Journals

The 2009 Inter-Asia Roundtable was the first of its kind in the Asia Research Institute (ARI), and is scheduled to become an annual event. Its format was based on the concern that there is little dialogue across the major regions of Asia—East, South and Southeast Asia—concerning major social issues, largely because it is often felt that that there are such wide differences between these regions that there may be little in common to discuss. However, this year’s Roundtable, entitled ‘Gender Relations in the 21st Century Asian Family’, proved that there are enough common areas of interest to make a dialogue among participants from all regions a very stimulating event.

The Roundtable was held on 17–18 August 2009. It brought together theoreticians and researchers working on the family in different parts of Asia to examine recent trends in the field of family studies, factors affecting family change, and convergences and divergences across and within regions of Asia. Discussions were based on three papers and three brief discussion starters. The participants in the Roundtable, who are listed at the back of this document, were chosen for their strong theoretical foundation and grounded experience in one country or region, and their capacity to think and theorise beyond one country, region or discipline. There were also a further 22 observers, who were able to participate fully in the discussions.

This booklet includes the three papers, a summary of the discussion following each paper, and a summary of the discussion in the three open discussion sessions on marriage, divorce and inter-generational relations, respectively.

Author/Speaker:JONES Gavin W , ZHANG Yanxia , Premchand DOMMARAJU , Deborah CHUA