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Our favourite PostMag long reads of 2024, from Taiwan’s disco era to typhoon predictions

A Shanghai nurse’s drug smuggling saga, to a thriving Chinese family in a US town, and more

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One of our recommended long reads this year is a piece that investigates how Taiwan came to embrace the Western music genre of disco, and its impact on Mandopop. Photo: CYP
PostMag Reporter
It was a year of great change, both at our magazine and around the world. No matter the topic, sometimes you have to go deep to get the real story.
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Here are our favourite PostMag long reads of 2024:

How German museums are reassessing their imperial Chinese treasures, worried about looted Boxer war artefacts

The Wang Shu room in the Humboldt Forum, which is dedicated to the relationship between China and Europe and their shared history, in the Markk museum in Hamburg, Germany. It is one of several German institutes checking their collections for looted Chinese artefacts from the Boxer war. Photo: Alexander Schippel
The Wang Shu room in the Humboldt Forum, which is dedicated to the relationship between China and Europe and their shared history, in the Markk museum in Hamburg, Germany. It is one of several German institutes checking their collections for looted Chinese artefacts from the Boxer war. Photo: Alexander Schippel

From a newly constructed museum in Berlin, an unexpected sequence of events leads to questions of reparations to China, both from Berlin and elsewhere abroad.

Taiwan’s forgotten disco era and the singers who made it big with covers of Abba, New Order and David Bowie

As Taiwan’s younger generation dust off disco records from the 1970s and 80s, so, too, are scholars looking into how the island came to embrace a Western music genre at a time when even dancing in public was illegal. Photo: CYP
As Taiwan’s younger generation dust off disco records from the 1970s and 80s, so, too, are scholars looking into how the island came to embrace a Western music genre at a time when even dancing in public was illegal. Photo: CYP

Before digital media made discographies of musical histories accessible all at once, a curious pop-phenomenon was brewing in Taiwan.

How a Chinese family faced down racists and bullies to thrive in a US town more than 99% white

The Tus arrive in Vancouver, Canada, aboard a freighter from Taiwan en route to Oakland, California, in 1956. The family moved to San Leandro in 1960 despite the town’s history of racism – and thrived. Photo: The Tu family
The Tus arrive in Vancouver, Canada, aboard a freighter from Taiwan en route to Oakland, California, in 1956. The family moved to San Leandro in 1960 despite the town’s history of racism – and thrived. Photo: The Tu family

A California town with a history of being pretty much all white, is now majority Asian. Meet the Chinese immigrant family that punched through first, and who continue to thrive there.

How are typhoons tracked? Inside Hong Kong Observatory’s fight to predict extreme weather events

Predicting typhoons is a matter of life or mass death, yet it is backed by imperfect science. So, how have the boffins at the Hong Kong Observatory been rising to the challenge? In June this year, Typhoon Maliksi arrived in Kennedy Town. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Predicting typhoons is a matter of life or mass death, yet it is backed by imperfect science. So, how have the boffins at the Hong Kong Observatory been rising to the challenge? In June this year, Typhoon Maliksi arrived in Kennedy Town. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Every typhoon season, these unseen wizards of meteorology are in charge of keeping us safe, and they always, well mostly, get it right.

The OG war on drugs: when a 23-year-old Shanghai nurse was busted smuggling US$1 million of heroin into the US

A newspaper clipping in the Los Angeles Times reports the arrest of Maria Wendt in connection with 25kg of heroin seized in a US port in 1937. Photo: Handout
A newspaper clipping in the Los Angeles Times reports the arrest of Maria Wendt in connection with 25kg of heroin seized in a US port in 1937. Photo: Handout

Dive into a real-life noir tale of international intrigue, drug smuggling, and nefarious plots.

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