Emily Ding’s work has been published in Mekong Review, Slate, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Public Radio International, Al Jazeera, and South China Morning Post.
Under scrutiny: a pair of gates made of silver and iron, gilded with gold and embossed with patterns of flowers, birds, scrolls, and medallions portraying Biblical figures.
This time, it begins after dark. There’s a solemnity that was absent from the previous day’s rituals, which I had witnessed when the sky was still light. “This time, we have to be serious. We can’t be jokey-jokey,” says Syafiq Dendi...
