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Best of Long Reads

Best of Long Reads
This is the page on which to find the most-read recent Post Magazine feature stories.
How Hong Kong’s housing problem, cited as one of the biggest motivations for protest rage, is linked to the city’s finances and low taxes.
Hong Kong housing

Are tiny homes at sky-high costs Hong Kong’s price for low taxes?

In the first part of a new series on housing problems, the Post examines how the issue of high land prices is linked to government financing and the low-tax environment.

Chinese history

Beijing and Taipei National Palace Museums – a tale of two legacies

Lunar New Year

Publisher completes Chinese zodiac series for Year of the Pig

Crime

Murder in Peking — two hot takes on a grisly 1937 cold case

Was Pamela Werner, who was 19 when she was raped, mutilated and left to die in a ditch, the victim of a trio of sexual deviants or a spurned wannabe suitor? Novelist Paul French and ex-police officer Graeme Sheppard have assessed the evidence.

Murder in Peking — two hot takes on a grisly 1937 cold case involving British teen
Asia travel

China in 1980s: Lonely Planet’s first guide to country offers snapshot

Published 35 years ago, the book documents a nation barely recognisable today, and despite being littered with flaws and short on practical information, it gave backpackers in the newly opened country something to talk, debate and bitch about

Conservation

Could Hong Kong be key to saving the world’s coral reefs?

Corals that can survive Hong Kong’s ‘apocalyptic environment’ offer insight into how to better protect reefs elsewhere.

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Artificial intelligence

Too white, too male: scientist stakes out inclusive future for AI

Fei-Fei Li, a Chinese-American expert in deep learning and a professor at Stanford University, says how AI is engineered, and by whom, will determine whether it helps all humanity or reinforces the wealth divide and human prejudices.

JackRabbot 1, a Segway platform mobile robot, in Stanford University’s AI Lab. Picture: Christie Hemm Klok
Families in China

Their mother killed their father, now they will grow up 9,000km apart

After Michael Simpson was stabbed to death by his estranged wife Fu Weiwei, the grandparents in Britain and in China disagreed over who should have guardianship, and at what price.

Climbing and mountaineering

Female Philippine climber set to be first to scale Seven Summits

One of 14 children from a poor family, Carina Dayondon was not on course to be a world-class climber, but is preparing to become the first female from the Philippines to scale the highest peaks on each continent.

Old Hong Kong

‘Recreational clubs’ in Hong Kong: up the creek without a paddle?

The Victoria Recreation Club has survived wars, typhoons and benign dictatorship, but now, after 169 years, it must face its biggest challenge – the changing demands of a much altered Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s ‘recreational clubs’ are remnants of its colonial past; what does that mean for their future?
Women and gender

How female eagle hunters are challenging patriarchy in Mongolia

Aisholpan Nurgaiv, the first female to enter – and win – the world’s top contest for eagle hunters, has inspired other young ethnic Kazakh women to venture into an arena long dominated by men, not all of whom welcome their new rivals

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Huntress Aigerim Asker trains ahead of the Golden Eagle Festival, in Ölgii, Mongolia, in October. Picture: Zigor Aldama
Fame and celebrity

Crazy Rich Asians’ Henry Golding on not being Asian enough

The newly minted A-lister Henry Golding talks about how his once-embarrassing Malaysian heritage is now a source of joy.

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Chinese history

Deng Xiaoping in France: the town where he became a Communist

In the 1920s, the man who would become China’s paramount leader found his raison d’être in unremarkable Montargis, 120km from Paris.

Legacy of war in Asia

An uphill battle: 80 million unexploded bombs still to clear in Laos

In the world’s most heavily bombed country, 20 million UXO have been cleared in the 45 years since clandestine US war ended; at the current rate it will take a further 200 years to make Laos safe, if foreign governments maintain funding

200 years to go before Laos is cleared of unexploded US bombs from Vietnam war era
Chinese history

Chinese Labour Corps: the first world war’s forgotten army

Airbrushed out of history for most of a century, China’s human contribution to the Great War is finally getting the recognition it deserves

Chinese Labour Corps: the first world war’s forgotten army, all but airbrushed out of history
Crime

Death in ‘paradise’: dark side of expat retirement in Malaysia revealed

Case exposes the sometimes directionless lifestyles of retired expatriates on the tropical island; accused insists she acted in self-defence against a violent spouse, whom neighbours speak of with affection.

US-China trade war

Trade war: the one thing Trump knows is inaction is not the answer

As Donald Trump does what previous American presidents have failed to do: try something – anything – to curtail the mass transfer of technology to China, we look at tariffs in the context of US efforts to rein in abuse of intellectual property rights

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Clockenflap Music Festival

Talking Head David Byrne on creating his ‘American Utopia’

Ahead of his performance at Clockenflap in Hong Kong, the brilliantly inventive former Talking Heads frontman and keen cyclist reveals how he is using technology to realise his vision, with shows so out of the box they are hard to describe

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Talking Head David Byrne on creating his ‘American Utopia’ and pushing boundaries in a partisan world
Books and literature

Wild author Cheryl Strayed on death, divorce and heroin

Following the death of her mother and the break-up of her marriage, the 50-year-old author embarked on a life-changing 94-day solo hike of the Pacific Crest Trail at the age of 26

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US-China trade war

How China’s blatant IP theft, long overlooked by US, sparked trade war

The first article in a two-part series exploring the trade war between the world’s two superpowers argues we should have seen it coming.

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Kweichow Moutai

Closely guarded secrets: inside distillery that brews China’s top Maotai

We breach a cordon of Chinese soldiers to learn the secrets of Kweichou Moutai, top producer of China’s most famous liquor, and learn of ambitions to put it on a par with whisky and vodka and make it a symbol of Chinese culture.

Breaching a cordon of Chinese soldiers, we see inside the distillery of Kweichow Moutai, top producer of China’s most famous liquor
Adoption

Adopted girl, reunited with birth parents on Hangzhou bridge, returns to China

Kati Pohler, whose reunion with her Chinese mother, father and sister was watched by millions, is getting to know her birth family.

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Kati Pohler of Michigan has returned to China and is getting to know her birth family Her emotional reunion with her long-lost Chinese mother, father and sister was watched by millions the world over in a BBC documentary
Chinese overseas

The man who has dined at more than 7,300 Chinese restaurants in the US

David R. Chan’s love of lists and determination never to eat at the same place twice has seen him become an accidental expert on Chinese-American history. Just don’t call him a foodie

North Korea

Otto Warmbier: what happened in that North Korean jail?

The student was hailed by Donald Trump as a catalyst for his summit with Kim Jong-un. But what really happened between the 21-year-old’s trial and his return home with brain damage, and was the truth held hostage for political ends?

North Korea

Female North Korean defectors suffer prejudice in self-absorbed South

Many North Korean women have escaped to the South via China, in search of freedom, happiness and a modern lifestyle. But the fantasy so often ends in disappointment

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Many North Korean women have escaped to the South via China, in search of freedom, happiness and a modern lifestyle. But the fantasy so often ends in disappointment
Fashion

Shoe designer Lucy Choi follows in uncle Jimmy Choo’s footsteps

Having spent her formative years in Hong Kong, footwear legend Jimmy Choo’s British-born niece says the Asian city remains her creative muse

Having spent her formative years in Hong Kong, footwear legend Jimmy Choo’s British-born niece says the Asian city remains her creative muse
Artificial intelligence

He guided Apple and Google – now this tech pro has a warning for the future

Former Google China head and veteran technology investor Kai-Fu Lee also argues that the Chinese and Silicon Valley internet ecosystems are parallel universes and increasingly incompatible

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Hong Kong Jockey Club

Riding high: Sha Tin celebrates 40 years as a horse racing favourite

By attracting the world’s best horses, jockeys and trainers – and delivering all the necessary thrills and upsets – the New Territories racecourse cemented its position as a front runner on the international circuit

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