Across South-East Asia, the space for fearless free speech is diminishing
, a Chinese writer exiled from the mainland, once wrote that “in China’s huge city boulevards…my thoughts always felt imprisoned, but in Hong Kong’s narrow streets and tiny, cramped bookshops they were set free.” That changed in the wake of the pro-democracy protests which engulfed the city in 2019 and 2020; the Chinese government’s draconian, a small, independent literary magazine focused on South-East Asia announced that it was shutting up shop. The main reasons were economic.
He sold it to a buyer from Australia and agreed to stay on as editor for a final issue, which was published in November. With characteristic eclecticism, Mr Bui Jones’s swansong includes features on Malaysia’s undocumented migrants, Hong Kong’s only French-language bookshop and Vietnam’s female weightlifters. The new owner, who for now is not revealing his identity because of concerns about repercussions in other countries, will pick up Mr Bui Jones’s plans for expansion across east Asia.
Governments in the region are stifling free expression, sometimes due to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party. Booksellers, publishers, translators and festivals have all been affected by this trend. Sam Yan Press, a small, student-led publishing house based in Bangkok, translates books about democracy and social justice into Thai.
Danmark Seneste Nyt, Danmark Overskrifter
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