Life

Putting people at the heart of the story.

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Sep 02, 2019 • 9 min read

Thai sex work Rough trade

By Caleb Quinley • Sep 02, 2019
After years of turning a blind eye to the nation’s sex trade, Thai authorities are beginning to crack down. But advocates within the industry are calling for the government to decriminalise their work instead

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 29, 2019 • 17 min read

Indigenous rights Uprooted

By Tabitha Payne • Aug 29, 2019
Landgrabs, deforestation and an increasingly-globalised Khmer culture are encroaching deep into the lands and lore of Cambodia's indigenous Bunong people

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 23, 2019 • 15 min read

Agriculture Death in a bottle

By Andrew Haffner • Aug 23, 2019
Illegally imported pesticides can be fatal for farmers in Cambodia and across the region. And without proper training and protection, these toxins may continue to work their way into the food we eat every day

Life • STORY OF THE DAY • Aug 15, 2019 • 13 min read

West Papua Whose history?

By Evie Breese • Aug 15, 2019
Fifty years after the western part of New Guinea was incorporated into Indonesia, this event has become a battleground for competing versions of history. As the region’s next generation grows up surrounded by conflict, their struggle to speak their truth continues

Life • Aug 08, 2019 • 10 min read
Urban development

Setting the scene

As Southeast Asia's cities are modernised and gentrified, art and heritage are undergoing a form of commodification – endorsed in some cases by local political leaders
By James Springer • Aug 08, 2019

Life • Aug 02, 2019 • 14 min read
Khmer Rouge

Love in the time of genocide

Three transgender men living in secret under the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime share their stories of love, loss and betrayal
By Tabitha Payne • Aug 02, 2019

Life • Jul 29, 2019 • 7 min read
Mental illness

Walking above the Earth

As in many emerging societies, being mentally ill in Cambodia has often meant a life of rejection, isolation and gruelling psychological decline
By Stefan V. Jensen • Jul 29, 2019

FROM THE PRINT ARCHIVE
Life • Jul 26, 2019 • 13 min read
Aged care

The lost generation

Jobs are scarce in rural Cambodia, forcing hundreds of thousands of young parents to emigrate – and leave their young children in the hands of hard-pressed grandparents who get little help from the government
By Thomas Brent • Jul 26, 2019

Life • Jul 23, 2019 • 13 min read
HIV-AIDS in Indonesia

Going viral

HIV remains a serious problem in Indonesia. And as the government's anti-LGBT crackdown drives more and more people in search of answers, misinformation about the disease can prove fatal
By Evie Breese • Jul 23, 2019

Life • Jul 22, 2019 • 12 min read
HIV-AIDS

My body, this temple

From our print archive: A hospice for dying HIV-AIDS patients has found a unique way to raise funds by turning their anguish into a tourist attraction
By Andrew MacGregor Marshall • Jul 22, 2019

Life • Jul 18, 2019 • 10 min read
Poverty

Living on the edge

Scraping through the refuse of Yangon’s slums for scraps to sell, children and adults alike find themselves caught between economic crisis in the countryside and a rapidly developing city that threatens to swallow their makeshift homes
By Lorcan Lovett • Jul 18, 2019

Life • Jul 12, 2019 • 8 min read
Cambodian music

Music of the spirits

For millennia, Cambodia's pleng arak musicians have summoned up the Kingdom's countless spirits through their songs. But with more and more Cambodians turning to doctors instead of deities, will the country's sacred spirit musicians fall silent?
By Emily Howe • Jul 12, 2019