COUNTRIES VISITED: Philippines, South Korea
LOCAL READS:
I read 2 books each from the Philippines and Korea, and generally liked 1 of them from each. Perhaps this is just because I’m drawn to stories of immigrants struggling to find a sense of home wherever they are (dis)placed.
Philippines:
In the Country by Mia Alvar: This collection of short stories focuses on the Filipino diaspora and on the country’s journey to democracy. I found it rather poignant, and in particular enjoyed the (imagined, private) accounts of the Aquinos couple in America - Historical context: In real life, after years of political exile, the husband returns to the Philippines only to be shot dead so becomes a martyr, which alights mass protests against the dictatorial president Marcos, so that Aquinos’ his wife Cory eventually becomes president. (The history is an amazing story in its own right.)
Smaller and Smaller Circles by FH Batacan: The “first ever Filipino crime novel” and the winner of the National Book Award in the Philippines, this novel follows a couple of priests, who also happen to be forensic detectives, as they try to crack a serial murder case. It was an enjoyable enough (and quick!) read, with some thinly veiled jabs at Catholicism and Filipino politics (ahem Duterte’s treatment of the urban poor), but it was also somewhat predictable. I have no idea how it won a literary award.
South Korea:
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: A sprawling, multi-generational story of South Koreans struggling to survive under Japanese colonialism, this book made just about every “Best Books of 2017” list last year. I didn’t love it quite as much as critics did, BUT I did enjoy it. It also taught me a lot about this time/place in history, and the characters were full and complex. (This book was, however, a bit of a cheat, as it was written by a Korean American, rather than a native.)
Please Look After Mom by Kyeong-Sook Shin: This book won the Asia Man Booker Prize and was a massive commercial success in Korea. That said, I hated it. I found it incredibly simplistic, overwrought, and self-indulgent. None of the characters were particularly complex. That said, I suppose it served as a window into the Korean psyche, the inter-generational gaps, and the “Asian guilt” born by Gen X/millennial children.
I listened to 2 BBC Documentary podcasts on South Korea - and would recommend (the rather scathing) “Not Making Babies in America” episode, which explains that Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world and offers one primary reason for it: widespread, overt sexism that makes women feel they need to choose between husband & child, or career & self respect. Like I said, it’s quite scathing, but I like listening to some critiques of the places I visit, as I find most visitors (on any holiday anywhere!) often leave with too-rosy views of a place, without any nuance.
INTERNATIONAL BOOKS
Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman: I didn’t find this super well written, but the book provided really good food for thought. Bergman maps out what a courageous progressive vision/ideal of the future should be (e.g., universal basic income, open borders), so that liberals have something to work towards.
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday: This perplexing two-part book was on a whole bunch of “Best Books of 2018” lists. The first half follows a budding relationship between a woman in her young twenties and an acclaimed author in his late sixties / early seventies, and it reminded me a lot of a Woody Allen film. The other half concerns an Iraqi-American man who gets stopped by border control in a UK airport, and these chapters flip back and forth through his life. The two halves of the book connect in a few (though very, very tangential) ways. I liked the first half more than the second.
LONG READS
“An elephant crack up?” (NYT): A fascinating look at PTSD in elephants and how culling programs (mostly for “conservation” reasons) are affecting populations of elephants worldwide / how trauma is similar in humans and elephants (both intelligent, social creatures). The elephant death mourning rituals are incredibly moving.
”What if the placebo effect isn’t a trick?” (NYT): A fascinating look at cutting-edge research on how the placebo effect works, whether it can be connected to your genetic makeup, and (ultimately) whether it should be prescribed as medicine.
”Tibet is going crazy for hoops” (Atlantic): An unexpected profile of a Tibetan basketball team made up of yak yarn manufacturers, nomads, and monks. As their basketball coach shouts at one point, “There’s gonna be hawks, vultures, balls rolling onto the court—you gotta play through!”
“The Land that Failed to Fail” (NYT): I don’t read that much on China, so I found this to be a really accessible high-level piece on the Chinese political economic experiment (controlled capitalism), how Americans view the Chinese, and how the Chinese view themselves.
“14 months, 120 cities, $2 billion. There’s never been a company like Bird. Is the world ready?” (Inc): Honestly, I hadn’t heard of Bird e-scooters until this article because I didn’t live (nor had I traveled to) one of the 120 cities where Bird operates. But this is an incredible piece, both for the crazy stats (it took Bird less than a year to become a $1 billion company; to put that in context, that same valuation took Airbnb 3 years and Uber 4 years to reach), as well as for the profile of the CEO Travis (why must all overvalued transport startups be founded by tech bros names Travis??). There is definitely a weirdly congratulatory tone to this piece that I find disturbing, but still, recommended.