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The entertainment industry is driven to sell certain commodities transnationally, particularly in a world where borders are becoming increasingly diffused through the access afforded by the Internet. Media content is easily consumed, making cultural exporting fast and easy. Similar tropes and plot have been replicated in the East Asian film and TV industry, perhaps in hopes of replicating the success. This paper looks at the manufacture of ideal masculinities within East Asia, particularly China. From ex-members of K-pop group EXO to the successful TV series, cross-influence of East Asian popular culture is prominent. Through this paper, I look at the influence of K-dramas on the Chinese TV industry and particularly the manufacturing of a militarized masculinity on Chinese TV. Far from portraying brute and fearsome soldiers, ideal masculinity on TV is portrayed as "steely exterior but gentle internally" and thus desirable romantic partners to heterosexual women. By exploring the basic conception of Chinese masculinity, I then discuss representations of militarized masculinity on the silver screen (Wolf Warrior II) and C-dramas, with particular focus on the series, You Are My Hero (2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, production in China’s television sector have reshaped media cultures across the country as well as the geocultural region of East Asia. Through analysis of licensed reality television programs such as China’s Got Talent, this paper examines transnational television formats and their circulation and replication in contemporary China, challenging the traditional concept that television format trade falls within a West-Rest narrative. While highlighting the cultural and media phenomena of interactive ‘glocalization’ of cultural products, this paper calls for de-westernization in approaching Chinese and East Asian media studies. It does so by pointing out unique imitating and adaptive practices of Chinese unscripted television programs, which serve as case studies to the existing literature of television business and cultures. The practice of licensing formats provides a unique perspective into analyzing China’s media strategies in a globalized industry and reviewing the current scholarship on media globalization. With a comparative analysis, the paper attempts to reconceptualize the spatiality of East Asian media production and consumption. I also include my observations while working on the production teams for these programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the British government's measures for its civilian subjects stranded as 'enemy aliens' in Japanese-controlled areas in the Far East during World War II. The British government tried to protect the interests of these Far Eastern subjects during the war and in the immediate postwar period. Its manner of dealing with the latter's redress movement from the late 1980s was initially reluctant but eventually became relatively adequate, thanks to the twin pressures of domestic public opinion and precedents set by other former Allied governments and the resolute struggles of the ex–Far Eastern subjects themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper analyzes the political implications of aesthetic mimicry in the popular mobile game, Onmyoji. Created by the Chinese company, NetEase, Onmyoji takes advantage of the expansive network of signifiers revolving around the historical Japanese figure, Abe-no-Seimei, and co-opts this network to display a recognizable Japanese popular aesthetic. By remixing elements of Japanese culture, Onmyoji presents a commodifiable and mediated image of Japanese cultural authenticity that is recognizable globally. Mimicry and the co-opting of another nation's cultural signifiers initiates a negotiated process of ambivalent national self-empowerment that has since resulted in shifting labor flows within the digital entertainment industries in East Asia. The malleability of cultural signifiers allows for the purposeful framing of global media texts. Such multivalent encodings of recognizable symbols emerge from the provocative slippages between media boundaries. This, in turn, engages with the dialectical processes of nation branding within the framework of transnational co-production models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the L2 writing literature, there has been a rich history of scholarship in theory, research and practice since the 1960s. Two of the most prominent L2 writing approaches are process and portfolio pedagogy. The former approach promotes the use of diverse writing strategies (e.g. pre-writing) to enhance student writers’ expression and fluency. The latter emphasizes the documentation of student growth as writers through self-reflection. These two instructional approaches exhibit a range of divergent characteristics, including focus, construct, delivery, and application –especially when adopted in a wider East Asian educational context. Owing to the dearth of research comparing process and portfolio pedagogies, this paper critically reviews the theory, research and practice of these two approaches in L2 writing environments. Salient issues emerging from the analysis of literature include advocacy of an eclectic and context-sensitive approach to process and portfolio pedagogies; a need for more empirical research to substantiate how both approaches support writing improvement; and provision of training for developing knowledge and skills in understanding what process-oriented writing instruction entails. The paper ends with a discussion of implications for L2 writing research and instruction. Two research methods that could help investigate how writing improvement and self-regulated learning can be measured are qualitative and quantitative investigations, namely ethnographic and quasi-experimental studies. In the context of incorporating these pedagogies into other East Asian writing environments, teachers can be encouraged to align teaching, learning, and assessment of writing as regular pedagogical practices and engage in sustainable professional training in giving written feedback to support learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Privately built satellite cities are becoming an increasingly common urban development concept in peri-urban areas of South-east Asian cities. While these projects are beginning to receive academic attention, the majority of studies have a limited capacity to explain why and how they are produced. Most satellite cities built in the past five years have some degree of foreign influence from other East Asian countries in terms of invested capital, planning concepts or urban design and architecture. The majority of this influence originates from within the East Asian region. This paper argues that an investigation which incorporates both the relational and the territorial can increase an understanding of the production of satellite cities. This argument is illustrated with empirical research on two satellite city projects in Phnom Penh, Cambodia: one by a Korean developer and another by Indonesian conglomerate Ciputra. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Exploring prehistoric variation in human–environmental interaction is critical for understanding the historical patterns and mechanisms of long-term human–land evolution. In this paper we review the published radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) data from Late Paleolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in China, analyze the spatial–temporal distribution of these sites, and compare it with the results of recent paleoclimatic and archaeological studies. We seek to study the trajectory and influencing factors of human–environmental interactions in late prehistoric China. We detect changing patterns in the relationship between humans and the environment during different phases of the prehistoric era in China. Climate change clearly affected the environment of hunter-gatherer groups between 50,000–10,000 BP (before present, defined as 1950AD), and variation in human population in Neolithic China (∼10,000–4000 BP) was likely influenced primarily by the development of agriculture, in addition to substantial climate events. The spatial scale of human settlements expanded in the Bronze Age (∼4000–2200 BP) in a period of cooling climate. During this time the impact of human activities on the environment increased significantly, primarily caused by technological innovations related to the onset of prehistoric transcontinental cultural exchange in Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of transnational higher education in reproducing local patterns of disadvantage in Hong Kong. Specifically, it considers the expectations and experiences of local students undertaking British degree programmes, drawing on the findings of a recent qualitative research project. In this paper, we argue that through the introduction of so-called 'top-up' programmes, British universities are providing degree-level education to students unable to access local higher education (HE) in Hong Kong through the 'traditional' route. Drawing upon our interviews with students and graduates, we show the immense cultural and social expectations, placed upon young people in Hong Kong, to obtain a university degree, and the role of 'international' education in (partially) offsetting the shortfall in domestic university places. However, we also suggest that these students/graduates are in various ways relatively disadvantaged by these degrees - they often have less cultural capital and social capital on which to draw, and find that their degrees are less valued than their local equivalent. There are broader implications of our findings for understanding the role of transnational educational provision in localised reproduction of (dis)advantage, especially in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the complex relationship between Confucian values and music education in East Asia, particularly its history in China. How does one account for the present ‘cultural fever’ of Western classical music that has infected more than 100 million Chinese practitioners? It is proposed that Western classical music finds transcultural affinities in Confucian traditional values of artful self-cultivation and virtue, while simultaneously acting as a signifier of modernity and individual creativity. The paradigm shift that applies to Confucius’s status change from a despised pre-feudal conservative to a state-sanctioned indigenous philosopher who resists market economy sociocultural destabilization in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is discussed. Corresponding changes in the Chinese Communist Party’s attitudes towards Western classical music are covered, starting with condemnations of politically-suspect foreign cultural practices to current advocacy of an arts discipline that is integral in educating disciplined, high-performing citizens of the modern Chinese nation state. Correlations between ancient Eastern and Western philosophies of music and their consequences for contemporary music education are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis of the contemporary phase of internationalisation implies an assessment of the diverse processes of regional integration. They are key issues in the construction of post-Fordist regimes that can no longer be developed on strict national bases. Internationalisation is also stemmed by directly global developments interacting with regional processes. This paper identifies two ideal types of regional dynamic, which together account for the economic, politic and social dimensions of these processes. In each case, I specify the regional dynamics of convergence or divergence and discuss their stability. I then investigate how interactions with global trends can lead to hybrid forms of regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite claims that accountability enables 'good governance' proper, its specific origins, character and limitations are not yet fully clear. In order to explicate the nature of accountability better this paper will, therefore, formulate and apply its own comparative framework to the case of the East Asian economic miracle, crisis and recovery in particular. In so doing it finds that, even when accountability emerged as a mid-crisis issue that was dramatically reconfigured for any due recovery later, it was not itself then sufficiently explicated for all the implications and consequences to be realized fully. Once it is explicated more fully, however, the further implications and consequences of changing accountability for economic governance question precisely what is to be expected from accountability per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the determinants of Japan's regional policies? This article argues that Japan's regional policy is the result of the government's strategic choice made through processes of domestic and international bargaining. Based on liberal intergovernmentalism, this article focuses on the level of domestic preferences for East Asia and the threat of China. In the first stage, the preference of the Prime Minister and political winning-coalition groups matter. In the second stage, the level of the threat of China is a pivotal variable. In combining these two variables, the article proposes the following four types of ideal regional policies for Japan: (1) pro-East Asia policy; (2) expanded-Asia policy; (3) interactive policy; and (4) reactive policy. To substantiate this idea, the article traces Japan's regional policy trajectory from the Yoshida Cabinet to the Hatoyama Cabinet. An in-depth case study shows that Japanese cabinets vary in their regional policies in the way this article expected from each ideal type based on liberal intergovernmentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses population movements across the Amur and the Ussuri River borders between Russia and China. It analyses the history of border crossing in this region from Russia's acquisition of the Amur and Maritime provinces from the Qing Empire in 1860 to the present time, with a focus on the 1920s and 1930s. The article's first part demonstrates that the movement of people (settlers, work migrants, refugees) across the two river borders went in both directions. The second part asks when the formerly porous river borders became sealed through strengthened military control. By analysing the mechanics of border crossing, such as the clandestine passages of Mennonites, a Russian–German Protestant sect, from Soviet territory into Chinese Manchuria over the Amur in 1929 and 1930, as well as the escape stories of other refugees from the Soviet Union, the article shows in its third part that the 'sealed' borders could nonetheless be transgressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits the developmental state literature that stresses the unitary role of the state in steering economic development in East Asia. Focusing on the Korean state actors' diversity and their agency after the trend of globalization and democratization, this article highlights various state actors as agents and looks into how the role of state actors has changed with industrial development, using the setting of the Korean online gaming industry over the past two decades. By examining government policy measures on the industry, I found that the state actors have actively engaged with the industry, however, this agency has not been uniform due to the different purposes of the actors and sometimes led a detrimental effect against the needs or expectations of the industry. The findings, thus, contribute to the literature by suggesting the potentiality of agent-driven institutional change and the heterogeneity that comes from the state actors' policy engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article will argue that neither what may be called 'multiple legitimacies' nor what Leigh Jenco refers to as the hybrid view of legitimacy provides substantial guidance in reconceiving legitimacy in the increasingly pluralistic region of East Asia. Instead, a more helpful view of political legitimacy can be drawn from John Rawls's liberal principle of legitimacy. I will demonstrate that Rawls's classic formulation can be deprived of its liberal connotation by taking constitutional essentials as the source of legitimation for political authority. On the basis of this principle of pluralistic legitimacy, it will become clear that a pluralistic understanding of political legitimacy does not rule out Confucian meritocracy, but it does make a strong case for an antiperfectionist state, even if it might be nondemocratic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, East Asian states have enjoyed economic development and progress toward democracy through extensive economic transformation: trade and financial liberalization. To explain the theoretical mechanism of these variables, we investigate the direct and indirect effects of globalization on democratic development via economic development. To this end, a two-equation model is specified and estimated using data from 1972 to 2010 for 12 East Asian countries. The results show that globalization has not only a direct effect, but also an indirect effect on democracy via economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is now second only to the US as a world economic power. Its economic rise has challenged US ability to fundamentally shape the world trade order. However, the importance of the rise of the Chinese economy for international security affairs is less clear. The key analytical issue for international politics and for an understanding of the sources of power is whether economic power is fungible in international security affairs, whether it can independently determine the strategic alignments of small states. This is also the key question in assessing the implications of China's economic rise for the East Asian security order. The political-economy literature argues that trade dependence can lead small states to realign within great power politics, regardless of the military balance. However, poor case selection challenges this prior literature. By using contemporary East Asia as a source of multiple bilateral case studies, I argue that the economic dependence of a small state on a great economic power is insufficient to influence independently small state strategic alignment preferences and that China's rising economic power is not fungible in East Asian security affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to critically assess the relevance of International Relations Theory (IRT) for East Asia International Relations (IR). After identifying the shortcomings of IRT in explaining East Asia IR, the article provides several ways to modify it with a goal to make it more suitable for East Asia IR. Its central claim is that the IRT's bias toward European experiences and great power politics generates unsatisfactory accounts for and inaccurate predictions about East Asia IR. This does not mean, however, that we should treat IRT as completely irrelevant and develop an indigenous theory of East Asia IR. Given that no single theory is complete and perfectly relevant across time and space and that many core concepts and key variables of IRT are also pertinent for East Asia IR, our efforts should instead be made to refine the existing IRT and make it more suitable for East Asia IR by problematising its major assumptions and central claims on the basis of East Asian experiences. This will save IRT from being a region-specific and a country-specific theory of IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how culture, institution, and social policies interact to shape national approaches to care and the use of migrant care workers. I compare Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore to show variations in approaches to care and migration despite their cultural similarities. Through a conceptual framework that intersects culture, institution and policy I identify a spectrum of approaches that are evident across East Asia, ranging from highly regulated institutional to very liberal market oriented. The analysis shows that cultural, institutional and socio-economic factors are continuously interacting with each other to shape national understandings of care and the use of foreign care workers, and that different policies interact with each other referentially as they develop and affect social and cultural norms through policy feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue highlights an exciting range of contemporary, interdisciplinary research into spatial forms, political economic processes, and planning policies that have animated East Asian urbanization. To help situate this research, this introductory article argues that the urban as form, process, and imaginary has often been absent from research on East Asian developmentalism; likewise, the influence of developmentalism on East Asian urbanization has remained under-examined in urban research. To rectify this issue, we propose a concept of urban developmentalism that is useful for highlighting the nature of the urban as a site of and for developmentalist intervention in East Asia. We then outline the contribution made by the articles in this special issue to three key themes that we feel are germane for the study of urban developmentalism across varied contexts: geopolitical economies, spaces of exception, and networks of expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary sets out to make a claim for gentrification to be understood from the Global East. I argue that a regional approach to gentrification can nurture a contextually informed but theoretically connected comparative urbanism, contributing to the comparative urbanist project by providing an appropriate point of contact between local context and universalising theories. In the process, I attempt to partially destabilise the concept of gentrification and then re-centre it in the Global East. Any comparative exercise is not a straightforward process; on the contrary, it is fraught with epistemological, theoretical and methodological stumbling blocks – regions are slippery and often diverse; diversity can be hard to bottle and label along theoretical lines; methods work more smoothly in discrete settings. But it is an exercise worth undertaking; the regional is the middle stratum that allows the locally specific to speak to planetary trends, and planetary trends to find local purchase. In the pages that follow I map out a number of recognisable types of gentrification in East Asia. I then use these to transcend the region and cut across the Global North / Global South binary that bedevils so much theory-making. The aim, addressed specifically in the final section, is to use these claims for gentrification in the Global East to speak back to and, hopefully, enrich urban theory-making and contribute to discussion of what is becoming known as planetary gentrification (Lees et al., forthcoming). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares features of the redistributive, developmental and productivist models of social policy. Using East Asian welfare systems as examples, it illustrates the application of the productivist and developmental models, and describes the contextual factors influencing these models. It argues that each model is an outgrowth of a particular social, economic and political context. When the context changes, the choice of model will also change, as shown in the recent development of redistributive policies in the East Asian region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-nineteenth century, Karl Marx issued several critiques of political economy writings stressing the exclusive duality of states and the national economies. He argued that capitalism had characteristic features quite apart from those shaped by the idiosyncrasies of national economies. In the first part of this article, we critique the contemporary state-centered explanations for the industrialization of East Asia on same grounds. We claim that most political economists misinterpret or entirely ignore the significance of export-led industrialization, which is a characteristic feature of East Asian capitalism. In the second part of the article, we demonstrate the importance of the retail revolution in the US and Europe on Asian industrialization. In particular, we show that the development of the sequential ordering system that is an inherent feature of Western-based contract manufacturing differentially shaped the industrial organization of East Asian economies. The resulting path-dependent trajectories of development, in turn, encouraged government policy-makers to ‘buy into’ trends of global capitalism in different ways. The trajectories also led business people to privilege and adapt some social institutions and cultural patterns over other ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nine National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) accredited universities in the United States (US) with the greatest populations of international students were surveyed to identify the status of East Asian international students’ attitudes toward their schools. Among East Asian international music students at US higher education institutions, the results indicated that the professor’s reputation, scholarships, and the program’s reputation were perceived as the most influential factors impacting the program choice; a good relationship with professors, good feedback from professors, and emotional stability were perceived as the most influential factors impacting academic success; and the professor’s teaching, the professor’s expertise, and the improvement of musical skills were perceived as the most influential factors impacting students’ satisfaction levels. The most problematic issues reported were the language barrier and the cultural differences between their host and home countries. In addition, many of the East Asian international music students in this study noted financial difficulties. Recommendation and conclusion are provided for US institutions and East Asian international students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent archaeological findings provide a hint on domestication of azuki (Vigna angularis var. angularis) in East Asia. This preliminary study investigates archaeological collections from various regions in Korea, China, and Japan, representing the long-term evolution (5300–1450 BP) of azuki. Changes in seed shapes show that cultural manipulation of azuki began as early as 5300–4800 cal. BP. Azuki beans from Neolithic contexts in Korea and Japan show a possible sign of morphological response to human management, at least 2000 years prior to the appearance of fully domesticated forms. Yabutsuru-azuki (V. angularis var. nipponensis), a conspecific progenitor of domesticated azuki, has been a supplementary diet and seed reserve for lean years in East Asia, and this tradition may have a long root to the mid Holocene. Archaeological evidence indicates the possibility of multiple origins of azuki, supporting recent phylogenetic data. A unique contribution of this research is its interdisciplinary attempt to examine both the biological and cultural processes of this staple legume domestication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last glacial–interglacial climate transition in East Asia was characterized by an intensified monsoon, but knowledge about hydrological responses at a regional scale during this transitional period is limited. Here we provide a novel lipid-based paleohydrological record for this period from the Dajiuhu peat deposit, central China. High water levels and persistent wet conditions during the Younger Dryas (12.5–11.6 ka) and the early Holocene (10.5–9.9 ka) were inferred on the basis of enrichments of sterenes, a group of unstable intermediate diagenetic products derived from biogenic sterols that are most likely preserved under a waterlogged peatland surface. These two wet intervals were accompanied by temperature decreases indicated by an increase in pollen abundance from cold favoring conifer trees and a decrease in total hardwood tree pollen. This cold and wet climate pattern, which is different from the concordant cold-dry pattern documented in north China, was probably caused by the regional influence of the western Pacific subtropical high on the residence time of the Meiyu rainband in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Valley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Relations theory about East Asia has increasingly argued that East Asia before Western penetration enjoyed a protracted peace. As explanations, a Chinese military hegemony would fit realist theory fairly well, while a cultural peace based on shared Confucian norms would be a significant anomaly. A Confucian Long Peace challenges widely held, albeit Eurocentric, realist presumptions including the perils of anarchy, the arms-racing and misperception of the security dilemma, and the regularity of power balancing. This article therefore investigates, first, whether such a peace did in fact exist, and, second, whether this might be attributed to Confucianism. A cultural peace theory requires a strong anti-war cultural norm and a shared sense of community. Skepticism is established by examining three comparative cultural spaces that nonetheless did not enjoy a culturally informed peace: the classical Greek city-state system, early modern Christendom, and the contemporary Arab state system. All were deeply riven and competitive. Nevertheless, empirical investigation of the last Chinese (Qing) dynasty before the Western arrival (1644–1839) demonstrates that it was remarkably peaceful toward its Confucian neighbors, while more ‘normally’ exploiting its power asymmetry against non-Confucian ones. Process-tracing specialized Chinese practices toward fellow Confucians suggests that the low Confucian war finding emanates from cultural restraint. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various article within the issue on public administration and public management in East Asia.

This article is an overview of the types and level of institutionalization of party systems in seven young democracies in East and Southeast Asia. By applying Alan Siaroff’s typology of party systems, the analysis demonstrates that the party systems in Asia do not converge on a single format. The party systems under consideration also differ in the level of institutionalization. Party systems in Thailand, the Philippines and especially South Korea are stuck in an inchoate state. Even though there is considerable variation among the cases, the party systems in Indonesia, Mongolia and Taiwan can be considered as well institutionalized relative to the rest of Asia and moderately institutionalized when compared to Latin America. Furthermore, weak institutionalization correlates with volatile structures of party competition and cooperation in Thailand, whereas in South Korea and the Philippines party systems seem to be paradoxically stabilizing in a situation of protracted under-institutionalization, as both cases combine more or less stable party system patterns with weak institutionalization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the linkage between entrepreneurship and the making of popular culture in East Asia. The central argument presented here is that the notion of entrepreneurship is central for understanding and conceptualizing the process of constructing trans-national markets for popular culture and for building new circles of ‘Asian’ recognition. In other words, entrepreneurial vision is not only transforming the local cultural markets by underpinning a region-wide cultural production system but also un-intentionally spurring feelings of ‘Asian’ sameness. The study itself focuses on four cases of entrepreneurship which exemplify the driving forces and the intended and unintended consequences of entrepreneurship, and outlines the wider theoretical and methodological implications for this concept by defining the relations between structural determinism and human agency in popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The postwar US federal government spent a decade, initiated two federal treason trials, and dispensed over one million dollars in legal pursuit of John Provoo for his crimes in the Philippines as a POW and as a propaganda agent for the Japanese. In a strange perversion of justice the US attorney even invited to the federal court Provoo’s former captors — Japanese propagandists, military officials and POW guards — to establish his guilt. Why was the US government so keen to pursue and charge a lone second world war POW with treason? What dread did Provoo strike in the hearts of US officials? This article examines how Provoo embodied wartime and postwar American panic concerning East Asia, just as the situation in the region dramatically spiraled out of American control. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the relationship between the structure of the city-to-city network of global airline passenger flows and the interstate world system. The authors examine the decoupling of the urban hierarchy from the world system. The authors state that there is a small convergence in the distribution of power in the world city system. The authors address the upward mobility of cities located in the semi-periphery and the east Asian region. The authors also look at the implications of their findings for a larger understanding of the relationship between globalization, the structure of the world city system, and its articulation with the world system.

Free trade agreements (FTAs) have become a defining feature of the world trade system, expanding rapidly in number since the end of the Cold War and particularly in the Asia-Pacific, a region that was hitherto largely devoid of FTA activity. The nature of FTAs is also changing. Most incorporate a range of 'trade plus' measures that extend the reach of these agreements into various realms of commercial regulation, embodying specific rules on intellectual property, investment, government procurement, competition policy, and other areas of commercial practice. With conventional trade barriers (e.g. tariffs) continuing to fall and hence becoming less significant, the commercial regulatory provisions of FTAs have gained greater prominence. This article considers whether 'freer trade' in the early twenty-first century is increasingly concerned with setting the appropriate regulatory parameters to foster open market competition, but also competition on the regulatory terms of dominant FTA partners. The analysis centres on seven types of 'influence effect' associated with FTA commercial regulation, in broad terms relating to determining the liberalization embodied in agreements, shaping the domestic policy domain of FTA partners, affecting the relationship between FTAs and World Trade Organisation (WTO) accords, conferring regulatory preferences and free-rider advantages to trade partners, exhibiting cross-agreement regulatory influences, and exposing fundamental conflicts of interest on economic and social governance issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the influence of the social environment on adolescents' connectedness to the internet in East Asia, one of the most wired regions in the world. connectedness is a qualitative conceptualization of an individual's relationship with the internet, taking into consideration the breadth, depth, and the importance of individuals' internet experience. This study seeks to situate adolescents' internet connectedness in three spheres of social environment (1) the general social support measured by how easy it is to get help when adolescents encounter problems in using the internet; (2) the parents, where we examine parents' socioeconomic status and their internet use; and (3) the peer group, where we look into the proportion of friends who Connect to the internet. The results from a survey of 1303 adolescents in Seoul, Singapore and Taipei support our major hypothesis that among the internet using adolescents, their internet connectedness patterns differ by the nature of their social environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consolidated during the Cold War and reasserted during the 1997-8 crisis, US "primacy" in East Asia is the predominant interpretation associated with the "Making of the East Asian Miracle." A closer look at the 1950 and 1997 periods yields a different conclusion, supportive of the pluralistic interpretation of "dynamic equilibrium." At the outset of the Cold War, the us sought to restore the triangular pattern of international trade and finance between North America, Western Europe and Southeast Asia/Japan, necessitating a re-forging of links between Europe and Southeast Asia. What happened to this project? In the recent East Asian economic crisis, the EU-Europeans contributed more to the rescue packages than did the US. This study posits Europe as the third actor in the evolution of a sustainable "capitalist" economy at the international and regional levels. Rejecting a hegemonic economic interpretation for any of the actors, this analysis portrays an emergent commercial and trade linkage among Europe, Asia, and North America that is balanced and never more vital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considers a new growth theory in the success of East Asian economies. Contribution of technological change and productivity growth in East Asian economies; Limits to growth without technical change.

Provides information on a study that analyzed competition and power/politics in relation to economic development in East Asia particularly in South Korea. Definition of competition in the context of the study; Limits of the institutionalist literature; Importance of competition in the concept of social closure.

Explains the way in which each state in East Asian countries justifies the development of its regulation of television broadcasting. Patterns of media control in Asian countries; Confucian influence on the modern state; Regulatory structure of television broadcasting; Conclusion.