Latest literary venture by Minh Bui Jones (founding editor before this of @thediplomat.com & @mekongreview.com as well as publisher of Bui Jones Books), a Granta-style magazine focused on Southeast Asia, should be special like everything he does buijones.com/books/yellow/
For more than 60 years, Parsiana carried the stories, debates, and perspectives of the Parsi community. But with an ageing team and a dwindling community, the magazine printed its final issue in October 2025.
Read more about Parsiana: mekongreview.com/the...
Censorship is common in Kashmir, but people find ways to read what the authorities say they shouldn't. In our February 2026 issue, Adil Amin Akhoon takes a look at how readers persist even as the government orders titles off shelves.
Read here: mekongreview.com/qui...
Since our first Writers' Room event is about music, we've put together a playlist for it!
Check it out here: youtube.com/playlist...
It's not too late to register for the session: subscribepage.io/MRw...
Our May–July 2026 issue is in the works and will soon be off to the printers! Make sure you're on our mailing list by getting your subscription to Mekong Review by the end of this week: mekongreview.com/sub...
As commercially successful international music gets adopted and integrated locally, how does the fusion of new musical influences still authentically reflect local communities and their culture? We tackle this question and more at our first-ever Writers Room! RSVP here: subscribepage.io/MRw...
New event!
📆12th April
🕕6pm Singapore time
@mekongreview.com hold their 1st "Writers Room" discussion session online, feat @kirstenhan.com, Pippo Carmona & Ilya Katrinnada, they'll be discussing the topic What makes music ‘national’ or representative of a community?
subscribepage.io/MRwritersroom
Writers' Room is a new virtual series where, every quarter, we invite Mekong Review contributors to discuss their work, making connections and drawing parallels across Asia. RSVP for our kickoff event about 'national' music, culture, and community: subscribepage.io/MRw...
Highlighting some free-to-read pieces from @mekongreview.com’s latest issue (February 2026):
First up, Aung Naing Soe on ground sentiment of the election that the Myanmar military forced through in December/January.
mekongreview.com/the-unwanted...
Another free-to-read piece from @mekongreview.com's February issue: @calumstuart.bsky.social's interview with Fred Chin and the horrific experience of being a political prisoner during Taiwan's White Terror era:
mekongreview.com/cautionary-t...
Free-to-read from @mekongreview.com's February 2026 issue!
Nathalie Chi on the scapegoating of bamboo scaffolding in Hong Kong's Tai Po fire, and how international media outlets that adopted that framing were letting the authorities off the hook too easily: mekongreview.com/cultural-mis...
The Great Bangalore Road Show by C.S. Bhagya Read more at mekongreview.com
In this short comic, I experiment with the comics form to narrate the lived realities of daily commuting in Bangalore (officially, Bengaluru)... The weather can be brooding, rainy, or pleasant, the city green and lush, but also, equally, the city full of pollution, with roads constantly jammed with traffic. All are markers of quotidian life in Bangalore. — C.S. Bhagya
A new web-only piece on Mekong Review: a short comic by C.S. Bhagya on the lived realities of daily commuting in Bangalore (officially, Bengaluru).
Read it here: mekongreview.com/the...
One more friendly nudge! #asianliterature
I somehow wrote a book review during the first two months of my baby’s life.
I am pleased to share my debut in @mekongreview.com, a piece which examines how the life of one immigrant ancestor is remembered and celebrated, but also how we might criticize his choices in the name of survival. (1/)
The new issue of @mekongreview.com has a bunch of sound and music stuff, including this lovely piece about street cries in Vietnam, which happens to be open-access. By Phạm Thu Trang.
mekongreview.com/street-cries/
The story of a Malaysian student who was imprisoned in Taiwan for 12 years on false charges during the White Terror period
[Warning: descriptions of torture]
mekongreview.com/cautionary-t...
Thank you! 🙏🏼
If you read @mekongreview.com—even if it's just picking up an issue from time to time when you see it in a bookstore or browse our website—please take a moment to fill in our reader survey.
tinyurl.com/MR2026survey
Are you a subscriber or reader? Let us know how we’re doing, and what you’d like to see from Mekong Review! Take our 2026 reader survey: tinyurl.com/MR2026survey
Reader surveys are important and useful because they allow us to get a better sense of who our readers and subscribers are, what draws people to Mekong Review, and what our community is most interested in reading and learning about.
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Our February–April 2026 issue is now available online!
Check it out... or better yet, subscribe and never miss an issue: mekongreview.com/sub...
When I started on the concept draft, the loss of spaces in Singapore was something that was on my mind. At that time, the closure of The Projector, an independent cinema in Singapore, was still pretty fresh. The last event I attended at The Projector was the Singapore Independent Media Fair in July 2025.
I constructed the scene based on amalgamated impressions from photos of the independent media fair online. Clear references to the cinema were included, such as hints of the giant “The Projector” sign on the windows, and the framed movie posters on the window sill.
I took some creative liberty with the colours as I wanted an illustration that felt luminous, and I gravitated towards blues, greens, and yellows. I also added pops of orange and pink as accents. The movie posters were inspired by real posters with similar colours: Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together, and Jafar Panahi’s Taxi Tehran.
mekongreview.com/susbcribe
Ngiam Li Yi, who illustrated our February–April 2026, shares a little of the process.
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We're pleased to share that our February–April 2026 issue is now available!
You can order a copy from our online Ko-Fi shop: ko-fi.com/mekongrevi...
(And perhaps consider subscribing annually, too!)
I was really glad for the opportunity to interview Hakamata Hideko. It's not at all easy to have to fight for a loved one on death row, and she stuck with it for such a long, long time.
In 2014, Hakamata Iwao was finally released from prison, pending a retrial. He was seventy-eight years old, and had spent almost half a century on death row in Japan—making him likely the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner. It took another ten years for him to be fully exonerated. Throughout all this time—an ordeal of fifty-six years—his older sister Hakamata Hideko has been his staunchest advocate.
The way she tells it, she’d assumed the role quite naturally. She’s always been close to Iwao; the extroverted, expressive older sister to the placid introvert of few words. The youngest two in a family with six children, they never fought. She wasn’t about to turn her back on him—especially since she was convinced the authorities had got the wrong guy. The biggest motivation, though, was their mother, who struggled to come to terms with her son’s situation. She died without seeing Iwao’s name cleared. “I suppose you might say that I carry that burden of my mother’s feelings,” Hideko says. “That’s why, after my mother died, having witnessed her anguish and sorrow firsthand, I thought I had to do something about it.”
“Looking back now, fifty-six years is indeed a long time. But when I was fighting, I didn’t have time to think about what year it was, what month, what day. I never once thought, ‘How many years have I fought? Five years? Six? Ten? Thirty?’ I just kept pushing forward.” — Hakamata Hideko
Bringing Iwao home by Kirsten Han Read more at mekongreview.com
In our November 2025 issue, we interviewed Hakamata Hideko about her decades-long fight for her brother Iwao—likely the world's longest-serving death row prisoner, finally fully acquitted of murder in Japan in 2024.
Read more: mekongreview.com/bri...
Want to get our February–April 2026 issue in the mail? Subscribe by 10 January to make sure you’re on our subscribers’ mailing list! Subscriptions that come in after 10 January will start with the May–July 2026 issue instead. http://mekongreview.com/subscribe
Our February 2026 issue is in the works! Subscribe by 10 January 2026 to make sure you're on the mailing list.
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Print subscriptions that come in after 10 January will start with the May 2026 issue.
A very happy new year, one and all! 🎉
Picture this memento of Mekong Review history, one of our rare print covers, adorning your wall. Erica Eng's paintings could be the missing piece that elevates your artful home in 2026. There are only a few original works available on our online shop: ko-fi.com/mekongrevi...
Bring a unique piece of Mekong Review history home with you this year! There's still time to support us by purchasing an original watercolour painting of one of our print issue covers by Erica Eng : ko-fi.com/mekongrevi....
A heartfelt thanks from us to you, this holiday season.
Looking for a special gift for a loved one--or yourself--this holiday season? How about choosing one of Erica Eng's beautiful watercolour paintings on our online shop: ko-fi.com/mekongrevi....
Purchasine each art piece is also a meaningful contribution to Mekong Review's year-end push!
Playing with nationalism is to take part in a risky game. A reflection by Peixuan Xie, prompted by Thai–Cambodian tensions earlier this year, before conflict flared up again.
Read here: mekongreview.com/del...
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