Who is good and who is bad in 2024
This aerial photo shows flooded streets and buildings in Tay Nguyen on September 10, 2024, days after Super Typhoon Yagi hit northern Vietnam.
Juan Quang | Afp | Getty Images
Former US ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, Curtis S. Chin is managing director of the consulting firm RiverPeak Group. Jose B. Collazo is an analyst focusing on the Indo-Pacific region. Follow them on X @CurtisSCin and @JoseBCollazo.
Like the previous year, 2024 offered little to celebrate for many in the greater Indo-Pacific region. Amid uncertain economies and persistent geographic tensions, hope and joy still continued to be found.
Who’s Bad and Who’s Good in Asia Pacific in 2024?
We take a look at that year as the region looks ahead to President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 and the stormy Year of the Snake in the lunar calendar.
The worst year: Asia’s climate losses
In a region known for natural disasters making global headlines, Asia adds thousands of ‘climate victims’ in 2024.
Unlike 20 years ago, when the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on December 26, 2004, killed more than 200,000 people, 2024 has been a year of increased losses from typhoons, floods, heat waves and droughts.
In one example, Super Typhoon Yagi, one of the strongest storms to hit Southeast Asia in recent years, left a trail of death and destruction in November. From the Philippines to southern China and Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, the storm killed hundreds of people and destroyed communities and livelihoods.
Annual monsoon floods have also left millions stranded and killed hundreds in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nepal, making this year one of the deadliest years in recent memory. And if it wasn’t for the record-breaking rains, it was accompanied by drought and scorching temperatures, leading to months of severe water scarcity.
With extreme weather events becoming the norm and their victims increasingly ignored and forgotten, the region’s climate losses earn the dubious distinction of Asia’s Worst Year.
The Bad Year: The Babies of East Asia
Where have all the babies gone? Grandparents and other lovers of newborn babies in most of East Asia are in for a tougher year in 2024. and Hong Kong.
Birth rates remained well below the level needed for stability if not a growing population. The long-term economic consequences could be significant as nations grapple with shrinking labor forces and aging populations.
Record low birth rates continued to be a major concern in all major economies, including South Korea, China and Japan, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong.
In East Asia, women have few or no children. Changing gender roles, long working hours, high housing, education and childcare costs are cited as some of the factors behind this demographic trend.
At the end of the year, South Korea was also officially declared a “super-aged” society, a concept defined by the United Nations, as the proportion of citizens aged 65 and over now stands at 20% of its population. Home Affairs and Security.
The Year of Confusion: Democracy and Existence in Asia
From India and Japan to South Korea and Indonesia, and from Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Taiwan, elections in 2024 dominated. At the end of the year, however, it proved to be a thoroughly turbulent year, not just for the politicians in office, but for democracy itself.
The year began with Bangladesh’s longtime leader and prime minister Sheikh Hasina retaining power in an election boycotted by the opposition, only to resign and flee the country following weeks of student protests.
Soldiers try to enter the National Assembly building in Seoul on December 4, 2024, after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law.
Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images
Ominously, the year ends with South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol declaring martial law eight months after his party’s landslide defeat in the general election, only for the National Assembly to successfully move to both force the lifting of martial law and impeach him. The fate of the president is now before the Constitutional Court.
However, the elections cemented a vibrant democracy in Taiwan. He forced Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to govern with a coalition, surprised the current president of Pakistan and heralded the peaceful transfer of presidential power to former General Prabowo Subianto in Indonesia. Diverse, mixed democratic trajectories for Asia’s democracies characterizing 2024.
Good Year: The Korean Wave
K is for Korean. Whether you’re listening to K-pop music, streaming K-drama, trying out the latest K-beauty product from Sulwhasoo, or grabbing Korean fried chicken or other K-food, you’ve succumbed to Hallyu. Korea’s wildly popular wave of cultural exports. 2024 has been a good year for this expanding wave of business that goes well beyond superstar music groups BTS and Blackpink.
South Korean writer Han Kang won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt | Episode | Getty Images
According to recent estimates, there are more than 300 Korean movies and series available on Netflix alone, including Squid Game. Season 2. The romantic drama Queen of Tears starring Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won was a global sensation in 2024 with 690 million viewing hours on Netflix. Say hello to K-literature by becoming the first Korean and the first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2024, following author Han Kang.
This tsunami of soft diplomacy that has boosted South Korea’s global presence is also big business. Hallyu’s global economic benefit to Korea It is now projected to reach $198 billion by 2030According to a BusinessKorea report in a white paper released by TikTok and market research firm Kantar.
Best year: Moo Deng, Thailand’s viral sensation
Saying that a female baby pygmy hippopotamus named Moo Deng is taking the world by storm in 2024 – “bouncy pig” in Thai.
PATTAYA, THAILAND – NOVEMBER 26: Moo Deng is seen in his enclosure at Khao Kheow Open Zoo on November 26, 2024 in Chonburi, Thailand.
Matt Jelonek | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A “hyper-viral” baby pygmy born in Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo in July this year has seen memes, photos and videos of him go around the world.
Fan accounts on X, TikTok and Facebook continue to grow. And even NBC’s long-running US comedy show Saturday Night Live has fallen into Moo Deng mania. Asian American star Bowen Yang mimicked a baby hippopotamus in the show’s “Weekend Update” segment, lamenting the dangers of instant fame.
Increasing his fame, Moo Deng correctly predicted the winner of the 2024 US presidential race, choosing a fruit and vegetable plate bearing Trump’s name over his opponent Kamala Harris.
2024 may have been the year of the Dragon on the lunar calendar, but it was clearly the year of the Hippo in the hearts and minds of Moo Deng fans across Asia and beyond. To bring some hope and joy to a region and world that could use more good cheer, 2024’s “Asia’s Best Year” designation goes to Moo Deng.
Here’s to a hopeful and joyful 2025.