This paper adopts the metaphor of a Southeast Asian Zomia to its Chinese cyber-urban variation, and assesses what we can learn from such a way of seeing. After introducing the reader to Zomia and its Cyber-urban counterpart, I provide a succinct status update on the cat-and-mouse game that is afoot on the Chinese Internet, clarify …
A fresh approach to visualization practices in the sciences that considers novel forms of imaging technology and draws on recent theoretical perspectives on representation. Representation in Scientific Practice, published by the MIT Press in 1990, helped coalesce a long-standing interest in scientific visualization among historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science and remains a touchstone for …
The social, economic, and political transformations of the past two centuries have been rapid and dramatic, resulting in complex reconfigurations of religious authority in many Muslim societies. These changes have involved not only the emergence of distinctly new profiles of leadership, but also the persistence and adaptation of the models established by the ulama of …
A Companion to Global Historical Thought provides an in-depth overview of the development of historical thinking from the earliest times to the present, across the world, directly addressing the issues of historical thought in a globalized context. Provides an overview of the development of historical thinking from the earliest times to the present, across the …
This paper examines themes within Chinese theoretical scholarship on religion, from the dual perspectives of religious studies and Marxism. It focuses particularly on the three decades since the 1982 promulgation of “Basic Ideas and Policies Concerning Our Country’s Religious Question in the Socialist Era” marked a turn to an apparently more tolerant religion policy. Although …
Ai Weiwei is famous for crossing boundaries, especially the boundary between art and politics. To appreciate the often contradictory nature of Ai’s work, this essay employs multiple narratives: “Ai the Heroic Warrior” who criticizes the Chinese government, “Ai the Court Jester” who plays with the Chinese state and Western media, and “Ai the Middleman” who …
WPS 212 Citizen Ai: Warrior, Jester and Middleman Read More »
This volume brings together a range of critical studies that explore diverse ways in which processes of globalization pose new challenges and offer new opportunities for religious groups to propagate their beliefs in contemporary Asian contexts. Proselytizing tests the limits of religious pluralism, as it is a practice that exists on the border of tolerance …
Proselytizing and the Limits of Religious Pluralism in Contemporary Asia Read More »
This book presents recent findings about the consequences and policy implications of economic stress for human capital development and family well-being in Asia. The scope of the chapters goes beyond the impact of current financial crisis to include the effect of economic deprivation families in Asia experience as a result of job loss, low-wage employment, …
Economic Stress, Human Capital, and Families in Asia: Policy and Challenges Read More »
Decolonisation often involved picking from competing nationalist visions for the shape of the postcolonial nation-state. The visions which lost out are no less important for their impact on decolonisation and the nation-state, but they are often poorly understood. In Singapore, the rise of Singapore’s “progressive left” gave the opportunity and drove the timing for the …
