https://www.scmp.com/rss/500844/feed Toh Ee Ming is a Singaporean journalist with a fascination with people and places, covering everything from society, culture and the environment for the South China Morning Post, Associated Press, Southeast Asia Globe and more. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com For the past few months, ecologist Yukie Yokoyama and her team have been collecting oyster shells from various hotels, restaurants and oyster farms across Singapore before hauling their load back to base at the Changi Sailing Club, located in the city state’s far east. They pour seawater into the boxes of shells, which are then cleaned and left to dry under the sun to kill any bacteria, ensuring no risk of biohazards or pollution. Once the “quarantine period” is over, the oyster shells are... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3252237/ecologists-hope-build-singapores-first-man-made-oyster-reef?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3252237/ecologists-hope-build-singapores-first-man-made-oyster-reef?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Feb 2024 08:00:13 +0000 Beyond two wary doormen and through a plush reception, the “Gold Valley Club” near a Kuala Lumpur shopping centre is doing brisk business, an adult funland of slot machines, where hostesses offer free drinks to gamblers in Malaysia who, for an entry bet of just 50 ringgit (US$10), can stand to win a jackpot. But the majority lose – for some, all their ringgit – at the rows of slot machines where the hours pass fast and cash is quickly guzzled by the brightly lit consoles. Dubbed the “crack... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3249118/malaysia-slot-machine-players-risk-losing-it-all-crack-cocaine-gambling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3249118/malaysia-slot-machine-players-risk-losing-it-all-crack-cocaine-gambling?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Jan 2024 01:30:18 +0000 It’s a Tuesday morning and Pui Cuifen is on a mission at the Yuhua Village Market and Food Centre in Jurong East, western Singapore. She plans to pick up several tubs full of used coffee grounds set aside by Daniel Yan, manager of Han N Han Peanut Pancake. It’s an arrangement they’ve had since January – Pui and a small group of other compost-makers take turns to collect used coffee grounds to add to compost at community-supported gardens in nearby towns. In return, they take friends and family... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3106393/composting-cut-food-waste-singapore-and-how-community?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3106393/composting-cut-food-waste-singapore-and-how-community?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Oct 2020 23:15:11 +0000 Before the Covid-19 pandemic closed the door on international tourism, Singaporean travel entrepreneur Scott Tay journeyed to some of the world’s most remote places. Conducting small-group tours, he spent time with Tsaatan reindeer herders in Mongolia’s frozen hinterlands, roamed the Gobi Desert on camelback and journeyed with Kazakh eagle hunters. Now confined to Singapore thanks to global travel restrictions, the adrenaline junkie has found a different adventure, closer to home. Tay has taken... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3096906/adventure-travel-singapore-how-explore-city-states-wild?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3096906/adventure-travel-singapore-how-explore-city-states-wild?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Aug 2020 23:15:16 +0000 For a pair of young television rebels, Singapore is more than just an uptight, squeaky-clean, conservative state. “People have this impression that Singapore is boring,” says 25-year-old Tan Hui Er, co-founder of the Not Safe For TV online channel. “The interesting parts of our country are there, but we just have to look for them in the right places.” For the channel’s new “Living in SIN” micro-documentary series, Tan and her collaborators did just that. Episodes in the series cover a range of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3089395/why-singapore-isnt-boring-its-gritty-underbelly-explored?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3089395/why-singapore-isnt-boring-its-gritty-underbelly-explored?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Jun 2020 23:15:06 +0000 Just two years ago, Irfan Wafiy Idham Wazir was doing cartwheels, scaling rock-climbing walls and playing soccer around his neighbourhood in Johor, Malaysia. Today, the 13-year-old hobbles around with a stick, unable to walk or stand for long periods. His legs shake uncontrollably and he feels tiny shocks of pain in his feet, in a condition called myokymia. At Irfan’s boarding school, he does his daily prayers on a chair instead of a prayer mat, struggles up the stairs and spends most of his... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3076185/death-everywhere-malaysia-toxic-river-haunts-sick?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3076185/death-everywhere-malaysia-toxic-river-haunts-sick?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Mar 2020 01:00:18 +0000 Gong Pan Pan wears a vivid blue dress and a red overcoat harking back through centuries of Chinese history. Her powdered face is fierce and her forehead is adorned with an elaborate deer ornament. She wears a heavy archer’s ring on her thumb as she lifts her bow and reaches for an arrow from the quiver on her back. This modern Singaporean is creating her own version of a “Chinese Wonder Woman” – a character she has modelled on the legendary Lady Fu Hao (or Lady Hao), who lived during the Shang... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3050214/were-not-weak-were-wonder-women-real-chinese-femininity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/article/3050214/were-not-weak-were-wonder-women-real-chinese-femininity?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Feb 2020 23:30:14 +0000 Hot on the trail of monkey droppings, scientist Andie Ang spends most weekdays in the wildest parts of Singapore. Clad in black, she usually carries a camera with a telephoto lens, binoculars, a raincoat and zip lock bags. Ang is looking for evidence of the Raffles’ banded langur, a species of critically endangered leaf eating monkeys found only in Singapore and southern Peninsular Malaysia. The langurs’ droppings are a treasure trove of DNA information. These faecal samples provide researchers... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3045816/singapores-rarest-monkeys-need-love-and-space-live-says-local-scientist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3045816/singapores-rarest-monkeys-need-love-and-space-live-says-local-scientist?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Jan 2020 04:15:07 +0000 Every morning, before he has his ice bath, 39-year-old Tommy Ye clocks up five minutes of exercise by jumping on a trampoline in his flat. He then whips up some bulletproof coffee – made with unsalted butter and coconut oil – for breakfast, after having fasted since 7pm the previous night. Part of Ye’s daily routine includes stripping down in a darkened bedroom so he can fully absorb the light from his Redjuvenator, a machine from the US billed as a revolutionary healing and anti-ageing... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3039516/biohacking-singapore-keto-diets-fasting-flotation-therapy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3039516/biohacking-singapore-keto-diets-fasting-flotation-therapy?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Nov 2019 21:00:09 +0000 In a nondescript building in the Katong neighbourhood on Singapore’s eastern outskirts, a small congregation dressed in bright, colourful prints dance joyously to a choir belting out vibrant songs of worship in English. It’s Sunday morning at the Cornerstone African House of Praise, a fellowship inaugurated in 2006 at the Cornerstone Community Church, which welcomes black people from around the world. With meet-ups like this one, the African community in Singapore is carving out its own cultural... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3037707/africans-singapore-find-place-home-student-society-church-fellowship?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3037707/africans-singapore-find-place-home-student-society-church-fellowship?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Nov 2019 02:45:15 +0000 As talk of an impending general election heats up in Singapore, the opposition Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) launched its manifesto on Saturday, with its party chief insisting that unless the city state became more free and open, it would lag behind in fostering the creativity and innovation needed to drive progress. “Previously, people would say, ‘democracy, that is a Western liberal ideal’. We’re beginning to find out that without democracy, without openness, without the ability to dissent,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3030803/singapore-opposition-politician-chee-soon-juan-launches-party?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3030803/singapore-opposition-politician-chee-soon-juan-launches-party?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Sep 2019 00:15:14 +0000 The ongoing trade dispute between Japan and South Korea presents an “interesting dilemma” for China, which can either watch from the sidelines or try to bring both sides together, as the United States has done before, said former Singapore diplomat Kishore Mahbubani. With its neighbours starting to fight or compete on its doorstep, Beijing could benefit from the geopolitical opportunities arising from their conflict. Or it could adopt an “enlightened view” and attempt to ease tensions between... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/diplomacy/article/3029817/china-can-either-benefit-japan/south-korea-tensions-or-try-ease?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/diplomacy/article/3029817/china-can-either-benefit-japan/south-korea-tensions-or-try-ease?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Sep 2019 12:42:23 +0000 Singapore’s prime minister-designate Heng Swee Keat on Friday said divides along class, generational and political lines posed the biggest risk to the city state’s vaunted prosperity and stability, amid rising talk that his ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) could call snap polls in months. Heng, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, was speaking to top business leaders attending the Singapore Summit, an annual business forum usually held in conjunction with the country’s Formula One... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3029772/singapore-must-guard-against-division-and-distrust-warns?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3029772/singapore-must-guard-against-division-and-distrust-warns?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Sep 2019 23:00:09 +0000 Hong Kong’s increasingly violent anti-government protests have been largely fuelled by economic discontent, despite assertions by demonstrators that they are pushing back against encroaching influence by Beijing, an academic forum in Singapore heard on Thursday. The major concerns among young people, who have been driving the protests, are bread-and-butter issues such as worsening inequality, the rising cost of living and competition for jobs with mainland Chinese migrants – all of which have... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3024974/economic-discontent-primary-force-behind-hong-kong-unrest?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3024974/economic-discontent-primary-force-behind-hong-kong-unrest?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Aug 2019 15:03:16 +0000 When Indonesian President Joko Widodo met with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad earlier this month, one item of discussion was on Jakarta’s flight information region (FIR), according to a statement put out by Kuala Lumpur after the meeting. There were no further details given on the discussion but last month, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told local media that Jakarta and Singapore had made “significant progress” on Indonesia’s bid to reclaim control of the FIR over the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/explained/article/3023918/whats-behind-indonesias-move-reclaim-control-riau-islands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/explained/article/3023918/whats-behind-indonesias-move-reclaim-control-riau-islands?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Aug 2019 08:33:22 +0000 Don Tang is proud of his toys. So much so that the Shanghai resident, 32, puts them on display both in his home and in the office of the company he runs. And there are plenty to display. Tang, 32, has some 100 collectibles and the number is growing all the time. Each month he sets aside 2,000 yuan (US$280) to buy the top trending toys, newest releases, or one-of-a-kind items – either from physical stores, online or at toy conventions in China. But the toys are not connected to his work as the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3023161/chinese-toy-story-why-do-adult-men-buy-designer-toys?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3023161/chinese-toy-story-why-do-adult-men-buy-designer-toys?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Aug 2019 04:30:11 +0000 A Singaporean start-up is looking to transform the face of Southeast Asia by building smart cities powered by blockchain technology – starting with an ambitious 100-hectare mixed-use development project in the heart of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. Spanning residential homes, office buildings, shopping malls, schools, and a massive exhibition hall, the privately backed project by Limestone Network will affect 10,000 business tenants and a daily population of 190,000 people. The idea was... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3021867/forget-bitcoin-singapore-firm-using-blockchain-tech-build-smart?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3021867/forget-bitcoin-singapore-firm-using-blockchain-tech-build-smart?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Aug 2019 00:30:13 +0000 Thousands of plump, writhing maggots lie in rows of vertically stacked blue trays, ready to chow down on the special of the day: mounds of soy pulp and spent grains, all of which will have been devoured by this time tomorrow. Elsewhere, flies swarm inside a netted enclosure, hundreds covering a wall rack in a teeming black mass, depositing 600 to 800 eggs in tiny clutches. This is the mating chamber, or “love shack” as the workers here call it – the place where the magic happens. Welcome to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3021212/these-insects-are-helping-singapore-save-planet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3021212/these-insects-are-helping-singapore-save-planet?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Aug 2019 01:00:07 +0000 When Singaporean restaurant owner Tan Hock Yong visited Shanghai on a WeChat study trip, he was amazed at how easily Chinese shoppers paid bills using the app, even at traditional wet markets and street stalls. Over the five-day visit in 2017, he attended talks by Chinese e-commerce experts, who opened his eyes to some of the opportunities for his business. “It was far more than I had imagined,” says Tan, 48, the managing director of Kim’s Place Seafood in Singapore’s eastern Joo Chiat... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3010700/school-wechat-china-study-tours-teaching-tech-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3010700/school-wechat-china-study-tours-teaching-tech-singapore?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 May 2019 00:15:10 +0000