Global financial markets were in a spin recently when the Japan's main stock index suffered its worst day in 37 years and stocks on Wall Street faced their sharpest decline in nearly two years.
Eddy Loh, chief investment officer of Maybank Group Wealth Management, tells Andrea Heng what this means for economies and for investors.
Singapore watch strap brand Delugs has grown from a small bedroom operation to an international brand. The brand’s founders, husband-and-wife duo Kenneth Kuan and Chia Pei Qi, want to make strap changing a lifestyle.
Azman Hamid fell in love with Pulau Ubin while growing up on the island. Even though he has moved to the mainland more than three decades ago, his heart remains on Ubin. He has been taking a boat to the island daily ever since to work as a taxi driver. He calls himself the last Malay driver in Pulau Ubin, because he literally is. Together with 6 other drivers of taxi vans on the island, Azman is committed to preserving Pulau Ubin’s kampong life in the face of urban development and dwindling visitor numbers.
Hong Kong graduates and youths are looking to mainland China for work and business opportunities. Some are even choosing to work and live in cities like Guangzhou or Shenzhen and super-commute back to Hong Kong on weekends. And that’s possible because the Greater Bay Area, an economic zone of 9 major cities in the Guangdong province, is designed to facilitate people movement.
What’s a young graduate to do when he’s surrounded by millions of unemployed peers, and there are not enough traditional white-collar jobs to go around? For Gen Z in China, one solution is to take up blue-collar jobs.
Many young Singaporeans are turning to life coaches to help them live, well, their life. With a burgeoning industry that’s largely unregulated, Producer Charmaine Tan, herself a 20-something, delves deep into the sector to find out if she really needs to pay someone to act as her life coach.
This is the first #mystory episode of Talking Point that intimately looks at issues facing the youths of today.
Chinese Gen Zs and millennials are choosing to buy domestic products, such as Xiao Mi, BYD or Mao Geping, instead of international brands like Apple, Tesla or Dior.
‘Guo chao’ which translates to national wave is the trend where Chinese shoppers are buying ‘Made In China’ products by Chinese brands rather than international names. For some Chinese youths, using homegrown labels evokes that sense of nationalistic pride.
Would you run a parcel collection point from your home? Two HDB residents who signed up say they got to know their neighbours better, but they have also received complaints.
China's hot-pot giant Haidilao offers more than just food. It has free manicures and massages for customers. Waiters dance on request. The over-the-top performances and customer service set it apart from its competitors. With fresh funds from a public listing, the restaurant company plans to expand across the U.S.
WSJ examines the Chinese company and explores whether these gimmicks could be enough to sustain America's appetite.
More than 80% of recent homebuyers say they regret their purchase, according to a recent survey from Clever Real Estate. Home prices have been rising faster than incomes, which can be a problem for homeowners because as the value of a home rises, so does the cost to maintain it. Property taxes and insurance premiums have been rising at a rapid rate, influenced by inflation and the increase in catastrophic weather events.
Starbucks reported a global same-store sales decline of 3% and missed revenue expectations by $130 million in its fiscal third-quarter earnings on July 30, 2024. Its share price has tumbled nearly 25% in the past year. That's all due to operating challenges, an increasingly price conscious consumer and boycotts related to the Israel-Hamas war. Still, the coffee giant accounted for more than 25% of the U.S. coffee and snack shop market in 2023.
Scott Goodfriend, 39, was working his dream job at Meta — until he was laid off just 8 months into the gig in February 2023. Instead of taking another corporate job, he decided to take his food tour side hustle full-time. Now he runs Ultimate Food Tours in New York City, bringing in $145,000 a year.
As a wind turbine service technician, Jessica Jackson, 37, has one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. It’s also the fastest-growing job in the U.S.
Making it mandatory for international companies based in Singapore to list on the Singapore Exchange. That's among measures market watchers are calling for, as the Monetary Authority of Singapore looks into how to boost listings on the bourse. SGX had only one initial public offering in the first six months of this year, versus six in 2023. Meanwhile, five Singapore-based companies have listed overseas in the same period. Nadirah Zaidi reports.
In 2006, Singaporean Justin Low opened a farm in Huazhou - a county-level city under the administration of Maoming, which is about 500km away from Guangzhou city. Justin, who currently resides in Shenzhen, has help from around 100 workers who harvest the farm's yearly output of around 600,000kg of longans and lychees.
Around 2,000 Singaporeans live, work and play in southern China's Guangdong province. Maoming is a coastline city facing the South China Sea, with a population of around six million and known for its fruit production. Tan Si Hui reports.
Last November, the World Health Organisation declared loneliness a ‘Global Public Health Concern’. Meanwhile, Gen Zs are emerging as the loneliest generation ever.
Japan has a reputation as a lonely country, but here, there are more lonely people in their 20s and 30s than any other age group. An extreme expression of loneliness are the infamous “hikikomoris” – shut-ins who have isolated themselves from society. More join their ranks each year.
But apart from this group, there are millions of other youths who experience alienation and loneliness. And with it comes a slew of social ills – from greater rates of depression, to falling marriage rates, to lower productivity. Social anxiety, the suffocating rat race and cultural stigma - Insight explores what is driving solitude in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Bella Lin, 17, is the founder of GuineaLoft, a company that sells products for small pets, including guinea pig cages, bedding, food feeders and water bottles. In 2024, GuineaLoft has brought in an average of $71,000 per month in revenue so far. That's more than double compared to last year, when the company brought in $34,000 a month.
Drawing inspiration from a doctoral thesis on infant brain development, Jessica Rolph and Roderick Morris co-founded Lovevery - a company specialized in stage-based children's toys. After creating prototypes and entering in the subscription toy box market, the company brought in $226 million in revenue last year.
In the past two years, digital nomad enclaves have been springing up across China’s rural towns and villages. The country’s biggest digital nomad hubs are both in Anji County, in the Eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. How have DN Yucun and DN Anji become magnets for a wave of young Chinese professionals seeking to redefine their approach to work and life?
Elsewhere, Chinese youth are leaving prestigious jobs in big internet firms in Beijing and Shanghai and returning to their rural roots.
In the west of China, in the province of Sichuan, a former ByteDance product manager gave up a career at ByteDance to become a new farmer, with plans to revolutionise farming practices in his rural hometown. Not far from him, a young couple with postgraduate degrees, left their jobs in Beijing – and an annual salary of 800,000 yuan, or 110,000 US dollars – to pursue dreams of being rural influencers. What enticed them to do so? Discover why attitudes towards rural living have been changing in China
Working out of temple grounds is one unconventional way law charity Pro Bono SG is bringing legal services into the Singapore heartlands. The firm’s young lawyers share why they choose to make a full-time career out of helping Singapore’s underprivileged meet their legal needs.
Between the 1970s and the 1990s, under China's strict one-child policy, an unknown number of baby girls were abandoned by their parents who wanted to have a son. Tens of thousands of these unwanted girls were brought to Putien, Fujian, where they were raised by foster families. But their foster parents didn't do this out of the kindness of their hearts. Instead, they had a clear goal: one day the girls were to marry their sons. Decades later, the women have grown up, and they want answers: where did they came from? And why are they traded like a commodity?
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