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…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: THE INTERPRETER’S DAUGHTER (2022) — A FAMILY’S STORY OF FILIAL DUTY, FEMINIST PRINCIPLES, AND ENDLESS ENDURANCE
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…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: LETTERS TO SINGAPORE (2022) — INDIAN GIRLS ARE MEANT FOR MORE THAN ARRANGED MARRIAGES
ALEXANDER KYDONIEFS WRITES – On October 27 of this year Singapore announced that it will usher in its most ambitious building project yet — its first ever ‘super-tall’ skyscraper, overtaking Guoco Tower—that will reach 300 meters (984 feet) or higher. This 63-story project represents a partnership of e-commerce giant Alibaba,…
Full Article SINGAPORE: THE HIGHER YOU GO, THE BETTER IT GETS?
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ELLA KELLEHER WRITES – Kirsten Chen’s latest novel, Counterfeit (2022), follows Ava Wong – a straight-edge Chinese-American lawyer shackled to an agonizingly mundane routine of house chores and taking care of her maddening infant, Henri, who cannot seem to cease his daily tantrums. Married to a successful yet always…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: COUNTERFEIT (2022) BY KIRSTEN CHEN – HOUSEWIFE TURNS CRIMINAL MASTERMIND
TOM PLATE WRITES – Ever since my initial meeting with Lee Kuan Yew a quarter century ago, Singapore remained in my mind as special. By the time of the brilliant founding prime minister’s passing at 91 in 2015, that assessment was not so novel and was going global; even in…
Full Article SINGAPORE: CALIBRATING A ROLE BETWEEN CHINA AND THE U.S.
CADY ABE WRITES – Picture books are often synonymous with bright colors, simple plots, and child-like innocence. However, readers find completely opposite undertones in Mr. Goodchild (2022). The artwork curiously draws readers in and creates an unsettling atmosphere. There is a great deal of dark shading, leaving a mysterious aura across the page…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: MR. GOODCHILD BY J.H. LOW (2022) – AN EERIE PICTURE BOOK EXPLORING INNER DEMONS
CADY ABE WRITES – Real heroes do not come with supernatural powers, unlike the glossy heroes from grandeur cinema and literature. Instead, everyday vigilantes are clad with hard-earned perseverance, passion, and drive to improve the fragile state of the world. In the unsettling and despairing time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: WE ARE SINGAPOREANS VOL. 1 BY MELANIE LEE AND LEE XIN LI (2021)
Asia Media International’s first annual Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra Graduate School Fellowship has been awarded to Zhi Jiao Danielle Goh, described by AMI Founder and President Clinical Prof. Tom Plate as “our most outstanding Asia Media student staffer over the past two years.” Zhi Jiao Danielle Goh, born in Singapore,…
Full Article LOS ANGELES: ASIA MEDIA EDITOR HEADING FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL WINS AWARD
AIDAN SMITH-FAGAN WRITES — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison met with his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, in Singapore on June 10- marking the sixth Australia-Singapore Leaders’ Meeting, an annual conference between the two countries – and the first in-person meeting between Lee and Morrison since pandemic travel restrictions began.…
Full Article SINGAPORE: PRIME MINISTERS LEE AND MORRISON HAVE A SERIOUS CHAT
KISHORE MAHBUBANI SAYS — The following is an excerpt from an Interview published by Project Syndicate on November 24th, 2020, with the distinguished famed Professor Mahbubani: Project Syndicate: You’ve warned that “the international order has lagged dangerously behind shifting global power dynamics.” Will US President-elect Joe Biden’s administration improve prospects…
Full Article US-CHINA RELATIONS: EIGHT ‘SUGGESTIONS’ FOR THE BIDEN PEOPLE
SARA ALTUWAIJRI WRITES — The flu season is fast approaching. The South Korean medical establishment took steps to prevent a severe epidemic by giving out flu vaccines, but this took a tragic turn when more than 1500 elderly people died seven days after receiving it last year. This year there have been…
Full Article SOUTH KOREA: CAN THE FLU VACCINE KILL YOU?
LULU ALKHALIDI WRITES – In polls conducted by Pulse Asian between September 14 and September 20, the rating for Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s performance was 91%. The poll was of course conducted during the coronavirus pandemic, with 5% of the population giving a negative response while 4% were undecided. In…
Full Article PHILIPPINES: PRESIDENT DUTERTE SCORES HIGH MARKS FROM FILIPINO FANS DESPITE LOW REGARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
ZHI JIAO DANIELLE GOH WRITES — When the prime minister’s brother, Lee Hsien Yang, joined the opposition party in June, you knew the ordinary political scene in Singapore was never going to be the same. All over the world, Singapore’s democracy is often been questioned and criticized as the People’s…
Full Article SINGAPORE ELECTION: A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?
DANIEL ZAND WRITES – New efforts to contain COVID-19 are being enacted because on Wednesday, March 25, three new cases of the Coronavirus occurred. This is the largest increase ever experienced in one day within Singapore. And the feel uptick continues. Singapore has created new social distancing punishments. Coming…
Full Article SINGAPORE: JAIL TIME FOR BREAKING SOCIAL DISTANCING LAWS
STUART MULJADI WRITES — “The day the earth stood still” is the best way to describe the past couple of weeks. COVID-19 has divided countries, tanked economies and businesses and, worst of all, the virus has caused a shortage of the world’s supply of toilet paper. People’s daily lives are…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: MODERN HORROR SHOW – ‘THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL’
TOM PLATE WRITES – Adept moral leadership at the top, whether in Washington or Hong Kong, is central to any serious public-health strategy. ‘Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed on the world,’ famously wrote the poet William Butler Yeats in 1919. One hundred years later, here…
Full Article TRUMP AND THE CORONA CRISIS: SCIENCE VERSUS UNREASON?