The following work is written by Oiwan Lam, a media activist, researcher and educator currently based in Hong Kong. Republication under (CC BY 3.0) license. Activists from a number of Asian countries are calling for the boycott of the film “Mulan,” released by Disney on September 4, on the grounds that production’s lead actor, Liu Yi Fei, has publicly expressed support for the police crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong. The latest release from Disney, “Mulan” is an adaptation of “The Ballad of Mulan,” a story from Chinese folklore, in which Hua Mulan, an ancient Chinese heroine from AD 3 ..read more

After the infamous Odebrecht scandals sparked protests and investigations throughout the region, hope and promise for the strengthening of institutions and change in the corruption of daily life abounded in much of Latin America. Yet after many years, the outcome has been mostly the same: politicians receiving minimal sentences after millions of dollars given or taken in bribes amidst a backdrop of embezzlement and money laundering that has now become ubiquitous.  Compared to other regions, Latin America boasts comparatively low sentence lengths. In many countries in the Asia-Pacific reg ..read more

Our resident cartoonist, Iggy Kim’s latest piece on WHO Assistant-Director General Bruce Aylward pretending not to hear RTHK journalist Yvonne Tong’s question on Taiwan’s membership ..read more

I spent the last ten years living in China’s Xinjiang province, one of the country’s so-called “autonomous regions.” In my experience, labeling these regions as such had little to do with autonomy and everything to do with the local governments being able to pull in more money from tourism. This exploitive tourism featured costumed dancers in tightly controlled environments with thematic scenery and had little to do with anything that might be culturally controversial; it was all cultural appropriation on a horrifying scale. My husband is a Chinese citizen, and we fled the country in February ..read more

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other top officials have come under fire for being granted prime real estate in the capital at preferential prices under a state program, contradicting their reformist pledges to shun perks of power in a country impoverished by decades of misrule. As former opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi said her National League for Democracy (NLD) would not accept preferential treatment as government officials, while most ordinary citizens struggled with poverty — part of a platform that won general elections in 2015 by a landslide. During an interview with RFA’s Myanm ..read more

Passed during colonial rule three years after the British re-imposition from Japan, Malaysia’s Sedition Act of 1948 still remains the law of the land despite calls from the public and promises from public officials to repeal it eventually. The colonial era relic has been used to selectively incriminate political opponents, cartoonists, journalists, and professors whose speech has been deemed dangerous to the general peace and safety of the public. In 2012, then-Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak told the BBC that his government would move to repeal the Sedition Act and replace it with a modernized ..read more

This story by Mong Palatino originally appeared on Global Voices on June 10, 2020. Republished under a under a Creative Commons Attribution-Only license. Lockdown restrictions were enforced by many countries across the world to contain the spread of COVID-19, and Southeast Asia has hosted some of the harshest. Most quarantine protocols require residents to stay at home, while mass gatherings are typically prohibited. In Malaysia and the Philippines a particularly strict enforcement of these measures saw thousands of arrests and heavy penalties for violations from March onwa ..read more

Today marks the day Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej ascended to the throne upon his brother’s death in 1946. With his death marking the end of the world’s longest reigning monarch, the seventy years of his reign have been marked with both controversy and esteem. Bhumibol’s reign saw Thailand’s monarchy survive tumultuous decades of conflict and war in the greater Mekong region⁠. Through socialist revolutions nearby and coups at home and abroad, Bhumibol’s reign was a constant throughout. Military Dictator Plaek Phibunsongkhram presided until 1957, overseeing the Thai Cultural Revolution. As ..read more

With up to 1 in 10 adult Uyghurs in China’s westernmost province of Xinjiang in re-education camps, life in the region’s internment system drudges on—arduously. Your mother is sent hundreds of miles away for burying your dead father in the traditional Muslim custom instead of cremating him. Your brother is sent thousands of miles away to a residential school for stuttering when speaking Mandarin. Your brother-in-law has saved up several months’ salary to pay smugglers to take him and your sister out of the country—if caught he may never see your family again. And while the true reality of life ..read more

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