Opinion | Udon aren’t my favourite noodles, but after eating bowls of them in Shikoku, Japan, I appreciate them more

To be honest, udon are not my favourite Japanese noodles. I prefer soumen, a thinner, more delicate variety of wheat noodles, and the earthier soba made from buckwheat. When I do have udon, I prefer to eat them cold, dunking the noodles into a cup of light, fish-based dipping sauce. Nyumen, a soup of soumen … Read more

5 of the greatest Chinese cultural exports, from foods and tea to calligraphy and Confucianism

Chinese history has produced many cultural exports, particularly to East and Southeast Asia. Here are five of the most significant: 1. Hanzi (Chinese characters) Calligraphy dates back 3,000 years in China, and was exported to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Photo: Shutterstock The logographic system of Chinese languages is widely accepted by world scholars as one … Read more

Baidu CEO says its AI model bests OpenAI’s GPT-4 in Imperial Chinese poetry, citing famed Tang-era style

Baidu’s Ernie 4 artificial intelligence (AI) model, one of China’s leading large language models (LLMs), has outperformed similar technologies from US peers in generating Chinese texts such as those in the style of Imperial Chinese poetry, according to Robin Li Yanhong, co-founder and CEO of the internet search giant. In an hour-long programme aired by … Read more