Phuong M. Do: The Puzzle of Photography, or What Fits and What Does Not
By Đồng Hà Nhuận (Ha Nhuan Dong) (3,330 words, 12-minute read) This article is published as part of the inaugural AE x Goethe-Institut Critical Writing Micro-Residency 2021/2022. Last year, I embarked on a two-month research that sought to sketch…
WrICE 2021: Writers Ask Writers, Asia Pacific edition
We asked 11 writers and translators of poetry, fiction and non-fiction to participate in an exquisite corpse-like Q&A session, with each person answering a question and then asking one. These writers, who hail from countries in the Asia Pacific such as…
SEE WHAT SEE: BOYS’ LOVE (BL) DRAMAS
By Lainie Yeoh I grew up in an era where queer films were rare exceptions and it was your holy gay-af duty to watch all the ones you could access. Yes, even if they’re mostly about white people processing their…
OPEN CALL: Southeast Asian Arts Censorship Documentation
<Deadline extended to 15 October 2021> ArtsEquator invites applications for the position of Researcher for a regional arts censorship documentation and publication project it is piloting. The programme runs from Jan 2022 – Dec 2023. There are six positions available,…
Fragments of History: Loc Vang, the Yellow music singer from Hanoi
By Duong Nguyen Thuy (800 words, 3-minute read) It was perhaps the melancholy of history that was the most palpable presence in the livestream action Fragments of History, which I organised as part of Mekong Cultural Hub’s Mini-Meeting Point held…
Meeting Point 2021: The cultural worker in a time of social change
By Wennie Yang (2,000 words, 8-minute read) Laptop fully charged, professional Zoom background selected – Meeting Point 2021 organised by Mekong Cultural Hub and its partners took place virtually between 20 to 22 May 2021. Artists, cultural intermediaries, academics, and…
AE x Goethe-Institut Critical Writing Micro-Residency: Meet the Writers (Part 1)
We recently announced our selected resident writers for the inaugural AE x Goethe-Institut Critical Writing Micro-Residency, focusing on the development and promotion of critical writing about arts and culture in Southeast Asia. They are: Nhuan Dong from Saigon; Dwiki Aprinaldi from…
ArtsEquator, Deadline Now
by Kathy Rowland ArtsEquator sometimes feels like a mythical creature. Looking back over the past 4 years, it takes the shape of a unicorn, a joyful improbability. With Covid-19, it can weigh like an albatross, cash flow statements instead of…
Vietnam’s visual arts and COVID-19
By Quyen Hoang (2,100 words, 8-minute read) On a rainy evening towards the end of May 2020, it seemed like Saigon’s most dapper guys and modish gals all flocked to Galerie Quynh. What was buzzing inside the gallery’s three-storey space…
Seasons of Love: Southeast Asia-style
It started out as a “small project” amongst friends. Peter Ong, a musical theatre performer based in Malaysia, wanted to do a recording of the song Seasons of Love, from the musical Rent by Jonathan Larson, to create a message of…
Podcast 79: Asia TOPA (Part 2)
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by In this latest podcast episode, Nabilah Said and Carolyn Oei discuss various productions that were recently presented at Melbourne’s Asia TOPA: Are You Ready To Take The…
À Ố Làng Phố: Less trick, more treat in Vietnamese bamboo circus
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (730 words, 6-minute read) You go into a circus performance with certain expectations. You want the big shebang, the SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR. The physical feats…
8 Must-Visit Arts And Culture Festivals In Singapore In 2022
It has been a whirlwind 2 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This pesky virus has wreaked havoc on many Singaporeans’ travel plans, including ours. With uncertainty continuing to loom over the travel bubble agreements between the various Southeast Asian…
Asian Arts Media Roundtable 2019: When Asian Critics Meet
By Akanksha Raja and Ke Weiliang (1,444 words, 6-minute read) The inaugural Asian Arts Media Roundtable (AAMR) took place between 24 to 25 May 2019 at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Organised by ArtsEquator, the two-day gathering of over…
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…
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. …
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…
‘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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Vietnamese artist wins prestigious Signature Art Prize (via SEA Globe)
In a dark room, two suspended video screens play images of rice paddies and derelict schoolrooms in rural Vietnam. Where one might expect to see adults, there are only children: working in the fields, resting in their dormitory, or studying…
Deadmau5 Arrives in Saigon as the City’s Electronic Dance Music Scene Expands (via Saigoneer)
Thousands of dancing fans gathered before an enormous digital cube covered in screens displaying memes, video game cutscenes, clips of endorphin-addled cartoon cats and random flashings of screensaver-esque visualizations while synthesizer strings slithered across a thumping bassline punctuated with warped…
The Curious Case of Hai Phong’s Nude Zodiac Sculptures (via Saigoneer)
An art installation in Hai Phong has become the butt of jokes online. You’ve probably seen them by now on your newsfeed: a set of 12 stone statues, each taking the form of one of Vietnam’s astrological sign animals. While…
Mai Khoi, ‘Vietnam’s Lady Gaga’, detained for eight hours in Hanoi after European tour (via SEA Globe)
Vietnamese singer and political activist Mai Khoi was detained for eight hours in a move that Human Rights Watch says points to intensified government efforts to stifle political opposition Vietnamese singer and pro-democracy activist Mai Khoi was detained for eight…
Mekong Review, The Accidental Southeast Asian Literary Journal (via Eksentrika)
Good Southeast Asian literature and its related commentary can be hard to find for some of the people living in this region’s – however, it is possible. One such gem is the Mekong Review, a quarterly literary journal that aims to…
Vietnam’s answer to Pussy Riot furiously dissents (via The Sydney Morning Herald)
Hanoi: Mai Khoi Do Nguyen has long been described as Vietnam’s Lady Gaga. In more recent years, as her political activism has come to the fore, her expressions of rude dissent, she has also been compared to Russia’s infamous protest band, Pussy…