Showing 1 - 8 of 8
From Edo to Edinburgh
Life, Sawarin Suwichakornpong, Published on 14/03/2026
» The opera based on the long and industrious life of Japanese print master Katsushika Hokusai had its world premiere in Glasgow and travelled to Edinburgh for two consecutive nights last month. I braved the strong winds of the Edinburgh evening to watch The Great Wave at the Festival Theatre on its last day.
Timeless love
Life, Sawarin Suwichakornpong, Published on 13/08/2021
» Kim Bo-young is one of the most prolific science fiction writers of East Asia. At home in South Korea, where she is currently based, she won the best novella award in the first round of the Korean Science & Technology Creative Writing Award with The Experience Of Touch, her first published book. She has also won the annual South Korea SF novel award twice. Kim has a forthcoming English translated short story and novellas in the United States. I'm Waiting For You And Other Stories is her first English translation work published in the UK.
Can a righteous resistance ever cross the line?
Life, Sawarin Suwichakornpong, Published on 22/01/2021
» Sabotage, in French and in English, indicates the act of deliberately destroying or damaging property. It's an apparatus that aims at weakening an enemy or oppressor through means such as subversion and obstruction. It is a tool that, we are told, has been adopted by French workers as a substitute for strikes, but sabotage doesn't limit itself only to workplaces. Its literature survey connotes that it occurs within a variety of contexts -- in wars, political and social campaigns, or socio-economic programmes that effect someone's livelihood. In all cases, however, the intent of sabotage is analogous -- to use extreme civil disobedience to inflict damage upon goods or properties in order to serve a particular purpose or higher goal. The end justifies the means, according to the saboteurs.
A deal to save the planet
Life, Sawarin Suwichakornpong, Published on 04/09/2020
» The rising temperature of Earth's climate is wreaking havoc on our ecosystems by generating extreme changes in the weather, unresolved seasonal changes, and ecological damage. While there is ample evidence to suggest climate change took place even in prehistoric times, scientists have observed that the rate and degree of change since the mid-20th century has been accelerating, concluding that human activity has been the major driving force underlying this drastic transformation.
A unity of none
Life, Sawarin Suwichakornpong, Published on 17/04/2020
» In the morning of Aug 25, 2017, a group of militants belonging to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) unco-ordinatedly attacked police and border guards in northern Arakan (Rakhine) state, killing at least 12 officers. The Myanmar Armed Forces, known as the Tatmadaw, retaliated by launching a military counter-insurgency campaign in order to capture the perpetrators who attacked the border garrisons.
Welcome to the Asian century
Life, Sawarin Suwichakornpong, Published on 06/03/2020
» 'The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land." Hugh of Saint Victor.
Magic in the mundane
Life, Sawarin Suwichakornpong, Published on 02/08/2019
» Hailing from Chon Buri, Duanwad Pimwana is one of Thailand's best known fiction writers. Acclaimed for her imaginative takes on the realities of Thai society, Duanwad has authored numerous literary works, including novels, poetry, short stories and writings that mostly blend elements of magic with social realism that aim to highlight the socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures behind them. Bright, or Changsamran in Thai, Duanwad's first feature novel, won the prestigious SEA Write Award in 2003. By the time it was released in America last year, Bright was the first book by a Thai woman writer translated into English. The book is translated by Mui Poopoksakul, a Berlin-based translator who has done a remarkable job in translating the mundane into the magical.
Overcoming the racial divide
Life, Sawarin Suwichakornpong, Published on 26/04/2018
» Shakespeare writes in The Winter's Tale that "there were no age between 10 and three-and-20, or that youth would sleep out the rest". Adolescence, or the marked "teenage years", encompass elements of biological growth and major social transformation, both of which are decidedly products of nature and culture. The time between youth and maturity can be sorrowful, hard, fun, sad and amazing. It never fails to inspire writers of fiction, to attempt to unravel the complexities of this concept of life. Charting into the unknown is always a favourite subject of those who write.