About

Sebastian Strangio is a journalist and author focusing on Southeast Asia. Since 2008, his reporting from across the region has appeared in more than 30 leading publications in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

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Thai Monuments Are Disappearing in the Dead of Night

Thai Monuments Are Disappearing in the Dead of Night

This week’s student protests are part of a backlash against a monarchist elite trying to erase Thailand’s democratic history.
The Myanmar Mirage: How the West got Burma wrong

The Myanmar Mirage: How the West got Burma wrong

Just few years ago, Myanmar (also called Burma) was widely seen as an international success story.
Malaysia Wrestles With Beijing's One Belt One Road Bonanza

Malaysia Wrestles With Beijing’s One Belt One Road Bonanza

The sales office for Forest City, one of Malaysia’s largest residential property developments, looks less like an office than an airport hangar or a museum atrium: a futuristic dome flooded with noise and light.
Suharto Museum Celebrates a Dictator’s Life, Omitting the Dark Chapters

Suharto Museum Celebrates a Dictator’s Life, Omitting the Dark Chapters

Indonesia’s former dictator looms in bronze over the entrance to the small museum set amid the palm trees and rice fields of central Java.
Pankaj Mishra on the Violent Transition to Modernity

Pankaj Mishra on the Violent Transition to Modernity

At the center of gravity shifts east, Pankaj Mishra argues that the West’s own fateful experience of modernity is playing out globally
'Meet Kill'

‘Meet Kill’

When Kem Ley’s murderer was asked for his name, he offered a chilling sobriquet: ‘Chuob Samlap’ – literally, ‘Meet Kill.’
The Rise, Fall and Possible Renewal of a Town in Laos on China’s Border

The Rise, Fall and Possible Renewal of a Town in Laos on China’s Border

For five years, this remote town on the China-Laos border has lived in the shadow of more prosperous times.
Vietnam: Forty Years Later

Vietnam: Forty Years Later

Forty years after the war, it is the ideals of the former South Vietnam that appear ascendant.
How a Brutal Khmer Rouge Leader Died 'Not Guilty'

How a Brutal Khmer Rouge Leader Died ‘Not Guilty’

A verdict was never reached in Ieng Sary’s human rights abuses case. His story reveals the limitations of international tribunals.
As Asia Rises and Europe Declines, Russia Invests Its Hopes in its Far East

As Asia Rises and Europe Declines, Russia Invests Its Hopes in its Far East

Vladivostok, a Pacific port city long in decline, is being revitalized by Moscow. But the city’s slow integration with China, Japan, and South Korea is clashing with its long-Slavic identity. Can a city be both European and Asian?
Latest entries
Portrait of a North Korean propagandist turned protest artist

Portrait of a North Korean propagandist turned protest artist

Before fleeing North Korea, Song Byeok was a propaganda artist, creating portraits of ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong-il. Now he uses his art to criticize the regime from South Korea.
Split personalities revealed in Cambodia

Split personalities revealed in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH – As part of its ongoing release of leaked United States diplomatic cables, the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks this month released its small cache of Cambodia-related dispatches. The 777 cables from the US Embassy in Phnom Penh – an eagerly awaited bounty for Cambodia-watchers and local analysts – span the period from 1992 to...
US cables chart China's rise in Cambodia

US cables chart China’s rise in Cambodia

PHNOM PENH – On December 18, 2009, Cambodian police rounded up 20 ethnic Uighurs from safe houses in the capital Phnom Penh, where they had arrived earlier in the year seeking political asylum. A day later, the group, which included two infants, was driven to the airport in a bus with shades drawn over the...
Burma's Dead Men Walking

Burma’s Dead Men Walking

A new Human Rights Watch report details how hundreds of convicts were beaten, forced to carry supplies for the military – and clear landmines with sticks and forks.
North Korean artist turns talents on repressive regime

North Korean artist turns talents on repressive regime

A harrowing story of escape to the South, Song Byeok’s journey took him from propaganda to pop art.
Myanmar Ethnic Clashes Put Spotlight on China

Myanmar Ethnic Clashes Put Spotlight on China

MAE SOT, Thailand — On June 9, deadly clashes broke out in northern Myanmar between the country’s army and the ethnic minority Kachin Independence Army (KIA). The fighting reportedly erupted after Myanmar’s military moved to secure the Tarpein Hydropower Project, a Chinese-built dam that came online in January. The plant, which sits on a tributary...
Family Matters

Family Matters

On Sunday, Thailand will elect a new prime minister who belongs to a very familiar, and deeply divisive, family.
Will Thais Say Yes To Thaksin's Little Sister?

Will Thais Say Yes To Thaksin’s Little Sister?

There’s plenty of pageantry and talk of reconciliation but this weekend’s election in Thailand may be one of the most divisive in decades, writes Sebastian Strangio
Ghosts of the killing fields

Ghosts of the killing fields

An apparent unwillingness to try two Khmer Rouge commanders for war crimes reflects a growing mood to bury Cambodia’s bloody past
A Last Opportunity

A Last Opportunity

Will Phnom Penh miss its last chance to forge a leafy future?
"You Are Followers of the Juche Philosophy, So I Can Put My Trust in You"

“You Are Followers of the Juche Philosophy, So I Can Put My Trust in You”

Reading North Korea’s comic book propaganda.
Cambodia: When genocide trials turn personal

Cambodia: When genocide trials turn personal

Many former Khmer Rouge fighters say they are worried that the U.N.-backed tribunal will start to cast a wider net.