What used to be mere repositories of old books and antiques now have interactive displays and touchscreens that allow visitors to learn more about the venue. All 21 museums throughout the country are expected to sport the new changes by 2017.

In fact, two heritage houses in the town of Taal were recently modernised and reopened by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. Both Museo nina Leon at Galicano Apacible and the Museo nina Marcela Marino at Felipe Agoncillo used to be the homes of the Apacible siblings and the Agoncillo couple, respectively.

While they have long been open to visitors, there were no storylines on view. One simply looked through the rooms and saw beds, tables and chairs. Now, there are narratives and wall texts that tell stories of the houses’ original occupants.

There are tour guides available as well although one has to make arrangements before visiting.

León Apacible was a delegate to the Malolos Congress and fought in Batangas during the 1896 Revolution. His brother Galicano was active in the Propaganda Movement and later chaired the Comite Central Filipino in Hong Kong, which sent munitions to the Filipino army and engaged in diplomatic activities to secure foreign recognition of Philippine sovereignty.

National seamstress

Schoolchildren may know Marcela Agoncillo as the seamstress of the Philippine flag together with her daughter Lorenza and José Rizal’s niece Delfina Herbosa de Natividad.

Marcela was also an accomplished homemaker who sewed her children’s clothes and helped augment the family’s income by making clothes for her neighbours when they lived in Hong Kong.

Visitors can learn about these and other little-known facts when they visit the house she shared with her husband Felipe, who led diplomatic activities in Europe during the war of the Philippines against the United States.

Both museums have since been outfitted with interactive features like light-and-sound presentations; stereoscopic devices and photographs; audiovisual rooms; and the aforementioned touchscreen terminals describing the different rooms and furniture.

The Apacible and Marino-Agoncillo museums are both located at Marcela Marino de Agoncillo Street in Taal, Batangas.

Zhao, a young artist from the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, spent more than 100,000 yuan (US$15,200) on the sculpture of a fox named Nick, from the animated film Zootopia.

It took him three days and nights to build the 1.8m statue, which was put on display at a Lego expo held in Ningbo.

However, it did not stand for long. Within an hour of the expo’s opening, a four-year-old placed his hand on the figure and accidentally pushed it over while posing for a photo.

This was despite the fact that a “no touching” sign was placed near the artwork, and all the sculptures at the exhibition were separated from visitors with ropes.

According to Metro, the child’s parents apologised and wanted to pay for the damage but Zhao refused to accept it, saying the young boy’s actions were unintentional.

“The child did not intend to break it,” he said, according to CCTVNews.

The artist was crushed; his devastation apparent from the photos he uploaded of him creating his masterpiece on Chinese social media platform Weibo.

He also uploaded a photo which captured the aftermath of the accident, with his intricate sculpture completely reduced to rubble.

Zhao reportedly said: “It took a lot of effort building the sculpture, especially the eyes. I had to change it a lot of times.”

According to BBC News, the hashtag #ManSpends3DaysAndNightsBuildingBlocks has been used over 13,000 times on Chinese social media after the accident.

This was not the first time an artwork was destroyed by visitors.

Just last week, CCTV footage of two boys fracturing a glass sculpture at the Shanghai Museum of Glass in China was released.

The adults accompanying the children were seen filming them and choosing not to intervene as the kids started touching the sculpture, which is titled “Angel Is Waiting”.

Its creator, Shelly Xue, spent 27 months on it and completed it as a dedication to her newborn daughter.

Instead of fixing the damage, she decided to rename it “Broken”.

Another piece of art was unintentionally damaged in October last year when cleaners at the Museion museum in Bolzano, Italy, accidentally threw several items from a modern art installation into bin bags. They thought that the items were from the aftermath of a party.

The artwork, titled Where Shall We Go Dancing Tonight? and created by artists Sara Goldschmied and Eleonora Chiari, comprised confetti, empty bottles and cigarette butts which were used to represent the decadence of Italy in the 1980s.

The winner will receive a scholarship from the local purveyor of ice-cream.

The audition round for the project will take place at Swensen’s National Culture Hall branch today with young ladies given the chance to publicly show their abilities and talent.

The contestants from this project will also get the chance to meet well known Lao celebrities such as Kai Overdance, Ola Black Eyes, Tar A’Pacts, Toun Diva and Miss Laos 2011 Louknam Thidalat Vongsili who will also be the contest judges.

One of the judges Toun Diva said this was the first time the Swensen’s project had been organised and it would open opportunities for a young woman to gain special experience and fulfil their dream of getting into the local entertainment industry.

The project has attracted almost 100 young ladies who are eager to impress the judges. The audition round starts from 10am today with only the top 25 contestants who meet the judges’ criteria able to progress to the contest final taking place on June 25 at the Vientiane Center.

The winner will become a presenter and brand ambassador for Swensen’s Ice-cream in Laos for one year and the title will identify them as a rising star and open up other career opportunities in the local entertainment scene.

“To all our relatives, best friends, and families in Indonesia. We won!” wrote Wregas Bhanutedja, the man behind Prenjak, on his Facebook wall. “Thanks to you. This award is for you all.”

Wregas, a 23-year-old film director, was also involved in making behind-the-scenes videos of the country’s much-anticipated drama Ada Apa Dengan Cinta 2. Prenjak was filmed in February this year in Yogyakarta by teaming up with his former high school friends, such as Henricus Pria as his line director, Rosa Winenggar and Yohanes Budyambara as cast members, as well as his movie-maker girlfriend Ersya Ruswandono as photography director.

( Read also: Two Indonesian films heading to Cannes 2016 )

It took only two days for them to shoot, and they decided to submit the project to the prestigious movie festival three days before registration was closed.

The 12-minute short tells the story of widow Diah, who is on a lunch break from her work. In desperate need of money, she offers Jarwo a single matchstick for the price of Rp 10,000 ( less than US$1 ), explaining that he will have the opportunity to take a peek at Diah’s body by lightning up the match in a dark place.

“The idea for the story came from a Yogyakarta cultural practice that existed in the 1980s. Nowadays, there aren’t any girls who do this anymore, and I want to show this culture in today’s era, but in a different context, where Diah needs money so badly that she has to do this,” Wregas told The Jakarta Post in April.

Prenjak is one of two Indonesian movies at Cannes this year.

( Read also: In a France darkened by fear, Cannes hopes to supply light )

The other movie is thriller-drama Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts – the only film from Southeast Asia signed in the L’Atelier Cinéfondation category.

L’Atelier is a program under Cinéfondation that aims act as a bridge between young filmmakers, producers and international distributors.

The movie, which involves director Mouly Surya, depict the story of a woman in Sumba who beheads a man and carries his head around on a journey after he and his friends rob her house.

The newly opened gallery, which occupies 333 sq m of the museum’s top floor, offers a quick survey of Chinese ceramics.

It features more than 300 objects made of baked clay – ranging from simple cups and pots that date as far back as 5000BC to exquisite porcelain vessels and ornamental objects from as recent as the 18th century.

Many of these objects, which include recent acquisitions, have either never been displayed in the museum before or have not been in public view for some time.

The crown jewel of the show is the collection of Dehua porcelain – white porcelain from Dehua county in Fujian province – that is displayed on the third floor of the museum’s three-storey Kwek Hong Png wing, named after the late property czar.

The first two floors of the natural light-filled wing, which highlights treasures from China, were unveiled last year. They were completed under the first phase of the museum’s ongoing S$25-million (US$18.21 million) revamp.

Dehua porcelain is well-known around the world for its distinctive white glaze and fine clay – allowing for delicate workmanship and highly expressive forms.

The section on Dehua porcelain features the museum’s fine collection of Dehua ware, which grew out of an important donation of more than 120 pieces by collectors Frank and Pamela Hickley.

Dehua porcelain was especially popular in the 16th and 17th centuries due to flourishing trade between Fujian and the rest of the world. It was exported to Asia and Europe and it found a zealous collector in August the Strong (1670 to 1733), king of Poland and elector of Saxony, who owned more than 1,200 pieces of it.

It was also Dehua porcelain that inspired European potters to make copies of them before they were able to successfully produce porcelain in the 1700s.

Besides Dehua ware, the exhibition, which flows in a largely chronological order, includes sections on clay objects for burial and porcelain made for the imperial court.

The museum’s director, Dr Alan Chong, says: “At the end of the day, what we’re trying to communicate is that these things have an eternal beauty.

“These are things that can be appreciated over thousands of years and they are objects that still appeal to us today. It goes to show that ceramics is a tradition that keeps going and is very important.”

One of the biggest current trends in the South Korean entertainment community involves celebrities and entertainment agencies taking a stab at the food and beverage scene.

Many Korean celebs have invested in their own cafes or dining establishments, such as Grill5taco owned by Super Junior’s Dong-hae, JYJ Junsu’s Misarang Imshil Cheese Pizza and G-Dragon’s Cafe Monstant Aewol on Jejudo Island. The country’s leading K-pop agencies are also jumping on the bandwagon, rapidly penetrating the food market with their eyes set on successfully pioneering a chain of Korean cuisine eateries outside the peninsula.

Following the unveiling of its SMTOWN@Coex Artium – an entertainment hub complex in the centre of Gangnam that features a merchandise store, theater, studio and a cafe – last year, SM Entertainment forged ahead with its third attempt at the restaurant business by opening the five-story multi-complex restaurant SMT Seoul earlier in January in the posh neighbourhood of Cheongdam-dong, Seoul.

The eatery not only offers diners a variety of fusion food options such as Seoul-style tapas, as well as other Asian dishes, it also oozes K-pop goodness – featuring hologram projections of the agency’s artists – making it the ultimate dining option for die-hard fans or curious patrons.

According to officials at SM, the agency has tentative plans to launch the restaurant franchise overseas, with aims of opening an SMT Tokyo and an SMT LA sometime later this year.

“Creating a global establishment has always been the plan for our restaurant ventures from the start,” said a representative of SM Entertainment. “The concept for SMT Seoul is to meet our aims for having our style of Korean food being tasted at an international level.”

Despite its sky-high ambitions, the restaurant marks SM’s third attempt at penetrating the food market. In 2008, the company opened the Korean restaurant e-table, but eventually had to close its doors in 2011. The following year SM attempted to open the Chi Mc pub in collaboration with the local hamburger joint Kraze, but the project ended up going bust at the last minute.

“Having run a number of test-runs in the restaurant business in the past, we now feel like we possess the know-how (with the SMT franchise),” the SM spokesperson added.

In a media presentation earlier this year, SM founder Lee Soo-man announced his initiatives to continue expanding the company’s celebrity-based merchandise stores and international projects.

“SM has now come of age, and is looking forward to taking another leap. We will accomplish the world’s greatest ‘blooming of culture,'” Lee said during his presentation.

Rivaling SM is another top dog in the Korean entertainment industry – Yang Hyun-suk of YG Entertainment.

No stranger to appearing on the small screen, the cafeteria at YG’s company headquarters has garnered much public attention in the past. Audience members have gotten quick glimpses of the agency’s notoriously tasty, in-house cafeteria food through various K-pop reality shows, with Yang famously having stated, “Our families must eat well to work well.”

In 2004, the company established a dining subsidiary YG Foods which opened its first Korean-style pub Samgeori Pocha in 2004. Noh Hee-young, former brand executive of mega-conglomerate retail giant CJ Group, was later appointed to head YG Foods leading to the unveiling of the agencies new Korean barbecue franchise – Samgeori Butchers.

Last June, the agency opened the first Samgeori Butchers in Hongdae. In less than a year, the company has already launched two branches of “YG Republique” – which feature YG’s Samgeori Butchers, K Pub and 3 Birds cafe – in the bustling tourist hotspots of Myeong-dong and the IFC Mall in Yeouido.

“YG Republique is not just a brand that is launching in Korea. We are currently preparing to expand our brand into the overseas market,” said a spokesperson at YG Foods, adding that the company plans on opening a YG Republique complex in ShowDC Mall in Bangkok in June.

Later this year YG expects to open its Republique dining complexes in Orange County, California and China.

Along with his fellow agency rivals, mega K-pop producer and founder of JYP Entertainment Park Jin-young has also taken a stab at the restaurant scene, with hopes of global expansion. However this was met with little success.

In 2012, JYP Entertainment opened a chic, upscale Korean barbeque joint, Kristalbelli, near Korea Town in downtown Manhattan. Park had announced that he had invented the restaurant’s signature grill, as well as created his own grilling manual after visiting numerous barbecue establishments in his home country.

Banking on its success, JYP Entertainment had announced its plan to open branches in cities worldwide including Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beijing. However, the agency ended up selling off the restaurant and was unable to expand the brand.

“I burn with revenge and false hopes. In these falsehoods, I die in darkness. Darkness, darkness, darkness!” she screams, her eyes closed and her head swaying to the loud, rambunctious music reverberating through the tiny studio in Ujungberung, a town in Bandung, capital of West Java. Dubbed Kampung Metal, Ujungberung is the so-called birthplace of local metal music.

Unlike two decades ago, headscarf-wearing women like Asri in metal bands are no longer frowned upon. Now, a number of female musicians donning the “symbol of Islam” are even rocking their electric guitars and druon social media.

Metal music, with its dark lyrics and themes of death and doom, is very much alive – and thriving even – in Muslim-majority Indonesia. This is despite growing Islamic conservatism in the country, where rising intolerance has led to violence between mainstream Musliand non-Muslias well as religious minorities, including the Shi’ite and Ahmadiyah sects.

The music genre’s growing acceptance in the community is largely attributed to musicians tweaking lyrics to suit local taste and decorum, a supportive metal community, as well as heightened awareness created by the Internet that allows bands to expand their fan base in the vast archipelagic nation.

Asri, a mother of two who has a day job as a kindergarten teacher, is a vocalist with Gugat, or Threat in Indonesian, a hardcore metal band considered to be one of the country’s pioneers in the genre.

“My parents protested at first and told me to quit. They said metal music is scary and so dark. But I only like the music. I don’t smoke, drink alcohol or take drugs,” she told The Straits Times.

“When I wore the headscarf two years after joining the band, fans told me, ’If you wish to pray, do it at home, not here’. But people are more accepting of us now.”

Now hailed as the “new mainstream”, metal music has captivated hundreds of thousands of fans, from the pluralistic city of Bandung, where metal is said to have taken root in the 1990s, to deeply religious Aceh province, where a concert last month saw teenage girls in headscarves head-banging along with boys.

Thousands of local bands hold concerts every year, drawing huge crowds of 1,000 to 45,000 each time. A concert by American band Metallica, held in Jakarta in 2013, attracted some 60,000 fans.

The genre’s unlikely top supporter is none other than President Joko Widodo, who swears by seriously heavy Metallica, Napalm Death and Led Zeppelin “because rock is my passion”, he had told the media.

The soft-spoken and mild-mannered man had thrilled metalheads around the world with photos of himself at metal concerts wearing his Lamb of God T-shirt and leather jacket and gamely flashing the sign of the horns, a hand gesture common within heavy metal culture featuring the index finger and the pinkie extended from the fist.

Music expert Bens Leo said metal music in Indonesia has evolved in the last decade, with more bands espousing nationalistic and non-destructive messages.

“The lyrics are not critical in a negative way. Nowadays, the musicians advocate the spirit of nationalism, and sing about how to protect women and the environment. Metal music reflects current social issues and serves to unite people,” he said.

Beyond social issues, however, metal appears also to be entering the religious realm.

Muslim metal?

“Ustad Metal”, or the metal cleric, is what Alfian Muhammad Tajul Arifin, 30, is known as.

In the day, he teaches the Quran at a Muslim boarding school known as a pesantren in the West Java city of Garut. On Friday nights, he literally lets his hair down, swinging the long strands around as he jawith not one but two death metal bands called Jiwa, which means Soul in Indonesian, and Tormentor.

“I don’t see anything wrong. Conflicts stem from the lack of understanding. It’s like saying those people in pesantren must be fanatics and those in metal bands must be baddies. I live in both worlds and I can say it’s all untrue,” he said.

However, he draws the line at preaching Islam through his music.

“It’s inappropriate. Metal music has negative connotations, so why use it to spread Islam? And why preach by shouting? What if your messages are wrong? Well, let’s leave the religious teachings to the clerics,” he added.

His view, however, is not shared by an underground “Metal Satu Jari” or “one-fingered metal” movement, which burst onto the scene six years ago. With a single raised index finger to symbolise One God, these Muslim bands spread religious teachings through their music.

During concerts, some shout verses from the Quran, while others abruptly stop to perform mass prayers with their fans when the azan, or call for prayer, rings out. A few post provocative music videos online showing them with firearms.

Mohamed Rohman, 38, vocalist with the band Jasad, or Corpse, said he was criticised by a Muslim band for burning incense, a traditional Indonesian ritual.

“It’s to give a nice aroma. But instead they asked me ’Why are you feeding the Satan?’” he said.

Indeed, Indonesia has not been spared as rising religious fundamentalism sweeps across Asian nations. Some local governments have begun to impose religious directives on dress codes and behaviour.

Hardliners have also labelled underground music as a form of devil worship and believe it to be haram, or forbidden in Islam, a charge metal bands have swiftly struck down.

“My voice is not used for phone porn sex so, why haram?” Asri retorted. “Metal sounds rough, but it is tolerant and celebrates diversity and creativity. It is not deviant.”

Purgatory, a Jakarta-based Muslim metal band, said it takes care not to go overboard and shove religion down people’s throats.

Band drummer Aminuddin Muqoddas, 36, said the band only encourages a clean, moral lifestyle “free of sins”. Walking the talk, the band shuns events sponsored by beer and cigarette companies.

“Allah’s laws must not be violated, like getting drunk and womanising. We don’t want to send wrong messages, so we always check our lyrics against religious scripts,” he said.

Band members perform with their faces painted like zombies, not because they want to court controversy, he said. “We are entertainers after all. Looking scary is just for fun,” Aminuddin said.

Metal musicians, however, have noted greater openness to metal culture in Islamic boarding schools and conservative provinces such as Aceh, where partial shariah law is practised.

Popular home-grown metal band Burgerkill, which has been on gigs in Europe, Asia and Australia, said it had performed to only a thousand fans in Aceh in 2012, but “multiples of thousands” last month.

“Never mind that the crowd had to be separated, girls in front and boys at the back,” guitarist Ariestanto, 40, told The Straits Times.

“We were just shocked to see so many and thought, ’Man, this is big’. It was crazy, and so cool. It’s Aceh, where the first thing you hear when you land at the airport is people reciting prayers,” he said, laughing.

He attributed the rising popularity of metal music to the Internet, where bands have begun to upload their latest songs and even professionally created music videos put on YouTube.

He might have added also the musicians’ own innovations, either through borrowing from the country’s musical past or their inventiveness.

Metal never dies

Half a dozen teenagers sit in a circle in an old library in Soreang, a town on the outskirts of Bandung, with what looked like ice-cream sticks pressed between their lips.

A series of breathing and tapping movements produce a symphony of mellow sounds and vibrations.

“And that’s how you play the karinding,” said Muchammad Dzulkarnain, 34, from metal band Karinding Attack, which revived the long-forgotten traditional Sundanese bamboo instrument in 2009. The band also uses the traditional flute and harp, as well as a newfangled contraption made of squeaky kids’ shoes stuffed in a section of bamboo. “Squeak, squeak, squeak, irritating, isn’t it? But it makes the music memorable,” he said.

“We also add a metal element using a more upbeat tempo, and our country-bumpkin karinding is cool again.”

As a “positive contribution” to the music world, the band writes books on karinding, sources local artisans to make it for sale, and even teaches students to play it, he said.

Innovation by bands like Karinding Attack helps to keep metal music fresh. A supportive community which shares knowledge and actively promotes new bands also ensures the genre’s survival.

In Bandung, officials said work is in progress to turn it into a creative city with a vibrant music scene.

“Bandung is a music warehouse. There are a lot of new creations and out-of-the-box innovations which mix old and modern music, not just metal. We plan to have a music festival,” Kenny Dewi Kaniasari, an official at the city’s culture and tourism ministry, told The Straits Times. ” We are also a melting pot of various faiths, ethnicities and cultures. We respect our differences,” she added.