This aerial image shows flooded streets and buildings in Thai Nguyen on September 10, 2024, days after Super Typhoon Yagi hit northern Vietnam.
Xuan Quang | Afp | Getty Images
Curtis S. Chin, former US ambassador to the Asian Development Bank, is a director of the consulting firm RiverPeak Group. Jose B. Collazo is an analyst focusing on the Indo-Pacific region. Follow them on X at @CurtisSChin and @JoseBCollazo.
Like previous years, 2024 seemed to offer little to celebrate for many across the vast Indo-Pacific region. However, amid precarious economies and enduring geographic tensions, there was still hope and joy.
Who did badly and who did well in Asia and the Pacific region in 2024?
As the region anticipates President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in 2025 and what could be a tumultuous Year of the Snake in the lunar calendar, we take a look at the year that was.
The worst year: Asia’s climate victims
In a region known for natural disasters that have made headlines around the world, 2024 has brought thousands more “climate victims” across Asia.
Unlike 20 years ago, when a devastating earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004 killed more than 200,000 people, 2024 was a year of increasing casualties from typhoons, floods, heat waves and droughts.
In one example, Supertyphoon Yagi, one of the strongest storms to hit Southeast Asia in years, left a trail of death and destruction in November. From the Philippines to southern China and Vietnam to Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, the storm killed hundreds and destroyed communities and livelihoods.
Flooding caused by the annual monsoon rains has also left millions stranded and hundreds dead in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Nepal, making this year one of the deadliest in recent memory. And, if it wasn’t a record amount of precipitation, it was a drought accompanied by high temperatures that led to several months of serious water shortages.
With extreme weather events seemingly more common, and their victims too often unnoticed and forgotten, the region’s climate toll earns the dubious title of Asia’s worst year.
Bad Year: East Asian Babies
Where have all the babies gone? In most of East Asia, aspiring grandparents and other baby-lovers faced another tough year in 2024. Record low fertility rates continued to be a major concern in all major economies, including South Korea, China and Japan, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Fertility rates remained far below the level needed for a stable, if not growing, population. The long-term economic consequences could be significant as countries struggle with shrinking workforces and aging populations.
Record low birth rates remain a major cause for concern in all major economies, including South Korea, China and Japan, as well as Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Women throughout East Asia have few or no children. Changing gender roles, long working hours, high costs of housing, education and childcare are cited as some of the factors behind this demographic trend.
At the end of the year, South Korea was also officially declared a “super-aged” society, a concept defined by the United Nations, as the proportion of citizens aged 65 or older now makes up 20% of its population, according to Korea’s Ministry of Interior and Security.
A Mixed Year: Democracy and Government in Asia
From India and Japan to South Korea and Indonesia, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka to Taiwan, elections dominated 2024. At the end of the year, however, it proved to be a very diverse year not only for the politicians in power, but for democracy itself.
The year began with Bangladesh’s longtime leader and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina retaining power in elections boycotted by the opposition, only to resign and flee the country after weeks of post-election student protests.
Soldiers try to enter the National Assembly building in Seoul on December 4, 2024, after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a state of emergency.
Jung Yeon-je | AFP | Getty Images
Infamously, the year ends with South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol declaring a state of emergency eight months after his party lost a landslide in the general election, only for the National Assembly to move both the forced lifting of the state of emergency and its recall. The President’s fate is now under the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court.
Nevertheless, the election cemented a living democracy in Taiwan, forced Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to govern with a coalition, surprised Pakistan’s prime minister and announced a peaceful transition of presidential power in Indonesia to former general Prabowo Subianto. Different, mixed democratic trajectories for Asian democracies marked the year 2024.
A good year: the Korean wave
K is for Korean. Whether you’re listening to K-pop music, watching K-drama, trying out the latest K-beauty product from Sulwhasoo, or eating Korean fried chicken or other K-food, you’ve succumbed to “Hallyu” — South Korea’s wave of wildly popular cultural exports. 2024 proved to be a good year for this growing wave of business that has far outgrown music superstars BTS and Blackpink.
South Korean writer Han Kang won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt | AFP | Getty Images
At last count, more than 300 Korean movies and series are available on Netflix alone, including “Squid Game,” Season 2 of “Queen of Tears,” a romantic drama starring Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won, was a global sensation in 2024, with 690 million hours watched on Netflix. And say hello to K-literature, after author Han Kang became the first Korean and first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024.
This tsunami of soft diplomacy that has increased South Korea’s global presence is also big business. The global economic benefit for Korea from “Hallyu” is it is now projected to reach $198 billion by 2030according to a report by BusinessKorea on a white paper published by TikTok and market research firm Kantar.
Best Year: Moo Deng, Thailand’s viral sensation
It would be an understatement to say that a tiny little female hippopotamus named Moo Deng — which means “hopping pork” in Thai — took the world by storm in 2024.
PATTAYA, THAILAND – NOVEMBER 26: Moo Deng is seen in her enclosure at Khao Kheow Open Zoo on November 26, 2024 in Chonburi, Thailand.
Matt Jelonek | News Getty Images | Getty Images
Born this July at Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo, the “hyperviral” baby pygmy has seen her memes, photos and videos go global.
Fan accounts on Xu, TikTok and Facebook continue to multiply. Even NBC’s long-running American comedy show “Saturday Night Live” got in on the Moo Deng mania. Asian-American star Bowen Yang played a baby hippo in a segment of the show’s “Weekend Update,” lamenting the perils of instant fame.
Adding to his fame, Moo Deng correctly predicted the winner of the 2024 US presidential race, choosing a plate of fruit and vegetables with Trump’s name on it over that of rival Kamala Harris.
2024 may have been the year of the dragon in the lunar calendar, but it was clearly also the year of the hippopotamus in the hearts and minds of Moo Deng fans in Asia and beyond. For bringing some hope and joy to a region and a world that could use a lot more good cheer, the title of “Best Year in Asia” for 2024 goes to Moo Deng.
For 2025, a year full of hope and joy.
