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Emily Zhou

71 articles published

Classic Chinese garden in Hong Kong hides architectural treasure

AT THE FOOT of Diamond Hill in Hong Kong, an elegant public park called Nan Lian Garden (南蓮園池) is a rare tranquil place nestling in the busy metropolis. Neat paths paved by smooth cobblestones connect a variety of elements of wooden architecture in classic "oriental garden" style. At the centre is an orange-red bridge,…

November 30, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese food Culture

East Asia’s tender white chicken has a complex, disputed history

FOR HALF A CENTURY, Malaysians and Singaporeans have been fighting over the ownership rights to a dish called Hainan chicken rice, the star element of which is chicken lightly poached in a way that makes the flesh very white and tender. And of course the people of Hainan also stake a claim to it, noting…

November 29, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese food Culture

Chaoshan cuisine: a distinctive culinary style

GUANGDONG IS WELL KNOWN as the heartland of the Cantonese-speaking peoples, with their love of barbecued pork and dialects from the root known as Yue. But there has always been an area of the province which has been different on multiple levels. We’re referring to the area known as Chaoshan (潮汕地區). The area is considered…

November 23, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

How a Chinese working class meal conquered the world

DON’T TELL THE TEXAS TYCOONS! Foodies in the United States city of Houston, Texas, are waiting agog for the opening of a branch of Tim Ho Wan, a Michelin-starred restaurant from Hong Kong. Within weeks, they'll be spending their hard-earned cash on the eatery's speciality: traditional dim sum. But few people know that dim…

November 8, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese food Culture

Bread and soup fit for an emperor

ZHAO KUANGYIN (趙匡胤) was not having a good day. He was a high ranking soldier who felt he was destined to one day become leader of the country. But he had many battles ahead of him. On this particular day, he was a tired and hungry man, wandering through the city of Chang’an. This incident…

October 27, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Chinese food Culture

Would you snack on a snake?

I HAVE TO START BY saying that not every Chinese person has eaten snake-related dishes. In fact, I had never thought that snakes could be eaten until I read about it in a novel while I was in middle school. I was so astonished that I even re-checked the Chinese character “蛇” (“snake” in Chinese)…

October 11, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Features

Why people sewed up a wound on the back of a giant fish

The Emperor's fish, an extraordinary giant beast that had been seen in the waters of the great rivers for centuries, was dying. Until the day came when there was just one left. It was injured and the people tried desperately to save it. Emily Zhou reports. THE WINTER OF 2003 was bitterly cold. A…

September 29, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

Imagine a land run by. . . poets

It sounds hard to believe, but civil service applicants in China had to write actual literature to win top jobs, becoming "jinshi" - a class of writer-administrators who advised the emperor. (Business people were ranked low on the ladder.) For centuries, it worked well - but at other times, the bureaucratic need for order and…

September 16, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Features

Spirit of Eileen Chang remains on this Hong Kong beach

GETTING ON A DOUBLE-DECKER in Central and grabbing a seat upstairs, you can head to Repulse Bay in the southern part of Hong Kong Island. This district, one of the most expensive residential areas in the world, is reached by a 30-minute picturesque ride with great scenery of mountains and seas along the road. Embraced…

September 7, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture

The world’s first restaurant and earliest celebrity chef

Shopkeepers in China 900 years ago accidentally created restaurant food culture, and their achievement is listed among Life magazine's 100 greatest achievements of the past millennium. Emily Zhou reports IN OR ABOUT THE YEAR 1120 AD, a shopkeeper in the old Chinese city of Kaifeng had an idea. There were lots of merchants arriving from…

August 11, 20220Comments ByEmily Zhou

Emily Zhou

Classic Chinese garden in Hong Kong hides architectural treasure

East Asia’s tender white chicken has a complex, disputed history

Chaoshan cuisine: a distinctive culinary style

How a Chinese working class meal conquered the world

Bread and soup fit for an emperor

Would you snack on a snake?

Why people sewed up a wound on the back of a giant fish

Imagine a land run by. . . poets

Spirit of Eileen Chang remains on this Hong Kong beach

The world’s first restaurant and earliest celebrity chef

Can Europe dare to do the smart thing, and partner with China in Africa?

Australia’s government lives in a Pentagon-penned fiction of US primacy

How the HK Bar Association lost its way – and was guided back on track