Nepali New Year—the first day of Bikram Sambat, the official calendar of Nepal—does not fall this year until April 14, 2025. Yet, with 2024 now behind us and the Year of the Snake fast approaching on the lunar calendar, we take a last look back at the year that was in Asia.
Who had it good and who had it bad in the Indo-Pacific region last year? In Nepal, the news was mixed to good when it came to politics, natural disasters, and economics. Political musical chairs continued, with by year-end, KP Sharma Oli having become prime minister for the fourth time to lead a new coalition government. Fortunately, 2024 brought no deadly earthquakes in Nepal of the magnitude of the one that struck Jajarkot in November 2023, killing more than 150 people.
And Nepal's tourism industry showed continued signs of recovery, with this vital sector back to contributing significantly to GDP and foreign exchange earnings. The country welcomed 1.15 million tourists in 2024, according to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). While short of the government’s goal in 2024, tourist arrivals have now nearly matched pre-pandemic levels from 2019.
Here is our look back at the best and worst of Asia 2024.
Best Year: Moo Deng, Thailand’s Viral Sensation
Nepal might have rhinoceroses and elephants, but social media fans looked south and southeast to Thailand. To say that the female baby pygmy hippo Moo Deng—Thai for “bouncy pork”—took the world and 2024 by storm, would be an understatement.
Born in July at Thailand’s Khao Chew Open Zoo, the “hyper-viral” baby pygmy has seen her memes, photos and videos go global. Fan accounts on X, Tik Tok, and Facebook continue to proliferate.
Even NBC’s long-running U.S. comedy show Saturday Night Live got in on the “Moo Deng mania.” Asian American star Bowen Yang impersonated the baby hippo on the show’s “Weekend Update” segment, lamenting the hazards of instant fame. But, Moo Deng isn’t just another pretty face. She correctly predicted the winner of the 2024 U.S. presidential race, by selecting the fruit and vegetable plate bearing Trump’s name over that of one for rival Kamala Harris.
For bringing a bit of hope and joy to the Indo-Pacific region and to a world that could use a lot more reasons for good cheer, the designation of “Best Year in Asia” for 2024 goes to Moo Deng.
From Best to Worst: A Last Look Back at Asia 2022
Good Year: the Korean Wave
Per a report from “The Buzz Nepal” and the South Korean embassy in Kathmandu, “As the Korean Wave continues to spread globally, Nepal is no exception in embracing this cultural phenomenon.” Indeed.
When back in July, a regional preliminary round of the 2024 Kpop World Festival was held once again in Nepal, and when Filipino-American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars and New Zealand and Korean singer Rosé’s blockbuster song “Apt.” topped music charts from Australia to India and Turkey to Malaysia in October, it underscored how the region and world has continued to embrace “Hallyu”—South Korea’s wave of wildly popular cultural exports.
K is for Korean. Whether “K-pop” music, “K-dramas,” “K-beauty” products, or Korean fried chicken and other “K-food,” 2024 proved a good for this expanding wave of business that has grown well beyond superstar musical groups BTS and Blackpink.
More than 300 Korean movies and series are now available for streaming on Netflix alone, including Squid Game, Season 2, and contract marriage melodrama When the Phone Rings. The romantic drama Queen of Tears starring Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Ji Won was a 2024 global sensation, clocking more than 690 million viewing hours on Netflix. And the world was dramatically introduced to K-literature, with Korean author Han Kang in 2024 becoming the first Korean and first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
This tsunami of soft diplomacy that has elevated South Korea’s global presence is also big business. The global economic benefit to Korea of “Hallyu” is now projected to hit US$198 billion by 2030, according to a BusinessKorea report on a white paper released this July by TikTok and market research firm Kantar.
Mixed Year: Democracy and Incumbency in Asia
Elections were very much on the 2024 calendar across the region—from India and Japan to Indonesia, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Taiwan. At year’s end, however, it had proven to be a decidedly mixed year for not just incumbent politicians but for democracy itself.
The year began with longtime leader and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasani winning re-election overwhelmingly in an election boycotted by the opposition, only to resign and flee the country months later after weeks of students’ protests.
As a perhaps bewildered world looked on, the year ended with South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol declaring martial law eight months after his party lost big in general elections. The National Assembly would successfully move both to force the lifting of martial law and then to impeach him as well as his acting successor. The K-drama continues with an arrest warrant having been issued for Yoon.
Yet, elections cemented a vibrant democracy in Taiwan, forced India’s President Narendra Modi to govern with a coalition, surprised the Pakistan incumbent, and heralded in the peaceful transition of presidential power in Indonesia to former General Prabowo Subianto. In Sri Lanka, Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the presidential election, as voters firmly rejected the old political guard.
Diverse, mixed democratic trajectories for a diversity of democracies in Asia characterized 2024.
Bad Year: East Asia’s Babies
In marked contrast to the situation in relatively youthful and growing nations like India and the Philippines, aspiring grandparents in East Asia might well have a critical question. Where are all the babies?
In South Korea, China and Japan as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong, record-low fertility rates continued to prove a major concern in 2024. Fertility rates across East Asia remained well below that needed for a stable if not growing population. At year’s end also came news that the birth rate in Sri Lanka continued to drop. The nation’s of East Asia are, however, for now in a demographic collective league of their own.
The long-term economic consequences could well be significant as nations contend with shrinking workforces and aging populations.
Women are having very few to no children. Changing gender roles, long work hours, the high cost of housing, education, and childcare are all cited as some of the factors behind this East Asia demographic trend. According to the Korean Ministry of the Interior and Safety, South Korea is also now officially a “super-aged” society, as the proportion of citizens aged 65 or older now accounts for 20% of the population.
Worst Year: Asia’s Climate Casualties
20 years ago, a devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on 26 December 2004 killed more than 200,000 in a single day. In contrast, 2024 was a year of mounting casualties from typhoon, floods, heat waves and droughts.
This included Super Typhoon Yagi. One of the strongest storms to hit Southeast Asia in years, Yagi left a path of death and devastation in November. From the Philippines through southern China and Vietnam, and onto Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, the storm killed hundreds and devastated communities and livelihoods.
Floods from the yearly monsoon rains also left millions displaced and hundreds dead in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Nepal, making this year one of the deadliest in recent memory. According to United Nations reports this October, more than 215 people, including 35 children, were killed and dozens more went missing after heavy rains in late September triggered flash floods and landslides across Nepal.
Many of the deaths occurred in Kathmandu, which witnessed the most intense rains in over half a century, according to U.N. humanitarian reports. Hundreds of houses along with schools and hospitals were also damaged.
And, if it was not record-breaking rainfall, it was drought accompanied by scorching temperatures leading to months of severe water shortages in 2024. With extreme weather events seemingly more the norm and their victims too often increasingly unnoticed and forgotten, the region’s climate casualties garner the dubious distinction of “Worst Year in Asia” for 2024.
As 2025 dawns, here’s to a hopeful and joy-filled 2025 for Nepal, the rest of South Asia, and all our world.
