Written by Kristina Göransson. Focusing on homeschooling and other “opt-out” practices in Singapore and Taiwan, this article shows how families actively rework ideas of care, learning, and childhood. These alternative paths, while they offer an escape from exam pressures, also require intensive parental labour and remain shaped by inequalities in class and access.
Written by Lynn Ng Yu Ling. From the domestic caregivers in both locations, I gather that although there are important differences in the hiring criteria for employers, the root problem of employers having the upper hand in an asymmetrical working relationship remains unresolved. On the whole, it is harder for Taiwanese families to hire a ‘migrant maid’ (wai yong) than in Singapore, and several differences in the hiring process seem to indicate that Taiwan treats home care more seriously.
Written by Euan Graham. Taiwan is central to the security and strategic geography of the Indo-Pacific, perhaps even to the future development of democracy in the region. It remains an economy of significant weight. Yet, as a “stateless” entity, it suffers from a double identity, confined to margins of the region’s international affairs.
