Main content

Tips on Surviving Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year, Ukrainian satire, Nepal poet, Sahrawi refugees and driving test tales.

How to survive Chinese New Year
It's Chinese New Year, with millions on the move to be with their families. But some young Chinese say they're fed up with what awaits them when they finally get home - a grilling about their personal lives. Yashan Zhao from 麻豆社 Hong Kong explains why Chinese New Year can be such a mixed experience.

The secret of a long life? Devote yourself to art.
Everyone wants to know the secret of a happy and healthy old age. It seems that in Nepal, it helps to be an artist. The 麻豆社's Sewa Bhattarai has interviewed several artists in their 90s, still active and creative - like Nepal's 98-year-old national poet Madhav Prasad Ghimire.

The unexpected president
The latest hit tv comedy series in Ukraine is about an ordinary guy who against all expectations suddenly finds himself president of his country, elected on a brief to clean out political elites. Servant of the People has got everybody talking, as we hear from Anastasiya Gribanova of 麻豆社 Ukraine.

Sahrawi refugees
麻豆社 Arabic reporter Sally Nabil has had rare access to the 'forgotten refugees' from the disputed territory of Western Sahara who have lived in Algerian refugee camps for 40 years. She spent a week in a camp and heard from inhabitants about the harshness of their lives and their lack of hope about a resolution.

Driving Tests
Three men were recently jailed in England for taking money from learner drivers to impersonate them and pass their tests on their behalf. That led us to seek driving test stories from other countries. Which tests are fiendishly difficult, and which are worryingly easy?

And Fifi Haroon's pick of the world wide web.

Image: Chinese lion dance in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province of China to welcome the upcoming Chinese lunar New Year.
Credit: VCG/VCG via Getty Images

Available now

40 minutes

Podcast