Echo Huang

The traditions associated with the Lunar New Year are full of auspicious meanings.

In 2016, when a Chinese drone maker came to CES, the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show in Las Vegas, and promised to build a completely autonomous vehicle to carry people or cargo, critics doubted it could overcome technical obstacles. Now, the company says it’s closer to turning the idea into a reality.

Hong Kong recently passed a law to outlaw ivory trading in the city in four years time. That’s good news for elephants.

This year, the world will see the largest Winter Olympics games ever, with athletes from 92 nations and territories participating. That’s four more than at the Sochi Olympics in 2014, and a whole lot more than the 16 nations that were in the first Winter Olympics in France in 1924.

Hong Kong, the world’s largest ivory trading hub, will phase out the business entirely in four years. Environmentalists are calling it a victory.

Either lots of South Korean kids have professor-like skills or somebody has been lying.

When it comes to applying for grants to support scientific studies, female scientists are less likely to succeed compared to male researchers, according to a study from a group of Canadian scientists. They drew the conclusion after comparing nearly 24,000 grant applications from 2011 to 2016 to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the country’s major federal agency responsible for funding medical research.

A film about a burqa-wearing Muslim teen who dreams of becoming a pop star might seem like an unlikely hit for China, where online comments often decry efforts to acknowledge the country’s Muslims.

In 2013, Chinese president Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an ambitious infrastructure-building project covering much of Eurasia, various seas, and parts of Africa. At the time, few considered how the Arctic might fit into Beijing’s plans. Now, that issue has come more into focus.

Donald Trump just dealt a blow to clean energy in the US.

One of Asia’s most familiar food, mung beans, is being reintroduced to the region in a completely reinvented form by a Silicon Valley startup.

South Korea counts the art of kimchi making as part of its unique cultural heritage. But it’s now running a nearly $50 million kimchi trade deficit. That means Koreans are eating more non-Korean kimchi than they used to—and so are you.

Up until 2016, an Indian passport offered easy entry to more countries and territories than a Chinese passport. But the coin has flipped.

Enthusiastic Chinese tourists could be in for their best year yet.

In 2013, China rolled out a plan to reduce its notorious air pollution within five years. But new data show that Chinese policy makers really do have to choose between economic growth and clean air—at least in the short term.

Donald Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as ”shithole countries” during a meeting on immigration Thursday (Jan. 11) with Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the Oval Office. According to several people at the briefing, Trump said, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Instead, he suggested, the US should welcome more people from nations like Norway instead.

At the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where tech companies from all over the world gathered this week to show off, traces of the automotive ambitions of some of China’s biggest tech companies were on display too.

Chinese Communist Party membership can get you a job at one of the world’s most popular theme parks.

China’s first space lab, which stopped working in 2016, is expected to crash to earth in coming months. But unlike the Tiangong-1, many man-made objects remain in space way beyond their useful life, orbiting our planet endlessly and fueling space scientists’ worst nightmares.

Failing to sort out your trash could make it harder for you to get a bank loan in China.

China’s social media giants are ramping up efforts to get their users to turn in people circulating taboo content, as the Communist Party further tightens its grip on the country’s internet.

China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, is ushering in stricter environmental rules on several fronts in 2018.

China’s first space lab will crash down to earth in the coming months, but don’t worry: The odds of any debris hitting a person are astronomically small.

Once the Western New Year comes and goes, another holiday immediately enters the minds of many Asians: Lunar New Year.