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Emily Zhou

65 articles published

This garden opened my mind to the music of elegance

CANTONESE OPERA (粵劇), one of the most representative cultural symbols of the Lingnan region (嶺南地區), the area south of the Nanling mountains (南嶺山脈), is the foundation and origin of modern Cantonese music. The first time I heard about Cantonese music was when I was learning the Guzheng (古箏). My teacher said that it would be…

August 24, 20230Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese history Culture

Silent but radiant history-tellers in ancient Chinese tombs

GOLD ISN’T JUST BEAUTIFUL AND RARE. It is also durable. No historian can document every detail of history, but burial objects in gold often tell a story better than other records. Thanks to the generous donation from the owners of Mengdiexuan (夢蝶軒), Betty Lo(盧茵茵) and Kenneth Chu (朱偉基), the public has the opportunity to remember…

August 10, 20230Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese history

The emperor treated everyone harshly—except one man

IT WAS EXTRAORDINARILY RISKY to be the brother of Yinzhen (胤禛), the fourth son of Emperor Kangxi (康熙帝). Yinzhen wanted the throne really badly. A cold-blooded man, he imprisoned some of his 23 brothers and killed one who had the same mother as he did. He wanted to get rid of competition to become the…

August 3, 20230Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese history

Visiting the thatched home of China’s great poet-sage Du Fu

Could I get mansions covering ten thousand miles, I’d house all scholars poor and make them beam with smiles. In wind and rain these mansions would stand like mountains high. Alas! Should these houses appear before my eye, Frozen in my unroofed cot, content I’d die. -- the poem “My Thatched Hut was torn apart…

June 28, 20230Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese food Culture

Behind a celebrated Chinese dessert lies a tale of tragedy

IN THE MODERN DAY Qingming Festival (清明節), people in southern China and part of Southeast Asia, young and old expect to enjoy Qingtuan (青糰), a kind of green glutinous dessert with various fillings. However, some people may not know that this delicious dessert was not originally intended for Qingming, but for another important day in…

June 20, 20230Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese history Culture

Goujian: Defeated soldier waited years for revenge

IN EARLY APRIL this year, I went on a trip to Wuhan in Hubei Province (湖北武漢). At the Hubei Provincial Museum, I found a long queue in front of a collection. Out of curiosity, I approached the attractive treasure, and found long tin-bronze sword in front of me. It was the “Sword of Goujian” (越王勾踐劍),…

June 14, 20230Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese history Culture

Sun Tzu: mountain dweller became world authority on war

Ambitious people worldwide from business folk to army generals make use of The Art of War, an ancient Chinese book written more than two millennia ago. Who was author Sun Tzu? Emily Zhou looks at the man behind the myth. IT WAS ONE OF the most turbulent periods in Chinese history. Nearly every day, people…

April 18, 20230Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

Shadow puppetry originated in China for a grieving emperor

Many people think of shadow puppetry as a southeast Asian tradition, but historians say it started in China more than 2,000 years ago. In 2011, this ancient art was added to the official list of items of humanity’s intangible cultural heritage. Emily Zhou reports MORE THAN TWO THOUSAND years ago during the Han Dynasty, Emperor…

January 10, 20230Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese food Culture

Actually, the Chinese have eaten bread for thousands of years

MOST PEOPLE AROUND the world likely assume that China’s main carbohydrates are rice and noodles, with bread being seen as a relatively recent import from the west. But the truth is that there are a number of different breads in the country, and the consumption of wheat can be traced back to some 4,500 years…

January 10, 20230Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

Friends who tamed the Yellow River, source of life and death

THE YELLOW RIVER (黃河) is hailed as the great mother of China. It rushes out from the high plateau in the west to flow to the east with its silty water, and on the way, it feeds hundreds of millions of people, and also provides hydro-electricity to the north parts of the country. The river…

December 30, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Emily Zhou

This garden opened my mind to the music of elegance

Silent but radiant history-tellers in ancient Chinese tombs

The emperor treated everyone harshly—except one man

Visiting the thatched home of China’s great poet-sage Du Fu

Behind a celebrated Chinese dessert lies a tale of tragedy

Goujian: Defeated soldier waited years for revenge

Sun Tzu: mountain dweller became world authority on war

Shadow puppetry originated in China for a grieving emperor

Actually, the Chinese have eaten bread for thousands of years

Friends who tamed the Yellow River, source of life and death

The extraordinary ‘warring states’ history of the global west

CFA’s ‘Elephant in the room’

Hong Kong emerging as a global biotech hub