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/issue/2019.02

Connecting Asia with One Domain.

Finding creative ways to encourage Asian representation in media

With 2018 being a banner year for Asian representation, 2019 is gearing up to be a blockbuster sequel... (more below)

Asia Pacific to welcome close to 1 billion International arrivals in 2023

Travel and tourism in Asia Pacific has been on a continuous upward surge with no signs of letting up... (more below)

A preservation of traditional barber service for Asians

How important is it for Asians to get haircuts from Asian barbers? For many living abroad the answer would be VERY IMPORTANT... (more below)

How some are finding creative ways to encourage Asian representation in media

With 2018 being a banner year for Asian representation in media, 2019 is gearing up to be a blockbuster sequel. Promoting inclusion and representation in mainstream media is a job that is never really finished. For decades Asian-American actors and actresses have worked hard to gain the opportunities in front of the camera that is now giving rise to the more realistic portrayals of Asian-Americans in television and films. However, equal representation is still a far ways off. In the past few years, we’ve seen amazing, creative examples of ways to draw attention to and encourage dialog around representation.

It’s important to note why Asian representation in television and film is worth discussing, which helps to explain the passion behind some of these projects that highlight the issue. First, we know from recent studies at the University of Indiana how media representation of characters can affect children’s self-esteem. Seeing someone who looks like you, that shares your culture in a television show or movie can have a large impact on impressionable children who are constantly scanning their environment for clues to how the world works and their role in it. When on average Asians make-up one percent of lead roles and around five percent of speaking roles, we have to ask how this impacts Asian-American kids growing up consuming this media. What message are we sending?

Read full article ...

News in Asia

Japan lands Probe on Asteroid.
https://i.go.asia/2GR1gnc

Trophy Hunting. Good for Conservation?
https://i.go.asia/2UbTNlx

This is a synergy hub offering a full traveling experience to visitors to Cambodia
website screen capture: maads.asia

maads.asia

They employ the best coffee experts to guide future baristas fulfill their potential.
website screen capture: torchcoffee.asia

torchcoffee.asia

Based in Hong Kong, they challenge people to take part in adventure runs up the beautiful mountains.
Website screen capture: the9dragons.asia

the9dragons.asia

Tiger Frame
The #10yearschallenge and wildlife conservation

Tiger Frame: #10yearschallenge and wildlife conservation
Would you still recognise me if I grew another 10 years older? #10yearschallenge. Humans age, but what about animals?

- Ajitora

Asia Pacific to welcome close to 1 billion International arrivals in 2023

The travel and tourism industry in Asia Pacific has been on a continuous upward surge and with no sign of letting up. According to the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), 40 destinations within Asia Pacific are collectively predicted to show an average growth rate of 5.5% per annum between 2018 and 2023, which equates to around 900 million International visitors in 2023. PATA CEO, Mario Hardy points out that intra-regional travel remains important in the region and speaks on what we can do as a region to welcome these 900 million visitors in 2023.

Photo: Asian female in front of airport terminal flipboard

The future is sure looking rosy for travel in the Asia Pacific region, but the present showing is not bad as well. According to Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index, 12 out of the top 20 most visited cities in 2018 were based in Asia Pacific. Bangkok, Thailand came out on top with 21.98 million visitors. Singapore was 5th with around 15 million visitors and Kuala Lumpur was 7th with around 14 million visitors in 2018. Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Phuket and Hong Kong were among the other cities present in the list, with a stable number of visitors in 2018.

The increased travel within the Asian region, is bound to positively impact many service providers within the territory too. The hotel industry will be rubbing their hands in delight and anticipation. Speaking to travel market report, Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian said that for his company, Asia continues to be an area of high focus. “When you look at the travel statistics, over the past five years, travel has grown at about one and a half times the rate of GDP around the world, but in Asia it’s more around twice the rate of GDP growth. So, we think Asia continues to be critically important.”

Read full article ...

A new horizon as the NetMission Academy comes to a close

After a series of intensive training sessions our inaugural edition of the NetMission Academy now draws to a close. Many thanks to all of our guests, which included those from major private sector players such as Google and Afilias, community representatives of ISOC, IETF, ICANN, academia, policy makers, and our very own board members. We were able to appreciated not only the sharing of their expertise, but also the unique and thought provoking perspectives they brought. A wide range of issues at the intersection between technology and society were covered, from the virtues of free speech and its limitations; to our dangerously identifiable yet paradoxically fractured online identities, and how it feeds into today’s digital economy; to the nature of Internet Governance itself. We hope all of our participants and guests found the sessions fruitful and enjoyable.

The end of the academy marks a new beginning for our fresh batch of NetMission Ambassadors. We look forward to collaborating with them to form focused working groups, innovating the next level of Internet Governance participation. Keep an eye out for our Ambassadors at conferences in the near future!

Drop us a note if you are interested to collaborate on any youth engagement work at admin@netmission.asia.

Making new Internet domains work for everyone

Millions of users may be denied access to your services – and that’s not fair to you or to them.
Since 2010 the Domain Name System (DNS) has expanded dramatically, not only fueling competition, choice and innovation, but truly enabling a multi-lingual Internet. There are now more than a 1,500 top-level domains (TLDs), many of which are longer than the traditional two- and three-character names (e.g. .com, .hk, and .org) or are in non-ASCII based scripts – such as Arabic, Cyrillic, Thai and Chinese. In Hong Kong, HKIRC have offered domain names in .香港 since 2010.

The issue at hand
Many organizations and businesses have not updated their systems to accommodate the new domains or what we call become Universal Acceptance (UA)-ready. As a result, many applications and Internet-connected devices and systems are unable to accept, validate, store, process or display all domain names. This causes problems for organizations and headaches for users because if the applications do not recognize or appropriately process the new domain names or email addresses that use these extensions, it will result in lost customers and a poor user experience.

Resources available to assist you
To address these issues and provide support, stakeholders and industry leaders such as Apple, GoDaddy, Google, ICANN, Microsoft, DotAsia and Verisign, created the Universal Acceptance Steering Group. The UASG exists to help organizations ensure their systems are UA-ready and able to accept all domain names and email addresses in any valid script.

Visit the UASG website and view these helpful guides, and to get involved with the UASG so we can work together to fully incorporate these new domains for the benefit of the next generation of Internet users.

Follow this link for the full article ...

By Don Hollander
Secretary General
Universal Acceptance Steering Group

About the author: Don Hollander is the secretary general for Universal Acceptance Steering Group and former CIO for large domestic and international corporations.

OiKwanBarbers.asia – A preservation of traditional barber service for Asians

How important is it for Asians to get haircuts from Asian barbers? For many living abroad the answer would be VERY IMPORTANT. The qualities of an individual’s hair can vary greatly from person to person, and it is commonly said Asian hair has different qualities to say Caucasian hair. That is why in recent years, classic barbershops have made an unprecedented comeback for Asian Americans.

With a prolific tradition in specialized men’s barbershops in Hong Kong, Mark Lau, son of one of the most representative & celebrated barbers, Master Lau from Oi Kwan Barber’s (since 1962); has succeeded his late father’s business and rejuvenated its brand with a mission to establish a sub-culture for Asians by integrating classic barber techniques with modern male grooming products from Japan, presenting a new fusion of the barbershop experience for Asians. Following his further study at a barber school in KOBE, Japan, Mark started a new shop with a broader vision in 2017, aimed at middle-class customers over the world. “Asians deserve to enjoy specialized barber services not limited to local style e.g. Cantonese or Shanghainese, but for Asians in general.” Mark said. Paying tribute to his father, he spent months preserving the signature of his shop: a vintage barber chair with over half a century of history.

The #10yearschallenge and wildlife conservation

Would you still recognise me if I grew another 10 years older? #10yearschallenge. Humans age, but what about animals?

The artificial intelligence of facial recognition is not only for social media, public or national securities, it is also beneficial for wildlife conservation. Similar to the fingerprints of human body, our animal prints on tigers, giraffes, leopards, etc are also unique and no two individuals will ever look the same. Some reserves use human eyes to distinguish the pictures captured from camera traps but improving technologies can make monitoring and conserving wildlife easier by distinguishing and tracking their sightings and population. Facial recognition is nothing new but with added artificial intelligence and machine learning, the computers learn to decipher low quality images much more efficiently than human researchers.

Imagine if everyone contributes to this wildlife big data collection like the #10yearschallenge by sending their wildlife sightings to an online database, there would be plenty of free images available for studies! Make sure you turn off precise geotagging when doing so, poachers may use that information to hunt tigers.

#doubletigers #SDGs