https://www.scmp.com/rss/330483/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com This article contains spoilers of seasons one and two of the show. 4/5 stars “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” is the overriding sentiment in Light the Night, an enthralling 1980s-set Taiwanese drama series from Lien Yi-chi and Ryan Tu, set in Taipei’s seedy red light district. Ruby Lin and Cheryl Yang are both wonderful as childhood friends who run a Japanese hostess bar, and the show charts the tumultuous relationships between the staff and its customers in the lead-up to, and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3171271/netflix-drama-review-light-night-season-3-outstanding?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3171271/netflix-drama-review-light-night-season-3-outstanding?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Mar 2022 10:15:13 +0000 Whether politics has any place in international sports events has been a controversy for decades. Many politicians argue that in the interest of athletes and harmony between all nations, sports must be kept out of politics. Some even contend that sports has nothing to do with politics. These assertions seem very plausible but are unrealistic upon deeper scrutiny, especially when we turn to history. Adolf Hitler, the German dictator and fascist, wanted to use the 1936 Berlin Olympics to bolster... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3144430/olympic-history-shows-sports-and-politics-are-intertwined-athletes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3144430/olympic-history-shows-sports-and-politics-are-intertwined-athletes?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Aug 2021 23:00:23 +0000 Taiwan is traditionally associated with tea, but in the last couple of years, coffee has become the caffeinated beverage of choice. Yes, there are cat cafes and even a coffee shop with a pet raccoon, but what really sets the Taiwanese coffee scene apart is its diversity. Here is a brief history of how Taiwan’s dynamic coffee scene came to be. https://www.scmp.com/travel/how-coffee-overtook-tea-taiwan/article/3000309?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/how-coffee-overtook-tea-taiwan/article/3000309?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Feb 2019 05:24:29 +0000 The first time Wang Yan was told he looked like Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou, he didn’t even know who the singer was. It was 2005, the peak of Chou’s career. Wang was a 16-year-old high school student in Jiangsu province. One day, he received a text message from an anonymous student that read, “I love you, Jay Chou. Please be my boyfriend!” “I had no idea who Jay Chou was at the time,” Wang recalls. “I didn’t understand why that girl was calling me by that name.” After learning more about Chou,... https://www.scmp.com/culture/becoming-jay-chou-life-chinese-celebrity-impersonator/article/3000616?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/becoming-jay-chou-life-chinese-celebrity-impersonator/article/3000616?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Jan 2019 06:03:38 +0000 78-year-old Lin Yu-cyuan has been embroidering clothes for Taoist deities for over six decades. Here, he explains how he does it and the symbolism behind the designs. https://www.scmp.com/videos/taiwanese-tailor-who-makes-clothes-gods/article/3000604?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/taiwanese-tailor-who-makes-clothes-gods/article/3000604?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Jan 2019 10:00:10 +0000 Can you imagine eating clam spaghetti at a 7-Eleven? How about grabbing bubble tea while paying your college tuition? In Taiwan, these are all possible. Come check out all the weird and wonderful things we found in one of Taiwan’s 5,000 7-Elevens. https://www.scmp.com/travel/getting-beer-boba-and-breakfast-taiwanese-7-eleven/article/3000393?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/getting-beer-boba-and-breakfast-taiwanese-7-eleven/article/3000393?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Jan 2019 05:28:34 +0000 Smangus was one of the last places in Taiwan to get electricity. To this day, villagers still hunt for game and maintain an egalitarian society where all profit is split evenly among residents. https://www.scmp.com/travel/life-taiwans-most-remote-tribe/article/3000299?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/life-taiwans-most-remote-tribe/article/3000299?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Dec 2018 03:21:35 +0000 Every year, 20,000 people gather at Taiwan’s largest lake and attempt to swim across 2 miles of water. A third of them, though, don’t really know how to swim. https://www.scmp.com/travel/taiwans-annual-swimming-carnival/article/3000252?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/taiwans-annual-swimming-carnival/article/3000252?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Nov 2018 02:47:07 +0000 Claw machines are everywhere in Taiwan, but they’re not just for fun. Some people see them as an investment strategy. But when will the bubble burst? https://www.scmp.com/videos/why-taiwan-obsessed-claw-machines/article/3000249?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/why-taiwan-obsessed-claw-machines/article/3000249?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 19 Nov 2018 09:54:53 +0000 Sky lanterns are iconic in Taiwan, where they’re released every day by tourists vying for a good photo op. But there’s a dark side to these magical flying paper lights. https://www.scmp.com/videos/dark-side-sky-lanterns/article/3000221?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/dark-side-sky-lanterns/article/3000221?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Nov 2018 10:25:07 +0000 Knife massages are a traditional therapeutic practice in China and Taiwan. But how do they work, and why are people into getting massaged by giant cleavers? We got an inside look. https://www.scmp.com/travel/we-got-knife-massage-taiwan/article/3000218?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/we-got-knife-massage-taiwan/article/3000218?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Nov 2018 06:39:43 +0000 Designing a font from scratch is incredibly time-consuming. It takes a couple of months to produce a complete Western font set with just over 500 glyphs. For Chinese typefaces, which have over 13,000 characters, it can take up to four years. At least, that’s how long it took to develop Jinxuan, the world’s first crowd-funded traditional Chinese typeface. Jinxuan is the brainchild of Justfont, a typography company in Taipei that specializes in traditional Chinese characters, which are still used... https://www.scmp.com/culture/these-guys-spent-4-years-making-chinese-font-tea-leaves/article/3000199?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/these-guys-spent-4-years-making-chinese-font-tea-leaves/article/3000199?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Oct 2018 09:45:22 +0000