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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!
seasons are changing — issue #54
Coming from tropical Singapore, where it’s pretty much hot all year round, spring was never something I resonated with. It didn’t rouse in me feelings people associate with the end of winter: hope, joy, and revival. At most, I’d think of the fleeting beauty of Japanese sakura,
What’s in an Asian year? Deconstructing how we think about time
Working on a story about different Asian new years made our Editorial Lead Nabilah reconsider her ideas about time. In this article, she shares how her research made her question our reliance on the Gregorian calendar and what we can learn from the various Asian calendar systems
Meet the Community: Patchar Duangklad (Fai)
Patchar Duangklad (Fai) is the co-founder and business developer at Punch Up, a Bangkok-based data storytelling studio that creates meaningful conversations with data, design, and stories. Coming from a background in public policy and media, Fai shares her journey in setting up Punch Up, as well as WeVis, a civic
Dataviz in Asia (Oct '23)
Amidst a landscape of misinformation and conflicting reports, making sense of the current humanitarian crisis in Palestine and Israel can be quite challenging. Data has become especially critical in this context. This month we want to highlight some visualisations that are helping us to contextualise the recent happenings, and sieve
Meet the Community: Poojil Tiwari
Poojil Tiwari is currently a Communications Associate at the Council of Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) where she creates data stories and visualisations on India’s environmental challenges. She was previously a Data Journalist Fellow at Newslaundry and India Data Portal at Bharti School of Public Policy. A classically-trained Bharatanatyam
How do we lay roots in shifting soil: Reflections from Creating Narratives for Change Festival
I’ve been watching a lot of TV shows lately, my recent favourites being Insecure and Abbott Elementary. Both shows take place in predominantly Black neighbourhoods in the United States, forming the backdrops for these characters as they explore their own relationships to their work, friendships, and homes. Their neighbourhoods
Dataviz in Asia (September 23')
In a world inundated with data, making sense of it can feel overwhelming. In this month’s Dataviz in Asia, we look at projects that cut through the noise using striking and immersive data vizzes to reveal important social and cultural undercurrents in the region. South Korean daily newspaper Kyunghyang
Meet the Community: Aghnia Adzkia
First of all, I want to ask—how and why did you make the decision to incorporate more data into your usual journalistic practice? Data can strengthen the argument within a story. When you say something with data, it becomes more powerful, [especially in] this era of misinformation, where you
Connecting the dots: How does Singapore relate to its SEA neighbours?
The myth of Singapore’s transformation from a humble fishing village to a bustling economic hub is finally unravelling. Long before its economic surge in the 1960s and 1970s, there were clear threads of Singapore’s cosmopolitanism and interconnectedness in the region. In fact, there is evidence that by the
🌏 Dataviz in Asia (August’ 23)
Who said data can't be a blast for teens? In this month’s Dataviz in Asia, we’re exploring how people are making data exciting for young people and breaking language barriers to boot! We’re always on the lookout for folks who are putting their own spin
Painting a picture of Jakarta’s roadside food sellers
Arran Ridley and Griselda Gabriele share more about our recent story, Jakarta’s roadside food sellers: Finding a path in a future of convenience. Arran, a freelance writer and researcher, pitched the idea to Kontinentalist, based on his interest in kaki lima sellers, the community of street food vendors in
It's the era of community-centred journalism
For a long time, journalism was often pictured as a solo endeavor. The mention of the word “journalist” may conjure up an image of a solitary writer squinting at a screen in a dark room, typing furiously on their laptop to churn out the next ground-breaking piece. To some extent,
🌏 Dataviz in Asia (July’ 23)
Who’s who in politics, and what are their relationships? In this month’s Dataviz in Asia, we look at how different publications are visualising the often intricate political networks in Asia. Last October, Bloomberg did an amazing interactive on how Xi Jinping rewrote China’s rulebook to build the
Meet the Community: Irma Garnesia
Thank you for making time to have this little chat with me, Irma. First things first—how has life been like as a "recovering fact checker", as you mentioned in your LinkedIn post? (laughs) Thank you for having me, Angel. I’ve been transitioning through jobs—I moved
