Download or read book Negotiating Malay Identities in Singapore written by Rizwana Abdul Azeez and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Singapore Malays subscribe to mostly traditional rather than modern interpretations of Islam. Singapore state officials, however, wish to curb the challenges such interpretations bring to the country's political, social, educational and economic domains. Thus, these officials launched a programme to socially engineer modern Muslim identities amongst Singapore Malays in 2003, which is ongoing. Negotiating Muslim Identities documents a variety of ethnographic encounters that point to the power struggles surrounding two basic and very different ways of living. While the Singapore state has gained some successes for its project, it has also faced significant and multiple setbacks. Amongst them, state officials have had to contend with traditional Islamic authority that Malay elders carry and who cannot be ignored because these elders are time-entrenched authority figures in their community. One of the book's significant contributions is that it documents how Singapore, an avowedly secular state, has now turned to Islam as a tool for governance. Just as significant are the insights the study provides on another aspect of Singapore state governance, one usually described as 'authoritarian'. The book demonstrates that even 'authoritarian' states can face serious obstacles in the face of religion's influence over its followers. The academic literature on Singapore Malays is sparse: this work not only fills gaps in the existing academic literature but provides new and original research data. Its data-rich ethnographic and anthropological approach show the complexities of Malay and Muslim social contexts, and complements other works that examine Southeast Asian states ' management of Islam, which has attracted much scholarship given the global interest in Islam-based politics and social organisation.

Download or read book The Primordial Modernity of Malay Nationality written by Humairah Zainal and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-16 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humairah and Kamaludeen examine contemporary Malay national identity in Singapore and Malaysia through the lens of ‘primordial modernity’, taking on a comparative transnational perspective. How do Malays in Singapore and Malaysia conceptualise and negotiate their ethnic identity vis-à-vis the state’s construction of Malay national identity? Humairah and Kamaludeen employ discourse analyses of both elite and mass texts that include newspaper editorials, school textbooks, political speeches, novels, movies, and letters in local newspapers. Extending current notions of Malay identity, the authors offer a comprehensive overview of Malay identity that takes into consideration both primordial dimensions and the more modern aspects such as their cosmopolitan sensibilities and their approach to social mobility. A valuable resource for scholars of Southeast Asian culture and society, as well as Sociologists looking at wider issues of ethnic and national identity.

Download or read book Eating Together written by Jean Duruz and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accepting the challenge of rethinking connections of food, space and identity within everyday spaces of “public” eating in Malaysia and Singapore, the authors enter street stalls, hawker centers, markets, cafes, restaurants, “food streets,” and “ethnic” neighborhoods to offer a broader picture of the meaning of eating in public places. The book creates a strong sense of the ways different people live, eat, work, and relax together, and traces negotiations and accommodations in these dynamics. The motif of rojak (Malay, meaning “mixture”), together with Ien Ang’s evocative “together-in-difference,” enables the analysis to move beyond the immediacy of street eating with its moments of exchange and remembering. Ultimately, the book traces the political tensions of “different” people living together, and the search for home and identity in a world on the move. Each of the chapters designates a different space for exploring these cultures of “mixedness” and their contradictions—whether these involve “old” and “new” forms of sociality, struggles over meanings of place, or frissons of pleasure and risk in eating “differently.” Simply put, Eating Together is about understanding complex forms of multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore through the mind, tongue, nose, and eyes.

Download or read book Women and Politics in Southeast Asia written by Theresa W Devasahayam and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims to contribute to the discourse on women and politics in Southeast Asia. The chapters, covering Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Timor-Leste and Singapore, analyse the asymmetrical power relationships between the sexes and how power differentials between men and women play out in the realm of politics are a reflection of the power contestations women face with men in other spheres of everyday life. Each chapter seeks to ask a different question in terms of where women viz. men stand in the political landscape of their countries, in an effort to answer the question of Where are the women in the gender trope in Asian politics. While the chapters are primarily empirical as they delve into the challenges, contradictions and conflicts Southeast Asian women encounter, the main assertion is that womens struggles in the realm of politics are a result of having to operate within power structures created principally by men, thereby producing barriers for women to enter politics, on the one hand, and to increase their numbers and widen their sphere of influence, on the other. Recognizing that Asian politics is dominated by men, the question of how women have negotiated a value system that is inherently male-centred and male-controlled is also discussed. The implicit narrative demonstrated in this book is that the political arena should not be considered in isolation from other arenas but instead is essentially a mirror of other arenas whether the home, workplace, nation, and/or global spaces each marked by power contestations between men and women and having a spill-over effect on the other, as well as shaping womens experiences in the political realm.

Download or read book Exporting Japanese Aesthetics written by Tets Kimura and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-04 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exporting Japanese Aesthetics brings together historical and contemporary case studies addressing the evolution of international impacts and influences of Japanese culture and aesthetics. The volume draws on a wide range of examples from a multidisciplinary team of scholars exploring transnational, regional and global contexts. Studies include the impact of traditional Japanese theatre and art through to the global popularity of contemporary anime and manga. Under the banner of soft power or Cool Japan, cultural commodities that originate in Japan have manifested new meanings outside Japan. By (re)mapping meanings of selected Japanese cultural forms, this volume offers an in-depth examination of how various aspects of Japanese aesthetics have evolved as exportable commodities, the motivations behind this diffusion, and the extent to which the process of diffusion has been the result of strategic planning. Each chapter presents a case study that explores perspectives that situate Japanese aesthetics within a wide-ranging field of inquiry including performance, tourism, and visual arts, as well as providing historical contexts. The importance of interrogating the export of Japanese aesthetics is validated at the highest levels of government, which formed the Office of Cool Japan in 2010, and which perhaps originated in the 19th century at governmentally endorsed cultural courts at world fairs. Increased international consumption of contemporary Japanese culture provides a much needed boost to Japans weakening economy. The case studies are timely and topical. As host of the 2020/2021 Tokyo Olympic Games and the 2025 Osaka Expo, Cool Japan will be under special scrutiny.

Download or read book Governance of Islam in Pakistan written by Sarah Holz and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern states increasingly seek to regulate religious expression, practice and discourse. This is profoundly evident at many levels of Islamic policy interaction: from debates about the banning of the Muslim face-veil in Europe to civic re-education programmes for Muslim citizens in China. Governance of Islam in Pakistan provides a systematic account of how interactions between multiple public and private bodies direct the regulation and standardisation of Islam in one of the largest Muslim-majority states in the world. Analysis centres on the institutional development of the Council of Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body tasked with issuing advice to the executive and legislature about the compatibility of laws with Islamic principles. Based on archival material that has been subject to little scholarly attention, and interviews with Council members and staff of other state bodies, Sarah Holz proposes governance as an analytical framework to study the negotiation of religious expression, practice and discourse. In contrast to the established Islamisation narrative which generally labels such religious institutions as mere rubberstamps in the process of policy-making, the study of governance offers an alternative approach that enables examination of the dynamic competition and cooperation among multiple actors. Through collective interaction the Council and other relevant bodies are active players in the governance of Islam. Insights gained from analysis of the ideational, structural and functional evolution of the Council offers a Global South perspective on liberal democratic ideas about the functionality of the modern state and its institutional structure. Issues of economic, cultural and local/international political influence bear strongly in governance analysis. Engagement with the governance policy tool has applicability across the social sciences, but is particularly relevant for South Asian/Near and Middle East Studies.

Download or read book Victims Perpetrators and Professionals written by Tingting Hu and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-07 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the representation of women in relation to violence in Chinese crime films made on the mainland, and in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It introduces a new trajectory in the investigation of the cinematic representation of female figures in relation to gender issues by interweaving Western feminist and postfeminist critiques with traditional Chinese sociocultural discourse. An in-depth narrative identifies three major representations of women: the female victim, the female perpetrator of violence, and the female professional. Salience to contemporary society shows up in many ways, passive and active, all of which reinforce a sense of male dominance and patriarchal power. Analysis bridges the gap in the field of female representation in Chinese culture/Chinese film studies by systematically examining Chinese crime films as a genre in its own right. The depiction of female victimisation at the hands of men in the selected crime films consolidates the notion of women's vulnerability and inferiority as perceived in Chinese gender discourse. On the other hand, the representation of active female perpetrators of violence, and as professional working women, presents what may be seen as a postfeminist masquerade a cultural strategy that shows an ostensible impression of female empowerment albeit that it reinforces traditional gender hierarchies in the Chinese gender context. While graphic female victimisation is commonly presented, female perpetrators of violence and females in professional roles in crime films are shown to remain under the control of male authority, leading to the conclusion that Chinese crime films are produced in a context of heavy patriarchal power and misogyny.

Download or read book Female Madrasas in Pakistan written by Faiza Muhammad Din and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2023-06-20 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study sets out to explain and understand the worldview of students at Female madrasas (FeM) in Pakistan. Beginning as an indigenous informal institute for female education at home, FeM has evolved to country-wide formal theological seminaries that award women graduate degrees in Islamic studies. Since the 1970s, state intervention and social engagement have influenced not only the structure of FeMs but their locations. Attendance is from all socio-economic strata of society. A recent development, especially in urban centers, is the teaching of the state curriculum to enable young students to access mainstream education. Public opinion is divided about the role of FeMs in society. Some believe that FeMs confine women into the domestic realm; others view FeMs as a move forward into modernity, as they educate the least educated sectors of society. The author uses the lens of language and gender to explore why such divergent views exist about FeMs. Specifically, language and vocabulary has served as a powerful factor for restricting women to their traditional roles. Madrasas have a profound effect on Pakistani society at large, as they respond to the immediate socio-political and economic needs of the community. In the last two decades many books were produced about male madrasas in Pakistan. However, one focusing on women's madrasas exclusively was needed, because currently the number of female students enrolled in madrasas is higher than the male students. This unique book is rooted in the authors experience of studying at an FeM. She entered a madrasa with a yearning to be closer to God, to know the book revealed to the Prophet Muhammad, and to learn what he said and did. A constant throughout her studies was the recognition that acquiring knowledge is one of the highest acts of righteousness according to the Prophet Muhammad.

Download or read book Media Events in Web 2 0 China written by Dr Jian Xu PhD and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is among the first to use a "media events" framework to examine China's Internet activism and politics, and the first study of the transformation of China's media events through the parameter of online activism. The author locates the practices of major modes of online activism in China (shanzhai [culture jamming]; citizen journalism; and weiguan [mediated mobilisation]) into different types of Chinese media events (ritual celebration, natural disaster, political scandal). The contextualised analysis of online activism thus enables exploration of the spatial, temporal and relational dimensions of Chinese online activism with other social agents -- such as the Party-state, mainstream media and civil society. Analysis reveals Internet politics in China on three interrelated levels: the individual, the discursive and the institutional. Contemporary cases, rich in empirical research data and interdisciplinary theory, demonstrate that the alternative and activist use of the Internet has intervened into and transformed conventional Chinese media events in various types of agents, their agendas and performances, and the subsequent and corresponding political impact. The Party-market controlled Chinese media events have become more open, contentious and deliberative in the Web 2.0 era due to the active participation of ordinary Chinese people aided by the Internet.

Download or read book Dictators and Autocrats written by Klaus Larres and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-10-31 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In order to truly understand the emergence, endurance, and legacy of autocracy, this volume of engaging essays explores how autocratic power is acquired, exercised, and transferred or abruptly ended through the careers and politics of influential figures in more than 20 countries and six regions. The book looks at both traditional "hard" dictators, such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, and more modern "soft" or populist autocrats, who are in the process of transforming once fully democratic countries into autocratic states, including Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, Narendra Modi in India, and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. The authors touch on a wide range of autocratic and dictatorial figures in the past and present, including present-day autocrats, such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, military leaders, and democratic leaders with authoritarian aspirations. They analyze the transition of selected autocrats from democratic or benign semi-democratic systems to harsher forms of autocracy, with either quite disastrous or more successful outcomes. An ideal reader for students and scholars, as well as the general public, interested in international affairs, leadership studies, contemporary history and politics, global studies, security studies, economics, psychology, and behavioral studies.

Download or read book Decolonizing the History Curriculum in Malaysia and Singapore written by Kevin Blackburn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-05-09 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decolonizing the History Curriculum in Malaysia and Singapore is a unique study in the history of education because it examines decolonization in terms of how it changed the subject of history in the school curriculum of two colonized countries – Malaysia and Singapore. Blackburn and Wu’s book analyzes the transition of the subject of history from colonial education to postcolonial education, from the history syllabus upholding the colonial order to the period after independence when the history syllabus became a tool for nation-building. Malaysia and Singapore are excellent case studies of this process because they once shared a common imperial curriculum in the English language schools that was gradually ‘decolonized’ to form the basis of the early history syllabuses of the new nation-states (they were briefly one nation-state in the early to mid-1960s). The colonial English language history syllabus was ‘decolonized’ into a national curriculum that was translated for the Chinese, Malay, and Tamil schools of Malaysia and Singapore. By analyzing the causes and consequences of the dramatic changes made to the teaching of history in the schools of Malaya and Singapore as Britain ended her empire in Southeast Asia, Blackburn and Wu offer fascinating insights into educational reform, the effects of decolonization on curricula, and the history of Malaysian and Singaporean education.

Download or read book The SIJORI Cross Border Region written by Francis E Hutchinson and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2016-06-14 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty-five years ago, the governments of Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia agreed to jointly promote the city-state, the state of Johor in Malaysia, and the Riau Islands in Indonesia. Facilitated by common cultural references, a more distant shared history, and complementary attributes, interactions between the three territories developed quickly. Logistics networks have proliferated and production chains link firms based in one location with affiliates or transport facilities in the other territories. These cross-border links have enabled all three locations to develop their economies and enjoy rising standards of living. Initially economic in nature, the interactions between Singapore, Johor, and the Riau Islands have multiplied and grown deeper. Today, people cross the borders to work, go to school, or avail of an increasing range of goods and services. New political, social, and cultural phenomena have developed. Policymakers in the various territories now need to reconcile economic imperatives and issues of identity and sovereignty. Enabled by their proximity and increasing opportunities, families have also begun to straddle borders, with resulting questions about citizenship and belonging. Using the Cross-Border Region framework - which seeks to analyse these three territories as one entity simultaneously divided and bound together by its borders - this book brings together scholars from a range of disciplines. Its 18 chapters and more than 20 maps examine the interaction between Singapore, Johor, and the Riau Islands over the past quarter-century, and seek to shed light on how these territories could develop in the future.

Download or read book Dismantling Diasporas written by Anastasia Christou and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-09 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Re-energising debates on the conceptualisation of diasporas in migration scholarship and in geography, this work stresses the important role that geographers can play in interrupting assumptions about the spaces and processes of diaspora. The intricate, material and complex ways in which those in diaspora contest, construct and perform identity, politics, development and place is explored throughout this book. The authors ’dismantle’ diasporas in order to re-theorise the concept through empirically grounded, cutting-edge global research. This innovative volume will appeal to an international and interdisciplinary audience in ethnic, migration and diaspora studies as it tackles comparative, multi-sited and multi-method research through compelling case studies in a variety of contexts spanning the Global North and South. The research in this book is guided by four interconnected themes: the ways in which diasporas are constructed and performed through identity, the body, everyday practice and place; how those in diaspora become politicised and how this leads to unities and disunities in relation to 'here' and 'there'; the ways in which diasporas seek to connect and re-connect with their 'homelands' and the consequences of this in terms of identity formation, employment and theorising who 'counts' as a diaspora; and how those in diaspora engage with homeland development and the challenges this creates.

Download or read book Identity and Ethnic Relations in Southeast Asia written by Chee Kiong Tong and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-08-03 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern nation states do not constitute closed entities. This is true especially in Southeast Asia, where Chinese migrants have continued to make their new homes over a long period of time, resulting in many different ethnic groups co-existing in new nation states. Focusing on the consequences of migration, and cultural contact between the various ethnic groups, this book describes and analyses the nature of ethnic identity and state of ethnic relations, both historically and in the present day, in multi-ethnic, pluralistic nation states in Southeast Asia. Drawing on extensive primary fieldwork in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines, the book examines the mediations, and transformation of ethnic identity and the social incorporation, tensions and conflicts and the construction of new social worlds resulting from cultural contact among different ethnic groups.

Download or read book Market Cultures written by Robert W. Hefner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Market Cultures examines the spectacular growth of capitalist enterprise among overseas Chinese and Southeast Asians. It does so, not through formal models, but by way of the varied cultures and organizations in which Asian capitalism is embedded. Eschewing talk of a uniform Asian miracle, the book shows that there existed complex precedents for

Download or read book Beyond Bicentennial Perspectives On Malays written by Zainul Abidin Rasheed and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2020-07-24 with total page 808 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The year 2019 marks Singapore's Bicentennial milestone since the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles in Singapore in 1819. It was in anticipation of the arrival of the Bicentennial that this book, Beyond Bicentennial: Perspectives on Malays, was initiated. This book is a collection of articles from prominent individuals and academicians that touch not only on the 200 years since the arrival of Raffles, but goes back much earlier, 720 years earlier, when Sang Nila Utama first set foot on the island in 1299.This book hopes to heighten the readers' sense of history and to reflect upon how Singapore has journeyed over the last two centuries, witnessing the perseverance, trials, challenges, and efforts of Singaporeans, and to see how the nation has gone through a transformation from a feudal setting to a cosmopolitan and multi-racial society.Prior to this book, Majulah! 50 Years of Malay/Muslim Community in Singapore was published in 2016 when Singapore celebrated SG50 — an initiative launched to celebrate the nation's 50 years of independence. The book highlighted the progress, the contributions, and the challenges of the community for the past 50 years since Singapore's independence in 1965.Both books can be read hand-in-hand. While Majulah! 50 Years of Malay/Muslim Community in Singapore called on the community to reflect on the past and to look ahead, this book, Beyond Bicentennial: Perspectives on Malays, calls on readers to reflect and re-examine the position and contributions of the Malays to Singapore's history and its development, as Singapore commemorates its Bicentennial.Related Link(s)

Download or read book Singapore Malay Muslim Community 1819 2015 written by Hussin Mutalib and published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book was released on 2016-06-29 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Singapore’s Malay (Muslim) community, constituting about 15 per cent of the total population and constitutionally enshrined as the indigenous people of Singapore, have had its fair share of progress and problems in the history of this country. While different aspects of the vicissitudes of life of the community have been written over the years, there has not been a singularly substantive published compendium specifically about the community – in the form of a Bibliography – available. This academic initiative fills this obvious literature gap. The scope and coverage of this Bibliography is manifestly comprehensive, encompassing the different sources of information (print or non-print) about the many facets of life of the Republic’s Malays/Muslims – such as education, economy, politics, culture, history, health, language, religion, arts, and more. The result is a Bibliography that is arguably the most expansive, if not exhaustive treasury collection about the community, ever available anywhere. Scholars and researchers in particular and the public in general should find this Bibliography a highly valuable, indispensable source of information about the rich and varied life of Singapore’s Malay/Muslim community, stretching a period of two centuries – from the time of Stamford Raffles in 1819 until today. The Editors – Hussin Mutalib, Ph.D. (a senior academic with the National University of Singapore), Rokiah Mentol, and Sundusia Rosdi (former senior librarians with Singapore’s National Library Board) – are assisted by professional and experienced librarians.