Tag Archives: East Asia

Religion + Belief, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Philippines News | LGBT

Aside
Manila church provides haven for gay Filipinos
  • The Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) offers sanctuary to Manila’s downtrodden in the red-light district of Cubao.
  • While other religious proscriptions like divorce and abortion are legally enforced, the Catholic-majority Philippines has seen a gradual increase in the social visibility and acceptance of its gay population.
  • The Manila church is one of five operated in the Philippines by the MCC, a network of churches founded in the U.S. under the mission of social justice and inclusion.

“I don’t have illusions of assimilation into the mainline Catholic Church. They will always resist anything that disrupts their order. … We have a long way to go… but we must never lose hope, fighting for what is right and what is ours.”

Read the full AFP story at The Jakarta Post.

(Image Credit: Noel Celis/AFP, via The Jakarta Post)

Ideology + Affiliation, Nationality + Migration

China News | International Visitors

British, South African, and Indian tourists deported from China following arrest and detention
  • Visiting China via a South African charity group, the group of 20 were arrested in Inner Mongolia after visiting the Genghis Khan Maosoleum in Ordos.
  • Authorities suggested that they had been arrested on suspicion of connection to terrorism and viewing terrorist propaganda associated with Genghis Khan.
  • The tourists were allegedly detained and denied access to embassies, outside communication, or legal representation.

“The peace-loving group of people aged 33 to 74 believe only in love and the unity of the human spirit. [They] were on a private sightseeing tour in China to see the ancient and modern wonders, and learn and experience new cultures.”

Read the full story at The Guardian.

(Image Credit: Zhang Ling/Xinhua Press/Corbis, via The Guardian)

Ideology + Affiliation

China News | Advocates

2 Comments
China detains more than 50 human rights lawyers and staffers in extensive crackdown
  • The coordinated government effort saw lawyers and firm staff members brought in for questioning by police and national security authorities.
  • While most were released with warnings, others were sentenced to house arrest and still others remained out of contact in the largest roundup since 2011.
  • Unlike other recent crackdowns, these detentions wwere a geographically extensive effort, covering as many as 15 provinces.

“The detentions come only two weeks after the end of the U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue and set an ugly tone for President Xi’s (Jinping) U.S. visit in September.”

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times.

Nationality + Migration

Turkey News | Uyghur Muslims

More than 170 Uyghurs resettled in Turkey following release from Thai detention camp
  • The 173 released–all Uyghur women and children–had been detained for more than a year by Thai immigration authorities.
  • The group is a part of a wave of ethnic Uyghurs fleeing their homeland in northwestern China because of the government’s crackdown on their culture and activities.
  • Those seeking exit from China rely on underground networks that take them through southeast Asia, where Thailand is a major node in smuggling routes.

“China deprives them of their human dignity, their human rights, and religious freedom in every possible way, so they head to Turkey to live like human beings.”

Read the full story at Radio Free Asia.

(Image Credit: Radio Free Asia)

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Myanmar News | Muslims & Interfaith

Myanmar passes controversial law restricting interfaith marriage
  • The law requires partners of different faiths to register their intent to marry with the government, after which they can marry only if there are no objections following public notice of the engagement.
  • Violation of the law could lead to imprisonment, which has led to an outcry from rights organizations who slam the law as discriminatory against ethnic minorities and women.
  • Proposed by the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, the law claims to focus on the protection of Buddhist women from being coerced into interfaith marriages and losing their rights.

“This kind of law shouldn’t be issued by parliament because it is not an essential law for all ethnic [groups] in Myanmar; it is just a law that discriminates against ethnic people when it comes to religion.”

Read the full story at Radio Free Asia.

(Image Credit: AFP, via Radio Free Asia)

Ideology + Affiliation, Religion + Belief

Singapore News | Political Dissidents

Singapore releases teenage blogger convicted of obscenity and offending religious sensibilities
  • Amos Yee, 16, was convicted and sentenced to four weeks of detention, which he had already served during his 50 days spent in jail.
  • Yee had criticized revered former Singapore PM Lee Kuan Yew–considered the founding father of Singapore–with a video celebrating his death, comments decrying Christianity, and an image of depicting Lee and former British PM Margaret Thatcher in a sex act.
  • Prosecutors did not pursue reformative training for the youth, which could have led to detention for up to 18 months, but the case drew international attention for its surfacing of Singapore’s restrictive policies on personal expression.

Read the full story at the New York Times.

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity, Sexual + Gender Minorities

South Korea Perspectives | Black Lesbian

Video

Charly | South Korea

Charly provides a glimpse of Pride in South Korea, documenting singing, dancing, and anti-gay demonstrations at the event back in 2014.

Follow Charly and find similar first-person accounts from around YouTube through Outlas’s collection First Person: Black in East Asia.

Individuals associated with curated content are not affiliated with Outlas, and their inclusion is not an official endorsement of any opinions expressed but is rather a part of a representation of diverse perspectives on global multicultural life.

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity

South Korea Perspectives | Black Woman

Video

Ane | South Korea & China

Beauty vlogger Ane recounts workplace reactions to her hair, funny grocery store encounters, and the paparazzi treatment as she shares her experience as a black woman living in South Korea and visiting China.

Follow similar first-person accounts curated from around YouTube through Outlas’s collection First Person: Black in East Asia.

Individuals associated with curated content are not affiliated with Outlas, and their inclusion is not an official endorsement of any opinions expressed but is rather part of a representation of diverse perspectives on global multicultural life.

Nationality + Migration

China News | Immigrants

1 Comment
Shanghai implements new long-term visa policies for foreign workers
  • A new five-year work visa has opened up for foreign workers skilled in areas like science and innovation.
  • The new immigration policy also features the option for workers to apply for permanent residence after having lived in the city for three years.
  • Previously, only around 2,500 immigrants received permanent residence in Shanghai because of high application barriers.

“So if you come here to China and your children are in high school, and you’re reaching the end of your five-year visa and they are about to go to high school, and you’d like to stay longer and see them through high school, then you can. And that’s really important for a family to be able to stay longer.”

Read the full story at CCTV.

Religion + Belief

China Research | Nonbelievers

Complexities of translating Chinese religious identification establish the nation as perennial statistical outlier in polling
  • Although the widely cited WIN/Gallup poll on global religiosity indicates 61% of Chinese respondents identified as atheist, 27% as nonreligious, and only 7% as religious, the Chinese term used to translate “religious” carries more politicized, institutional connotations than in other languages.
  • In addition, one anthropologist notes that many Chinese people have more syncretic belief systems and practices than in other parts of the world.
  • Because the survey was administered online, there could have been additional pressure to identify as atheist as the Communist Party is officially atheist and surveils online communications.

“In other parts of the world, the survey is more uniformly understood. … In East Asia, the signals are more complex, but it still gives some insight.”

Read the full story at the New York Times.

(Image Credit: Fred Dufour/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images, via The New York Times)

Ideology + Affiliation

China News | Advocates & Dissidents

China enacts sweeping new national security law, fortifying Communist Party powers and worrying rights advocates and political dissenters
  • The law expands China’s “core interests” to include economic development; polar, maritime, and extraterrestrial project protection; and a broad sense of national security encompassing culture, education, and politics.
  • With two complementary bills on foreign organization regulation and counterterrorism in the pipeline, security experts and human rights advocates expect the new law to lead to more activities categorized as national security violations and strengthened legal justification for crackdowns on dissent.
  • Under the agreements that led to their reintegration into China, Hong Kong and Macau will not be subject to application of the law.

“All these things are brought together in a way that links the idea of the nation or the state with the security of a political regime. … Everybody knows this is the understanding that the Communist Party has, but it’s rarely put this explicitly in national law. That’s just striking.”

Read the full story at the New York Times.

(Image Credit: Bobby Yip/Reuters, via The New York Times)

Gender

Singapore News | Women

Colonel Gan Siow Huang promoted to become first female general in Singapore Armed Forces
  • On July 1, Huang, 40, will assume the rank of Brigadier-General after 22 years in the army.
  • She was one of four women to receive the first SAF merit scholarship in 1993 when the military first began actively recruiting women.
  • A graduate of the London School of Economics and mother of three, she credits the SAF’s family-friendly policies with allowing for some of the flexibility needed for her to balance her demanding work with starting a family.

“I think women entered this game late. It was only in 1993 that the SAF seriously started to look at and bring in talent, and to develop woman leaders. Back then, the SAF also did not know how far women could go.  In the 1990s, we didn’t have many woman COs in the Army, Navy and Air Force. Over time, when women in different jobs and vocations did well, confidence was gradually built.”

Read the full story at AsiaOne.

(Image Credit: via AsiaOne)

Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Thailand News | Montangard Christians

Thailand’s military government bans Human Rights Watch event in Bangkok discussing Vietnamese persecution of ethnic Montagnards
  • Having stepped up censorship and public assembly bans since its 2014 coup, the junta justified the shutdown by claiming such an event would damage relations with Vietnam.
  • The event is the third to be shut down in the last month at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand.
  • The predominantly Christian Montagnards have fled religious and political persecution in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, seeking asylum in neighboring countries like Cambodia.
“Thailand is choosing to side with dictatorships in ASEAN while further stepping up repression at home.”
Read the full AFP story at AsiaOne.
Nationality + Migration

Japan News | British

Tokyo theater scene sees rise in British directors this season
  • Directors like Thom Southerland, Phillip Breen, Max Webster, and Robin Herford reflect an internationalization of the directing scene, bringing such productions as Titanic, Orpheus Descending, Mary Stuart, and The Woman in Black to the stage.
  • Although producers and directors indicate the trend is largely accidental, they note that as theaters increasingly show international plays, the desire to work with foreign directors intimately familiar with the histories contained in such work has increased.
  • The directors themselves have found ease in working with Japanese actors and note that such internationalization trends are on the rise back in Europe as well.

“Of course our scope to select directors is much greater in today’s global world with information instantly available on our computers. So now there’s no reason not to expand our options to engage with new talent outside Japan.”

Read the full story at the Japan Times.

(Image Credit: Shinji Hosono/Japan Times)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

China News | Uyghur Muslims

Attack on traffic stop amidst Ramadan tensions leaves at least 18 dead in southwest Xinjiang in China
  • In the Tahtakoruk district of Kashgar (Kashi), suspects attacked unarmed traffic police with a vehicle, knives, and explosives, leading to three officers’ deaths and injuring at least four others.
  • Armed backup arrived and reportedly killed 15 suspects, though the exact number of dead was unclear in the confusion of the aftermath.
  • The violent incident occurs as tensions have increased in Xinjiang between the government and the autonomous region’s Muslim Uyghur population over Ramadan, with government restrictions on participation in activities for the holy month having angered citizens.

Read the full story at Radio Free Asia.