Mekong Review

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 am Chinese” - Mekong Review Tyrus Wong’s extraordinary 106 years on earth, told in meticulous detail by Karen Fang, is a story of resilience and triumph.

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/)

Street cries - Mekong Review Street cries in Vietnam are more than simple calls of commerce; they form an urban soundscape—a way of sensing time, place, and season.

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.

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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]

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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Last few days to access this discount subscription to the excellent @mekongreview.com

The librarian of Vietnam’s banned books - Mekong Review In a nondescript office on a university campus in Taipei, Trịnh Hữu Long maintains one of the world’s most extensive collections of Vietnamese banned books.

@mekongreview.com 's tenth anniversary issue just dropped, including my interview with @trinhhuulong.bsky.social on how he built a library-in-exile of Vietnam's banned books. Read it now! And if you don't have a subscription to Mekong Review--I highly recommend it!

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Celebrate 10 years of inspirational Asian literature by supporting us with an annual subscription! The code MR10 is valid until November 30 so act fast.

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Home - Mekong Review Mekong Review, a quarterly literary magazine, publishes reviews, essays, interviews, fiction and poetry on and from Asia.

It has long been a dream of mine to write something for @mekongreview.com, one of my favorite magazines.

So I'm proud to announce that my interview with the brilliant Vietnamese journalist @trinhhuulong.bsky.social will be coming out very soon in Mekong Review's upcoming issue!

mekongreview.com

I absolutely love our tenth anniversary cover, beautifully illustrated by @badiucao.bsky.social, paying homage to the Gen Z protesters across Asia and the way they’ve embraced One Piece as a symbol of their determination for freedom and resistance 💪🏼

Really looking forward to everyone reading our tenth anniversary edition! It’ll be with our stockists in November, and is already at the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival bookstore 🤩🤩🤩

Thanks to Pandan Weekly for publishing this ‘Writer’s Cut’ version of an essay that first appeared in @mekongreview.com

For me, this is a story that will never get old. In these past couple of years, as bombs have rained down on Gaza and Ukraine, I have, alas, often thought of the Peace Plane.

Thank you! 🙏🏼

Please run, don’t walk!

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We're compiling our mailing list for the next issue on 13 October—if you'd like your subscription to start with the November 2025 issue, remember to subscribe to Mekong Review before this weekend! (And remember our discount code!)

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Malayness By Rowena Abdul Razak

Dina Zaman’s Malayland emerged from the pandemic, motivated by questions about what makes Malays tick in the twenty-first century—what drives their politics, beliefs, desires and fears. Across seven chapters, she takes us through the interviews and interactions she’s had, either personally or through IMAN Research, the think-tank she founded. Her range is impressive: from the rural to the urban, from different social, political and academic backgrounds. Although her book is readable and familiar, quite “come close and let me share with you, okay?”, it’s packed with information, research and academic rigour.

What makes the work even more potent is that she puts herself under the spotlight too. Malayland is as much a personal quest for identity as it is a community’s. Another important thread is the role of Islam—how it has helped Malays, whether it has made them progress or regress, if it’s a thing to celebrate or fear. As Dina discovers, it really depends who you ask. Everyone has their own unique experience and approach, but everything becomes hazy when you look at things collectively.

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Dina Zaman brings a lot from her past to Malayland, but she’s also firm in looking forward and seeking the humanness in Malaysia’s obsession for categories and othering.

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