Letter From The Bureau

Letter From Kuala Lumpur

Sweating in KL: Inside Malaysia’s growing Hyrox fixation

Hyrox veteran Chan Kheng Fai pushing 125 kg during a training session at MORPH KLGCC in Kuala Lumpur on Sept 14.

Letter From Guizhou

That matcha in your cup? It probably didn’t come from Japan

The Gui Tea plantation is one of the largest matcha farms in China’s Guizhou province, which is known as the matcha capital of China.

Letter from Jakarta

Indonesia’s cinema boom is finding audiences in unexpected places

Inside a 31-seat micro-cinema located on the second floor of a minimarket in Gading Serpong, Banten, on the outskirts of Jakarta.

Letter from Shanghai

From Genshin Impact to Arknights: What drives China’s mobile games industry?

Fans of various mobile games such as Arknights dressed up for the Hypergryph Carnival held in Shanghai in August 2026.

Letter from Phu Quoc

The next Bali or Jeju? Vietnam’s biggest isle aims to become a ‘global island destination’

The Venetian Canal inside the Grand World Phu Quoc entertainment complex.

Letter From Yamagata

Why the Japanese are ‘drifting away’ from their most sacred grain

Rieko Nakaba, director of the Yamagata Integrated Agricultural Research Center Paddy Rice Research Institute, examines a crop.

Letter from Chennai

Tamil Nadu’s new chief minister says it’s time for plain speaking and everyday Tamil is what’s needed

Tamil Nadu’s new chief minister Joseph Vijay, speaks everyday Tamil unlike the formal literary Tamil used by the Dravidian parties that ruled the southern Indian state for six decades.

Letter From San Mariano

How a northern Philippine town learnt to live with the world’s rarest crocodile

Amante Yog-yog Jr holds up a young Philippine crocodile that the Mabuwaya Foundation is protecting at San Mariano, Isabela, Philippines on July 28.

Letter from Hapcheon

How South Korea’s football-playing monks became the ‘Brazil of Sangha’

Beginner woodcarving. Woodcarving beginners start off by carving lines and shapes, before moving on to large-sized Hangul characters.

Letter From Taipei

Banned by China, Taiwan’s prized mangoes debut and sell out in Europe even with steep price tag

Taiwan’s prized Irwin mangoes were a hot commodity at Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris despite the steep price tag.

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MDDI (P) 046/10/2025. Published by SPH Media Limited, Co. Regn. No.202120748H. Copyright © 2026 SPH Media Limited. All rights reserved.