https://www.scmp.com/rss/314137/feed Etan is a London-based freelance journalist. He has written for The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, Daily Mail, Evening Standard and The Australian. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com The Jews of Kaifeng do not have a rabbi, or a synagogue. Their last religious leader died more than 150 years ago, and their last place of worship was destroyed by flood at around the same time. The dwindling community – estimated to number about 1,000, with only 100 practising members – is largely unknown to other Jewish congrega­tions around the world. In fact, it is a mystery to most inhabitants of the city, once the capital of the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), in east-central Henan... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3065231/can-jews-kaifeng-china-survive-xi-jinping-they?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3065231/can-jews-kaifeng-china-survive-xi-jinping-they?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Mar 2020 18:00:11 +0000 It is 11 minutes past three, the morning after our interview, and Emily Maitlis is sending me a Twitter message, having woken up with an urgent need to clarify something we spoke about yesterday afternoon. This is not unusual. After hosting an edition of Newsnight, the BBC’s flagship television current affairs show, her sleep is frequently disturbed by early-hour crises of conscience, replaying a question she wished she had, or hadn’t, asked the night before. Perhaps it sums up the unrelentingly... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3009643/bbc-journalist-emily-maitlis-her-history-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3009643/bbc-journalist-emily-maitlis-her-history-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 May 2019 08:00:20 +0000 It is quite a task interviewing Sir Terence Conran in his London penthouse. It’s not that he is, in his own words, “in a rather slothful state at the moment”, slumped in a leather-and-walnut Eames lounge chair. Nor is it that he punctuates the conversation with polite requests to sip on his whisky and soda (“It gets me going”) or light up one of his trademark Havanas (“Do you mind if I go on smoking my luxurious Cuban cigar?”). The problem is that, as fascinating as the subject is, his home is... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3001895/i-felt-intensely-depressed-how-awful-peoples?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3001895/i-felt-intensely-depressed-how-awful-peoples?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Mar 2019 08:00:06 +0000 If you were adapting a story that has already been turned into a colossus of a stage musical and a triple-Oscar-winning Hollywood film, you might be expected to be slightly overawed by the task. The actors and producers of the latest iteration of Les Miserables – a six-part BBC take on Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel – are suitably diplomatic about the stage show seen by 70 million people in 51 countries, giving verdicts that range from “perfectly good” to “brilliant”. At long last, House of Cards... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/2179852/les-miserables-get-modern-retelling-bbc-series-starring?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/2179852/les-miserables-get-modern-retelling-bbc-series-starring?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Dec 2018 13:02:09 +0000 David is a knuckle-dragging brute with the puffed-out chest of an extreme alpha male and cauliflower ears that would not look out of place on a boxer. His boldness and ambition have seen him climb up the hierarchy to become master of all he surveys. This is not Sir David Attenborough, but his namesake, the chimpanzee star of the first episode of the naturalist’s new BBC series, Dynasties: The Greatest of Their Kind. David Attenborough talks about Blue Planet II and the plastic threat Executive... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2173336/sex-violence-and-family-dynamics-animals-david-attenboroughs-new-bbc?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2173336/sex-violence-and-family-dynamics-animals-david-attenboroughs-new-bbc?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Nov 2018 14:04:29 +0000 The next time you’re in the departures lounge of the Hong Kong Inter­national Airport, keep an eye out for a woman peering at your feet. Lucy Choi has made her name in Britain with her brand of oh-so-desirable stilettos and pumps, but it is to Hong Kong that she returns every year to design her latest collections, and Chek Lap Kok is where she derives her most potent inspiration. How boy from Penang became shoemaker of choice for British royals “I tend to get into the airport really early before... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2168121/shoe-designer-lucy-choi-follows-uncle-jimmy-choos?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2168121/shoe-designer-lucy-choi-follows-uncle-jimmy-choos?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Oct 2018 06:00:15 +0000 Almost 85 years ago, an unknown post­graduate student morphed into the most celebrated Chinese person in Britain, his play having become an unlikely smash hit. The inter­pretation of an ancient Peking opera by Hsiung Shih-I – the first Chinese director to work in the West End as well as on Broadway, in the United States – was beloved by the public, literati and royalty alike, and would shape British ideas of Asia for generations to come. Almost a century on, Hsiung’s great-grandson is wowing... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2148781/why-british-born-chinese-comedian-swapped-poker?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2148781/why-british-born-chinese-comedian-swapped-poker?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Jun 2018 09:19:02 +0000 Above the steel doorway to Ben Chacko’s office in Hackney Wick, a stone’s throw from London’s Olympic Park, are two Soviet-style red stars. Perched atop his desk is a bust of Vladimir Lenin. But do not let that persuade you that the 34-year-old’s loyalties rest with the Kremlin. Are loving China and the Communist Party the same thing? Hong Kong and Beijing each grapple with question “The regime, the corruption, the authori­tarian­ism of modern Russia is not something that appeals to the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2145490/inspired-china-britains-communists-dream?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2145490/inspired-china-britains-communists-dream?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 May 2018 11:30:15 +0000 Britain is searching for an economic solution to Brexit. As it cuts ties with the European Union, the country’s brightest minds are trying to find a magic bullet to fix its fiscal woes. Cosying up to United States President Donald Trump? Embracing artificial intelligence? Or maybe cashing in on Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle? If they want the economy to come up smelling of roses, though, perhaps there is an avenue they have missed: flower power. It is an unlikely new trend – thousands... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2124172/chinas-budding-florists-are-heading-london-earn?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2124172/chinas-budding-florists-are-heading-london-earn?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Dec 2017 09:18:12 +0000 For Blue Planet II, the sequel to the landmark 2001 BBC series, producer Orla Doherty and her team spent a total of 500 hours at depths of 1,000 metres in Earth’s “inner space”. And on her first Antarctic dive, descending into frigid waters of minus 1.6 degrees Celsius, things didn’t quite go to plan. At 450m, she noticed a puddle “gathering at the bottom of the sub”. Sir David Attenborough, who at 91 is no longer able to join such voyages in person, watched the footage jealously from the... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2116280/david-attenborough-talks-about-making-blue-planet-ii-and-peril?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2116280/david-attenborough-talks-about-making-blue-planet-ii-and-peril?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Oct 2017 12:00:42 +0000 I am resisting the temptation to write the bulk of this article in upper case, though even a blanket of capital letters would not do justice to Brian Blessed’s booming voice. In resting position, it is deep, sonorous and undulating (his favourite word). Then, at the most unexpected of moments, it explodes. And when it does ... I don’t think I have heard anything louder in my entire life. I worry about how my tape recorder is going to cope. Blessed is taking a lunch break from rehearsals of a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2100316/actor-brian-blessed-his-hong-kong-handover?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2100316/actor-brian-blessed-his-hong-kong-handover?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Jun 2017 05:18:27 +0000 It all started with some empty shelves. In 1960, Michael Butler, a diplomat at the British Foreign Office, was in search of ornaments to fill the white space in his house in London’s Chelsea. He decided to follow his collector friends to Sotheby’s, where he bought a box containing what were described as “six old pieces of Chinese porcelain” – among them a small 17th-century apple-green wine pot, complete with fine bamboo-shaped handles, which stole his heart. From that moment on, he spent as... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2079409/world-leading-chinese-ceramic-collection-and-feud?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2079409/world-leading-chinese-ceramic-collection-and-feud?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Mar 2017 05:15:15 +0000 Eddie Izzard has been described as Britain’s surrealist-in-chief – a child who was weaned on Monty Python and now counts several former members of the troupe as ardent fans, along with Prince William, who “has all his videos”, according to the young royal’s father, Prince Charles. Izzard is also one of the few comedians who crosses global boundaries. The comic, who turned 55 this month, is in the middle of his mammoth “Force Majeure” tour, which started in 2013 and will see him perform in Hong... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2071044/will-surreal-eddie-izzard-please-stand?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2071044/will-surreal-eddie-izzard-please-stand?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Feb 2017 11:00:15 +0000 David Attenborough sinks into a garish orange armchair in a central London hotel alongside his boss, Mike Gunton, the BBC’s creative director of factual television. As the broadcaster refuels in the middle of a long day of promotion – wolfing down a bar of Dairy Milk chocolate – Gunton recounts a pivotal meeting. He recalls the head of the organisation’s Natural History Unit explaining that their 61-year-old star had just finished his second landmark series; he would do one more, and then he... https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2040205/why-hong-kong-features-david-attenboroughs-new-planet-earth-ii?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2040205/why-hong-kong-features-david-attenboroughs-new-planet-earth-ii?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Oct 2016 00:05:08 +0000 Eurovision has been screened in China for the past two years and Australia has been given a wild-card entry. Would you like to see China enter, too? “The Eurovision is a wonderful thing, but one thing it doesn’t need is any more songs in it! No one at the end goes, ‘If only that had been longer!’ Will China enter it? I would not be at all surprised. It would make sense from Eurovision’s point of view because it’s such an enormous market – and also, in a way, it would be quite nice to have China... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2025697/why-graham-norton-wants-get-china-eurovision?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2025697/why-graham-norton-wants-get-china-eurovision?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Oct 2016 05:57:50 +0000 Fasten your seat belts, Hong Kong. With the BBC’s revamped Top Gear due to begin airing in the city soon, its new host is vowing to bring the show to a country near you. “We’d love to go to Asia,” says Chris Evans. “We had to get these programmes made as quickly as possible,” he says of the first series of six programmes, “but we will come, I promise. If you are a car nation, then we are coming to get you.” The British television and radio star was speaking at a press conference ahead of the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/motoring/article/1963719/rebooted-top-gear-eyes-asian-adventures-and-chris-evans-promises?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/motoring/article/1963719/rebooted-top-gear-eyes-asian-adventures-and-chris-evans-promises?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Jun 2016 00:02:28 +0000 “You should go, ‘Der-de-dah-de-de-de-dah …’ ad infinitum. See how he feels about that.” The helpful words of a friend bounce around in my head as I make my way along London’s Kensington High Street to meet Jean-Michel Jarre. The French musician and composer should really take it as a compliment; a symptom of his incredible capacity to defy the passing of time. It is not just that he looks better than any man of 67 has a right to – fresh-faced with a shaggy hairstyle that wouldn’t be out of place... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/1962419/why-jean-michel-jarre-invited-edward-snowden?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/1962419/why-jean-michel-jarre-invited-edward-snowden?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Jun 2016 09:00:30 +0000 David Attenborough is tired. It is written all over his voice. Those deep, languid vowels elongate and the breathy drawl becomes even more exaggerated than those of the many mimics who have attempted to imitate his famous whispers. In fairness, the star is on the cusp of 90 (he was born on May 8, 1926, in Isleworth, west London), but that isn't what's holding him back - as prolific as ever, he recently enjoyed a jaunt to the Great Barrier Reef, has just been filming luminous earthworms in France... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/film-tv/article/1941449/david-attenborough-90-tvs-last-colossus-looks-ahead?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/film-tv/article/1941449/david-attenborough-90-tvs-last-colossus-looks-ahead?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 May 2016 04:45:00 +0000 Londoners aren't known for their manners. But for the tens of thousands of Chinese tourists visiting the British capital each year, the city's hospitality is becoming a big pull factor. Chinese-speaking staff, signs and maps in Chinese, and managers trained to receive a credit card with both hands and a slight bow are all increasingly common as the capital tries to woo the yuan. Shop workers even know to offer hot, not iced, water to thirsty Chinese shoppers. It's no wonder. In the first six... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1845088/british-shops-bow-chinese-shoppers-and-reap-reward?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1845088/british-shops-bow-chinese-shoppers-and-reap-reward?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Aug 2015 14:30:11 +0000 When you think of London cinema, premieres in Leicester Square, twee Richard Curtis romcoms and James Bond stunt scenes probably spring to mind. But until May 22, works including experimental video art from Hong Kong, a controversial documentary charting decades of cultural repression in Singapore and feature films from Taiwan and mainland China will be entertaining cinephiles in the British capital. Now in its fifth year, the Chinese Visual Festival will screen more than 40 independent films... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1788165/controversial-chinese-films-find-audience-london?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/1788165/controversial-chinese-films-find-audience-london?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 May 2015 14:13:33 +0000 He is otherwise reserved and unassuming. But Arnold Ma - who is just 27 and whose company is less than two years old - does not hesitate when he comes out with one big boast: that his firm knows more about how to make it in China than anyone at Google. "It's a big claim, but I say we do, definitely," the tech wunderkind asserts from his office in London's Camden Town. "Google is nothing in China, really - I think they have about 2 per cent market share in search engines. We definitely know more... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/article/1521223/tech-savvy-youngsters-aim-bridge-e-commerce-gap-between-east?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/technology/article/1521223/tech-savvy-youngsters-aim-bridge-e-commerce-gap-between-east?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 May 2014 16:50:16 +0000