In a heartfelt, personal epistolary piece, staff writer Solomon Tsai reflects on his experience of coming out to his mother and on being gay in Hong Kong.

In the first instalment of this two-part reflection on Lee Ki-Ho’s novel ‘At Least We Can Apologise’, columnist Injae Lee muses over the intricacies of translation and examines the work’s satirical critique of contemporary Korean society, invoking the concept of a ‘Hell Joson.’

East Asia columnist Liam Elliott Brady, currently on his year abroad in Taiwan, looks at the development of the Taiwanese legend Liao Tianding (1883-1909). From his death at the hands of Taiwan’s Japanese occupiers in 1909 to his deification in online gaming, Liao Tianding remains a potent symbol of Taiwanese independence. As popular discontent with the current Taiwanese president’s ‘soft China policy’ grows, the revival of Liao Tianding reflects a hallmark Taiwanese culture: the turn to folklore as a source of hope in an era defined by unprecedented uncertainty.

Remake after remake concerning the role played by China’s northwestern guerrilla fighters during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) show a cinematic tradition that is still going strong in the 70 years since its inception: in this article, Staff Writer Bingbing Shi reviews Railway Heroes (2021), a remake of Zhao Ming’s 1956 classic, Railway Guerrilla, as well as the evolution of the Chinese ‘resistance genre’ as a whole.

Staff Writer for East Asia, Hannah Kang Wolter, explores the technique of negative space in Chinese art and the corresponding notion of emptiness in East Asian philosophy. Her medium for doing so - a comparison of the 2008 blockbuster film, Kung Fu Panda, and Huang Gongwang’s traditional Chinese landscape paintings from the 14th century.

Staff Writer Hannah Kang Walter reimagines how we should define Studio Ghibli films in terms of their so-called ‘environmentalism’, reflecting on Hayao Miyazaki’s self-ascribed status as a ‘lover of nature’ rather than a staunch environmentalist.

Staff Writer for East Asia, Bingbing Shi, writes about the blurring of fact and fiction in Lou Ye’s Saturday Fiction (2019), starring Gong Li. Set in Shanghai during the war, Lou Ye’s espionage thriller is proving to be both popular and controversial in China.

Staff Writer for East Asia, Hannah Kang Wolter, uncovers the true appeal of the West’s latest obsession - Squid Game.