Wong Kin Hong, a track and field player who has been diagnosed with a moderate intellectual disability, rushes to the Lin Fong Sports Centre in northern Macao, next to the former Canidrome greyhound racing stadium. As he reaches the entrance, a guard waves him inside with a familiar smile. After quickly changing into his training […]
One afternoon in 2013, in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, Venezuelan John Gil was browsing Facebook when he came across an attractive, unfamiliar face. Gil, who was 27 years old at the time, sent the stranger a friend request, then crossed his fingers. A few hours later, Timothy Loo accepted. At first, Loo thought […]
I am in my mid-40s, happily married to a man who would make a wonderful father. And perhaps ironically, we chose to be child-free. Whether or not we would have children was a conversation my husband and I had early in our relationship. We had to; I was in my early 40s, and he was […]
Navigating Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui is an exhilarating experience. A labyrinth of boarding houses and shops, the half-century-old Kowloon landmark is a hub of activity where thousands of individuals from all corners of the world eat, sleep, shop, socialise, and conduct business. But to a particularly marginalised population in Hong Kong, Chungking Mansions […]
As we navigate the Covid-19 pandemic and all the uncertainty it brings, many of us may long more deeply for authentic human connections. Though we may feel alone due to social distancing restrictions and disconnected from others, there are many opportunities to find meaningful interactions across the city. From mountain trails, tiny shops or quiet […]
What is a death doula? We speak with Christin Ament, a US-based integrative health practitioner and death doula, about her role in helping people navigate life and death. We speak with Christin Ament, a US-based integrative health practitioner and death doula who founded Sacred Transitions Integrative Healing care in the US. She shares her thoughts […]
Like many new arrivals, when Christopher Onoja first moved from Russia to Hong Kong in 2017, he was awestruck by the city’s bright neon signage and towering skyscrapers. “Hong Kong is the most international city I’ve lived in,” says the 27-year old Nigerian creative and founder of hip-hop events platform Mama Told Me. Yet for […]
“At your age, you’re going to have a lot of urges. You’re going to want to take off your clothes and touch each other. But if you do touch each other, you will get chlamydia… and die.” This scene from the 2004 film “Mean Girls”, in which a teacher lectures a group of students on […]
Co-written by Rafelle Allego. At Chan Sui Ki Perpetual Help College (PHC), a Catholic school in Macao, 17-year-old Enya* has learned the “proper way” to interact with the opposite sex: According to her teachers, dating is acceptable, but sex should be avoided until marriage. “Our Catholic teachers have told us that sex is a gift […]
*Co-written by Jamie Ha “Something dramatic, dynamic, and farsighted.” That is how Ellen Li began her remarks on the need to improve equal rights for women and subvert conservative Chinese traditions in a 1968 Legislative Council debate in Hong Kong. She was the only woman to speak in the Council, and the first to occupy […]