Life & Arts

"Squid Game" star Park Hae-soo: "Becoming an international actor wasn't really at the forefront of my mind," says Park.  
Arts

'Squid Game' star reflects on the global allure of South Korean culture

Park Hae-soo was working at a BBQ restaurant when the 'hallyu' boom hit

30 March 2022
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, presents a medal to Valery Gergiev in 2016. The two are known to be friends.
Politics

Sudden disharmony: Pro-Putin maestros get the boot in Europe

Ukraine invasion poses moral dilemma for Russian musicians abroad

29 March 2022
Peng Jiasheng, the founding leader of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDDA), an armed group based in the Kokang region of northern Shan state, who died on Feb. 16 at the age of 94. 
Obituaries

Peng Jiasheng, life and times of a Kokang warlord

'King' of Myanmar's Chinese micro-state highlights web of Sino-Burmese connections

29 March 2022
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, director of the Oscar-winning "Drive My Car," poses in the press room at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 27.
Media & Entertainment

'Drive My Car' scores big, but Hollywood budgets a distant dream

Japanese film industry faces pressure to embrace streaming

29 March 2022
Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi accepts the Oscar for best international feature film "Drive My Car" at the 94th Academy Awards on March 27.
Arts

Japan's 'Drive My Car' wins Oscar for best international film

'CODA' becomes first streamed movie to take home best picture

28 March 2022
"We love asking questions to ourselves, to each other, and to go into a set of facts with an open mind and allow it to evolve into a story," Sushmit Ghosh, left, and Rintu Thomas told Nikkei Asia.
Arts

A win for this Indian documentary would make Oscars history

'Writing With Fire' chronicles how a group of Dalit women became investigative reporters

27 March 2022
"Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom," by first-time director Pawo Chonying Dorji, was shot on location in Bhutan's Lunana Valley, 4,000 meters above sea level and an eight-day walk from the nearest road.
Arts

Oscar buzz builds for breakthrough Bhutanese film

'Lunana,' kingdom's first-ever nomination, captures a country in transition

26 March 2022
Hidetoshi Nishijima, left, and Toko Miura in "Drive My Car," directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
Arts

'Drive My Car' to Hiroshima: Oscar buzz revives tourism hopes

Acclaimed film brings tourists to a small island on Inland Sea

26 March 2022
Author Shane Bunnag says his book "ended up as more than a chronology of a family; it became a compendium of Siamese knowledge, charting the patterns and repetitions, the seasons of a people." (Nikkei montage/Source photos by River Books, Shane Bunnag)
Arts

Books: A Siamese family's story across the centuries

'Chariot of the Sun' traces remarkable journey from 16th-century Persia to Greece and contemporary Thailand

25 March 2022
Kyoto's Takase Canal was first completed in 1614. (Photo by Yuki Murakami)
Life

Nintendo heir rescues scenic Kyoto canal with $2.5m donation

Historic waterway to complete renovation work stalled by city budget crunch

24 March 2022
Uluru, the massive sandstone monolith also known as Ayers Rock, is one of Australia's most important Indigenous sites. (Getty Images)
Tea Leaves

Time to listen to Australia's Indigenous voices

After 234 years, original inhabitants deserve proper hearing

23 March 2022
Female students attend a clandestine English lesson in Kabul. After the Taliban took control of the government and placed restrictions on education for women and girls, the teachers at this school decided to help their former students continue their studies in secret. (Photo by Sara Perria)
Life

Secret schools keep Afghan girls learning

Rule-breaking teachers defy Taliban to provide lessons

23 March 2022
Much of the "The Serpent," a 2021 true-crime drama series that became a global hit on Netflix, was filmed on location in Bangkok. (BBC/Mammoth Screen/courtesy of Netflix)
Arts

Thailand makes it big(ger) in the movies

Higher production subsidies needed to compete with global competitors

18 March 2022
Children look out the windows of a school bus at an English-language school in New Delhi in December 1995. Only 0.02% of Indians speak English as their first language, yet English is the language of the supreme court, elite business, much of government and the national media.
Tea Leaves

Politics of language loom large in India

Time is running out for India's English-speaking minority amid Hindi-based mass culture

16 March 2022
Wildlife for sale last year at a market in Khammouane Province, Laos. (Courtesy of WWF-Greater Mekong)
16 March 2022
Elbridge Colby's book makes a valuable contribution to the most important geopolitical issue of the coming decades -- China's push for hegemony in Asia and U.S.-led efforts to contain the rising giant. (Nikkei montage/Source photos by Yale University Press, U.S. Department of Defense)
Life

Books: A potential Sino-American conflict can be avoided

Noted strategist offers road map that addresses the needs of Beijing and Washington

12 March 2022
As sake gains popularity in Taiwan, more people are discovering its versatility when paired with food. (Courtesy of the Wufeng Farmers' Association Winery)  
Life

Taiwan sake boom starts to challenge Japanese traditions

Local producers face quality hurdles in the premium market

11 March 2022
Netflix's apocalyptic South Korean series "Hellbound" became the world's most-watched television show on Netflix in a mere 24 hours upon its release in 2021. (Courtesy of Netflix)
Tea Leaves

Asian horror films challenge Western dominance

Global smash hits have raised the bar on quality of future productions

9 March 2022
Lena Bumiller-Klathale, her husband Suriyan "Hook" Klathale and their son Noah aboard their kabang houseboat in Thailand. The traditional boats are used by the Moken, a nomadic Austronesian group community that has traveled the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand and Myanmar for centuries, living off the ocean and the coastal forest. (All photos by Tom Vater)
Life

Headwinds buffet Thailand's 'sea nomads'

Multicultural couple shine light on Thailand's disenfranchised Moken minority

9 March 2022
A still from "Myanmar Diaries." To make the documentary, an anonymous group of filmmakers called the Myanmar Film Collective collected raw footage that had been filmed by citizens on the streets and combined it with reconstructions of events experienced by members of the collective or their family and friends. (All photos courtesy of the Myanmar Film Collective)
Arts

Myanmar documentary brings country's angst and courage to big screens

Award-winning film highlights risks in life under military regime

4 March 2022
Documentary by director Kiwi Chow, right, now in self-exile from Hong Kong, hit theaters across Taiwan last Friday.
Arts

Hong Kong protest film strikes a chord in Taiwan

Documentary, and Ukraine conflict, spur debate on island's readiness for war

3 March 2022
Some of the symbols Indian political parties use to distinguish themselves from their rivals during elections. 
Tea Leaves

In the world's biggest democracy, symbols matter

India's party political emblems remain important despite rising literacy

2 March 2022
The "World According to China" is a well-timed look at how Xi's agenda has shifted from neutralizing real or perceived political rivals while consolidating power to one that is insular, yet seeks to influence the outside world and expand China's territorial claims.
Life

Books: Adding nuance to the China discourse

Elizabeth Economy offers a crash course in how Beijing views the world

1 March 2022
Harija, 6, lives with her parents and five siblings in a tiny two-room house made of compacted earth in a remote desert community in Jawzjan, northern Afghanistan. Her family cannot afford enough food and survives on just bread.
Life

Children on the edge of life: Afghanistan's innocent victims

Stark images highlight the youngest casualties of the crisis

28 February 2022
Naomi Osaka during a news conference after losing her third-round match against Amanda Anisimova of the U.S. at the Australian Open on Jan. 21.
Sports

This is Naomi: A journey to overcome fear of losing

Tennis player finds social media to be a great outlet for expression

26 February 2022