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The thesis starts in Chapter 1 by providing the background to the development of the Thai copyright exceptions and the prospective Thai-US Free Trade Area (FTA) Agreements. In Chapter 2, I identify three major problems which arise from the inappropriate and unclear educational exceptions of the Thai CA 1994. The first problem is that the copyright law and its exceptions cannot effectively protect the economic interest of copyright owners but rather reduce the effectiveness of the copyright protection regime in Thailand as a result of three factors: the unclear educational exceptions; the problematic approaches to the copyright exceptions of the Thai IP Court; and the lack of a copyright collecting society (CCS) and a licensing scheme system in the Thai education sector. The second problem is that the Thai educational exceptions do not properly protect the moral right to be recognized as the author of the work in both the general and digital contexts. Finally, they do not support the long-distance education and lifelong learning policy of the Thai government as well as preventing educational institutions, teachers and students from the benefit of new digital technologies. The thesis recommends that the following tasks be carried out in order to solve the above problems. First, reforms must be made to the educational exceptions in the Thai CA 1994 in order to make them more restrictive and limited than at present. For instance, a clear limitation, a prohibition on multiple reproductions, and a requirement of sufficient acknowledgment must be inserted into the educational exceptions of the Thai CA 1994. Second, I recommend the introduction of digital copyright provisions on Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) and Electronic Rights Management Information (RMIs) into the Thai copyright system. This is necessary in order to ensure that educational materials can be made readily available online for distance education purposes with appropriate protection. These can also protect the economic interests of copyright owners in the digital environment by ensuring that only authorised persons access educational materials, not the public in general. Nevertheless, it is also necessary to ensure that non-infringing uses for educational purposes provided in the copyright exceptions of the Thai CA 1994 will be exempted from the violation of the prospective TPM and RMI provisions. Third, I argue that legislative reform to the educational exceptions and the introduction of the TPM and RMI provisions alone cannot completely solve the problem because the increased numbers of copyright infringements in the Thai education sector result from both the unclear exceptions and the lack of a CCS. Thus, the reforms of the exceptions and the introduction of new law must be carried out together with the establishment of the CCS and a licensing scheme system in the Thai education sector. Nevertheless, the establishment of the CCS without any legal controls upon its activities would result in further problems, so I contend that such establishment must be done together with the introduction of a regulation and a governmental body to prevent the CCS from abusing its licensing scheme or its powers in an anticompetitive way. Finally, the thesis points out several useful lessons arising from the study of the Thai copyright exceptions which could benefit global copyright protection and other countries. I have sought to state the law as it stood at the end of September 2010.

As a respected cultural figure in Singapore who was posthumously honoured at the Pioneer Generation Tribute organised by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth in 2015, the story of Chua Boon Hean is one that goes beyond his role as an established poet in the field of Chinese literature in post-independence Singapore. This dissertation is an effort to elaborate on the story of Chua in Singapore and will attempt to examine his multiple roles and contributions in the socio-historical context of the film industry prior to 1965. Notably, he had played the role of an extraordinary assistant to the Shaw Brothers (Runme and Run Run Shaw) who would qualify as the two most important tycoons to exert profound changes in the development of the Chinese and Malay film industries by the mid-20th century. His life and career with the Shaw Brothers for over three decades since the late 1920s, prove to be critical to our understanding of the overall development of the film industry in Singapore, especially in the period before the colonial city became an independent nation on its own. This dissertation seeks to build on existing scholarships with a greater attention being placed on introducing the different participants involved in the film industry in Singapore before 1945 and how the industry gradually developed into an inter-locking "business of culture" during the early 20th century. It reveals that the development of the film industry in Singapore should be best studied together with its intersection with the field of literature, translation, advertisement (art studios) and amusement parks, as well as its instrumental role in shaping the mundane day-to-day experience for the local population. Contrary to the traditional framework of analysis of the Singapore film industry which tended to focus solely on film production and its content such as genres or storylines, emphasis will be placed on other aspects of the film industry especially exhibition and distribution, in order to present a more comprehensive background to its genesis. It hopes to illuminate how the multi-cultural character of the film industry was a product of the historical agency of individuals living through the period. This case study of Chua also illuminates the dynamism and diverse connections among different Chinese dialect groups in Singapore and the Straits-born Chinese during the early 20th century. Contrary to the perception that the overseas Chinese had been a homogenous group, it is critical to account for the heterogeneity which can offer a more nuanced picture of the Chinese society. Through the unique story of Chua, this dissertation seeks to enrich existing scholarships on Chinese migration and the film industry in Singapore. In the process, we also chart the multi-faceted and multi-ethnic interactions of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia in the early 20th century

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1984 H78 / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Eating and shopping are Singaporeans' favourite past-times. However, in recent years, the retail sector performed poorly. Department stores, the dinosaurs of Singapore's retail scene because of their large size and long establishment, faced difficulty in adapting promptly to the environmental changes. Unless these retailers know how to capitalise on their large size with the right merchandise and service staff, being big can be a barrier. The focus of this thesis is twofold: Firstly, it assesses the potential of excellent customer service as a viable strategy to help these department stores in a fiercely competitive retail market. Another area of interest is to track the current service level of department stores for areas of improvement. Secondly, it is an academic exercise to contribute to the understanding of retailing by examining the impact of customer service in improving sales in a non-western context - Singapore. The earlier chapters outline the forces of change in the retail climate that promote strategic planning in retailing. Literature survey shows that various retail strategies are used to address the different business trading conditions over the years. With the intensification of competition and a saturated market in the 1990s, the effectiveness of using customer service as a functional strategy in increasing sales is examined. Because the scope of study is on downtown department stores, a study on the characteristics and peculiarities of these stores is conducted to better understand the working mechanism of this retail concept. Concepts on customer service are examined to assess how department stores can use this service tool. The later chapters deal with the selection and modification of an appropriate service measurement tool to track the current service level and to propose areas for improvement. Adopting the Servqual model of service quality, an external survey is conducted to examine the shoppers' views on the importance of customer service in their shopping decision and to track the current service performance of downtown department stores in Singapore. Internal audits comprising of a managements' and a front-line staffs' surveys are conducted to seek areas for service improvement. The findings are analysed using the SPSS software and recommendations are proposed. The external survey reveals that 12% of the respondents rated service as their top consideration in affecting their decision on where to shop. Besides, a department store may stand to lose as much as 39% of its customers in the event of poor services rendered. The external survey indicates a service gap for the Singapore's department stores industry. Shoppers rank responsiveness as the most important attribute. However, responsiveness receives the poorest ratings for its performance. Tangibles is ranked as the least important but it receives satisfactory performance rating. CK Tang emerges as the best department store based on its good service performance. Further investigations on the service gap show that managements need to improve on their efforts to solicit feedback from their shoppers in order to respond to their changing lifestyles and preferences. Front-line staffs' survey reveals that a fairer compensation package, more role congruence, more empowerment and a better reward system can minimise Gap 3. Limitations for the surveys are also highlighted and areas for future research work are proposed. Service has become a key factor in this fiercely competitive environment cluttered with many similar retail offerings. These surveys confirm that there is much room for improvement in this service element. This sentiment towards offering excellent service is also shared by Mr. Kazuhide Kimoto, Managing Director of Takashimaya Singapore Limited who feels that good location, varied and quality merchandise and excellent service will ensure a good future for department stores (SRA The Retailer, 1996,7). With the sophistication of today's shoppers who are widely travelled and the easy accessibility of goods through technological advancement, the service element win become increasingly important as they learn more about the western world of retailing. The author feels that giving excellent external customer service is only possible when there is excellent internal customer service. Internal customer service refers to the well-being and positive group dynamics of staff who can work together to help the shoppers. Service stems from service providers. If staff are truly happy, they will be motivated and committed to share the same joy with their external shoppers. Therefore, treating internal staff well promotes external customer service excellence. Given that one happy customer would share his/her experience with five more people whereas one unhappy customer would share with nine others in a TARP study, it pays to solve an external service problem before it surfaces. Therefore, a proactive approach to giving service may mean delighting one's employees first. A service culture which promotes excellent service delivery with a system of service awards and a constant service tracking system are critical for any retailers who want to give good service. Currently, most department stores professed to provide customer service. In reality, the customer service concept in Singapore is not clearly understood and hence, its potential undermined. Most department stores perceive customer service as a list of services to be offered to their shoppers Finally, this thesis contributes to the academic understanding of retailing in Singapore by documenting the retail scene in Singapore from the 1960s to 1990s with emphasis on the downtown department stores and testing the applicability of Servqual model as a tool to track service level in a non-westem region i.e. Singapore. The findings from the 3 surveys conducted on downtown department stores revealed the local shoppers' behavioural preferences, sentiments and the most important service dimension in retail using the Servqual Model, a first report in retail customer service.

by Lam Tze-yan. / Bibliography: leaves [99]-[105] / Thesis (M.S.W.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1982

Summary in Chinese. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--The Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: p. leaves 121-128.

Bodies, burdened with narratives and inscribed by laws, function as signifiers of the State propaganda and nationalisms that supercede the Individual. The Image Stammers discredits the seamless fusion of the body-politic of the Singapore state with that of the Individual. This paper looks at the State as its singular source of artistic stimulation and seeks to dislodge the ventriloquised voice of that State acting upon the art object and its producer, so as to liberate the image from the singular meaning the State imposes. To do this, the analysis in this paper intervenes in the State and its organ, the media, in their attempt to imprison the reality of the performance image so as to reverse the silence that has been demanded of the artist. By reinstating this voice into the visual work the author has produced in this text, based on theories of 'internalised' Orientalism discussed by Geraldine Heng and Janadas Devan, as well as notions of abjections in the work of Elizabeth Grosz anfd Julia Kristeva, this paper attempts to strip the State of its veneer of 'purity' to expose an underside that subjects female bodies to forms of nationalism which are now more codified than ever. This paper foregrounds textual and visual embodiment as a testimony of lived experience which may further entrench, notions of Singapore as an authoritarian state. The Image Stammers bears no pretension of objectivity nor a 'politically safe and correct' one within the context of this paper, but instead, strewns fragments of subjectivity throughout its textual landscape. It seeks to overturn the 'impurity' of the abject (signified by performance art and contemporary artists) as defined, loathed and expelled by the State, into the power of resistance and maintenance of the integrity of the Individual. The Image Stammers retrieves the abject as markers of the limits of State power to become signifiers of resistance for its reconstitution into allies of the artist / Faculty of Performance, Fine Arts and Design