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Melbourne Asia Review is an initiative of the Asia Institute. Any inquiries about Melbourne Asia Review should be directed to the Managing Editor, Cathy Harper.

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Edition 5, 2021

Asian Australians

The ‘missing’ Indian-Australians in politics (हिंदी अनुवाद)

Why are Australians of Indian origin yet to make substantial in-roads into Australian legislative institutions?

  • Dr Surjeet Dhanji
Special Analysis

Asian-Australians in politics: overcoming the barriers

WEBINAR: Our special guests analyse the under-representation of Asian-Australians in politics and how it can be overcome.

Is the military coup in Myanmar the death knell of democracy and federalism?

The coup has major potential consequences for a country that was struggling to emerge from decades of military oppression and conflict.

Indonesia’s ‘new despotism’

The government of President Joko Widodo is manipulating the law to repress its opponents and undermine democracy.

Japan’s most consequential, lucky, and divisive post-WW2 leader

The legacy of Shinzo Abe is far ranging and includes transformative foreign and domestic policy.

The future of ‘Ghost Island’ and the enduring legacy of late President Lee Teng-hui

What Taiwan’s democracy means today is deeply connected to the actions of the late President Lee Teng-hui.

Maintaining pluralism in authoritarian systems: Lessons from Turkey and beyond

WEBINAR: How the political opposition in Turkey has survived under an authoritarian system, and how it differs from other authoritarian contexts.

COVID-19 Analysis

The influence of elite interests are crucial to understanding Indonesia’s response to COVID-19

The government’s response is a reflection of the relationship between state and society, where elite interests are paramount.

Australia’s South Korea problem 中文

South Korea is Australia's fourth largest trading partner, but the foreign policy community continues to focus on North Korea.

COVID-19 Analysis

Soeharto’s legacies in Jokowi’s food security plans

Will the Indonesian government deliver on its plans for new rice and cassava production?

From ‘human nature’ to ‘sex’: sexualising ‘xing’ and reimagining sex in Chinese 中文

The Chinese character ‘xing’ (性 ) has had varied usage and multiple meanings across time.

Edition 5, 2021

Asian Australians

The place, voice and portrayal of Asians in Australia

COVID-19 and growing tension between Australia and China makes it increasingly important to achieve diversity and inclusion in all aspects of Australian society.

INTERVIEW: Know thy neighbours—Asian Australian Studies helps you know thyself

COVID-19 is having a significant impact on Australia’s complex social and cultural relationship with Asia and its own Asian Australian communities.

COVID-19 Analysis

What our survey found about effective COVID-19 communications in Asian Australian communities 中文

Asian Australians have a high level of trust in government information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The under-representation of Asian-Australians: political order and political delay

The health of Australia’s political institutions requires recognition of the broader value of Asian-Australians as civic equals.

Australia needs to embrace ‘Asianness’ as part of ‘Australianness’ to end racism 中文

Australia needs to update its national identity to reflect Asianness as an integral part of Australianness.

COVID-19 Analysis

Why Australian universities are reliant on international students and international students are so vulnerable 中文

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a crisis for international students and Australia’s public universities.

Representing Asian Australianness in 2020 … one soap opera at a time 中文

In an age of hyper-connectivity and availability of global cultural material, the neglect of home-grown Asian Australian content and talent is acute.

State-society relations in a pandemic: an Asian Australian perspective

Some of the communitarian values and compromise on individuals rights for the sake of public health may have become common Australian values during the COVID-19 pandemic

Korean Transnational Adoption to Australia: ‘quiet’ migrants, diaspora, and ‘hometactics’

What does it mean or feel like to be ‘in between’? Where are you, when you are in between worlds? And how do you live this ‘in betweenness'?

Book Review

‘The Golden Country: Australia’s Changing Identity’ by Tim Watts

Australians need to reimagine traditional Australian identity to build a new, egalitarian one.

Asian-Australians: quiet migration or immigration indigestion?

WEBINAR: Contrasting the case studies of South Korean and Chinese migration to Australia.

Muslim communities in Australia and the ‘mainstreaming’ of outer-group suspicion and apprehension

Muslims tend to be characterised as the least desirable group of migrants and continue to be viewed with suspicion and apprehension.