https://www.scmp.com/rss/13422/feed Elaine Yau 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 Post. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com For Wang Lin, an avid art collector in Beijing who boasts works by artists such as Zao Wou-Ki and Yoshitomo Nara, paying 100,000 yuan (US$15,800) a year to be a patron of the city’s Today Art Museum – which bestows privileges such as gala dinners and private tours to other institutions – is well worth it. The former Goldman Sachs banker, now a partner of boutique investment bank and asset management company Spring Partners, has a deep interest in art, and studies Chinese art history in her spare... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3164665/how-chinas-private-art-museums-are-seeking-patrons-survive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3164665/how-chinas-private-art-museums-are-seeking-patrons-survive?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Jan 2022 21:15:16 +0000 As someone who practises kung fu for four hours every day, former New Yorker and international lawyer turned filmmaker Laurence Brahm is well-known in Beijing’s wushu community. He has studied under masters from various schools of Chinese martial arts, including 81-year-old Liu Hongchi, who is an expert in many wushu styles including Zhangjia Kungfu and Cha Quan. Practising kung fu is a form of meditation in motion for him, Brahm says. And it has helped the global activist, political economist... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3162464/us-martial-artist-china-sees-kung-fu-preventive-medicine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3162464/us-martial-artist-china-sees-kung-fu-preventive-medicine?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Jan 2022 05:15:20 +0000 The business career of Chinese triathlete and outdoor sportsman Zhang Heng, 51, is the embodiment of psychologist Marsha Sinetar’s saying, “Do what you love, the money will follow”. When Zhang’s technology start-up folded in 1997, it left him 270,000 yuan in debt. Not knowing what to do next, he set off for Tibet for three months to explore and to consider his options. There, the idea of setting up a nature-related business came to him. “I saw backpackers from America and Europe with top-notch... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3161526/nature-lover-bet-his-fellow-chinese-getting-outdoor?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3161526/nature-lover-bet-his-fellow-chinese-getting-outdoor?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Jan 2022 05:15:18 +0000 Winter in the north of China is harsh and gruelling with temperatures falling far below zero, but eating warming food helps northerners ride out the freezing conditions. One of the dishes that most typically represents winter in China is dumplings. Dumplings were invented by Zhang Zhongjing, a doctor in the Eastern Han dynasty (AD25-AD220), as a tonic to protect his patients’ ears from frostbite, using Chinese herbs selected to improve the blood flow. He called the dumplings jiao’er, or tender... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3160678/chinese-food-winter-how-dishes-hotpot-dumplings-and-sweet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3160678/chinese-food-winter-how-dishes-hotpot-dumplings-and-sweet?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Dec 2021 10:15:10 +0000 They were big in Hong Kong cinema in the 1990s and 2000s – and now these male actors are finding a new audience and fans in China. Stars like Jordan Chan Siu-chun and Michael Tse Tin-wah (both 54), made famous in the Hong Kong triad film series Young and Dangerous (1996-2000), have become overnight sensations in China after they won reality competition show Call Me by Fire last month. The show, like Sisters Who Make Waves, features experienced celebrities competing against one another – only... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3159168/stars-1990s-hong-kong-film-jordan-chan-dicky-cheung-find?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3159168/stars-1990s-hong-kong-film-jordan-chan-dicky-cheung-find?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Dec 2021 08:15:10 +0000 Popular Chinese actress Yang Zi has won legions of fans playing beautiful and adorable ingénues in search of romantic love in TV dramas. But that is about to change – the 29-year-old plans to get out of her comfort zone and take on more serious roles. “The roles I have played are always younger women with a lovely personality. I have never deliberately chosen these roles. [They are] just the scripts that I like and that I believe I can handle,” she tells the Post. For her latest TV drama,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3158910/chinese-actress-yang-zi-opens-about-friendship-turning-30?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3158910/chinese-actress-yang-zi-opens-about-friendship-turning-30?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Dec 2021 10:15:21 +0000 Lullabies and children’s pieces feature on German-Korean pianist Gina Alice Redlinger’s debut album, Wonderworld – dedicated to her newborn son and to children everywhere. Married to fellow pianist Lang Lang in 2019 and now living in China, Redlinger has chosen favourites including German composer Robert Schumann’s Träumerei for her album. Redlinger, 27 and currently in Paris on a promotional tour for Wonderworld, tells the Post: “The depth of love I feel is even deeper after becoming a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3157972/lang-langs-pianist-wife-gina-alice-redlinger-her-first-album?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3157972/lang-langs-pianist-wife-gina-alice-redlinger-her-first-album?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Dec 2021 10:15:17 +0000 The belated release of the nomination list for this year’s Golden Rooster Awards, the most prominent film awards in China, has incurred the wrath and bemusement of some Chinese internet users, who complained that the preponderance of patriotic films among the nominees has damaged the credibility of the awards. The Golden Rooster Awards are set to be held from December 28 to 30 in Xiamen, in Fujian province. The awards are co-organised by China Film Association and China Federation of Literary... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3157970/golden-rooster-awards-2021-nominations-chinas-top-film?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3157970/golden-rooster-awards-2021-nominations-chinas-top-film?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Dec 2021 03:17:13 +0000 As some countries in Asia begin to loosen travel restrictions and people in America and Europe reacquaint themselves with international travel, China continues to pursue a zero-Covid policy. That leaves people in Beijing and other Chinese cities resigned to an indefinite further period of border restrictions and stringent controls on their movements. Currently, Beijing residents who return to the capital from other parts of China must provide a negative Covid-19 test that is less than 48 hours... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3157491/people-beijing-open-about-chinas-zero-covid-approach-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3157491/people-beijing-open-about-chinas-zero-covid-approach-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Nov 2021 03:15:20 +0000 Do tuning forks have any place in a pop song? Yes, says Hong Kong singer-songwriter Jocelyn Chan Ming-hei – her song Sound of Silence, which recently topped city public broadcaster RTHK’s pop song rankings, is filled with soothing vibes from the unexpected instrument. The music video, released in July, has more than 320,000 views on YouTube. Chan co-composed the hit with Hong Kong singer Cousin Fung after she earned an online qualification as a tuning forks therapy practitioner from the Sound... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3157429/music-therapy-better-sleep-and-stress-relief-canto-pop?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3157429/music-therapy-better-sleep-and-stress-relief-canto-pop?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Nov 2021 10:15:11 +0000 Nostalgia for the golden age of Canto-pop is sweeping across mainland China, thanks to a film paying homage to a Hong Kong singer and actress. Anita, the lavish biopic of Canto-pop superstar Anita Mui Yim-fong released on November 12 in Chinese cinemas, has been praised for capturing the charm and indomitable spirit that made the singer a legend. Louise Wong, who makes her feature-film debut playing Mui in the movie, has been lauded for emulating the singer’s speaking style and mannerisms; some... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3157299/anita-actress-louise-wong-how-biopic-singer-has-left?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3157299/anita-actress-louise-wong-how-biopic-singer-has-left?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Nov 2021 03:53:11 +0000 The Beijing audience whooped at the end of the premiere of stage play Goodfellas in 15 Days in October when director Clifton Ko Chi-sum announced that Ma Boyong, the author of the novel from which the play was adapted, was in the audience. The thunderous response to Ma, who jumped on stage at the Tianqiao Theatre to greet the audience, underscored the cult status he enjoys in China: his bestselling novels have been adapted into TV dramas and movies, and he has won some of the country’s top... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3156919/why-chinese-author-compared-jin-yong-and-one-chinas-hottest?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3156919/why-chinese-author-compared-jin-yong-and-one-chinas-hottest?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Nov 2021 09:45:20 +0000 Recalling her long cinematic career, Hong Kong actress Kara Hui says she is proud of what she has achieved. Dubbed the martial arts goddess of Hong Kong’s Shaw Studios in the 1980s, she was talent-spotted at the age of 15 while working as a dancer in a nightclub. A disciple of renowned Hong Kong action choreographer Lau Kar-leung, Hui (also known as Wai Ying-hung and Kara Wai) won the best actress award in the first Hong Kong Film Awards in 1982 for her action-filled performance in My Young... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3156531/actress-kara-hui-very-satisfied-movie-career-saw-her-dubbed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3156531/actress-kara-hui-very-satisfied-movie-career-saw-her-dubbed?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Nov 2021 23:15:16 +0000 For her supporting role as a beautiful model who leads a rich, glamorous life in the sleeper hit Chinese drama series Star of Ocean, Augusta Xu-Holland turned to Hollywood celebrity Paris Hilton for inspiration. The 30-year-old New Zealand-Chinese actress wanted to flesh out her character Juliet – a young woman who seems to have everything in life but is plagued with insecurities – with emotional depth. “I was touched by a recently released YouTube documentary on [Hilton], which exposes her... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3155823/star-ocean-actress-augusta-xu-holland-how-paris-hilton-puts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3155823/star-ocean-actress-augusta-xu-holland-how-paris-hilton-puts?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Nov 2021 09:15:15 +0000 To lose weight, Christian François started fasting two years ago. Eating two meals a day between noon and 9pm, he lost 9kg (19.8 pounds) in the space of three months. “I increased my exercise during those three months,” the Beijing, China-based wellness and nutrition consultant recalls. “I was working out for one hour, five times a week, in the first month, and doubling the hours in the second and third month. I was burning myself out.” The first week was the hardest, he says, as he would wake... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3155532/intermittent-fasting-worked-one-wellness-consultant-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3155532/intermittent-fasting-worked-one-wellness-consultant-not?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Nov 2021 23:15:22 +0000 The response to Love After Love, the first movie by Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui On-wah since she won a lifetime achievement award at the 2020 Venice International Film Festival, has been harsh – unexpectedly so, according to the director. The film (released in mainland China in October) was scripted by Wang Anyi and adapted from mid-20th century Chinese novelist Eileen Chang’s short story Aloeswood Incense: The First Brazier. It has been panned for straying both in its casting and plot. On... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3155376/love-after-love-director-ann-hui-accepts-criticism-film-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3155376/love-after-love-director-ann-hui-accepts-criticism-film-its?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Nov 2021 09:15:07 +0000 Spry and sprightly, Taiwanese artist Liu Kuo-sung will turn 90 in April 2022 and even though his extensive travels in nature, which provide the inspiration for many of his abstract works, have been suspended since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, he is still drawing as often as he can. When international borders reopen, he says he wants to go to Shanghai to resume his teaching at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts’ Academy of Contemporary Ink Art, of which he is the head. “My students are... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3154884/father-modern-chinese-ink-painting-liu-kuo-sung-says-theres?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3154884/father-modern-chinese-ink-painting-liu-kuo-sung-says-theres?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Nov 2021 21:15:17 +0000 Canto-pop singer Anita Mui Yim-fong had record-breaking album sales, but her cinematic career deserves equal praise, if not more. From portraying a plaintive prostitute who commits suicide after her lover’s family object to their relationship in Rouge (1987) to playing a mafia boss in A Better Tomorrow III (1989) to a martial arts maestro who saves her husband from trouble in Justice, My Foot! (1992), she mastered both comedic and tragic roles with aplomb. Ahead of the cinema release of Anita,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3154100/anita-muis-10-best-films-hong-kong-actress-greatest?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3154100/anita-muis-10-best-films-hong-kong-actress-greatest?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Oct 2021 03:45:13 +0000 Li Jingyi never imagined, when he began selling hand-painted paper fans from a street stall two years ago, that they would be so popular – or that he would become a full-time handicrafts maker as a result. “I painted the fans on the spot, attracting onlookers,” Li recalls of the stall in Dali, in China’s Yunnan province. Many visitors told him they “love traditional Chinese culture” and bought them as souvenirs. Encouraged by the overwhelming response, the 24-year-old university graduate from... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3153715/silk-fan-painter-hanfu-clothes-designer-artisan-youth-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3153715/silk-fan-painter-hanfu-clothes-designer-artisan-youth-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Oct 2021 23:15:27 +0000 With a melancholic contralto voice and charismatic stage presence, Anita Mui Yim-fong, who died from cervical cancer in 2003, was the biggest female Canto-pop singer in Hong Kong. Unconstrained by the conservative social mores of the 1980s, she embraced liberal Western values and sang about a girl’s first sexual encounter in Bad Girl (1985). In the music video for Split the Iceberg (1986), she wore a broad-shouldered blazer and loose-fitting trousers to pull off an androgynous look that had... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3152986/anita-muis-10-best-songs-canto-pop-legends-greatest-hits?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3152986/anita-muis-10-best-songs-canto-pop-legends-greatest-hits?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Oct 2021 02:45:13 +0000 The classic martial arts film Once Upon a Time in China (1991), directed by Tsui Hark, made a star of China-born martial artist Jet Li Lianjie. Playing the role of real-life Cantonese hero Wong Fei-hung, Li’s performance earned him comparisons to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. But while audiences were impressed by the film’s lengthy finale, where Wong fights his nemesis in a warehouse on moving bamboo ladders, most would have been unaware that it’s not actually Li who did the fighting. Three body... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3152099/they-kept-bruce-lee-jackie-chan-and-jet-li-safe-kung-fu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3152099/they-kept-bruce-lee-jackie-chan-and-jet-li-safe-kung-fu?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Oct 2021 04:45:11 +0000 Of the many patriotic entertainment productions launched in China this year to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, The Battle at Lake Changjin is the most successful, with the film’s runaway box office success adding a much-needed fillip to the sluggish domestic box office over the past few months. Audiences praised the movie set during the Korean war, which was directed by Chen Kaige, Dante Lam Chiu-yin and Tsui Hark, for delivering a powerful portrait of... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/3151693/box-office-success-china-korean-war-epic-shows-importance-patriotic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/3151693/box-office-success-china-korean-war-epic-shows-importance-patriotic?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Oct 2021 12:15:16 +0000 About half of co-working space provider WeWork China’s office in Parkview Place, Beijing, is occupied by sofas, bookshelves and a kitchen – space dedicated to communal activities. It can be used as a venue for events, and talks by authors and film directors, for example. WeWork provides shared office space for start-ups and freelancers all over the world. The “office salon” at the 4,000 square metre (43,000 sq ft) property in Beijing, the country’s capital, opened in September in collaboration... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3151083/office-salon-co-working-giant-wework-china-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3151083/office-salon-co-working-giant-wework-china-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Oct 2021 23:15:15 +0000 I was born in Hong Kong in 1967. I was the fourth of five siblings, with one older brother, two older sisters and one younger sister. My mother was a housewife and my dad worked at the Hotel Lisboa, in Macau. He was a fan of Cantonese opera. We lived in Wan Chai and I attended a primary school under Tung Wah Group of Hospitals and then Kiangsu-Chekiang College. Childhood visits to Cantonese opera backstage piqued my interest in Chinese folk culture. Festooned with lanterns and colourful... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/3150835/oscar-winning-art-director-tim-yip-working?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/3150835/oscar-winning-art-director-tim-yip-working?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Oct 2021 05:15:19 +0000 Gong Li shot to fame in 1987 in the romance Red Sorghum, set during the second Sino-Japanese war and the first Chinese film to win the Golden Bear, top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. From then until the mid-2010s, she and the film’s director, Zhang Yimou, collaborated on some of the best movies in the history of Chinese cinema, until China’s tightening censorship brought Zhang to heel. Zhang cast Gong in films that both captured Gong’s beauty and offered searing critiques of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3150607/five-best-films-gong-li-chinese-actress-spotlight-starting?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3150607/five-best-films-gong-li-chinese-actress-spotlight-starting?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Sep 2021 23:15:19 +0000 Forty minutes by high-speed train from the centre of Beijing, quiet, sparsely populated Yanqing is a world away from the skyscrapers and rush-hour crush of the Chinese capital. Despite its abundant greenery, craggy mountains and historical sites – not to mention Badaling, the most visited section of the Great Wall of China – Yanqing, with a permanent population of 320,000, flies under the radar of most Beijingers in the warmer months of the year. Instead, they flock to Huairou and Miyun for... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3149941/taste-attractions-and-natural-beauty-yanqing-beijing-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3149941/taste-attractions-and-natural-beauty-yanqing-beijing-it?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Sep 2021 06:45:11 +0000 Henan Satellite TV is an anomaly in China’s popular entertainment landscape, where terrestrial TV stations and streaming platforms fall over themselves to produce sentimental soap operas and sensational reality-TV shows to attract viewers. While most of the industry chases TV ratings and advertisers using star-studded shows, Henan TV sticks to its formula of shunning pop culture in favour of tasteful content promoting traditional Chinese culture. Defying industry norms, the station, which is... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3149928/how-henan-tv-went-viral-promoting-chinese-traditional?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3149928/how-henan-tv-went-viral-promoting-chinese-traditional?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Sep 2021 03:15:14 +0000 Although she hasn’t had an uninterrupted night’s sleep since the premature birth of her twin boys in 2017, actress and former singer Charlie Yeung Choi-nei says they have given her a new life full of hope and joy – and she feels younger than ever. “They became my first priority in life,” she says. “I am an only child and I was also born prematurely. My mum gave me lots of nutrition, and [I did lots of] exercise. My husband and I decided to do the same for the boys. Very [small] and incubated for... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3149897/how-age-well-actress-charlie-yeung-says-giving-birth-42?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3149897/how-age-well-actress-charlie-yeung-says-giving-birth-42?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Sep 2021 22:45:14 +0000 One of the more popular domestic holiday destinations for Chinese citizens is Hainan province, a series of islands (the largest of which is Hainan Island) at the very south of China, for the beach resorts and the area’s food. Hainan’s year-round tropical climate means it yields a bumper harvest of produce, ranging from coffee beans to zhegu (partridge tea leaves) to fruit. As a result, the province is known for its wide range of dishes. The area’s culinary diversity even made the news in a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3149639/where-and-what-eat-hainan-china-coconut-chicken-sanya-seafood?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3149639/where-and-what-eat-hainan-china-coconut-chicken-sanya-seafood?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Sep 2021 04:45:22 +0000 The Chinese entertainment industry is on edge following a series of crackdowns on excessive fan culture, immoral stars, idol selection shows and TV series featuring “sissy male” idols. It seems few are safe from the government’s new regulations. Those caught in the crosshairs are often swiftly punished, which can mean having their social media accounts on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, shut down, and sometimes even their entire internet presence scrubbed overnight. The list of those who have... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3149435/zhao-wei-kris-wu-zhang-zhehan-chinese-stars-hit-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3149435/zhao-wei-kris-wu-zhang-zhehan-chinese-stars-hit-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Sep 2021 23:45:21 +0000 Mason Lee – whose first film as lead actor, the Taiwanese romantic comedy Stand by Me, opens in cinemas in China on September 9 – says his role as the underdog whose dream girl does not reciprocate his feelings for her resembles the real-life him. “I am not an alpha male in real life,” he tells the Post self-deprecatingly. “I don’t have a very handsome face. Jiu-bing [his character in the movie] is a loser in love; other boys always upstage him. So, when playing the role, I don’t need to be like... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3147817/filmmaker-ang-lees-son-mason-lee-playing-shy-and-reserved?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3147817/filmmaker-ang-lees-son-mason-lee-playing-shy-and-reserved?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Sep 2021 11:15:20 +0000 She may not grace billboards like her older brother, Hong Kong superstar actor and martial artist Donnie Yen Ji-dan, but Chris Yen Zi-ching, a wushu master herself, is a poster girl for how to age well. The siblings learned martial arts from their mother, Mark Bow-sim, who was born in Guangzhou, southern China, and founded the Chinese Wushu Research Institute in Boston in 1976 after emigrating to Massachusetts from Hong Kong in 1975. She taught wushu at Boston University and Harvard... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3147316/how-age-well-donnie-yens-wushu-master-sister-chris-yen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3147316/how-age-well-donnie-yens-wushu-master-sister-chris-yen?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Sep 2021 23:45:09 +0000 The unprecedented success of five-year-old Hong Kong broadcaster ViuTV is reflected in one of its biggest creations to date – boy band Mirror. From winning the station’s talent show Good Night Show – King Maker in 2018 to becoming the hottest stars in town, the rise of the 12-member Canto-pop group has been meteoric. Camped outside shopping malls, the band’s avid and mostly female followers queue for up to 24 hours to secure the best viewing spots for their appearances. The fans’ devotion... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3147170/rise-viutv-streaming-service-beats-netflix-subscribers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3147170/rise-viutv-streaming-service-beats-netflix-subscribers?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Sep 2021 23:15:15 +0000 Hong Kong filmmaker Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung will direct the first episode of Netflix’s upcoming sci-fi drama series Three-Body Problem, the streaming platform has announced. Based on the award-winning trilogy of the same name by Chinese author Liu Cixin, the much anticipated English-language live-action adaptation will be produced by Game of Thrones co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and written by Alexander Woo. The project will be Benioff and Weiss’s first TV show after the hugely... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3145779/choice-derek-tsang-direct-three-body-problems-first-episode?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3145779/choice-derek-tsang-direct-three-body-problems-first-episode?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Aug 2021 08:32:10 +0000 Natalie Hsu En-yi says that at some point in their lives every girl wants to be Julie Andrews, the star of classic US musical The Sound of Music. While that might remain wishful thinking for many, 17-year-old Hsu is living the dream with her singing and dancing debut in the Chinese youth musical The Day We Lit Up The Sky. Released last month in cinemas across China and full of fizzy dance numbers, the musical has already earned 160 million yuan (US$21 million) at the box office. “The Sound of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3145589/natalie-hsu-star-day-we-lit-sky-chinese-musicals-message?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3145589/natalie-hsu-star-day-we-lit-sky-chinese-musicals-message?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Aug 2021 23:15:11 +0000 Chinese internet users have accused Warner Bros of insulting China after the Hollywood studio announced it would make an art heist movie suggesting the Chinese government was behind a series of international art museum thefts. The Great Chinese Art Heist will be directed by Jon Chu, the director of Crazy Rich Asians, and adapted by writers Jimmy O. Yang, Jessica Gao and Ken Cheng. The film will be based on a GQ article by Alex Palmer published in 2018 about major thefts of Chinese art and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3145661/great-chinese-art-heist-movie-plan-sparks-anger-china-where?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3145661/great-chinese-art-heist-movie-plan-sparks-anger-china-where?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Aug 2021 11:15:16 +0000 When Hong Kong’s king of comedy Stephen Chow Sing-chi announced in June he had signed a deal with Tencent Video to make online movies, he followed a long line-up of A-list talents, including director Stanley Tong Kwai-lai and martial arts superstar Donnie Yen Ji-dan, who have ventured beyond cinematic releases to stream their films as well. A week after Chow’s announcement, Dirty Monkeys Studio – founded by director Ning Hao of Crazy Stone (2006) and Crazy Alien (2019) fame – announced online... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3145339/lost-russia-legend-hunter-and-dreams-getting-rich-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3145339/lost-russia-legend-hunter-and-dreams-getting-rich-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Aug 2021 02:15:10 +0000 Drifting, a gritty Hong Kong film about the plight of homeless people in the city’s poorest district, Sham Shui Po, has won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the First International Film Festival in Xining, northwest China. Loletta Lee Lai-chun, among a cast of stars including Francis Ng Chun-yu and Tse Kwan-ho, shines as a resilient dishwasher named Chan who is waiting for a public housing flat. Lee tells the Post that, before shooting started, she visited the homeless in Sham Shui... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3144338/loletta-lee-famous-hong-kong-actress-80s-and-90s-her-four?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3144338/loletta-lee-famous-hong-kong-actress-80s-and-90s-her-four?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Aug 2021 23:15:18 +0000 As Guinness World Records go it’s niche, but in April, 110 young professional divers outfitted with tails staged the largest underwater mermaid dance show ever witnessed. Organised by the Atlantis Sanya – an ocean-themed resort in Sanya, in China’s island Hainan province – and the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (Padi), the stunt is part of a concerted effort by local government and tourism operators to encourage young domestic tourists to visit the holiday island in southern... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3143437/chinas-sanya-hainan-province-looks-attract-young?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3143437/chinas-sanya-hainan-province-looks-attract-young?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Aug 2021 04:30:17 +0000 Song of Youth, the latest period drama from Huanyu Entertainment, the production company behind global sensation Story of Yanxi Palace, shot to the top of the ratings in China soon after its launch. The 43-episode series, airing on Youku and Changsha News Channel, tells the story of Lin Shaochun (played by Bai Lu), an aristocrat-turned-tramp who loses her family in a tragedy yet manages to get back on her feet. After marrying Sun Yulou (Wang Yizhe), the youngest son of a powerful Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3142856/bai-lu-playing-song-youth-heroine-lin-shaochun-her-boyish?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3142856/bai-lu-playing-song-youth-heroine-lin-shaochun-her-boyish?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Jul 2021 09:15:15 +0000 Star rapper and singer Kris Wu Yifan lied about his relationship with a Chinese teen beauty influencer who accuses him of date rape, a police investigation has revealed. According to a statement from police in Beijing, Wu’s agent asked Du Meizhu to go to the home of the Chinese-Canadian star on December 5 on the pretext of selecting her to appear in a music video. More than 10 people played games and drank at his home that evening. Wu and Du had sex that night, according to the police statement,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3142231/kris-wu-did-have-sex-teen-influencer-say-police-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3142231/kris-wu-did-have-sex-teen-influencer-say-police-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Jul 2021 07:30:18 +0000 Global luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Porsche have joined several Chinese consumer brands in freezing or severing their ties with rapper and model Kris Wu Yifan following an allegation, which he denies, that he date-raped underage girls. French luxury fashion powerhouse Louis Vuitton, for whom Wu has been an ambassador since 2018, announced on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, late on Monday that it had suspended its collaboration with Wu until the results of a judicial investigation are... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3141790/louis-vuitton-porsche-drop-kris-wu-over-date-rape?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3141790/louis-vuitton-porsche-drop-kris-wu-over-date-rape?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Jul 2021 06:54:51 +0000 The first online television series directed by award-winning Chinese movie director Feng Xiaogang has been met with widespread criticism, mirroring the disdain that has greeted several disastrous forays onto the small screen by A-listers in the past few years. Broadcast by Chinese streaming giant iQiyi since July 11, the 30-part Crossroad Bistro is the first television drama Feng has directed since 1997’s Behind the Moon. His work on several critically acclaimed films catapulted him into the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3141236/chinese-film-director-feng-xiaogangs-new-tv-series-panned?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3141236/chinese-film-director-feng-xiaogangs-new-tv-series-panned?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Jul 2021 23:15:08 +0000 The only Japanese member of the Hong Kong Stuntman Association, Kenji Tanigaki speaks Cantonese with a Japanese accent when he choreographs action scenes in Donnie Yen Ji-dan’s movies. Tanigaki first worked for Yen as a stuntman in the TV series Fist of Fury (1995) starring Yen and co-directed by the late director Benny Chan Muk-sing. Adapted from the eponymous Bruce Lee classic, the show portrays Chen Zhen, the fictional protégé of Qing dynasty martial arts maestro Huo Yuanjia. The success of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3140918/donnie-yens-action-choreographers-his-and-jackie-chans?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3140918/donnie-yens-action-choreographers-his-and-jackie-chans?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jul 2021 09:45:07 +0000 Evergreen Mak Cheung-ching and four other former actors with Hong Kong broadcaster TVB took part in a reality television show last year, in which they had menial jobs like delivering parcels and working as a service station attendant. They didn’t do it for laughs, but to make a living. Mak said openly on the show, Midlife Crisis, screened on Hong Kong television channel ViuTV in June 2020, that the lack of job opportunities in Hong Kong show business had placed a heavy financial burden on him... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3140333/unemployed-hong-kong-tv-actors-move-china-work-drama-series?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3140333/unemployed-hong-kong-tv-actors-move-china-work-drama-series?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Jul 2021 01:00:18 +0000 Having stepped back from show business when she became the mother of two boys, former Miss Hong Kong and TVB actress Grace Chan Hoi-lam misses acting and being on the set of a production. “I miss being in a team environment where everyone works together to make an amazing product for the audience to view,” Chan tells the Post. “It was so much fun being able to play someone else, to be transported into a different world and era of time. That’s what I genuinely miss.” Her last acting work was in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3139553/former-hong-kong-actress-grace-chan-why-raising-family-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3139553/former-hong-kong-actress-grace-chan-why-raising-family-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Jul 2021 04:15:16 +0000 A brochure from Taiwan on a hospital counter in Beijing that offered ideas on how to teach autistic children was the catalyst for Tian Huiping to open the Beijing Stars and Rain Education Institute for Autism in 1993, the first social organisation of its kind in China. Tian’s son had been diagnosed with autism, a developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and non-verbal communication and social interaction from early childhood. With no group providing assistance to autistic... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3139045/his-father-was-holding-stick-discipline-him-autism-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3139045/his-father-was-holding-stick-discipline-him-autism-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Jun 2021 23:15:07 +0000 The first television drama to star top Chinese film actress Zhou Dongyu launched recently to widespread criticism, echoing the disapproval that met fellow star Zhang Ziyi’s disastrous foray onto the small screen earlier this year. Zhou’s first period drama series – Ancient Love Poetry – launched on Tencent Video on June 17. Reportedly costing 400 million yuan (US$62 million) to make, the 49-part series tells the story of romance between two deities, Shang Gu, played by Zhou, and Bai Jue, played... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3138540/top-chinese-film-actress-tv-series-criticised-bad-acting?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3138540/top-chinese-film-actress-tv-series-criticised-bad-acting?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Jun 2021 03:15:09 +0000 When Five Guys opened an outlet in Shanghai in April, not only was its first in mainland China, it was also the first shop that the American burger chain, which has nearly 1,700 stores around the world, opened anywhere since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out more than a year ago. It seems that the pandemic has been a mixed blessing. Danny Lee, Five Guys’ regional managing director for Asia Pacific, says that while they have had to put in additional measures due to the coronavirus, landlords are a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3138297/overseas-restaurant-chains-take-advantage-chinas-dining-boom?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3138297/overseas-restaurant-chains-take-advantage-chinas-dining-boom?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Jun 2021 23:15:07 +0000 When veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Jing brought the young actress Sabrina Qiu onto the popular Chinese talk show Roast in 2018, some audience members thought she might be the daughter of Chingmy Yau Suk-ching, a movie star who was scouted and nurtured to become a sex symbol by Wong in the 1990s. That was understandable – the actresses share the same surname in Chinese, and on Roast Qiu re-enacted a classic scene from Wong’s film God of Gamblers’ Returns (1994) in which Yau, dressed in a red... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3137610/sabrina-qiu-chinese-actress-who-wong-jings-latest-sexy-muse?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3137610/sabrina-qiu-chinese-actress-who-wong-jings-latest-sexy-muse?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Jun 2021 01:15:00 +0000