CHARLOTTE TRUONG WRITES — Vietnam in general and Saigon in particular have controlled the pandemic very well, so entertainment services during the day and at night were soon allowed to resume operations. The service sector, though, is facing a period of extreme challenges, which is how to maintain, as well as…
Full Article SAIGON: WESTERN TOURISTS WELCOME…PLEASE!!
ASSOCIATE EDITOR CAMILLE BRYAN WRITES — Savannah, a small town in Tennessee, along with the rest of the United States, has had a recent surge in coronavirus cases in the past weeks, up to 238 since July 23. The day Wuhan ended its lockdown that number was 2. The residents…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER?
JOANNE PANG WRITES – COVID-19 continues to spread amongst communities, and Hong Kong’s zero-case streak has been reset now to over 100 cases daily. The government urges citizens to stay at home unless necessary; but for the gamers out there who want to play with their friends, what can be…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: #PLAYAPARTTOGETHER
JOSEPH LITTAUA WRITES — Most popular songs have a lot of things in common. For example, whether it’s a soloist or band song, most songs will have a short, catchy melody that gets stuck in your head, like Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” or One Direction’s “What Makes…
Full Article SOUTH KOREA: FORGET ABOUT SILENCING THAT ANNOYING BABYSHARK TUNE
SARAH SHARPE WRITES — It is the evening of July 20th in the year of 2020. I am just getting home from my evening walk, about to watch the nightly news and catch up on my studies. I’ve done this same routine nearly every night for the past three months.…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: EDUCATION IS A PRIVILEGE
ANDREA PLATE WRITES — Imagine watching your mother and grandmother being stabbed to death in a random attack on Christmas Eve, and showing no emotion. This is Yunjae, the protagonist of Sohn Won-Pyung’s Almond (HarperVia), first published in 2017 and translated into English this May. Why the title Almond? First, because the human brain…
Full Article SOUTH KOREA: BIG GAINS AND NOTHING LOST IN TRANSLATION
CASEY MCGANNON WRITES — Many immigrants have similar motivations for leaving their home countries. They may seek opportunities that simply don’t exist where they’re from, or wish to escape persecution or, like many Filipino nurses, they seek better pay. The average salary for a registered nurse (RN) in the Philippines…
Full Article COPING WITH COVID-19: HOW FILIPINO NURSES AND THEIR COMMUNITIES SUPPORT FRONTLINE HEALTHCARE WORKERS
ZHI JIAO DANIELLE GOH WRITES — When the prime minister’s brother, Lee Hsien Yang, joined the opposition party in June, you knew the ordinary political scene in Singapore was never going to be the same. All over the world, Singapore’s democracy is often been questioned and criticized as the People’s…
Full Article SINGAPORE ELECTION: A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?
TOM PLATE WRITES — The way it is going now, I might have been wrong. The professor had written a good book but (in my mind) smudged it with an ethically snarky title: Destined for War. A few critics (okay, mainly me) pointed out that the addition of a simple question mark (Destined for…
Full Article INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: DUMPED BY TRUMP?
KISHORE MAHBUBANI WRITES — No one knows what the post–Covid-19 world will look like. But we know it will be very different. Many countries are likely to suffer from low growth and high debt, the “Japanese disease.” Poor developing countries will certainly suffer from this condition. Yet for developed economies, the…
Full Article THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMY: IS THE WORLD STILL AT RISK OF THE “JAPAN DISEASE” ?
(This is the sixth in an original series about new wave feminist writers in Korea whose work has started to reach English language readers via superb translations.) ANDREA PLATE WRITES — Imagine this book as a movie: “Silence of the Lambs” meets “Thelma and Louise.” The Law of Lines (Arcade…
Full Article SOUTH KOREA: THE LAW OF LINES – THEY’RE MADE TO BE CROSSED
PATRICK POLESHUK WRITES — If the Covid-19 catastrophe has benefited us in any way, it is in teaching us that humanity is never absolved from vulnerability. In the wake of global pandemic panic, thoughts about what is going to happen soon are beginning to overshadow thoughts on our long-term existence. How will…
Full Article U.S. AND ASIA: A NEW WORLD ORDER OF ENVIRONMENTALISM
ASSOCIATE EDITOR ZHI JIAO DANIELLE GOH WRITES—These days, it’s not hard to hear “You’re canceled.” But do people understand what this is really about? Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered seriously offensive.…
Full Article CULTURE: CANCELING FROM THE WEST TO THE EAST
KE SHEN WRITES — Just last month, two new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Beijing. Luckily, both patients were wearing masks while they went to the hospital and took tests. Worryingly, China’s Center for Disease Control has already conducted coronavirus tests for people who work at the Haidian district…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS IN CHINA: BRACE FOR SECOND IMPACT?
LIAM ROGERS WRITES — On June 30, 2020, the 14th corps. commander Lt-General Harinder Singh (of India) and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Lui Lin (of China) launched a third round of de-escalation meetings while The Indian Times reported that India will, among other things, be pushing for…
Full Article SINO-INDO RELATIONS: PAKISTAN’S COMPLICATED INVOLVEMENT
