Chinese influence in New Zealand politics has been the subject of regular debate over the last term. What does it mean to represent the Chinese community in 2020? Sherry Zhang meets Labour’s rising star Naisi Chen. Among the new faces on course to ride Jacinda Ardern’s wave of popularity into parliament tomorrow is Naisi Chen. … Read more
Given the escalating climate crisis and other looming environmental issues, has capitalism proven antithetical to the survival of the planet? Opportunities Party leader Geoff Simmons says no. There is no doubt: we need to change the way we live to save the environment. And we need to save the environment to have a chance of … Read more
Before Fortnite, there was Runescape. And well before Runescape, there was an eternal class struggle. Emilie Rākete writes about the moment the two collided in the most unexpected way. RuneScape was once declared the world’s largest multiplayer online game. Millions of people were entranced by its blocky graphics and repetitive gameplay. Like many young people in the early … Read more
A new radical left group has formed with the goal of making socialism a reality in New Zealand. But what would that even look like? And will they have any chance of success by rejecting parliamentary politics? You’ve probably seen them on the news. If there’s an event on that has a militant looking protest … Read more
Jonathan Bree travels back in time to Soviet Russia for this exclusive interview. Anastasia Doniants, part of the ‘Inside the Iron Curtain’ creative team, writes: Why should we expect our artists to have something to say, to become experts on subjects they don’t really care about? They’ve done their work, why not preserve the mystique … Read more
Guy Somerset takes on the new novel by Julian Barnes. Martin, Ian, Julian – those Brits, how they like to dabble in Eastern Europe. For the most part, it’s been reviewing the latest Bohumil Hrabal or Ivan Klima in one of the weekend newspapers or an approving nod to Milan Kundera or Josef Skvorecky in … Read more