Culture
Can a megacity with no history have culture? Shenzhen certainly thinks so
The Róng Museum of Art is one of the most anticipated additions to Shenzhen’s cultural landscape. Here founding director Pi Li speaks to Monocle about the city’s ambitions and arts allure.
Latest in Monocle Radio
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After an extensive renovation, the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris is back to spread the word about Switzerland’s creative prowess
Housed in a 17th-century mansion in the Marais, the newly reopened cultural centre is Switzerland’s most ambitious cultural export to date.
“We are explaining. We aren’t preaching.” Mina Al-Oraibi on the role of journalism in the Gulf
The editor in chief of state-owned UAE broadsheet ‘The National’ rejects the notion that journalism and government ownership are incompatible.
What’s the secret to a perfect sample? Australian music group The Avalanches share their secrets
On their new album, the musicians explore the sounds of our digital past. Here they share their creative process.
‘Ritokei’ is Japan’s well-designed island newspaper connecting remote communities
Since 2010, the newspaper has been giving voice to the inhabitants of Japan’s remote islands. We meet its editor in chief to find out how its helping to unite disparate communities.
An ode to the chaotic euphoria of algorithm-free shopping at Paris’s grand flea market
In the seven hectares of the inconvenient but irreverent Marché aux Puces, you can still shop like it’s 1957.
In Wenzhou, a culinary bookshop is serving up new connections
As a younger generation begins to re-embrace time in the kitchen, Dish Books is serving up community through food, culture and history.
15 brilliant books to gift your friend who has ‘read everything’
A selection of beautifully written and lovingly designed books that we would gladly unwrap at any time of year.
Six films that world leaders should watch, from ‘De Gaulle: Résistance’ to ‘Idiocracy’
As a five-hour historical biopic fills French cinemas this summer, Monocle considers what other titles politicians could learn from.
A new generation of collectors is changing the Asian art market
Frieze’s head of VIP for Asia gives us an insight into the future of the region’s art scene, as Millennial and Gen Z patrons have begun blurring the long-established lines between creative practices.
Against the encroaching shadow of automation, Homo Faber is a beacon of light
Homo Faber’s exhibition this year is proving that craft, like host city Venice, is still buoyant.
