In Ho Chi Minh City, there’s a music street called Nguyen Thien Thuat (via Tuoi Tre News)
Nguyen Thien Thuat Street in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, is best known for its wide array of music stores. But it is not just the stores that make the street popular. There is an aura of good old…
Indonesia at the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (via New Mandala)
Gaining a place at the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT) at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) has been a significant milestone in the careers of many Indonesian artists. Although they were already well known in art circles, the…
Masked dance tradition rises from near extinction in Cambodia (via Reuters)
PHNOM PENH/BANGKOK (Reuters) – Cambodia’s centuries-old tradition of masked dance was nearly wiped out by the Khmer Rouge’s “Killing Fields” regime, but a handful of artists managed to keep it alive and are now working to pass it along to…
Radical theatre of the difabled (via Inside Indonesia)
Theatre is the art of looking at ourselves (Augusto Boal, founder, Theatre of the Oppressed) The performance took place on a makeshift open-air stage using only simple props, under the roof of a traditional Javanese theatre. The pendopo, as it is…
Film Review: Ten Years Thailand (via New Mandala)
“Will it still be customary for movie-goers to stand for the royal anthem ten years from now?” I wonder, as the familiar ritual compels me to my feet before the start of the feature. Ten Years Thailand invites four Thai directors…
It’s Time for French Museums to Return Cambodian Artifacts (via The Diplomat)
The debate as to whether international museums and governments should return cultural artifacts acquired during the colonial period is not a new one. However, it has now been re-energized by French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision that France will return 26 cultural…
Gloomy outlook for Vietnamese cinema, literature scene: workshop (via Tuoi Tre News)
Attendees at a national workshop held in Hanoi on Wednesday to discuss the multitude of issues plaguing the Vietnamese film and literature industries were not shy about voicing disdain for the current state of literary and cinematic art in Vietnam. …
What to expect from the Repertory Philippines stage in 2019 (via Rappler)
MANILA, Philippines – Theater junkies of all ages will be happy to know that our local theater scene has some top-notch stage entertainment up its talented sleeve for everyone to enjoy in 2019. Repertory Philippines, one of the country’s leading…
Pho Ben Doi art exhibition returns to Da Lat in December
The third edition of Da Lat’s annual Pho Ben Doi art exhibition will feature more than 125 artworks by nearly 50 young, well-known Vietnamese and international artists and experts in archeology, architecture, and music from December 8, 2018 to February…
Examining Vietnam’s Modernity Through the Lens of South Asian Independent Documentaries
The idea for Moving Reels: A Social Dialog formed in 2016 as the result of a dialogue between Dr. Shweta Kishore, a scholar, documentary filmmaker, film and media lecturer at RMIT University, and Zoe Butt, a director and curator at…
Saigoneer Bookshelf: A Touch of Magical Realism in ‘The Cemetery of Chua Village’
Vietnam transitioned to a market economy like an old train lurching to life: momentous shakes and shudders, steam bursting out busted gaskets, disheveled cargo tumbling from luggage racks, sparks shooting off wheels screeching across warped rails and a whistle ripping…
‘Maaf Senin Tutup’: 1998 through eclectic eyes of Anggun Priambodo (via The Jakarta Post)
Anggun Priambodo’s latest exhibition is framed under the guise of a fictional character he created for his last movie of the same name, Maaf Senin Tutup (Sorry, Closed on Mondays) — an artist named Eva who is trying to establish herself in…
In Saigon’s Latest Indie Workshop, a Heaven for Eco-Friendly Risograph Prints (via Saigoneer)
Nestled above inpages in Thao Dien, a new print studio is offering artists and other creatives a new way to express their ideas and visions. Kho Muc is the brainchild of a team including Long Dang and Simon Phan, who have…
Eleven New Elements from the Asia-Pacific Region Inscribed on the List of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage
Meeting in Mauritius until 1 December, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage inscribed eleven elements from the Asia-Pacific region on the Lists of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. Among them, two elements have been added to…
ENCATC International Study Tour in Tokyo – Key Observations (via culture360.ASEF.org)
The 2018 ENCATC (European Network on Cultural Management and Policy) International Study Tour in Tokyo was held from 7 to 9 November 2018 and offered an intensive learning programme on the topic of cultural management and cultural policy in Japan….
‘Son mai’ – the painstaking Vietnamese art of lacquer painting (via Tuoi Tre News)
Once chiefly employed in the decoration of wooden objects, son mai, or lacquer painting, has grown over the last century into a freestanding art form in Vietnam, to a point where it is now widely considered to be the country’s…
Telling A Thai Tale: A Dance Dramaturg’s Take (via The Theatre Times)
“When I collaborate, I want to collaborate with the wrong person.” Pichet Klunchun, Thai dancer, and director reveals a glint of mischief behind his earnest and gentle demeanor. “I am looking for misunderstandings, for opportunities to negotiate. When things are…
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…