Life Style

He is one of the biggest names in show business – and it is possible you have never heard of him.At 54, Swedish songwriter and record producer Max Martin has written more No 1 singles than any artist, aside from Paul McCartney. He counts Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande and the Weeknd among his collaborators, but he is so low-key and humble that he refers to his music career as his “day job”.That would make musical theatre Martin’s passion project – specifically, the creation of a jukebox musical called & Juliet.The musical strings together some of his biggest hits in service of an uproarious, feel-good plot that reimagines the heroine of Shakespeare’s famous teenage tragedy as her own woman – one who does not decide to stab herself in the heart when her main squ...

3/5 starsOn October 1, 1942, the Japanese cargo liner Lisbon Maru was secretly transporting more than 1,800 British prisoners of war across the East China Sea when it was torpedoed by an American submarine.More than 800 POWs either drowned or were shot by Japanese soldiers as they attempted to escape, and close to 400 men were rescued from the water by courageous Chinese fishermen who came to their aid from a village on Dongji island in the nearby Zhoushan Archipelago.Recounting the story from the point of view of the villagers, the film, directed by Guan Hu and Fei Zhenxiang, is by turns thrilling and ludicrous, as historical fact is reshaped into a bombastic saga of defiance and selflessness.Brothers Ah Bi (Zhu Yilong) and Ah Dang (Leo Wu Lei) are descended from pirates and considered ou...

3/5 starsThe Nanjing Massacre of 1937 was one of the most horrendous wartime atrocities ever committed.While numbers vary wildly, the Chinese government estimates that more than 300,000 civilians and prisoners of war were murdered, and tens of thousands of women raped, by the Imperial Japanese Army during the weeks and months that followed the fall of the Chinese city.Dead to Rights, a new epic set during the occupation, stars Liu Haoran (Detective Chinatown) as A Chang, a postman forced to assist a Japanese army photographer in documenting the unfolding violence.Since its release in mainland China on July 25, the film has taken 2.6 billion yuan (US$365 million) to become one of the year’s biggest blockbusters.

The Vale, Abigail Hing Wen’s latest young adult fantasy book, was written more than a decade ago by The New York Times bestselling author for her creative thesis at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.At the time, she felt that she was watching AI “being incubated and seeping into all our lives”, something that sparked a story about a 13-year-old boy who builds an AI-generated VR fantasy world to retreat to from reality.The idea was too far ahead of its time.“Nobody knew what AI generation was, so my agent at the time shelved it,” Wen says. “She said, ‘I can’t get behind this. I don’t know what it is.’ So I put it away for 10 years.”The cover of The Vale.Wen turned her attention to an entirely different genre and, in 2020, she wrote young adult fiction Loveboat, Taipei. The story was about an...

We have selected seven Lifestyle and Culture stories from the past seven days that resonated with our readers. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.1. Is copper an unsung hero in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease?When you hear the word copper, you may think of the malleable reddish-orange metal used in electrical wiring, plumbing, construction and jewellery that tends to turn your skin green. But copper also helps support cognitive functions that can help prevent Alzheimer’s, experts say.2. This man injects snake venom to boost immunity. How can you increase yours?Tim Friede, a US truck mechanic turned self-taught snake expert, has what has been described as “super immunity” to snake venom: he has been bitten more than 200 times over nearly two de...

Children who vape are more likely to go on to be smokers, be diagnosed with asthma and have poor mental health, new analysis suggests.The largest global review on vaping in young people found “consistent evidence” that children who vape are three times more likely to go on to become smokers.The study also pointed to links between vaping and increased odds of respiratory illness and substance abuse, including drinking and marijuana use.Experts from the University of York and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), both in the UK, analysed all available reviews on youth vaping – known as an umbrella review.It included 56 reviews on 384 studies. Of these, 21 looked at the use of e-cigarettes among young people and later cigarette smoking.Disposable vapes for sale at a shop...

Urban legends, tragic accidents and historical wrongdoings have proved a rich font of inspiration for horror filmmakers, nowhere more so than in Taiwan.The island’s tumultuous history and rapid economic progress have seen old traditions and old-world beliefs engulfed by modernity.The past decade alone has seen a number of supernatural tales adapted for the big screen, nurturing a booming subgenre in supernatural horror.With this week’s release of the Taiwanese film Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo in Hong Kong, we look back on 10 of the most notable examples of this ongoing trend from Taiwan and the allegedly true stories that inspired them.1. The Tag-Along (2015)The film that launched the current wave of urban legend adaptations is inspired by an apparently true story that occurred in ...

Alphabet’s Google introduced on Wednesday a new line-up of Pixel smartphones and gadgets, intensifying its efforts to embed artificial intelligence across a wide ecosystem of products.The products were launched at the annual “Made by Google” event held in New York that diverged from its typical format to emphasise mainstream consumer appeal over technical details.Talk show host Jimmy Fallon, the Jonas Brothers and other celebrities featured heavily across the presentation, as they helped demonstrate real-world applications of Google’s AI integrations into the hardware.As for the hardware itself, the upgrades were comparatively modest. “There has been a lot of hype about (AI in phones) and frankly a lot of broken promises too, but Gemini is the real deal,” said Rick Osterloh, Google’s senio...

It would be an understatement to declare that Noma in Copenhagen, one of the world’s most famous restaurants, has a cult following. Founded by René Redzepi in 2003, it remains at the top of many foodie-travellers’ bucket lists and brought Nordic cuisine and ingredients into the international spotlight.I myself was booked to go in April 2020, before a certain virus put a stop to that particular journey. Somehow, years later, I never quite felt the urge to make another booking. Perhaps I was tired and more than a little disillusioned by the culture of fine dining and all of its trappings.Still, I accepted an invitation this month to an exclusive pop-up by the Noma team in collaboration with the Taiwanese fashion brand Onefifteen, which has taken over the site of the former US army barracks i...

What began with some millennial TikTokkers poking fun at their younger Gen Z counterparts has turned into a full-blown debate over what is called the “Gen Z stare”.The term refers to the blank look some Gen Zs give after they are asked questions in various situations, including during customer service interactions, in the classroom, at work and other environments.The intergenerational debate has also spilled over into some Chinese social media apps, with users on these platforms talking about the “stare”.