HSA1000 Notes (College of Humanities and Sciences, taken in 2021 Semester 1)

The usual rules apply. All notes are copied directly from my personal Evernote hand-typed collection, and in the interest of privacy and intellectual property protection, there will be no screengrabs or any personally identifying information in my notes. And yes, as usual, it's messy.

Without further ado-

Week 1 and 2: Interrogating the Concept of Asia

What are some of the assumptions we make when we read or write about Asia?

• China, India, Southeast Asia
• Viewing Asia selectively and only through an economic lens
• Diverse cultures and Eurocentric amalgamation of "Asian-ness"
• What even is Asia?

The term Asia might come from the word Assuva, which seems to have been in the northwestern part of what we now call Turkey. Over time, it is clear that Greek sailors in the Aegean and and Black seas began using the terms Europe and Asia to refer to the coastlines to the West and East of the waters that they spent their lives on. Note that these Greek mariners placed themselves BETWEEN these two landmasses, and that there were Greek speaking cities along both of these coastlines. The final dividing line between Europe and Asia is the Sea of Azov and the Don River at the top of this map.

All definitions of Europe and Asia are based on imaginary lines. It is not reflected in physical or natural geography.

Eurasia is functionally a single continent by virtue of land mass. In that case, the creation of the two separate continents, Europe and Asia, is rooted in artificial concepts of difference.

• East vs West
• Poor vs Rich
• Uncivilized vs Civilized

There are problems with all definitions of Asia. No definition is perfect, but they are definitions conceived for very different purposes. As a result, each definition is specific to the particular needs of the author for the understanding of their audience in the relevant field of study or community.

Question: Hi Prof, thank you for the lecture! I have been thinking about the legal ramifications of the different interpretations of what should or should not be part of Asia. Could this be why international trade agreements take so long to reach decisions? What are some factors that go into deciding whether a specific country or region belongs in a large-scale trade agreement? Thank you!

(Left the question in because it's a cool thing to ponder. The prof did not get to my question, sadly.)

Week 3: Regardless of Race

CMIO - A social construct

Many things in Asia are social constructs, created for political or sociological convenience

Race and ethnicity: What's the difference?

Race: A physically distinct "type" of person, observable genetically inherited traits

Racial groups and evolution is a colonial import

Racial categories do not take into account cultural definitions of difference

Racial phenotypes are associated with cultural patterns

Race is a dangerous and problematic category because it implies that humans are different because of their biological differences

The fact is that humans do not have any biological difference - we have shed all non-homo sapien characteristics

Race was meant to differentiate white, caucasian males from the rest, which legitimizes colonialism, slavery and the control of certain community

Racism happens at so many levels, superiority based on biological appearance

Racial evolution is a misleading science

What about ethnicity?

Ethnicity gives precedence to culture as a way to understand the individual

Ethnicity is not fixed unlike race which emphasizes on biological givenness

Ethnicity is malleable and self-ascribed

Week 4: Why Race?

THE IDEA OF RACE

From a life sciences perspective, race is completely unscientific and holds no water

Race is a modern idea, invented very recently in the West

Humans are divided by many other factors

It influences all aspects of society from nationality to geopolitical regions and beyond

IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Communities are often mobile and constantly migrating, they needed a way to identify themselves in order to create that community

1840s and 1850s - Teochew and Hokkien groups fighting over plantations, but they are from the same race!

1867-1874 Selangor Civil War: Conflicts happen over and across racial divides! Chinese kongsi and Malay aristocrats fought with other kongsi and aristocrat, race was not even an issue of contention

THE LEGACY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Drawing distinctions in the British Isles and the Empire

Martial races: Sikh, Gurkhas, Scottish Highlanders

Malayness in Malaysia considered

Categories were created by the colonial powers to make administration easier

"Contested categories": Who is a "real Malay"?

ENGLISH SPEAKING WORLD

Explicit racial segregation

Nazism, Black segregation in America and Britain

Japanese - Asia for Asians, but Japanese on top

Socialist world: Focus on self-determination, but segregation by "nationality"

The British are not the only ones who shaped racial identity in Singapore

Before WWII: Contestability and Flexibility

CHINESENESS

Hanzu vs Manchu

Are there minorities in China?

Representation - Zhonghua Minzu

PRC ensured representation in Politburo

Chinese Singaporeans define ourselves by dialect groups, geographical place of origin and even as "Imperialists"

The idea of being Chinese may not even be the most important part of their identity

JAPANESE IMPERIALISM AND THEORIES OF RACE

1940s Ideology: Minzoku was the basic division of societies

Japan saw itself as the only Asian country who had the technological advancement and intelligence comparable to Western colonialists

All other Asian races were backwards and savage

Therefore, Japan saw it as their birthright to conquer all of Asia

Any resistance was met with violence and brutalism

Due to the Sino-Japanese War, "racial" lines hardened

Chinese were heavily resistant against the Japanese invasion

Nationalist sentiments across Southeast Asia were raised, which solidified and strengthened the idea of Chineseness

Donations and funds were sent across all Chinese communities throughout Asia

The "Sook Ching" Massacre: Chinese race must be ruled by violence

Conciliatory Approach: Same theory. Chinese were treated differently by the Japanese administrators by virtue of their race.

RAISING "MINZOKU CONSCIOUSNESS"

Organizing all communities in Singapore by Minzoku

Major reason for Japanese Occupation was to acquire natural resources

One way to do it was to get natives to give them the resources

So by highlighting racial consciousness and showing that the Japanese were superior, the races of Singapore would then give them what they want

Week 5 (No notes taken, sorry)

Week 6

Migration and Diaspora

People have always been on the move across history

Change in movement patterns at different points of history

Leaving the familiar behind, strategies to cope

Building communities abroad

Border restrictions and controls are a relatively new concept

They are not stable but always changing

Migration and the Nation: How do we think of a country?

Delineated with a map?

How are maps made?

Migration brings people into a defined geographical area and challenges the idea of a nation

Migration: Process of moving

Emigrant - Leave the place

Immigrant - Join the place

Is a nation People + Place? If so, what happens when People leave and join a Place?

Thailand as an example

The Kushan Empire in Central Asia

Han Dynasty China expanding borders to Southern Coast

Soldiers, Scholars and Trades

Srivijaya, Palembang

1800s to 1900s - The age of mass migration

1850s to 1920s - Peak of mass migration in Asia

1930s to 1940s - War, decolonization

1950s to 1970s - Golden Age of the State

1970s to Now - Era of Contemporary Globalization

Economic opportunities

Colonial era - Economic stagnation in some areas, rapid growth in others

Incentivized to move, forced to move by war or exploitation

Environmental change

Technological transformation

Colonial legacy

Even in the colonial 1900s before the war, Singapore was breaking records as a modern lifestyle hub

Finding Community Abroad

kongsi in Penang, migrant Chinese depends on the kungsi

Welfare associations, secret societies

Highly adaptable and flexible

Chinese formed their own total government in nearly any new region

Is a Kongsi a republic?

Japanese Brazilians

Week 7 (No notes taken, sorry)

Week 8

Inequality: What is inequality?

Geography of Cambodia

Climate change, COVID-19

Poverty in Southeast Asia has been exacerbated by the pandemic

It affects people who are marginalized much more than people at the top

Documentation, ethnicity, language, poverty, traditional lifestyle, education, appearance, gender, sexuality, race, occupation, caste, health, citizenship, religion, class, geography, neurodiversity, disability

Marginalization - A process by which a group or individual is denied access to important positions and symbols of economic, religious or political power within any society. - Oxford Dictionary of Sociology (4th ed.)

Not necessarily a numerical minority e.g. Bahrain

Intersectionality - Intersectionality theory explores how the differential situatedness of social agents influences the ways they affect and are affected by various social, economic and political projects.

Gini Coefficient

Week 9 (No notes taken, sorry) 

Week 10

Religion - Transcendent, Immanent

Cult of the individual - modern and secular religion

Abrahamic religion, individual salvation as ethical self fashioning

Split between religious and political elite hierarchies

Sacred and profane boundaries redrawn

You cannot impose binary categories on religions

Traditional idea: Religion is fading away due to modernity

Is Europe the exception to the rule?

Religion is a modern concept!

Chinese had no modern concept of religion until after globalization

What is the place of religion in the postcolonial world?

One state one religion - 1492 spain

What is a theological agenda?

confessionalism

beliefs rites faith

doctrine, enforcing the doctrine

Week 11

Muslim 9/11

Textual approach via the Quran

Cultural approach, presumes that Islam is the sole entity in the Muslim culture

Deterministic tendency to think that Islam conditions the way that Muslims think, behave and act in a predictable and deterministic manner

Overlooks, negates and marginalizes every other understanding of Muslims

Reductive and essentialist understanding of Muslims

Perception of Muslim societies as homogenous and isolated

Factors: Orientalism, influence of ideology of dominant groups, confusion between religion and culture, rise of the resurgence of Islam and purist quest for Islamization of state and society, nostalgia for the past, need for instant solutions and policies to current problems involving Muslims, influence of multiculturalism, role of the media

Thanks for reading!

Check back tomorrow for the full text of my individual assignments in HSA1000.