Postwar Japan-China Relations: A Consideration from the Perspective of Reconciliation

This article attempts to take a new look at postwar Japan-China relations from the perspective of reconciliation. In contrast to the Murayama and Koizumi statements, one key phrase characterized both the August 14, 2015 Abe Statement and the report of the 21st Century Advisory Panel, which had been submitted earlier to the government: that key phrase is “postwar reconciliation.”     

Making Sense of North Korea: Pyongyang and Comparative Communism

Abstract

Highly repressive, heavily militarized, strongly resistant to reform, and ruled by a dynastic dictatorship that adheres to a hybrid ideology, North Korea might be “the strangest political system in existence.” While distinctive, North Korea is an orthodox communist party-state best classified as an eroding totalitarian regime. Although weakening, Pyongyang remains durable and could survive for many more years. Absent “regime change,” North Korea is unlikely to demilitarize—including relinquishing its nuclear program—and will continue to reject thoroughgoing economic reform, cling to ideology for legitimacy, and make every effort to engineer a successful dynastic succession.     

Histories of Madness: the Abject Perspective of Italian Women in Australia

In this article it is my intention to present some of the findings of my PhD research, 1 in which I have considered Italian migrants’ material and discursive practices about the body, through the analysis of a corpus of more than 1,000 original letters written by Italian migrants to Lena Gustin, the editor of two columns in the Italian Australian‐language newspaper La Fiamma. The specific focus of this article is on letters written by Italian migrant women in which a psychological discomfort or a psychiatric disorder was expressed. Many of these women wrote more than one letter over a span of two or more years. Despite important events in their lives, such as pregnancy and divorce, or admission to or release from a psychiatric hospital, they essentially continued to repeat the same discourse in every letter, as if they were trapped in a situation from which it was impossible to escape — as if nobody was actually listening to what they were trying to say. This paper is an attempt to give back a voice to some of these women through my own personal and theoretical approach to their histories of madness and abjection.     

苏联对战后经济重建的思考——迈斯基关于战后英、美经济政策的报告

二战后期和战后初期,在构建关于战后世界政治安排的同时,苏联领导人也非常关注在战后同美英发展经济关系的问题.迈斯基向莫洛托夫提交的关于战后美英经济政策的报告正是在这种情况下制订出来的.在这两份报告中,迈斯基对战后美英的经济政策以及苏美和苏英经济关系进行了深刻的分析,他提出的关于苏联与美英发展经济关系的构想,对当时苏联领导人在战后与美英发展经济关系等问题上的认识产生了影响,并且这种构想与苏联领导人在战后初期奉行的大国合作战略以及关于国内经济重建问题的一些思考是一致的.     

Suits and Frocks: Dressmakers and the Making of Feminine Identity in Postwar Australian Society

In a context of heightened domestic ideology post–World War II, self-employed dressmakers contributed significantly to the making of the identity of Australian women. Through the skilled work of interacting with their clients and sewing their clothes, dressmakers both supported individual women’s presentation of “self” and operated at the intersection of gender and class relations. Working at home, they were not only making women’s clothes but also producing the social world. Drawing on interviews with thirteen women, this paper explores how such dressmakers’ work constructed a visual representation and interpretation of a feminine identity particular to their time, place, and local cultural context.     

战后日本在亚太地区的战略选择

战后日本选择在亚太地区推行重振战略、大国战略和拓展战略,逐步减轻战后体制束缚,恢复亚太强国地位,进而掠夺发展空间。三步战略目标明确、实施有序,相互衔接、融为一体,帮助日本洗脱战争罪责,骗取国际信任,攫取发展资源。这其中饱含了日本政府的政治谋略,具有很强的隐蔽性和迷惑性。由于日本亚太战略始终偏离正确轨道,并且为转嫁政府执政危机服务,所以很难取得最终胜利。当前中日关系紧张微妙。不能对日本保守政府抱有太多幻想,以防落入圈套,可以尝试联合国际力量,强化战后制裁体制,防止日本重蹈覆辙。     

Singapore Beyond Ethnicity: Rethinking the Group Representative Constituency Scheme

Abstract

The resounding victory of the People’s Action Party (PAP) in the 2015 Singapore general elections surprised many observers. Several observers had considered the previous election, held in 2011, to be the new normal in Singapore politics, with the Workers’ Party being the first opposition party to win a Group Representative Constituency (GRC). Instead of its popular vote sliding from 60% in 2011, the PAP secured almost a 10% increase in its fortunes. Analysts have spoken about PAP’s hard work and the opposition’s failures when commenting on the ruling party’s success; this article, however, points out how Singapore’s electoral system, especially the GRC, continues to favour the ruling party and why it should be rethought. Introduced in 1988, the scheme ensures minority candidates (non-Chinese) are voted into parliament. Candidates contesting in a GRC form a team of Members of Parliament (MPs) with at least one minority candidate in each team. This article argues that the 2015 election results proves that Singaporeans no longer vote along ethnic lines, and non-Chinese MPs have comfortably led the GRCs and won in Single Member Constituencies. To be sure, the GRC scheme does new PAP candidates a disfavour: it weakens their legitimacy with voters, since they remain under the shadows of senior PAP candidates and cannot win elections on their own accord.