Anxious states : culture and politics in Singapore and Hong Kong

Since Singapore and Hong Kong are the two most economically successful, ethnic Chinese dominant city-states in Asia, comparisons have always been made between these locations. Fundamental to the Singaporean collective social life is a realization that ‘the world does not need Singapore but Singapore needs the world’. The demand for immigrants to supplement the small local workforce is constant, adding complexity to the domestic multi-ethnic population and geopolitical situation, and confounding the processes of individual and national identity formation. The constant demand of physical space threatens to erase heritage, social memories and individual biographies, yet simultaneously encourages a progressive future-mindedness. The prevalent social anxieties undergird a wide political consensus that emphasizes stability, cohesion and political order. This has engendered a ‘politics of the middle ground’, favoured by the long governing single-party dominant parliament, that marginalizes liberal individual rights and individuals who falls out of the ‘middle’. Are such anxieties broadly shared by Hong Kong and its people? And, if they are, how might some of these anxieties be culturally and politically expressed, and in what institutional structural configurations

Meaghan Morris in Cultural Studies in Asia

Meaghan has been part of the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies project from the very beginning— she was at the founding conferences, organised by Chen Kuan-Hsing, in National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, between 1992 and 1995. The two conferences bore the title of ‘Trajectories: Towards a New Internationalist Cultural Studies’ and ‘Trajectories II: A New Internationalist Cultural Studies’, respectively. According to Kuan-Hsing, he was motivated by historical changes in Asia, from postwar decolonisation to post-Cold War in late 1980s, marked locally in Taiwan with the lifting of martial law in 1987. This was also the period of the rise of Asia within global capitalism, beginning with Japan, followed by the so-called ‘Tiger’ or ‘Dragon’ economies of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore via the export-oriented industrialisation. The industrialisation model was subsequently picked up by China and the other Southeast Asian countries. The conferences certainly lived up to their promise of being international, with presenters from first and third world locations, and the core concerns were very much grounded in the historical conjuncture of Asia at the end of the twentieth century. One evening during the second conference, while the edited volume for selected papers were being prepared for publication, Rebecca Barton, the editor for the book project at Routledge, brought up the idea of an Asian cultural studies journal. In a hotel room in Taiwan, with Meaghan, the late Jeannie Martin, Kuan-Hsing and myself from the conference and Rebecca, the plan for Inter-Asia Cultural Studies was hatched. It was decided that Kuan-hsing and I would be the co-executive editors, supported by a relatively large editorial collective drawn across Asia and Australia

Iodine deficiency disorders among pregnant women in Sarawak, Malaysia

Introduction Iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) during pregnancy may impair the neurological development of the fetus. The aim of this study is to determine the iodine status among pregnant women (PW) in Sarawak after introduction of mandatory universal salt iodisation (USI) for seven years. Methods A total of 508 first trimester PW attending government Maternal and Child Health Care clinics in all 11 divisions in Sarawak between 1st April and 15th June 2015 were recruited. Urine samples were obtained and analysed for urinary iodine concentration (UIC) using the modified Sandell-Kolthoff reaction method. For pregnant women, an adequate iodine intake was defined as a median UIC between 150-249 μg/L according to the WHO/UNICEF/ICCIDD’s criterion. For further analyses, the 11 divisions were then combined into 3 regions, namely Northern (Miri, Bintulu, Limbang), Central (Kapit, Mukah, Sibu, Sarikei, Betong) and Southern (Kota Samarahan, Kuching, Sri Aman). Results The median UIC of the PW in Sarawak was 105.6 μg/L, indicating iodine deficiency. A total of 330 (65.0%) PW had UIC<150 μg/L. In terms of urinary iodine levels by region, the median UIC in Northern, Central and Southern regions were 136.3 μg/L, 85.5 μg/L and 97.4 μg/L respectively. The differences in median UIC between regions were significant. In addition, the Northern region (p = 0.001), Malay/Melanau ethnicity (p = 0.015) and parous parity (p = 0.014) were significantly associated with higher median UIC. No significant association was found for locality, age nor gravida. Conclusions This study indicates inadequate iodine status among PW in Sarawak despite seven years of mandatory USI. In fact, the majority of PW appear not to be protected against IDD and its consequences. In future, a comprehensive study should be carried out to determine the levels of iodine in salt at the retail outlets, villages and households in Sarawak

Drawing from Grotowski and Beyond: Kuo Pao Kun’s Discourse on Audiences in Singapore in the 1980s

Much has been researched on Kuo Pao Kun’s multilingualism and multiculturalism. However, as one of one of the most important Asian dramatists, the analysis of Kuo’s discourse on audiences remains largely unexplored. There is a pressing need to understand the ways which theatre practitioners imagine audiences as it points to issues of subjectivity, audience participation and social engagement, especially in a neoliberal society like Singapore where people are often positioned as docile economic subjects. Among the many Asian and Western dramatists Kuo drew inspiration from, Jerzy Grotowski was pivotal. This essay seeks to address this gap by examining how the latter’s ideas was crucial to understanding how Kuo envisioned theatre and audiences alongside his artistic practice

Life is beautiful: gay representation, moral panics, and South Korean television drama beyond Hallyu

Critical attention on Korean popular culture, particularly outside of Korea, has focused upon the Hallyu cultural phenomenon at the expense of sectors of the Korean creative industries that have sought to actively engage with their social and cultural environment and challenge the status quo. Politically charged, countercultural or just distinctive and/or original, non-Hallyu cultural artifacts have been and continue to be born out of a desire to be creative, to comment on or to create social change. This article focuses upon one such critically overlooked South Korean cultural artifact, the audacious and genuinely groundbreaking television drama "Life is Beautiful" (SBS 2010), which motivated an immense amount of critical and social reaction within Korea and yet has barely featured in English language analysis of Korean drama because it has not been classified as Hallyu. This is in spite of it being a finely produced and performed series and one written by the most prolific, longest serving and commercially successful of all Korean writers of Hallyu drama, Kim Soo-hyeon. In addition to its impressive production credentials, "Life is Beautiful" is also notable for being hugely controversial at the time of its broadcast due to its boldness in tackling the subject of Korean prejudice towards homosexuality

On possible transformation of everyday life in North Korea via referencing other East Asian socialist nations in transition

10.1080/14649373.2020.1796349Inter-Asia Cultural Studies213432-43

Reflections on Inter-Asia as method

In an interesting coincidence, at the first Inter-Asia Connection conference held in Dubai in 2010, I proposed a workshop on \u27Singapore as model\u27, i.e. Singapore as reference for many developing nations, while Aihwa Ong proposed one on \u27Inter-referencing Asia\u27 in examining how Asian cities are borrowing from each other in urban planning and developments. While the selected papers from Ong\u27s workshop, including mine, were in preparation, Chen Kuan Hsing published his Asia as Method. All these efforts can be distilled into the idea of \u27inter-referencing\u27 Asia. The idea that of referencing relaxes the process of comparison which enables one to introduce the methodological terms used in Cultural Studies, such as resonance and provocation. In this seminar, I will discuss the use of \u27inter-referencing Asia\u27 as a method and as a substantive practice among Asian nations

Multiculturalism in Island South-East Asian

"As postcolonial nations, the boundaries of countries in island Southeast Asia were determined and delineated by the respective colonial administrations prior to political independence. Consequently, the territorial boundaries approximately correspond with the territorial limits under colonial tutelage. Within these territories are to be found indigenous colonized population and resident immigrant populations encouraged by the economic opportunities provided by colonization. As postcolonial nations, these countries are unavoidably 'multiracial' or 'multiethnic', and thus 'multicultural', by their colonial legacies. Each of these countries has transformed this demographic and geographic reality into part of the national ideology and political practice, in respective ways that are historically over determined. This paper will attempt to place these three cases within a larger theoretical framework of multiculturalism and call for political adjustments in the three polities.