From the editor

New York City isn't the only city that never sleeps and here in Hong Kong, I know exactly why they don't - the construction never stops. It's 2 a.m., hot, humid, and even over the loud hum of the air conditioner, I can hear pounding-pounding-pounding going on. I feel like opening up the window and shouting, "HELLLOOOO. Does the date 1 July, 1997 mean anything to you? You know, the Union Jack coming down, the big red flag going up?"

But with the amount of building going on, with the new airport being built, with the world's largest container ship facility getting even larger, gigantic new apartment complexes sprouting up - covered with bamboo scaffolding 30, 40, even 50 stories up, the inhabitants of Hong Kong are obviously privy to something the rest of us don't know. And all I can think of, as I sit here on my bed is there's a brave new world going on here, a world that is overshadowing the West.

And it's a world most of us in the States don't understand.

In this Pacific Rim issue of Prism, we explore some of the different facets of Asia and the problems they're facing. Cork Graham, who was imprisoned in Vietnam in the early 1980s returned to Vietnam and found Vietnam is changing but not changed as reported by most press. Sue Kim writes about Korean loan associations, Pamela Yoon about why the Koreans have adopted Christianity unlike other Asian countries and Michael Mattis writes about the other side of Harry Wu. I write about the Indian minority of Hong Kong - a group that might find themselves stateless in 1997 and Miguel Helft writes about Indian arranged marriages which has little to nothing to do with the Pacific Rim but it's just too good of story to pass up on.

- Velo S. Mitrovich

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