https://www.scmp.com/rss/500206/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com In times of war, it is not only people who get caught in the crossfire. The shared history of entire civilisations does, too. Items held in museums, from paintings to artefacts and sculptures, allow us to see ourselves through the lens of history. As Russian bombs continue to tear through Ukraine, it is time to use the technology we have to protect and preserve cultural artefacts as much as possible. By using the cryptographic technology that supports NFTs, we can turn cultural artefacts into... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3176391/ukraine-war-shows-need-digitise-our-cultural-history-nfts-its-too?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3176391/ukraine-war-shows-need-digitise-our-cultural-history-nfts-its-too?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 May 2022 05:15:18 +0000 Shaw Brothers’ Movietown studio complex in Hong Kong’s Sai Kung district is being transformed into a residential enclave, a decade after production ceased at the birthplace of Chinese kung fu films once dubbed Asia’s Hollywood. The complex on Clear Water Bay Road will be redeveloped into a project with 1.05 million square feet (97,548 square metres) of usable space, featuring 14 three-storey villas and 23 apartment buildings that stand between six and 11 floors each, recreational facilities, a... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3174881/birthplace-kung-fu-films-will-turn-flats-and-villas-fosuns-plan-redevelop?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3174881/birthplace-kung-fu-films-will-turn-flats-and-villas-fosuns-plan-redevelop?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Apr 2022 08:32:06 +0000 Real estate developments that combine preservation of historic landmarks are becoming popular in China, with some companies taking a keen interest in such projects. Swire Properties is working on a 10 billion yuan (US$1.58 billion) development in the historic mainland Chinese city of Xian, after its urban regeneration projects in Chengdu and Shanghai. The Hong Kong-listed developer and its joint venture partner, state-owned Xi’an Cheng Huan Cultural Investment and Development Company, will... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3169605/commercial-property-projects-touting-preservation-underlying-theme-sprout?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3169605/commercial-property-projects-touting-preservation-underlying-theme-sprout?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Mar 2022 00:30:22 +0000 The best part of Wordle – that online word puzzle that has players posting their coloured-square achievements on social media – is not that millions of people have become enamoured with language, with participants plumbing new depths of their vocabulary and learning about linguistic patterns, such as letter frequency and combinations. No, the best part of Wordle is that it is no longer being played solely in English, the language in which it was initially developed. It now encompasses a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/3168196/wordle-wonderful-just-look-versions-word-game?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/3168196/wordle-wonderful-just-look-versions-word-game?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Feb 2022 21:15:21 +0000 China will launch a new campaign to improve protection of cultural relics as part of its efforts to boost domestic confidence in the country’s culture and increase its international allure. The Communist Party’s publicity department recently issued a notice asking officials and cadres at all levels to “comprehensively enhance” protection of historic cultural relics, after President Xi Jinping highlighted the issue during a visit to Pingyao, a historic town in Shanxi and Unesco World Heritage... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3167876/china-starts-campaign-strengthen-protection-cultural-relics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3167876/china-starts-campaign-strengthen-protection-cultural-relics?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Feb 2022 01:00:23 +0000 Hong Kong’s neon-drenched streets were just one aspect of his home that Justin Wong missed while studying in Canada. A lover of cinema, he would become nostalgic for the city whose urban landscape has been beautifully evoked and captured in films such as Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) and Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express (1994). But when he returned home in 2016, after eight years away, Hong Kong was not as he remembered it from childhood. Gentrification and a shift in manufacturing methods... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3164898/bygone-hong-kong-lit-photographers-neon?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3164898/bygone-hong-kong-lit-photographers-neon?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Jan 2022 09:15:10 +0000 Off Malaysia’s North-South Expressway, two hours to the north of Kuala Lumpur, stands a former tin mining town that is at the centre of a half-hearted struggle between residents who would like to turn it into a tourist attraction and those who would prefer to let sleeping ghosts lie. Papan – little more than a strip of crumbling heritage houses and two parallel alleys of humbler homes – may be ignored by guidebooks to Malaysia, but those who know of the place refer to it as a ghost town fit for... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3162193/can-malaysian-ghost-town-become-tourist-attraction?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3162193/can-malaysian-ghost-town-become-tourist-attraction?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Jan 2022 04:45:20 +0000 For decades, Bangkok’s stately Hua Lumphong terminus has welcomed workers into Thailand’s capital – and served as a jumping-off point for many a backpacker’s Thai adventure. But the 105-year-old transit hub’s links with much of the rest of the country will soon be severed, as services shift to a gleaming new US$4.8 billion railway station across town. Bang Sue Grand Station, with 26 platforms and more than 270,000 square metres (2.95 million sq ft) of usable floor space, has been touted as... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3160510/thailand-eyes-china-linked-high-speed-future-bangkoks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3160510/thailand-eyes-china-linked-high-speed-future-bangkoks?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Dec 2021 01:00:19 +0000 Hong Kong’s Architectural Services Department has been studying how to apply new technologies to heritage conservation and help protect historical buildings from rain and termites, according to the city’s development chief. Writing on his official blog, Secretary for Development Michael Wong Wai-lun said the department was tasked with conserving 74 heritage sites owned by the government, along with 135 graded historical buildings and multiple sites with archaeological value, such as lighthouses,... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3160305/drones-other-new-technology-join-front-line-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3160305/drones-other-new-technology-join-front-line-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Dec 2021 09:39:42 +0000 Conservation of heritage buildings is gaining traction in Asia, as more investors and companies are piling in and devoting resources to preserve an increasing number of historical sites, either by giving them a new lease of life or repurposing them as part of a bigger property development project. Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun, formerly a police station, magistrate’s court and a prison compound during the British colonial era, has been turned into an arts and retail hub with hip retail stores, cafes and... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3157030/old-becomes-hip-asias-heritage-buildings-get-multimillion-dollar-makeovers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3157030/old-becomes-hip-asias-heritage-buildings-get-multimillion-dollar-makeovers?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Nov 2021 23:30:17 +0000 It begins with the sharp beat of drums. Hundreds of Hongkongers have stood together for hours to hear the beats that signal the beginning of the fire dragon dance – a colourful and atmospheric ritual first performed in Tai Hang village in 1880 to ward off a plague. Now a different disease is at large around the world, and the dragon will once again dance to bring health and luck – albeit virtually. Almost every year, the night before the Mid-Autumn Festival, a fire dragon has danced through Tai... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3148959/behind-tai-hangs-fire-dragon-dance-hong-kong-mid-autumn?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3148959/behind-tai-hangs-fire-dragon-dance-hong-kong-mid-autumn?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Sep 2021 06:45:12 +0000 On July 25, Unesco placed Quanzhou on its World Heritage List for its historical role as an “emporium of the world in Song-Yuan China”. Quanzhou (“chu-anne zhoh” for the Pinyin-challenged) is a coastal city in the southeastern province of Fujian. It does not often make the news but centuries ago, it was a bustling and prosperous “world city” that hosted ships and merchants from all over the world. The entire south-eastern region of China had been inhabited by non-Han Chinese peoples since... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3146060/quanzhou-unesco-world-heritage-city-china-gave?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3146060/quanzhou-unesco-world-heritage-city-china-gave?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Aug 2021 01:15:16 +0000 Anisha Thai is as unwilling to stand still in her career as she is in her dance performances. A recent winner of Hong Kong broadcaster TVB’s competition show Dance for Life, she is a dance teacher, a social media influencer with a growing following for her Afrodance videos, a model and, as if all that weren’t enough, a civil engineer by day. She’s on a mission to increase the representation of her culture not just in Hong Kong but around the world. Her medium for accomplishing that is dance,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3143599/tvb-dance-show-winner-anisha-thai-her-black-and-asian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3143599/tvb-dance-show-winner-anisha-thai-her-black-and-asian?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Aug 2021 20:45:16 +0000 Spare a thought for Macau. While the media has made much ado about the absence of arrivals at other tourism-dependent Asian destinations, Hong Kong’s neighbouring special administrative region has escaped attention. Travel and tourism are Macau’s bread and butter – the industry accounted for 72 per cent of the city’s GDP (gross domestic product) in 2019, according to data platform Knoema – but although it has for some time been open to mainland Chinese tourists, its lifeline, visitor numbers... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3142808/what-if-macau-gifted-chinese-island-hengqin-where?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3142808/what-if-macau-gifted-chinese-island-hengqin-where?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Jul 2021 03:39:27 +0000 The world heritage committee of the UN’s cultural agency Unesco on Friday began debating its list of World Heritage Sites, with Australia and Britain furious over looming changes to the status of the Great Barrier Reef and the historic docks in the city of Liverpool. On the plus side, nearly 50 sites could be added to the more than 1,100 listed worldwide by Unesco as World Heritage during two weeks of online meetings hosted by China in the southeastern city of Fuzhou. Among the sites being... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3141333/uk-australia-brace-unesco-world-heritage-rulings-city?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3141333/uk-australia-brace-unesco-world-heritage-rulings-city?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Jul 2021 05:15:07 +0000 Last month, Hong Kong’s heritage officials disclosed the results of a survey of some 8,800 historic buildings conducted two decades ago, in the wake of a controversy over the last-minute rescue of a century-old underground reservoir slated for demolition. For the first time, the public came to know about the sites that were never shortlisted for a smaller pool of over 1,800 for further assessment and grading. Many of them have been demolished, but some survive, and wallow in neglect. While... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3128289/what-are-some-hong-kongs-heritage-buildings-merit-study-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3128289/what-are-some-hong-kongs-heritage-buildings-merit-study-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Apr 2021 13:29:44 +0000 Veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Alex Cheung Kwok-ming never imagined he would once again step into Kong Ha Wai, a historic mansion in rural Yuen Long, and revisit his childhood memories after he was unable to enter the site two decades ago.  The 27-room mansion, built by a Hakka gold merchant for his family in the 1930s, had seen better days, having survived second world war and undergone big alterations after being used for factory operations decades ago. Now a major property developer is... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3127284/old-hong-kong-mansion-set-get-new-lease-life-conservation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3127284/old-hong-kong-mansion-set-get-new-lease-life-conservation?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Mar 2021 03:00:12 +0000 Twelve years after former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced that Central Market would be part of the “Conserving Central” initiative in his 2009 policy address, the project might finally see some progress with a 10-year revitalisation contract being awarded to Noble Vantage, a subsidiary of Chinachem Group. While this is encouraging news, the realisation of the project is long overdue, having gone through cycles of design competition, public consultation, judicial review and the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3122893/hong-kong-heritage-can-central-market-escape-fate-becoming-just?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3122893/hong-kong-heritage-can-central-market-escape-fate-becoming-just?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Feb 2021 22:45:11 +0000 For more than three decades, hawker Melvin Chew has been selling traditional Teochew braised duck and kway chap – flat, broad rice noodles in a soup made with dark soy sauce served with a variety of pig innards – at Chinatown Complex Food Centre, located in Singapore’s city centre. The 42-year-old Singaporean is one of thousands of hawkers who operate stalls in hawker centres around the city state, which are frequented by residents and tourists alike. “In a hawker centre, you can see all sorts... https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/persevering-preservations/article/3099488/singapore-hawker-culture?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/persevering-preservations/article/3099488/singapore-hawker-culture?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Sep 2020 01:53:26 +0000 Every day at about 4.30am, A.R.V. Vivekraja, known simply as Vivek, rushes to open his family-run provision shop – affectionately referred to as a “mama shop” by Singaporeans – in Changi Road, on the eastern part of the island city state. With the help of two of his staff, Vivek, 24, must prepare for the delivery of spice powders and other food produce, such as onions and potatoes, ordered by restaurants, which have to be loaded onto trucks by 5.30am, before getting the store ready for walk-in... https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/persevering-preservations/article/3098721/singapore-iconic-mama-shop-essential?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/persevering-preservations/article/3098721/singapore-iconic-mama-shop-essential?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Aug 2020 01:30:14 +0000 In the 1970s, rattan furniture could be found in almost every Singaporean household. The pieces were also popular throughout Europe, where they were prized for their lightness and durability. For more than 50 years, Chen Foon Kee has been handweaving raw rattan – the thin stems of a type of palm that grows throughout Southeast Asia – to make shelves, chairs and tables. Today, Chen, 72, is one of Singapore’s last few rattan craftsmen. His small furniture store cuts a distinct profile, located... https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/persevering-preservations/article/3098627/singapore-rattan-furniture-craftman?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/native/lifestyle/topics/persevering-preservations/article/3098627/singapore-rattan-furniture-craftman?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Aug 2020 11:35:10 +0000 In the 1970s, rattan furniture could be found in almost every Singaporean household. The pieces were also popular throughout Europe, where they prized for their lightness and durability.  For more than 50 years, Chen Foon Kee has been handweaving raw rattan—thin stems of a type of palm that grows throughout Southeast Asia—into shelves, chairs, and tables. Now, Chen, 72, is one of Singapore’s last few rattan craftsmen. His small furniture store cuts a distinct profile, sitting amid the hustle and... https://www.scmp.com/culture/singapores-last-maker-rattan-furniture-has-been-weaving-chairs-hand-over-50-years/article/3098540?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/singapores-last-maker-rattan-furniture-has-been-weaving-chairs-hand-over-50-years/article/3098540?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Aug 2020 11:30:11 +0000 US and Australian officials have been quick to express outrage over an image shared on social media showing the Chinese ambassador to the Pacific island nation of Kiribati walking across the backs of locals lying face down on the ground. Commander Constantine Panayiotou, the US defense attaché to Kiribati, tweeted: “I simply cannot imagine any scenario in which walking on the backs of children is acceptable behavior by an ambassador of any country (or any adult for that matter).” But many in... https://www.scmp.com/politics/did-chinese-diplomat-tread-toes-walking-locals-backs-kiribati/article/3098301?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/politics/did-chinese-diplomat-tread-toes-walking-locals-backs-kiribati/article/3098301?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Aug 2020 11:16:26 +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