South Korean culture carries a gem of culinary thought and skill – the Korean temple kitchen. This cuisine is strictly vegetarian and combines a philosophy of sharing and coexistence with humans and nature with a variety of skills like different preparations of vegetables, patience and the passing of culinary knowledge to younger generations. It enjoys rising popularity and international attention at a time when ultra-processed food is consumed at a fast pace. The protagonists of this process are Buddhist nuns. Even though food preparation in Buddhist monasteries is done equally by monks and nuns separately, being an expert in Korean temple kitchens reveals challenges because of gender biases for both monks and nuns.

This paper unpacks the significant strides in digital collaboration between the European Union and Japan, shedding light on key partnerships, innovative initiatives, and futuristic strategies that could redefine socio-economic landscapes across East and Southeast Asia.

In the late 20th Century, many commentators assumed that communism and autocracy in general were destined to fade away as the citizens of developing countries became increasingly prosperous and educated and gradually came to accept liberal democracy as the eventual form of government. However, recent democratic backsliding globally has generated interest in analyzing the persistence of authoritarianism in some states. Commentators have also begun to try to identify factors influencing these regimes’ form and longevity. In this paper, I analyze and compare the historical, cultural, and institutional factors which have shaped the Vietnamese and Cambodian communist regimes into the present day, with particular attention to state-society relations and the various ways in which the regime has sought to supplant and/or co-opt existing social and cultural institutions. I argue that the ideological co-optation of institutions has been much more complete and longer lasting in Vietnam.

This article attempts to locate the extent to which gendered conceptions and performances of beauty and aesthetics reflect on and reinforce (gender) inequalities in South Korea. Drawing on the works of Butler, this author seeks to foster discussion surrounding the intersection of gender performances and beauty, and how it has become salient in the contemporary Korean context. Zooming in on makeup and aesthetic/cosmetic surgery as prevalent, often labeled gendered, phenomena amongst the Korean population, this article establishes how beautification tactics as a common practice inform broader discussions surrounding (in) equality in the country.