September 4, 2018

A storyteller’s tribute to Naipaul

He was painstaking. Respectful. Patient. He sat alongside his interview subjects with his notebook open, asking questions, probing slowly but steadily, exploring, in minute detail, the personal and intimate.
August 23, 2018

Pakatan’s 100 days: electoral reforms a waiting game

During Malaysia’s 14th General Election the Ceritalah team travelled the country to talk to working Malaysians to understand what ordinary citizens were going through under the previous National Front government (Barisan Nasional, or BN) – and how they felt. As the 100 days of the new Coalition of Hope (Pakatan Harapan, or PH) government drew to a close on 17 August, the team followed up with some of the people they met to get a sense of how they’re feeling now.
August 10, 2018

The culture and politics of Isaarn’s funky Molam music

Perhaps the easiest way of understanding how Molam fits in (or doesn’t) in Thailand is to think of it as comparable with the “Country & Western” music forever shunned by metropolitan New York and Los Angeles, but very much alive – out there – in Nashville and elsewhere in the South.
August 3, 2018

Forget ‘Made in China’, say hello to ‘Made in Vietnam’

Nguyen Ba Hoi produces neither smartphones nor steel for export. Instead, he’s focusing on developing his country into a centre for innovation.