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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 Jimmy Lai case: The National Security Law and the future of dissent in Hong Kong

If Lai is convicted it will serve as a clear signal to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement that Beijing is in charge.

  • Professor Thomas E. Kellogg & Lydia Wong

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

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

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.

Transnational civil society in Asia

WEBINAR: Transnational interactions among civil society actors in Asia are helping to strengthen common democratic values.

COVID-19 Analysis

#MaskUp in Australia: How social norms in a pandemic are formed

A discussion forum in Reddit appears to reflect the sentiment of people in Melbourne in relation to mask-wearing as a public health measure.

The dark side of civil society? How Thailand’s civic networks foster autocracy

Royalist civil society networks operate as repressive forces which reduce democratic space.

Speaking no truth to power in a time of coup: Myanmar’s Human Rights Commission

Myanmar's Human Rights Commission has been noticeably silent which raises issues regarding expectations of human rights institutions against regimes inimical to human rights.

Special Analysis

The demise of the left and the Islamisation of dissent in Indonesia

WEBINAR: The demise of Leftist political traditions has facilitated newer Islamic expressions of socio-political discontent.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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'?

Asian-Australians: quiet migration or immigration indigestion?

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

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.