A few years ago, after one of Hong Kong Film Festival UK's screenings, a woman walked up to Ching Wong. She had moved from Hong Kong a few months earlier. Until that evening, she had barely left her home. “She said she had arrived in the UK a few months before, but this was her first time really getting out of her house to be in a social occasion, because she was scared, she was feeling very unsettled. But this experience was very important for her. She felt safe and connected here.” Ching is...

Robert Ngo spent ten years as an architectural designer before £5,000 and a market stall turned into Eat Lah, two sites that failed, and finally a Malaysian kopitiam of his own in Canary Wharf. The green tiles, the music and the coffee all came back from Malaysia with him. His mum wraps the wontons.

Mid-Autumn Festival 2026 falls on Friday 25 September. What the festival means across Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese traditions, what’s on in London, and where to buy mooncakes before they sell out.