https://www.scmp.com/rss/141825/feed Having lived his whole life in the modern cities of Singapore and Hong Kong, Wee Kek Koon has an inexplicable fascination with the past. He is constantly amazed by how much he can mine from China's history for his weekly column in the South China Morning Post, which he has written since 2005. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Last month, friends visiting from Hong Kong brought me two tins of cookies from Jenny Bakery – a popular local treat I had somehow never tried in two decades of living in the city. When I finally opened one, the aroma caught me off guard: rich, buttery and instantly familiar. It smelled exactly like the coffee buns from the Malaysian bakery chain Rotiboy, which I used to eat far more often than I should admit. I paused for a moment, tin in hand, trying to place that recognition. Maybe it was a... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3348537/history-chinese-flatbreads-reflects-how-food-has-echoes-faraway-places?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3348537/history-chinese-flatbreads-reflects-how-food-has-echoes-faraway-places?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon I was watching a “C-drama”, or Chinese television drama, on Netflix and found myself silently questioning why I had to sit through a sluggish 20-minute set piece that could have been done and dusted in two. At that moment, the person who had persuaded me to watch the period potboiler asked, “What is a biaoju?”, referring to a key plot device in the show. China’s armed escort services, known as biaoju, grew out of a very practical problem: getting from point A to point B without being robbed or... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3347993/how-imperial-chinas-armed-escorts-became-stuff-legend?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3347993/how-imperial-chinas-armed-escorts-became-stuff-legend?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon I recently enjoyed a delicious dinner at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur that specialised in Hakka cuisine. Hakka restaurants have long existed in the city and elsewhere in Malaysia, but anecdotal evidence suggests their numbers have been growing rapidly in recent years. Less widely known than Cantonese and several other Chinese regional cuisines, Hakka food may be enjoying its moment in the sun, at least in Malaysia, where the Hakka population numbers around 1.25 million. They form the largest... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3347186/how-hakka-spread-china-and-beyond-their-cuisine-reflecting-hard-lives?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3347186/how-hakka-spread-china-and-beyond-their-cuisine-reflecting-hard-lives?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:15:09 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon In a recent interview, Reza Pahlavi, the former crown prince of Iran who is living in exile in the United States, described the death of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as a moment that could mark the end of what he calls a monstrous era of repression. Many Iranians, he said, greeted the news of Khamenei’s assassination with elation, sensing a rare chance to reclaim their country. Pahlavi is careful to insist that he does not seek to be king or president, but a transitional... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3346223/what-irans-former-crown-prince-can-learn-exiled-royals-plea-chinese-emperor?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3346223/what-irans-former-crown-prince-can-learn-exiled-royals-plea-chinese-emperor?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:15:09 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon I have always been a worrier. For as long as I can remember, I have fretted over every conceivable disaster. Will that approaching car run me down because its driver neglected to fix its brakes? Will my apartment block collapse while I sleep? Will the latest war bring about the end of the world as we know it? It is not debilitating – these thoughts come and go in brief, sporadic flashes – but more than one therapist has suggested that I have a tendency to catastrophise. Their advice is familiar:... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3345516/modern-singapore-knows-vigilance-key-so-did-ancient-chinese-minister?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3345516/modern-singapore-knows-vigilance-key-so-did-ancient-chinese-minister?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon You must have seen that photograph of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of the British king, attempting to hide in the back seat of a car, eyes reddened by the camera flash, looking like a pathetic rodent moments before it is turned into roadkill. In response to the former prince’s arrest, King Charles said in a statement: “The law must take its course.” British law enforcement is finally initiating formal legal proceedings against Andrew for alleged wrongdoing. It may have taken far too long,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3344712/after-andrews-arrest-how-high-born-criminals-were-treated-ancient-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3344712/after-andrews-arrest-how-high-born-criminals-were-treated-ancient-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon South Korea’s intelligence agency has signalled what could be a historic turn in North Korea’s dynastic politics. Lawmakers were recently told that supreme leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter, whose name is widely believed to be Kim Ju-ae, is being positioned as his likely successor. If confirmed, the move would extend the Kim family’s rule into a fourth generation and, more strikingly, elevate a girl within a rigidly patriarchal society and political system. Her public profile has risen... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3344084/kim-jong-un-grooms-daughter-rule-chinese-princess-whose-ambition-backfired?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3344084/kim-jong-un-grooms-daughter-rule-chinese-princess-whose-ambition-backfired?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon My niece’s parents-in-law recently flew in for the Singapore leg of her wedding – eight months after the main celebration in London. Keen to return the generosity they had shown me during my stay in the UK, I took the Lingalas on a day out in Singapore’s Little India and Chinatown. We began at the Indian Heritage Centre, an excellent museum that traces the layered history of the Indian diaspora in Singapore. After lunch and some shopping in Little India, we went to the 200-year-old Sri Mariamman... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3343146/how-singapores-chinatown-reveals-surprising-roots-buddhist-deities-ne-zha?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3343146/how-singapores-chinatown-reveals-surprising-roots-buddhist-deities-ne-zha?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Are your loved ones in luck this year? See our predictions for all the zodiac signs in the Year of the Horse. My favourite part of the Lunar New Year, the first day of which falls on February 17 this year, is the festive sweets and snacks. When I was a child and compelled to visit relatives in my large extended family – most of whom I did not even like (and still don’t) – my only real solace was the smorgasbord of titbits laid out in their homes. I ate as many of their snacks as I could, perhaps... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3342500/what-common-lunar-new-year-snacks-china-singapore-and-malaysia-symbolise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3342500/what-common-lunar-new-year-snacks-china-singapore-and-malaysia-symbolise?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Feb 2026 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Are your loved ones in luck this year? See our predictions for all the zodiac signs in the Year of the Horse. I have just sent off a tranche of Lunar New Year cards to friends and family, especially those living overseas. I almost never send festive greetings at this time of year, probably because for a long time I was a Lunar New Year Ebenezer Scrooge for whom “Lunar New Year”, “Chinese New Year”, “Spring Festival”, or whatever one chooses to call it felt like a dreadful obligation best... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3341675/how-ancient-chinese-new-year-cards-went-elites-greetings-bribery-instruments?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3341675/how-ancient-chinese-new-year-cards-went-elites-greetings-bribery-instruments?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon The New Year began on a convivial note for me, with friends visiting from afar. The Witzke family flew into Kuala Lumpur from Sydney for a week-long holiday, and our itinerary included sights in and around the Malaysian capital, as well as in Malacca, a Unesco World Heritage site known in Malaysia as Melaka. Before becoming one of Malaysia’s 13 states, Malacca had been a British possession that, together with Singapore, Penang and other territories, formed the Straits Settlements. Prior to... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3340824/was-chinese-princess-hang-li-po-sent-marry-malaysian-sultan-real-person?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3340824/was-chinese-princess-hang-li-po-sent-marry-malaysian-sultan-real-person?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:15:10 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Tokyo’s famed New Year fish auction has smashed its own headline record, with a giant bluefin tuna fetching an eye-watering price. At the Toyosu fish market’s first auction of 2026, a 243kg (535lb) bluefin tuna was snapped up for 510 million yen (US$3.2 million), making it the most expensive tuna ever sold at this annual ritual. The winning bid came from Kiyomura, the company behind the popular Sushi Zanmai chain. The purchase eclipsed the company’s own record-setting bid from 2019. The fish... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3339964/what-ancient-chinese-heros-fatal-love-raw-fish-warns-us-about-uncooked-food?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3339964/what-ancient-chinese-heros-fatal-love-raw-fish-warns-us-about-uncooked-food?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon I welcomed the new year with a new crown – a dental one, that is. A routine check-up in late 2025 revealed fine cracks in one of my molars, which called for prompt intervention. First came the filing and reshaping of the damaged tooth, accomplished with a tool that produces my least favourite sound, but amplified and reverberating quite literally inside my head. A digital scan was then taken and sent to a laboratory, where the permanent crown would be fabricated. In the interim, a temporary... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3339020/how-ancient-chinese-dental-practices-were-often-similar-those-used-today?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3339020/how-ancient-chinese-dental-practices-were-often-similar-those-used-today?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon You have probably seen this before. You are ordering at a restaurant when the server asks what sort of water you would like – still or sparkling? – and the Chinese diners at your table, usually women but not always, chime in: “Warm water”. Many Chinese believe that drinking warm water, or, more precisely, avoiding anything cold, is good for one’s health. As a child, my mother tried to stop me from consuming cold food and drinks because “it will make you sick”. “Then why aren’t Europeans and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3338260/chinese-diners-preference-warm-water-over-cold-not-ancient-youd-think?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3338260/chinese-diners-preference-warm-water-over-cold-not-ancient-youd-think?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Jan 2026 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Last week, I noted that the contents of the Albatross file cast doubts on the popular narrative that Singapore was abruptly “kicked out” of Malaysia on August 9, 1965. The documents show that separation was not a unilateral expulsion but the outcome of months of secret, bilateral planning by senior leaders on both sides. The idea originated within Singapore’s own leadership in 1964, when figures such as then Minister of Finance Goh Keng Swee (who opened the file) judged that it was politically... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3337481/chinese-historical-myths-are-accepted-fact-and-why-they-have-endured?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3337481/chinese-historical-myths-are-accepted-fact-and-why-they-have-endured?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Dec 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon The Albatross file is a top-secret collection of papers compiled by Goh Keng Swee, one of the chief architects of modern Singapore and the right-hand man of the country’s founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. In it are lesser-known details of the immediate run-up to Singapore’s dramatic separation from Malaysia on August 9, 1965. While the file’s contents have been known and studied for some years, a new book and exhibition are generating interest and raising questions about the popular... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3336910/how-malaysias-unusual-creation-still-affects-it-today-and-chinas-idea-doing-similar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3336910/how-malaysias-unusual-creation-still-affects-it-today-and-chinas-idea-doing-similar?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon You must have seen Labubu dolls – those furry, razor-toothed monsters that come in an array of colours and hang from every third person’s bag – though perhaps you do so less frequently now than in 2024. I suppose they are cute, a momentary distraction from the fraught world we live in, but for many, these charming critters serve another, humourless purpose: they are investments. Rare or limited-edition Labubus have commanded prices 10 to 20 times their original retail value. Their manufacturer,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3336157/ancient-chinas-labubu-doll-craze-also-saw-fans-splurge-silly-money-toys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3336157/ancient-chinas-labubu-doll-craze-also-saw-fans-splurge-silly-money-toys?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Dec 2025 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon It will be a sombre December for Hong Kong as the city recovers from the shock of the massive fire that engulfed seven high-rise residential blocks in Tai Po last week, the deadliest fire in Hong Kong in decades. At the time of writing, 159 people are confirmed dead and dozens more are injured. Few would remain unmoved by the distraught tears of victims who lost family members and their homes to the blaze. Fire was a constant threat in premodern Chinese cities, where most buildings were made of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3335148/how-chinas-history-fighting-fire-reflects-long-and-difficult-struggle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3335148/how-chinas-history-fighting-fire-reflects-long-and-difficult-struggle?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon The “Mar-a-Lago face” has become the newest unofficial badge of power in Washington. The look typically features inflated lips, immobile brows and sharply sculpted contours. The hyper-polished, over-tightened, filler-heavy aesthetic leaves its bearers with a permanent glower. It is everywhere among right-wing luminaries and the conservative elite who have drifted into the US capital since Donald Trump’s second inauguration. British newspaper The Guardian hilariously observes that the “bee-sting... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3334343/trump-insiders-mar-lago-faces-echo-chinese-elites-unhealthy-efforts-please-king?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3334343/trump-insiders-mar-lago-faces-echo-chinese-elites-unhealthy-efforts-please-king?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:15:11 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon The 15th National Games of China, jointly hosted by Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau, just ended. I must confess that my only engagement with the quadrennial event was to impatiently scroll down whenever headlines or images of the games appeared on my screen. I have done the same for the Olympic Games, the Fifa World Cup, Wimbledon and everything in between, because I have no interest in sporting events – or sports in general. The skills specific to certain games, the complicated rules and the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3333375/how-china-embraced-physical-fitness-through-history-polo-todays-national-games?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3333375/how-china-embraced-physical-fitness-through-history-polo-todays-national-games?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Nov 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon “The Andrew formerly known as Prince,” British tabloid The Sun announced on its front page on October 31. It was the cheekiest headline I have seen in a while. Once a senior working royal with honorary military roles and public duties, Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles, was stripped of his patronages and barred from using “His Royal Highness” in 2022 after public outrage over his ties to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and a civil settlement with Virginia Giuffre, who accused him... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3332449/andrews-loss-prince-title-echoes-downfall-many-demoted-royal-imperial-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3332449/andrews-loss-prince-title-echoes-downfall-many-demoted-royal-imperial-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Nov 2025 00:15:09 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Last month, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) welcomed a new member: East Timor. I first learned about Asean as part of my civics education in primary school. Back then, Asean was made up of only five countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, the founding members who created the association in 1967. In 1984, Brunei joined after it achieved full independence. Between 1995 and 1999, the mainland Southeast Asian nations of Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3331726/how-asean-way-differs-failed-alliances-chinas-warring-states-period?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3331726/how-asean-way-differs-failed-alliances-chinas-warring-states-period?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Nov 2025 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon In October 2025, United States President Donald Trump initiated the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for a grand new ballroom, making it the largest alteration to the presidential complex in decades. Trump said the new ballroom, privately funded at an estimated cost of US$250 million, would serve as a venue for “state events worthy of America’s greatness”. The demolition has provoked fierce controversy. Preservationists, historians and members of Congress condemned the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3331022/how-trumps-new-white-house-ballroom-echoes-grand-monuments-chinas-emperors?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3331022/how-trumps-new-white-house-ballroom-echoes-grand-monuments-chinas-emperors?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Time magazine recently ran a favourable article on US President Donald Trump’s involvement in brokering the Gaza ceasefire, but Trump was furious at the accompanying cover image. He complained that the photograph, taken from below with the sun behind him, which made his hair disappear, was unflattering. He said the cover photograph might be the “worst of all time”. From monarchs to potentates, presidents to despots, all rulers know the power of the portrait. Their likeness, presented as... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3330007/trumps-time-photo-one-chinese-emperors-portraits-were-often-unflattering?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3330007/trumps-time-photo-one-chinese-emperors-portraits-were-often-unflattering?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon In a recent interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong deftly disabused people of the suggestion that the city state could actively mediate between China and the United States over the Taiwan issue. However, he said, Singapore “can be helpful” and “a good host” for any talks that may take place. Small and medium-sized countries such as Norway, Qatar and Singapore often play disproportionately influential roles in mediating conflicts and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3329349/ancient-chinese-state-mediated-between-bigger-ones-singapore-does-today?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3329349/ancient-chinese-state-mediated-between-bigger-ones-singapore-does-today?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon In September, predictions that the “Rapture” would occur on the 23rd and 24th went viral. Convinced that the end was nigh, some Christians resigned from their jobs, liquidated belongings or skipped exams in preparation for the great ascent. There were plenty of red faces all around when the days came and went without millions of people vanishing into thin air. The Rapture, as conceived by certain groups of Christians, is a dramatic prelude to the end times, when the faithful are suddenly lifted... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3328473/how-ancient-chinese-sects-have-foretold-rapture-divine-ends-millennia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3328473/how-ancient-chinese-sects-have-foretold-rapture-divine-ends-millennia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:15:09 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon According to figures revealed in Malaysia’s parliament in August, a total of 97,318 Malaysians traded their passports for Singaporean citizenship from 2015 to mid-2025, with the numbers peaking dramatically in 2024 at nearly 17,000. There are a host of reasons, both dispassionate and personal, why many Malaysians are permanently leaving the country of their birth for Singapore and other destinations such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. For most people who change their... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3327628/how-one-first-traitors-han-chinese-gave-huge-boost-chinas-enemy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3327628/how-one-first-traitors-han-chinese-gave-huge-boost-chinas-enemy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Oct 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Researchers at Italy’s University of Padua have traced the surprising origins of one of Venice’s most enduring symbols: the bronze winged lion that stands atop a column in St Mark’s Square. Long believed to be a medieval Venetian creation, or perhaps a work from Syria or Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), the sculpture’s true story now points further east. Through lead isotope analysis, scholars determined that the copper used in the bronze alloy came from the Yangzi River basin in China. This... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3326827/how-lion-became-symbol-chinese-identity-and-cultural-exchange?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3326827/how-lion-became-symbol-chinese-identity-and-cultural-exchange?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Sep 2025 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Native to Southeast Asia, durian is a highly divisive fruit. Some people love it, while others cannot stand being in the same room with one. A lot of this comes down to biology and culture. The fruit’s (in)famous smell comes from sulphur compounds. Genetic variations in olfactory receptors mean some people detect more of the sweet, custardy notes, while others are overwhelmed by the strong stench of week-old garbage. Culture matters too. In Southeast Asia, most of us grew up being told that the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3325978/how-chinas-new-durian-express-recalls-emperors-efforts-sate-consorts-lychee-love?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3325978/how-chinas-new-durian-express-recalls-emperors-efforts-sate-consorts-lychee-love?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Sep 2025 00:45:09 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing the Department of Defence to revert to its former name, the Department of War, a title last used in the 1940s. He says the move better conveys strength, readiness and victory. Pete Hegseth – formerly the secretary of defence, now the secretary of war – is more hawkish. “We’re going to go on offence, not just on defence. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct,” he said. “We’re going to raise... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3324873/how-chinas-3-departments-6-ministries-system-worked-and-its-ministry-wars-role?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3324873/how-chinas-3-departments-6-ministries-system-worked-and-its-ministry-wars-role?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Sep 2025 00:40:29 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon For her contributions to Malacca’s tourism sector, Chinese celebrity Fan Bingbing was conferred the Darjah Pangkuan Seri Melaka – or the Companion Class II of the Exalted Order of Malacca – by the governor of the non-royal Malaysian state last month. That order carries the title “Datuk”. She can be referred to as Datuk Fan Bingbing, but only when she is in Malaysia. Malaysia has an intricate system of federal and state honours. While honorary, they confer immense social prestige, signalling... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3323985/after-fan-bingbings-malaysia-award-chinas-history-honorary-titles-and-medals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3323985/after-fan-bingbings-malaysia-award-chinas-history-honorary-titles-and-medals?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Sep 2025 00:45:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Besides its famed martial arts techniques, the Shaolin Temple is usually portrayed as showing the peak of moral leadership over the denizens of jianghu, the “rivers and lakes” – a parallel universe of martial arts schools, secret societies and religious fraternities – in novels, television dramas and films. It is, therefore, a shock to many that Shi Yongxin, the former abbot of the Shaolin Temple, is facing an official investigation for financial and sexual misconduct. To restore the reputation... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3323552/shaolin-temple-scandal-would-have-led-far-harsher-reactions-ancient-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3323552/shaolin-temple-scandal-would-have-led-far-harsher-reactions-ancient-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Aug 2025 00:45:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Several weeks ago, I came across a book in the schoolbag of a kindergarten-age boy – let’s call him “Small B” – who goes to a private school in Kuala Lumpur. He had borrowed the book from the school library. As I turned the pages of the picture book with him, I noticed that the protagonist, how she performed certain tasks, and even the physical setting of the story were not quite reflective of the boy’s lived reality. I remember the English- and Chinese-language books that I read as a child were... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3322339/history-chinese-libraries-huge-palace-collections-public-spaces-learning?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3322339/history-chinese-libraries-huge-palace-collections-public-spaces-learning?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Aug 2025 00:45:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Compared to American President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again bromance with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the relationship between the latter and Chinese President Xi Jinping is on a much more even keel. In recent years, China and Russia have forged a deepening strategic partnership marked by expanding trade, closer military cooperation and shared opposition to United States-led international norms, or what passes for norms in these bewildering, topsy-turvy times. The relationship... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3321869/brief-history-china-russia-relations-bitter-rivals-close-allies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3321869/brief-history-china-russia-relations-bitter-rivals-close-allies?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Aug 2025 00:45:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Singapore celebrates its 60th year of independence on August 9. While textual and archaeological evidence points to a history of human settlement of at least 700 years, the island nation is relatively young as an independent country. Singapore is probably the only modern nation whose leader, on the day of its independence in 1965, wept tears not of joy but of sorrow and anguish. Singapore’s expulsion from the Malaysian federation exposed it to uncertainties from multiple fronts, and it is this... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3321035/how-chinese-dynasties-looked-6-decades-singapore-celebrates-60-years-independence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3321035/how-chinese-dynasties-looked-6-decades-singapore-celebrates-60-years-independence?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Aug 2025 00:45:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Hong Kong’s Registration of Same-sex Partnerships Bill, introduced to the Legislative Council in July, proposes the establishment of a legal framework to register overseas same-sex marriages and civil partnerships. The bill grants limited rights, including next-of-kin status for medical decisions, hospital visitation and postmortem arrangements. It explicitly excludes legal recognition of same-sex marriages or civil unions conducted within Hong Kong. The government asserts that the bill does not... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3320246/how-homosexuality-was-accepted-ancient-china-and-even-celebrated?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3320246/how-homosexuality-was-accepted-ancient-china-and-even-celebrated?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Aug 2025 00:45:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon I am writing this with great sadness. A very good friend of mine died last week in Hong Kong. He was only 65. He had been enjoying his retirement from the Hong Kong civil service, travelling overseas every other month, when he was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer two years ago. Despite the devastating and totally unexpected diagnosis – he never smoked and led an active, healthy life – he remained sanguine about his condition and complied with all the treatments prescribed. In the two years... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3319500/how-classic-poem-chinese-poet-wang-bo-sums-my-feelings-over-good-friends-death?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3319500/how-classic-poem-chinese-poet-wang-bo-sums-my-feelings-over-good-friends-death?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 26 Jul 2025 00:45:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Pickleball is experiencing rapid growth across Asia, gaining popularity in countries including China, Japan and Thailand. Invented in the 1960s by American businessman and politician Joel Pritchard, who went on to become the lieutenant governor of the US state of Washington, pickleball is at once tennis and ping pong, and everything in between. The name of the game has more to do with the “pickle boat” in the sport of rowing, reflecting its patrician origins, rather than with processed cabbages... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3318546/ancient-chinese-played-football-ball-games-popular-china-centuries-ago?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3318546/ancient-chinese-played-football-ball-games-popular-china-centuries-ago?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Jul 2025 00:45:09 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Fortune-telling bars with Chinese characteristics are one of the latest fads in China. Instead of using tarot cards or crystal balls, establishments in Beijing use the traditional Chinese method of qiuqian (kau cim in Cantonese) to tell fortunes. Seekers either pull one of many numbered bamboo sticks out of a cylinder, or gently shake the cylinder until a single stick gets dislodged and falls to the table or floor. The number on the stick corresponds to a chit, on which a cryptic message is... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3317712/how-fortune-telling-ancient-china-decided-vital-affairs-state-wars-farming?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3317712/how-fortune-telling-ancient-china-decided-vital-affairs-state-wars-farming?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Jul 2025 00:45:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon The day before I was scheduled to fly back to Singapore from London recently, Israel decided to launch a surprise attack on Iran. Soon, both countries were firing missiles at each other. Most flights between Europe and Southeast Asia fly over Iran. To be inside a gargantuan Airbus A380 when the sky outside is thick with deadly projectiles and anti-aircraft ordnance was not a comforting thought. On the plane, I anxiously followed the flight path displayed on the little screen as we flew over the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3316782/iran-today-china-once-had-theocracies-governed-divine-rule?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3316782/iran-today-china-once-had-theocracies-governed-divine-rule?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Jul 2025 00:45:09 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Foreigners who are thinking of enrolling in American universities are having second thoughts or cancelling their plans outright following President Donald Trump’s attempts to cut funding to Harvard University and block it from enrolling foreign students. A few months ago, my nephew, an undergraduate at the National University of Singapore, was considering applying to an American university for his exchange programme in 2026. Now, he is looking at universities in the United Kingdom, Australia and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3315906/unlike-trump-ancient-china-embraced-foreign-students-and-even-made-exams-easier-them?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3315906/unlike-trump-ancient-china-embraced-foreign-students-and-even-made-exams-easier-them?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Jun 2025 00:45:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon After my niece’s wedding in London, I took several days off to explore the city, mostly on foot. It was summer, but the temperature was comfortable. I was a flâneur during those few lovely days, sauntering around town and enjoying the fascinating sights and sounds of London. While my home city of Singapore is as pedestrian-friendly as London, with sympathetically preserved historical buildings and precincts, interesting contemporary architecture, and even a Unesco World Heritage site (the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3315069/how-extreme-heat-proved-chinese-military-officers-undoing-classic-novel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3315069/how-extreme-heat-proved-chinese-military-officers-undoing-classic-novel?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Jun 2025 00:45:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon My niece got married last week and I was in London to attend the wedding. It seems only yesterday that I was propping her up and burping her after she had finished her bottle. Suddenly, she was getting married. Her husband, my nephew-in-law, is a young British man of Indian descent, and a series of traditional Indian rituals took place at the house of the groom’s parents the day before the wedding. The day began with a ritual presided over by a Hindu priest, followed by the Haldi and Mehndi... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3314358/chinese-wedding-custom-three-letters-and-six-rites-explained-and-what-has-replaced-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3314358/chinese-wedding-custom-three-letters-and-six-rites-explained-and-what-has-replaced-it?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jun 2025 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon Facing obstacles in Europe and North America, Hong Kong has, in recent years, sought non-traditional sources of business and investment opportunities, including countries in the Middle East. In the process of reaching out to these countries, there has been interest among some Hongkongers in learning about Islamic culture. Even if their motivation is unquestionably mercantile, it is not necessarily a bad thing. The world can certainly do with more awareness and understanding of different beliefs... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3313207/ancient-chinese-rules-animal-sacrifices-and-how-practice-has-evolved-today?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3313207/ancient-chinese-rules-animal-sacrifices-and-how-practice-has-evolved-today?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Jun 2025 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon This weekend many people celebrate the Duanwu Festival, also known as the Tuen Ng Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival. The festival, which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month in the traditional Chinese calendar, is observed by Chinese all over the world, as well as by Japanese, Koreans, Ryukyuans (or Okinawans) and Vietnamese. The festival has long been associated with the poet Qu Yuan (342–278BC). It is because of him, the legend goes, that we row dragon boats and eat zongzi, sticky... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3312392/qu-yuan-chinese-patriot-whose-death-said-have-inspired-dragon-boat-festival-customs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3312392/qu-yuan-chinese-patriot-whose-death-said-have-inspired-dragon-boat-festival-customs?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 May 2025 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon For those of us outside the United States, just reading about President Donald Trump’s careless disregard for facts is frustrating enough. I cannot imagine how surreal – and frightening – it must be for many who live in a country where the people in power do not even pretend that truth matters. From alleging that trade talks with China had taken place last month, which Beijing denied, to taking credit for brokering the recent ceasefire between India and Pakistan, a claim that India has rejected,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3311493/trump-enablers-buy-fools-lies-just-chinese-ministers-who-swore-deer-was-horse?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3311493/trump-enablers-buy-fools-lies-just-chinese-ministers-who-swore-deer-was-horse?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 May 2025 00:15:07 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon The 1.3 billion Catholic Christians around the world welcomed Leo XIV as their new leader this month following the death of the widely loved Pope Francis. It was in the middle of the last century that new popes began to choose papal names that communicate the aim of their papacy. The new pope said he had selected his name partly to honour Leo XIII, who was pope from 1878 to 1903, for his dedication to social issues and workers’ rights. In the choice of his name, Leo XIV may be signalling the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3310409/why-were-chinese-emperors-names-taboo-popes-their-titles-reflected-their-legacy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3310409/why-were-chinese-emperors-names-taboo-popes-their-titles-reflected-their-legacy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 May 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon In April and May this year, at least a dozen countries held or will hold elections to choose their political representatives, including Australia, Canada, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, and Singapore. I was supposed to cast my ballot at my local community centre in Singapore on May 3, but I was travelling overseas and it was next to impossible to change my travel plans. Voting is compulsory in Singapore and failing to do so meant that my name was struck off the electoral rolls. But overseas... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3309428/how-chinas-first-modern-elections-nurtured-generation-politically-active-citizens?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3309428/how-chinas-first-modern-elections-nurtured-generation-politically-active-citizens?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 May 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Wee Kek Koon Wee Kek Koon While my friends were scuba diving off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia last weekend, I hired a car and a driver and made a two-hour trip to the city of Kuala Terengganu. It was my first visit in more than 30 years, and only the third time I have set foot in “KT”, where my grandfather and his grandfather were born. The latter’s father – my great-great-great-grandfather – had made his way to KT from the district of Tongan, in the southern Chinese province of Fujian, sometime in the early... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3308687/how-chinese-family-ties-have-evolved-rigid-rules-confucian-times-today?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3308687/how-chinese-family-ties-have-evolved-rigid-rules-confucian-times-today?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 May 2025 00:15:07 +0000 We are living in unsettling times. Many are predicting that the existing world order, with which we are so familiar, will soon be a thing of the past, to be replaced by might-is-right belligerence, extreme nationalism and economic protectionism. If we feel anxious about the tremors rattling an 80-year-old global order that only began after the end of World War II in 1945, imagine how the Chinese people felt when the world they had known for 800 years was upended before their eyes. In 221BC, the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3307445/what-chinas-shift-feudal-imperial-system-tells-us-about-todays-political-climate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/chinese-culture/article/3307445/what-chinas-shift-feudal-imperial-system-tells-us-about-todays-political-climate?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Apr 2025 23:45:07 +0000