Life Style

Dressed in flowers, finery and make-up, scores of boys were paraded around a temple in Thailand after having their heads shaved – a symbolic start to a centuries-old Shan monkhood ordination.The Buddhist celebration is unique to the Shan people of northeastern Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of whom have moved to Thailand during their country’s decades of dictatorship and turmoil.Monks ritually shaved more than 40 boys’ heads with razors, tufts of hair falling onto lotus leaves.In shimmering robes, jewellery and colourful floral headpieces, they were carried around the Ku Tao temple in Chiang Mai three times on relatives’ shoulders, to the rhythmic beat of traditional gongs.Eleven-year-old Jomwong Koling, an ethnic Shan boy, is carried during the annual Poy Sang Long procession at Wat Ku Ta...

Hong Kong’s restaurants are fully embracing the Easter holiday and keeping things sweet for the long weekend. Whether you’re sick of the egg-themed offerings or that’s exactly what you’re looking for, we’ve got a recommendation for everyone – from Friday through to Monday.For those with a taste for fine dining, our 100 Top Tables Guide 2025 also has more foodie suggestions, perfect for a family Easter meal or otherwise.Friday, April 18Why not try Cantina’s Easter egg dessert platter as part of its Unlimited Cicchetti Easter Brunch? Photo: HandoutFor an intimate Italian-style Easter celebration, Cantina is offering a menu of authentic appetisers and mains that venture through the bright, comforting flavours of Italy. Springtime specials from the Unlimited Cicchetti Easter Brunch include lam...

People who use sugar substitutes in an effort to lose or control their weight could be making matters worse, according to recently published research in the journal Nature Metabolism.About 40 per cent of Americans regularly use sugar substitutes, usually as a way to reduce calories or sugar intake.According to a team of scientists based in Germany and the United States, sucralose, a widely used alternative to sugar, has been found to increase activity in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that contributes to managing the appetite.The researchers, from the German Centre for Diabetes Research in Düsseldorf and the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, tested how 75 participants responded after drinking one of three drinks: water, a drink sweetened with sucralose, or a dr...

Seafood lovers know the fatty marbling is what makes tuna sashimi and sushi so tasty. So for the industry, it is the fish’s level of fattiness that is used to judge its quality and pricing.Usually, several people assess how fatty a tuna is by cutting the tail with a giant saw-like knife, an operation that takes about 60 seconds per fish.But now a machine called Sonofai uses ultrasound waves to do the job in 12 seconds, operated by a person without prior knowledge of how to carve fish.Fujitsu, the Japanese company behind the technology, recently gave a demonstration of Sonofai, a word blended from “sono” referring to “sound”, “f” for Fujitsu and “ai” for artificial intelligence. The name refers to its components but also stands for “son of AI”.A sushi chef shows how different fatty and lean...

It makes perfect sense: slap a visitors’ fee onto your overly popular country/city/attraction and not only are you likely to reduce tourist numbers to more manageable levels, but you will also ensure the experience is more pleasant for those who still come, while adding cash to the public coffers that could be earmarked for restoration and the upkeep of your golden-egg-laying goose.Park fees that run to hundreds of US dollars have long been charged to people wishing to climb Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, for instance, and Bhutan has levied its daily Sustainable Development Fee, currently US$100 per adult, since 1974.But many of the world’s most popular destinations are introducing taxes, levies, fees – whatever you wish to call them – for the first time this summer, or significantly raisin...

Set five years after the end of the first season’s events, The Last of Us season two picks up in the US state of Wyoming, where Joel and Ellie – played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, respectively – are settled into everyday life alongside an ensemble of returning characters and new faces protecting their fortress from the infected humans.Ellie is at the centre of season two, now streaming on HBO and Max, as she sets out on a quest for vengeance – to tell you more would be a spoiler.But season two’s new cast members also include some of young Hollywood’s rising stars: Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus), Young Mazino (Beef), Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick) and Kaitlyn Dever (Apple Cider Vinegar), the last of whom plays the long-awaited Abby, a character introduced in The Last of Us: Part I...

By Pyo Kyung-minWhat happens when Korean precision meets French flair in the music studio?The answer played out in Seoul, where the first-ever “Atelier K-pop” songwriting camp brought together music professionals from both countries for six days of creative collaboration.The camp, which ran from March 24 to March 29, marked a rare partnership between the French government and top K-pop publishing players, including Leeway Music & Media, Amplified and JYP Publishing.The poster for the Atelier K-pop event.Jointly organised by the Embassy of France in Korea and the Centre National de la Musique (CNM), the initiative brought four French composers – Poppy Fusée, Jean-Noël, Robin Peret and Ugo – to Seoul for a deep dive into K-pop’s unique production process.

Two-time Academy Award winner Adrien Brody is set to appear at an international fashion event in mainland China on April 17.Hosted by the Quanzhou Municipal People’s Government, the China National Garment Association and the China Fashion Association, the event – its Chinese name translates to “Quanzhou Fashion Week” – will be held in Quanzhou, Fujian province, between April 17 and May 5. More than 100 exhibitors from countries including Italy, France, the US and Korea are expected.The event will promote Quanzhou’s fashion industry to the world, connecting local suppliers with overseas brands. It is hoped that Brody, fresh off his win at the 97th Academy Awards in March when he was named best actor for his role in period drama film The Brutalist, will help boost the event’s profile on a gl...

Lead cast: Go Youn-jung, Shin Si-ah, Kang You-seok, Han Ye-jiLatest Nielsen rating: 3.99 per centFour years after Hospital Playlist season 2, we return to the Yulje Medical Centre for the spin-off series Resident Playbook. Only this time it is about an entirely new set of characters at a different branch.Leading the new faces is rising star Go Youn-jung (Moving) as Oh Yi-young, a medical school graduate who quit during the first year of her residency. Saddled with debt and with few other prospects, she is compelled to give it another go.She returns to Yulje Medical Centre’s Jongno branch, joining three other residents in the obstetrics and gynaecology department.

This article contains major spoilers.2.5/5 starsLead cast: Park Hyung-sik, Huh Joon-ho, Lee Hae-youngLatest Nielsen rating: 15.4 per centOver 16 episodes, the corporate melodrama thriller Buried Hearts has stuffed a lot of plot into our eyeballs, but what exactly was the story?