Souchou Yao - Böcker

Taking ideas and frameworks from philosophy, psychology, political science, cultural studies and anthropology, this book tells the larger ‘truth’ about the Singapore state. This book argues that this strong hegemonic state achieves effective rule not just from repressive policies but also through a combination of efficient government, good standard of living, tough official measures and popular compliance. Souchou Yao looks at the reasons behind the hegemonic ruling, examining key events such as the caning of American teenager Michael Fay, the judicial ruling on fellatio and unnatural sex, and Singapore’s ‘war on terror’ to show the ways in which the State manages these events to ensure the continuance of its power and ideological ethos. Lively, and well-written, this book discusses key subject areas such as:leftist radicalism and communist insurgency nation-building as trauma Western ‘yellow culture’ and Asian Values judicial caning and the meaning of pain the law and oral sex food and the art of lying cinema as catharsis Singapore after September 11.

Taking ideas and frameworks from philosophy, psychology, political science, cultural studies and anthropology, this book tells the larger ‘truth’ about the Singapore state. This book argues that this strong hegemonic state achieves effective rule not just from repressive policies but also through a combination of efficient government, good standard of living, tough official measures and popular compliance. Souchou Yao looks at the reasons behind the hegemonic ruling, examining key events such as the caning of American teenager Michael Fay, the judicial ruling on fellatio and unnatural sex, and Singapore’s ‘war on terror’ to show the ways in which the State manages these events to ensure the continuance of its power and ideological ethos. Lively, and well-written, this book discusses key subject areas such as:leftist radicalism and communist insurgency nation-building as trauma Western ‘yellow culture’ and Asian Values judicial caning and the meaning of pain the law and oral sex food and the art of lying cinema as catharsis Singapore after September 11.

The discourse of Confucian Capitalism has been crucial in shaping our understanding of the brilliant economic successes of the Chinese diaspora all over the world. From this perspective, hard work, family values, and communal cohesion, as well as business practices based on sentiment, trust, and social networks, are the legendary means of explaining the wealth and commercial talent of these remarkable people. The book examines the subject of Chinese business' by exposing the enduring myth about the determining effects of these values and practices supposedly derived from Confucianism. Such myth relies on an ahistorical and essentialised notion of Chinese Culture', and brings into focus three sites of controversy: the economically driven Chinese subject, work-place relations characterised by consensus and cultural sharing, and an operating ethos of collectivist, pre-capitalist sociality.In its interrogation of the discourse of Confucian capitalism, it is the aim of this book to arrive at a critically informed and socially realistic understanding of Chinese business. The author combines abstract analysis with examples from anthropological fieldwork among Chinese traders in Sarawak, East Malaysia. By anchoring theoretical discussion to real case-studies, the multi-disciplinary approach of this book offers a useful insight into Chinese business activities, and contributes to current debates in cultural studies, economic anthropology, the economic performance of overseas Chinese, and neo-Confucian societies more generally.

The discourse of Confucian Capitalism has been crucial in shaping our understanding of the brilliant economic successes of the Chinese diaspora all over the world. From this perspective, hard work, family values, and communal cohesion, as well as business practices based on sentiment, trust, and social networks, are the legendary means of explaining the wealth and commercial talent of these remarkable people. The book examines the subject of Chinese business' by exposing the enduring myth about the determining effects of these values and practices supposedly derived from Confucianism. Such myth relies on an ahistorical and essentialised notion of Chinese Culture', and brings into focus three sites of controversy: the economically driven Chinese subject, work-place relations characterised by consensus and cultural sharing, and an operating ethos of collectivist, pre-capitalist sociality.In its interrogation of the discourse of Confucian capitalism, it is the aim of this book to arrive at a critically informed and socially realistic understanding of Chinese business. The author combines abstract analysis with examples from anthropological fieldwork among Chinese traders in Sarawak, East Malaysia. By anchoring theoretical discussion to real case-studies, the multi-disciplinary approach of this book offers a useful insight into Chinese business activities, and contributes to current debates in cultural studies, economic anthropology, the economic performance of overseas Chinese, and neo-Confucian societies more generally.

One of the first conflicts of the Cold War, the Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and communist insurgents in Malaya from 1948 to 1960.Souchou Yao tells its story in a series of penetrating and illuminating essays that range across a vast canvas. Throughout the book runs a passionate concern for the lives and struggles of ordinary men and women in colonial Malaya. Here, the effect of counterinsurgency measures are captured by the anthropologist’s art of ethnography and cultural analysis.Among the vignettes are an ethnographic encounter with a woman ex-guerrilla, and the author’s remembrance of his insurgent-cousin killed in a police ambush. As such, this fascinating study examines the Emergency afresh, and in the process brings into focus issues not normally covered in other accounts: nostalgia and failed revolution, socialist fantasy and ethnic relations, and the moral costs of modern counterinsurgency.

The book examines Chinese petite capitalism afresh by bringing into focus issues not usually covered by writers on the subject—the concept of petite capitalism, the architecture of the Asian shophouse, the Hakka kinship, ‘tiger parenting’ and Chinese childrearing, the culture of debt, family legacy, and Chinese inheritance.

The book examines Chinese petite capitalism afresh by bringing into focus issues not usually covered by writers on the subject—the concept of petite capitalism, the architecture of the Asian shophouse, the Hakka kinship, ‘tiger parenting’ and Chinese childrearing, the culture of debt, family legacy, and Chinese inheritance.

The result is a series of penetrating and illuminating essays that cover a broad range of social actors, among them a Tamil domestic servant, the film maker Jasmin Ahmed, a Malay corporate wheeler-and-dealer turned ecologist, a group of Chinese traders in the Sarawak interior and a female ex-communist insurgent.

The result is a series of penetrating and illuminating essays that cover a broad range of social actors, among them a Tamil domestic servant, the film maker Jasmin Ahmed, a Malay corporate wheeler-and-dealer turned ecologist, a group of Chinese traders in the Sarawak interior and a female ex-communist insurgent.

Malaysia ist eine wohlhabende, sich entwickelnde Nation in Südostasien. Seine Bürger sind mit den Problemen konfrontiert, die das Leben der Menschen überall auf der Welt kennzeichnen. Diese Probleme betreffen die Familie und die wirtschaftliche Sicherheit ebenso wie die existenziellen Entscheidungen, die wir gewöhnlich mit den Bewohnern entwickelter Gesellschaften verbinden. Mit der Kunst der Ethnographie und der kulturellen Analyse des Anthropologen zeigt das Buch, wie gewöhnliche Malaysier mit den Unwägbarkeiten und der Unbeständigkeit ihrer täglichen Existenz umgehen. In einer leicht postkolonialen Geste überträgt Doing Lifework in Malaysia das Werk von Heidegger, Arendt, Camus und Sartre - den Meistern des europäischen Existenzialismus - auf eine Situation, die erkennbar aus der "Dritten Welt" stammt. Das Ergebnis ist eine Reihe eindringlicher und erhellender Essays, die ein breites Spektrum sozialer Akteure abdecken, darunter eine tamilische Hausangestellte, die Filmemacherin Jasmin Ahmed, ein malaiischer Großhändler, der zum Ökologen wurde, eine Gruppe chinesischer Händler im Landesinneren von Sarawak und eine ehemalige kommunistische Aufständische. Diese faszinierende Studie beleuchtet das malaysische Gesellschaftsleben neu und rückt dabei Themen in den Mittelpunkt, die in anderen Berichten normalerweise nicht behandelt werden: Hinduistische Verehrung als Auflehnung gegen die Tradition, Gabentausch und Globalisierung, Rassenneid und Psychoanalyse, Kleinstkapitalismus und Einsamkeit.

This book is a study of an ethnic-Chinese family in Malaysia as it struggled with the upheavals in China during the Land Reform (1945-1953) and the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962). Based on fieldwork in Malaysia and in a village in Dabu County, Southern China, it tells a story of a family whose existence straddled two nations, two political systems. Emigration is shown to be both a positive experience and a source of despair. The study redefines the conventional narrative about the Chinese diaspora as economically driven and politically expedient; mobility, personal freedom and transnational journeying were a part of their cultural history. The book highlights the fact that Chinese homeland, even under communist rule, offered the people a means of identification under difficult circumstances. During the time of radical reform, the diaspora adapted themselves to the conditions in the homeland, and for some China remained a place of longing and emotional attachment.