A wellness retreat tends to be the holiday you promise yourself after a busy year, the one where the only plan is to rest and reset. If Sri Lanka is where you’d like to take it, since May tourists from 40 countries can get a 30-day visa free of charge, enough time for a two- or three-week stay. At half of the retreats here, every stay starts with a doctor’s consultation and a treatment plan that runs over several days, so how long you stay shapes what you get out of it. We’ve noted how long a stay runs at each, in the hills, the countryside and on the coast. Santani @santani_wellness Ulpotha @ulpotha Heritance Ayurveda @heritanceayurveda Barberyn Waves @barberyn_resorts Talalla Retreat @talallaretreatsrilanka Sen Wellness Sanctuary @senwellnesssanctuary Swipe for details on each.
Stories of ghosts, spirits and other supernatural beings are a big part of folklore across Asia, shaped by old beliefs about the afterlife, family and how the dead should be remembered. Many of these tales have also made their way into film and TV, with Sadako crawling out of a television set in ‘Ringu’ and the Saja Boys of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ styled after Korea’s grim reaper. Here are a few of them and where you can spot them on screen. Tap the link in bio to meet more supernatural beings from Asian folklore. Photos: IMDb, MUBI, Netflix
Asian families are great at passing things down, whether that’s the fine china nobody’s allowed to use or a little generational trauma. Usually, it’s both. There’s often a reason for the trauma - Many parents and grandparents lived through war, occupation or starting over in a new country, but rarely talked about what they went through. Their experiences shaped how they raised their children, and the effects can carry on for generations. These books by Asian authors explore that legacy through stories of colonial rule, Partition and migration, and what it takes to make peace with the past. Tap the link in bio for the full list. Featured in this post: What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo (Allen & Unwin) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (Vintage) Beauty Is a Wound by Eka Kurniawan (Pushkin Press Classics) Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Apollo) Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho (The Feminist Press at CUNY) The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh (John Murray Publishers) My Father, the Panda Killer by Jamie Jo Hoang (Random House) The House on Calle Sombra by Marga Ortigas (Penguin Random House SEA) Book covers courtesy of the publishers. Cover image: ‘Pachinko’, Apple TV+.
If you’re still looking for movies that fill you with dread, Asian horror is like no other. Here are 17 more films to keep you up at night, from cult favourites to recent box office hits, including one set in an abandoned psychiatric hospital and another about a bagua mirror that supposedly brings luck. Tap the link in bio for Part 1. Photos: IMDb
Happy birthday, Bruno Mars! The singer turns 41 today. He grew up in Hawaii in a family of performers, with a Filipino mother who sang and a half Puerto Rican father who led a band. He was already performing with the band in Waikiki by the age of four. He has since become the first artist to reach 150 million monthly listeners on Spotify. In 2027, he'll bring The Romantic Tour to Asia, with stops including Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Swipe through for some of his career highlights by the numbers, then tap the link in bio to read the stories behind his seven Diamond singles. Photos: @brunomars, Getty Images
Mahjong is easy enough to explain, but much harder to master: four players, 144 tiles and one square table. For decades, filmmakers in Hong Kong and Hollywood have used that table to bring family tensions, luck and betrayal to the surface. The game has appeared in Lunar New Year comedies, a wartime spy drama and one of the biggest romantic comedies of the 2010s. Here are a few Asian films that put mahjong at the centre of the story. Tap the link in bio for the full list. Photos: IMDb
Netflix's 'The Scandal' gives Son Ye-jin a very different role from the romantic leads she's best known for. After years of playing women falling in love, including her North Korean officer romance in 'Crash Landing on You', she's now Lady Cho, a noblewoman who challenges her own cousin to seduce a young widow. She's not the only K-drama actress to make a dramatic genre switch. Song Hye-kyo, known for romances such as 'Autumn in My Heart' and 'Descendants of the Sun', plots revenge on the classmates who bullied her in 'The Glory'. Tap the link in bio for the full list. Photos: IMDb
Some ghosts rarely stick around without a reason, and that includes K-drama ghosts. Immortal goblins, haunted hotels, spirits with unfinished business - these are some of the supernatural characters we've never forgotten. Tap the link in bio for the full list. Photos: IMDb
Asim Hussain of Black Sheep Restaurants and Dragon-i founder Gilbert Yeung join Tatler’s Sean Fitzpatrick for the first episode of Live from 115, recorded in front of a live audience at Hong Kong’s most talked-about listening room. Live from 115 is Tatler Asia’s new conversation series filmed inside 115, the vinyl-lined members’ club above Dragon-i named after Gilbert Yeung’s favourite tempo. Each episode brings the people shaping Asia’s dining, nightlife and culture into one room for an unscripted hour of stories, arguments and music. In this opener: how Black Sheep built a restaurant family in one of the world’s toughest cities, the ventures that failed along the way and why Hong Kong nightlife still matters. Watch the full interview on YouTube via the link in bio. Video Director: Siven Ho Videographer: Tacky Nam, Lam Ka lok Video Editor: Siven Ho Photographer: Zed Leets Production: Zoe Yau @blacksheepasim @blacksheeprestaurants @dragonihk