Asian Studies Commons^™

Bribes And Merits: Exchange Mechanisms In Thai Society, Enrico Bargnani

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Animist beliefs continue to play an important role for Thai people in the 21st century, forged by sacred yet intermittent interactions in everyday life. The appeal of spirits’ power, and perhaps the fear of them, appears to offer benefits with a worldly-focus that sometimes exceeds or at least complement the more other-worldly scope of Theravada Buddhism. Joining animism and Buddhism, seems to be the idea of an exchange taking place with something to be given and something to be received. Scholars have long debated on the matter of Thai faith, formulating various academic theories to account for the co-existence of …

The Comparative Study Of U.S.-China Soft Power Diplomacy To Asean, Hui Ma

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

This paper addresses the following question: “How have China and the U.S. Used soft power diplomacy differently in ASEAN countries in recent times?” Soft power has been a key topic of global interest for more than thirty years. Joseph Nye has defined soft power as “the ability [of states] to obtain preferred outcomes by attraction rather than coercion or payment.”[1] It is something embodied in a country's "cultural values, social system, development model, way of life, and ideology" and an important component of a country's comprehensive national power. A key way to generate “attraction” is through culture, especially cultural diplomacy. …

Chinese Media's Stance On Thailand's 2014 Coup D'État By Prayut Chan-O-Cha, Han Shih

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

Due to political unstableness, Thailand has faced coup d’état for more than 20 times since 1932 Revolution. After the political system has been changed to constitutional monarchy, Thailand’s citizens expected to live within democratic system. However, what they have experienced after 1932 is purely repetitive coups. In the scope of the most recent coup in 2014, initiated by General Prayut Chan-o-Cha, this paper explores how Chinese state-owned/pro-state medias, including China’s Global Times, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, Taiwan’s Central News Agency & Singapore’s Straits Times, reported on Thailand’s 2014 coup. From the viewpoint of ownership and news reportage, this …

Becoming Citizens: Policy Feedback And The Transformation Of The Thai Rice Farmer, Jacob Ricks, Thanapan Laiprakobsub

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Over the past twenty years, Thailand’s rice farmers have become one of the country’s most important and active political constituencies, a sharp contrast from the previous decades wherein they were treated with neglect or even derision by the Thai political elite. These “political peasants” now actively advocate for and successfully receive extensive subsidies from both authoritarian and democratic governments. What has driven this change? In this essay, we draw on theories of the policy feedback loop wherein policies yield both material and cognitive benefits, which change the political behavior of populations. We argue that the Thaksin Shinawatra government’s (2001-2006) paddy …

'Fraught' Chineseness: 'Chinese Christians' In The Vancouver Sun, Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This chapter explores the ways in which Douglas Todd, a journalist for the Vancouver Sun, has covered stories about Chinese churches in Vancouver, BC, for over three decades. It shows how Todd has focused on Chinese Christians as a way to offer a particular perspective on religion and cultural diversity in Vancouver, and as a window into their relationship with the civil society. Ultimately, this chapter highlights the ways in which Todd essentializes “Chineseness” and reinforces a problematic public narrative of homogeneity among Vancouver’s Chinese Christians.

Impact Of Body Image On Middle-Aged Thai Men’S Self-Esteem And Job Performance, Chachadapa Vichitrananda

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Body image issues are generally associated with a person’s dissatisfactions toward their body. Body image dissatisfaction can adversely affect a person’s mental and physical well-being, self-esteem, and behavior. Previous studies on men’s body image issues have focused on younger men, their desire for muscularity and mostly used quantitative research methodology. There is a gap in the literature regarding the effects of body image dissatisfaction on middle-aged men’s self-esteem and job performance using the qualitative research method. This study aimed to investigate body image perceptions of middle-aged men in Thailand aged 35-50 years to determine how their body image perceptions affect …

[Introduction To] Paradoxes Of Care: Children And Global Medical Aid In Egypt., Rania Kassab Sweis

Bookshelf

Each year, billions of dollars are spent on global humanitarian health initiatives. These efforts are intended to care for suffering bodies, especially those of distressed children living in poverty. But as global medical aid can often overlook the local economic and political systems that cause bodily suffering, it can also unintentionally prolong the very conditions that hurt children and undermine local aid givers. Investigating medical humanitarian encounters in Egypt, Paradoxes of Care illustrates how child aid recipients and local aid experts grapple with global aid's shortcomings and its paradoxical outcomes.

Rania Kassab Sweis examines how some of the world's largest …

Reimagining China’S Transportation Funding Investments In Africa In The Context Of Covid-1, Clovia Hamilton, Sira Maliphol

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

Africa has not invested enough in its healthcare system, and China has been investing in and financing much of Africa’s transportation system. Many African countries’ fragile health and transportation systems have been further weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic. This literature review confirms the interdependence of the key functional areas of comprehensive development planning and the importance of building and maintaining a sound transportation infrastructure. With respect to partnerships with China, African nations need to strengthen government functional areas more comprehensively, considering all of the areas of development planning including trade as well as transportation and aid issues. It is all …

The Developmental State And Public Participation: The Case Of Energy Policymaking In Post-Fukushima Japan, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the Japanese government tried to democratize energy policy-making by introducing public participation. Over the course of its implementation, however, public participation came to be subordinated to expert committees as the primary mechanism of policy rationalization. The expert committees not only neutralized the results of public participation but also discounted the necessity of public participation itself. This trajectory of public participation, from its historic introduction to eventual collapse, can be fully explained only in reference to complex interactions between the macroinstitutions and microsituations of Japanese policy-making at the time of the nuclear disaster: the macroinstitutional …

High-Intensity Monsoon Rainfall Variability And Its Attributes: A Case Study For Upper Ganges Catchment In The Indian Himalaya During 1901-2013, Alok Bhardwaj, Robert J. Wasson, Winston T. L. Chow, Alan D. Ziegler

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

High-intensity monsoon rainfall in the Indian Himalaya generates multiple environmental hazards. This study examines the variability in long-term trends (1901–2013) in the intensity and frequency of high-intensity monsoon rainfall events of varying depths (high, very high and extreme) in the Upper Ganges Catchment in the Indian Himalaya. Using trend analysis on the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) rainfall dataset, we find statistically significant positive trends in all categories of monsoon rainfall intensity and frequency over the 113-year period. The majority of the trends for both intensity and frequency are spatially located in the Higher Himalayan region encompassing upstream sections of the …

Ai Weiwei And The Global Art Of Politics, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In the past decade, Ai Weieiwei has burst out from his limited role of a Chinese artist to become an artist-activist who has “gone global.” Ai first gained international fame as the consultant for Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium, which was designed by the Swiss architectural firm Herzog and de Meuron. Just before the 2008 Olympics, however, Ai became infamous for denouncing the stadium as China’s “fake smile” to the world. In October 2010, Ai fascinated the art world with his Sunflower Seeds exhibit at London’s Tate Modern art gallery; before the exhibit closed in May 2011, Ai became a …

On The Influence Of Incentive Mechanisms For China’S Current Mixed Ownership Reform On Corporate Performance, Hui Yong Ren

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Since the Central Economic Work Conference set the mixed ownership reform as where China’s state-owned enterprises (SOE) can make breakthroughs on reforms in early 2017, enterprises at all levels, from central to local state-owned, have continuously introduced new measures and new deployments involving the reform. The mixed ownership reform (hereinafter referred to as the “mixed reform”) introduces flexible market response mechanisms and innovative management systems from private enterprises into state-owned enterprises to enhance the market awareness of state-owned enterprises, to increase their own competitiveness, vitality and creativity. It aims to build a system that conforms to modern corporate governance and …

Public Health Insurance And Pharmaceutical Innovation: Evidence From China, Xuan Zhang, Huihua Nie

Research Collection School Of Economics

Developing countries are characterized by low levels of pharmaceutical innovation. A likely reason is their small market size, which is not because of the population size but because of low levels of income and lack of health insurance coverage. This study exploits a natural experiment from the implementation of a public health insurance program for rural residents in China (New Cooperative Medical Scheme [NCMS]) to examine whether the pharmaceutical industry increases innovation regarding diseases covered by the NCMS that are prevalent in rural areas. We examine the 1993–2009 patent data to gauge pharmaceutical innovation in China. Diseases with a 10% …

Retirement Preparedness In Singapore, Junxing Chay, Seonghoon Kim

Research Collection School Of Economics

This chapter presents empirical evidence on a variety of measures to assess the social and economic well-being of near-retirees and retirees in Singapore based on rich data from the Singapore Life Panel, a nationally representative monthly panel survey of 50- to 70-year-old adults in Singapore. Large differences in retirement behaviour and household financial conditions related to retirement preparedness across education and wealth groups are documented. This suggests the importance of a retirement-related policy that focuses on the low-skilled and low-wealth groups. In addition, we discuss and evaluate current public policy designed to increase the employment of older workers and propose …

Important Not To Let Hsr Termination Hobble Further Cooperation, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Strong people-to-people ties can help temper political histrionics, moderate negative impact on political ties. The tantalising prospect of being able to leave Singapore and arrive in Kuala Lumpur in just 90 minutes remains a pipe dream after the High Speed Rail (HSR) agreement was terminated last Friday, along with what could have been an important confidence booster to bilateral ties between Singapore and Malaysia.

Rethinking China Trade Policy: Lessons Learned And Options Ahead, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Looking back at the China trade policy of the Trump administration, the biggest lesson is that unilateralism simply doesn’t work, at least not against a major power like China. Despite the tumultuous two-and-half-year trade war and the Phase 1 deal hailed as an “unprecedented” deal promising “a more balanced trade relationship and a more level playing field for American workers and companies,” there has been little progress on the issues U.S. businesses and the Trump administration objected to in China’s trade and economic policies. It is not only the U.S. government that needs a more viable approach. Many companies would …

Records Of Hippoboscidae From Mongolian Birds Of Prey With Checklist, Update, Matthias Jentzsch, Benjamin Meissner, Nayamsuren Batsaikhan, Annegret Stubbe, Michael Stubbe

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

The hippoboscid species Ornithophila gestroi has been rediscovered from Mongolia. It is the easternmost of all the known occurrences. Specimens were collected from Amur Falcon Falco amurensis, Saker Falcon Falco cherrug, Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni, Eurasian Hobby, Falco subbuteo, Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus Linnaeus, 1758 and Black Kite Milvus migrans in a breeding area located in southern Mongolia. Amur Falcon, Eurasian Hobby and Black Kite were identified as hosts of O. gestroi for the first time.

Governing Science And Technology Under The International Economic Order: Regulatory Divergence And Convergence In The Age Of Megaregionals By Shin-Yi Peng, Han-Wei Liu And Ching-Fu Lin, Henry S. Gao, Weihuan Zhou

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Trade and technology have a long history of interdependence. It was the trade along the ancient silk road that helped to spread the technologies of China – such as paper-making, gun power, compass, and moveable type printing – to Europe. These technologies helped to launch the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Great Discoveries, which in turn set in motion globalization as we know today. As we enter the third decade of the twenty-first century, the role of science and technology grows even stronger in international trade. For example, the advancement of information and communications technology (ICT) has greatly facilitated the …

Global Stablecoins And China’S Cbdc: New Moneys With New Impacts On The Financial System?, Wei Shen, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Digital currencies are reshaping the financial, monetary, and regulatory landscape. There are at least two routes for the development of digital currencies. One is global stablecoins (e.g., Diem that is previously named Libra), issued by private players, while the other is central bank digital currency (CBDC) issued by central banks, with China’s CBDC as an example and possibly the first CBDC that will be issued by a major economy. Albeit in their rudimentary stages, global stablecoins and China’s CBDC are likely to disrupt the current financial system and challenge existing financial regulation. This article examines two crucial but under-explored questions: …

China’S Bilateral Investment Treaties, Heng Wang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This chapter focuses on the changes and trends in Chinese bilateral investment treaties and relatedly investment rules of China’s free trade agreements. It analyzes a number of questions: what is the changing context of China’s bilateral investment rulemaking? How to understand the evolution of China’s bilateral investment treaties? What are the major features in China’s recent practice? What are the shifts on investment dispute settlement?