East Asia is home to 30% of the world’s population but has recorded only 2.4% of the COVID-19 global death toll. Scientists are looking at possible immunity from past epidemics or even genetics.
Tag: asia
Chinese-backed projects are bringing irreperable damage to the Mekong, the largest freshwater fish source in the world feeding millions of people living along its banks.
The center-right populist Italian government has recently bowed to Chinese flattery, announcing it was ready to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that will connect Rome and Beijing on a modern Silk Road. At the end of a long, slow path of decline and political confusion, Rome is in bad need of fresh investment to boost […]
The U.S. president talks lots about the ‘art of the deal.’ But when it comes to diplomatic negotiations, his liar’s-poker tactics are seriously misplaced.
TOKYO — Since Japan“s fiscal year starts in April each year, it is in May that the country’s major corporations announce their financial statements for 2017. Most top Japanese companies have had notably great results. The net profits of Toyota and Mitsubishi, for example, hit new all-time highs for their three and ten-year results respectively. […]
BOGOTÁ — The dragon fruit, or pitaya — that exotic fruit resembling a yellow or red flame and touted for its many health benefits — might just be the great new hope of Colombia’s economy. Though the worldwide market for pitaya has long been growing for several years in such countries as China, the United […]
The southern city of Marawi was liberated last week after months of fighting which left some 1,000 dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.
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Shot Of Trouble: Fake Botox In China
BEIJING — Authorities have carried out a series of raids on beauty salons in the Chinese capital in an effort to crack down on counterfeit Botox, The Beijing News reports. Botox is popular in China, where many young women aspire to have a thin V-shape face. But the high price of injections, which require regular […]
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Demon Door
Meet Thotsakan, a demon from the Hindu epic Ramakien guarding one of the entrances to Bangkok’s Wat Arun Buddhist temple.
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Southeastern Smile
There’s something striking about Southeast Asian countries: More than any of the countless other places where I’ve pulled out my camera, people like this rickshaw driver on the Indonesian island of Java, would naturally just smile back at me.
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On The Boat Again
The many rivers in Indonesia provide an endless stream of picturesque moments, like this man in Jakarta wearing a traditional caping conical hat.
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Buddhist Carving
Every single piece of furniture handcarved in the Chiang Mai area is unique, featuring detailed scenes from Buddhist scriptures in beautiful teak or rose wood. I would have brought one of these chests back home, but I feared they were too delicate to be shipped by plane.
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The Solitary Kite
This kite looked a bit lonely, flying on its own in the gray skies above Tiananmen Square.
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Fish & Flowers
My wife was walking with a lei garland of flowers around her neck on a on the beach near Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Luckily, it was a windy day, so the ocean breeze kept the smell of the local fish away from us!
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Portugal In China
In central China’s Xi’an, we spent a memorable evening at a fancy hotel listening to traditional Chinese music. (The lady in the foreground was playing the guzheng, the one in the back the pipa). But what I remember most had nothing to do with the music: We were sitting next to Portugal’s then-President Mario Soares, […]
From launching new air routes to studying Mandarin, Egypt’s tourism industry isn’t just standing idly by while post-revolution problems keep American and European visitors away.
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Bamboo Orchestra
Having myself long been the conductor of a choir, it was only natural that I should snap a picture of this adorable orchestra of bamboo flutes in the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
Rich families from Guangzhou or Beijing are flocking to the new Asian “villages” of the famous French vacation brand. Activities include mahjong and karaoke but the beloved GOs (Genteel Organizers) are still here.
Invisible to the naked eye, the attitudes and regulations of local officials are blocking an expansion of private hospitals that most agree is much needed in China.
Over the past two years, so-called “Female Virtues classes” have become popular across China, particularly among the less-educated. The classes mainly promote antiquated ideas about how women should be submissive. It’s obviously a shrewd businessmen’s way of cashing in — but the fact that flocks of women attend them also demonstrates a certain deep-seated ethical […]
ANURADHAPURA — More than 20,000 farmers in Sri Lanka, mostly rice farmers in the north, have lost their lives in recent years because of an unexplained surge in kidney disease. It has now reached epidemic proportions, and patients are descending on overwhelmed clinics, lining up for the few dialysis machines available. Karnu Jemanta and his brother, who are working their rice field outside the village of Rambewa, are worried. “We’re not sick yet, but we may be soon,” Jemanta says. “People from the Health Ministry came and said it could be chemicals, or that we should drink more water when […]
The American beverage giant has tried to pursue customers interested in healthier and more traditional beverages. But can they sell tea to the Chinese?
BAGUIO — In South Korea, learning English is a national obsession. Families pay billions of dollars a year on extra curricular education so their children can enroll in top universities and later land high-paying jobs that require good English skills. But it’s not always affordable at home, which is why the Philippines, where English is one of the two official languages, has become one of Korea’s top destinations for overseas language education. Like almost every other South Korean high school student, 17-year-old Kang Tae-won spends every weekday evening at a private academy learning English. He believes his future depends on […]
SHANGHAI — The Ford Motor Company is taking a notably bling-bling approach to this year’s Auto Shanghai 2015 exhibition, leaving the peppy-sporty market to competitors like Toyota and Volkswagen as it angles instead for China’s high rollers. As part of its push for the Asian giant’s upscale markets, the U.S. auto manufacturer debuted its Taurus […]
Locals used to cook their food in bubbling pools of steaming groundwater. Now a project is underway to turn it into electricity.
YANGON — Burma is ready to boom. The Asia Development Bank estimates that per capita income in the southeast Asian country could increase sixfold by 2030. And another report predicts that the Burmese are poised for a level of economic growth far ahead of the global pace. The evidence of this newfound prosperity in Burma, officially known as Myanmar, is on full display at this Yangon shopping mall, where it’s easy to find products from Thailand or Hong Kong. Just two years ago, none of this would have been possible because foreign products were banned under the military junta. University […]
As China expands its anti-bribery crackdown, targeting ritzy gifts to officials, luxury brands are seeing drops in Chinese sales. The hope now is in the rising middle class moving up.
SINGAPORE — As a popular tourist destination and a place with a high-income and multicultural local population, Singapore is a particularly fertile place for dining. The British magazine Restaurant recently published its list of “Asia’s 50 best restaurants,” and eight Singapore establishments made the list. Singapore is a place where people are much more open-minded […]
In spite of the economic growth and rising living standards in many Asian countries, the status of women has strangely stagnated, and even regressed. If women’s status is only measured by remuneration, Asia surely wouldn’t be the only place where there is a marked disparity between the sexes. For instance, according to the United States […]
SHANGHAI – Times are tough for billionaires. In Italy, their tax returns are being tracked down. In France, their overseas accounts are being scrutinized. Brussels wants to ban bankers’ bonuses. Switzerland voted to outlaw golden handshakes. Even in the United States, billionaires – unless they are also philanthropists – have become suspicious characters. Fortunately, there […]
BEIJING – On April 6, China’s new Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed the North Korean situation on the phone with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Wang made China’s stance quite clear: it will not allow “troublemaking” at its doorsteps. This is the toughest talk to date from the Chinese government, and its intention is clear: to […]
The onus is on Washington and Beijing to forge a new, much deeper diplomatic bond to stop the Korean Peninsula and Japan-China conflicts from sliding into open war.
MAKASSAR – The nostalgic traveler who goes to Indonesia with the idea of walking in the footsteps of Joseph Conrad and living out their own Spice Route literary adventures will be stunned by the sheer luxury of Makassar’s airport. A symbol of Indonesia’s rapid modernization and economic growth, this city of 1.5 million inhabitants does […]
The taste of Alsace deep in the Malaysian heartland.
BERLIN – Asir’s life was preprogrammed. The North African Muslim was to be trained to be a jihadist in a Palestinian terrorist camp. There he would learn how to build bombs and kill non-believers. But just before he was due to leave, he started to have doubts. “I realized that there were several versions of […]
MADRID – Spanish has become the most spoken language in the world after English – in real life as well as on social networking sites. It is the second most used language on Twitter, after English, ahead of Portuguese and Japanese. These findings were presented in Madrid last week by the head of the Cervantes […]
KCNA (North Korea), THE KOREA HERALD (South Korea), NHK (Japan) Worldcrunch North Korea’s state-run news agency has announced the country has successfully put a satellite into orbit Wednesday. Pyongyang says the three-stage, long-range rocket was successfully launched off the west coast of North Korea Wednesday morning, after its previous attempts failed earlier this year. “The […]
MANILA TIMES (Philippines), REUTERS, BBC NEWS (UK), NEW YORK TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch MANILA – The death toll from a typhoon that swept through the Philippines archipelago jumped to 238 on Wednesday with hundreds missing, reports Reuters. At least 156 people are known to have died in the Compostela Valley province alone, when Typhoon Bopha struck […]
VIENTIANE – The feeling of lethargy still lingers in the streets of old Vientiane. Things, however, are beginning to change: the time for indolence is over. The capital of Laos, on the banks of the Mekong River, is brushing off its image as a sleepy, colonial market town by hosting the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) this […]
PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER (Philippines), CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) Worldcrunch BANGKOK– A new survey that ranks cities with the “most promiscuous men” has been making the buzz all over Asia over the past few days, the China Times reported. The survey was conducted by SeekingArrangement.com, an American-based dating website. According to the Bangkok Post the study involved […]