· December, 2006

Stories about East Asia from December, 2006

Bombs in Bangkok

  31 December 2006

It was not a good start to the new year in Bangkok as a series of bombs exploded in the city killing two people and injuring several others. From 2Bangkok's Youtube page The lost boy has pictures from one of the explosion sites At 6.45 p.m. today, less than 300...

Malaysia: Failure in Disaster Management

  30 December 2006

Opposition Malaysian politician Lim Kit Siang asks “why the authorities were caught off-guard despite the availability of sophisticated early-warning systems about the massive floods in the south of the country”. Southern states of Malaysia have seen record levels of rainfall and massive flooding in the last couple of weeks.

Malaysia: Saddam's Execution

  30 December 2006

Ktemoc comments on the execution of Saddam Hussein and calls the execution as “unnecessary” and is concerned about more violence. “The Iraqis would be better off locking up Saddam and throwing the key away.”

China: Cops and bikers

  29 December 2006

Guangzhou, China's third largest city just a few hours north of Hong Kong, is the last major city to do away with motorbikes, effective January 1, 2007, in a move aimed at tackling pollution, traffic congestion and, more seriously, the high levels of street crime for which Guangzhou and a...

Indonesia: Internet Outage and Flood in Aceh

  29 December 2006

There is nothing worse for Indonesian bloggers in particular around the new year eve but to see the sudden temporary “demise” of internet connection. The cause as reported by Budi Putra, , Sani Asy'ari and Enda Nasution is “the strong quake off Taiwan’s coast on December 26 damaged submarine cables...

Africa: “local” is the keyword

  28 December 2006

“Why not build the next eBay in Africa, then be “partnered” with for $40 million? Why not build the next PayPal, Google, YouTube or MySpace, when the success of such a venture is sure to realize millions of dollars?,” asks White African.

Malaysia: Internet Slowdown

  27 December 2006

Nik Nazmi comments on the breakdown in internet services in some parts of South East Asia and East Asia because of an earthquake in Taiwan. “When I told my colleague earlier that a website stated repair works for the cables in Taiwan may take up to three days, we were...

China: Ping…ping…pfft

  27 December 2006

The earthquake near Taiwan last night which snapped six underwater internet cables, seems to have left a large part of Asia, particularly the Northeast, struggling for an internet fix. Those with internet censorship circumvention tools (proxies) already installed on their computers seem to be doing a little better, but for...

Indonesia: Sharia Police in Aceh

  27 December 2006

Indonesia Matters looks at the latest campaign launced by Aceh's religious police against unislamic behaviour. Aceh is a province in Indonesian island of Sumatra that insists on adherence to strict islamic laws.

Vietnam: Christmas in Vietnam

  26 December 2006

Chris Harvey has pictures from a Christmas eve service in a Catholic church in Vietnam. “Many of you will be surprised to learn that Christmas in Vietnam is *huge*. And I don't mean the Vietnamese kinda sorta like it. They freaking LOVE Christmas.”

Brunei: Origins of Wedding Rituals

  25 December 2006

The Daily Brunei Resources blog traces the origin of Malay wedding custom of bunga telur. Bunga telur is the token gift presented to the guests who attend a wedding.

China: 100 Outstanding Mothers

  25 December 2006

Granite Studio comments on the recent announcement by the government on the 100 outstanding Mothers in China. The blogger notices that such practice is not new.

China: 2006 most popular Chinese word

  25 December 2006

Many Chinese bloggers are discussing the most popular Chinese word of 2006. Some of the suggestions are: Bo (as in Blogger), Gao (as in spoof) and Chao (as in argue). Gao is so far the most popular one (zh).

China: illegal church construction?

  25 December 2006

Ai Wei Wei criticizes a recent court case in Hanzhou concerning “illegal church construction”. More than a thousand people were involved in the church construction from 26-29 July 2006. On 22 of December, the court found 8 of them guilty (zh).

China: humor

  25 December 2006

One Man bandwidth looks into the differences in the western and Chinese sense of humor.

About our East Asia coverage

Oiwan Lam
Oiwan Lam is the North East Asia editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.

Mong Palatino
Mong Palatino is the South East Asia editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.