The New Mekong Review – May-July | The Good Fight

Posted: May 19th, 2022 | No Comments »

30 June will mark two years since China passed its draconian national security law on Hong Kong. In our latest issue, Evan Fowler looks at ‘the regression of Hong Kong’s freedoms under Beijing’s rule’ but also the deep-standing inequality that has always plagued the city state. In his review of Mark L. Clifford’s Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World: What China’s Crackdown Reveals about Its Plans to End Freedom Everywhere, Fowler highlights both the colonial underpinnings where ‘London and Beijing are shown to be distant masters, with Hong Kong and its people perpetual colonial subjects’ and an elite who, ‘highly sensitive to where power lies, have seamlessly switched to serving their new masters.’ What has been lost, ultimately, are more freedoms.

Where do diminishing freedoms leave artists? An interview with the indomitable Chinese writer Yan Lianke might offer some hope. Once a soldier and propagandist, Yan is now one of China’s most controversial and celebrated writers. Despite the censorship of his work within his own country, he says: ‘I am glad that I became a professional writer, which has meant no longer having to live a life in which I am one person by day and another person by night.’

Why does Singapore remain so stubbornly attached to the death penalty? Ken Kwek profiles the journalist Kirsten Han, who lives a second life as an anti-death penalty campaigner. As much as her work focuses on legislative change, it’s a job that entails the gruelling emotional labour of ‘offering solace to those dreading an imminent execution.’ And it has carried no small price for Han whose ‘willingness to criticise laws she views as regressive or unjust within a climate of growing authoritarianism has repeatedly placed her in the crosshairs of powerful figures.’

Also in this issue, Rowena Abdul Razak offers a tribute to her extraordinary uncle: a Penang boy who grew up to be a couturier in Paris. Greg Lockhart reviews a book on Australian foreign policy since the Second World War. Thomas A. Bass considers the role of photography in the Vietnam War. Yuan Yi Zhu ponders the usefulness of China’s aggressive brand of diplomacy in his review of China’s Civilian Army: The Making of Wolf Warrior Diplomacy. Rhoda Feng tells the remarkable story of the development of the Chinese typewriter. Ally Le reviews the long-awaited translation of Chinatown by the Vietnamese novelist Thuận. Xu Xi on the quinessential Hong Kong writer Dung Kai-cheung.

And for those who remain home-bound, Khan Sokummono meanders through Phnom Penh’s hidden laneways in search of a book while Pim Wangtechawat speeds through Bangkok’s sois to introduce a new love to a favourite delicacy, Nick J. Freeman takes a ride on the new train line linking China to Laos, while Sam Vincent takes us to his farm in Australia.

Plus, poetry by Abrona Aden and Anthony Tao and a short story by Calvin Godfrey.

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