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The entertainment industry is driven to sell certain commodities transnationally, particularly in a world where borders are becoming increasingly diffused through the access afforded by the Internet. Media content is easily consumed, making cultural exporting fast and easy. Similar tropes and plot have been replicated in the East Asian film and TV industry, perhaps in hopes of replicating the success. This paper looks at the manufacture of ideal masculinities within East Asia, particularly China. From ex-members of K-pop group EXO to the successful TV series, cross-influence of East Asian popular culture is prominent. Through this paper, I look at the influence of K-dramas on the Chinese TV industry and particularly the manufacturing of a militarized masculinity on Chinese TV. Far from portraying brute and fearsome soldiers, ideal masculinity on TV is portrayed as "steely exterior but gentle internally" and thus desirable romantic partners to heterosexual women. By exploring the basic conception of Chinese masculinity, I then discuss representations of militarized masculinity on the silver screen (Wolf Warrior II) and C-dramas, with particular focus on the series, You Are My Hero (2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in this volume seek to broaden the concept of ‘varieties of unionism’ by comparing the labour movements of six countries in the Asia-Pacific region: China, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Australia. While there is a great diversity of economic, socio-cultural and ethnic factors which have influenced the nature of industrial relations and unionism in each country, all have experienced the impact of globalisation on their labour markets to varying degrees. The repertoire of revitalisation strategies used by unions in Asia are similar, in many ways, to those adopted in western market economies, but their specific forms differ. The authors of the studies in this volume examine the factors which have helped and/or hindered union revitalisation in each of the countries studied. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article critically examines South Korea and China's COVID-19 tracking apps by bridging surveillance studies with feminist technoscience's understanding of the "politics of care". Conducting critical readings of the apps and textual analysis of discursive materials, we demonstrate how the ideological, relational, and material practices of the apps strategically deployed "care" to normalize a particular form of pandemic technogovernance in these two countries. In the ideological dimension, media and state discourse utilized a combination of vilifying and nationalist rhetoric that framed one's acquiescence to surveillance as a demonstration of national belonging. Meanwhile, the apps also performed ambivalent roles in facilitating essential care services and mobilizing self-tracking activities, which contributed to the manufacturing of pseudonormality in these societies. In the end, we argue that the Chinese and South Korean governments managed to frame their aggressive surveillance infrastructure during COVID-19 as a form of paternalistic care by finessing the blurred boundaries between care and control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The web dramas produced and consumed in South Korea are a short, serialized form of content produced specifically for mobile viewing platforms. Through discursive analysis, this article examines the positioning of web dramas as a step in the evolution of television and finds that they have been legitimized as a higher-quality form than television drama because of their economic potential. To begin with, web dramas have the potential to generate synergistic economic effects impacting other areas of culture, such as tourism, television, and webtoons. Second, web dramas have been represented as the best strategy for tapping into the vast Chinese market, especially during periods in which strained political relations between Korea and China prevented the export of television dramas. Moreover, web dramas have been optimized for mobile platforms through experimentation with aesthetics and topics in ways that have not been possible for television dramas. Thus, web dramas offer a window into the relationship between perceptions of quality and commercial profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do political institutions influence crisis management? By comparing responses to COVID-19 in China and South Korea, this article argues that different political institutions affect countries' responses to crises by shaping state capacity. First, the article proposes a state capacity-driven crisis management framework including four types of capacity: information capacity, decision-making and implementation capacity, coercive capacity, and mobilization and cooperation capacity. Second, the article contributes to the literature by making linkages between different forms of state capacity and regime type. Combinations of state capacity are different in democracies and authoritarian regimes because state capacities are shaped by two different institutional arrangements: central–local government relations and state–society relations. Additionally, the article finds that the impacts of political institutions on crisis management through different state capacities are contingent on scenarios such as the different stages of a crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explore the determinants of China-ROK relations during the period 1993–2018, employing event data and statistical analysis. The analysis found that China's trade dependence on ROK, and vice versa, had a positive effect on China-ROK relations. The relations were also positively affected by China's economic development. In contrast, the relations were negatively affected as China's population aged and while conservative administrations governed ROK. The empirical findings of this article provide essential insights, identifying the factors that promote or hinder the development of cooperative China-ROK relations, suggesting guidelines to policymakers on both sides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares and explores forms of ‘public’ participation in the development of bioethical governance of human embryonic stem cell research (hESR) in four Asian societies, and in doing so it contributes to the wider discussions on expertise and public inclusion. The article aims to add nuance to the concept of ‘public consultation’ by focusing on the contested meanings and relationships through which public roles and public debates are defined. The analysis seeks to go beyond a straightforward comparison by interpreting public discussions of hESR as being influenced by both local conditions and interconnected global science institutions. An adequate understanding of the public participation in debates on science requires the analysis of (a) particular reasons for scientific issues to require public discussion; (b) pressures of transnational forces; (c) variability of publics relevant to bioethical regulation; and, (d) the effects of institutionalization of bioethics. This study uses data from fieldwork conducted between 2006 and 2010 in four Asian countries. Most of the interviews were conducted in the local languages and concerned various kinds of public participation in bioethics activities, as well as the views of stem cell scientists on the need to involve the public in discussions on the acceptability of their research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Interpretations of history have been a source of tension in East Asia but usually involve Japan and the Second World War. Yet, in the past ten years, another controversy has been brewing over history, this time between South Korea and China over claims to 'ownership' of an ancient kingdom. This article is a case study that examines how states utilize reinterpretations of history for current and future strategic goals. The result has been a dispute that has resembled a security dilemma where China's initial actions, deemed to be largely defensive by Beijing, were perceived in Seoul as offensive, provoking a counter-response that has in turn, alarmed China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on a comparative study of the national database industry of China and South Korea. History of the database industries in China and Korea; Subject categories in databases in China and Korea; Languages of the databases; Comparison of database management between China and Korea; Comparison of promotion of database development and national policy in China and Korea.