Latest issue
Latest issue
November 2025
The ink that never dries
Alfian Sa’at
By writing poetry from death row, Pannir Selvam Pranthaman sets out to prove that he’s more than just a condemned prisoner.
November 2025
Thank You (Dedicated to Those Who Care)
Pannir Selvam Pranthaman
A poem by Pannir Selvam Pranthaman.
November 2025
Scars of victory
Robic Upadhayay
Every decade or so, Nepal endures upheaval, then dusts itself off—a cycle of destruction and reconstruction. But, maybe this time, the cycle will finally be broken.
November 2025
Bringing Iwao home
Kirsten Han
Hakamata Iwao is believed to have been the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner. For more than half a century, his sister Hideko has never given up on him.
November 2025
Hope in the everyday
Tshechu Dorji Wong
Hope doesn’t always come in grand gestures. Hope, I have come to believe, is less about optimism and more about practice.
November 2025
Memories of disaster
Shu-Mei Huang
As discussions of a so-called nuclear power renaissance resurface, Return to Fukushima pushes us to (re)consider not only the ways we live but also the exploitative systems through which energy is produced and consumed.
November 2025
The librarian of Vietnam’s banned books
James Tager
In a nondescript office on a university campus in Taipei, Trịnh Hữu Long maintains one of the world’s most extensive collections of Vietnamese banned books.
November 2025
Those who left on those who stayed
Will Nguyen
Claudia Krich’s Those Who Stayed: A Vietnam Diary is an invaluable primary source for those studying regime change, documenting firsthand the disintegration of the South Vietnamese government and the coalescence of a byzantine military administration in its wake.
November 2025
Taiwan’s historical burden
Jacques van Wersch
The conceit of Chris Horton’s Ghost Nation is that most of the world treats Taiwan like it doesn’t exist, and he makes the case that Taiwan deserves bolder recognition.
November 2025
After the Malaysian ‘gay novel’
Alicia Izharuddin
The exploration of a character’s sexuality in Tash Aw’s latest novel has triggered backlash among conservatives in Malaysia, but pushing back in today’s fraught times is itself a complex undertaking.
November 2025
Writing nearby, gathering hope
Lenette Lua
How does one love a world that is increasingly fractured? A reflection on curating at Objectifs and participating in the artistic projects by Chu Hao Pei and Arie Syarifuddin in Singapore.
November 2025
The blue guitar
Ken Kwek
An encounter in Penang with a man named Kelvin D Loovi, who tells a story about his blue guitar.
November 2025
Silencing
Paul French
For English language readers outside China, these translations of The Running Flame and Soft Burial help to reframe Fang Fang as a writer of more than Wuhan Diary.
November 2025
Delicate matters
Peixuan Xie
Playing with nationalism is to take part in a risky game.
November 2025
Lying flat in Qing China
Sebastien Smith
As an attempt to preserve what is gone, Shen Fu’s writing endures as a reminder to treasure what we still have and what we will someday mourn.
November 2025
A party man
Martin Laflamme
Despite enduring humiliation, punishment, and incarceration, Xi Zhongxun’s loyalty to the Party—and even his “emotional attachment” to Mao Zedong—never wavered.
November 2025
Entangled histories
Kiara Agoncillo
Filipino Hongkongers are generally excluded from the city’s self-understanding as an Asian metropolis with a distinct cultural heritage, but the historical ties between Hong Kong and the Philippines run deep.
November 2025
Reflections on a golden period
Kenneth Barrett
Stephen Simmons has produced an important record, with a wealth of historical information, that highlights the work of artists during the Sangkum era.
November 2025
Clerical politics
Michel Chambon
With both humanist insight and historical precision, Paul P. Mariani shows how Bishop Louis Jin Luxian was, above all, a Jesuit of his time.
November 2025
Mutual aid
Pablo Bayer
An exhibition in Pattani brings art collectives from three countries together to create dialogue on communal work and solidarity, encouraging people to look beyond stereotypes of Thailand’s deep south.
Subscribe to Mekong Review
From the archive
Adulation
Carl Vadivella Belle
Mahathir’s right-hand man gets away scot-free in this biography
The writer retires
Peter Zinoman
How Nguyen Huy Thiep changed contemporary Vietnamese literature
Fists and demons
Marco Ferrarese
The Indonesian film industry is often underrated and overlooked, but Timo Tjahjanto is one of its directors to have attracted international attention for his work.
Everywhere, forever
Robert Templer
Asia is addicted to plastic
Enduring
Kirsten Han
Hai Fan’s Delicious Hunger doesn’t focus on major historical milestones, but it doesn’t mean that the experiences described in this collection of short stories are inconsequential—quite the opposite.
Scars of victory
Robic Upadhayay
Every decade or so, Nepal endures upheaval, then dusts itself off—a cycle of destruction and reconstruction. But, maybe this time, the cycle will finally be broken.
The new normal
Rachel Tough
Life goes on in post-lockdown Ho Chi Minh City
Print forever
We will be back in print for our August issue. Due to current lockdown restrictions, however, print copies will be available only to subscribers. Please subscribe here.
Mekong Review in book form
