The appointment of Hong Kong’s Bishop Stephen Chow Sau-yan as a Cardinal a little over a year and a half after he began his Episcopal ministry in the city is yet another sign of Pope Francis’ devotion to Asia and to China in particular. It is also a sign of the Holy Father’s commitment to Read more
Simon Duong Ngoc Hai pays regular visits to his close Buddhist friends, plays chess with them, discusses social and religious issues and learns practical skills such as growing bonsai, yellow apricot flowers and orchids from them. Hai also invites them to attend Christmas parties at his home and enjoys their frequent visits. Many of them Read more
If girls education makes societies stronger, more peaceful and prosperous, then the chances of Asia achieving those goals have become more distant with the coronavirus pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, girls’ enrollments in school had seen significant improvements in Asia. But with the pandemic, those gains have been wiped out. UNESCO estimates that about 24 Read more
Across the world, the omicron phase of the Covid-19 pandemic is now piling up towering case counts in places that have largely managed to keep the disease in check until this point. This troubling rise may signal that another wave of Covid-19 is rising in countries just coming out of their own omicron shadows. Hong Read more
Unlike in Western countries like New Zealand, traditional Asian cultures place a heavy emphasis on filial piety — the expectation children will support their parents in old age. Historically, filial piety played an important role when families were large, pension schemes unavailable and life expectancy was around 50 years old. Today, however, families in east Read more
Asia’s fortune hunters, career-focused students and professionals are set to abandon their dreams of life in the developed cities of the Western world as Europe and the United States struggle to ward off the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Many admit that Asia’s honeymoon with the West has come to an end as Asian nations are predicted Read more
Self-isolation. Quaratine. Lockdown. The outbreak of COVID-19 and its subsequent dissemination across the globe has left a shock wave of disbelief and confusion in many countries. Accompanying this wave has been a spike in racist terms, memes and news articles targeting Asian communities in North America. Asian Americans report being spit on, yelled at, even Read more
For experts and locals alike, it seems Pope Francis’s upcoming visit to Thailand and Japan will not only highlight the Vatican’s strong ties with interreligious communities in each country, but it could also help the pope advance his ecological and peace-making agenda. Speaking to Crux, Adul Smanyaphirak, a Muslim living in Bangkok, said that for Read more
As waves of refugee crises continue to make international headlines, Southeast Asian nations face their own challenges to support and protect millions of refugees and asylum seekers. Across the region, people continue to flee conflict and political persecution and have sought to make new homes with varying degrees success or failure. For some nations the Read more
Asian theologians have been taken to task by one of their own for being locked into a classical Western moral theology framework. Sri Lankan Redemptorist Fr Vimal Tirimanna told the first pan-Asian conference of Catholic moral theologians, held in Bangalore, India, last month, that fresh approaches are required. Theologians have failed to take seriously indications Read more