This week in PostMag: Hong Kong's bamboo scaffolding and a Bali bone healer
Advertisement
DeWolf's story takes us first to Venice, where a crew from Hong Kong has wrapped the courtyard of a historic villa in bamboo for this year's Biennale of Architecture, and back here to our own city, where officials have proposed replacing bamboo with steel even while other countries are just realising the natural material's huge potential.
Elsewhere in our features, Winnie Chung chats with Singaporean novelist Jemimah Wei, whose debut The Original Daughter is already making waves internationally. The up-and-coming author shows a side of Singapore apart from the glitz and glam the city state is known for, focusing on the 'claustrophobic intimacy of public-housing life'. Wei toiled over the novel for more than 10 years, estimating that she wrote well over a million words. Quite the endeavour indeed.
Back in Venice, Zhaoyin Feng meets the Chinese migrants now staffing many of the city's coffee bars. It's a story that dives into the question of authenticity and cultural identity, played out through espresso pulls and Aperol spritzes. My favourite bit? Learning that one young barista honed her coffee-making skills via YouTube and Douyin, a thoroughly modern-day twist.
Then we leave the lagoon for the Swiss Alps. In Seewis im Prättigau, Victoria Burrows joins villagers guiding flower-crowned cows down from the high pastures at summer's end. There are bells and brass bands and half the town lining the streets. I'm particularly intrigued by the ancillary events. I might not qualify for the international beard competition but I'd happily judge alpine cheeses.
Advertisement
And finally, in Bali, Ian Lloyd Neubauer meets Mangku Sudarsana, a traditional healer known for bone setting. One firm knee, a twist and years of pain disappear in seconds. Feeling like a man reborn, Neubauer uses his new-found energy to explore the island's less-trodden paths, finding there's still plenty to discover beyond traffic-choked Seminyak.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
5 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Half a million young Catholics invade Rome, awaiting Pope Leo at Holy Year youth festival
Hundreds of thousands of young Catholics poured into a vast field on Rome's outskirts on Saturday for the weekend highlight of the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year: an evening vigil, outdoor slumber party and morning Mass celebrated by Pope Leo that marks his first big encounter with the next generation of Catholics. Advertisement Misting trucks and water cannons spritzed the young people to try to keep them cool as temperatures neared 30 degrees Celsius (85 degrees Fahrenheit) with hours to go before Leo arrived for the vigil. But the mood was festive, with young people dancing to a line-up of a dozen different bands or lying on their tarpaulins where they had set up camp for the night. 'It is something spiritual, that you can experience only every 25 years,' said Francisco Michel, a pilgrim from Mexico. 'As a young person, having the chance to live this meting with the pope I feel it is a spiritual growth.' For the past week, these bands of young Catholics from around the world have poured into Rome for their special Jubilee celebration, in this Holy Year in which 32 million people are expected to descend on the Vatican to take part in a centuries-old pilgrimage to the seat of Catholicism. The young people have been traipsing down cobblestone streets in colour-coordinated T-shirts, praying the Rosary and singing hymns with guitars, bongo drums and tambourines shimmying alongside. Advertisement Using their flags as tarpaulins to shield them from the sun, they have taken over entire piazzas for Christian rock concerts and inspirational talks, and stood for hours at the Circus Maximus to confess their sins to 1,000 priests offering the sacrament in a dozen different languages.
South China Morning Post
21 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
How to Style like Leo DiCaprio's partner Vittoria Ceretti, who dazzled in Messika at Cannes
This has been quite the summer for Italian model Vittoria Ceretti. After having attended the Met Gala, as ever on the first Monday in May, she then appeared at other high-profile events including the Cannes Film Festival in May , the Bezos-Sánchez wedding in Venice in June, and Paris Fashion Week in July. Most recently, the 27-year-old was spotted in Italy with her boyfriend of two years, Leonardo DiCaprio. While in Cannes, Ceretti stunned in an embellished, one-shoulder gown by Giorgio Armani Privé. To complete her red carpet look, she wore an array of high jewellery diamond creations from Messika, including the White Midnight Sun earrings and two fabulous rings – the Pear Appeal two-finger ring and Hypnotic Scale ring. If you agree with Ceretti that diamonds are indeed forever, then here are some other sparkling creations that will always stand the test of time. Graff earrings Graff Tribal diamond earrings. Photo: Handout Fred necklace
South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Scenes from Hong Kong's classic undercover films, from Infernal Affairs to Man on the Brink, on display at Tai Kwun
Enshrined in Tai Kwun's Duplex Studio is a dimly lit display of rebuilt sets from Hong Kong's classic undercover films of the 1980s to 2010s. The meticulous reconstructions of noteworthy scenes from eight crime films, such as Infernal Affairs and A Brighter Tomorrow, have been rebuilt across the halls of Tai Kwun's Block 01 for the 'Undercover Underworld' exhibition, which pays homage to the brilliance of local filmmaking while offering visitors a wistful and immersive experience. Presented in association with the Federation of Hong Kong Filmmakers, the exhibition was curated by film director Sunny Chan Wing-san and Kristof Van den Troost, Assistant Professor of the Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Timothy Calnin, Director of Tai Kwun Arts, explained the decision to focus on classic crime films. 'After paying tribute to the city's neon signage and vibrant popular music in previous summers, it was a natural extension to celebrate the world of Hong Kong cinema, which at its peak was rivalled in output only by Hollywood and Bollywood,' he said. 'What makes 'Undercover Underworld' particularly fitting for Tai Kwun is that thousands of real-life police dramas passed through these gates and cellblocks.' It also reflects a common theme in Hong Kong films. 'The undercover agent, often faced with difficult moral dilemmas and torn by conflicting loyalties, has been a staple of crime dramas here for nearly half a century,' Van den Troost said. The exhibition was curated by director Sunny Chan Wing-san (right) and Kristof Van den Troost, Assistant Professor of the Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Photo: Tai Kwun The intoxicating atmosphere of the exhibition showcases the inner turmoil of an undercover agent and instils an otherworldly sense of pride in its subjects and their work. One display features an iconic scene from the multi-award-winning Infernal Affairs trilogy, showcasing the room where Tony Leung and Kelly Chen's characters have a psychiatry consultation. The set has been reconstructed with such perfection that you could almost hear the sighs and reflections from Leung during his role as an undercover police officer. It was this very film that proved Hong Kong's film industry worthy of global accolades: Warner Bros' The Departed – the licensed English-language remake of Infernal Affairs – won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2007. Scene 6 of 'Undercover Underworld' - 'Psychological Dilemma'. Photo: Tai Kwun In the entrance hall, pages of directors' scripts from select films are flipped to the most iconic scenes, recognisable to any Hong Kong film buff. In the reproduction of the Chinese restaurant from John Woo's Hard Boiled, the labels on the tea are even scribbled in with the feckless attitude of an overworked waiter in the 1980s. Another display showcases the detective's den from the set of Man on the Brink. Conspicuous strings on a memo board interlace to shed light on the clever mind behind its workings. A typewriter, piles of tapes, and stacks upon stacks of well-read documents rest on rusted metal desks typical of the time. An interview with a former undercover agent plays in the background, a man who has lived life on the brink himself. The detective den from the film 'Man on the Brink'. Photo: Tai Kwun Still, this is no match for the stupendous display that is two cars suspended in mid-air, crashing through the grand window of a cathedral-like structure. One is greeted by pandemonium: a flurry of bricks and glass fragments dot the air above, as if the collision could suddenly resume at any moment. The red vintage vehicle even has a handbag slumped in the front seat. The exhaustive displays of 'Undercover Underworld' will enlighten visitors about the golden age of Hong Kong's undercover films. The exhibition runs from August 1 to October 5. Regular tickets cost HK$25, with concession tickets priced at HK$15. Children aged 4 or below enjoy free admission. Tickets can be purchased through Klook, whereas limited tickets are available for on-site purchase at G/F, Block 01, Police Headquarters Block, Tai Kwun.
