https://www.scmp.com/rss/329511/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com As the US presidential election campaign nears its conclusion, and Covid-19 infections surge across the nation, interest has intensified in the handful of “battleground” states which, under the electoral college system, will ultimately decide the election’s result. In 2016, Donald Trump won in Michigan by 0.3 per cent, his smallest margin nationally. In 2020, the state has been constantly in the headlines as he feuds with its Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, over her relatively tough and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3106511/us-election-what-does-michigans-coronavirus-experience-say-about?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3106511/us-election-what-does-michigans-coronavirus-experience-say-about?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Oct 2020 17:30:14 +0000 When this is all over, social scientists will have a field day analysing what the Covid-19-induced shutdowns now in place around the world reveal about nations and societies. In the United States, by the second week of April, most of the country had gone through three to four weeks of shutdowns of various intensities. National polls at the time all showed that the population prioritised public health over the economy. MorningConsult/Politico found that 75 per cent of those surveyed thought it... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3080909/how-us-coronavirus-hotspot-michigan-coping-shutdown-life?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3080909/how-us-coronavirus-hotspot-michigan-coping-shutdown-life?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Apr 2020 13:00:08 +0000 “The essence of racial privilege is that it is not recognised by the privileged themselves, since they assume that how they are treated is normal or standard for everyone, not having experienced anything different.” Thus was I instructed by my 30-something daughter, whose insights derive from being biracial (white and Chinese), dragged all over Asia by her parents growing up, but looking “mostly white” in adulthood, and living in the middle of a mostly white but increasingly diverse country, the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3023106/race-singaporeans-must-open-their-eyes-home-thrive-abroad?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3023106/race-singaporeans-must-open-their-eyes-home-thrive-abroad?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Aug 2019 09:00:12 +0000 The current media-designated “war” between the US and China over trade, investment and technology has, unsurprisingly, revived a previously dormant discourse on differences between “Asian” (here, “Chinese”) vs “Western” (“American”) values that many believe portend the “clash of civilisations” advanced by Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington in 1993, and repeatedly embellished by numerous acolytes since. This concept of an inevitable “civilisational” or “cultural” (as distinct from... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2189244/truth-about-us-china-clash-civilisations-there-isnt-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2189244/truth-about-us-china-clash-civilisations-there-isnt-one?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Mar 2019 18:00:00 +0000 The now notorious incident in which Duke University biostatistics graduate students from China were told by their programme director that they should speak English “100 per cent of the time” while on departmental premises deservedly attracted condemnation in the United States higher-education community, and among Chinese in the US and China. As a professor of ethnic Chinese origin myself (I am Singaporean) with 35 years’ experience teaching at the University of Michigan – which has scholarly... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2184540/chinese-students-us-university-were-told-speak-english-simple?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2184540/chinese-students-us-university-were-told-speak-english-simple?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Jan 2019 23:00:30 +0000 Good governance in Singapore risks being undermined by a higher education system that is skewed toward hiring academics unwilling or unable to engage with important public policy research. One reason for this is the pursuit of rankings. The key metric that most rankings utilise is a so-called citation count – a tally of research associated with any given university that has been published in select international peer-reviewed journals. Hong Kong universities slip in law, business and economics... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2178967/how-singapores-obsession-university-rankings-only-serves-hurt-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2178967/how-singapores-obsession-university-rankings-only-serves-hurt-it?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Dec 2018 04:30:30 +0000 Singapore’s publicly funded National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have rapidly ascended the world university rankings. According to international journals, the two now rank among the best in Asia, and are in the top 20 to 50 in the world. This has been achieved in part by the aggressive hiring of international faculty members with the desired publication credentials, part of an increasingly intense global arms race for scarce research talent. But... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2175473/singapores-us200k-starter-salaries-why-education-pays-price?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/2175473/singapores-us200k-starter-salaries-why-education-pays-price?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Dec 2018 00:00:15 +0000