Blog Band – Page 23 – Fridayeveryday

Hong Kong and Shenzhen North are learning from each other

SHENZHEN NORTH HAS become a popular place for Hong Kong people, who head there by high-speed rail for food, shopping and entertainment. The journey takes just 18 minutes, and about 30 trains travel between Hong Kong and Shenzhen North every day. But at the moment, the station itself (below, image by Gareth Jones/ Wikimedia Commons)…

September 21, 20230Comments ByFriday Writers

The cooking accident that started a global empire

FEEL LIKE ASIAN FOOD for dinner tonight? Chances are that one Hong Kong family will play a key role in flavoring your meal—and that’s true, whether you live in the US, Asia, Australia, or anywhere else. A Hong Kong firm has quietly become the global king of sauces—and made the family behind it remarkably wealthy.…

September 21, 20230Comments ByH.C. Lu

Chinese medicine Culture

Ancient Asian remedy found to cure constipation, weight issues

AN ANCIENT ASIAN remedy is becoming popular worldwide – just do a web search on “Psyllium Husks” to see how much it is being talked about. In medical dispensaries around the world, it can be found formed into a pill called Metamucil, but more than 200 new psyllium husk products have been launched in the…

September 14, 20230Comments ByNury Vittachi

News

Here’s what the U.S. is doing to prepare for war in Asia

PREPARATIONS FOR THE UNITED STATES to launch a war against China are far more advanced than many people realize. And when you look at just how much work has been done, it no longer looks like a matter of “if”, but more of a question of “when”. Quietly, the United States has gone through a…

September 12, 20230Comments ByPhill Hynes

Chinese history Hong Kong News

Soong sister artifacts to be shown in Hong Kong

AN EXHIBITION OF ARTIFACTS from the life of Madam Soong Ching-ling (宋慶齡), the wife of Dr Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), open in Hong Kong next week, with items put on display in the city for the first time. A qipao (Chinese dress) she wore, historical photos with leaders, news clippings and other items will be on…

September 7, 20230Comments ByH.C. Lu

Opinion

Life on a geopolitical fault line

Hong Kong can do nothing right, it seems. But it’s not the community’s fault: it lives on a fault line, trying to balance between two much larger, more powerful entities. Richard Cullen recalls a different occasion when two big powers, the US and the UK, had a difference of opinion. Often, much smaller communities end…

August 31, 20230Comments ByRichard Cullen

Chinese history Culture

The Chinese king who wrote 43,000 poems

ONE OF THE MOST charming things about historical Chinese officials is their reverence for poetry, and the incorporation of that fact into hiring practices. A love of literature was not seen as a dilletante interest, but a necessary qualification for high rank in the Chinese government. And perhaps the most extreme example is the famous…

August 31, 20230Comments ByH.C. Lu

Chinese history Culture

Misty Taoist mountains inspired so many books and movies

YOU MAY NEVER have been anywhere near the Wudang Mountains (武當山) in the northwestern part of Hubei, China, but it will probably still be very familiar to you. And that’s true, whether you are from the east or the west. That’s because it is the archetypal location of so many books and movies and television…

August 24, 20230Comments ByH.C. Lu

Culture

Two years to turn an epic novel into a blockbuster movie

MOVE OVER, The Lord of the Rings. There’s a new three-part big-budget fantasy movie in town, and it is making a big splash. Part one of the Fengshen Trilogy has a tight grip on the top of the box office chart in China, and is far ahead of Hollywood’s Barbie in popularity and earnings in…

August 24, 20230Comments ByEmily Zhou

Culture Opinion

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…