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Kylie Knott

Young Boy Dancing Group (YBDG) strips movement down to its purest form with immersive acts that challenge notions of gender and sexuality.
Its performances are billed as avant-garde experiences that blur the lines between art, food, intimacy and rebellion.
In April the boundary-pushing collective from Switzerland heads to Hong Kong as part of its Dance Together Alone Asian tour for two performances on April 11 and 12 at Tomorrow Maybe, the arts space at the Eaton HK hotel in Jordan, Kowloon.
Ahead of these adults-only performances, YBDG will hold a movement workshop at Eaton HK’s Music Room on April 8.
The menu will incorporate a lot of sensual and melting, dripping action
Alison Tan, food designer and partner of YBDG for its Hong Kong performances
“We are about non-sexual intimacy that connects communities of like-minded people from all over the world,” says a member of the group, speaking from the Thai capital, Bangkok, the first stop on YBDG’s tour, which includes dates in Japan, Vietnam, China and South Korea.
YBDG’s dinner show is relatively new, she says. “We like to connect with a local chef or those doing interesting things with food that would be a good fit for our format.”












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A post shared by Young Boy Dancing Group (@ybdg_4)



Joining forces with YBDG in Hong Kong is Alison Tan, also known as Sapphire Ketchup, a multidisciplinary food designer and “experimental feeder” who is adding big dollops of spice to the city’s pop-up dining scene.
Creating experimental menus and dining interactions that encourage guests to get primal and playful is Tan’s mission. And the Eaton HK event is no exception.
The immersive four-course dining experience (HK$700-HK$800 per person) explores intimacy, with food served on large communal platters.

Tan wants to keep the exact menu mysterious, but guests can expect ingredients from around the region with sensual textures such as natto, a gooey Japanese food made of fermented soybeans.
While the guests eat by candlelight, YBDG dancers blurring the line between performer and spectator will weave their way between the tables.
“I’ve watched YBDG’s videos and a lot of the performances involve wax, so the menu will incorporate a lot of sensual and melting, dripping action,” Tan says.
The event will feature a specially designed dessert utensil inspired by the performance, as well as candles sculpted out of butter.
“I asked YBDG what form would be interesting to mould butter into and they said a foot would be fun,” she says.

Tan says making people happy through food is a trait that runs deep in Asian cultures, where mothers often express their love with a hearty home-cooked meal.
“What has always attracted me to food is the act of feeding somebody and the idea of radical hospitality,” says Tan. She says she has been inspired by The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters, a book by Priya Parker that encourages people to engage in meaningful and memorable gatherings.
“When you walk through my door, I want you to cross a threshold and leave the normal world behind you so we can push boundaries and explore,” Tan says. “I often ask guests to get a bit vulnerable, because food for me is so disarming.”
Born in the US state of Kansas, Tan was three months old when her parents left America. She was raised in Shanghai and Singapore.
She studied for a bachelor of fine arts degree in studio arts at the University of Pittsburgh, where she developed her love of performance art. While there, she was given a grant to create art made from raw meat. The exhibition lasted just one day before the stench became unbearable.

Tan had intended to study culinary arts in Bangkok, but was thwarted by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, this has not stopped her shaking up Hong Kong’s catering scene.
She has staged events including one in 2024 at which guests prepared more than 60kg of kimchi.
She is also a co-founder of Savour Cinema, a food pop-up club that serves meals at themed movie nights.












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A post shared by Sapphire Ketchup (@sapphireketchup)



From April 3-6, Tan takes part in Pollinator, an artist residency and experimental live performance led by US-based artists and “performance architecture” pioneers Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley.
The event at the West Kowloon Art Park in the West Kowloon Cultural District will see alternating groups of artists live, eat, work and relax in individual pods. To travel between these structures, the residents must use a human-powered wheel – imagine a giant hamster wheel.
This project runs until April 21 and throughout each residency, artists will depend on each other for food, problem solving and socialising.
Young Boy Dancing Group Dance Together Alone Tour: Dining Performance, April 11-12, 7pm-10pm, Tomorrow Maybe, Eaton HK, 380 Nathan Rd, Jordan. YBDG workshop, April 8, 7pm-9pm, Music Room, Eaton HK. Tickets at Eventbrite


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Performing arts in Hong Kong

The Eaton HK hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong, hosts Young Boy Dancing Group’s experiential dining performance on April 11 and 12. Photo: YBDG



 Alison Tan, a food designer and “experimental feeder”, is collaborating with Young Boy Dancing Group on its experiential dining performance at The Eaton HK. Photo: Kylie Knott

A Young Boy Dancing Group performance in New York in 2024. The group is putting on dining and dance performances at The Eaton HK on April 11 and 12. Photo: YBDG 

Communal servings of food will be a feature of Young Boy Dancing Group’s event in Hong Kong. Photo: YBDG 

A J-pop singer and Cantonese opera performer? Rika Woo out to be ‘bridge between cultures’

To some, Rika Woo is a J-pop singer. To others, she is a Cantonese opera performer. The Hong Kong artiste explains why she does both. Photo: Reuters

Rika Woo interacts with a fan after an Otome Syndream performance in Hong Kong. Photo: Reuters

Woo in traditional Cantonese opera attire. She wants to “be the bridge” between Cantonese opera and J-pop. Photo: Reuters

Woo performs on stage with her J-pop group Otome Syndream. Photo: Instagram/rikakababy

Is it food or art? Show uses bread and butter explore identity, work pressure and more

Visual artist Afa Annfa (left) and food stylist Gloria Chung at their exhibition “A&G Boulangerie” at JPS Gallery in Hong Kong. The exhibition focuses on bread and butter. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Shape of Life (2025) by Afa Annfa is positioned in front of The Identity that Melts (2025) and other works by Gloria Chung. Photo: JPS Gallery

An installation view of “A&G Boulangerie”, an exhibition inspired by bread and butter. Photo: JPS Gallery

Detail from the “A&G Boulangerie” exhibition. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Holy Bread (left, 2024) and Miracle Glass (2024), by Annfa and Chung. Photo: JPS Gallery

(From left) Annfa and Chung at their exhibition. The pair met in Brazil more than a decade ago. Photo: Jonathan Wong

It’s a girl’s business (2025), left, and 30-Day Love Letter (2024) by Annfa. Photo: JPS Gallery

The Pantone Colours of Toastout (2024), by Annfa and Chung. Photo: JPS Gallery

The Identity that Melts (centre, 2025) and The Prayer (2025). Photo: JPS Gallery

‘People love to step outside their comfort zone’: food designer on her edible art and how experiential dining creates talking points

Food designer Alison Tan is the creative force behind many of Hong Kong’s most immersive and thought-provoking culinary projects in recent years. Photo: Jennifer Tang

Tan calls herself an “experimental feeder”. Photo: Gemma Harrad

Tan’s 2019 pop-up, The In Between Palace, at Hong Kong’s Sai Wan waterfront. Photo: Yidi Tsao

Tan was born in Kansas in the United States and raised in Delaware, Shanghai and Singapore. Photo: Gemma Harrad

Tan’s dish of frozen flowers, as served at Otium, the dining club she co-founded to challenge perceptions of food. Photo: Stephanie Teng

Harissa cauliflower with mango, as served at Tan’s dining club, Otium. Photo: Stephanie Teng

Tan’s “Black and White” dish that she made for Chinese National Day. Photo: Alison Tan

Young naked women are their canvas – nude art of 2 anonymous Hong Kong artists challenges city’s conservative attitudes towards sex

Lousy’s body paint on a nude woman. The anonymous Hong Kong graffiti artist paints bold designs on young, naked women then photographs them in erotic poses. Photo: Lousy                                                         

Another of Lousy’s “kissfaces”, on Queen’s Road West in Hong Kong. Photo: Lousy

Lousy’s photobook “Yook”, published in 2020. Photo: Lousy

Matsushimaon’s body art on a nude woman. Photo: Matsushimaon

Professor Sonia Wong says there is not a lot of space in erotic or explicit artistic disciplines for women to express their sexuality, especially in Hong Kong. Photo: Professor Sonia Wong

Artist Lousy’s portrait. Photo: Lousy

Lifestyle

Arts

Food & Drink

Candles made of butter. Food eaten by candlelight off communal platters. Dancers weaving between tables. Group serves a feast for the senses


Candles made of butter. Food eaten by candlelight off communal platters. Dancers weaving between tables. Group serves a feast for the senses.


What to do in Hong Kong

Food and Drinks