Media OutReach
Lau Yee-Wa Wins First Chommanard International Literary Award
Nearly 70 books from 47 publishers representing 10 countries were submitted for this competition. But, for the past 15 years, Praphansarn Publishing, with the sponsorship of Bangkok Bank, has been organising the Chommanard Book Prize, which is given annually for the best book written by a Thai female writer, the winner receiving a cash prize of 100,000 baht and the publication of her book translated into English.
Mr Arthorn Techatada, the Award Program Director, explained, “After holding the Chommanard Book Prize for 15 years, it now seemed this was the right time to expand our programme to include ASEAN and China Region female writers as it is very important to promote outstanding female literary talent throughout the region and the world beyond as Asian female writers don’t get the deserved recognition, and fortunately, Bangkok Bank agreed.”
Mr Arthorn then with the assistance of Associate Professor Dr Trisilpa Boonkhachorn of the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, invited and formed a panel of judges from Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, France and Germany. All were given the arduous task of reading every submission, followed by deciding on a longlist and then shortlist and country winners from which the grand prize winner would be selected.
The shortlist winners included Li Zi Shu, an award-winning Chinese language writer from Malaysia, for her book, The Age of Goodbyes; Thuận, a Vietnamese author based in Paris who writes in both Vietnamese and French, for her novel, Chinatown. She was also recognised by The New Yorker Best Books 2023. Next are the acclaimed Thai writer Veeraporn Nitiprapha, a two-time winner of the SEA Write Award for her novel, Memories of the Memories of the Black Rose Cat; Isna Marita, an Indonesian author and Environmentalist for her first novel, Mountain More Ancient; Dr Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai of Viet Nam, who has written 13 books in Vietnamese and English, for her book, The Mountains Sing; Leila S Chudori, an award-winning journalist and novelist, for her novel, The Sea Speaks His Name; Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, a writer of fiction, essays, manga and video game scripts, for her novel, Taiwan Travelogue, and Lau Yee-Wa of Hong Kong, who studied Chinese literature and philosophy, for her debut novel, Tongueless.
The two country winners, who along with the shortlisted authors, attended over a week of activities centred around the Bangkok International Book Fair organised by PUBAT (Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand) and visits to important media organisations. They include Jemimah Wei of Singapore for her debut novel, The Original Daughter, which was a Good Morning America Book Club selection and New York Times Editors’ pick, and Marga Ortigas, an award-winning journalist from the Philippines, for her novel, The House on Calle Sombria.
When Associate Professor Dr Trisilpa Boonkhachorn, jury chairperson, announced Lau Yee-Wa as the grand prize winner, the audience and especially the shortlisted and country winners erupted in loud cheers and applause. Then, after receiving a 500,000 baht prize presented by Mr Chartsiri Sophonphanich, President of Bangkok Bank, Ms Lau Yee-Wa gave the keynote speech for the gala celebration on the topic, “Deschooling Society for Global Peace”.
Ms Lau Yee-Wa began, “I never expected to receive such an award or to have my novel translated into so many languages, including Thai. I thought the story, written in Cantonese, was too colloquial and based on such a local Hong Kong context, it would be difficult to understand.”
Later, the winning author went on, “Then, I realized I was not writing fiction. I was documenting a quiet, invisible form of violence that happened every day in the classroom, workplace and even daily life in the whole world. This violence is called deschooling, which the philosopher Ivan Illich warned us about more than 50 years ago.”
Ms Lau Yee-Wa closed by saying, “I believe that Tongueless is my own small, stubborn act of deschooling. I refused to wrap the story in comforting, official language. I let the pain, the vanity, the quiet rebellion, and the flnal demand for choice speak in their rawest form. In doing so, I rediscovered my own voice—and I hope every reader who finishes the book begins to hear theirs again.”
The guidelines for submissions for the Chommanard Book Prize for Thai writers writing in Thai and the Chommanard International Women’s Literary Award for writers from ASEAN member and China region countries will be announced in the coming months. You can find additional information by visiting the Chommanard International Women’s Literary Award website @ https://virf.io/chommanard/home or by contacting [email protected].
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About Expereo
Expereo is a world-leading Managed Network as a Service provider that connects people, places, and things anywhere. Solutions include Global Internet, SD-WAN/SASE, and Enhanced Internet. With an extensive global reach, Expereo is the trusted partner of 60% of Fortune 500 companies. It powers enterprise and government sites in more than 190 countries, with the ability to connect to any location worldwide, working with over 2,300 partners to help customers improve productivity and empowering their networks and cloud services with the agility, flexibility, and value of the Internet, with optimal network performance.
Media OutReach
TP deepens AI data services capabilities across APAC markets – showcased live at Asia Tech x Singapore 2026
As enterprises accelerate AI deployment across Asia, success will increasingly depend on the quality, localization and governance of the underlying data powering these systems. At Asia Tech x Singapore 2026 this week, TP is present on the ground and is delivering two sessions to cover the insights of TP’s Future Forward strategy of scaling AI-led services.
Assaf Tarnopolsky, TP’s Chief Business Development & Customer Officer, APAC is joining the panel “The Enterprise AI Execution Challenge” to discuss the advantages of Asia-based enterprises in investing in robust data preparation before constructing AI tools. Michael Costevec, Head of Value Creation Office, TP APAC and Jonathan Phang, CTO, TP APAC are also delivering a keynote on “AI Orchestration in the World’s Most Complex Markets”, which covers the principles behind the shift from AI operations to AI orchestration.
TP.ai Data Services, an end-to-end AI data services solution, enables enterprises to build, train and scale AI systems that are locally relevant, operationally resilient and deployment-ready across Asia’s diverse markets. With specialized AI practitioners distributed across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, TP delivers end-to-end AI/ML and GenAI support services, including data collection, validation, annotation, labeling, model evaluation, analytics operations and human-in-the-loop governance.
“The companies seeing real operational impact from AI in Asia are the ones investing in scalable data foundations, in-country execution and human expertise alongside the technology itself,” said Dave Rizzo, APAC President, TP. TP.ai Data Services has a proven track record in supporting customer live deployment. Within three weeks, it successfully created customized warehouse video streams, annotated with detailed object labels and dimensional data, enabling physical AI model training to support a client with real-time worker-safety-risk detection.
TP has been recognized globally for helping organizations move beyond fragmented data operations and reporting toward an analytics-led operating model that improves performance, governance, and AI outcomes. The 2026 Data Breakthrough Awards named TP’s data analytics services Overall Data Analytics Platform of the Year, citing measurable business results, including:
- Up to 31% improvement in customer experience quality scores
- Up to 30% lift in sales conversions
- Up to 20% improvement in resource forecasting accuracy
- Up to 15% gains in workforce efficiency
Beyond technology delivery, TP also places strong emphasis on preparing its own workforce for an AI-led operating environment. Across APAC, TP continues to invest in AI upskilling programs that equip employees with capabilities in model evaluation, synthetic data, human-in-the-loop and human-on-the-loop orchestration and AI governance. By combining advanced AI systems with locally trained human expertise, TP enables enterprises to scale AI responsibly across diverse Asian markets, ensuring that innovation remains grounded in cultural understanding, operational oversight and real-world business outcomes.
Hashtag: #TP
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ABOUT TP IN SINGAPORE
TP in Singapore is part of the TP Group, a global leader in digital business services which consistently seeks to blend the best of advanced technology with human empathy to deliver enhanced customer care that is simpler, faster, and safer for the world’s biggest brands and their customers. The Group’s comprehensive, AI-powered service portfolio ranges from front office customer care to back-office functions, including high-value digital transformation services, collections and operations consulting. It also offers a range of specialized services such as interpreting and localization, visa and consular services, and recruitment process outsourcing services. The teams of multilingual, inspired, and passionate experts and advisors, spread across close to 100 countries, as well as the Group’s local presence allows it to be a force of good in supporting communities, clients, and the environment.
For more information: www.tp.com.
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