This column originally appeared on February 8, 2023, in the South China Morning Post. DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR TOM PLATE WRITES – Hot air propels not just balloons. Embattled President Joseph Biden and his battle-prone Washington – the American capital more divided, presumably, than that of Chairman Xi Jinping’s Beijing – clashed…
AHMED AL SHAHRI WRITES – The Chinese Communist Party developed the social credit system in 2014 to monitor the behavior of its population and assign every citizen a ranking based on individual credit. So how is it working out? According to Business Insider, in an article published in 2021, the…
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…
RYAN BYRNE WRITES – For the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of 2021, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has adjusted “The Doomsday Clock.” The clock, which is reassessed annually, is meant to symbolically show how close the world is to man-made destruction, with midnight representing…
FARRAH PADILLA WRITES – New Zealand, a country located in the Southern Hemisphere, is a wonderful place to visit in January and February—the summer months— with its sunny beaches, luscious greenery and “hobbit style,” Lord of the Rings appeal (where the blockbuster series was filmed). No doubt travelers around the…
ANGELINE KEK WRITES — One of the scariest moments of a child’s life takes shape with the realization that our parents are mortal beings no further from death than a wilting flower or a gray-whiskered cat. They have no friendly contract with the grim reaper. With the fleeting time, we…
GABY RUSLI WRITES — In our unremarkable and mundane daily routines, we often forget that we are all the living instigators of history. Singaporean-born Fanny Law has always been aware of this profound and undeniable truth. Though she was dutiful in upholding the Confucian cultural practices carried across international waters from…
THU-HUONG HA OF THE JAPAN TIMES WRITES – Japanese social media loves to hate on kira-kira names. These unusual or unpronounceable names, so called for their flashiness, like 心人 (Haato, Heart), or 今鹿, (Naushika), as in the heroine of Ghibli film “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,” are fun…
This column originally appeared in the South China Morning Post on January 4, 2023. CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – Is it conceivable that the risk-taking pilot of the Chinese Navy J-11 fighter that flew within metres of a US Air Force RC-135 over the South China Sea two weeks ago…
SARAH LOHMANN WRITES – Romance and coming-of-age stories are comforting for many. Their familiar storylines are a space for viewers to revisit the excitements and struggles of youth with a healthy degree of separation, a safety cushion. For this reason, such films can risk being devoid of complexity. However, Korean…
Fergal Mythen, Ireland’s envoy to the United Nations, represented his country in the Security Council for the last six months of its two-year term, ending Dec. 31. He concludes his role, explaining that despite the Council’s brittle divisions, it “remains much too soon to write an obituary of the body.”…
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – Want a personal list of the top ten best Asian novels and novellas that were either published in translation or English-authored by Asian-American writers? Look no further! And if you’d like to view our inaugural MiniMag: A Review of Asian Fiction, click here!…
WRITES MOON CHUNG-IN, chairman of the Sejong Institute -South Koreans were long forced to remain silent about the tragic Jeju April 3 Incident. Over 30,000 residents of Jeju Island were killed by the police, the military and paramilitary groups such as the Northwest Youth Association during the incident, which began…
GABY RUSLI WRITES — We all carry the power to take charge of our destinies and choices. Empowerment of oneself and those around us is the key to unlocking this power. In Letters to Singapore (2022), author Kelly Kaur tells the story of Simran, a twenty-year-old Indian-Singaporean girl who narrowly escapes an arranged marriage by…
This column originally appeared on Dec. 7, 2022, in the South China Morning Post. CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – Did you know that, in American-speak, a group of flying Corvids is not called a “flock” but a “murder.” You could look it up! Right now, amid the warm Laguna…
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – The “perfect suburban life” is pretty simple in theory: get married, buy a house, and have children. Invite your neighbors over. Take up a hobby – like raising exotic fish. Yet, this seemingly picturesque ideal of marital bliss is scrutinized in Japanese storyteller…
