That's Guangzhou - June 2018 by That's - Pulse of The City

城市漫步珠三角英文版 06月份

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The Art and Science Behind Winning Over JUNE 2018

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M EA T S

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that’s PRD 《城市漫步》珠江三角洲英文月刊

主管单位 : 中华人民共和国国务院新闻办公室 Supervised by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China 主办单位 : 五洲传播出版社地址 : 北京西城月坛北街 26 号恒华国际商务中心南楼 11 层文化交流中心 11th Floor South Building, Henghua lnternational Business Center, 26 Yuetan North Street, Xicheng District, Beijing http://www.cicc.org.cn 社长 President: 陈陆军 Chen Lujun 期刊部负责人 Supervisor of Magazine Department: 付平 Fu Ping 编辑 Editor: 朱莉莉 Zhu Lili

发行 Circulation: 李若琳 Li Ruolin

Editor-in-Chief Matthew Bossons Shenzhen Editor Adam Robbins Guangzhou Editor Daniel Plafker Shenzhen Digital Editor Bailey Hu Senior Staff Writer Tristin Zhang National Arts Editor Erica Martin Contributors Lena Gidwani, Bryan Grogan, Cassandra Gu, Ned Kelly, Mia Li, Erica Martin, Dominic Ngai, Dominique Wong

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Editor's Note

JUNE 2018

Like many folks who find themselves living a half-day’s flight from their family and friends, on another continent, in a foreign land, it was a love of travel that brought me to South China. It’s been three-and-a-half years since I moved here, and in that time Guangzhou has cemented itself as a second home. Now, at times, life here doesn’t seem so exotic anymore and when vacation time rolls around, I often find myself browsing photos of stunning South Pacific beaches, rugged Himalayan peaks and the stunning Islamic architecture of Central Asia. With summer now upon us (and summer vacation, for those of our readers working in the education industry), we’ve chosen to devote this month’s cover story to all things travel. On pages 46-49, I share 10 ‘dream destinations’ in the Asia-Pacific region, as chosen by three China-based travel industry veterans. Dominic Ngai, editor-in-chief at That’s Shanghai, explores how domestic tech trends are shaping the way young Chinese people travel on pages 38-43, and we offer some exciting package tours on page 44. Before I wrap this up and let you carry on to the ‘meat’ of this issue, I want to note that we are now taking pre-orders for the second edition of our Explore China travel guide, which will be published later this summer. Flip to page 37 to reserve your copy now! Until next month, PRDers,

Matthew Bossons

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38 COVER STORY

6 CITY

CHINA ON THE MOVE

7 QUEEN OF CLEAN

The art and science behind winning over digital-savvy chinese millennial travelers.

Of mice and the men’s room.

14 SZUMMER PRIDE Celebrating LGBT lives in the PRD.

18 HOT ON TAOBAO Star Wars lightsaber

umbrella.

20 INSIDE OUT

64 EVENTS

THE WRAP

16 LIFE & STYLE

Gutting and redesigning an old fishing village house.

JUN 8-9 Scenes from a Marriage

28 ARTS 29 DIRTY FINGERS Shanghai’s rowdiest punk rockers on staying DIY and touring the world.

JUN 18

36 SHENZHEN ZEN

Secondhand Rose

Life, love and misadventure in the Middle Kingdom.

54 EAT & DRINK 58 SCRUMPTIOUS IN XIAOBEI

MAY 18-20 Akram Khan's Giselle

Eating our way through a United Nations of flavor.

60 PANDAN A sublime comeback. 4 | GZ | JUNE 2018 | WWW.THATSMAGS.COM

JUN 29-30 Celine Dion

CITY

City Snapshot P8 6 | GZ | JUNE 2018 | WWW.THATSMAGS.COM

Pen to Paper

The winners of the That's PRD Writing Contest, p10

SZUMMER Pride P14

(WO)MAN ON THE STREET

QUEEN OF CLEAN Of Mice and the Men’s Room By Matthew Bossons

ublic washrooms in China are by no means known for their ‘loiter-ability.’ Although we presume there are exceptions out there, they tend to smell bad (often a combo of human waste and burn-yournostrils industrial cleaners) and the sight of a steaming pile of feces resting in an unflushed squatty-potty is not uncommon. For most, visiting a roadside public restroom is a trip that is only undertaken when ‘nature calls’ and there are no other options within the immediate area. For others, a day spent at a community toilet is just another day on the job. Ms. Wang moved from Hunan to Guangzhou five years ago and has spent the past five months working as a sanitation worker at a dingy public washroom on Jianshe Wu Malu. She arrives at work each morning at 8.30am and the

THE DIRTY DETAILS Monthly income: RMB4,000 Days per week: 6

Hours per day: 12 situation inside the lavatories is grim. They’ve been unattended since 11pm the night before, when Wang finished the previous day’s 12-hour shift. (Wang enjoys a two-and-a-halfhour lunch and nap break). In her absence, human waste and discarded sanitary pads have festered, unchallenged, all night long and the morning stench is horrendous. With mop and bucket in hand, she sets to work cleaning. First it’s the men’s toilets, which, she tells us, are always the dirtier of the two gendersegregated washrooms. After that she tackles the women’s side of the facility. If cleaning up the urine, crap, alcohol-scented vomit and blood of others bothers Wang, it certainly doesn’t show – nor does she complain about it. The soft-spoken Hunanren has only one complaint: the washroom’s

water pressure is often subpar, something she attributes to the water consumption habits of the folks in the apartments above the public lavatory. She muses aloud that her job would likely be easier with higher water pressure. When asked if she works alone, Wang nods and tells us that her job is a solo one. Although she has regular visitors: men from a washroomless warehouse located nearby stop in often to use the facility, as well as boozers at a beer bottle shop across the road. There is also a rat, who emerges from

the washroom’s piping in the evenings to scrounge for food. Wang tells us that the city sanitation department has provided her with poison to dispatch the rodent, but so far it has failed to work. “The poison is supposed to be nontoxic and not dangerous to humans, which is good,” says Wang. “The problem is it appears the poison is not dangerous to rats either.” Like the stench and grime, though, the rat doesn’t appear to bother or disgust Wang in the way one might assume. Maybe she has grown used to it, having previously worked on the sanitation team in an office building – a job she ranks lower than her current cleaning gig on Jianshe Wu Malu. “As a public sector job, I get to enjoy public holidays,” says Wang. “This allows time to visit my hometown in Hunan.” WWW.THATSMAGS.COM | JUNE 2018 | GZ | 7

THE BUZZ RANDOM NUMBER

… G. As in, forget 4G because 5G is coming to a Chinese city near you! That's right, super fast data speeds will soon be at your fingertips. China's three major telecommunications providers officially rolled out plans to test fifth generation (5G) network capabilities in some pilot cities late in April. Just how fast is 5G? As Sina notes, data can be carried over 5G networks up to 10 times faster than 4G networks. At those speeds, a high definition movie can be downloaded within just a second, while a 30-gigabyte Blu-ray film can be transmitted in just 18.75 seconds. Additionally, wireless data delays will drop to just one millisecond. The country's first commercial 5G station (operated by China Unicom) is expected to open in Shandong in the second half of this year, while all pilot work is set to be completed by 2019.

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THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

The PRC Gets the H-Bomb On June 17, 1967, the People’s Republic of China announced a successful hydrogen bomb test, becoming the world’s fourth thermonuclear power after the US, Soviet Union and UK – but ahead of France. Dropped at 7am from a Hong-6 jet bomber over the Lop Nur Test Base in southeastern Xinjiang, the H-bomb was parachute-retarded for an airburst at 2,960 meters and had an explosive power 150 times that of the atomic bomb used by the US on Hiroshima at the end of WWII. China made fast progress in developing nuclear weapons in the 1960s, committed to breaking the superpowers’ monopoly on nuclear technology and to ensure Chinese security against Soviet and US threats. Over a 32-month period, the PRC tested its first atomic bomb (October 16, 1964), launched its first nuclear missile (October 25, 1966) and detonated the H-bomb. By comparison, the time between the US’s

CITY SNAPSHOT

fission-to-fusion – its first atomic test to first hydrogen bomb test – was 86 months, for the USSR it was 75 months, for the UK 66 months and for France – later on – 105 months. While China had received extensive technical help from the Soviet Union to jump-start their nuclear program, by as early as 1960 the rift between the the two communist superstates had become so great that the Soviet Union ceased all assistance to China. China’s total nuclear arsenal size today is estimated to range anywhere between 240 nuclear weapons to as many as 3,000 warheads, all hidden within an extensive tunnel system referred to as the ‘Underground Great Wall.’

PRDers, meet Rachel Weiss, an American expat killing it on Instagram under the handle @rachelmeetschina. This month’s featured image comes from her online collection of colorful travel photos and profiles Lotus Hill in Guangzhou’s Panyu District. Lotus Hill is perhaps most famous for its ancient quarry, which dates back to the Western Han Dynasty (221-207 BCE). For more stunning travel shots from around China and Asia at large, follow Rachel on Instagram.

CIT Y | F E AT URE

PEN TO PAPER The Winners of the That’s PRD Writing Contest Spring 2018

n early April, we called upon our readers to submit their best written work in our second-ever That’s PRD Writing Contest. Much like our inaugural literary competition back in 2016, we received a huge number of submissions from folks across the Pearl River Delta, with genres ranging from travel writing and nonfiction stories to poetry and fun, fictional adventures. On May 19, we invited 15 finalists to join us in Guangzhou and share their work with a live audience – and a panel of judges made up of three prominent PRD-based journalists – at Atlas Coffee in Zhujiang New Town. The event was a huge success and at its conclusion, three writers were honored for their works and brilliant presentations. But before we share our judge’s top three picks, we want to sincerely thank everyone who participated in this year’s event: without your creative minds, this contest and subsequent reading event would not have been possible. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough space in the following pages to publish all the great stories we received, but keep an eye on thatsmags.com for additional written works selected by our editorial team!

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F E AT URE | CIT Y

ORCHIDS

Thomas Thorogood First Place Winner and Audience Choice Winner Guangzhou

And I wonder if she is bones yet if the dress she was buried in hangs loose now

nothing left of the vessel that held her voice through a payphone in Andorra and my breath was frozen

she stood in a neighbour’s doorway asking if it’s normal to go numb

to eulogise her absurd rationalising someone so bursting with life that

her family; mum, dad, brother abroad, two dogs named after English castles

in memoriam, every story entwined with her has finished. Rare orchids grow on the warren they’re fenced away the sun sets on the estuary and this woman in the dunes.

I’d never been stunned by love like that to see beauty imbued

and now I want to tear the orchids up from the root and grind them between the tors of the moor

I want this whole Jurassic coast to fall into the sea

since maybe it was me that killed her

maybe my panicked chemical spite spread like poison and grew in her brain

just months to prepare.

They call it survivor’s guilt but seems more a cruel joke that she ends and, as wretched as I am, I continue. A grave in Ivybridge with nothing in it but bones and rags and so and so I do continue

and, older now than she will ever be, her truth is held in fallible thoughts

her boots on the moor her script in the book

the first time we undressed each other and soaked in each other’s bodies

I ached with love

an ache she set into my bones it is in my marrow I feel her in the cold.

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CIT Y | F E AT URE

MEAT BUNS X

Naomi Lounsbury Second Place Winner Guangzhou

iaoli wanted meat buns. They were her weakness. She had been a fat child, so she'd learned to like chicken feet and Chinese cabbage and sweet potato leaves and to drink plain green tea and do all these things that traditional Chinese culture demands. When she went home to her family, they commented on how thin and pretty she was, but secretly, she would sell her own soul for the chance to eat as many of the spicy beef meat buns as she could without gaining weight. She worked in a real estate office across from the Lujiang Metro Station and knew that 50 meters from her was a meat bun shop. At quarter to noon, she messaged her boss who worked in the desk next to her, going to grab a bun from the shop across the way. He nodded, not looking up from his phone. Her boss didn't care. There weren't any clients today. She wandered across the street to stand in line at the meat bun shop. The shop always had a special on, four buns for RMB6, but she never bought four. "One beef bun." She played on her phone as she ordered. She paid with WeChat and grabbed the bun. She pulled the plastic bag down and took a bite while juggling her phone in her hand. She closed her eyes for a second, enjoying the flavor, then intuition kicked in as she felt a tug at her phone. Her eyes snapped open as a boy, no more than 15 and in a school uniform, grabbed her phone and started running. The quick action dislodged the meat bun from her hands and it fell to the ground. She had 12 | GZ | JUNE 2018 | WWW.THATSMAGS.COM

but a moment to mourn and then she picked it up and started chasing the thief. "Hey, motherf*cker!" Xiaoli was never rude but sometimes the situation called for it. She chased him around the corner, onto Xiadu Lu, holding the meat bun. He was fast but she was angry and not because of the phone. She watched as he weaved through people ahead, so she jumped off the sidewalk and ran next to the cars. A little more dangerous, but she didn't care. Five meters. Four. Why didn't he turn down a side road? He looked back and his eyes widened when he realized how close she was. She grabbed the collar of his shirt with her free hand and he tumbled to the ground. She let go before he took her with him. “How dare you?” she hissed as she started kicking him, out of breath and sweaty. She still had the meat bun in her hand. “You want to steal my phone and make me drop my f*cking meat bun?” She putted him one more time for good measure, grabbed her phone and turned around.

He stayed down.

She walked back to the office, still a little angry about the thieving teenager who made her drop her meat bun. She walked through the door of the office and her boss was still staring at his phone. "You're back quick," he said without looking up. “Yeah, I'm going to go nap.”

THE NATURE OF MAN

F E AT URE | CIT Y

Franklin Foster Third Place Winner Guangzhou

I got a boulder on my mind And I can’t take the shit

I step outside looking for a shady place to sit

Sit in the grass with some grass, try to break it in The world should be cool…

Since there’s so much shadiness

I notice more snakes every time I take a hit The world is full of them…

Hard to find someone that ain’t been bit

Only a few blades of grass can really break cement And that could change your life Depending how you take it in

Because, Malcolm X was one

That grew and left streets with dents So I’d be happy to walk through The pastures he went

But when I begin, I’m taken by the wind Something I can’t see moving

Whenever it makes the trees bend Watching ants crawl

Wishing my family could live like that Fall in perfect line with each other And just chill like that

Build a colony of our own…

Wish we could live like that

It’s crazy how a bunch of bugs

Can make me feel like that… damn

But on some real life shit I need green to live

On some chlorophyll type shit

That’s why I really need a deal right quick

So instead of looking for jobs

I still write hits…

Smell of manure make me feel like shit

They say you reap what you sow

What can I give my kids? Shit…

As of now

A lot of pain, a lot of brains

Not a lot of change

But I promise I’m not ashamed

I just need my plants properly arranged

And in order for it to grow

It’ll need a lot of rain

Shit, if I can survive the hurricane

And my life is dirt now

That means I got a lot to gain

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CIT Y | F E AT URE

SZUMMER PRIDE

Celebrating LGBT Lives in the PRD

"Pride is a time for people from all walks of life to come together and celebrate what makes us different."

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t is getting better for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in China. Slowly. For every stumble (like censorship on Weibo) there’s a step in the right direction (like the public support that reversed the decision). But free expression online can’t replace real-life community, where people can pierce the isolation to feel connected and whole. That’s where groups like SZUMMER PRIDE (SZP) come in. Now in its third year, the Shenzhen-based LGBT celebration enjoys the proud support of That’s PRD and businesses across the city. “Pride is a time for people from all walks of life to come together and celebrate what makes us different,” Alex McCutcheon, one of the organizers, tells us. “We create spaces where you can be yourself, no matter who you are or who you love.” The organizers take inspiration from celebrations like Guangzhou’s PRiDe, with which they share resources and recruit guests for events like the Wet & Wild parties taking over a Xichong beach resort during Dragon Boat weekend. It was a visit to PRiDe that inspired McCutcheon and Alessandro Nicolau to launch SZP with a pool party for 80 in the summer of 2016. Despite a few hiccups – “issues like the original venue suddenly becoming unavailable, torrential rains during site setup and even performers getting stuck in traffic,” McCutcheon recalls – it’s grown to a month of festivities. Besides the two-day beach party with fashion shows, gifts, international DJs and gogo boys, there are parties on June 22 and 23 for those who want to burn up the dance floor. But there are now quieter events too, like an art exhibit and a day for families. Details for each event, including exact location, will be made known as the dates approach. “In 2017 we started to experiment with creating spaces where the LGBT community can interact meaningfully with other residents of our city,” McCutcheon explains, “and reactions ranged from indifference to curiosity to outspoken support for the happiness and dignity of LGBT people. Of course there have been certain businesses who found it difficult to support us for various reasons, but there are many more who have been proud to stand by us and support us as we grow.” Help the PRD’s LGBT community grow: scan the QR to learn more and join in this year’s fun.

E D I T O R . P R D @ U R B A N A T O M Y. C O M

URBAN DICTIONARY

Pin die/ pīn diē / 拼爹 verb. To compete for more social status and wealth using one's father's social status and wealth Look at Little Zhang. He is the CEO of a big company at the age of 26.

Look up who his father is and you’ll understand.

Oh, wow, he is winning the game of pin die.

Do you still believe the Western liberal propaganda of “life is a blank canvas”? Snap out of it. Life is a relay race on a single track of wealth and status, with the baton being passed from one generation to the next. What to you strive towards in life? The pursuit of happiness? Looking good in front of family and friends and at high school reunions? Bad idea! The real purpose of life is to take the baton from your father and run as fast as you can with the single purpose of delivering it to your offspring at a slightly more advantaged point. If your father had fallen behind, you work hard so your son can have a chance at the race. If your father was already in the front, you live to expand his advantage. We live in a world where any success can be traced to the endeavors of past generations, making social status and wealth a multi-generational project. There wouldn't be Donald Trump without Fred, for example. There wouldn’t be Ivanka without Donald. Many generations later, the starting points for every one of us are so far apart that our lives are, to a large degree, determined by where we got the baton—whether we were born in big cities or the countryside, whether we go to a public or private school, or whether we can inherit a multi-million dollar corporation right out of college. Literally meaning “to compete using father,” pin die is the exercise of using one’s father’s achievements to compete with others for upward mobility. It happens when people ask you what your father does when you attend elementary school, when you apply for universities, and when you apply for job openings. Sometimes it feels like who your father is matters more than who you are, because by now the status gap of the last generation has already exceeded what one can make up for in a lifetime. Don’t have a rich and famous dad? Be that dad to your son! Failing that, you can blame all your failures on your father. Great news all around. Mia Li

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LIFE

P HO T O E S S AY | CI T Y

CI T Y | P HO T O E S S AY

STYLE Daytripper

Shaoguan's Danxia Mountains, p19

A Breif, Hairy History of China P24

SPOTLIGHT

YANG FANG

Designer and Founder, by FANG Interview by Dominic Ngai

After studying in France, fashion designer Yang Fang returned to her home country to establish her own label, by FANG, in 2013. Since then, Yang’s deep appreciation for traditional craftsmanship has become her signature style, and handcrafted origami elements and feminine lines are commonly featured in her couture and ready-to-wear collections. We caught up with her to see how the experience of becoming a mother has inspired her latest work. How would you describe your style of design? Artistic and minimalistic. Less is often more when it comes to design. Being able to simultaneously develop a couture line (Atelier by FANG) and a ready-to-wear line (by FANG) puts an emphasis on delicate craftsmanship that requires great attention to details, and uniqueness and elegance are achieved with these fine details. Tell us about the SS18 collection, and how has your newborn baby inspired the design.

It is a very special and personal collection. I worked on it shortly after giving birth to my first baby girl, Maeli. As a woman and a mom, there are very strong emotions involved in this moment in my life, and this collection is strongly influenced by this special energy. You also mentioned that the new collection reminds you of your bond with your mother. Is there an example that best illustrates this?

The floral, garden-inspired pattern designed for this collection brings back memories of

“Uniqueness and elegance are achieved with fine details” the many holidays spent in our family house. My mom and I would spend hours playing and talking outside, and there were these giant butterflies around us all the time. What’s the experience of working on the Asia Swarovski Collective like?

FW18 was our sixth consecutive season collaborating with Swarovski. I really enjoy this partnership because it offers unlimited creative freedom, and there are so many intriguing elements to play with. There is also a perfect connection between Swarovski crystals and our style of design and respect for craftsmanship. Between your couture and ready-to-wear collections, what elements of the design process do you enjoy most?

Couture and ready-to-wear are very different animals, but I feel very lucky to be able to work on both. Where design is concerned, couture is a more intimate process with a lot of freedom and time to create, while ready-towear is a faster process with more functional

and commercial constraints. I enjoy finding a bridge between the two, which is something we like to describe to as ‘couture à porter.’ The ideal situation is to have both lines complement each other by sharing a common design ethic and brand DNA. Are you working on anything new at the moment and what are your plans for the rest of 2018?

We just released the second season of our collaboration with [lingerie label] Sangluo. Most of our focus now is on the Atelier by FANG Couture ‘Maison,’ which we just opened in January in the former French Concession. We are still in soft opening and fine-tuning some decoration details, but the space is pretty amazing. We also have more big projects in the pipeline near the end of this year, including a by FANG flagship store in Shanghai.

See more of Yang Fang’s work on www.by-fang. com

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STYLE RADAR TAP THAT APP

OVERHEARD

Rakuten Global Market So you’ve heard of Alibaba, Amazon and eBay, but have you heard of Rakuten? According to Technode, this littleknown Japanese e-commerce giant has become wildly popular in the Middle Kingdom, with Chinese customers spending JPY1 billion in 2016 alone on merchandise from the online supermarket. Thanks to partnerships with host supermarkets JD.com and Netease, Rakuten has finally managed to penetrate into China’s notoriously difficult e-commerce marketplace, after having pulled their store from Baidu in 2012. What makes this application so appealing for English-speakers is the bright, clean and accessible interface, all laid out in easy to understand English. Taobao translation website Baopals is certainly a godsend, but it ain’t got nothing on Rakuten Global Market. Japan has rightly become renowned as a center for streetwear and clothing culture in recent years and mainstay fashion brands such as Supreme, A Bathing Ape and many more are widely available throughout the Rakuten App. The wealth of clothing options stored throughout the Rakuten online supermarket will certainly appeal to many, but you can also find your favorite electronic gizmos, long sought-after make-up brands and even a wide variety of cup ‘a’ noodles. Part of what makes Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba so unique is their brilliant financial tech innovation – Alipay. Rakuten itself is hitting headlines for financial ingenuity world wide, as the company recently revealed that it would start its own cryptocurrency – called Rakuten Coin – though that will certainly not be available in China. Nonetheless, if you are in possession of a Union Pay card you needn’t worry about lack of access, Rakuten accepts all major credit cards as well as Paypal and Alipay. Rakuten Global Market is compatible with iOS and Android devices. Visit global.rakuten.com/ en/ for more info.

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“We sincerely apologize for this unintentional error, and are conducting an internal review”

… so says Gap in an official apology posted on Weibo. Its infamous map snafu started when a Chinese netizen who was shopping at a Gap outlet in Canada shared a photo of a T-shirt featuring an incomplete map of China that neglected to include Taiwan and islands in the South China Sea. To defuse the situation, the American fashion label quickly issued an official statement apologizing for the mistake, adding that they’ve pulled the T-shirt in question from the Chinese market, and that the company fully respects China’s territorial integrity.

HOT ON TAOBAO

Star Wars Lightsaber Umbrella A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... The planets of Guangzhou and Shenzhen are known for their subtropical monsoon climate. Heavy precipitation is common during the wet season, which runs from May to September, and in this galac- tic quadrant a well-crafted umbrella is essential for surviving the frequent squalls. Equip yourself to battle the downpour with this lightsaber bumbershoot, which lights up with the distinctive red glow of Lord Vader’s laser sword (or blue, for those who shun the Dark Side). The canopy, once open, is generously wide, allowing you to walk unhindered through the elements as if the Force itself was shielding you from the rain. The outside

of the canopy prominently displays the iconic Star Wars logo, while the inside boasts long white streaks inspired by the films’ famous hyperspace scenes. A power button at the bottom of the lightsaber hilt illuminates the shaft, powered by two AA batteries. This umbrella is sure to keep you dry while en route to catch the newest Star Wars anthology film, Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is currently wowing audiences across China. May the Force be with you on your quest to stay dry and look fly!

RMB388 Star Wars Lightsaber Umbrella; available on taobao.com (search 星球大战光剑伞 xing qiu da zhan guang jian san)

E D I T O R . P R D @ U R B A N A T O M Y. C O M

DAYTRIPPER

Shaoguan’s Danxia Mountains “It is most beautiful because it is natural.” The inscrutable statement appears on signs throughout the Danxia Mountains in a declaration that’s hard to argue with. The stunning splendor of this red-tinged hikers’ paradise is so unique in Guangdong that it constitutes the sole UNESCO Natural Heritage Site in the southern province. Situated in the northern Guangdong city of Shaoguan, this beguiling range of karst-like mountains boasts steep cliffs, lush trails and fresh, clean air. Though popular with visitors year-round, its massive size and numerous trails mean it’s rarely overwhelmed by crowds. Upon arriving at the gate of the scenic area, you’ll likely be approached by scalpers offering discounted tickets for entry.

Decline the sketchier touts but do take advantage of the favorable pricing on more plausible offers as long as you have no need of tax receipts. Full-price tickets sell for RMB150 at the ticket office and grant you passage to both of the geopark’s main scenic areas. The Danxia Mountains take their name from the Chinese word for ‘rosy clouds.’ It’s a reference to the spectacular sunset and sunrise views from atop the mountains’ dramatic peaks, as well as the reddish stone that makes up their cliffs and ridges. Of the park’s two main scenic areas, Zhanglao Mountain is the more popular and approachable peak, boasting a ‘Sunrise Pavilion’ which is perfect for camping and, on a clear day, offers splendid views of the rosepink dawn. Even in thick mist and heavy clouds, chirping birds and the mystical silhouette of the far-off ridges make for a contemplative vista. En route to the peak, hikers pass through a Buddhist temple, calligraphic inscriptions etched into massive, multicolored cliffs and can detour to visit a historic Taoist shrine. On your descent,

be sure to stop off at the famed Yinyuan Stone, a natural rock formation that bears a striking resemblance to an enormous human vulva. Cross a narrow valley on foot or by complimentary bus ride towards the neighboring Yangyuan Stone Scenic Area. The elegant Jin River, which can be toured by boat, winds its way between the two and a tightly clustered village bristles with simple restaurants serving delicious homestyle Hakka fare. The Yangyuan Stone Mountain is less lofty, but the climbing here is considerably more strenuous. A narrow path of steps is carved crudely from a truly steep cliff face, through rocky passages scarcely wider than two adult hikers standing abreast. The main draw here is the Yangyuan Stone, a soaring column of phallic rock bearing an indisputable likeness to an erect penis. Ximei Fortress crowns the peak: a crumbling Ming Dynasty redoubt built by a despotic feudal tyrant from a nearby village that serves as an ideal place to admire a rosy sunset and enjoy a well-earned rest. TZ

How to get there: Guangzhou: Take a one-hour fast train (RMB105) at Guangzhou South Railway Station to Shaoguan Railway Station. From there, take a shuttle bus (RMB21) to Danxiashan (Mount Danxia). Shenzhen: Take a fast train at Futian Station (RMB186) or Shenzhen North Railway Station (RMB179) to Shaoguan Railway Station in less than two hours.

WWW.THATSMAGS.COM | JUNE 2018 | GZ | 19

LIFE & STYLE | ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

INSIDE OUT

Gutting and Redesigning an Old Fishing Village House Words by Dominic Ngai, Photos by Hou Bowen

Project name: Jiangshan Fishing Village Renovation Location: Gaochun District, Nanjing Area: 385 square meters Design company: Mix Architecture The brief: As residents continue to migrate to urban areas around China, Nanjing’s Gaochun district enlisted Mix Architecture to conduct renovations for some of the abandoned houses and decaying public facilities in an aging fishing community. In the first phase of the project, the design firm converted a 385-square-meter old village house into a spacious library and private residence with modernized interiors. Designers at Mix Architecture made extensive changes to the house’s original layout with the goal of turning it into one large open space. In the middle of the room, guests will find floor-to-ceiling wooden bookcases flanked by columns leftover from its former life.

Looking into the tea pavilion from the courtyard, one can see the designers’ painstaking efforts in creating a harmonious contrast between the minimalistic interiors and the rustic stone exterior.

From the bedroom of the residence wing, a view of the courtyard is nicely framed by the floor-to-ceiling window.

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ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN | LIFE & STYLE

Despite the complete facelift made to the interiors, one of the designers’ main goals for this project was to retain the exterior of the original structure to honor the village’s heritage. Wrapped inside the bookcases is a ‘meditation area’ equipped with a set of skylights to introduce natural light into the space.

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LIFE & STYLE | FASHION

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KATE WOOD RMB288 KATEWOOD.COM MARC JACOBS RMB542 FARFETCH.CN OFF-WHITE RMB778 FARFETCH.CN 4

MARCELO BURLON COUNTY OF MILAN RMB431 FARFETCH.CN BEAMS RMB200 BEAMS.CO.JP 5

A D V E FRETAOTRUI RA EL | L I F E & S T Y L E

CELEBRATING THE LAUNCH OF THMART Get Started with These Awesome Deals Launched in May, thMart is a new one-stop online shopping site that lets customers buy a range of products seamlessly, from anywhere, on the go, with shipping available across the Chinese mainland. It features a wide range of categories, from office products to flowers, so there’s something for everyone! To make things even better, new users can now redeem up to RMB588 worth of vouchers with your purchases throughout the month of June. So if you’re still getting your life summer-ready, this is the place for you! Here are four of thMart’s most popular prouducts for you to get a taste of our vast offerings. Scan the QR code to redeem these coupons, which are valid before July 1.

Emsa FLOW Slim Friends Carafe with Cooling Station, RMB158

Monthly Bouquet Packages, from RMB199-399

Brighten up your home with these colorful sets of elegant bouquets! Starting from just RMB199-399 per month, you’ll get four weekly deliveries of uniquely designed floral arrangements to get your home ready for summer.

Summer means you'll need many cold drinks to combat the heat. Luckily the guys over at Emsa have just what you need. The FLOW carafes come with an integrated cooling element in their stands to keep your drinks refreshingly cool. All you need to do is keep the cooling element in the freezer and use it in the base of the carafe when needed.

Triceratops Puzzle Dig Kit, RMB168

This triceratops-themed dig kit includes a genuine mosasaur tooth, a polished dinosaur bone and some fossilized faeces as well as digging tools. The fossils you will discover are real and millions of years old, and come with a full-color information guide. There’s also a 3D triceratops dinosaur puzzle to assemble and a diorama to display your findings. Perfect for any aspiring palaeontologist!

Midea Tower Fan, RMB329

This high quality fan will be a perfect for the hot and humid days ahead. With an elegant appearance combined with cutting edge design, including a 60-degree flexible wind delivery system and a 7.5 hours timing on/off function, this fan will fit perfectly into any home.

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LIFE & ST YLE | F E AT URE

By Bailey Hu. Images courtesy of Shanghai Library Archives.

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F E AT URE | LIFE & ST YLE

A 'modern woman.' From China (Shanghai), Issue 8, 1932.

Taken by James Ricalton in Beijing, 1900

“Most common outfit of new women during the May Fourth movement.”

From Time, Vol. 6, Issue 4, 1934.

Trendy Shanghai women. From Linglong, Vol. 2 Issue 54, 1932.

“I love short hair. But when I had it, people thought I was a lesbian,” a Chinese acquaintance once told me. She gestured at her straight, shoulder-length locks. “It’s called ‘mama’s hairstyle,’ after daughters who keep their hair long to please their mothers.” Ironic, considering that her mother came of age in an era when short hair was not only normal but sometimes even mandated: during the Cultural Revolution of the ’60s and ’70s, long styles and perms were among the casualties of the fight against capitalist culture. But short hair was trending well before then. As far back as Republican China (19121949), women have been chopping off their manes in the name of social, political and sexual liberation. In a sense, adoption of short styles has both reflected and crystallized a century’s worth of struggle and change for Chinese women. Take a trip down history lane with us as we explore this hairy issue in depth.

New Women and Modern Girls

According to scholar Hung-Yok Ip, less than a decade after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, young female progressives began cutting their luscious locks, leaving behind the styling and ornaments of a now bygone era. The so-called ‘new women’ accompanied the look with plain, sober clothing, symbolizing a novel outlook: that females too could contribute to China’s transformation into a modern nation. Although short-lived, the movement brought a kind of liberation – both physical and psychological – from staid traditions. As a young Mao Zedong put it in 1919, according to Hung-Yok Ip, “If a woman’s head and a man’s head are actually the same… why must women have their hair piled up in those ostentatious and awkward buns?” Not long afterward, short hair for women gained even more traction, but for very different reasons: bobs and glamorous fashions from a world away were winning over young women in China’s big cities.

The fashion-forward, worldly ‘modern girl’ of the early ’30s started flaunting short cuts, sometimes paired with one of the new cheongsams that were more form-fitting than ever before, according to scholar Antonia Finnane. It was liberation of another kind, and it had its detractors. Cartoons made fun of ‘modern’ thighhigh hemlines and the sexual openness they seemed to represent. The ambiguity of the new look made its way into other popular media too: in the classic 1934 film The Goddess, actress Ruan Lingyu plays a single mother who’s both powerful and powerless. Her fashionable appearance – short perm and colorful cheongsam – allows her to attract customers as a sex worker, but they also put her at risk of mockery and exploitation. Despite the drawbacks, the popularity of modern fashions persisted, as some Western observers noted. As late as 1941, a photograph from the International Mission Photography Archive of the Yale Divinity Library was accompanied by this caption: “A year or so ago when 'shingled' hair was the fashion all Chinese girls had short hair although it did not really suit their particular

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LIFE & ST YLE | F E AT URE

A still from the The Goddess (1934)

Ruan Lingyu. From China Female Movie Star Photo Album, Vol. 1 Issue 2, 1934 A “modern” femme fatale. From Wanhuatong, Issue 5, 1946.

style of features.” The writer notes with relief that long hair is once again in vogue, and that “In these days [Chinese women’s] style of hair dressing is as varied as in any other country.”

Liberation Chic

Just over two decades later, though, long locks were taboo. By the ’50s, according to China Daily, extra-short ‘liberation’ bobs had begun making waves among women of the new People’s Republic of China. But the foundation for the fashion was set even before the Communists’ 1949 takeover. In the early ’30s, as Hung-Yok Ip cites, a soldier told new female recruit Lu Guixiu: “Bobbed hair is convenient and sanitary. It is easy to take care of when you are wounded.” Despite reservations, she and other peasant soldiers adopted the new look for its practicality. The less-is-more mentality also pervaded the Long March, which reduced Communist forces to a fraction of their original size. According to Ip, the book The Heroines in the Long March recounts that in the urgency of their flight female soldiers “used their fingers to ‘tidy’ their hair every morning,” having “neither comb nor mirror.” Even after the army made it to the refuge

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of Yan’an, the survivalist-chic look persisted. A ’30s photo shows a young Mao with his fourth wife Jiang Qing, both in military-style garb and haircuts of similar length. Although her uniform shirt is cinched at the waist, it’s still a far cry from the former actress’ carefully-styled appearance on the cover of a movie magazine earlier that decade. A decade into Communist rule, as Antonia Finnane explains it, even Song Ching-ling – Sun Yat-sen’s widow and Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress – had turned in her habitual plain qipao for shirts and pants, a sign of the changing times. But unlike with the ‘new women’ of decades before, Communist women’s androgynous style was accompanied by significant political progress: the landmark Marriage Law of 1950 required both parties’ consent, cracking down on issues such as arranged unions, bigamy and human trafficking. It also raised the marriage age for females and males to 18 and 20, respectively, and affirmed a woman’s right to divorce. Women found their way into the working world as well, John Bauer and other researchers discovered, although they often had to balance jobs with household chores. In their article on gender issues in China, they cite surveys in Nanjing that show that before

Jiang Qing on the cover of Lianhua Huabao in the 1930s

1949, close to 71 percent of women had no employment. Of those married between 1950-65, however, 70.6 percent worked, and over 90 percent of women wedded in the following decade also found jobs.

Cutoff Point

It’s a testament to the power of the perm that only major social upheaval could cut off its popularity. But the doom of heat-induced curls – and too-long hair, and excessive accessories – eventually arrived with a vengeance during the Cultural Revolution. Before 1966, permed waves and hair ribbons weren’t uncommon, Ip states, even among progressive women. Afterwards, however, even medium-length hair risked criticism and rectification at the hands of scissors-wielding Red Guards. At the beginning of his brief essay ‘Cultural Revolution and Hair,’ scholar Gu

F E AT URE | LIFE & ST YLE

Taken by Lee Weekly, 2015 From a 1972 production of Red Detachment of Women, attended by US President Richard Nixon

Nong brings up an anecdote by writer Yang Jiang in which she recalls having half her hair cut off in ‘yin yang’ style during a criticism. Gu, a former Red Guard himself, recalls an ‘unspoken rule’ of the period: ‘one braid is feudalist, two is capitalist, shoulder-length hair is revisionist and all must be swept away.’ By contrast, the pinnacle of revolutionary beauty might be found in The Red Detachment of Women, one of the Eight Model Operas (conceived by Jiang Qing, incidentally) that dominated Chinese entertainment for a decade. The ballet-slash-opera, which features female dancers en pointe wielding rifles, tells the story of peasant woman Wu Qinghua. Wu escapes a tyrannous landlord and learns

to become a valuable member of an allfemale company in the Red Army – a troop of uniform-clad women, all of whom sport short hair.

New Growth

Not long after China’s reform and opening up in 1978, newly receptive Chinese women began adopting hairstyles from around the world. Style influences ranged from ‘disco queen’ Zhang Qiang, who favored a daring afro, to Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung’s sideways ponytail. Short hair lost much of its cachet although the odd celebrity, such as pop star Li Yuchun, continues to champion closecropped cuts. Still, in first-tier cities like Shenzhen or

Guangzhou, it’s not hard to spot women with shorter cuts among a throng of curls, waves, iron-straightened locks and various dye jobs. Huang Bingjie (above, right) is one of them. A year ago, friends and family greeted her decision to chop it all off with surprise, although they’ve since gotten used to it. Huang likes it too, saying she’ll most likely keep her ‘cool’ cut for another two or three years before switching it up. Wendy Zhao, 30, (above, left) is another close-crop adoptee, although she’s since changed her mind and concealed her hair under a wig during the awkward growing-out phase. “A lot of girls want to cut [their hair short]… but they won’t do it if they think it won’t suit them.” Zhao is both fascinated and repulsed by another bold style choice: shaving one’s head. She says she won’t do it, then admits to being curious anyway: “I just don’t know what being bald would feel like. It would be a new experience.” Possibly even liberating. WWW.THATSMAGS.COM | JUNE 2018 | GZ | 27

ARTS Hot Chinese Records Three new homegrown albums on our radar this month, p34

Coming to a Theater Near You P30 28 | GZ | JUNE 2018 | WWW.THATSMAGS.COM

Let the Suuns Shine P32

DRUMROLL

DIRTY FINGERS

Shanghai’s Rowdiest Punk Rockers on Staying DIY and Touring the World By Erica Martin

After shaking up Shanghai’s music scene with their brash and charismatic punk, releasing an album on respected Beijing label Maybe Mars, and completing two whirlwind DIY China tours, Shanghai band Dirty Fingers are putting on a China tour and crowdfunding campaign to raise money for their first world tour. We had a chat with their drummer, a Brazilian expat who goes by Ale Amazonia, about their quest to make personal connections all over the world. Why do you want to do a DIY tour rather than via sponsorship from any record labels or corporate companies? Because we know how to do these things by ourselves. And DIY gives us a better chance to build meaningful relationships with the audience, venues, promoters and bands. It also pushes us to always seek out the next step. The interesting thing is, the more we do things by ourselves and deliver results, the more labels and companies want to collaborate with us. How did you decide on the countries you’re going to visit for the first leg of the world tour? Are you going to Egypt to make your song ‘Trip to Cairo’ a reality?

For the first round of the tour, we wanted to have a feeling of closure and discovery, to do something unexpected and challenging. We are also touring Japan and Korea, which is not that different for us. But the cross-continent part, including Egypt, Brazil and South Africa will be very unprofitable and will give us a lot of room for surprises! Egypt has been very

“We are going to see those brutal pyramids and get those mummies to dance”

hard to connect with, but we are confident that we are going to see those brutal pyramids and get those mummies to dance.

In a promo video, you describe this tour as a way to connect to people outside of the internet. Why is that important to you? As a band, Dirty Fingers is a result of this attitude. We want to be open and learn from other cultures and try to create something together. For us, it’s just natural. It’s the way we automatically operate. We like to see, touch and experience things. Are you working on any new music that you might be including in the tour?

Yes, we already have three songs that are not recorded, but that we play all the time at gigs: ‘Coke,’ ‘Mafia’ and ‘Alleluia!’ With our recording studio, we have more time to process the recordings, add new elements and so on. We also want to record something with local bands in Cambodia, Indonesia and Brazil during the tour.

What are some of your thoughts about the music scene in Shanghai, especially compared to Beijing, where you used to live? Beijing is where the industry is based – art patrons, labels, media, bands, artists, hype makers and huge loads of drama. It’s political, it’s competitive and it can be very toxic. Shanghai is all of this as well, but not in music and art, because the industry is not here. And I think this is very good. People here are more concerned with just having good music and art around. For us as a band, it gives us so much more freedom to just do what we want to do. Tell us in one sentence why people should help support your world tour. We are broke and need your help!

Listen to Dirty Fingers at downloads.maybemars. org/album/howd-i-turn-so-bad. WeChat ID: dirtyfingers WWW.THATSMAGS.COM | JUNE 2018| GZ | 29

COLL AGE

SINO CELEB

COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU

Zhou Dongyu Unlike many actors and actresses who might spend years searching for a breakthrough, Zhou Dongyu got lucky. At the age of 17, she was selected by the famed director Zhang Yimou to star in Under the Hawthorn Tree (2010) despite having no prior acting experience. She played Jingqiu, a high school girl sent to the countryside for reeducation during the Cultural Revolution, who subsequently falls in love with the son of a military general. Zhou won several awards for the role and became a household name overnight. In her early twenties, Zhou had a series of roles that failed to impress Chinese netizens. She remained low-key regarding public criticism, while quietly honing her skills at Beijing Film Academy. Zhou’s performance in Soul Mate (2016) however, a moving tale of tested friendship and redemption in the midst of a love triangle, was a breakthrough. In portraying the rebellious and freewheeling Ansheng, Zhou broke out of her past cycle of depicting “the innocent sweetheart.” She took home a total of five Best Actress Awards for her role in Soul Mate. Critics and audiences alike praised Zhou’s maturity on-screen as she delivered more complex performances. Zhou has since blossomed on China’s silver screen, appearing in over 20 films to date. Her recent works, This Is Not What I Expected (2017) and Us and Them (2018), were instant box office hits. Zhou has attributed her success to landing the right opportunities at the right time, while admitting that she needs to further diversify her role choices in order to reach new heights. Kind of like: Lily Collins Famous for: portraying innocent and quirky sweethearts See her in: Soul Mate (2016)

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Black Water

JUNE 15

JUNE 8

This action flick set on a submarine stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as an undercover operative who wakes up to find he’s been imprisoned by the CIA and must escape. The film’s name is a reference to the military term ‘black site,’ or the location of highly classified activities unacknowledged by a nation’s government. Van Damme’s co-star is Swedish actor and martial artist Dolph Lundren. To the delight of action movie enthusiasts, Black Water is the fifth time Van Damme and Lundren have starred in the same movie, but the first time ever that they’ll be allies instead of antagonists.

HAO BU HAO

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

With all the nail-biting action and irreverent wit of 2015’s Jurassic World, this second installment of the trilogy is set several years later, after the park on Isla Nublar has shut down and dinosaurs roam there freely. When an impending volcanic eruption puts them in danger of going extinct all over again, former park manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) sets up a rescue mission with her boyfriend, dinosaur trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt). In an intriguing indication of China’s growing box office prominence, Fallen Kingdom debuts in domestic theaters here one week before its North American premiere date.

Hao

Cathy Yan has made history by signing on as the first Asian woman to direct a superhero film. Yan will helm an as-yet-untitled movie starring Harley Quinn as played by Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad. The China-born, NYCbased director and former Wall Street Journal reporter’s debut feature, Dead Pigs — a Jia Zhangke-produced dramatization of the 2013 pig incident in Shanghai’s Huangpu River — found acclaim earlier this year after being featured at Sundance.

Bu Hao

Users of the popular video streaming platform Douyin were surprised to discover early last month that over 30,000 videos relating to animated TV show Peppa Pig had been removed, while the hashtag #Peppapig had been blocked. The UK children’s TV show has proven wildly popular in China since it debuted on CCTV in 2015, and later became a viral sensation within certain online subcultures. Several media outlets misreported the event as a complete ban on the lovable cartoon character, but episodes of the animated show are still available on CCTV, Youku, iQiyi and Tencent. This also hasn’t affected plans for Peppa Pig theme parks, which are slated to open in Shanghai and Beijing in 2019.

E D I T O R . P R D @ U R B A N A T O M Y. C O M

Our favorite tracks from artists playing in Guangzhou and Shenzhen this month. For full nightlife and gig listings, visit www.thatsmags.com

‘Stranger’ (2018) Leo Kalyan

‘The Missing Steps’ (2017) Sleep Party People

‘Falla’ (2015) Childs

Featuring the London-based singersongwriter’s soulful vocals on top of lush tunes, this seductive pop gem is about finding a deep connection with a stranger while traveling.

Via dreamy soundscapes and ethereal vocals, the Copenhagen-based multi-instrumentalist creates a hypnotic experience that takes listeners to an otherworldly wonderland.

Drawing on influence from Sigur Ros and Mogwai, this post-rock track opens with soothing acoustic chords, then ascends to a euphoric climax with an uplifting mix of violin, guitar and drums.

‘Surf With Shark’ (2012) Hedgehog

‘Motel’ (2016) never young beach

‘Breeze’ (2001) Sophie Zelmani

The Chinese indie rock trio delivers self-sarcastic humor and youthful restlessness in this punk rock song, which is guaranteed to awaken your inner riot.

Lighthearted surf rock tunes with a retro spin, the Tokyo-based indie rock band brings upbeat summer beach vibes to listeners’ ears with this fun track.

Featuring tender melodies and affectionate vocals by the Swedish folk singer-songwriter, ‘Breeze’ is a melancholic ballad about saying goodbye to a loved one.

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ARTS | MUSIC

LET THE SUUNS SHINE The Montreal Art Rock Band Stays Mysterious By Erica Martin

“Early on, our art was pretty stark, with black and white imagery,” says Suuns guitarist and bassist Joe Yarmush. “Classic French and Italian cinema mixed with 80s punk. Beautiful and dirty.” He’s discussing the gritty artwork style that characterized the Montreal art rock band’s early albums and music videos, but he could well be describing the music itself, too. Arriving in 2010 with their first album, Zeroes QC, a sinister study in electronic music meshed with punk, Suuns displayed a special prowess for stark yet unhinged compositions. The band got their start when Yarmush met vocalist and guitarist Ben Shemie in Montreal in 2007, and the duo began writing songs. Their original name was Zeroes, but for copyright reasons they switched it to the Thai word for zero, Suuns (pronounced ‘soons’), keeping the original name alive in the debut album title. “I wanted to bring back some attitude and a punk approach that was missing in the music from Montreal at that time,” Yarmush says of the band’s origins. “There was lots of folk and rootsy music happening. While that was fine, we were not into making that. We wanted to be Suicide and the Stooges.”

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If you know too much, it can kill the mystique

MUSIC | ARTS

Those references are apparent on Zeroes QC, though woven through with dark electronics and a cold industrial touch. Later efforts, especially their 2016 record Hold/ Still and its album of remixes, caused the band to be categorized as ‘psychedelic,’ but Yarmush says it’s not a label he thinks about much. The description seems to fit especially well, though, when paired with much of their later visuals, especially for the 2016 track ‘Brainwash,’ which Yarmush calls “the weirdest video and perhaps song we have.” The video in question depicts a glitchy animated beach populated by abandoned buildings as Shemie croons: “Do you really know how the other half lives?” The camera then descends into a yellow and black cyberpunk underworld as the industrial beat drops. The way Suuns discuss their own music is much more stark than psychedelic or freewheeling, however, and they shy away from elaborate explanations of their songwriting process and themes. In 2016, drummer Liam O’Neill published an eloquent plea against packaging and over-explaining art for music blog The Line of Best Fit. “Making music is largely a wandering process, and talking about it is typically not very interesting,” he writes. “It’s a process of endless repetition, dead-ends, anchorless exploration, conflicting ideas. What’s amazing about music, to me anyway, is how musicians arrive at places of beauty and cultural relevance in spite of all this drudgery.” Yarmush agrees, pointing out that, “[the article] was spurred by reading about musicians and how if you know too much, it can kill the mystique and aura that adds to one’s appeal.” The band’s latest record, Felt, dropped earlier this year, and is notable for a looser and more fluid take on their breed of pitchblack art rock. An album cover of a plaster hand poking a black balloon on a sickly green background hints at the band’s pushing of their own boundaries while staying in-tune with their signature twisted sound.

Felt has an expansive, melancholy feeling. The single ‘Look No Further’ opens with church bells before launching into a warbling electronic beat, with a simple music video depicting schoolchildren passing an afternoon in a bleak industrial apartment complex, coloring on their hands and discussing how magic is “all a big lie.” Even so, the band sounds almost upbeat on a few songs, like the feverish ‘Daydreams.’ Despite his distaste for over-explaining, Yarmush reveals that for Felt the band was “more concerned with getting the right feeling on the record, and less concerned with getting perfect performances. So, we really took our time completing the record, to focus on the songs themselves.” Suuns are taking Felt on a China tour through Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen this month – their first foray onto the mainland. Since the band is known for putting on an especially engrossing live show, bewitching audiences with their unclassifiable compositions, it’s apparent the music will speak for itself.

Catch Suuns in Shenzhen: June 21, 8.30pm; RMB147 presale, RBM167 door (RMB7 of each ticket supports Educating Girls of Rural China). B10 Live, Building C2, North Area, OCT-Loft, Xiangshan Dong Jie, Nanshan District 南山区香山东街华侨城创意文化园北区C2栋北侧 (b10live.cn)

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ARTS | MUSIC

CHINA MUSIC CORNER

Three New Homegrown Albums on Our Radar This Month

By Erica Martin

Natural Disaster by Howie Lee The latest EP from powerhouse Beijing producer Howie Lee is contemplative and meandering. He tells a story of destruction and redemption in his liner notes that is set “after the first non-snowy winter in Beijing,” but the EP has a distinct Middle Eastern influence in its instrumentation and tone. The ethereal tempo picks up in the dizzying track ‘Be Buried,’ and then ‘First Rain,’ which begins with wandering ambient sounds like earlier track ‘Mirage’ but then delivers the way its name promises thanks to the airy beauty of the vocals. The closing track, ‘Rebuild’ featuring Jason Hou, is hauntingly unique and unclassifiable. Natural Disaster might lack some of the visceral excitement of his previous release, Homeless, but it showcases Lee’s impressive commitment to pushing new boundaries with every release. Scan the QR code to listen:

Sky Singing by Zaliva-D The second concept album by longstanding Beijing audio-visual duo Zaliva-D, Sky Singing blends detached industrial beats with a quivering, organic feeling of paranoia. Li Chao’s garbled vocals weaving in and out add a mystic yet very earthly feel in unnerving tracks like ‘Down Samasara,’ before rising to an anguished cry in ‘Prophecy.’ References to ‘ancient beings’ that ‘sing up to the sky’ in the album’s release info round out the overall commitment to evoking Lovecraftian dread. The organic/industrial dichotomy is on its most vibrant display in the title track, a hailstorm of chugging bass, beeps, gong sounds and throaty vocals. The duo is especially expert at pacing, slowing to a crawl and even stalling in complete silence mid-song before lurching on into the darkness. Scan the QR code to listen:

She Came Back from the Square by Hiperson The follow-up to Hiperson’s 2015 debut, No Need for Another History, sees the Chengdu band exploring new wavelengths, trading in their complex post-punk for a startlingly raw and stripped-back sound. Guitarist Ji Yi’nan, who also produced the album, whittled away any unnecessary trappings, embracing the potency of simple chords and allowing for frontwoman Chen Sijiang’s commanding vocal presence to shine bright. Chen, who writes all the band’s lyrics, took inspiration from everyday interactions like a chat with her Uber driver (‘He’s as Proud as My Teacher’), imbuing these quotidian moments with emotional resonance. The album’s vulnerable, powerful centerpiece ‘The History’ builds into neurotic crescendo thanks to a shrieking, distorted saxophone in its final moments, which gives way to the lovely a cappella track ‘Ceramics.’ The album pulls back in this way several times, but the closing track ‘Football Game’ releases the wild-eyed energy that builds up throughout. Scan the QR code to listen:

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ARTS | BOOK

SHENZHEN ZEN

Life, Love and Misadventure in the Middle Kingdom By Bailey Hu

he title – Shenzhen Zen: An Accidental Anthropologist’s Decade of Life, Love, and Misadventure in the Middle Kingdom – really says it all. For those who haven’t read the book, it also raises more questions than it answers. What is an accidental anthropologist, what’s the Shenzhen-Zen connection and is this just another (s)expat memoir? Our answer to the last is: not quite. Because while veteran journalist Justin Mitchell does recount the odd gratuitous sex scene, most of the Colorado native’s narrative is devoted to documenting strange, serendipitous or downright bizarre episodes from his life in Asia over the ’00s. The book is loosely structured as a diary, based on the blog through which Mitchell charted his decade abroad. It starts off in a free-wheeling Shenzhen packed with a wideranging cast of characters, from “shoe repair families” doing business on the sidewalk to “wealthy, young, very glossy Chinese men and women sipping $6-$7 javas” in the city’s sole Starbucks. Mitchell, a Shenzhen Daily copy editor, revels in the newness of it all while also occasionally overcoming the ‘stranger in a strange land’ trope. Early on, for instance, a work-related English salon devolves into an earnest intercultural discussion at a bar, ending with “a toast to better sexual relations and sex education – both in China and the USA” In between educational moments, the author entertains with humorous highlights from his work and personal life, like the time a date dressed as a “budding S&M starlet” visits his workplace on the day of the mayor’s visit, or when a renta-foreigner gig required him to

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“A toast to better sexual relations and sex education – both in China and the USA” pose as an American “bamboo king.” Although Mitchell moves to Hong Kong in 2004, he still maintains a connection to the main-

land, thanks largely to a longterm relationship with Shenzhen resident ‘C.’ And, after a stint in Thailand, the author eventually finds his way back – to Beijing,

where he works for China Daily before switching to a brand-new, unsullied Global Times. It’s small gems like these that keep Mitchell’s stories engaging for a foreign audience already well-acquainted with China. Through his work at various news centers, the author also offers an informed perspective on major cultural touchstones like the 2008 Beijing Olympics, or the devastating Sichuan earthquake that preceded it. But while illuminating, Mitchell’s narrative has its limits. There’s nothing like a central thesis for the book, just different colorful vignettes about living in Asia – or as the author put it on one entry, “lots of little tales that make me glad I came.” The words that follow afterwards are revealing: “Where from here, though, I dunno.” Although he obviously values his experiences in Asia, it’s just as apparent that Mitchell also harbors uncertainties. As time passes, they begin to outweigh the joys of living abroad. It’s telling that over a decade-long stay, the author never seems to pick up more than a bare minimum of Chinese, reflected by various misspellings of place names throughout the book. Even a foreign friend from Hong Kong calls him out on his (lack of) Mandarin, quipping, “How long have you been here?” Eventually, factors outside his control make Mitchell take the great leap out of China, and lead to other changes besides. We won’t spoil it for you, except to say that the “accidental anthropologist” ends on a positive note, neatly wrapping up a decade of vividly detailed life abroad. Shenzhen Zen is available on Amazon.

The Art and Science Behind Winning Over Digital-savvy Chinese Millennial Travelers By Dominic Ngai

COVER STORY

n a recent trip to Europe, a short layover at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport revealed telling signs of the growing influence that a new generation of digital-savvy Chinese travelers has on the future of global tourism. As I dashed towards the boarding gate of my connecting flight, I couldn’t help but notice something weirdly familiar about my surroundings. Many of the airport’s duty-free shops all had Chinese signage that proclaimed, “We accept Alipay!” or “Receive a 10 percent discount with UnionPay!” It was as if I’d never left Pudong. In 2017 alone, Chinese travelers made 130.5 million overseas trips and spent a total of USD115.3 billion during their travels. By 2020, the number of overseas Chinese travelers is expected to reach 200 million. With this upward trend in mind, travel destinations, retailers and lifestyle brands around the world are now rethinking their strategies to win over the hearts and minds (and wallets) of this powerful target group. C O VE R S T O RY

Many overseas retailers think that accepting UnionPay is good enough, which might have been true five years ago… I can’t over-exaggerate the importance of having mobile payment options available

Chinese tourists made

130.5 million

overseas trips in 2017. By 2020, the number of overseas travelers will reach

200 million.

SOURCE: CTRIP, CHINA TOURISM ACADEMY AND CLSA

COVER STORY

TB China 2018, a travel trade show which attracted 700 exhibitors from 80 countries and 15,000 visitors to the 18,000-squaremeter hall at the Shanghai World Expo and Exhibition Center, is a physical manifestation of the global battle for a slice of the lucrative pie that is the Chinese outbound tourism market. Here, some of the most popular booths belong to the likes of Meituan Travel, Tencent and Ctrip. These ecommerce giants are flexing their technological muscles, and showcasing their product offerings, data analysis abilities, and a deep understanding of the local market to the world. Needless to say, travel and mobile technology are now virtually inseparable, and this notion rings true for Chinese millennial travelers in particular. “Travel companies who invest in artificial intelligence are investing in the future,” ITB China’s General Manager David Axiotis tells me. “We’re actually already experiencing AI in one way or another during our travels. When you’re checking into a hotel or a flight with a mobile device, [your interactions with] chatbots enable hoteliers and airlines to learn a lot about their customers.” Just how exactly can one tickle the fancy of a ‘mobile-first’ generation that has abandoned cash in favor of Alipay and WeChat Pay, communicates with friends constantly – and almost exclusively – via social media, and arranges their travel bookings directly on the screens of their smartphones? In addition to being digital natives, experts all agree that it’s important to first acknowledge the difference in mentality between Chinese millennials and their parents’ generation. “I normally travel twice a year, usually a short trip to somewhere close to Shanghai, plus a long-distance trip,” Chen Jinglin, a Shanghai-born 20-something who works at a multimedia company, tells me at a café. Over the past couple of years, the avid traveler has already covered many parts of Europe. In addition to that, she also frequently attends her favorite band’s concerts in various parts of Asia. Just like many in her generation, Chen sees traveling as one of her favorite hobbies, and she has the means to go often. “Chinese millennials grew up under a relatively stable political climate with massive economic growth. They’re the first generation to have the ability to enjoy a modern

luxury lifestyle as an attainable reality, and are much more open to the West,” explains Chloe Reuter, CEO and founder of Reuter Communications. “There’s a been real shift from the ‘tourists’ mindset to the ‘travelers.’ They are going overseas to look for an experience, are much more sophisticated in their tastes, and often prefer to travel independently.” Just like when they’re at home, smartphones are a crucial part of any activity they partake in. According to Nielsen’s 2017 Outbound Chinese Tourism and Consumption Trends report, 97 percent of travelers from the Middle Kingdom have a data package handy for navigation purposes and to communicate with friends back home. On her most recent trip to Northern Europe, for instance, Chen used her WeChat Moments as a travelogue of sorts to keep her friends updated on her itinerary and the beautiful sceneries of the region. “They are always looking for selfie-worthy photo opportunities to share on their WeChat Moments and other social media platforms,” Reuter adds. “Providing plenty of visually compelling activities is an important factor that destinations should consider when targeting the Chinese market.” Both her and James Hebbert, Managing Director of Hylink Digital Solutions in the UK, stress the importance of starting a dialogue with the Chinese audience before they even set off on their journeys. The most effective way to raise awareness is through the use of KOLs and influencers who this target market follows on various social media platforms. “A recent study shows that young Chinese consumers are more likely to trust a KOL over official branded websites,” says Hebbert from his London office. “When they travel, Chinese millennials often do a lot of homework and research before their trip starts. They know exactly what they want to buy and are very good at seeking out the best deal and value for money.” Meanwhile, WeChat’s new CityExperience mini-programs, which are essentially destination guides that have included places like London, Dubai and Sydney so far, also cater to the Chinese millennials’ preference for receiving their news and entertainment content directly from their smartphones.

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Even when armed with these powerful tools, navigating through the complex Chinese digital ecosystem isn’t an easy feat. In a rapidly changing environment like China, what’s considered new and innovative now might no longer be enough a few months down the road. “Chinese travelers’ [reliance on mobile payment] is the one thing that sets them apart from the rest of the world,” says ITB China’s David Axiotis. He stresses the importance for overseas retailers, hotels and other travel service providers to adapt and cater to their preference for digital wallets, not the other way around. Key findings from Nielsen’s 2017 report echoes his recommendations. Last year, 65 percent of Chinese travelers have used Alipay or WeChat Pay during their overseas trips, compared to just 11 percent of non-Chinese. Though bankcards are still most commonly used when they’re traveling (used by 42 percent of Chinese respondents), the number of mobile payment transactions is quickly catching up to cash. Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of Chinese travelers say they’re likely to consider paying with their phones when given the option, and that it might even increase their desire to spend more. “Many overseas retailers think that accepting UnionPay is good enough, which might have been true five years ago,” Reuter adds. “When I meet industry people overseas, I can’t over-exaggerate the importance of having mobile payment options available.” Just before Chinese New Year, London’s luxury department store Harrods made headlines when it began to accept WeChat Pay across its 400 plus terminals in the Knightsbridge flagship location and its airport outlets. That same month, it had also added the Alipay Instant VAT refund function, allowing Chinese shoppers to have their tax refunds deposited directly into their mobile payment account. While Hebbert sees this as a great example that others can use as a reference, he believes there are still many opportunities for destinations and brands in the West to cater to Chinese travelers, and to facilitate a more seamless journey from creating awareness online among Chinese travelers, bringing them into the stores to experience the brand while they’re visiting, converting the experience into a sale, and developing a long-term relationship with them. At present, only less than 10 percent of Chinese nationals have a passport, but the number is bound to increase over the next few years. If overseas merchants don’t have a tailored communication strategy and the necessary infrastructure set up to make it easier for COVER STORY

Chinese travelers to spend money, serving the 200 million travelers who’ll be coming their way by 2020 will be an overwhelming task. Back at the ITB China, the fact that Ctrip processes 50TB of data generated by its 300 million users on a daily basis was referenced multiple times during various keynote speeches and discussion panels. China’s largest online travel agency isn’t just setting the benchmark for its domestic competitors, but international players are also keeping a close eye on its development. According to Ctrip’s Chief Data Officer Wilson Pang, the work of the 3,000 staff members in the Data and Research department is one of the key factors to the company’s success. “The data that we collect when users browse through our website or app is extremely useful to determine not only our user demographics, but also the changes in demand for different destinations, how much people are willing to spend, and more,” explains Pang. “Meanwhile, the actual booking data allow us to provide timely tips during their travels.” During the Labor Day holiday, for instance, based on the spike in hotel occupancy rate in cities like Guiyang, Yangshuo, Fenghuang, Dali and Lijiang, Ctrip was able to make recommendations to their hotel partners and tourist attractions around these areas to ensure these places are properly staffed to handle the influx of guests. Meanwhile, travelers were also offered advice before and during their trip on how to avoid peak periods around these destinations. And with the growing number of independent travelers in China, Pang says that catering to the diverse needs of this crowd is all about providing variety and the convenience of having everything all in one digital ecosystem, from booking and recommendations, to payment and sharing memories of their travels – something that young people like Chen Jinglin cares deeply about when deciding where to travel. Back in the café, she is rattling off the names of places that she’d love to visit in the near future. Buenos Aires and several Eastern European capitals are high up on her list. “When I choose a travel destination, I usually think about how interesting and fun it is, and price isn’t my primary concern,” she explains. “Although I don’t follow travel KOLs closely, I do take their recommendations as a reference, especially the ones that are featured on apps like Ctrip, where I make my travel bookings.” She concludes, “I don’t have many holidays, so at the end of the day, it’s all about whether the destination is worthwhile for me to invest my time.”

65% of Chinese tourists used mobile payment during overseas travel in 2017,

11%

compared to of their non-Chinese counterparts. SOURCE: NIELSEN

91% of Chinese tourists say

the availability of mobile payment might increase their desire to spend and shop.

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T OP

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tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PRD By Tha

Looking to get away this summer but not so much into the planning required to execute a bucket list-worthy trip? Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve rounded up four superb tours organized by the jet-setting folks over at Travelers Society for your consideration.

Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan The Turkic states of Central Asia are famous for their legendary hospitality and offer boundless opportunities for adventure and discovery. Incredibly remote but also compact and navigable, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in particular boast staggeringly beautiful natural landscapes, a fascinating and vibrant Silk Road history, the gritty charm of a post-Soviet legacy and proud, irresistible culinary traditions, all against a rich and varied backdrop of extraordinary ethnic diversity. This 12-day midsummer tourist package presents a well-curated ramble through the region at its finest. Enjoy horse trekking though the Kyrgyz Alps, stay overnight in the tra-

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ditional yurts of nomadic herders, revel in the bevy of ancient relics that dot the mountainous landscape, feast your eyes on unparalleled specimens of Islamic architecture and your belly on delicious Central Asian treats. Dates: July 5-16 Cost: RMB10,999 Scan the QR code to learn more and book your spot on this exciting trip

Abandoned Fishing Villages on Zhejiang’s Gouqi Island

For all the heavy impact that the weight of human civilization leaves on the planet, it’s amazing to contemplate how quickly nature can manage to reclaim the earth when given the opportunity. The mystical quietude of Gouqi Island, an abandoned and overgrown former fishing community just off the shores of Shanghai’s seething metropolis, is a case study in what transpires when humans simply vanish. This Dragon Boat Festival, take a boat ride back in time and discover the otherworldly silence of this forsaken settlement. In three short days, visitors can picnic upon the bobbing waves of the island’s picturesque harbor, gorge on beachside seafood beside roaring bonfires in the evenings and scramble atop Gouqi’s stately hills and cliffs, all while breathing deeply from unspoiled ocean air and indulgent seaside calm. Dates: June 16-18 (Dragon Boat Festival) Cost: RMB2,399 Scan the QR code to learn more and book your spot on this exciting trip

Rafting and Zip-lining near Shanghai Weekend adventurers will love this high-energy, fast-paced traipse through the verdant hills of the East China countryside. A short drive from Shanghai, a wonderland of outdoor fun awaits adrenalineseeking travelers and nature-loving city-dwellers alike. Enjoy a picnic by a pristine lake, a thrilling bout of white-water rafting, a refreshing swim in cool, clean waters, an exhilarating, high-speed zip-lining experience, a peaceful hike through sublime bamboo forests and wholesome, vegetarian-friendly country

cooking – all with the worldly comforts of hotel living close at hand. This affordable and restorative getaway is the perfect short-term jaunt to catch some well-deserved midsummer jollies. Dates: June 29 – July 1 Cost: RMB949 Scan the QR code to learn more and book your spot on this exciting trip

Volcano Trekking and Outdoor Camping near Shanghai If you’ve ever wanted to camp in the shadow of an ancient volcano, this trip is for you. A multi-day guided trek through the forested East China backcountry, this overland ramble will take intrepid hikers through forested valleys, ancient villages, bamboo-covered hillsides, terraced fields and a Buddhist temple. Handmade straw sandals will be provided for fording shallow streams, and those who don’t have their own can rent backpacks and camping gear. Cool down in gloriously swimmable lake water in the afternoon and enjoy crackling campfires and a restorative BBQ feast in the evening. Though vigorous, the hiking level is fairly approachable and porters can be hired for those who prefer not to carry their own loads.

Dates: June 16-18 (Dragon Boat Festival) Cost: RMB999 Scan the QR code to learn more and book your spot on this exciting trip

C O VE R S T O RY

ITCHY FEET A Guide to the Best Destinations in the Asia-Pacific Region By Matthew Bossons

Living in the southern region of China, we are fortunate enough to have access to a myriad of daily flights to amazing destinations around the globe. Now, with the summer months barreling down on us, we’ve decided to take a look at some of the hottest destinations in the AsiaPacific region. In this section, we’ve asked three Chinabased travel experts – Luo Lei, a travel industry journalist with Guangzhou Daily, Zeng Dafeng from Nanhu International Travel Agency, and Edda Joyce Garcia, a Shanghai-based travel consultant with Flight Centre Travel Group – to share their top picks.

TOTTORI, JAPAN

Some head to Japan for sushi, others for the Tokyo nightlife. Us? We’re most fascinated with the western city of Tottori and its majestic sand dunes, which make for amazing photos and offer the chance to ride camels and sandboard. The main section of the dunes runs for 2 kilometers from east to west, and if you arrive early enough, you can witness the distinctive wind-carved patterns in the sand before the swarming visitors trample them into oblivion. It’s also recommended to visit the ruins of Tottori Castle, a structure that was destroyed in a 19th century siege. Visit Tottori in July to partake in the San In Beach Party, hailed as one of the best outdoor events in Japan.

COVER STORY

VANUATU

For many, the tiny island nation of Vanuatu came onto the radar in 2004 when the hit American reality TV show Survivor staged their ninth season there. Formerly known as the New Hebrides, Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 islands, of which the largest is Espiritu Santo. Visitors to Espiritu Santo are spoiled for choice when it comes to activities: divers can explore the SS President Coolidge, listed by The Times as one of the top 10 wreck diving sites in the world in 2007. Trekkers can undertake multiday hiking adventures on the island, and beach bums can kick back at Champagne Beach, dubbed by some as the South Pacific’s ‘most beautiful beach.’

PALAU PORT MORESBY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

The capital city of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby is serviced by direct flights from Hong Kong – a trip that takes close to seven hours. While the city’s beaches may not be quite as picturesque as other parts of PNG, intrepid visitors to Port Moresby are rewarded with beautiful natural surroundings (Varirata National Park), fascinating museums and historical sites and seafood aplenty. Oh, and great coffee. We recommend visiting during September, when you can experience the revelry that accompanies the three-day Hiri Moale Festival. Held on Ela Beach, the celebration – which involves thrilling canoe races – has been hailed by Lonely Planet as “Port Moresby’s big event.”

Located on the vast expanse of aquablue ocean to the southeast of the Philippines, Palau fits the definition of paradise to a T. The island group is a Mecca for divers, who come to experience the tiny nation’s vibrant coral reefs and world-famous ‘Jellyfish Lake.’ In chatting with divers familiar with Palau’s undersea offerings, several spots were noted: Chandelier Cave, which boasts beautiful stalactites and limestone formations in its five connected caves; Peleliu Wall, which is located off the island of Peleliu and offers the chance to see huge sea fans and coral, as well as sharks and even the rare pygmy killer whale; and the Helmet Wreck, a sunken vessel dating back to WWII.

FIJI

Composed of 330 islands, most of which are uninhabited, Fiji lies in the South Pacific, approximately 10-and-a-half hours away from Hong Kong by plane. With spectacular beaches for lounging and swimming, colorful reefs for diving and snorkeling and a range of fascinating cultural and adventure attractions, this archipelago offers something for everyone – from adrenaline junkies to families and honeymooners. While the temperature in Fiji stays consistently hot year-round, its peak season for tourists falls between July and September.

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GILI ISLANDS, INDONESIA These three little islands situated off the northwest tip of Lombok are a one-and-ahalf to three-hour boat ride from Bali. The Gili Islands – Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air – have been backpacker hotspots since the 1980s. Like many of the locations featured on this list, diving is a major draw here, although other activities like yoga and surfing are also popular. Others visit the Gilis to relax, or indulge in the islands’ infamous mind-altering smoothies. Peak tourist months are July and August, as well as December and January, and the rainy season runs approximately from November to April.

POKHARA, NEPAL

The second most populous city in Nepal, Pokhara is perhaps best known as the starting point for treks into the Annapurna region, including the journey to Annapurna Sanctuary. Dubbed ‘the tourism capital of Nepal,’ Pokhara hosts an untold number of adventure opportunities in addition to trekking. These include mountain biking, rock climbing, spelunking, paragliding, whitewater rafting, kayaking and much more. In Pokhara, you can also learn more about Nepal’s legendary Gurkha soldiers, many of whom call the city home.

COVER STORY

SOUTH KOREA

CAMBODIA

Much like its heavily-visited neighbor to the west, Cambodia has no shortage of spectacular spots: the famous Angkor Archaeological Park – home of Angkor Wat – in Siem Reap; the floating villages of Tonle Sap Lake, a UNESCO Man and Biosphere reserve; and Sihanoukville, the nation’s premier beach zone (to name a few). But unlike Thailand, Cambodia also hosts an array of more grisly sites, namely the Killing Fields and S-21 Prison – both sad relics of the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and ’79. The choice activities here are temple exploration, scuba diving, marlin fishing and, like the rest of Southeast Asia, foodie fun.

A part of the globe that just can’t seem to stay out of the news of late, South Korea is a good vacation spot for foodies, whose cuisine has evolved over centuries of social and cultural interactions with its neighbors and offers a range of tastes and textures prepared through a variety of cooking methods. Indulge in delicious Korean barbecue, or, if noodles are more your jam, sample the naengmyeon (cold buckwheat noodles) with a side of kimchi. For those less interested in edibles, South Korea offers shopping opportunities galore, as well as the chance to visit the DMZ, the border between North and South Korea, a place once described by former US President Bill Clinton as ‘the scariest place on earth.’

KASHGAR, CHINA

An ancient trading town set along the route of the old Silk Road, Kashgar is certainly one of China’s most unique tourism destinations. With two millennia of deep-rooted history, Kashgar is the largest Uyghur-majority settlement in the country and as such, is a fantastic place to learn about Uyghur culture and sample its delightful cuisine. While visiting Kashgar’s old town and bustling Sunday bazaar come highly recommended, we urge the adventurous traveler to hit the Karakoram Highway – which travels to Pakistan – for spectacular mountain vistas and glassy, blue lakes. If time permits, visit Tashkurgan, the home of China’s Tajik minority, which lies in close proximity to the Afghan, Pakistani and Tajik borders.

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CITY SCENES Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PRD Live Reading Party Spring 2018 (Supported by )

On May 19, more than a dozen finalists from the That's PRD Spring 2018 Writing Contest gathered at Atlas Coffee in Guangzhou for a night of live readings, drinks and prizes. Many traveled all the way from Shenzhen to spend two hours listening to the poems, fictional pieces and travel stories of fellow expats living in the region. We'd like to thank all who participated, including those who submitted writing to the contest and those who courageously stepped on stage to read their work aloud. It's not easy to share one's personal thoughts in front of an audience, but everyone who attended knows how valuable the experience was!

Mado Opening Ceremony (Supported by ) Having harvested popularity among Middle Eastern and European countries with its goat milk ice cream, Mado, one of the most famous ice cream brands in Turkey with a history of over 167 years, officially opened its first branch in Guangzhou and China at large last month. Its appetizing ice creams are known for a unique texture and flavor which combines goat milk, salep flour, honey and various fresh fruits. Mado Cafe also offers a wide range of Turkish desserts and dishes.

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PRD FOCUS O

n May 8, LN Garden Hotel of the Lingnan Group hosted a night of culinary marvels: Diner des Grand Chefs’ for Bocuse d’Or Asia-Pacific, 2018. The dinner was attended by over 100 famous chefs from across the globe, including some from Michelin-starred restaurants. LN Garden Hotel’s banquet team coordinated with five chefs to execute the menu for over 300 guests. This past month, GL events and Lingnan Group brought the world’s top cuisine competition, Bocuse d’Or, to Guangzhou for the first time.

n May 19, 180 guests gathered at the LN Garden Hotel to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, where a blend of Chinese and Western performances were staged. The event concluded with a wine-sealing ceremony led by VIP guests CG Charles Bennett, Mr. Doron Bard and Mr. Bill Couch. Attendees also sealed a ‘wish note’ inside a bottle, which is to remain sealed for a decade, after which participants may return to open their bottle and read their wish.

tudents from the British School of Guangzhou recently attended the MIT’s annual Science Week as part of their collaboration with the university. The five-day event saw the students enjoy workshops covering robotics, coding, biology, music and medicine.

he Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia, Guangzhou, organized a special event last month to showcase Indonesian culture through authentic food, dance and music. The event, held from May 11-13 at China Plaza in Guangzhou, was open to the public and featured a wide range of snacks, traditional dance performances by an Indonesian troupe and raffle prizes – including a round-trip ticket to the equatorial country.

nited Family Healthcare is proud to announce the latest and largest addition to the network of United Family Hospitals across China. Located in Pazhou, the hospital will deliver comprehensive word-class healthcare services including labor and delivery, post-partum rehabilitation, surgery, inpatient hospitalization, and 24-hour emergency care.

n concert with Urban Family, Stone Eden British Nursery hosted 20 families for a fun-filled day of Teddy bear-themed games. The event saw participants enjoy a hands-on taste of what the early education institute has to offer its young students.

FOOD, DRINK

& EVENTS IN GUANGZHOU Scrumptious in Xiaobei Six must-try eateries in Guangzhou's African and Arab neighborhood, p58

Sunshine Bay Cafe P61

INTERVIEW

EMPLOYEES ONLY Chatting with a Cocktail King in Guangzhou Interview by Daniel Plafker

ith a rash of new openings in recent months, it’s no secret that Shenzhen and Guangzhou have taken a liking to craft cocktails. From speakeasies and whisky lounges to mixological pop-up concepts, the surge in new venues and rising talent on the fast-emerging scene is starting to draw the attention of some of the region’s biggest tastemakers. World-renowned bartender Steve Schneider recently visited Guangzhou from his home base in Singapore for a hotly anticipated night as a guest bartender at Spin, one of 2018’s trendiest additions to the city’s growing speakeasy pantheon. That’s sat down with the golden boy of the Lion City’s cocktail scene to see what he had to say. Your old bar, Employees Only in New York City, has established itself as a multipleaward-winning institution. What was the hardest part of leaving that behind to come to Singapore and start from scratch? A lot of people from Singapore have traveled to New York, so they expect a certain product when it comes to nightlife. And we call ourselves Employees Only, so expectations are high. That was the hardest thing at first: managing expectations. Then it became: “Let’s exceed expectations,” which took a lot of attention, especially when it came to training the staff. Back home, we have bartenders who’ve been at Employees Only for over five years. So when a new person joins, it's sink or swim, you know? But here [in Asia], it’s me training 12 people. You know how it is in

New York – we’re so quick, we want everything done right now. So to try to instill that sense of urgency in our staff was sometimes very difficult. What are some of the changes you’ve had to make since coming to this part of the world?

I’ve bartended in over 45 countries and I’ve seen a lot of different crowds. Some things are universal, like making sure everyone has a drink, you know, looking after somebody. But as far as interacting with guests, it was a little bit difficult at first. Here in Asia, people tend to go out in larger groups. In New York, you get groups of two or three, four max, but in Singapore there’s like 10 or 12. As a cocktail bar using multiple ingredients, we had to alter our strategy a bit to accommodate people.

And, yeah, I’ve had to adapt slightly, tweaking the way I interact with people. I had to get used to the snapping and the waving – and I’m fine with it. At first I was like, ‘Man, this guy’s gotta stop,’ but now I like it because I know who needs a drink.

What are some of the challenges of guest bartending in a new place? Some of the most difficult things about traveling for one-night only is adapting to local ingredients. All citrus is different, sugars are different, products are different everywhere you go. The citrus is much more tart over here. So, finally, after about 20 minutes of experimenting, I got my recipe right. It comes down to trial and error and it takes a while.

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GRAPE VINE THE SCANDALOUS SCOOP

FROM THE KITCHEN

We’re digging:

Bocuse d’Or Lands in Guangzhou

The recent spike in whisk(e)y tasting events in Guangzhou; the upcoming ‘big reveal’ on who won Michelin stars in the first Guangzhou Michelin Guide; delicious and reasonably priced meals in Xiaobei (pages 58-59); beer pong tournaments at Harena (page 62); delicious Thai eats at Mango Tree in K11 Mall; and the highly-anticipated reopening of Pandan Indonesian Cuisine in Yuexiu after a slow retreat from Guangzhou’s F&B scene over the past two years.

We’re done with:

The frenzied fists and deadly dim sum projectiles that flew between two rival families at morning tea in Jiangmen when both groups claimed the same table as their own; McDonald’s newest Michelininspired sandwiches; and Guangzhou’s recent taxi fare hike, which has made getting home after a late night of boozing noticeably more expensive.

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Bocuse d’Or, the global cooking contest that pits the world’s finest chefs against each other in a battle of culinary wits, hosted its Asia-Pacific Continental Selection round in Guangzhou last month. This was not the first time that Bocuse d’Or graced Guangzhou with its saucy antics. Readers may recall that, back in February, culinary conjurers from around the country descended on our city for the China National Selection Round of the prestigious competition. This return visit, however, marked the first time China has played host to a continental selection round in the contest’s 31-year-long history and the scene in the stands at the Baiyun Convention Center, where the live action cook-off took place, was one of fitting enthusiasm. Two days of slicing, dicing, sauteing and flambeing produced six happy winners who will proceed to the tournament’s final showdown in Lyon, France next January. There, finalists will join battle with some of the world’s most capable gastronomical

gladiators to select a final champion. Japan’s team took first prize at last months’ Continental Selection, followed by Thailand, South Korea, Australia and Singapore. And how did China fare? Patriotic food fans will be happy to learn that though they did not place, Team China was selected as a ‘Wild Card’ winner and thus will also advance to the global finale in Lyon. To celebrate Bocuse d’Or, the LN Garden Hotel hosted a star-studded cast of Michelin rated chefs who indulged VIP guests in course after course of expertly prepared seafood and mouthwatering desserts.

E D I T O R . P R D @ U R B A N A T O M Y. C O M

COCKTAIL

WHAT’S ON WAIMAI

La César’s Durian Pizza

Smoky Rob Roy Created back in 1894 by a Waldorf Astoria bartender, this icon of the cocktail scene celebrated the premiere of the operetta with the same name. It’s normally a simple combo of blended scotch, vermouth and a dash of bitters, but we can take it in a smoky direction with Penderyn Celt (a smooth and light barley whisky, matured in peated casks). The key thing is the ratio: two measures of whisky to one of vermouth.

Ingredients (two servings)

two measures of Penderyn Celt one measure of red vermouth two drops of bitters

Directions Measure out the ingredients into a glass with ice. Give it a swirl to chill, then pour off the liquid into a serving glass. Garnish with a bit of orange peel and pretend you’ve been making drinks like this for years.

This month’s cocktail comes to us from Jesse Hopwood, Shenzhen-based brewer, whisky aficionado and booze guru.

Durian is a divisive fruit. Pungent in its raw form, it is adored by contrarians for the shock value and unapproachability of its undeniable stink and the allegedly delicate flavors concealed beneath it. We’ve always been of the opinion that, while it tastes fine, the flavors of durian have never really outweighed its pronounced tropical pong. So it’s with great reluctance that we concede that, when mashed to a paste, spread tenderly over dough and baked under a generous helping of mozzarella cheese, the flesh of the spiky fruit attains a savory richness and creamy nuttiness that is unrivaled in the plant kingdom.

We know that hastily baked, fruit-salad pizzas replete with corn and mayonnaise are a dime-a-dozen in major Chinese cities but trust us as former skeptics when we say that Le César’s durian pie is a cut above, a fact that’s admittedly reflected in its pricepoint. The only thing missing is a little black pepper or dried chili flakes. Next time you’re craving something filling – but different – give Le César’s a try. You may surprise yourself. Price: RMB60-90 Good for: overcoming stereotypes, lazy dinners Search for: lekaisa pisa 乐凯撒披萨 Available on: Meituan, Eleme

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E AT & DR INK | F E AT UR E

SCRUMPTIOUS IN XIAOBEI Six Must-Try Eateries in Guangzhou’s Arab and African Quarter During our tenure in Guangzhou we’ve come to realize that many Westerners don’t invest a considerable amount of time exploring the fascinating and diverse neighborhood that is Xiaobei. This is a shame, because in addition to cool shops and wholesale markets, there are some great places to dine. That’s why, this month, we’ve decided to introduce you to six of our favorite spots to snack, scoff down king-sized meals and sip a cold pint in Xiaobei.

Namaste Kitchen

Inconspicuously located in a large concrete pillar attached to a car park entrance, Namaste Kitchen can be a tad difficult to locate for first-time visitors. But a journey here is well rewarded. As the restaurant specializes in Nepalese cuisine, we recommend diving into its abundant curry offerings; it’s also advised to sample the vegetable momos (a Nepalese-style dumpling). Visit during lunch and dinner to enjoy a diverse all-you-can-eat menu for RMB55 (for carnivores) and RMB50 (for vegetarians). Parking lot, 2/F, Block B, Yueyang Business Building, 2 Baohan Zhi Jie, Xiaobei Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区小北路宝汉直街2号越洋商贸城B区2楼停车场

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New Medina

With three distinct menus covering African, Arab, Chinese and Indian cuisines, New Medina is one of Xiaobei’s most popular joints. Like most eateries in the area, halal is the name of the game here and, in addition to adhering to Islamic dietary laws, New Medina also harbors a Muslim prayer room. Choice dishes include the veggie pakora curry, egg curry and the hefty and succulent chicken shawarma wrap (which sells for only RMB25!). Shop No.2, 8-1 Baohan Zhi Jie, Xiaobei Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区小北路下塘宝汉直街8号之一第二铺

F E AT UR E | E AT & DR INK

This bar slash restaurant is undoubtedly our favorite watering hole in Xiaobei. A popular hangout amongst African expats and visitors to the city, Moustache Bar serves a mean grilled fish: the perfect meal to soak up the establishment’s super-cheap suds (RMB13 for a large bottle of Heineken). The lamb skewers on offer are seasoned with a zesty array of spices and cooked to near-perfection. Round out the meal with fufu (RMB15), a polenta-like staple from Nigeria, and close it all out with the oily sweetness of a West African classic: fried plantains (RMB15). Shop No.1, 8-1 Baohan Zhi Jie, Xiaobei Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区小北路下塘宝汉直街8号之一第一铺

Hadramout Operating out of its third floor location in the New Honghui Wholesale Market for more than seven years, this Yemeni eatery serves fairly priced Middle Eastern cuisine to a diverse clientele of African and Arab diners in the heart of Xiaobei. Fresh, tasty salads (we recommend the fattoush, RMB30), rich, creamy dips (RMB30) and its proximity to the metro make it a perfect pit stop for a quick healthy lunch, while indulgent platters of barbecued lamb and fowl (RMB40-70) make for succulent dinners. Spicy lentil soup is complimentary, the Hui Muslim staff are friendly and the two large TV screens tuned to Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyah news channels will keep you abreast of the latest events in the Middle East while you dine. 2/F, Yidong Building, 303 Huanshi Dong Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区环市东路303号怡东大厦2楼

Moustache Bar

Ankara Restaurant

Sharma Ji

Established in 1999, Sharmaji is Guangzhou's first pure vegetarian Indian restaurant. Serving Northern and Southern home-style favorites like paneer tikka (RMB40) and masala dosa (RMB45), this authentic eatery attracts a stream of regulars who flock there for its well-priced buffet (RMB60 for breakfast and lunch, RMB70 for dinner). Don't forget to finish off with a steaming cup of masala tea, yum. 8 Lujing Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区麓景路8号 (8357 0090)

Nestled in the upper reaches of Baohan Zhijie, Xiaobei’s main commercial and culinary artery, is Ankara. Though by no means the finest Turkish eatery the city has to offer (Ankara is a little rough around the edges), the two-story shop offers reasonably authentic renditions of Anatolian classics at a fraction of the cost of its glitzier counterparts. The baba ganoush and hummus (RMB22) are both winning dips for the house-baked bread (RMB5) while a whole range of mutton kebabs (RMB50) round out the extensive menu. Slather it all in creamy dollops of outstanding Turkish-style yogurt (RMB15) or wash it down with salty ayran (RMB18). 22 Baohan Zhi Jie, Xiaobei Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区小北路宝汉直街22号 (8359 1557)

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E AT & DR INK | NE W R E S TAUR A N T S

PANDAN INDONESIAN RESTAURANT A Sublime Comeback By Lena Gidwani

The Place For those of you who know the ‘Zhou, you’d know that Pandan had quite a cult following. So, when all three branches shut down recently, disappointed tongues were left wagging, so to speak. Making a bona fide comeback at China Plaza is this authentic Indonesian gem. To find it, snake around the phone shops on the fourth floor; it’s tucked away towards the back.

The Food

At Pandan, there’s a telling of a story of a

LUDAO BRINE HOT POT

Revolutionary or Sacrilegious? By Tristin Zhang

The Place Guangzhou has seen a minor explosion of the lushui phenomenon – meats, eggs or other edibles marinated with a spice-heavy soy sauce native to eastern Guangdong’s Chaoshan region – in the past two years. For Chaoshan folks who grew up with lushui dishes on their dining table, using lushui as a hotpot stock sounds revolutionary, if not sacrilegious. Thankfully, the recently opened Guangzhou branch of Ludao Brine Hot Pot is up to snuff.

The Food

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country, as they cook up a respectful take on its adored culinary repertoire. There’s all the essentials, from gado gado (RMB27) to soto ayam (RMB29), and seafood staples like grilled prawns (RMB59). The impossibly enjoyable chicken satay, with juicy bits of meat, is served with peanut dipping sauce, like those sold from street stalls. Fried and served with green chili, the ayam bakar cabe ijo is a treat at just RMB42. On the rice section of the menu, you can find a seafood nasi goreng (RMB38) that lives up to its name. Many dishes come with homemade sambals, and it’s worth ordering a side of each. They showcase the same deft complexity that appears in the restaurant’s curries. The beef curry (RMB49) in particular is musky and rich. The kitchen does hold back a wee bit on spice levels to sate local palates, so if you’re seeking a punchier dose of spice or a sweatinducing experience, ask for it to be cranked up or you’ll be left disappointed.

The Vibe

The same team of cooks and servers that led Pandan prior to closure is back in full force, so expect service that is familiar, warm and cozy. It looks like the community’s hankering for a recognizable taste has just made all of our lives more delectable, again. The popular lushui goose, familiar to gourmands in Guangdong, also makes an appearance in the form of separate marinated dishes including wings (RMB38), meat (RMB48), necks (RMB22) and heads (RMB68). Hot pot classics on the menu include a spread of meats, vegetables, seafood (including spiny lobster for RMB138), as well as some Chaoshan specialties like cuttlefish balls (RMB48) and shrimp balls (RMB32). One of the perks of dining at Ludao is the flexibility of concocting your own bespoke dipping sauces. Here, on a dedicated sauce stand in the middle of the restaurant, over a dozen spices and toppings sit ready in jars, ranging from diced scallions to garlic oil, smashed garlic, sesame oil, chopped peppers and more.

Price: RMB80 Who’s going: reminiscent Pandan fans, curry lovers Good for: a taste of Indonesia, sambal, sate ayam Nearest metro: Martyrs Park (Exit A), 5 minutes

Daily, 10am-10pm; Shop B5, 4/F, China Plaza, 33 Zhongshan San Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区中山三路33号中华广场4楼B5铺 (8301 0476)

The Vibe In a word, quiet. Despite its spacious housing on a second floor on Xingsheng Lu among scores of more traditional Sichuan hot pot eateries, this experimental Chaoshan venture was, nonetheless, poorly patronized on our Saturday night visit compared to its steamy next-door neighbors. Price: RMB100-200 Who’s going: Chinese families, Chaoshan folks Good for: saucing your own meal, marinated goose Nearest metro: Liede (Exit D), 10 minutes

Daily, 11am-11pm; 2/F, Xingsheng Hui, Xingsheng Lu, Tianhe District 天河区兴盛路兴盛汇2楼 (8981 6789)

NE W R E S TAUR A N T | E AT & DR INK

SUNSHINE BAY CAFE

You’ll Be Walking on Sunshine By Lena Gidwani

The Place Located just across the K11 entrance in the heart of Zhujiang New Town, this bright, airy cafe is your go-to if you’re looking for fresh, nourishing or even raw ‘farm to plate’ fare. Touting all the buzz words from vegan to gluten-free, Sunshine Bay appears to attract an eclectic, conscious crowd. On our visit, we spotted a merry band of yoga enthusiasts stretching away in unison, a group of middleaged men chomping down on fresh fruit, and several smaller clusters, from families to lean young lasses posing for selfies.

The Food

For those familiar with the brand (synonymous with delivery of fresh fruits, vegetables and superfoods), most of their constantly expanding menu offerings are organic and vary slightly depending on the season and availability. There’s an array of vibrant salads, sandwiches, smoothies, fresh-pressed juices, parfaits, fruit platters, vitality bowls, organic teas and coffees, and daily specials that spring from the vast imagination of Juan, the cafe’s exuberant owner. Sunshine’s signature is undoubtedly the acai bowl, a nutritional powerhouse made from a thick blend of antioxidant-rich acai berries and bananas, topped with granola and a selec-

tion of superfoods like coconut flakes, chia seeds and goji berries. For a dose of daily protein, add a serving of whey powder for RMB15. Nutrient-packed juices like the kaffir aroma (RMB29) and toxin flush (RMB32) are made to order, so expect to wait a few minutes for service. Salads are a feature too: try the hummus avocado (RMB59), a large serving of crisp hydroponically-harvested kale, topped with egg, sliced avocado, pumpkin seeds and a generous serving of homemade hummus. Those seeking a hit of carbs should grab a sandwich (RMB35-45); two whole grain slices crammed with nutritious toppings like chicken, tomato and pesto. Seeking a non-greasy breakfast? The parfait (RMB35-39) layers homemade Greek yogurt, granola and fruits, with just a hint of sweetness from a spoonful of honey. New additions to the morning meal include guacamole, cucumber and smoked salmon on toast (RMB45) and cooked oats with chia seeds in coconut milk, topped with nuts and fruits (RMB45).

outdoor lounge chairs, melt to some soothing beats, soak in some vitamin D and drink your meal. And if you try hard enough, you’ll hear the faint sound of rustling palm trees in the far distance.

Price: RMB60-100 Who’s going: health junkies, those on island time, boot campers Good for: vitality and freshness in a bowl (or plate), healthy grab-and-go eats Nearest metro: Huacheng Dadao (APM Line), 1 minute Open daily, 8am-8pm; Shop 109, IMP, 68 Huacheng Dadao, Tianhe District天河区花城大道68号环球都会广场首层109铺 (8928 4469)

The Vibe

It’s all wholesome at Sunshine, where the casual ambiance is inviting and the mood light. There’s pineapples, flamingo-embossed cushions and lush green plants strewn around carelessly, juxtaposed against the modern vastness of the surrounding area. Sit back on one of their WWW.THATSMAGS.COM | JUNE 2018 | GZ | 61

E AT & DR INK | NE W B A R

HARENA BEER PONG BAR AND RESTAURANT Boozy Americana Meets Guangzhou Sophistication By Daniel Plafker

eer-pong. It's a pastime more often associated with the sticky frat house basements of North American college towns than the ritzy club scenes of major Chinese cities. So we must admit that we didn’t quite know what to expect from Harena’s recent entry into Xingsheng Lu’s crowded and competitive barscape. Founded by a beautiful and ambitious young Cantonese-Canadian entrepreneur, Harena cuts a striking image on the street’s south side with its brightly illuminated entrance. The venue takes its name from the Latin word for the fine, soft sand that absorbed the blood of gladiators in the Coliseum of old and, with a half-dozen stateof-the-art tables for beer pong, pool, stackcup and other high-energy drinking games, there’s plenty of opportunity to engage your

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friends in chivalrous boozy combat. It’s a well-staffed place: uniformed hostesses greet visitors at the door, smartly dressed wait staff fan out attentively across the large, club-like interior and a busy bar team keep the liquids flowing from under a giant, stadium-like scoreboard. There are even table attendants sporting playful LED nametags and red jackets who – in a role not unlike blackjack dealers at a Macau casino – help keep score, explain the rules, restack cups and catch errant balls. It’s an odd mix of classy and laid back, but it works. The sporty, competitive atmosphere of athletic wall decals, referees and bouncing ping pong balls is offset by chic lighting, professional staff and a club-like vibe. This novel dichotomy is reflected on high-mounted flat screen TVs, which alternate between live soccer broadcasts and fashion show runway reels. The pong itself, played on sleek, lit-up tables bearing the Harena brand to the thumping beat of driving hip-hop, costs RMB128 per 1.5-liter round. Price-wise, this means RMB42 pints consumed in a unique and entertaining battle of drunken dexterity. Though the game is relatively new to many in China, the wealthy ex-emigres and Eastern European models who, on the night of our visit, seemed to make up the bulk of Harena’s

clientele, have taken to it with enthusiasm. In a happy surprise, the energetic and inventive nightlife venue also boasts a full kitchen and a truly impressive food menu that’s astoundingly affordable given the swanky location. A remarkably delicious fish-and-chips burger (RMB58) comes with thick-cut fries and a heap of creamy ‘slaw. The mushroom and pumpkin soups (RMB38), both outstanding, are richly seasoned and beautifully presented. In a nod to the owner’s years in the Great White North, there are even two types of poutine! Sure, the burritos (RMB48) are underwhelming and the deep-fried cheese balls that come with an otherwise succulent whole roast chicken drag down the bird with their dusty, back-ofthe-freezer cheapness, but Harena is a place where you can enjoy a full sit-down dinner in a lux, contemporary atmosphere for less than is charged at many of the city’s popular pubs. Price: RMB150 Who’s going: nostalgic ‘sea-turtles’, fans of Animal House, live-streaming celebs Good for: settling scores, a high-energy night out with friends Nearest metro: Liede (Exit D), 8 minutes Open daily, 5pm-2am; 6 Xingsheng Lu, Tianhe District 天河区兴盛路6号 (8899 2333)

NE W B A R | E AT & DR INK

WHISPERS

Whiskey Made Me Do It By Matthew Bossons

peakeasies are becoming increasingly common in Guangzhou. Some may even say they are the bar-type of choice for folks opening new establishments in the city. But with Whispers, located above Kung Food restaurant in Panyu District, veteran Guangzhou expat Rob Turnbull is looking to buck the trend. Sure, the bar slash lounge hosts a secret entrance – an important speakeasy trait – but at Whispers you won’t find vodka, rum or tequila, nor will you find cocktails bearing the aforementioned liquors. No, Whispers is all about whisk(e)y. Celebrated Japanese author Haruki Murakami once said, “Whisky, like a beautiful woman, demands appreciation. You gaze first, then it’s time to drink.” Mr. Murakami would find lots to gaze at inside Whispers, where Turnbull and his staff tend to a collection of 88 whiskies – from Scotch and Irish whiskey to bourbon and Japanese varieties. Behind the bar, three shelves divide the lounge’s selection of whiskeys and whiskys

based on price: RMB60 per 50-milimeter dram from bottles on the bottom shelf, RMB80 per dram from the middle-shelf bottles and RMB100 and up for top-shelf pours. On our visit, we sampled the Bowmore 12 (RMB60), a single malt scotch whisky with a delicate and intriguing peat-smoke taste. Smooth from nose to finish, we found this Scotch an accessible starting point for Islaystyle experimentation. Among Turnbull’s favorites is the Nikka Coffey Grain (RMB80), a smooth Japanese whisky that offers the curious tippler a pleasant, sweet finish.

Price: RMB60-100 Who’s going: Panyu’s classiest drinkers, single malt maniacs Good for: pondering life while sipping a cool glass of whisk(e)y Nearest metro: Nancun Wanbo (Exit A), 10 minutes

Tues-Sun, 7pm-2.30am; 2/F, Shop 14, 2nd Street, Huanan Country Garden Main Gate, Panyu District 番禺区番禺大道华南碧桂园正门右侧商业2街14铺 (159 1316 7127 )

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Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra Classical Music

Joanna Wang Pop

HEAR Leo Kalyan EDM

A child of East London’s electronic dance scene, Kalyan fuses a trip-hop sound with influences from classical Indian music, Bollywood and R&B artists. His emotive, authentic, pop-inflected tunes have earned him a coveted spot on the playlist of BBC 1Xtra, funding from the PRS Music Foundation and an appearance at SXSW. The fact that he’s a gay Muslim musician who has consistently resisted being pigeonholed by the industry on these accounts, is another achievement in itself. Sat Jun 2, 8.30pm; RMB120 presale, RMB150 at the door. Mao Livehouse, 1/F, Zhongzhou Trading Center, Huizhan Nan Wu Lu, Haizhu District 海珠区会展南五路中州交易中心1楼 (247tickets.com)

Sleep Party People

Dream Pop

The rabbit mask-wearing musician Brian Batz, who is known as Sleep Party People, will be in town this month to get Guangzhouers hopping to his Scandinavian sound. Batz has won a worldwide following with his consistently unique grooves. The eccentric Dane and his nutty accomplices have been enthusiastically weaving dreamy atmospheres at live performances the world over. With the group’s impending performance at Mao Livehouse early this month, Guangzhouers too will get a chance to jump in on the action. Tue Jun 5, 8.30-10pm; RMB100 presale, RMB120 at the door. Mao Livehoue, 1/F, Zhongzhou Trading Center, Huizhan Nan Wu Lu, Haizhu District 海珠区会展南五路中州交易中心1楼 (showstart.com)

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The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra returns to Guangzhou for the first time since 2003, this time performing under the baton of Austrian maestro Andrés OrozcoEstrada. One of Germany’s longest-running symphony orchestras, it has succeeded in preserving tradition while meeting the rigorous challenges of the cutthroat contemporary classical music scene. The orchestra is famed for its outstanding wind section, richly layered strings and its track record of dynamic performances. This time, performing at Xinghai Concert Hall, the esteemed orchestra will present Mahler’s ‘Synphony No.5.’ Tue Jun 5, 8pm; RMB280-1,380. Xinghai Concert Hall, 33 Qingbo Lu, Ersha Island, Yuexiu District 越秀区二沙岛晴波路33号星海音乐厅 (ticket-easy.cn)

Taiwanese-American singer-songwriter Joanna Wang dropped out of high school at 16 years old and, 4 years later, her debut album, Start From Here was released. The record went on to reach No. 1 on Taiwan’s charts and earned her popularity throughout Southeast Asia. Raised in the US, Wang was first exposed to music by Danny Elfman, Paul McCartney and video game soundtracks. She sings in both in English and Chinese. Wed Jun 6, 7.30pm; RMB380. Guangzhou Gymnasium, 783 Baiyun Dadao Nan, Baiyun District 白云区白云大道南783号广州体育馆 (damai.cn)

Childs Post-rock

Musical project Childs is the brainchild of Mexican guitarist and songwriter Paul Marron, whose music has been described as “electronic lullabies” and “bedroom blues,” boasting a melange of anime aesthetics, dreampop, IDM, shoegaze and post-rock influences. Childs’ complex early sound, elevated by the creative contributions of several musical collaborators who had since joined the project, culminated in the release of their debut album Yui. For 17 years, members have come and gone, but Marron’s endeavor to produce the lullabies of the future has never changed. Catch Childs at Mao Livehouse this month. Fri Jun 8, 8.30-10pm; RMB120 presale, RMB160 at the door. Mao Livehouse, 1/F, Zhongzhou Trading Center, Huizhan Nan Wu Lu, Haizhu District 海珠区会展南五路中州交易中心1楼 (showstart.com)

win! We have one pair of tickets to this show to give away! Message our official WeChat account (ThatsGuangzhou) before June 6 with the subject ‘Childs’ and why you should win. Please include your full name and contact number.

Ludovico Einaudi

Piano

The minimalist compositions of Italy’s Einaudi have won a strong following over the decades, with chart-topping albums and sales in the millions. The composer smashes the divisions between genres, forging an alchemical fusion of classical, rock, electronica and world music for films and television, not to mention his sold-out live performances. Fri Jun 8, 8pm; RMB280-1,280. Xinghai Concert Hall, 33 Qingbo Lu, Ersha Island, Yuexiu District 越秀区二沙岛晴波路33号星海音乐厅 (247tickets.com)

Sophie Zelmani Folk

Music

Swedish songstress Sophie Zelmani swept onto the Scandinavian stage in 1996, winning ‘Best Newcomer’ at the Swedish equivalent of the Grammy Awards with the release of her self-titled album the previous year. Zelmani had no ambition to become internationally famous, yet her songs have been featured in TV series such as Dawson’s Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, My Best Friend’s Wedding and Independence Day. Revered Chinese singer Wong Faye later adapted her song ‘Going Home’ into a Mandarinlanguage version titled ‘Passenger.’ For 21 years, Zelmani has been singing from her heart, releasing 10 albums to enthusiastic fans all over the world. If you dig the style of Jack Johnson, Keren Ann or Suzanne Vega, you will not want to miss Zelmani live. Sat Jun 30, 8-9.30pm; RMB280-480. Guangzhou Friendship Theater, 696 Renmin Bei Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区人民北路696号广州友谊剧院 (247tickets.com)

Secondhand Rose Chinese Rock

Since its inception in 1999, Chinese rock band Ershou Meigui (Secondhand Rose) have been producing folk-rock music “with Chinese characteristics,” infusing traditional elements local to Northeastern China with driving percussion and wailing guitar, resulting in an unprecedented sound. Their live shows, where lead vocalist Liang Long is, more often than not, dressed as a woman with heavy makeup (borrowing from a common trope in traditional Chinese operas), are a spectacle to behold. See for yourself during their visit in Guangzhou this month. Mon Jun 18, 8.30-10pm; RMB199 presale, RMB249 at the door. Mao Livehouse, 1/F, Zhongzhou Trading Center, Huizhan Nan Wu Lu, Haizhu District 海珠区会展南五路中州交易中心1楼 (showstart.com)

The Last of the Mohicans Instrumental

Is imitation the highest form of flattery… or appropriation of the sacred? Alexandro Querevalú, born in Lima, Peru, and emigrating to Poland at 18, is firmly in the former camp. Dressing in the costume of Native American tribes, he performs earnest and soulful renditions of North America’s indigenous music. You’ll either resonate with the versatility, eloquence and emotion he expresses, or feel like shouting at him to take off the damn headdress. Fri Jun 22, 8pm; RMB180-380. Xinghai Concert Hall, 33 Qingbo Lu, Ersha Island, Yuexiu District 越秀区二沙岛晴波路33号星海音乐厅 (ticket-easy.cn)

Azure Ray Dream Pop

The dreamy melancholy of this female duo, as exhibited in their debut album Hold On Love and their follow up album Draw Down the Moon, has won praise from fans and critics alike. Catch their brooding soundscapes, delicate vocals and cloudy harmonies as they cast their bittersweet gaze on China with an appearance at Mao Livehouse this month. Tue Jun 19, 8pm; RMB380 presale, RMB480 at the door, RMB680 VIP. Mao Livehouse, 1/F, Zhongzhou Trading Center, Huizhan Nan Wu Lu, Haizhu District 海珠区会展南五路中州交易中心1楼 (247tickets.com)

Joce Mienniel Jazz

French flutist Joce Mienniel is adept at communicating emotions in a hypnotic, electrified voice. His ensemble is composed of musicians who each take a very unique approach to their respective instruments. The drummer is powerful, conveying a feeling of earthly gravity, the guitarist boasts a broad and expansive sound that helps create a sensation of distant, extended aural landscapes, while the keyboard player works the sound’s texture and builds a sense of narrative plot. Mon Jun 25, 8-9.30pm; RMB150 presale, RMB230 at the door. Zhile Art Space, Rm. 1805, Hejing Ruifeng Buiding, 12 Haile Lu, Tianhe District 天河区海乐路12号合景睿峰大厦1805 室知乐艺术空间 (showstart.com)

Bruskers Guitar Duo

Jazz Guitar

The Bruskers Guitar Duo are Italian guitarists Eugenio Polacchini and Matteo Minozzi, who use jazz as a common ground, creating a repertoire that spans traditional jazz pieces, adaptations of movie soundtracks and their own original compositions. Their performance at the Guangzhou Opera House this month will include many familiar tunes, such as ‘Take Five' and ‘Fly Me to the Moon.’ Sat June 23, 3pm; RMB180. Guangzhou Opera House, 1 Zhujiang Xi Lu, Tianhe District 天河区珠江西路 1号广州大剧院 (3839 2888, gzdjy.org)

win! We have one pair of tickets to this show to give away! Message our official WeChat account (ThatsGuangzhou) before June 21 with the subject ‘Bruskers’ and why you should win. Please include your full name and contact number.

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SEE

Swan Lake by Russian State Ballet Ballet

Battle Against Garbage Puppetry

Scenes from a Marriage Drama

Swedish writer and film director Ingmar Bergman is eulogized as a national treasure and probably one of the most significant figures in the history of motion pictures. Bergman has directed more than 60 films and 170 theatrical performances, one of which is Scenes from a Marriage. Originally a TV series and later condensed into a stage drama, the play is set against the backdrop of rising divorce rates in Europe. The story, somewhat based on Bergman’s personal life, spans over 20 years of marriage between the protagonists, one of whom is a family lawyer specializing in divorce, and conveys a sense of fear for married life. Fri-Sat Jun 8-9, 7.30pm; RMB80-980. Guangzhou Opera House, 1 Zhujiang Xi Lu, Tianhe District 天河区珠江西路1号广州大剧院 (247tickets.com)

win!

We have two pairs of tickets to this show to give away! Message our official WeChat account (ThatsGuangzhou) before June 6 with the subject ‘Marriage’ and why you should win. Please include your full name and contact number.

Over the last 20 years, the Russian State Ballet Theater has remained one of the leading ballet companies in Russia, enjoying international acclaim. Its repertoire includes masterpieces of classical ballets as well as some of the world’s finest examples of modern choreography. With its elaborate costumes, vivid set and breathtaking stunts, Swan Lake promises audiences a world-class experience. Sat Jun 9, 8pm; RMB180-1,000. Guangzhou Friendship Theater, 696 Renmin Bei Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区人民北路696号广州友谊剧院; Sun Jun 10, 8pm; RMB180-1,000. Guangdong Performing Arts Center Theater, 1229 Guangzhou Dadao Zhong, Tianhe District 天河区广州大道中1229号广东演艺中心剧院 (247tikcets.com)

Founded in 1956, Guangdong Province Puppet Art Theater has created more than 300 programs over the past 60 years, including everything from fairy tales to contemporary plays. Directed by Chen Xuan, a young screenwriter and director at the Guangzhou Dramatic Arts Centre and the creator behind productions such as Us, Dawn and How Far is the Distance, Battle Against Garbage employs several colorful puppets to transform a serious social subject into a fun-filled play. Take your young ones to the Guangdong Performing Arts Center Theater and enjoy the living art of puppetry! Sun July 1, 10.30am/3.30pm; RMB90300. Guangdong Performing Arts Center Theater, 1229 Guangzhou Dadao Zhong, Tianhe District 天河区广州大道中1229号广东演艺中心剧院 (damai.cn)

Yarlung Tsangpo Tibetan Dance and Music

¡Muu! by Yllana Comedy

Acclaimed Spanish comedy troupe Yllana is one of Europe’s most talked-about groups of its kind, bringing laughter to audiences across the world with their hilarious productions. This month, Yllana is in town with their irreverent humor to perform one of their earliest works – the hysterical act ¡Muu!. Come and enjoy the show as Yllana’s humor runs riot. Sat-Sun Jun 23-24, 8pm; RMB80-380. Guangdong Performing Arts Center Theater, 1229 Guangzhou Dadao Zhong, Tianhe District 天河区广州大道中1229 号广东演艺中心剧院 (damai.cn)

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Yarlung Tsangpo is a river that has its origin in the Himalayas and bestows great vitality on the Tibetan people living in the Lhoka region, which is regarded as the birthplace of Tibetan civilization. This dance and music show is created as a tribute to the great river of Yarlung Tsangpo, the wonderful land of Lhoka and the people nurtured by them both, strung together by four chapters: ‘Heaven,’ ‘Earth,’ ‘People,’ and ‘Harmony.’ Now in its third edition, the spectacular show is evolving with the addition of more musically and visually striking elements. Tue-Wed Jun 12-13, 7.30pm; RMB80-680. Guangzhou Opera House, 1 Zhujiang Xi Lu, Tianhe District 天河区珠江西路1号广州大剧院 (3839 2888, gzdjy.com)

win!

We have two pairs of tickets to this show to give away! Message our official WeChat account (ThatsGuangzhou) before June 10 with the subject ‘Tibet’ and why you should win. Please include your full name and contact number.

5-Kuai Beers Happy Hour

TA S T E Fish Feast at Hilton Guangzhou Baiyun Buffet

Dinner

Served during the buffet dinner at Sense All Day Dining Restaurant are eight different flavors of crayfish, prepared with chili pepper sauce, curry sauce, pepper and salt sauce, garlic sauce, tom yam sauce, Chinese spice sauce, basil sauce and beer sauce. On top of that, a wide selection of fresh fish, seafood and sashimi – to be washed down with a free flow of wine, beer and soft drinks – are waiting to tempt your taste buds. For reservations, call 6660 8076. Daily until Jun 30, 6-10pm; RMB328 plus 15 percent, Sense All Day Dining Restaurant, Hilton Guangzhou Baiyun, 515-517 Yuncheng Dong Lu, Baiyun District 白云区云城东路515-517号广州白云万达希尔顿酒店 (guangzhoubaiyun. hilton,com, 6660 8076)

After a short hiatus, LN Hotel Five is bringing back its wildly popular Happy Hour offer, aka 5-kuai beers on the 5th, 15th and 25th of the month. Choose from a selection of five beers (imports and domestics) or delight yourself in a free flow of house wine at RMB55 per person, all while enjoying the unparalleled views of the Pearl River from LN Hotel Five’s recently remodeled rooftop bar. Jun 5, 15, 25, 5.30-9.30pm; RMB5 for bottled beer, RMB55 for free flow wine. Bar 5, LN Hotel Five, Guangzhou, 277 Yanjiang Zhong Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区沿江中路277号广州岭南五号酒店 (8931 0505)

Panda All Day Dining Buffet

Qeelin Afternoon Tea

Inspired by the shimmering elegance of Qeelin jewelry, this elaborate afternoon tea is expertly crafted by The Ritz-Carlton, Guangzhou’s executive pastry chef and combines Chinese and Western elements. The afternoon tea set includes an eye-catching chocolate hazelnut cake in the color of white jade, a deep-fried soft-shell crabmeat sandwich topped with mayonnaise and a rice-crusted salmon salad cured with Asian spices, among other appetizing eats. For reservations, call 3813 6888. Daily until Jun 30, 2-5.30pm; RMB311 per set, RMB438 for two, plus 15 percent. Pearl Lounge, The Ritz-Carlton, Guangzhou, 3 Xing’an Lu, Tianhe District 天河区兴安路3号广州富力丽思卡尔顿酒店 (3813 6888)

A buffet restaurant with a parent-child theme, the Panda All Day Dining Restaurant at Chimelong Panda Hotel models its design on the Chinese cartoon The Adventure of Panda Triplets and boasts 850 comfortable seats. A great variety of dishes are on offer here, including sushi, sashimi, an assortment of Cantonese-style marinated meat and Cantonese barbecue items. An exciting ‘Panda Animatronic Fantasy Show’ will delight your little ones as they eat. For the duration of June, in-house guests and park visitors can enjoy 15 percent off when dining at Panda All Day Dining. Daily until Jun 30, 7-10am, 11.30am-2.30pm, 5.30-9pm; RMB499 for two adults and one child. Panda All Day Dining, Chimelong Panda Hotel, Chimelong Tourist Resort Area, Panyu Dadao, Panyu District 番禺区番禺大道长隆旅游度假区长隆熊猫酒店 (400 883 0083)

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All You Can Eat Dim Sum at Tea 5 Dim Sum

Treat yourself to a total of 26 varieties of dim sum at Tea 5 restaurant at the city's premier upscale boutique hotel. The fine-dining restaurant is offering a delectable array of authentic dim sum varieties. Call 8931 0505 for more information. Daily all month, 10.30am-2.30pm; RMB98. Tea 5, LN Hotel Five, Guangzhou, 277 Yanjiang Zhong Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区沿江中路277号广州岭南五号酒店 (8931 0505)

Father’s Day Special at LN Garden Hotel Celebration

Celebrate the special occasion of Father’s Day over enticing culinary delights with special offers at LN Garden Hotel’s fine dining restaurants. Peach Blossom will offer a complimentary dish of sauteed beef with garlic, while at Carousel, a sumptuous seafood buffet at RMB598 (plus 10 percent) coupled with a free flow of house wines is on offer. For reservation, call 189 2625 8505. Sun Jun 17. LN Garden Hotel, Guangzhou, 368 Huanshi Dong Lu, Yuexiu District 越秀区环市东路368号广州花园酒店 (189 2625 8505)

Guangzhou International Dragon Boat Race Tournament Dragon Boating

DO Rythmo! by Samajam Family

Created with the little ones in mind, Rythmo! is an interactive musical performance. Each child and parent will receive drum sticks, whirly tubes or an African djembe drum and will be led by talented musicians to create something extraordinary. Enjoy this collaborative and creative afternoon of family-friendly percussive play. Sat Jun 23, 11am/2.30pm; RMB150-700. Zhengjia Theatre, 5/F, Grandview Mall, 228 Tianhe Lu, Tianhe District 天河区天河路228号正佳广场5楼正佳剧院 (damai. cn)

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This year’s tournament will again be held on the section of the Pearl River between the North Gate of Sun Yat-sen University and the Guangzhou Bridge. There will be traditional dragon boats and sporting-standard dragon boats competing, alongside a variety of colorful parades. Last year, the Pearl River saw a total of 130 dragon boat teams and about 5,000 athletes, with teams from around the world contending for the championship against squads from all over Guangdong. So come on out and cheer for the home team: the Guangzhou Dragons! Sat Jun 23, 8am; free. North Gate of Sun Yat-sen University, Binjiang Dong Lu, Haizhu District 海珠区滨江东路中山大学北门

HONG KONG & MACAU CALENDAR HK

JUN 8-10 FRI-SUN

Catch Me If You Can, 3.30, 7.30 & 8pm; HK$395, HK$250 restricted view. The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (www.hkticketing. com/events/WCCATCH0618) America loves a con artist (obviously) and maybe no one did it better than Frank Abagnale Jr, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film of the same name. Frank’s adventure saw him scamming his way to the high life, passing off USD2 million in bad checks while impersonating a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer… and all before he turned 21. This rollicking, Tonynominated musical is filled with enough stranger-than-fiction plot twists and energetic dance numbers to steal your heart away.

JUN 26-JUL 2 DAILY

H2 Live Music Festival, 6pm; free entry. The Wanch (www.thewanch.hk) It’s time for another week of excellent free gigs and great music from bands from across Hong Kong’s broad indie spectrum. Whether you're into acoustic acts, electronica or popular covers, there’s sure to be something you’ll like from the mad assortment of bands assembled for your beer-fueled entertainment.

JUN 28-30 THU-SAT

JUN 9 SAT

Air Supply, 8pm; MOP380-1,080. The Venetian Theatre (macauticket.com) Three-time Grammy award winners Air Supply boast nearly 30 years of musical experience. The band consists of singer-songwriter and guitarist Graham Russell and lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock and has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. This month, at the Venetian Theatre, Air Supply will be performing some of their bestloved tracks, such as 'Unchained Melody.' Don't miss out!

FRI-SAT

SAT-MON

FRI-SUN

Dragon Boat Carnival, times vary; free entry.Central Harbourfront (www.discoverhongkong.com) Enjoy the long weekend watching thousands of the world’s top dragon boat athletes battle it out in beautiful Victoria Harbour. The old folk tradition has exploded into one of the busiest times on the waterfront, with families and friends enjoying water games – and plenty of beer – as a fleet of food trucks provide an astounding array of local and international bites.

JUN 29-30

JUN 16-18

JUN 22-24

Akram Khan's Giselle by English National Ballet, 7.45pm & 2.45pm; HK$200-880. Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Grand Theatre (ticket. urbtix.hk/internet/en_US/eventDetail/35178) Breaking with nearly a century of faithful reiteration, choreographer Akram Khan and composer Vincenzo Lamagna transform Adolphe Adam’s eerie and romantic ballet into a supremely ominous new masterpiece. Stunning costumes and set design by AcademyAward winner Tim Yip add stunning details to this gothic tragedy of love and betrayal, ghosts and ghastly consequence.

MO Swiss Style Now, 10am-9pm; free. Tap Seac Gallery Showcasing a total of 250 items exhibiting iterations of Swiss design from different generations selected by three Swiss curators, this exhibition is made up of both classic and contemporary specimens of layout, print arrangement and graphic design at their most creative. Exhibits include posters and book covers, among many other graphic designs. It’s an event that designsavvy visitors won’t want to miss it!

Macau International Dragon Boat Races 2018, time TBD; free. Nam Van Lake Nautical Center (www.macaudragonboat.com) This year’s Macau International Dragon Boat Races will see teams from Japan, the US, the Philippines, China, Thailand, Singapore, Korea and Australia compete for aquatic glory on the waters of Nam Van Lake. The Macau races have gone a long way in promoting the thrilling pastime of dragon boating from a quaint tradition to a grand-scale sporting event attracting athletes from around the world. The first two days will see local teams compete in the 200- and 500-meter races, while international teams will compete on the third and final day.

UNTIL JUN 17

Celine Dion, 8pm; MOP480-2,680. Cotai Arena (macauticket.com) Armed with a repertoire of her biggest hits alongside timeless classics by artists from various generations, global pop sensation Celine Dion is staging two performances in Macau this month. Having won multiple awards, including two Oscars and five Grammys, the Canadian singer still remains active onstage, bringing her love tunes, such as the powerful ‘My Heart Will Go On,’ to audiences the world over.

JUN 30-JUL 31 SAT-SUN

The Rite of Spring, 8pm; MOP150. Old Court Building (macauticket. com) This is as much a dance performance as it is a battle between the physical and the spiritual. Exploring the birth and function of music at its most symbolic, The Rite of Spring has been very well received by critics and nominated for the Hong Kong Dance Awards in 2016.

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HOTEL NEWS NEWS 10th Anniversary of Grand Hyatt Guangzhou

Plateno Group Snatches Nearly RMB30 Million in HFE

April 20 marked the 10-year anniversary of successful operations for Grand Hyatt Guangzhou, where more than 200 attendees from a variety of fields, including media, chambers of commerce and the diplomatic corps, were gathered to celebrate. As one of the first international, five-star hotels erected in Zhujiang New Town, Grand Hyatt Guangzhou has stood witness to the remarkable rise of the city’s CBD.

May 16 saw the 5th Hotel Franchise Expo (HFE) held at the China Import and Export Fair Complex, during which Plateno Group showcased their broad portfolio of brands. The sum of contracts Plateno Group achieved on the first day of the fair amounted to RMB20.97 million.

Jimmy Sung Appointed as General Manager of InterContinental Zhuhai

Shao Yong Appointed as General Manager of Sofitel Foshan

Intercontinental Zhuhai has announced the appointment of Jimmy Sung as General Manager. Sung, who has a wealth of hands-on experience earned through a career in the hospitality industry that spans over 30 years, previously worked at Hainan’s Intercontinental Sanya Haitang Bay Resort in Hainan.

Mr. Shao Yong was appointed as General Manager of Sofitel Foshan. Shao’s management style is one of excellence and insights borne from his more than two decades of experience in hospitality management. Shao began his career in 1993 upon graduation with a hospitality management degree from Macau Polytechnic Institute and has held positions in many frontline departments such as F&B, room service and sales.

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PROMOTIONS Head Over Heels at Mandarin Oriental, Guangzhou Taikoo Hui is partnering with The Victoria and Albert Museum in London (one of the world’s largest museums of decorative arts and design) to host the museum’s upcoming Shoes: Pleasure and Pain Asia exhibition in southern China. To mark the occasion Mandarin Oriental, Guangzhou is offering an exciting Head Over Heels Suite Experience room package (from RMB4,500 plus 16.6 percent), which includes a one-night stay in a Club Executive Suite with Oriental Club privileges, a 75-minute foot therapy treatment at The Spa for two persons, a stylish ‘fashion high tea’ set for two persons at The Taikoo Lounge, complimentary leather shoe polishing service and a guided tour of the Shoes: Pleasure and Pain at TaiKoo Hui. Mandarin Oriental, Guangzhou, 389 Tianhe Lu, Tianhe District 天河区天河路 389号广州文华东方酒店 (mandarinoriental.com, 3808 8898)

TRAVEL DEALS Sofitel Macau At Ponte 16 Celebrates A Decade of Wonder With A Triple ‘Merci’ Campaign of Fabulous Packages, Offers and Prizes Located at the Historic Centre of Macau, a designated UNESCO World Heritage site, Sofitel Macau At Ponte 16 not only embraces Macanese culture and traditions, but also incorporates innovative elements and the concept of French art de vivre to offer its patrons and guests a luxurious hotel experience. For its 10th anniversary, the hotel is to reward its patrons with amazing room packages, special offers and gifts, which will span from June to July. Hotel venues such as Mistral Restaurant, Le Chinois Cantonese Restaurant, Privé French Restaurant, RendezVous Lobby Bar, So SPA and Banquet will offer special dinner sets, buffets, afternoon teas, spa treatments, among other deals. Follow the hotel’s official WeChat account (ID: sofitel_macau) or visit accorhotels. com for more information. Rua do Visconde Paco de Arcos, Macau 澳门巴素打尔古街 (00853-8861 0016)