Kate Whitehead

Author Lindsay Varty travelled across the city to talk to artisans working in trades that are fast dying out. From Auntie Yan and her vengeance shoe to Chan Lo-choi, still making wooden birdcages, here are some heroes from yesteryear

Former BBC reporter Andrew Shaw gave up his career in journalism and life in England to become the only foreign master jade carver in China Former BBC reporter Andrew Shaw is the only foreigner to have learned how to carve jade in China. Born and raised in north London, the 62-year-old’s passion for jade was…

Chinese orphan takes on Hong Kong role at her adoptive mother’s childcare foundation. Jenny Bowen adopted baby Maya in 1997, then went on to set up orphanages across China. Maya, now 23, works as a programme coordinator at the OneSky Centre in Hong Kong

Boycott of next month’s Irrawaddy Literary Festival announced by one guest over Muslim minority humanitarian crisis, while another, Lonely Planet’s Tony Wheeler, accuses its patron, Aung San Suu Kyi, of not saying enough about it

Transformative travel enables people to break away from the stresses of modern life by finding eco-villages, social projects and farms David Casey was in his early 20s, a fresh University of California, Berkeley, graduate, when he first encountered the gift economy through the phenomenally successful Couch Surfing website. He was blown away by the way…

A new BBC series starting this weekend explores the vulnerabilities of the internet and how conmen or terrorists can hold all of us to ransom