How Filipina Maids Are Treated in Hong Kong—A Comparison Between Chinese and Western Employers

This study compares Chinese and Western employers in Hong Kong in terms of their treatment of Filipina domestic helpers in four major areas: atmosphere of work environment, consideration, social psychological distance, and personal space. The data were based on in-depth and structured interviews, mainly with Filipina helpers who have served both types of employers. A few Chinese and Western employers were also interviewed. The findings indicate that the Filipina maids, in general, are more satisfied with their Western employers, who tend to provide them with an easier and more comfortable work environment; are more considerate; are more likely to treat them on equal terms; and to allow them more personal space. Within group variations in the treatment of maids are greater among Chinese employers than Western employers. This means that, in terms of the treatment of Filipina maids, Western employers in Hong Kong are more homogeneous and tend to concentrate on the positive side, whereas Chinese employers are more diversified.     

Weakened State and Social Movement: the paradox of Taiwanese environmental politics after the power transfer

Of all the Chinese societies, Taiwan witnessed the first peaceful and democratic power transfer in 2000. With the coming to power of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), new political opportunity was opened up for environmentalists, who had been aligned with the DPP for more than a decade. Did the regime change provide a better milieu for synergy between environmental activists and state officials? Was a better style of environmental governance possible under the DPP government? These are the main questions this paper tries to raise and answer. A puzzle has been found here. While environmentalists have gained important access to policy decision-making, pro-development counter-mobilizations were also on the rise, and government policy shifted to a more pro-business stand consequently. This paper argues that this paradox resulted from the weakened state capacity, which simultaneously empowered environmentalists and could not resist business's lobbying.     

The 3-week sulphasalazine syndrome strikes again.

A 34-year-old lady developed a constellation of dermatitis, fever, lymphadenopathy and hepatitis, beginning on the 17th day of a course of oral sulphasalazine for sero-negative rheumatoid arthritis. Cervical and inguinal lymph node biopsies showed the features of severe necrotising lymphadenitis, associated with erythrophagocytosis and prominent eosinophilic infiltrates, without viral inclusion bodies, suggestive of an adverse drug reaction.A week later, fulminant drug-induced hepatitis, associated with the presence of anti-nuclear autoantibodies (but not with other markers of autoimmunity), and accompanied by multi-organ failure and sepsis, supervened. She subsequently died some 5 weeks after the commencement of her drug therapy.Post-mortem examination showed evidence of massive hepatocellular necrosis, acute hypersensitivity myocarditis, focal acute tubulo-interstitial nephritis and extensive bone marrow necrosis, with no evidence of malignancy. It is thought that the clinico-pathological features and chronology of this case bore the hallmarks of the so-called "3-week sulphasalazine syndrome", a rare, but often fatal, immunoallergic reaction to sulphasalazine.     

If It Doesn't Fit,Throw Out the Old Pair and Get a New One

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique -     

Fu-Lai Tony Yu and Diana S. Kwan,Social Construction of National Reality: Taiwan,Tibet, and Hong Kong

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

Xuefei Ren,Governing the Urban in China and India: Land Grabs,Slum Clearance,and the War on Air Pollution

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

Friction and bureaucratic control in authoritarian regimes

Democracies deliberately create “friction” in bureaucratic processes, using inefficiencies to mitigate the impact of government transitions and asymmetric information on leaders' ability to exert control. With far more centralized power, would authoritarians prefer less friction? We argue that they do not. In fact, excess friction is actively supplied to hinder bureaucratic coordination independent of or even in opposition to top-down control, leaving the central leaders the only player powerful enough to organize complex actions. Our analysis of data on the Chinese government indicates that bureaucrats are systematically sent to unfamiliar work environment, and that agencies that are more exposed to the resultant inefficiencies are also more likely to come under direct control by senior Politburo members. The pattern of targeted intervention indicates that bureaucratic control in authoritarian regimes is predicated not only on centralized power in general but also the deliberate supply of friction to obstruct independent actions from the bottom up.