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Research Collection School of Social Sciences

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Full-Text Articles in International and Area Studies

(Re)Producing Buddhist Hegemony In Sri Lanka: Advancing The Discursive Formations Of Self-Orientalism, Religious (Im)Mobility And 'Unethical' Conversion, Orlando Woods Apr 2018

(Re)Producing Buddhist Hegemony In Sri Lanka: Advancing The Discursive Formations Of Self-Orientalism, Religious (Im)Mobility And 'Unethical' Conversion, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores how Buddhist groups in Sri Lanka attempt to suppress conversion to Christianity. Conversion to Christianity can dilute the power and legitimacy of Buddhist groups, which has caused them to promote a discourse of ‘unethical’ conversion. My argument is that such a discourse is self-Orientalising in nature, and is designed to enable the (re)production of Buddhist hegemony in Sri Lanka. By constructing Buddhists as vulnerable and in need of protection, the hegemonic actions of Buddhist groups are validated. These constructions serve to restrict the religious (and socio-cultural) mobility of Buddhists, and to legitimise the persecution of Christians through …


Whose Blue Heaven? Musicality In The Early Japanese Talkies, Richard M Davis Mar 2018

Whose Blue Heaven? Musicality In The Early Japanese Talkies, Richard M Davis

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article focuses on the advent of synchronized sound production in Japan in 1931 – three years later than the United States – and the generative ambiguities of how sound and music’s relationship to film was figured in that year’s anxious discourse. I argue that this ‘belatedness’ is echoed in relationships of on-screen image and offscreen sound, noise, and music in two important early sound films, The Neighbor’s Wife and Mine (Gosho 1931) and A Tipsy Life (Kimura 1933).


Global Ambitions: Positioning Singapore As A Contemporary Arts Hub, Su Fern Hoe Mar 2018

Global Ambitions: Positioning Singapore As A Contemporary Arts Hub, Su Fern Hoe

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This chapter has two objectives. The first is to critically interrogate the state’s efforts in utilising the visual arts as a means to position Singapore as an international arts hub and marketplace. As Kwok Kian Woon and Low Kee-Hong have noted, “Singapore’s cultural policy has everything to do with staying on top as a focal node in the late-capitalist world system of the new millennium” (Kwok and Low, 2002, p. 154). This chapter offers an overview of the programmes and initiatives introduced by the state from the 1990s to the present in order to encourage the entry of international art …


Lessons In Global Commerce (From An Early East India Company Employee), Emily Soon Mar 2018

Lessons In Global Commerce (From An Early East India Company Employee), Emily Soon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

International trade hurts local communities. It causes economic hardship at home and destroys the environment, while the culture of consumerism it fuels is destroying our values and way of life. Similar sentiments to these recur across the media today: this so-called backlash against globalisation is said to have contributed to Brexit and the rise of Trump, and to have transformed the shape of political movements across the world. This pent-up frustration seems to be quintessentially twenty-first century, the disillusioned rant of a world no longer charmed by the siren song of free trade and borderless commerce. And yet, the sentiments …


The Arts And Culture Strategic Review Report: Harnessing The Arts For Community-Building, Su Fern Hoe Mar 2018

The Arts And Culture Strategic Review Report: Harnessing The Arts For Community-Building, Su Fern Hoe

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Arts and Culture Strategic Review (ACSR) was initiated in 2010 to chart the next phase of cultural development in Singapore. The final report, which was released in 2012, appears to propose a paradigm shift in focus for arts and cultural policy making in Singapore: from the desire to manage the arts and cultural sectors into profitable creative industries to the utilisation of the arts and culture as expedient tools for social cohesion and community building in Singapore. This shift has resulted in government programmes placing (renewed) importance and emphasis on “community arts” as a cultural activity. This chapter critically …


Nurturing The Cultural Desert: The Role Of Museums In Singapore, Su Fern Hoe, Terence Chong Mar 2018

Nurturing The Cultural Desert: The Role Of Museums In Singapore, Su Fern Hoe, Terence Chong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The absence of official platforms and institutions such as museums and visual arts spaces; while the artistic amateur scene was flourishing, there were no museums or national galleries where collections of the best local and regional artworks could be found, appreciated and studied by artists and citizens. This cultural desert was the result of the government’s attention to bread and butter issues. How, then, did Singapore transform from “cultural desert” of yesteryear to a city with 51 museums and 118 art galleries in 2013, as well as an arts scene that saw more than 3.2 million visitors to the national …


Review: How China Escaped The Poverty Trap By Yuen Yuen Ang, John A. Donaldson Mar 2018

Review: How China Escaped The Poverty Trap By Yuen Yuen Ang, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Two contrasting mistakes plague contemporary China studies as we try to fit Chinainto social science theory. On the one hand, we tend to apply theories derived fromthe West, fitting China’s square peg into theory’s round hole. In the process, wemiss something important about China, or conclude that China simply doesn’t fit.Dissatisfied with this, we sometimes conclude that China is unique, studying it in atheoretical vacuum, or inventing China-specific theories and concepts that are difficult to apply elsewhere.


Book Review: Multinational Maids: Stepwise Migration In A Global Labor Market By Anju Mary Paul, Andy Scott Chang Mar 2018

Book Review: Multinational Maids: Stepwise Migration In A Global Labor Market By Anju Mary Paul, Andy Scott Chang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

From Singapore and Tel Aviv to Rome and Vancouver, Filipina domestic workers have captured the hearts of international employers, thanks to their English proficiency, educational attainment, and cosmopolitan outlook. Though confined to indentured servitude in nearly every country, Filipinas trot the world scouring for higher salaries, job security, and even pathways to citizenship. Their Indonesian counterparts likewise undertake multinational journeys, beginning in neighboring Malaysia and concluding in high-wage economies like Taiwan. But while Filipinas view employment in newly industrial economies as a springboard for the West, Indonesians display limited interest in settlement outside origin communities, content as they are with …


Strategies Of Salvation: Evangelical Christian Praxis And Sites Of Degradation In Sri Lanka, Orlando Woods Feb 2018

Strategies Of Salvation: Evangelical Christian Praxis And Sites Of Degradation In Sri Lanka, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper demonstrates how disasters create sites of degradation – potent spaces of upheaval and engagement – that are readily filled and exploited by evangelical Christian groups. In doing so, it explores how disasters provide opportunities for evangelical groups to gain a foothold in localities where Christian presence, and evangelical praxis, may otherwise be restricted. Drawing on qualitative data collected in Sri Lanka throughout 2010–2011, two comparative case studies are presented that reveal the strategies of evangelical Christian praxis in and through sites of environmental and political degradation. Specifically, the case studies reveal how evangelical groups pursue ‘outside‐in’ and ‘inside‐out’ …


Buddhism Co. Ltd? Epistemology Of Religiosity, And The Re-Invention Of A Buddhist Monastery In Hong Kong, Junxi Qian, Lily Kong Feb 2018

Buddhism Co. Ltd? Epistemology Of Religiosity, And The Re-Invention Of A Buddhist Monastery In Hong Kong, Junxi Qian, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article re-theorises the relationships between secularity and religiosity in modernity. While geographers have recognised that the secular and the religious are mutually constituted, this article pushes this theorisation further, arguing that the religious and the secular are in fact hybrid constructs that embrace simultaneously the sacred and profane, the transcendent and the immanent. Albeit the significant advancement in disrupting enclosed epistemologies of secular modernity, relatively less work has sought to theorise the possibility of religion as a hybrid operating at the secular–religious interface. Focusing on the ways in which a non-Western religion, Buddhism, performs entangled relationships between religiosity and …


H-Diplo Article Review Of Kosal Path. “The Politics Of China’S Aid To North Vietnam During The Anti-American Resistance, 1965-1969.” Diplomacy & Statecraft 27:4 (2016): 682-700, Frances Yaping Wang Jan 2018

H-Diplo Article Review Of Kosal Path. “The Politics Of China’S Aid To North Vietnam During The Anti-American Resistance, 1965-1969.” Diplomacy & Statecraft 27:4 (2016): 682-700, Frances Yaping Wang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

It is a national myth in China that Vietnam, a former brotherly ally, cold-bloodedly turned against China in the late 1970s despite the great sacrifice the Chinese people had made for Vietnam’s independence cause. The relationship deteriorated so drastically that the animosity culminated in a decade-long war between the two countries. Some blame the Le Duan government; others condemn the ingratitude of the Vietnamese people. There has been some faint self-examination within China of its insensitivity to Vietnam’s autonomy and of its assertion of superiority in the relationship. Others substantiate this claim to some degree. For example, Brantly Womack in …


New Forms Of Political Activism In Indonesia: Redefining The Nexus Between Electoral And Movement Politics, Dirk Tomsa, Charlotte Setijadi Jan 2018

New Forms Of Political Activism In Indonesia: Redefining The Nexus Between Electoral And Movement Politics, Dirk Tomsa, Charlotte Setijadi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article argues that new personality-centric movements have redefined the nexus between activism and electoral politics in Indonesia. It illustrates how these movements have challenged the role of political parties and consultants in electoral campaigning, and how their growing prominence may affect the future trajectory of Indonesian politics.


Learning To Fill The Labor Niche: Filipino Nursing Graduates And The Risk Of The Migration Trap, Yasmin Y. Ortiga Jan 2018

Learning To Fill The Labor Niche: Filipino Nursing Graduates And The Risk Of The Migration Trap, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Overseas recruitment has become a common strategy in filling nurse shortages within U.S. health institutions, sparking the proliferation of nursing programs in the Philippines. Export-oriented education exacerbates a mismatch, however, between available jobs (in both the Philippines and the United States) and the number of nursing graduates, thus increasing joblessness and underemployment among Filipino youth. Pursing higher education as a means to migrate also puts Filipino students at risk of getting caught in a migration trap, where prospective migrants obtain credentials for overseas work yet cannot leave when labor demands or immigration policies change. Such problems highlight the complicated impact …


Doubling Down On Asia Victor D. Cha, Power Play: The Origins Of The American Alliance System In Asia (Princeton University Press, 2016). Michael R. Auslin, The End Of The Asian Century: War, Stagnation And Risks To The World's Most Dynamic Region (Yale University Press, 2017)., Wen-Qing (Wei Wenqing) Ngoei Jan 2018

Doubling Down On Asia Victor D. Cha, Power Play: The Origins Of The American Alliance System In Asia (Princeton University Press, 2016). Michael R. Auslin, The End Of The Asian Century: War, Stagnation And Risks To The World's Most Dynamic Region (Yale University Press, 2017)., Wen-Qing (Wei Wenqing) Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

With the Chinese government aggressively militarizing the South China Sea and U.S. President Donald Trump scuttling the Trans-Pacific Partnership, there appears no clear answer to Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative. In fact, U.S. foreign policy thinkers are casting about for a strategy in Asia. What is to be done? Victor Cha’s Power Play and Michael Auslin’s End of the Asian Century recommends that the United States “double-down,” an expression Cha uses repeatedly, on its time-tested strategy of containing Chinese power in Asia.


The Ideological Alignment Of Smart Urbanism In Singapore: Critical Reflections On A Political Paradox, Lily Kong, Orlando Woods Jan 2018

The Ideological Alignment Of Smart Urbanism In Singapore: Critical Reflections On A Political Paradox, Lily Kong, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Over the past decade, much has been written about the potential of smart urbanism to bring about various and lasting forms of betterment. The embedding of digital technologies within urban infrastructures has been well documented, and the efficiencies of smart models of urban governance and management have been lauded. More recently, however, the discourse has been labelled ‘hegemonic’, and accused of developing a view of smart technology that is blinkered by its failure to critique its socio-political effects. By focusing on the case of Singapore’s ‘Smart Nation’ initiative, this paper embraces the paradoxes at the heart of smart urbanism and, …


Emigration, Employability, And Higher Education In The Philippines, Yasmin Y. Ortiga Jan 2018

Emigration, Employability, And Higher Education In The Philippines, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This book investigates the dilemma of educating students for future work in the context of the Philippines, one of the top sources of migrant labor in the world. Here, colleges and universities are expected to not only educate students for jobs within the country, but for potential employers beyond national borders. It demonstrates how human capital ideology reinforces such export-oriented education, creating an assumed relationship among academic credentials, overseas opportunity, and future migrant remittances. Findings indicate that attempts to produce migrant workers undermine the job security of college instructors, skew local curriculum towards foreign requirements, and challenge efforts to develop …


Lack Of Dream-Capital Among Korean Youths: Rationally Chosen Or Culturally Forbidden?, Seokho Kim, Hongjung Kim, Sangkyu Lee, Eunji Kim, Ohjae Gowen Jan 2018

Lack Of Dream-Capital Among Korean Youths: Rationally Chosen Or Culturally Forbidden?, Seokho Kim, Hongjung Kim, Sangkyu Lee, Eunji Kim, Ohjae Gowen

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper attempts to provide empirical evidence in understanding the ways that contemporary youth pursue their dreams in Korea. This paper examines the rational aspect of "dreaming" or "non-dreaming" by employing two concepts: dream-capital and penetration. In this paper, dream-capital is conceptualized as a seed that facilitates the accumulation of other capitals. It is the total capacity to dream and is composed of four dimensions: imagination, hope, optimism and resilience. Penetration is defined as the "cognitive judgment about the (un)realizability of dream." It refers to the discrepancy that exists between judgment about the capacity, condition and qualification required to fulfill …


Cosmopolitan Cinema: Cross-Cultural Encounters In East Asian Film [Book Review], Espena Darlene Machell Jan 2018

Cosmopolitan Cinema: Cross-Cultural Encounters In East Asian Film [Book Review], Espena Darlene Machell

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this exceptional book, Felicia Chan dives deep into the complexities of cosmopolitanism and cinema, questioning the meaning of ‘foreignness’ and aspirations of ‘belonging’ in the global context. Grounded on the premise that transnational cinema, or cinema in general, is an important platform for the production, imagination, and interrogation of cosmopolitan ideals, the book focuses on East Asian cinemas from China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore, challenging notions of definitive cultural boundaries. The book offers a way to understand cross-cultural encounters that emphasises the nuances and subjectivities of cultural imaginaries that cinema itself advances and challenges at the same time. …


The Role Of Historians In East Asia’S History Problem, Hiro Saito Dec 2017

The Role Of Historians In East Asia’S History Problem, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

At first glance, historians may not look like the best candidates for facilitating a resolution of the history problem. This is because historians have traditionally used the nation as a primary unit of analysis, helping to naturalize it as a primordial entity. They have also created professional associations and delimited their membership along national borders, consistent with the nationalist logic of self-determination; for example, when Japanese historians write about the history of Japan, they often talk among themselves without consulting with foreign historians who study Japan. This nationally bounded content focus and membership reinforces the logic of nationalism that divides …


Harnessing The Potential Of The Indonesian Diaspora, Charlotte Setijadi Dec 2017

Harnessing The Potential Of The Indonesian Diaspora, Charlotte Setijadi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this article, I examine recent issues and developments in Indonesian diaspora activism, including the progress of long-standing requests such as changes to the dual citizenship law. I then discuss some of the ways in which the Indonesian government may harness the potential of its diaspora in the future, especially since overseas Indonesians are now wealthier, more mobile, and better connected than ever before. I argue that the case study of the Indonesian state’s growing relationship with its diaspora can enrich our understanding of how Southeast Asian countries are cultivating better and more beneficial relationships with their diaspora communities.


Asian Extremes: Experience And Exchange In The Development Of Meteorological Knowledge C. 1840-1930, Fiona Williamson, Clive Wilkinson Dec 2017

Asian Extremes: Experience And Exchange In The Development Of Meteorological Knowledge C. 1840-1930, Fiona Williamson, Clive Wilkinson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

On 29 July 1939, the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle was off the northern entrance of the Formosa Strait, approximately 25⁰N, 121⁰E. The ship’s meteorological officer was formulating the current synoptic weather situation, which included a typhoon to the south or south-east of Formosa with a second typhoon much further east in about 144⁰E. It might be expected that in 1939, the existence and position of a typhoon could be corroborated easily by contemporary ‘experts’ situated nearby. However ‘The utmost confusion prevailed’ noted the officer ‘among the experts at Zikawei, Manila & Hong Kong today …I think there is no doubt …


Kiasu And Creativity In Singapore: An Empirical Test Of The Situated Dynamics Framework, Chi-Ying Cheng, Ying-Yi Hong Dec 2017

Kiasu And Creativity In Singapore: An Empirical Test Of The Situated Dynamics Framework, Chi-Ying Cheng, Ying-Yi Hong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article investigates how Singaporeans' creativity is influenced by Kiasu, an indigenous construct corresponding to fear of losing out. We examine the impact of Kiasu on creativity, both as a personal value and a shared cultural norm in four studies. Study 1 showed that Singaporeans' Kiasu value endorsement predicts lower individual creativity. Study 2 demonstrated that this negative relationship is mediated by a self-regulatory focus on prevention. Study 3 further showed the impact of Kiasu as a personal value and a cultural norm by finding a significant three-way interaction effect of Kiasu prime, personal Kiasu value endorsement, and need for …


Uncertain Skies: Forecasting Typhoons In Hong Kong Ca. 1874-1906, Fiona Williamson Dec 2017

Uncertain Skies: Forecasting Typhoons In Hong Kong Ca. 1874-1906, Fiona Williamson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores the conceptualisation of «uncertainty» in late nineteenth- century meteorological thought. By investigating the story of meteorological forecasting in nineteenth and early twentieth century Hong Kong, it considers the changing ways in which forecasting was judged historically. In the early nineteenth century forecasting the weather was considered impossible. By the end of the century, it was confidently expected that the much improved understanding of weather patterns would lead to the ability to better predict them. During the intervening period «uncertainty» competed with «certainty» and «prediction» was mistaken for «predictability». The shift in perception was driven by various factors, …


Cultural Capital Schemes In Asia: Mirroring Europe Or Carving Out Their Own Concepts?, David Ocon Dec 2017

Cultural Capital Schemes In Asia: Mirroring Europe Or Carving Out Their Own Concepts?, David Ocon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite bearing similar names and sharing certainaims, the implementation of the CulturalCity/Capital initiative in Europe and in the sub-regions of Southeast andNortheast Asia has been substantially dissimilar. In Europe, the annual EuropeanCity of Culture (ECOC) status commonly constitutes an opportunity toshowcase the best of the arts and culture of the host city, and counts on thesupport of sizable public funding. In Southeast Asia, the initiative scarcelyreceives any public or regional funds and the understanding of what thedesignation means varies widely from country to country. In Northeast Asia,regional diplomacy is one of the main motivations for initiating the scheme. This paper …


A Wide Anticommunist Arc: Britain, Asean, And Nixon's Triangular Diplomacy, Wen-Qing Ngoei Nov 2017

A Wide Anticommunist Arc: Britain, Asean, And Nixon's Triangular Diplomacy, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

President Richard Nixon’s triangular diplomacy succeeded because a “wide anticommunist arc” of U.S. allies in Southeast Asia had confined the influence of both China and the USSR to the Indochinese states. Beijing and Moscow welcomed détente with Washington in order to accommodate to de facto U.S. hegemony in the region.


Community Engagement As A Form Of Participatory Governance, Ijlal Naqvi Oct 2017

Community Engagement As A Form Of Participatory Governance, Ijlal Naqvi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Singapore government increasingly conducts a wide-rangingvariety of community engagement, which involve some degree ofpublic participation in government decision-making. These range fromOur Singapore Conversation, a wide-ranging discussion of whatSingaporeans want for their future, to the Colour Your Busescampaign in which citizens could vote on whether public buses shouldbe red or green. While these engagement processes typically informand consult, or occasionally involve deliberation and co-creation, theyrarely — if ever — empower citizens to make consequential decisionsin the manner of Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright’s concept ofEmpowered Participatory Governance (2003).


Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey [2017], Paulin Straughan, Mathews Mathew Oct 2017

Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey [2017], Paulin Straughan, Mathews Mathew

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The authors undertook the Public Cleanliness Satisfaction Survey. The survey was completed in March 2017 and was made possible through funds from the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. The survey was carried out by the research company, Blackbox Research. The survey sample is representative of the demographics of the Singapore population. In particular, we sought the views of 2000 Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents aged 21 years and above. A response rate of about 70% of eligible households was obtained. In general, we found that there was a high level of satisfaction on the cleanliness of public spaces …


Aging In Myanmar, John Knodel, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan Aug 2017

Aging In Myanmar, John Knodel, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This spotlight provides an overview of thesituation of older persons in Myanmar, an under-studied country ofover-50-million population. Myanmar is of particular interest to researchersand policy makers, given its overall level of poverty and modestly rapidpopulation aging. Research on older persons, while increasing in recent years,remains sparse. Empirical evidence indicates that Myanmar older persons are inrelatively poorer health compared to those in neighboring countries. Many livein abject poverty and depend on their families for material support.Coresidence is very common and facilitates reciprocal exchanges acrossgenerations. Looking ahead, Myanmar confronts important challenges includingdemographic shifts that reduce availability of family support for older personsand …


Incumbency Advantage And Candidate Characteristics In Open-List Proportional Representation Systems: Evidence From Indonesia, Sebastian Carl Dettman, Thomas B. Pepinsky, Jan H. Pierskalla Aug 2017

Incumbency Advantage And Candidate Characteristics In Open-List Proportional Representation Systems: Evidence From Indonesia, Sebastian Carl Dettman, Thomas B. Pepinsky, Jan H. Pierskalla

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We use evidence from Indonesia's April 2014 legislative elections to study the relationship between incumbency, list position, candidate characteristics, and electoral success in open-list PR systems. Contrary to a recent literature identifying an incumbency disadvantage in other large developing democracies, we identify a consistent personal incumbency advantage in Indonesia. However, we argue that this advantage is mediated by party choices over how incumbents and newcomers are ranked on party lists, a key heuristic for voters in low-information electoral environments such as Indonesia.


The History Problem: The Politics Of War Commemoration In East Asia, Hiro Saito Aug 2017

The History Problem: The Politics Of War Commemoration In East Asia, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This essay summarizes my argumentin The History Problem: The Politics of WarCommemoration in East Asia. The historyproblem is essentially a relational phenomenonthat arises when nations promote self-servingversions of the past by focusing on whathappened to their own citizens with littleregard for foreign others. East Asia, however,has recently also witnessed the emergence of acosmopolitan form of commemoration takinghumanity, rather than nationality, as itsprimary frame of reference. Whencosmopolitan commemoration is practiced as acollective endeavor by both perpetrators andvictims, a resolution of the history problem willfinally become possible.