https://www.scmp.com/rss/13207/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Burma’s Voices of Freedom by Alan Clements and Fergus Harlow  World Dharma Publications  3/5 stars Aung San Suu Kyi’s precipitous fall from grace reached its nadir last December, in the Netherlands. Myanmar’s leader appeared in front of the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, to answer allegations that her government had committed genocide against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Just four years earlier, the Nobel Peace Prize winner had led the National League for Democracy (NLD) party... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3095263/burmas-voices-freedom-exhaustive-account-rise-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3095263/burmas-voices-freedom-exhaustive-account-rise-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Aug 2020 05:00:09 +0000 Stories of the Sahara by Sanmao (translation by Mike Fu) Bloomsbury 4/5 stars Women have been chronicling their journeys at home and abroad since at least the 17th century, but travel writing remains a genre dominated by male voices. Only one woman, Alev Scott, was among the six nominees for Britain’s 2019 Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award – the sole English-language literary prize dedicated to travel writing. The few women who have made their name as travel writers are almost all... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3036520/fearless-feminist-travel-writer-sanmao-finally-gets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3036520/fearless-feminist-travel-writer-sanmao-finally-gets?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Nov 2019 10:00:07 +0000 Picture 800 or so islands surrounded by beaches of white sand and backed by lush green forest, rising out of a translucent, turquoise sea on which fishing boats and a handful of yachts and speedboats are the only traffic. Then contemplate the fact that just 3,000 visitors a year stay over­night in this island chain in Southeast Asia, despite the southernmost islands being less than 200km north of Phuket, one of the world’s most popular destinations for a tropical beach break. Pristine waters on... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2140239/are-tropical-islands-myanmar-asias-last-untouched?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2140239/are-tropical-islands-myanmar-asias-last-untouched?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Apr 2018 23:45:45 +0000 Travels Through Dali: with a leg of ham by Zhang Mei Penguin Viking Culinary-themed journeys have emerged as a distinct sub-genre of trav­el writing in recent years. A lucrative spin-off from the celebrity chef and cookbook craze, these narratives marry terrain with tastings as intrepid foodies munch their way across everywhere from central Asia to South America, stri­ving to explain the countries and their peoples through food. The ingredients tend to be the same, a twist of history, a soupçon... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2041515/book-review-gentle-cooks-tour-yunnan-wildchinas-zhang?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2041515/book-review-gentle-cooks-tour-yunnan-wildchinas-zhang?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Nov 2016 00:15:50 +0000 The Myanmar Motion Picture Museum, like many buildings in Yangon, has seen better days. Stray cats mooch around the exterior of the dilapidated structure, which dates back to the early 20th century and the time when Myanmar was a British colony. So decayed is it that the few exhibits normally on show - ancient cameras and lights, old film posters - have been removed to a store room, leaving the building empty. The museum's decline mirrors that of Myanmar's film industry. It used to be the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/film-tv/article/1900617/myanmars-once-booming-film-industry-gears-act-two?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/film-tv/article/1900617/myanmars-once-booming-film-industry-gears-act-two?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Jan 2016 12:51:41 +0000 When Clouds Fell From the Sky by Robert Carmichael Asia Horizons Books Estimates of the number of people who died during the Khmer Rouge's murderous rule in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 range from 1.7 million to 2.2 million, around a quarter of the population at the time. Almost every family lost members - and in When Clouds Fell From the Sky, South African journalist Robert Carmichael's goal is to bring one family into sharp focus. Taking his title from a local saying about the Khmer Rouge's... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1789204/book-review-when-clouds-fell-sky-cambodias-terror-dissected?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1789204/book-review-when-clouds-fell-sky-cambodias-terror-dissected?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 May 2015 14:37:33 +0000 Home for Kok Sray, her four children and three grandchildren is a one-room wooden shack in Phnom Penh. The family sleep on the floor, cook on an open fire and share an unhygienic outside toilet with their neighbours. For many residents of Cambodia's capital, a city whose population is growing 20 per cent annually as migrants from rural areas arrive in search of work, such rudimentary accommodation is typical. But Kok Sray's house is built over a solid concrete tomb that juts out just beneath her... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1702795/living-dead-cemetery-shacks-phnom-penh?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1702795/living-dead-cemetery-shacks-phnom-penh?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Feb 2015 14:25:17 +0000 Thailand's restrictive laws on criminal defamation and computer crimes are increasingly being used to silence both the foreign and local media and human rights activists. The country is already known for having the strictest lèse-majesté laws in the world, effectively preventing any public discussion of the monarchy. Now, Thailand is experiencing a wave of prosecutions that appear designed to mute journalists and activists writing or speaking out about corruption and human rights abuses... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1698848/thailands-laws-being-used-more-often-silence-journalists?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1698848/thailands-laws-being-used-more-often-silence-journalists?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 Feb 2015 14:15:00 +0000 The Phantom Lover and Other Thrilling Tales of Thailand by Jim Algie Tuttle Publishing Asian horror fiction is an expanding, yet still relatively unknown genre. Its rise follows the trend for Southeast Asia noir, and an increasing number of movies that use Bangkok's sultry streets as a backdrop for tales of crime and the supernatural. But Jim Algie's short-story collection, The Phantom Lover and Other Thrilling Tales of Thailand, aims to go further, tapping into the deep vein of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1672927/book-review-phantom-lover-and-other-thrilling-tales-thailand-chills?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1672927/book-review-phantom-lover-and-other-thrilling-tales-thailand-chills?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Jan 2015 13:04:36 +0000 Think of Cambodia and the movies and, for most people, grim images from The Killing Fields spring to mind, or Angelina Jolie fighting her way around the temples of Angkor Wat in the first Tomb Raider film. But long before the Khmer Rouge instituted their murderous rule, and Jolie started adopting local children, Cambodia was home to a thriving movie industry, one which even former monarch King Norodom Sihanouk was eager to be part of. Those glory days are back. In the past few years the country... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1655405/cambodian-movie-industrys-glory-days-are-returning?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1655405/cambodian-movie-industrys-glory-days-are-returning?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Dec 2014 14:30:15 +0000 Hun Sen’s Cambodia by Sebastian Strangio Yale University Press/ Silkworm Books Cambodia is haunted by its past. Angkor Wat stands as a potent reminder of the past glories of the Khmer empire that dominated much of Southeast Asia between the ninth and 15th centuries, but it is the killing fields scattered around the country, a result of the four years in the 1970s when Pol Pot and the genocidal Khmer Rouge ruled, that are the abiding image of the nation in more recent times. Unsurprisingly,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1634176/book-review-hun-sens-cambodia-sebastian-strangio?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1634176/book-review-hun-sens-cambodia-sebastian-strangio?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Nov 2014 15:11:40 +0000 A Kingdom in Crisis: Thailand’s Struggle for Democracy in the Twenty-First Century by Andrew MacGregor Marshall Zed Books Thailand has veered from one political crisis to another during the past eight years. Prime ministers have been ousted by the courts, protests against an unelected administration prompted weeks of deadly violence on the streets of Bangkok in 2010, and there have been two military coups, the latest taking place in May. Now, just as neighbouring Myanmar is emerging from... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1608878/book-depicts-thai-monarch-pawn-countrys-elite?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1608878/book-depicts-thai-monarch-pawn-countrys-elite?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Oct 2014 15:16:15 +0000 Come sunset, and the temple of Kyaik Thanlan is the only place to be in Mawlamyine. Its golden pagoda stands astride a ridge lined with other shrines and provides panoramic views across this now sleepy port in southeastern Myanmar's Mon state. But it is the vista towards the Thanlwin River that is the most captivating. In the hazy late afternoon, as the red sun dips below the horizon, gazing down at Mawlamyine from Kyaik Thanlan is a daily ritual for those city residents who come to the temple... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1446996/sleeping-beauty-lazy-burmese-days-mawlamyine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1446996/sleeping-beauty-lazy-burmese-days-mawlamyine?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Mar 2014 16:30:42 +0000 There's no mistaking Vann Molyvann's house. Partially hidden behind high steel gates, like most residences in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, his concrete and red brick home supports a soaring, pagoda-like roof. It's a typical Vann Molyvann touch; testimony to the unique ability of Southeast Asia's greatest living architect to fuse European modernism with traditional Khmer design in an apparently seamless style. Built in 1966, the house, on Mao Tse-tung Boulevard, stands in defiance of the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1421349/vann-molyvann-unsung-hero-phnom-penh-architecture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1421349/vann-molyvann-unsung-hero-phnom-penh-architecture?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Feb 2014 14:46:38 +0000 The one constant in Thai politics is the military. While the country's political parties mutate on a regular basis - the ruling Puea Thai party has changed its name three times since it was originally founded in 1998 by Thaksin Shinawatra - it is Thailand's army that has long held the reins of power. "In other countries, the military does everything to support the prime minister and the government. But that doesn't happen in Thailand," said Tida Tawornseth, the chairwoman of the United Front for... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1407957/thai-military-caught-between-rock-and-hard-place-unrest-continues?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1407957/thai-military-caught-between-rock-and-hard-place-unrest-continues?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jan 2014 15:15:00 +0000 Most people faced with potential treason charges would be in hiding or running for their lives. But not Suthep Thaugsuban, the former deputy prime minister turned street protester, who has emerged as the key figure in the political turmoil currently engulfing Thailand. So far, Suthep has ignored the warrant issued for his arrest last Tuesday for his part in instigating the massive civil unrest in Bangkok and demanding that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her ruling Puea Thai party step... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1369801/thai-protest-leader-suthep-son-elite-axe-grind?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1369801/thai-protest-leader-suthep-son-elite-axe-grind?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Nov 2013 22:23:19 +0000 Mention the name of Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's prime minister, to any of the hundreds of anti-government protesters occupying Bangkok's Ministry of Finance and a torrent of abuse follows. "Yingluck has no brain," said Sunthon Kem, a 69-year-old retired lawyer. "You can see that from her manner. She's not a real prime minister. She's just a puppet of her brother.'' The people have to run the country … We don’t want any more politicians MAHUSSAYOK SODEE, BUSINESSMAN Sunthon was one of an... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1366526/yingluck-shinawatra-puppet-hanging-thread-thailand?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1366526/yingluck-shinawatra-puppet-hanging-thread-thailand?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:30:00 +0000 The only home that 15-year-old Kaw Wah has ever known is the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand's Tak province. It sits close to the frontier with Myanmar, but Kaw Wah has not visited the country his parents hail from. "I've never been to Myanmar. I was born in Mae La and I've spent my entire life here," he said. Kaw Wah is one of the 130,000 Myanmese refugees living in Thailand who have never seen their homeland. Most, like him, are ethnic Karen who fled to avoid the fighting between the Karen... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1339116/karen-refugees-mae-la-camp-live-fear-forced-return-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1339116/karen-refugees-mae-la-camp-live-fear-forced-return-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Oct 2013 14:30:00 +0000 Moving their homes to make way for mainland-inspired projects is becoming a way of life for Mai Kham Saivong and his fellow villagers. In 2008, his village of Boten was relocated a few miles south from the border of Laos and southern China's Yunnan province because their land was required for a mainland-owned casino complex. Now Saivong faces another forced eviction, along with about half of the village, this time to make way for a controversial and ambitious high-speed railway designed to bring... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1318178/crossing-line?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1318178/crossing-line?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 From the banks of the Mekong River in the tiny port of Xieng Kok in northwestern Laos, it is just a couple of hundred metres to Shan state in eastern Myanmar. There, heroin refineries and methamphetamine labs buried deep in the jungle-covered hills supply the addicts of China and Southeast Asia. Come nightfall and wooden long-tail speedboats travel between the two countries, transporting opium grown in Laos one way while the methamphetamine pills known as yaba move in the opposite... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1317744/mekong-river-used-traffick-drugs-and-laos-and-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1317744/mekong-river-used-traffick-drugs-and-laos-and-myanmar?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 These are boom times in the Golden Triangle, long notorious as Southeast Asia's drug production capital. For the farmers in the remote hills around the town of Muang Long in northwestern Laos that means only one thing: increased demand for opium, their most profitable crop. "Prices are going up. At the moment, it's 10 to 12 million kip (HK$10,000 to HK$12,000) for a kilo. Last year, it was eight to nine million kip," said Ber Ko, a local man who describes himself as a "transporter of goods". A... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1317745/its-happy-hour-heroin-traffickers-golden-triangle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1317745/its-happy-hour-heroin-traffickers-golden-triangle?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The latest face of protest in Thailand is a grinning, white mask with an upturned black moustache and a pencil-thin goatee beard. Hundreds of people yesterday marched through the Thai capital Bangkok wearing the white masks waving Thai flags and chanting their disapproval with the ruling Pheu Thai party led by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Other protests took place in cities across the country. "The masks are a symbol of our opposition to the government. We're protesting about corruption... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1297589/white-masked-middle-class-latest-group-take-thailands-streets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1297589/white-masked-middle-class-latest-group-take-thailands-streets?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The triumphant homecoming of Sam Rainsy, Cambodia's leading opposition politician, a couple of weeks before today's election was greeted with a mix of surprise and exultation. After receiving a royal pardon for a criminal conviction his supporters say was trumped up, he was met by enthusiastic crowds when he arrived in Phnom Penh on July 19. Sam Rainsy's return after four years of exile in France injected some much-needed drama into an election that seemed destined only to confirm strongman... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1292134/sam-rainsys-return-heralds-last-hurrah-yesterdays-man?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1292134/sam-rainsys-return-heralds-last-hurrah-yesterdays-man?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Pak Kok Heng used to make sweaters for the Pine Great Factory in Phnom Penh. Now, he and his former colleagues spend their days standing outside the Ministry of Social Affairs in the Cambodian capital. "We're here because we haven't been paid for three months. Our manager ran off back to China and our factory is closed," said the 24-year-old. "We want the ministry to sell off what's left in the factory and pay us the wages we are owed. But they haven't even sent out an official to talk to us.... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1291466/cambodias-textile-workers-hang-thread-under-chinese-bosses?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1291466/cambodias-textile-workers-hang-thread-under-chinese-bosses?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Mosha was just seven months old when she stepped on a landmine. The baby elephant - trailing behind her mother, who was transporting logs across the Thai-Myanmar border - lost the lower part of her right leg in the explosion. Crippled and in agony, she would have died if Soraida Salwala, founder of the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE; www.elephant-soraida.com hospital in Lampang, northern Thailand, had not heard of her injury. "We were called by her mahout, and Mosha and her mother were... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1284640/out-limb?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1284640/out-limb?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Chray Nhim knows what awaits her after Cambodia's national elections on July 28, when Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) are expected to consolidate their decades-long control of the country. Chray Nhim, a single mother of one, is bracing herself for the revenge she is certain will be meted out for her high-profile protests against forced evictions in the capital, Phnom Penh. "I think I will be imprisoned after the election. I'm not scared; I have done nothing... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1279452/standing-their-ground?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1279452/standing-their-ground?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The unmistakable sound of Cantonese may be joy to the ears of some (see previous feature) but it is not a language you might expect to hear widely spoken on the streets of a small Cambodian town. But the rows of illegal football-betting shops that line the frontier settlement of Poipet, just across the border from Thailand, are exclusively Chinese-owned. Furthermore, they are part of a multinational chain of illicit football-gambling operations that stretches across Southeast Asia to the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1211405/games-without-frontiers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1211405/games-without-frontiers?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 It's 5am and the sky above Can Tho is still black and speckled with stars. Yawning, I make my way to the statue of Ho Chi Minh that dominates the riverfront of this sleepy city at the heart of the Mekong Delta, in southwest Vietnam. Xuan is waiting for me. Cheerful and talkative, the mother of two will be my guide to the floating markets and villages that line the Hau River in this area. Also known as the Bassac, a legacy from French colonial rule, the Hau is one of the mighty Mekong River's... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1185327/hau-and-why?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1185327/hau-and-why?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Almost three years after the Thai capital was engulfed by weeks of deadly violence between the "red-shirt" supporters of exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the opposition "yellow shirts", today's election to decide who will be Bangkok's next governor has become a mini-national referendum. A total of 25 candidates are standing, but the poll is being seen as a straight fight between Thailand's ruling Pheu Thai Party and the opposition Democrat Party. A win for Pheu Thai would... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1170639/election-bangkok-governor-turns-mini-referendum?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1170639/election-bangkok-governor-turns-mini-referendum?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Chray Nhim received just seven days notice telling her that she was to be evicted from her house near Phnom Penh's airport without compensation. She knew extreme measures were needed if she and her fellow villagers were to avoid the fate of the estimated 10 per cent of residents of the Cambodian capital who have had their homes confiscated in the past 20 years. The single mother's novel response was to paint a large 'SOS' sign on her roof and cover it with pictures of President Barack Obama,... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1142685/rising-grass-roots-anger-shaking-hun-sens-pedestal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1142685/rising-grass-roots-anger-shaking-hun-sens-pedestal?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Life in the towns of the three southernmost provinces of Thailand - Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala - appears relatively normal on the surface. Even with the threat of bomb attacks and the presence of security forces in large numbers, the towns are busy during the day - although eerily quiet come nightfall. The ethnic Malay Muslims, who make up 80 per cent of the population in the region, and their Buddhists neighbours work and live alongside each other without any obvious hostility. The deep south... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1129323/weapons-grade?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1129323/weapons-grade?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The killing started early in Damabuah village. From first light on the morning of December 11, people had gathered at the village teashop, an open-sided shack with a corrugated iron roof, as they usually did before heading to work in nearby rubber plantations: the mainstay of the economy in Thailand's deep south. Young and old, they sat on plastic chairs and chatted as they ate snacks and drank tea - unaware that six of them would be dead within the hour. "I was sitting with my back to the road... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1123866/far-cry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1123866/far-cry?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 When Thailand's former premier Thaksin Shinawatra announced plans to visit the Myanmese border town of Tachileik tomorrow and Saturday, it prompted thousands of his supporters to book out hotels in the neighbouring town of Mae Sai on the Thai side of the border. Tachileik was to be the site of a triumphant gathering of the Thaksin faithful, known as red shirts, and the closest Thaksin has come to Thailand since he fled into exile in Dubai in 2008 to avoid corruption charges. Now, those hotel... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1077329/thaksin-scales-back-myanmar-visit-after-reports-assassination-plot?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1077329/thaksin-scales-back-myanmar-visit-after-reports-assassination-plot?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 For Lu Siqing, timing is the essence of his life as China's greatest violinist. 'I always say that the difference between a maestro and an ordinary player is timing. You can change the meaning of the music by playing a note or a phrase a split-second later or by holding it for longer. And, of course, the tempo you play at is essential,' the 42-year-old says. Lu is an expert at time management. He has to fit in practice, recording, the demands of his two young sons and a busy schedule of... https://www.scmp.com/article/984232/pulling-strings?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/984232/pulling-strings?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 With the economy slowing, it might appear strange that culture rather than the nation's finances was the main theme when the Communist Party's top leadership met in Beijing last week. Yet, the gathering signalled the start of the mainland's equivalent of an election year, because the next time the party's Central Committee meets, sometime in September or October 2012, it will be to anoint the successors to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao . For the next 12 months, the appearance of... https://www.scmp.com/article/983151/new-orwellian-euphemism-stifling-online-dissent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983151/new-orwellian-euphemism-stifling-online-dissent?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Outside the Marriage Registration Office in Beijing's Chaoyang district, a young woman is handing out flyers for a company advertising wedding photography. But on this midweek morning, she is ignoring many of the couples entering and exiting the building in a steady stream. 'A lot of people come here to get married, but a lot come to get divorced, too,' she says. It's not hard to spot the ones who have come here to get the stamp on their marriage certificates - actually little red booklets,... https://www.scmp.com/article/982601/split-decisions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/982601/split-decisions?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 After seven years, it is farewell to the super girls. Last weekend it was confirmed that the mainland reality TV show Happy Girls, which was formerly known as Super Girl and is the local version of American Idol, will not be returning next year. The show has fallen victim not to slumping ratings, but to State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (Sarft) regulations. According to Sarft, the programme's maker, Hunan Satellite TV, has violated a rule which states that talent shows can... https://www.scmp.com/article/979961/tv-thats-just-too-real-comfort-chinese-censors?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/979961/tv-thats-just-too-real-comfort-chinese-censors?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Aba was just 12 years old when she made her first trip to China. Crossing the border from her hometown of Muse, in Myanmar, to Yunnan province, she was expecting to spend only a few hours on the far side of the divide. But it would be three long, agonising years before Aba returned home. Like thousands of other teenage girls and young women from Myanmar, Aba had been duped into coming to China so that she could be sold into a forced marriage to one of the growing number of mainland men who... https://www.scmp.com/article/974284/unlawfully-wedded-wives?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/974284/unlawfully-wedded-wives?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000 When it comes to money, the traditional stereotype of the mainland is that it is a nation of savers rather than borrowers. The need to have cash reserves to pay medical bills and school fees, or to buy a home, keeps mainland Chinese honest. That Is supposed to be in sharp contrast to the impecunious West, where the easy availability of credit was partly responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown. According to the National Audit Office, though, it is only individuals who are careful with their... https://www.scmp.com/article/972514/feast-and-famine-lending-hurting-chinas-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/972514/feast-and-famine-lending-hurting-chinas-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Beijing has proclaimed this year as the year of red tourism. Earlier this year, the National Tourism Administration selected the Long March, the epic, year-long retreat in 1934-35 of the Red Army from Jiangxi to Shaanxi province , as one of 12 national tourist routes. But for Ed Jocelyn, that is old news. An English historian who lives in Beijing, Jocelyn co-authored 2006's The Long March, which recounted his attempt to retrace the Long March on foot. Now, he runs Red Rock Treks, which... https://www.scmp.com/article/972298/plan-push-red-tourism-non-starter-writer-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/972298/plan-push-red-tourism-non-starter-writer-says?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Walk through Jingshan Park in Beijing on a Sunday morning and it is as if the Mao era never ended. All across the park, which sits just north of the Forbidden City, informal choirs belt out red songs, the stirring tunes that celebrate the Communist Party and the revolutionary spirit, and which from 1949 to the late 1970s were the mainland's sole soundtrack. Apart from their shared repertoire of songs, the singing groups all have one thing in common: almost every member of them is... https://www.scmp.com/article/972299/generations-out-tune?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/972299/generations-out-tune?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Tomorrow, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) will celebrate its 10th anniversary at a summit in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana. A key part of its birthday bash will involve the six member states - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - deciding whether to promote Pakistan, India and Iran to full membership, and if Afghanistan is worthy of gaining observer status. For those who remain deeply sceptical about the group's role and goals in Asia, the list of... https://www.scmp.com/article/970571/security-alliance-serves-justify-authoritarian-rule?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/970571/security-alliance-serves-justify-authoritarian-rule?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:00:00 +0000 At a checkpoint outside Panghsang, in the mountains of eastern Myanmar, a teenage girl in an olive-green uniform decorated with distinctive United Wa State Army (UWSA) patches is checking ID cards and passports. No older than 14 and sporting an eye-catching furry hair grip, she looks like she belongs in school rather than in the army. But the AK47 dangling from a nearby hook makes it clear that she has long since left the classroom. Welcome to Wa State, an unofficial country within a country... https://www.scmp.com/article/965867/calling-shots?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/965867/calling-shots?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Officials in Guangdong are planning a novel take on sex education classes. Instead of just imparting the facts of life to their pupils, they intend to hold special lessons in self-respect and self-reliance for young girls in elementary and middle schools. The aim is to dissuade them from becoming mistresses to rich older men, while encouraging them to carve out worthwhile careers for themselves. There is no doubt that many young women think that snagging a wealthy man, whether as a husband... https://www.scmp.com/article/965037/farewell-my-concubine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/965037/farewell-my-concubine?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Walk through Jinghong, the capital of Xishuangbanna prefecture, in the middle of April and you're likely to get wet - very wet. The culmination of the three-day water-splashing festival that marks the Dai New Year is a good-natured riot that involves people racing around the streets of Jinghong soaking everyone in sight with buckets of water, hoses, water pistols and water-filled balloons. But there's far more to Xishuangbanna - which lies in the deep south of Yunnan province close to the... https://www.scmp.com/article/964201/splash-cultures?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/964201/splash-cultures?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Sustainable growth was one of the buzzwords at the recent annual meetings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Premier Wen Jiabao said the target growth rate for the economy would be lowered to 7 per cent for the next five years, and promised that the mainland would not 'blindly' pursue development that was unsustainable. Above all, he pledged that the environment would not be sacrificed for the sake of boosting industrial... https://www.scmp.com/article/741830/green-pipe-dream?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/741830/green-pipe-dream?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:00:00 +0000 It's that time of year again when buying a train ticket on the mainland becomes a test of stamina and strength. The Lunar New Year holiday is the busiest season for the rail network, with up to 6 million passengers a day travelling. So stretched is the system that demand for tickets far outstrips capacity. Obtaining one requires either hours of queuing, or paying a tout an inflated price. Yet, while people struggle to get on board packed trains, the rail network is undergoing unprecedented... https://www.scmp.com/article/736205/train-drain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/736205/train-drain?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0000 It couldn't be easier for the Russians from Blagoveshchensk who make the five-minute journey across the Heilongjiang River to shop in Heihe. As soon as they're through customs and passport control, it's a short walk to the main market of the booming border city in Heilongjiang province. There, two hangar-sized buildings await them, selling everything from alcohol and cosmetics to furs, household appliances, shoes and skiing gear. Blagoveshchensk residents, who refer to their hometown as... https://www.scmp.com/article/734758/retail-two-cities?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/734758/retail-two-cities?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0000 For a government that places such importance on unity and harmony, the Chinese Communist Party has a peculiarly split personality. On the one hand, it has a desire to be loved and seems genuinely puzzled as to why many in the world feel threatened by China's rise. But its Dr Jekyll side, which is heard far more often, is a strident nationalism that proclaims that the rest of the planet is out to get China and that the country has to be on its guard against pernicious foreign influence. December... https://www.scmp.com/article/734367/split-personality?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/734367/split-personality?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:00:00 +0000 With temperatures that can plunge below minus 40 degrees Celsius, freezing winds that howl down from Siberia and darkness from mid-afternoon, the town of Mohe might not sound ideal for a holiday. But if its tourist officials get their way, there will soon be an influx of visitors to this isolated town in Heilongjiang province during the bitter winter months. Strangely, Mohe's sub-arctic climate is putting the tiny town of 40,000 on the map. Less than 80 kilometres from China's border... https://www.scmp.com/article/733951/one-claus-town?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/733951/one-claus-town?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:00:00 +0000