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This
week: How COVID-19
impacts the world’s least fortunate people; perfecting one of
China’s signature dishes; CBS News’ Weijia Jiang
on race and media; a chat with Never
Have I Ever actress Poorna
Jagannathan; and
Asia Society’s upcoming events.
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POLICY
The
Humanitarian Cost of COVID-19
The coronavirus
has wreaked havoc throughout the world. Industrialized
economies with world-renowned health systems have struggled with
hundreds of thousands of cases of COVID-19, tens of thousands of
deaths, and significant economic disruption. But what has been, and what
could be, the experience of extremely vulnerable populations who are
already in precarious situations — those in fragile states throughout
the world, in war zones such as Syria and Yemen, and in refugee camps
such as the Rohingya in Bangladesh? How can unprepared and
under-resourced health systems respond? How can the international
community coordinate a humanitarian response to help attend to the
health crisis, as well as the ensuing impacts on already frail
communities facing challenging political, economic, and security
situations?
In
order to assess these questions, Asia Society Policy Institute
President Kevin
Rudd spoke
last week with two experts — former U.K. Foreign Secretary
and current International Rescue Committee President and CEO David Miliband
and former U.N. Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and
Emergency Relief Coordinator and now the University of London’s SOAS
Director Valerie
Amos.
One
issue that both Miliband and Amos highlighted was declining American
leadership in global institutions. They noted that the Trump
administration’s announcement on Friday that the U.S. would
withdraw from the World Health Organization has hampered
these institutions’ ability to respond on the ground to crises like
COVID-19.
“When
you have a pandemic like this that is affecting countries in a very
deep way, countries aren’t necessarily going to raise their hands and
take on the leadership that is required,” said Amos. “There’s a vacuum
there that’s very hard to fill.”
More: Rudd
also spoke with
Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate
Foundation, and John
W.H. Denton, secretary-general of the International
Chamber of Commerce, about
the effects of COVID-19 on global efforts to combat climate
change.
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LIFESTYLE
How To Make
a Killer Mapo Tofu
A classic of Sichuanese cooking, mapo tofu is one of
China’s most delicious dishes — and one that’s notoriously hard to
perfect. So why not let a professional show you? Professional chef Lucas Sin, a
veteran of Michelin-starred restaurants in both Hong Kong and New York,
demonstrated how to
make the iconic dish last week in a program presented by
Asia Society New York. While he cooked, Sin and food journalist Matt Gross engaged
in a lively conversation about the origins of mapo tofu — and about
what makes it so good.
Image: Wikimedia
Commons
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CURRENT
AFFAIRS
CBS News'
Weijia Jiang on Newsroom Diversity, COVID-19 Racism, and Covering
President Trump
On
May 11, during a press conference at the White House Rose Garden, CBS
News White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang asked
President Donald
Trump why he was boasting of the United
States’ prowess in providing coronavirus testing.
“Maybe that’s a question you should ask China,” Trump responded. “Don’t
ask me. Ask China that question, OK?” He then stormed out.
The exchange wasn’t the first time that Jiang, who was born in Xiamen,
China, and raised in West Virginia, dealt with a racist remark this
year. In March, she
tweeted that a White House official referred to COVID-19 as
the “kung flu virus” to her face.
In this
conversation with Asia
Blog, Jiang reflected on these incidents and explained why
she thought diversity in newsrooms is so important.
“The perspective that comes with being a minority is essential in
reporting and telling stories in an authentic way,” she said. “We all
have to make an effort to acknowledge and embrace those varying points
of view to make the most of our resources.”
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ARTS
Never Have I Ever Star Poorna Jagannathan on Saying No to Roles
Portraying Indian Caricatures
If
you've owned a television set in the last decade, there's a very good
chance you've encountered Poorna Jagannathan. Since starring in the
2011 Bollywood classic Delhi
Belly, the Tunisia-born actress has won praise for her
performances in a number of acclaimed shows, including Big Little Lies,
Better Call Saul,
and The Night Of,
where she portrayed an immigrant mother whose life is torn apart after
her son is falsely accused of murder.
Jagannathan can currently be seen in the Apple TV+ drama Defending Jacob
as well as in the new Netflix comedy Never
Have I Ever, where she plays Nalini Vishwakumar, a widowed
woman from India raising her 15-year-old daughter, Devi, in a California
suburb. In an
assessment of the show, the critic Sonia Saraiya wrote
in Vanity Fair
that she's "seen a lot of actors attempt to flesh out the
stereotypically demanding Indian mom, but I’ve never seen anyone do it
as well as Jagannathan does."
Jagannathan recently
spoke with Asia
Blog about her current projects, what she looks
for when considering a role, and her work
as an advocate for gender equality in India.
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ETC.
Acclaimed
Journalist Maria Ressa on Press Freedom in the Age of Coronavirus
- Philippine
journalist Maria
Ressa, who serves as president and CEO of
Rappler.com, assesses
the state of press freedom in the age of the
coronavirus in a conversation with NPR London correspondent Frank Langfitt.
- Speaking
of press freedom, Asia Society’s Center on Global Education has
collected resources that help young readers how to discern between
genuine news and misinformation. Check
them out here.
- The
latest episode of Asia
In-Depth presents a conversation with Tigertail
writer, director, and producer Alan Yang on Taiwan,
telling immigrant stories, and how Hollywood is changing.
Image: Noel
Celis/AFP/Getty Images
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UPCOMING EVENTS
With
the suspension and cancellation of in-person programming due to the
outbreak of COVID-19, Asia Society is planning to hold virtual programs
on the virus as well as other subjects — please follow us on Facebook
and Twitter
for updates, and subscribe to our
YouTube channel.
- Jun.
3: Asia Society Southern California presents
a fireside chat with New
York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and
author Sheryl
WuDunn about how individuals can make a difference
in the time of coronavirus.
- Jun.
4: Asia Society Texas
hosts Dr. Marc
L. Boom, president and CEO of Houston
Methodist Hospital, about whether a second wave of coronavirus
infections is inevitable.
- Jun.
9: Asia Society Hong Kong’s series
of coronavirus chats with experts continues with a
conversation with Peter
Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases
and global health at the University of Oxford.
- June. 9: Kevin Rudd hosts
a conversation with two other China experts — Orville Schell,
the Arthur Ross director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations;
and Susan
Shirk, research professor and chair of the 21st
Century China Center at the University of California, San Diego —
about China’s National People’s Congress.
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