Asian Studies Commons^™

The Value Of A By-Election, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Assistant Professor of Law Eugene K B Tan argues that if Parliament eventually determines that the Hougang seat has been vacated with the expulsion of Mr Yaw Shin Leong from the Workers' Party (WP), the spotlight will shift to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who will advise the President whether to issue an election writ stipulating when a by-election is to be held.

Designing And Implementing An Evaluation Of A National Work Support Program, Kong Weng Ho, Irene Y. H. Ng, Thartmalingam Nesamani, Alex Lee, Tee Liang Ngiam

Research Collection School Of Economics

Welfare reforms in the 1990s have shifted governments around the world towards financial assistance conditional on work. While large-scale rigorous research on welfare-to-work programs has demonstrated effectiveness towards employment in other countries, no such micro-level evaluation of a policy has ever been conducted in Singapore. This article describes the process of developing a large experimental evaluation of the Work Support Program, which the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports started in 2006. The lessons learned from planning and implementing the research can be helpful to future researchers in negotiating long-term rigorous evaluations in an environment where collaborators lack sufficient …

The Fukushima Disaster And Japan’S Occupy Movement, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

On October 15, 2011, OccupyTokyo protests took place in three different districts: Hibiya,Shinjuku, and Roppongi. Before the rallies began, protesters gathered in parkswhere organizers and participants gave speeches. They expressed solidarity withthe worldwide Occupy movement, criticized a widening economic gap in Japan, anddemanded a more just world. Protesters then took to the streets with theirplacards, drums, and megaphones to shout slogans to reclaim society for “the99%.”

Sino-Speak: Chinese Exceptionalism And The Politics Of History, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article examines how recent books by academics and public intellectuals reshaping the discourse of the rise of China. While earlier trends argued th China was being socialized into the norms of international society, many text now proclaim that due to its unique civilization, China will follow its own path to modernity. Such books thus look to the past - Chinas imperial history- for clues to not only Chinas future, but also the worlds future. This discourse which could be called " Sino-speak," presents an essentialized Chinese civilizati that is culturally determined to rule Asia, if not the world. The …

Rural China, Paul Marsnik

Forum, 2012 Spring

In the past 20 years, about 200 million Chinese have moved from the countryside into large cities. Most of them have done so in order to work in factories. After spendeng 5+ years visiting factories in big cities in China, I began to wonder what kind of life these factory workers were leaving behind. So I went out to the country, in rural China, and spent some time with the people who still live there. I created a 30 minute video/slide show highlighting my adventures. We can watch the video and then discuss issues relating to China.

Rural China, Paul Marsnik

Forum Lectures

In the past 20 years, about 200 million Chinese have moved from the countryside into large cities. Most of them have done so in order to work in factories. After spendeng 5+ years visiting factories in big cities in China, I began to wonder what kind of life these factory workers were leaving behind. So I went out to the country, in rural China, and spent some time with the people who still live there. I created a 30 minute video/slide show highlighting my adventures. We can watch the video and then discuss issues relating to China.

Myanmar's Road To Democracy, Bridget Welsh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Taiwan Elections In Historical Perspective, Sebastian Veg

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

During a recent trip to Taipei to observe the January presidential and legislative elections, like many people with little first-hand knowledge of Taiwan, I was struck by the unique traits of Taiwan’s democracy. The elections also seemed relevant to many debates in China, not only because they were closely followed and tweeted by critical voices on the mainland, but also because of their significance against the broader historical and geographical context of the history of modern China, a connection which holds true even if one subscribes to the view that Taiwan had no previous connection with this history before 1945 …

Book Review: Developmental Fairy Tales, Nicole Kwoh

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

At the 1996 APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, Jiang Zemin concluded his speech on economic development with a quote from Lu Xun: “For actually the earth had no road to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made” (1921). This quote highlights the important role played by the first generation of modern Chinese literature in shaping the current rhetoric of building a road to progress. In Developmental Fairy Tales: Evolutionary Thinking and Modern Chinese Culture, Andrew F. Jones explains the construction of this ubiquitous concept of cultural and historical progress. With a focus on Lu …

Salvaging Memories From The Ruins Of The Three Gorges, Daisy Yan Du

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world. The construction of the dam began in 1994 and was completed in 2009. Proponents bill it as a symbol of China’s rise on the global stage, while critics worldwide see it as a huge humanitarian crisis that has the potential to worsen in years to come. The biggest controversy of this project concerns the forced migration of around two million people, who, due to the rising water, have been displaced from their hometowns along the upper reaches of the Yangzi River in Chongqing and Sichuan and Hubei …

Digital Chinese Whispers: Death Threats And Rumors Inside China’S Online Marketplace Of Ideas, James Leibold

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

The Chinese internet is a wonderfully raucous and interesting place. It has greatly expanded the scope of public discourse and activity, despite the party-state’s extensive censorship regime. Not surprisingly, the world’s largest cyber-community exhibits tremendous depth and diversity: progressive cyber-activists and professional agitators; navel-gazing starlets and steam-venting gamers; mundane infotainment and the banal waxing of quotidian life; and, sadly, dark corners of fear, hatred and paranoia. It’s all there; it simply depends on where one looks. Like other technologies before it, the internet is normatively neutral, and thus can be put to good, bad and anodyne uses: individuals—not tools—shape the …

Behind Bo Xilai’S Halo, Xujun Eberlein

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In the wake of Bo Xilai’s sudden downfall, shortly after what could be called an online carnival among China watchers—probably more in celebration of a rare, real-life political drama than anything else—international media is changing its tune and beginning to paint a more sympathetic image of Bo than previously reported, by focusing on Chinese people’s love of him. Reuters, for example, has a report titled “In China’s Chongqing, dismay over downfall of Bo Xilai” that quotes a working “stick man” (棒棒军, a porter-for-hire) who praises Bo as “a good man” that “made life a lot better here.” The Telegraph‘s Malcolm …

Book Review: Chiang Kai-Shek’S Interpersonal Relationships: Perspectives Across The Strait, Sherman Lai

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This book brings together papers and panel discussions of a conference on Chiang Kai-shek held in Taipei in January 2011 with the joint participation of historians from both the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan. It reflects new scholarship on Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese-speaking world and showcases the approaches that historians in the PRC adopt in handling challenges that their Western colleagues do not encounter. While Chinese historians have enormous audiences, they do not share the academic freedom enjoyed by their colleagues in the West and Taiwan. Because their careers and livelihood are dependent on the Chinese Communist …

State-Induced Famine And Penal Starvation In North Korea, Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article discusses North Korea as a case of state-induced famine, or faminogenesis. A famine from 1994 to 2000 killed 3–5% of North Korea’s population, and mass hunger reappeared in 2010–2012, despite reforms meant to address the shortage of food. In addition, a prison population of about 200,000 people is systematically deprived of food; this might be considered penal starvation. There seems little recourse under international law to punish the perpetrators of state-induced famine and penal starvation. State-induced famine does, however, fit some of the criteria of genocide in the United Nations Convention against Genocide, and could also be considered …

Berita Autumn 2012, Derek Heng

Berita

Table of Contents

Chair’s Address...2

Editor’s Foreword...3

Members’ Updates...4

John A. Lent Prize...5

Breaking from the Past? The 2012 Hougang By-­‐Elections ...7

Book Review: Student Activism in Malaysia...12

Reframing the Singaporean Political Discourse...16

Limits of the Developmental State...20

Japan As A Clean Energy Leader, Stefan N. Norbom

Gettysburg Economic Review

Over the past several decades, Japan’s energy strategy had positioned it as the world’s leader in clean and efficient electricity production and usage. This strategy, heavily dependent on nuclear energy, was essentially destroyed by one of history’s largest earthquakes, followed by a tsunami which overwhelmed five nuclear reactors on March 11, 2011. As of April 2012, all of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors have been shut down and it is uncertain when and how many may be restarted. This paper examines Japan’s options for crafting a new way forward with an energy policy to power the world’s third largest economy while …

Republican China, Kate Merkel-Hess

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Several years ago, I gave a talk on my research to a community group. My first slide included the words “Republican China” and as I waited to begin I heard a woman in the front row lean over and whisper to her neighbor, “I had no idea they have Republicans in China too!”

At this time of bruising primary battles, though, the China that the Republicans have seems more relevant—as China, imagined and real, has played a recurring role in the raucous Republican primaries. Here’s a rundown of some of the ways China has popped up on the campaign trail …

Hong Kong Identity And Democratic Values, Sebastian Veg

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

When Peking University Professor Kong Qingdong’s diatribe on Hongkongers and their lingering colonial infatuation swept over the Internet in late January, the widespread and growing uneasiness about mainland Chinese in Hong Kong suddenly had a face. Triggered by a viral video of a Hongkonger telling off a mainland family in the subway because their daughter was eating dry instant noodles, Kong’s interview sparked a wave of predictable but nonetheless justified outrage in Hong Kong. It took place against the background of the annual mainland shopping spree over Chinese New Year (in a previous episode, Dolce and Gabbana staff in Tsim …

Workplace Dignity In A Total Institution: Examining The Experiences Of Foxconn’S Migrant Workforce, Kristen Lucas, Dongjing Kang, Zhou Li

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

In 2010, a cluster of suicides at the electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group sparked worldwide outcry about working conditions at its factories in China. Within a few short months, 14 young migrant workers jumped to their deaths from buildings on the Foxconn campus, an all-encompassing compound where they had worked, eaten, and slept. Even though the language of workplace dignity was invoked in official responses from Foxconn and its business partner Apple, neither of these parties directly examined workers’ dignity in their ensuing audits. Based on our analysis of media accounts of life at Foxconn, we argue that its …

Nature Or Nurture? Case Study Perspectives On Developing A Team Of Passionate Instruction Librarians At The Li Ka Shing Library, Singapore Management University, Rajendra Munoo

Research Collection Library

Developing and sustaining a team of passionate instruction librarians willing to conduct training and go the extra mile is hard to do, especially with limited resource. Successful instructional programmes depend on teamwork and collaboration especially in academic libraries. In this paper the author who is Head of Instructional Services at the Li Ka Shing Library, Singapore Management University, will share how this has been done with a team of thirteen, each with different levels of skills and competencies. The first part of the paper will cover some of the new ways information literacy programmes are being delivered at the library. …