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This paper first outlines the digital interaction and integration in the dynamic process of production, circulation and consumption of Asia-produced media that evoke the shared values and traditions among Asian audiences. It then introduces the papers collected in this special issue, which explore a variety of widespread but underexplored phenomena in the newly interconnected Asian cultural industries and the sites of digital convergence between production and consumption (digital prosumption). In regard to future research, it suggests that multidisciplinary expertise in and from the region should maintain a critical, dialogical connection with Western scholarship in order to contribute to a holistic understanding of the constantly evolving translational creativity in the global audiovisual world. Simultaneously, novel practices in new media habitats, such as danmaku-titling and video remixes, pose new conceptual and ethical challenges to the present scholarship in user-generated AVT and calls for further theoretical revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contest between the U.S. and China for who gets to define the region has been developing since the early 1990s. During this time, various competing images of who comprises the region have been seen from the narrow and geographical conception including just the ASEAN states, to wider China-preferred images based on the ASEAN plus three grouping, towards broader perspective favoured by Japan including Australia and New Zealand reflected in proposals such as the Comprehensive East Asian Economic Partnership Agreement. How do these regional competitions affect the status of Taiwan? This paper makes the argument that the move towards more state-based regional entities and patterns of engagement (regionalisation), which so far have not (yet) adversely affected Taiwan economically, it has produced significant political challenges for Taiwan's ability to continue to be autonomous from the mainland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dualistic-order thesis has been emerged as a widely-used concept to describe East Asia's regional dynamics. According to the thesis, the economic and security spheres of the region have become divorced from one other, whereby China and the United States dominate the economic and security realms, respectively. This paper demonstrates the deficiencies of this thesis, based on a comprehensive assessment of the economic and security developments in the region, as well as the strategic choices of small and middle regional powers. In order to form a more accurate and systematic understanding of regional prosperity and stability, this paper develops an economy-security nexus approach by integrating the interactions of regional actors in both the economic and security realms into a unified framework. From this perspective, East Asian regional order is sustained by a delicate coupling of regional economic and security configurations: 'hot economics' is accompanied with cooperative security interactions. Although China and the United States are not the dominant actors in either field, their relatively benign interactions in both realms collectively play a significant role by shaping the strategic environment for regional actors, allowing them to enjoy a large degree of strategic flexibility and increase their security and prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how middle-class migrant East Asian mothers approach their children's education in England, where educational culture is perceived to be considerably different from East Asia. Based on dichotomous perceptions about East Asian and English education cultures, dialectical perspectives were used to analyse the life history interview data, particularly four dialectical frameworks developed by [Baxter, L.A. (1990). Dialectical contradictions in relationship development. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 7, 69–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407590071004]: selection, separation, neutralization, and reframing. In order to release tensions arising from the two-perceived different educational systems these mothers used different dialectical strategies. The paper argues that East Asian mothers' behaviour towards their children's education cannot be categorized using a uniform cultural framework and a diasporic space provides multiple possibilities for exercising divergent approaches for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on gender relations has overlooked the similarities and differences among East Asian societies. To fill this gap, this study investigated the association among men's gender-role attitudes, the actual share of housework, and perceptions of fairness in housework division, and how it differs across four East Asian societies. Using data from the 2012 International Social Survey Programme, the results demonstrated that Japanese and Taiwanese men had more egalitarian attitudes than mainland Chinese and South Koreans, while mainland Chinese men did more housework. Korean men held the most traditional gender-role attitudes and were least likely to feel they did less than their fair share. The paper concludes with implications for the gender revolution, suggesting policies should promote men's involvement in the family besides helping mothers balance work and family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of railroad infrastructure in East Siberia and the Russian Far East was a key aspect of Soviet industrialization during the 1970s and 1980s. Although built primarily for freight transportation, the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) and the Amur-Yakutsk Mainline (AYaM) have also been used for passenger transport and have thus contributed to increased mobility and heightened local expectations about future mobility. This article presents the results of an extensive survey carried out in the BAM/AYaM region, which maps experiences of individual mobility, including usage-related needs, practices, and expectations. The findings show low levels of satisfaction differing across the region's social and spatial diversity. The paper argues that hierarchies of mobility prevail at two related levels in the BAM/AYaM region: 1) the state's regional development policies favor industrial development, focusing on freight transportation while neglecting local passengers' needs for improved individual mobility; and 2) intersectional structural conditions along lines of diversity, such as gender, age, ethnicity, and place of residence, result in mobility disadvantage and lower mobility satisfaction. These hierarchies are embedded in the broader social and spatial inequality structures in the Russian Federation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the formation of networked ceramic factories before the mid-eighteenth century in early modern China. Enquiring into the role of the state and private entrepreneurs in production innovation and design, it explores the notion of a 'factory'. In the context of large scale traditional production in East Asia, I periodize the evolving organizational structure of China's model of ceramic production and discuss two aspects of the state's negotiation with regional commercial kilns: 1) the impact on kiln structures and the exploitation of raw materials such as porcelain stones and colour pigment, and 2) an early modern design system which simultaneously regulated aesthetic forms, technological experiments, and fiscal planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows that the political and social upheavals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century also engendered novel ideas and cross-national debates about dynasties in East Asia. The Japanese notion of a 'line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal' became the most emblematic provision of the Meiji Constitution. Under the impact of the Japanese model and of modern discourses on constitutional law, the Qing and Korean governments sought to radically transform traditional concepts of dynastic rule by constitutionally perpetuating the ruling dynasties. However, the notion of an unbroken lineage proved to be highly ambiguous outside of the Japanese context. Its adoption in the Qing constitutional outline of 1908 met with considerable resistance and nurtured suspicions that 'constitutional preparation' was only serving the Court's selfish interests. But under the surface, the Japanese model of an unbroken ruling dynasty was de-dynasticised and applied to the notion of constitution and even to the State itself. As the Confucian classics were no longer sufficient to legitimise rulership, the new notion of an eternal fundamental law fused with traditional notions of permanent principles of governance and helped establishing written constitutional charters as ineluctable elements of the modern nation-state in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting Salazar's 'imaginaries of mobility,' this paper investigates how transnational mobility becomes imaginable, desirable or even experientially imperative for mobile Taiwanese young adults in the context of globalisation. It analyses the ways by which they interpret their mobilities as a pursuit of self-identity while negotiating the tensions between collectivism and individualism of Taiwanese society. Based on personal profiles and self-narratives of mobility appearing on a Taiwanese media website devoted to the topic of transnational mobility, I demonstrate how writers present a 'mobile self' characterised by being geographically mobile, socially transgressive and culturally cosmopolitan. This self is depicted in sharp contrast with the immobile at home and narrated as an integral part of achieving identity through three kinds of self-transformation: becoming true to oneself, becoming independent, and becoming a dreamer. While these narratives resonate Western discourses of mobility, they are interpreted from the lens of individualism-collectivism opposition in East Asia and of generational conflicts in Taiwan. Specifically, transnational mobility, regardless forms, is framed as a generational revolt against a collectivist society that represses individuality. The results show how imaginaries of mobility are recontextualised, producing meaning and practice based on local references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Slow Movement brought with itself a focus on the speed of our living, and a desire to slow down our daily activities, including movement activities. Also, in the time of the current pandemic, many people were forced to experience a certain slowing down. One question raised in the context of a slow life is the limit of slowness: what is the limit of slowness in human movement? And: is it desirable to slow down to the maximum possible? The aim of this paper is to show the limit of slowing down, which is described as 'stopping', based on meditative practices from the Far East, especially the Zen practice of 'just sitting' (shikantaza—只管打坐). This may seem radical, since 'stopping' one's pragmatic activity and thinking may seem odd and worthless: empty, boring and death-like. However, from the Zen point of view the 'stopping' is not some static expression of our existence, but rather brings about a new kind of experiencing and a new quality of movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The Kuril Islands Chain demarcates the boundary between the circumpolar and East Asian floras in the amphi-Pacific and is a trans-Oceanic migration route from warm-temperate insular East Asia to north-east Asia and Beringia. This paper reviews the flora of the northern part of Iturup Island in regards to its bryogeography and taxonomic diversity, as well as its relative position among other bryophyte floras of north-east and East Asia. Methods. The paper uses morphological methods to identify the species composition and detrended correspondence analysis to identify the position of the northern Iturup Island in the system of local floras of the eastern, extra-tropical, Pacific. Key results. The flora is closely related to the bryophyte floras of the southern Kurils and Hokkaido Island, but has been found to be distinctly distant from the 'true' cool-temperate East Asian floras, as well as from the boreal and hemiarctic floras of north-east Asia. Instead, the floras of the south Kurils and northern Hokkaido Island belong to a peculiar intermediate phytogeographic province that cannot be unambiguously placed in either the East Asian or circumboreal floristic regions. The hemiboreal character of the bryophyte flora of northern Iturup Island is in contrast to the general appearance of many of the dominant vegetation communities on the island, which are more characteristic of the hemiarctic. Conclusion. There is no robust evidence to refer the bryophyte flora of northern Iturup either to the circumboreal or East Asian Floristic Region, the flora belongs to a unique intermediate province between the two regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yeung H. W.-C. Regional development and the competitive dynamics of global production networks: an East Asian perspective, Regional Studies. The debate on the nature and dynamics of regional development in both academic and policy circles has now moved on from the earlier focus on endogenous regional assets to analysing the complex relationship between globalization and regional change. This position paper attempts to engage with this debate through the experience of regional development in East Asia. The paper shows that regional development cannot be understood independently of the changing dynamics of global production networks. While the existing literature on East Asia tends to focus on the state as the key driver of economic development at the national and regional levels, it is argued that the developmental state is a necessary but not sufficient condition for regional development to take place. Instead, one needs to study the complex strategic coupling of those economic actors, particularly large business firms, operating in specific regions in Asia with their lead firm counterparts orchestrating production networks on a global basis... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author introduces the special issue on transitional landscapes in Eastern Asia. She describes cross-cultural influences, regional variations, rapid landscape transformation due to urbanization, and concerns about environmental degradation. She connects ideas presented in several articles in the issue and concludes that East Asian countries need to develop their own identities in landscape design.

This paper analyses the maps of East Asia and Central America drawn by Europeans between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, and illustrates the distinctions in the roles of Europeans in these two civilizations through the investigation of cartographic differences. In the initial stage of Europeans' entry into East Asia and Central America, the local maps have both the characteristics and techniques of the outsiders and the insiders, reflecting the distinct scene of the encounter of civilizations. In the process of localization, the map system of East Asia deconstructed European cartography, the original purpose of early Europeans entering China was digested by Chinese society, and their role changed from missionary to royal courtier. European cartography deconstructed and colonized the traditional cartography of Central America, which corresponds to the history that Europeans gradually became the rulers of indigenous people in real life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Declarations of a "New World Order", and the "end of history", formed part of the optimism that, with the end of the Cold War, international organisation as a process, and international organisations (IOs), the physical manifestations of this process, held promise as never before for the provision of international peace and security. Yet East Asia was missing out. With ongoing ideological divides, deep historical mistrust, territorial conflicts, and jealous defence of sovereign state prerogatives, it seemed that the region was doomed to be an exception. Three decades later, despite the proliferation of IOs, East Asian exceptionalism persists. This paper, therefore, assesses why the peace and security-generating function of international organisation has proven so difficult to manifest in East Asia, what hope there may be for progress, and the prospects of several of the main candidate organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Referring to the short-term survival of new progressive governments, ‘progressive setback’ has been a remarkable political phenomenon in many East Asian countries during the recent decades. Regarding this phenomenon's background, this paper investigates why and how urban citizens challenged their progressive governments in Thailand, South Korea, and Japan. First, this paper argues that the progressive setback across East Asia reflects the difficulty progressive governments faced in overcoming the legacy of longstanding conservative regimes, which had locked urban citizens into specific modes of subsistence. The progressives invoked the protest of urban populations as their new socioeconomic policies undermined these populations’ traditional basis of subsistence. Second, an investigation of the primary modes of urban subsistence in each country makes the cross-national comparison of progressive setback possible. Urban middle classes in Thailand, as an exclusive group incorporated into the mainstream political economy, engaged in a fierce contest with a progressive government that denied their privileged status in Thai society. In Korea, the self-employed turned to the conservative party since market restructuring programs of the progressive government made it difficult for these self-employed to maintain profits and sustain their livelihood. Finally, Japan's urban workers could not welcome the welfare expansion of the new labor-friendly government, because this class was too dependent upon wage incomes to agree with the consumption tax hike that welfare expansion required as its precondition. This paper implies that the old habits of urban citizens are an important hurdle for East Asia's progressives to overcome. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many developing countries have recently adopted a swathe of development strategies ranging from extremely selective to non-discretionary, functional policies – some if not all of which constitute what we may term 'industrial policy'. The collection provides an overview on the state of the art about new industrial policy and the place of politics in contemporary analysis of state intervention in the global political economy. This introduction revisits the importance of state-backed economic policies not simply as a reaction to the limitations of market reforms implemented in the 1980s and 1990s, but as a radically new development strategy moving on to the twenty-first century. The task of the paper is two-fold: first, it maps out the lessons from East Asian industrial policy and demonstrates how a new generation of political economy scholars have brought in a more political approach to industrialisation; and second, it synthesises the political economy literature to build a framework that incorporates new aspects of industrial policy, notably on the significance of economic linkages and rent management as a way of addressing global value chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As British subjects, Punjabi men emigrated to various British colonies in search of economic opportunities. This paper examines the pattern and extent of Punjabi immigration to the colony (and later state) of Victoria (Australia). The overall numbers show a steady increase until 1901 when the passage of the Immigration Restriction Act effectively terminated all immigration from South Asia and East Asia. The data also show that, on a decadal level, the age of immigrants steadily increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Revolution in Military Affairs, its concepts, processes, and debates, have evolved in five 'IT-RMA waves' since the 1980s. None of them, however, have fully achieved their intended outcomes as their ambitious premises have exceeded available technologies, budgetary resources, and operational capabilities of a given era. This paper argues that a new 'artificial intelligence-driven RMA' wave differs in the political, strategic, technological, and operational diffusion paths and patterns. While the AI-RMA may affect select countries and regions disproportionately, its technological advances coupled with an ongoing strategic competition is sufficiently broad to stipulate significant military changes across geopolitical lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to assess industrial upgrading in the semiconductor industry in East Asia. Research into 25 firms, and subsequently the entire value chain specialization of these firms, as well as the filing of patents in the United States at the aggregate country level show that special focus on technological upgrading is critical to attract or stimulate firms' participation in frontier R&D and wafer fabrication activities. Within these categories supportive R&D in assembly and test operations can be achieved in reasonably strong Science Technology and Innovation (STI) infrastructure in particular national locations endowed with strong basic infrastructure. Only in countries where frontier semiconductor research is carried out at universities and where a strong discipline-based incentive mechanism is around, have semiconductor firms established frontier R&D and frontier wafer fabrication activities, such as in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. China has embarked on upgrading to such activities since 2017 suggesting that it could follow the same path to maturity. Consequently, the evidence shows that semiconductor manufacturing is most sticky with the highest technological sophistication in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan where the upgrading incentives and the STI infrastructure have been the most incisive, while China shows a promising movement in that direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A peculiar set of discontinuities and contradictions has recently emerged in the institutions-oriented literature that spans comparative capitalism, developmental states, and strategic techno-industrial governance. Around the globe, developmental states are reported to be both disappearing (chiefly in East Asia) an proliferating (not least in the United States). These depictions, we argue, are indicative of how the developmental state concept has become unmoored from its theoretical and historical grounding, and inadvertently politicised in scholarly debate. The concept has thus become unproductive (even if still of heuristic value). In this paper we offer a fresh way of thinking about the state's activism in both Korea and the United States. Specifically, we refurbish the idea of statecraft as it plays out in two very different national agendas, and as it is shaped by contrasting state-society relations. By paying attention to the differential international drivers and state ambitions, our analysis delivers a new and improved understanding of the character, purpose and capacities of the state in each national setting and, by implication, of their commitment and ability to confront specific challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the eastern movements of barley grains and their morphological variations in prehistory. By combining previously published and newly collected archaeobotanical grain measurements (n = 2,176), we explore the roles of culinary traditions underlying the morphological traits observed. We find that barley diminished in size as it moved from its origin in southwestern Asia to Central and East Asia between the third millennium BC and first millennium BC. In particular, the grains in Monsoonal China became greatly reduced in comparison to other regions as the crop was incorporated into eastern small grain cuisines. The reverse pattern is observed in the high-altitude Tibetan environment, which is attributed to the practicalities of cooking under low vapour pressure conditions. These results, demonstrating that barley moved eastward but western grinding and baking traditions did not, reveal the complexity of the eastern culinary system and raise awareness of decoupling of grains and their associated cuisines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit outcomes, localisation of humanitarian aid has received the greatest amount of attention. Localisation is described as giving more support to national first respondents, making humanitarian aid 'as local as possible, as international as necessary'. Despite the good intentions, localisation presents a biased understanding of the local and its agency in transforming humanitarianism. Not only is localisation a failed attempt to reconfigure the international humanitarian system power relations, dominated by Western actors, but also it glosses over the crucial role of the South in moulding the humanitarian action norm. In order to address the latter, the paper reviews the history of humanitarian action in East Asia as a case of norm circulation, showing how the region's agency was essential to accommodate the foundations of liberal humanitarianism during the Cold War and, in the last two decades, to contest them. I argue that instead of localisation, a process of deglobalisation is taking shape in the region, based on increased national ownership of crisis response, privileging reciprocal, bilateral support over multilateral action, and legitimating the rejection of unnecessary support. These changes are pushing traditional humanitarian actors to rethink their practices, bringing much-needed change but also challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explain the career choice motivation of young workers in a non-Western setting, Vietnam. After witnessing the greater role of the relatively small but competent bureaucracy in East Asia, many have assumed that 'pervasive and powerful' bureaucracy also occupies a similar prestigious position in the rapidly growing Vietnam. For the past decade, however, declining talent acquisition in the public sector indicates that good quality workers are leaving or not choosing public sector jobs. What job motivators and perception on the government jobs affect the younger generation's career choice in Vietnam? Based on the classic motivation theories and Public Service Motivation (PSM) framework, we surveyed fresh graduates and final year university students (n = 433) and found that there is a positive relationship between public career choice and motivation to serve the public as PSM theory expected. Yet, our data show that traditional job motivators such as materialistic benefits, job security, and stability were more important for the young Vietnamese. From a comparative perspective, this suggests that Vietnamese bureaucracy, regardless of its power and pervasiveness, needs substantial improvement by meeting public workers' basic sanitation needs and working environment to recruit quality manpower for continuous economic success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers on global financial crises is presented.

This paper focuses on the changing governance of economic development in a globalizing era in relation to the dynamics of global value chains and global production networks. Based on recent development in such East Asian economies as South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, I examine how, since the 1990s, the embedded relation between one variant of state institutions, known as the developmental state, and national firms, well integrated into global chains and networks spanning different territories and regions, has evolved. Because of the deepening strategic coupling of these national firms with lead firms in global industries, the developmental state's attempt to govern the market and to steer industrial transformation through direct policy interventions has become increasingly difficult and problematic. Through this process of strategic coupling, national firms have been gradually disembedded from state apparatuses and re-embedded in different global production networks that are governed by competitive inter-firm dynamics. While the state in these East Asian economies has actively repositioned its role in this changing governance, it can no longer be conceived as the dominant actor in steering domestic firms and industrial transformation. The developmental trajectory of these national economies becomes equally, if not more, dependent on the successful articulation of their domestic firms in global production networks spearheaded by lead firms. In short, inter-firm dynamics in global production networks tend to trump state-led initiatives as one of the most critical conditions for economic development. This paper theorizes further this significant role of global value chains and global production networks in the changing international political economy of development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Russian Far East is a region between China and the Russian Arctic with a diverse climatological, geophysical, oceanic, and economical characteristic. The southern region is located in the Far East monsoon sector, while the northern parts are affected by the Arctic Ocean and cold air masses penetrating far to the south. Growing economic activities and traffic connected to the China Belt and Road Initiative together with climate change are placing an increased pressure upon the Russian Far East environment. There is an urgent need to improve the capacity to measure the atmospheric and environmental pollution and analyze their sources and to quantify the relative roles of local and transported pollution emissions in the region. In the paper, we characterize the current environmental and socio-economical landscape of the Russian Far East and summarize the future climate scenarios and identify the key regional research questions. We discuss the research infrastructure concept, which is needed to answer the identified research questions. The integrated observations, filling in the critical observational gap at the Northern Eurasian context, are required to provide state-of-the-art observations and enable follow-up procedures that support local, regional, and global decision making in the environmental context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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China has long positioned itself as the ancient civilization of the Far East, which only makes geographical sense through the lens of the West. The literature on China resonates with this geographic illustration, about which, critical scholars have cautioned against the imperial hegemony of Eurocentric knowledge. In this paper, we attempt to answer the call for a Global East through the situated agency of the others in the geopolitics of knowledge circulation. The circulation of knowledge foregrounds transnational flows in a multifaceted and multidirectional process, and mimicry calls for attention to political/soft subversions beneath the camouflaged behavior of coping. By investigating scholarship on the particular topic of shanzhai, we probe into two layers of knowledge production: how the variegated scholarly citation behaviors reflect the situated agency that bears the effects of asymmetric power relations formed through multiple flows of people, idea and capital, but nonetheless demonstrates an endeavor of autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an empirical analysis of how culture, specifically tradition, affects well-being, i.e., happiness, life satisfaction, and financial satisfaction, along with socioeconomic factors in East Asia. Ordered probit regression model results show that women have higher happiness and satisfaction levels than men even in Confucian cultures in which men generally receive more favourable conditions than women. Additionally, marital status or the impact of religion had strong and positive effects on happiness and sometimes on life satisfaction but not on financial satisfaction. Interestingly, tradition has a statistically significant and important effect on both life and financial satisfaction. Finally, the results show that individuals who value tradition greater also have higher levels of financial satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine pollen types from four representative subfamilies of Euphorbiaceae in southern China, including 34 species (21 genera) of Crotonoideae, Euphorbioideae, Acalyphoideae and Phyllanthoideae. The morphology of the investigated species is described and illustrated with high-resolution photographs observed by transmitted light microscope. These descriptions and illustrations are presented at the species level, and pollen types and identifying features are also noted. This study is a complementary contribution to Quaternary pollen analysis, and should aid in the identification of pollen types assigned to Euphorbiaceae, especially in Southern China, as well as elsewhere in the tropical and subtropical regions of East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes a new form of investment attraction recently introduced in Russia—territories of outrunning socio-economic development (TOSEDs). These initiatives provide tax and other benefits to 20 territories in the Far East and to 90 cities in which a considerable number of jobs are concentrated in a single factory (mono-cities). Using secondary sources and interviews, we present the initial legislation for TOSEDs, the evolution of the initial legislation, and the functioning of TOSED residents. We also identify several opportunities for foreign investors who have installed or intend to install their new manufacturing facilities in TOSEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a revival of discussions on American decline. This paper intervenes in this debate by suggesting that there is a tendency towards partial conceptualisations of US power. It suggests a new historical materialist perspective that makes it possible to theorise American Empire as a relational social totality embedded within global capitalism. The paper then analyses the social limits of China’s rise and the integration of East Asian regionalisation into American Empire, suggesting the extent to which world power has shifted east has tended to be overestimated. It also analyses the emergence of Brazil, India, and the BRICS meetings, suggesting these developments have a limited, but overstated, capacity to challenge American Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses a strategy for accelerating the development of a regionally grounded knowledge base on educational leadership and management in East Asia. The study reviews data on patterns of knowledge production in East Asia, and employs the findings in the development of a strategy for increasing knowledge production. The study concludes that a suitable coordination strategy for the region should incorporate formal and informal strategies, be intermediate in scale and organised around a common research agenda. The authors propose that the substantive findings and the method of strategy analysis may also be relevant for academic leaders in other developing regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines relations between transnational activities and immigrant integration in Vancouver. From a large survey, associations are noted between a set of transnational practices and economic and socio-cultural indicators of integration in Canada. These associations depart considerably from comparable studies in the United States and the Netherlands, identifying transnationalism with recent migrants and poor socio-cultural integration, while relations are weak and inconsistent with economic integration. The most transnational profile in the Vancouver survey is shared by business immigrants originating from East Asia, and the second part of the paper comprises an ethnography of this group, interpreting how their spatial practices and identities as business people sans frontières place them at odds with the state's attempt to reproduce integrated national citizens. These general themes are examined in more detail in relation to their holding of global assets in potential non-compliance with Canadian tax law, and their sojourner habitus, in which serial mobility limits participation and identity with Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade the world economy has been characterized by escalating global current account imbalances between the United States and East Asian states. This paper argues that US structural power in the global monetary system allowed the consolidation of a finance-led growth regime in the US based on massive capital inflows, asset inflation and consumption growth while inducing East Asian emerging market economies to establish export-led growth regimes. The global credit crisis has clearly uncovered the boundaries of US monetary hegemony, imposing severe adjustment throughout the global political economy. I analyse the political economy of global economic adjustment and argue that the crisis of US monetary hegemony is based domestically on the crisis of the finance-led growth regime and globally on the shortage of global demand. On the basis of an analysis of the impact of the crisis on the models of capitalism of the US, the Eurozone, and China, this paper shows that global demand deficiency will persist in the short to medium term. Durante la última década, la economía mundial se ha caracterizado por el aumento de los desequilibrios de cuentas corrientes globales entre los Estados Unidos y los estados del Asia oriental. Este artículo sostiene que el poder estructural estadounidense en el sistema monetario global permitió la consolidación de un régimen de crecimiento impulsado por las finanzas en Estados Unidos, en base a las entradas masivas de capital, inflación de los activos y crecimiento de consumo, mientras inducían a las economías de mercado emergente de Asia oriental, a establecer regímenes de crecimiento impulsado por las exportaciones. La crisis de crédito global ha puesto claramente al descubierto los límites de la hegemonía monetaria estadounidense, imponiendo un ajuste severo a través de la economía política global. Analizo la economía política del ajuste económico global y sostengo que la crisis de la hegemonía monetaria estadounidense está basada – domésticamente – en la crisis del crecimiento del régimen impulsado por las finanzas y – globalmente – en la escasez de la demanda global. En base a un análisis del impacto de la crisis en los modelos del capitalismo de los Estados Unidos, la Eurozona y la China, este artículo muestra que la insuficiencia en la demanda global persistirá en el corto y mediano plazo. 过去的十年，世界经济的一个特征一直是不断升高的美国与东亚国家之间的全球经常账户不平衡。本文认为美国在全球货币体系中的结构性权力使得美国基于大规模资本流动、资产膨胀、消费增长的金融业领导的增长机制得到巩固，同时诱使东亚新兴市场经济建立出口领导的增长机制。全球信贷危机已经清楚地揭示了美国金融霸权的范围，这一霸权通过全球政治经济强加严酷的调整。笔者分析全球经济调整的政治经济学，并且认为美国货币霸权的危机在国内是因为金融业领导的增长机制的危机，而在全球（国际）则是因为全球需求的短缺。基于危机对美国、欧元区和中国的资本主义模式的冲击的分析，本文认为，全球需求不足将在近中期持续。 اتسم الاقتصاد العالمي على مدى العقد الماضي بتصاعد أشكال الاختلال في الحسابات المالية الجارية على المستوى العالمي بين الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية ودول شرق آسيا. وترى هذه الدراسة أن النفوذ الهيكلي للولايات المتحدة في النظام النقدي العالمي قد أتاح ترسيخ نظام نمو ترتكز على العنصر المالي في الولايات المتحدة، وهو يقوم على أساس من التدفق الكبير لرؤوس الأموال، وتضخم الأصول ونمو الاستهلاك، بينما يغري اقتصاديات السوق الناشئة في شرق آسيا بإقامة أنظمة نمو ترتكز على التصدير. وقد كشفت الأزمة المالية العالمية بوضوح حدود الهيمنة النقدية للولايات المتحدة، والتي تفرض تكيّفاً شديداً في مجمل الاقتصادر السياسي العالمي. وتحلل الدراسة الاقتصاد السياسي للتكيّف الاقتصادي العالم&#x6 지난 십여 년에 걸쳐 세계경제는 미국과 동아시아 간에 확대되는 지구적 무역 불균형에 의해서 특징지어진다. 이 논문은 지구적 금융체계 내에서 동아시아 신흥 시장경제가 수출주도형 성장체제를 확립하게 하면서, 미국의 구조적 권력이 대규모 자본 유입, 자산 인플레와 소비 증가에 기초한 미국의 금융 주도 성장체제를 공고하게 했다는 것을 주장한다. 세계 금융위기는 분명히 전지구적 정치경제를 통해서 커다란 조정을 강요하면서 미국의 금융 헤게모니의 경제를 드러내게 했다. 나는 지구적 경제조정의 정치경제를 분석하여 미국의 금융 헤게모니가 국내적으로는 금융 주도 성장체제의 위기에 근거하고 있고, 지구적으로는 지구적 수요부족에 근거하고 있다고 주장한다. 위기가 미국, 유럽과 중국 자본주의 모델에 가한 충격 분석에 근거하여, 이 글은 지구적 수요 부족이 중단기적으로 지속될 것이라는 것을 보여준다. В прошлое десятилетие мировая экономика была охарактеризована эскалацией глобального дисбаланса текущего счета между государствами Восточной Азии и Соединенными Штатами. В данной статье утверждается, что американские власти, в структуре мировой валютной системы, позволили консолидацию финансово-экономического режима роста в США на основе массивного притока капитала, инфляции активов и роста потребления, вызывая в Восточной Азии, с формирующейся рыночной экономикой, создание экспортно-ориентированного режима роста. Глобальный кредитный кризис ясно показал границы американской валютной гегемонии, вводящей жесткое регулирование во всей глоб& [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following a historical commitment to multilateralism, in the last decade the trade policy initiatives of many states in the Asia-Pacific have turned to bilateralism through the negotiation of free trade agreements (FTAs). The corresponding proliferation of regional FTAs has thus far been understood to result from three broad motivations: a desire to advance trade liberalization beyond World Trade Organization (WTO) disciplines; mercantilistic efforts to secure preferential access to key export markets; and/or attempts to use FTAs to secure non-economic political gains. This paper argues that since the middle of the decade a new motive has emerged – the use of FTAs to improve resource security – particularly by import-dependent resource consumers in Northeast Asia. As yet unexamined in the literature, this paper seeks to document and explain this trend. It analyses the recent emergence of resource security concerns as a new FTA motive; the corresponding shifts in the FTA strategies and initiatives of Japan, Korea and China; and the dynamics of an emerging race for resource-related FTAs between the three governments. Based on this analysis, it demonstrates that resource-related FTAs could potentially improve consumers’ resource security through either the liberalization of trade, the extension of investment protections or broader diplomatic gains with the targeted supplier. However, owing to supplier reluctance to enter into binding policy commitments for resource industries, their track record shows success in only the diplomatic dimension, and the prospects for a strengthening of their effects are poor. As a result, it is argued that while resource concerns have become a key motive for FTA initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region, they have not substantively improved resource security for its import-dependent states and are unlikely to do so in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to provide a hierarchical configuration of the container port industry. It attempts to do so by determining a port hierarchy and then, utilising this, deriving the nature of the spatial interactions between sample ports in East Asia. The former is determined by assessing the relative importance of a port within the given network, and the latter is mainly based on the significance of network flow movements. Rather than focusing purely on the economic or topological meaning or significance of the available shipping capacity, this paper aims to determine port hierarchy by addressing the spatial profile of network flow data as a supplementary indicator. An approach based on graph theory—Multiple Linkage Analysis—is described and applied to examining the profile of capacity flow on each linkage within a sample network consisting of 39 major container ports on the main east–west routes. The value on a linkage is defined in terms of the available shipping capacity between pairs of ports within a given unit time. As the output from this analysis, all significant connections are separated out from the initial flow matrix. The position of a particular port within the network port hierarchy relies upon the number of significant flows connected to the port and the origins/destinations of those flows. The results reveal a strong correlation between the importance of a port as indicated by its position in the hierarchy and the number of significant connections into or out of it. A further clustering analysis, based on the above distinction, is performed for the hierarchical mapping of the container port industry in a selected area and to provide a better understanding of inter-port competition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The role of school leadership in educational reform has reached the status of a truism, and led to major changes in school leader recruitment, selection, training and appraisal. While similar policy trends are evident in East Asia, the empirical knowledge base underlying these measures is distorted and lacking in validation. This paper begins by offering evidence in support of this assertion. Then it examines the process of knowledge production as it has unfolded in Western academic contexts. Finally, it assesses the context in East Asia and offers recommendations for accelerating the development of a regionally valid knowledge base. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces the special collection on East Asia and the global crisis. After justifying why a focus on East Asia is appropriate, it draws out the main themes that run through the individual contributions. These are the extent to which the region is decoupling from the global economy (or the West), the increasing legitimacy of statist alternatives to neoliberal development strategies, and the impact of crises on the definition of 'region' and the functioning of regional institutions and governance mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of Chinese foreign policy has long shown that domestic politics and domestic constraints are sources of foreign policy, albeit generally considered less potent than ideology and interests. Domestic political constraints should also be explored as factors in Chinese regional policies toward East Asia, including regional economic institutions. This paper examines three domestic institutional constraints on regional foreign policy in the area of trade and economics: a fragmented decision-making structure that has difficulty with coordination, a relatively heavy reliance on top level decision-makers at a time when issues of Asian economic policy have relatively low priority for these same decision-makers, and the relatively extreme lack of autonomy for negotiators vis-a-vis top decision-makers in Beijing. These constraints are by any means unique to China. However, at a time when many observers and participants are expecting—indeed, often hoping for—Chinese leadership in the region, the paper posits that these constraints hinder the PRC's ability to fill this role. The key empirical focus is regional trade agreements and regional economic organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of WWII, the so-called developmental states of East Asia have become famous for their 'financial activism': their efforts to link the financial and productive sectors of their economies in ways that advance national development objectives. However it is now widely acknowledged that the twin pressures of global financial integration and financialisation have transformed the policymaking landscape and complicated the pursuit of financial activism. So what do these developments mean for the capacities of East Asian states to pursue developmental ambitions? To address this question, I adopt a novel, mindset-centred analytical framework for the study of developmental state evolution and apply it for the first time to the case of Taiwan. My analysis reveals that the evolutionary trajectory of Taiwan's developmental state has not been linear; since the early 2000s, the state's commitment to and capacities for financial activism have waxed and waned. Moreover, two factors emerge as particularly significant in this waxing and waning: social legitimacy and political leadership. This paper demonstrates the analytical utility of a mindset-centred analysis when it comes to investigating the dynamics of developmental state evolution, and why some national variants appear more durable than others at different moments in history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Recent global, regional and country-level prevalence estimates for blindness and vision impairment will be important when designing future public health policies. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this discussion by estimating the productivity impact of known effective interventions to treat all preventable cases of vision impairment at the global, regional and country-level up to 2050. We also provide estimates of potential reduction in the number of people with vision impairment, as well as averted vision-impaired years up to 2050. Methods: We combined recent estimates of the prevalence of blindness, distance and near vision impairment with the World Bank's World Development Indicators (WDI) and estimated the global, regional and country-level productivity gains up to 2030, 2040 and 2050 from known effective interventions, primarily cataract surgery and treated uncorrected refractive errors. The magnitude of productivity gains relative to baseline depended on population size, estimated current and future prevalence of vision impairment, level of economic development, long-term wage growth, and long-term real interest rates. Results: Globally, we estimate that the number of people affected by blindness could be reduced from the estimated 114.6 million by 2050 to 58.3 million. This would be associated with over one billion blind life-years averted and US$ 984 billion in global productivity gains. These numbers are dwarfed by the impact of interventions to reduce the prevalence of Moderate and Severe Vision Impairment (MSVI) [Presenting Acuity <20/60 to 20/400 in the better-seeing eye]. We estimate that the number of people affected by MSVI could be reduced by 435.8 million people to 147.9 million by 2050. This reduction would translate to over 9 billion MSVI -life-years avoided and US$ 17 trillion in productivity gains by 2050. While other causes of VI would not be possible to eliminate completely based on current known effective treatments, low-cost interventions to eliminate VI from uncorrected presbyopia would avert 1.2 billion presbyopia life-years and achieve US$ 1.05 trillion in productivity gains by 2050. In total, the global productivity gains for all three categories are estimated to be US$ 19 trillion by 2050. East Asia makes up the greatest share of productivity gains due to the high number of people affected by VI and the region's continuing economic growth. Conclusion: Implementation of currently known and effective treatments of avoidable blindness, MSVI and presbyopia would be expected to contribute significant productivity gains to the global economy at a fraction of the estimated costs to deliver them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how East Asian states have regulated membership and migration through meso-level institutions. Specifically, we examine how states have used the household registration system (China's hukou system, South Korea's hoju/hojeok system, and Japan's koseki system) in the process of nation-state building in the early post-World War Two period, as a security measure to control movement throughout the Cold War, and as a tool to build or sever trans-border kinship ties in the contemporary era. Drawing on the literature on multi-level citizenship, the article contributes to the growing scholarship that unpacks the civic-ethnic divide in comparative citizenship studies by examining how meso-level institutions shape national-level membership in countries that are commonly characterized as having 'ethnic' citizenship regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a series of papers we have developed the notion that net foreign assets could be better approximated by capitalizing the net investment income line of the balance of payments statistics. Hidden assets or changes in financial costs may change the net return of net foreign assets even when the valuation of assets remains unchanged. By capitalizing the net investment income a more realistic picture emerges on the true burden or return of net foreign assets. This paper estimates external positions for East Asian economies using this methodology and compares the results with that of official accounts. We find that, until the late 1990s, net investment income increased relatively little, signaling that net foreign assets had not grown as suggested by the large current account surpluses of these countries. This is consistent with the fact that the region had attracted large amounts of foreign direct investment, for which the transfer of technology and knowledge are not accurately captured by the valuation of the foreign asset position. Since 2002, however, the trend has reversed, indicating much larger surpluses than officially registered. We discuss individual country cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution takes stock of ASEAN centrality in trade and the emerging policy area of trade infrastructure, also known as connectivity. ASEAN centrality in the East Asian and Indo-Pacific regions has increasingly been called into question, but most studies have failed to specify what ASEAN centrality is and how it can be measured. Outlining both a technical and a substantial definition, this study presents the state of affairs and current trends of ASEAN centrality in the areas of trade and connectivity. Disaggregating the concept, the paper assesses ASEAN's role in the two policy areas as a leader, convener, convenience, and necessity. ASEAN's central position in trade is under threat due to a changing environment, with trade ties increasing between ASEAN's partners. In addition, ASEAN leadership in the RCEP negotiations has been symbolic rather than substantial. In connectivity, ASEAN centrality is even more questionable. Its regional connectivity vision is contested by other states and relationships act as conduits for the exercise of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education-motivated migration from East Asia is regarded as a family capital accumulation project where middle class families reproduce their socioeconomic advantage at a transnational level. This study focuses on one-child generation migrants from mainland China who came to study in the UK as teenagers or young adults but remained to work as professionals after their education. Caught between the British social/employment system and the Chinese family system, the one-child migrants showed a fragmented sense of belonging and a high level of uncertainty in the migration plan. The pervasive Confucian family culture in these transnational families also calls for an expanded conceptualisation of the term 'children' and a long-term observation of their mobility curve in the project. This paper incorporates rational motivation with human complexity in the context of transnational reality, thus it contributes to a more nuanced understanding of changing intergenerational relationships in the transnational family capital accumulation project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taiwan has been referred to by the World Bank as one of the East Asia's "economic miracles". Many quantitative models on Taiwan's economic growth have been conducted by neo-classical mainstream economists. However, none of them investigates in detail the thinking of those policy-makers who work behind the economic success of Taiwan. Li Kuo-Ting is generally regarded as the architect of Taiwan's economic "miracle". In this paper, an evolutionary perspective has been used to understand the economic management of Li Kuo-Ting in particular and the learning government in Taiwan in general. It will be argued that a policy change is a matter of learning, experimenting, and a process of trial and error, involving subjective aspects such as the policy-makers' perception, vision and experiences, and objective factors such as environmental, geographical or international constraints. Furthermore, Taiwan has been able to succeed because its policy-makers are willing to learn and unlearn. Though the right policy has not always been adopted, Taiwan's policy-makers are willing to experiment with a new policy in a pragmatic way. Policies that did not work were either modified or abandoned. Policies that did work were adopted. This paper concludes that Taiwan's economic "miracle" has been the result of a long-term evolutionary process of entrepreneurial vision by the government, careful policy experimentation and market selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about the agenda discussed during the conference entitled "Japan's Vision of An East Asian Community: Responses from Asia" in Adelaide, South Australia. The meeting focused on the goal to create an East Asian community that would foster regional cooperation among members. Jave Maswood, associate professor at Griffith University in Brisbane, chaired the session and panelist from various Asian countries spoke on national experiences.

This paper assesses the relative merits and demerits of different East Asian models by placing them in a historical perspective. It re-interprets Gerschenkron's model of late industrialization, and extends it to compare East Asian economies in view of substituting and complementing models, ft then explains divergent performances among East Asian economics from the late 1990s by examining the different Challenges they faced as their economies became mature and more fully open to forces of globalization. fn conclusion, the paper discusses the applicability of the East Asian models for today's developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]