White snow, silver moon
Ngan Nguyen
A short story by Ngan Nguyen
Passport renewed
Benjamin Zawacki
Yo and Noom choose their books, in English and Thai, with care and purpose to ensure that Passport Bookshop has a clear identity and its patrons a quality read.
Reading Ma Sandar in Chiang Mai
Joe Freeman
It is especially important to pay attention to Myanmar right now, but the future of Burmese-language instruction in English is uncertain. Joe Freeman speaks with linguist Justin Watkins about his work.
Holding the line
Kirsten Han
It was hoped that social media would facilitate democracy. Today, we worry about misinformation polarising society and undermining democracy.
A professional amateur
Brendan Ryan
It’s hard to pin down exactly how to describe Đinh Nhung and what she does. Her work has spanned art installations, photography, curation and the compilation of lexicons of queerness in Vietnam.
Inshallah
Abhishek Mehrotra
Hindu-Muslim relations are worsening across India. There have been no rumblings of communal strife in Kadayanallur yet, but news from elsewhere creates ripples of anxiety and worry.
Conservation stories
Wayne McCallum
Lifting the stone on ‘Big Conservation’, Sarah Milne’s book demonstrates how conservation is inherently political—an effort to impose meaning on to landscape and people.
The dog days of Burma
Daniel Benowitz
When Oliver Slow writes that the Myanmar military must return to the barracks, he presumably means they should only be in the barracks. Readers may wonder if they were ever so confined.
Dictatorial power
Martin Laflamme
Chiang Kai-shek might have put in place measures that eventually led to Taiwan’s economic miracle, but political freedom for the Taiwanese was the last thing on his mind.
Operation Corporate
Salil Tripathi
What Philip J. Stern offers is a reflection on the nature of power—how organisations created to share risks and raise capital for economic activities ended up becoming a dominant force.
The road to Muse
Bryony Lau
What happens in a border town when the border is closed? Bryony Lau travels to Muse in Myanmar’s northeast and reflects on its history and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Observations of an American diplomat
Chong Ja Ian
Scot Marciel spent most of his time in service focused on one region. In Imperfect Partners, he brings readers through the evolution of US involvement and interest in Southeast Asia from Reagan through Trump.
Righting wrongs
Patrick Poon
Personal testimonies are always more powerful than hypothetical discussions, and Elaine Pearson’s extensive experience in investigating human rights abuses and advocating for positive changes serves as a practitioner’s handbook.
No fragile flowers, these
Christina Cook
Fiona Sze-Lorrain’s novel Dear Chrysanthemums offers a provocative look at the defining events of the past half-century of Chinese history.
Unforgettable blood
Muyesser Abdul’ehed
Unable to write openly about repression, Uyghur writer Perhat Tursun resorted to symbolism, invoking visceral descriptions in his novel The Backstreets to convey a sense of disconnect and despair.
Transcendental fanaticism
Tamar Herman
Esther Yi’s debut novel grapples with social disconnectivity and fanaticism through an esoteric tale of a woman who falls desperately for a K-pop star and goes on a journey to integrate him into her life.
Merantau
Daryl Qilin Yam
Queer Southeast Asia provides a multifaceted mosaic of the region, stretching for all to see the complexities that will always simmer beneath the volume’s name.
The Bamboo Rat Farmer
Katrina Yu
A short story by Katrina Yu.
Writing about depression
Tanmoy Goswami
Baek Sehee writes: “The world tends to focus too much on the very bright or the very dark.” She steers clear of both extremes in her book. For this alone, it merits attention.
Ghosts of a red Ferrari
Yangyang Cheng
More than a conventional detective story, The Soul of Beijing unfolds into a vivid portrayal of the bustling metropolis, filled with colourful characters from all walks of life.
Bombays of the mind
Radhika Oberoi
It is impossible to mention Mumbai without alluding to its former name, Bombay. Radhika Oberoi reflects on reading Salman Rushdie’s writing about the city.
Weaving memories
Florence Kuek
The publication of The Age of Goodbyes—the English translation of the award-winning novel by Li Zi Shu—was a celebrated event, eagerly awaited by connoisseurs and enthusiasts of Malaysian Chinese literature.
An upland fable for ailing times
Marco Ferrarese
In Melody Kemp’s debut novel, Tree Crime, a young Lao teenager turns detective as a deadly virus circulates in her village. Marco Ferrarese reviews a story about the costs of ‘progress’ at the expense of natural ecosystems.
The Claim
Akiya
A short story by Akiya, translated by Adriana Nordin Manan.
The play of power
Pauline Fan
Mak Yong encompasses elements of dance, drama, storytelling, music and ritual, and is a women-centred folk tradition nurtured by community bonds.
In Search of Poetry
Zakariya Amataya
Poetry by Zakariya Amataya, translated by Preeyaporn Charoenbutra and Sunida Supantamart.
To the left
Erin Hale
‘Tò-uat’ means ‘turn left’ in Taiwanese Hokkien—a signal of political orientation rather than literal direction—and the bookstore’s website describes itself as “Taiwan’s only social movement–focused bookstore”.
Caught in between
Rosalie Metro
While the Myanmar military is responsible for the violence, Kaamil Ahmed points out in I Feel No Peace: Rohingya Fleeing Over Seas and Rivers that more parties are complicit in the exploitation and abuse of Rohingya refugees.
The Aremania’s heartbreak
Bayu Dwityo Wicaksono and Faiz Nashrillah
On 1 October 2022, 135 people lost their lives at Kanjuruhan Stadium in Malang, Indonesia, after police officers fired tear gas to disperse football fans. Bayu Dwityo Wicaksono and Faiz Nashrillah speak to a bereaved father and a survivor of the stadium crush.
Stating the obvious
Seulki Lee
Seulki Lee talks to Raphael Rashid about identity, belonging, and the things that people don’t want to acknowledge or discuss in South Korea.
Life’s choices
Kevin Yam
Murong Xuecun fled China after writing his book Deadly Quiet City: Stories from Wuhan, COVID’s Ground Zero. Today, he’s living in exile in Australia. It was never obvious that his life would go on such a trajectory. Kevin Yam chats to him about his writing and his choices.
Identity on Huaxin Street
Liang Liang
The neighbourhood around Huaxin Street in Taipei is known as Little Burma. Multiple generations have sunk their roots into this neighbourhood. It’s not a question of assimilation, but a mix of everything to create a new and complex political identity.
Personal embodiments
Will Nguyen
Through his maternal grandfather’s life and his own experiences, Will Nguyen reflects on how personal stories are documented in Vietnam, and the relationship between the diaspora and mainland Vietnamese.
China’s sharp power
Richard Heydarian
While his predecessors chose to downplay China’s power, Xi Jinping has led an overhaul of China’s domestic political landscape and foreign policy. A review of Beijing’s Global Media Offensive: China’s Uneven Campaign to Influence Asia and the World by Joshua Kurlantzick.
Engineering away dissent
Nicholas Yong
What can a government achieve when given maximum access to public data? Josh Chin and Liza Lin of the Wall Street Journal do a deep dive into the impact of China’s panopticon in Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control.
Choosing family
Lam Le
The ‘white saviour’ narrative is a common trope in transnational adoptions. In Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family, Erika Hayasaki tells the story of three Vietnamese adoptees, and unpacks dominant assumptions about power, privilege and the meaning of family.
Leaving a mark
Teeranai Charuvastra
Some might dismiss graffiti as “rubbish”, but street art can tell a story about a city’s history, politics and culture. A review of Bangkok Street Art and Graffiti: Hope Full, Hope Less, Hope Well by Rupert Mann.
Who is Auntie?
Kirsten Han
In Ajoomma, a Singaporean-South Korean co-production directed by He Shuming, an auntie travels to South Korea to visit the shooting locations of her favourite K-dramas… but gets far more than she’d bargained for.
Political tech
Peter Tasker
The world uses a staggering amount of processor chips every year. The semiconductor industry is therefore not just a big deal in trade and commerce, but also in geopolitics. A review of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller.