Multimodal narratives in SIA's “Singapore Girl” TV advertisements – from branding with femininity to branding with provenance and authenticity?

This paper analyses the multimodal narratives in Singapore Airlines (SIA)’s TV advertisements. Adapting the concept of the foreground–background continuum in multimodal interaction analysis, the first section of this paper analyses the narratives in 10 TV commercials available online from 1970s to 2013. Following the comparative analysis, a close investigation from a social semiotic perspective is conducted on SIA's latest TV advertisement in 2013. Through the analysis, this study shows how gendered representations of the Singapore Girl are manipulated in SIA's advertisements. It also reveals how these gendered representations adopted by SIA are married with contemporary branding philosophies, which also work to cloak them in relation to the use of increasingly well-rounded narrative structure. This study hopes to shed light on the understanding of how gender and sexist ideologies and representations are discursively embodied in contemporary branding strategies used by large-scale advertisements and campaigns spanning a long period.     

The emerging role of sovereign wealth fund as an economic growth avenue for Nigeria: lessons from the Singapore experience

In 2011, Nigeria legally established a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) with a view to find a lasting solution to the frequent short-fall of funds needed for key budgetary and infrastructural developments in the country. This is as a result of the volatility in the price of crude oil which is Nigeria’s major source of foreign exchange revenue. This article examines the role that Nigeria’s SWF could play in the economic growth of the country. Importantly, as Nigeria continues to struggle with its first economic recession in decades, the article suggests it needs to adopt lessons from Singapore’s SWF experience.     

新加坡和中国关于东南亚研究的两种不同观点

新加坡和中国从各自不同的观点来对东南亚进行研究,已经成为一个事实。对两种观点加以比较,将是一项有意义的对比研究,这不仅是因为两个国家的幅员差别悬殊,还因为它们一个是在该地区之内,另一个则在地区之外,从而导致它们过去几个世纪的经历大相径庭。新加坡的人文科学状况是否有点像一个六神无主优柔寡断的受英国教育者,一旦新加坡不再成为英国殖民地就茫然不知所措?而中国的观点是否有点像一只蜷伏在地注视着学飞小麻雀的猫?     

从监狱到社区——新加坡罪犯改造理论及实践介绍

如何改造罪犯,使其重返社会自食其力,是各国关心的一个重大问题。从1825年第一个简陋羁押场所到现在的功能齐全的樟宜监狱中心,新加坡监狱发生了巨大的变化。其罪犯改造理念也不断发展,监狱的职能由简单的关押、惩罚罪犯向帮助罪犯改造、重返社会转变,改造形式由封闭向半封闭及开放逐步过渡,社区在罪犯矫正中的作用不断得到强化。新加坡在罪犯改造方面的实践,特别是其以劳动技能培训、社区参与为核心实行的一系列具体措施及其执行方式能给予我国罪犯改造实践一些启发。     

新加坡劳资关系发展研究

新加坡经济在短短几十年中取得了巨大成就,其和谐、稳定兼具灵活性的劳资关系起到了十分重要的作用。文章通过对新加坡劳资关系发展历程、发展特点及发展的动因进行分析,并针对我国建设和谐劳资关系提出了一些建议。     

新加坡涉外民商事管辖权制度初探

新加坡的法院系统分为两大主要部分 :最高法院和下级法院。除了教会法院对部分婚姻和财产处分诉讼行使管辖权外 ,最高法院和下级法院对新加坡境内的所有其他民事或刑事诉讼行使管辖权。高等法院的民事管辖权建立在传票的送达和被告服从管辖的基础上。管辖权的限制主要表现在国家豁免 ,外交豁免和涉外管辖权条款方面。对于平行诉讼 ,新加坡法院可以“诉讼在另案进行”或“不方便法院”原则为由中止本院的诉讼或发布禁令限制外国的诉讼     

新加坡的民间创业与科技创新

新加坡在过去二十多年不断鼓励民间投资和支持以科技创新为基础的创业活动产生了两个效果:一是加强了民间中小企业尤其是科技创新型中小企业创业经济成分,逐步改变了其经济对政府关联企业和大公司的过份依赖;二是科技创新使产业结构出现了从传统制造业经济为主向知识经济为主的转变。这一经济结构和产业结构的调整有效地解决了其传统经济模式中的增长“瓶颈”问题,为抵御外部经济冲击和保持长期稳定增长奠定了坚实基础。本文从经济增长动力角度分析新加坡经济发展过程中存在的动力缺陷问题,并考察其政府采取的系列应对措施。     

Opposition Coordination in Singapore’s 2015 General Elections

Abstract

Recent political science scholarship suggests that when opposition political parties are able to coalesce into a united coalition against an authoritarian regime, they will perform better in authoritarian elections, and can more credibly bargain with the regime for liberalising reforms. Yet, most of this literature pays little attention to the variety of ways in which opposition parties cooperate with each other. Drawing on the literature on the bargaining model of war, the author sketches out a theoretical framework to explain how opposition parties coordinate to develop non-competition agreements. Such agreements entail opposition parties bargaining over which political party should contest or withdraw in which constituencies to ensure straight fights against the dominant authoritarian incumbent in each electoral district. The author then applies this framework to explain opposition coordination in Singapore’s 2015 general elections, focusing on the conflict between the Workers’ Party and the National Solidarity Party.     

Singapore’s 2015 General Election: Explaining PAP’s Resounding Win

Abstract

While Singapore’s 15th general election came about as expected, the ensuing results did not. In view of the opposition’s performance in the 2011 general election and the general sense that the ruling party had done well despite its performance being anything but sterling, the results were somewhat shocking. Even the leaders of the ruling party were caught by surprise at the party’s ability to garner 70% of the valid votes, 10% more than in the previous election. While many factors played a role, it was the opposition parties that lost the election rather than the ruling party that won it. Most of the opposition parties were rejected by the voters on grounds of not being worthy of support. The leading opposition party, the Workers’ Party, also suffered as many voters feared that it might perform too well to the detriment of the ruling party. In the end, the 2015 general elections strengthened the one-party-dominant state in Singapore and the quest for greater political representation was placed on the back burner.     

Race,reintegration, and social capital in Singapore

Social capital, or the lack of, has variously been acknowledged as contributing to criminal and delinquent behavior among certain groups in society. It has rarely been employed to explain why ex-offenders are unable to break free from recalcitrant behavior and reintegrate into society. We argue that Indians and Malays, as racial minorities in Singapore and disproportionately represented in the prison and re-offending population, are significantly less likely to achieve reintegration than those who belong to the Chinese majority. Because Singapore is a highly racialized society, the effect of race on recidivism and rehabilitation is clearly identifiable. Understanding racial structuration by taking into account the differential impact of a hierarchically organized network of social relationships is central to this argument. For such vulnerable groups, social capital plays a critical role. The uneven distribution of ethnic capital restricts the ability of the Indians and Malays and enables the Chinese to achieve acceptance into the mainstream.