
Feng shui tips for Rabbits in the Year of the Snake, for luck in love, health and wealth
Year of the Snake 2025 series
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If your Chinese zodiac predicts a rough year ahead, fret not – feng shui is here to help.
The ancient practice also known as Chinese geomancy is said to help balance the energies of people and their environment. Some people consult it to mitigate bad luck and improve their prospects for health, wealth or love.
With origins in ancient Chinese philosophy and Taoism, feng shui is a holistic approach to living in harmony with the natural world.
According to feng shui principles, Rabbits should place a fishbowl, or decorative items with flowing water, in the southeast of their living space for financial luck. Photo: Shutterstock
This traditional practice seeks to optimise the flow of energy, or qi, by considering the placement of furniture, choice of colours and other items, and even the state of the surrounding landscape.

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AllAfrica
13-07-2025
- AllAfrica
Meet the women who study pole dancing in modern Shanghai
From outside, China is often portrayed as a demure, conservative country. But inside a Shanghai pole-dancing school tucked at the far end of the hall in an otherwise nondescript office building, a different side of the city is revealed. Only a wall of boots is visible beyond the door … although, amid the loud music playing at all hours, on occasion visitors on occasion might glimpse a scantily clad figure walking in high heels from one end of the hall to another. Tutu, originally from Hainan, is both a student at S-pole and an assistant manager, helping to teach classes alongside Hai Xiaohan, the school's founder. For her, and many other young women in Shanghai, pole dancing has been an important means of discovering herself. Tutu 'I saw a pole dancer abroad,' says Tutu. 'At that time, I thought that I also wanted to be as beautiful, sexy and powerful as her, so the first thing I did when I came back was find a school. Later I felt that I liked myself more and more, and every time I practiced, I felt like I was having a conversation with my body, that I had no physical limitations. Even in my normal life, I started to feel more confident when I went out, and it was the first time I really loved my body.' Lena, who works in marketing, is another student at S-pole. For her, pole dancing is the next in a long of sports – 10 years of karate, six of muai thai, two or three of weight lifting. But pole dancing has been the most transformative. 'You feel the spiritual changes after you start dancing,' she says. 'Right now I'm learning my feminine side. I'm a tomboy in my daily life, so when I first started pole-dancing I did it like martial arts, extremely brutal, dancing like I wanted to fight and kill people. My coach says I've got work to do, but I'm making progress.' That said, like millions of office workers studying dancing, yoga, boxing or rock climbing around China, Lena's greatest motivation is a practical one. 'Actually, I do it because I want to eat more food.' In America, pole dancing is generally associated with night clubs – but in China, strip clubs don't exist. Rather, S-pole feels similar to any other exercise studio, but one where students hang in seemingly impossible positions from rotating poles positioned on the floor. They flip in the air, bodies held at a 90 degree angle or testing the limits of human flexibility while energetic techno music throbs in the background. 'Pole dancing looks great but it's very difficult,' says Lena. 'A lot of people have bruises or injuries, and some have even gone to surgery. You need to be very firm as a person to do this. In Chinese we call this jianren [resilience].' Lena Yingying Why work so hard? Some of the most dedicated students are studying for competitions in Japan, Korea or Hong Kong, but a majority are there for different reasons. 'I'm under a lot of pressure at work,' says Yingying, 41, who works for a chemical company. 'I'm a typical person with kids at home. I just work all the time, and family is very stressful. Pole dancing is really interesting, and it helps me to balance my life.' 'Work is really stressful for me,' says Juzi, an employee of a state-owned company, 'and I need to dance to relieve the pressure. I guess most of the students here are company employees doing something like that.' Juzi. But pole dancing isn't just exercise. It's also erotic, seething with an edge of danger and occasional controversy. And for a special kind of person, that's also its appeal. 'Some of my peers, born in the 80s or 90s, might think pole dancing is a little too sexy, too non-mainstream,' says Yingying. 'But the ones born in the late 90s and 2000s—they want sexiness and there's nothing wrong with that.' In fact, says Hai Xiaohan, founder at S-pole and one of China's rare male pole-dancers, the students are part of a larger shift in China as a whole. 'People's minds are changing. It's not like before when we were limited to one thing. These days people just love themselves more, they pay more attention to themselves, and that's important.' Hai Xiaohan 'The people here are very open-minded,' says Tutu, who proudly posts videos on the internet for not just her friends but family. In previous years, this might have resulted in a wave of criticism – but, now, the students don't have to keep what they're doing a secret. 'We don't care about what others think. We're a group of people who love themselves very much.' In Lena's case, pole dancing has led to a connection in a very surprising place – the office. 'The owner of my company has been pole dancing for six years, and she's in her 40s. We take classes together; in thirty minutes we're practicing together for a competition.' 'There hasn't been any criticism,' says Juzi. 'My parents are conservative people, but when they see me dancing, they think it's cool and good.' But twenty years ago? 'No way,' says Yingying. 'Things are completely different now than they used to be.' While friends and family have been largely supportive, the strongest criticism has been directed towards students who post videos online. Fortunately, many of the responses have remained subdued. 'Some people might want to criticize me,' says Yingying, 'but a lot of the comments aren't made public, so I just ignore it. In other cases, the criticism can become more personal. 'Online,' says Lena, 'a lot of the best praise is from women but mostly the slut shaming is also from women. It feels bad when you're doing this impressive thing, then your own people are turning against you.' 'There's nothing wrong with my videos,' says Tutu with a laugh. 'I think I'm just too sexy! But sometimes the very sexy videos don't get much traffic or followers, because they can make people uncomfortable, or people might think what we're doing is something bad.'● Another problem, Lena says, is the male gaze itself, which has always been the perceived audience of pole dancing. 'The thing is, men watch and they assume you're doing it for them, but that isn't right. The way I see it – they can watch it, but their opinion isn't the one that matters. I dance for myself and if I want to post a video, that's for me too. That said, sometimes reaching the right audience can make it all worth it. 'My grandma really likes the videos I post,' says Tutu. 'That surprised me, but I think it really means something.'


RTHK
03-06-2025
- RTHK
HK Post puts happy stamp on five themed sets
HK Post puts happy stamp on five themed sets One of the five sets features the panda cub twins. Photo courtesy of Hongkong Post Hongkong Post has unveiled five themed sets of stamps for release between July and December, with each featuring elements of the city's unique cultural identity from cute pandas and its unique skyline to the storied aviation industry. At the top of the shopping list for many is "Giant Panda Twin Cubs", which features Hong Kong's very own Jia Jia and De De. Also popular will be "Hong Kong Hiking Trails Series No 3: Wilson Trail", which offers 10 scenic views of one of the most distinct and challenging hikes, coming in at 78 kilometres from Stanley to Nam Chung. "Aviation Development in Hong Kong" is a set of four stamps showcasing the airport over the decades, from its relocation from Kai Tak to Chek Lap Kok to its runway development. The "24 Solar Terms – Autumn" series features designs based on the Chinese calendar and marks the "change of seasons and meteorological patterns," particularly the six solar terms of transition into the cooler months. "Christmas Stamps V" uses the iconic Victoria Harbour silhouette to embrace Hong Kong's multicultural identity, with night views serving as the background and Christmas elements adorning the skyline. These stamps are available for orders at More details can be found on the Hong Kong Stamps FaceBook page at or at its website.


South China Morning Post
31-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
People laugh in my face when I say I'm Chinese. So what?
I am a Chinese man. It's just taken me more than 30 years to be OK with saying this. Advertisement You might not think so to look at me. I'm the son of a Singaporean Chinese mother and a British father, but the genetic lottery dished out a Caucasian face and that became a self-fulfilling prophecy. When I was growing up in Singapore, people saw me as white, so that was how I felt. I never took Lunar New Year very seriously, and at my rebellious, teenage nadir even skipped the festivities entirely (well, almost). Instead of attending reunion dinner on the eve of the festival and big gatherings on days one and two, I stayed home in a sulk over the pointlessness of these centuries-old traditions. Shamelessly, I had no problems keeping the ang pow , or red packets containing money, collected on my behalf. I gave up learning Mandarin effectively after primary school, having stupidly convinced myself that failing the subject was 'cool'. It is deliciously ironic that I've ended up occasionally having to translate Chinese into English at work, muddling through with the help of native speakers and Google Translate. Shamefully, I never learned Teochew beyond counting to 10 and asking, 'How are you?' and 'Have you eaten?' – even though my mother and her siblings spoke the dialect to each other and it was the closest link with my grandfather's roots in Swatow (now Shantou, in Guangdong). The language barrier prevented me from having a direct conversation with my maternal grandparents. Advertisement In a way, putting my Chinese heritage on the back burner was practically official – my birth certificate holds no recognised Chinese name. My aunt came up with the Chinese surname I used in school, a phonetic version of Driscoll (di ke in pinyin), despite my mother's perfectly fine Chinese surname being right there, ready to be inherited.