BRIANNA HIRAMI WRITES — Choi Jin-Young’s To The Warm Horizon (2021) captivates its readers by revealing the dark and difficult truth surrounding human nature. However, we come to understand that there is often love and glimpses of hope throughout periods of complete chaos. This page-turning novel starts off by briskly and…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: TO THE WARM HORIZON BY CHOI JIN-YOUNG
ALEC FARMER WRITES — What are the similarities between a revolution and love? In Yan Lianke’s Hard Like Water (2021), Gao Aijun sees these two disparate concepts as one and the same. Aijun is, on the one hand, deeply committed to the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the words of Mao…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: HARD LIKE WATER (2021) – THE CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE AND REVOLUTION
ELLA KELLEHER WRITES — Beijing’s Bell and Drum Towers stand one in front of the other, the Drum Tower in front with red walls and grey tiles and the Bell Tower behind with gray walls and green tiles. These two obelisks have watched over the bustling city for centuries like…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: THE WEDDING PARTY (2021) BY LIU XINWU
ANGELINE KEK WRITES — How would you feel living in an 80-year-old’s body as a teenager? What would you do if you knew your days were numbered? How would you like to be remembered? My Brilliant Life (2021) by Korean author Ae-ran Kim follows a 16-year-old boy named Areum with…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: MY BRILLIANT LIFE (2021) BY AE-RAN KIM
Introduction to LGBTQ organizations in Asia Podcast Transcript: 00:00 Cristina Pedler: Hello, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to Asia media review brought to you by Asia media international publication from Loyola Marymount University. Today during our very first intro episode, we’re going to tell you what we’re all about…
Full Article PODCAST: SETTING UP THE ASIA MEDIA REVIEW
TOM PLATE WRITES — The agony in Afghanistan makes for many sorrows. Beyond the scenes of chaos at Kabul airport is the unseen anguish of all those US veterans back home who are dealing with various psychological and physical traumas and are now especially unproud of their country; of families…
Full Article AFGHANISTAN AND BEYOND: CHINA MUST LEARN FROM US HUBRIS AND BLUNDERS
KIANA KARIMI WRITES – “Who lives, who dies, who tells your stories?” The refrain from the American Musical Hamilton encapsulates the fears of Afghans as the Taliban once again usurped power. A crescendo of terror stupefied all as the Taliban quickly bludgeoned their way to Kabul following the withdrawal of…
Full Article AFGHANISTAN: THE WITHDRAWAL WAS A MESS. BUT BIDEN’S SUDDEN MOVE IS MORE RIGHT THAN WRONG
BRIANNA HIRAMI WRITES — Cho Nam-Joo’s eye opening novel, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, displays how South Korea’s demoralizing rules and societal norms negatively affect the lives of Korean women. This straightforward novel wastes no time by jumping right into Kim Jiyoung’s, the protagonist’s, story about how sexism casually dictates the lives…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 (2021) BY CHO NAM-JOO
NELLY CARRILLO WRITES — The pandemic has undoubtedly changed the way average citizens go about their life. Additionally, we see significant changes in the way countries govern themselves across the globe. These special circumstances allow elected officials to use different methods to govern and it also allows them to keep…
Full Article SOUTHEAST ASIA: HOW COVID-19 TRANSFORMS GOVERNING
ALEC FARMER WRITES – Monkey King: Journey to the West (2021) is a translation of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature. The book has its origin in China’s Ming dynasty from author Wu Cheng’en, and since its inception, the story of Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang, and…
Full Article MONKEY KING: JOURNEY TO THE WEST (2021) – TRANSLATING A CHINESE CLASSIC FOR A CONTEMPORARY AUDIENCE
AIDAN SMITH-FAGAN WRITES — By now, the stories have become almost familiar: elderly Asian Americans shoved to the ground, Asian students subject to racist harassment, xenophobic epithets shouted in public. According to the nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate, Asian Americans have reported over 9,000 incidents of hate since the COVID-19 pandemic hit…
Full Article ASIAN AMERICANS: FACED WITH RISING API HATE, CALIFORNIA CITIES RETHINK PUBLIC SAFETY
CRISTINA PEDLER WRITES — As the delta variant ravages the world we thought could have been recovering from COVID-19 by now, some countries are feeling neglected. Vaccine development by countries in the West, China, and Russia have brought to light major disparities in access to healthcare. While citizens in the…
Full Article NEPAL: THE INTERRUPTED JOURNEY TO VACCINATION
ELLA KELLEHER WRITES (latest in her review series of new Japanese novels) — Loneliness, a newly standardized leitmotif in Japanese literature, is the driving force behind much of modern Japan’s social dilemmas and Natsuko Imamura’s unnerving novel. Beyond that, the fear over taking risks and forging new relationships frames the narrative…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: THE WOMAN IN THE PURPLE SKIRT (2021) BY NATSUKO IMAMURA
ANGELINE KEK WRITES — Motherhood — perhaps the most intimate and universal experience to exist in the universe. Nothing organic can start without it, nothing is left untouched by it. Motherhood transcends all differences. Yet, no singular being’s journey with it is ever quite the same as the next. At…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: A THOUSAND TIMES YOU LOSE YOUR TREASURE (2021) BY HOA NGUYEN
TOM PLATE WRITES — In its quixotic quest for certainty about China – mortal threat or mere robust competitor? – the American consensus now claims to have taken the measure of China and is not in doubt. It would be better if it were. A fictive western mind may be creating…
Full Article CHINA: BUT HOW CERTAIN CAN WE BE?
KIANA KARIMI WRITES — A flickering light, screams of famished, sleep-deprived young girls inside tightly-packed crates, armed men ripping victims from each other’s arms, their innocence slowly stripped away in a twisted, torturous cycle of violence… A chilling rendition of Nirvana’s hit 90’s song “Teenage Spirit” creeps through the screen…
Full Article RUSSIA: MARVEL’S “BLACK WIDOW” PUTS A NEW SPIN ON FEMINISM