‘It’s a nice surprise to be treated like kings!’ Why are mid-level British indie bands massive in China?

My group, Swim Deep, plays to crowds of hundreds across the UK – but in China, we play to tens of thousands. And we’re not the only ones

Tom Gauld on the modern romance novel

A most advantageous match …

‘Regrets? Number one: smoking. Number two: taking it up the wrong hole’: Tracey Emin on reputation, radical honesty

She scandalised the art world in the 1990s with her unmade bed, partied hard in the 2000s – then a brush with death turned the artist’s life upside down. Now she’s as frank as ever

'I loved it!': Brontë museum staff praise racy Wuthering Heights film

Staff at Brontë Parsonage Museum in Howarth embrace Emerald Fennell’s sex-laced take, while Emily Brontë’s most recent biographer calls BDSM version ‘a lot of fun’

A new jazz orchestra with Kurt Elling comes to Washington

American culture still produces great things. The Music Center at Strathmore, a gorgeous concert and arts venue just outside of Washington, is preparing for a premier performance by its new in-house, 17-piece Strathmore Jazz Orchestra. The band, led by conductor and composer Daniel Jamieson, will make its debut on Friday, Feb. 13, performing with Grammy-winning vocalist Kurt Elling.

The Secrets of Indigenous Art

Major exhibitions are upending the way people understand Native American and Aboriginal artists.

‘Women hold our power in our orifices’: Kristen Stewart on her audacious feature directing debut

The Chronology of Water is a ‘punk rock ayahuasca trip’ of a film that takes no prisoners. Stewart and her star, Imogen Poots, talk about the passion and pain that fuelled it

Rebecca Hendin on policing protest in the US and Iran

Despite their political differences, both countries have recently seen protesters killed by government forces

What Does Life After Ambition Actually Look Like?

Writing a great memoir about choosing a “good enough” life, it turns out, is hard.

Paris fashion and Grand Bazaar gold: photos of the day

The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world

Behind the scenes of Shen Yun

For two decades, Shen Yun has presented Chinese history and culture through sweeping dance and soaring music, offering what it describes as a vision of "China before communism." Run by the spiritual movement Falun Gong, the production now faces lawsuits alleging forced labor and untreated injuries. Correspondent Lisa Ling speaks with former performers who say they lived in fear as child laborers; and with Shen Yun leaders who dispute those claims and, for the first time, granted access inside their guarded headquarters, Dragon Springs.

Seductive stitches, Warhol in Nottingham and an Italian giant’s igloo sculpture

Jessica Rankin sews up painting, arte povera’s Mario Merz comes in from the cold and Andy Warhol brings pop to the Midlands – all in your weekly dispatch