Arts

The George Town Festival returns for its 12th edition this year on the Malaysian island of Penang. (Courtesy of George Town Festival)
Arts

Malaysian art festivals spring back to life

Live performances return for the first time since pandemic lockdowns

26 November 2021
A keen swimmer as a teenager, Liu wanted to become either a professional athlete or a pianist. Deciding that swimmers have much shorter careers, with a higher risk of injury, he opted for music. "The older you get, the better it is," Liu said of playing the piano.
Arts

Meet Bruce Xiaoyu Liu, the new grand master of Chopin

Concert pianist credits his parents for never having pushed him too hard

21 November 2021
Iranian composer and producer Mehdi Rajabian has been banned, imprisoned, tortured and thrown into solitary confinement, becoming one of the most discussed Middle Eastern musicians of the past decade. (Courtesy of Mehdi Rajabian)
Arts

Iranian musical rebel risks prison (again) over new album

Mehdi Rajabian's 'Coup of Gods' competes for 2022 Grammy Award

17 November 2021
Wong Kai-wai's deep romance Happy Together (1997), starrring Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung, and has recently undergone a 4K remastering.
Arts

Wong Kar-wai masterpiece restores Hong Kong's mood for love

Remastered print thrills audiences anew at home and abroad

16 November 2021
Hailed as the region's first museum of visual culture, and located in the heart of Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District, by the time it is finished M+ is expected to rival New York's Museum of Modern Art and London's Tate Modern. (Photo by Pak Yiu)
Arts

Hong Kong's M+ museum finally open despite censorship uproar

Controversial art house faces myriad challenges including national security law

12 November 2021
Michiaki Ueno of Japan performs on his way to winning the top prize in the cello division of the Geneva International Music Competition on Oct. 28.
Arts

Japanese cellist of outstanding artistry wins Geneva competition

25-year-old Michiaki Ueno became first Japanese to get cello award

12 November 2021
When a gold-painted head appeared early in 2020, perched on a concrete plinth in a Melbourne park, no one quite knew what to make of it. (Screenshot from Bundoora Homestead Art Centre's Vimeo)
Tea Leaves

Golden heads and fake hotels -- a salve in pandemic times

Melbourne's eclectic public art encourages political expression in lengthy lockdowns

10 November 2021
Rituparna Chatterjee's brave memoir "The Water Phoenix" has helped to bring the issue of child sexual abuse into the open in India. (Courtesy of Bloomsbury India/Rituparna Chatterjee)
Arts

India starts to talk about child sexual abuse

A victim's powerful memoir sheds light on a largely hidden issue

10 November 2021
The director and cast of "Just Remembering," the winner of the Audience Award at the 34th Tokyo International Film Festival, pose on the red carpet at the festival's opening ceremony in Hibiya, Tokyo on October 30.
Arts

Tokyo film festival proves that cinema can unite us all

"Crossing borders" theme backed by diverse lineup and cross-cultural talk series

9 November 2021
Canadian-born Katsura Sunshine has performed in 50 cities in 15 countries since he was named as Canada’s cultural ambassador in 2013.
Arts

Canadian 'rakugo' comic storyteller eyes Broadway and beyond

Katsura Sunshine wants to see rakugo included by U.S. streaming giant Netflix

5 November 2021
Malaysian director Edmund Yeo's cinematic interpretation of Banana Yoshimoto's 1986 novella "Moonlight Shadow" tells of a young woman's post-traumatic recovery. (© Moonlight Shadow Production Committee)
Arts

Banana Yoshimoto brings youthful bereavement to screen

Helmed by rising Chinese Malaysian director, 'Moonlight Shadow' delights Japanese audiences 35 years later

5 November 2021
In "Anima," a recently released environmentalist feature by first-time director Cao Jinling, searing indictments of working conditions in Inner Mongolia alternate with worshipful portrayals of the wilderness. (Courtesy of Fortissimo Films)
Arts

Inner Mongolia's frigid north proves fertile ground for hot topics

Acclaimed films highlight environmental concerns and physical extremes

3 November 2021
Lego master model builder Kanna Nakayama typically assembles her designs with no need for a physical blueprint. (Photo by Karina Noka)
Arts

Asia's first female Lego master builds bridges to brick fans

Japan's Kanna Nakayama dreams up models without putting pencil to paper

31 October 2021
 In "The Perfect Police State," journalist Geoffrey Cain argues that China's extensive use of surveillance equipment and AI are cause for global concern. (Nikkei montage/Source photos Geoffrey Cain, AP) 
Arts

Book review: China's 'perfect police state' in Xinjiang

Beijing's totalitarian repression brings Orwell's '1984' to life

29 October 2021
Melbourne architect Jan van Schaik points at Lost Tablet Alta, a sculpture made from used Lego bricks. "Maybe someone could make one, but find someone who would make 81 of them," says van Schaik. (Photo by Steve Cook)
Arts

Melbourne architect turns old Lego into new art

Small monuments of meaning selling for $3,200 each

28 October 2021
Yohani Diloka De Silva's song's success offered millions a chance to hear the Sinhala language for the first time. (Photo courtesy of Pettah Effect)
Tea Leaves

When music breaks language barriers

Neglected South Asian tongues can take heart in massive reach of Sinhala popular song

27 October 2021
Montreal pianist Bruce Xiaoyu Liu celebrates after being named winner of the first prize in the 18th Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw on Oct. 21.
Arts

What the Chopin Competition tells us about classical music's future

Rich multiplicity of spirit keeps Polish composer's work alive

27 October 2021
Written in accessible and clinical prose, Cheng Li's tour de force offers something to everyone. (Courtesy of Brookings Institution Press)
Arts

Book review: A glimmer of hope in U.S.-China relations?

Washington must update its understanding of contemporary Chinese society

23 October 2021
Detail of a poster for the movie "Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas" ("Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash"). Shot using vibrant 16 mm film, the movie is a mashup of classic vintage genres, ranging in style from Hong Kong martial arts flicks to Indonesian horror films to American juvenile delinquent B-movies. (Courtesy of the Match Factory)
Arts

Fistfights and impotence recall Indonesia's troubled history

Pulp film exploring patriarchal society draws international plaudits

18 October 2021
The title “Essential Desires” encapsulates some of the book’s aims: to resist fixed, essentialist definitions of Thai art and to review the many artistic desires and impulses that have underpinned it since the 1990s. (Nikkei montage/Source photos courtesy of Reaktion Books and Michael Shaowanasai, left, and, right, Vasan Sitthiket’s 2005 video installation “Are You Thai or Not?”, courtesy of the artist)
Arts

Book review: 'Essential Desires' chronicles emergence of Thai contemporary art

Brian Curtin's illustrated survey traces internationalization and internal divisions

15 October 2021
Two new books -- "The Struggle for India's Soul" by Shashi Tharoor and "Modi's India" by Christophe Jaffrelot -- examine the rise of Hindu nationalism and of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and their impact on the world's largest democracy.
Arts

Book review: Lament for India's descent into authoritarianism

Modi's ethnic nationalism threatens to deepen divisions in the subcontinent

13 October 2021
In his newly published 530-page memoir, former Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa makes it clear that when it comes to the economy, he thinks we are all going to hell in a handbasket. (Nikkei montage/Source photos by Yale University Press, Reuters)
Arts

Book review: Shirakawa, the last shogun of hard money

Memoir by former Bank of Japan governor warns of financial crisis ahead

11 October 2021
While male-male romance might be taboo, danmei fiction, movies and web series offer Chinese women a place to escape the male gaze and forget about the duties expected of them in China's deeply patriarchal society.
Arts

Why Chinese women are falling for 'boys love' fiction

Fiction written by straight women, for straight women, has Beijing worried

9 October 2021
Detail of "2021 Burma" by Yarzar Myo. Since the Feb. 1 military takeover, Myanmar has seen an outpouring of artistic expression among both seasoned professionals and young artists who oppose the new regime. (Courtesy of the artist)
Arts

Myanmar artists draw on creative arsenal

Protest art goes underground as opposition steps up 'war' on military regime

6 October 2021
Rivals Skeletor, left, and He-Man from the "Masters of the Universe" comic-book and animation series are reimagined as wayang kulit traditional Malay shadow puppet characters by the Fusion Wayang Kulit puppeteer group. (Courtesy of Fusion Wayang Kulit)
Arts

He-Man joins fight to save Malay shadow puppets

Western and Japanese characters take traditional art form into 21st century and beyond

29 September 2021