Author: Asia Media Staff
SINGAPORE: Walkways Into Memory
CHINA: The Ridiculous Republican Hunt for “Red” Huntsman
As Republican presidential candidates continue to use China as a topic for gaining voter approval in the current Republican Primaries, it shouldn’t go unnoticed that the “bad mouthing” is being heard beyond our own shores. The English-language Chinese newspaper “China Daily” recently published an article highlighting the election’s topic fixation.…
INDIA: Young People Tweet — #APositivePerspectiveOfIndia
As the stylized coding of a tweet might put it: #APositivePerspectiveOfIndia That was the whole point of the recent online conference that the Times of India is calling “the world’s largest tweetathon.” And the successful event looks like further proof, if any were needed, of the revolutionary innovative power of…
THAILAND: Do Tablet PCs Really Make the (First) Grade?
Many are speaking out against the Thai government’s “One Tablet PC per child” policy, which gives first grade students their own laptop at school. In an attempt to prove the soundness of their policy, the government chose five schools to partake in a pilot-study in which they were given 600…
JAPAN: The Publisher Who Kept on Going
The March 11 natural disasters that ravaged the Tohoku region of Japan early last year forced most local industries to cease operations. Despite the difficulties, Masashi Hijikata, the owner of the Araemishi publishing company, continued producing his quarterly magazine, the Sendaigaku, or Study of Sendai. According to The Mainichi Daily…
HONG KONG: Who Will Win the Olympic ‘Media’ Medal?
As the countdown begins to the 2012 Summer Olympics, the government and its media seem to be playing their own media games. A Hong Kong’s cable TV outfit says it is desperate for government approval of its free-to-air license for the Games. Without this approval, many of the city’s sports…
SINGAPORE: The Media Catfight That Just Won’t Stop
Late last year, a legal battle between the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and Yahoo! Southeast Asia was sparked by alleged copyright infringements by the internet giant. According to Today, a free, English-language publication, Yahoo! has been accused of reproducing works originally published by SPH. These purportedly original works had strikingly…
TURKEY: Dubai Newspaper Raises Questions about Journalistic Freedom
Turkish journalists are incredulous, claiming that they are being treated like terrorists for simply doing their jobs. According to the Khaleej Times Online, a leading English Daily of UAE and the Gulf States, the number of journalists held in Turkish prisons pre-trial has risen from 70 to 97 in less…
SOUTH KOREA: Buddhism Goes Bilingual
The book titled, “Open the Mind, See the Light,” by widely acknowledged Seon Zen master Ven. Jinje has been translated into English, according to The Korea Times, a huge-circulation newspaper based in Seoul. Ven. Jinje is a leading monk of the Joyge Order of Korean Buddhism and one of the…
Chinese Blog Blotter – Taking China Down?
The Chinese are certainly following the U.S. presidential campaign. A video of a televised Republican primary debate was circulating on the Internet, attracting the attention of up to 500 million Chinese Netizens. In this video, former U.S. Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman stated that his hope for China is to…
SOUTH KOREA: Getting Back a Few Pages of Its History
According to Yonhap News Agency, a leading English-language news source, South Korea is celebrating the Japanese return of 1,200 ancient Korean texts that were taken during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and kept by the Japanese Imperial Household Agency. Among the books is the “Uigwe,” a collection of…
INDONESIA: For Love or For Politics?
Politics can make strange bedfellows, as the famous saying goes. Witness the brewing brouhaha in Indonesia, where a high-profile marital union is drawing almost as much attention as a presidential campaign. The upscale marriage is between the son of the country’s president (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) and the daughter of a…
JAPAN: Trying to Get Those Outsiders to Understand
Language can represent a daunting obstacle to traveling abroad. Kyodo News, Japan’s leading nonprofit news agency, aims to diminish this barrier through the introduction of Japan Portal. According to The Japan Times, the nation’s leading English-language publication, the trilingual website was created to both convey pertinent Japanese issues to foreigners…
THAILAND: The Lesser Majesty of the Law
61-year-old Ampon Tangnoppakul, described by The Bangkok Post as having a “slow walk, bent back, white hair, and blurry eyes, ” has found fame in Thailand for all the wrong reasons.
PHILIPPINES: Yet Another Journalist Gunned Down in Mindanao
Two gunmen shot Michael James Licuanan, a Fillipino reporter for Bombo Radyo Cagayan de Oro City, after he finished his evening radio program in Mindanao.