Life

"What (football) fan culture there has been over the years has been pretty much destroyed," said Mark Dreyer, an expert on China's sporting ambitions and author of Sporting Superpower.
Sports

Chinese Super League offers a lesson in how to kill a sport

Why has the world's biggest football market failed to takeoff?

15 July 2022
Thick cuts of char siu at The Legacy House. (© Tory Ho)
Life

Four of Hong Kong's best places for 'char siu'

Where to find the local barbecue-pork staple at its most succulent

14 July 2022
One of ultra-rational Singapore's founding fathers -- and a good friend of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew -- Othman Wok "loved scaring his friends with ghostly tales as a teenager," recalled a schoolmate.
Life

Books: Classic Southeast Asian ghost stories

Eminent Singaporean politician who tapped into the regional passion for horror

14 July 2022
At the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, Elephant Gym decided to slow things down and sort through their feelings. Their latest album "Dreams" is the culmination of this two-year detour. (Photo by Chiaki Machida)
Life

Elephant Gym ready to emerge from Taiwan's COVID cocoon

Taiwanese band heading to Fuji Rock on the heels of new album release

9 July 2022
Stand-up paddleboarding is a popular pastime along the Chiba coast. (All photos by Stephen Mansfield)
Life

Hidden charms of neglected prefecture on Tokyo's doorstep

Much-maligned Chiba has more to offer than first meets the eye

8 July 2022
A poster for "Broker," the first film Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda has made in South Korea. (Photo courtesy of CJENM)
Society

Movie 'Broker' puts spotlight on 'baby boxes' in Japan, South Korea

Director Koreeda inspired by difference in two countries' drop-off services

3 July 2022
Simone Mantellini, from the University of Bologna, directs the Uzbek-Italian mission at Kafir Kala, an ancient fortress on the outskirts of Samarkand. Excavations began in the early 2000s. (All photos by Sara Perria)
Life

Uzbekistan races to save Silk Road legacy

In Samarkand, ancient sites have been lost to arable farming

1 July 2022
Much like human fingerprints, a dog's so-called nose print is unique and stays the same even as the animal ages. Startups have been tapping that quality in apps to help pet owners. (Photo by Shinichi Hashimoto)
Technology

Startups sniff out missing dogs using AI, 'nose prints'

Japanese and South Korean companies use similar tech to monitor health

27 June 2022
Hermann's tortoises are listed in appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and are managed in China according to the second level of national protection.
Caixin

China's reduced penalties for wildlife breeding raise concerns

Conservationists fear lighter sentences will encourage trafficking

26 June 2022
Guillaume Perdigues, left, and his partner Vanessa Mapp pose for a photo in Strasbourg, France, at the start of their epic transcontinental walk in February 2019. (Courtesy of Vanessa Mapp)
Life

From France to Thailand on foot

Intrepid Western couple find their global 'dream trek' changes perspectives

24 June 2022
Lee O-young speaks at the 4th Northeast Asia Trilateral Forum in Busan in April 2009. Lee wrote more than 60 books, including a Japanese bestseller, "The Compact Culture: The Japanese Tradition of 'Smaller Is Better.'" (Photo by Yoshiyuki Tamai)
Obituaries

Lee O-young, who helped South Korea see beauty, dies at 88

Nation's first culture minister laid groundwork for today's hallyu Korean boom

23 June 2022
Colorful yukata are a staple of summer festivals and fireworks displays in Japan. (Photo by Akiyoshi Inoue)
Life

Japan's timeless yukata blend tradition and modern flair

Ancient dyeing techniques endure, even as summer kimonos enjoy new life

18 June 2022
Dissident Chinese writer Liao Yiwu has published 12 German-language books, and won several prestigious German literature awards since arriving in Berlin in 2011. His latest book "Wuhan" hit was published in Chinese in September 2020. (Photo by Jens Kastner)
Life

Liao Yiwu explains China's brutal pandemic failures

Dissident author maintains that Xi Jinping will pay a price for Shanghai lockdown

18 June 2022
Sanya Souvanna Phouma inside Funky Lam, a restaurant launched by the serial entrepreneur in Bangkok. "I was burning to create something new," Sanya says of his early days in the Thai capital after leaving France. (Courtesy of Sanya Souvanna Phouma)
Life

Bangkok's king of clubbing plots fresh projects

Lao impresario Sanya Souvanna Phouma returns to his roots

17 June 2022
Japan's pioneering artisans spend considerable time de-shelling, sorting, roasting, cracking, winnowing, grinding, conching, blocking, tempering and, above all, experimenting with cocoa beans to produce sublime bars of mouth-watering chocolate. (Photo by Sybilla Patrizia)
Life

Five of the best bean-to-bar chocolate makers in Tokyo

Here's where to find chocolate at its purest in the Japanese capital

15 June 2022
Traditional thatched dwellings in the village of Miyama, north of Kyoto. (Photo by Alex Kerr)
Life

Fueled by pandemic, Japan rediscovers allure of old houses

Wooden 'kominka' are beautiful and cheap, but restoration costs can be high

15 June 2022
Thailand's pet owner population grew to combat the plague of COVID loneliness.
Business trends

A king's best friend: Thailand sees pet ownership boom

Businesses rush to grab a piece of billion-dollar market

15 June 2022
The retention pond at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University Centenary Park acts as a leisure amenity. (Courtesy of Chulalongkorn University/Landprocess)
Life

Central Bangkok redevelops around new green heart

Major public open space projects aim to transform urban face of Thai capital

10 June 2022
Mizuki Nishimura, half of the comic duo Viking, spends time on a plot of land he bought in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture. (Screen grab from Nishimura's YouTube channel)
Property

Japan's outdoor enthusiasts set off mountain land rush

Turned off by crowded campsites, some buy their own slice of wilderness

5 June 2022
Kenichi Horie stands on the deck of the Suntory Mermaid III in the early hours of June 4, successfully sailing across the Pacific from San Francisco to Japan's Kii Peninsula on a 69-day voyage.
Life

Kenichi Horie becomes oldest person to cross Pacific solo at 83

Japanese yachtsman follows up 1962 feat as first to make crossing alone

4 June 2022
One of the students at Aajibaichi Shala, a school in the western Indian village of Phangane where women aged 60 to 94 come to learn reading, writing, arithmetic and other skills. (All photos courtesy of Aajibaichi Shala)
Life

Learning is old hat at India's 'school for grannies'

Maharashtra initiative combats widespread illiteracy among elderly women

3 June 2022
A buyer checks a jade stone near a mine in resource-rich Kachin State, Myanmar, in 2015. The "self-reliant revolution" of Myanmar's Kachin ethnic minority is made possible by taxes on jade, gold, timber, opium and other resources that stream into China.
Life

Inside Myanmar's strategic 'land of jade'

Military takeover has triggered a fresh drive for Kachin autonomy

27 May 2022
Tamaki Osaka, right, mother of tennis star Naomi Osaka, says that she and daughter Naomi are exactly alike (Source photo by Kyodo)
Sports

Books: Like mother, like daughter, Tamaki Osaka fights for freedom

Mother of Japan's best-known tennis star looks back on her turbulent life

26 May 2022
Chocolate and cocoa seeds from Kad Kokoa, a Thai company that specializes in the "bean-to-bar" process valued by chocolate aficionados, using beans of Thai origin. (Courtesy of Leo Sebag)
Life

Thailand sweetens menu of gourmet offerings

Aficionados pioneer quality chocolate-growing and making

25 May 2022
Brunch in Singapore can be anything a foodie might dream of. (Photo by Arabelle Zhuang)
Life

Five of Singapore's best places for brunch with a difference

Refreshing twists to the city-state's ubiquitous weekend dining experience

24 May 2022