Mexico: Online Library of Chinese Piracy

Wave Making notes that the popular, controversial (and often offensive) blog, Pinches Chinos has celebrated its one year anniversary and takes the occasion to examine the complex feelings Mexicans have towards China. As always, the post is also available in Spanish.

Asia Blogger Profile: Cambodia’s Seserak

Seserak (Vicheth's nickname) writes the “Cambodia to Japan” blog, a journal of his experience as a Cambodian living and going to school in Japan. He grew up in Kampong Speu Province, located an hour's drive outside of Phnom Penh. After graduating from a local high school, he came to study...

China: More Crackdowns

Danwei summarizes the recent crackdowns on print publications in China that characterized the end of the Year of the Rooster. But there is a note of hope: “Yet as we enter the Year of the Dog, things are very different than they were even a year ago. The Internet has...

Indonesia: Deaf Driving

Indonesia Anonymous becomes curious about what effects the loud noise Indonesia's motorcycle rickshaws, a.k.a. “bajaj,” have on their drivers. It's called “noise-induced hearing loss.”

Japan: Jellyfish vs. Whale

Mutant Frog Travelogue suggests that rather than hunt whales, Japan ought to focus on snaring jellyfish which have been multiplying in its waters.

Japan, Korea: Grateful Colonies

Oranckay rebuts an article in the Japan Times that argues, among other things, that Japanese colonial rule benefited Korea. “It’s one thing to know that mentioning “Japan’s contribution to Korea’s modernization… only creates anger in Korea,” but it’s another to understand that one of the reasons it angers Koreans so...

Philippines: Rent Control

Another Hundred Years Hence, a blog by an urban planner, blames artificially low rents for the degeneration of the Philippines’ capital city: “Want to know why Metro Manila is in a state of disrepair? Five decades of rent control. Want to know why we have squatter colonies? Rent control. Want...

Taiwan: What's in a Name?

Pinyin News puzzles over — at length — the mystery of the ‘g’ in famous Taiwan director Ang Lee's name, which seems to be properly romanized as “An.” A commenter provides one answer: An Li or Li An sounded too feminine to him.

Tet in Viet Nam

China: Behind the Scenes

EastSouthWestNorth translates an article written last year about Chinese director Chen Kaige's expensive historical epic The Promise, which was scheduled to open before Lunar New Year this year. Like many epics filmed in China these days, the story occurs in a ravishingly beautiful natural setting — in this case, Shangri-La...

Indonesia: Property Rights

Aco at Cafe Salemba discusses property rights as a way to comment on the current controversy in Indonesia over a local version of Playboy. The economist-blogger suggests that the magazine's opponents, rather than demonstrating, apply an economic solution: buy the magazine, and then burn it.

Japan, Taiwan: Cute Culture

An article about Japan's cultural obsession with cute things leads the leaky pen to write on Taiwan's own version of “cute culture.”

Korea: Singing Rain

The Asia Pages is mystified about the apparent rising popularity of South Korean pop singer “Rain” in the United States.

Philippines: PCIJ's Plagiarism

The problem of people packaging content created by bloggers for profit is becoming a serious one. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) published and sold a book lifting comics drawn by blogger Happy Vergara. Happy asked another blogger, the Sassy Lawyer, for advice. PCIJ apologized (but not on its...

Singapore: Baby Makers

Illusio discusses the release of the official figures for the 2005 birth rate in Singapore. It increased slightly above 1% — a big deal for the country, which has experienced declining birth rates in recent years.

Malaysia: Happy Chinese New Year

Yesterday was the start of the Year of the Dog based on the Chinese lunar calendar and it's also one of the major celebration in Malaysia. During the Chinese New Year eve, reunion dinner is a must, such as blogger Passion Flower, who is very excited to celebrate Chinese New...

Indonesia is discussing about blog

Discussion about Indonesian Blogs, attended by about 20 bloggers, only a fraction of the total estimated 10,000 Indonesian bloggers, the discussion take placed at Detikinet's office

The Year of the Dog Comes to the Rest of East Asia

“Da Hong Deng Long” (Big Red Lantern) by Yining Zhang Blogs all around East and Southeast Asia have gone grey this past weekend as many, particularly those in the overseas Chinese community, celebrate the Lunar New Year. As part of Global Voices Online's continuing celebration of the arrival of the...

We Love Cooking!

#1: All Indian food does NOT taste the same! From the UK, We all live downstream explains this popular belief that find its roots in the lack of adventurous spirit of some when executing this natural, vital and recurrent activity. What kind of Indian food do you get when you...

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year

Today is the Chinese Lunar New Year‘s eve, which are regarded as the most important festival in China and mark the beginning of a year with warm spring coming, so it's also called Spring Festival. We are blogging and aggregating on the what Chinese Blogger are celebrating the evening, with...

Singapore: “Cheering” Conservatism

Heavenly Sword “sings” the praises of a conservative Singapore. “What I want to say is really this: that Singapore will always be conservative. And the proxy that I have used in this short essay is the censorship of expressions of sexuality. Sex, lust, and liberal attitudes must not be tolerated...