Worldcrunch
Dafen has long been the world capital of oil painting copies. After years of reproducing masterpieces on an assembly line, these painters would now like to be considered true artists and make a living from their creations. But in this ancient village in southern China, copies pay more than originals.
As the vice president is now virtually assured to face Donald Trump on November 5, questions arise on what her election to U.S. president would mean for the rest of the world.
Hong Kongers who moved to the UK following the 2019 pro-democracy protests to seek political asylum face many social, mental and administrative challenges. Yet the organizations that have been building a safety net for them are now facing funding changes.
Spain’s national anthem, dating back to 1770, is the oldest in continual use — it also happens to be wordless. For other nations, what can be done about aging anthem lyrics that may need to be placed in their original context to avoid upsetting or offending contemporary ears.
Sign language services are relatively good in such Asian countries as Japan, South Korea and Thailand. Why do they lag in Hong Kong? An exploration of the island’s particular circumstance
As advocates in Hong Kong work to spread the word that being LGBTQ+ is not an illness, conversion therapy centers like New Creation continue to harm and traumatize those who want to get “out of the gay life.” Members of the LGBTQ+ community struggle to reconcile their faith and their orientation in a society that continues to be institutionally homophobic.
Hong Kong police have arrested five people accused of supporting eight pro-democracy activists living abroad, two days after the government put up bounties on them. As part of the sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing, the move is yet another attempt by China to stifle oversea dissidence.
The Hong Kong security bill protests were a series of mass demonstrations and civil unrest in Hong Kong. The protests began on this day in 2019 and were sparked by a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial. Why did the Hong Kong security bill […]
The “Pillar of Shame” in Hong Kong, a memorial to the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre, was a symbol of freedom and democracy. Beijing has taken it down, but a replica is being built in Berlin. Activist Samuel Chu explains why that means so much to him.
Hong Kong only decriminalized homosexuality in 1991, but there had long been an underground LGBTQ+ culture, including male sex workers. They have learned to survive in difficult conditions, but their experiences are far from how they’re portrayed in films.
The festivities to mark 25 years since the British handover to China of Hong Kong also marked the official arrival of the new leader of Hong Kong, John Lee, who will move things even faster and closer to Beijing.
Thousands of students and young people were detained during Hong Kong’s democracy protests in 2019. Now with criminal records, many are struggling to re-integrating into a changed society
Enduring COVID restrictions are the final straw for many expats in Hong Kong. They’re leaving by the thousands, threatening the city’s reputation as a financial hub.
With both fans and diplomatic dignitaries missing, it’s an Olympics that recalls politically combustible Games of the past. COVID-19, like it did for the Summer Games in Tokyo, will also help haunt the premises. The good news is that the athletes will most likely take over our attention as soon as they hit the ice and snow.
? Khulumkha!* Welcome to Tuesday, where Haiti’s prime minister reveals assassination attempt, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is found guilty of fraud, and Winnie the Pooh is up for grabs. We also turn to French daily Les Echos to see what happens when the world of fine wine and champagne collides with the NFT market. [*Kokborok […]
? Sveiki!* Welcome to Thursday, where boosters appear to work on Omicron, Jimmy Lai is found guilty and there’s a mind-blowingly bad idea for a new wine. We also see how Ukrainians are measuring the Russian threat of an invasion. [*Latvian] SIGN UP This is our daily newsletter Worldcrunch Today, a rapid tour of […]
In its diaspora around Asia and the rest of the world, Hong Kong’s identity is closely tied to its food and tea. Now with the pressures from the mainland, the stakes are suddenly multiplied.
? お早うございます* Welcome to Thursday, where the new Taliban government bans women’s sports, a UK-France cross-Channel migrant feud erupts and North Korea celebrates its national holiday with an unusually orange military parade. Indian news website The Wire also reports on the people possibly most at risk with the Taliban back in power. [*Ohayōgozaimasu – Japanese] […]
Welcome to Wednesday, where the Taliban unveil their government, crypto is plummeting after El Salvador embraces bitcoin and one lazy Swedish tax advisor gets busted. In Mexico, we meet the nurse who has become the face of pandemic fatigue.
No other European state strikes a more confident tone toward China than Lithuania. Vilnius is resisting all the usual means of pressure — and has a clear demand that Europe and Germany defend their values.
Hong Kong’s national security police recently arrested five people over the publication of children’s books featuring sheep, which it says represent Hong Kongers, attacking wolves, allegedly standing for mainlanders.
If someone is unhappy, that’s one thing. But if a city is unhappy, that means something very different.
Was this the last media ready to take on the regime in Bejing?
Think about what other *advice the government is giving people…
As a growing number of people pack up and leave the former British colony, the question arises: What to do about the family dog?
London generously opened its doors to Hong Kongers fleeing Xi Jinping’s regime, which stands in strong contrast with the closed-minded attitudes driving Brexit. Where does it power lie now?
-OpEd- Chinese tanks have not rolled through the streets of Hong Kong, but Beijing’s legislative coup Tuesday, on the eve of the 23rd anniversary of the territory’s handover to China, is provoking a similar fear. Pro-democracy business owners have hastily removed the slogans that lined their storefronts and thousands are applying to emigrate, with Australia […]
Welcome to Wednesday, where Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily officially announces its closure, new clashes have broken out in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and the number of millionaires continues to increase despite the pandemic. Latin American business magazine America Economia also reports on how business schools around the world are now adding the environment to […]
Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong on May 28 to counteract its secessionist tendencies. What is at stake here for the former British colony?
The 1968 pandemic was the first spread by mass air travel on its way to a toll of 1 million dead. Yet somehow it has been largely ignored by history, even if its lessons raise many questions for the COVID-19 world.
A “pause sanitaire” is the phrase El Watan, the French-language Algerian daily, used. Such “health pauses’ have been happening among popular protest groups in a number of countries, either imposed by the government or self-imposed by the demonstrators in the face of the threat of spreading coronavirus in the close proximity of street protests. For […]
-Analysis- PARIS — In his most recent book, Chine, le Grand Paradoxe (China, the Great Paradox), Jean-Pierre Raffarin reminds us that, “the key to diplomacy is reciprocal respect.” Prime minister at the height of the SARS crisis, in 2003, Raffarin was one of the rare foreign leaders to proceed with a scheduled trip to China. […]
Compared to measures being taken in the Kashmir Valley, China’s handling of the Hong Kong protests seems remarkably permissive.
If I asked you to think about Hong Kong, the first images that would come to mind would probably be of rush-hour traffic and vertigo-inducing skyscrapers. But my wife and I were surprised to discover its many bays and soft white sand beaches.
Hong Kong was still under British rule when we visited it. This strangely shaped building was then named the Prince of Wales Building and housed the head office of the British Army. In 1997, when the island became an autonomous territory of China, it was renamed: Chinese People’s Liberation Army Forces Hong Kong Building — […]
Hong Kongers really like soup. Is that the secret to their long leases on life?
Die Tageszeitung, July 20th Monday’s gruesome axe attack on a commuter train in southern Germany left many unanswered questions on the Wednesday front page of German daily Die Tageszeitung, as evidenced by its enigmatic headline made of just four question marks. On Monday evening, a 17-year-old man armed with a knife and an axe wounded […]
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s enormous appetite for seafood and its role as a hub for the global seafood trade is having an unfortunate impact on endangered fish species. Chinese cuisine prizes seafood, so it’s perhaps not surprising that per capita seafood consumption in Hong Kong averages 70 kilograms a year, about four times the global average. But the city is also a hub for trade into mainland China, where consumption is on the rise. All of that is putting a strain on endangered marine life and driving an unexpected sustainability push. On a busy Saturday morning at Hong Kong’s […]
HONG KONG — Couples planning to walk down the aisle in Hong Kong better have some deep pockets. Even as consumer prices generally have dropped on the Chinese island, the average cost for a wedding is up to 314,000 Hong Kong dollars (about $40,000), according to the China Daily News. Retail sales in Hong Kong […]