A culinary unicorn hits Hong Kong, and five more things you need to know today

EDITION SEP 26 Hi there Inkstoners,   It’s Juliana here.   Yes, it’s true, the Chinese are obsessed with food. That’s not a surprise, given its thousand-plus years of culinary traditions.   Each region in this continent-sized country has its own specialties. And as many of you know, the Chinese diaspora has produced many favorites, including America’s General Tso’s chicken, India’s vegetable Manchurian and Britain’s crispy duck.   Growing up in the 1980s in a smallish Chinese city, the culinary offerings weren’t great, to be honest. There was some yummy street food (my fave was fried stinky tofu with garlic and chili), but restaurants weren’t a thing at all.   Since then, of course, the restaurant scene in China has exploded. The latest blockbuster? Hotpot chain Haidilao. Hotpot is eaten a little like fondue: diners cook slices of raw food in a rolling-hot broth and dunk it all in fragrant, spicy sauce.     Haidilao has just raised nearly $1 billion in an IPO in Hong Kong. And on the first day of trading, its shares soared. Read our first story to find out why this hotpot chain is a culinary unicorn, 12 times over. 1. Billion-dollar hotpot   What’s the secret of Haidilao? Well, it’s not just the food.   Unlike many businesses in China, the hotpot chain is actually best known for its customer service, as Adam White explains. READ 2. Spy game   A Chinese national who had joined the US Army Reserve has been arrested in Chicago for alleged espionage. The DOJ says he was targeting Chinese-Americans working in high-tech industries to spy for China.   Read the extraordinary details of this tale in this story by Grace Tsoi. READ 3. #MeToo in court   In the US, the #MeToo movement has been making headlines this week with the jailing of Bill Cosby and the allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.   In China, the movement is also in the spotlight, because a famous state TV host is suing two women who accused him of sexual harassment.   The women stand by the allegations. Read this story by Viola Zhou to find out how they’re fighting back. READ 4. Scary China   Vlogger Nuseir Yassin of Nas Daily made headlines in Singapore when he said the city-state was “almost a perfect country.” A lot of Singaporeans disagreed with him.   Now he’s just wrapped up a trip to China, where he found stories much more difficult and less straightforwardly cheery to tell. Simone McCarthy meets Nusier to find out why he was “scared” of China. Hint: it has to do with Facebook. READ 5. Bullet to Beijing   Hong Kong has been controversially hooked up to China’s national bullet-train network, the longest in the world. It’s a dream for train enthusiasts. Watch our video to find out more about this system, which aims to extend far beyond China itself. READ 6. Bartender to the stars   The Peninsula is one of the Hong Kong’s great hotels, and senior bartender Johnny Chung has been behind the bar there for the past six decades.   He tells the story of how a Hollywood icon taught him how to make a drink. READ If you've got time China coal power building boom sparks climate warning   Building work has restarted at hundreds of Chinese coal-based power plants, the BBC writes. Taiwan Can Win a War With China   There’s a real possibility that Taiwan could fight off a Chinese attack—even without direct aid from the United States, writes Foreign Policy. Where the air is rarefied China’s not just about military jets. Find out more Get more Inkstone Inkstone is a daily digest of 6 China-focused stories providing unvarnished insight into a rising potential superpower. NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBE NOW MOBILE APP   © 2018 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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