The Lunar New Year holiday is one of the few times in the calendar year the South China Morning Post does not publish a newspaper. This year we’ve made a podcast talking to some of our journalists about the stories they cover at this time of year, as well as the new stories they’ve uncovered in the hunt for interesting people, places and happenings.

The zodiac animal for this coming Lunar New Year is the pig – and SCMP reporters have worked on some fascinating stories on that theme, from the disappearing breeds of rare Chinese pigs said to have made a style of ham as good as the famed Spanish Iberico to the Mongolian grindcore rock band that has a pig as its lead singer.

So it’s not all just about fireworks and fortunes (but we talk stories about them too).