Singapore Studies: Asianism and Singapore

Module Introduction

ANNOUNCEMENT: This website was created for the Semester 1, AY2014/15 offering of this module and has yet to be updated for AY2016/17. You may browse the current content to get a sense of what this module is about, however, please note that there will be quite a few changes forthcoming.

Classes meet: Wednesdays 2 - 6 pm, Cinnamon College, SR 3

Note: This module satisfies the USP Singapore Studies requirement.

It is your duty to read the policy page and to familiarize yourself with the stipulated terms and conditions.

How do you know you’re Asian? or Global?

On this side of the 21st century, it appears almost patently obvious that Singapore’s future belongs in Asia. All around us we see signs of this happening. In the rhetoric of Singapore’s leaders, we are told that the world’s economic centre of gravity is shifting to China and India. In our daily lives local practices are transmogrified into hybrid, Asian, modern, and globalized forms: from the Asianized banking products we consume to the specialty Asian news channel we watch, and from the Asianizing Zoo and the Asian ethnographic museums we visit to the Asian exotica we buy and eat; it seems that Singapore’s cultural landscape is in transition. But what are the nodal points of this transition? Is there really any merit to the current official view that this “return” to Asia represents a reaction to the folly of Singapore’s earlier policies of deculturalization?

At the same time the state articulates its Asianist visions, it also tries to suggest that is also, contradictingly, global. So alongside the Asian identities, Singaporeans are also encourage to situate themselves in the larger global context. Ultimately this begs the question: is Singapore meant to be Asian or global, or are these identities reconcilable?

The intention of this course is therefore to make sense of the current relationship between Singapore, Asia and the larger world. In particular it seeks to investigate the processes of how Asia has discontinuously come to be imagined and represented in Singapore. In particular, how should we critically frame the intellectual questions we need to raise? What sorts of theoretical lenses do we need to apply in order to make these questions meaningful? What evidence is there to support the different forms of Asianization in Singapore? In order to address these broad issues, the module does the following:

It examines the theoretical categories that are imbricated: Orientalism, nationalism, modernism and modernization, capitalism, globalization and regionalism, and gender.
It contextualizes Singapore's Asianism in a broader comparative context; such as how Asianism is manifested in other Asian societies and how non-Asian (mostly "Western") societies attempt to come to terms with it
It examines the ambivalent function of Asianism in Singapore: is it a form of anti-Western revanchism? Is it intended to discipline or domesticate the Singapore state? Does it institute national memory or culture by managing the pasts that need to be forgotten and the pasts that need to be invented?
It examines where in Singapore dominant ideas about Asia come from and how we can consider alternative or opposing ideas in this context.

What you will get out of this course

Although this module encourages national self-reflection and challenges the everday assumptions and given-ess of Singaporean life, like other USP courses, it instils greater critical awareness that can be transferred to other forms of knowledge and practices. In general, it aims at:

Encouraging students to think critically about what is Asia and how we have come to think about it in the way we do
Developing students’ intellectual and theoretical ability in handling complex and ambivalent problems associated with power, knowledge, and culture
Fostering students’ cultural reading skills
Providing the context in which other country/society/nation/culture’s representations of Asia could be investigated
Encouraging students to develop connections between critiques of Asia and their own disciplinary interests

Prior Expectations

Students from all disciplinary backgrounds are welcome to take this course. Since this is a level 3000 inquiry module (previously called CBM) it is, understandably, more advanced. There are a number of things students must be mindful of before enroling for this course. First, I expect you to have completed your Writing and Critical Thinking module and have taken at least one other USP level 2000 course in the humanities and social sciences domain. Prior attendance in a Singapore Studies module like USE2304 (“Singapore: The Making of a Nation”) or USE2305 (“Southeast Asia: The Making of a Region” see below) is not necessary although it will give you an advantage. Second, the reading load for this module is going to be heavy (50-100 pages a week). As with all other 4 MC modules, you will need to be able to devote at least 6 hours each week (on top of class attendance) to this module for non-classroom related activities like attending group meetings and doing the readings, assignments, and essays.

USP3505 in relation to USE2305 "Southeast Asia: The Making of a Region"

Students who have taken my earlier module USE2305 (“Southeast Asia: The Making of a Region”) are also welcome to take this module. While there are some topical similarities between the two, there are a number of essential differences. First, the scope has been expanded to the wider Asian region, which generally now includes Northeast, South, Central, and Western Asia. Second, while USE2305 is organized in a somewhat chronological way, USP3505 is more conceptually-oriented, and the module focuses on 6-7 critical concepts and themes.Third, the module also examines Singapore's Asianism in relation to similar forms experienced in other parts of Asia, so there is more comparative analysis in this module. Finally, as this is a level 3000 course, one of its objectives is also to help you develop skills for your ISMs and other honours-related research projects.

Module Requirements

Module Requirements

In order to successfully complete this module, you must meet complete the following requirements and attain a satisfactory passing grade based on the total marks:

Assessable Item	Percentage of Total Marks	Due Date/Time
Paper 1: Comparative Asianism	20%	Sep. 15, 2014 6:00 PM
Paper 2: End of Semester Reflection	15%	Nov. 19, 2014 6:00 PM
Term Paper	40%	Nov. 3, 2014 5:30 PM
Group Presentation	15%	Nov. 12, 2014 2:00 PM
Class Participation	10%

Paper 1: Comparative Asianisms

Word Limit: 2,000 words
Due: Friday, September 12, 5.30 pm

This first assignment gets you to reflect on the ideas, concepts, and problems you will encounter in unit 1 of the module (weeks 1-4). In this unit, Singapore is not brought into the discussion because we want establish a wide enough background so that we can assess the extent to which Singapore's Asianism is unique or if it mirrors similar processes in other parts of the world. Apart from considering theory, the unit also examines Asianism across time and space.

For this assignment, then, select a primary source produced in a community outside Singapore that has a substantial representation of either Asia as an abstract, collective whole, or a particular place, people, or community in the region. Write a 2,000 word essay that performs a close reading and analysis of this source. To do a good job with this paper, you will obviously need to:

Identify the context in which the text/source was produced
Analyse the conscious or unconscious reasons behind its particular representation(s) of Asia

And in order to do these two tasks, you will also need to employ secondary sources, such as the various theories that will be discussed in weeks 2, 3, and 4. You are also strongly encouraged to include sources that have not been assigned as readings. Particularly good essays won't just identify a primary source and then merely explain it with secondary sources, but show more complex relationships among these sources. For instance, if you can show that the primary source also demonstrates limitations in a particular secondary or theoretical source, then the paper is on a stronger footing.

If you are unsure of the primary source you'd like to use, please feel free to talk to me about it.

Paper 2: End of Semester Reflection

Word Limit: 1,500 words
Due: Wednesday, November 19, 6.00 pm

For this final assignment, please write a paper reflecting on your personal and/or intellectual discoveries you made this semester involving the themes of the module. In particular, you may want to consider how your conceptions about your ideas of cultural identity; Singapore society, economy, and polity; your perception of how knowledge is constituted; and the fundamental basis of your discipline have changed as we examined, interrogated, and even tried to disturb conventional ideas of Asia and its representations.

To write a good paper, please follow these additional guidelines:

When discussing the “personal and/or intellectual discoveries” (if it is even possible to separate to two in the first place), please avoid writing a paper that is just a laundry list of these discoveries. What I’m looking for is a thoughtful, systematic account, which means that the description of these discoveries should meaningfully structured around a single, central, focused theme, supported by smaller but related sub-themes. If you feel that these discoveries are more disparate and resistant to hierarchical ordering, then don’t feel that the paper should cover everything. Pick something that you feel is important and that allows you to write a coherent and persuasive paper.
A good paper should also include specific evidence that supports why and how you made those discoveries. For instance, if you say that the module changed the way you understand what it means to be ethnically Chinese in Singapore, then please support that with a reason, and then further support that with evidence to show how specific readings, class proceedings, your written work, or conversations with classmates facilitated that change.
If you do reference sources, please remember to adopt a recognized referencing system (Chicago, MLA, etc.)

Term Paper

Word Limit: 4,000 words
Due: Wednesday, October 29, 6.00 pm

The term paper is the single and most comprehensive assignment you will have to submit for this module. In this paper you are allowed to explore in greater detail, things that may or may not have been discussed in this module, as long as they are in keeping with its wider theoretical and topical interests. Students are especially encouraged to use this as a basis of testing potential ISM research topics. As with the pre-emptive paper, the term paper is a research paper, and students are expected to go beyond the core set of module readings. For instance, students could introduce primary or secondary material from their home disciplines, or alternatively try to incorporate material from other disciplines. Again, this paper must carefully provide a rationale for a research problem/question and substantially provide a convincing set of arguments surrounding a central thesis. There will be no assigned questions but here are some topical suggestions:

Asianism in Singapore compared with that of another place
A cultural/discourse analysis involving one or a set of Singaporean texts that extends our critique of Asianism
A theoretical discussion that establishes a way of situating subaltern identities vis-a-vis the notion of Asia (in contrast with a strictly Western construction of Asia)
Asianism in a comparative historical perspective (ie. Asianism in the colonial era, as opposed to its 21st century form)
A discussion that addresses theoretical contradictions and incongruities (eg. nationalism as opposed to globalization, Marxist historicism as opposed to postmodern repetition)
The paper can also address a research problem that can potentially be situated in your home discipline. For example, for Marketing majors, how Asia is packaged, commodified, and sold; for Sociology students, issues on Asian identity and values; for history students, problems relating to Asian historiography and heritage; for political science majors, regionalism and regional organization; and for geography students, how Asia is imagined as a space/place with a particular meaning. As you can see, the attempt by NUS to direct all disciplines to have an Asian focus should give you quite a lot of ground to reflect on the relationship between what you are studying and the notion of "Asia."

Students are strongly encouraged to speak to the instructor about their chosen topics before they start work on them.

Submission: When you are ready to submit your paper, please ensure that it conforms with the formatting style provided below. Log into the course portal to submit a soft copy of the paper before the due date and time.

Class Participation

During the course of the semester, students are expected to actively participate in the discussion of topical matters of interest. This participation comes in the form of any form of contribution during class meetings: discussion, groupwork, presentation, etc. This module requirement is self-explanatory, so do speak up and participate well.

Final Group Project

Please follow this link for details.

Submission Instructions

All three written assignments must be submitted in soft copy form, before the due date and time, by uploading them on this web portal. Please select the "Assignments" option in the menu on the left panel to upload your papers. Before uploading you must ensure that the paper conforms to the formatting requirements set out below.

Paper Formatting and Other Information

At the top of the front page of each assignment (both soft and hard copies), you must include the following information:

Name
Module number	USP3505
Assignment Submitted	[Paper 1, Term Paper or Paper 2]
Paper Title	[Give your paper a title]
Date of submission
Word Count

All assignments must conform to the following style:

A recognized referencing system must be used. I suggest MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, or APA.
To allow your instructor to annotate and comment on your paper, line spacing should be set at no smaller than one and a half. Allow at least an inch for your left and right margins.
The paper should use a serif type font like Times Roman, Bookman, Century Schoolbook and should be no smaller than 11 points in size.
All pages should be numbered.

Schedule

Schedule

Please note: This is a seminar class, which means you will not be distributed into tutorial groups. You will have to attend all the meetings listed here. As the semester progresses, lesson details will be made available to you. You will find a link in the "details" column at least a week before the meeting. Lesson details will tell you what you can expect for that class and what you will need to prepare for it. In all cases readings listed in the details will have to be completed before the meeting. Most lesson details are private, so you must log in to access them. FOR NOW FURTHER CHANGES MAY STILL BE MADE TO THIS SCHEDULE

Week	Meeting	Date	Title/Topic	Activity
1	1	Aug 13, 2014	Introduction: Asia and Asianism	Class Meeting
2	2	Aug 20, 2014	How does theory help?	Class Meeting
3	3	Aug 27, 2014	Asianism and Orientalism in the "West"	Class Meeting
4	4	Sep 3, 2014	Comparative and Historical Asianism	Class Meeting
4	4A	Sep 6, 2014 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM	Chinatown field trip Venue: Chinatown MRT station, exit A, street level, Pagoda Street	Fieldtrip/fieldwork
5	5	Sep 10, 2014	Where is Singapore in this analysis?	Class Meeting
6	6	Sep 17, 2014	Asia in Singapore's project of modernization and development	Class Meeting
		Sep 20, 2014 - Sep 28, 2014	Mid-semester break	Other
7	7	Oct 1, 2014	Consumerism and commodification	Class Meeting
8	8	Oct 8, 2014	Culture and popular imagination	Class Meeting
8	8A	Oct 11, 2014 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM	Little India field trip Venue: Outside Isthana Restaurant, 1C Rowell Road	Fieldtrip/fieldwork
9	9	Oct 15, 2014	Cultural Debates and Asian Triumphalism	Class Meeting
10	10	Oct 22, 2014	Public holiday (no class but ongoing project discussions this week)	Project
11	11	Oct 29, 2014	Globalization and the decline of Asianism?	Class Meeting
12	12	Nov 5, 2014	Alter-Asianisms	Class Meeting
12	12A	Nov 9, 2014 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM	Little Thailand field trip Venue: Specific Meeting Place: First floor, Golden Mile Complex (end facing Golden Mile Tower)	Class Meeting
13	13	Nov 12, 2014	Final presentations	Presentation

Course Readings

Course Readings

The required readings assigned for each meeting/week can be found in the details for each lesson. To go to the specific lesson web pages, simply click on the "Schedule" in the USP3505 General Menu. At present, not all lesson web pages are ready, but they will appear progressively. Readings are to be completed IN ADVANCE of each meeting, although I will tolerate incomplete readings for the first two weeks of the semester. Please read ahead if time allows you to do so.

For this module, your reading materials can be found at:

The USP Reading Room, located on the first floor of Cinnamon South Learn Lobe
The NUS Central Library

Location of Readings

Some items in the reading list will have a code at the end to tell you where you can find them. Please follow the legend below to help locate the material. If you do not see the code, please check with NUS library's online catalogue. All materials listed here should be accessible to you, one way or another.

[online] indicates that the item is available online. Please follow the link to download the item. You must be logged into the course web portal to access this resource.
Please note that download files can be large ( 3- 7 MB in size).

* means that the item can be found in the USP3505 readings folder in the USP reading room.

** means that the entire book is available USP reading room. You must find the relevant chapter within this book.

CLMS : item is available in the Central Library Main Shelves

RBR : item is located at the Central Library RBR

SMC : item is located in the Central Library Singapore/Malaysia Collection

Others : Other library locations. Look up LINC for more details.

Main Textbooks

Although there are no set textbooks for this module, the following have been singled out because they have a considerable amount of relevance for this course. You are strongly encouraged to read them (or better still, acquire your own copy) to help you prepare for the module.

Yew, Leong. Asianism and the Politics of Regional Consciousness in Singapore. London and New York: Routledge, 2014.
Wee, C.J.W.-L. The Asian Modern: Culture, Capitalist Development, Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 2007.
Regnier, Philippe. Singapore: City–State in South–East Asia. Trans. C. Hurst. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.** [USP: HF3790SIN1991; CLMS/SMC: HF3869.2 Reg].
Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin, 1978, 2003. **[CLMS: DS12 Sai 2003]
Kratoska, Paul, Remco Raben, and Henk Schulte Nordholt, eds. Locating Southeast Asia: Geographies of Knowledge and Politics of Space. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2005.** [USP: DS521LOC2005; CLMS/SMC: DS521 Loc 2005]
Sears, Laurie J., ed. Knowing Southeast Asian Subjects. Seattle: University of Washington Press; Singapore: NUS Press, 2007. [DS524.8 Sou.Kn 2007 ]

Reading Assignments

READINGS

eRes: IVLE eReserve. Please login to IVLE to access the material.
CLO: Available online through Central Library catalog (LINC)
USPRR: USP Reading Room
CLMS: Central Library Main Shelves
RBR: Central Library RBR
SMC: Central Library Singapore/Malaysia Collection
Online: Available on this online portal. Follow the instructions to download.

Week/Meeting: 1/1
Topic: Introduction: Asia and Asianism
Date: 13/8/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Birch, David, Tony Schirato, and Sanjay Srivastava. Asia : Cultural Politics in a Global Age. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2001. Chapter 1. [ View Online ]
Birch, David, Tony Schirato, and Sanjay Srivastava. Asia : Cultural Politics in a Global Age. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2001. Chapter 9. [ View Online ]
Milner, Anthony, and Deborah Johnson. "The Idea of Asia". n.d. (10 Jan. 2002). 17Jul. 2009. [ View Online ]

Supplementary Readings

Emmerson, Donald K. “‘Southeast Asia’: What's in a Name?.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 15.1 (1984): 1–21. [ CLO ]
Burgess, Chris. “The Asian Studies ‘Crisis’: Putting Cultural Studies Into Asian Studies and Asia Into Cultural Studies.” International Journal of Asian Studies 1.1 (2004): 121–136. [ CLO ]

Week/Meeting: 2/2
Topic: How does theory help?
Date: 20/8/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. New York: Pantheon, 1978. Selected pages. 1-15, 201-11. [ View Online ]
Birch, David, Tony Schirato, and Sanjay Srivastava. Asia : Cultural Politics in a Global Age. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2001. Chapter 2. [ View Online ]
Yew, Leong. "Singapore, Southeast Asia and the Place of Orientalism." Alterities in Asia: Reflections on Identity and Regionalism. Ed. Leong Yew. London and New York: Routledge, 2011. 88–109. [ View Online ]

Supplementary Readings

Thwaites, Tony, Lloyd Davis, and Warwick Mules. Introducing Cultural and Media Studies: A Semiotic Approach. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, 2002. Chapter 4. [ View Online ]
Chiu, Fred Y. L. "Suborientalism and the Subimperialist Predicament: Aboriginal Discourse and the Poverty of State-Nation Imagery." positions: east asia cultures critique 8.1 (2000): 101–49. [ CLO ]
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. "'Asia' and the Twentieth Century: What is 'Asian Modernity'?" WeAsians: Between Past and Future.Eds. Kwok Kian-Woon et al. Singapore: Singapore Heritage Society, 2000. [ CLMS: DS1.5 Wpf ]
Shaffer, Leslie. “Squeaky Clean Singapore Gets Messy: Blame the Ghosts.” CNBC, August 18, 2014. http://www.cnbc.com/id/101925772. [ View Online ]

Week/Meeting: 3/3
Topic: Asianism and Orientalism in the "West"
Date: 27/8/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Klein, Christina. Cold War Orientalism: Asia in the Middlebrow Imagination, 1945-1961. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Chapter 1. [ View Online ]
Prasso, Sheridan. The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient. New York: Public Affairs, 2005. [ View Online ]
Walker, David. “Naming and Locating Asia: Australian Dilemmas in Its Regional Identity.” Alterities in Asia: Reflections on Identity and Regionalism. Ed. Leong Yew. London and New York: Routledge, 2011. 65–87. [ View Online ]

Week/Meeting: 4/4
Topic: Comparative and Historical Asianism
Date: 3/9/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Saaler, Sven and Christopher W.A. Szpilman. "Introduction: The Emergence of Pan-Asianism as an Ideal of Asian Identity and Solidarity, 1850–2008." Pan-Asianism: A Documentary History, Volume 1: 1850–1920. Eds. Sven Saaler and Christopher W.A. Szpilman. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2011. [ View Online]
Duara, Prasenjit. "The Discourse of Civilization and Pan-Asianism." Journal of World History 12.1 (2001): 99–130. [ CLO ]
Sun Yat-sen. "Greater Asianism." Kobe. 28 November 1924. Speech. [ View Online ]

Supplementary Readings

Chen, Xiaomei. Occidentalism: A Theory of Counter-Discourse in Post-Mao China. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. [ CLMS ]
Deshingkar, Giri. "The Construction of Asia in India." Asian Studies Review 23.2 (1999): 173 - 80. [ CLO ]
Percival Wood, Sally. "Constructing an Alternative Regional Identity: Panchsheel and India–China Diplomacy at the Asian-African Conference 1955." Alterities in Asia. London and New York: Routledge, 2011. 46-64. [ CLO ]
Sun, Ge. "How Does Asia Mean? (Part I)." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 1.1 (2000): 13 - 47. [ CLO ]
Sun, Ge. "How Does Asia Mean? (Part Ii)." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 1.2 (2000): 319 - 41. [ CLO ]
Baik, Young-seo. "Conceptualizing 'Asia' in Modern Chinese Mind: A Korean Perspective." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 3.2 (2002): 277-286. [ CLO ]
Shin, Gi-Wook. "Asianism in Korea's Politics of Identity." Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 6 (2005): 616-30. [ CLO ]
Suehiro, Akira. "A Japanese Perspective on the Perception of 'Ajia' -- From Easter to Asian Studies." Asian Studies Review 23.2 (1999): 153-172. [ CLO ]
Tanaka, Stefan. Japan's Orient: Rendering Pasts into History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. [ CLMS/CLO ]

Week/Meeting: 4/4A
Topic: Chinatown field trip
Date: 6/9/14 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Readings: To be Advised. Please check back soon.

Week/Meeting: 5/5
Topic: Where is Singapore in this analysis?
Date: 10/9/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Yew, Leong. Asianism and the Politics of Regional Consciousness in Singapore. London and New York: Routledge, 2014. Chapter 1. 1-23. [ CLO ]
Wee, C.J.W.-L. The Asian Modern: Culture, Capitalist Development, Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 2007. Chapter 1. [ View Online ]
Chua Beng Huat. "Between Economy and Race: The Asianization of Singapore." Space, Culture and Power : New Identities in Globalizing Cities. Eds. Ayðse Öncü and Petra Weyland. London and Atlantic Highlands: Zed Books, 1997. 23-41. 23-41. [ View Online ]

Supplementary Readings

Thompson, Eric C. "Singaporean Exceptionalism and its Implications for ASEAN Regionalism." Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal of International and Strategic Affairs 28.2 (2006): 183-206. [ CLO ]

Week/Meeting: 6/6
Topic: Asia in Singapore's project of modernization and development
Date: 17/9/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Yew, Leong. Asianism and the Politics of Regional Consciousness in Singapore. London and New York: Routledge, 2014. Chapter 3. 49-76. [ CLO ]
Wee, C.J.W.-L. The Asian Modern: Culture, Capitalist Development, Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 2007. Chapter 2. [ View Online ]
Wee, C.J.W.-L. The Asian Modern: Culture, Capitalist Development, Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 2007. Chapter 3. 53-71. [ View Online ]

Week/Meeting: /
Topic: Mid-semester break
Date: 20/9/14 12:00 AM - 28/9/14 11:59 PM

Readings: To be Advised. Please check back soon.

Week/Meeting: 7/7
Topic: Consumerism and commodification
Date: 1/10/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Yew, Leong. Asianism and the Politics of Regional Consciousness in Singapore. London and New York: Routledge, 2014. Chapter 5. 114-146. [ CLO ]
SelvaRaj, Christopher. "Tiger Beer and the Making of 'Asia'." PRISM: USP Undergraduate Journal 2:1 (2009: 84-90. [ View Online ]
Leshkowich, Ann Marie and Carla Jones. "What Happens When Asian Chic Becomes Chic in Asia?" Fashion Theory. 7:3/4 2003. 281-300. [ View Online ]

Supplementary Readings

Chua, Beng Huat. Life Is Not Complete without Shopping: Consumption Culture in Singapore. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003. Chapter 1&2. [ View Online ]

Week/Meeting: 8/8
Topic: Culture and popular imagination
Date: 8/10/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. Chapter 1. [ View Online ]
Wee, C.J.W.-L. The Asian Modern: Culture, Capitalist Development, Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 2007. Chapter 6. [ View Online ]
Wee, C. J. W.-L. "Staging the New Asia: Singapore's Dick Lee, Pop-Music, and a Counter-Modernity." Public Culture 8.3 (1996) [ View Online ]

Supplementary Readings

Wagner, Tamara. "Boutique Alterity: Southeast Asia's Exotics Abroad and at Home." Alterities in Asia: Reflections on Identity and Regionalism. London and New York: Routledge, 2011. 110-126. [ CLO ]
Tan, Kenneth Paul. "Pontianaks, Ghosts and the Possessed: Female Monstrosity and National Anxiety in Singapore Cinema." Asian Studies Review 34.2 (2010): 151–70. [ CLO ]
Yew, Leong. "Traveling Spies and Liminal Texts: Cold War Culture in Asian Spy Films". Cultural Politics. 7.2 (2011): 289-310 [ View Online ]

Week/Meeting: 8/8A
Topic: Little India field trip
Date: 11/10/14 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Readings: To be Advised. Please check back soon.

Week/Meeting: 9/9
Topic: Cultural Debates and Asian Triumphalism
Date: 15/10/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Yew, Leong. Asianism and the Politics of Regional Consciousness in Singapore. London and New York: Routledge, 2014. Chapter 4. [ CLO ]
Hill, Michael. ""Asian Values" as Reverse Orientalism: Singapore." Asia Pacific Viewpoint 41.2 (2000): 177–90. [ View Online ]

Week/Meeting: 10/10
Topic: Public holiday (no class but ongoing project discussions this week)
Date: 22/10/14 12:00 AM

Readings: To be Advised. Please check back soon.

Week/Meeting: 11/11
Topic: Globalization and the decline of Asianism?
Date: 29/10/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Velayutham, Selvaraj. Responding to Globalization: Nation, Culture and Identity in Singapore. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2007. Chapter 3. [ View Online ]
Chua, Beng Huat. Life Is Not Complete without Shopping: Consumption Culture in Singapore. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003. Chapter 7-8. [ View Online ]

Supplementary Readings

Lim, Shirley Geok-lin. "Regionalism, English Narrative, and Singapore as Home and Global City". Postcolonial Urbanism: Southeast Asian Cities and Global Processes. Eds. Ryan Bishop, John Phillips, and Wei-Wei Yeo. New York and London: Routledge, 2003. 205-224. [ View Online ]

Week/Meeting: 12/12
Topic: Alter-Asianisms
Date: 5/11/14 12:00 AM

Required Readings

Yew, Leong. Asianism and the Politics of Regional Consciousness in Singapore. London and New York: Routledge, 2014. Chapter 7&8. 174-235. [ CLO ]

Supplementary Readings

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. Other Asias. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. 1-13. [ CLMS ]
Chen, Kuan-Hsing. Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010. Chapter 1. [ CLMS ]

Week/Meeting: 12/12A
Topic: Little Thailand field trip
Date: 9/11/14 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Readings: To be Advised. Please check back soon.

Week/Meeting: 13/13
Topic: Final presentations
Date: 12/11/14 12:00 AM

Readings: To be Advised. Please check back soon.

Class Policy

Class Policy

The information on this web page constitutes an agreement between you, the student, and me, the instructor. Please ensure that you have carefully read and that you understand the terms laid out below. The instructor reserves the right to impose penalties should students not abide by any of these terms. In this document, "you" refers to students enrolled in this module, and "I" refers to the instructor.

Students' Responsibilities

From time to time, the instructor will disseminate administrative and policy information concerning the course to students. However, this is not to be treated as holistic. Students are expected to be acquainted with the information laid out on this website. Students bear full responsibility for any act of negligence resulting from the failure to read and understand this information. Acts of negligence include but are not limited to absence from or late arrivals to class activities, late or non-submission of work, inadequate preparation for class activities, or abuse and misuse of NUS/USP resources and services. The instructor reserves the right to impose the appropriate penalties. It is also the responsibility of students to seek clarifications should they have difficulty understanding any information presented on the website.

Attendance and Late Arrivals

Although attendance will not be taken for class activities, students are expected to attend and make suitable preparations to participate in these activities. The instructor reserves the right to lower the participation marks for students who arrive late (more than 30 minutes after the scheduled start time) or are absent for class meetings should they be unable to present a valid excuse (see below) and the necessary documented evidence, where available.

Submissions

All assignments and papers must be submitted prior to the stipulated deadlines and in a manner instructed by me or as described on the website. There will be a 5% penalty on the marks for each paper for each day that it is late. Students must contact the instructor should they need a deadline extension, and such extension will only be granted on only for valid excuses (see below). Again, please do not ask for an extension if you are unable to submit your paper due to a heavy workload. Assignments must also be presented in the required format. The instructor may also penalize papers that fail to do so.

Academic Dishonesty

This is an appalling practice and is condemned in the strongest possible sense. Academic dishonesty generally involves the act of deceiving (intentionally or unintentionally) your instructor and other university authorities into thinking that the intellectual effort made by other individuals is actually your own. The forms of academic dishonesty that affect this module in particular are plagiarism (failure to give proper credit to someone else's work in your own) and ghostwriting (submitting wholly or in part someone else's work as your own). Please be sure that you have read and that you understand the USP's academic code and its policies against academic dishonesty (please note that the procedure listed in this website applies to all forms of academic dishonesty and not just plagiarism alone).

Valid Excuse

In the event that you are unable to meet the expectations of the module, you must present a valid excuse if you would like the penalties to be waived. Valid excuses are events or conditions that are beyond your control, for instance, sickness, death in the family, prior commitments approved by your home faculty, or unforeseen scheduling conflicts with other NUS modules. If you will need to be away from campus for a substantial period of time, you must apply for official leave of absence from your home faculty. In many cases, students have often asked to be excused because of heavy workload usually because of exams or projects and papers for other modules that are becoming due. As a simple rule of thumb, if the deadlines for these were made known to you at the start or early in the semester, they are not a valid excuse. Please do not ask to be excused if you fall into this category. Students bear full responsibility for their own time management.

Field Trips

USP3505 OPTIONAL FIELD TRIPS

As we discussed in class, there potentially many different sources that we can use observe how “Asia” and the “Asian” are represented and constructed. The ease of access and availability of these sources vary greatly. For instance, a website, novel, or feature film can be obtained fairly easily, whereas primary data that is gained through real time experience may be more difficult to acquire but may present us with some complex and interesting material.

In order to facilitate this source and data gathering process, the module will have three optional weekend field trips that are spaced roughly a month apart. The field trips will take you to three ethnic ghettoes — Chinatown, Little India, and Little Thailand. These sites were chosen obviously for their propensity to reflect Asianized spaces in Singapore, but they also demonstrate a fair amount of complexity in the way the meanings of these places are produced and contested, the way space is used, and how people behave in it. Also, these sites are repositories of countless other texts, such as advertisements, the architectural façade of a building, a roadside stall, or individual souvenirs you can buy. Each of these texts, situated within their wider contexts is also a potential source itself.

Additionally, the field trip also gives you an opportunity to find material for the final group project, which you will present at the end of the semester. While I have yet to write up the project description, I did mention during the first meeting that your deliverable will be an interactive photographic exhibition about “Asian” and “Global” spaces in Singapore, and this will be held in conjunction with “The Photo Thing”, a community arts initiative inaugurated by a couple of USP students (not in our module).

More details of each of the field trips will be made availability to you closer to the date.

SCHEDULE

Field Trip 1: Chinatown
Saturday, September 6th, 2 pm – 5pm (end of week 4)

Field Trip 2: Little India
Saturday, October 11th, 10 am – 1 pm (end of week 8)

Field Trip 3: Little Thailand
Sunday, November 9th, 2 pm – 5 pm (end of week 12)