• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.148-168
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• 2020

In April, 2020, amid widespread fear of a second wave of infections of the novel coronavirus in China, local authorities in Guangzhou cracked down on the city's black population, resulting in mass evictions of Africans. The incident raises several questions about racism in China. How should we interpret this heavy-handed treatment of black people? Was this an isolated incident? What motivated such operations? In this article, I explain social control of Guangzhou's African communities as a problem of municipal politics. What underlies the government's heavy handed approach, I argue, are those communities' ties to rurality, which constitute a roadblock in the city's urban upgrade. Using Dengfeng Village, one of the best known African communities in China, as a case study, I show that efforts to upgrade the area by the local state and the real estate industry were frustrated by the community's status as an urban village. Africans, whom Chinese have historically associated with rurality, are seen as contributing to a space that has long been stigmatized as a spatial manifestation of rural people's lack of self-discipline. To better reveal the interconnection between social control and urban politics, I place official action in context of the history of the community's formation and the lived experience. This analysis of Dengfeng applies to various extents to other major African communities in Guangzhou.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.20-39
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• 2020

In order to overturn the exclusion of Korean schools from the newly implemented free tuition program (2010) as part of sanctions against North Korea, members of Korean schools and Japanese supporters have focused on "students' innocence" and "multicultural coexistence" as viable frameworks to explain why the students are sympathetic and legitimate subjects who deserve equal rights. Examining different political strategies employed by the Korean schools and their supporters through ethnography and media analysis, the article pays close attention to how they claim their eligibility for these rights while they negotiate state surveillance and intervention in the process. I argue that in their efforts to gain recognition as deserving and sympathetic subjects, Korean schools are trapped in what political theorist Patchen Markell calls a "permanent temptation" in pursuing "recognition." Anti-North Korea sentiments in Japan have made the desire for good recognition even more urgent among Korean school community members. The paper will demonstrate that the search for recognition unwittingly reinforces and perpetuates existing relations of subordination and state dominance over their education as it has forced the Korean schools to accept various "conditions" that would radically alter the core principle, mission, and pedagogy of Korean school education that is rooted in decolonizing theory and praxis. This paper will shed lights on dilemma of multicultural coexistence the Korean minority population faces in Japan today.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.40-60
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• 2020

Among Filipino entertainers in Japan, trans women (transgender women) or transpinay (Filipino trans woman) entertainers remain understudied compared to cisgender women. Though the number of entertainers has declined, transpinay entertainers remain relevant as transgender issues continue to be salient globally. This study explains the gendered experiences of the transpinay migrants, particularly in entertainment work and their relationships, which are different from cisgender Filipino women entertainers' experiences. Using grounded theory and drawing on concepts of performativity in interactions to analyze the narratives of transpinay entertainers, I delve into how transpinay entertainers negotiate their gender and migrant identities as they establish professional and personal relationships. Moreover, the transpinays' entertainment work is a significant contributing factor to their sense of belonging in Japan, as they form relationships with colleagues, clients, and partners who support them and, thereby, sustain their lifestyles as trans women. The transpinay entertainers' flows of migration between Japan and the Philippines reveal that they embrace various aspects of social remittances and use them to their advantage to create and enhance their transpinay identity in Japan. By examining the transpinays' migrant experiences, this study aims to elucidate the gendered experiences of transpinay entertainers, which involve significant negotiations in their migration pathways notably different from cisgender Filipino women entertainers, reveal resilience.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.61-83
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• 2020

From 1959 to 1984, over 93,000 Koreans moved to North Korea from Japan as part of a repatriation project conducted during this time. Among them were people who had escaped from North Korea and immigrated to Japan and South Korea as well as the descendants of such people. This research examines the immigration trajectories of North Korean defectors related to the repatriation project and its effects on international relations in East Asia in a migration systems context. Specifically, it focuses on 26 North Korean defectors who have connections with Japan and settled in Japan and South Korea. It argues that the migration pathways of North Korean defectors linked with the repatriation project have been constructed with the cooperation of and amidst conflict between East Asian countries. To respond to the situation, North Korean defectors used their connections with Japan in amicable relations between Japan and China. However, after the relations went sour, defectors turned to informal transitional networks. If these strategies were unavailable, the defectors faced difficulties, unless they received social or capital support from the destination countries. After entering the destination country, those who settled in Japan have experienced different situations due to the inconsistency in administrative proceedings, while those in South Korea have been treated equally as other defectors. In this sense, some defectors have faced precarious situations in their immigration.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.551-562
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• 2021

Strategic management of universities is crucial for the regional competitiveness due to the high impact of universities on the economic growth of regions through entrepreneurial training and support. The study aimed to investigate the HEInnovate self-assessment tool, valuable in building entrepreneurship-oriented strategy, by considering the case of Turan University. The tool can be used to study entrepreneurial capabilities of the university and make strong management decisions. The self-assessment allows getting feedback from all stakeholders, including external ones, which helps to make institutional changes to influence the regional economic growth. The framework of the research is based on the theories of strategic management and regional competitiveness, which can be deployed with the HEInnovate self-assessment recommendations and findings. The research methodology comprises objective and functional approaches to system analysis. HEInnovate self-assessment by Turan university revealed some weaknesses in the university strategy and helped make some recommendations, namely, the university's entrepreneurial ecosystem must act as part of a regional business support ecosystem to provide input into local economic development, attract more international faculty and faculty with more practical experience, create an entrepreneurial culture across staff of the university, address a lack of internal structures to support staff, and improve university-business cooperation.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.84-103
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• 2020

Spurred by the ongoing globalization, an increase in mobility has diversified migrant categories and strengthened intercultural rapport. Alongside the "traditional" migrants, "White" (Caucasian) individuals are coming into greater focus of migration studies as "lifestyle migrants". Although White migrations are not a new phenomenon, the deep-seated idea of White supremacy continues to play an important role in contemporary intercultural communication, awarding Whites across communities a "cosmopolitan" status of highly educated cultural elites. As such, the focus of this research is on highly skilled White European migrants, on their subjective experiences of integration in Japan, and whether they perceive Whiteness as an obstacle or an advantage in this process, if integration is desired at all. To discern the connection between race and integration, this research investigates the non-White majority society of Japan as it has established racial hierarchies according to the Western models, consequently influencing the status of its contemporary White immigrants. Privileged, yet singled out as racial and cultural role models, White Europeans' integration seemingly becomes nearly impossible. The data obtained in fifteen semi-structured interviews confirms that Whiteness grants advantages when entering the Japanese job market, but remains an obstacle in everyday community integration. European professionals do not feel accepted and abandon efforts to integrate, if such were made, retreating into "cosmopolitan islets" wherein they renegotiate their White European identities.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.234-263
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• 2020

This study aims to assess the quality of the EU's public diplomacy efforts through social media. Specifically, this research explores the headquarters of European public diplomacy (European External Action Service, EEAS) and its subordinate agent (EU Delegation to South Korea, EUDK). The main research question is "how coherently and effectively does the EU execute public diplomacy strategies in the third countries?'' This study employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches―the former for the results presentation and the latter for the results interpretation. The results are summarized in two points. First, both the EEAS and the EUDK maintained an objective position by posting only neutral perspectives on their social media. Second, the narratives of the main actors were the same, but the main themes were different according to their contexts. The analysis discusses the effectiveness of the EU's strategic narratives by focusing on measuring message reception. Its limited findings were that social media postings could not induce the audiences' active discussion of the EU's diplomatic performances. The conclusion suggests that the EU should identify the expectations from its global counterparts and use these to forge the Union's strategic narratives.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.197-215
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• 2020

Teaching has become a feminized profession, especially in elementary teaching, in which it is regarded as "women's work." Concerns about the "extinction" of men in the field resulted in calls for male teachers. While studies indicate that there is positive discrimination in favor of men (despite the feminization of teaching), it appears that there are also forms of discrimination that work against them. As such this study explored the challenges of being a male in the feminized profession from the perspective of male teacher candidates. Studies in the field of teacher education in the Philippines mainly focus on curriculum and students' academic achievement, hence an inquiry must be done on the plight of male teachers in a gendered profession. A phenomenological study was employed to look into the realities of six male teacher candidates. Findings show that male teachers are: (1) leadership-destined; (2) conflicted; (3) limited; and (4) devalued. The narrative of male teachers in the Philippine education sector reveals the need to revisit programs and policies in professional development and support. Finally, recommendations are made for teacher education programs to guide teacher candidates' experiences towards a more inclusive profession.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.102-119
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• 2021

Social credit rating in China (SCRC) has been criticized as "dystopian" and "Orwellian," an attempt by the Communist Party to hold onto power by exerting ever greater control over its citizens. To explain such measures, value differences are often invoked, that Chinese value stability and cooperation over privacy and freedom. However, these explanations are oversimplifications that result in ethical impasses. This article argues social credit rating should be understood in terms of the commonly human problem of large-scale cooperation. To do so, this paper relies on a cultural evolutionary framework and is an exercise in interpretive pros hen ethical pluralism, attempting to understand how apparently irresolvable cultural differences stem from common human concerns. Wholesale condemnation of SCRC fails to acknowledge the serious, intractable nature of problems resulting from a lack of trust in China. They take for granted the existence of institutions ensuring largescale, anonymous cooperation characteristic of - but somewhat unique to - Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) cultures. Because of its history and rapid development, China lacks the institutions necessary to ensure such cooperation, and because of anti-social punishment, social credit rating might be one of the few ways to ensure cooperation at this scale. The point is not to defend social credit rating in general, but to raise the possibility of its defense in China and show one way this would be done.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.44-72
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• 2021

This study analyses North and South Koreas' coverage as framed by the main Polish press titles from 1989 to 2019. The main method applied is a computational textual analysis of press articles based on frequency, correlations and co-occurrences. The purpose is to map the topics of the examined articles in the context of relations between Poland and the two Koreas in various areas, predominantly political and economic relations. Emphasis is placed on the impact the carmaker Daewoo's investment in Poland in the mid-1990s had on bilateral Polish-South Korean relations. First, the authors argue that Korean issues in the Polish press, mainly in the second half of the 1990s, particularly concerned economic affairs. Secondly, they argue that after Poland's accession to the European Union in 2004, the country's interest in the two Koreas decreased, and since that time has remained at a more or less constant level. Finally, the authors discuss the outcome of the research in the context of the main developments in Polish-Korean relations, taking into consideration the results of a Polish public opinion survey presenting the international linkages between national public opinion and foreign policy.