Tarmo Peltokoski begins HK Phil tenure with Mahler’s monumental Symphony No 8

South China Morning Post - Nov 7, 2026

Gustav Mahler’s rarely performed Symphony No 8, a work requiring such a large orchestra and choir it is known as “Symphony of a Thousand”, finally received its Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra premiere on Saturday, heralding an ambitious new chapter as the 26-year-old Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski officially took the podium as music director. The 5pm performance at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre involved nearly 600 musicians and singers from six choirs: the Hong Kong Philharmonic Chorus; the...

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N. Korean envoy holds 3rd high-level meeting in China

N. Korean envoy holds 3rd high-level meeting in China

A senior North Korean ruling party official has met his counterpart in Beijing, the North's state media said Saturday, the latest in a series of high-level meetings during his visit this week. Kim Song-nam, a Political Bureau member and Central Committee secretary of North Korea's Workers' Party of Korea (WPA), met Liu Haixing, head of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee's International Liaison Department, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on Friday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. It was Kim's third meeting with a senior Chinese official since he arrived Tuesday, as the two countries are seeking to deepen ties and expand cooperation after Chinese President Xi Jinping's June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang. Kim briefed Liu on Pyongyang's "successes" in party-building work and said the whole country has been striving to meet the targets of the five-year plan adopted at the party's ninth congress in February. For his part, Liu called the visit significant for strengthening relations, according to the report. The two sides reaffirmed su

Why Lee Chang-dong's award-winning 'Possible Love' struggled to find investors

Why Lee Chang-dong's award-winning 'Possible Love' struggled to find investors

Director Lee Chang-dong's "Possible Love" has earned international acclaim, winning the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival and securing invitations to major film festivals worldwide. Yet behind its remarkable success lies an uncomfortable reality: The film nearly never got made because it could not attract enough investment. The acclaimed project, released on Netflix on Friday, highlights a growing problem in the Korean film industry, where even internationally respected filmmakers and star-studded casts can struggle to secure financing. "Possible Love" follows two married couples whose lives intersect through the making of a documentary. One couple consists of a laid-off worker and his wife, while the other comprises a documentary filmmaker and her husband. As they become involved in the project, their contrasting lives and hidden desires come to the surface. The film marks Lee's return to directing eight years after "Burning" and features an ensemble cast led by Sol Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong. Even before its official s

US and China must join hands to measure rising AI tide

US and China must join hands to measure rising AI tide

The next US-China talk on artificial intelligence should begin with a simple question: do the two governments actually understand how rapidly AI’s capabilities are improving? Before deciding what to do about the technology, Washington and Beijing need a common way to measure its progress. Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump are expected to meet in Shenzhen soon, and AI is set to remain high on their agenda. Their continued exchanges on this transformative technology are a...

Why China is investing heavily in African push to bring mineral processing home

Why China is investing heavily in African push to bring mineral processing home

Chinese investors have backed mineral processing and manufacturing projects worth more than US$16 billion across Africa, a new report has concluded, amid an increasing push by countries to secure a greater share of the earnings from their natural resources. The continent is a major international supplier of key minerals such as copper, cobalt and iron ore, and countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Zimbabwe have previously introduced mineral export bans or restrictions to...

Chinese consulate in Melbourne demands justice after fatal stabbing of delivery worker

Chinese consulate in Melbourne demands justice after fatal stabbing of delivery worker

The Chinese consulate in Melbourne has urged local authorities to “severely punish” the person responsible for killing a Chinese delivery rider on Friday evening – a tragedy that has sparked mounting online outrage over delivery platform safety standards. A 47-year-old delivery man from China’s northwestern Shaanxi province was stabbed to death while on the job and another rider was injured in downtown Melbourne on Friday evening, after the two confronted a man who was “tampering” with their...

Hong Kong paediatrician urges parents to vaccinate children as temperatures fall

Hong Kong paediatrician urges parents to vaccinate children as temperatures fall

A Hong Kong paediatric expert has called on parents to arrange influenza vaccinations for their children ahead of cooler temperatures next week, warning of a double whammy of overlapping summer and winter flu seasons. The city has recorded 29 cases of severe paediatric influenza infection this flu season, two of which were fatal. Dr Mike Kwan Yat-wah, former president of the Asian Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases, warned on Saturday that the city could see a longer flu season with the...

Test of trust for Hong Kong’s new housing checks unit after Wang Fuk Court blaze

Test of trust for Hong Kong’s new housing checks unit after Wang Fuk Court blaze

For former Wang Fuk Court resident Dorz Cheung, seeing will be believing when it comes to reforms initiated after the deadly inferno in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district. The 34-year-old questioned whether the new oversight bodies would prevent another disaster, saying systemic reforms to tackle shoddy building maintenance and bid-rigging could be undermined by poor implementation. “No matter how well the system is reformed, it is people who put it into practice. Even the best system will achieve...

China to narrow scope of contentious detention and surveillance measure

China to narrow scope of contentious detention and surveillance measure

Chinese lawmakers are proposing to restrict a contentious form of detention and police surveillance measure, among other changes to the country’s Criminal Procedure Law. Known as residential surveillance at a designated location (RSDL), the measure was originally intended as a mild restriction of personal freedoms to lower the rate of detention and arrest. Since RSDL’s introduction in 1996 and expansion in 2012, it has become the harshest form of detention used in state security cases, including...

Domestic helper arrested after allegedly spitting into 4-year-old girl’s food

Domestic helper arrested after allegedly spitting into 4-year-old girl’s food

A foreign domestic helper in Hong Kong has been arrested on suspicion of ill-treating a child after she allegedly spat into the food of a girl under her care, according to police. The mother of the four-year-old girl filed a police report at 9.28am on Friday, saying her 37-year-old Filipino helper had treated her daughter inappropriately. Initial police investigations at the family’s flat at The Belcher’s, a private residential estate in Kennedy Town, indicated that the helper had spat into the...

HKUST president Nancy Ip wins Unesco prize for Alzheimer’s research

HKUST president Nancy Ip wins Unesco prize for Alzheimer’s research

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) president Nancy Ip Yuk-yu has been awarded a United Nations prize for her “outstanding contributions” in neuroscience, which have enabled the earlier diagnosis and better monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease. Ip was presented with the Unesco-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences on Friday in Paris. “Dr Nancy Yuk-yu Ip, president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, is a world-renowned...

Chinese insights power this Canadian new launch

Chinese insights power this Canadian new launch

Chinese insights power this Canadian new launch

Int'l forum on mutual learning among civilizations to open in Macao

Int'l forum on mutual learning among civilizations to open in Macao

The International Forum on Mutual Learning among Civilizations 2026 will open in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) on November 9, bringing together nearly 300 representatives from over 20 countries for two days of discussions on cultural heritage, exchanges among civilizations and the challenges of the digital age.

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