In Pictures: Food of Samrub Samrub Thai in Bangkok, Thailand

Traditional Thai Cuisine

No.29 of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024

Infographic: The Size of the Global Senior Population

Source : Visual Capitalist

Samsung to Get Up To $6.4 Billion in US Grants for Chip Plants

Alicia Diaz, Mackenzie Hawkins and Yoolim Lee wrote . . . . . . . . .

The Biden administration plans to award Samsung Electronics Co. as much as $6.4 billion in grants to increase chip production in Texas, as part of US efforts to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

The South Korean company plans to invest more than $40 billion overall, including in two foundry fabrication sites that will produce 4-nanometer and 2nm logic chips — one generation beyond the current state of the art. The massive project will encompass a research and development site, and an advanced chip packaging facility in Taylor, Texas, that will help produce high bandwidth memory chips, which are critical for artificial intelligence applications.

The award will also be used to expand Samsung’s existing chipmaking facility in Austin, Texas, which will support US aerospace, defense and automotive industries, the Commerce Department said in a statement. The city of Taylor is just outside Austin.

It’s the latest in a series of multibillion-dollar awards by the Biden administration, which is using the 2022 Chips and Science Act to revitalize American chipmaking after decades of production shifting to Asia. Another goal is to counter the technological rise of China, which is building up its own semiconductor industry.

Samsung opted not to tap loans or loan guarantees under the Chips Act, unlike Intel Corp. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., both of which are also set to receive multibillion dollar grants. Samsung’s project is expected to benefit from an investment tax credit, which US officials said is likely to cover as much as 25% of qualified capital expenditures.

The Samsung award is part of President Joe Biden’s plans “to bring the manufacture of leading-edge semiconductors back to the United States,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters.

The Taylor project adds to a robust semiconductor ecosystem in Texas, including tens of billions of dollars of additional investment from Texas Instruments Inc. in its home state and Samsung’s existing factory in Austin.

One of the fabs in Taylor is expected to start production in 2026 and the other will begin in 2027, according to a senior administration official. The company originally said the Taylor plant would begin production in the second half of 2024.

The investment is expected to create at least 17,000 construction jobs and more than 4,500 manufacturing jobs, according to Raimondo. It will contribute to local job creation as supply chains move closer to service the new facilities. US officials said $40 million will be dedicated to workforce funding and development.

The Austin expansion will boost output of some of the world’s most advanced semiconductor technologies, powering a range of industries including defense, aerospace and autos, Raimondo said. Samsung is the leading producer of memory chips, which store data on smartphones and computers, and it’s expanding into the foundry business, or producing chips that are designed by customers.

The facility for packaging — the combining and connecting of semiconductors — will use an advanced technique known as 2.5D packaging, also important for artificial intelligence.

The award will further Samsung’s competitive edge with rival chipmakers that have also received US investments. TSMC announced that it will manufacture 2nm technology at an expanded facility in Phoenix. Samsung’s hometown rival, SK Hynix Inc., also plans to build an advanced packaging facility in Indiana.

The Chips Act — which set aside $39 billion in grants plus $75 billion in loans and guarantees — has spurred more than $200 billion in private semiconductor investments. Intel snagged almost $20 billion in grants and loans. TSMC, the main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc., got $11.6 billion.

The announcement will set off a months-long due diligence period during which Samsung and the Commerce Department will hammer out final terms. The money will then be disbursed as the project hits key construction and production milestones, with the potential for clawbacks if the firm falls short of its promises.

Source : BNN Bloomberg

Chart: March Was the 10th Hottest Consecutive Month on Record

Source : Statista

Chinese Surnames Are Changing. Why?

Xu Qi wrote . . . . . . . . .

In not-so-new news, the patriarchal structures underpinning China’s traditional marital norms continue to show their age. Young Chinese are opting for increasingly diverse cohabitation arrangements after marriage, moving away from home, dividing their time and resources between their in-laws more equitably, and trying to better balance care and work responsibilities.

Even patrilineal naming practices — in which children take their father’s last name — are being overturned in parts of China, with some families opting to give children their maternal surname while others create compound surnames that recognize both parents.

The most obvious explanation for this trend is social progress and more modern ideas about gender. If true, we can attribute the recent rise in the number of people choosing maternal surnames or creating new family names to the rapid evolution of Chinese society, making it a product of economic growth, increased urbanization, the proliferation of higher education, and increasingly progressive cultural attitudes.

However, not all scholars buy the idea that social progress is convincing families to drop deeply held beliefs about lineage. The 20th-century sociologist Fei Xiaotong famously quoted Mencius’ line about “the three ways of being unfilial, the greatest of which is to have no posterity,” to illustrate the particular emphasis placed by Chinese families on lineage and generational continuity. When combined with social and institutional norms that limited inheritance to the male line, this belief made it imperative for families to have sons. The one-child policy made guaranteeing a male heir all but impossible, however, and some researchers argue that the rise of non-patrilineal naming practices is merely a strategic response to the shortage of sons, as families attempt to preserve their lineage through daughters instead.

To better understand which of the two explanations is more accurate, my research team and I examined data from the nationally representative 1% National Population Sample Survey. We found that matrilineal naming practices were more common in villages in the eastern regions of Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu, as well as among families where the mothers had a lower level of education. That suggests the embrace of modern, progressive thinking may not be the right explanation. We also found that kids were more likely to take their mothers’ names in families where the husband had lower socioeconomic status, especially if the wife had no brothers and the husband did.

In other words, matrilineal naming has become a means of passing on the family name in the absence of a son — at least for families that can afford it. Similar to the traditional but unusual practice of husbands marrying into their wives’ families — known in Chinese as ruzhui — it is usually conditional on the husband’s relatively lower socioeconomic status.

Unlike maternal surnames, compound surnames are more common in modernized cities and in households where the mother is well-educated. Neither the relative socioeconomic status of the couple nor the presence (or absence) of siblings on the husband’s side has an effect. Families in which the wife has no brothers might adopt a compound surname, but far more choose maternal surnames.

These results strongly suggest that the increasing use of compound names is not driven by plummeting birth rates and the continuing need to pass on the family name. Instead, it more likely stems from changes in attitudes brought on by modernization.

In brief, the use of maternal surnames seems to be a strategic choice made by families to continue their family name amid declining birth rates, while the use of compound surnames reflects to some extent the conceptual changes brought about by societal modernization. Both trends are on the rise.

The diversity and complexity of changes in surnames support theories put forth by some East Asian sociologists, such as Chang Kyung-sup’s theory of compressed modernity and Ji Yingchun’s theory of mosaic familism. On the one hand, China’s highly compressed modernization has led to the coexistence of traditional, modern, and even postmodern ideas and beliefs. On the other hand, the acceleration of the demographic transition since China’s family planning policy and its spatial differentiation have led to a proliferation of different family types and concepts.

Ultimately, the choice of family names in China today is the result of the clash, confrontation, and coexistence of traditional concepts and modern needs. The country’s rapid social and demographic changes have exacerbated the “crisis” of patrilineage while opening the door for the rise of matrilineage and changes in surnames that are simultaneously grounded in tradition and open to modernity.

Source : SixthTone