SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — With its long legs and winding neck, the heron wades through the water, searching for fish to spear with its beak. The bird can symbolize patience, peacefulness, and opportunity in literature. However, in The Heron Catchers, AMI-beloved author and ex-pat in Japan, David Joiner, clarifies that…
Category: Arts and Culture
BOOK REVIEW: NATURAL BEAUTY (2023) BY LING LING HUANG — THE HORRORS OF AESTHETIC OBSESSION
SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — Self-care is “taking action to preserve or improve one’s health.” Framed as mindfulness, the concept has exploded on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Yet, it has been co-opted by something darker. A recent piece from the New York Times discusses “the Catch-22 of self-care” as the…
MOVIE REVIEW: FURIES (2022) — THE COLORS OF CONFLICT
SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — How far would you go to protect yourself? What about someone you loved? It’s hypothetical we’ve all been posed at one time or another, and we all like to say we’d do anything, but Furies tells of those who really would do it—anything. Furies is a…
MUSIC REVIEW: WATER COMES OUT OF MY EYES (2023) BY MOON TANG – POETRY AND BAD WEATHER
SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — Longing is a difficult emotion to capture. Often wistful, it teeters between pain and love, and Moon Tang sets it as the tone for her recent project, Water Comes Out of My Eyes, as she sings, “Staring as the sun goes down, I miss having you…
MUSIC REVIEW: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT (2023) – ZEPH’S WHIMSICAL STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — Often, our innermost desires stay that way: internal. These wants hum to themselves, “Why can’t I be the only one you need?” This thought, and many others are brought to life in Zeph’s newest album, Character Development. Zephani Jong, known as Zeph, is a Korean singer-songwriter…
BOOK REVIEW: PEOPLE WHO TALK TO STUFFED ANIMALS ARE NICE (JUNE 2023) BY AO OMAE – SHARED EXPERIENCES OF ESTRANGED MODERN YOUTH
SASHA SENGELMANN WRITES – It is no secret that opening up to others may often be a daunting task, for there is no telling whether one’s display of vulnerability will be met with compassion or criticism. Such an idea is apparent in Ao Omae’s People Who Talk to Stuffed Animals…
VIETNAM: IS THE NEW BARBIE MOVIE PLAYING POLITICAL GAMES?
NATHANIEL SCHOSSAU WRITES – A scene in Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated “Barbie” movie, set for release July 21 and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has caused controversy over—of all things!— a territorial dispute in the South China Sea. The reason: Vietnam and China both claim a particular part of…
BOOK REVIEW: VERA WONG’S UNSOLICITED ADVICE FOR MURDERERS (2023) BY JESSE SUTANTO – A WHOLESOME INVESTIGATION OF THE UNCONVENTIONAL
SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — Vera Wong’s days are often uneventful. Despite owning her own business, she finds that her once vibrant neighborhood and community have become monotonous—until a dead man turns up in her teahouse. When the police, however, don’t seem to take it as seriously as she expects, Vera…
JAPAN: RECENT LEGAL REVISIONS ELIMINATE “FORCIBLE” FROM THE DEFINITION OF RAPE
ALI ZANE WRITES – Long criticized for its sex crime laws, Japan has revised the Penal Code, redefining rape as non-consensual sexual intercourse. Previously, rape was classified as forcible sexual intercourse, meaning that the assailant had to have used physical violence to qualify for prosecution. This century-old law has created…
BOOK REVIEW: BEIJING SPRAWL (2023) BY XU ZECHEN — ONE MUST IMAGINE THEIR PEOPLE HAPPY
ANGELINE KEK WRITES — Anyone who has lived to tell the tale can testify: life comes at you fast. The same sun rises daily, marking the start of another predicament to put right and another tight spot to escape. Thrown into the throes of life’s unrelenting torrent, how strange is it…
HAS THE INDIVIDUAL FALLEN?
ARMAAN JHANGIANI writes – Societies with law and order, power and stability, and virtues of morality and love have always been epitomized as the peak of human community and self-restraint. While the beginnings of America would encapsulate this, the industrial rise following America’s success in World War II would introduce…
MUSIC REVIEW: HOW TRIPLES IS MAKING THEIR MARK ON K-POP
SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — K-pop has always been rife with experimentation—throughout music, styling, and choreography. With their debut mini album Assemble, the South Korean girl group TripleS brings a fresh, trendy, Y2K-inspired sound. Making their mark in a saturated and ever-evolving market, they implore listeners to be their authentic selves…
BOOK REVIEW: GREEK LESSONS (2023) BY HAN KANG — A MEDITATION ON SILENCE AND SELFHOOD
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES — What if talking were like reaching into a vast abyss with no hope of a response? That’s how it is for South Korean author Han Kang’s mute protagonist in her latest English language release, Greek Lessons (2023). Kang’s novel, both riveting and entirely…
BOOK REVIEW: THE TWO LIFEBLOODS IN ZHANG LING’S WHERE WATERS MEET (2023)
SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — Chunyu’s life flows like water. She fits herself expertly into a shape demanded by her circumstances. In Zhang Ling’s tenth novel, Where Waters Meet (2023), people, especially women, are asked by the often harsh world to take the form of the formless, to fill their allotted…
BOOK REVIEW: HAPPY STORIES, MOSTLY (2023) BY NORMAN ERIKSON PASARIBU — ALWAYS ALMOST, NEVER QUITE
GABY RUSLI WRITES— To be or not to be happy? That is certainly not the question. The soon-to-be-published in America short story collection Happy Stories, Mostly (2021) expresses an LGBTQ+ person’s limited accessibility to happiness in a world plagued with acute heteronormativity. Happy Stories, Mostly (2023) by Indonesian-born Norman Erikson Pasaribu is a collection…
MUSIC REVIEW: RAHMANIA ASTRINI AND MAKING SPACE FOR MUSIC—NEW AND OLD
SARAH LOHMANN WRITES — Music cycles. It flows in conversation with itself over years and decades, returning to similar themes with new twists. In her most recent EP titled space, Indonesian singer-songwriter Rahmania Astrini uses musical themes of the past to tell modern stories of love, interpersonal relationships, and friendship.…