https://www.scmp.com/rss/328579/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com This is the third and final piece in a series of stories on image-based abuse supported by the Judith Neilson Institute’s Asian Stories project, in collaboration with The Korea Times, Indonesia’s Tempo magazine, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and Manila-based ABS-CBN. Elyssa Lopez, Neil Servallos and Sonia Sarkar contributed reporting. The piece contains descriptions of a sexual nature. This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/3136544/lust-and-money-when-online-sexual-encounters-end-despair-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/3136544/lust-and-money-when-online-sexual-encounters-end-despair-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Jun 2021 00:30:00 +0000 This is the second in a series of stories on image-based abuse supported by the Judith Neilson Institute’s Asian Stories project, in collaboration with The Korea Times, Indonesia’s Tempo magazine, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and Manila-based ABS-CBN. Sonia Sarkar, Tashny Sukumaran and Lee Min-young contributed reporting. The piece contains descriptions of a sexual nature. This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/3135803/abuse-and-anger-inside-online-groups-spreading-stolen-sexual?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/3135803/abuse-and-anger-inside-online-groups-spreading-stolen-sexual?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Jun 2021 01:30:06 +0000 This is the first in a series of stories on image-based abuse supported by the Judith Neilson Institute’s Asian Stories project, in collaboration with The Korea Times, Indonesia’s Tempo magazine, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and Manila-based ABS-CBN. Cat Thomas, Yon Sineat and Kong Meta contributed reporting. The piece contains descriptions of a sexual nature. This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/3134719/porn-privacy-and-pain-how-image-based-abuse-tears-womens-lives?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/3134719/porn-privacy-and-pain-how-image-based-abuse-tears-womens-lives?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 May 2021 01:30:18 +0000 In the winter of 1962, panic gripped India’s northeastern state of Assam. A border war had broken out with China, and a victorious Chinese army was marching towards Assam as India’s defences crumbled. People began to flee amid reports that government offices were destroying documents and closing shop in fear of the coming Chinese invasion. Feeding the panic, a state-owned bank was found burning its stock of cash to prevent it from falling into Chinese hands, and a district administrator... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3024155/assam-edge-indias-rohingya-moment-threatens-millions-modis-hindu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3024155/assam-edge-indias-rohingya-moment-threatens-millions-modis-hindu?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Aug 2019 12:42:53 +0000 Temperatures are rising, tensions are boiling over, and the city’s leaders are feeling the heat of the worst political unrest since Britain handed back its colonial jewel to China more than 20 years ago. Now, it seems, is the summer of Hong Kong’s discontent. Since an estimated 2 million-plus people – more than a quarter of the city’s population – took to the streets last month to oppose a bill that would allow for extraditions to territories the city does not currently have agreements with,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3018433/extradition-protests-what-hong-kongs-history-riots-can-teach?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3018433/extradition-protests-what-hong-kongs-history-riots-can-teach?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Jul 2019 00:15:08 +0000 David Wong has spent more nights sleeping outside the Hong Kong legislature in recent weeks than he has in his soft, cosy bed at home. Wong, 24, is among the more dedicated of the protesters demanding the government abandon a bill that would allow for extraditions to mainland China and other places the city does not currently have agreements with. He has spent days on end at the makeshift camps outside the legislature that are the protesters’ de facto headquarters, handing out supplies like... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3017501/what-next-hong-kongs-extradition-bill-protesters?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3017501/what-next-hong-kongs-extradition-bill-protesters?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Jul 2019 00:15:29 +0000 The fight to save snow leopards in Mongolia was never going to be easy – not when it involved taking on mining companies, the backbone of the country’s most powerful industry. It was a long road, one that saw a suspicious death, efforts to convince rural communities that the snow leopard was not their enemy, and the creation of a massive new national park, but Bayarjargal Agvaantseren got there in the end. The snow leopard is as renowned for its beauty as for its scarcity. It lives at altitudes... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3015602/mongolias-snow-leopards-woman-who-took-mining-industry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3015602/mongolias-snow-leopards-woman-who-took-mining-industry?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Jun 2019 01:15:04 +0000 When Chinese businessman Leo Zhuang Lifeng arrived in Dhaka 22 years ago, only one of the two luggage conveyor belts in the airport was functioning. The lighting wasn’t working properly, either. The rundown airport in the capital of Bangladesh prepared many Chinese and foreign businessmen for what they were about to experience in the country, which was still an economic backwater at the time, with frequent power outages and inadequate infrastructure. Zhuang, now 51, landed in Dhaka in 1997 to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3013632/move-over-made-china-its-made-bangladesh-era-now?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3013632/move-over-made-china-its-made-bangladesh-era-now?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Jun 2019 23:45:07 +0000 Left at the orphanage I was born in Shanghai, in 1937. When I was eight, my parents decided to come to Hong Kong. They didn’t want to bring us kids with them, so they parked my younger brother and sister and I in an orphan­age in Hunan run by my auntie. The husband of my auntie had been a Kuomintang general. He died during the war. As the couple hadn’t had any children, my auntie adopted my brother. We suffered at the orphanage because during this period, after the war, there was very little... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/3013379/murray-maclehose-was-my-hero-retired-hong-kong-civil-servant?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/3013379/murray-maclehose-was-my-hero-retired-hong-kong-civil-servant?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Jun 2019 02:30:04 +0000 When Michael Xu arrived in Manila 22 years ago to pursue his “Philippine dream”, he was just another Chinese teenager fresh out of high school with little idea of what lay ahead. Making his way from the airport to his flat for the first time, Xu was surprised to see slum after slum. The youngster was left with the impression that the Philippines was even more backward and poverty stricken than the China he recalled from the 1980s. Xu, then 17 years old, had made the journey from his native... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3012674/why-are-chinese-workers-so-unpopular-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3012674/why-are-chinese-workers-so-unpopular-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Jun 2019 02:30:09 +0000 It is 7.30am on a Friday, an hour and a half before Albirex Niigata Singapore FC begins training, but players have already assembled pitchside at the Jurong East Stadium in the western region of Singapore. In neat rows on black gym mats, they stretch to ready themselves for the two-hour session ahead. “They want you to come very early to get ready for training. You must be very disciplined here,” explains striker Daniel Martens, a player on loan from fellow Singapore Premier League (SPL) side... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3011755/how-japanese-club-albirex-niigata-scored-big-singapore-soccer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3011755/how-japanese-club-albirex-niigata-scored-big-singapore-soccer?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 May 2019 01:00:16 +0000 Click here to launch this special feature https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/3011618/china-latin-america-partner-or-predator?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/3011618/china-latin-america-partner-or-predator?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 May 2019 17:00:07 +0000 When Malaysia’s deputy minister for international trade and industry, Ong Kian Ming, toured a Huawei training centre in Cyberjaya this week, the vibe was more “humdrum public relations opportunity” than it was “visit of epochal significance in a battle of East and West”. Followed around by an entourage of interns, the minister gamely engaged in all the classic press conference moves: making small talk with trainees, commending the Chinese company for investing in his country and waxing lyrical... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3006961/my-way-or-huawei-how-us-ultimatum-over-chinas-5g-giant-fell?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3006961/my-way-or-huawei-how-us-ultimatum-over-chinas-5g-giant-fell?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Apr 2019 22:00:10 +0000 Nearly 200 million voters in Indonesia will go to the polls on April 17, when the country for the first time holds its national presidential and legislative elections on the same day. Robby, a 30-year-old farmer from a village in a forest south of Kalimantan, will walk three hours each way to vote, staying back afterwards to make sure the votes are counted before heading home. “It’s far, but it’s worth it,” said Robby, who hails from Juhu village, in Hulu Sungai Tengah regency. “Without a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3005742/land-air-sea-or-elephant-1-billion-people-across-india-indonesia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3005742/land-air-sea-or-elephant-1-billion-people-across-india-indonesia?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Apr 2019 10:30:12 +0000 When a gunman stormed Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15, Ansi Alibava ran for her life. In vain. Minutes later her bullet-riddled body was found on the street by the man she had recently married and moved to the country with, Abdul Nazer. Alibava, from Kerala in India, was one of dozens slain that day, when a lone man armed with a semi-automatic weapon rampaged through Al Noor and the nearby Linwood mosque, massacring 50 worshippers in an attack he live-streamed on the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3002931/christchurch-shootings-why-would-some-indian-hindus-celebrate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3002931/christchurch-shootings-why-would-some-indian-hindus-celebrate?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Mar 2019 08:15:05 +0000 Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad spoke candidly to the South China Morning Post on a wide range of issues in his first interview with international media in 2019. Mahathir is approaching the end of his first year in office, his second stint as premier after his opposition coalition won the elections in a stunning victory last May. He previously led Malaysia from 1981 to 2003 and now, at 93, he is the world’s oldest prime minister. Below is an edited transcript of the interview. Q:... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2189225/chinese-nature-are-very-good-businesspeople-malaysian-prime?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2189225/chinese-nature-are-very-good-businesspeople-malaysian-prime?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Mar 2019 09:42:45 +0000 The disappearance of American aviator Amelia Earhart remains one of the world’s great unsolved mysteries. In 1928, Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, garnering her international acclaim – then, in 1937, on an attempt to fly around the globe, she vanished. This is where Ric Gillespie comes in. Over the past 31 years, he believes his International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) has catalogued sufficient evidence to convince even the most ardent sceptic... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/2188764/has-mysterious-disappearance-us-aviator-amelia-earhart-been-solved?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/2188764/has-mysterious-disappearance-us-aviator-amelia-earhart-been-solved?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Mar 2019 17:00:15 +0000 Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Shakespeare’s musing on the trappings of monarchy may be 400 years old, but it appears as pertinent now as ever for the royal families of Asia. In Thailand, King Vajiralongkorn has vetoed his sister’s bid to run for prime minister; in Malaysia, the public reels from the abdication of a king rumoured to have married a Russian model; in Japan, an ageing emperor will soon become the first to step down voluntarily in more than 200 years. Still, what looks... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2187368/comeback-kings-instagram-royals-who-reinvented-asias-monarchies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2187368/comeback-kings-instagram-royals-who-reinvented-asias-monarchies?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 23 Feb 2019 01:00:45 +0000 Maya Rizki is fed up with her daily Jakarta commute, which can take up to five hours. The mother of two lives in the eastern part of the Indonesian capital and works in the southern part, some 15km apart. Every day, Rizki and her husband drive their children to schools along the way to their respective offices. To avoid the morning rush hour, she tries to leave the house at 5am, a ritual familiar to many Jakartans. “If I leave after 6am, I will be stuck in traffic for 1.5 or two hours,” said the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/2186986/jakartas-long-ride-mrt-almost-over-will-it-boost-widodo-during?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/2186986/jakartas-long-ride-mrt-almost-over-will-it-boost-widodo-during?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Feb 2019 04:00:36 +0000 When Kim Jong-un delivered his annual New Year’s address last month, the scene was unrecognisable from his first speech as leader of North Korea six years prior. Gone were the Maoist suit and lapel pin featuring the images of his father, previous ruler Kim Jong-il, and grandfather Kim Il-sung, who founded the country. In their place was a suit and tie that would be at home in any office in London or New York. Rather than sheltering behind a podium in an austere auditorium, his voice faltering... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2185480/north-koreas-leader-has-charmed-trump-xi-and-moon-are-they-all?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2185480/north-koreas-leader-has-charmed-trump-xi-and-moon-are-they-all?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Feb 2019 01:00:42 +0000 In the summer of 2015, I left the United States. After growing up in Taiwan and New Zealand, I went to America to study before working in New York City. But in the end, I was unable to secure my permanent residency through a green card. As the prospect of my exile drew nearer, I correspondingly grew fascinated with a story I heard even as a child: in AD97, during the Eastern Han dynasty, China sent an explorer and envoy westward along the Silk Road to locate and to make contact with the Roman... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2185338/wall-water-chasing-ghosts-history-iran?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2185338/wall-water-chasing-ghosts-history-iran?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Feb 2019 15:15:00 +0000 In the summer of 2015, I left the United States. After growing up in Taiwan and New Zealand, I went to America to study before working in New York City. But in the end, I was unable to secure my permanent residency through a Green Card. As the prospect of my exile drew nearer, I correspondingly grew fascinated with a story I heard even as a child: in AD97, during the Eastern Han dynasty, China sent an explorer and envoy westward along the Silk Road to locate and to make contact with the Roman... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/2185333/wall-water-talking-chinese-politics-and-dodging?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/2185333/wall-water-talking-chinese-politics-and-dodging?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 Feb 2019 13:19:06 +0000 In the summer of 2015, I left the United States. After growing up in Taiwan and New Zealand, I went to America to study before working in New York City. But in the end, I was unable to secure my permanent residency through a Green Card. As the prospect of my exile drew nearer, I correspondingly grew fascinated with a story I heard even as a child: in AD97, during the Eastern Han dynasty, China sent an explorer and envoy westward along the Silk Road to locate and to make contact with the Roman... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2185208/discovering-ruins-suyab-birthplace-legendary-chinese-poet-li-bai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2185208/discovering-ruins-suyab-birthplace-legendary-chinese-poet-li-bai?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Feb 2019 13:15:30 +0000 In the summer of 2015, I left the United States after living there for most of my adult life. After growing up in Taiwan and New Zealand, I went to America to study, attending Yale University and Columbia Law School. Then I practised law in New York City. But between the arcane American immigration system and my ineptitude in office politics, I was unable to secure my permanent residency through a Green Card. As the prospect of my banishment drew nearer, I correspondingly grew fascinated with a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2185135/retracing-old-silk-road-meet-uygurs-kashgar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2185135/retracing-old-silk-road-meet-uygurs-kashgar?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Feb 2019 04:15:45 +0000 Whether you’re gathering with relatives, feasting on Lunar New Year delicacies or plain taking a break during this festive season, here are 10 of our most popular This Week In Asia features to enjoy or revisit over the new few days. Muslim teen Rahaf Mohammed is safe in Canada. What if she were Malaysian or Indonesian? While Muslim-born atheists face prison and re-education in Malaysia, in Indonesia non-believers risk being charged with blasphemy – and despite growing calls for compassion,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2185084/destructive-durians-passports-sale-koreas-natural-extinction-here?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2185084/destructive-durians-passports-sale-koreas-natural-extinction-here?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Feb 2019 11:00:45 +0000 A 1,005 sq KM chain of US-controlled islands in the Pacific Ocean is shaping up to be a focal point in Washington and Beijing’s ongoing jockeying for global influence. The Mariana Islands in the north-western Pacific, comprising the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam, were once seen as “the tip of the spear” of American power projection in the region – but China’s influence is growing across the area through deep-sea research and what was once the world’s most lucrative... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2182752/us-china-battle-dominance-extends-across-pacific-above-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2182752/us-china-battle-dominance-extends-across-pacific-above-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Jan 2019 13:30:00 +0000 K -beauty has taken the world by storm. South Korean make-up trends such as bright-pink ombre lips, pale dewy skin, and thick, straight eyebrows have become ubiquitous from Hong Kong to Ulan Bator. More than simply a cosmetic trend, K-beauty has become major cultural force throughout Asia and beyond. “The typical Korean beauty we would imagine is very fair-skinned, a small face with a small pointed chin, a narrow nose with a slightly upturned tip, and large eyes with double eyelids,” says... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/2178080/loreal-chinese-copycats-heres-why-everyone-wants-piece-k-beauty?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/2178080/loreal-chinese-copycats-heres-why-everyone-wants-piece-k-beauty?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Dec 2018 14:00:15 +0000 China-born tour company owner Amina Liu was not planning to start a business when she and her husband left their home in New Jersey in 2014 for a holiday in China. When one of her husband’s colleagues heard about the trip, he asked to join them. The colleague is a practising Muslim, as are the Lius, and he thought they would understand his concerns about things like keeping halal while on the road. Faced with the daunting task of working out an itinerary, hotels, transport, and locating halal... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/2178098/happy-halaldays-how-asia-became-tourist-mecca-muslims?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/2178098/happy-halaldays-how-asia-became-tourist-mecca-muslims?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Dec 2018 00:30:30 +0000 Mia, 40, thought she was too old to experience boy troubles. Having gone through marriage, motherhood and divorce, the Malaysian felt she’d seen it all – until the man she was with had a drastic personality change seemingly overnight. “I met him through friends a few years ago and he seemed fine. He got on with my kids and we began spending more and more time together. My ex-husband even liked him, although they only met once,” she said. “But suddenly after just a few months he became different,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2177806/singapore-has-anti-stalking-laws-why-doesnt-malaysia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2177806/singapore-has-anti-stalking-laws-why-doesnt-malaysia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Dec 2018 05:02:18 +0000 The promises are irresistible to any young Chinese jobseeker: a work visa in the Philippines, with wages of up to 10,000 yuan (US$1,458) a month in the first year, rising to 14,000 yuan and 17,000 yuan in the second and third years. Education and work experience is not required. There’s free accommodation in an upscale condominium; five meals a day; and 15 days of annual leave with return flights provided. And don’t worry about not speaking any English. Welcome to the online gambling world of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2177683/china-holds-cards-online-betting-booms-philippines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2177683/china-holds-cards-online-betting-booms-philippines?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Dec 2018 00:30:15 +0000 Hamidah Abdullatif was on top of the world. It was the spring of 2017 and she had just graduated from college with a degree in computer science. She was ready to embark on a career in information technology in her beloved hometown of Marawi, the historic and picturesque Islamic city on Lake Lanao on the southern Philippines island of Mindanao. “It was a beautiful city,” Hamidah recalls of Marawi, the capital of Lanao del Sur province, where the Maranao, the dominant, mostly Muslim ethnic group,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2175169/life-after-philippines-faces-its-next-battle-rebuilding-marawi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2175169/life-after-philippines-faces-its-next-battle-rebuilding-marawi?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Dec 2018 02:32:32 +0000 Faisal thought he was doing a good thing: giving his son and nephew a chance to escape poverty. In March 2017, two men approached the boys at their school in Piagapo, a small town in Lanao del Sur, one of the predominantly Muslim provinces on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.  The men offered the boys – Kaheel, 10, and Abdullah, 16 – a chance to go to boarding school in Marawi, the provincial capital, about 20km away. The boys would study Arabic and learn self defence, said... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2175168/i-sold-my-son-how-battle-marawi-ripped-philippine-family-apart?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2175168/i-sold-my-son-how-battle-marawi-ripped-philippine-family-apart?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Dec 2018 00:30:58 +0000 As drug syndicates expand global networks and forge deeper international connections, a growing number of vulnerable women and children are ending up tangled in their web. Tap here to launch the special feature https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/2174634/narcos-hidden-drug-highways-linking-asia-and-latin-america?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/2174634/narcos-hidden-drug-highways-linking-asia-and-latin-america?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Nov 2018 18:00:45 +0000 South Korea’s annual Suneung examination is a big deal – so big it has repercussions for the whole country. On Thursday, when the exam was held, aeroplanes took alternate routes to reduce noise, the country’s banks and financial markets started trading later than usual, and buses and subways increased their frequency – all to facilitate smoother traffic and a calmer environment for the 590,000 high school students who took the marathon nine-hour exam, according to Yonsei News. “Suneung” is a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2173414/schools-never-out-why-south-koreans-are-trapped-lifetime-study?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2173414/schools-never-out-why-south-koreans-are-trapped-lifetime-study?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Nov 2018 09:25:07 +0000 In December 1987, for the first time in history, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to reduce their nuclear arsenals and to eliminate an entire category of weapons. The Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces in Europe (the INF treaty), signed by US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, required both superpowers not to possess, produce or flight-test nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with a range from 500km to 5,500km,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2172498/if-trump-blows-us-russia-nuclear-treaty-china-will-pick-pieces?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2172498/if-trump-blows-us-russia-nuclear-treaty-china-will-pick-pieces?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Nov 2018 18:32:19 +0000 Only a decade ago, the term “fake goods” conjured visions of counterfeit monogram bags and other faux designer items. Today, the same label is being applied to a growing number of discount chains of questionable origin. Miniso, Mini Good, Mumuso, Yubiso, Yoyoso, Ximiso, Ilahui, Nome, Youi … the long, ever-growing list of names sounds more like a children’s rhyme than a tally of discount chains. But over the past few years – from historic shop buildings on the streets of Vancouver to glossy new... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/2171480/miniso-far-mumuso-good-how-chinas-cultural-copycats-took-over?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/2171480/miniso-far-mumuso-good-how-chinas-cultural-copycats-took-over?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Nov 2018 00:00:45 +0000 Tall Order: The Goh Chok Tong Story is a portrait of Singapore’s second-generation prime minister trying to find his own voice and steer his country in his own style, with the shadow of his predecessor Lee Kuan Yew looming large. As the book puts it, he was an improbable prime minister for an unlikely country – he had neither the connections nor the cunning to rise to the top. He was an ordinary man, except for his imposing 1.89 metre height, uncommon in Asia. His government career was marked by... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2171489/lee-kuan-yews-sentosa-nudist-colony-idea-being-seat-warmer-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2171489/lee-kuan-yews-sentosa-nudist-colony-idea-being-seat-warmer-and?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Nov 2018 23:45:00 +0000 After a visit to Singapore, Tran Vi Thoai never returns to Vietnam empty-handed. In fact, the 34-year-old lawyer makes sure he goes back to his family armed specifically with salted-egg fish skins – several packets of them. “There was one time I left these snacks on the table [at home], and went away for just 10 minutes. But when I came back, there was nothing left. My mother and sister ate everything,” Tran recalls, with a laugh. “I haven’t found anything quite like it in Vietnam so far. It’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/2170246/love-first-bite-why-singapore-land-good-food-souvenirs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/2170246/love-first-bite-why-singapore-land-good-food-souvenirs?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Oct 2018 04:30:45 +0000 It’s going to take a lot more than passion to bring the two Koreas together, but there was no shortage of ardour when South Korean President Moon Jae-in made the first ever speech by a South Korean leader to the North Korean public. “Our people are resilient,” said Moon to 150,000 Pyongyang residents at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang last month. “Our people love peace. And our people must live together. We had lived together for five thousand years but apart for just 70 years.” Since April,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2170456/could-hong-kongs-one-country-two-systems-work-korea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2170456/could-hong-kongs-one-country-two-systems-work-korea?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Oct 2018 23:05:50 +0000 ZN had neither a passport nor an identity card for most of his life. He had never needed documents until a wealthy family from his village in Pakistan convinced him he could lead a better life in Hong Kong. His mother opposed the idea, even if it was for a well-paid job. No one in their family had ventured overseas. After all, she argued, they had little money, but enough to put food on the table. “My parents told me not to go abroad. I did not listen to them,” Zn says, without taking his eyes... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2165627/slave-who-took-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2165627/slave-who-took-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Oct 2018 23:00:30 +0000 Last weekend, tens of thousands of women poured into the streets of Seoul for a fifth protest against hidden-camera pornography, the latest outcry against sexual harassment in South Korea.The country’s #MeToo movement began in January, when female prosecutor Seo Ji-hyeon spoke out against being groped by a senior colleague. By April, accusations were launched against other high-profile men, including former presidential hopeful Ahn Hee-jung, who was charged with rape by a former secretary. The... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/2168028/my-life-not-your-porn-south-korean-women-fight-back-against?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/2168028/my-life-not-your-porn-south-korean-women-fight-back-against?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Oct 2018 00:15:15 +0000 The summit meeting last week between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin was an effort by New Delhi to allay Moscow’s growing apprehension that its long-standing strategic partner and largest arms buyer has been lost forever to the United States. In concluding a US$5.43 billion deal for five regiments of Russia’s S-400 Triumf long-range air defence system, New Delhi signalled that, notwithstanding the growing US-India strategic and military partnership,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2168298/india-and-russia-may-be-allies-can-they-find-common-ground?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2168298/india-and-russia-may-be-allies-can-they-find-common-ground?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Oct 2018 07:43:42 +0000 In JuLY this year, Paul Alfonso and his girlfriend drove to Vancouver’s Stanley Park after dinner at Chang’An, a Chinese fine-dining restaurant known for its Peking duck. It was a quiet and warm night, one that invited a walk outside. Alfonso, 36, pulled over by the Brockton Point Lighthouse, while he mustered the courage to ask a question that would change both their lives – but not in the way he expected. “I was so nervous. After chatting for about 10 minutes, I took the ring out and proposed... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2166785/fake-hong-kong-diamonds-nirav-modi-cost-me-us200000-and-my-fiancee?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2166785/fake-hong-kong-diamonds-nirav-modi-cost-me-us200000-and-my-fiancee?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Oct 2018 00:00:15 +0000 When a Hong Kong athlete went public with claims her coach had sexually abused her when she was a teenager, her case prompted a flood of support from the public and fellow athletes, praise from sports officials for her bravery, and an intervention by the city’s chief executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, to ensure swift police action. Yet when a Singapore hurdler emboldened by the athlete’s example and the #MeToo movement spoke out in similar fashion this year, she found herself labelled an... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2167134/tale-two-metoos-hong-kong-and-singapore-athletics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2167134/tale-two-metoos-hong-kong-and-singapore-athletics?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Oct 2018 00:00:45 +0000 Satish Bairagi, who claimed to be the Man Friday of a 220-year-old holy man in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, had an idea. When his childhood friend Hemant Kolapkar confided that his wife Kavita had not been able to conceive after six years of marriage, Bairagi convinced him that the saint – whom he claimed was a reincarnation of Lord Shiva – had magical cures to all illnesses. There was an invisible power working against his family, Bairagi told Kolapkar, and a ritual would solve the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2165680/prayed-child-raped-godman-indias-deadly-childbirth-superstitions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2165680/prayed-child-raped-godman-indias-deadly-childbirth-superstitions?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Oct 2018 02:45:45 +0000 Australia’s relationship with its biggest trade partner, China, has seen better days. The pair haven’t been seeing eye to eye since December, when then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull linked Canberra’s anti-foreign interference laws to what he claimed were Chinese attempts “to influence the political process” in his country – a claim that prompted an angry Beijing to summon the Australian ambassador and marked a low point from which relations are yet to recover. Just last month, Beijing’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2163540/why-chinas-richest-flock-australia-even-if-theyre-not-always?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2163540/why-chinas-richest-flock-australia-even-if-theyre-not-always?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 Sep 2018 23:00:30 +0000 As a global power and leader of the socialist camp, in the cold war era the Soviet Union was a major player all over the world – and Asia was no exception. The USSR’s close ties with Maoist China that lasted until the late 1950s and the confrontation that followed, its role in the division of the Korean peninsula, its support for North Vietnam and the Viet Cong in Indochina, its ill-fated military campaign in Afghanistan, and its special relationships with India and the Iran of Shah Mohammad... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/2164723/china-and-india-iran-and-korea-why-russia-asian-player-watch?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/2164723/china-and-india-iran-and-korea-why-russia-asian-player-watch?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Sep 2018 02:00:15 +0000 For several decades now, Indian governments have been obsessed with the idea of a middle class. In the 1970s, bureaucrats would tell foreign journalists that the Indian middle class numbered as much as the entire population of a European country. In 1985, Mani Shankar Aiyar, media adviser to the then-prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, told The Washington Post that India had a middle class of 100 million. By the 1990s, figures of 200 million were being offered up. In reality, till the late 1990s, the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2164551/old-values-die-how-will-indias-new-modi-loving-middle-class-shape?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2164551/old-values-die-how-will-indias-new-modi-loving-middle-class-shape?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Sep 2018 12:30:44 +0000 In 2007, a hurriedly arranged ceremony took place at Gwadar, an Arabian Sea port financed by Beijing and built by Chinese state firms. But the keys to the port were not handed over to the Chinese state port operator by the Pakistani government, as was anticipated. Instead, they were handed over to the local representative of PSA Corp, the Singapore port authority. There were few Singaporeans at the event; the deal was sealed with their local partner Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, a self-made billionaire... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2163956/pakistan-chinese-money-grapples-karachi-lahore-divide?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2163956/pakistan-chinese-money-grapples-karachi-lahore-divide?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Sep 2018 04:30:45 +0000 As Hong Kong grinds to a halt, it’s going to be a long, long day, with nowhere to go. In case you are planning to use the time to catch up on some quality reading, we’ve got you covered. To help you get through the day, our editors have curated a dozen of our best reads since This Week in Asia launched two years ago. We have kept the list short (wasn’t easy) and as eclectic as possible, from popular culture and economy to history and society, from the curious phenomenon of ‘silver porn’ and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/2164309/super-typhoon-mangkhut-dozen-must-reads-while-youre-stuck-home?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/long-reads/article/2164309/super-typhoon-mangkhut-dozen-must-reads-while-youre-stuck-home?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Sep 2018 00:30:45 +0000