ABOUT THIS BLOG
Asian Stories was sparked by a moment of elation when, in early December 2022, Thailand announced the arrival of its 10 millionth tourist. High fives and selfies overtook digital renditions of PCR testing queues and vaccination clinics. In Bangkok where I live, the bars are full of travel-deprived farangs. Bali is bursting, Bhutan remains in the imaginary of every aspiring traveller.
This blog is a multitude of stories. It is an experiment in upbeat writing. I call it writing a “mood” that takes the reader on an exhilarating exploration across Asia.
Asian Stories project a continent of wild imaginings. Loud cities with pungent smells, women clad in saris and sarongs, men in longyis and starched white shirts. Vegetable and flower markets on wheels, trinkets on sidewalks, young boys and girls munching on fresh sugarcane. Betelnut chewing. Teeth blackened by tobacco. Patios and parrots and terracotta water jars.
Night markets. Floating markets. Weekend markets. Mini markets on mall corridors, sidewalks, and rail crossings. Food is everywhere. Someone is always growing a vegetable or cooking a roadside meal at midnight.
Asia is where the heart melts in an instant when the beauty of a temple ruin provokes a gasp. Or upon seeing a Buddha’s head encased in the tendrils of a banyan tree, its sprawling roots enveloping the deity in a silent act of reverence. Or stumbling upon a bevy of older men in cut-out t-shirts, swapping stories, and enjoying a cackle over a late afternoon beer and fried squid is a photographic moment.
Asia’s bedazzling variety has re-emerged after three years of switch-on-switch-off isolation. Covid-19 never stood a chance in this continent that has stubbornly refused to yield to fires, floods, tremors, and forests slowly disappearing into a wasteland. COVID restrictions have been rolled back, and people are on the move everywhere. Hong Kong dismantled quarantine centers that it hopes to turn into affordable public housing. Masks have come off; road networks in Bangkok, Jakarta, and Manila are clogged again. It’s the Apocalypse that never was.
I write about families, clans, and lineages, adventurous great-grandparents, prolific baby boomers, entrepreneurial millennials, and footloose GenZers. All are held together by the forces of tradition.
Asian Stories must inevitably include the giants, India and China, two pillars of an emerging tripolar world order. Their economies are powerhouses, their combined populations account for 36% of the total world population. The top five megacities in the world are located in these two countries. And there are Indonesia and Vietnam with youthful populations --- entrepreneurial, mobile, imaginative, ready on the draw to take on the world.
Not to be delusional, Asia faces numerous challenges --- from malaria to misery, poverty amidst plenty, and the scourge of corruption. Yet, many obstinately refuse to leave and hie off elsewhere. Asia is a hard place to abandon.
This place feels magical again. It is a dizzying time. Creative energies are unleashed. We can imagine many new possibilities.
But we must also keep the past as we look forward and up. Our ancestors bequeathed traditions that connect us with them across time and space, across generations.
Join this conversation. Let’s swap stories, learn from one another, and reimagine Asia, as a place for new beginnings. The re-enchantment has begun.
Wonderful idea, Tess. Be brave. Ed