What is the most provocative headline you can think of? The Wall Street Journal came close in January last year when it ran a book extract under the banner Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior. Oh dear God. The only women who should call themselves mother superior...

So you want a high-end beach residence but can't pay the millions demanded at Sentosa Cove. An alternative lies just half an hour by luxury yacht from Singapore. At the Montigo Resorts on Batam island, investors can find their luxury home for about a tenth of...

Was any enterprise ever so doomed to failure as the New Year's resolution? These gung-ho pledges are like newly-hatched turtles wriggling down the beach under the eye of rapacious seabirds. I salute you if you started the day with Pilates and a yam smoothie,...

Recently, I took a day's leave from work to accompany my six-year-old son to his dental check-up. The appointment was in the afternoon and, having the morning free, I wondered if I should take him and his younger brother out. I decided on quality one-on-one...

Around this time of the year, the office gradually empties as people leave for their hometowns for Chinese New Year celebrations. You'd think this means my company employs a lot of expats but no, even for the locals, ''home'' means somewhere in the mainland,...

The Chinese flag was flying proudly above the imposing neo-classical facade of the former Shanghai Club, but the party going on inside was a throwback to the glory days of upper-class English society. On the night of Jan 7, 150 of the richest and most...

One of the three-year-old's favourite books is How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr Seuss. That's apt, for since I had kids, festivities bring out the Grinch in me. My children have an early bedtime - 7.30pm - and the husband a late workday, so I have not gone...

Lest some have forgotten, with the proliferation of Cayenne SUVs and Panamera four-door sedans on our roads these days, it is the 911 sports car that still defines Porsche. And the German car-maker has made that patently clear, with its latest Porsche 911...

When he became a father by ''accident'' some 20 years ago, famous Taiwanese cartoonist Zhu Deyong took more than a year to come to terms with his son as ''a living thing''. ''For the first one or two years, I didn't bother with him. I told my wife, 'You take...

I always relish the opportunity for a fresh new start. It's an immediate and simple way to eradicate the distressing and sometimes embarrassing mistakes from your horizon. Like, flirting with the hot guy from the sales department for months, only to find out...