Gendered nationalism and otherization: transnational prostitutes in South Korea

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand how masculine ideologies become (re)produced in the trope around transnational prostitution, by examining a lawsuit case concerning Filipina prostitutes in Korea. While several actors, including nation‐states, journalists, and activists engaged in constructing the images of Filipina prostitutes as ‘sex slaves,’ as ‘deceived or exploited victims’, or as ‘abused poor women,’ the actual economic, political and cultural processes that contribute to the complex process of women crossing borders are elided. Such homogeneous images of transnational prostitutes function to symbolically demarcate and maintain the boundaries of the nation, gender, and sexuality, and to neglect actual women’s agency and experiences as workers. This paper demonstrates how, complicit in the representations of the transnational prostitutes as victims, are ideologies of traditional gender norms, nationalism, and colonialism. Ultimately, I argue that this case will enable us to re‐examine contemporary discourses on trafficking and transnational prostitution in a more critical and subversive feminist perspective.     

Asia Pacific studies in an age of global modernity

This article argues that the end of the Cold War and the attendant globalization of capital call for a reconfiguration of areas, including the Pacific, has played a significant part in the ideological formation of globalization. The resultant formation is ‘global modernity’, representing at once the globalization and the fragmentation of capitalist modernity. The article discusses five intellectual responses to this situation in studies of Asia and the Pacific that propose new configurations to substitute for earlier area studies: civilizations, oceans, diasporas, Asianization of Asia studies, and indigenous studies. It argues that these substitutes themselves are tied in with new formations of power, and should not be taken at face value. Most important is to remain attentive to configurations from the bottom up that are products of struggles against oppression and exploitation.     

For a comparative film studies

The paper argues that the comparative approach to the study of modern cultural forms should be founded on the common experience but divergent histories of the development of a capitalist mode of production and the impact of its reformatting dynamics on social, including cultural, relations. The paper then goes on to explore and propose a number of probably inevitable theoretical frameworks and tools to implement a comparative approach to the study of a thoroughly industrialized cultural form, such as cinema and films.     

The idea of South Asia: a personal note on post‐Bandung blues 1

Abstract

This paper mainly discusses the transformation of the idea of South Asia in Post‐Cold War era.     

Doing a literary journal in a divided country: Changbi,its history and projects

Abstract

This paper tells a story about miscegenation between US military personnel and Okinawan women from 1945–1952, which includes sexual violence, the establishment of ‘entertainment districts,’ and the emergence of international marriage. Whereas this history has been mobilized by leftists as a truth‐weapon in the struggle for political sovereignty from the US military, this paper takes an explicitly genealogical approach. Drawing on Foucault's work on biopower, this paper shows how Okinawans were transformed into ‘petitioning subject’ – subjects that negotiated the sexual exploitation of their bodies in tandem with the radically changing relationship between their bodies and the territory.     

The Print Cultures of the Celtic Languages, 1700–1900

ABSTRACT

While the cultural trajectories of the Celtic language communities have some broad similarities in the long term, their histories in the medium term were quite different. The article approaches this issue through a comparative analysis of the print cultures of Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Breton and Irish in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The approach is both quantitative and qualitative, surveying total production in the four languages as well as looking at the presence and absence of different genres in the different languages. It also examines diaspora publishing in America and Australia. The different patterns are explained primarily in terms of the nature and extent of institutional church support for publishing in those languages.     

An overview of Chinese American poetry studies: 1988–2018

ABSTRACT

Chinese American poetry, with its socio-cultural and aesthetic values, chronicles Chinese American personal and collective experiences in the past 160 years. The review of Chinese American poetry studies from 1988 to 2018 shows that research on Chinese American poetry has generally progressed through three stages: identity studies, literary aesthetic studies and philosophical studies. From the emphasis on identity studies to the call of aesthetic studies, the critical discourse in Chinese American poetry has developed in the shadow of Chinese American literary criticism and has not yet formed its own critical paradigms. For this, the philosophical study of Chinese American poetry shows its strength and opens up a broader space for the future research. This critical approach must benefit the study of other Chinese (or Asian) American literary genres. Though this paper has divided the studies into three categories, the actual critical practices are usually more complex and comprehensive, thus future researchers should have more profound and interdisciplinary perspectives on the study of Chinese American poetry.     

“Happy Seoul for foreigners”: scenes from multicultural life in South Korea

Abstract

Since the mid-2000s, multiculturalism has become a prominent buzzword in South Korea as the nation, which was founded on the myth of a single bloodline, tries to come to terms with its growing foreign population. This article looks at the figure of the industrial migrant worker who, despite being ignored by the mainstream media, has appeared in a handful of independently produced Korean films, including three—Bandhobi (2009 Bandhobi [???]. 2009. Directed by Shin Dong-il. Seoul: IndieStory Inc. [Google Scholar]), Hello, Stranger (2007 Hello Stranger [?? ?? ???]. 2007. Directed by Kim Dong-hyun. Seoul: IndieStory Inc. Host and Guest [???]. 2005. Directed by Shin Dong-il. Seoul: LJ Film. [Google Scholar]), Where Is Ronny? (2008 Where Is Ronny? [??? ???]. 2008. Directed by Sim Sang-kook. Seoul: JinJin Pictures. [Google Scholar])—that will be discussed here in detail. These films, as I will show, not only provide an alternative perspective on immigrant life in Seoul and other parts of the country, which is more often than not represented through the privileged world of the Western “expat,” but also reveal the underlying tensions and contradictions in Korea's approach to multiculturalism as it tries to regulate diversity through the fiat of legislative policy while ignoring the moral and political choices confronting its citizens as they decide whether or not to befriend the other.     

A Critical Perspective on British Social Surveys and Community Studies and Their Accounts of Married Life c.1945–70

ABSTRACT

The family was a subject of prime importance to sociologists in the post-war period. Married life was one of the principal themes of British social surveys and community studies undertaken at this time. This article investigates the limitations associated with these contemporary analyses and how they can be explained. It will examine the relationship between the studies' findings and contemporary social developments, the variations in married life, and how the researchers' accounts related to their wider aims. It will conclude that such studies were more a product of the optimism of the post-war period than prompted by patriarchal beliefs.     

The Persuasive Influence of Nollywood Film in Cultural Transmission: Negotiating Nigerian Culture in a South African Environment

The popularity and viewership of Nollywood films have expanded across African and Western cities especially those with considerable Diaspora population. This study seeks to investigate whether watching Nollywood films is likely to lead to cross-cultural transmission of Nigeria’s cultural heritage to audience members in South Africa. Data for the study were collected using observation and surveys with Likert-type scales involving participants from a South African college. Results show that watching Nollywood films was significant in increasing participants’ knowledge and appreciation of Nigerian culture. Observed patterns indicate that a small portion of participants could mimic or reproduce some common Nigerian expressions and exclamations while a negligible percentage of participants could actually speak a smattering of Igbo, one of Nigeria’s three major languages.