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History

History
The latest news, analysis and opinion on History. In-depth analysis, industry insights and expert opinion.
Michele Marieschi’s Ca’ Foscari and Palazzo Balbi on the Grand Canal (c.1738-1740). Photo: Fotostudio Rapuzzi
Style Edit

Style Edit: Poly MGM Museum’s new ‘Silk Roads Beyond Borders’ treasures

New Italian and Persian treasures make their Asia debut, expanding the museum’s Silk Road narrative with rare works that illuminate centuries of East-West exchange.

Language Matters

Language Matters | From azure to cerulean, how fashionable shades of blue got their names

Lessons from China's history

Reflections | The history of China’s hospitality industry and how its inns evolved over time

Chinese history

Inside the 14k, the Hong Kong triad that went global

From its roots in mainland China to expansion in Hong Kong and beyond, we look at the history of one of the most notorious triad societies.

Police arrest suspected 14K triad members at a restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, in 1995. The 14K began life as an openly pro-Kuomintang society in mainland China before becoming a global criminal organisation based in Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP
Art

‘Raw honesty’: new museum preserves Thai-Chinese art rebel’s remarkable legacy

The Tang Chang Private Museum opens on May 1 as the Bangkok-born artist’s family aims to show the world his work before it’s too late.

Japan

Japan’s Takaichi sends Yasukuni shrine offering, South Korea expresses ‘regret’

Seoul urges Japan’s leaders to ‘face history squarely’ and show through action ‘a sincere remorse for its past’.

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Style Edit

Style Edit: The Omega Speedmaster story – from Apollo 11 to Artemis II

From Nasa’s punishing 1965 trials, to the Speedmaster Moonphase Meteorite, ‘Reverse Panda’ and X-33 – this is how a space icon keeps evolving.

The Omega Speedmaster Moonphase Meteorite is made using iron meteorite and lunar meteorite. Photo: Handout
Hong Kong society

Over 250 rare Han dynasty relics on display in major Hong Kong showcase

Development chief Bernadette Linn calls exhibition a ‘sequel’ to last year’s Tang dynasty showcase, with 95 per cent of relics shown in city for first time.

United States

Asian Angle | The Thucydides Trap is a lie created to justify a US-China war

Ancient Greece offers no lessons for Asia. The Global South must stop letting America’s war machine write history.

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European travel

William Shakespeare’s only London house finally found with 17th century map

The location of the house where the Bard likely wrote works including Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet was found on a map in the London Archives.

Historians have long known that Shakespeare bought property in 1613 near the Blackfriars Theatre, but the exact location was a mystery - until now. Photo: AP
Chinese culture

Reflections | What an old Chinese snack can teach people about the ‘proper’ way to eat dishes

The evolution of ‘biluo’ in Tang-dynasty China highlights how there is no unchanging way in which a dish ought to be prepared and enjoyed.

Cherry Biluo. Photo: Sohu
Jewellery

King Tut’s 3,200-year-old legacy inspires a new era of Egyptian jewellery

The opening of Giza’s Grand Egyptian Museum is sparking renewed interest in ancient motifs from brands like Azza Fahmy and Bibi van der Velden.

Japan

Video | Is Japan ready for a female emperor?

A new poll shows most Japanese support a woman ascending to the Chrysanthemum Throne, even as the prime minister proposes a plan that preserves the male-line succession.

Art

From Jurassic Park kid to dinosaur expert in what was ‘a gentleman’s science’

Natalia Jagielska, dinosaur researcher, illustrator and scientific consultant, explains how women are under-represented in her field.

Dr Natalia Jagielska, a postdoctoral researcher in palaeontology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Photo: Edmond So
Asian cinema: Chinese films

What A Foggy Tale taught Will Or and 9m88 about Taiwan’s White Terror era

Will Or and Joanne Tang (9m88) reveal how their characters in A Foggy Tale inspired and moved them in different ways.

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Will Or (front) and Caitlin Fang in a still from A Foggy Tale. The historical drama co-starring 9m88, which is set during the early years of Taiwan’s White Terror period, won the best narrative film and best original screenplay gongs at the 2025 Golden Horse Awards.
US, Israel war on Iran

South Korean president’s Holocaust remarks spark Israel outcry

Lee Jae Myung’s comparing military action against Palestinians to the Holocaust comes as Israel remembers the 6 million Jews killed by Nazis.

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France

France open to engaging on slavery reparations, says Ghana

The African nation says discussions with President Macron last week included economic inequities, structural racism and looted artefacts.

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Malaysia

Was Penang ‘robbed’ from Kedah? Malaysian states face off in sovereignty row

A grievance dating back hundreds of years resurfaces as Kedah state lays claim to the country’s richest island.

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George Town on Penang Island, Malaysia. The city won won Unesco World Heritage status in 2008. Photo: Shutterstock
Russia

Russia criminalises denial of ‘Soviet genocide’ by Nazis during World War II

Under the law, anyone who damages monuments to victims of the Soviet occupation – in Russia and abroad – will be jailed for up to 4 years.

Belt and Road Initiative

Open Questions | China always a connector, never a coloniser, author says

Sheng-Wei Wang says China’s Belt and Road Initiative echoes the voyages of 15th century Chinese explorer Zheng He, who promoted trade but never stayed.

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Italy

Mussolini’s summer villa on Italian coast to be a cultural space

Italian seaside town pays US$1.3 million to prevent property from becoming a site for far-right sympathisers.

Villa Mussolini on Italy’s Adriatic coast. Photo: Comune di Riccione via dpa
Art

Extraordinary tale of Chinese-British collaboration revealed in new exhibition

The London show spotlighting an English botanist sheds light on 18th century science and exchanges between China and England.

The 1776 painting of Huang Yadong by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Huang was brought to England from Guangzhou (Canton) by John Bradby Blake, an employee of the East India Company. This painting owned by the National Trust is part of the “Seeds of Exchange” exhibition at the Garden Museum in London. (Credit: National Trust)
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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Trending in China

Compound Chinese surnames come from historic figures, ancient states; fewer than 100 remain

From celebrities to ordinary folk, millions of Chinese have such family names, which are considered rare and precious.

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
Denmark

Wreck of Danish flagship sunk by famed British admiral discovered after 225 years

Marine archaeologists find the Dannebroge, sunk during a brutal hours-long naval clash considered one of Admiral Horatio Nelson’s ‘great battles’.

An archaeologist points to a computer screen, showing a map of the wreck of Danish flagship Dannebroge that sank during the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. Photo: AP
Chinese culture

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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The Philippines

Ahead of first Philippine visit since WWII, Japan’s past catches up with troops

Critics oppose the return of Japanese troops over Tokyo’s lack of a formal apology for the wartime abuse of Filipino ‘comfort women’.

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