The police warned they could arrest “key instigators” of the work stoppages. The training reforms call for a 65 per cent increase in the number of students admitted to medical schools, starting from 2025. The plan is popular with the public, who experts suggest are tired of long wait timesContinue Reading
POLARISING FIGURE Pheu Thai, a party controlled by the Shinawatra family, is currently in power and critics have complained about Thaksin’s lenient treatment and questioned the severity of his health problems. Thaksin made a dramatic return in August and showed no signs of poor health as he emerged from hisContinue Reading
BEIJING: China offered to support long-time strategic partner Hungary on public security issues, going beyond trade and investment relations, during a rare meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban, just as NATO struggles to expand its network in Europe. China hopes to deepen law enforcement and security ties with Hungary asContinue Reading
Japan last year relaxed export controls on finished goods, allowing it to help fill gaps in defence equipment among Ukraine’s main suppliers of weapons such as the United States. Tokyo has also provided to Ukraine what it calls “non-lethal support” such as aircraft detecting systems and mobile power generators. LastContinue Reading
“PENT-UP DEMAND” The latest holiday data showed that “there was substantial pent-up demand to be released”, Ting Lu, chief China economist at Nomura, said in a note on Monday. But he warned against reading too much into the strong spending figures, as “we need to take into account the veryContinue Reading
SHANGHAI: Shoppers visiting China’s island province of Hainan spent a record 2.49 billion yuan (US$346.2 million) on duty-free goods over the eight-day Lunar New Year holiday, data from Haikou Customs showed. That represents a year-on-year rise of 60 per cent, with the number of shoppers from Feb 10 to FebContinue Reading
Netizens left comments, most of which were about the surprise they experienced at what they just watched.
“Being a hotpot restaurant is just a cover. Haidilao is an entertainment company,” said a netizen.
“Entertainment scouts should just visit the hotpot chain more often to find their next star,” laughed a netizen.
Some also wondered in the comments if the hotpot chain’s staffers are being paid more to perform for guests.
“It is really funny if you have to do this while working but not get the salary of an idol,” wrote a netizen.
Now, what we want to know is if China’s cutest Ke Mu San dancer or the original choreographer can make a special appearance with these five when they next perform?
Or better, make a pitstop to Singapore like the Thai Hot Guys?
Go here to check out the video.
This story was originally published in 8Days.
For more 8Days stories, visit https://www.8days.sg/
Wrapped in seaweed and stuffed with delicious fillings, “onigiri” rice balls are shaking off their reputation as a cheap and uninspiring snack in Japan – and enticing hungry converts abroad.
Mouth-watering pictures on social media, rising demand for affordable lunches, and a surge in tourism to Japan are all drawing people to the humble onigiri.
Just ask any of the 50-odd customers lined up in a quiet corner of Tokyo for the restaurant Onigiri Bongo to open.
In the past, “no one came between lunch and dinner, but now customers queue non-stop”, said 71-year-old Yumiko Ukon, who runs the more than half-century-old shop.
Some wait for eight hours, said Ukon, whose team makes some 60 different types of onigiri, bulging with traditional fillings like pickled plum, or more unusual offerings such as bacon with soy sauce.
Onigiri Bongo only has nine counter seats, but sells around 1,200 rice balls each day.
“When I was young, onigiri was something you would make at home,” Ukon told AFP. “Now people buy onigiri, or go out to have onigiri.”
Long popular as on-the-go fuel in Japan, onigiri have been eaten for over a millennium in the country, where they were once taken onto the battlefield by samurai.
The quick bites can be found in convenience stores on practically every corner, ubiquitous enough to be banal.
South Korea’s demographic collapse, if unaddressed, could have serious repercussions. Even if Seoul could muddle through the economic and social repercussions, the resulting population decline would dramatically shift the regional balance of power.
South Korea still relies on conscription to maintain its military strength. The number of draftees, which represents around half of the force, could fall from 330,000 soldiers in 2020 to 240,000 by 2036 and 186,000 by 2039. Without radical changes, sustaining South Korea’s formidable military posture will become impossible.
As such, population decline represents an existential threat to South Korea. Its turbulent neighbour, North Korea, maintains around 1 million troops. China, Asia’s aspiring hegemon, has 2 million.
China, North Korea and Russia all have nuclear weapons. An ageing and emptying South Korea would be an easy target for coercion. Pyongyang may even conclude that invading a crumbling South Korea to reunify the Korean Peninsula would be a cakewalk.
During the 2000s, the Russian government feared that its population’s low fertility would end its status as a great power and weaken its defence capabilities. It made the issue a national priority and managed to significantly reverse the trend.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, France had a stagnating population and faced a growing Germany. Here, too, efficient statecraft succeeded in redressing the country’s demography. It is important to note that in both cases, feminism had little to do with low natality.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note on Sunday that domestic tourism data during the Lunar New Year holiday improved from the New Year’s holiday earlier this year and the National Day Golden Week last October, but tourism revenue per head softened and remained below the pre-pandemic level. ThisContinue Reading