• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.137-154
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• 2019

Singapore has seen a phenomenal and an unprecedented transformation from a swampland to a high density urban environment since its independence in 1965, made possible largely and single-handedly by the sustained efforts of its government. Indeed, urban space is a key vehicle for achieving urban social, environmental, economic, and cultural sustainability. The dense urban context in Singapore has seen an emergence and increase in elevated spaces in the form of sky-gardens, sky-bridges and sky-courts in a range of building types, seemingly seeking to tie together the different horizontal and vertical components of the city. This paper, therefore, examines the effectiveness of elevated urban spaces and pedestrian networks in Singapore and their ability to contribute to the horizontal to vertical transitions, and consequently to the urban vitality and accessibility. It does this through the analysis of two key developments: Marina Bay Sands and the Jurong Gateway. In particular, it considers the implications of certain constraints placed on urban spaces by their inherent location at height, in addition to the familiar privatization of public spaces, over-management of spaces, and their somewhat utilitarian characteristics. The paper argues that some of these issues may pose detrimental effects on the publicness of these spaces that in turn may lead to such spaces being underused and therefore adding redundancies and further stress to Singapore's urban land. Finally, the paper outlines key strategies that may help overcome the aforementioned issues, including the disjuncture associated with elevated spaces such that they may become a seamless extension of the urban spaces on ground.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.125-147
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• 2020

On the World Refugee Day in 2017, Yao Chen, a Chinese actress, philanthropist, and social media influencer, posted messages in her Weibo in support of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Yet, social media users quickly interpreted this supportive message of the refugee program as encouraging people to "accept and receive refugees" (jieshou nanmin) into China. Particularly, the category of Middle Eastern refugees elicited most criticism in China's cyberspace. As the inclusion of refugees is an integral part of immigrant multiculturalism, this article examines the limits of multicultural imagination of refugees―particularly those from the Middle Eastern and North Africa―in contemporary China. I argue that the limits of multicultural imagination in contemporary China is profoundly shaped by an intricate interweaving of domestic policies and global imaginaries toward refugees. By deploying a mixed methodology, such limits are examined from legal-institutional, ideological, and sociocultural perspectives. More specifically, three interrelated aspects will be highlighted in the article: (1) the global circulation of right-wing populism imaginaries, and their entanglements with the anti-Muslim sentiments in contemporary China; (2) the current insufficiency of the legal-institutional framework regarding refugees and asylum-seekers, which needs to be contextualized in China's modern history of dealing with refugee issues; (3) population politics, the rise of Han-centric nationalism, and their constraining impact on the interpretation of historical events related to cultural diversity. In conclusion, this article also offers potential implications for further examining the different yet potentially intersected genealogies of multicultural imaginaries beyond the Middle Eastern and North African refugees in Asia.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.91-118
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• 2021

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is China's contribution to the need for the world to collectively address deficits of peace, development, governance, and problems relating to climate, the environment and human health. The rise of China and the BRI do challenge the current 'rules-based global order' and the economic dominance and moral, political, economic, and cultural leadership of the United States and its allies. However, China's goal is not hegemony but a multipolar world in which common values coexist with principles of peaceful coexistence (including non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states). The evolution of the BRI is outlined, and the ways in which it reflects Chinese interests are summarized, including its roles in addressing natural resource dependence and excess capacity, a transition from investment promotion and factor-intensive growth to going out and industrial upgrading, going West, and the effective deployment of China's foreign exchange assets. Although China does therefore potentially gain, the BRI is designed so that partners also gain in a quest for win-win co-operation and mutual benefit. The values that underlie this approach and the call for a community with a shared future are compared with competing western values, whose roots lie in Enlightenment thought and are associated with a record of colonialism and imperialism. In this light, the article concludes with a consideration of the global implications of the BRI, the challenges it confronts and the likelihood that the unipolar moment will give way to a multipolar global development path.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.117-124
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• 2021

Korean education in China began at Peking University in the 1950s. At present, The Korean language education in China has made remarkable progress in many aspects such as scale, scope, level and achievement. In addition, with the increasingly frequent economic and cultural exchanges or cooperation between China and South Korea and the increasing trend of internationalization, the prosperity of Korean wave culture and the sound development of China-South Korea relations, the country's demand for Korean language talents is increasing day by day. However, with the rise of Korean education in China in recent years, some hidden problems also surfaced. In this paper, the Korean language proficiency test(TOPIK) is used to evaluate the Korean language proficiency of Korean learners, and Chinese juniors are used to evaluate the Korean language proficiency. In addition, a questionnaire survey was conducted to analyze the learning media of Chinese Korean learners at the present stage, and the relationship between learning media and learning outcomes was concluded. At the same time, deficiencies and problems existed in Korean education in colleges and universities were proposed and their own ideas were put forward.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.141-155
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• 2020

How might historians secure for the river a larger berth in the recent macro-historical turn? This question cannot find a greater niche than in the emerging critique of the existing spatial configuration of regionalism in mainland Southeastern Asia. The Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong and Yangtze rivers spread out like a necklace around Yunnan and cut across parts of the territories that are known as South, Southeast and East Asia. Each of these rivers has a different topography and fluvial itinerary, giving rise to different political, economic and cultural trajectories. Yet these rivers together form a connected "water-world". These rivers engendered conversations between multi-agentive mobility and large-scale place-making and were at the heart of inter-Asian engagements and integration until the formal end of the European empires. Being both a subject and a sponsor of transregional crossings, the paper argues, these rivers point to the need for a new historical approach that registers the connections between parts of the Southeast Asian massif through to the expansive plain land and the vast coastal rim of the Bay of Bengal and the China Seas. A connection that could be framed through the concept of Holon.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.375-391
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• 2022

Improving public awareness of wood is crucial for expanding the use of wood and establishing a wood culture. In this study, the environment and trends of the public's wood utilization were analyzed using a questionnaire survey and online text mining at a time when eco-friendly practices are gaining popularity. As a result of reducing climatic and environmental concerns and its positive physical and psychological effects, the use of wood is predicted to rise in areas intimately connected to everyday living, such as wood furniture, wooden structures, and interior materials. Nonetheless, there was a negative awareness that wood was expensive, difficult to maintain, and associated with deforestation. The correlations between wood-related search terms on major Korean portal sites were analyzed and categorized into five groups: Wooden architecture, cultural education, woodworking, wood industry, and wood policy. As a building material, wood was seen as more traditional and friendly than reinforced concrete and stone. Eighty-six percent of respondents expected to utilize wood as a building material in the future, regardless of whether the wood is domestically produced or imported. Sixty-five percent responded favorably about the effects of wood on the health of wooden home inhabitants. It is believed that both active publicity and quantifiable value analysis of human and environmental friendliness are required to increase pro-environment awareness of wood utilization.

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.201-227
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to examine how France became a representative country for far-right European populism, despite its tradition of tolerance. To achieve this goal, we examine, first, how the concept of tolerance developed in France after the 16th century. Through this process, we find that within the political system, the tolerance of the liberal tradition met with universalism, a republican value, and developed into an 'institutional tolerance' that allowed 'differences' from an authoritarian perspective rather than on an equal level. This 'assimilation' policy, reflecting a 'patriarchal' and 'oppressive' institutional tolerance, formed the keynote of the immigration policy of the 20th century, which continued until the 1980s, and shows that the French government did not take practical steps for the social integration of immigrant groups under the republican universal value that does not allow 'differences.' The government came up with an 'integration' immigration policy that embraces cultural 'differences' only after encountering problems with immigrant groups. However, this was not enough to calm the antipathy towards immigrants in French society and the discontent of immigrants in French society. Also, universalism, a republican value with deep roots in France, prevented the French immigration policy from escaping its assimilationist nature even in the 21st century. In the midst of this, far-right parties have gained power by promoting xenophobic sentiments centered on immigration problems. Finally, this study also looks at how far-right populism is currently changing the French political environment.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.963-986
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• 2022

This article surveys the fashion forecasting industry in Korean domestic markets. With the rise of new media and devices with high technology, the paradigm of fashion trends forecasting systems has dramatically changed. New perspectives of trend forecasting are required to understand the trend flow and consumer behavior of the MZ generation. The research questions are as follows: 1) Major trend forecasting companies studied the development of their strategies and new forecasting methods. 2) The consumers' needs in the domestic market were analyzed. The influence of the trend companies' forecasting on the market was investigated. The results are as follows: 1) International trend forecasting significantly affected the domestic market. The concordance rate between consumers' online searches about fashion trends was approximately 70.14%. The match rate by category is as follows: The highest rate, 85.06% is from pattern and print, color is 83.92%, the item is 80.39%, and style is 54.32%. 2) Specialized information such as the Pantone color chart is being widely consumed, leading to a trend among the masses. 3) The Korean-specific socio-cultural background has an impact on domestic trends.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.15-49
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• 2016

It is widely known that the Bugis people, originally from South Sulawesi, have been migrating to many places, including both the Indonesian and Malaysian sides of the borders today. The translocal and transnational movements of the Bugis people, especially to North Kalimantan of Indonesia and Sabah and Johor of Malaysia, have occurred in several waves, particularly during the 17th century, around 1965 and from 1980 to the present. The fall of the kingdom of Somba Opu in South Sulawesi and the rise Dutch colonial power have been the triggers for the early movement of the Bugis to both the Indonesian and Malaysian borders. This was followed by the second push of the Islamic rebellion in South Sulawesi, around 1965, creating another big wave of Bugis movement. The most recent one has been mainly due to economic reasons. These different phases of the movements, as well as the dynamic interplay of various aspects, such as citizenship, ethnic, and sub-ethnic groupings, practicing of cultural traditions and keeping the language, to mention a few, have contributed to the process of the construction of the multiple identities of the Bugis. Indeed, the Bugis people are no longer identified or identify themselves as a single group, but rather have fluid and contesting identities. This paper will discuss three main issues: the history of the translocal and transnational movements of the Bugis to North Kalimantan, Sabah and Johor; the process of adaptation to these new places; and the construction of Bugis identities.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.297-306
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• 2024

At a specific juncture in industrial development, animation emerges as a product imbued with discernible features characteristic of the mechanical replication era. Through the integration of technology, it continually gives rise to postmodern cultural traits. Notably, the trajectories of postmodernism in China and Western Europe exhibit divergence. Following the reform and opening up, both postmodernism and modernism found acceptance and became interwoven. Chinese animated films, influenced by postmodernism, actively challenge traditional animation norms, exemplifying postmodern characteristics such as deconstruction, intertextuality, indeterminacy, collage, and diversity. This article endeavors to delve into the discourse surrounding postmodernism in both Western and Chinese contexts. It aims to scrutinize the manifestation of postmodern features, particularly with regard to ethnic elements, traditional mythological texts, and gender representations in Chinese animated films. Consequently, it becomes imperative to contemplate the affirmative adaptation and independent development of postmodernism within the unique Chinese milieu. Building upon an analysis of noteworthy traditional animated film genres and developmental trends in China, this study focuses on animated films from the 21st century, specifically Monkey King: Hero is Back, Big Fish & Begonia, Dahufa, White Snake and Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child. The paper seeks to explore the overarching characteristics of postmodernity reflected in the linguistic environment of postmodernism in China.