From a rocky perch a larger-than-life rendition of a female protester, clad in a hard hat and a gas mask, gazes over a city in turmoil. Known as Lady Liberty Hong Kong, the statue was hauled to the top of Lion Rock during the 2019 pro-democracy protests. It was meant to be her final resting place. B
It’s a task of grave importance, but there’s nothing to stop New Zealanders having a laugh as they work on DIY caskets in the country’s “coffin clubs.”Elderly club members meet for cups of tea, a bit of banter and to literally put the final nail in one-of-a-kind coffins that will carry them to their
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses
March 18 to March 24Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either.Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to gove
Like in most cities, Rio’s galleries are concentrated in its affluent neighborhoods. But artists like Maxwell Alexandre are trying to change that, hoping to “give access to what was previously the art of the bourgeoisie, something exclusive,” the 33-year-old said.Alexandre grew up in the shantytown
Nguyen Phuong Linh is among a crop of young electronics students crucial to Vietnam’s ambitions to become a chips hub.She’s driven, smart and already has her sights set on a professorship — wanting to train a new generation that could help woo foreign investors eager to diversify semiconductor produ
Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit.For centuries, k
If there’s another blockbuster this year that matches the visual impact of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, I’ll eat my desert boots. The second Dune installment is jaw-on-the-floor spectacular. It elegantly weaves together top-tier special effects and arresting cinematography; it layers muscle, s
It was the setting of the chilling graveyard scene in Amadeus, may have held the bones of Gavrilo Princip — the man who started World War I — and Margaret Thatcher paid a mysterious visit there when she was British prime minister.An overgrown “lunatic graveyard” on the outskirts of Prague has become
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,
His writing won China’s first Nobel Prize for Literature, but is it patriotic enough for Xi Jinping’s China? That’s the question at the center of a high-profile lawsuit now driving a debate about nationalism in China.Patriotic campaigns have become more common in recent years in China, as online nat
When BBC documentary makers arrived in Taipei in 1981 to undertake research for a martial arts series, Hong Ze-han (洪澤漢) sensed an unmissable opportunity. At a meeting with producer Howard Reid at the Hilton Taipei (now the Caesar Park Taipei), Hong was asked for advice in choosing a subject for an
In downtown Phnom Penh, a huge high-end development mimicking the buildings and boulevards of Paris embodies a move to cash in on the “new frontier” for luxury — in the capital of one of Asia’s poorest countries.A replica of the Arc de Triomphe towers over a branch of the Mekong River, flanked by sh
At lunchtime on the second day of the Year of the Dragon (Feb. 11), Taiwan posted a clean-energy record. This milestone became public knowledge a few hours later, when Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) announced that, at 12:21pm, photovoltaic solar arrays and wind turbines had supplied 52.37 percent of the
Oppenheimer swept the board on Sunday at the Oscars, Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, with seven awards including best picture and best director, crowning a triumphant year for filmmaker Christopher Nolan.Nolan’s masterful drama about the father of the atomic bomb, half of last summer’s massiv
Brook Morgan surveyed booths at the “Survival & Prepper Show” in Colorado that were stocked with boxes of ammunition, mounds of trauma medical kits, and every type of knife imaginable. A self-described “30-year-old lesbian from Indiana,” Morgan is one of a new breed of Americans getting ready to sur
When Alexander’s armies conquered cities in the east, they reconfigured their narratives to give their new territories foundational myths, so as to incorporate them into the Greek world. For example, after Tarsus in Cilicia (now Turkey) — later connected with Paul of the New Testament — was conquere
March 11 to March 17The 1894 Hengchun County Annals (恆春縣志) contains a tale about a “foreign ship” that drifted aground in today’s Kenting area. Indigenous warriors spotted the vessel and killed the entire crew, which included a “barbarian (foreign) woman” who was a princess in her homeland. The acco
Kimono-clad Mayuko Kashiwazaki delivers her lines in guttural tones and transforms into an evil snake in the lead role of a Japanese Noh play where, unusually, most of the cast are women.Noh, with its elaborate layered costumes and hand-crafted masks, is one of the most ancient surviving forms of th
Freelance copywriter Chai Wanrou thinks marriage is an unfair institution. Like many young women in China, she is part of a growing movement that envisions a future with no husband and no children, presenting the government with a challenge it could do without.“Regardless of whether you’re extremely