MARY GRACE COSTA WRITES – Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach may have won the 2015 Miss Universe crown, along with the hearts of her fellow countrymen and women, but she won’t be charming her way out of her taxes. Upon her homecoming on January 23, Pia received a warm welcome and friendly…
SABRINA VERDUZCO WRITES – When that uptight next-door-neighbor yells at you about your music, sometimes the solution is to turn it up. South Korea took this advice to heart in response to North Korea’s most recent hydrogen bomb stunt in early January, countering the North’s explosive behavior by blasting K-pop…
AMANDA KRETSCH WRITES – In a technology-saturated world, it seems no lettuce leaf is left untouched. Spread is a Kyoto-based Japanese company whose vision is to look for a sustainable way to bring fresh vegetables to the world, and they plan to open a robot-run farm in Kansai by 2017. CEO, Shinji…
AMANDA KRETSCH WRITES – It’s been seven years since the release of “The Cove” but Japan evidently is still smarting. Former dolphin trainer and star of the brutal 2009 documentary, Ric O’Barry, arrived in Tokyo as a tourist last month and was immediately detained by officials. This isn’t the first…
MIRANDA PAK WRITES – The U.S. this week (Feb. 2) joined calls for Chinese authorities to release five Hong Kong booksellers whose main crime appears to have been embarrassing Communist Party officials. What’s proving the bigger embarrassment is that no one doubts it is Beijing behind the kidnapping/detentions. Since October,…
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — Cracking open a cold one is a beloved tradition down under, but one U.S. man is calling into question the Aussie integrity of Foster’s lager. Leif Nelson, a self-proclaimed New York City beer aficionado, has filed a lawsuit against Miller Brewing Co. in U.S. District Court.…
ALEXIS CRUZ WRITES – Usually it’s censors who block a controversial film from domestic distribution. Not so in Quatar, at least in the case of The Danish Girl. Following online outrage at the transgender tale, the country’s Ministry of Culture tweeted out this month: “We would like to inform you…
FROM THE BRITISH WEEKLY MAGAZINE THE SPECTATOR, SIMON COURTAULD WRITES – Alexander Chancellor’s ‘Long Life’ is over; but it was not nearly long enough. I was feeling rather gloomy last Friday, having just had our old terrier put down, when I opened The Spectator and was immediately cheered up by…
JAMES ROYCE WRITES – Cities like Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul have long fought to attract technology funders, firms and talent. But there’s a new kid on the block, and it woos with an Aussie accent. Melbourne, Australia used to be internationally recognized solely for being the most ‘livable’ city in…
ADRIAN NARAYAN WRITES — With more than 15 million users in 24 countries, Facebook’s Internet.org, has charmed the eyes of many Indians. The program aims to bring free Web access to the developing world, but because of controversy over the number of websites a user can visit, the project’s been renamed “Free Basics.”…
BRADLEY CAVANAGH WRITES – Think of it as a credit score for your standing with the Communist Party. And if it works as intended, it will preserve in China all that is good and right and true. By 2020, the Chinese government hopes to make use of big data to…
SABRINA VERDUZCO WRITES – The South Korean government has announced an investment of about $14.8 million in robot development. This recent endeavor was instigated by the recent spike in technological innovation that took place in China. This project seeks to demonstrate South Korea’s ability to compete with China’s cheap labor that…
MIRANDA PAK WRITES – Today, it’s not uncommon for people to rely on cloud or file-sharing services, such as Dropbox or Google Drive, to store documents. A ‘cloud’ is basically a service where people make an account and upload documents and, once uploaded, they can be accessed anywhere on any device with Internet connection.…
LMU student staffers have produced Asia Media International’s first magazine — a look back at the year past. Printed on the highest quality glossy stock, the 28-page magazine celebrates the journalism and photo-jounalism of its senior staffers during the 2014-2015 LMU year. The energetic, full-color design came courtesy of AM…
SABRINA VERDUZCO WRITES – On Nov. 3rd, the South Korean government made the controversial, yet entirely legal decision to rewrite history textbooks. Many scholars and political opponents of the Park administration immediately condemned this move. Two weeks later, 70,000 protesters congregated in Seoul in an attempt to confront the South Korean government’s move…
EMILY ROCHA WRITES – Media coverage of the recent monumental meeting between Chinese and Taiwanese presidents differs between the two states, as each attempts to push their own agenda. On November 7, in Singapore, a historic handshake between the Beijing and Taipai leaders occurred, the first since the declaration of…
