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Tuesday, September 3, 2024

Taking steps to boost birth rate, Cause for concern

 PETALING JAYA: Malaysia needs to prioritise a support system for raising children to avoid the double whammy of declining birth rates and reaching aged nation status in less than a decade, say experts.

Many such policies have already been drawn up, such as setting up more childcare centres in the private sector, but the implementation of these programmes is slow and needs to be accelerated, they said.

Otherwise, Malaysia will not be able to produce enough working-age adults to support a society in which seniors make up the majority, they added.

Former Malaysian Research Institute of Ageing director and current Fellow at Academy Science Malaysia Datuk Prof Dr Tengku Aizan Tengku Abdul Hamid said there is a greater need for a system that supports childbearing, such as childcare facilities.

“Ideally, there should be more flexibility in entry and re-entry into the labour force.

“This all ties into policy, which is why it is good to have a work-from-home policy with stricter guidelines, like during the Covid-19 lockdowns.”

Prof Tengku Aizan said employers need to rethink the face-to-face policy by implementing proper productivity measurements, while engendering greater trust between bosses and workers.

When asked if the government should provide some form of incentive through monetary or other means to promote marriage and children, Prof Tengku Aizan said such methods don’t work.

“Many countries have done this and given up. It is more important to have services and facilities to support care, especially for children of all income groups.

“Currently, such facilities are affordable for high-income families as businesses develop them.

“So, the government must take this up as children will be the future labour force,” said Prof Tengku Aizan, who is also chairman of the board at the Private Pension Administration.

She said this in response to the Statistics Department data which showed that Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang are the only states still producing enough babies to replenish their populations amid a rapid decline in Malaysia’s fertility rates.

On marriage and childbirth incentives, Socio-Economic Research Centre executive director Lee Heng Guie said the country must have an integrated and well-planned population growth.

“It has to take into account socio-economic development, education, employment and communities. Demographic shifts also influence population growth,” he said.

Lee said declining fertility rates and shrinking working populations could lead to an ageing society, placing social and economic pressures on the government’s budget, particularly on revenue, pension and healthcare spending.

“Declining populations will slow economic growth and dampen demand due to a lower working-age population.

“The government has to adjust taxation and spending to meet the demands of changing demographics. Policies on pensions, employment law, childcare and benefits must change in the future to accommodate different needs.

“Measures for consideration are to raise the retirement age, training in middle life, and encouraging companies to re-employ retirees after the retirement age of 60,” he added.

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Cause for concern as nation's fertility rate sees rapid decline


PETALING JAYA: Malaysians are not giving birth to enough babies to replenish the population amid a rapid decline in the country’s fertility rate.

According to the Statistics Department, 13 states and federal territories have total fertility rates (TFRS) that have dropped below the replacement level of 2.1 babies for every female aged 15 to 49.

The TFR is the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. The replacement level is the fertility rate at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next.

Kuala Lumpur and Penang are the worst hit, with fertility rates of 1.2 children each, followed by Sabah (1.4).

“Sabah recorded the fastest declining TFR, with 5.5 children in 1980 and 1.4 children in 2022,” chief statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said in a video announcing Malaysia’s population trends.

Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang are the only states still producing enough babies to replenish their populations.

“Only Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang are recording a TFR above the replacement level,” Mohd Uzir said.

Terengganu has the country’s highest fertility rate at 2.9, followed by Kelantan (2.7) and Pahang (2.1).

Mohd Uzir said Malaysia’s overall TFR began to drop below 2.1 in 2013, adding that the decline could be seen across ethnic groups.

“Between 1980 and 2022, the TFR for all main ethnic groups declined. The trend of TFR for all ethnic groups except for Malays is below the replacement level.

“The Malay ethnic group recorded the highest TFR of 2.1 in 2022, while the Chinese ethnic group recorded the lowest TFR at 0.8 children for every woman aged 15 to 49,” he said.

The declining fertility rates mean that the average size of a Malaysian family has also got smaller.

A household in the country in 1970 would typically have more than five members (5.5).

Now, the average household size is 3.7 persons.

Perlis has the smallest household size at 3.1 persons, while Kelantan has the biggest at 4.8.

Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (Myageing) senior research officer Chai Sen Tyng said factors contributing to higher reproductive rates in certain states may be linked to socio-economic influences such as women’s level of education and a change in values.

“I tend to believe it is because the population holds on to traditional religious views, where they believe children is a gift from God,” he said.

He added that the reason people have children changes over time.

“The reason why the poor have more children might be due to a lack of family planning, but the reality is that in agricultural societies, having more children means more hands to help and as insurance for old age,” he said.

Chai added that women’s education levels influence fertility rates as educated women have options and may not want to be tied down to childbearing or child rearing.

“Women don’t want to get married and get trapped if they get the short end of the stick.

“Educated women have options and I think this is key. Men have to realise this,” he said.

However, Chai said that the main reason for declining fertility rates is the decline or delay in marriages.

“It is not all on married couples,” he said.

According to the Statistics Department, the current average age of marriage for men is 31, while women typically get married at age 29 – compared with 1970, when women got married at age 22 and men at age 26.

Chai also said the main reason couples decide to have fewer children is changing values and beliefs, not the high cost of living and raising children.

“To say people have fewer kids because of the high cost of child-rearing sends the wrong message.

“Many modern parents keep trying to buy the most expensive items for their children when it is primarily a consumer trap.

“It is natural to want only the best for our children, but what kids want most is our attention and time,” he said.

He added that higher-educated households tend to have fewer children, which may be influenced by competing career demands or concerns over future higher education costs.

He said the government could offer cash incentives, provide better family or parental leave, and make more childcare services available or accessible to stabilise the fertility rate.

Instilling positive family values, such as encouraging kinship, could also encourage couples to have more children for the right reasons, he added.

Malaysia’s TFR is the third lowest in Asean after Singapore and Thailand, at 1.6


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Thursday, August 29, 2024

Chinese scientists discover new gene that regulates lifespan

Mechanism of action of OSER1 in lifespan regulation. (Image provided by Southwest University).

Chinese scientists have discovered a new gene, OSER1, that regulates lifespan. This breakthrough provides a novel scientific basis for the study of extending human lifespans. 

The team studied the mechanism of action in various species such as silkworms, nematodes, and fruit flies. As a target gene of the longevity gene FOXO, OSER1's impact on lifespan has been supported by human subject research results.

This breakthrough finding was made by Dai Fangyin’s team from the National Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Insect Resources at Southwest University and scientists from abroad. The results have been published in the international academic journal "Nature Communications."

FOXO is one of the few confirmed human longevity genes. It affects lifespan by regulating pathways related to aging, but the targets mediating these effects are largely unknown. 

The research team conducted interference experiments on 42 potential direct target genes of the FOXO gene in silkworms, which are similar to genes in nematodes. They discovered that down-regulating the expression of 7 genes significantly shortened the lifespan of nematodes, while down-regulating 3 genes extended their lifespan. Crucially, gene OSER1 had the most significant impact on lifespan when its expression was reduced.

“OSER1 is present in the genomes of various species including nematodes, silkworms, fruit flies, zebrafish, African clawed frogs, mice, rhesus monkeys, and humans,” said Song Jiangbo from National Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Insect Resource at Southwest University, who is also a co-author of the paper. 

The study revealed that increasing the expression of OSER1 in silkworms, nematodes, and fruit flies led to a significant extension of their lifespan. This discovery could have implications for understanding the aging process and potentially developing interventions to increase lifespan in other species, including humans. 

Research findings on human subjects have confirmed that OSER1 plays a role in determining the human lifespan, according to Song. The study revealed that individuals over 90 years old had 49 common single nucleotide variations in the OSER1 gene, with seven of them showing a significant link to longevity when compared to a younger control group.

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Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Rise of the monkey king: Black Myth: Wukong

 

 
Black Myth: Wukong is an action role-playing game developed and published by Game Science. Black Myth: Wukong is available on August 20, 2024 for PlayStation 5 (PS5) and Windows (PC) with Xbox Series X/S releasing at a later date.
 
 

Rise of the Monkey King (Volume 1 of "Journey to the West") - Audiobook

China goes ape over culture-boosting Black Myth: Wukong video game.

CHINESE state media threw its back behind China’s most successful single-player video game to date, saying its adaptation of the Ming dynasty epic Journey To The West would force Western players to learn more about the country’s culture.

Black Myth: Wukong, based on a mythical monkey king from a Chinese literary classic who can shape-shift into humans, animals and inanimate objects, was being played last Wednesday by 2.2 million concurrent players on Steam, a major online gaming platform, a day after its release.

“Chinese players in the past have gone through this process of cross-cultural understanding, now it is the turn of overseas players to learn ... and understand Chinese traditional culture,” China Central Television wrote in a blog.

Drawing heavily on the story of the beloved magical monkey, Sun Wukong, who acquires supernatural powers by practising Taoism, Black Myth: Wukong can only be enjoyed if players are familiar with the plot of the 16th century classic, the national broadcaster said.

The Pc/console-based game was launched last week by Game Science, a Tencent-backed startup, to much fanfare on Chinese social media. Hashtags on the video game accumulated 1.7 billion views on China’s X-like microblog Weibo.

“This release marks a bold foray by Chinese game developers into a market long dominated by Western triple-a titles,” the official Xinhua news agency wrote in an editorial last week.

“With this breakthrough, the default language of a triple-a game is no longer English, but Chinese,” it added.

Black Myth: Wukong would “attract more global players to pay attention to domestic games”, said analysts at Shanghai-based Topsperity Securities, adding that companies across a wide range of sectors could expect to profit off intellectual property tie-ins.

Ride-hailing firm Didi, Lenovo Group and Luckin Coffee are incorporating elements inspired by Black Myth: Wukong into their promotional campaigns.

Black Myth: Wukong was widely lauded as China’s first AAA game – high development costs, long production cycles and immense investment, with industry analysts viewing its sudden fame and popularity as marking an inflection point for China’s PC/ console gaming sector.

Pre-sales, which began in June, had reached Cny400mil (Us$56mil/rm245mil) as of last Tuesday when the game was launched, according to Citi.

Feng Ji, founder of Game Science, told Xinhua in an interview that the global attention has surpassed his initial expectations and that his team would develop more of such games.

“We see signs that the government is recognising the industry’s potential value for exports and culture, notably the interview of Game Science’s founder by state media Xinhua agency ahead of its game launch,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a note.

Goldman added that it expected more Chinese AAA games to enter the global market in the future.

Be that as it may, gaming stocks were unchanged last Wednesday, with concept stocks linked to the game’s development down after having risen considerably over the past month.

Unlike other Chinese games that are played on mobile devices and involve endless in-game micro-transactions, “Black Myth: Wukong” is a one-time purchase with a price tag of CNY268 (RM165) for the standard version and CNY328 (RM200) for the premium.

“It is unclear whether Black Myth: Wukong’s business model can bring more profits ... the important thing ... is that China is finally getting it’s own AAA game that can excite the world,” stateowned tabloid Global Times cited an industry insider as saying.

“Global players will be able to get a deeper understanding of traditional Chinese culture while having fun,” Global Times declared. – Reuters

 Some Western media politicize every Chinese achievement, even 'Black Myth: Wukong'
Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

Black Myth: Wukong, a video game that embodies the dream of Chinese gamers to have a game deeply rooted in Chinese culture and on par with the best games globally, has been a major hit since its debut. However, just like every success China has had, Western media's criticism is never far behind.  

Even if Western media can't deny the game's global success, there is often a classic "but" in their reports. "'Black Myth: Wukong' Is a Hit. But Why Is the Game So Controversial?" US magazine Rolling Stone asked recently, stressing that the game lacks "inclusivity and diversity." A BBC headline was entirely negative: "Blockbuster Chinese video game tried to police players - and divided the internet."

The criticism about inclusivity and diversity appears to be a rushed judgment from journalists or commentator who spent only a few hours with the game. If they played longer, they would see that female characters do appear over time. The point it, true players don't really care about it. As some overseas netizens put it - it's a game, not a movie, it doesn't need to cater to Western political correctness by including diverse female characters or transgender individuals.

The recent attacks from some Western media outlets come after Black Myth: Wukong has challenged the gaming ecosystem in the Western world, Shen Yi, a professor at Fudan University, told the Global Times. In this system, consulting firms like Sweet Baby Inc offer costly diversity, equity, and inclusion advice for video games. Black Myth: Wukong, however, not only reportedly showed no interest to obediently conform to distorted rules but also achieved unprecedented success. This has sparked both envy and fear among those who control the ecosystem and led to the recent attacks focused on gender, diversity, and inclusivity.

Moreover, the radar of some anti-China forces is triggered when Black Myth: Wukong is increasingly considered as a symbol of China's soft power, prompting foreign players to rediscover China's capabilities while promoting the global spread of traditional Chinese culture. The BBC - which cannot accept the fact that China's image is improving through the game - wrongly accuses China of censorship to dampen international perceptions of China. 

Their strategy of attacking the game is just the same old Western tactic - politicizing every Chinese achievement, even in the realm of gaming. What's next? Will they portray the Chinese gaming industry as a "threat" in the future? 

What they fail to grasp is that whether players choose to pay for a game is never about ideology, or political correctness over diversity. The game's quality is what truly matters. Feng Ji, founder of the game's developer Game Science, recently said that cultural export was not the initial goal of the game. Yet he believes that if the quality is high enough, it will naturally radiate to the overseas market. 

He made it. Black Myth: Wukong's high quality has fueled its popularity. Many international players enjoy the game, which has inspired their curiosity about Journey to the West and Chinese culture.

If Black Myth: Wukong hadn't been successful, if it hadn't topped sales charts worldwide, and if it had been just an average game, would Western media even care about it? They would probably just claim that China has no AAA game. The fact that they attack the game proves its success and highlights the persistent cultural hegemony and arrogance of some in the West. While Chinese people have long been opening up to the world, some Westerners are still unwilling to recognize China as it is.

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