27-year-old Siu Mui with mild intellectual disability has always been close to her elder brother, Ah Ching. A sports lover, Siu Mui used to practise running quite often with her brother. However, ever since Ah Ching has got married and moved out, the two of them seldom contacted each other, and Siu Mui has grown to enjoy the company of her puppet toy. In the recent “Snowshoeing Athlete Trial”, Siu Mui has been selected to represent Hong Kong in a competition held in Korea. Meanwhile, Ah Ching is now separated from his wife and moves back to live with Siu Mui and their mother. Occupied by work and immensely stressed, Ah Ching however believes that his sister is over-reliant on the puppet as her soulmate; therefore, he tries to change her habits. It is not until Ah Ching sees Siu Mui on the field in a competition that he realises he has been misunderstanding her.

A new era for the Catholic Church in China began when Pope Francis signed off on a historic “provisional agreement” with China over the appointment of bishops. The deal broke a nearly 70-year impasse between Beijing and the Vatican.

We take a trip to Taiwan. Many people familiar with modern and contemporary art from Taiwan have come to know it from the Taipei Biennial, the precursors of which were two Taipei Fine Arts Museum exhibition projects held in alternating years from 1984 which were later consolidated. Now Taiwan’s contemporary art has a new major art showcase, Taipei Dangdai, which was held in Taipei last month. Our producer, Yuki Wong went there to find out more. Canadian pianist Scott MacIsaac studied music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and went on to study to become a Master of Music at Yale University. A winner of numerous awards in many competitions, he has performed as a soloist in North America, Asia and Western Europe. The New York Times calls him a pianist with “brio and imagination” and La Presse lauds his playing for its “speed, clarity, breath and musicality.” He was in Hong Kong during the Lunar New Year holidays to visit his grandfather. We took the chance to speak to him.

Kung Hey Fat Choi! Hello and welcome to The Pulse. Lunar New Year celebrations are filled with traditions and customs, some of which, it must be admitted, do take a toll on the environment. Later in the show: the red packet, and how we could share some of our good fortune in a more environmentally-friendly way. Before that though, Hong Kong’s flu season always places heavy demands on our health system. This year, it’s made it all too clear that our public hospitals are facing a staffing crisis. In recent weeks doctors, nurses and support staff have staged a series of protests to urge the government and the Hospital Authority to address on-going overcrowding, manpower and systemic problems in our public hospitals.

Across different times in the history of Hong Kong, Chinese puppetry played an indispensable role in the community’s entertainment and sacrificial rituals. In as early as around the 1870’s, Cantonese rod puppetry already enjoyed massive popularity in Dongguan, which is in close proximity to Hong Kong. As such, there were always puppetry troupes coming to Hong Kong to perform. In a performance of Cantonese rod puppetry, artists support and move puppets that consist only the upper body, and sing meanwhile. This is rarely seen in Hong Kong nowadays. As the leader of Wah Shan Traditional Puppet Chinese Opera, one of the most active troupes currently, CHAN Kam-to has performed shengongxi in various places of the city in the past thirty years or so. However, as audiences have mostly lost interest in puppetry in recent years, he now performs predominantly in Jiao festivals in New Territories, and scarcely in other occasions. In addition to Jiao festivals, temple fairs, consecration ceremonies of temples and festive occasions, the seventh month in the lunar calendar, which the Yu Lan Ghost Festival falls in, used to be also the peak season for puppetry troupes. For instance, Sham Tseng Village invited troupes to perform Chiu Chow iron stick puppetry in the 1960’s. Back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, iron stick puppetry was prevalent in Hong Kong. As society became more affluent, the general public has grown to favour shengongxi featuring real artists onstage, resulting in the dissolution of numerous iron stick puppetry troupes. Master WONG Fai from Fujian is an experienced artist in Chinese puppetry. He recalls how overwhelmingly popular traditional Chinese performing arts were in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, when a lot of tourists from the West would like to experience Chinese culture in Hong Kong. In those years, he performed the classic play Tai Ming City every evening in the ballroom of The Mira Hong Kong as part of the Winning Glove Puppets Art Troupe, receiving applause from guests coming from all over the world. Master LI Yixin, an expert in Fujian hand puppetry, has been performing in shows organised by the Hong Kong government for three decades. With a decreasing number of shows, not only is his livelihood affected, but also the puppetry artists he spent years of hard work nurturing are quitting one after another. Sadly, this is a situation that we can do very little about. Producer: Michelle TANG

Traditional animal husbandry occupies 30% of the earth’s surface, consumes 25% of the fresh water and emits more greenhouse gases than land, sea and air transportation combined. A dozen years ago, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stated that livestock raising was a major stressor on many ecosystems and addressed the issue of animal welfare. Can human beings stop eating meat? In recent years, meat production is approaching sustainability while animal farms have been installed in science laboratories. Are we marching towards a future of meat consumption without blood shedding? In 2013, a burger priced at HK$ 2,500,000 debuted in a press conference in London, creating a sensation. Mark Post, a Dutch professor of vascular physiology showcased cultured beef, which was lab-grown meat developed from the stem cell technology applied in growing human tissues for transplantation. In the US, food tech startups are flourishing to develop vegan meat. How does it take to build animal proteins out of plant proteins and create vegan meat with taste, texture and flavor that could possibly rival real meat? Scientists need to decode the secret of meat. Biological engineering professor, Fu-hung Hsieh, a Taiwanese residing in the US successfully recreated the texture of chicken. Emeritus professor of Stanford University, geneticist Patrick Brown discovered that the unique flavor of beef could be extracted from plant.  

Pyramid Scheme Telephone Deception

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the “Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award”, the most long-lasting award ceremony for the Hong Kong pop music industry. We take this opportunity to produce “Gold Song Talk”, and invite various eminent singers to visit different university campuses to have face-to-face interactions with students. They will reminisce about their music journeys and look forward to the future of the local pop music scene, as well as to share their life wisdom as veterans in the music industry. “Band Sound” has never been the mainstream in the Hong Kong pop music industry. Yet, Hong Kong bands can make miracles from time to time by creating touching music pieces. Their work breaks through the ingrained mindsets of the people in town, therefore an essential element in promoting the development of the local music scene. The theme for this episode is “Hong Kong Super Band．Spirit of Beyond” while the prominent and influential band Beyond is invited. Its member WONG Ka-keung pays his visit to Hong Kong Baptist University to share his experiences as a band member with over 300 students. From each and every classic of Beyond, to the thick and thin that the band has gone through, he will talk about them one by one. Another hotshot band Dear Jane is also invited. The band is comprised of vocalist Tim, guitarist Howie, bass guitarist Jackal and drummer Nice. People who play in a band in Hong Kong must have tasted the sweets and bitters of life, as well as the fickleness of human nature. When the ideal did not match the reality, how did they manage to persist and keep on with no regrets with the spirit of rock and roll? The four members will even perform the Beyond x Dear Jane Special Medley in order to bring the spirit of rock music to each and every student on the spot. Apart from “Super Band”, special guest Mr CHEUNG Man-sun, the then-Assistant Director of Broadcasting who is called the “Father of Gold Songs”, will appear in this episode. Mr CHEUNG had worked in the radio station for years, during which he launched the “Top Ten Chinese Gold Songs Award” and has witnessed the ups and downs of the local music scene. He will share with us one by one the hot trend of forming bands in the 80s; how Beyond begin from being anonymous to start having a little fame, then turned from being the “betrayers of rock music” to a band which was well-received by the audience, and finally raised to become a prestigious and legendary rock music group. Host: WONG Tin-yee

Roller Skating was extremely popular in the 1980’s both as a recreational sport and a trend. In the mid and late 1990’s, inline roller skating started to gain popularity. With its improved equipment that makes it easier for skaters, it has become a hit in Europe and America, and even developed into a professional sport. There are several types of roller skating sports – speed skating, artistic roller skating, freestyle skating, inline hockey, and rink hockey. Now included in tournaments in many places around the globe, speed skating is also featured in its own sport competitions. Coach For All: Angie WONG A retired local roller skater, Angie has loved the sport ever since her first time skating at the age of eight. In fact, it was her mother who liked roller skating in the first place but lacked an opportunity to skate. When the chance came, she encouraged Angie to give it a try. Angie was reluctant at first, yet skated for four hours after entering the rink. Later, Angie went to practise nearly every day. The rink in Victoria Park was basically her second home. There she met a lot of like-minded friends and trained many students. She focused on artistic roller skating earlier, but later switched to speed skating. Angie’s best result is winning the first runner-up in a national Chinese contest in 2001. Afterwards, she retired to study in Australia, deciding to leave the roller skating arena for good. Unexpectedly, her younger sister’s fame and outstanding performance in roller skating contests made her eager to skate again, and so she returned to the scene of roller skating. Now she is mainly devoted to the work of a coach and a judge, as well as the promotion of roller skating. She often steers athletes from various regions to competitions in different parts of the world. Athlete For All: Charmaigne, Jamie, Mike, Martin, Richard, Tingki, Wing In Hong Kong, children and teenagers make up the majority of learners of roller skating. This time, however, we will be training adults who are also parents! They are all over thirty years old. As parents, they experience immense pressure from everyday life, family and work. They spend most of their energy and time on their children, which leaves them minimal time for physical exercise. Yet these parents have decided to leave their family behind for a moment to put on the skating shoes and take up the challenge of learning a new sport. Their challenges include a speed skating race in which speed is the key to winning, and an obstacle course that requires simple figure skills. Finally we will see whether they can manage a freestyle roller skating race that demands sophisticated techniques.

The struggle of Judy as to stay to live an unhappy life here or emigrate to Taiwan.