Narratives of Asia

Remember the recent 11.11 sale? Did you make a purchase during then? In this episode, we are joined by a special guest, Charmaine, in a deep dive into the world of fast fashion. Do we, as consumers, consciously think of the environmental and social costs whenever we purchase a piece of clothing? How do we determine if brands are greenwashing or are truly dedicated to sustainability?

The first term at UCL is officially starting, so it seems apt to look back on our schooling days and see how far we’ve come since the beginning of our education journey. Listen to the episode here.

In the second of our two-part podcast series, ‘Three Hong Kongers On A Sofa: You, Me, We’, continuing from where we left off last time, we will be sharing yet another series of reflections. This time, the confessions focus more on social changes in both the community and also at home. Observable changes in social behaviour and also interpersonal relations could be evidenced; whether that be with members of the public, friends and also family members.

In the first of our two-part podcast series, ‘Three Hong Kongers On A Sofa: You, Me, We’, we will be sharing with you a series of reflections on last summer, touching on areas such as initial reactions to the movement, impact on daily life in Hong Kong and also observations of the various reactions and responses in the community. There will also be room for brief insight into the key features of the movement and observable differences in the city.

On another episode of Narratives of Asia, we will be continuing on our previous theme of Coronavirus and Racism. Due to a combination of media stigmatization and perpetuation of the virus origins, anti-Chinese sentiments have increased greatly across the international community, witnessing dramatic increases in racist attacks, harassment and assaults.

Our topic for this two-part podcast is a snapshot of the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in East Asia, the South East Asia region, South Asia and the Middle East. In this episode, we will be looking at the Middle East instead and some of the areas we will be focusing on including the diplomatic developments between countries in the region with the US over trade and exports, the fall of oil prices in the Gulf Cooperation Council region (or GCC for short), Palestinian and Israelian cooperation in their efforts to contain the coronavirus, and also looking closer at regions like Yemen, riddled with years of intrastate wars and refugee crises, and how they are coping under the pressures of the pandemic.

Our topic for this two-part podcast is a snapshot of the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in East Asia, the South East Asia region, South Asia and the Middle East. In this episode, we will be touching bases with issues like China’s global economic integration, impacts on the worst-hit sectors like that of travel and tourism, and finally, dispel the myth behind the uncannily low numbers of cases detected in South Asia.

The virus itself is a threat to public health, and somehow, the masks represent that threat because people here are told only to wear masks if they are ill. But there are two different ways of going about the whole idea of mask wearing.

I think the interesting thing about us being Asians is that we are minority but not in the same sense as other people. There is a term they use to describe this, which is ‘model minority’. So we are the minority, but we are not too different.