Hooked on classics

Every Saturday afternoon, a dozen students meet at the canteen of Renmin University of China in Beijing. They do not come for food or tea as others do. Instead, they gather for a Chinese classic, called The Book of Odes. Undistracted by noise and the smell of food, they spend four hours reading, debating and sharing views on the ancient poetry, which dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC). The students are pursuing their major, Chinese Classics, a two-year labor of love.

Famed school to conduct grand reunion

It will be a rare moment when eight of the most famous Chinese composers, Tan Dun, Chen Qigang, Guo Wenjing, Ye Xiaogang, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Qu Xiaosong and Su Cong, reunite for a performance of their works.

Why clutter bugs find it so very hard to let go ... of anything

VIENNA: In their apartments, knick-knacks cover every flat surface, old newspapers, piled up to the roof, make living in the normal sense of the word impossible. But for some, this is the only way to exist. Sufferers from so-called "messy-house syndrome" (also known as Diogenes syndrome) can take hoarding and cluttering to new dimensions.

Why Jolie is cut from a different kind of cloth

SHANGHAI: Jolie van Beek first came to Shanghai nine years ago as a designer for a Dutch fashion company.

Life Expat

Hanging judge

Many expats want in on the sizzling contemporary Chinese art market, but most recognize there's an art to investment, especially when investing in art.

Global Village

Celebration of light

Life Culture

Emerging from the shadows

He Xin, 13, concentrates on outlining a frog's head on a piece of white cowhide. He cuts around the edges of the drawing and carves out the eyes, mouth and other details on a black-waxed tablet.

Representative arts of the chosen few

When Beijingers think of Tongzhou District, the first things that come to mind are its prosperous real estate markets and the Songzhuang Village, home to an emergent contemporary art community.

Coming clean on artist's inspirations

Unlike other painters, Asae Soya does not use a studio. The Japanese artist works in her bathroom, where rising steam and abundant foam inspire her to create.

A new take on an old story

In 1933, the great Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) wrote his best known play Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding) after reading a newspaper account of a young bride in Andalusia who abandoned her husband-to-be on their wedding day to escape with her childhood sweetheart.