O.cult Mag

24/03/2026

Art Week in Hong Kong comes to an explosive close this Sunday with OPEN by HE.R, a historic takeover of one of Central district’s most iconic streets for an open-air electronic music, culture and arts festival that bridges the gap between high art and the dance floor
r re-writes the rules for what kind of outdoor events are possible in Central and is presented by the HE.R team of founder Cocoa Zhou and music director Alex N**e - who launched their intimate, by-invitation HE.R .r_asia club night at Mott 32 last May - along with venue partner Hongkong Land .land. Surrounded by some of the city’s most recognisable buildings, the seven-hour festival on Chater Road presents a curated selection of international and local DJs, high-end F&B and the chance to be a part of history

OPEN by HE.R, Mar 29, 3pm-10pm, Chater Road. Tickets via the link in the .r bio

23/03/2026

The distinguished gentleman staring back at you from this portrait may not look like it, but Lai Shue-keung is one of the most important and influential tattoo artists to have emerged from Hong Kong

Better known as Swallow, this master of the Hong Kong Traditional tattoo style started out in the 1950s as an apprentice at the famed Rose Tattoo alongside fellow Hong Kong tattoo legends Pinky Yun and Ricky Lo. From his famous studio in Wan Chai district, Swallow spent 35 years inking thousands of clients with bold designs that combined the thick outlines and vibrant primary colours typical of mid-20th-century Western tattooing with Eastern influences up until his death in 1999

To mark World Tattoo Day - celebrated every year on March 21 to honour the art of tattooing - we bring you the forgotten story of Swallow

22/03/2026

O.cult’s series on the biggest articles of our first year (HBD to us BTW!) continues with a rundown of the top stories from Hong Kong - our home city that gave birth to us, nurtured us, messed with us a bit, but also infinitely inspired us

We recently shared the 15 articles that received the most attention globally during our first year, which unexpectedly gave us tens of millions of views and propelled us to 25k followers. Now, these are our biggest Hong Kong articles of the past 12 months, from indie and electronic music to photography, performing arts and a little bit of kinky stuff

Once again, the O.cult team sends out huge thanks and respect to everyone who’s contributed or supported us in our first year!

20/03/2026

O.cult was launched exactly one year ago this week with a mission of “championing the creatives and visionaries of Hong Kong and Asia”. The idea was simple: to create a modest platform to cover stuff we thought was cool, and to shine a light on artists and events that were being overlooked by local media. But our content unexpectedly started resonating with an ever-growing audience in Asia and around the world, and now here we are

As a little gift on our first birthday, we give you this rundown of the 15 O.cult articles that received the most attention during our first year in the business. Got a favourite O.cult article so far? Want to tell us what you want to see more of in our second year? Have some angry feedback about the stupid mistakes in various articles? Let us have it in the comments

The O.cult team sends out huge thanks and respect to everyone who’s contributed or supported us in our first year! And stay tuned - our list of O.cult’s biggest Hong Kong articles is up next

19/03/2026

Certainly a surprising weekend with lullabies from locally made robots

Cover photo: .s_photography
Model: .in.the.frame
Rigger: ,

18/03/2026

Howie B didn’t just witness the birth of trip-hop in the 1990s - he helped engineer the very blueprints that defined the era’s atmosphere. This restless polymath famously transitioned from the precision of Hans Zimmer’s studio to the heart of a British cultural explosion. His signature low-end magic became part of the decade’s musical DNA, most notably through his early work with Massive Attack and his atmospheric contributions to Björk’s Post and Homogenic albums. He even steered the stadium-sized experimentalism of U2 during their Pop era, proving his reach extended far beyond the underground

After a reflective seven-year chapter on an island off the French coast, the veteran producer has returned to his London roots with a singular philosophy of “surrender”. His current work remains as border-defying as ever, bridging the gap between Western electronic innovation and his extensive film score collaborations in China. His two upcoming gigs at Salon 10 in Hong Kong mark a homecoming of sorts for the artist whose influence stretches from basements in Bristol to the heights of global cinema in China and beyond. O.cult spoke to Howie B .howie before he set off to Asia on his latest journey of sonic storytelling

Howie B, live set, Mar 27, 10pm; DJ set, Mar 28, 10pm, Salon 10, Central, Hong Kong

With support from Mr. Sit and K-MELO , Mar 27; and Paul Bph , Mar 28

17/03/2026

It’s Art Month in Hong Kong - that time of the year when the global 1% descends on the city to attend high-end art “trade shows”, stroke their chins while looking at blank walls and drop thousands of dollars on bottles at upscale nightclubs while awkwardly dancing to Afrohouse

If you don’t feel like spending hundreds of dollars on tickets to these international arts events that parachute into our city and suck up all the oxygen (and the money), then O.cult’s guide to alternative arts events taking place throughout the month could just be the centrepiece of your collection

Cover image: KAI

16/03/2026

:zoviet*france: are one of the most enigmatic outfits to emerge from the volatile British musical landscape of the late 1970s and early ‘80s. By abandoning traditional instruments in favour of tape loops, primitive field recordings, found objects and electronic manipulation, the collective bridged the gap between the gritty post-industrial noise of their ‘80s contemporaries and the expansive textures of modern experimental music

Their music has been variously described as dark ambient or post-industrial, but :zoviet*france: have long resisted being classified by genre. Instead, they see their expansive catalogue as a “series of infernal soundworlds” that exists outside of standard “consensus reality”: a parallel dreamscape of ritualistic structures, indigenous sounds, Western occultism and soundtracks from the end times transmitted from a lost, imagined version of the ancient British countryside

are now coming to Hong Kong for a series of events hosted by avant-garde arts and music organisation the Xevarion Institute, including a three-month exhibition that opens this Saturday, a live performance next Thursday and the release of their new album The Gate is Open, limited to 300 copies available only through The Xevarion

:zoviet*france:, The Gate is Open Exhibition, Mar 21-Jun 21, The Catalyst, Sheung Wan

:zoviet*france: live, with supporting act PSDG , Mar 26, 7pm, secret location

09/03/2026

One of the strangest sagas in the history of cinema - and probably the weirdest moment of the Cold War - came to an end 40 years ago this week when South Korean director Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee sought asylum at the US embassy in Vienna

The power couple of South Korea’s film industry had been abducted separately from Hong Kong by North Korean agents, held in captivity for eight years and forced to make films by Pyongyang’s leader-in-waiting Kim Jong-il as a part of the movie-mad dictator’s drive to revolutionise his country’s stagnant cinema industry

While in North Korea, the couple churned out 17 films, including romantic dramas and historical epics, but the most infamous of their works made during captivity is Pulgasari, a campy re-imagining of Godzilla that’s become a staple of cult cinema midnight screenings

On the 40th anniversary of the couple’s escape in March 1986, O.cult revisits this unforgettable saga of state-sponsored kidnapping, creative Stockholm syndrome and a kaiju classic that remains a ridiculous relic of the Hermit Kingdom

04/03/2026

Hong Kong’s post-punk/noise darlings David Boring launched their new album Liminal Beings and Their Echoes last Friday night, and O.cult was in the crowd, probably standing right next to you, or thrusting a camera in your face

The BODY! MACHINE! CODA! gig at Soho House - also featuring supporting acts Arches and XSGACHA was sold out, so we’re guessing that you missed out on tickets. If you have no idea what went down, fear not: the answers you seek are right here

David Boring’s Liminal Beings and Their Echoes is out now on Damnably

Photos: O.cult

03/03/2026

The electronic/post-punk legends N.Y.P.D. 南洋派對 serve up a spicy hotpot of pummeling punk, ironic electroclash & acid machine-funk on their new album DON’T LIKE 我鍾意

The electronic/post-punk legends serve up a spicy hotpot of pummeling punk, ironic electroclash & acid machine-funk on their new album DON'T LIKE 我鍾意

03/03/2026

We’re in Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po district with N.Y.P.D. 南洋派對 - arguably the most important and influential band to emerge from the city in the past decade - and things are getting weird. Our reporter falls down a total of three times during the interview, which triples our previous record for falling down during interviews. The first fall comes when guitarist Jack takes a tumble during the photo shoot and brings us down with him. Then we fall off our stool twice during our sit-down, and we haven’t had a single drink. But nobody bats an eye. It’s just another day in the world of N.Y.P.D.

The electronic/post-punk band’s second full-length LP dropped a few weeks ago and it cuts through the noise even in this unusually fertile period for indie music in Hong Kong that’s seen a whole bunch of bands “handing in their homework”. The album DON’T LIKE 我鍾意 serves up a spicy hotpot of straight-up pummelling punk rock, spiky post-punk, ironic electroclash, ‘80s indie dance, squelchy machine acid-funk and even some sleazy lounge tunes

On paper, it might sound like it shouldn’t work - much like the random collection of mavericks, misfits and mad scientists that make up itself - but you can probably tell by now that your friends here at O.cult really think that it does

So please come with us on a pleasant stroll through Sham Shui Po with the “Drifters of South Asia”

Read the full article online

Photos: David Teng