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/issue/2018.08

Connecting Asia with One Domain.

#CrazyRichAsians

This movie truly marks a momentous milestone for diversity and inclusive representation in Hollywood and in Western media. ... (more below)

Bangladesh making tremendous strides!

Bangladesh has been one of Asia’s most stunning and unexpected success economies ... (more below)

Empowering the Pacific Communities with APrIGF Vanuatu

Taking place the first time in Pacific, APrIGF Vanuatu 2018 has concluded in tremendous success ... (more below)

#CrazyRichAsians

By now, most of us have heard of the movie ‘Crazy Rich Asians’. At its heart, a modern day love story based on the popular book with the same title, by Singaporean-American author Kevin Kwan, and directed by Asian American filmmaker Jon M. Chu. What’s unconventional about this Hollywood studio backed American film is that it features an all-Asian cast.

Photo: Female profile over binary codes in background

World Wide Casting Call
We recall first reading about Chu’s casting call to Asian talents on www.thehive.asia in Jan 2017 for this film. “Whether you’re from Thailand, Singapore, Philippine, here in the States, U.K., Australia, Hong Kong, wherever, we are looking for you,” he offered, “it’s a huge step in representation (for Asians) and a great opportunity to showcase talented Asian actors out there.”

Formidable Asian Community
This movie truly marks a momentous milestone for diversity and inclusive representation in Hollywood and in Western media. Crazy Rich Asians is the first American film in a long time that stars a majority Asian cast. And boy did the Asian American community come together to celebrate this film, no, this social milestone! Theatres were bought out for special screening from L.A. to Washington, contributing to the movie’s overwhelming opening. Crazy Rich Asians brought in more than 34 million on its opening weekend, delivering above and beyond all expectations.

Asian Community Online
While the Crazy Rich Asians cast and narrative was in no mean representative of the diverse Asian community at large, the film was poised to spark a movement from the start. Makers of the film reportedly turned down a large payout from Netflix for a worldwide box office release. They had wanted its debut to be loud and thunderous, and the social media did not disappoint! According to Twitter, there were more than 780,000 tweets by the film’s first weekend release, making it the most tweeted about movie in August 2018.

Asian Identity Online
Here at .Asia we are dedicated to representing not only Asia, but also this dynamic Asian Community online. If you are looking for an online name to represent Asia and the Asian spirit, why not consider choosing a .Asia domain such as ‘www.Tribe.asia’. We hope you’ll find your next Asian community on a .Asia domain .

#CrazyRichAsians #CRA #GoldOpen #RepresentationMatters
References:

Images: CrazyRichAsiansMovie @Facebook
The New York Times | The NewYorker | Fortune

News in Asia

Among the ASEAN big five, Vietnam may suffer the most under the U.S.-China trade war
https://i.go.asia/2MklFTO

World investors look at the immense growth and development of cryptocurrency in Asia
https://i.go.asia/2OzK2KP

3D printing expected to grow to be worth US$3.6 billion by 2021 in the Asia Pacific market
https://i.go.asia/2nx7ixp

With the carefully formulated recipes, Beep.Asia brings true taste of juice to the next level
website screen capture: poptani.asia

beep.asia

ELECTRIFY addressing the need for transparency and security in the consumption of energy in Southeast-Asia
website screen capture: systemsgo.asia

electrify.asia

High-tech organic cosmetics from Japan, bring you moist and transparent skin
Website screen capture: jffc.asia

ichigo.asia

An entertainment app for 40 million members worldwide to watch stream live
Website screen capture: commerce.asia/cde/

m17.asia

Tiger Frame
Saikhan's story:
The surviving cub

Tiger Frame: Ajitora posing with books collected during Kids4Kids' Sharing for a Cause 2018 book drive
Summer is definitely my favourite season because there is the Global Tiger Day (GTD) - 29 July!!! With only 4 years left to 2022 the tiger year, we need more awareness and everyone to gear up. This year GTD encourages all of us to share a true story of wild tiger. I found a little cub that survived a gunshot and returned back to Far East wild in Russia very strong. I shall pay a visit to Saikhan the little cub next year after APrIGF 2019 in Vladivostok!

#Connect2Tigers

- Ajitora

Bangladesh making tremendous strides!

Bangladesh has been one of Asia’s most stunning and unexpected success economies in recent years. With a progressive social policy in place, Bangladesh has transformed from one of the poorest countries in Asia to an auspicious economy. Of the many factors accounting for this transformation, the online space has played a vital role. According to Statista, the Internet penetration rate has skyrocketed from 0.2% in 2005 to 12.1% of the total population in 2015. It now stands at a staggering 49%, which means 81.7 million people are connected to the Internet. Equally amazing, 46% of the population (76.22 million people) has access to the internet through mobile data.

Kaizen – Man tending to outdoor coffee shop

Similarities to the ASEAN region with regards to social media usage are also being witnessed in Bangladesh. When looking at statistics on Internet World Stats, there are 30 million social media users in the region, of which 28 million are using social media via their smartphones. They are spending money online too; this amount is projected to increase in the coming years. A recent online publication on International Organisation of Scientific Research shows the E-Commerce sector growing at a rate of 300% in the last 3 years. There are an estimated 50000 people involved in E-Commerce at the moment, and this is projected to reach 1 million in the coming 10 years. The total expenditure is still relatively low; the large majority of E-Commerce shoppers are spending around US$60 per month. There are currently around 1000 E-Commerce shops in Bangladesh that have their own website.

Having a .Asia domain name allows you to connect your business or organisation with the ever-growing population of online users from various locales including Bangladesh, the ASEAN region and in the Indian subcontinent. One example in Bangladesh is MUV.Asia, which is an online taxi service using motorcycles that also provide courier and food delivery services to customers. For more details, you can visit their webpage which has links to install the application directly from there.

Bangladesh is a shining gem in Asian and proves how dynamic and digitally advanced the whole region is becoming.

A fruitful youth IGF journey in this AMAZING summer!

First youth IGF in Asia Pacific island – Vanuatu
The mission shared by NetMission Ambassadors was brought to Vanuatu, a beautiful Pacific island nation. With regional participants from Australia and Taiwan joining local participants, the event capped off a successful summer. The highlight of yIGF this year was to “Formulate the youth input into the synthesis document”. In accord with the important mission of making young voices heard, the program was developed with the aim of working with participants to allow them to effectively contribute to the APRIGF synthesis document. Then synthesis document is a collaborative effort from all Internet stakeholders to create a general sense of the discussions and issues raised at APrIGF2018. We started by addressing the question, “why we need a synthesis document?”. Building around it, we worked with participants to form ideas generated by informal discussion, small group discussion and role play discussion. In the end, we had a mini-town hall session for everyone to voice out their thoughts and also worked on the document on site. Eventually, local participants lined up to voice out their concerns in Synthesis Document Town-hall session at APrIGF. What an encouraging moment for us to witness local participants overcome the language barriers in order to express their concerns on Internet Governance.

(below: Youth Engagement in the community of Internet Governance is never ending despite a several IG related events are all done in this summer. Yet, we are excited to witness more moments like this!)

Empowering the Pacific Communities with APrIGF Vanuatu

Taking place the first time in Pacific, APrIGF Vanuatu 2018 has concluded in tremendous success with 80% show-up rate of 300+ attendees in total from around the region. A highlight is that the 2 under-represented stakeholders in the past have observed significant increase in participation this year with 26% of the attendees from government stakeholder and 21% from private sector. Another great milestone worth noting is the incremental government support over the last few years, in particular from the 2018 local host, i.e. Office of the Government of Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) and the Telecommunications and Radiocommunications Regulator (TRR) of Vanuatu. The Hon. Prime Minister Charlot Salwai of Vanuatu has made a strong remarks recognizing APrIGF as an invaluable contribution to developing a deep understanding and dialogue, with policy development and informed decisions in the Opening Ceremony.

Over the 4-day program, there are many issues that have been touched on including data protection, cybersecurity, digital economy, etc with a strong emphasis on access and empowerment acknowledging the fact that Internet connectivity is the key enabler. Prone to natural disasters, connectivity however remains a challenge for the small island states as denoted in the high-level plenary. Along with that, we are indeed glad to have the first outreach session of the High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation of the United Nations taken place in APrIGF with Mr. Chengetai Masango and Dr. Vinton Cerf, senior advisor and member of the panel respectively. Deputy chief information officer Mr John Jack also remarked with appreciation on all the issues raised and discussed in APrIGF that were of benefit, albeit novel, to the local participants. In addition to that, we are excited to witness the establishment of Vanuatu IGF organizing committee through an ad-hoc session conducted in bislama (local language) with the support of TRR. APrIGF Vanuatu 2018 certainly has achieved and fulfilled its role to stimulate more understandings and multi-stakeholder dialogues not only among the regional community, but also the local community.

DotAsia is proud to continue our support as the secretariat for this invaluable platform APrIGF to empower and strengthen the communities with the collaborative efforts from all our partners!

Meeting archives can be found at http://2018.aprigf.asia.

Go.Asia amplifies its social media network for local charities

Apart from promoting the sustainable development goals set by the UN through our engagement in the 078kobe festival, pioneering the Youth Mobility Index and establishment of Food Revolution Asia, Go.Asia has continued to support charities and their activities throughout Asia. This summer, we shift our focus to Hong Kong to address social issues including poverty, food rescue as well as child education by enhancing our media support online.

Through our partnerships & collaborations with MaD Asia (http://www.mad.asia/), the Hong Kong Church Network for the Poor, Heifer Hong Kong and The Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong, we have strengthened our social network in order to better understand the social needs for future solutions from the perspective of the youth of Hong Kong.

“From a small seed, a mighty trunk may grow.” We are pleased that our food education program has inspired JCI City Lady (HK) to launch the “LITTLE HAND LOVES EARTH 2018” program, to educate children about sustainability and low carbon lifestyles.

2nd Hong Kong Kids International Film Festival (KIFF)

Supported by DotAsia, Co-organised by non-profit organisation 3SPACE, Golden Scene Company Limited and ELEMENTS, the 2nd Hong Kong Kids International Film Festival (KIFF) officially kicked off on July 28th with the opening ceremony being held at ELEMENTS Mall, followed by the screenings of the opening film “Distinction” at The Grand Cinema – which also marked its Hong Kong debut.

This year, KIFF is proud to have award-winning actress Ms Karena Lam as Ambassador, as well as the support from Hong Kong’s beloved cartoon character Din Dong to promote the Festival and KIFF Carnival with our mascot Upmud. The Festival goes from July 28th to August 5th at The Grand Cinema, showcasing both brand new and classic movies from around the world, many of which have garnered awards and nominations from international film festivals. The exciting lineup as follows: Opening Film “Distinction” (Hong Kong), Ambassador’s Choice – Berlin Crystal Bear winner “Supa Modo” (Germany/Kenya), Classic Movie – multiple Academy Awards winning “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (USA), Hamburg Film Festival Michel Award nominee “Ballad from Tibet” (China), César Awards winner “The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales” (France), Academy Awards and Golden Globes nominee “The Breadwinner” (Canada/Ireland/Luxemborg), Berlin Crystal Bear nominee “Cléo & Paul” (France), “Hero Steps” (Columbia), Berlin Crystal Bear nominee “Tesoros” (Mexico), and Closing Film “Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation” (USA). The Carnival commenced on July 13th and will run until September 2nd at Water Zone, ELEMENTS, bringing a wide range of activities such as “KIFF Workshops” and “KIFF Shorts” for kids and families to spend their holiday.

About the Hong Kong Kids International Film Festival
Inaugurated in 2017, KIFF aims to bring meaningful films from around the globe to the audiences of Hong Kong. The Festival believes that films act as a powerful medium for rich cultural learning and artistic inspiration, and as such, can greatly cultivate the critical thinking and development of kids and teenagers and enhance their appreciation of different forms of creative media, arts and cultures. Through watching films from different genres, children can broaden their imagination, and their understanding towards the film industry can also be enriched.