Advertisement
Advertisement
TOPIC

History

History
The latest news, analysis and opinion on History. In-depth analysis, industry insights and expert opinion.
The pre-Chinese New Year rush at the Kowloon-Canton Railway terminal in Hung Hom, in 1978. Photo: SCMP Archives
From our archives

In pictures: crossing the Hong Kong-mainland China border through the decades

Discover how Hong Kong-mainland border crossings transformed from slow, queue-filled journeys in the 1970s to today’s seamless high-speed rail trips.

Jewellery

Why brands are adding bejewelled cufflinks to their menswear repertoires

Indonesia

Indonesia’s oil hub pitch collides with Asean’s trust deficit

Lessons from China's history

Reflections | How the Chinese did laundry before washing machines: ash ‘soap’, stone beatings

Before chemical detergents and modern equipment, Chinese people kept their clothes clean with little more than river water, wood and ash.

An elderly woman washes clothes the old-fashioned way in a river in Fenghuang Ancient Town in China’s Hunan province. Before the advent of washing machines and chemical detergents, laundry was a labour-intensive affair shaped by local environments and available materials, with clothes typically washed in rivers or streams. Photo: Shutterstock
Mainland China

Opinion | The West was never the whole world. It’s time to move on

As Asia reclaims its roots, the burden of reinvention now falls on the West. Its brief era of supremacy was a historical aberration.

videocam
22
US-China relations

As I see it | Beijing had already won before the Trump-Xi summit even started

There’s a lesson for the US president in Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in the early 19th century.

videocam
14
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
American cinema

How Hollywood turned China’s Boxer rebellion into a racist Western

55 Days at Peking (1963) paints the historical event as an Orientalist Alamo, while white actors ‘yellowface’ as the main Chinese characters.

videocam
(From left) Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and David Niven in a still from 55 Days at Peking. The 1963 Hollywood epic about China’s Boxer rebellion looks the part with stunning sets, but ultimately casts China as a colonial outpost to be squabbled over by white people.
Style Edit

Style Edit: Emmanuel Perrin, Panerai CEO, on its watches’ maritime heritage

The brand has long worked with the Italian Navy – resulting in ‘big, tough, functional watches’ that appeal to Sylvester Stallone and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

Japan

Japan-South Korea ‘comfort women’ row stoked by statues abroad

The removal of wartime sex slave memorials in Germany and New Zealand has electrified certain LDP hardliners, risking a diplomatic rift.

videocam
6
Art

Photographer’s snaps of 1970s Hong Kong given life by grandson 5 decades on

Jack Smith’s ‘Streets of Neon’ collection features five ‘extremely personal’ photos his grandad took of a Hong Kong that no longer exists.

A photo taken by Herbert Smith during his 1979 trip to Hong Kong titled “Painting in Neon (1979)”. It is among the five pictures featured in his grandson Jack Smith’s limited-time print collection “Streets of Neon: Hong Kong 1979”, in which the London-based archivist shares his grandfather’s adventures with the world five decades on. Photo: Herbert Smith
Russia

Putin criticises Nato at Victory Day parade in Moscow

At this year’s event, marking WWII victory, troops were told that in Ukraine they face ‘an aggressive force’ armed by the military alliance.

videocam
6
Russian service members take part in a military parade in Moscow on Saturday on Victory Day, marking the 81st anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. Photo: Reuters
Lessons from China's history

Reflections | Succession struggles in China’s past echoed in Malaysia’s 2026 royal crisis

Disputes over Negeri Sembilan’s next royal ruler recall how succession in China often fused dynastic legitimacy with aristocratic elections.

Asia travel

Best things to do in China’s Nanjing, from food and architecture to history

Planning a weekend in Nanjing? Here’s an itinerary to consider for visiting the bustling metropolis in eastern China.

Art

Gardens of China and Europe juxtaposed in spectacular Hong Kong exhibition

A new exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art features works including Monet’s water lilies and Qing dynasty masterpieces.

The Water Theatre (c. 1700) by anonymous is one of the artworks on loan from the Palace of Versailles in “Blooming: The Art of Gardens in East and West” at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Photo: Collection of the Palace of Versailles
Malaysia

Penang’s cemetery tours spur interest in pioneers, colonial history

While the state receives millions in conservation funding, it faces challenges in preserving the Protestant cemetery due to its climate.

A British visitor attends a tour of the Old Protestant Cemetery in Penang, Malaysia. Photo: Ushar Daniele
Hong Kong culture

Editorial | Hong Kong’s efforts to commemorate Bruce Lee should pack bigger punch

While the latest move to honour the late kung fu star is welcome, more must be done to acknowledge his standing as a pillar of Hong Kong heritage.

Lessons from China's history

Reflections | Ancient Chinese sleep advice, from bedtimes and body positions to state of mind

For premodern Chinese people, sleep was much more than daily rest – it was a cultivated discipline and a medical necessity.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Taiwan

Why Beijing now wants its spies executed in Taiwan back in the spotlight

Mainland China is seeing a surge in interest over ‘invisible martyrs’ such as Wu Shi, a KMT defector who was executed in Taipei in 1950.

videocam
4
Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen
American cinema

Pearl Harbor at 25: is Michael Bay’s World War II epic really that bad?

Pearl Harbor was widely panned upon release in 2001 but with its strong cast and characters and explosive action, is it worth reassessing?

videocam
Australia

Riot erupts over Australian indigenous girl’s suspected killer

About 400 indigenous people gathered at the hospital where ‌the suspect was taken after being beaten unconscious by locals.

Hong Kong culture

On This Day | In 1946, Hong Kong’s governor Sir Mark Young returns after WWII – SCMP archive

On this day 80 years ago, Sir Mark Young returned to Hong Kong after being a prisoner of war during the Japanese occupation.

Sir Mark Young (left) in an undated picture. He was serving as Hong Kong’s governor when the territory fell under Japanese occupation in 1941. Photo: SCMP Archive
Australia

Australian police find body in search for missing indigenous girl

The girl was reported missing from her home in a remote community in central Australia on Saturday.

Volunteers join the police and emergency services in searching the scrubland surrounding Todd River on the third day of the search for a missing 5-year-old, whose family has asked her to be referred to as “Kumanjayi Little Baby” for cultural reasons, in Alice Springs, Australia, on Tuesday. Photo: via Reuters
New Zealand

New Zealand officials reject statue remembering Japan’s WWII sex slaves

The government said feedback for the statue application included formal representations from Japan.

videocam
Italy

Archaeologists use AI to reconstruct Pompeii victim’s face and final moments

AI-generated image shows a man ducking for cover, with a flaming Mount Vesuvius in the background.

Style Edit

Style Edit: Poly MGM Museum’s new ‘Silk Roads Beyond Borders’ treasures

New Italian and Persian treasures make their Asia debut, expanding the museum’s Silk Road narrative with rare works that illuminate centuries of East-West exchange.

Michele Marieschi’s Ca’ Foscari and Palazzo Balbi on the Grand Canal (c.1738-1740). Photo: Fotostudio Rapuzzi
Language Matters

Language Matters | From azure to cerulean, how fashionable shades of blue got their names

The Devil Wears Prada explained there’s big money in leveraging names of blue hues, some of which evolved across centuries and continents.

Anne Hathaway as aspiring journalist-cum-fashion assistant Andy Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). With the sequel just around the corner, we look at how some of the most fashionable shades of blue got their names. Photo: 20th Century Fox
Lessons from China's history

Reflections | The history of China’s hospitality industry and how its inns evolved over time

Private inns served travelling merchants in ancient China and grew in number and sophistication as the economy and infrastructure expanded.

Chinese history

Inside the 14k, the Hong Kong triad that went global

From its roots in mainland China to expansion in Hong Kong and beyond, we look at the history of one of the most notorious triad societies.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Help preserve 120 years of quality journalism.
SUPPORT NOW
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement