Life Style

There’s nothing we love more than a long weekend, and just as it did over Easter, Hong Kong’s bar scene has pulled out all the stops to offer yet another full line-up. Kick off festivities at Terrible Baby with a dose of Cantopop cocktails, head to Mostly Harmless for zero-alcohol offerings, indulge in casual izakaya-inspired bites with Neon Pigeon at Bourke’s, and finish the weekend with one of Taiwan’s best at Qura Bar – on a Monday!Friday, 2 MayTerrible Baby x 929Terrible Baby at Eaton. Photo: HandoutWhat: What better way to ring in a long weekend than with Canto- and Mando-pop inspired cocktails on the Kowloon side? Terrible Baby is hosting New York outpost 929, which builds cocktails inspired by pop hits. There’s Sleepless Night – a Ceylon-infused riff on a Manhattan with a milk foam ...

Steve Chen had never been in love. In spring 2024, though, it happened.The 25-year-old met his first girlfriend in a way he could not have imagined before: a live-streamed video chat.Frustrated with traditional dating and dating apps, Chen jumped on a new trend among young, single people in mainland China.Those looking for love go into video chat rooms hosted by what is called a “cyber matchmaker”, all while thousands of viewers watch and comment in real time.The number of single people in China over 15 reached a record high of 240 million in 2023, according to government data.Empathy is the most important thing. You need to be empathetic to what people sayCyber matchmaker Tian XinFacing a plummeting birth rate and an ageing population, the government has encouraged single people to marry ...

For those smart enough to have booked annual leave this Friday, you’re looking at a full five day weekend ahead. With the Labour Day holiday and Buddha’s birthday, there’s plenty of time to relax and enjoy the foodie delights Hong Kong has to offer.Portuguese classics dinner. Photo: Flint at JW Marriott Hotel Hong KongThursday, May 1Start as you mean to go on! Launch into the long weekend with a Mediterranean-inspired four-course dinner of Portuguese classics at JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong’s Flint.Portuguese cuisine offers a vibrant tapestry of flavours, weaving maritime tradition with aromatic spices, and this menu does just that. Featuring speciality seafood starters and the ultimate Portuguese comfort food caldo verde, diners can choose between signatures like arroz de marisco rice or f...

Nearly a decade after an unofficial ban on K-pop performances in mainland China was imposed, Beijing appears to be easing up on South Korea’s cultural phenomenon.A South Korean boy band, Epex, is now gearing up for a concert in Fuzhou in May, raising expectations that Beijing may ease restrictions on K-pop culture on the mainland, Yonhap News reports.The timing may be a coincidence, but it adds to growing evidence that China is seeking to improve relations with regional partners as countries grapple with increasingly hostile and unpredictable trade policies in the US.In March, trade chiefs from South Korea, China and Japan met in Seoul, where they renewed calls for an open, fair flow of goods and pledged to deepen economic ties.The concert, scheduled for May 31, marks the first performance...

Korean actress Go Joon-hee has revealed that she is undergoing egg freezing procedures, sharing her emotional struggles during the process.She confessed that, during her first procedure, she broke down in tears after learning that only a few eggs could be retrieved because of the toll dieting had taken on her body.In a recent video uploaded to her YouTube channel, the actress, born in 1985, shared that she began freezing her eggs two years ago.In the video, she had a candid conversation with her mother, who expressed concern, saying, “It must be hard. You need to take supplements and get your body into its best condition. Your age is not considered young any more.”Recalling Go’s first attempt at egg freezing, her mother said: “Even then, I thought it was getting late for marriage. Now that...

3/5 starsMarvel needs a new team-up. Ever since the hugely successful Avengers movies Infinity War and Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has struggled to replace the superhero collective that included Thor, Hulk and Iron Man.We had Chloé Zhao’s 2021 film Eternals, but that proved to be a non-starter. A promising-looking reboot of The Fantastic Four is coming, but before that we have Thunderbolts* – and no, the asterisk is not a misprint.Behind it is Jake Schreier, who has trodden the typical MCU path by directing indies – Robot & Frank and Paper Towns – before launching into his first blockbuster.Clearly, he and his screenwriters are conscious of the post-Endgame malaise. “The Avengers are not walking through that door,” we’re told. “We have no relatable heroes.”The trouble ...

As the Covid-19 vaccine began spreading more widely in early 2021, singer-songwriter Jensen McRae joked in a tweet that fellow US singer Phoebe Bridgers would release a song in two years about “hooking up in the car while waiting in line to get vaccinated at Dodger Stadium”, a ballpark in Los Angeles in the US state of California.Bridgers did not release the song, but McRae did. As the tweet took off, she threaded a video of herself singing “a pre-emptive cover”. “Immune”, penned by McRae in Bridgers’ contemplative style, was released in full within two weeks.“It was a perfect storm,” McRae, 27, says. “I was parodying Phoebe Bridgers who was becoming world famous in that exact moment … I was also writing about this topic that everyone was thinking about constantly because we were in lockdo...

The Bolshoi Ballet dance company is performing in Shenzhen on May 14 and 15, the only stop in southern China as part of a tour that also include dates in Beijing.Founded in 1776 as part of the Bolshoi Theatre opera house in Moscow, Russia, the Bolshoi Ballet is one of the oldest and most prestigious ballet companies in the world.Its international activities have been severely limited since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Many countries have imposed de facto bans on state-backed Russian groups like the Bolshoi Theatre to avoid being seen as supporting Russia.Invitations have, however, continued to be extended by mainland China, which has not condemned the actions against Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin.Elizaveta Kokoreva, principle dancer with the Bolshoi B...

There is something to satisfy most K-drama fans in May, with a healthy mix of genres and stars crowding the springtime schedule. Here is our pick of the best.1. Spring of YouthLead cast: Ha Yoo-joon, Park Ji-huFollowing April’s Crushology 101, May is set to give us another spring-set youth romance.Spring of Youth is a new SBS drama featuring Ha Yoo-joon (Namib) and Park Ji-hu (All of Us Are Dead).Ha – a member of the coming K-pop outfit AxMxP – plays Sa-kye, a K-pop star who enrols at university after being kicked out of his band.There, he falls for fellow music student Kim Bom (Park) and forms a new band on campus. (SBS, May 6)2. Tastefully YoursLead cast: Kang Ha-neul, Go Min-si

Indian art-house cinema is flourishing, showing a different side to the Indian movie industry best known for its glossy Bollywood films.“I think it’s been a good year for us,” says Payal Kapadia, director of All We Imagine as Light, with almost disarming modesty.Twelve months ago, her sensitive, subtle, dreamy film about three women hospital workers in Mumbai became the first Indian drama selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s main competition in 30 years.It won the Grand Prix, the festival’s second-most prestigious prize after the Palme d’Orand.All We Imagine as Light was not the only Indian film to feature at Cannes in 2024. It was joined by Karan Kandhari’s droll British-funded marital comedy Sister Midnight, which stars Radhika Apte as a new wife in a Mumbai slum who undergoes an unus...