Periscope

This issue of Varsity looks at the relationship some Hong Kongers have with the places they call home: Many young Sheung Shui residents say they feel...

Scenes of locals protesting against parallel traders outside Sheung Shui station caused a stir back in the Autumn and focused attention on complaints that the traders' activities have changed the character of the town. But as Varsity discovers, even before Sheung Shui became a hub for such trading activity it had already undergone dramatic transformation from a rural backwater into one of Hong Kong's so-called new towns.

To casual passers-by, the area outside the Jade Market in Sham Shui Po may be just a dumping ground of mattresses and random objects belonging to a bunch of homeless vagrants. But to the community of street-sleepers who live there, this is home, with its own unwritten rules regarding space and property. Varsity listens to the voices of the homeless in Sham Shui Po.

They found themselves in the headlines when they fought to save their homes in Choi Yuen Village. But their houses and farms were finally demolished to make way for the controversial Guangzhou-Hong Kong Express Rail link. Now, the TV cameras have left and some of the original villagers are stuck in temporary houses while their dreams for a new model village are held up by red-tape.

This issue of Varsity looks at books and reading in Hong Kong. The city is often described as a cultural and literary desert whose...

When Taiwan's leading bookstore opened its first Hong Kong branch this summer, it became the place to see and be seen. The hype surrounding the bookshop led people to ask whether it could be a boost to Hong Kong's flagging reading culture.

In recent years, Hong Kong has become a shopping paradise for people from the mainland. They are eager to snap up genuine brands of everything from milk powder to toiletries and cosmetics. But there is another thing visitors are keen to buy - books that have been censored and banned back home.

Today's young people have grown up in a digital age and are just as likely to read online articles as books. They're often accused of not reading enough or at all. Is this accusation fair? Varsity explores and conducts a reading habits survey of our own.

Varsity surveyed more than 260 secondary school and university students to find out about their reading habits. Read the full results here.

Hong Kong has one of the better public health systems in the world but the system is groaning under the challenge of an aging...