The Southeast Asia Desk

The Southeast Asia Desk

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🎥 Across the ocean, behind the lens: Southeast Asian directors in Hollywood
How a tight-knit network of Southeast Asian auteurs bypassed the gatekeepers to enter the Hollywood studio system.
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK, Maheswara Wibowo, and Aris Satya
🚢🌊 Charting a new course: Why cruising is Southeast Asia’s next big tourism frontier
Short regional sailings and multi-country itineraries are making it easier to explore Southeast Asia by sea
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK, Dhamayanti Pratiwi, Nazila Fitri Adinda, and Alvin Qobulsyah
🍽️🤖 Gastrodiplomacy, AI Literacy, and the $107B Rise of Ancestral Dining: Inside Southeast Asia's New Influence Playbook (Week 5…
From gastrodiplomacy and ancestral dining to AI literacy and UN diplomacy, the region is exporting its culture, building its skills, and making its…
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK, Elias Widhi, and Alvin Qobulsyah
☕️✨Beyond the Instagrammable café: Why Southeast Asia still drinks the old way
From plastic stools to polished cafés, Southeast Asia is embracing new café trends while keeping its own way of drinking and gathering.
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK, Vanessa Yotania, and Elias Widhi
🌐🤝 The growing momentum of BRICS investment and trade in Southeast Asia
Adri Arlan Sinaga, Doctoral Student in International Relations at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE), Beijing
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK and Alvin Qobulsyah
🥐🇫🇷 Gastrodiplomacy: How France and Indonesia rewrite the culinary playbook
As a massive culinary collaboration sweeps across 40 Indonesian cities, blending French Michelin expertise with Indonesian heritage and training the…
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK, Ananda Saridevi, Fredrick Samuel Haryanto, Indryan Swarandaru Djamin, and Alvin Qobulsyah

September 2026

🌏🎓 ASEAN Foundation bets on "Applied AI" to close the skills gap before 2028
The ASEAN Foundation, backed by Google.org and the ADB, is shifting its AI strategy to applied classroom skills for 1.7 million learners
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK, Aris Satya, and Alvin Qobulsyah
🌏 One region, many voices: What Southeast Asia told the world at UNGA 81
From Palestine statehood to AI regulation, Southeast Asian countries seek multilateral solutions to solve global issues
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK, Nugrahanto Margo Raharjo, and Alvin Qobulsyah
🛜 The cost of the cloud: Inside Southeast Asia’s $30B data centre trilemma
As AI infrastructure floods ASEAN, a brewing crisis over power grids, water depletion, and community protests in Johor tests the limits of the region’s…
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK, Fredrick Samuel Haryanto, and Alvin Qobulsyah
🌿 The Southeast Asia Desk Presents: Dispatcher-Reader Quarterly Meeting! (Q4, 2026)
Readers meet the newsroom. The newsroom listens to its readers.
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK
⛰️ Southeast Asia from heights: The region's most unforgettable mountain adventure
From a gentle urban stroll in Singapore to a brutal limestone scramble in Malaysia, discover the region's top summits.
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK, Ananda Saridevi, Elias Widhi, and Aris Satya
S26E34 - Ancestral Dining: The $107 Billion Taste of Southeast Asia
Traditional food is transforming from local nostalgia into ASEAN’s most valuable global export.
 • THE SOUTHEAST ASIA DESK, Rheza Ardiansyah, Novia Ayu Lestari, and Dilla Sunarya
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