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The Sanur Beach Hotel complex in Bali. Sanur was once a favoured haunt of rock stars and celebrities. Photo: Getty Images
Asia travel

60 years ago, Sanur was ground zero for Bali tourism

Championed by Indonesian president Sukarno, Sanur was a high-flying destination for Rockefellers, Rothschilds – and even hosted Mick Jagger’s wedding.

Hong Kong economy

Opinion | Get travellers to come to Hong Kong for business, stay for the island-hopping

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Hong Kong

This week in PostMag: Yardbird founders’ new concept and Wong Fei-hung

Lessons from China's history

Reflections | How ancient China’s standardised vehicle ‘specs’ transformed the country

Besides the Qin dynasty’s standardisations pertaining to Chinese writing and currency, equally significant was that of carriages’ axle width.

An engraving depicts an early Chinese horse-drawn carriage from the 18th century. More than 2,000 years ago, the Qin dynasty introduced the “standardised axle width”, which played a vital role in shaping ancient China’s military strength, administrative efficiency and cultural integration. Photo: Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The Philippines

Philippines denies health scare after Marcos appears to bleed from gums in video

Speculation about the president’s health was fuelled by footage of Marcos speaking with what looked like blood in his mouth during a speech.

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Cartier

The V&A museum launches Cartier’s first London show in nearly 30 years

The wide-ranging exhibition explores Cartier’s influence on society when the brand was led by Louis, Pierre and Jacques, and includes pieces from the Royal Collection.

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Japan

‘Absolutely ridiculous’: Japan NHK apology over misleading footage sparks outcry

Fabricated footage the broadcaster aired was used by South Korean media to claim that Koreans were forced to work on Hashima Island.

Hashima Island off Nagasaki, Japan, was once a hub for undersea coal mining. Photo: Kyodo
Chinese culture

The turbulent history of San Francisco’s Chinatown, North America’s oldest

From the Chinese Exclusion Act and 1906 earthquake to sex-trafficking rings and ‘paper son’ system, this Chinatown’s story is a bumpy one.

Art

Korean golden seal smashes presale estimate, sells for US$13.9 million

Record-setting price paid for seal given by China’s Jin dynasty to a nobleman of Korea’s Goguryeo kingdom in China Guardian’s Hong Kong sale.

Germany

Ex-German president warns of far-right at anniversary of Buchenwald liberation

Christian Wulff called Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp ‘a place of systematic dehumanisation’ as he warned against radicalisation.

Former German president Christian Wulff (right) and German historian Jens-Christian Wagner attend a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp on Sunday. Photo: Reuters
Hong Kong

This week in PostMag: China’s salt capital and a Mekong cruise

Christopher St. Cavish talks China’s ‘salt capital’, David Swanson leads us down a river cruise and Bibek Bhandari remembers 2000s-era Beijing.

The Shenhai Salt Well, in Zigong, Sichuan province, on this week’s PostMag print cover. Photo: Graeme Kennedy
Social media

Opinion | China’s collapse or domination? Avoid the mistakes of Sherlock Holmes’ creator

The creator of the great detective was fooled by a hoax; we should avoid certainty about the future too.

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Britain

Discover secrets and tools of real-life James Bonds at MI5 exhibition

The intelligence agency’s exhibition at London’s National Archives delves into Britain’s history of spying and includes a 110-year-old lemon.

Food and Drinks

Hong Kong’s 132-year-old tofu restaurant where people go silly for soy

At Michelin-recognised Kung Wo Beancurd Factory in Sham Shui Po, soy products from tofu pudding to soy milk are made fresh on site.

Renee So, the owner and director of Kung Wo Beancurd Factory, at the tofu restaurant and shop in the heart of Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po neighbourhood. Photo: Kylie Knott
Japan

In Japan, museum for Korean nationalist hero reopens old wounds

The launch of a museum dedicated to Yun Bong-gil, who was executed in 1932, has been postponed after protests by right-wing groups.

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Yun Bong-gil. A proposed museum honouring his legacy in the Japanese city of Kanazawa has stirred controversy. Photo: YouTube
United States

‘JFK’ director Oliver Stone calls for reinvestigation of Kennedy assassination

Thousands of pages of government documents related to the US president’s shooting were released on Trump’s orders last month.

South Korea

Claims of plot to reinstate impeached president Yoon rock South Korea

Opposition figures allege ‘calculated’ moves are being made to reinstall Yoon Suk-yeol, igniting fears of a second martial law attempt.

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India

Why Kochi, in India’s southwest, is reviving historical links to China

Many of Kochi’s historical monuments focus on Kerala’s European colonisers, but this city might owe more of its character to the Chinese.

Fishing nets in Kochi, Kerala, that locals call ‘cheena vala’, Chinese fishing nets, rumoured to have been brought over by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He. Photo: Tim Pile
Donald Trump

Director Oliver Stone to testify at JFK assassination files hearing

Hearings are being held in Washington after the Trump administration released a trove of material related to the 1963 Kennedy assassination.

Britain

Restoring art: UK museum to return painting looted by Nazis to Jewish heirs

Henry Gibbs’ Aeneas and his Family Fleeing Burning Troy was stolen from the home of Samuel Hartveld after he fled Antwerp with his wife in May 1940.

Donald Trump

Trump tells Vance to wipe out ‘divisive ideology’ from Smithsonian museums

The US president’s executive order singled out the National Museum of African-American History and Culture as problematic.

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A statue commemorating the 1968 Olympics black power salute on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington DC. Photo: AFP
Egypt

6 Russians die as Egyptian tourist submarine sinks

Egypt’s Hurghada is popular with tourists from Russia.

An Egyptian police vehicle in front of the hospital where the bodies of foreigners who were killed when a tourist submarine sank off Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Hurghada, and whose whose nationalities are still unknown, are kept in Hurghada, Egypt. Photo: Reuters
Art

15 art accounts to follow on Instagram, sharing quirky facts, memes and more

Check out the social media version of Art for Dummies, get tips from ‘your next door art girlie’, influencer @thatsprettyneeat, and discover stunning works by Yayoi Kusama or Louise Bourgeois.

Tourism

Mammoths, bison in prehistoric cave art French keep under wraps

Hundreds of carvings of prehistoric animals, and women, line a cave in southwest France. For 4 weeks a year researchers are let in to map it.

Art

Then & Now | Hong Kong’s rich history of art clubs dates back to the 1850s

Art clubs and societies have helped shape the city’s vibrant and diverse cultural landscape, since the 19th century.

Secretary for District Administration Donald Liao Poon-huai (left) at an exhibition in City Hall, in 1985. Photo: SCMP Archives
Malaysia

Bid to relocate Hindu temple for mosque in Malaysia’s capital stirs debate

The government land on which the Dewi Sri Pathrakaliamman temple sat was sold to Jakel in 2014.

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Dewi Sri Pathrakaliamman devotees are hoping to save the temple in central Kuala Lumpur from eviction. Photo: Facebook/Tang Ah Chai
New Zealand

Ghostly guides invoke tragic tales of New Zealand’s parliament

Visitors who take part in the ‘spooky tours’ hear spine-chilling stories of mysterious deaths and late-night apparitions in Wellington.

Hong Kong society

Hong Kong’s intangible cultural heritage to be celebrated in new annual initiative

Different types of craftsmanship, performances, traditions and rituals among activities to be showcased across the month of June.

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