“Chinese Manufacturing” is the New “Zero Interest Rates”

Reporting from a nightclub in Shenzhen: Travel to China is recreating habits and fantasies of the Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) era.

Jun 2 • Patrick Kho

46

11

6

May 2026

The Shanghai Cabaret Theory of Globalization

How an unlikely alliance of African Americans, Russians, and Filipinos in 1930s Shanghai created a new, bottom-up model for a connected world.

May 12 • Patrick Kho

29

2

7

April 2026

A Crypto Scam at the Dim Sum “Rave”

A weekend of crypto bros hijacking local rave scenes, reported from a historic tea house in Hong Kong.

Apr 30 • Patrick Kho

41

10

9

How to Resist a Stagnating Club Culture

For Hong Kong’s hardcore/deconstructed music scene, our everyday actions can imagine a better future.

Apr 21 • Patrick Kho

38

4

10

The End of Soho House Globalism

The members’ club exported “cool” across the globe. But by 2026, it’s clear that good culture needs its roots.

Apr 7 • Patrick Kho

99

22

11

March 2026

The Imagined “Asian Century” Will Not Exist

A post-internet art party in Hong Kong questions the prevailing narrative that Asia is “the future.”

Mar 31 • Patrick Kho

95

11

17

What Was Afro-Asian Hip-Hop?

Throughout the 2010s, Black and Asian rappers frequently traded symbols and sounds. The movement recalled a longer, shared Afro-Asian history in disco…

Mar 17 • Patrick Kho

17

2

Wasians Are the New Face of Eugenics

Eileen Gu and Alyssa Liu are being co-opted by an extremist mixed-race eugenics movement. What does this phenomenon reveal about our geopolitical…

Mar 10 • Patrick Kho

366

59

43

How Wong Kar-Wai Created the Future

Thirty years ago, the director engineered an era-defining futurist aesthetic and foresaw the anxieties of 2026.

Mar 3 • Patrick Kho

183

7

27

February 2026

What’s “Chic” in an Apocalypse?

In defense of “gorpcore”: How brands like North Face, Salomon, and Arc’teryx created the defining look for the polycrisis.

Feb 17 • Patrick Kho

21

3

The Rise of Punk Globalism

Punk isn’t “dead,” but it’s changing to reflect a discontent unique to the 2020s.

Feb 10 • Patrick Kho

47

7

8

January 2026

The DJ Against the End of Globalization

Despite border closures and the rise of multipolarity, DJs are still connecting the world through spontaneous, informal networks.

Jan 27 • Patrick Kho

19

5

4