Life

The afternoon smoke is stifling and 16 of us shelter inside, with all windows and doors firmly shut. The visibility plummets to 10m and the blanketing smoke turns the air an ominous blood-red. I wonder if this is what hell looks like, when suddenly things get worse. It takes 10 minutes for smoke to completely […]

As prices of bak kwa (barbecued sliced pork) continue to soar – tipping $62 a kg at bak kwa specialist Lim Chee Guan – and the queues to bag some grow more epic each day, perhaps it is time to take a look at alternatives. And they are plenty to choose from this year, from […]

Steamboat is a popular reunion dinner option, especially for those who do not have time to whip up a feast. Dipping sauces are an integral part of the hot pot experience and we have all been spoilt by the array offered at steamboat restaurants. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. […]

LITTLE WOMEN (PG) 135 minutes/ 4 stars There have been several movie adaptations of the classic Louisa May Alcott novel. The latest brings a jolt of energy to a story set in 19th-century Massachusetts, making it spring to life in a way that sets the standard for period drama. The story opens with the March […]

Famed Hong Kong dessert chain Hui Lau Shan – best known for its mango desserts – is back in Singapore, after closing its Orchard Road store 15 years ago. Its first outlet opened on Wednesday at Nex, followed by two more to open soon at Chinatown Point and Jem mall. Highlights on the menu include […]

ONE DANCE PRESENTS MADEON Even before French DJ-producer Madeon released his debut album in 2015, the wunderkind had been invited to play four major American music festivals in 2012, including Ultra Music Festival and Coachella. Off the back of his second album Good Faith – which was released in November last year and debuted on […]

SMALL’S BIG FLAVOURS After a rocking 12-course meal at chef Bjorn Shen’s new four-seat micro restaurant, we kick around some ways to describe what we just had. Doughmakase is my contribution. My colleague Eunice Quek has a better one – doughgustation. Small’s, which occupies a pocket-sized space at Shen’s restaurant, Artichoke, celebrates dough. He ferments […]

TAN SIAH KWEE’S CALLIGRAPHY EXHIBITION The Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore and Singapore Cultural Studies Society are jointly presenting a solo Chinese calligraphy exhibition featuring 100 works by Professor Tan Siah Kwee, a Cultural Medallion recipient. Prof Tan, 71, is also the president of the Chinese Calligraphy Society of Singapore, as well as the founder […]

NEW YORK• The people at Pantone know that times are hard. “Many of us,” the colour company said in a recent presentation, feel anxious, “completely overloaded and perpetually stressed”. The antidote, according to Pantone’s swatch psychologists? Blue. Specifically: Classic Blue. For the 21st consecutive year, Pantone has named a colour of the year, a trend-forecasting […]

WASHINGTON • The design world always has an “in” colour it embraces as its neutral. It is the colour you see painted inside spec houses and rentals and popularised in catalogues and online. While white is always a neutral fallback, beige was favoured in the early 2000s. For the past 10 years, it has been […]

In his early days as a collector of Star Wars toys, Mr Derek Ho was shocked when a friend spent $150 on a Revenge Of The Jedi proof card – a piece of draft packaging with the original title of the 1983 film later known as Return Of The Jedi. “I said, ‘Are you crazy? […]

PETER PAN IN SERANGOON GARDENS The Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre, Wild Rice@Funan/Wednesday Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Learn more about ST PREMIUM. Enjoy unlimited access to ST’s best work Exclusive stories and features on multiple devices In-depth analyses and opinion pieces ePaper and award-winning multimedia content

HAOCHEN ZHANG PLAYS MOZART  Singapore Symphony Orchestra – Thomas Dausgaard (conductor), Haochen Zhang (piano)  Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Learn more about ST PREMIUM. Enjoy unlimited access to ST’s best work Exclusive stories and features on multiple devices In-depth analyses and opinion pieces ePaper and award-winning multimedia content

SHANGHAI • Zhejiang Television has cancelled its Chase Me reality show in the wake of Godfrey Gao’s death. The Taiwan-born Canadian model-actor died on Nov 27 in Ningbo, China. He was then tackling a run in the show that poses challenges to participants. His body is now back in Taiwan for a funeral on Dec […]

LONDON • Two decades after the Internet changed everything, magazines mostly have yet to figure out how to thrive in a digital world. They have either retreated from print altogether or appear on newsstands infrequently. Titles once so culturally influential have been supplanted by social media and blogs, and are sometimes so thin with advertising […]

Two additions to the bar scene are breathing new life into locations rich in history. Along Keong Saik Road – once known for its sordid past as home to brothels from the 1960s to 1980s – all-day bar, coffeehouse and restaurant No Sleep Club, which opened in October, has put a modern spin on a […]

Just six months after moving into its new home in Telok Ayer Street in 2010, the Taoist Mission (Singapore) had to move out. The Keng Teck Whay building – built in the 19th-century and gazetted as a national monument in 2009 – was declared unsafe for occupancy after a picture showing its damaged roof rafters […]

Mr Nicholas Teoh and Ms Chew Ru Shan purchased this three-bedroom apartment in a condominium development that is more than two decades old. They instantly saw the potential of the unit in spite of its age. It had a rather dated look, but the loft layout – with two bedrooms and a study spread over […]

PARIS • A richly embroidered jacket by Yves Saint Laurent, inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting, was sold at auction on Wednesday for €382,000 (S$574,000). The amount was a record for a garment from the French designer. The jacket, which was once worn on the catwalk by supermodel Naomi Campbell, had been expected to […]

When Chinese science-fiction writer Stanley Chen Qiufan was growing up in Guangdong province, there was a town near where he lived that existed solely on trash. The town of Guiyu was the world’s dumping ground for electronic waste. An army of workers, mostly poor migrants from other parts of China, stripped computers, circuit boards and […]

FICTION SUPERNOVA ERA By Liu Cixin Translated by Joel Martinsen Tor Books/ Paperback/ 348 pages/$29.95/ Books Kinokuniya 3.5 stars In a flash of blinding light, a supernova showers the planet with radiation that deals irreversible damage to all human beings. Only children, whose chromosomes still retain the ability to repair themselves, will survive the event. […]

He has conjured demons and dark fates in his creepy tales, but Malaysian horror writer Tunku Halim is scared of dogs. “I’m not talking just about big dogs which might bite, but cute little poodles too,” says the self-avowed cynophobe in an e-mail interview. The 55-year-old, who has been described as “the Stephen King of […]

FICTION THE WATER DANCER By Ta-Nehisi Coates One World/Paperback/406 pages/ $29.96/Books Kinokuniya 4 stars There has been a lot of debate of late over whether Marvel movies count as cinema. Now, American writer Ta-Nehisi Coates has produced a novel that combines the slave narrative with the superhero genre – and the result is unquestionably spectacular […]

1 MARABU – THE FIRST RIPPLE Dance and theatre come together in Marabu – The First Ripple, the first part of a trilogy by Bhaskar’s Arts Academy. The production is set during the height of the Srivijayan empire and traces the passage of the Indian community from India to the Malay peninsula. Veteran artist Santha […]

NANJING • There have been reports of chopsticks and wet wipes supposedly used by celebrities that were later put up for sale. Now, even a drip bag – said to be used by Singapore singer JJ Lin – has been offered for sale online. Lin, 38, who was in Zhenjiang city in China’s Jiangsu province […]

Disney’s highly anticipated animated film Frozen II will be released only on Nov 22. But fans can get a sneak peek at its concept art and animation drawings at Disney: Magic Of Animation. Some 15 never-before-seen works are among more than 500 archival artefacts on display here at the ArtScience Museum till March 29 next […]

Loneliness is as wide as space and as small and close as the human heart in The Far Side Of The Moon. The dream-like play by Canadian auteur Robert Lepage makes its Singapore premiere on Friday at the Esplanade Theatre. Amid its many technical marvels – a moving mirror as wide as the stage, a […]

I’m not a big fan of horror movies. I admit I’m a bit of a wimp – you won’t find me riding on a roller coaster or going bungee jumping either. Blood and chainsaws turn me off and I can’t bring myself to sit through South-east Asian tales of vengeful spirits and pontianak – vampiric […]

There is a party going on in the rehearsal studio of the Singapore Dance Theatre (SDT). Dancers are grooving to the strains of 1950s jazz singer Dinah Washington’s Such A Night, taking turns in the centre as if in a dance-off at a club. “Make it wild,” calls Australian choreographer Lucas Jervies as they fling […]