Life Style

More South Korean celebrities are speaking openly about their divorces, but many still wait years before making their break-ups public. Even as social perceptions around divorce have changed, stars remain cautious for a variety of personal and professional reasons.Singer Park Ki-young recently made headlines for revealing her second divorce – years after it happened. She first married a lawyer in 2010 but divorced in 2015. In 2017, she married a tango dancer and choreographer she met on KBS2’s Immortal Songs, but the couple separated in 2022. The news was only shared three years later.Lee Won-seok, lead vocalist of Daybreak, also delayed his announcement. He married a non-celebrity in 2011 but divorced in 2021. It wasn’t until April 2023 that he posted the news on his blog, “In 2021, I exp...

For anybody who has struggled to pull together a grocery list or plan a week of family meals, the promise of assistance from artificial intelligence is downright appetising.AI can make dull, time-consuming tasks a breeze, and nutrition experts who understand the emerging technology are enthusiastic. But they season their enthusiasm with more than a dash of caution.“These tools are really good at giving you what you ask for, as long as you know what you’re asking for,” said Raul Palacios, director of the Didactic Programme in Dietetics at Texas Tech University in the United States.Palacios is a registered dietitian nutritionist who teaches about AI and regularly uses AI interfaces, called chatbots, for all kinds of tasks. Professionally, AI has streamlined his work with meal plans.At home, ...

By Kwon Mee-yooA golden seal, believed to date back to Korea’s ancient Goguryeo kingdom (37BC-AD668), fetched an astounding HK$10.8 million (US$1.39 million) at a major Hong Kong auction. This amount surpassed its presale estimate by more than nine times, setting a record for the price of ancient seals.The golden seal with a horse-shaped knob was auctioned at China Guardian’s Hong Kong 2025 spring sale, titled Important Private Asian Collection of Ancient Seals and Bronzes, on April 6.Initially, its estimated price ranged between US$153,800 and US$282,100, yet it ultimately garnered a much higher final bid.The relic, standing 2.8cm tall and weighing just 88 grams, bears a Chinese inscription that reads, “Marquis of Guiyi of Goguryeo, conferred by the Jin dynasty”.The golden seal from Korea...

Hong Kong Ballet’s latest production, Frida, explores the life and art of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.The full-length work by choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa was developed from a one-act ballet, Broken Wings, which she created for the English National Ballet in 2019, and the retitled two-act version for the Dutch National Ballet followed in 2020.Frida is not a narrative ballet as such. Instead, Lopez Ochoa offers a series of snapshots of key moments from Kahlo’s life, interspersed with interludes featuring characters from her paintings. This kaleidoscopic concept would have worked as a one-act ballet, but a 90-minute production needs more clarity and structure to keep the audience engaged.This is a powerful production visually, full of striking, flamboyant images and there is some good...

When most people think of dangerous infections, they picture bacteria or viruses. But for infectious disease specialists like Peter Chin-Hong, one of the most insidious threats lurking in hospitals and clinics today is fungal.Chin-Hong’s case list is long: a healthy 29-year-old marathon runner from California’s Central Valley whose heart lining was invaded by coccidioides, a soil-dwelling fungus; a lung-transplant recipient coughing up mould nodules – fungal growths scattered throughout his lungs – after stopping antifungal medication; and a 45-year-old woman with poorly controlled diabetes, infected by a black fungus that destroyed part of her face and spread to her brain. Despite multiple operations and treatment, she died in hospital.“These aren’t rare any more,” said Chin-Hong, associa...

When the 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific 2025 list was announced, with The Pizza Bar on 38th inside the Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo in Japan took top spot for a third year in a row.The Pizza Bar on 38th stands out for serving pizza in a set menu, omakase style, priced at 23,100 yen (US$158) for a starter, eight slices of pizza and dessert, enjoyed in the lavish setting of a five-star hotel.While Japan’s capital city has six pizzerias on the list, Hong Kong is not too far behind, with four pizza parlours represented.Fiata by Salvatore Fiata, in Central on Hong Kong Island, claimed third place, rising one spot from last year and moving one step closer to the top of the list.Daniele Cason from The Pizza Bar on 38th. His pizza restaurant has topped the 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific 2025 list for a third ye...

Since he was 15, Junrey Longos has lived among lush mangrove forests and turquoise waters in Del Carmen, his hometown on Siargao Island, the surfing capital of the Philippines.Once an illegal fisherman who would cut down the tropical trees to be sold as fuel, he now protects them as part of a civilian fisheries patrol force.“Because life was difficult, we were forced to cut and sell mangroves back then. We couldn’t find other jobs,” Longos, 44, said.Because of efforts by the local government to offer job training and nurture an ecotourism business, people like Longos became part of the solution, not the problem.“I started planting new mangroves when I stopped doing illegal activities in 2011,” he said, proudly pointing out a mangrove he helped plant along the water.For decades, the area’s ...

It has long been common for Hong Kong residents to escape to the hills at weekends, but now a similar passion for mountain trails is sweeping across China’s Greater Bay Area.Around 50km (30 miles) north of the city of Shaoguan, in northern Guangdong province, towering crimson cliffs rise above lush forests and winding streams, drawing young and old alike.In the Danxia Shan national geopark tens of millions of years of erosion and tectonic activity have sculpted red sedimentary rock into dramatic peaks and valleys. The area is one of the Danxia landforms – landscapes with spectacular red-rock cliffs, natural pillars, ravines and valleys – dotted around the country.Danxia Shan was listed as a Unesco Global Geopark site in 2004 and a Unesco World Heritage site in 2010, and features three main...

When Ridley Scott, visionary director of Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator, connects with your story, it’s probably a good idea to explore it in any medium possible.Modville, a four-issue neo-noir graphic novel set in New Orleans in 2169 that unfolds in a world of crime and artificial humans, known as mods, was just that story.Created by Jesse Negron, the comic touches on themes of father-daughter relationships, morality and humanity.The comic series bucks the current trend of reframing superhero narratives. Instead, it is from an original idea and will go direct to consumers as opposed to being released by a big publisher.Negron, who had previously worked with the director and his late brother, Tony Scott, pitched the idea of doing a comic book to Tom Moran, senior vice-president of Ridle...

Modern dating, already fraught with emotional ups and downs, can feel even more difficult when a person is under pressure to find “the one”.In the religiously conservative Islamic Republic of Iran, finding Mr or Miss Right can be especially tough. Those seeking love often have to break the rules and take risks.Sahar, 35, remembers a time when women were afraid of everything, from the country’s morality police – who impose Islamic dress codes and public conduct – to their own families.“At some point, something changed,” she says. Parents stood up to the police and asked them: “What right do you have to arrest our child? OK, she was travelling with a boy – so what?”An Iranian couple walking together in a park in central Tehran, Iran. In the religiously conservative Islamic republic, finding ...