Life Style

The geishas glide with measured steps across a wooden stage, offering a glimpse of a long-misunderstood tradition that is becoming a rare sight in Japan.Dancing with paper fans and dressed in kimonos, the entertainers were rehearsing without the striking white make-up and sculpted hairstyles they are famous for.But for seven days until May 27, the women will perform in full splendour at the 100-year-old Azuma Odori festival at a theatre in the heart of the Japanese capital, Tokyo.Geishas rehearsing before the 100th edition of the Azuma Odori festival at the Shinbashi Enbujo Theatre in Tokyo. Photo: AFPGeishas rehearsing before the 100th edition of the Azuma Odori festival. Geishas are a rare sight in modern Japan. Photo: AFP“Japanese people themselves often don’t understand or have the wro...

Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky was 11 years old when he saw a newspaper advert for cameras and dark room equipment.“The seller was just three blocks away, so my dad said ‘Let’s take a look’,” Burtynsky, now 70, recalls.“There were enlargers, lenses, three Minolta cameras and bulk loaders and cassettes and two 100ft (30 metre) rolls of film as well as all the chemicals and trays needed for a dark room.”His father handed over C$25 for the lot, and the young Burtynsky got busy on his first assignment: photographing his much-loved dog, Tippy.Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. Photo: Christopher Michel“What I learned from my very first roll of film was that it is important to take more than one photo, and move around a bit, be fluid,” says Burtynsky, who became fascinated with how the th...

Taking time out for regular exercise and sticking to a balanced diet are keys to losing weight. So how does a chef who works long hours around food hope to shed extra kilos?Ngo Xing Jun, a chef at his family’s hawker stall in Singapore, found the answer when he shed 11kg (24lbs) to weigh 61.5kg and his body fat percentage dropped to a healthy 10.5 per cent over five months in 2024, from August to December.Ngo joined the family business in his mid-twenties and became its chef in 2023.Ngo in the stall’s kitchen with his father and sister in 2025. Photo: Ngo Xing JunFrom a young age he would help his parents out, chopping vegetables, serving food and running errands.“Post-Covid, we faced a difficult situation as our old chef couldn’t work any more. I decided to step in,” says 37-year-old Ngo....

Japanese characters were usually portrayed as cruel and dishonourable in the Hong Kong martial arts films of the 1960s and 1970s. But such on-screen animosity did not stop Hong Kong production companies from collaborating with their Japanese counterparts.Although Hong Kong wuxia film producers studied the action sequences in Japanese swordplay films to learn the techniques behind them, companies such as Shaw Brothers Studio were mainly interested in their advanced technology and efficient production methods.Shaw sent a delegation to Japan to observe production at studios such as Shochiku, and Shaw stars such as Cheng Pei-pei visited the country for performance training.Around 30 Japanese directors were brought to Hong Kong by Shaw, some of whom were given Chinese names to disguise their na...

As the Chinese diaspora spread across the globe, Chinese communities formed in their adopted homes, and adapted their cuisines to suit the locals in their new locations.A prime example is American-Chinese cuisine, which gave us those iconic takeaway boxes, dishes like General Tso’s chicken and chop suey, and fortune cookies.Such hybrid cuisines not only enriched culinary landscapes, but also left a mark on popular culture. One such cuisine is that which evolved among Chinese residents of Korea.Korean-Chinese restaurants, known as joongguk jib (literally “China house”) in Korean, are fixtures across South Korea, in city centres and remote towns.The tiny island of Marado in Jeju province, South Korea, has nine Korean-Chinese restaurants. Photo: ShutterstockConsider this: Marado, a tiny islan...

When Japanese video game company Kotake Create published The Exit 8 in 2023, it became an instant cult hit.Initially released on Steam, and later on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, Android and iOS, this walking simulator was an utter original.Players find themselves in a Japanese metro subway passageway stuck in an endless loop as they try to figure out clues on how to remove themselves from the hellish trap.It is hard to imagine how this might be adapted into a movie. But that did not stop director Genki Kawamura, whose adaptation of the game has just premiered in the Midnight Screenings strand at the Cannes Film Festival, ahead of a planned AugustDirector Genki Kawamura attends the photocall for Exit 8 at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: EPA-EFEThe film – ...

A number of intriguing high-concept romantic dramas are courting a variety of major stars in a bid to heat up our K-drama schedules in 2026.Read on for the latest TV casting news out of South Korea.Men of the HaremBae Suzy (Doona!) has received an offer to headline the major period drama Men of the Harem, based on a web novel of the same name.This fantasy drama follows a queen who uses male concubines to secure her position on the throne. Bae is being eyed to play Latin, the Empress of the Tarium Empire.Bae Suzy in a still from Doona! She has been offered the lead in period drama Men of the Harem. Photo: NetflixThe series will be directed by Lee Eung-bok, known for hits ranging from Descendants of the Sun and Mr. Sunshine to Sweet Home, and is being written by Hwang Jin-young (My Dearest).

Forgive and forget? You cannot really forget when someone has wronged you, but you can forgive them, right? Not always.This was the upshot of a recent representative survey of 6,328 people in Germany aged 18-69 commissioned by the dating website ElitePartner. It showed that trust is fundamental to a couple’s relationship, and deliberate deception is the biggest relationship killer.Here is a list of what the survey found to be “deadly sins” in a relationship: A total of 78 per cent of survey respondents – 85 per cent of women, 70 per cent of men – said making false and damaging statements about your partner was unforgivable. A total of 77 per cent of respondents said they would not forgive secretly taking or discontinuing contraceptive pills, or not revealing that you have been sterilised...

Eric Wong Hok-pan loves buses. He is familiar with many of the routes in his home city of Hong Kong and knows what year some vehicles were built.Wong is particularly passionate about vintage buses – especially when it comes to photographing them.“This one is old, built in 1998,” says Wong, proudly showing off his vast collection of bus photos on his Samsung Galaxy smartphone.Wong’s hobby recently took a bad turn when he was bullied by a group of teenage boys while photographing his favourite subjects.Eric Wong Hok-pan and his mother, Amy Chung, at Hong Kong charity Love 21 Foundation’s headquarters in San Po Kong. Photo: Kylie KnottWong has Down’s syndrome, a genetic condition caused by unusual cell division resulting in an extra copy of chromosome 21 that affects appearance and the abilit...

There are sheets of rusty metal all over the place along with deflated tyres, torn upholstery, battered panels and seized-up engines. A walk through Georg Memminger’s used VW warehouse in southern Germany is sobering.That is until you reach his showroom. It contains gleaming examples of the car that made Volkswagen famous, with a level of finish never achieved when the model was still in production in Germany and later at foreign plants.Open-top and closed versions of the Beetle which pass through his workshop get a second lease of life after being lovingly rebuilt on four floors of an industrial building north of Munich on the outskirts of the town of Reichertshofen.Turning a rust bucket into an eye-catcher takes nine months of work for the firm’s 10 employees and a cabriolet version can ...