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South China Morning Post
44 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
China tries to tempt couples into marriage with music festival wedding booths
Officials across China have been racking their brains to think of ways to reverse a sharp decline in the country's marriage rate over the past few years. Their latest idea: Las Vegas-style weddings at popular music festivals. Advertisement Local officials in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, made headlines over the weekend when they set up a temporary registry office at the Super Strawberry Music Festival – the latest in a string of eye-catching local initiatives designed to tempt couples to tie the knot. Eligible mainland Chinese couples at the festival were able to get married on the spot with just their ID cards and three passport-sized photos, according to the civil affairs bureau in Urumqi's Shuimogou District. Three couples got hitched at the booth while it was open on Saturday afternoon, according to local media reports. Yao Yuyang, a resident of a nearby city called Changji, had originally planned to marry her boyfriend on Monday, but the couple decided to change their plans when they arrived at the festival. 'The festival featured a performance by my favourite band, Summer Invasion Project, so we could get married and enjoy the music together,' Yao told the Urumqi Evening News on Sunday. 'The on-site registration was convenient – it only took about 10 minutes to complete.' Advertisement Marriage registry offices have been popping up in unexpected locations across China with increasing frequency in recent months, as local officials do everything they can to boost the nation's plummeting marriage rate.
South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
This week in PostMag: Hong Kong's bamboo scaffolding and a Bali bone healer
As I read our cover feature this week, I started thinking about the overlap between a bamboo scaffolding master's craft and my own as the editor of a magazine. Hear me out for a second. They're both tactile endeavours, requiring craftsmanship and an attention to the little things. Each of us takes building blocks – words and images or poles and ties – to construct something greater than the sum of its parts. And most of all, both have an unmistakable human touch. 'There's always a human hand behind it,' says a bamboo scaffolding master in Christopher DeWolf's piece. It's a line that's stuck with me. Advertisement DeWolf's story takes us first to Venice, where a crew from Hong Kong has wrapped the courtyard of a historic villa in bamboo for this year's Biennale of Architecture, and back here to our own city, where officials have proposed replacing bamboo with steel even while other countries are just realising the natural material's huge potential. Elsewhere in our features, Winnie Chung chats with Singaporean novelist Jemimah Wei, whose debut The Original Daughter is already making waves internationally. The up-and-coming author shows a side of Singapore apart from the glitz and glam the city state is known for, focusing on the 'claustrophobic intimacy of public-housing life'. Wei toiled over the novel for more than 10 years, estimating that she wrote well over a million words. Quite the endeavour indeed. Back in Venice, Zhaoyin Feng meets the Chinese migrants now staffing many of the city's coffee bars. It's a story that dives into the question of authenticity and cultural identity, played out through espresso pulls and Aperol spritzes. My favourite bit? Learning that one young barista honed her coffee-making skills via YouTube and Douyin, a thoroughly modern-day twist. Then we leave the lagoon for the Swiss Alps. In Seewis im Prättigau, Victoria Burrows joins villagers guiding flower-crowned cows down from the high pastures at summer's end. There are bells and brass bands and half the town lining the streets. I'm particularly intrigued by the ancillary events. I might not qualify for the international beard competition but I'd happily judge alpine cheeses. Advertisement And finally, in Bali, Ian Lloyd Neubauer meets Mangku Sudarsana, a traditional healer known for bone setting. One firm knee, a twist and years of pain disappear in seconds. Feeling like a man reborn, Neubauer uses his new-found energy to explore the island's less-trodden paths, finding there's still plenty to discover beyond traffic-choked Seminyak.
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- South China Morning Post
Bar Leone's Lorenzo Antinori on the secret to his latest Asia's 50 Best Bars win
Bar Leone is drenched in Italian kitsch – portraits of famous (and not-so-famous) Serie A footballers, vintage movie posters of Al Pacino, even Vacanze di Natale '91. Now, after being crowned Asia's Best Bar for the second year running at this week's Asia's 50 Best Bars awards in Macau, perhaps it's time staff found room on the wall for one more poster – of Rocky. Bar Leone's story mirrors Sylvester Stallone's underdog tale. Like Rocky Balboa – the unknown brawler who shocked the world by going the distance with champion Apollo Creed – this Bridges Street cocktail bar burst onto the scene, barely a year old, and achieved a historic result, clinching the title of Asia's Best Bar before being announced runner-up at World's 50 Best Bars later in the year. In the sequel, Balboa cemented his legitimacy by defeating Creed. Similarly, Bar Leone topped the Asia rankings again this year, proving last year's result was no fluke. Lorenzo Antinori behind the counter at Bar Leone. Photo: SCMP/Jocelyn Tam 'When you get validated a second time by something like 50 Best, it's amazing,' says co-founder Lorenzo Antinori of his establishment's latest triumph, flashing a grin. 'But we've never really worked towards a number. We work towards creating good experiences,' he adds with perfect Italian charm. Antinori is no stranger to success. His bar programme at The Four Seasons' Argo earned widespread acclaim, and within the F&B industry, he's well-liked and respected for his work across continents. But Bar Leone's success feels different. The constant line outside is a clear sign of Bar Leone's new-found prominence, signalling a shift in Hong Kong's bar scene from (former number one) Coa and Shin Hing Street to Bridges Street. Yet inside, little has changed. The staff are still welcoming despite heightened customer expectations, and the food and drinks are of the same stand-out quality despite the surging number of guests and orders. 'Nothing changed but everything changed,' muses Antinori of the past 12 months. The Asia's 50 Best Bars winners celebrate after the ceremony in Macau. Photo: Handout Last time we spoke, Antinori asserted that Leone's success was 'not about the drinks' – a seemingly fanciful claim for a cocktail bar charging not insignificant sums. After all, why pay for vibes at Leone when cheaper options exist?
