Studies of racism against migrants have recently attempted to move away from the presumed dichotomy between “white” and “Others”, yet the focus of much research remains predominantly trained on “white” people racializing “Others”: whether Black, Asian or Muslim. Attending only to this “white”/”Other” binary homogenises select groups of non-“white” including Asians. This approach also ignores […]

What goes into the ideological sustenance of an illiberal capitalist democracy? While much of the critical discussion of the media in authoritarian contexts focus on state power, the emphasis on strong states tend to perpetuate misnomers about the media as mere tools of the state and sustain myths about their absolute power. Turning to the

This book unpacks the organized sets of practices that govern contemporary Asian medicine, from production of medications in the lab to their circulation within circuits and networks of all kinds, and examines the plurality of actors involved in such governance. The chapters analyse the process of industrialization and commercialisation of Asian medicine and the ways

Initially upheld as a bastion of success in curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the first few months of 2020, Singapore found itself home to the highest number of coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia by the middle of the same year. Over 90 per cent of its cases occurred among the 300,000 migrant construction workers

In Singapore and Malaysia, the inversion of Chinese Underworld traditions has meant that Underworld demons are now amongst the most commonly venerated deities in statue form, channelled through their spirit mediums, tang-ki. The Chinese Underworld and its sub-hells are populated by a bureaucracy drawn from the Buddhist, Taoist and vernacular pantheons. Under the watchful eye