The trend towards late marriage and nonmarriage has characterized East and Southeast Asia over the past three decades. Singlehood levels in Singapore are high, particularly among the Chinese population. Based on a recent qualitative study on 30 single Singaporeans of Chinese descent, the paper examines a number of factors relevant to the high level of singlehood among Chinese population in Singapore. The high financial and opportunity costs of marrying and raising a family are shown to be relevant, as well as increasing individualism and changing attitudes about marriage. The paper argues that the trend towards marriage postponement and non-marriage in Singapore is related to increasing emphasis on freedom, independence and self-actualization, greater individual decision making about marriage, the increasing social acceptability of premarital sex and cohabitation and changing attitudes about the desirability of marriage. Some findings from our Singapore case seem to echo the second demographic transition as reported in many Western societies. These findings may have implications for the Singapore government’s population and social policy in terms of shaping positive attitudes towards marriage and procreation and building effective matchmaking institutions.

PurposeThe economic reforms which turned the centrally planned economy to a market economy have profoundly changed the tripartite relationship between the state, work unit, and citizen in urban China and brought significant changes to the institutional care provision for young children. The aim of this paper is to investigate the changes to the institutional care since 1980, with particular emphasis on the most recent years from mid‐1990s, and explore how the institutional care has changed over the recent decades without a clear institutional basis.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis draws on second‐hand materials from published literature, a range of longitudinal national and local statistics and policy documents, and also on first‐hand information which was collected in Beijing from in‐depth interviews with key informants and case studies of different kinds of kindergartens.FindingsThe paper finds that the previous work‐unit based public care system has changed to a much more complicated care mix in which the roles of the state, employer, community, market and the informal sector of the family in terms of provision and funding have all changed significantly.Social implicationsThe findings of this paper may help to inform appropriate policy responses in Chinese child care provision. The study suggests that formal care provision should be expanded towards universal access regardless of people's income and employment status in China.Originality/valueThe paper questions and complicates the “state withdrawal” representation of social welfare change and argues that it is not “the state” but “the work unit and community organization” retreat from public care provision. It also argues that the change in the role of the state has been multifaceted, and not a simple one‐directional movement of marketization in which the state retreated from welfare provision in entirety.

DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) is a major epigenetic regulator of the formation of large macromolecular complexes that repress human γ-globin expression by maintaining DNA methylation. However, very little is known about the association of DNMT1 variants with β-thalassemia phenotypes. We systematically investigated associations between variants in DNMT1 and phenotypes in 1,142 β-thalassemia subjects and identified a novel missense mutation (c.2633G>A, S878F) in the bromo-adjacent homology-1 (BAH1) domain of DNMT1. We functionally characterized this mutation in CD34+ cells from patientsand engineered HuDEP-2 mutant cells. Our results demonstrate that DNMT1 phosphorylation is abrogated by substitution of serine with phenylalanine at position 878, resulting in lower stability and loss of catalytic activity. S878F mutation also attenuated the interactions of DNMT1 with BCL11A, GATA1 and HDAC1/2 and reduced the recruitment of DNMT1 to the HBG promoters, leading to epigenetic de-repression of γ-globin expression. By analyzing the F-cell pattern, we demonstrated that the effect of DNMT1 mutation on increased fetal hemoglobin (HbF) is heterocellular. Furthermore, introduction of S878F mutation into erythroid cells by CRISPR-Cas9 recapitulated γ-globin reactivation. Thus, the natural S878F DNMT1 mutation is a novel modulator of HbF synthesis and represents a potential new therapeutic target for β-hemoglobinopathies.

Purpose -Asia's traditional experiences with care provision differ considerably from those of the West given the prevalent family-based social norms about care and policies in this region. In recent decades, Asia has experienced profound social and demographic transformations and is thus faced with significant challenges around care. However, care in Asian countries is a relatively less studied topic. There is an urgent need for a comparative study on recent policy and practice changes in care for the elderly and young children in different regions of Asia. The purpose of this special issue is to examine complicated boundary shift in care provision and financing between the state, market, community and family in East, Southeast and South Asia and to explore the implications of these changes in care policies and practices for social stratification by class and gender in Asia. Design/methodology/approach -The introduction to this special issue gives an overview of the social and demographic transformations and new strains on care in Asia as a background and introduces the framework of welfare mix employed in this special issue, especially the concepts of social care and the welfare/care diamond. Findings -The introduction summarizes the variations in regard to the governance and provision of care between different Asian countries and compares the differences in the state involvement between Asia and Europe. Originality/value -The authors also discuss some of their contributions to methodological approaches and analytical frameworks in studying care and the implications of the current research for future studies.