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Chinese culture

Chinese culture
Latest news and updates on Chinese culture including the country’s traditions, food, values, history and festivals.
What’s your luck like in April 2026, Metal Dragon month? Photo: SCMP Graphic
Horoscopes

Horoscopes: what’s your luck like in April 2026, Metal Dragon month?

Work pressures are higher for many signs this month, like the Rat and Monkey, while good fortunes will continue for the Ox and Rabbit.

Chinese artifacts

Turning walnuts into ‘jade’? Social media goes nuts over old Chinese tradition

Hong Kong society

Editorial | Ageing Hong Kong should welcome more open conversations around death

China’s Communist Party

The winners from China’s growing intercity football rivalries may surprise you

Lighthearted contests between areas with different customs, dialects and cuisine encourage local pride but ultimate control is elsewhere.

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Supporters cheer during the final of the 2025 Jiangsu Football City League between Taizhou and Nantong on November 1. Photo: VCG via Getty Images
Lessons from China's history

Reflections | Cremation was frowned upon in ancient China, so why was it so widespread?

Though seen as barbaric, cremation was a common, practical choice for families in China’s Song dynasty that reflected their economic reality.

Food and Drinks

A Chinese takeaway kid’s Hong Kong-style French toast with a twist

London bakery Cantoast’s deep-fried milk bread comes in flavours such as salted egg. It’s Hong Kong-style baking but not as we quite know it.

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United States

How Chinese-American playwright is telling ‘new wave of stories’ about diaspora

Rising artist explores identity, politics and generational divides through off-Broadway plays rooted in personal experience.

Alex Lin’s work draws on personal experience, exploring the more uncomfortable dimensions of Asian-American identity. Photo: Handout
Food and Drinks

Mouthing Off | Is stinky tofu ban for US restaurant discrimination or lack of common scents?

Whether stinky tofu, durian or strong spices, what smells are acceptable and what aren’t is ambiguous. Where should the line be drawn?

Food and Drinks

Hainanese chicken rice origins and its versions in Singapore, Malaysia and more

With roots in Hainan’s Wenchang chicken, Hainanese chicken rice shows how a dish can quietly evolve into distinct regional iterations.

China society

Opinion | Chinese youth are embracing Ching Ming with cultural confidence

Young people visiting the graves of historical figures reflects a cultural shift and the pursuit of a sense of continuity with the past.

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People tend to graves at Diamond Hill Cemetery in Hong Kong on April 3 during the Ching Ming Festival. Photo: AFP
Asian cinema: Chinese films

Review | Pegasus 3: Shen Teng roars back in Han Han’s blockbuster racing sequel

Shen Teng stars as a former rally champion who has fallen on hard times in Pegasus 3, which really takes off in its exhilarating third act.

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Shen Teng in a still from Pegasus 3 (category IIA, Mandarin), directed by Han Han. Andrew Yin and Huang Jingyu co-star.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

What happened when Ann Hui adapted Eileen Chang’s classic stories?

Director Ann Hui has adapted three of Eileen Chang’s stories for the big screen. We look at two: Love in a Fallen City and Eighteen Springs.

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Food and Drinks

How Okinawan food evolved with Chinese influences to become ‘truly unique’

Long ago, Okinawa was part of the Ryukyu Kingdom, a trade hub linking Japan to Asia. Today, dishes like goya champuru reflect this history.

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US-China relations

Growing Pains meets the ‘kill line’: a new Chinese hot take on the American dream

Internet commenters retrofit the viral metaphor to US movies and TV to highlight financial and social insecurity.

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The US sitcom Growing Pains revolved around the lives of the Seaver family. Photo: Warner Bros. Television
Hong Kong society

‘From big renovation to big burial’: Wang Fuk Court residents mourn on Ching Ming

Day dedicated to sweeping graves and honouring dead marked across Hong Kong, but tradition proves painful for survivors of deadly blaze in Tai Po.

Mr Yau and Mrs Yau, residents of Wang Chi House at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, returned to the estate to mourn their lost neighbours. Photo: Denise Tsang
Food and Drinks

Forced to stop selling stinky tofu, this Taiwanese restaurant fought back

The owner of Southern California’s Golden Leaf reveals how a neighbour’s vendetta has seen the popular street food dropped from his menu.

Chinese overseas

Being Chinese | Chinese overseas need not keep to ourselves. I certainly don’t

Half of my close friends in London are Chinese; the other half are not. This balance did not happen by accident.

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Lessons from China's history

Reflections | History of Chinese flatbreads reflects how food has echoes of faraway places

How ‘hubing’ came to China is reflected in Hong Kong’s Jenny Bakery cookies smelling like Malaysia’s Rotiboy coffee buns, Wee Kek Koon says.

Today, the descendants of “hubing” Chinese flatbreads survive in everyday foods like “shaobing” (pictured), the ubiquitous flatbread sold at neighbourhood food stalls, and “nang”, the naan-like Xinjiang flatbreads still baked by pressing the dough against the walls of clay ovens. Photo: Shutterstock
Mainland China

Video | Paper AI robot offerings for tomb-sweeping festival

One online review notes ‘times change fast, I hope my grandfather likes it’ for paper OpenClaw offering.

Food and Drinks

The Hong Kong chef giving remote Canadian town a taste of the city

Unique Chan’s Hong Kong-style bakery attracts many non-Chinese customers curious to discover dishes like pineapple buns and egg tarts.

China’s Communist Party

China orders national museum audit after Nanjing’s US$12m Ming artwork scandal

National Cultural Heritage Administration mandates piece-by-piece counts after historic illegal artefact sales exposed at top museum.

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Tourists visit Nanjing Museum in the city of the same name in China’s eastern Jiangsu province. Photo: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Hong Kong culture

Revamped ‘Hong Kong Story’ exhibition spotlights city’s roots in Chinese culture

Permanent exhibition at Hong Kong Museum of History has been reduced from two storeys to a single floor but expanded from eight to 10 galleries.

“Hong Kong Story” features more than 2,800 exhibits. Photo: Elson Li
Mainland China

As I see it | Why China is always misunderstood and misrepresented

By insisting on the superiority of its own standards of judgment and experience, the West distorts the realities of other societies.

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Food and Drinks

Where does ma lai go come from and why is the classic dim sum dish so special?

Also known as Chinese steamed cake and Malay sponge cake, ma lai go represents Hong Kong culture with its Western and Eastern influences.

Gan Yu

The origin of triads, from secret societies to global criminal networks

While Hong Kong triads are now known for their criminal enterprises, their roots lie in secret societies that stretch back hundreds of years.

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Suspected members of triad societies are guarded by officers in Tung Tau Estate, Kowloon, in 1973. Hong Kong’s triads have evolved from secret societies into global criminal networks. Photo: SCMP
Food and Drinks

What China’s cow dung hotpot is really made of – and it’s not what you think

The dish from Guizhou is prized for its cooling and digestive properties, smells better than it sounds, and tastes like bitter beef broth.

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A ladle of Guizhou’s famous cow dung hotpot in the Rong Jiang Niu Bie Huo Wo Dian restaurant in Zunyi city. The dish’s ingredients include bile and undigested grass from a cow’s stomach and intestines. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung
Books and literature

As I see it | How to win friends and influence people in ancient China

Although the ancient text Guiguzi may not be widely read, its contents remain a prescient guide for job interviews, marketing and even diplomacy.

My Life

Philip Tinari on his global journey through art and culture

After 20 years in Beijing, Tai Kwun’s new deputy director and head of art talks about why Hong Kong is now the place to be.

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