This week in PostMag: Hong Kong's bamboo scaffolding and a Bali bone healer

South China Morning Post

2 days ago

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.