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BarCamp Battambang 2013 in Cambodia

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China Digital Times highlighted some discussion on gender gap in China. Even though the overall percentage of working women is not very low, as a result of urbanization, employment rate for working-age women in urban areas fell to a new low of 60.8 percent in 2010, down from 77.4 percent 20 years earlier.

David Bandurski from China Media Project explained the idea of “online social management”, a set of tactics to increase the capacity for channeling online public opinion, put forward by Fu Siming, a professor at the Central Party School.

Rudi Putra initiated an online petition asking the Indonesian government to block the expansion of mining and palm oil activities in Aceh and to protect the country's remaining rainforest. More than one million people around the world have already signed the petition:

I live and work in the last place on Earth where endangered orangutans, rhinos, elephants, and tigers still roam together — but it'll be bulldozed to bits unless our President hears our call and steps in to save this unique habitat.

China's state-run People’s Daily ran a piece titled “The Post-80′s Generation is Dispirited: Early Decline Cause for Alarm[zh],” arguing that China’s youth born after 1980 face “spiritual confusion and a loss of identity” despite better material living conditions. In response, social media celebrity and social critic “Zuoyeben“[zh] wrote an essay on the real cause of this issue. The essay, which reveals different social problems in today's China, has found resonance among many Weibo users. Tea Leaf Nation has translated the essay.

A South Korean LGBT rights group, Rainbow Action, staged a protest at Seoul Plaza on May 17, 2013, calling on the government to pass the anti-discrimination law. A video of the protest was posted on the Youtube.

Hong Wrong rounded up Hong Kong citizens’ responses to the city's security chief's comment on the soaring of rape cases. The police head, Lai Tung-Kwok, told women to cut down on drinking in a press conference.

Off Beat China translated Chinese netizens’ reaction to Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy. Comments are mixed, some find the act courageous, some say it is over-reaction.

Yueran Zhang from Tea Leaf Nation reviews the Chinese petition system and discusses directions for future reform:

Ongoing reforms should include the enhancement of the institutional powers of bureaus of letters and visits. On the other hand, the citizens flooding the petitioning offices, which are considered a last resort, reveal the ineffectiveness of other channels for hearing complaints and grievances. Enhancement and clarification of the roles of the People’s Congress, NGOs, the arbitration system and the judiciary branch could lessen the burden on the petitioning system.

South Korean civil rights group Fight For Voters’ Rights (FFVR) filed a petition to the United Nations requesting them to investigate suspected election fraud. A series of investigations into South Korean spy agency's illegal involvement in the latest presidential election are still underway in the country. 

After Kunming's Anti-PX protest on May 4, 2013, local government has tried to stop further protests by sending text messages, “visiting” protest organizers, and censoring information online. East by Southeast has more details.

Blogger and activist Masaki C. has something to say about English media coverage of LGBT politics in Japan, arguing that they simplify the issue down to marriage equality:

They are, in constructing LGBT politics in Japan as such, erasing local history and ignoring dialogues taking place among queers in Japan.

To further promote Lao culture, the government has organized a seminar which defined the country's national dress to be used during formal events.

For men the suit will be made from Lao silk fabric and cut in a Lao style. The women’s suit is also from Lao silk fabric cut as a traditional Lao shirt and worn together with a silk skirt.

WeiboSuite is a new toolbox for journalists and netizens. Created by data journalists from the University of Hong Kong, WeiboSuite provides English translations of censored materials on Weibo and tools to translate textual images.

Lucas Chua writes about the blogshop phenomenon in Singapore. A blogshop is an online fashion store that uses a blog. In Singapore, four of the country’s ten most-searched stores are blogshops.

To counter the dropping birth rate, the Japanese government is proposing compiling a handbook with information on pregnancy and family planning to educate teenage girls on the subject. This plan to distribute the so-called “women's handbook” has been met with criticism by women's groups, which argue that the issues of pregnancy involve both men and women. More »

Hacker collective Anonymous appears to have launched another round of attacks on major North Korean websites over the weekend. A guideline on targets and tools of ‘Operation North Korea Second Project' was shared via Pastebin, North Korea tech explains in detail.

High Peaks Pure Earth has published Elliot Sperling's translation of prominent Tibetan writer, Woser's recent blogpost urging the world to save Lhasa from being turned into another tourist shopping mall.

Patrick Lozada and James Griffiths from Shanghaiist explained on the findings of a report that found that around 50 percent of Chinese men admit to sexually assaulting their partners:

In publishing our original post, and this follow up, we are not seeking to demonise Chinese men [...] Domestic violence is a serious issue in China, but one that the government has long dragged its heals on and shown little inclination to deal with.

Mr Brown Goes Around has written a comprehensive study about the history of television in Thailand. He also probed the impact of TV on various Thai political and cultural institutions:

So while tied to modernity, moving image technologies was also seen as a potentially morally erosive force

Hello Saigon uploads some posters during the Vietnam War era. One poster features a quote from Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh:

For the interest in ten years, [we] have to plant trees. For the interest in 100 years [we] have to plant man.

Two confidential Hong Kong Government memorandums has been leaked. The documents would take effect from 1 June 2013 and require

an assessment on Mainland reaction and related public relations measures will become a mandatory requirement for all policy committee papers and Executive Council submission.

Bad Canto believes that “Hong Kong is finished” if such documents come to effect.

The current Chinese Communist Party leaders are the second generation red and the third and the fourth generations are emerging in the political scene. The political system in China is more and more like a hereditary monarchy, said Chinese netizens. Off Beat China summarized the discussion.

South Korean President's press spokesman Yoon Chang-joong was relieved of his duty over allegation that he sexually assaulted a 21-year-old intern during President Park's visit to the United States which he accompanied. A community website for Korean women living in the U.S, Missy USA, first revealed the case and a screen capture of Missy USA's report [ko] has widely spread online.

The East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin features the worsening drug trafficking problem in Timor Leste. It quoted a government report which recognized that the country is being used as a “transit zone for criminals smuggling drugs into both Indonesia and Australia.”

Julio Gil da Silva Guterres writes about Timor Leste's application to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN. He warns that “ASEAN without Timor Leste is the same as a state without sovereignty.”

The White House petition for the Zhu Ling case has received 137,676 signatures by May 8, 2013. Some web users have made light of the fact that Chinese have turned to an American petition site seeking justice. The following image shared on Sina Weibo is Obama in the Oval Office, which has been re-imagined as China’s Letters and Visits Office. CHINA MEDIA PROJECT has more details.

The term Party's benevolence is frequently used in political propaganda in China. Mary Ann O'Donnell looks into how's the term being used in ordinary people's daily life.