· August, 2012

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...

31 August 2012

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.

30 August 2012

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.

30 August 2012

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:...

30 August 2012

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.

29 August 2012

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...

29 August 2012

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...

29 August 2012

Chinese Style Romance

Jing Gao from Ministry of Tofu has translated a Chinese video that explains the material conditions of love relation in China.

28 August 2012

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.

28 August 2012

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.

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...

27 August 2012

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...

27 August 2012

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

25 August 2012

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,...

25 August 2012

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.