https://www.scmp.com/rss/503440/feed Farah Abdessamad is a French-Tunisian writer based in New York City. You can follow her on Twitter @farahstlouis en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Some of us always knew our time was short here. Most of us choose to ignore it. Why would one think of the morbid in the day to day? Until a pandemic hits, that is. I went to my local supermarket a few days ago and stood, aghast, at the empty shelves. I wondered about those in need. I expected to count on civility in a time of distress. Why the stockpiling? It came to me that the irrational (and selfish) behaviour is founded on a universal fear. Not of sickness per se, but death, its prospect... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075988/coronavirus-isolation-opportunity-face-our-fear-death-and-make?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075988/coronavirus-isolation-opportunity-face-our-fear-death-and-make?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Mar 2020 23:30:12 +0000 Year of the Rabbit, by Tian Veasna (trans. by Helge Dascher), Drawn & Quarterly, 4 stars The Khmer Rouge takeover of Phnom Penh is seen in a new light in Year of the Rabbit, a graphic memoir that follows the journey of Lina, Khim, their son Chan, and their extended family members. Graphic in format, graphic in content, it is a story of resilience and hope, and a profound testimony to one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. On April 17, 1975, young soldiers victoriously enter the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3051333/horrors-khmer-rouge-captured-powerful-graphic-novel-thats?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3051333/horrors-khmer-rouge-captured-powerful-graphic-novel-thats?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Feb 2020 21:00:14 +0000 A New Sun Rises Over the Old Land: A Novel of Sihanouk’s Cambodia, by Suon Sorin (translated by Roger Nelson). Published by NUS Press. 5/5 stars A rare and precious glimpse of pre-Khmer Rouge literature, Suon Sorin’s A New Sun Rises Over the Old Land, originally published in 1961, harks back to Cambodia’s late colonial and postcolonial eras under monarch-turned-politician Norodom Sihanouk. Apart from the conclusion and prologue, in which protagonist Sam, the driver of a cyclo three-wheel bicycle... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3047346/cambodia-khmer-rouge-glimpse-hope-and-hardship-decade?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3047346/cambodia-khmer-rouge-glimpse-hope-and-hardship-decade?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Jan 2020 05:00:07 +0000