Stories about East Asia from November, 2005
China: Learning Shanghainese
sinosplice helpfully assembles a list of resources for those who wish to learn Shanghainese.
North Korea, South Korea: The Submariner's Tale
oranckay recalls his encounter with a North Korean submarine navigator who had been involved in a failed 1995 infiltration attempt of South Korea. The navigator had lived on a North Korean base since the age of 14: “He didn't know what money was. He'd never needed any.”
South Korea: Rude Westerner
Jacob Jun-Gang Yoo describes witnessing a foreigner having a bad day in a Seoul McDonald's. “People are people, and when you visit their countries and act like an ass, you will be judged by the natives as a representative of that country.”
Thailand: Fangirl
Lynn of brain farts (and other inane crap) drops everything she's doing for one night. Why? Because the lead singer of a now-defunct 1990s Australian pop group is in Bangkok, that's why.
Vietnam: Hanoi Evenings
Both No Star Where and Our Man in Hanoi have written posts reminiscing about music and evenings in Hanoi. Perhaps its the autumn season (Hanoi is the northernmost Southeast Asian capital). Or perhaps because both are leaving Vietnam soon.
Cambodia: Shopping Spree
Lux Mean reveals where to go shopping for second-hand goods in Phnom Penh. Jinja covers a more ominous kind of sale: the no-bid transfers of public land to private bidders, which has already put the lands under the National University of Fine Arts and the National Theatre in private hands.
China: Bird Flu Coverage Debate
Danwei and Bingfeng Teahouse engage in a back-and-forth over an editorial in Caijing (Finance) magazine criticizing the domestic Chinese media's hesitant coverage of bird flu. Imagethief and The Peking Duck share their thoughts on the topic as well.
Indonesia: Water Woes
Jakartass discusses Jakarta's water problems — from subsidence, flooding, the lack of tap water for two-thirds of the population to the possibility of a severe water crisis in three years.
Philippines: Wrong Side Of the Tracks
Torn and frayed in Manila reacts to last week's post on Howie Severino's Sidetrip recording Severino's train ride into Manila. Hundreds of poor live along the tracks and pelt the trains with garbage. “Basically, because there is such incredible shortage of space in Manila people live wherever they can. If...
Singapore: “Just a Pretty Girl With a Blog”
Dawn Yang, a.k.a. clapbangkiss, could well be the first Singaporean blogger to find a talent agent purely on the basis of her online reputation: She is No. 1 on local site hottestblogger.com. The attention Yang has drawn surprises even the site's founder, Kahsoon. Writes Singapore's New Paper, the city-state's reigning...
On the Menu: Food Blogs from Southeast Asia!
Take one former graphic designer, a retired corporate banking and management consultant, a civil servant, a teacher, an amateur photographer, an academic and a freelance journalist. Add generous dollops of blogging software, several digital cameras, enthusiastic assistants/partners and web-hosting accounts (there are no substitutes for these ingredients). Stir them together and you get some of the best writing about Southeast Asian food this side of printed page.
Man, she's a man?
Malaysians are pondering same gender marriages. Blogger SK sympathised for the bride, who had undergone a sex change, having been born a male 30 years ago. Her marriage to an accountant is reputed to have cost RM1 million (approx. USD260k) but the main issue remains if it is a legally...
China: Bothered by the BBC
Worried that he'd be forced to focus on censorship & politics, Chinese blogger wangpei canceled an interview with the BBC on the Chinese bloggers’ conference, and feels thankful that he did. He emailed a friend in Dublin, who responded: “Overall, you need to realise that very few people in the...
China: Profiles in Courage
On the often excellent We Observe the World, two profiles of different kinds of courage: a portrait of a migrant fruit seller and a muckraking news program.
China, Taiwan: Self-Criticism
EastSouthWestNorth explains why he covers China, Taiwan and Hong Kong the way he does — why he selects the stories he translates and posts and how he approaches each geopolitical entity. The View from Taiwan responds.
Malaysia: Chinese Weddings
Anak Merdeka complains about the chore of attending local Chinese weddings.
Philippines: Bar Dues
Law professor J.J. Disini touches on the things nerve-wracked Filipino law students do and feel before their bar exam.
Vietnam: Dead Fishes
Vietnamese God notices people have been collecting the dead fish that have been appearing in Truc Bach Lake, and worries about why.
Indonesia: Dr. Azhari Captured and more about conflict in Poso
This week, on Wednesday, Indonesian law enforcement assisted by Australian intelligence finally succeeded in making sure that Dr Azhari Husin, Malaysian bomb expert associated with Jemaah Islamiyah, that was behind two bombings in Bali Australian Embassy bombing and Marriot hotel bombing in Jakarta and had killed in excess of 250 people in in the last three years will not be able to continue his career as demolition man, for any purpose.
Malaysia: Name Crisis
Kurtlow.com becomes alarmed that crisis levels may have been reached regarding ridiculous English names used by Chinese.
Japan: Analyzing the Harujuku Girls
Japundit analyzes the bizarre, somewhat disturbing posse of Japanese hipsters employed to trail American pop singer Gwen Stefani — the Harujuku Girls.
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