Plastic Kingdom: art exhibition questions Cambodia’s rampant waste problem (via SEA Globe)
An new art exhibition in Phnom Penh featuring works by Cambodian and foreign artists will raise questions about plastic use and recycling, through woodcarvings, illustrations and even a motorbike. On first arriving in Cambodia’s ever-expanding capital Phnom Penh, one is…
Organizers decry last-minute cancelation of Hanoi EDM festival (via Tuoi Tre News)
An EDM (electronic dance music) festival scheduled to take place just outside Hanoi from November 23 to 25 was asked to cancel only hours before its opening, despite sold tickets and foreign and local artists and volunteers already heading to…
Grace Baey’s Portraits of Yangon’s Trans Population (via Coconuts Yangon)
Some photographers are able to capture the most delicate moments deftly. With her project Living Choices, Singapore-based shooter Grace Baey showed her ability to do just that. Baey spent one month in Yangon taking pictures of the city’s trans population for the…
Budget leaves arts and culture out in the cold (via The Star)
THE fact that arts and culture has the lowest priority in government planning was borne out by Budget 2019. Except for the RM30mil allocation for the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, there is no…
Vietnam’s Award-Winning Documentary About a Trans Woman (via Saigoneer)
A critically acclaimed documentary about a member of Vietnam’s trans community will finally see an official premiere in Vietnam next month. Finding Phong, or Di Tim Phong in Vietnamese, tells the story of the titular character, a trans woman named Le Anh…
Ombak Potehi: the Malaysian group reviving traditional Hokkien puppetry (via SEA Globe)
In the performance room of Penang House of Music, a museum dedicated to the musical history of this Unesco-listed Malaysian island, a crowd claps excitedly. They are cheering the group of young performers who get up from behind the stage,…
Dramaturgy Under Capitalism (via Exeunt)
At first encounter, it’s a terrifying word. The first time I came across the title I was still at school, and had just become angrily aware of the existence of Ben Power, a person who somehow had my ideal job….
26th ENCATC Congress: Beyond European Year of Cultural Heritage – Key Reflections (via culture360.ASEF.org)
The 26th ENCATC Congress on Cultural Management and Policy on “Beyond EYCH2018. What is the cultural horizon? Opening up perspectives to face ongoing transformations” concluded recently in Bucharest, Romania and looked to cultural priorities in Europe beyond EYCH or the European Year of Cultural…
Staring down the male gaze: Chuu Wai Nyein (via Frontier Myanmar)
A quick squeeze of a breast and the motorbike-riding groper was already vanishing into the Mandalay traffic. Ma Chuu Wai Nyein barely saw it happen. It would have been easy to forget and not make a scene, as usual, and…
Some Southeast Asian picks from the Busan International Film Festival (via Bangkok Post)
How do Aceh and Japan, two places that seem unrelated, separated by a vast distance of land and sea, connect on the personal and historical level? For one, they both have been hit by a tsunami — Aceh in the…
Vietnam to Ban Gratuitous Smoking in Movies, Stage Productions (via Saigoneer)
Starting from November, filmmakers will need to carefully deliberate their decision to include smoking in their works or risk the ire of the culture ministry. As Tuoi Tre reports, from November 15 this year, Circular 25 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports…
![[Podcast] Arts Apart: Where Are Sabah and Sarawak in the Malaysian Arts? (via BFM)](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/frontrow-alena-murang--455x250.jpg)
[Podcast] Arts Apart: Where Are Sabah and Sarawak in the Malaysian Arts? (via BFM)
With Malaysia Day just around the corner, there is a lot of conversation happening about East Malaysia. But why do Sabah and Sarawak mostly come to our minds only when it is time to celebrate Malaysia Day? The arts and…
Yangon’s well loved Palace of Literature (via The Myanmar Times)
The four storey yellow painted building with big masonry work of books in black and white pages for its motif loomed high at the corner of Merchant Road and 37th street. Its architecture stands out from other commercial buildings in…
Norah Lea Reclaims the Transgender Experience from Mainstream Media (via Frieze)
The walls of Norah Lea’s exhibition, ‘In Love’, are painted millennial pink. Photographs are displayed on the walls, salon-style, in an assortment of frames donated by the artist’s friends. Fairy lights line the ceiling. A sizeable bed sits in the…
Vietnamese director’s debut feature The Third Wife wins award at Toronto Film Festival
The directorial debut from Nguyen Phuong Anh, also known as Ash Mayfair, won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) award at last week’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The Third Wife tells the story of a 14-year-old girl in northern…
Cartoonist Zunar on his sedition charges & fight for political reform (via Star2)
It’s a Saturday afternoon at a major bookstore in the Gardens Mall in Kuala Lumpur. A small crowd has gathered for a session with Malaysian cartoonist Zunar. Zunar, looking dapper in a black jacket, is candid as he speaks. His…
MervEspina and the Green Papaya Art Projects (via The Myanmar Times)
With the support of Japan Foundation and collaboration of Myanm/Art, MervEspina, artist and researcher from Philippines talked about Green Papaya Art Projects whose essence can be rendered as ‘never ripe, never rotten’. The talk was moderated by Aung Myat Htay,…
The photographer capturing the eerie illustrations of Thai legend Hem Vejakorn (via SEA Globe)
Photographer Pattana Chuenmana has reimagined the illustrations of Hem Vejakorn, a well-known Thai artist and writer, in moving black-and-white still images. Chuenmana talks with Southeast Asia Globe about his latest project. After Hem Vejakorn pays homage to the revered illustrator who was famed…
U Maung Maung’s blast from the past (via The Myanmar Times)
To some people, these maybe nothing more than trash, some useless pieces of equipment from a forgotten past, but to others these are rare gems that brought back some bittersweet memories from not so long ago, when strife of all…
On The Level with Theatre Students of Taiwan and Thailand (via The Nation)
A new Taiwan-Thailand drama school collaboration is as delectable as pineapple tarts. One of the joys of attending a student theatre work – when it’s not the typical graduation project for which many of the aspiring artists have to do…
Biennale seen posing challenges for artists (via The Nation)
The Bangkok Art Biennale beginning on October 19 will have as its theme “Beyond Bliss”. The event puts the Thai capital along cities around the world, from Berlin to Beijing, that host biennials, bringing together creative minds to construct their…
Those Long Haired Nights: Filipino film highlights struggle for transgender rights (via SEA Globe)
With its true-to-life representation of transgender sex workers in Manila, Gerardo Calagui’s 2017 film Those Long Haired Nights is not afraid to court controversy. Southeast Asia Globe spoke with the Filipino director about the film and the challenges facing the LGBT+ community in his…
Cambodia Town Film Festival presents perspectives beyond ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ (via Long Beach Post)
Kilong Ung was just a teenager when the Khmer Rouge overtook his hometown of Battambang in Cambodia. Under the new regime, he and his seven sisters, along with their parents, were forced into concentration camps, where they worked 13 hours…
How Dép Tổ Ong Goes From Timeless Family Keepsake to Millennial Icon (via Saigoneer)
Back in 2014, amid the weekly cycle of news, a particular image was more striking than most: Doctor and Professor Ngo Bao Chau stood in the middle of a makeshift classroom in a rural village in Thai Nguyen Province while teaching local…
Sitting in the ‘gap’: Faye Lim explores body autonomy for children (via Talking Circles)
Faye Lim dances, facilitates, performs, improvises, makes, and mothers. In Singapore, she presents works with the Strangeweather Movement Group, a collective she founded to create and perform dance works at off-stage venues around Singapore. As part of Singapore’s Contact Improvisation (CI) community,…
Getting schooled on the arts (via The Star)
From surprise visits to schools, replacing white shoes with black, and referencing the Finnish education system as a possible one to emulate, the new Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik has made waves with his fresh approach. Expectations are running high…
Q&A: AO Show Creative Director Tuan Le Had a Vision for Performance Art in Vietnam (via Saigoneer)
Some may say that modern performance art in Vietnam looks the way it does thanks to the works of Tuan Le and his colleagues. Almost two decades into a series of smashing theatrical successes across the country, Le invites Saigoneer into the…
Veteran Artists Team Up with Younger Generation at ‘Wild Eye’ Exhibition (via The Irrawady)
YANGON — Veteran modernists and younger generations have teamed up to exhibit their works together in Yangon. Twenty-seven modernists are displaying more than 50 works at “Wild Eye” contemporary art exhibition at OK Art Gallery in Aung San Stadium. Their…
Vince Tañada’s postmodernistic theater (via The Manila Times)
Playwright and University of the Philippines faculty member Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero pioneered in bringing theater out into remote provinces in the ’60s through the UP Mobile Theater. This was to afford his grassroots audiences with his kind of theater away…
Vietnamese Cultural Week opens in Cambodia (via Nhân Dân)
NDO – The Vietnamese Culture Week opened at Chaktomuk theatre, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on September 11. The opening ceremony was attended by the Cambodian Minister of Cults and Religion Him Chhem, Cambodian Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng…