https://www.scmp.com/rss/929/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com New music – two words that strike fear into the hearts of many concertgoers. Unfamiliar, intimidating, even atonal; for those who feel safe with familiar favourites, late 20th and 21st century music can prompt such assumptions. But Berlin-based Australian composer Brett Dean wants audiences at the 8th Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival to not only open their minds to new possibilities, but to become virtual filmmakers. Review: Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival “Audiences... https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2060812/australian-composer-brett-dean-wants-hongkongers-open-their-minds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/music/article/2060812/australian-composer-brett-dean-wants-hongkongers-open-their-minds?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Jan 2017 09:00:30 +0000 When the 16 dancers of the Sydney Dance Company (SDC) take to the stage, the musicians accompanying them are, most often, heard but not seen. Recorded music is their usual accompaniment, but not so for the two shows they are presenting at Kwai Tsing Theatre next weekend. The musicians will be on stage with the dancers in a performance integrating live dance and live music in a groundbreaking way. These are not just any musicians; the internationally renowned Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO)... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1875314/sydney-dance-company-and-australian-chamber-orchestra?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1875314/sydney-dance-company-and-australian-chamber-orchestra?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Nov 2015 22:01:42 +0000 Working a few local gags into their stand-up patter is a risky business for comedians. A mispronunciation, a backfiring joke which reveals a lack of local knowledge and it can all go horribly wrong. But when Irish-Australian Dave Callan hits Hong Kong as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow, chances are the local jokes will fit right in. He is a regular visitor, his mother and uncle grew up in Hong Kong while their father worked as a lawyer and his cousin still lives... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48-hours/article/1835732/melbourne-comedians-stock-hong-kong-jokes-show-fringe-club?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48-hours/article/1835732/melbourne-comedians-stock-hong-kong-jokes-show-fringe-club?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Jul 2015 11:00:15 +0000 When Korean-American Sarah Chang takes the stage with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong on April 4, she will be performing a piece she learned as child. But Chang was no ordinary child - the piece is Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No 1, and she learned that at the age of five in order to audition for the renowned Julliard School in New York. "It has a very, very special place in my heart," says the 34-year-old Korean American, now recognised as one of the world's leading violinists. "I put it... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1745386/how-violinist-sarah-chang-fell-back-love-bruch-concerto-which?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1745386/how-violinist-sarah-chang-fell-back-love-bruch-concerto-which?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 23 Mar 2015 22:15:45 +0000 Joanne Fedler knows just how unpleasant teenagers can be. She's mother to two, Jesse and Aidan, and, as with her previous parenting books, their lives are grist for her writing mill as she gives hope and consolation to parents battling teen wars. South African-born, Sydney-based Fedler is quick to emphasise she is no expert. "I don't say I know better than anybody else," she says of her new book, Love in the Time of Contempt (Hardie Grant Books), subtitled Consolations for Parents of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1739088/afraid-your-teenager-some-tips-winning-battle-wills?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1739088/afraid-your-teenager-some-tips-winning-battle-wills?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Mar 2015 22:15:15 +0000 It gives new meaning to the term underground cinema. Deep in a dark Melbourne basement, far beneath downtown Federation Square, the video installations of renowned Chinese contemporary artist Yang Fudong play in a loop. It's an exhibition that Yang hopes will help stimulate new opportunities for China's up-and-coming artists to show their works to the world. "Their audience should not be limited to China. I want audiences from around the world to be able to experience Chinese art," says Yang,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1699452/yang-fudongs-australia-exhibition-marks-move-digital?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1699452/yang-fudongs-australia-exhibition-marks-move-digital?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Feb 2015 22:45:15 +0000 When Tony Ayres directed his semi-autobiographical breakthrough feature The Home Song Stories in 2007, it was entirely possible that he was consigning himself to a box labelled "Chinese-Australian filmmaker". In fact, he concedes, "I was in that box for quite a while", with earlier films such as China Dolls (1998) and Sadness (1999) also drawing on his ethnic heritage. The writer-director was born in Macau and moved to Australia with his mother at age three. The Home Song Stories - which won... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1689943/chinese-australian-director-thrills-chase?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1689943/chinese-australian-director-thrills-chase?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Jan 2015 14:30:45 +0000 David Shrigley agrees: for a journalist it's the perfect badge. "Integrity for sale", it reads in his distinctive, childlike printing. The badge - going for A$2.95 (HK$19) - is one of many wares with a message in The General Store. Green silicone bracelets (A$4.50) bear the words "meaningless bracelet"; plush cat soft toys with slogans across their chests (A$26.95) announce "rights for soft toys" or "neither use nor ornament". The salt-and-pepper shakers (A$129.95) are labelled heroin and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1656352/british-artist-david-shrigleys-humorous-works-go-down-well?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1656352/british-artist-david-shrigleys-humorous-works-go-down-well?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Dec 2014 15:19:52 +0000 Films can bring international realities to our doorstep, informing and educating, even serving the cause of political protest. To some, linking the filmmaker's art and politics summons images of the propaganda movies of North Korea or of China during the Cultural Revolution. But a carefully curated selection of films at this year's Melbourne Festival illustrated just how provocative and political filmmaking can be in the service of a wide range of causes. "Art, Politics and Protest" was curated... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1629073/postcard-melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1629073/postcard-melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:11:26 +0000 Aussies love a beer and a fair number will have tasted the brew from Qingdao. But how many can name the province it hails from? How many will know Shandong is South Australia's sister state? And how many will have any idea where it is? Thanks to diplomatic efforts, that is about to change: the Adelaide-based OzAsia Festival, now in its eighth edition, is this year a product of that 26-year-old sister state relationship. It's a tie Adelaide Festival Centre chief executive and artistic director... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1585984/ozasia-festival-builds-bond-between-south-australia-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1585984/ozasia-festival-builds-bond-between-south-australia-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Sep 2014 14:12:10 +0000 Guo Chengwu knows some ballet companies don't want Asian faces in their opening-night lead roles. Not, fortunately, from personal experience, but he is aware of such attitudes in some European groups. For Guo, who is about to dance one of ballet's most demanding leading roles - Solor in La Bayadere - that's not an issue. He has hitched his star to a company that, in its soon-to-be-launched five-year plan, is looking to Asia. The goal is "to be the foremost company in Asia-Pacific", Australian... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1579179/australian-ballet-takes-risks-draw-young-audiences?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1579179/australian-ballet-takes-risks-draw-young-audiences?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Aug 2014 23:13:11 +0000 Australians love a vampire. Movies and television series about them are consistently high raters, so it was no surprise that this year's Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) looked to the netherworld of bloodsuckers and ghosts for a programme strand. And where better to seek inspiration than Hong Kong, home of geung si - the hopping vampire? When programmer Al Cossar saw Juno Mak Chun-lung 's Rigor Mortis - one of the first geung si films in more than 20 years - at the Toronto... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1579152/postcard-melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1579152/postcard-melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Aug 2014 14:53:41 +0000 MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL ROADSHOW Fringe Underground   Malaysian-born stand-up comedian Ronny Chieng faces a dilemma: does he offer the race-based humour audiences expect from a Chinese comedian, or does he take a more sophisticated approach? "That has been a constant battle. When you start out you do comedy that comes to you quite naturally," says Melbourne-based Chieng, a full-time comedian who got his big break by winning a University of Melbourne competition while studying... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1541738/melbourne-based-comedian-ronnie-chieng-unsure-about-using-race-jokes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1541738/melbourne-based-comedian-ronnie-chieng-unsure-about-using-race-jokes?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Jul 2014 15:15:45 +0000 The Empress Lover by Linda Jaivin Fourth Estate 4 stars Sue Green On June 4, the 25th anniversary of the government crackdown on student protesters in Tiananmen Square was marked around the world. So it is apposite that in this latest novel by a US-born Australian writer closely connected with China for almost four decades, those events have a central role. This is the seventh novel by Linda Jaivin, onetime journalist, now a short story and playwright, non-fiction author and essayist,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1536786/book-review-empress-lover-linda-jaivin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1536786/book-review-empress-lover-linda-jaivin?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Jun 2014 04:17:59 +0000 The few Chinese in the audience at Des Bishop's stand-up comedy show in a Melbourne bar are laughing - but whether with amusement or embarrassment as he mimics a Chinese accent isn't clear. Bishop is convinced they enjoy it. "The Chinese like it because it means something to them and the Australian-born Chinese like it," he says. In fact, while the Melbourne crowd can be "overly concerned about political correctness", the Chinese aren't offended, he adds. "There have been a couple of nights when... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1536956/stand-comic-excited-mainland-comedy-potential?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1536956/stand-comic-excited-mainland-comedy-potential?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Jun 2014 04:17:59 +0000 I Am China by Xiaolu Guo Chatto and Windus 4 stars For Xiaolu Guo, writing poses a constant challenge: containing the philosophical ideas which interest and preoccupy her in narrative form. "I want to write something that makes sense in a philosophical way," Guo says of her work. Yet her new novel, I Am China, multilayered and rich in intellectual ideas, is also highly accessible. Told from the point of view of three main characters and encompassing three realities which intersect only... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1526548/xiaolu-guo-explores-nature-identity-new-novel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/books/article/1526548/xiaolu-guo-explores-nature-identity-new-novel?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Jun 2014 02:00:00 +0000 Hunan-born Yi Sun began learning the violin at age seven. He came from a musical home: his parents loved music and played several instrument, and his father was also an amateur composer and conductor. Yi learned fast and the talent that he showed led him to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he became a prize-winning student. But for a young Chinese boy, it was an unusual choice. "At that time not many kids were learning the instrument," Yi recalls. Fast-forward several decades and that... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1496735/sydney-symphony-orchestra-will-tour-china-summer-continuing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1496735/sydney-symphony-orchestra-will-tour-china-summer-continuing?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Apr 2014 09:49:22 +0000 Art historian and academic Nicola Teffer's children have Dutch first names and Chinese surnames. They are, she says, the story of Sydney and of Australia: "This is the way it is going to go: the whole idea of the mixed-race family is completely ordinary." Teffer's family background is Dutch. It wasn't until she married her half-Chinese husband, Stephen Wang, had children and travelled with him in China exploring his background that she developed an interest in the history of Australia's Chinese... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1476160/sydney-exhibition-tells-chinese-story?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1476160/sydney-exhibition-tells-chinese-story?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Apr 2014 07:32:28 +0000 It's just a city street, rather bleak, empty and ordinary. So why the sinister air, the sense that this is not a snap of someone's suburban Sydney home? It's partly because the viewer knows this picture, on show with dozens of others at the Museum of Sydney, doesn't depict an innocuous scene: it's a crime scene. But it's more than just context. "The forensic gaze is intimate and intense, sceptical and fundamentally suspicious - much like the artist's gaze," says crime writer and curator Peter... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1453998/sydney-police-crime-photos-1950s-and-1960s-make-intriguing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1453998/sydney-police-crime-photos-1950s-and-1960s-make-intriguing?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Mar 2014 07:52:52 +0000 Sichuan-born, Hong Kong- and Beijing-based filmmaker Emily Tang Xiaobai was so thrilled that her third feature was showing on the big screen at one of Australia's quirkiest film festivals that she and lead actress Yang Shuting arranged their own travel to the Melbourne opening-night screening. All Apologies also screened at the Sydney and Brisbane legs of the 2014 Golden Koala Chinese Film Festival, which began in Melbourne on January 31 and came to a close in Brisbane yesterday. The Jury Prize... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1427787/postcard-melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1427787/postcard-melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Feb 2014 10:47:02 +0000 Imagine stepping out of your front door to find that, overnight, a brightly painted piano has turned up in the street. What's more, it's wearing a sign that says "Play Me, I'm Yours", and passers-by stop to do just that. There is even the occasional sing-along. That's the reaction organisers of a quirky summer event in Melbourne are hoping for because this has already happened in 37 other cities, from Hangzhou to New York, in which more than 1,000 pianos have popped up in the past four... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1396742/pianos-begging-be-played-melbourne-streets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1396742/pianos-begging-be-played-melbourne-streets?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Jan 2014 08:14:13 +0000 For Queensland's tourism authorities it's a dream come true: a drawcard exhibition by a leading Chinese artist with two of its three major works inspired by the Australian state's landscape. Little wonder then that artist Cai Guoqiang's first Australian solo exhibition, "Falling Back to Earth", is presented by Tourism and Events Queensland; that Cai and Chris Saines, director of Brisbane's Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (Goma), previewed it in Shanghai; and that holiday... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1368661/artist-cai-guoqiang-returns-nature-queensland-exhibition?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1368661/artist-cai-guoqiang-returns-nature-queensland-exhibition?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 Dec 2013 08:19:09 +0000 When Jia Zhangke’s latest film, A Touch of Sin, was released, critics were shocked. What happened to the sedate, somewhat meditative pace  of his earlier works? And why the extreme violence? But for the 43-year-old director-scriptwriter, this was not so much what The Guardian described as  “a stark departure from his usual contemplative tone”, as an inevitable outcome of the pressures his characters were under – pressures which, in the earlier films, they had controlled better. And, yes, the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1359417/chinese-director-jia-zhangke-lets-his-characters-vent-their?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1359417/chinese-director-jia-zhangke-lets-his-characters-vent-their?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:45:15 +0000 It hits you like a punch in the face. As you inch your way down the stairs into the basement gallery, the increasingly dim lighting barely enough to illuminate the warning to allow eyes time to adjust, it's the ears that bear the full force of the assault. Turn the corner to the final flight of steps and there it is: a vast screen directly in front of you, a wall of sound rising up to meet the eyes. This is "Spectacle: The Music Video Exhibition", billed as "a groundbreaking and sensory... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1339655/sound-and-vision?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1339655/sound-and-vision?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Oct 2013 08:36:52 +0000 "WHAT GOOD IS SITTING alone in your room, come hear the music play," sang Liza Minnelli in the musical Cabaret. It's a message Torben Brookman wants Hong Kong people to take to heart. While Brookman hopes they will embrace the spirit of the cabaret, he offers some comfort for those who consider it an art form that's a little too, well, risqué. "The way we treat cabaret is the broadest possible definition," says Brookman, producer of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the highlights of which are... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1329473/expect-different-take-cabaret-adelaide-festival-performers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1329473/expect-different-take-cabaret-adelaide-festival-performers?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Oct 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The sign on Wellington's airport terminal says it all: Welcome to Middle Earth. From the moment in the late 1990s when it was announced The Lord of the Rings trilogy would be made in New Zealand by a local boy made good, filmmaker Peter Jackson, the nation's film industry and film-related tourism took a dramatic step forward. Its windy capital, Wellington, segued from being literally cool - a beautiful but chilly city of about 200,000 people at the bottom of the world - to figuratively. Now it's... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1329391/postcard-wellington?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1329391/postcard-wellington?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Oct 2013 16:00:00 +0000 With more than 400 languages spoken around Australia, it's no surprise that its city restaurants are a cultural smorgasbord. And that love affair with everything from Italian to Iranian, Mexican to Moroccan, is now also up on the big screen. In Melbourne alone, industry experts estimate there is almost one specialist film festival a week on average. They are not just showcasing dozens of cultures, but also focusing on a variety of subjects ranging from surfing to sustainability, to senior... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1319086/postcard-melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1319086/postcard-melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 It would be easy to label this production troubled: songs which, although beautiful in Chinese, did not translate smoothly into English; Chinese actors refusing to wear costumes they saw as inappropriate; even a controversy that led to a Chinese government directive to change the ending. Yet to do so would be to undermine the importance of Cho Cho, a production that director Peter Wilson says is not only the first musical drama presented in both Chinese and English, but a metaphor for relations... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1309057/pupper-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1309057/pupper-power?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Think North Korea and most people think nuclear threat, poverty and border stand-offs. But this year's Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), which runs from Thursday to August 11, will be challenging those preconceptions with a special focus on the films of and about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The "Inside the DPRK" mini-showcase consists of two new films that programmers say will take viewers inside one of the world's most unfamiliar countries. One of them, Aim... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1286256/film-postcard-melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1286256/film-postcard-melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 KATE MCLENNAN'S MUM and dad are a goldmine. Every time she visits them in Geelong, southwest of Melbourne, she taps an irresistibly rich vein of stand-up comedy material. For some parents, being mocked onstage around Australia and in Asia might be too much to bear. But the McLennans, Gail and Pockets (his real name is Bill, but no one calls him that), take their daughter's act in their stride - mostly. "My dad likes it," McLennan says. "He came to my Comedy Festival show this year and was really... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1281125/festival-brings-australian-humour-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/article/1281125/festival-brings-australian-humour-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 It’s a tale with the lot: war and destruction, brave heroes, buried treasure. Best of all, there’s a happy ending. This is a story about a country most of us have written off as ruined, one so ravaged by three decades of occupation, bombing and civil war that none of us would consider for a moment visiting as a tourist nor, most likely, contemplate the possibility of a rich cultural heritage and precious artefacts. Afghanistan – once a vital trading hub on the legendary Silk Road, a land... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1260781/precious-afghanistan-heritage-reclaimed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1260781/precious-afghanistan-heritage-reclaimed?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 For a documentary maker, there can be few things more exciting than having a potential subject offer up a cache of original footage. When that subject is a former resistance worker who risked her life carrying messages from a jailed political leader it just gets better and better. And if the resistance worker has not retreated into oblivion with the leader's release but is now his wife and first lady of his independent nation, it is a situation little short of documentary-making nirvana. Such... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1250519/love-and-revolution-east-timor?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1250519/love-and-revolution-east-timor?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000 It looks an unlikely place for a significant survey of Asian video art. The beige, art deco lump that is Wellington's City Gallery looms over the New Zealand capital's Civic Square, a stone's throw from its picturesque waterfront. But looks can be deceptive - since opening in 1980 this gallery has been at the forefront of exhibiting contemporary art in New Zealand. And there's a clue: its dour frontage is illuminated by Fault, a 1994 neon light sculpture by New Zealand artists Bill Culbert and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1213014/screening-process?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1213014/screening-process?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 When Julian Thompson was a Canberra schoolboy, a camp at the coast two hours' drive from Australia's landlocked capital sparked the beginning of a lifelong passion for riding the surf. "They gave us boards and wetsuits and we flailed around in the water, and I guess that started me off," recalls Thompson, who now lives in a Sydney beachside suburb and hits the surf whenever he gets the chance. Now a new performance piece by the Australian Chamber Orchestra means the cellist and his boss,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1186290/join-party-wave?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1186290/join-party-wave?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 It was life imitating reality television. When a woman recently arrived at a valuation day offered by international auctioneers and valuers Bonhams in Melbourne, she clutched a dish her parents had brought to Australia from China. It was a family heirloom, but the number of fakes made in China mean that's no guarantee of value, says John Chong, Bonhams' Hong Kong-based Chinese paintings and ceramics specialist. "Sometimes it might not be of historical value, but it is quite important to them in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1176612/auction-valuers-discover-chinese-art-treasures-and-fakes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1176612/auction-valuers-discover-chinese-art-treasures-and-fakes?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Lawrence Leung didn't plan to become a role model. His stand-up comedy and high-rating television shows do not draw on issues such as racism, a goldmine for some of Australia's "ethnic" comedians. Nor does he make jokes about Chinese culture and his background - all those Saturday mornings at Cantonese school, for instance.  Yet Melbourne-based Leung, whose parents Doris and Leo moved from Hong Kong to Australia, gets fan mail from many young Chinese-Australians for just that reason. "I don't... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1074584/funny-thing-happened?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1074584/funny-thing-happened?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 It's a much-loved story: the nutcracker coming to life as a handsome prince, the beautiful girl who falls for him, the dancing sugarplum fairies - all set to Tchaikovsky's magnificent music, so familiar most of us could hum it. But what happens when you take that perennial favourite, hauled out of mothballs by ballet companies worldwide every Christmas, freeze the stage and perform it as ice dance, replacing trained dancers with world-class ice skaters? Tony Mercer, founder, producer and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1026957/hong-kong-treat-theatrical-ice-dance-version-nutcracker?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1026957/hong-kong-treat-theatrical-ice-dance-version-nutcracker?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Sep 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Scandinavian crime fiction is literary hot property and film buffs are increasingly treated to cinematic versions of these stories, probing the underbelly of societies more commonly associated with snowy scenery and supportive welfare systems. The pervasive otherness - bleak weather, grim storylines, the dysfunctional detective - translates well to the big screen. The 61st Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), which ran from August 2 until last Sunday, screening more than 300 movies from... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1022588/stockholm-yarra-swedish-crime-films-shine-melbourne-festival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/1022588/stockholm-yarra-swedish-crime-films-shine-melbourne-festival?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Hermacea has a crab claw on one arm and a long crayfish tail. Its carapace is a jacket created from small pieces of fabric sewn to a backing; its head, a helmet made from papier-mache and fabric, while that tail is more papier-m?ch? formed with wire. Meet one of the whimsical creations of New Zealand's World of WearableArt (WoW). Two years in the making, its inspiration was the seaside home of its creator, Jan Kerr, who lives on the Kapiti coast, north of the New Zealand capital,... https://www.scmp.com/article/989514/way-wow-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/989514/way-wow-world?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 When an Australian scriptwriter spotted a small story in a Perth newspaper about a prisoner who had sponsored a young girl through an aid agency, he saw not just news, but an idea from which he could build a movie. Fast forward a year: Martin Edmond has pitched his script idea to Screen Australia, the country's official funding body for films, and has invited Chinese-Australian director and scriptwriter Pauline Chan to come aboard. Chan had gained insights from visiting Asian orphanages and... https://www.scmp.com/article/985299/bridging-great-divide?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/985299/bridging-great-divide?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000 What does the future hold for bricks-and-mortar bookstores? Will they, as Australian Minister for Small Business Nick Sherry predicted recently, be wiped out by online shopping within five years? Or will they adapt to competition from the burgeoning e-book market and reconfigure their businesses, profiting from what is at present an add-on to their core business: readers' desire for face-to-face contact with real-life authors. In the US, some independent bookstores, aware that author events... https://www.scmp.com/article/979396/can-bookstore-be-saved?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/979396/can-bookstore-be-saved?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Sixty years ago, when a group of friends decided to stage a mini-film festival in an outer Melbourne suburb, little did they know it would become Australia's largest film festival, a 17-day winter highlight for more than 200,000 people. The festival, one of the world's oldest, has just celebrated six decades of what artistic director Michelle Carey calls sharing 'the transformative experience of cinema' with a programme of about 200 films from 49 countries. This year's programme was... https://www.scmp.com/article/976117/melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976117/melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 Even if you don't know the name, you'll know the music. From massive hit musicals on Broadway and London's West End, to karaoke night staples and mobile phone ring tones, Andrew Lloyd Webber is the king of catchy tunes. For more than 40 years, from the first production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat in London in 1968 to his current hit, The Phantom of the Opera sequel Love Never Dies, his 14 musicals have captivated audiences around the world. 'He has this happy ability to... https://www.scmp.com/article/967943/40-years-musical-hits-one-night?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/967943/40-years-musical-hits-one-night?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 May 2011 16:00:00 +0000 A scary nightmare and then a beautiful wonderland - Jackie I thought this show was going to be a couple of guys in the bushes with Dolphin torches - Anonymous Waste of time - Anonymous Brickbats and bouquets - the comments book at the exit from the Power Plant installation in Sydney's Chinese Garden reflects the complex reactions it engenders - although glowing comments outweigh the criticisms, with liberal use of words such as awesome, enchanting and magical. So who is right? For four weeks,... https://www.scmp.com/article/738056/sound-garden?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/738056/sound-garden?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:00:00 +0000 It wasn't until Clara Law Cheuk-yiu was asked to introduce her new film, Like a Dream, at the Melbourne International Film Festival this month that she became convinced the label attached to her name at such events no longer applied. Her name had been preceded by the tag 'Hong Kong filmmaker' since she began making movies in 1987. Now, after more than 15 years in Australia, did she still fit into that category? It was a question she had been asking herself. 'I now say I am a hybrid - I am... https://www.scmp.com/article/722751/melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/722751/melbourne?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Aug 2010 16:00:00 +0000 Fearless Fourteen by Janet Evanovich St Martin's Press, HK$224 How often can Janet Evanovich produce another best-seller from a mixture of simple crime adventure, humour and simmering sexual tension? The question arises each time she produces a new volume in her Stephanie Plum, New Jersey bounty hunter, series. Yet here we are at 14 and the formula is still a winner ... just. Evanovich has amplified a single idea and witty writing into a multimillion-dollar empire based at a large New... https://www.scmp.com/article/670770/fearless-fourteen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/670770/fearless-fourteen?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Feb 2009 16:00:00 +0000 Careless in Red by Elizabeth George Hodder & Stoughton, HK$288 Unspoken by Mari Jungstedt Doubleday, HK$192 Double Cross by James Patterson Headline, HK$224 It seemed an unlikely idea - an American enamoured of British crime novels decides to write one, opting to make her Scotland Yard detective a Bentley-driving earl. When Elizabeth George published A Great Deliverance in 1988, who'd have tipped it as the beginning of a successful and long-running series? Fourteen best-sellers later, George... https://www.scmp.com/article/645875/careless-red-unspoken-double-cross?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/645875/careless-red-unspoken-double-cross?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0000 A Cure for All Diseases by Reginald Hill HarperCollins, HK$288 While Dalziel and Pascoe represent only about half of the literary output of Reginald Hill, it is these two Yorkshire policeman who, he says, keep him in whisky. Hill is also a science fiction writer and author of historical novels and has written more than 40 books in many genres. But his crime fiction and, in particular, the series in which this is number 22, has built his reputation. For many new readers drawn to Hill by the... https://www.scmp.com/article/644199/cure-all-diseases?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/644199/cure-all-diseases?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:00:00 +0000 Dying to Sin by Stephen Booth HarperCollins, HK$208 Small towns and isolated communities - places where events are contained and emotions can fester without moderating outside influences - have been the setting for Stephen Booth's Cooper and Fry detective series since it began eight books ago. Booth knows well that the picturesque small town, the village where everyone supposedly knows everyone, is fertile ground for the crime writer seeking to probe the dark side of human behaviour. Despite... https://www.scmp.com/article/641664/dying-sin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/641664/dying-sin?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Jun 2008 16:00:00 +0000 Cold in Hand by John Harvey William Heinemann, HK$214 John Harvey clearly had unfinished business with Charlie Resnick. It's a decade since the British crime writer wound up his 10-part Resnick series with Last Rites. But those rites weren't for Charlie and the dogged, much-loved detective inspector with a penchant for jazz, cats and designer sandwiches refused to go quietly. Harvey tantalised Resnick fans with cameos in subsequent short stories and his three-part Frank Elder series. There were... https://www.scmp.com/article/631902/cold-hand?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/631902/cold-hand?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:00:00 +0000