The ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (formerly Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) is an autonomous ... more The ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (formerly Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) is an autonomous organization established in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security, and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute's research programmes are grouped under Regional Economic Studies (RES), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). The Institute is also home to the ASEAN Studies Centre (ASC), the Singapore APEC Study Centre and the Temasek History Research Centre (THRC). ISEAS Publishing, an established academic press, has issued more than 2,000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publishing works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world.
Author details: Lyn Parker is Professor of Asian Studies in the School of Social Sciences at the ... more Author details: Lyn Parker is Professor of Asian Studies in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Perth, WA 6009, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. Chang-Yau Hoon is Assistant Professor of Asian Studies in the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, 90 Stamford Road, Level 4, Singapore 178903. E-mail: [email protected]. He is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. E-mail: [email protected].
Using qualitative data collected from interviews with Filipino-Malay Bruneian biracial informants... more Using qualitative data collected from interviews with Filipino-Malay Bruneian biracial informants, this article examines the identity conundrum that is grounded in their individual liminal experiences. Growing up in a bicultural family in a conservative society, the Filipino-Malay Bruneian identity is a complex phenomenon as they negotiate their Muslim identity while preserving their Filipino culture. By narrating the shifting identity and boundary crossing among the Filipino-Malay Bruneian individuals, this article discusses the ways they respond to the dominant discourse in the Bruneian social and cultural contexts that perceive identity as singular, fixed, and essentialist. It unpacks the different dimensions of their life experiences, including their struggles with persistent racial and class stereotype of being “anak amah” (child of a maid). Finally, the article analyses how our informants negotiate identity conflicts in their everyday practices and provides nuanced insights in...
Hybridity is the antithesis to identity. It is a transgressive concept that blurs and traverses t... more Hybridity is the antithesis to identity. It is a transgressive concept that blurs and traverses the boundaries by which identities are bounded. Between the poles of identity and hybridity lies the multiple positions that depends on how agency and power are exercised. This paper discusses the multidirectionality of the hybridizing process of the Chinese Indonesians, from assimilation during the Suharto’s New Order (1966-1998) to “resinicization” following the democratization process after fall of Suharto. It examines the cultural politics of the Chinese Indonesians in negotiating between hybridity and identity, as well as the underlying power dynamics in such negotiations. For many hybridized Chinese Indonesians who are unable to access the cultural resources in Chinese, learning Mandarin and performing Chineseness appeals more to economic rather than cultural logic. In light of the rise of China, this paper attempts to unpack the deeper embedded cultural and economic meaning to the return to primordial Chineseness among the Chinese in postSuharto Indonesia.
Routledge International Handbook of Religion in Global Society, 2020
Marketing and branding practices are well-established among contemporary megachurches (Ellingson ... more Marketing and branding practices are well-established among contemporary megachurches (Ellingson 2013; Mautner 2010). Defined as Protestant religious organizations of 2,000 or more people (Thumma and Travis 2007), megachurches often experience rapid growth and expansion, and are labelled a secularized form of religion (Ostwaldt 2003) because of their business-like approach. Proselytizing the Gospel occurs alongside the selling of merchandise such as music, self-help books, television ministries, self-improvement events and hosting of annual conferences that attract global attendees. In a U.S. context where both marketing originated (Bartels 1962) and megachurches flourished, church marketing is big business (Mautner 2010). Religious organizations are exhorted to compete in a ‘spiritual marketplace’ (Miller 2002; Roof 1999) and develop their ‘faith brand’ (Einstein 2008), differentiating themselves from other churches and offering products and services that can be packaged and market...
The introduction to this special issue considers the interdisciplinary study of religious sentime... more The introduction to this special issue considers the interdisciplinary study of religious sentiments, religious care and social actions during the COVID-19 outbreak in South-, East- and Southeast Asia. Our approach in terms of nodes and polarisation allows one to visualise a bundle of religious and secular actors and interests, as well as original strategies and actions, in time of pandemic, which sometimes challenge local regimes of truth and authority. In many cases, faith-based NGO s have been complementing the State, activating their powerful channels of mission in urban and rural areas, under the guise of combating COVID-19 crisis. The studies presented here examine several Asian religious actors during this period of COVID-19 crisis; and the ways in which their creative digitalised measures of worship, protection and healing, and their participation in urgent public health and care provisions, have given them the opportunity to renegotiate their relationships with States and s...
Objective Research on aging has received considerable attention in medicine, public health and so... more Objective Research on aging has received considerable attention in medicine, public health and social sciences in recent decades. This study aimed to investigate predictors of life satisfaction and healthy aging with focus on gender differences among elderly population in Brunei. Methods Cross-sectional study on elderly population aged 50 to 75, recruited by proportionate sampling. Multivariate linear regression analysis stratified by gender, was applied. Results 45.6% of the variance explaining life satisfaction of elderly women were strongly associated with self-perceived health, social relationship, and education level. For elderly men, 26.3% of the variance of life satisfaction was predicted by physical functioning or disability, and social relationship. Musculoskeletal discomfort, and mental and emotional issues were significantly higher in elderly women. Conclusions This report benefits policymakers and related stakeholders for care of elderly by maintaining or further promoti...
The fall of Suharto in 1998 opened up a new space for the public articulation of Chinese identity... more The fall of Suharto in 1998 opened up a new space for the public articulation of Chinese identity in Indonesia. Since the decrees that lifted the ban on Chinese language, Mandarin classes have had an unprecedented boom. This paper reflects on this phenomenon in the geopolitical context of the economic rise of China and its promotion of soft power, as well as the market forces that reward Mandarin competency in contemporary Indonesia.
This paper examines the nexus of income and multidimensional life satisfaction (LS) in the oil- a... more This paper examines the nexus of income and multidimensional life satisfaction (LS) in the oil- and gas-rich Belait district of Brunei Darussalam. Using a random sample of 1,000 Belait residents and principal component factor analysis to sort 11 domains-of-life satisfaction into three uncorrelated LS spheres–LS with materialist life (job, stress, and income); LS with post-materialist life (family, spirituality, neighbors, and community activities); and LS with public life (health, neighborhood facility, feeling safe at home, and quality of living environment)—we discover the following. First, positive income effects on LS with materialist life sphere are evidenced from lower-middle- to high-income bands. Second, a positive income effect on LS with post-materialist life sphere is only found in the high-income band. Income does not relate to LS with public life sphere. These findings are robust to using each domains-of-life satisfaction and treating scores on domain satisfaction as or...
Introduction: A Problematic Identity Approaches to Accommodating Chineseness Historical Construct... more Introduction: A Problematic Identity Approaches to Accommodating Chineseness Historical Constructions of Chinese Identity Chinese "Culture" and Self-Identity Heterogeneity and Internal Dynamics of Chinese Politics Re-Emergence of the Chinese Press "Race", Class and Stereotyping: Pribumi Perceptions of Chineseness Preserving Ethnicity: Negotiating Boundary Maintenance and Border-Crossing Conclusion: Reconceptualising Chineseness.
Globalisation, Education, and Reform in Brunei Darussalam, 2021
While remote learning is arguably effective as a substitute for the face-to-face model of learnin... more While remote learning is arguably effective as a substitute for the face-to-face model of learning and teaching in higher education, it raises multiple psychological and social implications for the learners. In this paper, we introduce the term “digidemic” (digital pandemic) to emphasize the impact of online learning on students’ mental wellbeing. As an objective structure that is beyond individual control, we note that students encounter digidemic in the form of disruption and challenges to the learning process at home. These disruptions include slow Internet connections that must be shared them with siblings or other family members and loss of a private learning space. Furthermore, students experience a sense of social isolation, perceived distress, and ambivalence in determining appropriate strategies to adapt to the negative effects of the disruptions. These phenomena precipitate in many individuals an inability to adapt to emerging objective structures, which sociologists refer to as hysteresis. Conceptually, hysteresis is described as the result of a gap between the objective structure (in this case, imposed online learning) and the capacity of the individual to cope with changes in their external environment. This article presents a preliminary study of the conceptual alignment between digidemic and hysteresis, which is applicable to future research into spatial transitions that students experience and the various personal strategies they undertake.
This paper examines the relationship between
individuals’ perceptions of environmental quality an... more This paper examines the relationship between individuals’ perceptions of environmental quality and self-rated health (SRH) after controlling for dimensions of socioeconomic, demographic and healthy lifestyle variables.
The ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (formerly Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) is an autonomous ... more The ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (formerly Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) is an autonomous organization established in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security, and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute's research programmes are grouped under Regional Economic Studies (RES), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). The Institute is also home to the ASEAN Studies Centre (ASC), the Singapore APEC Study Centre and the Temasek History Research Centre (THRC). ISEAS Publishing, an established academic press, has issued more than 2,000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publishing works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world.
Author details: Lyn Parker is Professor of Asian Studies in the School of Social Sciences at the ... more Author details: Lyn Parker is Professor of Asian Studies in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Perth, WA 6009, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. Chang-Yau Hoon is Assistant Professor of Asian Studies in the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, 90 Stamford Road, Level 4, Singapore 178903. E-mail: [email protected]. He is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. E-mail: [email protected].
Using qualitative data collected from interviews with Filipino-Malay Bruneian biracial informants... more Using qualitative data collected from interviews with Filipino-Malay Bruneian biracial informants, this article examines the identity conundrum that is grounded in their individual liminal experiences. Growing up in a bicultural family in a conservative society, the Filipino-Malay Bruneian identity is a complex phenomenon as they negotiate their Muslim identity while preserving their Filipino culture. By narrating the shifting identity and boundary crossing among the Filipino-Malay Bruneian individuals, this article discusses the ways they respond to the dominant discourse in the Bruneian social and cultural contexts that perceive identity as singular, fixed, and essentialist. It unpacks the different dimensions of their life experiences, including their struggles with persistent racial and class stereotype of being “anak amah” (child of a maid). Finally, the article analyses how our informants negotiate identity conflicts in their everyday practices and provides nuanced insights in...
Hybridity is the antithesis to identity. It is a transgressive concept that blurs and traverses t... more Hybridity is the antithesis to identity. It is a transgressive concept that blurs and traverses the boundaries by which identities are bounded. Between the poles of identity and hybridity lies the multiple positions that depends on how agency and power are exercised. This paper discusses the multidirectionality of the hybridizing process of the Chinese Indonesians, from assimilation during the Suharto’s New Order (1966-1998) to “resinicization” following the democratization process after fall of Suharto. It examines the cultural politics of the Chinese Indonesians in negotiating between hybridity and identity, as well as the underlying power dynamics in such negotiations. For many hybridized Chinese Indonesians who are unable to access the cultural resources in Chinese, learning Mandarin and performing Chineseness appeals more to economic rather than cultural logic. In light of the rise of China, this paper attempts to unpack the deeper embedded cultural and economic meaning to the return to primordial Chineseness among the Chinese in postSuharto Indonesia.
Routledge International Handbook of Religion in Global Society, 2020
Marketing and branding practices are well-established among contemporary megachurches (Ellingson ... more Marketing and branding practices are well-established among contemporary megachurches (Ellingson 2013; Mautner 2010). Defined as Protestant religious organizations of 2,000 or more people (Thumma and Travis 2007), megachurches often experience rapid growth and expansion, and are labelled a secularized form of religion (Ostwaldt 2003) because of their business-like approach. Proselytizing the Gospel occurs alongside the selling of merchandise such as music, self-help books, television ministries, self-improvement events and hosting of annual conferences that attract global attendees. In a U.S. context where both marketing originated (Bartels 1962) and megachurches flourished, church marketing is big business (Mautner 2010). Religious organizations are exhorted to compete in a ‘spiritual marketplace’ (Miller 2002; Roof 1999) and develop their ‘faith brand’ (Einstein 2008), differentiating themselves from other churches and offering products and services that can be packaged and market...
The introduction to this special issue considers the interdisciplinary study of religious sentime... more The introduction to this special issue considers the interdisciplinary study of religious sentiments, religious care and social actions during the COVID-19 outbreak in South-, East- and Southeast Asia. Our approach in terms of nodes and polarisation allows one to visualise a bundle of religious and secular actors and interests, as well as original strategies and actions, in time of pandemic, which sometimes challenge local regimes of truth and authority. In many cases, faith-based NGO s have been complementing the State, activating their powerful channels of mission in urban and rural areas, under the guise of combating COVID-19 crisis. The studies presented here examine several Asian religious actors during this period of COVID-19 crisis; and the ways in which their creative digitalised measures of worship, protection and healing, and their participation in urgent public health and care provisions, have given them the opportunity to renegotiate their relationships with States and s...
Objective Research on aging has received considerable attention in medicine, public health and so... more Objective Research on aging has received considerable attention in medicine, public health and social sciences in recent decades. This study aimed to investigate predictors of life satisfaction and healthy aging with focus on gender differences among elderly population in Brunei. Methods Cross-sectional study on elderly population aged 50 to 75, recruited by proportionate sampling. Multivariate linear regression analysis stratified by gender, was applied. Results 45.6% of the variance explaining life satisfaction of elderly women were strongly associated with self-perceived health, social relationship, and education level. For elderly men, 26.3% of the variance of life satisfaction was predicted by physical functioning or disability, and social relationship. Musculoskeletal discomfort, and mental and emotional issues were significantly higher in elderly women. Conclusions This report benefits policymakers and related stakeholders for care of elderly by maintaining or further promoti...
The fall of Suharto in 1998 opened up a new space for the public articulation of Chinese identity... more The fall of Suharto in 1998 opened up a new space for the public articulation of Chinese identity in Indonesia. Since the decrees that lifted the ban on Chinese language, Mandarin classes have had an unprecedented boom. This paper reflects on this phenomenon in the geopolitical context of the economic rise of China and its promotion of soft power, as well as the market forces that reward Mandarin competency in contemporary Indonesia.
This paper examines the nexus of income and multidimensional life satisfaction (LS) in the oil- a... more This paper examines the nexus of income and multidimensional life satisfaction (LS) in the oil- and gas-rich Belait district of Brunei Darussalam. Using a random sample of 1,000 Belait residents and principal component factor analysis to sort 11 domains-of-life satisfaction into three uncorrelated LS spheres–LS with materialist life (job, stress, and income); LS with post-materialist life (family, spirituality, neighbors, and community activities); and LS with public life (health, neighborhood facility, feeling safe at home, and quality of living environment)—we discover the following. First, positive income effects on LS with materialist life sphere are evidenced from lower-middle- to high-income bands. Second, a positive income effect on LS with post-materialist life sphere is only found in the high-income band. Income does not relate to LS with public life sphere. These findings are robust to using each domains-of-life satisfaction and treating scores on domain satisfaction as or...
Introduction: A Problematic Identity Approaches to Accommodating Chineseness Historical Construct... more Introduction: A Problematic Identity Approaches to Accommodating Chineseness Historical Constructions of Chinese Identity Chinese "Culture" and Self-Identity Heterogeneity and Internal Dynamics of Chinese Politics Re-Emergence of the Chinese Press "Race", Class and Stereotyping: Pribumi Perceptions of Chineseness Preserving Ethnicity: Negotiating Boundary Maintenance and Border-Crossing Conclusion: Reconceptualising Chineseness.
Globalisation, Education, and Reform in Brunei Darussalam, 2021
While remote learning is arguably effective as a substitute for the face-to-face model of learnin... more While remote learning is arguably effective as a substitute for the face-to-face model of learning and teaching in higher education, it raises multiple psychological and social implications for the learners. In this paper, we introduce the term “digidemic” (digital pandemic) to emphasize the impact of online learning on students’ mental wellbeing. As an objective structure that is beyond individual control, we note that students encounter digidemic in the form of disruption and challenges to the learning process at home. These disruptions include slow Internet connections that must be shared them with siblings or other family members and loss of a private learning space. Furthermore, students experience a sense of social isolation, perceived distress, and ambivalence in determining appropriate strategies to adapt to the negative effects of the disruptions. These phenomena precipitate in many individuals an inability to adapt to emerging objective structures, which sociologists refer to as hysteresis. Conceptually, hysteresis is described as the result of a gap between the objective structure (in this case, imposed online learning) and the capacity of the individual to cope with changes in their external environment. This article presents a preliminary study of the conceptual alignment between digidemic and hysteresis, which is applicable to future research into spatial transitions that students experience and the various personal strategies they undertake.
This paper examines the relationship between
individuals’ perceptions of environmental quality an... more This paper examines the relationship between individuals’ perceptions of environmental quality and self-rated health (SRH) after controlling for dimensions of socioeconomic, demographic and healthy lifestyle variables.
China's rise as a global economic powerhouse has led to a surge in Chinese language-learning worl... more China's rise as a global economic powerhouse has led to a surge in Chinese language-learning worldwide, including in Southeast Asia. This article examines how this phenomenon has unfolded in Brunei, a Muslim and English-Malay bilingual majority country. Drawing on participant observations at two private Chinese middle schools, 19 interviews with teachers and parents, and 10 focus group discussions with students conducted in 2018, we find that there are discrepant discourses and multifaceted realities within and between different groups. While parents and teachers articulate the economic and cultural benefits of learning Chinese, students struggle to understand these and instead articulate banal motivations (e.g. being able to communicate with non-English-conversant family members and foreigners). Contextualising our findings to the historic marginalisation of the ethnic Chinese diasporic minority community in Brunei, we argue that the cumulative effects of educational and non-educational institutional barriers (e.g. lack of teaching materials relevant to the local context, and reliance on foreign teachers) hamper the development of effective and comprehensive Chinese language-learning in Brunei. Our findings suggest that, to date, the rise of China has had limited impact on Chinese language-learning among Chinese students and their parents in Brunei.
As part of “China’s south,” Southeast Asia has historically assumed a peripheral position when ju... more As part of “China’s south,” Southeast Asia has historically assumed a peripheral position when juxtaposed against the power of the Chinese state. In the existing scholarly literature, the power asymmetry is reflected in the ostensible bias where most studies are about China’s presence in or engagement with Southeast Asia rather than the reverse; studies on the presence or influence of Southeast Asia in China have been a marginal enterprise. The present volume aims to fill this void by exploring the historical entanglements and contemporary engagements of Southeast Asia(ns) in China through a Southeast Asian perspective. As China seeks to understand Southeast Asia’s presence in the country on its own terms, it is also engaged in a process of self-discovery and defining where and how it should stand in relation to the region. Departing from the discourse of China as the a priori center dominating the scholarship on China–Southeast Asia relations, the present volume hopes to subvert such power relations in order to bring fresh perspectives on the historical and contemporary contributions of Southeast Asia(ns) in China.
This chapter explores the ways in which Bruneians who are born into a Chinese-Malay family define... more This chapter explores the ways in which Bruneians who are born into a Chinese-Malay family define their identity. It details how the state classifies them in terms of 'race', how they negotiate their bicultural practices, and the day-today challenges they face while growing up in what we could term a liminal space of in-betweenness. Situated against the backdrop of state-level assimilation influence, the chapter discusses the ways in which Chinese-Malays negotiate between assimilation and hybridity. By articulating the everyday experiences of between and betwixt among these biracial subjects, the chapter reveals the various forces shaping the boundaries of exclusion and inclusion, belonging and non-belonging in Brunei Darussalam.
Fieldwork and the Self: Encounters, Confessions and New Trajectories in Southeast Asian Research, 2021
Research is a form of 'translation process' that aims to translate systems of meaning through mut... more Research is a form of 'translation process' that aims to translate systems of meaning through mutual engagement between the researcher and the researched in the field. In observing, engaging, experiencing, living and subsequently writing the stories of the informants, the researcher also inadvertently rediscovers and renegotiates their own identity. This chapter is a critical reflection on my professional practice in doing ethnographic fieldwork with the Christian communities in Indonesia over the past decade. While my subject position as a middle-class, Western-educated, Asian, Christian, male researcher has given me rare access into various Christian sites, including clandestine seminaries, my ability to gather data is contingent upon the amount of 'investment' that I committed to the sites and to my informants. As there are no hard and fast rules about how much a researcher should invest in the field, my experience demonstrates how a researcher might reflexively negotiate between engaging the field and distancing from it in order to maintain intellectual objectivity, moral boundaries and emotional hygiene. This chapter takes a reflexive approach in interrogating the epistemological dichotomies of researcher/researched, self/other, insider/ outsider and native/foreign. It challenges the fixity of these categories and sheds light on how they are constructed and shaped by specific temporal and spatial contexts, and are always shifting.
Combining a historical approach of Chineseness and a contemporary perspective on the social const... more Combining a historical approach of Chineseness and a contemporary perspective on the social construction of Chineseness, this book provides comparative insights to understand the contingent complexities of ethnic and social formations in both China and among the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. This book focuses on the experiences and practices of these people, who as mobile agents are free to embrace or reject being defined as Chinese by moving across borders and reinterpreting their own histories. By historicizing the notion of Chineseness at local, regional, and global levels, the book examines intersections of authenticity, authority, culture, identity, media, power, and international relations that support or undermine different instances of Chineseness and its representations. It seeks to rescue the present from the past by presenting case studies of contingent encounters that produce the ideas, practices, and identities that become the categories nations need to justify their existence. The dynamic, fluid representations of Chineseness illustrate that it has never been an undifferentiated whole in both space and time. Through physical movements and inherited knowledge, agents of Chineseness have deployed various interpretive strategies to define and represent themselves vis-à-vis the local, regional, and global in their respective temporal experiences. This book will be relevant to students and scholars in Chinese studies and Asian studies more broadly, with a focus on identity politics, migration, popular culture, and international relations.
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Papers by Chang-Yau Hoon
individuals’ perceptions of environmental quality and
self-rated health (SRH) after controlling for dimensions
of socioeconomic, demographic and healthy lifestyle
variables.
individuals’ perceptions of environmental quality and
self-rated health (SRH) after controlling for dimensions
of socioeconomic, demographic and healthy lifestyle
variables.