Though wary of China’s rapid rise, her neighbours have considerable experience of dealing with unequal power without surrendering their autonomy.  For its part, china has a long memory of unequal or “tributary” relations and a relatively brief and turbulent experience of working within the current useful fiction of “sovereign equality” in international relations.  The emerging […]

In what is today Malaysia, the British established George Town or Penang Island in 1786, and encouraged Chinese merchants and laborers to migrate to this vibrant trading port.  In the multicultural urban settlement that developed, the Chinese immigrants organized their social life through community temples like the Guanyin Temple (Kong Hok Place) and their secret

The world’s population negotiates a multiplicity of naming systems. Some are compatible with the “normative” system of the world of passports and identity cards but a great many are not. This is particularly true in Asia, a region with some of the most sophisticated naming devices found anywhere in the world, including nicknames and teknonyms,

Perspectives in lexicography: Asia and beyond is a unique volume that contains current perspectives on the theory and practice of lexicography. Written by scholars and practitioners, it offers a balanced selection of revised papers from the recent 4th ASIALEX (Asian Association for Lexicography) Conference organized by the National University of Singapore and new papers that

With the demise of European socialist economies and the marketization of Asian communist countries, a new global capitalism has reshaped the configuration of the world economy, with speed a determining factor to all transactions of information, finance, goods and services and people. Sea-ports that were significant for a slower but no less global economy have

In India today, the sick can choose from a range of medical options, including Western biomedicine, homeopathy, Sanskritic ayurveda, Tamil siddha, Islamic unani, and Gandhian nature cure, among others. This variety might seem surprising, given the rapid globalization of the medicines, institutions, and explanatory apparatus of Western medicine. While penicillin cures many ailments, however, the

In 1994 Bretton Woods conference created new institutions for international economic governance, and, though flawed, the system led to a golden age in postwar reconstruction, sustained economic growth, job creation, and postcolonial development. Financial liberalization since the 1970s, however, has involved deregulation and globalization, which have exacerbated instability rather than stimulate growth. In addition, the

Asian Cultural Studies or Cultural Studies in Asia is a new and burgeoning field, and the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Journal is at its cutting edge. Committed to bringing Asian Cultural Studies scholarship to the international English speaking world and constantly challenging existing conceptions of cultural studies, the journal has emerged as the leading publication in

A comprehensive new collection covering the principal traditions and critical contemporary issues of social theory. Builds on the success of The Blackwell Companion to Social Theory, second edition with substantial revisions, entirely new contributions, and a fresh editorial direction. Explores contemporary areas such as actor network theory, social constructionism, human rights and cosmopolitanism. Includes chapters

Since 1979, the year of the Iranian Revolution, scholars have tried to understand what has been called Islamic fundamentalism. September 11th has certainly highlighted the urgency of understanding such a phenomenon. This book provides the reader with a challenging analysis of the discussion about Islamic fundamentalism and a new reading of the relationship between identity