Rima Singh, an executive with an Indian outsourcing company, smokes, drinks and dates boyfriends in New Delhi — but doesn’t tell her parents back home in small-town India.
Three years ago, the 24-year-old left what she described as a mundane life full of strict social conventions in the town of Mathura in northern India and headed for the bright lights of New Delhi.
“Back there, falling in love is a big crime and expressing yourself is still labeled as a rebellious streak,” she said.
“Wearing skimpy clothes, smoking, drinking, having boyfriends are all a strict no-no,” Singh said.
In the Indian capital, a mixing pot of 14 million people, she says she feels liberated from some of the traditions that would restrict her freedom when she lived with her wealthy, but conservative Hindu family.
At home, she was barred from entering the family kitchen and had to sleep on a cotton mat when she was menstruating, during which time she is considered to be impure.
Tired of putting up with these “ridiculous” diktats, she and her cousin moved to Delhi on the pretext of studying computer science. She opted instead to take up a job with a private information technology firm.
“The decision to move to Delhi was the best thing I have done so far,” said Singh, who lives on her own in a small one-room terrace house — something unthinkable for Indian women of her background in previous generations.
“I am my own master here,” she said.
Singh’s story reflects deep social changes under way across Asia because of rapid urbanization that will see hundreds of millions move to urban areas in the next decades.
The population of Indian cities alone is forecast to grow from an estimated 340 million people to 590 million by 2030, according to a report from the McKinsey consultancy published last year.
“Cities are the first to embrace many concepts that are a taboo in towns and villages,” said Sandhya Patnaik, a sociology professor at Delhi University, referring to pre-marital sex, live-in relationships or divorces.
“Anything new or modern touches cities first. Trends percolate to smaller towns at a very slow pace,” she said.
Occasionally in India, the battle between village tradition and liberal city culture can have deadly consequences, such as the “honor killings” seen in Delhi’s migrant areas.
In a country where arranged marriage is still the norm for most people, horrific stories of women being killed by family members over their plans to marry “unsuitable” partners are a regular feature of Indian newspapers.
However, experts say cities across the world generally serve as a positive melting pot, where different cultures intermingle, encouraging tolerance and the interchange of ideas.
“The freedom in a big city comes from diversity,” said Jirapa Worasiangsuk, a sociologist at Thammasat University in Bangkok. “It’s the choices and the opportunity to choose that make Bangkok or other big cities a better place.”
“People have more choices to choose how to live, to choose their career, to do whatever they want,” Worasiangsuk said.
In the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, 22-year-old Nani Yuningsih works as a domestic help and says city life has empowered her.
“All my childhood friends got married young, mostly at the age of 15. I am the only one who’s still single,” said Yuningsih, who moved to Jakarta from a village in Brebes district of Central Java province at the age of 13.
Despite the daily grind, Yuningsih says she disapproves of women depending on their husbands for economic support. She is attending evening classes to get her high school certificate.
“People in the village always belittle me for being single at my age. For them, it’s a nightmare and shameful for women to marry late,” she said.
“They also laugh at my plan to study at university, saying that I’m already old and have to raise children instead,” she added.
Tran Thi Ninh, a 48-year-old from a province outside the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, says her experience of city life has brought more independence, but also a sense of dislocation and a loss of identity.
“The community spirit in the countryside is so tight, not here,” Ninh said, adding that the entire village would try to help out if someone fell sick.
On a recent afternoon, her husband suddenly needed to go to hospital, but Ninh could not find anyone to help.
“They were busy with their jobs,” she said of her neighbors.
Sociologists say the freedom of cities often stems from a feeling of anonymity — but this can often tip over into loneliness. Singh says she often feels New Delhi is an isolating, cold-hearted sort of place.
“I have chosen this life, but whenever I feel miserable I go back home to be with my parents,” Singh said.
Recently, China launched another diplomatic offensive against Taiwan, improperly linking its “one China principle” with UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 to constrain Taiwan’s diplomatic space. After Taiwan’s presidential election on Jan. 13, China persuaded Nauru to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Nauru cited Resolution 2758 in its declaration of the diplomatic break. Subsequently, during the WHO Executive Board meeting that month, Beijing rallied countries including Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus, Egypt, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Laos, Russia, Syria and Pakistan to reiterate the “one China principle” in their statements, and assert that “Resolution 2758 has settled the status of Taiwan” to hinder Taiwan’s
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s (李顯龍) decision to step down after 19 years and hand power to his deputy, Lawrence Wong (黃循財), on May 15 was expected — though, perhaps, not so soon. Most political analysts had been eyeing an end-of-year handover, to ensure more time for Wong to study and shadow the role, ahead of general elections that must be called by November next year. Wong — who is currently both deputy prime minister and minister of finance — would need a combination of fresh ideas, wisdom and experience as he writes the nation’s next chapter. The world that
Can US dialogue and cooperation with the communist dictatorship in Beijing help avert a Taiwan Strait crisis? Or is US President Joe Biden playing into Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hands? With America preoccupied with the wars in Europe and the Middle East, Biden is seeking better relations with Xi’s regime. The goal is to responsibly manage US-China competition and prevent unintended conflict, thereby hoping to create greater space for the two countries to work together in areas where their interests align. The existing wars have already stretched US military resources thin, and the last thing Biden wants is yet another war.
As Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s party won by a landslide in Sunday’s parliamentary election, it is a good time to take another look at recent developments in the Maldivian foreign policy. While Muizzu has been promoting his “Maldives First” policy, the agenda seems to have lost sight of a number of factors. Contemporary Maldivian policy serves as a stark illustration of how a blend of missteps in public posturing, populist agendas and inattentive leadership can lead to diplomatic setbacks and damage a country’s long-term foreign policy priorities. Over the past few months, Maldivian foreign policy has entangled itself in playing