Life

Putting people at the heart of the story.

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • May 27, 2021 • 10 min read

Sport Meet Vietnam’s bobsledders, the country’s most unlikely sports team

By Govi Snell • May 27, 2021
Nguyễn Dân An has in recent years led a disparate collection of Vietnamese athletes for the country’s first bobsled team. Winning their first medals this year, the team has its sights set on the unlikely goal of becoming Vietnam's first representatives at the Winter Olympics

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • May 26, 2021 • 11 min read

History The profound legacy of Thailand’s first newspaper, The Bangkok Recorder

By Wanpen Pajai • May 26, 2021
Thailand's first newspaper The Bangkok Recorder – a little-read and short-lived publication founded by an American Christian missionary in the mid-19th century – is barely remembered today, but it left a profound mark on Thai society

Life • May 25, 2021 • 12 min read
Myanmar coup

‘The presumption is we have Covid running rampant’

Myanmar’s February 1 coup not only overturned a fragile political order, it also risked worsening a precarious public health situation in a country battling to contain Covid-19. Today, the situation remains desperately unclear for health professionals in and out the country
By Andrew Haffner • May 25, 2021

Life • May 24, 2021 • 9 min read

In Laos, schools tackle much-needed education change amid virus outbreak

Laos has long struggled with low standards among its teachers, resulting in very poor educational attainment among its youngest students. The recent Covid-19 outbreak has shuttered schools once more, pausing a much-needed shake up in the country’s approach to learning
By Christine Redmond • May 24, 2021

Life • May 18, 2021 • 4 min read
History

The evolution of Phnom Penh, as seen through maps

The capital’s growth has been centuries in the making. In this compilation sourced from libraries and other digitised collections, cartographers mapped the expansion of the city from a riverside settlement to a modern metropolis
By Andrew Haffner • May 18, 2021

Life • May 17, 2021 • 11 min read
Cuisine

How Thailand pioneered food diplomacy across the globe

Thai restaurants are up there with Indian, Chinese and Italian as among the most common worldwide. This is no accident, with Thailand a pioneer in one of the most successful and subtle soft power cultural programmes ever implemented – culinary diplomacy
By Kiana Duncan • May 17, 2021

Life • May 14, 2021 • 10 min read
Population decline

Offering cash gifts, why is Vietnam urging women to marry and bear children?

With a fast ageing population, the Vietnamese government is placing the country's economic future on women as it urges them to marry by 30 and bear two children by 35 – a move which women's rights activists have condemned as reinforcing outdated gender roles
By Govi Snell • May 14, 2021

Life • May 13, 2021 • 13 min read
Poetry

‘There are many ways to be Cambodian’: The poetry of Chath pierSath

Longing for lost childhoods and lost relatives, snatched away by war and conflict; inequality in Cambodia and the great urban-rural divide. These are just some of the themes explored by Cambodian-American author and artist Chath pierSath in his latest collection of poetry
By Chath pierSath • May 13, 2021

Life • May 10, 2021 • 9 min read
Myanmar coup

The portrait artists honouring Myanmar’s imprisoned and murdered

As violence worsens on Myanmar's streets, artists are making sure the fallen and imprisoned are known as more than just headlines. Through vibrant comics and portraits, their storytelling is bringing protesters' struggles and sacrifices to an international audience
By Kiana Duncan • May 10, 2021