Our Recent Publications
- Books
- Book Chapters
- Journal Articles
- Conference Proceedings
- Working Papers
- Other Research Publications
Books
Outside Asia: Japanese and Australian Encounters & Identities in Flux
Edited by Stephen Alomes, Peter Eckersall, Ross Mouer and Alison Tokita
(ISBN: 9781 9217 7581 9, 243pp, paperback)
The Japanese Studies Centre has published a new book on Australia-Japan relations 'Outside Asia: Japanese and Australian Encounters & Identities in Flux'. The essays in this book originated when the authors gathered in Broome to discuss this theme in December 2006, the Australia-Japan Year of Friendship. Broome was chosen because of its special place in the history of Australia-Japan relations, and for its liminal character on the edge of both Australia and Asia.
This book explores from diverse angles how the outsider experience conditions cultural encounters between Australia and Japan. A sense of being on the fringe of Asia and consequent anxieties about the region impinge on identity, history, politics, society, culture and the arts in each country. The intercultural relations between Australia and Japan are deeply embedded in the self-identity of each nation, and the sense of being "outside Asia" continues to inform social, cultural and political life in contemporary Japan and Australia. This continuing cultural narrative is important. It remains extraordinarily significant even as both nations are engaged in complex multilateral relations with others, while participating as 'allies' in the broader cultural, political, economic and strategic flows that constitute globalisation. Those processes, links and flows influence many larger and smaller nations in the multi-polar era of today.
The book is available through the Custom Book Centre at Melbourne University, and can be purchased online through the link www.bookshop.unimelb.edu.au/cbc/?9781921775819
Democratizing Taiwan
By Professor J. Bruce Jacobs
(ISBN: 9789 0042 21543, Brill, 2012, 306pp, Hardback)
For further info please contact Prof Bruce Jacobs.
SUMMARY: Taiwan-together with India, Japan and South Korea-is one of only four consolidated Asian democracies. Democratizing Taiwan provides the most comprehensive analysis of Taiwan's peaceful democratization including its past violent authoritarian experiences, leadership both within and outside government, popular protest and elections, and constitutional interpretation and amendments. Using extensive field research including the conduct of many interviews with government and party leaders, journalists, academics and a wide variety of citizens over many years as well as substantial research into documents, newspapers and academic research, Professor Jacobs provides many new insights into Taiwan's democratization. He also analyses areas in which Taiwan continues to face difficulties.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: J. Bruce Jacobs is Professor of Asian Languages and Studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 1975. Professor Jacobs has published numerous works on Taiwan and China over the past forty years.
From Vienna to Yogyakarta: The Life of Herb Feith
By Dr Jemma Purdey, Research Fellow
(ISBN: 9781 7422 32805, UNSW Press, June 2011, 576pp, PB , 234 x 153mm)
SUMMARY: Herb Feith came to Australia as a Jewish refugee from war-torn Europe in 1939 and went on to become an internationally renowned and passionate scholar of Indonesia. He died tragically in Melbourne in 2001. This engaging biography tells his own extraordinary story and traces his interest in Indonesia, his determination to establish networks of serious study of Indonesia and Southeast Asia and his commitment to peace activism.
Listen to the interview of Dr Purdey on ABC Radio National 'Late Night Live program'
www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2011/3268739.htm
Read Book Review by Dr Joan Grant, first published in the July–August 2011 issue of Australian Book Review.
Journal Articles
Dietary quality may enhance survival related to cognitive impairment in Taiwanese elderly
By Rosalind Chia-Yu Chen, Yu-Hung Chang, Meei-Shyuan Lee, Mark L Wahlqvist
Published in Food and Nutrition Research, October 2011. (link to the full paper)
SUMMARY: In a Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NAHSIT 1999-2000), 1,839 representative elderly were followed for mortality up to 10 years. The dietary quality measure was a dietary diversity score (DDS, range: 0_6) to present six food groups (dairy, meat, rice and grains, fruit, vegetable, fat and oil) derived from a 24-hour dietary recall. Cognitive function was evaluated by the validated Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ). After control for potential confounders, participants with cognitive impairment (SPMSQ ≥ 3 errors) had 1.46 (95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.06-2.02) times the all-cause-mortality risk of those with intact cognition. Significant interactions for DDS and cognition were found (p<0.001). Jointly, compared to normal-SPMSQ-highest DDS, the greatest HR is where impaired cognition is combined with the lowest DDS (HR 2.24, 95% CI: 1.194.24). Increased DDS was associated with improvement in survival that is especially evident in those with 1-2 errors where the greatest HR reduction was found, and for fruit. Attributability for mortality amounted to 18% for impaired cognition and 33% for least diverse diet. In conclusion, dietary diversity may improve survival in relation to impaired cognitive function.
Listen to the interview of Prof Mark L Wahlqvist, 'Meals on Wheels and the right menu for aging Australians' on ABC Rural (Mon 7 Nov 2011):
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/telegraph/content/2011/s3357948.htm
Challenges for the Unified Financial Supervision in the Post-Crisis Era: Singaporean Experience and Chinese Practice
Jing Geng, Wenjuan Xie, Guibin Zhang*, Honggeng Zhou
*MAI Research Fellow
Published in Journal of Financial and Economic Practice 2011, Volume 11(2) Please contact the authors for a copy of the full paper.
SUMMARY: In an era when financial conglomerates become more and more prominent, and amid the increasing concerns in academia over the effectiveness of supervision by multiple regulatory and supervisory agencies, this paper reviews the origin and development of the Chinese financial system supervisory practice, and it analyses the Chinese case to see whether an integrated financial supervision model is suitable for the economic giant. We focus on the integrated financial supervision adopted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in response to the emerging international trends of blurring boundaries between financial industries of banking, insurance and capital markets, as well as the rapid growth of financial conglomeration. Integrated supervision can centralize regulatory functions and maximize economy of scale, thus reducing the operating costs of financial supervisory entities. However, there are also some drawbacks of the practice and foreseeable feasibility issues in the transition towards integrated financial supervision in a country whose financial system is still in the gradual process of opening and integration. Weighing on the pros and cons and accounting for potential issues in its implementation, the paper finally proposes a gradual solution for China to move towards integrated financial supervision.
Central Obesity Predicts Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Mortality and Overall Obesity Predicts Leukemia Mortality in Adult Taiwanese
Da-Ming Chu, Mark L Wahlqvist*, Meei-Shyuan Lee, Hsing-Yi Chang
* MAI Emeritus Professor
Published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Oct 2011, Volume 30(5).
Short-term access to the full paper can be purchased at the journal website.
SUMMARY: During 1997–2007 in Taiwan, in a large cohort of 383,956 subjects aged 19–98 years without any cancer history, the authors have evaluated whether body fat and its distribution is associated with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and leukemia mortalities. Participants were obtained through a health screening center and followed up for a median of 7.2 years. Based on World Health Organization criteria modified for Asia and Taiwan, BMI was classified to <18.5, 18.5–23.9, 24–26.9, and ≥27 kg/m2. Waist circumference ≥90 cm in men and ≥80 cm in women was defined as central obesity. Results showed that BMI was not associated with NHL deaths, although the trend was significant, but central obesity with adjustment was (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.87, 95%CI = 1.27–2.75) compared with non–centrally obese subjects. BMI, but not central obesity, was associated with leukemia mortality (HR = 1.93, 95% CI = 1.00–3.75). The authors concluded that an increased risk for NHL with increased abdominal fatness and more so with lower BMI is apparent in Taiwanese; this may indicate that metabolically localized and proinflammatory fat is important. For leukemia, where most is myeloid leukemia, increased general fatness is evidently a risk with Taiwanese ethnicity.
Dietary diversity and food expenditure as indicators of food security in older Taiwanese
Yuan-Ting Lo, Yu-Hung Chang, Meei-Shyuan Lee, Mark L. Wahlqvist*
* MAI Emeritus Professor
Will be published in Appetite 2012, Volume 58.
A copy of the full paper is available for purchase at the Science Direct website
SUMMARY: Food quality is a measure of food security in vulnerable groups. The elderly are often nutritionally vulnerable, but how much of this is reflected in food quality and determined by financial status is unclear. We determined whether expenditure on dietary quality challenges food security in the aged. We used the representative Elderly Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan during 1999–2000 (n = 1783), and evaluated dietary quality by a Dietary Diversity Score (DDS, range: 0–6) based on a 24-h dietary recall. Monthly mean national food prices were used to estimate food expenditure. In general, it was found to cost more to achieve a greater DDS. The food expenditure of subjects whose DDS = 6 was 2.20 times greater than the DDS < 3 group, after controlling for covariates. Elders of lower socioeconomic status tended to choose foods which would have cost less. However, a sub-group of elders who achieve the highest DDS with limited money offer approaches to food-money management. Nutrition policy directed to food insecure groups, like the aged, could employ health promotion strategies which reduce financial barriers to healthy eating.
Working Papers
The Global Financial Crisis: ountercyclical Fiscal Policy Issues and Challenges in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore
Anita Doraisami*
*MAI Adjunct Research Fellow
Copy of the full paper is available for download at the ADB Institute website.