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Welcome to Kawan—our vibrant community of data heads and storytellers. We’re all about improving data literacy and sharing nuanced stories about Asia. Come hang!
what roots me to the core of this land? — issue #62
In 2013, I went to Japan for the first time, desperate for a break from stressful Singapore. But the non-stop bustle of Tokyo, with the near-identical welcoming chirp of sales people in every shop, made me feel more overwhelmed and overstimulated. Turns out what I needed wasn’t more city.
Growing Roots Through Our New Year’s Dinner Party
This past January, we hosted our new year’s dinner party, which has now become an annual tradition. When we organised the first one in 2023, we had wanted to gather our community in person for the first time at our office. As an organisation whose work—and, for that
Our favourite projects of 2020
We made it! What better time to reflect and give thanks to the end of this dastardly year than to look back at some of our favourite…
Creating my first data vis story: a process
In which I detail my experience with my first data vis story on spicy food in Asia and hope it helps someone else in a similar place.
A cause for celebration — issue #17
As pictures of Thanksgiving meals filled my social media, I found it hard to believe that we're almost at the year's end. No one would have ever foreseen that the world would spend 2020—a new decade—in chaos, confusion, and with only a glimmer of
How can a data visualisation be racist?
Halloween fell on a rainy Saturday this year, and I was feeling restless and bored. But instead of doomscrolling through Twitter and…
Humans of Kontinentalist: Mick Yang
I’m almost 3 months into my internship. Currently I’m writing a story about spicy food; specifically about chilies in Asia. The main thing…
Real life is scarier than Halloween — issue #16
I want to talk about the monsters lurking under the bed. The bogeyman scares kids all around the world—it stalks the shadows, silent until it gets you for your misbehaviour. Bogeymen are imagined as grotesque, vengeful, and dangerous, but nobody really knows what one looks like. We imagine them,
Humans of Kontinentalist: Zafirah Zein
Today we chat with Zafirah, who in her short time with Konti has produced a slew of awesome stories on sex trafficking, racism against…
Part III: Everything visual about the eighteen levels of hell
A few weeks ago, the Kontinentalist team published our narrative-based game, Hell’s Apprentice, based on the Buddhist-Taoist folklore of…
Eighteen levels of hell (Part II): Writing and designing
Embracing uncertainty and life’s surprises is a large part of growing up. Even then, making a game about hell two months out of university…
Women hold up half the sky — issue #15
Was there a defining moment in your life when you decided you might be a feminist? Personally, I don't know when mine was. Looking back, there were fleeting moments ever since I was a young girl. I studied in a convent school, and I remember being perplexed at
Eighteen levels of hell (Part I): Conceptualising our game
Kontinentalist created our first-ever narrative game, Hell’s Apprentice, based on the Buddhist-Taoist folklore of the eighteen levels of…
Humans of Kontinentalist: Avel
It’s cliché, but we learn from our interns as much as they (hopefully) learn from us. One such was Avel, a design intern with us during…