Constructing Asian values: National identities and ‘responsible citizens

Seeking Respect, Fairness, and Community

“…In states such as Singapore, which have faced harsh international criticism of their treatment of low-wage migrants, particularly from the West, coming from a 'human rights' perspective, such frameworks are viewed with reserve and suspicion. The Singaporean state, in turn, has previously used 'Asian values' (Birch 1998) the issue here is more to do a lack of attention and neglect of the priorities and subjective experiences of low-wage migrant populations. This is where advocating for migrant rights within a larger human rights framework fails to achieve an equitable justice agenda.…”

Malaysia’s 13th General Election

“…It was designed to be the basis for creating a consensus on communal issues by establishing principles that could be invoked to restrain the more extreme demands of ethnic chauvinists (Means 1991, p. 12). With the development of national ideologies like Rukunegara , it put into place in order to build a single and unified nation (Birch 1998, p. 181). This idea has shaped the culture of mainstream media in Malaysia to be supportive to national agenda brought by the government.…”

Culture, Gender Roles, and Sport

“…In particular, negative stereotyping of Asian players as unmarketable, dull to watch, and not providing much excitement to the game of golf may be based on what Chen has dubbed "Euro/America-Western-centrism" (Chen, 1998, p. 5). Previous transnational cultural studies (Birch, 1998;Birch, 2000, p. 143;Chen, 1998, pp. 1-9;Jabri, 1996, p. 61;Morley & Chen, 1996, p. 7) have indicated the problems of the perspective that "the Western individual is conferred a complexity and a plurality of identity formations, while the non-western 'other' is a uniform, conforming self whose subjectivity is confined within the cultural, ethno-linguistic community" (Jabri, 1996, p. 61).…”

“…143-144;Jabri, 1996, p. 65). Critical cultural studies (Birch, 1998;Chen, 1998;Grossberg, 1996;Morley & Chen, 1996) have focused primarily on the articulation of conceptual and theoretical issues of the cultural factors in the democratization of political systems of the nation states in Asia. These studies have laid a solid, theoretical foundation for empirical studies on a specific, sociological research agenda.…”