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WORD FROM

NOTES FROM
COX’S BAZAR
THE DIRECTOR

ASIAN STUDIES
FORUM ON SOUTHEAST
news
ARI
13TH SINGAPORE GRADUATE
MICA(P)223/01/2006

Photo credit: Céline Coderey

1 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42

A newsletter of the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
MAIN STORY
WORD FROM
THE DIRECTOR
PROF JONATHAN RIGG
This is my last ‘Word from the Director’. I step down in December after three
years in post. It has been a wonderful 36 months, and my successor is a
lucky person.
It will probably not be a surprise that I should think
ARI a fine and thriving hub of scholarship on Asia.
The significant question that arises is: what makes it so?
In the next few hundred words, I will lay out what I think
makes ARI tick, and tick so well.
First of all, there is the matter of Geography. Not just
the obvious geographical advantage that we enjoy:
being an Institute of Asia, in Asia. Nor the fact that just
over two years ago we moved back to NUS’s main campus
to enjoy the benefits of being close to allied departments
and the central library. But that we actually have space
—in fact a whole floor of a new building—with rooms
to meet and gather, even a pantry. (Although I dearly
wish that we had also created a common room. Note to
incoming Director: carve out a common room, if you can,
somewhere or other.) ARI is not a virtual research centre
or institute where people who work on Asia are listed,
with the belief that a listing makes a centre. We have staff,
they have offices, pass each other daily in the corridor or,
more likely, are crammed into the pantry. We literally rub
shoulders, exchange ideas and, in the process, turn
a space into a place, and a place into a community.
This highlights the second element in the ARI mix: warm
bodies. While accepting that sometimes people need
to ferret themselves away in some corner to have time
to work, read and write in peace and quiet, a research
institute needs sufficient people around to make a crowd
and raise the intellectual temperature. We generally
2 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
manage that—although it is something we could also
work on.
Simply throwing people into the mix, however, is not
enough. Where’s the glue that makes people stop and
chat in the corridor, or share a coffee or lunch? That turns
strangers into colleagues, colleagues into neighbours, and
neighbours into friends? One of the initiatives that
Tony Reid, ARI’s first Director, introduced was our ITB—
or ‘In the Beginning’—sessions. Because we have so many
short-term visitors passing through, finding out who they
are, what they do, and what drives and inspires them, is
essential. Otherwise, they would be gone before anyone
knows that they had ever arrived. And a round-robin email
just does not do the business.
Each person is allocated 30 minutes, and we schedule
two individual ITBs over the lunch hour. New staff
give a 20-minute informal presentation—essentially
an autobiographical vignette, sometimes from birth,
photos allowed. These are informal affairs, but often
surprising in what they reveal. Even the most taciturn
scholars let their guard down, and talk about personal
matters. Occasionally we even have tears. It really is quite
moving—and revealing.
There are also a pair of important institutional matters
worth noting, my fourth and fifth essential ingredients.
To begin with, our clusters and their leaders. Our clusters
give focus and coherence; our cluster leaders give
direction. But they are more different than alike, and I see
that as positive. Some clusters emphasise team working
and co-publishing; others are more individualistic in tone
and approach.
Our clusters have each found their own ways to foster
research and collegiality, and their success in achieving
their research ends is detailed—convincingly
—in each ARI annual report.
Perhaps even more importantly, and second, I have
to mention our support staff—ten in total. They
are individually wonderful, collectively superlative.
I appreciate that it has become common practice to
 MAIN STORY
thank support staff; I am not doing (just) that here. They
are the heart of ARI. Ask anyone. Truly. In fact they are
the only thread that links the past with the present.
Post-docs come and go, and so do Directors for that
matter. Our support staff are with us for the long term
and their pride in what they—and therefore what we—do,
shines through. Just don’t poach any (more)!

There is a third institutional piece in the puzzle, and my

sixth ingredient, and this will surprise most people: the
latitude that the university gives us just to get on with
things. Singapore is known for its micro-management.
I don’t find that, at least as ARI’s Director. We get a core
grant and we are left to use it as we see fit. We are not
burdened by complex space algorithms or annoying
bench fees like universities in many other places.
Appointment processes, for us, are relatively straight-
forward. We really can be agile. Of course, there are
things I would quite like to change, but the big picture
is just dandy, and not the one you might expect.

That introduces a seventh ingredient: money. Without

money, our grand plans would be gossamer. To be sure,
when I became Director I was given a grant target—a
classic case of carrot and stick. But we have more than
met our targets and winds are set fair. Other research
centres must yearn for the financial stability—and the
sustained institutional commitment—that we enjoy. This is not to say that all is sunshine and roses in the ARI
garden, and there are gripes, to be sure. After all, most of
My eighth and last magic ingredient is the importance us are academics.
of tactics over strategy. Of course, I would like to
write that I have put in place a cunningly honed and
But as this is my final Word from the
carefully implemented ‘strategy’ for ARI. But that would
be delusional. Increasingly, I think tactics are more Director, I want to focus on the things
important than some high-level strategy that people don’t that make ARI such a good place
understand, rarely read, and with which they (therefore)
3 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42

to work. And those good things far

don’t engage. It is humanity not technology, and everyday
moments not disembedded plans, that are far more outstrip the gripes. It has been a
important in making ARI tick. It is the little things. And wonderful 36 months.
getting the little things right creates the space to shape
the big things, not the other way around.
ARI RECOGNITION
Prof Kenneth Dean gave 2 distinguished lectures:
‘The Transmission of Chinese Civilisational Techniques
to Southeast Asia: Daoist Rites, Spirit Possession,
Networking and Hybrid Ritual Forms’, for the Faculty of
Humanities Distinguished Lecture Series, The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University, 19 June 2018; and ‘Building a New
Jerusalem in the Forests of Borneo: The Migration of
Chinese Methodists from Fuzhou and Xinghua, Fujian to
Sibu, Sarawak’, at the CCK Distinguished Speakers Lecture
Series, CUHK, 19 June 2018. He also gave 3 invited
lectures: ‘Networking the Gods: Chinese Civilisational
Techniques in Southeast Asia’, at the Max Planck Institute
for Religious and Ethnic Diversity Invited Seminar Series,
8 June 2018; ‘Ritual Spatialities and Temporalities in
Chinese Local Religion’, at the workshop on Rendre un
Culte, University of Chicago, 6 May 2018; and ‘Rise of
the Underworld Deities in Singapore’, for the Nelson
Lecture Series on Southeast Asia, University of Virginia,
3 April 2018.
Assoc Prof Elaine Ho Lynn-Ee gave a plenary speech
on ‘Diaspora Diplomacy: In Whose Service, For What
Purpose?’, at the Conference on Diaspora, Diplomacy and
Development, Clinton Institute, University College Dublin,
24-26 May 2018; and a keynote speech on ‘Incongruence
and Multi-directionality: Re-theorising Migration and
Citizenship through the Lens of China’, at the 6th Global
Social Sciences Graduate Student Conference, 20 April
2018, Hong Kong Baptist University.
Dr Stefan Huebner gave a public lecture on ‘The Origins
and Heritage of the Asian Games: Dreams of Asian
Integration during Late Colonialism and Decolonisation’,
at the National Museum of Singapore, 1 September 2018.
He also received a US SSRC Transregional Research Junior
Scholar Fellowship on 27 March 2018.
Dr Michelle Miller gave a keynote address on
‘Transboundary Communities of Commoning in
Environmental Governance’ at the Association for
Borderland Studies 2nd World Conference, University
4 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
of Vienna, Vienna and Budapest, 10-14 July 2018.
Prof Jonathan Rigg gave 3 keynote addresses: ‘The
importance of Being Wrong: Reflections on 35 Years of
Methodological Blunders, Empirical Errors, Theoretical
Culs-de-sac, and Historical Misinterpretations’, at the
conference on Changing Research Styles, Methodologies
and Perspectives on Southeast Asia, Universiti Brunei
Darussalam, Brunei, 30-31 July 2018; ‘The Future of Small
Farmers in Asia’s Mekong Region’, at the N8 Agrifood
International Conference 2018, University of Liverpool, UK,
13-14 June 2018; and ‘The Puzzling Asian Farmer: Past,
Present and Possible Futures’, at the workshop on
A Comparative Assessment of Transformations to Agrarian
Livelihoods in the Ayeyarwady, Ganges and Mekong
Deltas, University of Cologne, Institute of Geography,
5-6 April 2018.
He was also appointed Deputy Chair, Faculty Promotion
and Tenure Committee, and to a Provost’s Chair, NUS,
July 2018.
Dr Minna Valjakka was appointed to the international
advisory board of Nuart Journal in May 2018.
Prof Brenda Yeoh gave 2 keynote lectures and a plenary
speech: ‘Diaspora and Diversity: Temporary Migration and
the Spaces of Difference’, at ASEANnale 2018: Capturing
the Spirit of ASEAN in the Digital Times, ‘Diaspora,
Disasters and Democracy’, Asian Center, University of
the Philippines, Philippines, 28 February-2 March 2018;
‘Migration and New Mobilities in Southeast Asia: Spatial
Scales, Moral Geographies and Critical Temporalities’,
at the UC Berkeley/UCLA/University of Toronto
Conference on Southeast Asia Migrations and New
Mobilities in Southeast Asia, UC Berkeley, California, USA,
27- 28 April 2018; and ‘The Well-Being of Left-Behind
Families under a Regime of Temporary Migration: Care
Temporalities and Gender Politics in Southeast Asia’, at
the International Conference on Wellbeing and Migration:
Inter-Asian Perspectives, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey,
7-8 May 2018.

Bernardo E. Brown & Brenda
S.A. Yeoh (eds)
Asian Migrants and Religious
Experience: From Missionary
Journeys to Labor Mobility
Amsterdam University Press,
Croydon, 2018
May Ngo
Between Humanitarianism
and Evangelism in Faith-based
Organisations: A Case from the
African Migration Route
Routledge, New York, 2018
Susanne Y.P. Choi, Brenda S.A.
Yeoh & Theodora Lam (eds)
Situated Agency in the Context
of Research on Children, Migration,
and Family in Asia
Special Section in Population,
Space and Place
https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2149
Minna Valjakka & Meiqin Wang (eds)
Visual Arts, Representations and
Interventions in Contemporary China.
Urbanized Interface
Asian Cities Series
Amsterdam University Press, 2018
NEW BOOKS
Kenneth Dean & Peter
van der Veer (eds)
The Secular in South, East, and
Southeast Asia
Palgrave Macmillan (Springer),
New York, 2018
Catherine Gomes & Brenda
S.A. Yeoh (eds)
Transnational Migrations in the
Asia-Pacific: Transformative
Experiences in the Age of
Digital Media
5 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
Rowman & Littlefield, London, 2018
 Photo credit: Céline Coderey
FEATURE STORY

NOTES FROM DR CÉLINE CODEREY

COX’S BAZAR
RESEARCH FELLOW

In May and July this year I joined Relief Singapore, a local humanitarian
organisation, for a mission to the Rohingya refugees’ camps in Cox’s Bazar,
Bangladesh. The main focus was on water and sanitation through the provision
6 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42

of water filters. My role as anthropologist with specialisation in healthcare in

Myanmar, was to conduct a preliminary survey on reproductive health and
rape cases.

The car moves slow, too slowly, the wheels barely turning
in the ground, since the earth has turned into mud with
the chronic rain of the monsoon season. Less than a
year ago this area was the Teknaf reserve, a lush jungle
sanctuary for elephants; now it is deforested land, the
temporary (?) home of almost a million Rohingya who have
fled Myanmar following the persecutions they have been
facing, in particular since August 2017.
All around us is bamboo, tons of bamboo, either in the
form of canes just discharged by the trucks and piled
on the ground ready to be distributed across the camps,
or already weaved to give shape to the shelters of the
refugees; almost as common as the bamboo shelters
are the white tents with the symbol of the UNHCR which
have been given to single women. This beige and white
landscape is spotted here and there with shining pink
cubicles: the latrines built by the local NGO BRAC.
And scattered a bit everywhere are other, bigger
buildings, in wood or in concrete, hosting healthcare
services, education centres, and all kinds of ‘friendly
spaces’ for women, children, and the elderly. Roads are
sprinkled with signboards of the different organisations—
UNICEF, Save the Children, Red Cross, MSF; landmarks
helping people to find their way, but also a strategy to
get one’s presence acknowledged within what looks
like an NGO village coordinated by UNHCR and the
government of Bangladesh.
And everywhere: people, a constant flow of people, naked
boys carrying pots of water; men making their way among
the crowd to get their monthly ration of rice; and women
with children in their arms, queuing at some clinic counter
waiting to see a doctor. They carry with them, in them,
on them, bronchitis, skin disorders, eczema, diarrhoea,
worms, cholera, HIV, and unspeakable traumas.
Interestingly, besides these figures which have become
the stereotypical image of refugees as victims seeking
and receiving help, the road side makes visible also other,
parallel realities, more fluid and dynamic: in particular,
little shops selling everything from snacks, to textiles,
meat, betel nut, medicines. Given that provisions donated
FEATURE STORY
by the Food World Programme consist solely of rice,
oil and vegetables, people often sell parts of these
goods to purchase meat and other necessities. How do
they get their hands on these? Well, the chaotic flow
of tuk-tuks and cars, in and out the camps, make the
borders quite porous; and thus, the access to the local,
Bangladeshi market, easier. Similarly with medicines—
people often resell medicines they received at the clinic
they visited during their last episode—real or otherwise—
of cough or diarrhoea.
In the different centres we visit, some volunteers install
water filters; others invite children and youth to explore
their imagination though drawings and music; and I speak
with nurses, midwives, doctors, and patients. We also visit
some pregnant women—some, really only young girls,
without husbands. Our mind wander, we wonder:
a consumption with a false promise of marriage? a rape?—
this is not unlikely if we believe our assistant who claims
that 80% of Rohingya women have been raped by the
military when still in Myanmar, and that rape cases in the
camps are extremely common too.
We also visit a quarter hosting 35 women, deprived of
their husbands by the violence. One of them tells us,
her story: of how her husband and first child have been
arrested and imprisoned by the police in Myanmar; and
how she fled to Bangladesh bringing along her two other
children, barefoot over ten days. Now, she says, she has
not much to do besides filling her time with memories of
how they used to live back in Myanmar and waiting for the
calls to get their ration that, sometimes, does not even
come since some Majid, the community leaders, happen
to invert the flow according to their will and interests.
The car moves slow, too slowly,
7 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
the wheels barely turning in the
ground, since the earth has turned
into mud with the chronic rain of the
monsoon season.
FEATURE STORY

INTERVIEW WITH SUNIL AMRITH

DR NISHA MATHEW
RESEARCH FELLOW

Prof Sunil Amrith is Mehra Family

Professor of South Asian Studies
and Professor of History, and a
Director of the Joint Center for
History and Economics, at Harvard
University. He researches on the
trans-regional movement of people,
ideas, and institutions, and has
focused most recently on the Bay
of Bengal as a region connecting
South and Southeast Asia. His most
recent book, Crossing the Bay of
Bengal: The Furies of Nature and
the Fortunes of Migrants (Harvard
University Press, 2013), was
awarded the American Historical
Association’s John F. Richards Prize
Photo courtesy of Institute of South Asian Studies, NUS in South Asian History in 2014.

N.M: Your personal story of migration spans the two arms or sub-oceanic regions of the Indian Ocean, the
Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. You were born in Kenya and yet the East African side of the migration
story has eluded focus in your own writing. Can you reflect on that?

S.A: When I was an undergraduate what I loved most was studying African history. For reasons that are perhaps
not even clear to me, I moved away from it for my PhD. In the end I realised that the kinds of questions that
were primary in my mind were those coming out of South and Southeast Asian history. In terms of my own
personal history it is a little bit more complicated because my parents were never settled in East Africa,
and were never part of what we would think as the East African community. They belonged to the 1970s’
generation of professional migrants from South Asia who started to go to other parts of the world, and are
very different from those I write about. So my own connection with East Africa is actually very tenuous. I was
born in Kenya but moved to Singapore when I was a year old. In a sense then, it is a story of loss.

N.M: In October 2017 you won the MacArthur Fellowship. Congratulations. You were at ARI a couple of months
before to deliver a keynote lecture at the Graduate Forum. Has the fellowship shaped your decision in any
way to return to ARI and take on a more participatory role in the Graduate Forum this year?

S.A: I don’t think the MacArthur Fellowship has directly influenced that decision. I was and continue to be
8 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42

impressed by the programme itself. I think it is one of the most important initiatives I have ever been
involved in. It is highly commendable that ARI uses its position, resources and prestige to create this
programme which is one of the most meaningful forms of academic engagement that I know of, for
students from the region.

N.M: Do you see your presence here as intellectually seeding some new projects?
 FEATURE STORY
S.A: Absolutely. The MacArthur Fellowship was very unexpected and generous. It is a sort of no strings attached
fellowship and very wide open in terms of what I can do with it. That is all very well but one needs time and
space to imagine what these projects might look like. That’s where being here has been fantastic. Discussing
ideas with colleagues and students who come from around the region has given me a really great sense of
what I want to do next.

N.M: Do you also see some scope for collaboration with some of these graduate students and postdoctoral
fellows at ARI?

S.A: Absolutely. The interests I have developed since Crossing the Bay of Bengal was published have really
been in the direction of environmental history and environmental humanities. I am interested in water,
in air pollution and in what a historical perspective can bring to these issues that are very often discussed
as if they are purely contemporary issues. This can only be done through interdisciplinary collaboration.
I’m working in collaboration with a colleague at Harvard Medical School on the history of science and air
pollution in India, and that gives me a sense of what a bigger project might look like. It’s precisely the kind
of energy that I have found here at ARI in terms of conversations with some of the fellows and visitors that
I hope will turn into something that the project funds.

N.M: Might we see a history of haze come out of it?

S.A: That is not far from my plans. I started thinking about this in the Indian context with the Delhi haze which
we think of as a problem of the past few decades. In fact there are very interesting iterations of this that
go back to the early 20th century and certainly to the 1960s and 70s. I have been trying to gather some
of those histories with David Jones, a colleague at Harvard and who is both a physician and a historian of
science. With my interest in Southeast Asia I have been thinking about Indonesia and how my work on India
might link up with a history of the smoke haze in Indonesia.

N.M: ARI’s location in Singapore has allowed it to give scholars based in and working on themes central to
Asia greater preference over those based in the West. At the same time, it builds bridges and promotes
scholarly exchange with the western academia through visiting fellows and senior researchers and now
with the Graduate Forum itself. How different do you think its impact might be from the traditional way of
having Asian scholars trained in the West brought in as teaching faculty?

S.A: Global academia is changing quite dramatically, and this has been felt more so over the last decade.
I really don’t think there is a sense any more that western institutions, American institutions, are in a position
of leadership. There is a sort of multi-centred academic world developing and a place like ARI may well
be in a position of leadership with a lot to teach institutions elsewhere. Both in the US and the UK whose
institutions I know best, there is a feeling of pessimism in the academia, a feeling of retrenchment, a feeling
perhaps of even being left behind. More and more of our students want to come here and learn what they
can from what often feels like a much more dynamic environment. There is a relationship developing in the
academia between Asia and the West on the basis of equality, of what we can learn from each other.
And that is where the old model that you alluded to, no longer really works.

N.M: When is your new project Unruly Waters going to be published?

9 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42

S.A: In December. It is a book I’ve been working on for several years now. It came out of the Bay of Bengal book.
It is a history of the monsoon in modern times, and by that I mean both the history of monsoon science and
the cultural and political history of what scientists studying the South Asian monsoon as deeply connected
with all sorts of other parts of the global planetary climate system implied for India in the 20th century.

Thanks very much, Sunil.

FEATURE STORY

ONGOING SEMINAR SERIES

AT ARI: ACTIVATE!
EMERGENT FORMS OF
CIVIC PRACTICES IN
CONTEMPORARY ASIAN CITIES
DR SONIA LAM-KNOTT
POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW

Since 2017, Drs Minna Valjakka and Sonia Lam-Knott of the Asian Urbanisms
Cluster, together with Assistant Prof Kah Wee Lee and Assoc Prof Im Sik Cho
of the Department of Architecture, have jointly organised the Activate!
seminar series that showcases the diverse array of civic engagement found
within Asian cities.

Activate! is a timely seminar series, as it examines the
role of the state and the citizenry in mediating the array
of socio-political issues pertaining to environmental
sustainability, urban renewal and development, heritage
conservation, and the reconfiguring of urban governance,
that many cities in Asia now face. The seminars attempt
to articulate who the actors and organisations addressing
these issues are, how they have mobilised, the challenges
they experience and their subsequent response to redress
this, and the interactive dynamics that have been fostered
amongst them.
The series has run for two semesters already, containing
a total of eight seminars thus far. Not only did these
seminars review civic actions from different disciplinary
10 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
of civic actions including community movements, online
campaigns involving netizens, street protests, artistic
interventions, and more. The first series focused primarily
on civic actions in Singapore, debuting with a seminar
on grassroots efforts to save the Bukit Brown Cemetery,
followed by a session on urban gardening, then a
comparative presentation on cyber activism in Singapore
and South Korea, before concluding with a talk looking
at the potential of public-government cooperation in
conserving the built environment. The second series
broadened the geographic scope of Activate!, opening
with a seminar on the role of volunteerism in China,
then on community-led urban rejuvenation in Taiwan,
prefigurative spatial experimentations spearheaded by
artists and activists in Hong Kong, before returning to

perspectives ranging from architecture to media studies Singapore with a presentation on citizen deliberation in
to anthropology; but they also featured a broad variety the online and offline domains.

Photo credit: Sonia Lam-Knott
These seminars successfully brought together researchers,
practitioners, students, and members of the public whom
are involved or are interested in civic actions. Each session
served as a platform allowing presenters and the audience
to share and discuss their respective insights towards the
civic practices that have emerged across various Asian cities.
We would like to thank everyone
who has participated in, contributed
towards, or attended the Activate!
series over the past months;
the series would not be possible
without their enthusiastic support
and interest.
FEATURE STORY
Activate! will continue for the Fall 2018 semester, this time
with a pedagogical emphasis. Returning our attention
exclusively to the Singaporean context, four new seminars
will look at how civic engagement is actually enacted and
makes an impact, exploring the ways in which people
become involved in civic issues, and how information
about civic issues are disseminated throughout society.
These themes will be approached through looking at the
efforts to improve migrant labour conditions, how online
platforms can foster public participation in civic affairs,
the role of physical spaces in enabling mass gatherings
of people sharing common ideologies, to the significance
of photography as a communicative medium to frame
civic issues.
11 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
Details of upcoming Activate! seminars are available here:
https://ari.nus.edu.sg/Cluster/Events/AC
FEATURE STORY

ACADEMIC
RISK AND
RESILIENCE
FOR CHILDREN
IN ASIA

DR HAIBIN LI AND
PROF W.J. YEUNG

In Asia, a large section of the population (60%) live in rural or remote

locations where adequate food, water, or education opportunities cannot
be taken for granted. Despite these changes and challenges, many East
Asian countries are placed in the top global education rankings across
various subjects and the gap in educational outcomes between Asian
and Western countries appears to be growing (OECD, 2014, 2016). Some
children seem to be better able to overcome difficulties to do well in school
than others. Dr Haibin Li and Prof Jean Yeung have been trying to better
understand what makes Asian children who face adversities in life achieve
educational success.

The fruits of their labour have appeared in two special journal issues edited
by them recently, one in Educational Psychology and the other in Social
Indicators Research.
12 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42

References
Li, H., Martin, A. J., & Yeung, W.-J. J. (2017). Academic risk and resilience for children and young people in Asia.
Educational Psychology 37(8), 921-929. doi: 10.1080/01443410.2017.1331973
Yeung, W.J. & Li, H. (in press). Educational resilience among Asian children in challenging family environment.
Social Indicators Research.

The 15 articles in these two issues expand the existing
literature that is mostly based on Western societies with
Asian socioeconomic and policy contexts. Most of them
were presented at an international conference supported
by ARI and held here on 4-5 February 2015, convened
by Li and Yeung.
These papers attempt to identify factors in multiple levels
of children’s social ecology including individual, peers,
family and school. They report similarities and differences
in academic resilience factors that are found in Asian and
Western countries. Consistent with previous findings,
this collection of papers show that, in general, families
(e.g., support from the family, parental academic
expectation and help) and schools (e.g., having a close
bond to school, and being in a positive school and
classroom learning environment) can facilitate students’
access to individual, relational and contextual resources
that are conducive to better academic performance.
However, the articles illustrate that resilience factors are
influenced by particular social-cultural and policy contexts.
For example, in China, studying in a ‘key school’ plays an
important role in building educational resilience among
Chinese left-behind adolescents and rural students
because key schools are better than other government
or private schools in terms of teacher quality, equipment,
and funds. With a large number of Chinese parents in rural
areas leaving their children to work in the cities, these
schools are particularly important.
According to previous research, when children are in
difficult or problematic family environments (e.g., poor/
rural family), the protective factors from school can be
a form of intervention that buffers some of the stressors
from family to improve children’s resilience. Despite this
potential, in India and Vietnam, schools fail to provide
an environment that can create resources necessary for
fostering resilience in socially excluded groups. This is
because many teachers come from relatively privileged
groups, and they usually have low expectations for
FEATURE STORY
Jean Yeung with a migrant
mother and her child in a Beijing
school for migrants
children from socially disadvantaged groups. Moreover,
many socially excluded children live in remote areas
where schools have poor infrastructure, and they face
language barriers because the medium of instruction is
often not their preferred language. In this situation, we
find that students who enjoy school are more motivated to
study hard and this is the most important factor for their
educational resilience.
Some nuanced factors that are rarely mentioned in the
western literature are also identified. For example, a
paper in the collection identifies technology and animals
to be helpful in building children’s resilience. In addition,
how children perceive adversity is also underscored as
important. Disadvantaged Asian adolescents may share
different understandings of the risky/stressful/challenging
circumstances they face. For example, most Chinese left-
behind children understand that their parents leave them
to work in the cities out of love, to give them a better
future, and this understanding propels many of them to
work hard. Some Hong Kong students regard adversities
as normal events that everybody will meet. These findings
suggest that these children are not merely passively
exposed to experiential factors but active agents who
construct their own life chances. Future research should
focus on how children/youth perceive the risk factors that
they encounter and how these perceptions affect their
coping abilities.
Taken together, the Special Issues take stock of and add
to what is known from research and practice to improve
our capacity to promote the resilience of Asian children
13 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
facing challenging life circumstances. They showcase
multiple approaches (e.g., prevention and interventions
from family and school) to building academic resilience
and empowering students and their educators and
caregivers across the Asian region. Efforts to promote
resilience should be tailored to the unique risks and the
cultural contexts that a sub-population of children and
youth experiences.
NEW ARI MEMBERS
Miss Nika Tay Hui Min has
commenced a 1-year appointment
as Institute Research Assistant
with effect from 17 May 2018. She
obtained her B.A. (Hons) with a
double major in History and Public
Policy and Global Affairs from NTU.
Her research interests are diverse
and interdisciplinary, ranging from
topics in popular culture, cultural
heritage and everyday life as well as
gender studies.
Dr Shiori Shakuto has commenced
a 2-year appointment as
Postdoctoral Fellow in the
Asian Migration Cluster with effect
from 12 June 2018. She has a PhD
in Anthropology from the Australian
National University. At ARI, she
will be working on young Japanese
families who moved to Malaysia
after the 2011 tsunami and
nuclear disaster.
Dr Andrew Ong has commenced
a 2-year appointment as
Postdoctoral Fellow in the Inter-Asia
Engagements Cluster with effect
from 20 June 2018. He holds a
PhD in Anthropology from Harvard
University. At ARI, he will be working
on a book manuscript based on his
dissertation research on the political
practice of the United Wa State
Army in Myanmar.
Dr Courtney Fu Rong has
commenced a 1-year appointment
as Postdoctoral Fellow in the
Identities Cluster with effect from
2 July 2018. She received her PhD
in History & Asian Studies from
14 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
Pennsylvania State University. At
ARI, she plans to work on her project
exploring the intersections between
cultural identities and fashion within
Chinese communities in early 20th
century Singapore.
Dr Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine
(Mitcho) has commenced a 6-month
appointment as Assistant Professor
under the FASS Writing Semester
Scheme with effect from 1 July 2018.
Dr Erlewine (Mitcho) is an Assistant
Professor of Linguistics in NUS.
His research investigates linguistic
theory (syntax and semantics)
through original fieldwork. His
work has involved fieldwork on
understudied and endangered
languages of the Austronesian,
Tibeto-Burman, and Mayan
language families, as well as
the study of Mandarin Chinese,
Japanese, and English.
Assoc Prof Ho Kong Chong
has commenced a 3-year joint
appointment as Cluster Leader and
Associate Professor in the Asian
Urbanisms Cluster in ARI and the
Department of Sociology with effect
from 1 July 2018. Trained as an
urban sociologist at the University of
Chicago, he has research interests
in neighbourhood and community
development, heritage and place-
making, the political economy of
cities as well as a more recent interest
in higher education. He will work with
cluster members to develop research
projects and workshops on urban
heritage and the vernacular city;
urban politics and civil society; urban
environment and well-being; and
urban practice and solutions.
Miss Rohini Anant has commenced
a 6-month appointment as Research
Assistant in the Asian Migration
Cluster with effect from 23 July
2018. She recently completed her
BSocSc. in Geography from NUS.
Rohini is interested in postcolonial
methodologies and socio-political
issues focusing on agency, gender,
migration, and development. She
will be assisting Prof Brenda Yeoh on
various migration-related projects.

Dr Fong Siao Yuong has
commenced a 2-year appointment
as Postdoctoral Fellow in the
Identities Cluster with effect from
2 July 2018. Dr Fong received her
PhD in Media and Cultural Studies
from Royal Holloway, University
of London, in 2016. Her primary
research lies in the fields of
Critical Cultural Studies, Media
Anthropology and Production
Studies, focusing on Southeast and
East Asia. At ARI, she will work on
her book manuscript based on her
doctoral thesis preliminarily titled,
‘The Cultural Articulation of Fear
in Singapore’.
Dr Sylvia Ang has commenced a
2-year appointment as a Postdoctoral
Fellow in the Asian Migration Cluster
with effect from 2 July 2018. She
holds a PhD in Development Studies
from the University of Melbourne.
At ARI, she will be working on
her book entitled Contesting
Chinese-ness: Co-ethnic Tensions
between Migrants and Locals in
Contemporary Singapore. Her book
aims to demonstrate through the
lens of culture, how migrants and
hosts imagine one’s social existence
alongside others.
Dr Yun Hae Young has commenced
a 2-year appointment as Research
Fellow in the Asian Urbanisms
Cluster with effect from 2 July
2018. She completed her PhD
in Design, Housing, & Apparel
with focus on Housing Studies
at the University of Minnesota,
USA. She is interested in housing,
neighbourhood environments, low-
income households, and quality of
life. At ARI, Dr Yun will be working
on socially mixed public housing,
neighbourhood walkability and
public housing policy.
NEW ARI MEMBERS
Miss Grace Chong En Ting has
commenced a 1-year appointment
as Research Assistant in the Asian
Urbanisms Cluster with effect from
2 July 2018. She has a Bachelor in
Environmental Studies (Hons) degree
specialising in Geography from NUS.
She has travelled broadly in Southeast
Asia and is interested in bridging
and communicating the culture and
environmental issues in these areas.
At ARI, she will be working on the
Mapping the Southern Islands’
Heritage Landscapes: Integrating
Culture and Nature in Heritage
Conservation project.
Dr Wen-Ching Ting has
commenced a 1-year appointment
as Postdoctoral Fellow in the Asian
Migration Cluster with effect from
11 July 2018. She obtained her
PhD in Migration Studies from
the University of Sussex in 2016.
At ARI, she will be involved in the
Transnational Relations, Ageing and
Care Ethics (TRACE) project and
extend her research to examine care
migration from Myanmar and the
left-behind care chains.
Dr Trung Dinh Dang has
commenced a 3-month appointment
as Visiting Research Fellow in the
Inter-Asia Engagements Cluster
with effect from 6 August 2018.
He completed his PhD in Political
Science at ANU in 2008. His areas
of research interest are development
studies, environment policy,
governance of land, water and
other common property resources
and everyday politics in Vietnam
and Asia-Pacific countries. At ARI,
he will be working on journal articles
15 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
on Vietnam’s rural industries in
global markets and governance
of water pollution.
NEW ARI MEMBERS
Dr Bernhard Schär has commenced
a 3-month appointment as Visiting
Senior Research Fellow in the Inter-
Asia Engagements Cluster with effect
from 1 August 2018. He is a lecturer
and researcher at ETH Zürich’s Institute
for History. His research focuses on
Central Europe’s entanglements with
Southeast Asia during the time of the
modern Dutch Empire. At ARI, he
will expand the geographical scope
of his inquiry to include the role of
mercenaries from Germany, Belgium,
and France in the 19th century Dutch
East Indies.
Dr Carola Lorea has commenced
a 2-year appointment as Research
Fellow in the Religion and
Globalisation Cluster with effect from
1 August 2018. She completed her
PhD in Asian and African Civilizations,
Cultures and Societies from the
Institute of Oriental Studies, La
Sapienza University of Rome. At ARI,
she will work on soundscapes of
religion and displacement focusing on
a large, yet understudied community
of low-caste religious practitioners
called Matua, and their flows of
preachers, performers, religious items
and ideas across the Bay of Bengal.
Miss Dalreena Gupta joined ARI as
Senior Executive (Human Resources)
on 7 September 2018. She has six
years of experience working in human
resource positions in the education
and private sectors.
16 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
Prof Richard Wilk has commenced
a 3-month appointment as Visiting
Senior Research Fellow in the Inter-
Asia Engagements Cluster with effect
from 15 August 2018. Prof Wilk
completed his PhD in Anthropology
from the University of Arizona and is
currently Distinguished Professor and
Provost’s Professor Emeritus at Indiana
University. Trained as an economic
and ecological anthropologist, his
research has covered many different
aspects of global consumer culture
such as the global history of food
and the prospects for sustainable
consumption as a means to minimise
climate change.
Miss Wu Qifang will be attached
to the Asian Migration Cluster as
Research Assistant for four months
from 3 September to 8 December
2018. She is a B.A. candidate at the
University of British Columbia, majoring
in Economics and Mathematics.
Her research interests span both
behavioural economics and economic
implications on human capital and
labour markets. At ARI, she will be
working on the TRACE project with
Dr Chiu Tuen Yi and Dr Guo Zhou,
Department of Geography.
Miss Nicole Park will be attached
to the Asian Migration Cluster as
Research Assistant for four months
from 17 September to 14 December
2018. She is a fourth year student
at the University of British Columbia
pursuing a BA in Political Science.
She is especially interested in
the study of foreign policy and
international relations. During her
attachment, she will be working with
the Asian Migration Cluster on the
CHAMPSEA project.
 FORTHCOMING EVENTS
19 OCTOBER 2018

PRACTICES OF ALTERNATIVE ART SPACES AND TRANSITIONAL

POLITICS IN ASIA

25 – 26 OCTOBER 2018

SHIFTING UNDERGROUNDS IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA:

TRANSFORMATIONS AND DECLINATIONS OF CULTURAL
SELF-EXPRESSIONS AND COMMUNITIES IN CITYSCAPE

1 – 2 NOVEMBER 2018

SUSTAINABLE TRANSBOUNDARY GOVERNANCE OF THE

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMONS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

8 – 9 NOVEMBER 2018

THE VALUE OF CHILDREN IN ASIA: ECONOMY, FAMILY AND

PUBLIC POLICIES

19 – 20 NOVEMBER 2018

OLD BONDS, NEW TIES: UNDERSTANDING FAMILY

TRANSITIONS IN RE-PARTNERSHIPS, REMARRIAGES AND
STEPFAMILIES IN ASIA

3 – 4 DECEMBER 2018

LOVE’S LABOUR’S COST? ASIAN MIGRATION, INTIMATE

LABOUR AND THE POLITICS OF GENDER

15 – 16 JANUARY 2019

DEBT, FREEDOM, AND DEVELOPMENT: INSIGHTS FROM ASIA

24 – 25 JANUARY 2019

FROM ‘PELAGIC EMPIRE’ TO EEZS: THE TRANSFORMATION

OF ASIA’S PACIFIC SINCE THE 19TH CENTURY

31 JANUARY – 1 FEBRUARY 2019

MARRIAGE MIGRATION, FAMILY AND CITIZENSHIP IN ASIA

17 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42

Details of events are available at: https://ari.nus.edu.sg/Event

 TRACE – MIGRATION
CONNECTIONS AND LOCAL
CLUSTER NEWS

MOBILITIES THROUGH THE

LENS OF AGEING
ASSOC PROF ELAINE HO

TRACE respondent engaged in Tai Chi at Chinese Gardens

The Asian Migration Cluster embarked on a new three- The inter-disciplinary research team consists of nine
year project in January 2018 titled, Transnational Relations, members: Assoc Prof Elaine Ho (Primary Investigator);
Ageing and Care Ethics (TRACE). Supported by a Ministry Professor Brenda Yeoh and Assoc Profs Shirlena Huang
of Education Tier 2 grant, the project investigates how and Thang Leng Leng (Co-Investigators); Drs Sylvia Ang,
global care circulations mediate ageing and impact Chiu Tuen Yi, Ting Wen-Ching and Guo Zhou (Postdoctoral
transnational relations and care ethics. The study Fellows); and Mr Liew Jian An (Research Assistant).
approaches Singapore as a hub where migration inflows
and outflows connect the city-state to China through
grandparenting, retirement and/or lifestyle migration, and
to Myanmar through labour migration for eldercare. The
study also compares Singapore with Sydney, a comparable-
size city that experiences analogous care migration trends.

An innovative feature of TRACE is it combines qualitative

research methods (e.g., observation and interviews) with
18 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42

Geographic Information System (GIS) visualisation and

analyses. Known as qualitative GIS, this methodological
approach develops a grounded understanding of the older
adults’ everyday care routines while keeping in view the
care relations they forge across national borders. Overall,
the project provides a fuller understanding of how older
adults relate to their spatial environments and experience
Sample qualitative GIS map based on data collected from
ageing in the context of transnationalism. TRACE respondents
 CHANGING
OUTREACH EVENT
FAMILY IN ASIA
DR LAVANYA BALACHANDRAN
Over the last few months, members of the Changing
Family in Asia Cluster have been involved in organising
conferences as well as producing publications including
special issues and edited books. Trends and Determinants
of Retirement and Related Policies in Asia was an
international conference hosted at ARI by Lee Yeonjin
and Jean Yeung on 8-9 February 2018 that focused
on examining the relationship between public old-age
support, intergenerational support, elderly labour force
participation and retirement processes and policies. Jean
Yeung and Hu Shu published an edited volume Family
and Population Changes in Singapore where previous and
current cluster members and associates (Sharon Quah, Mu
Zheng, Hu Shu, Lavanya Balachandran, You Yenn, Thang
Leng Leng, Angelique Chan) have contributed chapters to.
The Cluster looks forward to hosting two more conferences
in November 2018—The Value of Children and Re-
partnerships, Remarriages and Stepfamilies. Four special
issues are forthcoming, two on long-term care of elderly by
Jean Yeung and Thang Leng Leng in the Journal of Aging
and Health and Journal of Cross Cultural Gerontology, and
two on educational resilience by Jean Yeung and former
cluster member, Li Haibin, in Educational Psychology
and Social Indicators Research. Among several published
articles include ‘Families in Southeast and South Asia’
(Yeung and co-authors, Annual Review of Sociology),
‘Adult Children’s Educational Attainment and the Cognitive
Trajectories of Older Parents in South Korea’ (Lee Yeonjin,
CLUSTER NEWS
Social Science and Medicine), ‘Social Exclusion and
Cognitive Impairment among the Elderly in China: A Triple
Jeopardy for the Rural Female Elderly’ (Yang Yi and co-
authors, Journal of Health and Place), ‘Parents’ Migration
and Adolescents’ Transition to High School in Rural China:
The Role of Parental Divorce’ (Hu Shu, Journal of Family
Issues) as well as a forthcoming article ‘Four Decades of
Transition to First Marriage in China: Economic Reform and
Persisting Marriage Norms’ (Gu Xiaorong, International
Journal of Population Studies).
Cluster members have also done their part in contributing
to public debates through their Op-ed pieces in the
local daily The Straits Times. Jean Yeung and Hu Shu’s
editorial (17 May 2018) on issues of marriage and family
in Singapore calls for open public discussions and policy
reforms around issues of cohabitation, marriage and
divorce. Yang Yi’s op-ed piece (2 August 2018) argues that
social exclusion in ageing societies can lead to significant
mental issues amongst the elderly including cognitive
impairment, increasing their risk of dementia.
We are very happy to welcome Professor Sonja Drobnič
from the University of Bremen, who commenced a 3-month
appointment as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in July
2018. After five years with the Cluster, we bid farewell to
Hu Shu who is leaving ARI to join the Singapore University of
Social Sciences as Lecturer. We wish her all the very best and
thank her for her substantive contributions to the Cluster.
IDENTITIES
MR AMIT JULKA
The Identities Cluster welcomed two new Postdoctoral
Fellows, Dr Fong Siao Yuong and Dr Fu Courtney. Dr
Fong’s research focuses on the cultural articulation of
fear in Singapore while Dr Fu explores the intersections
between cultural identities and fashion within the Chinese
community in early 20th century Singapore. Besides new
arrivals, the Cluster also conducted its first workshop on
how to move from interpretivist discourse analysis to focus
groups. Having authored eight national identity reports
19 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
on Singapore for 2010 and 2015 based on English,
Chinese, Malay, and Tamil sources, the Making Identity
Count in Asia or MICA project will use these materials to
develop focus groups on Singaporean national identity,
and then specify a national survey based on both
approaches. Last but not the least, the Identities Cluster
congratulates NTU Department of Sociology Assistant
Prof Setoh Pei Pei for her appointment as editorial board
member of Infant Behaviour and Development.
OUTREACH EVENT

13TH SINGAPORE GRADUATE FORUM

ON SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES
DR MICHIEL BAAS
RESEARCH FELLOW

This year marked the 13th year that the Asia Research Institute hosted the
Asian Graduate Student Fellowship Programme and organised the Singapore
Graduate Forum on Southeast Asian Studies.
various research techniques, how to
deal with mixed reviews, and how
to apply for a PhD scholarship. The
Skills-Based Sessions kicked off with
three researchers at various stages of
their careers reflecting on how they
ended up in academia. A roundtable
which focused on the question of how
to flourish as an early career academic
then finalised the two days. The
organisers would like to specifically
thank all those who so graciously
volunteered to hold workshops on
various topics.

The three days of Forum presentations

In total 30 graduate students working on Southeast Asia-
related topics joined the fellowship programme. While
the majority of these students hailed from the Southeast
Asia region, we also had students based in Australia,
Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and the
United States. A selection of these students received a
two-week Intensive English Academic Writing Course.
All graduate students were with us for six weeks in total.
For the concluding five-day Graduate Forum on Southeast
Asian Studies, these students were joined by another 39
from around the world. Besides students from Southeast
Asia, we had students join us from Australia, China,
France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, the UK
and the US. The first two days of the Forum consisted of
20 | SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE NO. 42
offered a platform to 69 students to
present their on-going research work in and on Southeast
Asia. Keynotes were delivered by Ardeth Maung
Thawnghmung (Umass Lowell), Sun Sun Lim (SUTD) and
Deborah Wong (UC Riverside). The overall programme
was furthermore strengthened by four visiting senior
research fellows: Sunil Amrith (Harvard University), Nicole
Constable (University of Pittsburgh) and Thomas Pepinsky
(Cornell), Meredith Weiss (State University of New York,
Albany). Again a warm thank you to all those involved,
especially the chairpersons of the different sessions who
also acted as discussants and made important comments
on the graduate students’ papers.
This was the third year that the Programme as well as
Forum was made possible by generous funding from the

skills-based sessions which focused on academic writing, Henry Luce Foundation.

Asia Research Institute

NUS Kent Ridge Campus, AS8 #07-01, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260
https://ari.nus.edu.sg/

This issue of the ARI Newsletter was compiled by Eric Kerr, Saharah Abubakar, Lavanya Balachandran,
Céline Coderey, Nisha Mathew, Chand Somaiah, Minna Valjakka, and Sharon Ong.