Search

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including history of science in East Asia; Korean and Taiwanese academic contexts; and conversations among Asian societies.

This paper examines urban and well-educated Taiwanese women's resistance to the dominance of the valorization of female appearance, providing ethnography of undoing beauty in East Asia's era of post-developmentalism. Findings reveal the importance of the factor of time in their resistance to bodily grooming. First, participants have a "holistic" understanding of "doing beauty"; they consider this set of gender inequalities "chrono-normativity," which serves as a vector of social control. Second, the burden of long-term sustainability of aesthetic investment often turns into an unbearable weight that includes an endless quest for extreme slenderness, the exhausting immaterial labor of enacting cuteness and hetero-likability, and the difficulty of long-term financial affordability. Third, due to a bleak economic outlook and strong gender inequalities, disapproval of the quest for beauty showcases women's rejection of pursuing market success based on an aspirational and future-oriented temporality. Participants' "lying down" attitude and their emphasis on "assured little happiness" are witness to an anti-aspirational temporality, since women seek a present-focused and non-dominated experience of temporality. I argue that this anti-aspirationalism should be seen as an alternative configuration of neoliberal rationality where the care of the self and its ethos of individualism eclipse the pursuit of economic productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In current times that emphasize active aging, older adults are often encouraged to participate in interest classes at community centers. Adopting an ethnographic research approach to understand the subjectivities of older mothers, this paper not only sees community centers as a space for older adults for taking interest classes, but also as an infrastructure that defines relationship values. This paper examines the motivations of older mothers in urban Taiwan who have established a routine at a community center. By emphasizing the public space, that is, the values indoctrinated at the community centers, this paper investigates how community center activities offer self-care practices for older women, and how these women embody motherhood by taking care of themselves. This paper expands the notion of motherhood by investigating the subjectivities of older mothers as well as the effects of the global aging discourse on them. This study of urban Taiwan sheds light on understanding the subjectivity of aging mothers in other East Asian cities. The data of this paper were collected through participant observations at community centers, in-depth interviews, and analysis of newspaper archives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) is an economically important rice pest in Taiwan. The population genetic structure of C. medinalis is not clear and thus was studied in this research. Cnaphalocrocis medinalis samples were collected from six sampling locations in Taiwan using white sticky paper traps coated with sex pheromone. Genetic diversity was analyzed by mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all specimens of C. medinalis in Taiwan belonged to a single clade. Population genetic analysis of C. medinalis indicated no significant population structure because of a lack of significant genetic differentiation among the six sampling sites. Population genetic analysis also revealed no significant genetic differentiation among C. medinalis populations in Taiwan and neighboring regions, suggesting a common origin. The extremely low genetic diversity of C. medinalis in East Asia might be due to a population expansion after a recent founder effect. This study provides molecular information for understanding the population genetic structure of C. medinalis in Taiwan and East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do Taiwanese officials view democracy and culture and how do they plan to utilise these two soft power resources as part of advancing the island's international position? Based primarily on interviews conducted with state officials in Taiwan, this paper analyses Taiwan's soft power repositioning in the regional and global soft power competition and examines its advantages and disadvantages. It discusses the institutional and geopolitical constraints Taiwan faces when trying to implement its soft power policy and addresses the internal disagreements over utilising its cultural and democratic achievements. It concludes that despite the utility of soft power in pursuing its foreign policy agenda, Taiwan faces a few major institutional and conceptual obstacles, keeping Taiwanese diplomacy in a transitional period from old thinking about culture and diplomacy while hesitantly evaluating its soft power resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by Japanese faith groups, organic food production has witnessed surprising growth in East Asian countries, such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, over the past two decades. The rapid expansion of East Asian trans‐national organic food production networks is closely linked with religious practices and beliefs, such as ahimsa (non‐killing). The complexities of transnational organic production networks in East Asia cannot be adequately captured by the existing literature on "conventionalisation of organic agriculture," which repeatedly debates the extent to which capitalism intrudes on the social and biophysical dimensions of farming. I argue that this simplified and binary debate tends to treat the organic market as an unquestioned, stabilised, and universalised artefact. Less attention has been paid to questions such as, how do alternative food markets come into being, stabilise or get crushed? Inspired by the social studies of economisation and marketisation (SSEM) approach, this paper urges scholars to move beyond the conventionalisation debate and draws attention to the organic food market‐making practices. Taking inspiration from SSEM thinking, I propose that more emphasis needs to be placed on the performation struggles, which refers to the confrontations between different economic programmes and actors. By drawing attention to the organic market performation struggles in Japan and Taiwan, this paper argues that organic food market‐making is a global heterogeneous assemblage, in which all human and non‐human actants across multi‐scalar geographies, such as trans‐local religious/scientific knowledge, believers, and so on, can contribute to the making and remaking of markets. With reference to qualitative interviews with organic distributors and practitioners, this paper deepens the knowledge of the geographies of marketisation in a global‐relational context. The rapid expansion of East Asian transnational organic food production networks is closely linked with religious practices and beliefs, such as ahimsa (non‐killing). The complexities of transnational organic production networks in East Asia cannot be adequately captured by the existing literature on "conventionalisation of organic agriculture," which repeatedly debates the extent to which capitalism intrudes on the social and biophysical dimensions of farming. Inspired by the social studies of economisation and marketisation (SSEM) approach, this paper urges scholars to move beyond the conventionalisation debate and draws attention to the organic food market‐making practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting Salazar's 'imaginaries of mobility,' this paper investigates how transnational mobility becomes imaginable, desirable or even experientially imperative for mobile Taiwanese young adults in the context of globalisation. It analyses the ways by which they interpret their mobilities as a pursuit of self-identity while negotiating the tensions between collectivism and individualism of Taiwanese society. Based on personal profiles and self-narratives of mobility appearing on a Taiwanese media website devoted to the topic of transnational mobility, I demonstrate how writers present a 'mobile self' characterised by being geographically mobile, socially transgressive and culturally cosmopolitan. This self is depicted in sharp contrast with the immobile at home and narrated as an integral part of achieving identity through three kinds of self-transformation: becoming true to oneself, becoming independent, and becoming a dreamer. While these narratives resonate Western discourses of mobility, they are interpreted from the lens of individualism-collectivism opposition in East Asia and of generational conflicts in Taiwan. Specifically, transnational mobility, regardless forms, is framed as a generational revolt against a collectivist society that represses individuality. The results show how imaginaries of mobility are recontextualised, producing meaning and practice based on local references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a long fight, same-sex marriage in Taiwan became legal on 24 May 2019. This milestone does not however address the hegemony that exists inside queer communities, namely, the idea that femininity is the excluded other in gay communities and that femmes are perceived as potential traitors within Taiwanese lesbian society. Such misogynistic ideologies render queer communities less democratic and egalitarian than imagined. This paper coins the term "butchiarchy" as part of an analysis of the Thai lesbian film, Yes or No 2.5 (2015), a box-office hit in Taiwan, in order to reveal the hierarchical structure pervasive within lesbian communities. While reinforcing a butchiarchal norm, the film also mobilizes a femme gaze that plays with the scenes depicting the ambivalent affection between the two butch characters, which echoes the BL (Boys' Love/Yaoi) fever that has swept the popular culture industry in East Asian countries. To distinguish from BL, this paper intends to adopt the term "TL," as T stands for butch in East Asia, to describe the concept of "Butches' Love," which differentiates from BL that emphasizes Boys' love. By rethinking terms through which femme is represented as well as experienced, this paper points out how, on the one hand, femme is constantly abjected in order to affirm a constructed lesbian sexuality that problematically recognizes butch as the priori lesbian agent. On the other hand, the femme gazes troubles the butchiarchal surveillance that denies homosexuality in femmes and thus creates a possible scenario that recognizes the operative power of the sub-minority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, by looking at the role of Taiwanese citizens in civic organisations for marriage migrants, explores how women's agency and negotiation occur not only against masculine dominance within patriarchal family arrangements, but also in alliance with it, when oppression is located somewhere beyond the family. In contrast to literature that depicts marriage migration as a women's and migrants' issue, this paper explores the role of Taiwanese citizens (often husbands in cross‐border marriages) in shaping the evolution of the phenomenon in both the private and public spheres. The aim of this paper is to fill a gap in empirical literature on marriage migration in Taiwan and East Asia, as well as contribute to feminist debates on women's agency in the context of masculine dominance. Building on ethnographic data collected through fieldwork in Taiwan, including in‐depth interviews and participant observation within civil society organisations for marriage migrants, this paper reveals how Taiwanese male citizens and Chinese female migrants responded to the challenges brought by their decision to engage in cross‐border unions by creating a new narrative that could explain their condition of shared oppression and by developing joint actions to address the structural discrimination they faced as cross‐border couples in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased waste production is a by‐product of economic growth, and that is why countries worldwide are working on turning waste into useful resources and enhancing recycling effectiveness. Aside from using symbols and words for identifying which recycle bins for which types of recyclable materials, color is also a useful code and visual element in recycle bin design. This study conducted questionnaire survey (n = 418) among participants from Taiwan and from East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) to explore the current condition of resource recycling and determine the best color‐material pairings. This study's result suggests that the most frequently recycled material by participants from Taiwan and from EAP were paper and plastic. The study participants sorted and recycled materials as frequently as five to six days a week. From analyzing the pairings of four colors (red, green, blue, and yellow) with four recyclable materials (paper, glass, plastic, and metal), differences were found between participants from Taiwan and those from EAP. Because resource classification and color coding are different from country to country, this study found that color provides limited information of recycle bins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of WWII, the so-called developmental states of East Asia have become famous for their 'financial activism': their efforts to link the financial and productive sectors of their economies in ways that advance national development objectives. However it is now widely acknowledged that the twin pressures of global financial integration and financialisation have transformed the policymaking landscape and complicated the pursuit of financial activism. So what do these developments mean for the capacities of East Asian states to pursue developmental ambitions? To address this question, I adopt a novel, mindset-centred analytical framework for the study of developmental state evolution and apply it for the first time to the case of Taiwan. My analysis reveals that the evolutionary trajectory of Taiwan's developmental state has not been linear; since the early 2000s, the state's commitment to and capacities for financial activism have waxed and waned. Moreover, two factors emerge as particularly significant in this waxing and waning: social legitimacy and political leadership. This paper demonstrates the analytical utility of a mindset-centred analysis when it comes to investigating the dynamics of developmental state evolution, and why some national variants appear more durable than others at different moments in history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contest between the U.S. and China for who gets to define the region has been developing since the early 1990s. During this time, various competing images of who comprises the region have been seen from the narrow and geographical conception including just the ASEAN states, to wider China-preferred images based on the ASEAN plus three grouping, towards broader perspective favoured by Japan including Australia and New Zealand reflected in proposals such as the Comprehensive East Asian Economic Partnership Agreement. How do these regional competitions affect the status of Taiwan? This paper makes the argument that the move towards more state-based regional entities and patterns of engagement (regionalisation), which so far have not (yet) adversely affected Taiwan economically, it has produced significant political challenges for Taiwan's ability to continue to be autonomous from the mainland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much scholarship on East Asian development has sidelined the crucial role of geopolitics by insisting that wars such as the Vietnam War had limited effects on industrial development and economic growth patterns. We find such arguments unpersuasive, and also unduly reductionist. The Vietnam War, in particular, had unambiguously powerful effects on industrial development in South Korea; but even in cases where the direct effects of war were somewhat less spectacular, such as Taiwan, the reasons for the differences were themselves deeply geopolitical and expressive of decision-making processes centered on the Vietnam War. In this paper, we explore the differential effects of such geopolitical decision-making by contrasting the development trajectories of the Ulsan and Kaohsiung industrial zones during the war period. We show, in addition, that the subsequent development of industrial projects in South Korea and Taiwan has continued to bear some of the marks of Vietnam War-era geopolitical economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increase of cross-Strait economic activity, the interaction between Taiwanese business people and the Chinese government has gradually changed. As Taiwanese investment grew in volume, so did the number and frequency of contacts between the parties; a more institutionalised form regulating these contacts was established as a result. Nowadays Taiwanese businessmen have become an identifiable factor in Chinese governmental policy implementation; the process also has far-reaching implications. This paper argues that Taiwanese capital has become a Chinese governmental security asset and examines the importance of this factor when discussing conventional government/business interaction. This paper concludes that a superior national interest guides the warm welcome given by the Chinese government to Taiwanese businessmen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Media guidelines for suicide reporting are available in many countries. However, to what extent the mass media comply with the guidelines is unknown. Few studies are available that investigate systematically whether the mass media reflect the epidemiological reality of suicide deaths in their articles. Methods: Based on the WHO media guidelines, this study investigated the characteristics of newspaper articles of suicides in three Chinese communities, namely Hong Kong, Taiwan and Guangzhou. Epidemiological comparisons were conducted to identify the age and gender differences between the suicide victims as reported in the newspapers and the official records of suicide deaths in all three places. Results: The results found that one media characteristic complied with the WHO media guidelines (ie, only about 2% of the articles were printed on the front page), but there were a number of instances of non-compliance (ie, only 4--14% provided sources for help-seeking and 27--90% printed with photos). The epidemiological comparisons revealed an over-representation of younger suicides and an under-representation of late-life suicides in the newspapers of all three places. Furthermore, female suicides were found to be under-reported in Taiwan and Guangzhou newspapers, but not in Hong Kong papers. Conclusion: Non-compliant suicide articles are prevalent in the newspapers of these three Chinese settings. The observed media misrepresentations may potentially mislead the public and the policy makers about the actual risk for suicide in some demographic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The countries in East Asia continue to have problems in maritime boundary delimitation. The collision on September 7, 2010 between a Chinese fishing vessel (Minjinyu) and a Japanese patrol boat in the waters near Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands is interesting to observe as a step in dispute settlement process. The differences between the PRC and Japan on maritime boundary delimitation for the East China Sea and the legal status of Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands are demonstrated by this incident. To see things in their context, it is necessary to observe the practices of East Asian countries in handling their maritime boundary delimitations, especially those involving islands with disputed legal status. The rules of international law relating to the pacific settlement of dispute and maritime delimitation dispute resolution, which involve a preliminary sovereignty dispute over islands, are also relevant as a much broader background. The author will examine why certain maritime delimitation cases are particularly hard to handle. The lessons drawn from this paper is inspiring for Taiwan, a long-time marginalized player in East Asian regional affairs. The author will examine the difficulties and opportunities for Taiwan in maritime boundary delimitation and offer a suggestion on how to accomplish such task with neighboring countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asian nations have become increasingly diverse in their ethnic composition since the 1990s. A large proportion of recent immigrants consists of women from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines, who migrated following their marriage to male citizens from South Korea and Taiwan. To study this new group of foreign residents, the governments of both Taiwan and South Korea have conducted national surveys since 2000. This paper conducts a content analysis of the questions of these surveys to elaborate a criticism of the ethnic statistics produced from them. These surveys provide relevant information on this group of new residents, but they also have the potential to reinforce existing negative stereotypes due to prior assumptions that shaped the content of questionnaires. The analysis reveals that the production of statistics on migrants is influenced by three ideologies: assimilation, patriarchy and nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]