AUGUST 22, 2022

Hello, everyone!

On Sunday night, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the colonial-era law 377A that banned sex between men would be repealed.

LGBTQ+ activists have long advocated for the law to be repealed and celebrations erupted across the city-state after Loong made the announcement. Conservative groups were disappointed by the decision as they hoped for more safeguards to be installed in regards to the issue.

However, the Prime Minister also expressed that the government would bolster legal protection for the definition of marriage, which currently means between a man and a woman in Singapore, making it even more difficult for same-sex marriages to be legalized in the future.

Activists called this statement “disappointing,” as Loong emphasized that the nation was still a traditional society that is eager to maintain the societal norms and the structure of the family.

Spotlight 💡

• Anshu Jain, the first non-European executive of Deutsche Bank died at 59 last week. Jain was an Indian immigrant who helped build Deutsche Bank on Wall Street.

Race in America 🌎

• In Los Angeles, plans for a memorial dedicated to 18 Chinese people massacred by a white mob in 1871 are being finalized by the local government.

• Who do you think belongs? Gen Z Asian Americans feel less American than ever. Whether it was their religious practices or facial features, the vast majority do not feel like they belong. 

In Other Asian News 🗞

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City worked with the government of Nepal to repatriate two artifacts. These religious artifacts were received last week.
• The Vietnamese government is outlawing gay conversion therapy, making good on its announcements and promises to combat homophobic and inaccurate rhetoric about sexuality and gender.

Music and TV 📺

• Megan Thee Stallion is in Japan, and after a visit to Osaka, she performed in a Sailor Moon outfit for her show in Tokyo. 

• Michelle Yeoh is playing Professor Emma Anemone in “The School for Good and Evil,” a book-to-TV series adaptation on Netflix. (Personally, I devoured these books in middle school so I can’t wait to see Yeoh embody one of the many magical characters in this series.)

What else is on our minds? 🧠
 

• Millions of Filipino students are returning to in-person schooling after a long hiatus due to the pandemic. Here’s what it’s looking like. 

• Droughts in China caused the Yangtze River to dry up, and as a result, there is a shortage of hydropower. Major companies were forced to stop their activities due to the heatwave. 

• So… Miniso is actually not Japanese. It’s a Chinese company, and after its misleading marketing, the company is apologizing for its decisions. 

• A former thief illustrates his journeys selling Cambodian artifacts to European buyers that ultimately brought stolen pieces to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Essentially, there are even more stolen objects in the museum than originally thought.

• In other sneaker news, there are now limited-edition ramen-designed sneakers at Reebok. Sadly, they’re only sold in Japan. Still, it doesn’t hurt to look.