Rojak

A collection of articles about almost everything (else) under the sun.

Zafirah Mohamed Zein
Members Public

Sports is political: An analysis of power and bias in global sports

Munirah and Zafirah, who worked on the microstory Rise of the Underdogs: How Asia left its mark on the 2022 FIFA World Cup, reflect on how the Olympics is colonial by design. Beatrice Go, the writer behind SEA Games: A stage of unity or power play, joins them to take

Heather Wang
Members Public

My first time in Singapore: Seeing Asia anew

When I decided to move from China to the United States for college, I could never have guessed that I would end up working and living in Singapore for four months. For many Chinese international students in the US like me, our perception of the world is often limited to

Nabilah Said
Members Public

The Global South, AI, and journalism

“I’m a sceptic.” I declared this to a room full of media practitioners who had come to listen to a panel about AI and journalism. I heard a few nervous titters, spotted some smiles. But I also sensed a collective metaphorical groaning, and imagined a few people internally rolling

Griselda Gabriele
Members Public

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

Nabilah Said
Members Public

Love in Singapore: When the third-party is the state

There is a longstanding quirk associated with getting married in Singapore. Instead of proposing to their partner, a Singaporean might ask, “Wanna get BTO?” This entails applying for a public Built-To-Order (BTO) flat under the government’s Fiancè/Fiancèe scheme. It’s a balloting process, as BTOs are highly subsidised

Samira Hassan
Members Public

Girlmossing 101: A Beginner’s Guide

The term “girlmossing” may have surfaced on the internet just a couple of years ago, but I’ve been embracing this lifestyle long before it had a name. Girlmossing, which is a play on the word “girlbossing”, refers to women making intentional time and space for rest, joy, and self

Griselda Gabriele
Members Public

Faces of Indonesia’s LGBT people — seen through four films

In 2019, Garin Nugroho made waves with Kucumbu Tubuh Indahku, a coming-of-age film that portrays a boy’s exploration of his gender and…

Isabella Chua
Members Public

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…

Pei Ying
Members Public

Apps to get you through working-from-home due to COVID-19

Working-from-home apps to get you through COVID-19 Ever since Singapore went to DORSCON Orange, the Kontinentalist team, like many other companies, has been on work-from-home (WFH) arrangements to minimise the possibility of a spread of COVID-19. Here are our favourite apps (so far) for working from home! What’s good

Pei Ying
Members Public

55 days in Japan: one lifetime, one opportunity

It’s not every day that you get an opportunity to spend two months in Japan, all expenses paid, to learn things. So when I heard about the…

Gwyneth Cheng
Members Public

To graduation and beyond: how I went from an Environmental Studies student to a data storyteller

“What are you going to do after you graduate?”

Pei Ying
Members Public

What is an ‘Asian’ perspective

At Kontinentalist, we often describe ourselves as an Asian-focused editorial studio that strives to present an ‘Asian’ perspective to our…