https://www.scmp.com/rss/330664/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com For years, journalist Louisa Lim wanted to write a book about Tsang Tsou-choi, better known as the King of Kowloon. He’d spent decades painting his semi-literate graffiti – what Lim calls his “wonky, shonky calligraphy” – around Hong Kong, including on postboxes and lamp posts. He’d claimed that Kowloon was his ancestral property, illegally seized by the British and then, after the handover, by China. Initially, Tsang was considered a vandal with mental health problems; he’d spent 18 months in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3175050/indelible-city-louisa-lims-homage-those?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/design-interiors/article/3175050/indelible-city-louisa-lims-homage-those?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Apr 2022 00:15:12 +0000 Hong Kong’s legal fraternity was left with much to reflect on when Britain withdrew its last two serving judges from the city’s highest court last month, citing concerns over the Beijing-imposed national security law and its implications for political freedom. The resignation of the UK Supreme Court’s president and vice-president from their concurrent positions on Hong Kong’s apex court closed the chapter on a long-standing arrangement often viewed as a strong endorsement of the city’s rule of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3175236/will-hong-kong-join-singapore-malaysia-ditching-foreign-judges?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3175236/will-hong-kong-join-singapore-malaysia-ditching-foreign-judges?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Apr 2022 00:00:30 +0000 Adjoining the bustling retail hub in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong is Victoria Park, an oasis of calm where people practise tai chi and enjoy their lunch. At the main entrance, pigeons sit on the shoulders of a large bronze statue of Queen Victoria. Frank Tang Kai-yiu, 35, is well acquainted with the figure. The Hong Kong artist has sketched her hundreds of times, along with the plants and flowers that flourish in the 19-hectare park. Created by Italian sculptor Mario Raggi, the statue was cast in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3137627/how-hong-kong-artist-frank-tang-draws-past?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3137627/how-hong-kong-artist-frank-tang-draws-past?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Jun 2021 06:45:00 +0000 The British government in 1989 dismissed calls from then Hong Kong governor David Wilson to push back against a proposed constitutional requirement that high-ranking judges and top government advisers be Chinese citizens after the city’s handover. Wilson had also urged London at the time to press Beijing to make a statement declaring it would not exercise its right to station a peacetime People’s Liberation Army (PLA) garrison in Hong Kong, after acknowledging there was “no real prospect” of... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3137253/ex-hong-kong-governor-pushed-britain-1989-oppose?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3137253/ex-hong-kong-governor-pushed-britain-1989-oppose?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Jun 2021 23:30:00 +0000 As the Commonwealth mourns the passing of Prince Philip and the world rightly pays tribute to his extraordinary life of service, we should not forget the late duke’s ongoing legacy in Hong Kong. Through at least four visits to Hong Kong during the British colonial era, Prince Philip left a mark on Hong Kong, reflecting his venerated status as Queen Elizabeth’s “liegeman of life and limb” and his long-standing interests in education, science, technology, and youth development. On his visit in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3129589/how-prince-philip-left-his-mark-hong-kong-through-extraordinary?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3129589/how-prince-philip-left-his-mark-hong-kong-through-extraordinary?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Apr 2021 23:30:13 +0000 In the years immediately after World War II, the British Empire experienced a late flurry of government investment by Britain. Linked to the Colonial Development and Welfare Scheme, which extensively subsidised primary production, from forestry to fisheries, the Corona Series produced detailed survey volumes about overseas territories. These combined a travel writer’s eye for local colour and telling detail with solid factual information. All were written when many colonial territories still... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/3127651/colonial-diplomats-sympathetic-view-1950s-hong-kong-corona?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/3127651/colonial-diplomats-sympathetic-view-1950s-hong-kong-corona?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Mar 2021 12:45:17 +0000 Every Tuesday and Thursday, Inkstone Explains unravels the ideas and context behind the headlines to help you understand news about China. In Europe, the years from 1839 to 1949 are often seen as a period of mass destruction and triumphant progress, world wars and technological revolutions. In China today, the 110-year period is often summarized in one word: humiliation. Once an unrivaled regional hegemon, China was beleaguered by endemic corruption, internal rebellion and ailing economy while... https://www.scmp.com/society/inkstone-explains-why-beijing-constantly-talks-about-chinas-century-humiliation/article/3089559?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/inkstone-explains-why-beijing-constantly-talks-about-chinas-century-humiliation/article/3089559?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Jun 2020 07:58:34 +0000 Tonight on Christmas Eve, shopping malls across Hong Kong will be packed with revelers partaking in a decades-old tradition: counting down the seconds to Christmas Day. The tradition started in 2000, when the shopping mall Harbour City hosted a giant Christmas bash along Canton Road, a major thoroughfare. The festival included a midnight countdown similar to one on New Year’s Eve, and drew hundreds of thousands of spectators each year. The large-scale event has not been held since 2014, after... https://www.scmp.com/travel/christmas-hong-kong-commercialism-its-most-extreme/article/3000351?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/christmas-hong-kong-commercialism-its-most-extreme/article/3000351?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Dec 2018 09:39:06 +0000 Step into any old-school Western restaurant in Hong Kong, and you’ll be presented with a course menu that usually offers three things: a steak, dinner roll, and choice of soup. Those soups are almost uniformly two options: cream or borscht, known in Chinese as 罗宋汤, literally “Russian soup.” Growing up in Hong Kong, I never thought to question how a Ukrainian peasant soup ended up on menus half a world away. It was one of those things that just was, which is to say, borscht was as Hong Kong as... https://www.scmp.com/food/how-russian-borscht-became-hong-kong-staple/article/3000268?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/how-russian-borscht-became-hong-kong-staple/article/3000268?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Nov 2018 13:39:30 +0000 In Hong Kong, milk tea is a ubiquitous beverage that’s found on nearly every block. On the daily, the city is estimated to drink around 2.5 million cups of milk tea a year. That’s 8.5 Olympic-sized pools of the brown beverage. While milk in tea is nothing new, Hong Kong’s rendition is particularly unique. It’s a mixture of heavily oxidized blended black tea leaves and evaporated milk, at a general ratio of 70 to 30. The tea is boiled and strained through a cloth filter multiple times, a process... https://www.scmp.com/food/why-hong-kongs-milk-tea-class-its-own/article/2154850?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/why-hong-kongs-milk-tea-class-its-own/article/2154850?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Jul 2018 10:27:17 +0000