Pacific Affairs: Volume 88, No
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Pacific Affairs Vol. 88, No. 1 MARCH 2015 Page Feelings of Home amongst Tamil Migrant Workers in Singapore’s Little India Wajihah Hamid 5 The Evolving Power of the Core Executive: A Case Study of Japan’s ICT Regulation after the 1980s Masahiro Mogaki 27 How are Chinese Students Ideologically Fen Lin Divided? A Survey of Chinese College Yanfei Sun Students’ Political Self-Identification Hongxing Yang 51 Balance of Incentives: Why North Korea Interacts with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Benjamin Habib 75 China’s Economic Statecraft in Latin America: Kevin P. Gallagher Evidence from China’s Policy Banks Amos Irwin 99 —Perspective— Paths of Integration for Sexual Minorities Joseph Yi in Korea Joe Phillips 123 Indian Political Studies: In Search John Harriss, Aseema Sinha of Distinctiveness Andrew Wyatt Review Essay and Sinderpal Singh 135 Books Reviewed (listed on pp. 2-4) 145 Copyright © 2015, Pacific Affairs, a division of The University of British Columbia Publications Mail Registration No. 07775 PRINTED IN CANADA ISSN (print) 0030-851X GST No. R108161779 ISSN (online) 1715-3379 Pacific Affairs: Volume 88, No. 1 – March 2015 BOOKS REVIEWED IN THIS ISSUE Note: All book reviews are freely available on our website: www.pacificaffairs.ubc.ca and with our electronic provider www.ingentaconnect.com. Asia General The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of the Pacific Rim. Edited by Inderjit Kaur and Nirvikar Singh. Masao Nakamura 145 The Future of the World Trading System: Asian Perspectives. Edited by Richard E. Baldwin, Masahiro Kawai, and Ganeshan Wignaraja. Prema-chandra Athukorala 147 Infrastructure for Asian Connectivity. Edited by Biswa Nath Bhattacharyay, Masahiro Kawai, Rajat M. Nag. Pravakar Sahoo 149 Regional Integration in East Asia: Theoretical and Historical Perspectives. Edited by Satoshi Amako, Shunji Matsuoka and Kenji Horiuchi. Giovanni Capannelli 151 The East Asian Peace: Conflict Prevention and Informal Peacebuilding. By Mikael Weissmann. Paul Midford 154 Cleavage, Connection and Conflict in Rural, Urban and Contemporary Asia. Tim Bunnell, D. Parthasarthy, Eric C. Thompson, editors. Jean-François Bissonnette 156 Transitions and Non-Transitions from Communism: Regime Survival in China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. By Steven Saxonberg. Hyung-Gu Lynn 159 Why Communism did not Collapse: Understanding Authoritarian Regime Resilience in Asia and Europe. Edited by Martin K. Dimitrov. Hyung-Gu Lynn 159 China and Inner Asia China’s Growth: The Making of an Economic Superpower. By Linda Yueh. Lawrence R. Sullivan 163 Capitalism from Below: Markets and Institutional Change in China. By Victor Nee, Sonja Opper. Robert Hanlon 165 China’s Road to Greater Financial Stability: Some Policy Perspectives. Editors, Udaibir S. Das, Jonathan Fiechter, and Tao Sun. Sara Hsu 167 Chinese Money in Global Context: Historic Junctures between 600 BCE and 2012. By Niv Horesh. Richard von Glahn 169 Return of the Dragon: Rising China and Regional Security. By Denny Roy. Hasan H. Karrar 171 Communication, Public Opinion, and Globalization in Urban China. By Francis L.F. Lee, Chin-Chuan Lee, Mike Z. Yao, Tsan-Kuo Chang, Fen Jennifer Lin, and Chris Fei Shen. Timothy Hildebrandt 174 2 Beyond Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea: Legal Frameworks for the Joint Development of Hydrocarbon Resources. Edited by Robert Beckman, Ian Townsend-Gault, Clive Schofield, Tara Davenport, Leonardo Bernard. Kuan-Hsiung Wang 176 Chinese Industrial Espionage: Technology Acquisition and Military Modernization. By William C. Hannas, James Mulvenon and Anna B. Puglisi. Nigel West 178 Contestation and Adaptation: The Politics of National Identity in China. By Enze Han. Martin Laflamme 180 The Specter of “The People”: Urban Poverty in Northeast China. By Mun Young Cho. Xuefei Ren 183 1956: Mao’s China and the Hungarian Crisis. By Zhu Dandan. Nicolai Volland 184 Mao: The Real Story. By Alexander V. Pantsov with Steven I. Levine. Lee Feigon 187 Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Imperial Japan’s Sex Slaves. By Peipei Qiu, with Su Zhiliang and Chen Lifei. Norman Smith 188 Lost in Transition: Hong Kong Culture in the Age of China. By Yiu-Wai Chu. Christopher Howe 190 Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development. By Emily T. Yeh. Matthew T. Kapstein 192 Northeast Asia War, Guilt, and World Politics after World War II. By Thomas U. Berger. Thomas Stow Wilkins 194 In Defense of Justice: Joseph Kurihara and the Japanese American Struggle for Equality. By Eileen H. Tamura. Greg Robinson 196 Money, Trains, and Guillotines: Art and Revolution in 1960s Japan. By William Marotti. Kenji Kajiya 198 The Nature of the Beasts: Empire and Exhibition at the Tokyo Imperial Zoo. By Ian Jared Miller; foreword by Harriet Ritvo. Noah Cincinnati 200 Tokyo Vernacular: Common Spaces, Local Histories, Found Objects. By Jordan Sand. Inge Daniels 203 Cinema of Actuality: Japanese Avant-Garde Filmmaking in the Season of Image Politics. By Yuriko Furuhata. Steven Ridgely 205 Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek across the Pacific. By Christine R. Yano. Grant McCall 207 South Asia Citizenship and its Discontents: An Indian History. By Niraja Gopal Jayal. Rahul Mukherji 209 Dalit Assertion. By Sudha Pai. Hugo Gorringe 211 The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan. By Maya Tudor. Tan Tai Yong 213 3 Pacific Affairs: Volume 88, No. 1 – March 2015 Ecology is Permanent Economy: The Activism and Environmental Philosophy of Sunderlal Bahuguna. By George Alfred James. Trent Brown 215 Religious Freedom in India: Sovereignty and (Anti) Conversion. By Goldie Osuri. Klaus K. Klostermaier 217 Bollywood: Gods, Glamour, and Gossip. By Kush Varia. Philip A. Lutgendorf 220 Southeast Asia Cauldron of Resistance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and 1950s Southern Vietnam. By Jessica M. Chapman. Christoph Giebel 222 Hot Science, High Water: Assembling Nature, Society and Environmental Policy in Contemporary Vietnam. By Eren Zink. Abidin Kusno 224 The University Socialist Club and the Contest for Malaya: Tangled Strands of Modernity. By Loh Kah Seng et al. Soak Koon Wong 226 Constitutional Change and Democracy in Indonesia. By Donald L. Horowitz. William Case 229 Faith and the State: A History of Islamic Philanthropy in Indonesia. By Amelia Fauzia. Hilman Latief 231 Islam and the Making of the Nation: Kartosuwiryo and Political Islam in 20th Century Indonesia. By Chiara Formichi. Azyumardi Azra 234 Australasia and the Pacific Islands Treasured Possessions: Indigenous Interventions into Cultural and Intellectual Property. By Haidy Geismar. Anna-Karina Hermkens 236 Making Sense of Micronesia: The Logic of Pacific Island Culture. By Francis X. Hezel. Lin Poyer 238 The Death of the Big Men and the Rise of the Big Shots: Custom and Conflict in East New Britain. By Keir Martin. Martha Macintyre 239 DOCUMENTARY FILM REVIEW Children of the Revolution. Directed and produced by Shane O’Sullivan; executive producers, Alan Maher, Christiane Hinz; directors of photography, Bassem Fayad, Robin Probyn, Axel Schneppat; editors, Ben Yeates, Fergal McGrath, Shane O’Sullivan. Patricia G. Steinhoff 242 4 Feelings of Home Amongst Tamil Migrant Workers in Singapore’s Little India Wajihah Hamid Abstract Low-wage Tamil migrant workers have long been contributing to Singapore’s economy. Despite labouring there for three decades and being connected to the existing Tamil diasporic community in Singapore, they have been left out of both state rhetoric and society, often due to claims of transience. However, a fatal traffic accident in the locality of Singapore’s Little India in December 2013 involving a Tamil migrant worker that morphed into a riot has again brought the problems of these men and their presence within the vicinity of Little India to the fore. This paper is based on a wider ethnographic study of a group of Tamil migrant workers from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu who were working in Singapore in 2012. The homely feelings experienced by the migrant workers highlight their feelings of homesickness vis-à-vis the need for a sense of belonging felt amongst transnational male migrant workers. On the other hand, practices that make the space unhomely for them not only illustrate their social position but will also lead to to the study of the governmentality of migration and control of migrant bodies. Keywords: Tamil migrant workers, Singapore, Little India, transnational home, policing, governmentality DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5509/20158815 Introducing the Exclusion of Tamil Labour n December 2013, a fatal traffic accident in Singapore’s Little India involving a Tamil migrant worker grew into a riot and brought into Iprominence the presence of a large number of Tamil migrant workers (who are housed away at the peripheries of Singapore), their gathering in Little India on weekends and the increased need of the Singapore authorities to manage and control such assemblies. ____________________ Wajihah Hamid graduated with an MA in Migration Studies from the University of Sussex. She currently works as a research assistant with the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. Email: [email protected] * Acknowledgements: I would like to sincerely thank all the Tamil migrant workers and key informants for sharing their experiences and time with me. I am grateful to the three anonymous © Pacific Affairs: Volume 88, No. 1 March 2015 5 The Evolving Power of the Core Executive: A Case Study of Japan’s ICT Regulation after the 1980s