https://www.scmp.com/rss/322971/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Many Hongkongers would agree we could all use a good laugh about now, so The Riff comedy club’s timing is perfect. Located in California Tower, in Lan Kwai Fong, and owned by global entertainment giant Live Nation – the group behind the Punchline comedy clubs in the United States – The Riff opened its doors to the paying public as Hong Kong’s only full-time comedy club for the first time in January, but quickly closed following the coronavirus outbreak, before reopening last month. Featuring a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3088555/why-stand-comedy-classes-new-hong-kong-club?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3088555/why-stand-comedy-classes-new-hong-kong-club?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Jun 2020 04:25:07 +0000 “There is little hope of the survival of 26 passengers and crew of the amphibious Catalina plane belonging to Cathay Pacific Airways, which crashed into the sea near Macao late on Friday afternoon,” reported the South China Morning Post on July 18, 1948. “As far as we know, they have all perished,” A.J.R. Moss, director of Civil Air Services, told the newspaper. Not quite all, as it would turn out. Wong Yu had miraculously survived the world’s first hijacking of a commercial flight, which ended... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3019152/when-cathay-pacific-plane-became-victim-worlds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3019152/when-cathay-pacific-plane-became-victim-worlds?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Jul 2019 22:30:09 +0000 “Hello, Chris Wood speaking. HSBC? Five minutes? Yes, sure, go ahead Jason.” “Security questions? Right, go on then …” “Just a few more questions to validate my account? Look how long will this take? I’m a busy man – I have deadlines, you know. [Sigh] OK, let’s get on with it then.” “Hang on a minute, you want to know what? My employer, my occupation, my job title, is it a full-time position, what date did I join the company? That’s all private information I’m afraid and I don’t feel comfortable... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3016291/how-banks-security-questions-left-one-user?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3016291/how-banks-security-questions-left-one-user?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Jul 2019 00:00:16 +0000 “Scholar dies”, ran a headline in the South China Morning Post on November 23, 1999. “Famed British translator Gladys Yang [80] died of illness in Beijing on November 18 after a career translating Chinese classics into English,” the story continued. Born to British missionaries in Beijing, Gladys and her siblings were sent to boarding school in Britain. How woman pioneer rose through police ranks in 1960s Hong Kong The Post followed up on December 4, a story noting that, “Since Yang passed away... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2182496/beijing-born-british-translator-who-survived?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2182496/beijing-born-british-translator-who-survived?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Jan 2019 23:15:18 +0000 A wordless graphic novel might not appear to be the obvious choice for Hong Kong’s inaugural One City, One Book campaign – an initi­ative aimed at getting everyone in a city reading and talking about the same book. But organisers say Chinese-Australian writer, artist and filmmaker Shaun Tan’s 2006 work The Arrival, a universal story of immigration that has won accolades in Australia, France, Sweden and the United States, fits the bill for Hong Kong perfectly. “Choosing a single book for all... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2180632/why-shaun-tans-arrival-wordless-graphic-novel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2180632/why-shaun-tans-arrival-wordless-graphic-novel?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Jan 2019 01:33:59 +0000 “Monday, November 11, will become the most noteworthy anniversary in the history of the nations, for on that day in this year of grace was witnessed the acceptance by conquered Germany of the terms imposed on her by the victorious Allies and the cessation of four years of terrible strife in Europe,” is how, on November 12, 1918, under the simple headline “The Armistice!”, the South China Morning Post reported the end of the first world war, 100 years ago today. “The breaking up of the Central... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2172315/100-years-end-first-world-war-how-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2172315/100-years-end-first-world-war-how-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Nov 2018 02:03:21 +0000 “Bishop Walsh: Held As ‘Political Hostage’ – American Charge” ran a South China Morning Post headline on December 18, 1958. “The [United States] State Department accused the Chinese Communists to-day of making a ‘political hostage’ of Bishop James Walsh, a Roman Catholic missionary,” the story continued. “The Bishop, a native of Cumberland, Maryland, disappeared in Shanghai about October 18. The Communists admitted on Friday that the Bishop had been arrested.” Walsh, who had spent 30 years in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2152886/us-china-relations-1950s-how-american-bishop?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2152886/us-china-relations-1950s-how-american-bishop?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Jun 2018 23:16:46 +0000 “Death in Peking of Soong Chingling”, ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on May 30, 1981, reporting that the widow of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen had died the previous day, aged 88. The day Sun Yat-sen died, leaving China like ‘the play without Hamlet’ “Soong Chingling […] had been close to the storm centres of Chinese revolution and power for 60 years,” the Post reported. “She was one of the famous Soong sisters. Her younger sister, Soong Mei-ling, married nationalist Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2147511/how-taiwan-saw-funeral-sun-yat-sens-widow?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2147511/how-taiwan-saw-funeral-sun-yat-sens-widow?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 May 2018 23:03:53 +0000 “Twenty-four people were hurt – several seriously – when two bun towers collapsed on Cheung Chau early this morning,” ran the story in the South China Morning Post on May 10, 1978. The number of injured was later reported as 100. The incident occurred as the annual Ta Chiu (or Bun) Festival, held to appease the spirits of those islanders who had died of the plague or at the hands of pirates in times past, reached its midnight climax, with 200 people, mostly teenagers, scrambling up the 60-foot... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2146594/how-cheung-chau-bun-festival-1978-left-100?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2146594/how-cheung-chau-bun-festival-1978-left-100?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 May 2018 23:00:27 +0000 “HK climbers head off to hit the heights of Everest,” ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on March 21, 1992. “Two Hongkong men will set off today to try to become the first people from the terri­tory to conquer Mount Everest and plant Hongkong’s flag at the top of the world,” the story continued. Raising funds for the expedition had proved an uphill struggle for Chung Kin-man, 38, and fellow climber Cham Yick-kai, 32, who on March 10 had scaled World-Wide House, in Central; a stunt... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2145728/how-labourer-became-first-hong-kong-man-conquer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2145728/how-labourer-became-first-hong-kong-man-conquer?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 May 2018 01:16:20 +0000 What is it? A tropical island paradise curated for the “gypset”. That’s an exclusive social set composed of artists, designers and entrepreneurs who have the financial clout to combine the gypsy lifestyle – the free-spirited roaming and romance part, not the dirt, poverty and police harassment – with the sophistication of the jet set, if you’re wondering. Six of the best luxury holiday spots for summer 2018 Soaring palms sway majestically in benign sea breezes, tur­quoise waters caress silver... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2144676/paradise-found-maldives-resort-far-madding-crowd?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/2144676/paradise-found-maldives-resort-far-madding-crowd?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 May 2018 01:33:38 +0000 “Hong Kong needs a 15,000-seat covered sports stadium by 1970, an Urban Council committee says. A site at the Hunghom reclamation would be acceptable,” ran the story in the South China Morning Post on January 5, 1966. Cabaret hall, monorail, moon rocket – how millions enjoyed Hong Kong’s ‘giant amusement park’ during its 17-year run The need for a stadium was clear, the committee had argued, “as Hong Kong was growing until it would soon compare with Lancashire, Greater Paris or Greater Osaka”... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2143303/why-hong-kong-coliseum-was-built-meet-demand-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2143303/why-hong-kong-coliseum-was-built-meet-demand-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Apr 2018 23:32:17 +0000 “Pop star, actor and director Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing plunged to his death from the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Central in an apparent suicide last night,” ran the story in the South China Morning Post on April 2, 2003, reporting the Canto-pop star’s death 15 years ago. ‘Gor Gor’ fans mark anniversary of star’s death “Cheung, 46 – star of the hit 1993 movie Farewell My Concubine – fell from the 24th floor window of the hotel and was found lying in Connaught Road at 6.41pm. He was rushed to Queen... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2139425/leslie-cheungs-suicide-how-king-canto-pops-death?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2139425/leslie-cheungs-suicide-how-king-canto-pops-death?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Mar 2018 10:30:45 +0000 “High-rise house of horrors: Blood trail to window-box tomb,” ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on April 1, 1984. “Blood trickling into a neighbour’s flower bed led to the discovery yesterday of two badly decomposed bodies cemented into the window-box of a Causeway Bay flat […] The bodies […] both of men and believed to be Chinese, had their hands tied behind their backs with chains, and cloth tied round their heads and bare feet. They were found wrapped in a bloodstained sheet,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2138444/unsolved-murder-case-window-box-tomb-was-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2138444/unsolved-murder-case-window-box-tomb-was-one?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Mar 2018 00:48:01 +0000 “The most enthusiastic welcome Mr Charles Chaplin, the famous comedian, received when he arrived in Hongkong yesterday evening was from the children, crowds of whom were at the ship to meet their screen idol,” ran the story in the South China Morning Post on March 13, 1936. Book review: The Charlie Chaplin Archives presents a detailed look at the work of a revolutionary “When the Dollar liner President Coolidge berthed at the wharf there were nearly 100 children, both European and Chinese, ready... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2135964/never-thought-it-could-be-cold-hong-kong-charlie?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2135964/never-thought-it-could-be-cold-hong-kong-charlie?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Mar 2018 12:03:09 +0000 For all the celebrations and good cheer, Lunar New Year also has its winners and losers. Where do we shop? Which restaurants do we eat in? Who do we choose to celebrate with? To find out who “won” Lunar New Year 2018, digital marketing agency Digitas turned to that modern barometer of social behaviour, Instagram. “Each time you post from your smartphone to Instagram, you are not only uploading a photo, but also additional data: information such as where you were standing when you took the shot,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/2135277/instagram-reveals-hong-kongs-chinese-new-year-winners-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/2135277/instagram-reveals-hong-kongs-chinese-new-year-winners-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 Mar 2018 10:02:05 +0000 “Terrible Race Day Calamity: Disastrous Collapse of Stands – Many Burnt to Death, Golf Club Gutted”, ran the headline in the South China Morning Post 100 years ago, on February 27, 1918. “The second day’s racing of the Hongkong Jockey Club [annual Derby Day races] was marred by one of the most terrible calamities in the history of Hongkong,” the report said. “The ponies were just out for The China Stakes, the first race after tiffin interval, when the catastrophe occurred. Suddenly a shout arose... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2134472/when-600-died-fire-hong-kong-racecourse-100?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2134472/when-600-died-fire-hong-kong-racecourse-100?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Feb 2018 22:45:30 +0000 “Ninety-two Vietnamese men are likely to face rioting charges today, as investigations try to piece together the causes of this week’s horrifying blaze in Sek Kong Detention camp,” ran the story in the South China Morning Post on February 6, 1992.  “The men, aged between 15 and 34, will appear in court in connection with the Lunar New Year Eve tragedy, which left 21 boat people dead [the final death toll would be 24] and 126 injured in what could become Hong Kong’s biggest murder case.”  The... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2132528/hong-kongs-biggest-murder-case-1992-fire-left-24?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2132528/hong-kongs-biggest-murder-case-1992-fire-left-24?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Feb 2018 00:49:49 +0000 “Giant Amusement Park: Work Under Way for Opening Next Year,” ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on November 25, 1962. And it wasn’t Ocean Park. “Details were announced yesterday of a 200,000-square-foot amusement park to be built […] at San Po Kong, near the airport,” the story continued. Fairground attractions would include “mechanical devices for the amuse­ment of visitors to the park [such as] the usual merry-go-rounds, windmills, aeroplanes and boats” along with a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2130655/cabaret-hall-monorail-moon-rocket-how-millions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2130655/cabaret-hall-monorail-moon-rocket-how-millions?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Jan 2018 10:00:15 +0000 “The Hamburger. It’s to North America what noodles are to the Chinese or pasta to the Italians. A real Hamburger that is. Not the rubbery ball of hash capped by a slab of bullet hard bun that Hongkong restaurants have the audacity to call a hamburger,” ran a story in the South China Morning Post on October 20, 1974. “Fellow hamburger lovers, our days of despair are over. For the good news is that the hamburger empire is about to extend itself to Hongkong. Yes, a genuine McDonald’s is going to... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2129502/when-hong-kongs-first-mcdonalds-opened-1975-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2129502/when-hong-kongs-first-mcdonalds-opened-1975-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Jan 2018 22:30:15 +0000 “Kowloon Walled City Doomed” read one of a flurry of headlines in the South China Morning Post on January 15, 1987, on news that the way had been opened for clear­ance of the site after years of wrangling between Hong Kong and the Chinese govern­ment. “Beijing gives its backing” and “Clearance of ‘dirty old wart’ hailed”, chimed in others. The former site of a Qing dynasty fort, the Walled City had “been regarded as part of China even after the New Territories were ceded to the British in 1898”,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2127786/when-death-knell-sounded-kowloon-walled-city?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2127786/when-death-knell-sounded-kowloon-walled-city?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Jan 2018 22:30:45 +0000 “Hongkong’s first kidney transplant patient was doing fine last night,” the South China Morning Post reported on January 10, 1969, after the colony’s first transplant operation a day earlier, at Queen Mary Hospital. “Mr Ng Ho-bun, a 39-year-old employee of the Hongkong and Yaumati Ferry Co, Ltd, [underwent] a two-hour operation,” the story continued. “The parents of a 19-year-old girl who died in Queen Mary Hospital shortly before the operation consented to give the girl’s kidney to Mr Ng.” When... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/2126854/remembering-hong-kongs-first-kidney-transplant?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/2126854/remembering-hong-kongs-first-kidney-transplant?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Jan 2018 22:48:49 +0000 It’s batons at the ready for the first Hong Kong International Conducting Competition, with some of the world’s most talented young musicians set to descend on the city for the classical showdown next month. The competition, organised by Hong Kong Sinfonietta, with the aim of helping conductors under the age of 35 to establish a network in the region, will take place at the City Hall Concert Hall, in Central, on January 10-14. “A competition like this is meant to help young conductors be... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/2125975/some-worlds-best-young-conductors-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/2125975/some-worlds-best-young-conductors-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 Dec 2017 00:46:15 +0000 “Strike cripples Valley racing” ran a headline in the South China Morning Post on January 15, 1978. “Striking Jockey Club mafoos, who forced the abandonment of yesterday’s Happy Valley meeting, will today stage a sit-in at the Shan Kwong road stables […] The escalation of the sensational strike – which yesterday is estimated to have cost the Jockey Club about $5.6 million – also means an immediate threat to Wednesday’s night meeting.” The strike was sparked by a dispute over stable boys’ pay at... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2125966/when-hong-kongs-striking-horse-handlers-brought?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2125966/when-hong-kongs-striking-horse-handlers-brought?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Dec 2017 22:30:42 +0000 “The Murder Case. Prisoners Found Guilty. Death Sentence.” ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on December 24, 1904. “The Supreme Court was crowded yesterday afternoon when the trial of three men, Charles Smith (20), Erik Hogmann (22) and William Nason (17), on a charge of murdering Chan Yee (aged 41), a sampan woman, and a baby aged 4, on November 27 of the present year, was resumed before the Chief Justice (Sir H.S. Berkeley),” the report said. Hong Kong murder files: the British... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2124310/murder-hong-kong-when-three-foreigners-were?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2124310/murder-hong-kong-when-three-foreigners-were?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Dec 2017 23:04:37 +0000 “Man guns down Lennon”, reported the South China Morning Post, following the murder of pop-culture icon John Lennon on December 8, 1980, three years after he had visited Hong Kong as a tourist. “The most controversial [member] of the Beatles pop group was shot dead as he enter­ed his Manhattan apartment house late last night by a man who calmly called his name before opening fire,” the story continued. “As Lennon’s Japanese wife, Yoko Ono, screamed hysterically, the 40-year-old musician gasped... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2123347/how-hong-kong-reacted-shooting-john-lennon?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2123347/how-hong-kong-reacted-shooting-john-lennon?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Dec 2017 23:15:30 +0000 “Pope to spend three hours in Hongkong,” ran a headline in the South China Morning Post on October 30, 1970. “About a quarter million local Catholics will welcome Pope Paul VI when he makes a three-hour visit to Hongkong on December 4 after visiting the Philippines and Australia,” the story continued. “It will be the first time the Pontiff has visited Hongkong.” A spokesman for the Catholic Church said that in Hong Kong the pope would greet the largest single Chinese Catholic community in any... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2122292/our-archives-1970-and-day-pope-came-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2122292/our-archives-1970-and-day-pope-came-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Nov 2017 23:00:45 +0000 Twenty-two years ago, Hong Kong was still getting used to the idea of having one of its own as a member of a European royal family. “HK bride fit for a Danish prince,” ran a head­line in the South China Morning Post on June 1, 1995, the story describing how “a Hong Kong woman has captured the heart of Prince Joachim of Denmark, one of Europe’s most eligible bachelors”. “Prince Joachim, 25, second son of Danish Queen Margrethe,” the article continued, “will marry Alexandra Christina Manley, 30 –... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2121252/when-hong-kong-got-its-very-own-princess-1995?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2121252/when-hong-kong-got-its-very-own-princess-1995?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Nov 2017 23:03:48 +0000 “Plan for a tunnel under Lion Rock”, ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on March 15, 1961. “The motor tunnel to be driven through the Kowloon hills, connecting Shatin and Kowloon Tong, will be about a mile long.” The tunnel project was linked to the Plover Cove reservoir scheme, with water from the eastern New Territories to be filtered at Sha Tin and pumped “through the Kowloon hills, making use of the tunnel, to service reservoirs in the north of the Kowloon Foothills-road.” On... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2120178/how-hong-kong-built-lion-rock-tunnel-reports-our?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2120178/how-hong-kong-built-lion-rock-tunnel-reports-our?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Nov 2017 23:17:34 +0000 “The Anglo-French supersonic airliner Concorde will land at Kai Tak on November 6 and stay for two days as part of a 31,000-mile promotional sales tour of the Far East,” the South China Morning Post reported on October 8, 1976. British Airways’ public relations manager, Ted Duggan, had earlier been quoted in the paper describing Concorde as “the second largest technology project undertaken in the Western world after the American moonwalk”. Supersonic breakthrough: Concorde could fly again by... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2119156/when-concorde-first-landed-hong-kong-november?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2119156/when-concorde-first-landed-hong-kong-november?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Nov 2017 01:45:30 +0000 On Saturday next week, Hong Kong law firm employee Simon Holliday will attempt to break the record for swimming around Hong Kong Island, and at the same time raise HK$1 million for charity, the South China Morning Post reported recently. It’s a challenge that was first attempted on May 23, 1976, by former Australian Olympic swimmer Linda McGill. “Miss McGill is here to prove the feasibility of holding a mass around-the-island swim in late August,” the Post reported after her press conference on... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2118231/1976-and-topless-australian-first-swim-around?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2118231/1976-and-topless-australian-first-swim-around?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Nov 2017 02:30:45 +0000 “Aberdeen holocaust: 13 killed, 42 hurt,” ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on October 31, 1971. “Aberdeen was yesterday rocked by a tremendous explosion followed by a fire which swept through the $14 million Jumbo restau­rant,” the story continued. “It happened so quickly that within five minutes, fire had engulfed the four-deck floating restaurant, reducing it to a charred hulk. Hundreds of people leapt from the pagoda-shaped towers of the palatial restaurant. It was a frantic... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2117123/how-deadly-fire-hong-kongs-jumbo-floating?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2117123/how-deadly-fire-hong-kongs-jumbo-floating?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Oct 2017 23:02:02 +0000 “Michael Jackson in Hongkong”, ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on October 20, 1987, the American singer having arrived on a private visit. “Reclusive pop star Michael Jackson jetted into Hongkong yesterday – and, in an attempt to shake off pursuing photographers, immediately joined the lunchtime scramble for a taxi outside Kai Tak airport.” When a photographer pushed his way into the front seat of Jackson’s taxi, the star’s lone minder, formally attired in the unlikely get-up... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2116119/when-michael-jackson-rode-roller-coaster-ocean?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2116119/when-michael-jackson-rode-roller-coaster-ocean?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Oct 2017 23:15:45 +0000 “Government approves proposal for second race track”, ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on October 20, 1971. “The Governor-in-Council yesterday approved in principle the Royal Hongkong Jockey Club’s proposal for an international racecourse in Shatin,” the story continued. “It was Sir David Trench’s last official act before relinquishing his post as Governor of Hongkong.” The announcement came six years after the Post first reported, in October 1965, that the Jockey Club was... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2115073/how-hong-kongs-second-racecourse-came-being?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2115073/how-hong-kongs-second-racecourse-came-being?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Oct 2017 00:32:12 +0000 “Abolition of Concubinage Proposed: Resolution by Women’s Council”, was the headline in the South China Morning Post on March 23, 1954. “I’d like to vote with two hands instead of one,” one member of the Hongkong Council of Women said, as the resolution passed unanimously. “In the interests of all Chinese women in the Colony this outdated custom must be abolished,” said Matilda Ng, chairwoman of the council, who added that the group had first called for abolition of concubinage in 1843. The... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2114162/archives-how-hong-kong-ended-concubine-system?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2114162/archives-how-hong-kong-ended-concubine-system?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Oct 2017 23:31:07 +0000 “Underground Railway System Suggested as Answer to Traffic Problems”, ran the South China Morning Post headline on January 24, 1961. Speaking at a Kowloon Round Table meeting, Kenneth A. Watson said roads had reached “saturation points”, and putting on more buses and trams would do little to alleviate the situation. Why every Hong Kong MTR station is a different colour – the reason may surprise you In February 1966, as public pressure grew, the government commissioned a study to anticipate Hong... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2113217/archives-how-hong-kongs-first-subway-system-got?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2113217/archives-how-hong-kongs-first-subway-system-got?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Sep 2017 23:03:15 +0000 “Sir David to make way for local by 1994” ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on August 3, 1992. “Hongkong will have its first local chief secretary by 1994 who will most likely remain in the post through the transfer of sovereignty in 1997.” To replace David Ford, governor Chris Patten would choose from Secretary for the Treasury Yeung Kai-yin; Secretary for Educa­tion and Manpower John Chan Cho-chak; Secretary for Economic Services Anson Chan Fang On-sang; and Secretary for... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2112259/how-hong-kongs-first-local-head-government-anson?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2112259/how-hong-kongs-first-local-head-government-anson?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Sep 2017 23:00:15 +0000 Why is it that Hongkongers seem incapable of queuing properly for the tram? Late on a Saturday afternoon, I arrive with my wife and two boys at our usual stop to catch a ride home to Happy Valley. The streets are bustling, we’re loaded down with shopping and rain is in the air. We are first at the stop but that, I know, will make no difference; it will take military precision, and a large slice of luck, to get us on the next tram. Fortunately, I have a plan. Affecting an air of nonchalance, I... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2106273/art-queue-jumping-hong-kong-trams?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2106273/art-queue-jumping-hong-kong-trams?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Aug 2017 00:01:11 +0000 Described by art critic Huang Zhuan as “the earliest and boldest conceptual sculptor in China”, Sui Jianguo has long been a leading figure in the art world, and is perhaps best know for his “Mao Jackets” series of sculp­tures. His exhibition at Pace gallery, in Central, offers a rare chance to view his work in Hong Kong. The professor and former chairman of the department of sculpture at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, in Beijing, has, says Leng Lin, the exhibition’s curator, “played a very... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2106267/conceptual-artist-sui-jianguo-hold-rare-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2106267/conceptual-artist-sui-jianguo-hold-rare-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Aug 2017 03:00:32 +0000 “Lady Di says ‘Yes’”, ran the South China Morning Post headline on February 25, 1981, as the world’s media went into overdrive. “Prince Charles, heir to the British throne and one of the world’s most eligible bachelors, will marry 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer, the daughter of an earl [...] Buckingham Palace announced today,” the story continued. The statement ended months of speculation that the “dashing 32-year-old prince” would marry Lady Diana, dubbed “Shy Di” by the British press pack. The... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2103405/when-charles-and-diana-got-engaged-and-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2103405/when-charles-and-diana-got-engaged-and-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Jul 2017 00:17:16 +0000 “Wow …” ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on July 4, 1976. “Hongkong had is first good look at all the 1976 Miss Universe hopefuls last night with the pageant’s opening ceremony at Lee Theatre. The almost-capacity audience cheered as the 73 international beauties paraded on stage in their national costumes,” the story said. Two days later, with the preliminaries under way, the strain was beginning to show. “As the 1976 Miss Universe Pageant wears on, the combination of an... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2100582/when-bevy-beauties-descended-hong-kong-1976-miss?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2100582/when-bevy-beauties-descended-hong-kong-1976-miss?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Jul 2017 00:17:11 +0000 A surprise awaited Gillian Bickley of Hong Kong’s Proverse Publishing when she checked the company’s website last Monday. The page for an obscure 2014 memoir by Roger Uren, titled To Eastern Lands – a collection of “reflections in prose, photographs and verse of a journey from Melbourne to Bombay, Beijing and other exotic destinations” – was attracting hundreds of hits. Formerly a high-ranking intelligence officer with the Australian foreign service, Uren’s diplomatic postings had included... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2097505/why-obscure-memoir-former-australian-diplomat?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2097505/why-obscure-memoir-former-australian-diplomat?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Jun 2017 01:02:48 +0000 “Aviation crash investigators will this morning continue their painstaking search for wreckage of a Lauda Air Boeing 767-300 in remote western Thai jungle as mystery grows over the cause of the mid-air fire and explosion,” ran the South China Morning Post’s lead story on May 28, 1991. It was the newspaper’s first report of the Lauda Air crash, the plane having plunged from the sky in a “fireball” just after midnight Hongkong time the day before, 20 minutes after departing Bangkok. “At least 50... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2097413/when-lauda-air-flight-hong-kong-crashed-spring?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2097413/when-lauda-air-flight-hong-kong-crashed-spring?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Jun 2017 22:45:30 +0000 https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/2096896/quiz-test-your-green-knowledge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/2096896/quiz-test-your-green-knowledge?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Jun 2017 04:18:05 +0000 “They’re coming: YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!” So trumpeted the headline in the South China Morning Post on March 14, 1964, as “Beatle­mania”, now at fever pitch worldwide, swept into Hong Kong. The Fab Four would arrive on Monday, June 8, en route to Australia, staying at the President Hotel and playing the following evening before departing on June 10. As anticipation grew, the Post’s May 24 edition reported stores doing a brisk business in “Beatles suits” and “moptop” wigs. On June 5, the newspaper... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2096509/when-beatles-came-hong-kong-june-1964-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2096509/when-beatles-came-hong-kong-june-1964-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 Jun 2017 22:45:30 +0000 “Hong Kong scenes for new 007 film”, ran the headline in the South China Morning Post on April 5, 1973. “Several scenes for the next James Bond adventure film [The Man with the Golden Gun] will be shot in Hongkong and Macau early next year,” the story continued. “But, said the film’s producer, Mr Harry Saltzman, he will not use ‘downtown Hongkong.’ It looks too much like New York.” Saltzman confirmed that Roger Moore, who died on Tuesday at the age of 89, would be in the title role. When Roger... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2095699/roger-moore-pornography-violent-film-scenes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2095699/roger-moore-pornography-violent-film-scenes?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 May 2017 00:00:45 +0000 “Peking, May 19 [1985]­ – A magnificent Hongkong team had their finest hour in international soccer here tonight when they beat China 2-1 to emerge champions of Asia Group 4A,” the South China Morning Post reported on May 20. “With a passionate performance that stunned the capacity crowd in the 80,000-seater Workers’ Stadium, Hongkong have put themselves in reach of a place in the World Cup finals in Mexico next year.” No one had given the underdogs much chance. To progress in the competition... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2094788/when-hong-kong-beat-china-world-cup-qualifier-32?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2094788/when-hong-kong-beat-china-world-cup-qualifier-32?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 May 2017 23:30:15 +0000 “Popular TV actress found dead in flat”, ran the South China Morning Post headline on May 15, 1985. “News of the sudden death of television star Miss Barbara Yung Mei-ling (26) early yesterday came as a shock to her fans and friends,” the story continued. “Miss Yung, who gained fame playing the role of the charming Wong Yung in a popular Chinese martial arts TV series, was found unconscious in her home in Broadcast Drive at about 8am. She was certified dead in the Baptist Hospital. Police have... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2093884/when-hong-kong-tv-actress-barbara-yung-died-may?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2093884/when-hong-kong-tv-actress-barbara-yung-died-may?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 May 2017 23:45:30 +0000 “An event unique in the history of Hongkong will unfold tomorrow at 6pm when the Queen and Prince Philip arrive on their four-day visit,” the South China Morning Post reported on May 3, 1975. “The Queen will be the first reigning British monarch to set foot in Hongkong.” Its report continued: “There have been 17 previous occasions since 1841 when members of the Royal family have visited Hongkong. The first Royal Visit was in 1869 when Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, called while on a world... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2092720/how-hong-kong-welcomed-queen-elizabeth-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2092720/how-hong-kong-welcomed-queen-elizabeth-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 May 2017 23:00:30 +0000 Forget about Bordeaux, Burgundy and Barolo – when it comes to wines, the future is Asian, says winemaker Eddie McDougall, one of the movers behind the world’s first Asian Wine Festival, which debuts in Hong Kong on April 19. “Our modern wine-drinking population is localising and seeking opportunities to support local wine artisans,” says McDougall. “Like local craft beer, we will see this trend continue for wine, too. New Asian varietals have also caught the eye of many in the industry, so in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2083469/hong-kong-host-first-asian-wine-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/2083469/hong-kong-host-first-asian-wine-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 Mar 2017 01:16:45 +0000