True believer
Carlyle A. Thayer
Bui Tin (1927–2018) fought against the French, the Americans and, in the end, his Communist comrades
Tag: Free to read
Cubes of Heaven
Mark Robinson
Japan’s kintsuba sweetshops blend informal spontaneity with old-world elegance
Nostalgia for Ayutthaya
Pim Wangtechawat
It has been fashionable for Thais to visit the old capital Ayutthaya
Hanoi after the war
John Ramsden
The Vietnam of 1981 was a very different place
Looking for Bao Ninh
Michael Karnavas
In 1994, Michael Karnavas went in search of the great Vietnamese writer
Farewell, sweet sodomy
Ann Lee
A generation of Malaysians have grown up on a rotten law
Curb your enthusiasm
Hun Sen's Eye
Don’t fall prey to dangerous, undemocratic and possibly traitorous pessimism!
Roh Hoe-chan (1956–2018)
Geoffrey Cain
Roh Hoe-chan campaigned stoically against corruption
Ramen dreams
Mark Robinson
Finding a daytime high in a perfect bowl of hot noodles
Stationed in Myanmar
Nick Freeman
Over 860 stations operate on what’s now known as the Myanmar Railways network
Vote early, vote often
Hun Sen's Eye
As Cambodia goes to the polls, here are seven surefire tips for a fun-filled election day.
Four generations
Sharon W.H. Ling
A family scattered by politics
Covering Up Violence
Pim Wangtechawat
The #DontTellMeHowDress exhibition challenges Thai attitudes to gender violence.
Gilgit-Baltistan
Kit Yeng Chan
Pakistan’s mountainous north
Contami-Nation
Parthiban Muniandy
The impurity of blended cultures is what makes Malaysian food — and society — unique.
Fried and fabulous
Pim Wangtechawat
Aharn sin kid— “the meal we fall back on when we can’t think of anything else to eat.”
Return to the Archetype
Hassan Abd Muthalib
Malaysia’s electoral narrative conforms to a universal storyline.
Up-market
Nick Freeman
Once the beating heart of commerce in Myanmar, wet markets are under threat
Street artistry
John Ramsden
Bùi Xuân Phái, perhaps the artist of his generation, struggled for acceptance and paint in Vietnam.
Walking the talk
Marina Mahathir
Malaysia’s opposition delivered a startling victory in May’s elections by going house-to-house.
The new bogeyman
Marina Tan
Perversely, vanquishing an old enemy in Malaysia could make it harder to create art.
Nose to tail
Philip Cornwel-Smith
Tripe to trotters, brains to balls—Bangkok is learning to love the whole pig
Kicking off
Pim Wangtechawat
Despite the corruption and commercialism, it’s hard not to cheer for someone at the World Cup.
Waiting for Kim
Peter Guest
When Kim Jong-un met Donald Trump in Singapore
Peace at last
Rupert Winchester
What meeting of minds awaits at the denuclearisation summit in Sentosa
Eating passionately
Liam R. Greenwell
A tribute to the late travel writer, chef and broadcaster Anthony Bourdain.
Coming home
Mohan Ambikaipaker
Returning to Malaysia on the eve of an historic election
Remembering Jerry
James Newport
Rock ‘n’ roll biographer and raconteur Jerry Hopkins passes away, aged 82.
Mourning in victory
Preeta Samarasan
For 60 years, racial politics demarcated Malaysian society
Enough
Carl Vadivella Belle
Lim Teck Ghee saw how Malaysia’s political status quo would end
Teenage kicks
Pim Wangtechawat
TV drama Hormones captures the daunting complexities of being a Thai teenager
In states unborn
Theophilus Kwek
Southeast Asia’s febrile political environment is a fitting backdrop for a staging of Julius Caesar.
Poetry of Darkness
David Scott Mathieson
Maung Day’s exhibition Complicit is a bleak reflection of Myanmar’s troubled society
New coins, no change
Geoffrey Cain
The on-again, off-again Trump-Kim summit shows that with Pyongyang you always need a plan B.
Malaysia’s morning breaks
Pauline Fan
How would opposition firebrand Fan Yew Teng have greeted Malaysia’s political earthquake?
Lonely Seoul
Peter Guest
A lone figure walks Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon waterway
The people tsunami
Mohd Izzuddin Ramli
Malaysians have discovered that through their votes they can shape their country’s future.
Liquid Bangkok
Tim Pelling
Liquid Bangkok sets out to capture the beauty of a neglected world
Mahathir: Renaissance man
Ooi Kee Beng
Mahathir Mohamad’s return gives him an opportunity to address his sins to the nation, and to Anwar Ibrahim.
The RAHMAN prophecy
Bettina Chua Abdullah
In the afterglow of an astonishing election, Bettina Chua Abdullah ponders Malaysia’s coming-of-age.