Mar
15
2014
Squint just a little and they’re almost visible: the choleric soldiers in the uniform of Empire, shining boots and brass buttons; the twirling women in diaphanous flounces and frills; the Indian servants, and the sweating band in the corner, pumping out a waltz for the ruling expatriates in this tropical corner of the colonies, the …read more
Feb
1
2014
Duncan Menzies died a brutal and bizarre death in a remote jungle village in northern Burma. The 24-year-old lieutenant from Adelaide had been trying to find some food for his desperate comrades when Japanese soldiers caught him, shaved off his beard, dressed him in a Japanese uniform and shot him. More than 70 years later, …read more
Feb
1
2014
Sheer hard work, dedication, and a refusal to be distracted: Asian-Australian teenagers have their eyes on the glittering prizes – scholarships, top exam marks, sought-after university places. Jackson Huang, for one, insists he doesn’t mind a 90-minute commute to school every day. The long trip, he says, gives him time to “relax”. Otherwise, he’s in …read more
Jan
2
2014
Connoisseurs of Bangkok often say the city is best seen from the water. Lying back in a long-tailed boat, speeding along the mighty Chao Phraya river or drifting through the scenic canals; standing squeezed in a commuter ferry, or sitting comfortably in a tourist boat: the scene from sea level is simply different; quieter, gentler. …read more
Dec
21
2013
Now sadly shabby, the two-storey red house in the remote northern Myanmar town of Katha was once an imposing edifice, a wood and brick statement of colonial power. Ghosts of former grandeur can be seen in the building’s substantial teak staircase, lofty ceilings and brick fireplace. Deserted, with a rusting tin roof and stained walls, …read more
Dec
21
2013
A long queue of fidgeting kids stretches back from the school’s door; kids whispering and giggling, intoxicated by the presence of fame. Tennis champion Li Na patiently autographs their tightly-clutched tennis balls, poses for photos and scrawls her name in book after book. Launching the English language version of her ghost-written autobiography ‘My Life’ in …read more
Dec
7
2013
Xia Li doesn’t want to help clear away the dishes. She’s having fun, laughing and chattering, and she’s slow to get up from her chair. But a few quiet words from a retired Australian primary school teacher gets her up and moving. Sitting at the other end of the noisy dinner table, teacher Linda Shum …read more
Dec
2
2013
The 30,000 cornflower-blue porcelain butterflies clustered on Caroline Cheng’s robe symbolise China for the British-born artist. From a distance, all the tiny butterflies look the same: the same blue, the same shape, roughly the same size: a flock of identical ornaments sewn on to the burlap backing. Yet Cheng says a close inspection reveals that …read more
Oct
27
2013
Could it get any more poetic? Sitting on an open verandah, drinking a bottle of Yunnan’s Windflower Sun and Moon lager, gazing across a garden of deepening shadows to the distant Jade Dragon Snow Mountain range: only a Chinese Coleridge could do this scene justice.
Sep
27
2013
The living is easy in some Asian cities – streamlined, ordered, functional. Others, in their own charming way, can be hell on wheels. Inching traffic in Bangkok and Jakarta can drive the most easy-going commuter stir-crazy; Ho Chi Minh City’s roaring fleets of weaving motor-cycles, Phnom Penh’s potholed and obstacle-strewn pavements – all anathema to …read more