After 30 years of war and the 2004 tsunami, many women in Aceh have been left widowed. What will peacetime, and the increasing imposition of Islamic law, mean for their futures? Via Tank Magazine, read more
Category Archives: Asia
“A kind of possibility”
In a country where direct discussion of governance issues remains taboo, the filmmakers of Wu Wenguang’s project face a special set of challenges in capturing their stories. Via Asia Times, read more
Beijing in the Morning
The sweet strains of some high-volume Chinese poetry should always be cause for further investigation. Via The Washington Post, read more
Ooohh love a bonus audio track, produced for Radio Magnetic (Scotland)
Chalk It Up
I returned to see Mr. Zhou in late June. It was during the run-up to International Anti-Drug Day and new messages had started to appear on the boards. He was in good spirits and wore a jaunty straw hat against the strong summer sun. “Look at this new board,” he said, waving me over. Via Tank Magazine, read more
Re-Arranged Marriage
The harsh realities of post-revolutionary China made a wedding a spare affair. But anything is possible with Photoshop. Via The South China Morning Post, read more
When China Really, Really Hates Japan
East Asia is at odds over the Diaoyu Islands, or the Senkaku Islands, also known as the Tiaoyutai Islands, all of which just look like a handful of blasted concrete dropped in the East China Sea but for the fact that the islands sit on great stores of oil reserves. In early 2013 the fight flared up again, leading Ian Johnson to write in the New York Review of Books that China and Japan are “locked in their most sustained and bitter dispute since the [1895] war, one that doesn’t have an easy way out for either side.” But the situation was tense as far back as 2005. A Radio Magnetic audio postcard from those tumultuous spring streets of Shanghai.
A New Democratic Player Emerges
Getting this (ghostwritten) piece published sent a howl of delight from Jakarta to Bangkok HQ and out to NYC. But best of all– Indonesia passed a major democratic milestone with its first-ever direct presidential elections. Via the International Herald Tribune, read more
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded
“The volcanoes that are truly dangerous are those that don’t erupt,” Winchester explained. “The largest of this nature is in Yellowstone Natural Park in the United States. Everything else will pale in comparison when that erupts.” By that time, however, human life is expected to have long gone extinct. Via The Jakarta Post, read more
Jakarta’s Magic Pencil
Alongside the British prints are Indonesian works, including Iwan Darmawan’s blocky, candy-colored characters and Firdaus Husaini’s docile, floating fantasies. M. Fauzie’s globular ink forms are also on view, all menacing teeth and duplicitous smiles. Via The Jakarta Post, read more
Quietly Sowing the Seeds of Activism
A gradual campaign to build a civil society, where citizens help to promote change on issues that affect them, is taking on a distinctive shade of green in southwestern China. Or that’s the yarn I sold back in 2003. Fast forward 10 years? Sigh. Via the Far Eastern Economic Review, read more
Caroline M Cooper 