The author visits the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the British Consulate General in Hong Kong to discover the ways in which the people of Hong Kong remember their imperial past. He finds that the reactions of Hong Kongers to a museum exhibit of the Chinese Emperor Qianlong, and the bouquets for Queen Elizabeth II, demonstrate the duality of their psyche. The duality is seen in the pride of many Hong Kongers in being Chinese yet abiding by the laws and practices which are a holdover from Hong Kong’s days as a British colony. Some Hong Kong people told the author in interviews that they believe the British administered Hong Kong efficiently in the latter phase of their colonial rule, and that is how they remember the British monarch.
Full Text PDFThe celebrated novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright passed away on June 30, 2022 in Austin, Texas, leaving behind his wife, the Brazilian artist Helena de la Fontaine, a vast trove of his writings, and several unpublished novels, essays, poems, and a play. We remember him fondly.
Full Text PDFOn the cricket field, English discrimination was not a case of racist bigotry as much as the old English obsession with class. But finding employment in England in the mid-twentieth century was fraught with racial prejudice.
Full Text PDFThis article argues for an urgent need for greater India-China cooperation through increased connectivity to tap the trade potential of the strategic location of Nathu-La at the Indo-China border. It also advocates the resumption of border trade through the Jelep-La route, located sixty-five miles from Kalimpong in West Bengal. Border trade can act as a confidence-building measure, paving the way for conflict management through economic integration. Despite the low trade volume, border trade can bridge the differences between the two hostile neighbors, and improve their bilateral ties. The study describes the patterns of trade between India and China during the last two decades, with a focus on border trade through Nathu-La in Sikkim. It argues that such trade is essential for India and China, the fastest-growing economies with a combined 38 percent of global population, and home to the largest number of young people for whose future security and prosperity the two countries cannot afford to have border disputes.
Full Text PDFThe Indo-Pacific region is becoming more important to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United States as highlighted in the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) adopted in 2019 and in the Biden Administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy released in February 2022. As such, cooperation between ASEAN and the United States is increasingly framed in the context of the complementary objectives of the two guiding documents. This article examines the premises and objectives of ASEAN and U.S. approaches to the Indo-Pacific and seeks to understand the similarity and differences including the competition vis-à-vis China, and the U.S. preference to work with its allies and regional partners. While ASEAN is working towards mainstreaming the AOIP in further substantiating its outlook, there are a number of convergences in which ASEAN may align its interests with the United States, especially in the promotion of a rules-based order as well as tangible and cutting-edge cooperation such as technology, digital economy, initiatives for sustainable development, and in the maritime domain. However, apart from positive-sum cooperation, ASEAN’s preference for neutrality and the need for consensus-building will make it difficult for ASEAN to take sides in the U.S.-China rivalry or to take substantive positions on key security issues. As such, the establishment of U.S.-led minilateral groupings such as the QUAD and AUKUS may be detrimental to the interest of ASEAN and might further exacerbate divisions within ASEAN and challenge its unity.
Full Text PDFThis study examines the integration of refugees in Toronto, many of whom have become entrepreneurs in the food industry in the safe haven of Canada, often fleeing war and persecution in their home countries. The author examines the “ethnic enclaves” such as Chinatown and Koreatown, and other emerging sites of ethnicity. Using a sociological case study of a Syrian restaurant, she explores government initiatives to help refugees establish their businesses. In her investigation, the author studies the media portrayal of their businesses in local newspapers, variously, as successful or as victims of hate crime, pointing out shortfalls in the coverage and the need for greater government support. She finds that many refugees not only want to succeed in their new lives, but to also give back to the new community they belong to. She concludes that simply consuming ethnic food does not guarantee one will not express racism or hatred toward another ethnic group, and voicing support for ethnic businesses is also not sufficient to claim to be “not racist.”
Bodo literature emerged with a need felt within the Bodo community to establish their history and culture. It soon became a force that created space for intellectual debate within the community. This article discusses a novel, Daini? by Manoranjan Lahary, and how his work reflects the desire of the early Bodo writers to dwell on their rich past. At the same time the article traces the development of Bodo novel writing as an art, highlighting Lahary’s skill in depicting nature and identifying what needs correction in society. It also discusses the lapses in writing style that plagued the early writers, and the discontinuities in the “realism” that was being promoted by them.
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