https://www.scmp.com/rss/323174/feed Ilaria Maria Sala is a writer based in Hong Kong. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Ilaria Maria Sala Ilaria Maria Sala One of the most striking installations in the ongoing 15th edition of the Shanghai Biennale is Hong Kong mixed-media artist Jaffa Lam Laam’s forest of ceramic columns, called Windbreak (2025). The columns are similarly shaped, but their sizes vary from as small as a flute to four metres (13 feet) high, large enough to support a room. The vitrified green and grey glaze is partial and uneven, leaving the oxidised, reddish-brown clay exposed in many areas. This creates a beautiful contrast between... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3339719/hong-kong-artist-jaffa-lams-ceramic-forest-inspired-old-shanghai-staircases?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3339719/hong-kong-artist-jaffa-lams-ceramic-forest-inspired-old-shanghai-staircases?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2026 08:15:08 +0000 Ilaria Maria Sala Ilaria Maria Sala Two groundbreaking exhibitions in Shanghai are tackling issues such as revolutions, colonial history and climate change head on, with Chinese and international artists offering compelling and refreshing perspectives that resonate far beyond the banks of the Huangpu River. At the Rockbund Art Museum, “The Great Camouflage” is a powerful exploration of anti-colonial thought, co-curated by the museum’s executive director and chief curator, X Zhu-Nowell, and the US-born artist Kandis Williams, who... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3336164/shanghai-art-exhibitions-tackle-revolution-anti-colonialism-and-climate-change-head?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3336164/shanghai-art-exhibitions-tackle-revolution-anti-colonialism-and-climate-change-head?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Dec 2025 08:15:08 +0000 Ilaria Maria Sala Ilaria Maria Sala The Chinese art tradition is guided by specific aesthetic principles, philosophical values and historic lineage. In this series, the Post introduces basic approaches to appreciating Chinese art and the cultural context that can help unlock the secrets of one of the world’s oldest artistic traditions. Western art history is a parade of styles. Baroque gave way to neoclassicism; realism was followed by Impressionism. The history of Chinese art, on the other hand, is marked by imperial dynastic... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3329232/how-chinese-landscape-paintings-reflect-changing-art-styles-through-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3329232/how-chinese-landscape-paintings-reflect-changing-art-styles-through-history?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Oct 2025 08:15:07 +0000 Ilaria Maria Sala Ilaria Maria Sala One needs years of immersion in Chinese culture, language, history and philosophy to be able to fully appreciate the timeless beauty and symbolic richness of Chinese ink paintings. Despite this, everyone can still appreciate the art’s elegant and harmonious forms, be moved by the delicate brushstrokes, and glimpse the universal values that connect across cultures and time. One could do worse than to start with landscape paintings, one of the greatest traditions in Chinese painting, with origins... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3323582/why-chinese-landscape-paintings-are-easy-appreciate-even-if-youre-not-expert?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3323582/why-chinese-landscape-paintings-are-easy-appreciate-even-if-youre-not-expert?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 Sep 2025 07:15:08 +0000 Ilaria Maria Sala Ilaria Maria Sala The stubborn boundary between “art” and “craft”, itself a puzzling and arbitrary division, is often reinforced in contemporary art settings. “Art” is deemed to be conceptually sophisticated and relevant, while “craft” is the unoriginal repetition of tradition. At the Centre for Heritage Arts and Textile (Chat) in Hong Kong, that hierarchy comes tumbling down. At the new exhibition titled “Lining Revealed – A Journey Through Folk Wisdom and Contemporary Vision”, the distinction between art and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3306381/art-and-handicrafts-become-one-new-exhibition-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3306381/art-and-handicrafts-become-one-new-exhibition-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Apr 2025 03:15:08 +0000 Ilaria Maria Sala Ilaria Maria Sala Anyone heading to Mui Wo, on Lantau Island, will bear witness to ongoing upheaval: the Phase 2 Stage 2 of the government’s Improvement Works are well under way, with plans for a plaza, waterfront promenades, car parks and much more – all part of a long-term facelift that has left the area under various stages of construction for over 15 years. Not all that long ago, after the first round of renovations to this small community, a small garden in front of the pier was home to one of the island’s... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3281812/how-two-imperial-heirs-sought-shelter-hong-kong-song-dynasty-fell?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/culture/article/3281812/how-two-imperial-heirs-sought-shelter-hong-kong-song-dynasty-fell?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Oct 2024 03:00:14 +0000 Yeung Hok-tak is an artist who has steadily been exploring themes of nostalgia, identity and the passing of time as Hong Kong’s cityscape changes at full speed and societal transformation creates new, unfamiliar rhythms. In his solo exhibition “I See You There”, at Kiang Malingue gallery’s Aberdeen location, 19 new acrylic paintings depict a city both surreal and recognisable, full of contrasts and intense colours. Yeung’s past as an illustrator shines through, each picture brimming with... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3280964/how-vibrant-nostalgic-hong-kong-paintings-yeung-hok-tak-belie-sense-loss?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3280964/how-vibrant-nostalgic-hong-kong-paintings-yeung-hok-tak-belie-sense-loss?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Oct 2024 04:45:08 +0000 The Italian city of Prato, second largest city in Tuscany, 17km northwest of Florence, has seen the greatest number of Chinese immigrants to Italy since the mid-1990s. In 1989, there were 38 Chinese people in Prato. Today, they represent more than a quarter of the total population of roughly 192,500, with about 3 per cent having chosen to become naturalised Italians. Prato’s ethnically Chinese citizens hail mostly from Zhejiang province, particularly the city of Wenzhou and its surroundings.... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3275661/one-italys-first-city-councillors-chinese-descent-marco-wong-helped-shepherd-immigrants-through?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3275661/one-italys-first-city-councillors-chinese-descent-marco-wong-helped-shepherd-immigrants-through?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Aug 2024 02:45:09 +0000 At the recent Paris Fashion Week, haute couture from the planet’s most renowned fashion houses was paraded and admired. Not for the first time, collections and designs nodded to past trends, but this year, Vivienne Westwood’s always eclectic label (designed by Andreas Kronthaler) took direct inspiration from the courts of pre-revolutionary France. Models sashayed as always, but the keen-eyed would have spotted on one outfit an 18th century accoutrement – the “stomacher”, a triangular panel made... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/fashion/article/3272727/napoleon-vivienne-westwood-how-18th-century-court-fashion-still-inspires-paris-fashion-week?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/fashion/article/3272727/napoleon-vivienne-westwood-how-18th-century-court-fashion-still-inspires-paris-fashion-week?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 01 Aug 2024 03:45:08 +0000 The winner of the 2024 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, announced last month, is Pakistani artist Sameen Agha, whose marble sculpture A Home is a Terrible Place to Love took the prize. The artwork resembles a toy house that has had its walls all opened up, like a piece of flat-pack furniture in the process of being assembled. The blood-red marble, run through with veins of white and pale yellow, resembles the colour of flesh and bruises. “I have been working quite a lot with marble,” says Agha, who... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3264878/why-2024-sovereign-asian-art-prize-winner-made-blood-red-marble-sculpture-sameen-agha-grotesque?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3264878/why-2024-sovereign-asian-art-prize-winner-made-blood-red-marble-sculpture-sameen-agha-grotesque?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Jun 2024 08:15:08 +0000 The latest exhibition at Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun Contemporary is an ambitious retrospective of six decades of works by American multimedia artist Bruce Nauman. Nauman has been challenging the art world with diverse conceptual works since he started out, and this exhibition shows that his early art has not lost its power to unsettle and provoke viewers. Often referred to as an “artists’ artist”, Nauman does not strive to produce art that is easy to look at. One of his most cited quotes underlines... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3264009/hong-kong-bruce-nauman-retrospective-traces-american-multimedia-artists-work-over-6-decades-and-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3264009/hong-kong-bruce-nauman-retrospective-traces-american-multimedia-artists-work-over-6-decades-and-its?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 May 2024 03:15:08 +0000 China is having a Louise Giovanelli moment. Two concurrent solo shows of the Manchester-based British artist have just opened: one in Hong Kong and one at the He Art Museum in Foshan – the private museum in China’s Guangdong province owned by the family behind electronics giant Midea. In 2025, the artist will hold another solo show at Tank Shanghai, collector Qiao Zhibing’s private museum. Her show at White Cube Hong Kong, called “Here On Earth”, includes a new series of dramatic images... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3257928/seductive-orgasmic-or-unsettling-sickly-british-artists-women-portraits-hong-kong-explore-between?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3257928/seductive-orgasmic-or-unsettling-sickly-british-artists-women-portraits-hong-kong-explore-between?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Apr 2024 09:15:20 +0000 For art that is stunning, unusual, and strongly connected to social issues, head over to the Centre for Heritage Arts & Textile (Chat) in Tsuen Wan in Hong Kong’s New Territories to see a retrospective of Thai textile artist Jakkai Siributr. Titled “Everybody Wanna Be Happy”, this is a showcase of two decades of Jakkai’s fine textile works that reveal the evolution of the 54-year-old Bangkok native as an artist and social commentator. Jakkai has been using the medium of embroidery to engage with... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3242120/thai-textile-artist-who-weaves-social-commentary-colourful-works-belie-their-serious-message-has?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3242120/thai-textile-artist-who-weaves-social-commentary-colourful-works-belie-their-serious-message-has?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Nov 2023 03:15:09 +0000 Rumours of an impending deal between China and the Vatican have been swirling for more than two years: yet they acquired renewed urgency this week, as various sources claimed the two parties were on the verge of signing a “historic agreement”. A major announcement could come as soon as this month or next. This can only mean that, having been kicked out of newly established Communist China in 1951, the Holy See is getting ready to abandon its nunciature (the equivalent of an embassy for the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2165248/pope-has-china-dream-and-burning-bibles-wont-get-way?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2165248/pope-has-china-dream-and-burning-bibles-wont-get-way?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Sep 2018 03:15:45 +0000 Like India, where the recent decriminalisation of gay sex is a return to deep historical roots, China has a long tradition of acceptance – at times even celebration – of same-sex love. But it is a tradition that has faded from prominence of late, with some very recent exceptions. One of the most famous Chinese examples of tolerance for homosexual love can be found in the story of the relationship Emperor Ai (27 – 1BC) of the Han dynasty had with a court official by the name of Dong Xian. As the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2164056/gay-sex-china-where-communist-puritanism-meets-colonial-baggage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2164056/gay-sex-china-where-communist-puritanism-meets-colonial-baggage?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Sep 2018 02:15:47 +0000 Little Reunions by Eileen Chang  New York Review Books  4/5 stars More than 20 years after she died alone in her Los Angeles apartment in 1995, Shanghai-born Eileen Chang has a cult following that started in Hong Kong and Taiwan, spread to the mainland and then the English-speaking world.  Chinese author Eileen Chang’s manuscript of bitter wartime love story with Japanese sympathiser goes on display after 40 years Her international reputation is likely to be further cemented by... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2140103/eileen-changs-life-wartime-hong-kong-and-shanghai-laid?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2140103/eileen-changs-life-wartime-hong-kong-and-shanghai-laid?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Apr 2018 00:00:30 +0000 During three packed days the grounds of the Bangla Academy, on the campus of Dhaka University, were taken over by writers, artists and readers attending Bangladesh’s annual literary festival. The Dhaka Lit Fest was launched at a gala event with the Syrian poet Adonis, and ended with the award ceremony for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2017, given to Tamil author Anuk Arudpragasam for his debut novel The Story of A Brief Marriage. A powerful novella set in the final weeks of the Sri... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2121371/rohingya-crisis-creative-freedom-hot-topics-bangladesh-literary?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2121371/rohingya-crisis-creative-freedom-hot-topics-bangladesh-literary?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Nov 2017 04:40:27 +0000 When Pope Francis touches down in Asia this November, for his fourth visit to the region in as many years, it will do much to underline his regard for the peripheries of the traditional Catholic world. Yet, however closely he embraces the region, his hopes of forging a stronger relationship with China appear likely to remain – at least for now – an unanswered prayer. The visit, still not officially announced for the Myanmar leg, but which should take place from November 23 to December 8, will... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2106483/pope-francis-courting-asia-again-myanmar-bangladesh-trips?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2106483/pope-francis-courting-asia-again-myanmar-bangladesh-trips?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Aug 2017 00:15:45 +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