by Joanna C. Lee (Author), Ken Smith (Author), Patrick P. Lee (Calligrapher), Alex Chan (Cover Art)

The traditional Chinese almanac (known in Cantonese as Tong Sing and Mandarin as Huang Li ) is a centuries-old repository of cultural information, from household tips to general medical remedies. But what has made it a mainstay in Chinese homes are its regular predictions of which periods are auspicious or ominous for a wide range of daily pursuits. Authors Joanna C. Lee and Ken Smith translate and decode the almanac's predictions with daily listings for 2026, the Year of the Horse.

About the cover artist

Born in the 1970s, Alex Chan worked nearly 30 years as an art director, producer, and designer before immersing himself in Cantonese pop culture. Steeped in childhood memories of his film-loving family, he launched his Facebook page "fanartbyalexchan" in February 2017, and his distinctive digital drawings attracted widespread attention and acclaim. He has provided artwork for the Hong Kong Film Awards, Commercial Radio's Pop Music Awards,and ViuTV. This past summer he was a featured muralist in Tai Kwun's Undercover Underground, an interactive installation celebrating Hong Kong cover police dramas.

About the cover

Chan's exaggerated, nostalgia-tinged artwork honors Yuen Dai Yung, a former textile worker and self-taught "posterist" responsible for creating hundreds of Hong Kong's iconic movie illustrations. The pantheon of Hong Kong actors on the cover include (from top left, clockwise) Lydia Shum, Bill Tung, Chow Yun Fat, Tony Leung, Sam Hui, Karl Mak, Lin Min Chen, and Sean Lau, and finally comedy legend Stephen Chow at the center.

Tucked among Chan's comic portraits are samples of Hong Kong street food, an integral part of the artist's childhood movie-going experiences. "Every time you walked past a cinema, you could smell the snacks outside even from 100 meters away," he says. "Those smells still trigger great memories, though they're hard to find now."

Dimensions: 2.5 x 4 inches