Latest news with #colonialera
South China Morning Post
09-08-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
K-drama casting news about Park Jin-young, Roh Jeong-eui, Moon Ga-young and more
A pair of colonial-era dramas and a Jeju-set noir are among the enticing new K-drama projects getting ready to kick off production. Read on for the latest casting news. 1. 100 Days of Lies Park Jin-young, the member of K-pop band GOT7 recently seen opposite Park Bo-young in Our Unwritten Seoul , has been linked with the historical drama 100 Days of Lies. Should his casting be confirmed, he will join previously announced actors Kim Yoo-jung ( My Demon ) and Kim Hyun-joo ( Hellbound ). Kim Yoo-jung in a still from My Demon. Kim has been confirmed for 100 Days of Lies. Photo: SBS The story is set in Gyeongseong – the name for Seoul during Korea's period as a Japanese colony (1910-1945) – and follows a talented pickpocket who joins forces with independence fighters before infiltrating the Japanese Government-General under an assumed identity as a spy.
Asharq Al-Awsat
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
French Govt Prepares New Law to Return Colonial-era Art
France's government on Wednesday discussed a bill designed to speed up the return of artworks looted during the colonial era to their countries of origin, officials said. If approved, the law would make it easier for the country to return cultural goods in France's national collection "originating from states that, due to illicit appropriation, were deprived of them" between 1815 and 1972, said the culture ministry. It will cover works obtained through "theft, looting, transfer or donation obtained through coercion or violence, or from a person who was not entitled to dispose of them", the ministry added. The bill was presented during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, a government spokeswoman told reporters. The Senate is due to discuss it September. Former colonial powers in Europe have been slowly moving to send back some artworks obtained during their imperial conquests, but France is hindered by its current legislation. The return of every item in the national collection must be voted on individually. Wednesday's draft law is designed to simplify and streamline the process. France returned 26 formerly royal artifacts including a throne to Benin in 2021. They were part of the collection of the Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac museum in Paris, which holds the majority of the 90,000 African works estimated to be in French museums, according to an expert report commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2018. A "talking drum" that French colonial troops seized from the Ebrie tribe in 1916 was sent back to Ivory Coast earlier this year. In 2019, France's then prime minister Edouard Philippe handed over a sword to the Senegalese president that was believed to have belonged to the 19th-century West African Islamic scholar and leader, Omar Tall. Other European states, including Germany and the Netherlands, have handed back a limited number of artifacts in recent years Britain faces multiple high-profile claims but has refused to return the Parthenon Marbles to Greece and the Kohinoor diamond to India, two of the best-known examples. The French draft law is the third and final part of legislative efforts to speed up the removal and return of artworks held in France's national collection. Two other laws -- one to return property looted by the Nazis, and a second to return human remains -- were approved in 2023.
Times
24-07-2025
- Politics
- Times
Why are Thailand and Cambodia fighting? The conflict explained
Who fired the first shot? That question lies behind the sudden and dramatic escalation of tensions between Thailand and Cambodia along their disputed border, where clashes have escalated into full-blown bombing raids, the complete closure of the 500-mile border and the expulsion of ambassadors from both sides. But behind the latest violence lies hundreds of years of nationalist rivalry, a century of fallout from the colonial era, the fragile egos of former strongmen whose children now rule each country, and a new sense of economic endangerment in two states most affected by President Trump's tariff war. • Thailand-Cambodia border clash: follow live Cambodia's golden age and its historical reference point for the ages was the Angkorian era, when the Khmer Empire ruled across territory that reached deep into modern-day Thailand and Vietnam. The empire ended when the city of Angkor was sacked by the Ayutthaya kingdom, the forerunner of the modern state of Thailand. While Thailand stayed independent throughout the colonial era, Cambodia became part of French Indochina. The present dispute stems from a 1907 map drawn under French colonial rule that Cambodia used as a reference for its post-independence borders, while Thailand argues the map is inaccurate. • Is it safe to travel to Thailand and Cambodia? Much of the prior border disputes between the neighbours have centred on temples built during the Angkorian era, notably the nearly 1,000-year-old Preah Vihear temple, which sits along the disputed border. It is difficult to overstate how bound up such temples are in Cambodia's sense of national pride. It is one of a handful of countries in the world to feature a building on its national flag: Angkor Wat, the majestic centrepiece of its lost civilisation and the largest religious monument anywhere in the world. Preah Vihear temple ALAMY In 1962, the International Court of Justice awarded sovereignty over the Preah Vihear temple area to Cambodia, a ruling that became an irritant in relations with Thailand. The court reaffirmed that ruling in 2013 after Cambodia revived proceedings after clashes between its army and Thai forces that displaced thousands and killed 20 people. Thailand has rejected the court's jurisdiction. The latest violence first flared in May with an exchange of fire between troops on both sides that killed one Cambodian soldier. Despite an agreement to de-escalate, both sides took further measures, with Thailand adding tight restrictions at the border with Cambodia preventing almost all crossings except for students, medical patients and others with essential needs. But the matter escalated to a dramatic political level last month, when a phone call between Thailand's prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, and Cambodia's former prime minister and sitting president of the senate, Hun Sen, was leaked, causing outrage in Thailand. Paetongtarn is the daughter of the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a longtime friend of Hun Sen, whose son Hun Manet succeeded him as Cambodia's prime minister in 2023. In the call, which concerned the border dispute, Paetongtarn called Hun Sen by the honorific 'uncle' and voiced criticism of Thailand's military leadership. The leaking of the call, by none other than Hun Sen himself, led to her being suspended from office for alleged ethics violations. Her second-largest coalition partner withdrew from government, citing her perceived weakness towards Cambodia. • The border dispute ended the friendly relationship between Thaksin Shinawatra and Hun Sen. Now it again threatens the entire relationship between the southeast Asian neighbours. As of today, the entire border is sealed and fighting is continuing, with diplomatic relations downgraded and each side announcing bans and boycotts on each other's goods. The result is the collapse of border trade worth billions of dollars at a time when both countries face some of the punitive tariffs announced by Trump in his 'liberation day' effort to close trade deficits with mostly developing nations. How this round of hostilities ends is far from clear.
Washington Post
03-07-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
India's Modi arrives in Trinidad and Tobago to strengthen ties in first official visit
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday for a two-day trip expected to boost investments in energy, health, security and other sectors. It is Modi's first official visit to the diverse, twin-island Caribbean nation. More than 35% of its 1.4 million inhabitants are East Indian, descendants of indentured workers brought from India during the colonial era.
Khaleej Times
22-05-2025
- Khaleej Times
Kasauli travel guide: Top things to do in Himachal's quiet hill town
Spooky stories abound in Kasauli of ghosts that linger in its hauntingly beautiful, colonial-era cemeteries. However, beyond those relics of the Raj, Kasauli (located 77 km from Shimla) is draped in a beguiling aura of a town that hasn't lost its soul. Yet the charming Himalayan retreat, located in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, remains under the radar for most tourists. They head there only for a weekend getaway and a quick reset or skip it in favour of the more 'happening' Shimla, Naldehra and Chail. On a typical Kasauli vacation, the days pass by in a blur of invigorating walks that unravel up and down the hills, shaded by pine, elm and oak and twist past gabled homes with fairy-tale facades and chimneys. In the higher reaches, majestic cedars reach for the sky. On a recent vacation, we downed coffee in atmospheric cafes, gorged on local specialities like bun samosas simmering on a large pan in an immaculate hole-in-the wall eatery in the Heritage Market; took home rum plum cakes studded with shaved nuts from a local bakery and meditated in the neo-Gothic Christ Church with its stained glass and wood pews. Back in the day, the British built Christ Church and a brewery which they later converted to a distillery to produce a malt whisky as smooth as Scotch whisky. The combo of church and brewery may contribute to an interesting bit of trivia, shared by historian and author Raaja Bhasin. 'Kasauli today is believed to have one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption, per capita, in India.' (A sobering sidelight — the brewery closed down in the 1840s and was later taken over by master brewer Edward Dyer. His son, Reginald was the infamous 'Butcher of Amritsar' who triggered the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.) And Kasauli's birth around 1842 was underscored by typical stiff-upper-lip Brit humour, Bhasin recounts: When the town was getting under way, the Viceroy of India, Sir John Lawrence who was known for his bluntness, visited the church. Sir John felt a great deal of money had been spent, and, in his opinion, wasted on the steeple. He was asked to subscribe to it. There were still no pews, in the church then and he remarked, 'You might as well ask me to subscribe to get a man a hat when he has no breeches.' 'That church went on to become Kasauli's landmark, the neo-Gothic Christ Church that with both hat and trousers — and if a limited congregation — still stands tall as you enter the little town,' adds Bhasin in a light-hearted vein. Indeed, this charming Himalayan enclave is one of the few Raj-era hill retreats in the country where time is not of the essence. We could see its lights glimmer at night from the balcony of our room at hilltop resort Royalpine Rosastays. Kasauli was 4 km away, straddling a ridge of the Himalayas, lit and flushed every evening with muted red by dramatic sunsets that even dappled the barks of pines. And, at our resort, sculpted into a hill, clad with imported pinewood and glass, there were echoes of Kasauli. Not a single tree had been cut and it was enveloped in the soft rustle of pines. Royalpines Rosastays gentles the Earth from which it emerges and its rooms and suites have a log-cabin like aura. Yes, there's something special about Kasauli, loved to death, not surprisingly, by its former and present residents. Located at 1,900 metres above sea level, the mountaintop getaway is an army cantonment town where the legacies of the Raj are immaculately maintained, says Rahul Singh, author, journalist and founder of the coveted Khushwant Singh Literary Festival, held in Kasauli in October each year. Rahul is the son of celebrated writer, Khushwant Singh and has been summering in his ancestral home in Kasauli since the 1950s. While home stays and hotels have sprung up on the adjacent hill slopes, Kasauli town has strict building codes enforced by the Cantonment Board, a municipal body, says Rahul. The air in Kasauli is crisp and astringent, and the views are breathtaking. The eternal snows of the Greater Himalayas glimmer in the north and sweep in a swathe to the east, and the plains of the Punjab, below it, heave from south to the west. The pine-shrouded hills seem to fan romance and creativity. Writer Khushwant Singh did some of his best work in Kasauli and was often seen taking long walks and chatting with locals. Author Ruskin Bond was born in Kasauli and Sandra Hotz, whose father owned the 19th century Alasia hotel in town, married David Lean, director of classics such as Dr Zhivago, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, Rahul informed us. She was Lean's fifth wife and is known as 'Kasauli's best known export'. The marriage lasted for three tumultuous years but the relationship had started much earlier. We attempted to walk down the 1.5 km long Gilbert Trail which scythes through rustling pines and commands heart-stopping views of the tumbled swathe of the foothills, but gave up after a while. The fit and feisty could attempt the around 12-km-long Khushwant Singh Trail from the bazaar down to Kalka in the plains, a stretch that was beloved of the celebrated writer and journalist for its mountain vistas and bird song. In the pulsing heart of Kasauli are two roads — the Upper and Lower Mall and they meet at the eastern end at Monkey Point below which unfold magnificent panoramas. Walking up and down the malls was once a mandatory mid-morning activity when residents got to socialise followed by an afternoon siesta, and dinner at the colonial Kasauli Club (only a member can sign you in). As is the tradition, in most colonial clubs, there is a strict dress code. We, as tourists, did not have the bona fides nor the right shoes and were not allowed into the hallowed precincts but were permitted to click pictures of the exterior! So, we retreated to our hotel, Royalpine Rosastays, sipped our evening cuppa, watching the sun play hide and seek and scintillate as it set over Kasauli and the neighbouring hills and valleys. On our last day, we woke up at dawn as birds trilled in the pine forests beyond.
