YOUTH IN TRANSITION The challenges of generational change in Asia Edited by Fay Gale The University of Adelaide, Australia Stephanie Fahey The University of Sydney, Australia The Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils (AASSREC) in association with The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) © The Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils (AASSREC), 2005 Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction rights should be addressed to: The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia GPO Box 1956, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia. Email: [email protected] AASSREC is not responsible, as a body, for the opinions expressed in any of its publications. This book has been prepared by: The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA). Design and layout: Mark Pinoli (ASSA). Published by: Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific, UNESCO, Bangkok 920 Sukhumwit Road, Prakanong Bangkok, Thailand 10110. ISBN 92-9223-059-X Contents Contents iii Acknowledgements v Contributors vi 1. Introduction 1 Stephanie Fahey and Fay Gale PART I. Youth in transition: Changing concepts of youth 2. Youth in Asia: An overview 9 Yogesh Atal 3. Youth, cultures and societies in transition: 22 The challenges of growing up in a globalized world Jeffrey Jensen Arnett 4. Global cultural change and young people’s wellbeing 36 Richard Eckersley 5. Globalisation and an epidemic: 51 The consequences of HIV/AIDS for young people Doreen Rosenthal 6. A demographic view of changing youth in Asia 59 Graeme Hugo 7. Generational change and cyberpolitics in Asia 89 Stephanie Fahey PART II. Youth in transition: Case studies of Asian youth 8. Indigenous Australian young peoples: The winds of change 110 Gregory Phillips Contents · iii | 9. Are youths moving forward? A Bangladesh perspective 119 Abdur Rahim Khan 10. Government policies and programs for youth 127 development in India Hardip Singh Kingra 11. Youth migration and change in Indonesia 140 Aswatini Raharto and Mita Noveria 12. Youth in the Japanese society 158 Ushiogi Morikazu and Watabe Makoto 13. Malaysian youth: 171 From government policies to grassroots aspirations Rashila Ramli 14. The only-child generation: 184 Chinese youth in a transformative era Wu Xiaoying 15. The Filipino youth today: 191 Their strengths and the challenges they face Joseph H. Puyat 16. Online games dynamics in Korean society: 206 Experiences and lifestyles in the online game world Sang-Min Whang 17. Demographic and economic pressures to move: 227 Youth aspirations and livelihood opportunities for youth in the liberal economic environment of Sri Lanka Siri T. Hettige 18. Monitoring the convention on the rights of the child 242 in Thailand Amara Pongsapich 19. Vietnam’s youth in transition 255 Nguyen Thi My | iv · Youth in Transition Acknowledgements We acknowledge the generous sponsorsh ip of UNESCO through the Australian Participation Programme of the Australian National Commission for UNESCO. We are grateful to Professor Ken Wiltshire, Chairman of the National Commission for his support and interest. AusAID, as part of the Australian Department and Foreign Affairs and Trade, gave a small additional grant. The book originated from a conference of the Association Asian Social Science Research Councils. We thank the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia for hosting the conference and covering all of the additional associated costs. The conference was held at University House in the Australian National University, Canberra, where the Vice Chancellor, Professor Ian Chubb, hosted the opening reception. We appreciated the support of Dr Virginia A. Miralao, Secretary-General of the Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils, and her assistants Ms Joanne Agbisit and Ms Maria Ramona L. Jimenez. The enormous commitment of all of the staff in the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, made the project possible. Dr John Beaton, Executive Director, Dr John Robertson, Research Director, Mrs Shirley Chapman, Administrative Assistant, and Ms Jennifer Fernance, Accounts Officer. Mr Mark Pinoli, Assistant Director, has carried out the technical editing and formatted the book for the final printing. Special thanks goes to Mark who also has done all of the art work on the book cover. This book has been printed with the assistance of Dr Malama Meleisea, former Regional Advisor for Social and Human Science in Asia and the Pacific, UNESCO Bangkok. Acknowledgements · v | Contributors Jeffrey Jensen Arnett is the editor of the Journal of Adolescent Research and the author of the textbook Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: A Cultural Approach (2004, Prentice Hall). His book Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens Through the Twenties (2004) was recently published by Oxford University Press. Yogesh Atal retired as Principal Director of Social Sciences at UNESCO in 1997. He was the first Secretary-General of AASSREC and served as UNESCO's Regional Adviser for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific from 1974 through 1993, during which period he continually provided UNESCO support to AASSREC. Currently he is on the Board of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. He is an internationally acclaimed sociologist and author and editor of several books. Richard Eckersley is a Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University, Canberra. His research areas include: measures of progress in the relationships between economic growth, quality of life and ecological sustainability; the social and cultural determinants of health and happiness; visions of the future; and young people and their world. He is the co-author of a national index of subjective wellbeing, the first of its kind in the world, and a founding director of Australia 21, a not-for-profit company set up to address, through interdisciplinary research and development, some of the major challenges facing Australia this century. Stephanie Fahey is a geographer and the Director of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific at The University of Sydney. Her research interests are primarily in Vietnam and Papua New Guinea where she has focussed on issues of household livelihood strategies, gender and labour relations and macro socio- economic change in transitional economies. She is Professor of Asian and Pacific Studies and is a member of various government committees which advise on Australia’s relations with Asia. Fay Gale was President of AASSREC and coordinator of the conference that led to the production of this volume. She is a former Vice-Chancellor of The University of Western Australia and President of the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee. She was also a former President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Her research as a cultural geographer was in the interface between | vi · Youth in transition Indigenous and other Australians particularly in relation to women, juvenile justice and rock art protection. Siri T. Hettige is Senior Professor of Sociology at the University of Colombo. He was formerly the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the same university. He had his undergraduate education in Colombo and PhD in social anthropology from Monash University, Australia. He has carried out extensive research on globalisation and education, sociology of youth, labour migration and micro- analysis of poverty. He is President of the Sociological Association of Sri Lanka. Graeme Hugo is a demographer and population geographer who has worked extensively on population issues, especially migration in Southeast Asia and Australia. He is Professor of Geography and Director of the National Centre for Social Application of Geographical Information Systems at The University of Adelaide. He currently holds an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship to work on a study of international migration. Abdur Rahim Khan has been associated with the Bangladesh Social Science Research Council in various positions and capacities since 1981. He also teaches social work, economics, sociology and gender studies in different universities of Bangladesh. His main areas of publication are in youth, food security, rural development, research methodology, development planning and gender issues. Hardip Singh Kingra is Director of Youth Affairs in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. He is heading a large student youth volunteer movement in India called the National Service Scheme (NSS) which currently has 2.23 millions enrolled volunteers in colleges, universities and schools. He is involved in policy work related to youth development, national integration and promotion of adventure sports among youth of India and international co-operation. He is also implementing an innovative programme called UTA (Universities Talk AIDS) programme to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS amongst the student population of the country. Nguyen Thi My is a senior researcher in the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, and visiting lecturer of the Department of International Studies, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi National University and of the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Open University of Ho Chi Minh City. Her main research field is international relations in Southeast Asia. She graduated from the Faculty of History, Hanoi National University and obtained the academic degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Institute of Far East Studies, Academy of Sciences, the former Soviet Union. Mita Noveria is a researcher