· July, 2013

Stories about Arts & Culture from July, 2013

An Undeniably Racist Song, ‘Asian Girlz’ Sparks Controversy

  31 July 2013

Packed with Asian stereotypes and fetishes, song ‘Asian Girlz’ by ‘Day Above Ground’ has invited controversy and angry comments. Blogger Angry Asian Man typed down the entire lyrics to comment [if they have not] ‘run out of stereotypical Oriental stuff to list off, the song would have gone on for another ten minutes”. The...

Top Ten Eateries In Dhaka Town

  30 July 2013

Expat Mikkela Thompson completed her goal of trying 100 eateries in Dhaka in 18 months. She compiles a list of top ten restaurants in the Bangladesh capital in her blog M's Adventures.

An English Written Chinese Classical Couplet

  30 July 2013

Chinese couplet is a kind of classical poetry written in two lines, which are corresponding to each other in length as well as syntactic and semantic properties. As the couplet can be pasted to the entrance of a house, sometimes a short extra line, horizontal line to be pasted in...

In Egypt, Young Men “Die for Nothing”

Egyptian blogger Zeinobia shares photographs and a video of an 18-year-old revolutionary artist Eissa Essam. Essam was killed during clashes on July 26 with Muslim Brotherhood supporters camped in the Rabaa Al Adawiya neighbourhood in Nasr City. Zeinobia describes Essam as the liberal son of an MB member, who was...

African Fabric Kimono Belt Supports Mothers in Earthquake Disaster Area

  25 July 2013

A group of Japanese mothers in Sendai city is producing special kimono belts with fairly-traded African fabrics. Yumi Nakano, who organizes the fundraising [ja] by requesting a donation in exchange for the belts, hopes to encourage more people to enjoy the traditional Japanese kimono and help support the mothers of the...

VIDEO: Historic Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque Bombed in Syria

Protect Syrian Archaeology posted photographs on its Facebook page [en, ar] and videos on YouTube, recording the moment the historic Khalid ibn al-Walid mosque (7th century) was bombed in Homs, Syria. Homs – Results of the bombing of Khalid ibn al-Walid mosque#حمص – أثار القصف الذي تعرض له مسجد الصحابي خالد بن الوليد” This 5-minute video takes you inside...

The Beautiful “Country” of Africa

  16 July 2013

In this week's edition of the Kenyan online magazine Brainstorm, Brenda Wambui rails against the ongoing narratives about Africa: “Africa is a country”, “Africa rising”, ‘”African fashion”. She looks at ways Kenyans can reclaim their story and define themselves on their own terms: As Kenya, or any other country, we...

Punish the Unmarried in China?

  15 July 2013

Starting from July 1, 2013 China put into effect a new filial piety law, requiring grown children to visit their parents “frequently”. In reaction to the law, an elderly suggested to punish the unmarried one: My kids shouldn't be treated as a violator of any law if they don’t visit...

Korean Culture to Blame in Asiana Crash?

  10 July 2013

As more details are coming out about the Asiana Airlines plane crash which claimed two lives and injured 181 passengers, Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller ‘Outliers’ has been widely quoted in articles and online venues. The book points Korea's hierarchical culture as the main contributing factor of the 1997 Korean Airlines Plane Crash at Guam airport. The Marmots Hole...

Indian Blogger Forced To Delete Post

  10 July 2013

Prasant Naidu at Lighthouse Insights reports that film critic, journalist and blogger Soumyadipta Banerjee was apparently forced to delete a recent blogpost. He wrote a post at his BollywoodJournalist blog describing the life and death of Constable Ravindra Patil, the only eye witness in Bollywood actor Salman Khan’s famous 2002...