Ali's bug was inspired by her fascination with Buddhism and the exploration of diasporic identities. The project developed when Ali returned to her birthplace of Cambodia as a means of inhabiting and recording Cambodia's changing rural and metropolitan landscapes, and of negotiating her culturally mixed background. The series depicts an art deco cinema, Golden Temple, to make reference to what was known as the "Golden Era" of Cambodian Cinema, a period which the younger generation looks back on fondly and is depicted as so in the series, in which the Buddhist Bug tries to find identity and "otherness". The bug finds instead an emptiness, a "loss in a glorious past", and finally a shadow of him/herself. In a series of social encounters in locations around Phnom Penh, Ali's bug impassively occupies central stage among communities, schools, cinemas, restaurants, bars, and urban and rural landscapes undergoing rapid change and development, in order to challenge religious intolerance, difference in others, and a globalizing world. Ali has worked with filmmakers to create "1700% Project: Mistaken for Muslim" to address an increase in violence toward the Muslim community after the 9/11 terrorist attack. In 2015, Anida Yoeu Ali won the Sovereign Asian Prize in Hong Kong. The Sovereign Asian Art Prize was launched in 2004 and aims at encouraging Asian promising artists while acting as a fundraiser for charities. Her winning piece is called Spiral Alley - a photographic print from The Buddhist Bug. Ali was also the $20,000 grand prize recipient in the Millennium Park music festival's online video contest, with her work titled, "1700% Project: Mistaken for Muslim". Worked on with her husband, a Japanese video producer named Masahiro Sugana, the video depicts a poet, dancer, angel, and prisoner speaking out against anti-Muslim hate crimes. This is also reinforced with images of hate crimes taking place, to show the disturbing nature of such discourse.