At the Crossroads of East and West
The East and the West of the world have grown to be increasingly intertwined in today’s globalised world, albeit with rising conflicts and misunderstandings on multiple grounds.
In this issue of THINK, international experts and academics share their views — from the perspectives of history, economics, philosophy, education, arts and culinary arts — on how the world has and should continue to navigate the intersection between the East and the West, and what should be done to build a better future for the generations to come.
In this issue:
- Interview with Prof Wang Gungwu – Redefining Notions of East and West
Prof Wang Gungwu, Chairman of the East Asian Institute at NUS, provides a historical compass to guide our understanding of the notions of and intersection between the East and the West; - A Thucydides Fallacy: The New Model of Power Relations for Southeast Asia, the US and China
Prof Danny Quah, Dean and Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics at NUS’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, weighs in on the role SEA nations can play in determining how the world order evolves amidst the heightened US-China conflict; - Western Love, Chinese Qing – A Philosophical Interpretation of the Idea of Love in Romeo and Juliet and the Story of Liang-Zhu (or The Butterfly Lovers)
Former Chairman of the Department of Philosophy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Prof Cheung Chan-Fai compares the idea of love in the Western and Chinese cultures through the two classic love stories; - Observing Disintegration
Chris Oestereich, writer and lecturer at Thammasat University’s School of Global Studies in Thailand, laments the stark division observed among his fellow Americans in comparison to the Thais during the COVID-19 pandemic
… and many more.
A Thucydides Fallacy: The New Model of Power Relations for Southeast Asia, the US and China
HAVE SOUTHEAST ASIA, THE US AND CHINA SHIFTED TO A NEW MODEL OF POWER RELATIONS? When the US switched from Trump to Biden, expectations around…
Asian and Western Scholarship Traditions in the Eyes of a Historian
I was trained as a historian under the Chinese academic system in Beijing, after spending ten years away from school during the Cultural Revolution. In…
Liberal Arts and Leadership Education for Women in Asia: East-West-Global
On 10 January 2021, the first South Asian-African-American female Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, was inaugurated. In November 2015, another highly significant…
Interview with Prof Wang Gungwu — Redefining Notions of East and West
Cultural identity in Hong Kong The ongoing resistance and negotiation between Hong Kong and Chinese culture has led to a deep division of self-identification. The…
Humanistic Leadership and its Manifestation in a Chinese Context
Global challenges and crises including environmental degradation, distributional inequality and societal distrust point to the need to rethink business strategies as well as management theories…
Western Love, Chinese Qing
A Philosophical Interpretation of the Idea of Love in Romeo and Juliet and the Story of Liang-Zhu (or The Butterfly Lovers). Romeo and Juliet (1968)…
Observing Disintegration
I have vivid memories of my last day at the office. It was March 2020, and I was in a briefing at the UN’s regional…
Logo Design in a Multicultural Market
We see logos everywhere, from giant billboards on buildings to the cover of the book we recently read, on nearly everything we own. They are…
A Sake Story: Chinese Influence, Global Market Drive and Government Policy Change
Nigori sake Commonly referred to as “unfiltered” sake, nigori literally means “cloudy”, and refers to sake that still contains rice solids that have not fermented.…