Stories about East Asia from August, 2012
Portuguese, a Global Language?
A community page on Facebook, Língua Portuguesa: Uma Língua Global? (Portuguese Language: A Global Language?) [pt], provides a diversity of materials to promote the debate about the expansion of Portuguese language and its consequences. Several critical issues on the policies of this language of around 200 million speakers are addressed,...
Philippines: Facebook Photos Removed for International Day of the Disappeared
'Please take down your profile picture on August 30, Thursday, in solidarity with the friends and family of the missing, from the Martial Law days up to the present, who continue to seek justice.'
Thai MP Advice for Women to Marry Foreigners Stirs Controversy
Get a German husband. Get a Swedish husband. Get a Norwegian husband…All you need is a farang husband and their government will pay you to study. This was the advice of a Thai politician to poor women in Thailand. But the controversial statement was taken out of context, according to...
Controversial Tibet Theme Park Project Launched
Tibetan dissidents have described the USD 4.7 billion Chinese project as the “Disneyfication of Tibet.“ The park will first be used to shoot 'Princess Wencheng', a film about the niece of a Tang-dynasty emperor who married a Tibetan king.
Tracking Counterfeit Medicines in the Developing World
Some 700,000 people die annually from fake malaria and tuberculosis drugs alone. The WHO reports that the annual earnings from substandard or counterfeit drugs stand at about USD 200 billion. More important than its economic impact, counterfeit medicines pose a significant global public health problem.
Chinese Weapons Flooding Africa
Deborah Brautigam from China in Africa provided more background information about the importation of Chinese Weapons in African countries and explained the incentive of arms sale is from private sector: As we saw in the notorious Libya case, it appears that Chinese companies with their own balance sheets are “going...
South Korea: K-Pop Video ‘Gangnam Style’ Goes Viral Internationally
South Korean singer Psy's tune 'Gangnam Style' has gone viral internationally, with its YouTube video surpassing 70 million hits as of today. This has got many Koreans talking and the scope of such discussions vary from simple praise of Psy's success, reviews of his marketing and social media strategies, to a more detailed analysis of Koreans' deep-seated insecurity about their country.
Vietnam: Gay Marriage and Human Rights
The proposal should be cautiously welcomed as a progressive move which grants equality and official acceptance to members of society who have not felt the benefit of these statuses before Matthew Parsfield believes that the news that Vietnam could soon become the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage should...
Myanmar: Reshuffling the Cabinet
In a bold move, Myanmar President Thein Sein reshuffled[my] his cabinet by appointing non-army officers and removing controversial ministers. Among those replaced included the Minister of the Ministry of Electric Power who was criticized for the electricity shortage last summer and the Minister of the Ministry of Information who is...
Thailand: Police Collect Wedding Fees from Myanmar Workers
Htoo Chit wrote [my] about the illegal wedding fees collected by Thai police from Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand.
Thailand: Petition to Stop Mae Wong Dam
Please stop this crazy dam project and help maintain valuable tiger habitat in Mae Wong National Park. The statement is from a petition urging the Thailand government to stop the Mae Wong dam project in order to protect a critical tiger habitat
Maritime Row with China Forces Philippines to Upgrade Defenses
The tension in the South China Sea has forced the Philippines to review its defense capabilities. In particular its maritime dispute with China boosted the demand to upgrade the country’s military forces. Is this good or bad for the stability of the region?
East Timor: Return Trip of an Indonesian
Dalih Sembiring, an Indonesian journalist and travel blogger, wrote “Postcards from Dili“, on a trip he did to East Timor 16 years after he left the country. On his post he republishes an article he wrote for the Jakarta Globe “focusing on how [he] reacquainted with a special person in Bairro...
Chinese Style Romance
Jing Gao from Ministry of Tofu has translated a Chinese video that explains the material conditions of love relation in China.
China: Editor's Suicide Prompts Reflection, Reproach
Xu Huaiqian, the chief editor of the People’s Daily‘s “Earth” supplement committed suicide last week on 22 of August, 2012. He once said during his lifetime that what pained him was that what he dared to think he dared not say, what he dared to say he dared not write,...
Taiwan: ‘National Health Insurance’ System in Crisis
The National Health Insurance system in Taiwan is quite often used as a model for reform in countries where health care depends on private insurance system. Yet, the inconvenient truth unknown to the outside world is that, the seemingly efficient health care system is built upon the exploitation of medical personnel.
Hong Kong: Occupy Central – Before Forced Eviction
The Occupy Central campaign in Hong Kong has lasted for more than 10 months and is probably one of the longest among the worldwide occupy movement. Recently the HSBC obtained a court order to evict the occupants by 9 pm, 27 August, 2012.
China: Collapsed Highway In Harbin
On August 24, 2012, a highway suddenly collapsed and killed three people in Harbin, Heilongjiang province. Acitizen journalist video backed up and translated by Beijing Cream at Youtube shows what the disaster scene looked like.
China: Neil Bush on Sina Weibo
Former U.S president's brother Neil Bush has a Sina Weibo account with more than 120 thousand followers. His recent joke about joining the Chinese Communist Party has caught some attention in Chinese social media. (via Beijing Cream)
Philippines: List of National Roads
The Philippine government has uploaded a spreadsheet identifying the quality of the country's national roads. It's also a mechanism for citizens to report and monitor badly paved roads
Myanmar: Mizzima Website Hacked
“We regret to inform you that Mizzima’s websites have come under DDoS attack. Mizzima has received several threats in reference to our coverage of ongoing hostilities in Rakhine State.” Mizzima, a Myanmar independent media website, issued a statement about the DDoS attacks.
About our East Asia coverage
Oiwan Lam is the North East Asia editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
Nevin Thompson is the Japan editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.
