South China Morning Post

Decades before superstars such as Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi made their first forays into Hollywood, Chinese actress Tsai Chin played a Bond girl in the 007 spy film You Only Live Twice (1967).

To shoot the scenes where her Chinese double agent character traps the debonair British spy in an assassination attempt, Tsai, also known as Irene Chow, was in bed with Sean Connery for three days.

Before that, Tsai had been the first Chinese star to perform in London’s West End, earning rave reviews in…

Chinese messaging app WeChat relies on the input of unwitting users to autonomously expand its blacklist of sensitive images, according to a new study by a Canadian internet watchdog group.

Research released this week by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab focused on how WeChat, owned by tech giant Tencent and boasting an active monthly user base of more than 1 billion people, uses a number of censorship mechanisms to screen picture files sent between users in one-to-one and group chats.

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It’s not unusual for Chinese universities with international students to organize programs for them to meet and socialize with native Chinese speakers.

But a university in eastern China was forced to apologize after its “buddy program” drew a torrent of racist and sexist abuse from online commentators.

In recent years, Chinese universities have lured overseas students with scholarships in order to boost their global rankings.

The students are often given preferential treatment, such as…

Scenes of clashes between police and protesters shook Hong Kong on Sunday as a peaceful march descended into chaos.

Bloody brawls broke out in a luxury shopping mall in the northern district of Shatin as police wielding batons and shields chased a small group of protesters into the building.

At least 28 people were injured. Police arrested 37 people during the evening scuffles.

The city’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, is under pressure to resolve the worst political crisis to…

China’s economic growth has slowed to the lowest pace on record, as the protracted trade war with the United States continued to haunt the world’s second-largest economy.

The country’s GDP grew by 6.2% in the second quarter of 2019 compared with the same period last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. 

It’s the weakest growth since Beijing first started publishing quarterly data in 1992. Even during the global financial crisis in 2009, China’s quarterly GDP growth did not…

When news emerged last year that Marvel was fast-tracking the development of a movie about Shang-Chi, its first Asian superhero, Inkstone took a stab at casting the title character.

In the original comic books, Shang-Chi is from China and is known as the “Master of Kung Fu.” He is also the son of the evil Dr Fu Manchu. 

Now, just days ahead of Comic-Con in San Diego, where Marvel is expected to confirm production details, Chinese social media is buzzing with speculation about who should play…

Macy felt great. Alan, the man she was dating, was good looking and apparently lived a life of luxury.

They had met on the dating website Coffee Meets Bagel, then twice in person. He had seemed interested in getting to know her, Macy says.

The “tall, handsome gentleman” told her he worked in marketing, and his Instagram feed opened a window on his luxury lifestyle.

All seemed to be going well, until he asked her to join him on a visit to a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner.

“He…

In his three years as the top American diplomat in Hong Kong, Kurt Tong had repeatedly warned that the former British colony’s autonomy was increasingly at risk of being eroded.

On Wednesday, he was expected to once again deliver a speech to address Hong Kong’s relationship with China. Until the gag order came.

Tong, who recently left his post as the US consul general in Hong Kong, was ordered by the State Department to postpone his speech, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told…

On my 109th day of waiting for a short-term training visa in the US, I find myself sitting in the cramped office of my local New York congresswoman, staring at a framed picture of Barack Obama on her bookshelf.

I sigh. It is now the third year since Donald Trump replaced Obama in the White House. 

A lot has changed, especially in immigration policy. Which is why, as a 27-year-old graduate of Columbia Journalism School, I’m visiting my congresswoman.

Getting an Optional Practical Training…

Wang Zhenhua, 57, a billionaire Chinese real estate developer, has been officially charged with the sexual molestation of a 9-year-old girl, in a case that has shocked the nation and prompted soul-searching.

Wang, the former chairman of Seazen Holdings, a listed company, was formally charged by prosecutors in Shanghai on Wednesday.

A 49-year-old woman surnamed Zhou was also arrested under the same charge. 

Zhou allegedly brought the 9-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl from the eastern…