For her, a seemingly simple question was very difficult to answer. She paused the second I asked: “what should I call you?” She looked at …
Read Full StoryThe Man Who Followed His Heart: Bridging Chinese-Philippine Relations One Blow at a Time
The Other Side It was a rather unusual trajectory. Rhio Zablan went from working in the Philippine President’s press office to — “the other side”. …
Read Full StoryWhat A Feminist Looks Like: Standing Up to the Chinese Government
SAME OLD, SAME OLD Li Tingting didn’t look worse for wear. She was full of energy, and had a big smile on her face. One …
Read Full StoryThis is China Calling…
His kingdom was tucked away in a tall building on a small, side street off a busy Beijing avenue. Down a long, narrow corridor made …
Read Full StoryThe Comfort of Women
Dressed in her Sunday best, eighty-six-year-old Hilaria Bustamante stood by the roadside waiting with a warm, friendly smile on her face. The tiny woman was …
Read Full StoryCatch-22: Cambodia and Its Haunted Cycles
“There is a saying here,” a Phnom Penh journalist told me jovially as we drove past the Tonle Sap river at sunset: “the Chinese chase …
Read Full StoryEveryone Calls Me Mama
It’s hard to miss her even in a crowd. At about 4-feet high, 65-year-old Kong Zhenlan was barely taller than the children in her care, …
Read Full StoryPicasso of The East
It’s not what you think. When the late Chinese master painter Zhang Daqian is referred to as “Picasso of the East” – it doesn’t mean …
Read Full StoryPied Piper
“I find Hong Kong has changed.” It’s the first thing voter Peter Tsai said as he came out of the polling station: “It is no …
Read Full StoryBrothers, In Arms
It was a very hot day. The unforgiving kind that left nowhere to hide. Cradled within the sweltering curves at the centre of one of …
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