Intangible but not Insignificant: The Importance of Safeguarding Cultural Heritage
Memo #264 By Sharon Lim – sharon.lim [at] alumni.ubc.ca In 2010, Old Places was the highest-rated documentary on Singaporean television. This speaks to the appeal of Royston Tan’s documentary—structured around the reminiscences of ordinary Singaporeans, with on-screen images of places and material objects that they feel are slowly disappearing from the Singaporean cityscape. Narrators share […]
Visas, Medicine, Education: Feeling Chinese Soft Power in Mongolia
Memo #256 By Jargalsaikhan Mendee – mendee [at] alumni.ubc.ca China has been gradually increasing its soft power in neighbouring Mongolia, from offers of visa-free travel to access to its medical facilities, and most recently, growing educational opportunities in China for Mongolians. These policies have gone far in diminishing deep-seated anti-Chinese sentiment among Mongolians, feelings hardened during the […]
Hybridity is the New Norm: Korean Cinema in a Global Age
Memo #248 By Dal Yong Jin – yongjin23 [at] gmail.com After a period of recession, the Korean film industry has experienced a revival in recent years with the market success of several hybrid films, successes that have served to boost the overall market share of domestic films in Korea. Prior to this, the domestic Korean […]
Security or Nationalism? Making Sense of Tibetan Resistance against China
Memo #247 By Tsering Topgyal – t.topgyal [at] bham.ac.uk Scholarship on the Sino-Tibetan conflict maintains a primarily binary representation of the Chinese as security-driven and the Tibetans as ethno-nationalistic. In reality, for Tibetans it is the sense of identity security or insecurity (that is, the relative prospects for the survival and reproduction of their identity) that informs […]
Enter the “Chinese Dream”
Memo #244 By Grégoire Legault – gregoire.legault [at] alumni.ubc.ca After decades of political and socio-economic turmoil China is finally able to dream again. It is now prosperous and powerful enough to confront a new problem: how it should use its wealth and power towards social, environmental and political development. Enter the “Chinese Dream” (Zhongguo meng 中国梦). […]
Unhealthy Rituals: How to Address the Occupational Health Hazards of Doing Business in China
As China’s economy has grown, so has its burden of disease. Excessive practices of smoking, drinking and eating, along with a growing commercial sex industry, are leading to epidemics of cancer, diabetes, stroke, other cardio-vascular diseases and sexually transmitted infections. Something must be done about this before it threatens China’s economic growth, but the response must fit the problem.
Cultural Objects and Tradition in Post-Socialist Mongolia
Since the end of Mongolia’s socialist period (1921-1990) the country has been experiencing a “cultural revival”. Post-socialist nationalism permeates private and public life, and deeply colours the way “traditional” culture is imagined. Once religious prohibitions were lifted in the early 1990s, newly constructed Buddhist temples and their monastic populations emerged as sources of authority. Lams (monks) performed rituals to protect Mongolians and the Mongolian state from the uncertainties of the new democratic and capitalist era as much as provide spiritual benefits.
What is Language For? “Other” vs. “Heritage” Language Education in Australia
Australia is an ethno-linguistically diverse country with more than 15% of people speaking languages other than English, or a heritage language, at home. While learning English can contribute to immigrant students’ socioeconomic and educational success, heritage language maintenance facilitates maintaining ties with family and community members unable to speak English, avoiding a potential generation gap in immigrant families. Heritage language maintenance refers to a situation where immigrants continue using their languages in a host society. Additionally, maintaining a heritage language and ethnic identity are interconnected; individuals who lost their heritage languages reported feeling as though a part of their identities were missing. Finally, heritage language maintenance promotes multilingualism in society, which facilitates economic, cultural and political communications among countries.
India: Problems and Promise (Video Interview with M.J. Akbar)
Modern India, which emerged out of British colonial rule in 1947 bloodied but unbowed by partition, had two massive challenges: the protection of its unity, and the elimination of poverty. More than six decades later, after surviving serious insurrections both in its North East and North West, India has largely resolved the threat from sectarian secessionism. But it still struggles under the weight of one third of the world’s poor. In 1947 this poverty was stark: in the last years of British rule, an estimated three million died of famine in Bengal alone. Such horrors are a thing of the past, but the tragedy of under-nourishment and subsistence-level existence remains a reality for 30% of the population.
Amid Concern about Women’s Safety, New Delhi Seeks Female Auto-rickshaw Drivers
The gang rape of a young woman in a bus in New Delhi last December sparked a national debate about women’s safety on India’s public transport systems. The New Delhi Transport Department responded by reserving 1,000 corporate auto-rickshaw permits for female drivers in the hope of making autos safer for female passengers.