In Liberalism Disavowed, Chua Beng Huat examines the rejection of Western-style liberalism in Singapore and the way the People’s Action Party has forged an independent non-Western ideology.  This book explains the evolution of this communitarian ideology, with focus on three areas: public housing, multiracialism and state capitalism, each of which poses different challenges to liberal approaches. …

Liberalism Disavowed: Communitarianism and State Capitalism in Singapore Read More »

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s Independence, the Institute of Policy Studies and Straits Times Press are jointly launching the Singapore Chronicles series in 2015. This 50-volume series seeks to record, explain and offer insights into what makes Singapore, Singapore. Each volume in this series will serve as a primer on the subject. RELIGION …

Singapore Chronicles: Religion Read More »

Making liquor isn’t rocket science: some raw materials, a stove, and a few jury-rigged pots are all that’s really needed. So when the colonial regime in turn-of-the-century French Indochina banned homemade rice liquor, replacing it with heavily taxed, tasteless alcohol from French-owned factories, widespread clandestine distilling was the inevitable result. The state’s deeply unpopular alcohol …

Imperial Intoxication: Alcohol and the Making of Colonial Indochina Read More »

Multinational Maids offers an in-depth investigation into the international migrations of Filipino and Indonesian migrant domestic workers. The author taps on her rigorous study of more than 1,200 subjects’ migration trajectories to reveal how these migrants work in a series of overseas countries to improve their lives and, in some cases, seek permanent residence in …

Multinational Maids: Stepwise Migration in a Global Labor Market Read More »

Free markets alone do not work effectively to solve certain kinds of human problems, such as education, old age care, or disaster relief. Nor have markets ever been the sole solution to the psychological challenges of death, suffering, or injustice. Instead, we find a major role for the non-market institutions of society – the family, …

Religion and Charity: The Social Life of Goodness in Chinese Societies Read More »

Since 1995 most mainland migrants to Hong Kong have been the wives or non-adult children of Hong Kong men of lower socio-economic status. The majority of immigrants are women, who throughout the past two decades have accounted for more than 60% of immigration. The profile of immigrants has been changing and they are significantly more …

Migration in Post-Colonial Hong Kong Read More »