https://www.scmp.com/rss/323058/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Widespread demonstrations in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu demanding the resumption of a banned bull-taming sport are a flash point for much deeper anti-establishment resentments, some observers said Monday, as violence broke out for the first time since protests began last week. The state government on Monday moved to quell the tens of thousands protesting by enacting legislation to circumvent a 2014 ban on the seasonal sport of “jallikattu” by India’s top court. But that did not appease... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2064695/indias-bull-taming-ban-sets-mass-protest-tamil-nadu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2064695/indias-bull-taming-ban-sets-mass-protest-tamil-nadu?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Jan 2017 13:20:32 +0000 “Guolaosi, we are working ourselves to death!” I looked at my interlocutor, a young graduate from a prestigious university in Beijing, and asked what she meant. “Imagine. Tens of millions of young graduates compete for only several millions of decently paid jobs. We easily work eleven hours a day, spend another three hours in traffic and then retreat to a studio that we share with four others because we still cannot pay the rent. On top of that, our work is not even interesting. We are slowly... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2022099/longer-hours-worse-jobs-are-asians-turning-working-machines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2022099/longer-hours-worse-jobs-are-asians-turning-working-machines?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Sep 2016 00:00:30 +0000 More than 3,000 people have been killed since Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared the war on drugs that he believes is required to arrest his already threadbare country’s slide towards becoming a narco-state. About a third of that number died at the hands of police, with the rest presumed to have been extra-judicial executions as Duterte’s “shoot first ask questions later” strategy results in the sort of body count you might expect from a state-sanctioned spree of score settling,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022293/guns-ammo-and-aristocrat-how-hong-kong-bank-sting-connected?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022293/guns-ammo-and-aristocrat-how-hong-kong-bank-sting-connected?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Sep 2016 04:00:15 +0000 Stuart Lau Stuart Lau Choy Chao Wong was just a boy when his family turned their backs on a newly communist China to pursue a better, more prosperous life in the New World. It was the early 1950s and his family, from Kaping, Guangdong province, had fled the country following Mao Zedong’s declaration of the People’s Republic, to settle briefly in Hong Kong – then still a British colony – before setting their sights on a new start in what was then the world’s No 1 sugar producing country: Cuba. My journey: Heading to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022060/lost-cuba-chinas-forgotten-diaspora?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022060/lost-cuba-chinas-forgotten-diaspora?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Sep 2016 08:01:16 +0000 Swear all you want, but you know you’re doing your drug war all wrong if the United States says you are. Having messed it up for half a century, no one knows these things better than the US. Some 3,000 people have died in Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody campaign since he took power in the Philippines in June. Now he wants to extend it by six months because he needs time to “kill them all”. But point out the moral pitfalls of his murderous drive and you’ve had it, in colourful expletives, as Barack... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022089/theres-too-much-drug-blood-americas-hands-lecture-philippines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022089/theres-too-much-drug-blood-americas-hands-lecture-philippines?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Sep 2016 04:00:15 +0000 For Jennifer Liu, the founder and owner of The Coffee Academics, the humble coffee bean has come a long way. What began as a student hobby has since been cultivated as a passionate business and grown into a way of viewing the world. Liu was studying architecture at Cornell in the 1990s when she became taken with the question of what made a great cup of Joe. Soon she had decided it was her “intention to share my passion for coffee and its culture – to explain the coffee experience as a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022058/how-relax-when-your-office-cafe-coffee-academics-jennifer-liu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2022058/how-relax-when-your-office-cafe-coffee-academics-jennifer-liu?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Sep 2016 12:16:59 +0000 Singapore is basking in the global limelight as it hosts the Formula One Grand Prix this weekend but behind the razzmatazz the city-state’s stand-off with Zika continues as medical experts and officials warn the virus is here for the long haul – much like dengue, which continues to fester and pose a persistent danger. Zika has been detected in more than 300 people in Singapore since the first locally transmitted case was detected on August 27, making the financial and transit hub the single... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2020092/how-strong-singapores-safety-net-against-zika-virus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2020092/how-strong-singapores-safety-net-against-zika-virus?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Sep 2016 09:00:45 +0000 You have probably tried Sichuan cuisine if Chinese food is of any interest to you. Its liberal use of chilli peppers, Chinese corianders and other spices creates a distinctively sharp and intense flavour. Just by mentioning Sichuan food, images of hot, red chillies immediately spring to mind. In fact, chillies came to Sichuan (四川) relatively late. It was probably the last major Chinese province where people used the ingredient in daily cooking. The first mention of it in Sichuan is to be found... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2020091/sichuan-cuisine-and-red-hot-secret-about-globalisation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2020091/sichuan-cuisine-and-red-hot-secret-about-globalisation?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Sep 2016 05:00:15 +0000 Almost a year has passed since the first woman to head Macau’s customs service was found slumped in a pool of blood inside a public toilet with a plastic bag pulled over her head, her wrists and throat slashed and an empty bottle of sleeping pills by her side. Despite their best efforts, doctors at the only public hospital in the city that has out-Vegased Las Vegas to become the most lucrative gaming destination on the planet could not save 56-year-old mother of two Lai Man Wa, who had been in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2020083/what-mysterious-death-tells-you-about-future-macau?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2020083/what-mysterious-death-tells-you-about-future-macau?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Sep 2016 02:00:30 +0000 Wing flap found in Tanzania confirmed to be part of MH370 A wing flap that washed ashore on an island off Tanzania has been identified as belonging to missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australian officials said Thursday. The flap was found in June by residents on Pemba Island, off the coast of Tanzania. Officials had previously said it was highly likely to have come from the missing Boeing 777. An analysis by experts at the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is heading up the search... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2020071/asia-3-minutes-new-evidence-search-mh370-shocking-revelations-ex?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2020071/asia-3-minutes-new-evidence-search-mh370-shocking-revelations-ex?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Sep 2016 11:15:15 +0000 She is all of 25 and may have already made one of the most significant discoveries of our time. Scientists in Australia this week took a quantum leap in the war on superbugs, developing a chain of star-shaped polymer molecules that can destroy antibiotic-resistant bacteria without hurting healthy cells. And the star of the show is 25-year-old Shu Lam, a Malaysian-Chinese PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, who has developed the polymer chain in the course of her thesis research in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2020060/25-year-old-malaysian-chinese-who-may-have-just-solved-superbug?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2020060/25-year-old-malaysian-chinese-who-may-have-just-solved-superbug?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Sep 2016 09:33:59 +0000 While it is always topsy-turvy and unwieldy, Thailand’s political environment has rarely been as tumultuous as in the past decade, characterised by recurrent street protests along pro- and anti-establishment lines. At issue has been a fragile and contested democracy whereby election winners were inevitably ousted by the powers-that-be who eventually proved unable to win a poll. But Thailand has now reached a new political plateau in the wake of the military government’s successful constitutional... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2018057/why-no-one-wants-rule-thailand-other-military?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2018057/why-no-one-wants-rule-thailand-other-military?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2016 04:03:59 +0000 From a high-profile public spat between two leading television journalists to a media clampdown in a troubled region and the sacking of a top editor known for his disdain for the ruling dispensation, one of Asia’s most vibrant media sectors is facing scrutiny over the degree of freedom it really enjoys. “Bring them to trial! Shut them up!” India’s most-watched anchor Arnab Goswami, told his audience on a recent show. Goswami is the editor-in-chief of English-language news channel Times Now,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018054/indian-media-how-free-it-really?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018054/indian-media-how-free-it-really?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2016 03:02:19 +0000 She is poised, elegant and has both an easy smile and a degree of empathy that are rare in a Japanese politician of any hue. But even if Renho – half-Taiwanese and a former swimsuit model – wins the election to head the Democratic Party, all her attributes are unlikely to be sufficient to lift the nation’s largest opposition to power in the immediate future. Such has been the damage inflicted on a political organisation that deposed the Liberal Democratic Party in 2009; the political capital was... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018051/former-swimsuit-model-hoping-lift-japans-wobbly-opposition?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018051/former-swimsuit-model-hoping-lift-japans-wobbly-opposition?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Sep 2016 01:00:15 +0000 “The road to world revolution”, Lenin supposedly predicted, lay through “Peking, Shanghai and Calcutta”. Like so many of his other predictions, this too proved wrong. In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, however, it looked as if Calcutta was living up to that promise. The city walls were plastered with Mao Zedong (毛澤東) graffiti, proclaiming, “China’s chairman is our chairman”. Maoists, it seemed, were staging the final rehearsal for the communist revolution in India. The party that was to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2018040/outside-china-these-places-are-where-maoism-alive-and-kicking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2018040/outside-china-these-places-are-where-maoism-alive-and-kicking?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Sep 2016 03:02:58 +0000 For half a century, Mao Zedong ( 毛澤東 ) has stared down at the throngs who visit Tiananmen Square. In what is one of the world’s most recognisable portraits, his gaze meets visitors straight on – as it has ever since October 1, 1967, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Over the years the portrait has become an archetypal image of the former chairman of the Communist Party of China, yet what many of those who visit today may not appreciate is its subtle difference to an earlier portrayal... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018050/can-china-ever-move-mao-zedong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2018050/can-china-ever-move-mao-zedong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Sep 2016 01:02:25 +0000 Christie’s Asia President Rebecca Wei never used to care about securing private time off work – until she became so overworked that she ended up in hospital for two weeks during her early thirties. It was back when Wei had just started her decade-long career at McKinsey & Company, where she would go on to become the first female partner elected at their Greater China Office. Having worked for six months without weekends or vacations, she developed a pain during a Christmas party and went to see... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2017997/how-hospital-cured-my-addiction-work-christies-asia-president-rebecca-wei?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2017997/how-hospital-cured-my-addiction-work-christies-asia-president-rebecca-wei?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Sep 2016 08:00:30 +0000 Three months ago, on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, I climbed some 500 metres to the top of Hong Kong’s Lion Rock. Made famous by a song from the 1970s, it embodies what locals call the “Lion Rock spirit” – a tendency for Hongkongers to persevere through hardship for a brighter future. It had seemed fitting, to scale the summit on a date that marked such sacrifice for political change. I remember that moment clearly because I remember looking down at the city and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2017960/election-woke-hong-kongs-lion-rock-spirit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2017960/election-woke-hong-kongs-lion-rock-spirit?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Sep 2016 05:45:11 +0000 They chose the wrong time – and the wrong place. This was certainly not the time to launch a book critical of Mother Teresa – days before her canonisation in the Vatican on Sunday. Calcutta is readying itself, not to receive any such book, but to bask in the glory of its first-ever saint. It is not often it gets a chance to pat itself on the back. The book is not exactly new. It’s a translation into the local Bengali language of an English one, Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict, by Aroup... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2013138/how-mother-teresa-rose-above-criticism-sainthood?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2013138/how-mother-teresa-rose-above-criticism-sainthood?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Sep 2016 03:09:18 +0000 The abrupt cancellation of a series of concerts in Australia commemorating the life of Mao Zedong has not only left in its trail a divided community but also exposed the limitations of Beijing’s soft power push. When the concerts were called off at the last minute in Sydney and Melbourne last week, the decision left more fissures in the community than the original announcement of the controversial programmes had. While ethnic Chinese who have migrated to Australia or were born overseas heaved a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2013178/mao-concerts-hit-wrong-note-australians-and-chinese-soft-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2013178/mao-concerts-hit-wrong-note-australians-and-chinese-soft-power?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Sep 2016 14:30:00 +0000 On Monday, a week after he stunned Singapore when he nearly fainted while giving an annual policy speech live, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is due back at work. Following medical leave of seven days, it may be business as usual for him. But the incident has drawn attention to the unusual level of uncertainty around leadership succession. Regardless of the state of the premier’s health, Singapore’s ruling party likes to identify successors many years in advance. Lee himself broached the subject... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009583/who-can-step-singapores-next-leader?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009583/who-can-step-singapores-next-leader?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Aug 2016 02:00:00 +0000 From the sunny balconies of middle-class suburbia to the dusty street township corners, South Africans have a new obsession – and it was made in India. They’re called the Guptas, immigrants from a down-at-heel town north of Delhi who have reached the apex of the country’s business world, and the centre of its politics. A Gupta TV channel, a Gupta newspaper, Gupta coal mines, Gupta-sponsored cricket stadiums – the family’s footprint extends far and wide. Zuma’s controversial friends the Guptas... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2010215/how-one-indian-family-killing-africas-oldest-political-party?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2010215/how-one-indian-family-killing-africas-oldest-political-party?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Aug 2016 07:49:13 +0000 PACHAKA LO, Shan State, Myanmar – It is the middle of the rainy season in Myanmar, when planting begins in the poppy fields of Shan State. Days can go by before the sun briefly appears, only to be quickly obscured again by grey clouds and the steady rain that helps the crops flourish. For the farmers of one such crop, it takes a two-hour trek through dense forest to reach their field. Hidden in the mountains, it is accessible only by way of winding, slippery footpaths, near-vertical climbs and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009572/will-myanmars-economy-ever-kick-its-opium-habit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009572/will-myanmars-economy-ever-kick-its-opium-habit?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Aug 2016 09:02:56 +0000 Before settling down in his seat, celebrity chef Justin Quek turns to his wait staff and rattles off a list of dishes to serve for lunch. He decides to go Asian, starting with a tangy treat to whet the appetite – hot and sour soup. He’s supposed to be talking about what he does in his spare time, though given the frenetic pace of his trendy French-Asian restaurant Sky on 57 at the top of Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, it’s a wonder he gets any. On this occasion, he juggles being interviewed with... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/2009567/how-singapores-celebrity-chef-justin-quek-spends-his-private-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/2009567/how-singapores-celebrity-chef-justin-quek-spends-his-private-time?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Aug 2016 03:02:28 +0000 To its fans it is a symbol of modesty and privacy, an expression of piety, a garment that liberates, integrates and guards against skin cancer. To its detractors it is oppressive and subversive, a fabric that separates society and affronts Western values. And it’s causing a political storm. The burkini – a swimsuit favoured by Muslim women because it gives full-body coverage, including legs, arms and hair – is making headlines across Europe after some French authorities banned it from beaches... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009576/unveiled-straight-talking-aussie-chick-behind-burkini?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009576/unveiled-straight-talking-aussie-chick-behind-burkini?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Aug 2016 15:45:30 +0000 By Day 65, even the most fervent followers of the Occupy protests of Hong Kong knew defeat was nigh. But student leaders had called on protesters to besiege the government headquarters in Admiralty in one last push. So on that autumn evening of November 30, 2014, having donned helmets and protective gear, undergraduate Edward Leung Tin-kei and more than a dozen classmates rallied thousands to march to the government compound. As expected, clashes broke out between protesters and police,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009538/why-beijings-headache-over-calls-hong-kongs-independence-has-only?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2009538/why-beijings-headache-over-calls-hong-kongs-independence-has-only?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Aug 2016 13:45:30 +0000 One of the world’s biggest yachts has quietly slipped into Hong Kong, its visit shrouded in secrecy. The 91.5 metre Equanimity – the 51st largest yacht in the world, according to Boat International magazine – has been linked to Jho Low, the Malaysian financier at the centre of the 1MDB scandal that has rocked the country. There have been speculation, notably in the newsletter Sarawak Report, that the yacht is to be sold. But the purpose of its stay in Hong Kong is unclear. And no one connected... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006261/hong-kongs-mystery-yacht-linked-jho-low-1mdb-fame?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006261/hong-kongs-mystery-yacht-linked-jho-low-1mdb-fame?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Aug 2016 07:00:45 +0000 It happens every time. Each day, Indian sports fans following the news of the Olympics from Rio de Janeiro feel their hearts sink. The first week went by without a single Indian medal, while the United States racked up 25 by Friday and China was running a close second. This week, China’s total tally stands at 69 at press time while things have marginally improved for India, having won one bronze in women’s freestyle wrestling and a silver in women’s badminton. The two medals have come as a huge... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006254/65-2-what-rio-olympics-medal-tally-says-about-china-india?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006254/65-2-what-rio-olympics-medal-tally-says-about-china-india?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Aug 2016 02:00:30 +0000 CHINA When China sent 710 athletes, coaches and officials to the Rio Games – its largest ever delegation to an away Olympics – it expected a comfortable second place in the table of gold medals, as it achieved in London four years ago. After all, the delegation included 35 Olympic gold medallists – 27 from the London Games – and one of China’s biggest competitors, Russia, had seen its medal hopes seriously hit by the International Olympic Committee’s decision to ban many of its athletes on... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006255/why-chinas-gold-medal-count-rio-olympics-so-low?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006255/why-chinas-gold-medal-count-rio-olympics-so-low?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Aug 2016 02:00:30 +0000 No press packages, no cheerleading videos, no slick PowerPoint presentations and nary a pre-arranged interview with a bigwig. For a mega expo positioned as Kazakhstan’s coming-out party on the world stage, the arrangements for media familiarisation in the capital of Astana couldn’t have been more half-hearted. The three-month expo, due to open next June and meant to showcase Astana as the Dubai of Central Asia, was originally estimated to cost up to US$3 billion and attract five million... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006221/central-asias-answer-dubai-kazakhstans-astana-reality-bites?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2006221/central-asias-answer-dubai-kazakhstans-astana-reality-bites?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Aug 2016 07:13:58 +0000 Near my childhood home in Kunming (昆明), Yunnan (雲南) province, is a park dedicated to its most famous son: Admiral Zheng He. Our teacher would take us to pay tribute to the great eunuch of the Ming dynasty, recounting his legendary seven expeditions that brought glory to the motherland. The marble bust of Zheng He shows the face of a typical Chinese, with a square chin, brushy eyebrows and a flat nose. My father joked it more resembled comrade Lei Feng than the admiral. Not until years later did... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2006222/chinese-admiral-who-spread-islam-across-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2006222/chinese-admiral-who-spread-islam-across-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Aug 2016 04:00:30 +0000 Why would a young Hindu man working in Japan turn to militant Islam and plan a terror attack in Bangladesh? Nearly two months after a bloody hostage drama at an upmarket Dhaka cafe and a bomb attack on an Eid congregation, police in Bangladesh are still grappling with questions like this as they unearth fresh proof daily of a silent radicalisation that has in sucked hundreds of young men and women across the nation. 20 ‘foreign’ hostages killed after Islamic State militants storm Bangladesh... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006226/militant-islam-and-missing-boys-bangladesh?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006226/militant-islam-and-missing-boys-bangladesh?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Aug 2016 02:01:53 +0000 While diplomats from the West, Japan and India paid regular visits to Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound in Yangon during the August-September 1988 uprising for democracy, their Chinese counterparts stayed away. But one day, a car from the Chinese embassy came, and an official handed over a box full of books about Tibetan Buddhism – “to Doctor Aris”, her British husband and a renowned Tibetologist. It was a subtle way of telling her and her supporters that China was not an enemy. Long before he died in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006156/why-its-suu-kyis-turn-mend-fences-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2006156/why-its-suu-kyis-turn-mend-fences-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Aug 2016 11:30:00 +0000 A strange-sounding edict has gone out from China’s authorities to the entertainment division of the nation’s broadcasters: no more South Korean soap stars or K-pop idols to appear onscreen. After a decade in which South Korea’s actors and singers such as Kim Soo-hyun (pictured) and ­G-Dragon achieved huge popularity in China, projects featuring them have been “postponed”. The reason for this near-ban is not hard to fathom. Recently, the South Korean government approved the deployment of the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2003035/k-pop-korean-soap-stars-and-secret-beijing-wont-learn?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2003035/k-pop-korean-soap-stars-and-secret-beijing-wont-learn?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Aug 2016 03:00:00 +0000 During his reign, Japanese Emperor Akihito, now 82, has done unprecedented things. He has addressed his subjects by means of a television twice. He has married a “commoner”, Michiko. He has travelled abroad extensively. And he has publicly expressed “feeling a certain kinship” with Korea, by acknowledging blood ties that go back fifteen centuries with the former royal house of the nearby peninsula. Nobody occupying the Chrysanthemum Throne had ever been quite so humble and relatable. Read more... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2003034/real-reason-japans-emperor-wants-abdicate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2003034/real-reason-japans-emperor-wants-abdicate?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Aug 2016 05:00:00 +0000 B ali is famous for terraced rice fields, surging surf, simmering volcanoes, striking temples celebrating the island’s dominant Hindu faith – and wine. Okay, Bali isn’t Bordeaux, but you can find Sababay Winery’s Moscato d’Bali in that French region’s wine museum and order Hatten Wines’ Pino de Bali at Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotel. This year, Bali will turn more than 1,250 tonnes of island grapes into hundreds of thousands of litres of white and red wines in the heart of Indonesia, the country... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2002371/how-balis-winemakers-are-battling-islamisation-and-sour-grapes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2002371/how-balis-winemakers-are-battling-islamisation-and-sour-grapes?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Aug 2016 03:00:53 +0000 In the Malay language, the phrase sakit hati means “pain in the heart”. Sakit hati, both literal and figurative, summed up a day in the life of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad last week. He was in hospital for a heart-related ailment when his new political vehicle – Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia – was wheeled out. The new party is the outcome of the emotional heartache caused by current Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is mired in the scandal over the troubled state fund... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2003024/malaysias-comeback-king-mahathir-mohamad-gambling-his-legacy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2003024/malaysias-comeback-king-mahathir-mohamad-gambling-his-legacy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Aug 2016 02:00:19 +0000 Haegue Yang has a rather unconventional idea of how to spend her private time. She wants to lock herself and a couple of friends in a room and fast for a day or two, surviving only on water. “We would be just lying around and slowly feeling weaker,” says the award-winning Korean artist. “We would be sharing an experience, focusing on being together and not getting distracted from it, without an expensive hotel, wine or food. What would happen between us? It is an intimate experiment. “For... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2002983/why-do-we-demonise-work-korean-artist-haegue-yang-defies-convention?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/2002983/why-do-we-demonise-work-korean-artist-haegue-yang-defies-convention?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Aug 2016 18:00:45 +0000 Asia is in the midst of a running boom. According to Run Society, Asia’s leading online running magazine, there were just 53 official running events in Singapore in 2012. This year, there will be 112 – enough for every Saturday and Sunday for the whole year. The running calendar has doubled in size in just four years. For Malaysia, there will be 153, Thailand, 69 and Hong Kong, 38. More from This Week in Asia The definition of what it means to be a runner has changed. Alternative running events,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2001287/tough-mudders-colour-runs-how-asian-brands-gain-ground?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/2001287/tough-mudders-colour-runs-how-asian-brands-gain-ground?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Aug 2016 04:30:09 +0000 Luiz Felipe Scolari, who won the 2002 World Cup with Brazil, has had a dream run since arriving in China a year ago to coach Guangzhou Evergrande. Under “Felipão”, the club has won the Chinese Super League, the Asian Champions League and the Chinese Football Super Cup. Read more from This Week in Asia Scolari, 67, who has also coached Portugal and the English Premier League club Chelsea, spoke to Lourival Sant’Anna for This Week in Asia. What strikes you most about Chinese players? Their work... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/1999665/world-beater-who-conquered-china-guangzhou-evergrande-coach-luiz?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/1999665/world-beater-who-conquered-china-guangzhou-evergrande-coach-luiz?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2016 05:00:00 +0000 1. Thai referendum a first step towards democracy, says junta Thailand is no stranger to political instability, with a merry-go-round of coups and insurrection in recent years. This weekend’s referendum on a draft constitution is, the junta says, a first step in the transition to democracy and greater stability. Foreign investors, though, have already fled – foreign direct investment in Thailand fell by more than 90 per cent in the first half of the year. The junta has responded with ever more... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/1999737/maoist-firebrand-takes-charge-nepal-duterte-gets-tough-war-drugs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/1999737/maoist-firebrand-takes-charge-nepal-duterte-gets-tough-war-drugs?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Aug 2016 04:15:15 +0000 Chinese and Brazilian football go back a long way. All the way to 1997, when famed Brazilian coach Edson Tavares moved to the country to coach Guangzhou Matsunichi. Tavares, who played a major role in modernising football in China, went on to coach Shenzhen Ping An, Guangzhou Apollo, Chongqing Lifan and Shenzhen Ruby. Read more from This Week in Asia In 2000, the Chinese Football Association asked him to draft a plan to make the sport more professional. Tavares responded with a 78-page dossier... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/1999666/how-man-kicked-chinas-love-affair-brazilian-football?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/business/article/1999666/how-man-kicked-chinas-love-affair-brazilian-football?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Aug 2016 00:01:38 +0000 After a decade-long fling with Hollywood, Godzilla has emerged from the muck of Tokyo Bay to reclaim his rightful territory around Japan’s capital, and still offers a mirror on the Japanese people’s worries and fears. Read more from This Week in Asia The rampaging reptile is one of the most universal, enduring and recognisable symbols of Japanese popular culture and the longest running series – at more than 60 years – in film history. Only James Bond comes close as an enduring international film... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/1999114/tokyo-godzilla-returns-old-stomping-ground?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/1999114/tokyo-godzilla-returns-old-stomping-ground?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Aug 2016 02:00:00 +0000