https://www.scmp.com/rss/323192/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Agnes Pang Shuk-yee was sweating under the noonday sun recently on the rooftop of Hong Kong’s Tsz Wan Shan Shopping Centre, a complex ringed by public housing estates in Kowloon’s Wong Tai Sin district. She was working on a sculpture 1.5 metres (5ft) high of an elephant, whose translucent body had been constructed from discarded plastic egg cartons. She was dotting it with hundreds of rainbow-coloured flowers made of supermarket packaging. It was so hot outside that the glue in her glue gun... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3188134/art-made-plastic-waste-hong-kong-think-styrofoam-fruit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3188134/art-made-plastic-waste-hong-kong-think-styrofoam-fruit?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Aug 2022 09:15:11 +0000 The fate of Hong Kong’s Fringe Club is up in the air. The government first leased the 19th-century corner building it occupies in Lower Albert Road, Central, to the club at the time of its founding in 1983. The lease, which has already been extended for a year, will expire in March 2023, just two months after the end of the lease held by its long-term neighbour in the heritage building, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong. Restrictions imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19 have... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3182766/hong-kong-fringe-club-mounts-what-could-be-its-farewell-show?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3182766/hong-kong-fringe-club-mounts-what-could-be-its-farewell-show?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Jun 2022 10:15:20 +0000 One Bright Moon by Andrew Kwong, HarperCollins. 5/5 stars This powerful, sometimes brutal memoir, span­ning half a century of Chinese history and migration, is the surprise debut of a family doctor who has published his first book at the age of nearly 70. Andrew Kwong has lived a peaceful life on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, but he could not shake memories of his traumatic childhood in China, his flight as a refugee to Hong Kong and his escape overseas. So, for a few hours each morning... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3089737/horror-madness-escape-chinese-australians-memoir?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3089737/horror-madness-escape-chinese-australians-memoir?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Jun 2020 06:45:11 +0000 Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong Random House 2/5 stars The other day, I chided my young daughter for rolling on the floor and kicking up her legs while wearing a dress in public. “It’s not nice to do that,” I said. “It’s good to feel natural in your body, but some body parts are private.” Then I went to YouTube to view videos of Ali Wong, whose first book I’d been assigned to review, and watched a heavily pregnant woman rolling on the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3037670/ali-wongs-dear-girls-good-few-laughs-lacks-sparkle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3037670/ali-wongs-dear-girls-good-few-laughs-lacks-sparkle?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 14 Nov 2019 14:00:06 +0000 Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China by Jung Chang Jonathan Cape 4/5 stars “One loved money, one loved power, one loved her country.” So goes the famous line about the infamous Soong sisters, the subject of the final book in Jung Chang’s epic trilogy on modern Chinese history. The Soong sisters are best known for their extraordinary taste in husbands. “Big Sister” Ai-ling married H.H. Kung, one of the richest men in China. “Little Sister”... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3032110/jung-changs-new-book-soong-sisters-long-overdue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3032110/jung-changs-new-book-soong-sisters-long-overdue?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Oct 2019 11:00:07 +0000 A Life in a Sea of Red: Photojournalism by Liu Heung Shing, by Pi Li, Christopher Phillips, Geoff Raby and Liu Heung Shing, Steidl, 5/5 stars A Life in a Sea of Red, which will be launched globally this month, is the only book to combine Hong Kong photojournalist Liu Heung Shing’s work from the world’s two communist superpowers, the Soviet Union and China. Together, these states once housed a quarter of the world’s population and acted as a powerful counterforce to the West. But by 1991, the two... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3015303/poetry-drama-tragedy-images-china-and-soviet-union-shot?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3015303/poetry-drama-tragedy-images-china-and-soviet-union-shot?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Jun 2019 10:00:11 +0000 The Unwinding of the Miracleby Julie Yip-Williams Random House Julie Yip-Williams’ memoir about dying from cancer is as brutally honest as it is beautifully written. With the typical frankness of a Chinese mother, she lays out everything, from the worry and heartbreak of leaving her two children behind to graphic descriptions of bodily functions and medical procedures. The Unwinding of the Miracle is written as a posthumous letter to her husband and daughters, Mia and Isabelle. But, really, it... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2186951/julie-yip-williams-memoir-unwinding-miracle-reveals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2186951/julie-yip-williams-memoir-unwinding-miracle-reveals?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Feb 2019 14:30:30 +0000 Hong Kong Noir, by various authors, edited by Jason Y. Ng and Susan Blumberg-Kason, Blacksmith Books/Akashic Books Hong Kong may be known for its cold-hearted capitalism and ultra-modern efficiency, but it is also a society steeped in tradition and superstitions. Fortune-tellers hold sway over tycoons, property giants avoid having an unlucky fourth floor in buildings, and shrines shrouded in incense smoke sit among the world’s most expensive real estate. Book review: Another Hong Kong, edited by... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2178665/hong-kong-noir-14-short-stories-delve-ghosts-and-spirits-lurking-ultra?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2178665/hong-kong-noir-14-short-stories-delve-ghosts-and-spirits-lurking-ultra?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Dec 2018 05:00:45 +0000 Hong Kong Highs and Lows, various authors, edited by Chris Maden, with Lilla Csorgo and Dominic Sargent, pub. Hong Kong Writers Circle 4/5 stars There may be no better title than Highs and Lows for a book about Hong Kong, a city of Peak mansions and tiny cage homes, jet-setting billionaires and homeless vagrants. The 21 short stories in this anthology published by the Hong Kong Writers Circle explore the gap between the very rich and the very poor. The overriding theme – or perhaps the lesson to... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2173309/rich-poor-gap-hong-kong-theme-new-short-stories-collection?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2173309/rich-poor-gap-hong-kong-theme-new-short-stories-collection?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Nov 2018 05:30:44 +0000 Hungry Ghosts by Anthony Bourdain, with Joel Rose Berger Books/Dark Horse Comics Anthony Bourdain died in June while in France, working on Parts Unknown, his popular CNN food-travel show. He had recently been in Hong Kong, happily exploring the city’s grittier corners in search of roast pork, dai pai dong wontons, cart dim sum and cha chaan teng noodle soup. Bourdain ate here: check out the chef’s Hong Kong haunts In his final television segment, broadcast posthumously, he slouched coolly on the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2169975/hungry-ghosts-anthony-bourdain-horror-story-comics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2169975/hungry-ghosts-anthony-bourdain-horror-story-comics?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Oct 2018 12:30:00 +0000 Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China by Leta Hong Fincher Verso Books The reach of Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China goes far beyond its main story, of a determined group of feminist activists. At its core, the book is about the push and pull between a conservative government and an increasingly brazen population. It is a study of modern China – its politics and popular culture, and the dizzying rate of societal change in the digital era. While female... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2162890/rise-chinas-feminists-will-activists-spark-social?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2162890/rise-chinas-feminists-will-activists-spark-social?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Sep 2018 12:15:30 +0000 Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori) Grove Press 4/5 stars Brightly pastel coloured, Convenience Store Woman looks like the sort of cutesy product you’d find in a Tokyo shop. Even the cover shows a rice ball decorated like a girl’s smiley face, w­ith black nori hair and a tiny carrot bow. Rice balls are among the hundreds of daily items that Keiko Furukura, 36, has spent half of her life arranging and selling at the Hiiromachi Station Smile Mart in... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2153921/bestselling-japanese-novelists-english-debut-commentary-japanese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2153921/bestselling-japanese-novelists-english-debut-commentary-japanese?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Jul 2018 05:04:10 +0000 Everything Here is Beautifulby Mira T. LeePamela Dorman Books The onset of psychosis appears abruptly in Mira T. Lee’s debut novel, Everything Here is Beautiful. Lucia Bok, an intelligent and seemingly healthy young woman, suddenly starts exhibiting disturbing behaviour in her 20s. Her episodes of insanity, which puncture an otherwise sane daily life, are disjointed and jarring, just as they must be for the real-life sufferers of mental illness and their loved ones. The book begins as a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2135086/asian-americans-powerful-debut-novel-depicts-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2135086/asian-americans-powerful-debut-novel-depicts-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Feb 2018 12:19:36 +0000 Asia’s Reckoning: The Struggle for Global Dominance by Richard McGregor Allen Lane Demonstrators who regularly gather outside Exchange Square, home of the Hong Kong stock exchange, aren’t protesting against capitalist greed, or the gap between rich and poor. Instead, they shout into megaphones about atrocities committed by Japan during the second world war, which ended more than 70 years ago. Their broadcasts – in Cantonese, Putonghua and English – are largely ignored by office workers rushing... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2109634/why-it-wouldnt-take-much-china-and-japan-go-war-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2109634/why-it-wouldnt-take-much-china-and-japan-go-war-new?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Sep 2017 23:30:45 +0000 Hong Kong 20/20: Reflections on a Borrowed Place by various authors Blacksmith Books 4.5/5 stars What if the police had been less restrained during 2014’s Occupy Central? What if, instead of a night of tear-gassing and the roughing up of some activists, the police genuinely opened fire? What if the event triggered the People’s Liberation Army to leave their barracks and join the action? “It Was All Wasted,” a short story by Shen Jian, begins with two typical Hong Kong boys who are more... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2103230/review-hong-kong-20/20-reflections-borrowed-place-best-collection?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2103230/review-hong-kong-20/20-reflections-borrowed-place-best-collection?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Jul 2017 05:19:20 +0000 City of Protest: A Recent History of Dissent in Hong Kong by Antony Dapiran Penguin Books 4/5 stars Antony Dapiran’s City of Protest will be published on July 1, a day protesters and authorities will take to the streets of Hong Kong with opposing aims. The 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from British to Chinese rule will be marked by President Xi Jinping’s first visit to the city as Chinese president, complete with “terrorist-alert-level” security and bans on the kinds of political... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2100344/book-review-city-protest-recent-history-dissent-hong-kong-timely?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2100344/book-review-city-protest-recent-history-dissent-hong-kong-timely?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Jun 2017 00:01:42 +0000 Yesterday By Felicia Yap Mulholland Books 4/5 stars Yesterday, the debut novel by Malaysia-born author Felicia Yap, is perfect summertime reading for sci-fi geeks and murder mystery fans. This thriller is set in idyllic Cambridge, England, where Mark Henry Evans, a successful novelist and aspiring politician, lives in a spacious mansion with his pretty blonde wife, Claire. The twist is that, in this alternative reality, nobody has long-term memory. The world is divided into “Duos”, who can... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2099703/book-review-felicia-yaps-thriller-yesterday-turns-lens-digitally?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2099703/book-review-felicia-yaps-thriller-yesterday-turns-lens-digitally?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Jun 2017 00:32:20 +0000 The Leavers by Lisa Ko Algonquin Books       Tough love runs through The Leavers, Lisa Ko’s funny and touching but also painfully hard-hitting debut novel. It begins with 11-year-old Deming Gao walking home from school in the Bronx, in New York, with his embarrassingly noisy Fujianese mother: “[…] her voice was so loud that when she called his name dogs would bark and other kids jerked around. When she saw his last report card he thought her shouting would set off the car alarms four stories... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2097271/lisa-kos-emotive-debut-novel-explores-heartbreak-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2097271/lisa-kos-emotive-debut-novel-explores-heartbreak-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Jun 2017 08:45:45 +0000 Bestselling author Kevin Kwan doesn’t write about rich Asian people – he writes about crazy rich Asian people. Rich People Problems, Kwan’s latest novel published last week, opens with the tycoon Alfred Shang ordering the aviation authorities to turn around a commercial jet mid-air. The matron of their family, Su Yi, has had a heart attack, and their private doctor had the audacity to try to fly off unknowingly to Australia. Shang doesn’t mind inconveniencing 400 passengers and dumping a... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2096238/crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan-new-book-rich-people-problems-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2096238/crazy-rich-asians-author-kevin-kwan-new-book-rich-people-problems-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 31 May 2017 00:02:30 +0000 The Dancing Girl & the Turtle by Karen Kao Linen Press 4/5 stars Hookers with hearts of gold have undeniable appeal as characters. They are sensual and risqué, while also sympathetic and socially poignant. Unfortunately, they have also become as stereotypical as the girl bound to the railroad tracks in old Hollywood films. The challenge for any emerging author is to make something new of this old story. Karen Kao does just that, with her debut novel The Dancing Girl & the Turtle an impressive... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2093983/book-review-dancing-girl-turtle-makes-fifty-shades-grey-look-light?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2093983/book-review-dancing-girl-turtle-makes-fifty-shades-grey-look-light?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 May 2017 00:32:13 +0000 Liberationists: A Story by Xun Yuezang Pema Press 2.5 stars Liberationists by Xun Yuezang, like many debut novels, is a work weighed down by its own good intentions. The story is told in the voice of a worried husband in Hong Kong addressing his missing wife, an activist who has disappeared in China. The wife, Y, is a daring, free spirit who works for a Western human rights organisation. She embarks on a risky trip across the border to investigate the fate of a political prisoner, without the... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2077117/book-review-xun-yuezangs-liberationists-story-potted-history-todays?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2077117/book-review-xun-yuezangs-liberationists-story-potted-history-todays?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Mar 2017 23:02:50 +0000 Hong Kong Cantopop: A Concise History by Yiu-Wai Chu Hong Kong University Press There’s a library of books about pop music’s role in modern history and culture – from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll to niche titles such as Mark James Russell’s K-POP Now! The Korean Music Revolution. But until now there hasn’t been a full documentation of Canto-pop – at least not in English. Hong Kong Cantopop: A Concise History, by Yiu-Wai Chu, a professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2074430/hong-kong-cantopop-serious-book-genre-people-dont-take?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2074430/hong-kong-cantopop-serious-book-genre-people-dont-take?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Feb 2017 23:01:09 +0000 A Daughter’s Deadly Deception by Jeremy Grimaldi Dundurn In 2010, a young Canadian woman named Jennifer Pan hired hitmen to fake a break-in at her family home and shoot her parents. Her father, Huei Hann, saved himself by dragging his bleeding body onto the front lawn. Her mother, Bich Ha, died on the spot, but not before begging for her daughter to be spared. Little did she know that Jennifer was sitting upstairs, listening to the screams as the crime she had masterminded unfolded. Many readers... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2043688/murder-toronto-and-dark-side-asian-immigrant-dream?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2043688/murder-toronto-and-dark-side-asian-immigrant-dream?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Nov 2016 00:00:30 +0000 Of Fortunes and War: Clare Hollingworth, First of the Female War Correspondents by Patrick Garrett Thistle Publishing   There is a tiny old lady who sometimes sits in a corner of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, on Lower Albert Road. She’s frail now, at 104, too blind and deaf to watch the BBC on television, but she was once Europe’s most legendary war correspondent. In August 1939, as a daring but inexperienced reporter, Clare Hollingworth sneaked alone over the German border and witnessed the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2008873/book-review-life-clare-hollingworth-war-correspondent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2008873/book-review-life-clare-hollingworth-war-correspondent?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Aug 2016 00:02:05 +0000