Tai Wei Lim

While many (East) Asians are becoming more confident in their own culture and ways of doing things, at the same time, they are open to the melding of east-west ways. Because of this form of cultural hybridization, it is useful to include the authors' multidisciplinary area studies training which decodes some of the cultural symbols and contextual language used in Asian negotiations. They do so keenly with globalization's impact in mind. Due to globalization, western styles of negotiations have constantly engaged closely with negotiations styles in Asia (including East Asia) and the cross-pollination of ideas between the two have resulted in hybridized negotiations styles in the contemporary setting. Distilled practitioner knowledge will be combined with literature review and theoretical readings to share with readers the intricacies as well as theoretician's conceptualizations of East Asian negotiation styles. The book is written from the sub-discipline of cross-cultural negotiating styles, adopting some sociological/anthropological perspectives, anecdotes and concepts to discuss this subject matter. This volume hopes to fill in the gap between theoretical and applied knowledge through the use of theoretical concepts that readers from the West and other English-language textbook readers are familiar with, while supplementing the concepts with practitioner-oriented case studies drawn from actual experiences. This prevents the publication from becoming a theory-heavy text.

The publication started with a succinct and brief literature review of the different definitions of the term 'entrepreneurship'. After examining the different conceptual ideas of entrepreneurship, the ecological system of entrepreneurship was identified with a wide array and universe of stakeholders like the state, venture capitalists, non-profit organizations (NPOs), students, universities, instructors/trainers, educators, local communities, bureaucracy, and many other entities. In the East Asian region's desire to tap into entrepreneurship, the economies are also keen to tap on formerly marginalized groups to power up the entrepreneurship game like women, energetic youths and reskilled individuals. Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) teaches practical applied learning courses to students and arm them with the necessary skills to tackle the many challenges of being an entrepreneur. Both tangible and intangible barriers to entrepreneurship were discussed in the writing. One of the intangible barriers discussed was the element of mindset. In some of the case studies, it appeared fear of failure was a major mindset barrier to would-be entrepreneurs pursuing their business ideas to actualize them. Measures carried out to remove the stigmatization of failure are discussed in the volume.

This book offers a multidisciplinary analysis of approach in the field of energy studies of Japan, examining post-closure coal mining towns in Japan and their gentrification. It considers the impact of closures on the agricultural industry, the re-absorption of laid off coal miners into service and industrial sectors, and the gentrification of former coal mines into agricultural farms and communities. It also considers the historical process of gentrification in terms of origins, social history, continuity/discontinuity and cooperation/resistance. The historical background of coal mine closures analyses nostalgic recollection about mine closures and Sakubei's UNESCO drawings of life in the coal mines and other cultural materials related to coal energy and the mining industry in general in Japan.

This book aims to provide comprehensive empirical and theoretical studies of expanding fandom communities in East Asia through the commodification of Japanese, Korean and Chinese popular cultures in the digital era. Using a multidisciplinary approach including political economy, East Asian studies, political science, international relations concepts and history, this book focuses on a few research objectives. In terms of methodology, it is an area studies approach based on interpretative work, observation studies, policy and textual analysis. First, it aims to examine the closely intertwined relationship between the three major stakeholders in the iron triangle of production companies, consumers and states (i.e., role of government in policy promotion). Second, it studies the interpenetration, adaptation, innovation and hybridization of exogenous Western culture with traditional popular cultures in (North) East Asia. Third, it studies the influence of popular cultures and how cultural products resonate with a regional audience through collective consumption, contents reflective of normative values, the emotive and cognitive appeal of familiar images and social learning as well as peer effect found in fan communities. It then examines how consumption contributes to soft cultural influence and how governments leverage on its comparative advantages and cultural assets for commercial success and in the process augment national (cultural) influence. These questions will be discussed and analyzed and contextualized through the case studies of J-pop (Japanese popular culture), K-pop (Korean popular culture or Hallyu) and Chinese popular culture (including Mando-pop and Taiwanese popular culture).

The current financial crisis provides a valuable occasion for the world to re-examine the grand statements of wisdom which dominate the financial world for a long time. The impact is extremely serious as a result of the convergence of a number of factors such as huge current account deficits of the United States, globalization, deregulation, loose monetary policy, and excessive liquidity. This book seeks to address the critical issues in deregulation, derivatives, leveraging, remuneration systems, and rating agencies. This book will also examine Asia's response and why Asian economies have been less affected by the global financial crisis. Are corporate governance, culture, management styles or even a state-led model the main reasons? Would the Asian sovereign funds help to be the last line of defense against the excesses of the crisis? Is the US$80 billion Asian crisis fund envisaged as the first instance of a coordinated East Asian response to the crisis and would this truly underpin the creation of an East Asian regional order? This book reaffims the need for banks and financial institutions to provide value-adding services, exercise prudence and due diligence and pay due regard for societal interest.

This book examines how Industry 4.0 technologies are reshaping agricultural systems across Asia, with in-depth case studies of Singapore, China, and Japan. As the region confronts challenges related to food security, labor shortages, climate change, and resource constraints, digital technologies have emerged as critical tools for transforming agricultural production and governance. The volume explores the application of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), automation, data analytics, and smart farming systems across diverse socio-economic and institutional contexts. Singapore's high-tech, land-scarce model is analyzed alongside China's scale-driven digital agriculture initiatives and Japan's technology-assisted responses to an ageing farming population. By combining policy analysis, technological perspectives, and socio-economic insights, the book highlights both the opportunities and limitations of Industry 4.0 in agriculture. It emphasizes that technological adoption is not merely a technical process but is deeply shaped by governance structures, institutional capacity, and national development strategies. This book will be of interest to scholars, policymakers, and industry practitioners seeking a comparative understanding of digital transformation in agriculture within Asia and beyond.

This volume is the result of a collaboration between a hard scientist/IT expert, a legal expert and a social scientist. Given that issues and problems in science and technology are so complex, a multidisciplinary approach can better generate ideas or interpret the issues surrounding ChatGPT. Section 1 by June TAY provides the background, context and framework for the contents of the volume. Tay traces the genesis of ChatGPT to provide a better understanding of the subject matter of this book. And in detailing the background of ChatGPT, Tay lays out the limitations of the technology at the point of this writing. She also touches on the legal and ethical implications of the technology (a subject matter that will be picked up in the next section). Section 2 by Lee Cheng TAN compares the three governance frameworks in China, the EU and US as they relate to generative AI and in particular, Large Language Models (LLM). The comparison looks at each jurisdiction's data protection regime, AI laws, Copyright laws, regulators and ethical frameworks. The legal aspects of GenAI development leads into the final section of the volume by Tai Wei LIM which looks at Chinese chatbots from a political-economic as well as multidisciplinary area studies point of view. The technocratic state and its social scientific ecology in producing AI and chatbots are discussed in detail. The all-of-society and all-of-government approach are covered in this case study section.

In this book, the focus is on five Asian countries/regions (Iran, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan) that show distinct approaches to combating infections. It specifically examines how the recent pandemic arose stigma in the context of history and sociocultural relations, how it is discussed and problematized among locals, and how disparate institutions and individuals mobilized to address it. A global comparative analysis across Greater Asia is presented in this book through the contributions of experts from multiple fields who have researched extensively in each region.

China is now considered a tech superpower in many areas. This book illustrates certain aspects and case studies of China's technological developments and further analyzes them under various areas like coal energy, housing, connectivity, digital and space technologies. Furthermore, it examines technological developments in the periphery of China, focusing especially on Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). This book does not pretend to be comprehensive in its coverage albeit surveys a spectrum of sectors in China and Hong Kong to get an idea of their developments. By peering into China through the mainland continental perspective and also looking into China from its periphery (e.g., 'Greater China' perspectives from HKSAR), this book provides readers with the broad contours of technological development in China through a multidisciplinary area studies perspective.

This book looks at the case study of Hachioji as a major transit hub with a world-class public transportation system in Japan. It tracks how Tokyo slowly expands into its suburban, rural or sub-rural districts. It also wants to profile the multiple identities of a city that is simultaneously an ecological asset, a heritage locale in addition to a logistics hub. The volume is probably the first of its kind to analyze the western sector of the largest city in the world.

This book vividly portrays the past, current, and future development of Yokohama Chinatown through the context of its Cantonese residents, grounded through a family history. It is useful for both academic and non- academic readers who are interested in migration history, transformation of urban spaces, anthropological perspectives of integration of immigrants, diasporic studies and overseas Chinese studies. It is informative when considering the role of immigrant communities in the world today in the context of globalization stimulating cross-border movements and anti-globalization forces that act as push and pull factors for migration. It is also a study of harmonious integration of the overseas Chinese community in Yokohama and its ability to retain its own cultural traits, rights, rituals, traditions and dialect language in one of the most homogenous countries in the world. This increases the attractiveness of Yokohama City in terms of ethnic diversity, cosmopolitan multiculturalism and urban space renewal.

This book looks at the case study of Hachioji as a major transit hub with a world-class public transportation system in Japan. It tracks how Tokyo slowly expands into its suburban, rural or sub-rural districts. It also wants to profile the multiple identities of a city that is simultaneously an ecological asset, a heritage locale in addition to a logistics hub. The volume is probably the first of its kind to analyze the western sector of the largest city in the world.

This volume will look into some macro factors that have an impact on gender conceptualizations in China. First, China is a highly-centralized state with a one-party political system that is also an authoritarian strongman regime. Thus, policies (including those related to gender) from the center are promulgated centripetally to provinces, cities, towns, villages, and local areas effectively. In terms of policy-making, the Chinese government noted that they have strengthened the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) guide for women's work, enacted/upgraded rights protection law in the National People's Congress (NPC), actualized mechanisms for women's cause in the Chinese People's Political Conservative Conference (CPPCC), streamlined work systems for effective implementation of national gender equality policies, and augmented the Women's Federation as an intermediary between the Communist Party of China (CPC), the state, and all Chinese women. As productive forces, Chinese women in the socialist era were exemplary models of mothers and career women who treated family life and work as equally important priorities. They were upper middle class to high net worth individuals who showed their successes in juggling both as objects of moral suasion for other Chinese women in state-led publicity. Some of them were touted by the state as ideal modern Chinese women in state media, moral suasion campaigns, and/or propaganda.

This book vividly portrays the past, current, and future development of Yokohama Chinatown through the context of its Cantonese residents, grounded through a family history. It is useful for both academic and non- academic readers who are interested in migration history, transformation of urban spaces, anthropological perspectives of integration of immigrants, diasporic studies and overseas Chinese studies. It is informative when considering the role of immigrant communities in the world today in the context of globalization stimulating cross-border movements and anti-globalization forces that act as push and pull factors for migration. It is also a study of harmonious integration of the overseas Chinese community in Yokohama and its ability to retain its own cultural traits, rights, rituals, traditions and dialect language in one of the most homogenous countries in the world. This increases the attractiveness of Yokohama City in terms of ethnic diversity, cosmopolitan multiculturalism and urban space renewal.

Political leadership styles in East Asian states are shaped and influenced by a number of domestic factors. These factors include the type of political system that an East Asian state adopted from their days of independence and decolonization. There is a diverse array of political systems in the region, ranging from Western-style liberal democracies like Japan and South Korea to autocratic one-party states like North Korea. Most other East Asian countries adopt systems somewhere in between these two polar ends. This volume begins with a macro-political perspective of leadership. It then looks at case studies of political leadership and the factors that influence the shape and outcome of leadership styles in the region. The book also examines the concept of community leadership and its impact on community well-being. Several specific case studies are examined in depth. While examining political leadership from a macro theoretical and empirical perspective, the book also adopts historical-anthropological perspectives to analyse case studies. The case studies also examine policy formulation and implementation to look at the role of government in handling community-level issues. Finally, the book focuses on economic leadership in international political economy and global business.

This pivot considers the use of porcelain vessels within multi-dialect cultural spaces in the consumption of cooked food in Singapore. In a place of ubiquitous hawker centres and kopitiams (coffee shops), the potteries used to serve hawker foods have a strong presence in the culinary culture of Singaporeans. The book looks at the relationship between those utensils, the food/drinks that are served as well as the symbolic, historical, socio-cultural and socioeconomic implications of using different kinds of porcelain/pottery wares. It also examines the indigenization of foreign foods in Singapore, using two case studies of hipster food – Japanese and Korean. While authentic Japanese and Korean cuisines find resonance amongst the youths of East Asia, some of them have adapted hybrid local features in terms of sourcing for local ingredients due to costs and availability factors. The book considers how these foods are hybridized and indigenized to suit local tastes, fashion and trends, andoffers a key read for East Asian specialists, anthropologists and sociologists interested in East Asian societies.

Industry 4.0 explores the emergence of disruptive digital technologies such as robotics, blockchain, nanotechnology and 3D printing and their impact on human lives and jobs in globalized 21st century societies. Incorporating a cutting edge area studies perspective, it considers the challenges and long term implications of the rise of ‘Tech Giants’ such as Alibaba, Google and Baidu through the lens of past industrial revolutions, looking back at the transformative technologies and industrial developments - the steam engine, electrification, telegraph, mass production, and the rise of digital technology - upon which the modern world was built. It investigates the mirror profiles of the world’s largest tech companies in the US and China (Baidu and Google, Alibaba and Amazon, Wechat and Facebook) and provides a unique comparison of Tech Giants with 19th century colonial empires and monopolistic trading companies in terms of political-economic dominance. A key tool for instructors and students focused on courses on Technological History, Digital Technology and Cultures, New Media, Digital Ethics and China studies, this book provides practical guidance on how readers can equip themselves to face key workplace and societal challenges in a virtually interconnected world shaped by Tech Giant monopoly.

This book documents through first-hand experience and academic research the historical, cultural and economic interactions affecting land use in Singapore. Offering a unique study of nostalgia in Singaporean heritage, it discusses the subjective nostalgic meanings and interpretations that users of peripheral, heritage and green spaces in Singapore create and maintain, through a combination of informal observations and interactions combined with research into local history and heritage. It addresses the subjective meaning-making processes of individuals within the larger theoretical frameworks that structure understandings of changing land use and economical changes which impact on contemporary cityscapes, centered around peripheral and de-privileged areas of Singapore’s economic development.

This volume focuses on the topic of energy transitions in the coal mining industries of China and Japan by adopting a Sino-Japanese comparative approach in area studies to examine the experiences between the two major East Asian economies. In China, rapid industrialization led to dramatic growth in energy demand and much of this energy demand was fueled by affordable coal energy. With growing social concerns about the environment and an increasingly vocal middle class in contemporary China, the authorities and state-owned enterprises are studying the use of coal fuels for its future development. In Japan, coal was also an affordable main source of energy for Japan’s early post-war heavy industrialization until it was gradually replaced by oil in the 1960s. The oil shocks of the 1970s compelled Japan to look for cleaner and cheaper fuels, including nuclear power. In these energy transitions from coal to oil and then onto non-fossil fuels, the story of coal power in both countries ishighlighted in this publication as a comparative study. This volume is a crucial contribution to the discussion of China's energy reforms, and required reading for scholars of climate change and society.