New Emissary

Last week Reuters released a top 10 movies of the decade list, compiled by Hollywood Reporter film critic Kirk Honeycutt. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that the US-based Honeycutt included a handful of international films. There are French, G

‘What’s going on in Kazakhstan?’ A passing thought I had recently has led me to discover a few truly amazing things happening in the Central Asian contemporary arts and culture scene. First, I came across a unique and fascinating series of projects

I’ve got a poinsettia on my desk, and the pressure not to let this year’s die of negligence is pretty high. It’s the least I can do for a plant that serves as a positive daily reminder of a certain celebratory time of the year that is fast approachin

A few months back I wrote about Chinese artist Ai WeiWei (‘Where in the World is Ai WeiWei?’) who was recovering in a hospital bed in Munich after brain surgery. Back then it was still unclear whether the serious operation was related to a brain haem

;A new book on artist Anish Kapoor, published by the (never-disappointing) Phaidon company, is out now. Simply titled Anish Kapoor, the hefty monograph covers over 30 years of the acclaimed sculptor’s work brought to life by hundreds of color photos.

I’ve always thought of wine-making as an art form — in the same category as fine cheese and fine chocolate
production — though
at the same time I try not to forget I’m fortunate to even be able to have an
opinion on this.

An
informative food article (‘Complements
to the Chef’) in The Australian
this weekend by Simon Thomsen, co-editor of The
2010 Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, caught my attention. (The first
line: ‘I have a confession to make

As planning for a Shanghai Disneyland surges forward, boosted by the recent go-ahead of China’s economic
planning agency, an interesting news story I came across today sheds
some light on local perspectives. A televised
protest by Sha

China’s equivalent of the US’s Academy Awards took place over the weekend, and the big winner was a Taiwanese film — based on a true story — that some are calling an ‘art-house film.’ No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti, or ‘Cannot Live Without You,’ centres on

According to one of the world’s top culinary authorities, Tokyo is now the gourmet capital of the world. The Michelin Guide 2010, released this month, gave restaurants in Japan’s capital a collective 261 stars (with 11 establishments receiving the ma

As promised, here’s more on the Chinese-produced Great Wall wine that Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao had served to them at the visiting American’s state dinner. It turns out that the wine is produced by the China Great Wall Wine Company Ltd.,

Today, thanks to my new favourite blog, Obama Foodorama (which I’ve fawned over in an earlier post), I know that this year’s Thanksgiving at the White House has taken place with some flair. Six kinds of pie on the dessert menu (including Huckleberry