Son preference has traditionally been a fundamental cultural value in Vietnamese families, and this preference appears to have intensified in Vietnam in recent years. The key explanation for why parents prefer sons to daughters is that Vietnamese families embrace Confucian notions of gender hierarchy. Based on in-depth interviews with twenty first-generation Vietnamese migrant parents from refugee and skilled migrant backgrounds, and 18 Vietnamese Australian children of migrant parents, this paper explores whether Vietnamese migrants to Australia and their children display a preference for sons in their families. The findings suggest that sons are no longer valued in the ways that they were in Vietnam. Many parents in this study did not express a need to live with, receive financial support from, or be cared for by their sons. The children also expressed fewer financial support and caring obligations to parents. We propose that the greater financial security afforded to the elderly by the social welfare system in Australia may decrease parents’ dependence on sons, lowering the value of sons in families. This strongly suggests that the economic value of sons is key to the persistence of son preference in Vietnam, more so than Confucian notions of gender hierarchy.

In Philippine historiography, there has been a tendency to either classify political movements using rigid, positivist, and “elite” categories or to challenge such definitions by arguing for a certain almost universally “indigenous” Filipino character. In contrast, the current study proposes to use computer tools and corpus linguistic techniques to balance the recognition of both continuity and dynamism, as well as sameness and difference, between movements. More specifically, the study uses a Keyword in Context (KWIC) analysis to compare the writings of the Sakdalistas and the Communists, two of the largest mass movements in early 20th-century Philippines. The keyword analysis reveals, on the one hand, distinct discursive features in the writings of the two groups, with the Sakdalistas deploying a language that is more concerned with morality and the Communists deploying a more economistic tongue. On the other hand, a closer examination of these keywords in context also reveals a shared critique of imperialism and its connections to capital, as well as the common presence of two discourses in tension: a discourse of inclusive nationalism and a discourse of division among the people. In other words, the comparative keyword analysis shows that the Sakdalistas and the Communists had distinct political characteristics while also oscillating between similar languages and arguments on the nature of colonial Philippines. The identification of these patterns may contribute to a more nuanced and empirical understanding of the complexity of social movements in both the Philippines and Southeast Asia in general.

This article aims to discuss the religious-ecological knowledge of the Tenggerese community on the slope of Mount Bromo, Probolinggo (East Java, Indonesia) and its contribution to disaster mitigation. Within the framework of traditional ecological knowledge, we will analyze field data from 2011 until 2016. The results of this study show that many Tenggerese people believe Mount Bromo to be the axis of religion and its surrounding area to be a sacred place. They also believe in and practice several religious-ecological customs in understanding volcanic eruptions and various natural signs. For them, an eruption is a supernatural process involving gods and goddesses that takes place to improve living conditions. However, living in postcolonial times with modern cultures and capitalistic agricultural practices has made some Tenggerese people question and challenge religious authorities when they experience the economic damage caused by volcanic eruptions. Religious authorities can handle the challenge by invoking the concept of communal harmony. Further, we argue, government agencies may incorporate Tenggerese religious-ecological knowledge into disaster mitigation practices. They can combine modern mitigation mechanisms with such wisdom. This hybrid mitigation model may facilitate the coordination of government agencies with traditional leaders to prepare strategically before a disaster strikes as well as implement tactical actions when a disaster occurs.

The National Wages Council (NWC) was the orchestra of Singapore’s wage policy in the 1970s and 1980s. Our paper explores two key episodes in its history: its formation in February 1972 and its adoption of a high wage policy between 1979 and 1981 as part of Singapore’s economic restructuring. We were able to draw upon partially declassified government records held at the National Archives of Singapore. Yet these records are incomplete and lacking in certain aspects as archival sources. We complemented them with other archival and published sources, including the oral history and writings of the NWC’s longtime chairman, Lim Chong Yah. Our research urged us to conceptualize a pair of ideas, “semi-archives” and “interim archives,” acknowledging the partiality of both archival and published sources in Singapore. The history of the NWC suggests a rethinking of the centrality of the documentary archive in the Western academic tradition. In Asian contexts like Singapore, a multi-archival approach is necessary for the writing of recent history. Singapore historians can work both modestly and imaginatively with a wider range of available historical sources, including archival, oral, and published sources.

In 2021 Thailand’s Ministry of Labour reported that approximately 2.4 million migrant workers had been permitted to work in Thailand, with two-thirds arriving from Myanmar (Samnak Borihan Raeng Ngan Tang Dao Krom Karn Jad Ha Ngan 2021). For decades, this large number of migrant workers from Myanmar has benefited the Thailand-Myanmar border trade, both directly and indirectly, including the remittances that Burmese migrant workers send to their families back home.

This paper studies how the economic activities revolving around border trade developed. It describes how informal remittances from Myanmar migrant workers have become one of the key elements of the massive illicit border trade and introduces the possibility of digital technology replacing traditional informal remittance methods. The data presented here was collected by way of semi-structured interviews with 32 Burmese migrant workers living and working in Samutsakorn Province, nine Thai border traders in Mae Sot, officials, and a Thai financial technology company operating in Myanmar. The interviews revealed that most of the migrant workers had experience using mobile banking and financial applications, they were familiar with the technology, and they were aware of its capacity as an alternative method of sending money back home. However, many still preferred to use informal banking as it benefited them the most. The border traders interviewed for this paper further confirmed that there was still no threat of consequences for payment offsetting. Therefore, the digitalization of banking strengthens the informal banking system as it both hastens and improves the processes of money distribution.

The increasing prominence of China on the world stage has sparked scholarly interest in studying the country’s representation in the media. Also driving the enthusiasm is the global expansion of Chinese state media, which some refer to as an attempt to export Chinese propaganda. Research on the topic in Southeast Asia remains lacking despite the region’s being in China’s backyard. This qualitative study aims to narrow the knowledge gap by looking at China’s representation in Malaysia. Using content analysis and in-depth interviews, it examines specifically the coverage of former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s 2016 visit to China by the Malay, Mandarin, and English bulletins on public and private television. The results show that China’s portrayal in the coverage is positive, notwithstanding the stories indicating concerns about the implications of China’s rise. The outcome points to the dominance of the state narrative, with instances of the press breaking the authorities’ restrictions to inform the audience. It appears that the reportage was not much impacted by Chinese media’s efforts to go global. Drawing on the Hierarchy of Influences model, the study demonstrates that the representation of China in Malaysian media coverage is a product shaped by intertwined social, cultural, and political factors as complex as Malaysian society.