Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

Thanks for joining me this week.

#AsiaNow Author Interview

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China Stories

Emily Feng, “An opera troupe in Taiwan is preparing a lavish performance for the gods”

The journalist’s report centered on the Franklin County Jail, a three-story, brick structure with six steel cells that had been “properly condemned” by the state commissioner of prisons for its dangerous conditions. In the jail sat dozens of Chinese migrants, most of whom had been apprehended after crossing the Canadian border and nearly all of whom claimed to be U.S. citizens. The town was in the process of building a new jail or “detention house” exclusively to detain the rising number of people arriving in violation of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, a law that banned Chinese laborers from admission to the United States.

— Brianna Nofil, “The China Business” — excerpt from Nofil’s new book, The Migrant’s Jail: An American History of Mass Incarceration

Alexandra Stevenson, “In a Malaysian Pop-Up City, Echoes of China’s Housing Crash”

Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Why It’s Getting Harder to Fly to China”

Wanderings Around the World

Marcia Chatelain, “Trump, Harris and the Enduring Symbolism of McDonald’s”

Paul Dailing, “Scrapyard Dead”

Myanmar tied with China for the worst environment for internet freedom this year, marking the first time a country has ranked as low as China in a decade, according to a new report from Freedom House, an advocacy group. As of January 2024, internet penetration in Myanmar was just 44%, the lowest rate in Southeast Asia after East Timor. Average mobile download speeds in Myanmar declined by nearly 10% during the 12-month period to May 31, 2024, according to the annual report.

— Nu Nu Lusan, “Myanmar residents struggle to overcome severe internet blackouts with Starlink”

Katie Stallard, “Alexei Navalny’s chronicle of a death foretold”

Featured photo: Breakfast at the Penrose Diner (complete with scrapple!), Philadelphia, PA, October 27, 2024.