Asian Studies Commons^™

Book Review: Dream Of Ding Village By Yan Lianke, Mike Frick

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Unsurprisingly, the Chinese government levied a “three nos” ban—no sales, no distribution, and no promotion—against Dream of Ding Village after its publication in 2005. Though the storytelling relies heavily on dream sequences, Yan takes little poetic license when exposing the depth of the state’s culpability in spreading HIV among poor, medically-naïve farmers. He is just as uncompromising when detailing how officials denied responsibility for the ensuing AIDS epidemic, even as they profited from its human tragedy. No one in Ding Village receives medical care, mental health counseling, food assistance, or a chance to hold the blood heads legally accountable. Cast …

Free Trade: Roadmap For Us-Asean Ties, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

In the past decade, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has evolved as a regional hub in Asian regionalism due to the bloc’s Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with major economies in the Asia Pacific. Yet, the US remains the only Pacific power that has not initiated any form of formal FTA with ASEAN.

Embracing Immigration: Contemporary Japanese College Students Perceptions Of Foreign Labor In Japan, Kristin M. Wingate

Theses

No abstract provided.

The Movement For Sustainable Agricultural In Japan: A Case Study Of Post 3/11/2011 Organic Farmers In Saga, Fukuoka, Kagawa, And Hyogo Prefectures, Seth A.Y. Davis

Theses

No abstract provided.

Customer Satisfaction Index Of Singapore 2012: Q1 Results, Institute Of Service Excellence, Smu

Research Collection Institute of Service Excellence (2007-2024)

Between 2011 and 2012, customer satisfaction for the InfoCommunications sector rose by 1.6-points to 65.9-points (on a 0 to 100 scale). This significant 2.5% improvement reverses the downward trend the sector experienced since tracking begun in 2007.

Suicide Rates Among Young, Married Women In Nepal, Kirra L. Hughes

Capstone Collection

In 2009, a Maternal Mortality and Morbidity (MMM) report carried out in Nepal by the Family Health Division of the Department of Health Services accidently stumbled upon a surprising leading cause of death in Nepali women of reproductive age (15 - 49). The result: suicide. And the numbers are still on the rise. There have since been no comprehensive follow-up studies and none, to my knowledge, that are currently ongoing. This leaves an urgent need for research to be done on the causes of these suicides (Benson and Shakya, 2011; Bertolote et al, 2005; Pradhan et al, 2009).

Globally, there …

Inauguration Of Smu-Tcs Icity Laboratory, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

The Singapore Management University (SMU) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT services, business solutions and consulting firm, inaugurated the SMU-TCS Intelligent City Laboratory (“iCity Lab”) on 9 May 2012 (Wednesday). The inauguration ceremony was held at the iCity Lab Experience Centre located at the SMU School of Information Systems (SIS). Equipped with interactive technology, this Experience Centre will serve as a venue for city managers and urban planners to experience the new ideas and technologies which the Lab will be developing. This collaboration initiative was announced on 5 August 2011, which aimed to develop, as well as establish …

The Existentialist World Of Murakami Haruki: A Reflection Of Postmodern Japanese Society, Maria Garguilo

East Asian Studies

No abstract provided.

Transitional Justice And The Truth Commission In Nepal, Andrea Russell

Senior Honors Projects

The purpose of this project is to explore the role of transitional justice mechanisms in directing the peace process, constitution making, and power sharing in Nepal. For more than ten years Nepal experienced violent conflict between the national army and an insurgent political movement led by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist. The conflict claimed more than 13,000 lives and was characterized by widespread cases of disappearance. The families of those who were abducted or killed without a trace remain without answers, and the call for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document past injustices is strong.

In March 2012, I …

Chinese Soft Power: The Role Of Culture And Confucianism, Meng Meng

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Soft power, a term coined by American scholar Joseph S. Nye in the early nineties, has been widely used in the academic and political arenas. This paper attempts to analyze soft power from Chinese perspectives. By thoroughly examining official documents, scholarly writings, news reports, and various related websites, I hope to address the following questions: how do Chinese scholars interpret soft power? What is soft power with Chinese characteristics? How does China wield its soft power? What is the importance of soft power? What are the results of Chinese soft power building? And finally, is it a zero-sum game competing …

Changing Unchanged Inequality: Higher Education, Youth Population, And The Japanese Seniority Wage System, Ken Yamada, Daiji Kawaguchi

Research Collection School Of Economics

Wage inequality declined in the 1990s and rose after 2000 among full-time male workers in Japan. Narrowing wage inequality in the 1990s can be accounted for by a decline in between-group inequality resulting from a stable return to education and decreased returns to experience and tenure. Widening wage inequality after 2000 can be accounted for by a rise in within-group inequality resulting from a relative increase in educated and experienced workers, as well as changes in heterogeneous returns to human capital.

Internationalization Into The Gcc: Singapore In Retrospect, Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How, Hong Hao Chong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

As internationalization becomes, increasingly, the chosen method of (ironically) competing for competitiveness among firms, new and rich frontiers for business come into ever-expanding demand. Among the foremost of these frontiers, the countries of the GCC represent both fertile ground and uncharted waters for internationalizing firms, with cultures as rich as their markets and sometimes byzantine yet fascinating socio-political forces presenting a plethora of challenges to erstwhile investing firms. As a culmination of our research into this region over past years, then, we examine in this paper, as a case study of sorts, the experiences of Singapore firms in the various …

In Search Of A Different Accounting Graduate: Entry-Point Determinants Of Students’ Performance In An Undergraduate Accountancy Degree Programme In Singapore, Poh Sun Seow, Gary Pan, Joanne Tay

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates the association of prior academic achievement, admission interview, critical thinking, mathematical aptitude, gender and age with successful academic performance in an undergraduate accountancy degree programme at a Singapore university. The purpose of revisiting the determinants of academic performance is twofold: firstly, university accounting education in Singapore has changed greatly since Koh and Koh’s earlier study (1999), so this study examines if determinants previously identified as significant continue to be so in the new setting; secondly, the study tests the usefulness of admission interview in identifying applicants who achieve subsequent academic success. All the data on students’ performance …

Paradigms Of Style: A Study Of Zulfikar Ghose's Novels, Abu Ul Wafa Mansoor Ahmed Abbasi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study deals with Zulfikar Ghose's--an expatriate English language writer of Pakistani origin living in the USA--novels. In this study, I focus on, among other things, the writer's negotiation with style and socio-politically provocative subject matter. I study Ghose's novels in a "good old fashioned way" in which I analyze his work by exploring his achievement as an artist, both in terms of style and socio-political subject matter. The focus is, precisely, to highlight the writer's correspondence between language and reality.

Asia In The Middle East: The Internationalization Of Singapore Private Firms Into The Gcc, Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred How, Sharmaine Si Min Neo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

Contract Modifications: Reflections On Two Commonwealth Cases, Pey Woan Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The common law rule that a promise to perform a pre-existing obligation is no consideration is said to have done the most in giving the doctrine of consideration a bad name. While the English innovation of 'practical benefits' in Williams v Roffey has effectively enervated this rule, general discontentment with the conceptual difficulties residing in this approach has often led to calls for the abolition of consideration in the context of contract modifications. This article examines two Commonwealth cases that took this step and warns against an overly optimistic view of such a development. It argues, instead, that the post-Williams …

Love And Money By Parental Match-Making: Evidence From Urban Couples In China, Fali Huang, Ginger Jin, Lixin Collin Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

Parental involvement in marriage matchmaking may distort the optimal spouse choice because parents are willing to substitute love for money. The rationale is that the joint income of married children can be shared among extended family members more easily than mutual attraction felt by the couple themselves, and as a result, the best spouse candidate in the parents' eyes can differ from what is optimal to the individual, even though parents are altruistic and care dearly about their children's welfare. We find supporting evidence for this prediction using a unique sample of urban couples in China in the early 1990s.

Inward Fdi In Singapore And Its Policy Context, Locknie Hsu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) has long been an important feature of the Singapore economy, and Singapore remains an attractive host to FDI. Apart from a brief decline in 2002, FDI inflows have generally been strong in the decade 2000-2010. They reached a peak in 2007 at US$ 37 billion, just before the global financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009. In 2008, inflows declined sharply to US$ 8.6 billion, before rapidly rebounding to reach US$ 38 billion in 2010. Singapore has moved from an economy primarily involved in manufacturing consumer goods in labor-intensive industries in the 1960s, to one producing …

Delayed Marriage And Ultra Low Fertility - The Confounding Challenges To Social Stability, Paulin Tay Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Much of Singapore’s recent problems with social acceptance and integration of foreigners is attributed to the city-state's sustained ultra-low fertility. To augment labour shortage, state policies on immigrant were eased to facilitate an inflow of guest workers. The backlash on rapid globalisation of the workforce was felt acutely when the non-resident segment rose to account for over 20% of the almost 5.2 million population. To ease social tension between locals and foreigners, the city-state has to curb reliance on foreign labour through ensuring a steady growth of the local population. This paper discusses the social, cultural and structural barriers to …

Introducing A ‘Presumption Of Adr’ For Civil Matters In The Subordinate Courts, Joyce Low, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article traces the development of court ADR programmes in the SubordinateCourts for civil disputes. It also discusses the implications of a recent PracticeDirection introducing a “Presumption of ADR”.

Both Sides Will Need To Raise Their Game, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Now that the Hougang by-election is over, the Workers' Party (WP) and the People's Action Party (PAP) will conduct their post-mortems. SMU Assistant Professor Eugene Tan wrote that ?Among the key questions would be how they campaigned and how they can deal with the issues that the hustings threw up. For the WP, how can it keep Hougang in its fold and grow the famed "Hougang Spirit"? How can it be less reliant on its charismatic leader Low Thia Khiang? For the PAP, how can it make significant gains and be more competitive in Hougang?? He concludes that what the …

Battle For Undecided Voters In Hougang, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

SMU Assistant Professor and NMP Eugene Tan commented on the battle for undecided voters in Hougang prior to the by-election this Saturday. He wrote that the political stakes are not so high in this by-election. Although the WP has more to lose this round, the stakes are calibrated differently in their first head-to-head contest since GE2011, and the parties must remember that this by-election is but a "battle" only. Instead, the PAP and WP would do well to stay focused on acquitting themselves well in the long haul before the next General Election. The priority for both parties is to …

1970’S Japanese Women’S Liberation Movement: Its Issues And Successes, Maria L. Traxler

Asian Studies Student Work

The post-war period saw many economic, political, and social changes in Japan—one of which was the expansion of women’s roles in society and presence outside the home. During the 1970s in particular, the Japanese feminist movement critiqued traditional ideals of women’s sexuality, motherhood, and femininity, similar to the women’s liberation movement occurring in the Western world at the time. This Japanese-language presentation looks at various factors in Japan that allowed for the emergence and growth of the Japanese women’s liberation movement, as well as some of the issues it faced and successes it achieved.

Changsha: Photographs By Rian Dundon, Rian Dundon

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Rian Dundon, whose photographs have previously appeared at China Beat, will soon be releasing a new book of photography on China, Changsha. Dundon’s book will feature a forward written by friend of the blog Gail Hershatter and includes his photos of and essays on the Hunan province city of Changsha. For more information, and to pre-order a copy of the book, see the book’s website (pre-sales of the book are part of a crowd-funding campaign raising funds for its first run with the publisher, Emphas.is). Below is a special teaser of Changsha material that Dundon has prepared for China Beat …

The Vacb Model In Hòa An Village And Xeo Trâm Hamlet: Comparison And Analysis Through A Gendered Lens, Alyssa Bosold

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Burning fuel-wood, a method of traditional cooking practiced by half of all homes in Vietnam (Global Alliance for Clean Cook-stoves 2012) and the majority of homes in Hòa An Village and Xeo Trâm Hamlet, has significant negative consequences in terms of environmental and personal health. In Hòa An Village and Xeo Trâm Hamlet, as is true in much of Vietnam, gender roles dictate that women should be primarily responsible for household chores like cooking (World Bank 2001, Nguyen 2012, Nguyen 2012, Vo 2012). This means that women must often deal directly with the environmental dangers and safety hazards of woodstoves. …

Vietnam To Việt Kiều And Back: An In‐Depth Look At The Relationship Between Overseas Vietnamese And Vietnamese In Ho Chi Minh City, Minh Le

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This independent study project explores the relationship between overseas Vietnamese and local Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The primary research methods included surveys, interviews, an experiment, and personal observations. The survey provided general knowledge on what Vietnamese people in HCMC thought about overseas Vietnamese. This survey was given to 200 participants in various locations in District 1, Thu Duc District, and District 9. The interviewees included university students, war veterans, Vietnamese with relatives in a foreign country, Vietnamese who tried leaving but could not, and overseas Vietnamese. The experiment was to see vendors’ treatment of overseas Vietnamese. It …

Pure Land And The Social Order In Twelfth-Century China: An Investigation Of "Longshu’S Treatise On Pure Land", Trevor Davis

Student Work

A 2012-2013 William Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Trevor Davis (Saybrook College '13) for his essay submitted to the History Department, “Pure Land and the Social Order in Twelfth-Century China: An Investigation of Longshu’s Treatise on Pure Land.” (Valerie Hansen, Professor of History, advisor.)

Davis' essay makes a powerful argument about the Pure Land Buddhist Wang Rixiu's understanding of Southern Song (1127-1279) society. Although Pure Land Buddhism is often thought to be egalitarian - or at least to challenge traditional hierarchies - Trevor shows that for Wang Rixiu, an egalitarian Pure Land coexists …

Prospects For An International Charter "Space And Major Disaster" Remote Sensing Response To Drought Disasters - An Anhui, China Case Study, Joseph Burkhead

Masters Theses

Remote sensing is often leveraged during the response phase of disaster management to improve the situational awareness of decision-makers. The International Charter "Space and Major Disaster" (Charter) provides remote sensing support to non-spacefaring nations facing disasters such as earthquakes, floods and tsunamis. However, the Charter has never activated for a major drought disaster. Since droughts affect over half of the nearly 3 billion people that suffer from natural disasters annually, this study seeks to determine whether satellite remote sensing can be effectively employed according to the intent, capabilities, and limitations of the Charter to benefit officials responding to a major …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Transitional Effect Of Democratic Regime Change On Human Rights Development, Alana Mcelhinney

Political Science Theses and Capstones

It has been a long-standing topic of discussion within the field of political science on the extent to which the establishment of democratic regime characteristics influences the development of human rights. While there is considerable research in the areas of democracy and human rights, what the literature lacks is research towards the growth of democratic regime characteristics being causal to the development of human rights practices. This analysis shows that a transition in democratic regime characteristics is directly linked to the development of human rights. After completing case-study analysis and developing causal theory I take data from the years 1981 …

Income Inequality And Social Stratification: The Effect Of Market Versus State In Transitional Urban China, Qiong Wu

Masters Theses

The rise of inequality in China is one of the most serious social problems in the reform era in China. Previous studies have debated the relative importance of human capital, political capital, and other factors in determining personal income. By using a new dataset from 2006 China General Social Survey (CGSS2006), I replicate earlier tests to measure whether the market or state has more impact on incomes as a way to the competing hypotheses related to human versus political capital.

The results of the ordinary least squares regression analysis show no significance in party membership, state ownership, and work experience, …