May 16-22, 2014
BAREFOOT IN INDIA
Contents May 16-22, 2014
❖ Travel
❖ Weekly Briefing
❖ Society
Barefoot in India
Crime watch
The changing face of Chinese workers
Contents May 16-22, 2014
❖ Society
❖ Society
❖ Politics
❖ Wildlife
Behind the scenes in the hermit kingdom
One too many sultans
Still standing—but at what cost?
Pandas going wild
Contents May 16-22, 2014
❖ Culture
❖ Lifestyle
Datebook
Seeing Asia through artists’ eyes
Manly revolution
Happenings around Asia
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WEEKLY BRIEFING
May 16-22, 2014
MAN JAILED, CANED FOR 'LITTLE INDIA' RIOT jONATHAN CHOO/ST FILE PHOTO
SINGAPORE: Ramalingam Sakthivel, 33, the first man to plead guilty to rioting during last December's unrest in Little India, was sentenced to 30 months in jail and three strokes of the cane. Ramalingam, a construction worker, was also sentenced to a 27-month jail term for causing mischief by fire, after he was seen by the court on CCTV attempting to set a private bus on fire. The sentences are to run concurrently and to be backdated to his remand date of December 8. — Lim Yan Liang/The Straits Times
Ramalingam Sakthivel, according to Deputy presiding judge Jennifer marie, was no meek follower, he even rallied others to join him.
WEEKLY BRIEFING
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LIFE'S IRONY: RAPED WOMAN FACES CANE
The qanun acara jinayat, a sharia-based criminal code, stipulates caning of a minimum of three times to a maximum of nine times for violators of any of the four qanun.
BANDA ACEH: In Indonesia, a 25-year-old Acehnese woman is at risk of being caned by Aceh’s sharia police despite being a victim of gang rape in her own home in Langsa. The rape took place in the woman’s house at around 1am on May 1 when she, who was with a married man in her house. She was closely observed by nine villagers who were suspicious of her and her companion’s movements. When the woman and her male companion went inside, the villagers followed, tied up the woman’s companion placed him in a cupboard before allegedly taking turns to rape the woman. The group then handed the woman and man to the
village chief who, in turn, gave them to the sharia police. The sharia police eventually released the woman and her companion. The Langsa City Police later went after the rapists but were able to arrest only six of them as the others had fled. Women activists have urged the administration to handle the case fairly, saying that the rapists must be punished. An activist at the Balai Syura Ureung Inong Aceh, Norma Manalu, said committing rape in the name of sharia law was completely inappropriate and contrary to true Islamic values. — Hotli Simanjuntak/ The Jakarta Post
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WEEKLY BRIEFING
CHILDREN CRY FOR HELP
indonesia's National Police has recorded nearly 100 child sexual abuse cases in 18 provinces so far this year, with Riau Islands topping the list with 64 cases.
JAKARTA: The number 120 is not a mere statistic. When Sukabumi Police revealed that they found 120 names written in a diary belonging to suspected pedophile Andri Sobari alias Emon, the public was shaken. Police said 70 per cent of those named in the diary matched the names of victims who had filed reports with the police. Emon’s crime is not the only case to surface over the past few months. More reports of child sexual abuse have been filed with the police, including the alleged rape of a 6-yearold boy by cleaners at Jakarta International School (JIS). The National Police recorded 98 child sexual abuse cases in 18 provinces so far this year, with Riau Islands topping the list with 64 cases. In 2013, police investigated 1,635 child sexual abuse cases.
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The proliferation of cases has prompted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to declare “a national movement against child sexual abuse”, calling on the government; related institutions; experts; teachers; women’s organisations; the press; businesspeople, and local communities to be more active in protecting children from sex predators. The movement includes raising awareness, immediate legal action and tough penalties, as well as rehabilitation for the victims. Yudhoyono, himself a grandfather of two, said he would soon draft a presidential instruction on guidelines for child-protection measures and would invite experts
and the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) to give input next week. He also hoped the House of Representatives would immediately revise the 2002 Child Protection Law to include better preventive measures and to apply harsher punishments for child predators following growing calls for effective deterrents. Lawmakers had previously agreed to revise the law, which imposes up to 15 years of imprisonment or between 60 million rupiah (US$5,203) and 300 million rupiah in fines on convicted pedophiles, in the upcoming sitting session. National Police chief Gen. Sutarman urged parents to
monitor and educate their children and report any allegations to police should something be wrong with their children. He also urged lawmakers to set “a life sentence or death penalty in the revision to the 2002 law”. The involvement of society is necessary because the archipelago lacks any childfriendly cities, according to Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Linda Amalia Sari. She said the government’s programme on child-friendly cities should be supported by all units of society, as it aimed to give children a chance to grow and develop safely and healthily. — The Jakarta Post ¬
May 16-22, 2014
SOCIETY AFP PHOTOS
THE CHANGING FACE OF CHINESE WORKERS Conditions and salary have improved as rapid change takes over China, but not everyone is happy
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Joseph Catanzaro and Cai Muyuan China Daily Beijing
I
t's 8am in Shenzhen, and outside Foxconn, the better part of the mega-factory's 160,000 employees are coming on or off shift. Young men and women stream through security checkpoints, entering the rarely seen world inside the company's China headquarters. The grounds are neatly manicured. Tree-lined streets full of restaurants and retailers break up the blocks of utilitarian buildings where production lines churn out iPhones, iPods and computers. In one corner of the compound stands a cluster of apartment blocks, home to some 40,000 employees. There is a hospital and a sports field, a canteen that serves 16,000 people at each sitting. There is a building with a "therapy room" decorated in bright colours, where workers
can sit and stare at stickers of cavorting butterflies, or a painting of a stag with bouquets of flowers sprouting from its antlers. Across the hall is a bustling call centre where operators man a counseling help line for employees. The line between factory and city blurs beneath kilometres of suicide prevention nets. Since 2010, when global media attention fixed on Foxconn following a spate of attempted suicides, the manufacturing giant has rightly or wrongly been held
up as a weathervane for working conditions in China. But whether through corporate confidentiality, or the barriers of culture and language, much about the professional and private lives of Chinese workers remains a mystery even today. Five years after Time magazine named the Chinese worker runner-up in its annual person of the year award, China Daily takes readers inside Foxconn and behind closed doors of businesses across the nation, for a glimpse
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into the lives of the ordinary people driving the world's secondlargest economy And the latest figures released by China's National Bureau of Statistics show those lives are changing dramatically. Nothing gleams in building E5, an open hangarlike space with concrete floors. This is not one of the massive production lines where workers assemble shiny finished products for Apple, HP, Nokia, IBM, Samsung, Amazon, Sony and Dell. Suggested in the shapes of casts and molds is the secretive anatomy of the world's smartphones and tablets. Li Guizhen, 32, watches over a row of silent women who delicately pick at components with tiny implements. Like the vast majority of Foxconn employees, Li is a migrant worker, one of almost 269 million men and women in China who have left their hometown temporarily or permanently to work in the nation's cities and manufacturing centres.
A devout Muslim and father of two, Li is about 3,000 kilometres from the farm in Xinjiang where he grew up. Beyond geography, the distance can be measured in years and money and lifestyle, a journey from poverty to the doorstep of China's burgeoning middle class. "When I was a little kid, my father was a farmer, and we were very poor," Li said. Now, as a manager in the mold-making production area, he earns more in two months than his father made in an entire year as a farmer. In another part of the compound, somewhere on the factory line, 21-year-old Jiang Caixia dutifully checks the backs of iPhones for scratches. "I check about 260 per hour," she said. "I check more than 2,000 phones per day." A farmer's daughter, Jiang got a job with Foxconn two years ago. "I live here inside the factory in a dormitory," she said. Her typical workday starts at 8am. She has a 30-minute lunch
break, and finishes at about 6pm. If there's a big order in, she works from 8am to 8pm, with the last two hours paid at overtime rates. "The base wage is 2,500 yuan (US$325) a month," she said. "With overtime, I can get about 3,700 or 3,800 yuan (around $600)." Turn the clock forward a decade or so, and Jiang might be Sun Xiaoji, the woman sitting next to her outside the "Foxconn Cafe". The daughter of humble farmers, Sun finished high school about 16 years ago and left her hometown in Hubei province to work on the Foxconn production line. In many ways, 36-year-old Sun represents the changing face of the Chinese worker. "I never went to college before I came here. But they had a programme here at Foxconn. I got a technology degree (vocational qualification) by going to class after work." Sun is now an assistant production manager and a mother
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of two. She makes about 16,000 yuan ($2,550) per month, enough to employ an ayi, or nanny, to help take care of her two children, aged 6 years and 18 months. Shenzhen is now her home. She owns a house in town with her husband, who also works for Foxconn. The conditions and salary, Sun conceded, weren't always this good. But she said the catalyst that has defined modern China, rapid change, is now reshaping the lives of workers. "When I first came here, we didn't know how to protect our rights," she said. "If there were extra hours, we were happy to work extra hours. We didn't know there were laws that say you are not allowed to work over a certain amount of hours. I used to think that working meant I just have to work hard. Now I think I have to work hard, but I also have to feel happy in my work." Jiang plays with an inexpensive Huawei handset. She said she
couldn't yet afford to buy one of the more than 10,000 iPhones she helps make every week. Her parents were too poor to send her to a university, but she said she is happy with the work and pay. So is Sun. "It's not like what outsiders say, that we are a sweatshop factory," Sun said. In February, the day after the traditional Chinese New Year holiday ended, migrant workers lined up outside Foxconn's gates looking for work—20,000 of them, said the company's spokesman for the Chinese mainland, Liu Kun. The profile of the average employee in the Shenzhen factory is a 23-year-old male from a poor rural area who has a low level of formal education and little or no practical work experience. Liu complained that employee loyalty is a thing of the past. "Sometimes they are like working-holiday tourists," Liu said. Wu Shengyang and his friends rank among that generation of
more mobile workers. They slowly walk along a wall in the maze of streets that is downtown Shenzhen, perusing a collage of printed and hand-scrawled job notices plastered on signs. Packs of other 20-something migrant workers follow in their wake. "We just got here from Guangzhou today," he said. Wu hopes to find work nearby in what looks like a cluster of dilapidated warehouses, each a teeming ecosystem of small business. "We are always travelling around the country looking for the best short-term job. It's better because you get paid for what you work." In one of those buildings, Zhao Shuang, 30, hunches over a sewing machine and churns out women's business tops. Zhao came to Shenzhen to work about 10 years ago. Her husband is a construction worker. He and their 5-year-old daughter live in Hubei. His parents help take care of their little one.
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Zhao starts at 8am, and usually pulls a 10-hour shift, six days a week. She said she makes 4,000 to 5,000 yuan a month, on par with the average wage for a university graduate in Beijing, which a survey by human resources provider Zhaopin last year found to be 4,746 yuan. But unlike many workers employed by big companies, she receives no healthcare or housing. Her boss, Lu Keqin, looks up from his machine to chime in. "If they make more they earn more. When business is good and there's lots of work, they can make 10,000 yuan a month. They choose their hours, it's very flexible." Zhao's family story is a snapshot of the evolution of the Chinese worker. Her parents were poor farmers, she is a manufacturing worker, and she said her daughter would go to a university. "I only see my child once or twice a year. It's really hard, I really miss her, but it's easier to make money here, and I need to make money for her. I just want the best
in life for my daughter." A willingness to make personal sacrifices for the family is a characteristic of Chinese workers that Foxconn spokesman Liu believes is on the wane. "For the new generation, it's been the boom time of the Chinese economy," Liu said. "The country has seen a giant change from agricultural society to the global village. When he or she goes out to get a job, sometimes it's only to earn money for themselves, not their family, so their sense of responsibility is sometimes lower." When that wave of generational change hit Foxconn five or six years ago, Liu said the company wasn't prepared. He maintains Foxconn was unfairly targeted over the string of attempted suicides among their employees in 2010, but he pointed out the company has since introduced a number of initiatives like the counseling help line, and raised basic wages "by over 160 per cent".
In a report released in December, international workers rights group Fair Labour Association found that 98.9 per cent of recommendations it made to Foxconn for improving working conditions had been implemented. But not everyone on the factory floor is happy. Lu Feng sits on his bed in the tiny apartment he rents in Shenzhen for 450 yuan a week. There's a cardboard box for a side table, a PC and not much else. "I'm sick of working in a factory," he said. Lu, 21, began working for Foxconn when he was 17. A migrant worker from Henan province, he punches out 3,000 to 4,000 motherboards for Apple computers during each eight to 10-hour shift, six days a week. "The work is very boring," he says. "You can't talk to each other, you can't listen to music. I think it's very depressing. My friends (at Foxconn) think it's very depressing."
May 16-22, 2014
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file photo taken in May 2010 of Chinese workers gathered outside the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, in southern China's Guangdong province, before they start their shift.
May 16-22, 2014
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Chinese workers make their way back to a Foxconn factory after lunch break in an industrial district of Foshan City, southern China's Guangdong province in this file photo taken in June 2010.
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With wages rising nationally, he believes he can make more than the roughly 3,000 yuan he takes home from Foxconn per month, and he has handed in his resignation. On a factory floor near the outskirts of Beijing, Xu Libo pops his head out of a bus engine bay. Up and down the manufacturing line, other Foton automotive workers weld and grind and bolt the people movers together. Xu, a 32-year-old migrant worker from Shiyan in Hebei province, said his wages have almost doubled to 5,000 yuan per month in the past five years. But there's a tradeoff. He now works an average of 11 hours per day, six days a week, compared with eight hours a day roughly two years ago. A married father of one, Xu reckons more money for more work is a decent deal.
WHAT THEY WANT
Li the Foxconn supervisor now earns enough to have his wife and
two children live with him in Shenzhen, a rarity for a migrant worker. His wish in life is to have financial security, so his children can follow their dreams. Sun the Foxconn middle manager wants to continue climbing the corporate ladder. Sitting at her sewing machine, Zhao daydreams about seeing her daughter more than twice a year. Xu from the bus factory looks forward to the moment at the end of every shift when he phones home. His 3-year-old daughter sings him songs and reads him Chinese poetry. One day soon, he hopes to be with her in person, when she does. Lu wants to take his entire family on a holiday. They've never had one. Jiang is proud that she makes things that are used every day by people all over China and the world. She also believes hard work in her country can produce more than just iPhones and buses and clothing. "I believe you make your own destiny." ÂŹ
KEY FIGURES CITY WORKERS 14,040 yuan
The average yearly wage for Chinese urban workers in 2003, according to the National Bureau of Statistics
47,593 YUAN
Average annual wages, according to the most recent figures in 2012, show that pay for urban workers has more than tripled
RURAL WORKERS 2,622 YUAN
The average rural net income per capita in 2003
7,916 YUAN
The average rural net income per capita has also tripled over the same period in 2012
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May 16-22, 2014
For many, North Korea is a mysterious place, but two Englishmen know the country well and have even made a film there
Matt Hodges China Daily Beijing
W
hen it comes to North Korea, Simon Cockerell and Nicholas Bonner have been there, skied the prestige-project resort (Masik Pass), made a "feminist" propaganda movie, Comrade Kim Goes Flying, and dealt with the ensuing mixed bag of criticism. If anyone is qualified to talk about how the country is changing from the inside, at least from the
PHOTOS FROM 'COMRADE KIM GOES FLYING' FACEBOOK PAGE
BEHIND THE SCENES IN THE HERMIT KINGDOM
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used to the 'elite and everyone else' model, which has gone out of the window a bit." Ray Cunningham from the United States has visited North Korea multiple times and possesses what may be the largest collection of photos of the isolated country on photo-sharing website Flickr. "While the pace of change is glacial, travelling annually gives one a perspective on how change is filtering down to the average citizen," he says. "More independent sellers are basis of empirical observation, their credentials would appear hard to beat. Bonner has been travelling to the hermit kingdom since he launched Beijing-based Koryo Tours in 1992. Fellow Englishman Cockerell joined in 2002. "North Korea isn't China," winces tour operator Cockerell when pressed to identify the latest shifts in one of the final
frontiers of tourism in Asia. "Change happens gradually over three- or four- year periods, not overnight." "There's a clearly emerging middle class, or what passes for a middle class, in Pyongyang," he adds after a pause. "Cell phones, consumer goods and nicer clothes are much more visible now, and this makes it harder for foreign analysts, because they are
HAN JONG SIM AND PAK CHUNG GUK THE STARS OF "COMRADE KIM GOES FLYING" ATTEND THE PREMIER AT THE PYONGYANG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ON SEPT 24, 2012.
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seen each year and a spirit of optimism seems to be emerging even in the remote towns of the northeast. "I was fascinated with North Korea and how it compared and contrasted with rural China." In January, Cockerell became one of the first foreigners to hit the slopes of the Masik Pass Ski Resort. In 2012, Bonner whipped up a storm of controversy by producing the first foreign-made fulllength feature film for the country. Short-filmmaker Anja Daelemans of Belgium co-directed. Cockerell also worked on the project. The two Englishmen discussed making the film, Comrade Kim Goes Flying, and three documentaries shot in the country, as well as their experience of leading tours there, during a five-day publicity swing through Shanghai. The movie, a romantic comedy, has been doing the rounds at international film festival for 18 months
but has only been screened twice in China, including a showing in Shanghai in February. It sounds on paper like a North Korean version of the 1983 Hollywood hit Flash Dance. But instead of an exotic dancer from Pittsburgh who welds steel by day while dreaming of becoming a ballerina, the plot revolves around a female miner who makes it as a national acrobat and falls in love along the way. "I get into arguments with my girlfriend all the time about the legitimacy of projects like this and 'ethical tourism' when working with a country like North Korea," Bonner says. "But at the end of the day we try to encourage as much interaction with tourists and local people as we can, which we think helps." The US film authorities have blasted the pair for effectively supporting the country by producing a propaganda-laced movie, but other
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US critics and media including the Wall Street Journal have been more effusive in their praise. Cockerell says: "Every film made in North Korea is a propaganda film. They all have to adhere to a playbook written by (late Dear Leader) Kim Jong-il two decades ago, which can create a lot of headaches." In a country where many things appear off-kilter, both of the two leads were acrobats not actors, while one of North Korea’s top movie stars accepted a small supporting role. The crew encountered numerous problems during pre-production and shooting. For example, actors are not allowed to kiss in North Korean movies. Love triangles are also banned. "This was a real labour of love for Nick," says Cunningham. "What he accomplished in the years he worked on the film is quite remarkable given the logistical issues of working in North Korea. The movie
and story are a great mix of Korean and Western cinema." These days Koryo Tours takes around 2,000 people a year to the country to visit Soviet-era factories, cycle through its verdant rice paddies, play amateur football or ice hockey games with local teams, or just marvel at a land trapped in time. There are also tours for marathon runners, cyclists, golfers and even the Koryo Veterans Tour for those like Cunningham who thirst for something new. After the reclusive state recently repealed a tourism ban from mid-December to mid-January—no reason was given for its implementation or removal—tourists can even spend New Year's Eve enjoying fireworks in Kim Sung-il Square and taking boat rides. Cockerell was courtside when former NBA star Dennis Rodman sang Happy Birthday to Kim Jongun at an exhibition basketball game
in January. He described the impromptu ditty as exactly the kind of unexpected twist that is drawing hordes of long-term Asia expatriates and others to the country. Despite the bluster from the staterun KNCA about a "sea of fire" raining down on Seoul and Washington, about one-quarter of all tourists who visit are from the United States. Until restrictions were lifted in 2010, US tourists were only granted visas for up to four days. They can now travel yearround instead of only during the Mass Games, which run for two to three months in the summer on those years when the country has something to celebrate. Several days after the recent US-North Korea basketball games in Pyongyang, Cockerell crossed paths with Rodman at Masik Pass. He said Rodman, who is reportedly helping North Korea set up a professional basketball league, had "already had
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a few drinks by that point". Tact being a trick of the trade, he didn't elaborate. Cockerell also shared the slopes with North Korea’s answer to the Spice Girls, the 25-member Moranbong Band, and was invited to eat Korean barbecue at the end of one of the runs by friendly soju-swilling locals. "I was expecting empty slopes, but there were probably 200 to 300 people," he says. "Not many experienced skiers, though, so they had their professional ski rescue squad out in force. They looked like a combination of wardens and guides." When former journalist Jean Lee visited a few weeks later, she told the BBC it confirmed for her how "it's not easy to make friends in North Korea, but sport transcends barriers". Bonner, who trained as a landscape architect, described Pyongyang as "one of the most beautiful cities in North Asia" due to its
preserved Soviet-era buildings and monolithic statues. "It certainly has its own charm. It's a blank slate onto which you can project whatever you want," adds Cockerell, "unless you find examples of utilitarian, Soviet-era brutalism an eyesore". With 150,000 seats, the city's May Day Stadium ranks as the largest-capacity sports arena in the world. Construction of marquis projects resumed in earnest several years ago after a 20-year slump. Bonner also discussed making A State of Mind, a documentary tracking two female gymnasts from different ends of the social spectrum as they prepare for the Mass Games. The non-competitive games are famous for hosting the world's largest synchronised mosaic-forming performance as audiences hold aloft jigsaw puzzle-like placards. For another documentary, The Game of Their Lives, Bonner
caught up with surviving members of the North Korean football team. It shocked the world by becoming the first Asian team to advance to the quarterfinals of a World Cup in England in 1966. The award-winning film captures some emotional reunions as they head back to Middlesbrough, an industrial town in Northwest England that ended up adopting them during the tournament. One of the players is still known as "The Dentist" by Italians for all the pain North Korea caused the country during an historic upset en route to the final eight. North Korea is not scheduled to hold a Mass Games this year, but Cockerell expects to see a colossal party next summer when the country celebrates the 70th anniversary of the end of Japanese colonial rule. Probably not a bad time to book your trip. ÂŹ
May 16-22, 2014
SOCIETY Jay DIRECTO/AFP
Self-declared Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III (R) with his brother Sultan Bantilan Esmail Kiram II (L) in his home in Manila on March 10, 2013.
ONE TOO MANY SULTANS There are many claimants to the Sultanate of Sulu, making it impossible for them to reclaim the land their ancestors lost
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THE STAR
Paramount Sultan Ibrahim Q. Bahjin-Shakirullah II.
Philip Golingai The Star Petaling Jaya
R
ecently I visited Sulu and Zamboanga City in southern Philippines, and guess who kept popping up during my trip? The Sultan of Sulu. Two and a half of them, in fact. On Wednesday, I was introduced to a man related to the late Jamalul Kiram III—the self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu—at a fish market on Jolo island in Sulu province. The 60-something man who spoke Bahasa Malaysia claimed to be Jamalul’s younger brother. However, he did not want to admit he was a Kiram. "Perhaps he was afraid because his brother Azzimudie led the intrusion into Sabah," said my friend, referring to the Lahad Datu armed intrusion by the Royal Sulu Army to claim Sabah in March last year.
The next day I met Muedzul-Lail Tan Kiram who claimed to be the Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo. The 48-year-old sat on his wooden throne at his house in Jolo town while I asked him about the kidnapping on Jolo island. Then, on Friday, I met a 62-year-old cardiologist in Zamboanga City in Mindanao who believed he was indeed the real Sultan of Sulu. This man claimed to be the Paramount Sultan Ibrahim Q. Bahjin-Shakirullah II. "Are you Chinese?" asked the Paramount Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo. "I’m Kadazan," I answered. "What is Kadazan?" he asked. "See, you don’t even know your own subjects," I said. The cardiologist laughed heartily and said: "I have never been
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to Sabah. I have not received any invitation." "Why don’t you invite yourself ?" I asked. "If I do, my people will gather in big numbers in Sabah and the (Malaysian) government will be alarmed," he pointed out. "That is why I won’t go without an invite," he added. "Who are the people who will gather in big numbers when you arrive in Sabah?" I asked. "The rakyat (citizens)," he said. "And, who are these rakyat?" I enquired. "The Tausug people," he said. The Tausugs are called Suluks in Sabah. "Who is the real Sultan of Sulu?" I then asked. "Are you ready to listen from the beginning? This is not a short story but a long one," he said. The Paramount Sultan told me a tale that began in 1936 and involved treachery, Spanish, Ameri-
cans, Kirams, rivalry, Malacanang and the Sultan’s consort who was someone else’s wife. I got lost midway through the history lesson—to be exact, his version of history. Anyway, to cut his long story short, his line is the real Sultan of Sulu and not the Kirams. "How many Sultans of Sulu are there?" I asked. "So many. All of those who are invoking genealogical linkage to the sultanate—even those who don’t belong to the royal houses," he said. "Are the others claiming to be sultans, your rivals?" I asked. "They are not my rivals as I am the Paramount Sultan," said the cardiologist who was proclaimed Paramount Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo in 2004. "So you are the No. 1 sultan?" I suggested. "I am equal with them. But some consider the Paramount
Sultan as No. 1," he said with a satisfied smile. Throughout the conversation, the Paramount Sultan insisted that Sabah belonged to the Sulu sultanate and as a Sabahan, I argued passionately that the claim had no basis. He argued that the 1878 agreement between Alfred Dent and Baron von Overbeck of the North Borneo Company and the Sultan of Sulu stated that the sultanate had leased and not ceded North Borneo (what Sabah was called before 1963) to the British company. "Malaysia is still paying the sultanate 5,300 ringgit (US$1,643) a year for leasing Sabah," he pointed out. "Who gets the money?" I asked him. "It is shared by the nine family members of the Kirams," he said. In 1939, Chief Justice C.F.C. Macaskie of the High Court of
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North Borneo ruled that "cessation money" was payable to the nine heirs of Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram II, who died childless in 1936. "You are not getting any of the money?" I asked. "I don’t want the money. The rental (money) is a curse. The one who receives it without spending a cent on the rakyat will be cursed to die in poverty," he said. What the Paramount Sultan dreams of is to unite all the Sultans of Sulu so that they can claim what their ancestors have lost—North Borneo, Sulu, Tawi Tawi, Basilan, Sulu, Sibugay (part of Mindanao), Palawan and Spratly islands. "Geo political intrigue in Southeast Asia will not allow us to be united. "Malaysia, Philippines, United States, Australia and other countries don’t want the sultanate to be united. Because if we
WHAT THE PARAMOUNT SULTAN DREAMS OF IS TO UNITE ALL THE SULTANS OF SULU SO THAT THEY CAN CLAIM WHAT THEIR ANCESTORS HAVE LOST—NORTH BORNEO, SULU, TAWI TAWI, BASILAN, SULU, SIBUGAY (PART OF MINDANAO), PALAWAN AND SPRATLY ISLANDS are united, we can get back our historical rights." "Why can’t you all unite?" I asked. "I can spend a thousand pesos to call a sultan for a unity meeting but the Philippines can pay a sultan one million pesos and make him a puppet. The same with Malaysia, United States and Australia," he said. "So you will never ever be united?" "There is China," he said, with a knowing smile. "China is interested in the Sulu sultanate. Spratlys was the picnic
ground of the Sultan of Sulu. China’s claim to it is that the Sultan of Sulu donated it to them." "Some people think that those who are claiming to be Sultan of Sulu are a joke? Is it a joke?" I asked. "They are right," he said. "Why?" I said. "Because they are too many claimants," he said. Many claimants dream they can make billions of ringgit from Sabah, the property their ancestors lost. ¬
May 16-22, 2014
POLITICS afp photos
STILL STANDING — BUT AT WHAT COST? It has been slightly over a year since Malaysia’s tumultuous 13th general elections saw the Najib Tun Razak-led ruling Barisan Nasional party return to power by a smaller margin. What has changed since?
POLITICS
May 16-22, 2014
Carolyn Hong The Straits Times Kuala Lumpur
I
t has been an extraordinary start of the year for Prime Minister Najib Razak as Malaysia struggled in the glare of global media attention over the mysterious disappearance of an airliner in mid-flight. Every fumble by his officials at press briefings on the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 was broadcast worldwide; accusations of cover-ups, delays and indecisiveness were amplified by critics who say these were but symptoms of Malaysia's deep malaise: a lack of accountability and transparency, and a leadership that shies from tackling hard issues. Najib was criticised for not just being absent from most
MH370 briefings but also from the helm generally. To be fair, he has not been sitting on his hands since being returned to power last year.
Notably, he has pushed ahead with the hugely unpopular task of slashing the country's subsidy bill, which has soared to 40 billion ringgit (US$12.4 billion) a year. This was done at some risk to the support base which gave victory to his Barisan Nasional (BN) ruling coalition, albeit with a smaller mandate. The BN took 133 of the 222 parliamentary seats, down from 140 in 2008. While the attempt to restore the budget to long-term health is applauded by economists, to many Malaysians, not enough is being done to redress the most fundamental issues, like the country's fraying social fabric. There is also frustration that Najib has been less proactive than in his first term after becoming prime minister in 2009, and that he has gone silent on matters where lead-
POLITICS
May 16-22, 2014
ership from the very top would have helped. He has hardly made any major announcement on reforms under his much-touted Economic Transformation Programme launched in 2010. These used to happen regularly. He has also stopped going on his famous walkabouts to different ethnic neighbourhoods, watching football with young people or making an appearance in a Chinese New Year video. In short, gone are the efforts that used to send the message that he was inclusive and stood for multi-racialism. Some analysts attribute his lower profile partly to a need to consolidate his position. His predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi lost his job soon after a poor electoral showing in 2008. The BN did even worse in 2013. "PM Najib's biggest accomplishment after GE13 is to re-
main the PM," said Dr Faisal Hazis, a political analyst at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Najib disarmed potential troublemakers within his coalition by giving them plum Cabinet posts, as in the case of BN allies from Sabah and Sarawak. Mukhriz Mahathir, son of the man who might have been his harshest critic, former premier Mahathir Mohamad, was named Kedah menteri besar. With that challenge taken care of, Najib turned his attention to economic reforms, removing some of the food and fuel subsidies and preparing for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to be introduced next year. Political backlash is inevitable as prices rise. On May Day, some 15,000 people gathered in Kuala Lumpur to protest against the GST. The thinking is that the anger will dissipate by the time the next general election comes
around in four years. But analyst Khoo Kay Peng, who runs his own consultancy, says the government still has to demonstrate that these economic measures will benefit Malaysians as much as it benefits Malaysia, otherwise "everyone will be worse off ". Meanwhile, not much has moved on efforts to address long-standing complaints about corruption, incompetent bureaucrats and falling education standards. Shortly after the election results last May, Najib appointed the respected former head of Transparency International Malaysia, Paul Low, as a Cabinet minister tasked with eradicating graft in government. It was one of the more remarkable Cabinet choices but the appointment has not had much impact. Low acknowledged in an interview with The
POLITICS
May 16-22, 2014
Straits Times late last year that while he had made various proposals to reform government procurement procedures, it was a challenge getting all ministries to adopt them. The most recent edition of the auditor-general's report in April contained the usual litany of problems: misallocated funds, dubious deals with vendors and questionable payments. But it is in the area of race and religion that the government draws the harshest criticism for its failure to act, as low-key race-baiting has escalated into full-blown public rows. It came as no surprise when a heated debate erupted over whether Muslims could say "Rest in Peace" when expressing condolences over the death of a non-Muslim. This came soon after the recent death of opposition leader Karpal Singh, a not-
ed champion against moves to impose Islamic criminal laws. Unvarnished comments disparaging minorities are now aired openly, prompting Marina Mahathir, daughter of Dr Mahathir, to remark in a recent commentary in The Star newspaper that she felt like Alice in Wonderland. "In Lewis Carroll's tale, Alice falls down a rabbit hole and suddenly the whole world is turned upside down," she wrote. "Once upon a time, being kind to others was a very good thing to be. We were taught by parents and teachers to be nice to others regardless of who they were... Today we are told that while being kind is still a good thing, we have to mind who we are nice to. "Being considerate and polite to some people is now considered a mortal sin simply because they believe in things differently
from us. We cannot, for instance, wish that a dead person rests in peace because apparently having not believed in the same faith as we do, they cannot possibly have a peaceful afterlife." It is not hard to see where this upsurge of intolerance has sprung from. It has its roots in Malaysia's divisive politics where non-Malays largely support the opposition while the Malays back the BN. This trend, already clear in the 2008 election, was more pronounced last year, when Chinese support for the BN fell sharply to below 10 per cent from around 15 to 18 per cent in 2008. To Malay hardliners, this signalled a Chinese attempt to topple a Malay government. To be sure, Najib has set up a National Unity Consultative Council comprising respected Malaysians to gather feedback
POLITICS
May 16-22, 2014
from voters. But his efforts appear to have ended there. In the meantime his "1Malaysia" unity slogan has morphed into a commercial entity, with shops and houses now tagged 1Malaysia. "PM Najib has to state what kind of nation he wants and set the parameters for a multi-racial Malaysia to flourish," said Khoo. But the racial rift, which took on a religious flavour as some Muslim groups pushed for a more conservative country, has reached a level many now find worrying. It is telling that neither Najib nor opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has come out firmly to push back efforts by the religion-driven opposition Parti Islam Se-Malaysia to implement Islamic law in Kelantan. Hudud—the Islamic penal code that prescribes punishments such as amputation of
limbs for theft and stoning for adultery—is abhorrent to Malaysia's non-Muslim minorities. Anwar has barely said anything about hudud other than that Malaysia is not ready for it, while Najib said his government did not reject hudud but it had to be fully understood by the people before it could be implemented. Dr Faisal said of the prime minister: "He's not taking the lead in seriously addressing these issues. He talks of reconciliation but at the same time allows right-wing groups like Perkasa and Isma (Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia) to try to Islamise every single thing." Some analysts see this muted response as one of the lingering effects of the last general election—after their rejection at the polls, Najib and his party, the United Malays National Organ-
isation (Umno), appear to have abandoned efforts to win over non-Malays. This withdrawal to the traditional Malay base means that it is far too risky now to come across as anti-Islam, given the sensitivity of religious issues to the Muslim majority. Najib may have survived the initial trauma of the last election, but observers believe he still feels sufficiently vulnerable within Umno to be risk-averse when it comes to speaking out for moderation and tolerance in matters of religion. One year on, Najib is secure enough to take on the challenge of overhauling Malaysia's troubled finances. But he is in no mood to open another front —to fight for minority rights. There is not enough political capital for that. ¬
May 16-22, 2014
WILDLIFE
Pandas Going Wild afp photos
Huang Zhiling China Daily Chengdu, Sichuan
W
an Yongqing, a panda lover from Beijing, made a special trip to the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda in Ya'an, Sichuan, in early April to see the cuddly bears. "Since my childhood, I have been told that pandas are
A panda climbs branches at the Giant Panda Research Base in Chengdu, Sichuan province.
WILDLIFE
May 16-22, 2014
After success with breeding captive animals, research centre now aims to expand the bear's natural population
an endangered species. I did not expect to see lots and lots of pandas," the sturdy middle-aged man said. Wan owes his joy to the painstaking work of the centre's researchers over 15 years to solve the three main problems in breeding pandas in captivity—estrus, mating and nursing. Through those efforts, the centre was able to rescue the animals from the brink of extinction and build up the number of captive pandas there from a mere 10 to 187.
One of newly born twin panda cubs at the Madrid Zoo on Oct 8, 2010, in Madrid. The two panda cubs, born on Sept 7, 2010, are the first giant panda twins to be conceived using the artificial insemination method outside of China.
"It used to be difficult for captive pandas to become ruttish and mate, and for their cubs to survive. From 1992 to 2006, our researchers solved all three difficulties," said the centre's chief, Zhang Hemin, who has studied the bears since 1983.
In 1980, an agreement between the World Wide Fund and the Chinese government led to the establishment of the centre in the Wolong National Natural Reserve in Wenchuan county, Sichuan. Completed in 1983, the centre—now the world's largest
May 16-22, 2014
WILDLIFE
Tao Tao, an artificially bred giant panda born in captivity in a wild training centre in Wolong slowly makes its way toward a bamboo forest in Shimian, southwest China's Sichuan province on Oct 11, 2012 upon its release into the wild. Authorities described Tao Tao's release as a new phase for the nation's panda protection efforts.
WILDLIFE
May 16-22, 2014
panda conservation and research organisation—is committed to the breeding and rearing of captive pandas as well as to disease control, scientific research, wild panda rescue, the reintroduction of captive pandas to the wild, international cooperation and public education. At the beginning, researchers did not have a correct understanding of the habits of pandas. Thinking the animals preferred a solitary life, researchers kept each panda isolated in a tiny den and fed it only bamboo. "Pandas in that environment felt depressed and had difficulty in becoming ruttish," Zhang said. In the course of studies initiated in 1992, researchers provided captive pandas with more opportunities to communicate socially with each other and to play. For example, male and female pandas were swapped into the dens of the opposite sex so that each would
know the smell of the other. "We also showed sexually mature pandas videos of their peers having sex, which they could learn in the wild but not in captivity," Zhang said.
Pandas going wild
In the wild, pandas eat bamboo. They seek out the best plants—the ones that receive adequate sunshine and which provide the best nutrition. The centre needed a way to encourage the daily hunt, as well to provide the required nutritional value. "Since we could not choose the bamboo for captive pandas, we created a biscuit rich in trace elements and vitamins for them," he said. Wild pandas stay active for hours each day. To emulate their natural environment, researchers tried putting the biscuits in places the pandas could not find easily, aiming to get them to move
around. Some unorthodox approaches were also tried. "To make them play, we froze fruits before giving them to the pandas. They had to play with the fruits until they thawed if they wanted to eat," Zhang said. It the past, many newborn panda cubs died because of a quirk bred by nature. While 50 per cent of newborns are twins, a mother typically chooses to care for only one. "In the wild, a mother panda first tries to care for both babies. But several hours later, she realises she can't. If she tried to support both, both would die. So the mothers will desert one baby even if it cries," Zhang said. Initially, researchers did not know how to handle the abandonment problem. And the death rate was high. They settled on a course that was part philanthropy and part trickery. They would take away the deserted baby and feed it milk. Then they would
WILDLIFE
May 16-22, 2014
switch it with the favoured cub from time to time. In this way, the mother unwittingly supported both. "Researchers also emulated the mother panda in other ways. For example, the mother would lick different parts of the newborn cub, including its anus to get its droppings out. Researchers used a cotton stick to touch the deserted cub and to get the droppings out. This effort ensured the cubs' survival," Zhang said. With the three primary obstacles hindering the breeding of captive pandas now overcome, the centre has been able to develop a self-sustaining and growing panda population. It is now home to 187 captive pandas out of a world total of 376, according to Zhang. With the largest captive panda population in the world, the
centre no longer captures wild pandas for research purposes. Instead, it does the reverse, sending captive pandas into the wild with the aim of enlarging the natural panda population. Tao Tao, a 2-year-old male panda from the centre, was released into the wild in the Liziping Nature Reserve in Shimian county, Sichuan, in October 2012. He was discovered in a tree more than 3,000 metres above sea level on Oct 30, 2013. A veterinarian, who was part of a team of researchers, tranquilised the frightened bear with a rifle dart, and Tao Tao fell into a net. A blood test showed the panda was in good health, said Yang Zhisong, an associate professor of zoology at China West Normal University in Nanchong, Sichuan, which contributed to the team.
Tao Tao weighed 42 kg when he was released in 2012. When he was found a year later, he had gained at least 10 kg, Yang said. Sichuan is home to more than 80 per cent of the world's wild pandas. The rest are in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces. Pandas survive solely in six mountain ranges within Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, in habitat measuring about 23,000 square kilometres. They inhabit the Qinling, Minshan, Qionglai, Daxiangling, Xiaoxiangling and Liangshan mountains. The Chinese government has built 64 nature reserves in the provinces that cover 60 per cent of the natural habitat of pandas and 70 per cent of wild pandas, according to Liu Yawen, deputy director of the Department of Wildlife Conservation and Nature Reserve Management in the State Forestry Administration. ÂŹ
May 16-22, 2014
CULTURE THE STRAITS TIMES
Works from the region make their way to Singapore in a travelling exhibition by the Guggenheim
Seeing Asia
Curator June Yap (left) and Centre for Contemporary Arts director Ute Meta Bauer will reach out to the public through 'No Country: Contemporary Art For South And Southeast Asia'.
through artists’ eyes
CULTURE
May 16-22, 2014
Deepika Shetty The Straits Times Singapore
I
f you want to see what is happening with South and Southeast Asian art, a travelling exhibition which makes its final stop in Singapore this month could be a good place to start. The small scale show featuring 19 artworks by 16 emerging and established artists and collectives is an initiative by the famous Guggenheim Museum in New York to widen its Western-centric collection by featuring art from this part of the world. It appointed Singaporean curator June Yap to pick the artworks which form part of the museum's permanent collection. Yap, 40, who worked in the curatorial departments of the
Institute of Contemporary Arts in Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum, and has been an independent curator since 2008, spent three months travelling the region to visit the artists and select the works for the exhibition titled, "No Country: Contemporary Art For South And Southeast Asia". The show, which debuted at the Guggenheim in New York last year and travelled to Hong Kong earlier this year, opened at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Gillman Barracks on May 10. No Country is part of the the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, which aims to strengthen representation of art from different parts of the world. The Singapore exhibition marks the debut of two works—Loss by Indian artist Sheela Gowda and Morning Glory by Sopheap Pich from Cambodia—not previous-
ly seen in the New York (February 22-May 22, 2013) Hong Kong shows. The Hong Kong show featured 18 works by 13 artists, while the New York one had 27 works by 22 artists. In total, the Guggenheim acquired 36 works by 27 artists and collectives. Yap tells The Straits Times the idea behind this exhibition is to encourage cross-cultural dialogue about contemporary art and cultural practice. Reaching out to the public and running education programmes are key elements of the initiative, which is why the relatively new Centre for Contemporary Arts was picked as the venue over museums. She says: "The centre lends to the project the possibility to extend its research and discursive aspects. Certainly, the established institutions in Singapore
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May 16-22, 2014
were considered. However, exhibition arrangements were most suitable with the centre." Professor Ute Meta Bauer, 55, founding director of the centre, says that the show brings "a complex perspective on contemporary artistic production that addresses the diversity of South and Southeast Asia". Indeed, No Country demonstrates not just the vitality of art practices but also the dynamism of culture in the region. Yap travelled to countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Bangladesh and India to gather art for the show. "What was important for me was to introduce critical practices from the region that would become part of the museum's collection and also works that provide impetus for further discussion relevant in the US and also in Asia," she says.
So she picked some of the most compelling and innovative artists in the region and South Asia. Singapore's leading contemporary artist Tang Da Wu's installation work, "Our Children", inspired by a Teochew parable, is shown alongside those of other regional heavyweights such as multi-disciplinary Indian artist Shilpa Gupta and Thailand's Navin Rawanchaikul, who represented his country at the Venice Biennale in 2011. Cambodian installation artist Pich continues with his use of the humble rattan to make powerful sculptures that comment on Cambodian society. The works on display include painting, sculpture, photography, video, works on paper and installations. Among several stand-out works is Pakistani artist Bani Abidi's artworks which bring together ele-
ments of video art, performance and photography. In "The Boy Who Got Tired Of Posing", a 2006 work which is in the show, the artist plays on the trend of popular studio photography in 1980s Pakistan, when parents encourage their sons to dress up for portrait shots. In the work's final image, the subject, tired of performing, mischievously elects to exit the frame. In the large 219.7Ă—720.1cm painting, "Places Of Rebirth" (2009), Thai artist Rawanchaikul draws on his first visit to Pakistan, the birthplace of his ancestors, in November 2008. The artist's family moved to Thailand in pursuit of opportunity and in the aftermath of the 1947 partition of India, which forced millions to migrate from the country.
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May 16-22, 2014
The Asian show is a landmark event as the Guggenheim seeks to broaden its reach. Its New York collection has more than 6,800 artworks but before the recent acquisitions, only 12 were from South and Southeast Asia, and none from Singapore. On the challenge of curating a show on this scale, Yap says: "The main challenge was time. It is an ambitious venture, but also the beginning of a dialogue that is meant to go beyond this exhibition and collection."
FIVE EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS VOLCANIC ASH SERIES #4,2012 (TRIPTYCH)
By Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo, 36, Indonesia
Volcanic ash and pigmented resin, 146x547cm The Bandung-based artist is known for pushing the boundaries of painting and creative use of materials. ARIN DWIHARTANTO SUNARYO
By train, ship, and on foot, his mother and great-grandfather travelled from Gujranwala in Pakistan to India to Chiang Mai in Thailand to arrive at the place of what he calls "his family's rebirth". The 43-year-old artist says he is interested in "the fluid nature of migratory histories," which can often be seen in South and Southeast Asia. The idea of exchange, adapatation of cultures and the interpretation and reinterpretation of stories can be seen in several of the other artworks on display. One work that is not being shown in Singapore is that of multi-disciplinary artist Ho Tzu Nyen's four-channel video, "The Cloud Of Unknowing". Yap says this is because the single-channel Venice Biennale-version is being presented at the Singapore Art Museum at the same time.
Volcanic Ash Series #4, 2012.
CULTURE
May 16-22, 2014
LOVEBED, 2012
By Tayeba Begum Lipi, 44, Bangladesh Stainless steel, 79.4x184.8x221cm The artist, who made a quiet Venice Biennale debut in 2011, continues her exploration of the issues of feminity in this installation. A bed made from razor blades references domestic violence.
Yap says it has been "surprising" to see how people were drawn to this work when it was shown in New York and Hong Kong. "In spite of the peril of the blades, viewers seem to want to get close to it. The blade represents not merely the violence implied by its sharp edges, but also its function as a basic tool to aid in child birth, a scenario that the artist recalls from her childhood." TAYEBA BEGUM LIPI
Acquired for the Guggenheim's collection, "Volcanic Ash Series #4", 2012, is made using a combination of resin and, as pigment, volcanic ash from the 2010 eruption of Mount Merapi, the most active volcano in Indonesia. Rejecting the paint brush in favour of applying paint directly to the canvas with his hands, Sunaryo became impatient with the prolonged drying time of oil paint and started experimenting with pigmented resin. In its natural, plant-derived form, resin connects with age-old methods of preservation, notably used in ancient Egyptian mummification. Curator June Yap recalls being "struck" by this work when she walked into his Bandung studio. "The work captures the colour and energy of the eruption. As you step closer to the work, you recognise its palpable nature in the little bits of ash he has incorporated." She calls the piece creative and compelling in its exploration of both aesthetic and conceptual ideas.
Lovebed, 2012.
CULTURE
May 16-22, 2014
SHILPA GUPTA
1:14.9, 2011-12
By Shilpa Gupta, 35, India Hand-wound polyester thread and wood vitrine with engraved brass plaque and glass, 158x56x51cm In August 1947, the end of British rule led to the creation of two nations—India and Pakistan. Since their independence, the two countries have fought three major wars and have had a fenced border. As a response to the volatile political situation, Mumbai-based Gupta creates a handwoven ball of thread encased in a vitrine. Yap says: "The work addresses threat, fear and religious prejudice through an elegant, poetic sculptural form. "As updated in 2007, the fenced Indo-Pakistan border is 1,188.5 miles long. Alluding to this vast distance of circumscription and surveillance through the application of a 14.9-to-1 ratio, Gupta has hand wound almost 80 miles of thread into an egg-shaped ball. This coiled yet delicate mass stands as a reflection on the volatility of borders."
1:14.9, 2011–12.
CULTURE
May 16-22, 2014
LAP LOE, 2012
By Tran Luong, 54, Vietnam
Single-channel colour video with sound, 10 minutes 4 seconds
The artist's practice spans painting, installation and performance art. This video work, whose title loosely means "blink" or "flicker" in Vietnamese, is derived from a perTRAN LUONG
Lap Loe, 2012.
formance by the artist that began in 2007. It was inspired by the sight of his son returning from school wearing a red scarf that reminded him of his own childhood. The performance has been staged in various countries including Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia and Singapore. The red scarf, Yap says, is "an item of historical and political significance associated with communism". The work comments on "the history and status of Vietnam by extending from the performance's various incarnations. The image of the scarf remains ambiguous, its rising, snapping, falling movements never more than allusive or suggestive. While the lashing scarf is, for the artist, a cause of pain, it is also a transitory phenomenon and a catalyst for understanding."
CULTURE
May 16-22, 2014
OUR CHILDREN, 2012
By Tang Da Wu, 70, Singapore Galvanized steel, glass and milk, 160x200x60cms TANG DA WU
Our Children.
The minimalist work is suggestive of a Chinese altar and its recognition of lineage and the past. It is inspired by a Teochew parable in which a young boy experiences a humbling moment of enlightenment at the sight of a kneeling baby goat being fed by its mother. Since 1988, the veteran Singapore artist has been known for his observations of Singapore's contemporary art scene. He founded the first artist colony here, The Artists Village, now defunct. Yap says of the work: "It is about culture and its transmission. Da Wu is such a wonderful sto-
ryteller and it was his narrative that brought the sculpture to life when I first encountered it in his studio. "It takes you a moment to recognise that this sleek sculpture is not a table but a creature. "The two figures, while seemingly stationary, are also in dynamic tension, and resemble Chinese characters, symbolising the narrative in spare strokes and lines. "At one level, it is about sustenance and nurture. It is also a comment on the production of our future to which we have a shared responsibility." ÂŹ
LIFESTYLE
May 16-22, 2014
Manly Revolution Korean men are touching up on their looks, accessories and fashion
LIFESTYLE
May 16-22, 2014
Suk Gee-hyun, Bae Ji-sook and Lee Wooyoung The Korea Herald Seoul
Dr Shin Yong-ho of Bk Plastic Surgery
I
n a society where appearance can be power, an increasing number of Korean men are heading to plastic surgery clinics in an effort to climb the corporate ladder and keep up with the younger-looking. Lee Jeong-hwan, 31, said he recently visited a plastic surgeon for a consultation on having double-eyelid surgery. “I have a double eyelid on only one eye. I think I’d make a better impression on people if I had a balanced look,” Lee told The Korea Herald. He added that he would be willing to have other small surgeries if they could make his appearance more attractive and natural. “My friends, colleagues and I often share information about small surgeries or cosmetic products like BB cream. It’s become natural for men to talk about beauty,” Lee said.
According to a recent survey by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, nearly 30 per cent of 46,000 men in their 20s and 30s said they were willing to have plastic surgery to look younger and more handsome. Some 16 per cent of men 50 and older were also in favour of cosmetic surgery. The desire to climb the corporate ladder and keep up with the younger-looking has become the main reason more men are open to having cosmetic procedures, according to the survey. BK Plastic Surgery, one of the leading plastic surgery clinics in Gangnam, southern Seoul, said it has seen a steady increase in the number of male patients coming for consultations over the past few years. The number of men undergoing cosmetic procedures accounted for 11 per cent of all such procedures carried out by the clinic in 2013, up from 9 per cent in 2011, according to the clinic.
May 16-22, 2014
Some of the particularly popular operations for both men and women are nose and eyelid surgeries, said Lee Seung-ah, a public relations official of BK Plastic Surgery. “Until recently, people wanted a masculine, charismatic look. But now more patients need a boyish image,” the official said. This is part of why more people are undergoing facial bone contouring surgery to get smoother facial lines, she explained. Popular surgical procedures among those in their 50s and older are face lifts, abdominal liposuction, Botox, hair implants and facial fillers, according to the clinic. “Botox is not even considered a cosmetic procedure anymore. For me, it’s like a regular vaccination,” said a 61-year-old patient. “A vaccination for antiaging.” Experts point out that the growing popularity of plastic surgeries is largely led by male celebrities boldly coming out with their history of plastic surgery. Robert Tateossian, founder and CEO of Tateossian London.
LIFESTYLE Over the past years, a slew of actors and K-pop stars, including actor Namgoong Min, singer Kim Dongwan from K-pop group Shinhwa and Hwang Kwang-hee from boy band ZE:A, have all confessed to their surgeries on TV. With more public figures revealing their surgical experiences, the notion that men don’t have to make efforts to have smooth skin or look handsome has changed, according to plastic surgeon Shin Yong-ho from BK Plastic Surgery. Shin has witnessed the shift from machismo to “flower men” a term coined by KBS’ 2009 soap opera Boys Over Flowers. “Men have become less hesitant about going under the knife, with some willing to spend a massive amount of money to improve their appearance,” Shin told The Korea Herald. Most of the male customers who visit the clinic ask about getting their nose done, whereas body and chest surgeries are equally popular in the West.
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May 16-22, 2014
“There’s a saying in Korea that ‘A man lives well if he has a well-shaped nose.’ Men who want a successful career come to the hospital for this,” Shin explained. The fast-changing trend is partly due to fierce competition, from job hunting to getting married, in a society where appearances matter. “Wanting to look fabulous and young is a common desire for both men and women,” Shin said. “Men no longer feel embarrassed about spending time and money on having flawless skin or a higher nose,” he added.
Men’s love for accessories
More Korean men are also becoming fashion-conscious. They’re willing to invest in their appearance, especially in accessories, said the CEO of an international fashion accessory brand. They are still conservative, but are rapidly opening up to new ideas and trends, which is promising for many fashion businesses, said Robert Ta-
teossian, founder and CEO of Tateossian London. “I have noticed that Korean men are very fashionable, wearing skinny jeans and great hairdos on the street. The market is definitely growing with more stores equipped with clothes and accessories for male customers,” Tateossian told The Korea Herald. “The men’s accessory market is very young and small, even on the global scale. But the growing pop-
ulation of the so-called metrosexual makes it promising,” he said. “Metrosexual” refers to a man who is especially meticulous about his grooming and appearance, typically spending a significant amount of time and money on shopping as part of this. Tateossian London, founded in 1990, grossed 12 million pounds ($21.2 billion) in sales last year across 60 countries through its signature cuff links, lapel pins,
May 16-22, 2014
LIFESTYLE
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May 16-22, 2014
bracelets and others. The brand arrived in Seoul in the 1990s with women’s accessories but later focused on licensed spectacles. And this year, the brand will return to the scene with men’s accessories. “The women’s accessory market is a red ocean but there aren’t many brands for upscale fashion for men yet,” Tateossian said. Inspired by the jet-set lifestyle of ex-financier Tateossian, rather bold and extravagant items priced up to tens of millions of won will be showcased at a pop-up store at Galleria Department Store in May. Tateossian said he understands that most Korean men are still quite conservative. “It takes time for a man to embrace something new. Therefore we will start with marketing conventional items such as bracelets and wallets (and move on) to more fashionable cufflinks and others,” he said. “I would like to say be brave and take some risks. Korean men are fast learners.”
Menswear evolution
Even menswear is also undergoing a revolution allowing men to be free from formal dress and trying out new style combinations. Blazers and pants that are both adaptable to formal and casual looks are gaining popularity among Korean men. Fresh, light colour shades are lifting the mood for the warmer weather. “The casual vibe has been prevalent in menswear for the past couple of seasons, and the hybrid items that can either work in formal and casual situations have been popular,” said Lee Hyunjung, director of the design team of menswear brand Galaxy. Tailored jackets with light fabrics and slim pants in diverse colours are this season’s hot items, he added. When it comes to playing with diverse colours and dark/lightprints as well as prints with solids, there are only a few simple rules to remember. If the jacket is darker, choose light-coloured pants, or vice versa. To play with prints, choose a matching item in a solid colour.
This season, the details are in the colours. The fashion industry, in particular, is presenting varying shades of blue incorporated in suits and business casual clothing as this year marks the Year of the Blue Horse on the lunar calendar. The different shades of blue also radiate the spring and summer mood. The menswear brand Rogatis invented its own signature blue R-Blue, which is lighter than classic dark navy. Another menswear brand, Palzileri, borrowed colours from Edward Hopper paintings and used them as dominant or key colours in its suit collection and accessories. The unique, subtle colours of blue, green and orange revealed by the shadows and sunlight in Hopper’s paintings have brought an artistic touch to the straight, predictable menswear design. “Traditionally, blue symbolises the spirit of youth, challenge and positive energy. It has emerged as the ‘it colour’ to reflect the anticipation of positive change in politics
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May 16-22, 2014
Shinsegae Department Store
A customer checks a suit jacket at Shinsegae Department Store in southern Seoul.
and economics,” said Choi Youngjin, researcher at the Samsung Fashion Research Institute. With designers increasingly using sportswear for inspiration, the sports vibe is also prevalent in tailored menswear. Aside from the design aspects, functionality and comfort are increasingly emphasised.
Lightweight fabrics keep blazers and pants cool in warmer weather. Stain-resistant and deodorisation fabrics help men adapt to any weather condition or occasion. Other special fabrics include one that blocks electromagnetic waves coming from cellphones, usually kept in the inside pocket of men’s jackets.
The Italian menswear brand Ermenegildo Zegna created a 3-D effect for its jackets by using a fabric that blends linen, silk and wool. It also added a fresh take on formal wear by pairing jackets and pants of different prints. The “broken suits” enable mix-and-match styles in classic suits that differentiate it from the traditional pairing of jackets and pants of the same colour and fabric, according to the luxury suit brand. Korean designer Kimseoryong, known for well-tailored suits for men, showed how menswear could be elegant and warm with the use of unconventional fabrics and patterns such as jacquard and embroidery in his clean-cut suits. “Besides design aspects, functionality and comfort are increasingly being emphasised in menswear design. Fashion is undergoing a smart evolution with the development of functional fabrics,” said Lee Ha-na, designer of the Rogatis suit collection. ¬
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BAREFOOT IN INDIA holy river: hindus believe that submerging themselves in the Ganges would cleanse their sins.
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turn. Walking was like negotiating a maze as I sidestepped cow pies without getting hit by a motorcycle or tuktuk or bumping into people. Locals, especially men, stared while touts and vendors hawked their stuff and beggars followed at my heels. Being a tourist, I found out, meant being the attraction du jour. The streets may be tough, but the ancient intricately carved temples, the colourful culture, and the friendly locals made walking them worth ma n in m ed itatio n
women bathing in the ganges
text and photos by Liz Ranola Philippine Daily Inquirer Manila
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ndia: Love it or hate it. It is the liveliest place I have been to so far. The craziest. Cows in the middle of the road, the traffic, the honking, dust, garbage, vendors, Hinduism, motors, tuktuks, touts, crowded trains—the moment I started walking the streets of Delhi, this mix dazzled me at every
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it. Even small temples put on a show—groups of people were chanting and offering yellow flowers out on the streets. Kindness came from unexpected places. Once, I found myself lost and asked a stranger in Delhi to direct me to the nearest forex shop which turned out to be quite a distance away. Finding that I had no rupees left, the stranger paid for my tuktuk fare. When a group of college students asked if they could have a picture taken with me, I realised that the locals had been staring mainly because of the novelty of my foreign-looking face and relatively fairer skin.
True, India can be challenging for a tourist, never mind those news stories about women getting raped. A stroll down city streets often means confronting grinding pover-
The victorian memorial
ty, the peeling facade of a decaying city, and the locals’ uncompromising belief in religion. It is unpretentious, and that is part of what makes India so fascinating.
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cows wandering around is a common sight
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women in their colourful dresses
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I got mixed reacforeign and local tourists tions from people when they found out I would be backpacking solo in India for my birthday—excited, perplexed, people feared for my life. But for 11 days, I went around like the locals, walked a lot and took the metro, tuktuk and trains. Around four in the morning, a day before my birthday, I arrived in New Delhi. Touts offered me a ride and followed me closely up to the prepaid taxi booth. I got to my host’s place and found her waiting for me in front of their gate. her online at Couchsurfing, a It was good to finally meet community for travellers helpAnita Gupta, a middle-aged ing other travellers by hosting school teacher living with her them for free, all for the love of husband and mom. I had met exchange of cultures.
TRAVEL Anita and nani (grandmother) were very caring, with Anita giving me a map and tips on how to get around, while nani gave me fruits before I leave every morning. Three sites of Mughal influences are must-sees in India: the Jama Masjid, and the Red Fort and Qutb Minar—both Unesco World Heritage sites. The Jama Masjid mosque stands grand at the heart of the market with its 30 steps surrounding the four entrances. The Red Fort is a huge castle of red sandstone that consists of several halls adorned with relief carvings of floral and star patterns. Getting up close to the tallest stone tower in India, Qutb Minar, was overwhelming, even more so as I circled the tower, following the flow of calligraphy embedded on the surface. A structure of more political value is the India Gate built in honour of the soldiers who perished in that era when Britain invaded India. The soldiers’ names
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were inscribed on the walls, while the statue of Sir George V which once stood on the canopy at the back of the gate was removed. For Hindus, it was a symbol of British retreat and a triumph for India. This part of Delhi was the cleanest and most orderly I have been to during this visit. I wrapped up the Delhi leg of my trip with a sumptuous dinner with my hosts at their place, a celebration of my birthday as well. Three hours by train from Delhi is Agra, a shocking journey as I had to book the only available class left, the second to the lowest, and a non-air conditioned seat. The train station was disgustingly filthy, with garbage and human waste on the railway tracks. Getting to my seat was an even bigger intricate carvings on temple walls
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challenge as people clogged the train aisles. Everything and everyone looked beat up, but it was what ordinary folk in India had to put up with, something I had to experience if only once. Agra was a rural version of Delhi, with as many cows roaming the streets and coming home before nightfall. While I found myself growing fond of the cows, it was the sight of the Taj Mahal that made this visit memorable. I felt ripples of excitement as I drew nearer and saw the Taj Mahal perfectly framed by the arch, golden sunlight touching the pearly white marble structure. It was glowing, and like the local grade-schoolers who were there on a field trip, I too felt awestruck. Inside the mausoleum, the tombs of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal lie at the centre, but the solemnity of the sight was ruined by the cacophony of crowds rushing in for their mandated 20-second
glimpse of the tombs, as well as the whistle of the guards hurrying on the visitors. But overall, this grand structure and the touching love story behind its creation, was definitely a marvel to behold. Far from the crowd of Agra is a remote and peaceful town with lush grassland, trees, and temples of love rendered in exquisite detail: Khajuraho charmed me the moment I stepped out of the train. It was a good break from the crazy city. A Unesco World Heritage Site, the temples on the western site of this town have the most intricate sculptures wrapping the inside and outside walls, all the way to the roof. Some of the eight temples date back to about 11 A.D. All made from sandstone, the sculptures of the gods were amazingly sensuous, with couples entwined in various permutations. Popularly known as the “Kamasutra temples,” the structures are dedicated to their god of love. For tourists who have ample
time to see Khajuraho, surprises and spontaneity are just rewards. On the way to one of the temples in the old village, my guide and I managed to hitch a ride on a public jeep that just happened to pass by. Serendipitously, I met three other Couchsurfers with whom I had dinner under a full moon: fish curry cooked over an open fire, some freshly-kneaded chapati and fantastic soup. It was a good way to prepare myself for a veritable feast of the senses that is Varanasi. A tourist had told me, “Go to Varanasi because it’s Varanasi.” It stoked my curiosity for the seemingly most extreme city, the most alive, most diverse and least sanitised, being one of those cities where the heart of Hinduism lies. There is probably no Varanasi without its religion. Here is where one can witness the intense rituals performed everyday in reverence to their gods. Varanasi invited me to pay attention to its soul, rather than its skin.
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The Ganges River is the life of Varanasi, where morning and evening rituals are performed everyday to honour their god of Ganga. It is a holy river that Hindus believe will cleanse their sins, as they submerge themselves in its water. The morning ritual was best viewed while boating as fog softened the crowded ghats that lined the riverbank. What started as a peaceful scene slowly turned into a huge family affair, as people flocked the ghats (steps leading to a river) and the river to pray and bathe. In a few minutes, everything became full of texture and movement. One ghat was dedicated for cremation, with piles of wood stacked metres high, smoke belching from its windows. At night, people gathered on the stairs leading to the riverbank for a grand performance, a ritual that involved singing, praying, and of-
A mother and child in agra
fering fire and incense in a repeated circular motion. Walking the narrow streets is a colourful experience as well, as shops sell everything from clothes to food to light bulbs,
even tailoring services or bespoke suits done in a day. Silk scarves and sarees of fine quality were cheaper, and there were shops that offered one-day tailoring services. ÂŹ
May 16-22, 2014
ÂŹ Manila Andy Rourke Live in Manila Personal Space, Riot House and Vybe Productions are bringing to Manila English musician Andy Rourke, best known as the bassist for The Smiths. Rourke will be doing an exclusive Live DJ set for a one-night-only party.
When: May 24, 2014-9pm Where: Black Market, Makati City Tickets are available at Black Market To RSVP and more information, contact +639088135622 or +6324035019
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May 16-22, 2014
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ÂŹ HCM City Blue/Orange in HCM Vietnam's Dragonfly Theatre Company, in cooperation with the Saigon Sound System, presents English dramatist Joe Penhall's comedy, Blue/Orange. Directed by Ryan Burkwood, the play takes place in a London psychiatric hospital, where an enigmatic patient claims to be the son of an African dictator while his doctors argue about the best course of treatment. The show is an evocative tale of race, mental illness and the impact of the controversial issue of care in the community.
When: May 16, 17 and 18 Where: Q4 at 7 Nguyen Tat Thanh Street in District 4, HCM
May 16-22, 2014
ÂŹ Taipei Kyary Pamyu Pamyu live Japanese model and singer Kiriko Takemura, popularly known by her stage name Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, is coming to Taipei for a performance. Kyary's first single, "PonPonPon", made it to the top 10 in Japan in 2011 and became her signature song. She has since released two full-length albums, "Pamyu Pamyu Revolution" and "Nanda Collection".
When: May 30 Venue: International Convention Centre
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May 16-22, 2014
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¬ Hong Kong 2014 CNBLUE Live - Can't Stop in Hong Kong Following the much awaited release of their 5th mini album "Can’t Stop", CNBLUE will be taking their concert tour to Hong Kong. Known for their high-energy performance, CNBLUE is undoubtedly one of the most prominent band in Korea’s music industry. Comprised of lead vocalist and guitarist Jung Yong Hwa, lead guitarist and vocalist Lee Jong Hyun, bassist Lee Jung Shin and drummer Kang Min Hyuk, they debuted in 2010 with the EP "Bluetory". Since then, they have won countless music awards on South Korea’s music chart shows. Don’t miss the chance to catch them LIVE as they belt out songs from their latest album and classic hits!
When: May 17 & 18; 8pm Where: AsiaWorld-Expo Arena Info: http://www.asiaworld-expo.com/html/en/FacilityInfo/ArenaEvents.html
May 16-22, 2014
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¬ Singapore No Country: Contemporary art for South and South-East Asia When: May 9 to July 20 Where: Block 43 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks, Singapore Info: gillmanbarracks.com/cca and guggenheim.org/MAP
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