Since graduating from the Capital Normal University in Beijing during the momentous turbulence of 1989, Song Dong has been at the forefront of conceptual art in China. 

The 2017 presidential election in the
Asia Pacific’s youngest nation Timor-Leste, 

or East Timor, was won by former freedom fighter Francisco Guterres, who aims to reduce poverty and unemployment in the 15-year-old nation. 

With Kim Jong-un at the helm, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has conducted 16 missile tests in 2017, including two that launched rockets over the Japanese archipelago in August and September.

One of the five remaining communist states, Laos lags behind its neighbors in infrastructure. The majority of cultural funding is devoted to the preservation of the nation’s Buddhist heritage. 

Still recovering from the disastrous earthquakes of 2015, Nepal experienced dramatic monsoon flooding and landslides in its southern plains in August. 

The war in Syria rumbles on. The country is now fractured into three main zones, with the Assad regime holding major cities; US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces dominating the north; and anti-Assad factions in the hinterlands. 

Winning 98 percent of the votes in February 2017 elections, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov maintains his restrictive grip over this closed country. 

The past year was a memorable one. Trump dominated the news. Brexit talks shook Europe. North Korea’s nuclear power threatened Asia. 

The world watched in 2014 as Hong Kongers, increasingly desperate to achieve democratic elections before the expiration of its semi-autonomous constitution in 2047, staged dramatic street occupations to demand universal suffrage.