Society & Culture
Exploding The Myths Behind K-pop (The Observer): I infiltrated a K-pop training academy, and even attended a series of VERY intense auditions (as an audience member) where students between the ages of 6-26 trained for up to nine hours a day in hopes of joining a major record label and making it big.

The Bottom Line: The forgotten voices of the Hong Kong protests (The South China Morning Post): An examination of the effects of social unrest and longstanding inequality on Hong Kong’s lower income, and underprivileged populations.

The real fuccbois of Mongolia 🇲🇳 (i-D/Vice): I went to Ulaanbaatar in search of fuccbois, fuccgirls (and non-binary street style-lovers)... and found them! This story looks into Mongolia's fascinating transition from a North Korea-like communist state (till the 80's) into an upcoming culture hub today.

The death of romance and the rise of the loner in South Korea (i-D/Vice): Loner culture is emerging not just in countries like Japan and Hong Kong -- South Korea is seeing low birth rates, low marriage rates and the rise of single person households. Along with this, an entire market catering to solo activities and lifestyles is growing in otherwise collectivist Korea.

Diaspora & Identity
Being Chinese-Canadian in a strange new world (Toronto Star): Examining what it means to be Chinese-Canadian in a time of COVID-19.

Living in South Korea as a Chinese-Canadian woman is a lesson in the strange world of “contradictory privilege” (Quartz): I wrote about my life in South Korea and the unique experiences and encounters of being a non-visible “Westernised” foreigner in Asia.

Last Hike: The Chinese-Canadian hikers who vanished on Christmas Eve (SCMP): In December 2016, I was in Vancouver when Lam Chun-sek and Roy Lee went missing during a hike. It was terrible and tragic news for everyone. Two year later, I spoke to their families and would-be rescuers about what went wrong, while they also provided me with glimpses into Lam and Lee’s lives as Hong Konger-Canadians who loved to hike.  

"Dude, where's my crown?" - The fresh prince of South Korea (SCMP): Through a series of emails, calls and FaceTime chats, I connected with Andrew Lee and his uncle, Yi Seok to write this double profile on their lives as the last surviving members of Korea’s imperial Yi Dynasty.

Ganja Gap: the cultural divide Asian-Canadians tread over getting high (SCMP): In light of legalisation, I interviewed fellow Asian-Canadians over how they viewed Canada's weed culture and how it has impacted their relationships with family.

Business Trends
The cure for loneliness is… Robots (SCMP): Or is it? Across Asia, the demand for social robots, A.I. designed to be human companions, is expected to soar as aging populations mount, and single person households increase. But can more technology become part of the cure for an issue that so far has only been exacerbated thru tech?

The Miniso Story: How China's cultural copycats took over the world (SCMP): I look at the rise and proliferation of discount chains from China that are often masquerading as Korean or Japanese firms. It was fascinating to learn about this new world of fakes.


Broadcast Work and Commentary

 

Reach me at hi@crystal-tai.com