Chen Nahui

Chen Nahui

Assistant Professor, China University of Political Science and Law

Chen Nahui is an assistant professor at China University of Political Science and Law. She was a visiting scholar at the Political Science Department of Columbia University. She received her BSc in economics from Zhejiang University, her MA in anthropology from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and her PhD in history from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research interests are China-Singapore relations, China and Asia, West-East power relations, nationalism, and civilisations. She has published articles in journals including Foreign Affairs Review and Southeast Asian Studies. Her commentaries have appeared in The Diplomat, People’s Daily, and World Affairs. She is also the translator of Discovering Chinese Nationalism in China: Modernization, Identity, and International Relations (1999). She is currently working on her book, entitled Lee Kuan Yew: The Image of Singapore in Post-1978 China.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew speaking at the People's Action Party's annual conference at the Victoria Memorial Hall, 26 June 1955. (SPH)

Will China also move into the 'post-LKY era'?

Among all of Singapore’s leaders, one name is most closely associated with Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew, or simply LKY. Five years after his passing, has Singapore moved on from his style of strong leadership and what will other countries who are keen to follow the country’s same developmental trajectory do in shaping their political systems?
A woman wearing a protective mask walks in an empty shopping mall in the Sanlitun area in Beijing on 28 January 2020. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP)

Let us be worried, even when we overcome this virus

Viruses know no borders, more so in a globalised world. Even after the epidemic is arrested, it will take time for an interconnected world to recover. Chen Nahui opines from Beijing that this marks the beginning of more challenges to come.
My hometown, Shenjiamen (沈家门). (Photo: Shu Jie, provided by Chen Nahui)

[Chinese New Year Special] My hometown is no longer an unchanging home

Young academic Chen Nahui, assistant professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, thinks about the confluence of time and space as she flits between New Year memories long past. What has become of her hometown Shenjiamen, a port town in Zhejiang?
The Chinese officials' experiences help shape the Chinese public’s perception of Singapore. The photo shows a mini Merlion overlooking residential blocks in Suzhou. (SPH)

China’s misperceptions of Singapore

Chen Nahui of the China University of Political Science and Law opines that China's misperceptions of Singapore range from those which are "not too far off" from reality or similar ones, to those that differ in characteristic elements, those that differ because of time-lag, and those that have sprouted from one's imagination. These explained for China's “unrealistic expectations” of Singapore.
 Xi Jinping during a meeting with Lee Kuan Yew: “Mr Deng Xiaoping repeatedly mentioned the need to learn from Singapore when he was alive. This was necessary in the past, and remains so in the present and future.” (Graphic: Jace Yip)

The construction of the Singapore Model in Mainland China

What did the Middle Kingdom with 5000 years of civilisation learn from a country that is 13,344 times smaller and celebrated its 54th National Day in 2019?