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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
Have you eaten rice? — issue #14
The first time I tried Korean tteok-bokki, I hardly knew whom I was eating it with. We'd just moved into our new house, and it was one of our first meals together—the same week Singapore's COVID-19 lockdown closed all our favourite dine-in restaurants. My housemates
Conducting a virtual data storytelling and visualisation workshop
With a bonus peek into our writers’ dietary habits.
Humans of Kontinentalist: Hiang Ling
Hey Hiang Ling! Tell us a little bit about what you do in Konti.
Thoughts on Making the Migratory Bird Map
One of my work goals of 2020 is to work with Mapbox GL JS and Scrollama JS to create a decent scrolly-driven map. Born to fly: The life…
Noticing is an act of love — issue #13
How much do you know about the everyday objects around you? As a history major, one of my favourite topics is cultural and material history. So common are the things that we use and see everyday that we rarely think of their pasts, and how simple objects can connect multiple
Recommending our favourite Asian movies with dingbats
When Parasite won Best Picture for the 92nd Academy Awards, I, along with my friends and the Asian Twitter community, was euphoric. We…
Humans of Kontinentalist: Lee Hoon Hee
We caught up with our lovely editorial-marketing intern, Hoon Hee, over the phone to bring you this edition of HOK!
Can data speak for Mother Earth? — issue #12
"Trees have long been trying to reach us. But they speak on frequencies too low for people to hear." —Richard Powers, The Overstory Remember when the lockdowns began in March? Amidst panic, we still found it in ourselves to marvel at how COVID-19 was helping the environment heal.
How COVID-19 has changed the data storytelling landscape
We’re at the midway point of 2020 and, quite unbelievably, the world has been brought to its knees by the invisible yet pervasive COVID-19…
Designing data visualisations for social media
As Kontinentalist’s Multimedia Designer, one of the things I’m in charge of is creating social media assets as teasers for our stories…
Humans of Kontinentalist: Kenneth Wee
Before you read this interview, there are some basic facts you need to know about Kenneth: 1. He is a penguin 2. Coffee flows through his…
Helping the environment by staying home — issue #11
What does the future of travel look like? Singapore has been in a semi-lockdown (or circuit breaker, as we call it) for almost two months. There's been hot debate on how life may return "back to normal". Like nearly everywhere else in the world, the real