This Time
Sreehevi Iyer
Fiction: On the eve of Malaysia’s general election, Mahathir visits Anwar in hospital.
Poetry
Phung Khac Bac
Poems by Phung Khac Bac
Deadly populism
Laurel Flores Fantauzzo
Duterte’s anti-drug policy falls hardest on the weak
The local art of war
Michael Vatikiotis
Conflict and regionalism in precolonial Southeast Asia
Lansdale’s ghost
Thomas A. Bass
Resurrecting the architect of America’s Vietnam War
New Order child
Norman Erikson Pasaribu
Eka Kurniawan talks about horror, history and sexuality
Unbowed
Gareth Richards
Rare glimpses into Japan’s invasion and occupation of Singapore
Leaving America
Richard McGregor
A road trip yields insights into the rise and decline of megapowers
Survivor stories
Anjan Sundaram
Truth, fiction and the Khmer Rouge
Tunnel visions
Kishore Mahbubani
The West ignores the story of Asia’s remarkable rise at its own risk
Marginalia
Theophilus Kwek
A poem by Theophilus Kwek
Cold War monks
Camille Devries
Zealotry and conflict in Southeast Asia
Tyranny of borders
Francis Wade
How nationalism and colonial legacies shape identity and belonging
State censor
Peter Zinoman
Suppressing free speech in the social media age
Vanishing
Scott Ezell
Trading away priceless heritage
Firefly
Michael Freeman
Exploring grief and defiance in North Korea
From the shadows
Marc de Faoite
Anger, love and alienation permeate K.S. Maniam’s short stories
Being Asian
Pim Wangtechawat
Crazy Rich Asians gets beyond the stereotypes
Gaijin
Peter Tasker
Ian Buruma comes of age in Japan’s warm, wet days of low-tech chaos
Claude Jacques
Aedeen Cremin
Claude Jacques leaves his quiet legacy on Khmer history
Coming out to dance
Erin Handley
Founder of Cambodia’s first all-gay dance troupe discovers freedom in limitation
A nation’s song
Beth Yahp
Bringing forgotten Malayan music back to vibrant life
Good old bad days
Michael L. Gray
How Hanoi’s cartoonists fought hardship with humour
Forgotten Naga
Rupert Winchester
On the trail of elusive hornbills and freedom fighters in India’s tense border zone
Eating amok
Robert Carmack
Defining Cambodian cuisine has its challenges.
Ibrahim Tahir
Peter Guest
Wardah Books lies at the historic heart of Malay Singapore
My Lai
Michael Uhl
Was it the scale of the killing or the cover-up that made the My Lai massacre a scandal?
Re-reading Greene
Mai Huyen Chi
The passive Vietnamese in ‘The Quiet American’.
The journalist
Gwen Robinson
The veteran Thai journalist Kavi Chongkittavorn on the state of regional media.
Cycle of vengeance
Kosal Path
Fear of revenge explains Cambodia’s season of political repression.
Poetry
Benjamin Bartu
Poetry from Benjamin Bartu.
Turning east
Sebastian Strangio
What explains Southeast Asia’s periodic lurch to authoritarianism?
Post-1997
David Parrish
Hong Kong’s post-handover generation takes on the political system
Disobedient women
Norman Erikson Pasaribu
Intan Paramaditha subverts her country’s notions of womanhood.
The water people
Abby Seiff
Dams, climate change and overfishing are changing Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake
Finding holiness
Fahmi Mustaffa
In search of the holy in Malaysia’s many faiths and cultures.
The prison poets
Joseph Woods
The story of the poets who survived Myanmar’s military regime
A lady of distinction
John F. Hartmann
Boonlua’s classic on the Thai aristocracy is a modern-day parable.
Bagan and beyond
Aedeen Cremin
How was Bagan built and how did it become a World Heritage Site?
Daydream believers
Mark Robinson
How young and ambitious Vietnamese find themselves working in Tokyo’s convenience stores.