Asian Studies Commons^™

A Tale Of Two Superpowers: Nigeria And China Relations, Faouziatou Aboudou Kabassi

Master's Theses

The study discusses the historical development of the Sino-Nigerian bilateral relations. The paper provides a detailed view of china's FDI in Nigeria and the diverse challenges faced by the oil rich country to develop its own economy through NEEDS as a result of china's economic power. China’s partnership with Nigeria is ideally for economic growth but practically poisonous to Nigeria’s development goals as China is solely pursuing its own interest and diverting its partner from working toward its NEEDS goal. A deep investigation of the relations should be reviewed for both countries. This will be needed to produce vital economic …

Why Chinese Neo-Confucian Women Made A Fetish Of Small Feet, Aubrey L. Mcmahan

Grand Valley Journal of History

Abstract for “Why Chinese Neo-Confucian Women Made a Fetish of Small Feet”

This paper explores the source of the traditional practice of Chinese footbinding which first gained popularity at the end of the Tang dynasty and continued to flourish until the last half of the twentieth century.[1] Derived initially from court concubines whose feet were formed to represent an attractive “deer lady” from an Indian tale, footbinding became a wide-spread symbol among the Chinese of obedience, pecuniary reputability, and Confucianism, among other things.[2]^,[3] Drawing on the analyses of such scholars as Beverly Jackson, Valerie Steele …

Living A Parallel Life: Memoirs And Research Of A Transnational Korean Adoptee, Mary C. Robinson

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

This thesis project consists of two parts: a memoir of my experience as a Korean adoptee, and a research paper examining how transracial, transnational adoption affects identity development in Korean adoptees. The memoir, as a first person narrative, gives voice to the research as one example of the findings. The majority of research on Korean adoptees has focused on levels of adjustment within a short time frame after adoptees’ placement in their adoptive homes. While the overwhelming majority of the prior research has declared positive and overall satisfactory adjustment for most adoptees, serious flaws exist in the methodologies that do …

Taiwanese Willingness To Communicate In English: Can Watching American Television Programs Help?, Yu-Ting Chien

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study explored the relationship between Taiwanese audiences' use of American television programs and their willingness to communicate in English. Taiwanese participants filled out an online survey consisted of questions from uses and gratifications constructs and willingness to communicate constructs. In addition, different subtitle settings were also examined.

Results indicated that participants with high integrative motivation consuming information from American television programs, in addition, the setting of subtitles were associated with perceived communication competence, integrative motivation, language anxiety and social interaction motivation.

Singapore Inflation Expectations: Expecting The Unexpected, Aurobindo Ghosh, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

The study of inflation expectations of Singapore house-holds is a multi-disciplinary industry-relevant research that comes out of a partnership between Singapore Management University (SMU) and MasterCard. The research team for this MasterCard-SKBI Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations (SInDEx) project applied rigorous methods using current internet-based marketing survey tools for data-collection and advanced econometric techniques to analyse the data. The updates from the quarterly waves are keenly followed by policymakers, market watchers and the media because of the enormous importance of cost of living to individuals and businesses alike.

The New Hong Kong Mediation Ordinance: Much Ado About Nothing?, Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this post on the Kluwer Mediation Blog, the purpose of the Mediation Ordinance (MO) passed in June 2012 by the Hong Kong Legislative Council is discussed.

China's Rare Earths Export Quotas: Out Of The China-Raw Materials Gate, But Past The Wto's Finish Line?, Han-Wei Liu, John Maughan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Several recent studies have discussed the ramifications of the China – Raw Materials case for China's rare earths. However, none of these studies has conducted a thorough investigation of China's current export quota regime for rare earths or how it might stand up under WTO rules, assuming that it would be treated the same. This article makes no such assumption, investigating China's export quota regime for rare earths as it stands in early June 2012. The regime is somewhat improved over that applied during the Raw Materials case and could allow a more favourable WTO ruling. However, if General Agreement …

Taking Crime Out Of Crime Business, Mark James Findlay, Nafis Hanif

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It is one thing to assert that conventional market analysis is critically useful in understanding criminal enterprise. It is more challenging to suggest that corrupt and compromised legal regulation interacts with other critical market variables to maximise market advantage for crime business in a similar manner to legitimate regulatory forces in their protection and enhancement of legitimate business enterprise. The central argument of this paper is that crime business mirrors other business forms when considered in terms of critical market variables, and that in particular regulatory forces when inverted from their original purposes can influence market conditions in the same …

Fuelling The Asian Growth Engine: Talent Challenges, Strategies And Trends, Mario Ferraro, Catherine Mudford, Karina Kuok, Saumya Sindhwani, Rebecca Siow

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The emerging economies of Asia are increasingly playing a critical role in the global arena, even as there is continuing turmoil and uncertainty in other parts of the world due to economic, financial and political upheavals. While Asian economies are undoubtedly impacted by global headwinds, most of them have been buffered by their sound economic and policy fundamentals, healthy domestic demand and continued inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Meanwhile, Asia is undergoing its own transformation: many countries in Asia are experiencing greater economic prosperity and rising affluence, translating into higher demand for goods and services. As businesses flock to …

Aesthetic Constructions Of Korea Nationalism: Spectacle, Politics And History, Yooil Bae

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

A Preliminary Survey Of The Right To Presumption Of Innocence In Singapore, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The right to presumption of innocence is said to exist in almost all criminal justice systems, including Singapore. Curiously, however, no Singapore case has ever attempted to establish the exact source and contours of this longstanding right. This is unsatisfactory, as this diminishes the meaningfulness of what is supposed to be a fundamental right in the criminal justice process. The primary aim of this article is thus to conduct a preliminary survey of the law on the presumption of innocence in Singapore. It begins by proposing the Woolmington conception as a workable starting point, but posits a guiding principle to …

Shall The Twain Never Meet? Competing Narratives And Discourses Of The Rule Of Law In Singapore, Jack Tsen-Ta Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article aims to assess the role played by the rule of law in discourse by critics of the Singapore Government’s policies and in the Government’s responses to such criticisms. It argues that in the past the two narratives clashed over conceptions of the rule of law, but there is now evidence of convergence of thinking as regards the need to protect human rights, though not necessarily as to how the balance between rights and other public interests should be struck. The article also examines why the rule of law must be regarded as a constitutional doctrine in Singapore, the …

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2012: Q3 Results, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence (2007-2024)

The Customer Satisfaction Index of Singapore (CSISG) computes customer satisfaction scores at the national, sector, sub-sector, and company levels. The CSISG serves as a quantitative benchmark of the quality of goods and services produced by the Singapore economy over time and across countries. This is the sixth year of measurement.

Smu Launches Livelabs To Enhance Singapore’S Capability In Consumer & Social Analytics, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Officiated by Mr Teo Chee Hean, Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security, Minister for Home Affairs and Chairman of the National Research Foundation (NRF), and witnessed by over 300 guests comprising the academia, industry partners and senior representatives from private and public sector organisations, SMU and StarHub jointly launched two Interactive Digital Media (IDM) initiatives - LiveLabs Urban Lifestyle Innovation Platform (LiveLabs) and SmartHub, on 5 November 2012. Both city-scale test-beds aim to strengthen Singapore’s standing as a preferred location for innovation and research, particularly in the area of consumer and social analytics. LiveLabs is SMU’s newest research …

Can Us Economic Variables Predict Chinese Stock Market?, Jeremy Goh, Fuwei Jiang, Jun Tu, Yuchen Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In the last few decades, we observed a significant increase in global economic activities and these activities may have an impact on both China's economy and stock market. Given the potential impact, we empirically examine whether US economic variables are leading indicators of the Chinese stock market. Prior to China joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the end of 2001, we find no statistical relationship between US economic variables and the Chinese stock market returns. However, we find US economic variables have statistically significant predictive power for periods after China's admission into the WTO. In addition, we show that …

Innovating In The Periphery: The Impact Of Local And Foreign Inventor Mobility On The Value Of Indian Patents, Tufool Alnuaimi, Tore Opsahl, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine the impact of local and foreign labor mobility in India by modeling one regional and one global network, each of which captures the inter-organizational mobility of inventors. Our analysis of the regional network shows that, within India, the productivity of inventors does not improve when they move from foreign to Indian organizations. In the global network, we find that Indian organizations remain located in the periphery as a result of employing a small number of inventors from foreign organizations. However, in the instances when inventors are hired from foreign organizations, they are able to produce patents with a …

Recourse Against An International Arbitration Award Made In Singapore, Darius Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In Astro Nusantara International BV v PT Ayunda Prima Mitra [2012] SGHC 212, the Singapore High Court set out the available recourse against an international arbitration award made in Singapore. This case has significant implications for Singapore as a seat of arbitration, and this note contrasts the position between Singapore and Hong Kong against the backdrop of this case. In October 2008, after a failed joint venture, the Claimants, which belonged to the Astro group of companies of Malaysia, commenced arbitration in Singapore against the Respondents, which belonged to the Lippo group of companies of Indonesia. In May 2009, the …

Performance Sensitivity Of Executive Pay: The Role Of Foreign Investors And Affiliated Directors In Japan, Asli M. Colpan, Toru Yoshikawa

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study investigates the effects of corporate governance factors on the firm performance and executive compensation linkage. Specifically, we examine how domestic corporate-appointed directors, bank-appointed directors and foreign ownership moderate the relationship between firm profitability, sales growth, and executive bonus pay in Japanese firms. Using a sample of the largest Japanese manufacturing companies from 1997 to 2007, we find that corporate-appointed directors positively moderate the relationship between firm growth and bonus pay, while foreign shareholders exhibit a positive moderating effect on the relationship between firm profitability and bonus pay. Bank-appointed directors are straddled between their profitability orientation and relational role: …

Dynamic Poverty Decomposition Analysis: An Application To The Philippines, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

In this paper, we propose a new method of poverty decomposition. Our method remedies the shortcomings of existing methods and has some desirable properties such as time-reversion consistency and subperiod additivity. It integrates the existing methods of growth-redistribution decomposition and sector-based decomposition, because it allows us to decompose poverty change into growth and redistribution components for each group (e.g. regions or sectors) in the economy. We extend our method to have six components and provide an empirical application to the Philippines for the period 1985-2009.

Singaporeans' Well-Being: It's Not Just About Emotions, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Tobacco Regulation And Its Discontents: A Cautious View From Singapore, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this article, Locknie Hsu discusses the implications of the various legal claims being pursued in various fora in relation to plain packaging of tobacco products laws, especially in relation to Singapore and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ('ASEAN'). The article proceeds as follows: (1) In Part 1, Hsu examines the current state of Singapore's regulation of tobacco; (2) part 2 of the article then considers Singapore's current investment treaty commitments and their likely compatibility with plain packaging legislation, were it to be introduced into Singapore.

A Court For The Next Decade, Yihan Goh, Paul Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Discusses the impact of Mr Sundaresh Menon as Singapore's fourth post-independence Chief Justice.

Who Is Xi Jinping, And Where Will He Lead China?, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The imminent accession to power of China's fifth generation of leaders since 1949 focuses attention on the background and character of its new president. Xi Jinping's route to the summit, and the crucial fall of his fellow princeling Bo Xilai along the way, is assessed by William A Callahan.

Government Documents On Rare Earth Minerals, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Rare earth minerals contain unique chemical and physical properties such as lanthanum, are found in small concentrations, need extensive precise processes to separate, and are critical components of modern technologies such as laser guidance systems, personal electronics such as Blackberries, and satellites. The U.S. has some rare earth resources, but is heavily dependent on access to them from from Afghanistan, Bolivia, and China. Losing access to these resources would have significant economic, military, and political implications. This presentation will highlight government information resources on rare earth minerals from agencies such as the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), …

Setting Aside An Award Over The Mis-Application Of A Choice Of Law Clause: Quarella Spa V Scelta Marble Australia Pty Ltd [2012] Sghc 166, Darius Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In Quarella SpA v Scelta Marble Australia Pty Ltd [2012] SGHC 166, the High Court of Singapore (per Prakash J) rejected an application to set aside two related arbitration awards. The ground for setting aside was an alleged misinterpretation of a choice of law clause by the tribunal. In rejecting the application, the High Court demonstrated its unwillingness to set aside an award when the tribunal has considered and respected the choice of law clause (regardless of the interpretation the tribunal ultimately preferred). Notably, the High Court did not close the door on instances where the tribunal may have failed …

Setting The Agenda: Asia And Latin America In The 21st Century, Ariel C. Armony

Center for Latin American Studies Publications

Latin America and Asia are among the world’s fastest growing regions. Trade between Asia and Latin American and Caribbean countries has risen dramatically in recent years. It is undeniable that Asia now plays a formidable role in the economic development of the region. This publication emerges out of the University of Miami’s 2012 “Asia and Latin America in the 21^st Century” conference, where leaders from academic, policy, business, and media communities from around the world convened to address the macroeconomic trends, trade relations, and sociopolitical trends that have emerged as the links between Asia and Latin America strengthen. Organized …

Jaqueline Eng, Margaret Von Steinen

International Faculty Researchers

Evidence of what might be an ancient funerary defleshing ritual found in human-made caves in the Upper Mustang region of Nepal has been discovered by WMU bio-archaeologist Dr. Jacqueline Eng as a member of a research team that is funded in part by the National Geographic Society.

Jaqueline Eng's website

Nationalism And Painting In Colonial Bengal, Jasmin Cohen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

What began as a general inquiry into the nature of nationalism in the paintings of “the Bengal School” turned into a project focused on tracing the pulse of nationalism between two distinct yet related groups in Bengal roughly between the years 1895 and 1920. The bulk of this paper deals with existing scholarship on the painter Abanindranath Tagore, whose name is most often mentioned in the discourse regarding nationalism and painting in Bengal; in addressing this scholarship, I deliver a critical analysis on the relationship between Abanindranath, his paintings, and the idea of nationalism. I then follow that discussion with …

Towards A Greater Global Understanding Of What Mediators Do, Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this post on the Kluwer Mediation Blog, the western facilitative mediation approach in relation to historical and cross-cultural perspectives is discussed.

Himali Didi: Finding The Strength In The Women Of Nepal, Emily Cheung

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The intent of this project is to bring to light the role of Nepalese women in adventure sports; a phenomenon that has existed in Nepal for the past few decades but has been widely unappreciated, if not unnoticed. In this study, women from various adventure companies in Nepal were interviewed to reveal the experiences and obstacles these women face in these occupations during their lifetimes. Some of them agreed to share their stories.

Their journeys have taken them on (quite literal) climbs that have proven their physical strength and made tremendous moves to achieve gender equality in Nepal. Through this …