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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!
back to basics: learning from my roots— issue #67
In design school, I was taught very western-centric design theories. This made me think about other design conventions, especially ones that speak to my heritage.
The cost of mining Asia’s transition minerals
In this article, we detail the thought process behind our latest story about the world’s reliance on Asia’s transition minerals. We go through the reasoning behind how we designed and presented the piece, in a way that would be accessible and educational for the layperson audience.
Dataviz in Asia (May 23')
I always joke that working in the field of data storytelling is like attending an eternal university—the learning (and unlearning) never really stops. At Kontinentalist, we're constantly rethinking our approaches to data storytelling, grounding them in lived experiences and contextual understandings. We strive to learn from different
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,
Dataviz in Asia (April 24')
Spring is finally here! As my colleagues Zafirah, Munirah, Michael, and I brainstormed the theme for this issue, we found ourselves drawn to the transient essence of the season in April. It's a time marked by various new beginnings, with festivals such as Ponggal and Songkran happening, and
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
Bringing Lapis to life: How we built a storytelling platform from scratch
After more than two years of hard work, our data storytelling platform Lapis is finally out in the wild! Building our platform as a small team has been a largely iterative process, one that underscores the value of collaboration in our craft and requires us to learn (and unlearn!) as
The colours of girlhood — issue #53
Back in primary school, girls in my class used to circulate a dog-eared paperback copy of Judy Blume’s “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret”, giggling excitedly to the next person in line. I have fond memories of reading about 12-year-old Margaret’s adolescent adventures: getting her period
How media workers can be more gender-sensitive
In October 2023, I had the opportunity to participate in a gender-sensitive reporting workshop with some amazing journalists, media workers, and NGO representatives from five Southeast Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines). It was organised by Public Media Alliance (PMA), a global association of public service media
Dataviz in Asia (March 24')
For this month’s Dataviz in Asia, we’re highlighting works by two of our favourite female data viz practitioners. Shirley Wu and Gurman Bhatia both use data to amplify the contributions of women in the arts and entertainment industries. We’re self-professed patrons of the arts here at Kontinentalist
Applying visual metaphors: How we visualised period poverty in Asia
This microstory came about when Singaporean period care company Blood launched its “Period-Positive Workplaces” movement in 2022. A communications agency had sent over a press release of the initiative, which included survey findings on period shaming at work. Having never experienced bullying or pressure of any kind related to my
Love, interrupted — issue #52
February means many things to us. For some, it’s a month of love which centres on that special day on the 14th. For others, it’s just another 29 days, each one not any more special than the other. For those of us who celebrate Chinese New Year, it’
How we talked about sex (ed), baby
We share our process of creating a microstory about the evolution of sex education policy in Singapore over the past two decades, shedding light on its pivotal role in shaping the nation's attitude towards sexuality—and vice versa. We delve into how we collated and analysed over 200
Dataviz in Asia (Feb 24')
Love is in the air this month, and data’s capturing every moment of it. For this issue of Dataviz in Asia, let’s look at all the creative ways that people are telling their stories of love through data visualisations. First, let's explore the epic love triangle