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South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
This week in PostMag: Hello Kitty creator Sanrio and a South African safari
One of the first things I ever loved was a Hello Kitty diary. Yes, there were stuffed animals (Snuffy the bear, RIP), sticker books and an American Girl doll or two, but it's the red Sanrio diary from 1993 that's somehow become a core memory. The lock, shaped like Hello Kitty's head, was cute but flimsy at best. Inside? Kindergarten confessionals, scrawled in shaky handwriting and even shakier grammar. Seeing a vintage Hello Kitty diary brings back memories for PostMag editor Cat Nelson. Photo: Etsy Things escalated in Grade 2 when Miki moved from Japan to our sleepy California town. With her came a parallel universe of pencil cases, stickers and characters beyond anything our Lisa Frank-addled brains had seen. Keroppi erasers, Badtz-Maru mechanical pencils, pastel My Melody folders. Sanrio wasn't just cute, and it wasn't just a toy company. It was as aspirational and worldly as an eight-year-old could get. So it's no wonder I devoured Sumnima Kandangwa's cover story this week, which explores Sanrio's staying power across generations . She charts the company's shape-shifting fandom, from a collector with a 1,000-piece Hello Kitty stash to Zoomers swearing allegiance to Kuromi's soft-punk aesthetic. And these characters aren't just merch. I was struck by this as our photographer, Jocelyn Tam, and I worked on the images for this piece. One young woman we photographed felt compelled to tell us, unprompted, that it might be a Hello Kitty charm hanging off her bag, but only because it was limited edition and her friends convinced her. Her real favourite is Kuromi. They may be cartoons, but loyalties run deep. Elsewhere, Bernice Chan profiles Aqua founder David Yeo, who started out cooking for friends in his Hong Kong flat and somehow ended up with a 25-year-old international restaurant empire. He's the kind of obsessive who can, apparently, taste the seasonal shift in a bag of rice. I'm impressed. And then there's the Karoo. Mark Eveleigh heads to South Africa's semi-arid desert for a walking safari, which is not something I plan to do any time soon but greatly enjoyed reading about. It's part travelogue, part nature thriller – lions, rewilding, the return of springbok. I thought of our Yellowstone feature from a few issues back and how the park has brought back nearly extinct wolves. Both reminders that not everything that disappears stays gone. While you might not find me on the Karoo any time soon, you may run into me at Montana. Associate editor Gavin Yeung chats with bartenders Lorenzo Antinori (Bar Leone) and Simone Caporale (Barcelona's Sips) about their new cocktail outpost on Hollywood Road. It's a throwback to 1970s and 80s Cuban culture – and it sounds delightful. See you there for a drink? Finally, August looms. Hong Kong might not stage a full European-style exodus, but the city does slip into silent mode and we're pausing issues on August 3, 17 and 31. That said, we're not very good at staying away. You can always find us online, and we'll be back on August 10 and 24 in print. I'm looking forward to it already.
South China Morning Post
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
PostMag wins 2 SOPA 2025 awards for culture reporting and design
PostMag was recognised with two honours at the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) 2025 Awards for Editorial Excellence in a ceremony last night at the JW Marriott Hotel in Hong Kong. The SOPA Awards, widely regarded as the region's most prestigious journalism accolades, celebrate outstanding editorial work across the Asia-Pacific. In the Excellence in Magazine Design category, PostMag received the top honour. 'An elegant, 'quiet' design which allows the wonderful photography to drive the visual interest of the magazine and to do the work of drawing the reader into the content,' the judges wrote in their comments . 'The typographical choices for this revamp very much follow current editorial design styles, contemporising this well-known title.' From left: Cat Nelson, editor of PostMag; Lee Williamson, executive director of SCMP's specialist publications; and Naomi Chan, lead designer of PostMag, with the awards after the prize-giving ceremony. Photo: SOPA SOPA also acknowledged PostMag with an Honourable Mention for Excellence in Arts and Culture Reporting (Regional/Local) for the feature ' Academic bars: craft beer meets intellectual discourse in Shanghai's Bunker, sparking a trend across China ' by Vincent Chow. 'The writing captured the essence of a unique cultural phenomenon that blends casual socialising with academic engagement. Structurally, the piece effectively balances personal narratives with broader societal trends,' read the judges' comments. 'By situating the story within the context of increasing public life controls in China, the article adds depth and relevance, highlighting a grassroots movement fostering open dialogue and community connection.' Cat Nelson (left), editor of PostMag, receiving the SOPA 2025 Honourable Mention for Excellence in Arts and Culture Reporting (Regional) award. Photo: SOPA Earlier this year, PostMag also received recognition at the 2025 Créateurs Design Awards, where Charmaine Chan's ' Metabolism in Motion ' won for Excellence in Creative Journalism. Formerly known as Post Magazine, South China Morning Post's weekly Sunday magazine has been distributed with the Sunday Morning Post since 1989. The title was revitalised and rebranded as PostMag in September 2024. Each issue aims to offer fresh cultural perspectives shaped by a strong visual identity and original reporting from across the region. Advertisement
South China Morning Post
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
This week in PostMag: behind-the-scenes at Cirque du Soleil and HK cinema
Face paint and the stage were never my thing, so when I found myself with a face full of circus make-up (rosy red cheeks and all) on a brisk Seattle afternoon in early March, I was surprised how I felt. I was ready for my moment. I could feel myself morphing into someone different – less guarded, less self-conscious. More free. Maybe I should have been a theatre kid. That's the power of a mask for you. Cat Nelson, editor of PostMag, with circus make-up at Cirque du Soleil Kooza in Seattle, US. Photo: Cat Nelson In advance of its Hong Kong tour stop this month, Cirque du Soleil had invited PostMag photographer Jocelyn Tam and me behind the scenes of Kooza, the most classic 'circus' of their productions. I'd seen Cirque as a child in 1990s San Francisco, likely Alegria, and remembered it as an expressive, avant-garde performance – not so with Kooza, which is replete with clowning and high-energy antics. Advertisement We spent a few days in Seattle watching what goes into putting on the show. With 121 people on tour and 100 containers of equipment, it's no small feat. We tried our hand at make-up, failed horribly at the low-wire and ate in the kitchen that feeds everyone in the circus' 'village'. We also got to know the cast when the masks come off – or rather, the paint's wiped away – and have told a few of their stories here. In our cover feature, Chris Dobson meets Hong Kong filmmaker Peter Yung Wai-chuen. Recently restored in 4K by M+, Yung's 1979 police drama The System shows a Hong Kong from a different era – drugs, triads and corrupt cops – and was made possible only because of trust he had forged with the mob. The film came about at the start of Hong Kong cinema's New Wave movement, which I know distressingly little about but now my interest is piqued (as I hope is yours). When I hit 10 years in China, it was hard to believe that I'd stayed in one place for so long but I'd never considered the opposite and how exhausting that might be. I felt tired just reading about Thor Pedersen's near-decade-long, globe-trotting journey to visit all 203 countries without flying. As he tells Graeme Green, what the Danish native imagined would take a few years ultimately ended up taking more than double that, in part due to an extended stay in Hong Kong thanks to the pandemic. I imagine Cameron Dueck would be in full agreement with the premise of Pedersen's quest – it's not just if you get there, it's how you get there. How we move through the world colours how we experience it. Dueck puts this to the test in Thailand, where he explores Phang Nga Bay by air, sea and land, finding secluded corners of the gorgeous limestone-punctuated landscape. I'd always found cycling to be my preferred mode of transport but boating's sounding like it might come in a close second. Advertisement
