Re-reading Greene
Mai Huyen Chi
The passive Vietnamese in ‘The Quiet American’.
Category: Southeast Asia
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.
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?
Line and content
Craig Thomas
The art of pushing political boundaries but never stepping over them in Vietnam.
Rock ’n’ roll damnation
Marco Ferrarese
Southeast Asian heavy metal rockers unmasked.
The homeless
Greg Constantine
For decades, the Rohingya have languished along the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf highway.
Letters
Michael G. Karnavas, J.D. Wright
Readers on Liam Kelley’s review of Ben Kiernan and Peera Songkünnatham’s review of Thanya Sangkhaphanthanon.
Monsieur Angkor
Aedeen Cremin
Scholar, author and gentle giant Claude Jacques has passed away.
China calling
David Eimer
Can Aung San Suu Kyi resist China’s influence? The generals before her couldn’t
Facing the end
Jodie DeJonge
The inside account of the final days of the Cambodia Daily.
The blogger
John Fuller
Blogger Nguyen Chi Tuyen says he’s ready to sacrifice his life for freedom.
A broken state
Sean Gleeson
The recent violence against the Rohingya continues a systemic attempt to strip them of their right to exist in Myanmar.
River politics
Andrew Wells-Dang
Can anything be done to stop the rush of hydroelectric dams being built on the Mekong?
Starfall
ko ko thett
Lynn Moe Swe, the celebrated poet from Monywa who passed away in September.
Reformasi, remembered
Kean Wong
Before the rise of conservative Islam in Malaysia, there was reformasi
The Tribunal
Alexander Hinton
Putting the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in the dock.
An earful
Peera Songkünnatham
How a poem about Yingluck Shinawatra’s ear shines a light on the patriarchal culture embedded in Thai folk tales.
Lost in translation
Liam Kelley
Ben Kiernan’s history of Vietnam gets lost in translation
Pulp horror
Tiffany Tsao
How Western reviewers missed the point of Eka Kurniawan’s latest work.
Fall for Saigon
Connla Stokes
Can Ho Chi Minh City survive the drive to transform it into little Singapore?
Drawing Charlie Chan
Calvin Godfrey
The genius behind Charlie Chan Hock Chye.
White out
Pim Wangtechawat
Think Hollywood whitewashing is just about representation and diversity?
Riding the bamboo
Brent Crane
In the north-west of Cambodia, a foreigner finds his home.
Yellow music
Cuong Pham
Pre-’75 Saigon music is popular among young Vietnamese.
Heroes of Tet
Michael Dedrick
Fifty years ago, these soldiers launched the most audacious military campaigns of the Vietnam War.
Aubade with burning city
Ocean Vuong
He fills a teacup with champagne, brings it to her lips.
Light as air
Michelle Vachon
I was warned about interviewing Cambodia’s greatest architect, Vann Molyvann.
America’s amnesia
Thomas A. Bass
Why the US can’t make an honest film about the war it lost
Formosakill
Calvin Godfrey
When Formosa couldn’t build its steel plant in Taiwan, it turned to Vietnam.
Cause and karma
Amy Doffegnies
Before he was arrested, Ko Swe Win was already a target.
The past isn’t past
Sebastian Strangio
Why America should forgive Cambodia’s war debt.
Poetry
Moe Way, Maung Shin Saw, Maung Sein Win
The latest in verse from around the Mekong region
Deep south
Abby Seiff
Amid the sectarian violence, life in Thailand’s troubled south resembles life everywhere else.