Arts

In a scene from “The Football Aficionado,” Zahra Khoshnavaz takes a selfie outside Tehran’s Azadi Stadium. The arena’s name means “freedom.” (Courtesy of Busan International Film Festival)
Arts

Tale of defiant Iranian female soccer fan echoes Tehran protests

'The Football Aficionado' wins best Asian documentary at Busan film festival

7 November 2022
Tickets to "Picasso and His Time" at the National Museum of Western Art cost about $14, more than similar exhibitions before the pandemic. (Photo by Naoko Kubota)
Arts

Seeing Picasso in Tokyo? Prepare to pay more

Higher costs and visitor limits test sustainability of loans from abroad

7 November 2022
Colombo-based Sinhalese hard rock group Skitzo SL often performed at protest gatherings in the lead-up to the Rajapaksa clan's ouster. (Courtesy of Skitzo SL)
Arts

How music rocked Sri Lanka's ruling class

After years underground, independent bands are wielding more political influence

2 November 2022
Tadataka Unno's latest album is titled "Get My Mojo Back." (Photo by Keiichiro Sato) 
Life

Japanese jazz pianist plays on after Asian hate crime attack

Tadataka Unno fights hatred and violence with music and harmony

31 October 2022
The clock tower of Big Ben basks in the glow of a London morning.
Arts

Big Ben refurbishment project echoes Britain's spirit and history

'Nation's heartbeat' given big, tradition-bound face-lift

29 October 2022
Women writers on Japan have been lauded for their individual work, but rarely recognized for their collective influence. (Nikkei montage/Source photos from Amazon)
Arts

Foreign women writers give alternative view of Japan

Works on Japanese culture, history, reflect distinct sensibility through the ages

26 October 2022
Children are seen at the Mae La refugee camp in April 2022. Three generations of Burmese children, many of whom do not speak Burmese, have grown up in the camp, the largest of nine refugee camps established in the 1980s along the Thai-Myanmar border inside Thailand. (Courtesy of Visual Rebellion Myanmar)
Arts

Bangkok photo exhibit portrays plight of Myanmar refugees

Those forced to live in Thai borderlands face an "Endless Escape"

20 October 2022
Tens of thousands attended the BTS concert in Busan, with 49 million more tuning in from around the world via livestream. (Photo courtesy of Hybe)
Media & Entertainment

BTS free concert draws worldwide 'Army' decked out in purple

Busan event marked milestone for K-pop sensation amid news of military induction

19 October 2022
A bidder among many at new auctions at Bangkok's River City mall. (Courtesy of The Art Auction Center)
Arts

Thai collectors embrace new art of auctions

Prices and demand increase for 'character-driven' figures and toys

19 October 2022
A reenactment of the young footballers -- whose ages ranged from 11 to 16 -- asleep while trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non Cave in Chiang Rai province, Thailand. (Courtesy of Netflix) 
Arts

Thai cave rescue drama returns to screens, again

Uniquely, the latest documentary features interviews with the trapped children

12 October 2022
"The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida" author Shehan Karunatilaka grew up in Colombo, largely insulated from the horrors of Sri Lanka's civil war. (Courtesy of Shehan Karunatilaka)
Arts

Books: Sri Lankan wartime satire mixes fantasy and dark reality

Shehan Karunatilaka is year's only Asian Booker Prize finalist

10 October 2022
A woman views a sculpture depicting former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, as the Philippine mythological figures Malakas and Maganda (Strong One and Beautiful One), in an exhibit curated by Pio Abad. (Courtesy of Pio Abad). 
Arts

When art becomes evidence of truth

Exhibitions of Imelda Marcos' paintings and jewelry defy historical revisionism

5 October 2022
Frieze Seoul is the first Asian edition of the London-founded art festival. (Photo courtesy of Frieze and Let's Studio)
Arts

Seoul aims to ride Korean culture wave to art hub status

Hong Kong's strict COVID rules send dealers, gallery owners to look elsewhere

4 October 2022
Takashi Miike’s “Connect” stars Jung Hae-in as a man who has his eye removed by a criminal gang of organ hunters.  (Courtesy of Walt Disney Co.)
Arts

Foreign directors create their own Korean dramas

Films by Japan's Miike and Kore-eda to be showcased at Busan festival

3 October 2022
The Shang Sisters: Winnie Ho, left, Janet Lee, center, and Mian Tan. Their eponymous second album, released in June, is a mix of originals and covers of old Malay and Mandarin language classics, interspersed with snatches of sounds and conversations from Malaysian history. (Courtesy of the Shang Sisters)
Arts

Southeast Asia leads vintage Chinese jazz revival

A century on, 'indecent' Shidaiqu music is blossoming in Malaysia and Singapore

28 September 2022
Ghibli Park, slated to open on Nov. 1, will feature attractions based on Studio Ghibli's animation movies. (Photo courtesy of Studio Ghibli)
Travel & Leisure

Central Japan hotels cashing in well ahead of Ghibli Park opening

Venue inspired by Oscar-winning filmmaker helps boost guest reservations

17 September 2022
Thanks to enterprising organizations lie Sari Knot Sari, I was a Sari, and Sari for Change, used material from the traditional Indian garment is turning up in wardrobes instead of landfills. (Nikkei montage; photos courtesy of Sari Knot Sari, I was a Sari, Sari for Change)
Arts

Old saris, new purpose: Upcycling clothing and lives

Global entrepreneurs find fresh market for iconic Indian garment

16 September 2022
Collectors prize vintage guitars because they produce sounds that improve with age. (Photo courtesy of Mikigakki)
Life

Vintage guitar prices soar in Japan as boomer buying outlasts pandemic

Sought-after Gibson, Martin models are 'something between a hobby and an investment'

16 September 2022
Twelve-year-old Simri, as played in "Lori" by Ankita Yadav, has her makeup prepared for her wedding ceremony. (Courtesy Abinash Bikram Shah)
Arts

Nepali filmmaker brings the struggles of women to the screen

Abinash Bikram Shah's 'Lori' took prize at Cannes festival

11 September 2022
Stream article image
Obituaries

Tim Page, the photographer who lived on borrowed time

Witness to the Vietnam War with an idiosyncratic humanist agenda

9 September 2022
The Thai Film Archive complex features a wax figure of Thai Indian producer and director R.D. Pestonji. (All photos courtesy of the Thai Film Archive)
Arts

Cutting-edge archives project Thailand's film history

In a remote Bangkok suburb, a museum and a preservation lab realize a movie dream

2 September 2022
Shops at Haichang Ocean Park's Shanghai facility sell ice cream shaped like the Japanese action figure Ultraman. (Photo by Tomoko Wakasugi)
Travel & Leisure

Shanghai theme park opens Ultraman area to lure more visitors

Japanese superhero attraction expected to increase food, souvenir sales

28 August 2022
Iwami Kagura, a type of traditional theater based on Japanese mythology, was developed in the area of Iwami which surrounds Masuda, a coastal city in Shimane Prefecture. (Courtesy of Shin Totsukawa)  
Arts

In the footsteps of a famous 'Manyoshu' poet

Japan's Masuda city sheds light on a famed collection of ancient poetry

25 August 2022
The main road in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district is ablaze with neon and other signs in this 1999 photo. The city's shift away from neon lighting has changed the character of the streets -- some say for the worse. (Photo by Keith Macgregor)
Arts

Hong Kong neon fades into history

The switch to cleaner, cheaper LEDs has taken a bit of shine off the city's streets

24 August 2022
Kangmin Justin Kim, left, as Song Liling, and Mark Stone as Rene Gallimard in a performance of the Santa Fe Opera's "M. Butterfly." (Photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera)
Arts

'M. Butterfly' takes wing at Santa Fe Opera

Asian American production highlights fraught legacy of Puccini's masterpiece

19 August 2022