Beriberi was widely viewed in the early twentieth century as one of the principal threats to public health in South, Southeast and East Asia. As its connection with the consumption of milled (“white”) rice became scientifically established, international attention turned to how this “tropical disease” might be eradicated: the Far Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine, …

WPS 116 Tropical Governance: Managing Health in Monsoon Asia, 1908-1938 Read More »

This paper examines the influences of gender identity on individual ability to exercise agency in migration decision making through a case study of Thang Loi Village in Vietnam. Women and men exert agency with reference to prevailing social norms in order to negotiate for or against their own migration and that of others. It has …

WPS 115 Gender and Agency in Migration Decision Making: Evidence from Vietnam Read More »

Thailand’s prolonged crisis has increasingly distracted attention from both the deep roots of the present crisis and its implications for the country’s future. That future is very much at issue, in not only its political dimension but also in its social, economic, and cultural dimensions. Six decades into His Majesty King Bhumibhol’s long and successful reign, Thailand …

WPS 114 Thailand in Crisis: The Twilight of a Reign or the Birth of a New Order? (Roundtable Proceedings) Read More »

This working paper shows how place-making, community formation and collective decision making are forged as part of the lesser known aspects of the larger Singapore’s story of urbanization and multiculturalism. Through a case study of a local public housing community which spans from the late 1980s until today, it shows how dimensions of inter-ethnic and other …

WPS 113 A Neighbourhood in Singapore: Ordinary People’s Lives `Downstairs’ Read More »

How is it that today in the diverse, multi-ethnic polity of Malaysia (where government figures give a population breakdown of 65% Bumiputra, 26% Chinese and 8% Indian), a single ethnic group completely controls – and occupies virtually all positions in – the judiciary, public administrative organs, the police, the armed forces and increasingly the universities? …

WPS 112 The Origins and Evolution of Ethnocracy in Malaysia Read More »

Tea-drinking is a major feature of the ethnography of Japan. The art of the tea ceremony evokes questions of identity and identification. In New York in 1906, Okakura Kakuzo (Tenshin) wrote The Book of Tea, the quintessential publication that introduced Japan’s culture to America and the West  through the medium of the Japanese tea ceremony. …

WPS 111 A Teahouse in the Gilded Age: The Story of the Georgian Court University (GCU) Meiji Teahouse Read More »