Asian Studies Commons^™

The Wto Transparency Obligations And China, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

When it acceded to the WTO in 2001, China accepted comprehensive transparency obligations as well as substantive commitments covering both market access and rules issues. Initially designed to deal with its opaque trade law regime, the transparency obligations were also expected to help democratize the legislative process and promote the development of the rule of law in China. Now that more than 15 years have passed, an important question is: have the transparency obligations delivered on their original promise? This article answers the question by reviewing how the transparency obligations have worked in practice. It notes that, while transparency has …

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 …

Smu Will Introduce Residential Learning-And-Living Concept At Prinsep Street Residences In The New Academic Year 2018-2019, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

In the new academic year (AY) 2018-2019 starting August this year, SMU will introduce a new residential learning-and-living concept at its existing student residence – Prinsep Street Residences (PSR). At PSR, SMU aims to build a community for the Community, where students co-live/work/learn together, and are also nurtured to be change agents by giving back to the Bras Basah community.

Staying true to SMU’s hallmark holistic approach to education, the University will offer programming guided by five themes – (i) Entrepreneurship, (ii) Social Entrepreneurship, (iii) Community Service, (iv) Grooming Future Leaders, and (v) Social Integration and Diversity. Through this thematic …

The (Behavioral) Science Behind Baby Milk Formula, Hannah H. Chang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Peruse the infant-formula aisle in any supermarket.One can easily spot an increasing number of infant formula brands, eachoffering a wide range of ingredients with claims of assorted health benefits.DHA to increase the baby's cognitive development? Check. Taurine to support thebaby's mental and physical development? Prebiotics for a healthy digestivesystem? Iron and zinc to boost the baby's immune system? Check, check, andcheck.

City Harvest Case And The Separation Of Powers, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Verdict provides important example of how the courts and Parliament play different roles in Singapore's legal system. The Court of Appeal last week upheld the reduced sentences passed in the City Harvest Church (CHC) case. Six former church leaders were charged with having conspired to commit the aggravated offence of criminal breach of trust (CBT) as an "agent" under Section 409 of the Penal Code. Departing from the earlier interpretation that had stood for the past 40 years, the court decided that Section 409 applied only to professional agents, which the former church leaders were not. The charges were reduced …

The Wto Transparency Obligations And China, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

When it acceded to the WTO in 2001, China accepted comprehensive transparency obligations as well as substantive commitments covering both market access and rules issues. Initially designed to deal with its opaque trade law regime, the transparency obligations were also expected to help democratize the legislative process and promote the development of the rule of law in China. Now that more than 15 years have passed, an important question is: have the transparency obligations delivered on their original promise? This article answers the question by reviewing how the transparency obligations have worked in practice. It notes that, while transparency has …

Bridging Academic And Practice: Benefits, Challenges And Lessons Learnt From Establishing A University Wide Experiential Learning Initiative, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Grace Koh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The scale and complexity of challenges facing the world today are unprecedented. It is paramount that universities identify and equip students with relevant skills to meet the needs of the changing economy. Recognizing this need, Singapore Management University launched a new initiative, SMUX. In this paper we will describe SMU-X which is a paradigm shift focusing on experiential learning as opposed to teaching, characterized by 4 principles: (i) inter-disciplinary content and activities, (ii) project-based learning via an actual problem/issue faced by an organization, (iii) active student mentoring by faculty and industry, and (iv) creating a tripartite learning loop between faculty, …

Reframing The Board Diversity Issue: Set 25 By 25 Target, Themin Suwardy, Surianarayanan Gopalakrishnan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Studies have shown there is clear association between aboard's gender diversity and company performance. Yet Singapore has been softerthan usual in pushing the agenda. In this commentary, the authors discussed theimportance of setting an explicit hard target with a fixed deadline to reframeboard diversity in Singapore.

Reframing The Board Diversity Issue: Set 25 By 25 Target, Themin Suwardy, Surianarayanan Surianarayanan Gopalakrishnan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Studies have shown there is clear association between aboard's gender diversity and company performance. Yet Singapore has been softerthan usual in pushing the agenda. In this commentary, the authors discussed theimportance of setting an explicit hard target with a fixed deadline to reframeboard diversity in Singapore.

Evolution Of Digital Payments: Early Learnings From Singapore’S Cashless Payment Drive, Dennis Ng

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This paper discusses the digital payment scenario unfolding in Singapore as the country’s government ponders the tremendous leap made by China in the digital payment space. The paper discusses possible key factors contributing to the success of digital payments in China, such as the success of WeChat, and whether this could be replicated in a country like Singapore. Although China and Singapore are vastly different in size, they share many similarities, including a strong one-party government which is actively involved in the direction and growth of the economy. Both countries share similar cultural and social influences including materialism, IT adoption …

The Value Of Green Certification In The Singapore Housing Market, Eric Fesselmeyer

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In Singapore, a real estate developer sells new apartments in the same high-rise development before and after obtaining green certification. This allows the use of within-development variation in prices over time to measure the effect of green certification on housing prices, controlling for differences across developments. I find that green certification increases prices by around 3%, suggesting that buyers value certification, possibly because it signals the presence of less-salient green features. Moreover, the effect of certification is biggest for developments that receive the lowest green rating, which likely have fewer green features and are thus less obviously green.

Fear Of Violence During Armed Conflict: Social Roles And Responsibilities As Determinants Of Fear, Nathalie E. Williams, Dirgha Ghimire, Karen A. Snedker

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

This article investigates the prevalence and determinants of fear as a consequence of living through armed conflict. We use survey data from Nepal during the armed conflict (1996–2006) to examine how trauma, sex and gender, age, marriage, and household size affect fear of violence. We also disaggregate types of worry, and find substantial variance on whether respondents were more concerned about livelihood consequences of conflict than physical danger. We supplement quantitative analyses with discussion of in-depth interviews from the study area on these same topics. Overall, our results highlight the enduring impact of gender roles in Nepal and that conflict …

Review Of John Whalen-Bridge, Tibet On Fire: Buddhism, Protest, And The Rhetoric Of Self-Immolation, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

Review of John Whalen-Bridge, Tibet on Fire: Buddhism, Protest, and the Rhetoric of Self-Immolation, in Journal of Contemporary Religion

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

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.

Singapore As An Asean Asset Management Hub, Francis Koh, Boris Liedtke

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Singapore like other ASEAN countries is also confronted with the universal challenge of retirement funding. Nonetheless, the authors argue that Singapore can address such headwind through a number of policy changes and that Singapore is uniquely placed to be the premier Asset Management Hub for the ASEAN region.

The Effect Of Localized Density On Housing Prices In Singapore, Eric Fesselmeyer, Kiat Ying Sky Seah, Jonathan Ci Yi Kwok

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper measures how localized residential density impacts housing prices in Singapore. Using exogenous variation in residential density, we find that an increase in density causes non-trivial decreases in property values: a 10% increase in density decreases price per square foot by between 1.3% and 2%. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first paper to measure this effect.Further, we find that the negative effect of density is biggest in magnitude for low density apartment projects and the magnitude is decreasing in the density of the project, and that the negative effect of density is increasing in magnitude …

Food Safety Governance In Vietnam: Obstacles And Opportunities, Saskia Stark-Ewing

Government and International Relations Honors Papers

Vietnamese people frequently express fear about commercially available food in their country. What accounts for these fears and what is the Government of Vietnam doing to respond to these fears? That is the puzzle this thesis aims to solve.

Traditional Vietnamese food consumption patterns are increasingly burdened by food safety challenges accompanying Vietnam’s transition to a market-oriented economy. An already weak food safety regulatory system is forced to navigate a changing society, political climate, economy, and international market.

This public policy study is based on survey research conducted in Vietnam, personal interviews with vendors, consumers, government officials, NGO representatives and …

Transnational Business Governance Interactions And Financial Regulation Change: A Case Of Asian Financial Markets, Simin Gao, Christopher Chen

Transnational Business Governance Interactions Working Papers

This chapter examines the interactions of transnational business governance schemes regulating the global derivatives markets with multiple levels of interactions. The chapter describes the process of interactions via the theory of isomorphism. First, after examining the interactions of futures exchanges, we identify that governance techniques among futures exchanges are rather similar, illustrating the forces of mimetic and normative isomorphism. Second, the monopoly of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) scheme in the over-the-counter (OTC) market provides signs of mimetic isomorphism. Third, through imparity of market power and major market dealers, the ISDA scheme became the only governance scheme for …

Lee Kong Chian School Of Business Year In Review 2016-2017, Singapore Management University

SMU Corporate Reports

The Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) is the founding school of Singapore Management University (SMU), and is now in its 17th year. With nearly 4,000 students, the business school remains the largest school at SMU and also its flagship programme. It is the youngest business school to be featured in the Financial Times Global Top 50 for the quality of its teaching programmes. It is also the youngest to appear in the Global Top 50 for research productivity of its faculty in the University of Texas (UT) Dallas rankings. For a school founded in the new millennium, LKCSB …

Smart Cities And Urban Management, Singapore Management University

Research Collection Office of Research

In this booklet, read about SMU’s research and initiatives related to smart cities and urban management, and how we strive to make meaningful impact on business, government and society for Singapore and beyond.

Contents:

Liveability and quality of life

• Community participation through mobile crowdsourcing
• Smarter, healthier eating with Food AI
• Data-driven community eldercare platform for sustainable ageing-in-place
• A date with AI
• Smart mobility accessibility for barrier-free access
• Food security

Optimisation and resource management

• Collaborative urban delivery optimisation
• Seat occupancy detection through capacitance sensing
• Large-scale crowd simulation based on real-world data
• Gaining insights through Wi-Fi technology
• Taxi driver guidance system
• Efficiency …

Singapore Management University Report To Stakeholders 2017 - 2018, Singapore Management University

Report to Stakeholders

In this year’s Annual Report we have included, for the first time, a special section on the efforts SMU has made to contribute to sustainability.

In All Fairness: Two Decades Of Cedaw And The State Of Gender Equality In Singapore, Ning Qian

Social Space

In an inclusive society, all women would have equal opportunities as men to participate socially, politically and economically. They would be valued and recognised as individuals in their own right and not primarily defi ned by their marital and reproductive status. Has this been achieved in Singapore? Contrary to common belief, the nation still has some ways to go in this regard, for signifi cant groups of women in Singapore continue to be marginalised and disadvantaged.

Catalyst Asia Issue 06, Institute For Societal Leadership

Catalyst Asia

STORIES FROM THE GROUND

Cooking For A Cause

Going Beyond With Grit and Determination

Breaking Barriers and Mindsets

To Care and To Share

Real Estate With A Heart

Giving Back In The Business of Fun

The Business of Helping Others

Going The Extra Mile

IN THE HOT SEAT

Making The World A Better Place

Capitalising On Hope

The Art of Corporate Giving

Paying It Forward

The Kampung Spirit

CSR With A Twist

The Numbers Game

The Power of Assistive Technology

PERSPECTIVES FROM THE TOP

An Inflection Point in Corporate Giving?

Paving The Way For Social Inclusion With Ground-Up Movements

To …

Smu Libraries Annual Report 2017, Smu Libraries

SMU Corporate Reports

Innovative learning and research spaces, ubiquitous access to high quality information, timely and helpful services and high level expertise to the entire SMU community! That is what SMU Libraries strives to support SMU faculty, students and staff during their journey to make meaningful impact on the community.

Adding Addie To The Library Orientation Program At Singapore Management University Libraries, Rajendra Munoo, Redzuan Abdullah

Research Collection Library

Planning library orientations in academic libraries is evolving and requires a rethink, as the pervasive blend of EdTech or educational technology is being used to impart 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creative problem-solving and collaboration to students in an increasingly digital world. Singapore Management University Libraries too, have been responsive in reviewing and revamping its library orientation program entitled LibQuest, which was once a traditional library tour to one that integrates technology and games to engage first-year students where students experience both the physical and digital library. A team of First-Year Experience (FYE) librarians curate and deliver the …

Global Imagination And Agency Formation Of Filipino Marriage Migrant Women In South Korea, Mahgie Bual Lacaba

Korean Studies Department Faculty Publications

The Filipino marriage migration to Korea has changed the conventional diaspora of Filipino migration. As many academic researchers point out that the emergence of this migration pattern is driven by the economic reasons especially of the brides from developing countries like the Philippines to more developed ones like South Korea, this research explores on the influence of what Arjun Appadurai called “global imagination” on Filipino women’s agency in choosing Korea as a “site of desire” for marriage migration. This study argues that first, Filipino marriage migration cannot only be explained with regard to the economic paradigm as it only reflects …

Vocational Training Programs And Youth Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence From Nepal, S Chakravarty, M Lundberg, Plamen Nikolov, J Zenker

Economics Faculty Scholarship

Lack of skills is arguably one of the most important determinants of high levels of unemployment and poverty. In response, policymakers often initiate vocational training programs in efforts to enhance skill formation among the youth. Using a regression-discontinuity design, we examine a large youth training intervention in Nepal. We find, twelve months after the start of the training program, that the intervention generated an increase in non-farm employment of 10 percentage points (ITT estimates) and up to 31 percentage points for program compliers (LATE estimates). We also detect sizable gains in monthly earnings largely driven by women who start self-employment …

Understanding The Potential For A Hallyu “Backlash” In Southeast Asia: A Case Study Of Consumers In Thailand, Malaysia And Philippines, Mary Jane Ainslie, Sarah Jane Lipura, Joanne Lim

Korean Studies Department Faculty Publications

Korean cultural products (known as Hallyu) are now the dominant incarnation of East Asian culture throughout Southeast Asia and have introduced consumers to Korean industry, cosmetics, and culture. Recent work has concentrated heavily upon this region and the new dynamics Southeast Asian countries can offer to the study of inter-Asian cultural links, particularly during the political amalgamation of the ASEAN economic community. Yet in the more developed Southeast Asian nations of Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, there is some evidence of a rejection of and animosity towards Hallyu products from consumers who are beginning to question and disapprove of the …

'Long Live Chairman Mao!' The Cultural Revolution And The Mao Personality Cult, Angelica Maldonado

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay……………………………....3

II. Primary documents and headnotes………..28

III. Textbook critique……………………………33

IV. New textbook entry………………………....37

V. Bibliography…………………………………..40