With a story that ranges from the 1940s to the present and, although mostly set in Bangkok, revolving largely around Teochew-speaking Chinese from Guangdong, this generations-spanning drama feels like a good old-fashioned novel. A romantic beach read, perhaps, the kind in which coincidences and random accidents cause misunderstandings that last for decades until the truth is finally revealed. It’s sentimental in places, sure, but there’s also a fair bit of salty, bawdy humour to cut the sweetness, lashings of period colour, and impressively naturalistic performances from a mostly non-professional cast.…
Tag: Thailand
Thai court sentences two Uyghur men to death for 2015 Bangkok bombing
A Thai court has handed out death sentences to two Uyghur men from the north-western Chinese region of Xinjiang for a 2015 bombing in the centre of Bangkok that killed 20 people. The explosion occurred at the Erawan Shrine in the centre of Bangkok, an area popular with foreign tourists. As well as the 20 people killed, another 120 were injured. Five of the dead were from mainland China and two from Hong Kong. “The actions of both defendants constitute multiple separate offences,” the court statement said, adding the sentence…
‘Unpredictable and extreme’: Asia braces for El Niño
The UN has warned that the world must prepare for the imminent return of El Niño and the raised global temperatures and weather extremes it brings. The powerful natural weather pattern has an 80% chance of forming before September and a 90% chance before November, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday. Experts say what is particularly concerning is that El Niño is unfolding against the backdrop of human-driven climate change, meaning there is the potential for its impacts to be supercharged. Asia is predicted to be one of…
A day in the life of Asia’s fuel crisis
4.30am Kaipara, New ZealandJames Brady, farmer We’ve got a small dairy farm, north of Auckland. We milk 200 cows and have a small amount of beef cattle and young stock. We start about 4.30am in the morning – checking cows, feeding, milking and then we do it again in the afternoon. Most of the day is spent tending to stock, moving animals, and we’re busy renewing pastures at the moment. Diesel is our main fuel – we run two tractors and machinery. We have quad bikes that run on petrol.…
Malaysian vessels permitted to travel through strait of Hormuz, country’s PM says after Iran talks
Malaysia’s prime minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday he had spoken to the leaders of Iran, Egypt, Turkey and other regional countries and that Malaysian vessels were now being allowed to pass through the strait of Hormuz. In a televised address, Anwar thanked Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, for allowing the passage of Malaysian ships. “We are now in the process of releasing the Malaysian oil tankers and the workers involved so that they may continue their journey home,” he said. Malaysia, despite being an oil-producing nation, is highly dependent on…
Lunar new year 2026: year of the fire horse around the world – in pictures
From the heart of Beijing to far-flung Manila, Panama, Moscow and New York, communities around the globe ring in the lunar new year Continue reading… The Guardian
Sir Nick White obituary
The idea that a traditional Chinese herbal treatment could be the answer to drug-resistant malaria was tough to swallow for many policymakers in global health. With a combination of dogged persistence, commitment to communities in affected countries and impeccable research design, Nick White changed their minds. He led a campaign to make antimalarial drug combinations containing artemisinin, extracted in China from a common plant, the globally recommended treatment for the most common form of malaria. Millions of lives have been saved as a result. White, who has died aged 74,…
A Times Reporter Goes Inside a Cyberscam Center in a War Zone
Holy moly. Look at these phones. The floor is just littered with SIM cards. We’re in Myanmar. Only weeks after rebel fighters took control of a cyberscam center near the border with Thailand. For years, Chinese criminals have used ordinary office spaces like this in the middle of the jungle to target Americans in elaborate online fraud. OK, here we are, the nerve center of this multibillion-dollar industry that is scamming people all across the world. More than 3,000 people from dozens of countries were once employed here, joining an…
Cuddling capybaras and ogling otters: the problem with animal cafes in Asia
The second floor of an unassuming office building in central Bangkok is a strange place to encounter the world’s largest rodent. Yet here, inside a small enclosure with a shallow pool, three capybaras are at the disposal of dozens of paying customers – all clamouring for a selfie. As people eagerly thrust leafy snacks toward the nonchalant-looking animals, few seem to consider the underlying peculiarity: how, exactly, did this South American rodent end up more than 10,000 miles from home, in a bustling Asian metropolis? Capybara cafes have been cropping…
Alleged gambling kingpin linked to scam centres extradited from Thailand to China
She Zhijiang, an alleged transnational crime kingpin accused by Beijing of having run more than 200 illegal online gambling operations, is being extradited to China from Bangkok on Wednesday, Thai police have said. The Chinese national is perhaps the most prominent figure among Asia’s alleged cybercrime operators to be arrested, and has been linked to regional scam networks by the US. She, 43, a Chinese national who also holds a Cambodian passport, was arrested by Thai police in August 2022 on an international warrant and an Interpol red notice requested…