archive

Asia is moving

From Finance and Development, a special section on Asia's growing influence: Asia is moving into a leadership role in the world economy. From Beijing Review, China's aspiration to build the best universities in the world will take a long time to come to fruition; and is China repeating Japan's mistakes? Economists disagree over whether foreigners should be allowed to invest in stock index futures (and more and more). Christopher Buckley takes a stroll around Hanoi, a buzzing city coming to grips with its war-torn, colonial past, its Communist present, and a whole lot of oncoming traffic. Temp Nation: A series on the demise of "lifetime employment" in Japan. A review of Everything Is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma by Emma Larkin (and more). Speak Korean, the language of love: Foreigners in South Korea take language lessons for many reasons, among them to meet a mate. A review of The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia by James C. Scott (and more at Bookforum). The introduction to Japan Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring by Frances McCall Rosenbluth and Michael F. Thies. Should you teach your kids Chinese? While China’s rise is real, Chinese is in no way rising at the same rate. In the cause of happiness: In a nascent democracy like Bhutan, the media is perceived as having a very different role to play, one that is socially committed. NLD and the Politics of Boycott: How the decision by Burma's main opposition party will affect the country's political process. An article on exploring Japanese popular culture as a soft power resource. A federal resettlement program for Burmese Karen sees 4,000 refugees starting new lives in Canada. From 3:AM, Ronald Kelts on why "Cool Japan" is over.