Amika's Asian Studies blog

Today on Twitter, I saw an article that said Japan's 28 year old princess Ayako gave up her royal status today (Oct 29th) to marry someone who does not have royal/aristocratic family ties. I decided to search for the article and according to Japan's imperial law, female members of the royal family has to forfeit their titles, status, and allowance if they choose to marry someone who does not have royal or aristocratic family ties. The same rule however does not apply to the male members of the royal family. Princess Ayako married 32 year old Moriya who is an employee of a shipping company. Since princess Ayako decided to marry outside of royalty, she has to give up pretty much everything and take a lump sum of $950,000 from the Japanese government for living expenses. While reading the article, I thought princess Ayako was brave to give up her royal status to marry someone that she loved, despite him not having any royal family ties. I also thought it was odd that the law only ...

More than 4 million people have casted their ballots in Afghanistan's parliamentary election even though there has been acts of violence and logistical issues. The election had to be extended for one day due to security threats by the Taliban and logistical issues that left people unable to vote on Saturday. On Sunday, up to one million Afghans returned to vote in 76 voting centers. This specific election has been their first parliamentary polls in eight years. The article also mentioned that almost 28 people have been killed in violent incidents while trying to vote on Saturday. The President, Ashraf Ghani thanked everyone from coming out and voting despite the security risks. "By casting your votes, you sent a clear message to the world that you do not want violence, you demonstrated your determination through democracy. You proved to the Taliban that this nation will not surrender to anyone," he said. He also thanked women for also voting as well. "I thank these w...

MJ Akbar, a former newspaper editor who is now a junior foreign minister is accused of predatory behavior. Some accusations included inviting women over to hotel rooms for "meetings". Neither MJ Akbar or the foreign ministry have responded to the allegations. Another minister, however said that the allegations must be fake. From other articles that have been posted, I've seen that the MeToo movement has started to grow in India particularly. Because of the MeToo movement, women have started to feel more comfortable about speaking up against harassment and they have also started to come forward about what has happened to them. Since this one accusation, five other women have also came forward with stories about MJ Akbar. Link:  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45808629

Archi-Union Architects are using robots to help China keep up with its construction demands while also maintaining Chinese tradition. In the article that I found, it had a video that showed ways in how architects are using robots to build new buildings in China. In the video, it talked about the high demands of new buildings in China and how China is a fast pace country so they need new technology to keep up with it. For an example, they used bamboo and how it could take a while to weave it but robots can make it easier and faster to build it. The architectures are basically trying to find connections between using modern day technology but also maintaining Chinese culture in the buildings that they make. Video and link:  https://edition.cnn.com/videos/design/2018/09/25/archi-union-architects-style-orig.cnn