. East Asian Institute – författare

This publication, comprising three EAI Background Briefs, presents events, comments and analyses related to China's recently concluded Fifteenth Party Congress. It should be of topical interest to readers who want to keep abreast of the latest developments in China.

Hong Kong's reunification with China on July 1, 1997 after 156 years of British rule was a historic event of worldwide significance. While the transition to Chinese sovereignty has so far been smoother than expected, there are lingering doubts concerning three interrelated issues: whether the Hong Kong dollar can continue to exist, whether the linked exchange rate can survive and whether Hong Kong can retain its role as an international financial centre. These issues are analyzed and discussed objectively in the first article of this book.The second article confines itself to the workings of the currency board. In addition, the future of the system after Hong Kong's historic reunification with China is briefly discussed.

The Asian financial crisis has grown and spread. But China is the one economy in the Asia-Pacific region that has remained apparently unaffected by the present financial turmoil. Will China's financial sector be the next domino to fall? These papers will address this question by examining various pros and cons together with their backgrounds.

Does modernization in Asia mean westernization? Can Asia achieve modernity without westernization? How can Asia maintain its own cultural traditions in an age of globalization? How can Asian cultures, especially Chinese culture, facilitate modernization? The two articles in this publication address these questions by examining various links between culture, modernity and development.

This book record achievements of the East Asian Institute (EAI), one of the top five think tanks in Asia under the leadership of Dr Goh Keng Swee, Professors Wang Gungwu, John Wong and Zheng Yongnian.The hard work behind the nurturing of this institute is sometimes invisible, unwritten and under-appreciated but the contributions and results are clear and relevant to the scholarly world. The works of EAI's originating guardians as well as the future endeavours of its current directorship thus need to be chronicled for future generations of scholars to learn from this intellectual experience of managing an institution as complex as EAI.The detailed historiography of EAI in this publication represents the multiple histories of EAI, China's developmental path since the initiation of market reforms as well as Singapore's collaborative interface with China's development.