Culture

Culture • STORY OF THE DAY • Sep 03, 2020 • 7 min read

History How colonial prisons gave life to a communist revolution in Vietnam

By Ashley Lampard • Sep 03, 2020
As a look back in history for the 75th anniversary of Vietnamese independence, the Globe reflects on how prisons became a symbol for colonial oppression, a breeding ground for communism, and ultimately gave life to the 1945 August Revolution

Culture • STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 21, 2020 • 10 min read

History Not settling for less: Anti-opium movements in the Straits Settlements

By Wanpen Pajai • Aug 21, 2020
While opium addiction emerged as a region-wide scourge in the 19th century, abolitionists in the small British colony of the Straits Settlements took on the imperial government and played an instrumental role in bringing about a worldwide ban

Culture • STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 20, 2020 • 8 min read

Photography [Photos] Celebrating Vietnam’s ethnic minorities through portraiture

By Andrew Wernette • Aug 20, 2020
With 54 registered minority groups, Vietnam is a land of immense cultural diversity. Photographer Alden Anderson and his Vietnamese partner Trinh Nguyen have set out to capture this heterogeneity, traversing the country to capture portraits of each group

Culture • Aug 19, 2020 • 13 min read
History

Witnessing tragedy: Journalist Jon Swain revisits 1970s Phnom Penh

With Jon Swain’s cult memoir River of Time set to be adapted for the big screen, the author returns to his time in 1970s Indochina, where he witnessed death and destruction in Vietnam, the Fall of Phnom Penh and the rise of the Khmer Rouge
By Alexi Demetriadi • Aug 19, 2020

Culture • Aug 18, 2020 • 6 min read
Cinema

Region’s filmmakers offer their visions of the Mekong river in 2030

With the Mekong river under assault from climate change and damming, five of the Greater Mekong Subregion's filmmakers are offering their visions of what the lifeblood of Southeast Asia, and the communities that rely on it, will look like in a decades' time
By Ashley Lampard • Aug 18, 2020

Culture • Aug 18, 2020 • 5 min read
Thailand inequality

The teens bridging Thailand’s wealth chasm with everyday human stories

Tales of Thailand, a new student-led platform, is aiming to build bridges over Thailand’s wealth chasm and raise awareness among the kingdom's youth by shining a light on the struggles of everyday Thais
By Tara Abhasakun • Aug 18, 2020

Culture • Aug 17, 2020 • 2 min read
Vietnam history

[Photos] Feel the pulse of a fast-changing Vietnam in the 1990s

Spurred on by rapid economic growth, Vietnam has been one of the fastest evolving nations on earth by virtually every metric for decades. This collection of photos from the 90s, showing a country markedly different from today's Vietnam, lays testament to that
By Saigoneer • Aug 17, 2020

Culture • Aug 17, 2020 • 13 min read
Myanmar history

The enduring legacy of Karen revolutionary leader Saw Ba U Gyi

The history and legacy of revolutionary leader Saw Ba U Gyi is little-known outside, or inside, Myanmar. But 70 years since his death, the fight first forged by the beret-wearing father of the Karen nationalist movement continues on
By Oliver Slow • Aug 17, 2020

Culture • Aug 07, 2020 • 8 min read
Beer

The art of the brew: The story behind Cambodia’s first nanobrewery

Flowers Nanobrewery isn’t trying to break the Angkor monopoly on the Cambodian beer market, but the one-man, Japanese-run nanobrewery in Kampot is trying to preserve its distinct craft beer creations and identity
By Alexi Demetriadi • Aug 07, 2020

Culture • Aug 06, 2020 • 8 min read
Language

Saving the Malay Peninsula’s centuries-old Portuguese creole

On the Malay Peninsula, a small community of Portuguese creole speakers survives almost four centuries since the southern Europeans were expelled from the region. On the brink of extinction, there are people working to preserve this rare language and culture
By Lee Ying Shan • Aug 06, 2020

Culture • Aug 03, 2020 • 5 min read
Editorial

Vann Molyvann’s house is up for sale – but should it be a heritage site?

With the former Phnom Penh home of visionary Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann on the market, its potential sale to private investors provides few guarantees over its preservation as a Cambodian cultural artefact and heritage site
By Alastair McCready • Aug 03, 2020