A Boy's Spiritual Journey: The Cultural and Religious Conflict between Family Relationships and the Conventionalism of Tibetan Buddhism in Sarah Ruhl's The Oldest Boy (2014)

This research paper is mainly concerns with the analyzing of Sarah Ruhl's play The Oldest Boy (2014), critically via considering the clashes of culture, and religion with family ideologies. By Adherents T.S. Eliot’s approach in his Notes towards the Definition of Culture, the paper is devoted to looking at and embodying the cultural and religious rift occurring in Ruhl’s The Oldest Boy. And to stand on the fact of the impact of the cultural and religious conflict on the family relations by passing throughout the main event of the play as to attract a Christian-born child who is only three years’ old to convert to Buddhism, and to be a Tibetan Buddhism Lama. The case is hectic for an American mother with no information on, or faith in, Buddhism. The paper proceeds with the hypothesis that the genuine clash is inner and it lies in the Mother's battle to give up her child or not in the middle of the spontaneous flood of cultural, religious and emotional clashes. The paper concludes that religion is what shapes the culture of countries.

Isolation and immunity within the family: Commuter marriages in Southeast Asia

This article examines the gendered subjectivities and family ideologies of commuter wives and commuter husbands in Southeast Asia, in relation to being part of bilateral households and multigeneration extended families. It emphasizes that, first, the understanding of gendered subjectivities should come from looking at femininities alongside masculinities, and second, despite criticisms, there is still value in using family ideology in examining family life that is consistently experiencing changes within the broader socio-political contexts. The article analyzes ethnographic accounts and in-depth interviews with rural families in Malaysia and the Philippines by engaging with the concepts of transient subjectivities and particular family ideology. While literature on commuter marriages sees the phenomenon as middle class, career driven, and temporary, the article reveals that the case is different for societies where jobs are almost constantly precarious and where couples do not have the luxury of time to settle for a transitory lifestyle. It proposes the concepts of ‘family isolation’ and ‘family immunity’ as a result of multiple gendered subjectivities and discusses their formation in line with the particular family ideologies that farming families in Southeast Asia adhere to.

A CRITICAL REVIEW OF SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH POST-DIVORCE FAMILIES IN HONG KONG

In Hong Kong, post-divorce families have long been conceptualised as "single parent families", thereby overlooking the fact that some non-resident parents do have continuous participation in the post-divorce families. With this over-generalised conceptualisation, social services have been focusing on bringing about successful single parenting and have ignored the possibility of post-divorce co-parenting and non-residential parenting in these families. It also reinforces the win-lose dichotomy in fighting over child custody. The author recommends re-conceptualising the post-divorce families as "binuclear families" to draw our attention to the possible participation and influence of the non-resident parents in these families. Promotion of forever-parenthood and family law reform would also help to induce change in the dominant social discourse. We need more empirical research on post-divorce families to clear the obscured picture and facilitate the formulation of an inclusive practice model with these families. Last but not least, as co-constructors of the social discourse on families in alternate forms such as post-divorce families, social work practitioners should enhance their reflexivity on family ideologies and beliefs in parent-child relationships. 基 於 离 婚 家 庭 被 等 同 於 单 亲 家 庭 的 理 解， “非 与 孩 子 同 住 的 父 ／ 母” 在 香 港 离 婚 家 庭 中 的 参 与 一 直 被 忽 略。 在 服 务 设 计 及 实 施 时 也 忽 略 了 离 婚 家 庭 中 “非 与 孩 子 同 住 的 父 ／ 母” 的 亲 职 参 与 及 “协 作 亲 职” 的 可 能， 这 理 解 也 强 化 了 孩 子 抚 养 权 于 父 母 在 离 婚 中 作 为 成 与 败 的 象 徵 意 义。 基 于 过 往 的 不 足， 作 者 提 出 在 概 念 层 面 上 以 “双 核 心 家 庭” 取 代 单 亲 家 庭 的 理 解 以 及 在 法 律 层 面、 实 务 层 面 以 至 训 练 层 面 上 所 需 作 出 的 改 革 考 虑。