SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — “Who are we to say that we are not enough?” Ena Mori asks this of listeners in “WHITE ROOM,” the tenth track of her sonically stunning LP, DON’T BLAME THE WILD ONE! (2022). The LP flows through an eclectic soundscape with passion-charged lyrics and production. According…
Full Article MUSIC REVIEW: DON’T BLAME THE WILD ONE (2022) – THE POWER OF THE OUTCAST
SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — We often like to see the world in black-and-white terms: bad people do bad things. It is rarely so simple in reality, however. Japanese director, Hirokazu Koreeda, explores moral complexity in Broker (2022), showing how our best efforts and intentions can be disrupted by systems that…
Full Article MOVIE REVIEW: BROKER (2022) – THE SPIRAL OF HUMAN MORALITY
ALI ZANE WRITES – With K-pop now a global presence, more and more luxury fashion brands have been collaborating with its idols. A pivotal moment: Chanel’s 2015 Paris fashion show, where K-pop idol and fashion trailblazer G-Dragon sat front row. He was the first Asian star to be invited. A…
Full Article SOUTH KOREA: K-POP TAKES CENTER STAGE IN FASHION
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – A Harvard senior obsessed with the beautiful, Will Chen is the perfect Chinese son: hardworking, handsome, and respectful. Except when he is offered an illegal job by a mysterious wealthy Chinese benefactor to steal back art pieces from heavily guarded Western museums that…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: PORTRAIT OF A THIEF (2022) BY GRACE D. LI – A HEIST OF THE HEART
GABY RUSLI WRITES — The sweet, milky, smooth, light brown tea. The dark brown, chewy, little bubble-like goodness at the bottom of the plastic cup. The excitement you feel when you’ve stuck your straw into the cup, ready to enjoy this drink that will satisfy your thirst and craving for…
Full Article INDONESIA: BOBA TEA DRINKS MAKE MY HEART BUBBLE WITH JOY
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
ANNALISA DEL VECCHIO, ASIAN ART EDITOR, WRITES – Chong-II Woo – Women of the Joseon Dynasty Nude Woo, also known for his work as a photographer for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar magazine, gives his interpretation of Korea’s modern history through this beautiful pigment print on Hanji paper. Sogen Chiba –…
Full Article 25TH ANNUAL LA ART SHOW: HIGHLIGHTING THE BEST ASIAN ART
YI NING WONG WRITES — The month of May marks Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with team members from a recent animation about street foods, culture, and family in Hong Kong: Front of the House. Director Sum Yi “Ashley” Ma and Sound Director…
Full Article Film: An Ode to Hong Kong Street Food and Family
CAMERON HENDERSON WRITES — The Japanese video game company “FromSoftware” released the much anticipated Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice March 22, 2019. This action-adventure video is for users of Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which is in single-player, third-person format, calls for logic, creativity, and…
Full Article Japan: Sekiro – a new endeavor for the Dark Soul Series
ALBUS WANG WRITES– East West Players, the oldest theatre group representing racial minorities, has a new play: “Man of God.” Inspired by the “Me Too” movement in 2017 and the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the show emboldens sexual assault survivors and supports the vow of the…
Full Article PLAY REVIEW: “Man of God”
JENICA ROSE GARCIA WRITES — Every December, the internet excitedly awaits the acclaimed “Moving Pictures” mashup, which strings multiple pieces of footage from disparate movie trailers into a whole new trailer. The creative genius behind “Moving Pictures” is Clark Zhu, who has accumulated millions of fans and has been featured…
Full Article Profiles: Video Editor Clark Zhu’s Path to Film
IMMANUEL PORTUS WRITES- Purple and scarlet lights illuminated Stage 4’s facade at Sunset Las Palmas Studios during the event of New Filmmakers Los Angeles on October 6th, a film festival that aims to celebrate LA’s heritage and identity. Emerging creative voices such as LA filmmakers Rona Par and Mengfang Yang drew…
Full Article Film: Celebrating Diversity and Resilience through Cinematic Arts
ALEXIS CRUZ WRITES – Anthony Bourdain, the American celebrity chef and documentarian perhaps best known as tour guide/TV host of the CNN series “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” died June 8, but his taste for international cuisine, culture and adventure lives on. Some of the best “Parts Unknown” episodes took place…
Full Article TV: Anthony Bourdain on Asia
Writes Peter Gordon in the recent issue of The Asian Review of Books, in his review of David Moser’s A Billion Voices: China’s Search for a Common Language — In a recent piece in the New Yorker, Ted Chiang wrote: “I never learned anything in the Saturday-morning Chinese school I…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: WHY THE ‘CHINESE LANGUAGE’ IS AN UNREAL CONSTRUCT
TH FOLLOWING COURTESY OF THE NATION NEWSPAPER IN BANGKOK- Chris Coles, the American expressionist painter who’s spent so many years in Thailand that every evening stroll becomes a neon nightmare, has suddenly gone all flowery. Faced with the predicament of having no paintings that his mother back in Maine would…
Full Article BANGKOK: THE FLOWERING OF THE NOIR ARTISTMIA MARTIN WRITES – A picture is worth a thousand words. For modern Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi, those thousand words represented two major political issues: poverty and inequality.
Full Article ART FEATURE: Zeng Fanzhi Reimagines Economic Progress