Department of Government and Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University Ethnic Orders: Social Categories and the Politics of Identity in the Malay World Ethnicity is central to politics throughout the Malay world, but the meaning and significance of ethnicity—and of social categories like “Malay”—is contested, dynamic, and multifaceted. This talk is an overview of […]
University of California, Riverside Before the Fire Dogs Steal the Sun: An Elegy In this talk, Professor Crystal Mun-hye Baik offers a glimpse into her second book project, Before the Fire Dogs Steal the Sun: An Elegy. An intimate cultural history of war, illness, and estrangement framed through her family history, Before the Fire Dogs […]
Cooking Recipes and the Ways of Transmitting Knowledge How can the written recipes convey the embodied practice of cooking? While cooking traditionally relies on direct transformation and oral explication, what circumstances lead to the translation of this mute skill into written form? This talk examines two 17-century cooking recipes from Chosŏn Korea (1392–1897), exploring how […]
Hirooka Asako, Uruno Coal Mine's Transformation, and Finding Businesswomen in Meiji Japan. Amidst changes redefining and subjugating womanhood in the Meiji period (1868-1912), industrialist Hirooka Asako (1849-1919) rescued her marital family’s failing coal mine in Uruno. This story highlights her determination, knowledge but also her collaboration with male relatives and associates, and direct management, illuminating […]
To the Sea, To the Mountain: Cantonese Woodwork in the Indian Ocean during the Nineteenth Century This talk examines the mobility of Cantonese woodwork, a vibrant regional craft in the Pearl River Delta, and its impact on artisanal practices through a case study of woodworkers' movement to the Indian Ocean during the nineteenth century. co-sponsored […]
Labor Unrest in Chinese-Invested Enterprises in Turkey: Local Dynamics and Global Implications. Burak Gürel is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Co-director of the Center for Asian Studies at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. China, once a hub for foreign manufacturing investment, has become a major investor in overseas factories and mines. Disputes at Chinese-owned […]
Beyond Birth Rates: South Korea's Policy Response to Demographic Aging. Examining how demographic shifts shape policy priorities and challenges, Darcie Draught-Véjares from the Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, will explore the multifaceted implications of population aging, low birth rates, and shrinking workforce on South Korea's domestic politics and international engagements. By […]
Disability Rights, Activism and Changing Governance in South Korea and Japan. Through comparisons of anti-discrimination and accessibility reforms in South Korea and Japan, this talk analyzes the rise of legalistic governance. More formal rules and participation in policymaking and enforcement, including through the courts, mark a change. Celeste Arrington, Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Political […]
Extreme Protests - Changing Protest Repertoires in Labor Movements in Neoliberal Korea. Yoonkyung Lee, Department of Sociology & Center for the Study of Korea, University of Toronto, will discuss the question of changing protest methods of labor contention in neoliberal Korea, and asks what explains the emergence of extreme repertoires in labor movements in times […]
China: A Century of Family Revolutions A recent reproductive crisis has brought renewed interest in the century-old “family problem” (家庭问题) and “women’s problem” (妇女问题). Related issues have not only been debated in the discursive field, but also informed cross-border fields such as social policymaking and the law. Intrigued by questions such as why the state […]
Book Talk - Affective Spaces as Method: The Cultural Politics of Emotion in China East Asia is saturated with complex emotions. Although emotions play an essential role in the sociopolitical formations of the region, their implications are poorly understood. Affective Spaces: The Cultural Politics of Emotion in China (forthcoming, Edinburgh University Press) explains why and […]
Book Talk: Disorienting Politics mines 21st-century media artifacts to make visible the economic, cultural, political, and ecological entanglements of China and the United States. These “Chimerican media,” originating in America but circulating beyond national boundaries, co-create the figure of rising China and demonstrate the ways in which race is embedded in geopolitics evenwhen the subject […]