emilydingwrites

@emilydingwrites@mastodon.world

Independent writer-photographer & editor. Usually in Kuala Lumpur, sometimes Berlin.

Seeks stories with a vivid sense of place to make sense of our rapidly changing world & our place in it.

Of interest: humans & nature, migration & culture, memory politics & the legacies of conflicts.

Essays, journalism & research in Virginia Quarterly Review, Mekong Review, Al Jazeera, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Guardian, CNN, SCMP, Nat Geo Asia, History Asia, etc.

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emilydingwrites, to Malaysia

I meant to post this a while back. Do watch this short film shot by Yih Wen Chen for New Naratif telling the story of how large swathes of in Pitas, Kudat were cleared for 's largest farm, which failed to take off (along with any promises of jobs supposedly to alleviate poverty)—leaving local villagers to pick up the mess and rehabilitate what's left: https://rainforestjournalismfund.org/stories/video-struggle-save-mangroves-forests-northern-sabah

emilydingwrites,

Last year, an ex-colleague and I applied for a grant from the Pulitzer Center's Rainforest Journalism Fund to explore stories in 's mangroves. Initially we explored a few other leads, but landed in the end on (not technically rainforests but I guess connected enough to the fund's concerns). I'd long found these intertidal forests to be incredibly evocative and knew how crucial they are for mitigating our climate crisis, and felt that they should be given a little more attention.

emilydingwrites,

As we wrote:

"With this project, we’re attempting to explore a few questions: How effective have [conservation] efforts been and what gaps remain? Can Indigenous communities make a greater case for their economic and conservationist roles, so often underestimated and undervalued? How can local communities and conservationists work with the authorities in common cause? What does proactive, not just reactive, stewardship look like?"

https://rainforestjournalismfund.org/projects/sabahs-mangrove-defenders

emilydingwrites,

Go back to the top of this thread and you'll see one of Wen's stories—a short video on how the indigenous Tombonuo villagers of Kampung Sungai Eloi in Pitas, Kudat, are rehabilitating what's left of the around them after a shrimp farm—'s largest ever—cleared 900 hectares.

She also has an accompanying photo essay for Macaranga:

https://rainforestjournalismfund.org/stories/pitas-villagers-restoring-mangroves-destroyed-failed-shrimp-farm

emilydingwrites, to random

, real name Chen Ping, was a Taiwanese travel writer who inspired generations of young women in the Chinese-speaking world. She was born some eighty years ago today, in 1943, and on this occasion, for your Sunday reading, I’m republishing here an essay I wrote a couple of years back for Mekong Review of her collection, Stories of the —translated into English for the first time in 2019 by Mike Fu.

Read it here: https://movableworlds.co/p/rememberingsanmao

emilydingwrites, to Malaysia

Been enjoying not having to swaddle myself in layers before heading out🍍

#malaysia #singapore #southeastasia #edtopophilia

image/jpeg

lainie, to random

I'm here! Where do I find the queers and the cat photos

emilydingwrites,

@lainie Hello! Nice to see you on here!

rakyat, to Malaysia
@rakyat@hachyderm.io avatar

The Petaling Street area has changed soooo much since I drew this (now totally outdated) map in 2018.

#Malaysia #MalaysianFood #KualaLumpur

emilydingwrites,

@rakyat Nice! Interesting exercise to try to spot the differences! Also reminds me of this: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNo-z3bp_wG/

emilydingwrites,

@rakyat Yes I remember! I still haven’t managed to try the new Ho Kow, there are always queues outside!

emilydingwrites,

@rakyat Might be that it’s drawing a younger crowd with the grandson taking over? In case it’s of any interest, I wrote a piece in mid-2019 about the changes happening in the area: https://amp.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3019399/petaling-street-chinatown-malaysias-capital-bets-its-heritage

Anyway, lovely to connect with you here!

emilydingwrites,

@rakyat Oh wow! I liked Aku Cafe! It felt like a calmer space and less “hipster” than some of the others that have popped up, haha.

Is Moontree the feminist bookshop? That was cool too, though if I remember correctly they stocked mostly books in Mandarin and I can’t read Mandarin anymore though I did six years in Chinese school 😅

emilydingwrites, to workersrights

Recently, on a cloudy day: a pseudo #work trip that became a food trip with friends to a #smalltown called #TanjungSepat on peninsular #Malaysia's west #coast—the sky, sea & #beach blending right into one another...

#edwrites #edtopophilia #journalism #travel

image/jpeg

emilydingwrites, to Malaysia

Tragically, amid monsoon season in my part of the world, 21 (inc. 5 children) dead so far from a #landslide, 30m high, at a #BatangKali campsite—near #GentingHighlands, a resort area home to #Malaysia's only casino.

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/around-100-people-feared-trapped-in-malaysia-landslide

emilydingwrites,

While #BatangKali is in the news, perhaps it's not a bad time to bring to everyone's attention another #tragedy from decades ago, for which the victim's families are still fighting for some measure of #justice.

It's been ten years since I wrote a series of court dispatches on the Batang Kali #Massacre, perpetrated by #British forces during the battle against #communism in #Malaysia. It's been described as "Britain's My Lai".

Read it here: https://www.emilyding.me/the-batang-kali-massacre

#edwrites #journalist

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