Recommendations of the month

BOOK: ‘The Woman in the Dunes’ (1962) - Kōbō Abe, Japan
MOVIE: ‘Starry Starry Night’ - Tom Shu-Yu Lin (2011), Taiwan
TV SERIES: ‘Boys over flowers’ (2009), South Korea
SONG: ‘I Wouldn’t Know Any Better Than You’ - Gentle Bones, Singapore
QUOTE: ‘一日三秋’, ‘a single day apart seems like three seasons’ (China)

BOOK: ‘Kwaidan’ (1904) - Lafcadio Hearn, Japan
MOVIE: ‘Shutter’ (2004) - Banjong Pisanthanakun & Parkpoom Wongpoom, Thailand
TV SERIES: ‘Strangers From Hell’(2019) - Lee Chang-Hee, South Korea
SONG: ‘Bye 请慢走’ (2020) - Joey Chua 蔡卓宜, Malaysia
QUOTE: ‘Muộn còn hơn không’ - ‘Better Late Than Never’ (Vietnam)

BOOK: ‘The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life’ (2016) - Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh, China
MOVIE: ‘The Bacchus Lady’ (2016) - E-Yong, South Korea
TV SERIES: ‘The Naked Director’ (2019) - Masaharu Take, Japan
SONG: ‘từ chối nhẹ nhàng thôi’ (2020) - PHÚC DU (feat. BÍCH PHƯƠNG), Vietnam
QUOTE: ‘Padi Makin berisi, makin merunduk’ – ‘The more substance a rise grain has, the more it bends’ (Indonesia)

BOOK: ‘Snow Country’ (1948) - Yasunari Kawabata, Japan
MOVIE: ‘Somewhere Winter’ (2019) - Wang Weiming, China
TV SERIES: ‘White Christmas’ (2011) - Kim Yong-soo, South Korea
SONG: ‘This Christmas’ (2017) - Taeyeon, South Korea
QUOTE: ‘Anak, ang pasko ay pagmamahal na nakikita sa gawa’ - ‘Christmas, my child, is love in action’ (Philippines)

BOOK: ‘Frog’ (2009) - Mo Yan, China
MOVIE: ‘The Wind Rises’ (2013) - Hayao Miyazaki, Japan
TV SERIES: ‘Detention’ (2020) - I-Hsuan Su; Shiang-An Chuang & Yi Liu, Taiwan
SONG: ‘1057’ (2016) - Jasmine Sokko, Singapore
QUOTE: ‘ကိုယ်ထင် ခုတင်ရွှေနန်’ - ‘Deluded person thinks his bed is the golden palace’ (Myanmar)

BOOK: ‘Strange Weather in Tokyo’ (2001) - Hiromi Kawakami, Japan
MOVIE: ‘Us and Them’ (2018) - René Liu, China
TV SERIES: ‘2Gether: The Series’ (2020) - Weerachat Thongjila, Thailand
SONG: ‘Wherever You Are’ (2010) - ONE OK ROCK, Japan
QUOTE: ‘The deep sea can be fathomed, but who knows the heart of men?’ (Malaysia)

BOOK: ‘Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982’ (2016) - Cho Nam-joo, South Korea
MOVIE: ‘The Lady’ (2011) - Luc Besson, Myanmar
TV SERIES: ‘The Making of an Ordinary Woman’ (2019) - Yen Yi Wen, Taiwan
SONG: ‘Fxxk Boyz Get Money’ (2014) - FEMM, Japan
QUOTE: ‘漫云女子不英雄’ - ‘Don't tell me women are not the stuff of heroes’, Qiu Jin (China) 

BOOK: ‘The Three body problem’ (2008) – Cixin Liu, China
MOVIE: ‘A Land Imagined’ (2018) – Yeo Siew Hua, Singapore
TV SERIES: ‘The Promised Neverland’ (2019) – Japan
SONG: ‘A Kyin Nar Site Khin Myar’ (2018) – The Peacists, Myanmar
QUOTE: ‘Mahirap gisingin ang nagtutulog-tulugan’ - ‘It’s difficult to wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep’ (The Philippines)

BOOK: ‘The Japanese cult of tranquillity ’ (1960) – Karlfried Graf von Dürckheim, Japan
MOVIE: ‘Babe at Baril’ (2019) – Rae Red, The Philippines
TV SERIES: ‘A Sun’ (2019) – Taiwan
SONG: ‘Tenang’ (2021) – Yura Yunita, Indonesia
QUOTE: ‘Durian dengan mentimun, menggolek kena, kena golek pun kena’ - ‘Whether the durian hits the cucumber or the other way round, it’s going to be bad for the cucumber’ (Malaysia)

BOOK: 'The Culture of Capital Punishment in Japan' (2019) - David Johnson
MOVIE: 'Absent without leave' - Kek Huat Lau, Malaysia (2016)
TV SERIES: 'Navillera' - South Korea (2021)
SONG: 'I ไม่ O (I Mai O)' (2021) - Billkin, Thailand
QUOTE: '一期一会 - Ichi-go ichi-e' - one time, one meeting - Japan
PODCAST EPISODE: Reflecting on China’s poverty reduction with Bill Bikales - Sinica Podcast (July 2021)

Book: 'Ring' (1991) - Koji Suzuki, Japan
Movie: 'A Tale of Two Sisters' (2003) - Kim Jeewoon, South Korea
TV Series: 'Detention' (2020) - Taiwan
Song: 'A Chinese Ghost Story' (1987) - Leslie Cheung, Hong Kong
Quote: Đi đêm lắm có ngày gặp ma - If you keep going out at night, eventually you will meet ghosts (vietnamese proverb)
Podcast: Ghost Maps: Ture Southeast Asian Horror Stories