Peasant cultures of the twenty‐first century 1

Abstract

In the last quarter of a century there has been a fundamental change in the historical situation of post‐coloniality. The new conditions under which global flows of capital, commodities, information and people are now regulated have created both new opportunities and new obstacles for post‐colonial countries. The old idea of a Third World, sharing a common history of colonial oppression and backwardness, is no longer as persuasive as it was in the 1960s. The phenomenal growth of China and India in recent years has set in motion a process of social change that, in its scale and speed, is unprecedented in human history. I will argue that the forms of capitalist industrial growth in the twenty‐first century may, in large agrarian countries like China, India and the countries of South‐east Asia, make room for the preservation of peasant production and peasant cultures, but under completely altered conditions. The analysis of these emergent forms of postcolonial capitalism requires new conceptual work.     

Queer Marxism in Taiwan

Abstract

This paper refutes the dominant assumption that Taiwan, unlike Mainland China, has developed a greater degree of tolerance for non‐normative sexual expressions as a result of its democratization. Recent legal and cultural changes indicate that Taiwan’s democratization consists of tendencies and repressive countertendencies. At the same time, this contradictory development has uniquely enabled a body of indigenous Marxist writings that mobilizes different senses of ‘queerness’ to demonstrate that the official celebration of diversity and human rights has actually further alienated and disempowered sex workers, promiscuous homosexuals, gay drug‐users, and other social subjects that are considered to be a threat to the liberal‐democratic order. I offer a reading of the critical writings of Josephine Ho, Yin‐bin Ning, Ding Naifei, and Wang Ping since the 1990s to explain why Queer Marxism in Taiwan is founded on a strong a‐statist discourse. I argue that a Queer Marxist intellectual practice emerged in Taiwan because liberal pluralism, institutionalized in what these critics call ‘state feminism,’ has failed to redress effects of social exclusion that (1) persist not despite of, but precisely because of, post‐martial law liberal reforms, and that (2) diverge in significant ways from individual experiences as members of officially defined minority groups (women, aborigines, migrant workers, or homosexuals). If social structuration is not always synchronic or isomorphic with state‐engineered legal changes, this difference also provides the occasion for Queer Marxists to interrogate the intellectual division of labor between feminism, assumed to be the analysis of gender as a non‐pluralizable category, and queer theory, assumed to be the analysis of sexuality as a non‐singular but personifiable category. Only by distinguishing between social relations and social identity can we comprehend how the rise of the Taiwanese Independence Movement played a key role in the naturalization of homosexuality as a fictive ethnicity, to which Queer Marxism developed as a historical response. As a geopolitically specific analysis of the aporia of substantive personhood, the Queer Marxism in Taiwan I re‐historicize is also a significant contribution to Marxist critique of liberal formalism that is of use to readers across the globe.     

Postcolonial film historiography in Taiwan and South Korea: The Puppetmaster and Chihwaseon

Abstract

This essay is concerned with the ways in which postcolonial historiography is inscribed in cinema. Two representative films of Taiwan and South Korea, The Puppetmaster by Hou Hsiao‐Hsien ¹ 1. Names in Chinese, Korean and Japanese are written in the order of family name followed by given name. For example, Hou Hsiao‐Hsien, Im Kwontaek. and Chihwaseon by Im Kwontaek are compared, not only to understand the working of de‐colonization in the cinematic apparatus but also to understand the impact, effects of colonial history. The notion of postcolonial filmmaking as an alternative construction of the archive is evoked to locate film practice in the intersecting spaces of repository, historiography, cinematic representation and social memory. Hence, these two films are cited as instances of illuminating retrospection on fractured pasts, the almost‐invisible archive and the future cinematically envisioned by suggesting a sustainable postcolonial episteme in the age of global spectatorship.     

The Right to Write in German Colonies of the Early Twentieth Century: Pugnacious Settler Newspapers,Anxious Governors and African Journalism in Exile

ABSTRACT

The entangled history of the German Colonial Press Law (written 1906–1912) begins with the wish of the German East African Governor to keep the pugnacious settler press under control. Under the influence of a racist discourse that sought to restrict education for Africans and feared anti-colonial actions and networks, the law developed into a legal basis that could impede publishing activities of the colonised in all German colonies. In Togoland, African writers bypassed such restrictions by publishing critical articles in the adjacent British Gold Coast Colony and thereby succeeded in entering transnational supportive networks.     

In/Out: Hong Kong Tongzhi Creative Workshop and Exhibition

Abstract

Critics of postcolonial theory have provided this theory with a genealogy in which it appears as the poisoned fruit of a period when revolutionary energies were ebbing and in retreat. This essay seeks to provide an alternative genealogy, suggesting that the Subaltern Studies project, and postcolonial theory more generally, were enabled and in important ways shaped by the Maoist upsurge in some parts of India in the latter 1960s and early 1970s. The critiques of modernity, of nationalism and the nation‐state, and of homogenizing narratives of progress which mark, and in the eyes of its critics, mar these intellectual currents, far from being reflections of their disassociation from radical politics, are here presented as the indirect outcome of a profound cultural and intellectual shift, which has been the consequence of the Naxalite movement of this period. This alternative genealogy proceeds through an alternative reading of the Naxalite movement. This essay asks why this movement was so important, given that its ideology was naïve, and its political successes short‐lived. The Naxalite strategy of ‘annihilating’ feudal landlords, and the urban ‘statue‐smashing’ campaign of Naxalite youth in 1970 – commonly regarded and condemned as juvenile and ultra‐leftist – are here instead interpreted as an incipient critique of aspects of Marxist theory, a critique subsequently given more explicit and elaborate exposition in the writings of the Subaltern Studies group, and in postcolonial theory.     

Violence among high school students in Thailand: Cultural perspectives

The objectives of this study were to explore the prevalence and severity of violent behavior among high school students in Thailand, in relation to their family, peers, school and neighborhoods. The sample consisted of 2897 youths. Seven scales were used to measure violence. Males were found to be more violent than females, and the strongest predictor of own violence was violence in the youth's environment, followed by peer effects and personal characteristics. The results indicate that besides some unique influences, which could explain emphasis or differences in type, range and frequency of violent behaviors among Thai youth, compared with youth from other cultures, risk factors for youth violence reported in Western studies are applicable also to Thai youths. The results were interpreted in light of the cultural characteristics of Thailand.     

China’s popular nationalism on the internet. Report on the 2005 anti‐Japan network struggles 1

Abstract

In April 2005, waves of anti‐Japan protest swept China and South Korea. In China, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in more than 40 cities to protest against Japan over its irresponsible attitude toward the history of colonial rule and war crimes of 60 years ago. Despite the protest having a strong ground and its action being generally non‐violent and peaceful, it was then severely condemned by many Western critics and media as chauvinistic and irrational, and as being manipulated by the Chinese government to legitimize its rule. Against such a notion, this essay attempts to work with China’s ‘popular nationalism’ (renmin minzu zhuyi), and considers its space as an autonomous political domain that is independent of the state nationalism. The ‘cyber‐nationalism’ (wanglu minzu zhuyi), this paper argues, not only challenges the state monopoly over domestic nationalist discursive production, but also opens up new possibilities for performing common people’s ‘public discursive right’ (gonggong huayu quanli). Far from being a homogeneous unity, the online campaign is characterized by free exchange of information and lively debate over the boycott strategy.     

Lost in TransNation: Tokyo and the urban imaginary in the era of globalization

Abstract

The 2003 film Lost in Translation has attracted both acclaim and critique concerning its representation of the urban imaginary of Tokyo. Examining both the film representation and the critical responses to the imaginary, this paper discusses how they illuminate some of the emerging issues that Tokyo and Japan face in the era of globalization, such as the loss of the idiosyncratic status of non‐Western modernity that Japan has long enjoyed; post‐(self)Orientalist cultural othering; and the transnational alliance of media and cultural industries in a global cultural economy of branding the nation through media and consumer cultures, all at the expense of the issue of intensifying migration and multicultural situations in the urban space. It will be suggested that both the film and Japanese critiques of the film are lost in the actuality of Tokyo (indeed, of Japan) and its populace, which is being radically transformed by intensifying transnational flows of people, capital, and media imagery.     

The Left and Indonesia’s 1960s: the politics of remembering and forgetting

Abstract

This article examines a pivotal decade in the recent history of Indonesian society: the 1960s. It examines the context within which the Left came to be decisively, and violently, defeated as a social and political force. It then studies the consequences of this defeat for Indonesia’s subsequent historical trajectory. The article also suggests that history‐writing anywhere is nothing less than the politics of remembering (and forgetting). What is at stake in these exercises is ultimately tied up with the legitimacy of entire social orders and systems of power. Thus, in Indonesia, the trauma of 1965 and its aftermath banished, from the collective memory of Indonesians, the political role of the Left – except in the form that runs through New Order‐era discourse on Indonesian communism. For Indonesians born or raised after 1965, the ‘communist treason’ became, arguably, the most critical element of the grand narrative of post‐colonial Indonesian history, which was so important in legitimising New Order authoritarianism. The current inability of Indonesian society and its elites to acknowledge and confront the reality of the horrors of the 1960s might prove to be a major impediment to a more genuine and substantive democratisation process.     

Discourse of cultural identity in Indonesia during the 1997-1998 monetary crisis

Abstract

‘Asian Pop’ cultural products, which include a wide range of media artifacts such as film, music, television drama, comic books, magazines, websites and fashion, have emerged as a popular choice for youth in Asia in recent times. These cultural artifacts feature prominently in the lives of urban youth in major metropolitan centers throughout Asia. This paper examines how Thai youths have become consumers of Korean pop (K‐pop), following the trend of neighboring countries. The popularization of Japanese pop (J‐pop), Taiwanese‐pop and more recently, K‐pop, is welcomed by the Cultural Industry as a sign of expanding borders and as a major step towards expanding its Asian market. On the one hand, growing consumption and mainstreaming of Asian pop might become problematic due to the notion of cultural ‘McDonaldization’/standardization, in the future. On the other hand, perhaps nationalism and national ties will manage to overrule this projected standardization. This paper explores the Thai youth’s consumption of K‐pop in the process of cultural appropriation vis‐à‐vis their ‘national’ cultural formation in changing socio‐cultural contexts.     

The lyrics of laborious life: popular music and the reassertion of migrant manhood in Northeastern Thailand

Abstract

The focal subject under investigation in this paper is the gendered identities of overseas male migrant workers as presented in the contemporary popular song lyrics from Northeastern Thailand. My reading of such lyrics is informed by my ethnographic fieldwork of Thai migrant workers in Singapore. I intend to uncover some complex, cultural junctures of transnational labor migration, in which men, mobility, and music have come across and formed a social force to reshape cultural imagination of migrant manhood. I argue that popular music celebrates male heroism of overseas migrant workers. Instead of challenging existing structures of hegemonic masculinity in the region, popular song texts poetically reaffirm and reassert the traditional dominant gender ideology and cultural practice. Overseas workmen are usually depicted as hard‐working, self‐sacrificial heroes in their attempts to rescue their families as well as romantic, caring lovers and morally responsible fathers.     

Pacarayasara : a perturbing voice in Thai journalism

Abstract

This study documents the growth of the discourse of ‘god‐king’ (devaraja) around Thailand's King Bhumibol and explores how Brahmanical symbolisms of royal absolutism have acquired renewed potency alongside Buddhism as a basis of political legitimation in 21st century Thailand. Previous studies have interpreted the growing trend for Thailand's constitutional monarch to be represented as a ‘demi‐divine’ ‘virtual god‐king’ to reflect an ideological strategy set in train by mid‐20th century authoritarian military rule. However, political processes alone do not account fully for the persistence and intensification of this phenomenon since the end of military dictatorship. The pre‐modern discourse of ‘god‐king’ has also been given new life by visual media and the spectralisation of life under neoliberalism, which together produce a regime of representation that auraticises King Bhumibol. These technologies of enchantment have permitted emerging prosperity religions to be harnessed to a conservative nationalist agenda and, together with Thailand's strictly policed lese‐majesty law, have institutionalised a commodified and mass‐mediatised ideology of magico‐divine royal power that works to legitimate King Bhumibol's acquisition of political influence.     

Violence in the south of Thailand

Abstract

This paper explores the possible reasons behind the current violence in southern Thailand with a focus on the violent events that took place on 28 April 2004, which resulted in the death of 107 Muslim militants in the southern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala and Songkhla.While the authorities seem to believe that the perpetrators of this violence are separatists the author argues that the recent violence is perpetrated by a new group or groups of individuals who are not connected to the old separatist groups that operated in the south until recent times. The very fact that this new movement perpetrating violence uses Islam as a rallying cry, by appealing to the recent international assaults on Muslim militants in Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq,means that it is able to garner support for its cause among the Thai-Malays who have long given up their separatist fight against the Thai state.     

Intersection of Asia,feminism and cultural studies: Yonsei University's experience in South Korea

Abstract

This article addresses the issues of how feminism, cultural studies and inter‐Asia studies can intersect amicably and meaningfully as an institutional program by using Yonsei University as an example. Speaking from the position of someone who is one of the founders and teachers of the Graduate Program in Cultural and Gender Studies at Yonsei University, I endeavor to analyze the possibilities and limitations of combining these fields together. This article suggests that practitioners of inter‐Asian cultural studies carefully formulate and establish a conceptual framework as foundation upon which we can begin to discuss some possible commonalities for future curriculum. I believe that the framework ought to focus more on the ‘post‐nation state paradigm,’ and incorporate the achievements of both critics of global capitalism and the neoliberal order, and creators of new meanings – including migrants and youths – as a possible transnational subjectivities. Inter‐Asia cultural studies also needs to learn some lessons from the history of the belittlement and groundless exclusion of feminism experienced by the Birmingham School and Korean cultural studies practitioners and the gender‐blindness they held.     

‘Chinese’ Indonesians in national cinema 1

Abstract

Through much of post‐colonial history and particularly during the so‐called ‘New Order’ (under General Suharto), Indonesian citizens of ethnic Chinese descent have been caught in a strangely ambiguous position: they have enjoyed enormous economic power while at the same time being threatened with politico‐cultural effacement. This paper is an attempt to understand that ambiguity in relation to the Indonesian cinema – both around questions of industry history and around issues of representation of national and ethnic identity on screen. The paper traces the presence, the erasure and the absent‐presence of Indonesia's ethnic Chinese minority from the establishment of a film industry in Indonesia in the 1930s to the post‐New Order political shifts, opening up possibilities for a new public discourse of Chineseness. I argue however that the openness of current Indonesian culture and politics, while providing the necessary condition for re‐imagining the Chinese Indonesians, does not ensure a radical shift in a politics of representation, deeply embedded in the textual practices of the film industry and more widely in the cultural and political history of modern Indonesia.     

Connected migrants: Encapsulation and cosmopolitanization

ABSTRACT

Taking a cue from Dana Diminescu’s seminal manifesto on “the connected migrant,” this special issue introduces the notions of encapsulation and cosmopolitanism to understand digital migration studies. The pieces here present a nonbinary, integrated notion of an increasingly digitally mediated cosmopolitanism that accommodates differences within but also recognizes Europe’s colonial legacy and the fraught postcolonial present. Of special interest is an essay by the late Zygmunt Bauman, who argues that the messy boundaries of Europe require a renewed vision of cosmopolitan Europe, based on dialogue and aspirations, rather than on Eurocentrism and universal values. In this article, we focus on three overarching discussions informing this special issue: (a) an appreciation of the so-called “refugee crisis” and the articulation of conflicting Europeanisms, (b) an understanding of the relationships between the concepts of cosmopolitanization and encapsulation, and (c) a recognition of the emergence of the interdisciplinary field of digital migration studies.     

Kuala Lumpur,July 2005

Abstract

This paper is a study of the impact of the Thai ‘Sixties’ on present day Thai politics, especially that of the ‘Peoples Movement’. In doing so, the study concentrates on looking at the influence of both political ideas and movements and the role of some important political actors from this period. Internationally, the Sixties Movement was characterised by a general rise in the struggle of oppressed groups on a global scale. Central to this struggle was the role of students and a new generation of activists in labour and peasant organisations. This took the form of movements against racism, sexual oppression and especially imperialism. Activists from this period are now to be found playing important roles in political systems throughout the world. However, their present day role is often in contradiction to their original beliefs during the Sixties. In Thailand, the ‘Sixties’ movement has helped to shape both the policies of the present Thai Rak Thai government and the nature of the Peoples Movement. Any understanding of the present Thai political scene has to include an examination of the mass‐movements that continue to struggle for democracy and social justice, together with the nature of various ruling class factions. Thai Rak Thai grew out of a need to deal with the effects of the 1997 Economic Crisis. Its Populist policies reflect a need to balance conflicting class interests in order to buy social peace. Many of the activists within Thai Rak Thai and those within the social movements are people of the October Generation who cut their teeth during the Thai Sixties. Their political beliefs and strategies reflect the events of the last 30 years in different ways. The Thai Sixties will continue to influence Thai politics and society in the years ahead.     

City in/as graffiti. Chennai's many cities

Abstract

In postcolonial Taiwan, although Taiwan‐centric consciousness is the dominant discourse, it does not exclude but often conforms to transnational capitalism. Nativism and globalism combined form a powerful hegemony. Taiwanese television ‘idol dramas’ endorse the status quo, justifying and propagating desire for the Occident; yet such idealization of the West cannot fully silence skepticism and aversion. This paper examines Green Forest, My Home (2005), to explore the Occidental myth and its discontents. In binary opposition, (quasi‐)Westerners are portrayed as rich, beautiful, and refined; locals as malicious, simple, or ludicrous. Race is conflated with one’s socioeconomic and cultural status, one’s language, and one’s moral standing. Frustration and resentment are projected onto the minor roles played by authentic Westerners: authoritative yet anti‐romantic, they represent the West with negative connotations. The drama’s double‐faced portrayal of Westerners betrays a profound ambivalence toward the self and the Western other.     

Fated for foreigners: Ecological realities shape perspectives of transnational marriage in northern Thailand

Around the world, intercultural contact prompted by modern globalization has reconstituted private dimensions of people’s lives. One such private dimension that has been significantly reshaped is that of kinship networks, due in part to the increasing feasibility and normalization of transnational marriage. This study examines perspectives of transnational marriage among adolescents and parents in northern Thailand, where such intimate intercultural relationships are increasingly common. Eighty Thai participants, evenly divided by ecological context (rural, urban) and generational cohort (adolescent, parent), participated in semi-structured interviews in which perspectives of Thai–foreigner marriages were discussed. Participants’ moral evaluations were examined quantitatively and moral reasoning was examined qualitatively. Quantitative analysis revealed that participants across ecological contexts and generational cohorts agreed that transnational marriage is mostly morally right and a little morally wrong. Qualitative analysis revealed differences across ecological contexts and across generations in the urban setting in values endorsed to support their evaluations. Rural adolescent and parent evaluations of transnational marriage were largely informed by local Thai values, urban adolescent evaluations were informed by autonomous Western values, and urban parent evaluations were driven by local and Western values. The distinct values endorsed across contexts and across generations in the urban setting point to how ecological realities—particularly exposure to and embeddedness in individualistic globalization discourses—shape perspectives of intimate intercultural relationships.