KATE BARKLEY WRITES – Pens, apples, and pineapples were ordinary items until they came to comprise a PPAP or Pen Pineapple Apple Pen in DJ Kosaka Daimaou’s viral video. Posted almost over a month ago on August 25th, Japanese comedian/DJ Kosaka Daimaou sings about combining fruits with pens in a…
Full Article JAPAN: FUNNY ASIAN MEN TAKE OVER THE INTERNET
KATIE TRINH WRITES – The aftermath of the South China Sea disputes led Vietnam to look for new partnerships with the U.S., and now – worried – China wants in on the action. This past Tuesday on September 13, Chinese Premier Li Kequiang and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc came to…
Full Article VIETNAM: SMARTLY PLAYING BOTH SIDES OF THE IDEOLOGICAL STREET
KELCEY LORENZO WRITES – In this episode of I Hate To See You Go (K-Pop Edition), Han Sunhwa will be departing from big-name girl group SECRET. On September 26, TS Entertainment, SECRET’s management agency, confirmed that the singer/actress would be leaving the quartet after her contract expires in October. Following…
Full Article K-POP KORNER: COINCIDENCE OR CURSE?
RYAN URBAN WRITES – With such a neat-freak attitude, one would think Singaporeans would hardly have any bugs in its health system. But the ultra-clean rich city-state has yet to rid itself of the dangerous Zika-carrying mosquitoes. Earlier this month, authorities in Singapore reported 151 cases of the Zika virus, sadly…
Full Article SINGAPORE: CLEANLINESS LAWS MISSED A SPOT WITH ZIKA
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — Indonesia has long been the premier year-round vacation destination for millions of traveling Australians, especially among those looking to escape high-alcohol prices and expensive party lifestyles in their native home country. From Sydney Airport, a flight from from Sydney Airport to Ngurah Rai International Airport in…
Full Article AUSTRALIA: A DRY SPELL FOR AUSTRALIAN TRAVELERS?
WROTE LMU PROFESSOR MICHAEL GENOVESE WITHIN MINUTES AFTER THE 1ST CLINTON-TRUMP DEBATE – It was perhaps not a knockout, but certainly a TKO. Hillary was the clear winner in a lively and fascinating debate. On body language and facial expression, Trump looked like a spoiled child, smirking his way from…
Full Article U.S. ELECTION WATCH: WEST-WINGING IT?
Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating (1991-1996, pictured right) offers a crystal-clear vision of China’s rise in Asia in a deeply thought-provoking interview with Kerry O’Brien, one of Australia’s most respected journalists. The hour-long radio session with the highly informed, forward-thinking Keating, now 72, covers a valuable range of topics,…
Full Article AUSTRALIA: THE WAY TO DEAL WITH CHINA
JAMES ROYCE WRITES — Chinese state-run media has recently gone out of its way to label Australia as “an ideal target for China to warn and strike,” if it ventures into the continually-contested South China Sea. The Global Times, known for its hardline nationalist stance, blasted Canberra early last month…
Full Article AUSTRALIA: CHINESE MEDIA TARGETS AUSTRALIA OVER SOUTH CHINA SEA
The following summary (or ‘Abstract’) of an invaluable study titled “…China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign” arises from exemplary research by Xi Lu and Peter L. Lorentzen of the University of California, Berkeley. Their study comes at an especially helpful time: Scholars (not to mention journalists and Western government officials) have been endlessly…
Full Article UC BERKELEY: IS CHINA’S PRESIDENT XI SINCERE IN HIS ANTI-CORRUPTION CAMPAIGN?
FASSA SAR WRITES – Chinese officials say that despite the country’s current prosperity, there’s trouble brewing: commercial films just aren’t socialist enough. China’s legislature, National People’s of Congress, revisited a draft of a film law proposed in 2015 that attempts to regulate its domestic film Industry and Chinese-owned Hollywood studios.…
Full Article CHINA: PROPOSED LAW TAMES FILM INDUSTRY
JESSICA LEGASPI WRITES — Indonesian President Joko (‘Jokowi’) Widodo and Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Minister established a new approach to effectively elicit environmental change. Palm oil companies found responsible for clearing land through illegal burning will now be prosecuted. After Korindo, a South Korean palm oil company,…
Full Article INDONESIA: PRESIDENT JOKOWI FEELS THE BURN
From Ho Chi Minh City, Well-Known Vietnamese lawyer Nguyen Ba Son Writes – On July 12, 2016, the arbitral tribunal in the South China Sea arbitration case instituted under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) between the Philippines and China handed out…
Full Article VIETNAM: THE TRIUMPH OF THE TRIBUNAL
RYAN URBAN WRITES – The recent detention of two Singapore men under a decades-old law that allows people to be held for two years without trial shows just how worried – and ill-prepared – some countries are in the fight against modern terrorism. The men were detained under an old…
Full Article SINGAPORE: UNDER CAREFUL WATCH
ASIA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL WRITES — A visit by the UN Secretary General is always a big event in Los Angeles. Arriving after world-wind visits to various international trouble spots, Mr and Mrs Ban Ki-moon made appearances at the home of TV legend Normal Lear (lunch Wednesday, 10 Aug.) and producer-director Brett…
Full Article LOS ANGELES: UNSG BAN AND WIFE SOON-TAEK VISIT WITH ASIA MEDIA EDITOR AND WIFE
GUEST LULLY MIURA WRITES FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO – Koike Yuriko became the first female governor of Tokyo in a surprise landslide earlier this month. The election was held following a money scandal involving the former governor. While Koike’s victory is a step forward for women in Japan, it could…
Full Article JAPAN: THE NEWEST POLITICAL STAR
RYAN URBAN WRITES – We need to remember this: The mass shooting in Orlando was one of the deadliest in U.S. history. The horrific mass shooting was an act of home-grown terrorism, committed by an even more sick and twisted character. And the tragedy is that something like it bodes to…
Full Article USA: AN INDIVIDUAL’S ACT OF HATE AND AN ACT OF TERRORISM