LONGS Spooky Thailand and Cambodian rockstars

Hello friends!

I was going to skip my Longs for March since there was just so much happening and maybe everyone is sick of hearing from me! But then I thought, holy heck that was a good month for reads (and watches) all over the region. This is a bumper one for your Sunday afternoon and I think this is the most diverse range of genres we’ve had so far so I’m sure there’s something for everyone.

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See you next month!Erin Cook

🇹🇭 Media Effect on Spiritualism among Thai Youth: A Survey of Bangkok University Students - Kyoto ReviewThailand’s belief in Phi — spirits and ghosts — predates Buddhism arriving in the Kingdom, but coexists alongside the religion now. I am obsessed with ghosts and this is a fascinating read. Using data from a couple of years back it looks at how young Thais view Phi today. Female ghosts are far more likely to be seen in a negative light than male ghosts and that stood out to me because it’s very much the case in Indonesia as well.

🇮🇩 Hollywood Finds a New Golden Age of Cinema in Indonesia - BloombergI love this one! I’m a big fan of going to the cinema (one year I had a minor six-week long funk that ended when the Sency 21 staff knew my candy bar order as I approached) and even in the few years I’ve been here watching it develop has been stunning. It’s good for business and it’s great for the industry, so expect to see more Indonesian films coming. Avoid the Indonesian horror if you’re soft like me, that country is not joking around with this genre.  

🇲🇲 Crossing Divides: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi - for or against? - BBC (Video)How do millennials in Myanmar feel about de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi? There’s no one answer but BBC speaks with two people from both sides of the spectrum. Political activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi is done, “she is not my hero anymore.” But student Sit Maw still attributes ASSK with the high values she came to embody during her house arrest period.

🇸🇬 In the pursuit of technology, what happens to workers left behind? - Channel News AsiaSoutheast Asia has been largely forgotten in the global automation conversation. But, with a very diverse range of industries from country to country it’s useless to ponder how the region as a whole will fare. Singapore is most at-risk, some experts say, because it has always been open to developing automation and machinery to address low labour supply. This is a good read for our econ and public policy nerds, who don’t usually get much in Longs!

🇵🇭 Strangers Offered Me Drugs in Manila, and I Ended Up in a Cramped Jail For a Week - VICE AsiaIn another of VICE Asia’s brilliant coverage of the Philippines’ war on drugs, here comes an absolute nightmare. This on how ‘anonymous’ went from getting dinner to ending up in a jail cell is illuminating in all sorts of ways. If his story is to be believed, he was essentially trapped into the charge. I was fascinated with the reflections towards the end on the other inmates, it really underlines the ‘not a war on drugs but a war on the poor’ take we hear often.

🇮🇩 Meet the Ogoh-Ogoh, Stars of Bali’s Bizarre and Beautiful New Year’s Eve Celebration - CoconutsI freaking love ogoh-ogoh. These are the giant figures built in Bali ahead of the Hindu celebration of Nyepi, the day of silence, and every year I am stunned anew by them! I don’t really know much about them and I don’t think I’ll ever be in Bali for Nyepi (umm no wi-fi??) but every year I will always keep an eye out for the Coconuts Bali wrap up of the island’s most impressive!

🇰🇭 When Your Land Is Stolen From Beneath Your Feet - The Atlantic (Video)We’ve talked a lot over the years on the regular Dari Mulut ke Mulut about Singapore buying up sand from Asean friends for its expansion, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen a sand mine or anything like that. This short documentary from the Atlantic looks at how sand dredging is impacting coastal communities in Cambodia, from business to what they eat every day. It’s also absolutely stunning.

🇮🇩 Welcome to 'Devil's House,' Home to One of Indonesia's Most Persecuted Communities - VICE Surabaya’s Devil's House, or Gedung Setan as it’s known locally, is a community in itself. This is a stunner and no summary can do it justice! Read it! A crash course in Indonesian history and the endlessly shoddy treatment of Chinese-Indonesians. The photos are gorgeous and I’m ready to fight whoever this was: ‘In mid-2018, a retired US Navy member said he's the rightful owner of the building because his ancestors left it for him.’

🇰🇭 Cambodia’s Internet crackdown reaches its activist monks - Coda Story“I am publishing the truth, not fake news,” Luon Sovath, a tech-loving monk turned citizen journalist, said after his social media accounts were hacked or plastered with rude photos. As the Cambodian government ramps up the crackdown on social media some monks have been scared off using the platforms for social good — but not Luon Sovath.

🇵🇭 When ‘bomba’ sex films were a staple of Philippine cinemas and their female stars graced magazine covers - SCMPThe Philippines had a lot going on in the 70s and 80s, and making sexy movies was up there. These ‘bomba’ films kinda ran the gamut of softcore up, but were still mainstream enough to be shown in regular cinemas and well-attended. There’s two interesting things here, to me. The Church wasn’t in love with it, but this was part of the sexual revolution. And secondly, the depiction of the Marcos regime.

🇲🇲🇹🇭🇵🇭🇮🇩 Stop Funding Southeast Asia’s Brutal Drug War - New York TimesThe regular Dari Mulut ke Mulut has been keeping an eye on the reemergence of the meth trade in the Golden Triangle for months now, but still this New York Times op-ed got me straight in the stomach. I had no idea about the role of U.S. evangelical Christianity. ‘Repeatedly, vigilantes told me they hope to draw America’s gaze — to provoke the consciousness of that powerful Christian nation, which once gave them the word of God and might now lend its might to their holy crusade against drugs.’

🇲🇲 Thanaka: Myanmar's ancient beauty secret - BBC (Video)What happens to the Myanmar routine of wearing thanaka, the yellow paste made from ground tree bark, as foreign cosmetics become cheaper and more widely available? It looks like there’s room for the old and the new with lipstick and thanaka a common option. I’ve never seen it be made before so I found this video from BBC fascinating.

🇲🇲 Myanmar land reform: Calls for new law to be scrapped - Al Jazeera (Video)Still in Myanmar, but something a bit different. Forced sales of land to armed groups from small-time farmers to create lucrative plantations is a frighteningly common story. Land reform laws might force even more people from their land as efforts to bring investment into the country trump all other priorities. The lack of paperwork to ‘prove’ ownership and then be exploited is a very common story throughout the region, no?

🇸🇬 Streaming — the good, the bad and the ugly side of an outdated policy - Channel News AsiaWhen Singapore announced it was ending its policy of streaming education, I really didn’t understand the huge response. It’s interesting, sure, but the conversation around it was news to me. This longer piece from Channel News Asia looks at why so many former students and teachers are so pleased to hear the next generation of students won’t face the same stress.

🇱🇦 Powerful Photos of What Was Left Behind by America's Secret War in Laos - VICEI’m not usually a fan of this sort of stuff, but we’ll let the artist speak for herself. “My images — which have been altered, some minimally and others more drastically using physical or digital manipulation — depict Laos not as it literally appears, but more like the psychological experience of being a tourist in a place with which the United States had spent many years at war.”

🇰🇭 Inspired by Blondie, Cambodia’s punk rock queen uses music to empower women and challenge old-fashioned views - SCMPI’m in love with this profile of punk singer Sochetra Vartey. She’s new-ish to the genre after discovering metal in 2016 but has made up for lost time quickly. “In Cambodia, it is mostly love-related pop songs. Me and my team said we wanted to change something in Cambodia through music,” she said about writing Evil Husband, a song penned after overhearing a neighbouring couple fight.