ThinkChina Culture Book
Culture
[Video] Presenting: The ThinkChina Culture book
The ThinkChina Culture book, a curated collection of our culture articles, was launched at the inaugural ThinkChina Forum in March 2025. Born first as individual articles on our website then as a specially designed book in print, it is the stories that have stayed constant. ThinkChina’s Lu Lingming gives us a glimpse of the pages.
Lu Lingming
11 Jul 2025
Society
[Photos] China’s young generation dancing to the break
Breaking, a dance sport debuting at this year’s summer Olympics, has captured the hearts of many young Chinese. While some see it as a way of training the body and mind, others appreciate it for the art form that it is. Photographer Zhou Na meets three young people brimming with passion for breaking.
Zhou Na
26 Jul 2024
Culture
Shikumen houses: The first classrooms for the people of Shanghai
The TV series Blossoms Shanghai has revived interest in what life was like in Shanghai during the 1990s, in particular the lanes and shikumen houses unique to Shanghai that became a melting pot of people from different social statuses. Writer Shen Jialu takes us on a journey through old Shanghai.
Shen Jialu
09 Feb 2024
Culture
Mother's hands in the handicraft era: Taiwanese art historian
Musing at the way modern hands are preoccupied with the mindless scrolling of mobile phones, art historian Chiang Hsun remembers his mother who knew the weight of things with one touch of her hands. Those same hands made countless beautiful sweaters and embroidery for her family - it was her labour of love.
Chiang Hsun
23 Jun 2023
Culture
This is what Nanyang art looks like
Following up on his article tracing the origins of Nanyang art and its influence in Southeast Asia, Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre CEO Low Sze Wee explains the characteristics of Nanyang art, highlighting the unique integration of Chinese and Western art in their compositions.
Low Sze Wee
20 Jan 2023
Culture
Must one read Chinese to appreciate Chinese calligraphy?
Teo Han Wue has always believed that one need not be literate in the Chinese language to appreciate calligraphy. He was heartened that many others seem to share his view, going by how well-received a photograph of Singaporean poet-calligrapher Pan Shou's calligraphy was at his solo photography exhibition recently. Without him regaling them with tales of Pan Shou, they found their own delight appreciating this artform through an image of an image.
Teo Han Wue
01 Apr 2022
Cartoon
[Comic] Chinese youths are like little red flowers
Comic artist Baiyi examines the idea of China's "involuted" generation of young people and their "lying flat" attitude towards life. Many Chinese youths are feeling stressed and overworked, as they feel trapped by a narrow definition of success. "Lying flat" or taking themselves out of the game seems to be a spiritual awakening of sorts to re-examine their priorities in life. How did Chinese youths arrive at such a state of being?
Bai Yi
16 Jul 2021
History
An album of rare photos: From Chinese coolies to Singaporeans
From the 19th century to the 1920s and 1930s, ships transporting hundreds of Chinese coolies ready to work hard and make their "fortune" in Nanyang often docked at Kallang River. Historical photo collector Hsu Chung-mao recently obtained an album with rare photographs of such a ship bringing coolies from Xiamen in Fujian, China, to Singapore in the early 20th century. They are an authentic visual record of Chinese coolies in Singapore a century ago and a powerful throwback to that period.
Hsu Chung-mao
26 Jun 2020
Culture
Taiwan's nostalgic flavours, the glitterati and the kamikaze
As a child, Cheng Pei-kai believed that cabaret cuisine was forbidden food, due to the unsavoury reputations of the cabarets and clubs that served it. In the present, tasting the last vestiges of cabaret cuisine in Taiwan only reminds him to treasure them as part of an intangible cultural heritage. In a time long past, high society and average Joes alike partied with abandon and in some cases, had their last hurrah.
Cheng Pei-kai
12 Jun 2020