East Asia Forum Quarterly
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EASTECONOMicS, POliticS anD PUblicASIA POlicY in EAST ASia anDFORUM THE Pacific Vol.8 No.2 April–June 2016 $9.50 Quarterly Gender and sexuality Sharyn Graham Davies Indonesia’s anti-LGBT panic Bronwen Dalton and Kyungja Jung Femininity in North Korea Vera Mackie Closing the gender gap in Japan Katharine H. S. Moon Women and politics in East Asia ... and more ASIAN REVIEW — Robert A. Manning and James J. Przystup: What might a new Asian order look like? EASTASIAFORUM CONTENTS 3 GENG SONG Quarterly Changing masculinities in East Asian pop ISSN 1837-5081 (print) ISSN 1837-509X (online) culture 6 JU HUI JUDY HAN From the editors’ desk The politics of homophobia in South Korea The dynamism seen in contemporary Asia has a deep gender 8 SHARYN GRAHAM DAVIES dimension. Indonesia’s anti-LGBT panic Rapid economic changes have fundamentally challenged the 11 KATHRYN ROBINSON traditional division of labour of women working in the private, family Religion, gender and the state in domain and men in the public sphere of commerce and politics. Greater Indonesia participation by women in politics has reshaped agendas for social 13 CHEN TINGTING change. Domestic violence: why legal change The seemingly fixed images of masculinity and femininity are in alone is not enough flux, accelerated by the commercialisation of popular culture across the 15 M. GOVINDA RAO region. Although the LGBT community is still struggling to gain wider ASIAN REVIEW: Making federalism acceptance, it has made strides that have challenged the hegemonic status work for India of heteronormativity. 19 ROBERT A. MANNING AND JAMES J. PRZYSTUP In the area of body politics, where the state and religious groups still exert enormous influence, women have been resisting or sometimes ASIAN REVIEW: What might a new Asian order look like? appropriating the debate to put forward their own agenda. The search for 23 CAROLINE NORMA employment or new life opportunities has driven thousands of women to migrate, legally or illegally, within Asia as brides, labourers, traders or sex East Asia’s pornography trade and abuse of human rights workers. 26 HYUN MEE KIM In the midst of these transformations, there has been encouraging The ‘strangest others’ find a place at home evidence of legal changes that recognise the rights of women, exemplified in the abolition of various patriarchal laws, such as South Korea’s family- 28 SABINE FRÜHSTÜCK head system, or by the enactment of equal opportunity laws or the lifting Japan’s military battles its own male-dominated culture of bans on women in the military. Yet old discriminatory norms and practices persist and are further complicated by regional political and 30 BRONWEN DALTON AND KYUNGJA JUNG economic developments. Women’s image transformed: femininity This issue of East Asia Forum Quarterly brings together prominent in North Korea scholars of gender studies from various countries and disciplines to 32 VERA MACKIE explore the diversity and complexity of issues of gender and sexuality in Closing the gender gap in Japan contemporary Asia. The essays touch on major developments that have 34 KATHARINE H. S. MOON caused shifts in gender relations. They illustrate the tensions between structural violence against women and women’s own agency in coping Women and politics in East Asia with male-dominant social arrangements. The main message is that gender politics do not merely reflect societal shifts. They drive the political, economic and cultural changes that are transforming the 21st century Asian region. The Asian Review section looks at the future of Indian federalism and COVER: A Filipino protester from a gay and lesbian the question of a new regional order. activist group mocks ‘Lady Justice’ at a rally in Manila which called for the resignation of then Philippines Hyaeweol Choi and Tessa Morris-Suzuki President Benigno Aquino. PICTURE: DENNIS M. SABANGAN / EPA / AAP. 2 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 cultural traNSactIoN picture: AAP The fans’ favourite: South Korean actor Song Joong-ki, epitome of the current trend towards Pan-East Asian soft masculinity. Changing masculinities in East Asian pop culture GENG SONG young women who are fixated with eyes. These types of images are mainly the handsome male protagonist played produced and circulated by the ESCENDANTS of the Sun, by Song Joong-ki. It is reported that ‘Korean Wave’ and Japanese anime, D a South Korean TV drama a jealous husband in China one night comics and games (ACG) culture. It is featuring a romance between a soldier drunkenly stormed into a photography well received by youth across most of and a surgeon in a fictional war-torn studio and demanded that the shop East Asia, and presents a significant nation, is reigniting K-drama fever owner take pictures to ‘make him look response to the globally hegemonic across Asia. In China alone, where the like Song’. masculine ideal based on the image of program is simultaneously broadcast The cult of male beauty associated the transnational businessman. online, it has drawn more than 2.4 with Descendants of the Sun is Some claim that the success of billion views on video-streaming reminiscent of a recent trend that South Korean and Japanese pop website iQIYI since it began airing in has been termed ‘Pan-East Asian soft culture lies in attempts to make it late February. masculinity’—male images that are mugukjeok or ‘culturally odourless’ by Its fandom is mostly composed of exceptionally feminine to Western downplaying their national specificity. EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 3 But for many others its popularity the current popularity can be largely explained by its EASTASIAFORUM representations of Pan-East Asian soft Quarterly of these images of masculinity. Pan-East Asian soft masculinity has masculine beauty also EDITORIAL STAFF its roots in the Confucian tradition of scholar masculinity shared by many reflects the influence of Issue Editors East Asian cultures, such as the wen Hyaeweol Choi, Director, Korea (literary attainment) masculinity in the metrosexual trend Institute, and ANU-Korea Foundation China or seonbi (scholar-officials) Professor of Korean Studies, College of masculinity in Korean history. Asia and the Pacific, ANU. from the West The talented scholar is physically Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Professor of weak, delicate and handsome, with Japanese History, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU. androgynous beauty. He is desirable to Series Editors women by dint of his knowledge and literary gifts. The popularity of zhainan in China Peter Drysdale, Head, East Asia Forum and East Asian Bureau of Economic At the same time, the current may be explained by the discourse in Research at the Crawford School of popularity of these images of premodern Chinese literature on the Public Policy, ANU. masculine beauty also reflects the ‘purity’ of men who have obsessions. Shiro Armstrong, Director, Australia- influence of the metrosexual trend Compared with zhainan, the word Japan Research Centre and Executive from the West. This indicates that meng bears an even more direct link Director, EAF and EABER, Crawford masculinity has become increasingly with Japanese pop culture, being School, ANU. pluralistic and hybridised in a rapidly the Chinese pronunciation of the Editorial Staff globalising East Asia. Japanese character moe. Moe, which Coordination: Sam Hardwick. One conspicuous example of the originally meant ‘budding’ or ‘burning’, Editing: Alison Darby, Patrick Deegan, Catherine Yen, Liam Gammon, Rosa transnational flow of male images now refers to a particular kind of Bishop, Sam Hardwick, Michael Wijnen, in East Asia is the spread of otaku ‘adorable’ or ‘cute’ preadolescent ANU. culture. With the international girl in ACG culture. Like otaku, the Editorial Advisers: Peter Fuller, Max spread of anime and manga, the term word has undergone transformations Suich. otaku has entered other cultures in meaning and usage during its Production: Peter Fuller, Words & Pics. and generated new expressions. In migration to China. Original design: Peter Schofield. Chinese, the vogue word zhainan (the In the Chinese context, meng, which Email [email protected], Chinese pronunciation of the Japanese can be used as a noun, adjective or [email protected]. kanji for otaku) refers to a socially even a verb, has become a trendy word awkward young man who secludes among young people, particularly in himself in his home all day, indulging cyberspace. It can be used to describe The views expressed are those of the individual in computer games, anime and geek a wide of range of things: from authors and do not represent the views of the culture. children’s expressions to President Xi Crawford School, ANU, EABER, EAF, or the Despite the Japanese term’s Jinping’s new hairstyle. Notably, it is institutions to which the authors are attached. association with antisocial behaviour, increasingly used to describe loveliness more and more young men in Chinese in men. When a man is referred to as cities identify themselves as zhainan meng, there is a (positive) implication and the term has come to indicate a of femininity. The popularity of desirable form of masculinity. There zhainan and meng in China, on the are Web essays on how to woo a whole, represents a growing cultural Published by ANU Press zhainan and love stories featuring high convergence among East Asian The Australian National University school students and their zhainan countries. Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] teacher. The zhai lifestyle has even The ‘softness’ of Pan-East Asian Web: http://press.anu.edu.au become a trend among urban youth. masculinity also lies in its more 4 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 sensitive and caring attitude toward played by Wu Xiubo used to be a and soldiers reflects stereotypes women. The ‘Herbivore Man’ (sōshoku renowned doctor in Beijing but gives that are deeply rooted in the danshi) in Japan and South Korea, and up his career in order to look after his collective memory and imagination ‘Warm Man’ (nuan nan) in China are teenage daughter in the United States.