: Making visible the invisible” was on display at the New York Arts Centre in November 2019. Her work focuses on the “canners” working in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Many are elderly women who collect and sell cans for a living after many lost their jobs when garment factories closed in the area. Wong has since launched her “Making It 10 Cents” campaign to push for higher prices for recycling of cans as a way of helping the canners. 

Lady M Confections is a New York bakery famous for its 20-layer crepe cakes and for using French techniques with a Japanese twist. With 35 branches in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong and on the Chinese mainland, Lady M has won the hearts of many Asians who are drawn to the subtle sweetness and “cloudlike” texture of their confections. 

Dozens of pro-Beijing students squared off with supporters of Hong Kong protesters during a tense stand-off in New York on November 18, 2019. 

The Hong Kong police cancelled its weekly news conference after a few journalists staged a silent protest against alleged police mistreatment of reporters. They wore helmets denouncing what they called “police violence”. The press conference happened as scores of people were injured during another chaotic weekend of anti-government protests in Hong Kong.

John Bercow, the Speaker of Britain’s House of Commons, who became a global celebrity during the political drama over Brexit, stepped down on October 31 after a decade of keeping lawmakers in line.

As a female comedian who performs in both English and Chinese, Norah Yang is a rarity in the world of stand-up comedy. Hailing from China, she did her first show in New York in October 2019. Yang spoke to the South China Morning Post about the emerging stand-up comedy industry in China and the funny business of bringing humor with Chinese characteristics to an international audience. 

Dozens of Hongkongers rallied in New York’s Madison Square Garden ahead of an NBA preseason game between the Washington Wizards and the New York Knicks. They stood in support of Daryl Morey, the General Manager of Houston Rockets, who had to delete a tweet voicing support for protests in Hong Kong after facing backlash in China. Americans passing by also shared their views on the incident. 

Junzi Kitchen, a fast-casual Chinese restaurant, has grown from its first storefront at Yale University to three stores in Manhattan, New York since 2015. Lucas Sin, the chef of Junzi, which means integrity, talks about how Chinese food deserves a role in the evolution of an ethnic cuisine renaissance in New York.

Scarlett Hao, a China-born fashion influencer based in New York, is redefining beauty of Asian women. One of the first Asian plus-size influencers, Hao is breaking stereotypes in the US as well as promoting the concept of positive body image in Asia.

The neighbourhood of Flushing in New York City is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing Chinatowns. The first wave of Asian immigrants to the area in the 1970s brought a plethora of regional cuisines to the area. Over the past decade, an influx of people from mainland China has turned the dynamic district into a mega food destination distinct from New York’s downtown Chinatown. Food blogger Shali Wan from EATNYC on China’s social media platform WeChat, introduces South China Morning Post’s Laura Ma to Flushing’s “three essentials”.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Brian Leung Kai-ping, one of the demonstrators who stormed Hong Kong’s legislature in July 2019, talked about why he stepped up to be the face of the protest and how he felt justified and at peace about the use of force. 

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong Chi-fung and Brian Leung Kai-ping visited New York from September 13-15, 2019, sparking rallies by not only their supporters but also staged by groups who support the Chinese central government.

Linda Feinstein has been playing mahjong, a Chinese tile-based game, since she was nine years old. Now 71, Feinstein runs a popular American mahjong club in New York that attracts hundreds of players every Monday. Mahjong was invented in ancient China and spread to the US in the 1920s. Its popularity waned as more women went to work, but it’s made a comeback after 9/11.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam has announced that she will formally withdraw a contentious extradition bill which has sparked 13 weeks of mass protests that have frequently turned violent.

More than 100 people took part in a protest outside a Hong Kong secondary school on September 4, 2019, amid concerns that students taking part in an anti-government class boycott class could be punished. The protesters vandalised facilities outside the Chinese Foundation Secondary School (CFFS) in northeastern Hong Kong Island, after claims posted online saying the school  had warned it would expel students and dismiss staff who took part in protests against the government’s now-shelved extradition bill.

In the midst of an ongoing trade war, the US put Huawei on an entity list in May, 2019 that effectively banned the Chinese telecoms giant from buying American-made technology. Huawei has faced cybersecurity allegations from the US and its allies that its infrastructure equipment may enable surveillance by the Chinese government. Huawei Technologies’ Chief Security Officer addressed these concerns during an interview with the South China Morning Post.

Tensions flared outside Hong Kong’s Tin Shui Wai police station in the early morning of July 31. Hundreds of protesters gathered after at least two people were arrested earlier at a nearby Lennon Wall. Videos circulating on social media showed fireworks being fired out of a moving vehicle into the protesting crowd, disrupting traffic and causing a car crash. 

Li Na became the first Asian-born player to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on July 20. She was enshrined along with France’s Mary Pierce and Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov in an on-court ceremony in Rhode Island. Li, from Wuhan, China, enthralled the world after winning two Grand Slams and reached a career-high ranking of No 2 female tennis player in the world on Feb 17, 2014. 

The US government's actions to counter intellectual property theft are driving what Chinese scientists and engineers describe as a witch-hunt. Chinese-American physicist Xiaoxing Xi told the South China Morning Post that Washington’s policies risk shutting the US off from an exchange of ideas that is essential to basic research. Professor Xi was arrested on charges of sending American technology to China in 2015. He faced a maximum penalty of 80 years in prison and a US$1 million fine before the charges were dropped four months later. Xi has sued the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for fabricating evidence and is speaking against “racial profiling”.

Hundreds of protesters rallied in New York to support the millions of people who marched through the streets to demand a full withdrawal of the extradition bill. Frances Hui, a student from Hong Kong who’s now studying in the US, told the Post why Hongkongers overseas feel the urge to unite in support of their home city.

Major US agriculture states including Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois are bracing for one of the wettest planting seasons in more than a hundred years. For Lake Benton, a small town of 683 people in southern Minnesota, the stress is compounded by a plunge in prices and an escalating US-China trade war that has grounded the soybean trade to a virtual halt. The double blow of flooding and tariffs has hit farmers like Jon and Bob Worth, but they say they are willing to endure the short-term pain to support President Donald Trump.

Demonstrators around the globe rallied in support of a huge Hong Kong protest against a proposed change to the city’s extradition law.

San Francisco became the first US city to ban local police use of facial recognition technology. The ban does not apply to personal, business or federal government use. It’s part of broader oversight legislation that orders local agencies to spell out details of any surveillance currently in use. Supporters say facial recognition technology is a serious threat to civil rights. Opponents say it helps fight crimes.

Zumret and Humar Isaac lost contact with their parents in November 2018. Since then, the two Uygur sisters from Xinjiang, China, have been on a quest to find out what happened. A phone call from someone claiming to work for the community affairs centre led the sisters to believe that their parents were sent to one of Xinjiang’s “re-education” facilities, where according to the UN, an estimated one million Uygurs are being held. The sisters launched a social media campaign calling for their release. In late March, their parents resurfaced and resumed contact, but the sisters were left with more questions than answers.

A Chinese student’s family allegedly paid consultant William ‘Rick’ Singer US$6.5 million to get her into Stanford University. Zhang Yusi is one of several Chinese students caught up in a US college admission scandal. A video of Zhao from 2017, before she started school, has resurfaced on Chinese social media. “I tested into Stanford through my own hard work,” she says in the footage. US prosecutors say Singer fabricated Zhao’s athletic accomplishments and donated US$500,000 to the Stanford sailing team after her acceptance. Zhao’s mother said in a statement she was “misled” into donating to Singer’s charity which he presented to her as a legitimate non-profit foundation funding student scholarships at Stanford.

In this tiny village deep in the mountains of western Japan, the streets are often void of people. Yet, Nagoro appears busy with life-sized dolls, which outnumber living humans 10 to one. Ayano Tsukimi, a 69-year-old villager, has been making them to counter the emptiness and loneliness in Nagoro. Like many other Japanese villages, Nagoro has been decimated by depopulation. Japan has been struggling to manage its shrinking population, low birth rate and long life expectancy.

The University of Minnesota has suspended ties with Chinese tech giant Huawei in February, shortly after ending a nearly 10-year relationship with the Confucius Institute, a Chinese government programme promoting its language and culture overseas. As China-US relations hit a new low, Washington accuses Beijing of using organisations like Huawei and the Confucius Institute to undermine American interests. For the University of Minnesota, it’s a choice between rejecting these organisations or losing federal government funding. SCMP visited Minnesota to find out how the decision impacts the faculty and students.

A gunman rampaged through two mosques during afternoon prayers, killing 49 worshippers and wounding dozens more in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 15. The attack shocked the Muslim population in New Zealand and the rest of world. Many countries have condemned the grotesque attack and some reacted with protests.