THE PRINCETON JOURNAL OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES
VOLUME IV
SPRING 2013
PRINCETON JOURNAL OF EAST ASIAN STUDIES
EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Anji Shin ’13 Jenna Song ’14
COPY EDITORS Gavin Cook ’15 Charles Fortin ’15 Kevin Liaw ’15
LAYOUT EDITOR Jiweon Kim ’15
FINANCE & OPERATIONS TEAM Ben Chang ’14 Ryan T. Kang ’14 Kevin Liaw ’15 Jay Park ’16 Samantha Wu ’16
IT TEAM IT MANAGER Pavel Shibayev ’15 STAFF Jenny Nan Jiang ’16
CHINA EDITORIAL TEAM JAPAN EDITORIAL TEAM KOREA EDITORIAL TEAM ASSOCIATE EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR Charles Fortin ’15 Ben Chang ’14 Ryan T. Kang ’14 EDITORS EDITORS EDITORS Ben Chang ’14 Charles Fortin ’15 Jennifer Cho ’15 Gavin Cook ’15 Tzu-Yung Huang ’15 Jisoo Han ’14 Adrienne Fung ’14 Marina Kaneko ’15 Jee Eun Lee ’15 Rebecca Haynes ’15 Ryan T. Kang ’14 Jay Park ’16 Tzu-Yung Huang ’15 Christian Edwards van Alicia Huaze Li ’16! Muijen ’15 Cameron White ’14 ! !
TABLE OF CONTENTS ! ! 1. PRETTIER IN PINK: IDENTITY RECONSTRUCTION AMONG RURAL MIGRANT WOMEN IN MARY KAY CHINA | JAMNAH MORTON | COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 1
2. THE PARADOX OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND OTHER CHALLENGES: LABOR RESISTANCE IN CONTEMPORARY BEIJING | RUODI DUAN | AMHERST COLLEGE 26
3. THE INTERSECTION OF CHRISTIANITY AND SUICIDE IN SOUTH KOREA| KRISTEN KIM | PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 39
4. EURASIANS IN EARLY COLONIAL HONG KONG | KIM DENG | THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG 53
5. THE EXOTIC WOMEN OF THE WEST: DEPICTIONS OF NANBAN WOMEN IN THE MOMOYAMA PERIOD | AMANDA TSAO | COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 73
6. KOREAN COMFORT WOMEN: NATIONALIST DISCOURSE IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH KOREA | JUDY PARK |HARVARD UNIVERSITY 83
7. ‘STRANGE KALEIDOSCOPIC SCENES’: WESTERN REPRESENTATIONS OF JAPANESE CITIES IN MEIJI, 1868-1912 | HANNAH SHEPHERD | HARVARD UNIVERSITY 102
8. RE-BALANCING OR COUNTER-BALANCING? ASSESSING AMERICA’S RESPONSE TO CHINA’S RISE THROUGH BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES | ESTHER TRANLE | NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 115
9. PEARLS OF THE FAR EAST: REMAKING AND RECLAIMING VIETNAM THROUGH CINEMA | ELIZABETH SHIM | NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 130 PRETTIER IN PINK: Identity Reconstruction Among Rural Migrant Women in Mary Kay China Jamnah Morton Columbia University
ABSTRACT in the business despite prolonged individual unprofitability. Rural migrant women in China commonly face abusive work conditions INTRODUCTION that exacerbate the hardships associated with social dislocation. Limited access to While clothes may not make the woman, financial and social resources, coupled they certainly have a strong effect on her with China’s stigmatization of migrant self-confidence—which, I believe, does laborers, makes urban integration make the woman. extremely difficult for many migrant women. However, Mary Kay China, the Mary Kay Ashi Chinese subsidiary of American-based cosmetics company Mary Kay Inc., For migrant women in Mainland China, presents a contrary case of empowerment labor is often just another domain of though migrant labor. Comprising a vast social stigmatization. Abuse and majority of the beauty consultant discrimination are common realities for workforce, female migrants act as rural women joining the urban labor entrepreneurs within Mary Kay’s direct force, and many women have little selling business model, marketing recourse for social, financial, and physical cosmetic products and services and security. ii Disparaging migrant labor managing their own client base. This conditions have a number of negative article aims to examine how these women consequences for mental health in renegotiate their migrant identities and particular, and can induce emotional and overcome marginalization through this psychological damage that affects key participation in labor. factors related to self-perception. iii Based on interviews with migrant However, for some migrant women the distributors and an analysis of an online workplace may also serve as a vehicle for network of beauty consultants, this article identity reconstruction whereby they may found that migrant women were able to transcend the social labels that connote construct and perform alternative selves their position with inferiority. Drawing through four main mediums: material from the personal narratives of migrant gains, organizational aesthetics, a cohesive beauty consultants in Mary Kay China, social network, and strong ideological this article asserts that labor participation mechanisms. These avenues serve both as can be formative and constructive for pull factors for new distributors and as some female migrant workers, and performance motivators in congruence explores the ways in which employment with the economic interests of the firm. facilitates the negotiation of selfhood. Additionally, some narratives indicate that Although much research has been these devices effectively retain consultants conducted on the sociology of networking
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 1! and direct selling, this study is compelling CHINA’S RURAL MIGRANTS due to the paucity of gendered analysis and the lack of consideration of rural Over the last quarter century, China’s migrants in the literature.iv Furthermore, rapid economic development and the case enterprise is an American-based urbanization have been inextricably direct selling organization, characterized involved with rural-urban migration on an by a very different working dynamic, unprecedented scale. Since the compensation system and organizational government reforms of the early 1980s, structure from companies in the textile, China’s urban population has expanded by service and manufacturing industries in about 440 million to 622 million people in which Chinese migrant women are 2009; about 340 million of the 440 million commonly employed. v Mary Kay’s were due to urban reclassification and net relationship-driven business model and migration. vii Estimates from China’s Western origins also provide a unique set National Bureau of Statistics show the of angles from which to assess migrant total migrant labor population has grown women’s labor participation. Its core from approximately 30 million to over branding of femininity and its nuclear, 250 million migrant workers between surrogate-family structure inspire new 1989 and 2011.viii In 2012, by the end of social possibilities for rural workers not the third quarter alone, the number of commonly found in other companies in rural migrant laborers exceeded 168 China. vi It is the aim of this study to million, representing a 3 percent increase contribute to the understanding of from the previous year.ix Although issues Chinese women’s labor activities as it of statistical integrity continue to plague relates to their migrant status within this the study of migration trends, the context. significance of migrant labor in China is The article proceeds in the unquestionable.x following order. First, recent migration The influx of rural women into trends and common themes associated urban areas indicates a feminization of with the female migration experience, labor and migration, given the push-and- particularly with regards to migrant pull factors and segmented labor markets women, will be briefly outlined. Second, a specifically encountered by women. xi profile of the Mary Kay Company will be Females comprise a substantial minority presented followed by an analysis of of China’s floating population. In the early beauty consultant interviews and profiles 2000s, women were estimated to comprise from an unofficial company website, about 50 percent of the migrant Hicay.com, to develop a more nuanced population. xii This represents a interpretation of the migrant-enterprise considerable increase from various relationship. Third, organizational social estimates during the 1990s, which range theories and ideas related to identity from 30 percent to 40 percent.xiii Many construction will be explored in an move from the countryside in search of attempt to explain the subjects’ employment opportunities and better motivations and methods of self- wages, though motivations are not always conceptualization in their particular social purely economic.xiv circumstances. The article closes with a To position the migrant women as discussion on possible implications helpless victims undermines personal beyond the study of gendered migration. narratives in which, regardless of indicators of the contrary, they indeed feel
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 2! themselves to be more confident and self- rural migrant women demonstrate the aware.xv Certainly for many rural women, dominant notions of acceptable identity the transition to urban life is often within the urban environment. Migrant wrought with social and institutional women are penalized for their incongruity prejudice, and their subordination as of speech, dress, mannerisms, physical “second-class” citizen is reinforced in appearance, and other qualities. While their destination area. This extends to the urban residents typify characteristics of corporate sphere, where many migrant rural migrants that may not actually be women who are able to procure part of an individual migrant’s identity employment are exploited and abused by (descriptors like “inferior,” “incapable,” their employers. A lack of sufficient social and “violent” are not uncommon) this capital pre-migration can undermine their scheme of marginalization inadvertently ability to rebuild it once they have makes rural women distinctly aware of relocated: guanxi, for instance, a cultural their contrariness, which they then form of social capital and one crucial in internalize as defects. xviii The idea of Chinese relationships, is an important tool personal reconstruction explored here is for negotiating the migration process— closely related to the female migrant preliminary jobs are often secured this identified as a marginal subject, way to ensure a source of income post- challenging and responding to the migration—but rural women tend to lack dominant social framework in which she this kind of bargaining power, increasing creates and asserts her identity. their vulnerability. xvi At the same time, some arguments maintain that migration MARY KAY CHINA actually promotes female autonomy, and Beneficiaries of the boom in the Chinese that the influences of urban culture are migrant labor population are not limited sustained when a woman returns to her to domestic enterprises. As the Chinese rural hometown. xvii The present article economy has expanded, foreign reconciles these views by analyzing a kind companies have established a presence of labor participation, motivated by the throughout the country to take advantage desire to address the residual effects of of the rapidly expanding consumer market such negative experiences, as a way to and a large and inexpensive labor force. achieve some self-determination. The trend of foreign enterprises operating Understanding the circumstances in China has had significant economic and that surround the female migrant social implications for the country as new experience is crucial to understanding the job opportunities open for migrant context within which their identity women.xix A majority of female migrants reconstruction occurs. Each migratory work in manufacturing or social service experience is deeply subjective and jobs, though occupational gender diverse, and not all Chinese women segregation pushes women more into encounter the same challenges. However, unskilled, lower-paid, and labor-intensive migration is not only characterized by the industries.xx relocation of an individual migrant, but The Mary Kay Cosmetics also involves the perturbation of local Company, known in China as social groups in which the migrant (meilinkai), entered the Chinese market in attempts to integrate and form durable 1994, more than 30 years after its relationships. The hostility, intolerance inception in the United States. Their and distrust of urban residents towards subsidiary was officially registered a year
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 3! later as the Mary Kay (China) Cosmetics to color cosmetics. In the United States, Ltd. To comply with government Mary Kay’s corporate motto is “God first, regulations on consumer goods family second, career third,” but was production, Mary Kay founded a changed to replace “God” with manufacturing plant in Hangzhou, the “Principle” when the company expanded capital of Zhejiang province. xxi Since its into China, an officially atheist nation. arrival, the company has been Besides these modifications, the operating commercially successful and has invested structure and emotionally oriented over $100 million in its business in company culture have remained in the China.xxii In 2010, the company boasted a Chinese subsidiary.xxv 2.9 percent market share of China’s total Mary Kay has greatly benefited beauty and personal care market due to from China’s booming beauty industry increased customer spending and and the substantial increase in demand for considerable expansion in their sales cosmetic products. Within the past few force, comprising hundreds of thousands decades, the rapid expansion of the of independent distributors.xxiii Chinese economy has created many new With the beneficent purpose of opportunities for buyers and suppliers. As “Enriching women’s lives,” Mary Kay domestic and international cosmetics specializes in developing, manufacturing, firms innovate for and adapt to the and selling color cosmetics, skin care, Chinese market, a growing number of fragrances, and other beauty products for consumers, particularly Chinese women, women and men. The company is a well- spend increasingly large amounts of recognized and long-established member disposable income on cosmetics products, of the direct selling business (also known amounting to an estimated $23.6 billion as “network direct selling,” “multilevel for China’s beauty business in 2011. xxvi marketing,” or “network marketing”), an The pursuit of beauty in China is not a industry started in the United States in the new phenomenon, but under the Mao early 20th century. In the direct selling regime in the 1960s and 1970s cosmetics platform, individuals are recruited to be and other personal adornments were “independent distributors”—or in the condemned as “bourgeoisie” and banned case of Mary Kay, beauty consultants ( from Communist society.xxvii The reforms meirongguwen)—and must rely enacted following this period had drastic solely on personal networks and face-to- implications not only for economic face interaction to develop their business development, but also societal exposure to and recruit new members. In terms of globalization and Western-style consumer compensation, older distributors receive a capitalism. The subsequent “million-dollar percentage of the commissions earned by boom” of the beauty industry has brought new and attractive opportunities for rural the younger, less experienced distributors xxviii they hire and train.xxiv women looking for jobs in the cities. For the most part, this business Multiple sources indicated that model has been transplanted successfully rural migrant women comprise a considerable majority of Mary Kay into China, though products and xxix marketing strategies have been adjusted to China’s consultant sales force, an fit the Chinese market. In line with the unexpected statistic given the company’s distinctly Western culture and business cultural beauty standard of young, pale xxx skin, there is more emphasis on anti-aging principles. As one journalist amusingly and skin whitening products as opposed summarized, Mary Kay is “part down-
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 4! home faith…part New Agey, Oprah- lower to the higher end of the economic esque self-realization, and part good old spectrum, a migrant takes on the American hucksterism/optimism,” hardly distinction of a marginalized, out-of-place the characteristics of a company one and subordinated “other.” For migrant would expect to attract so many migrant women, this manifests in a range of workers. xxxi The direct selling business forms, from gender discrimination and model it operates additionally demands sexual exploitation to institutional considerable network construction and restrictions and government control. The management, which would expectedly tools one might use to actively renegotiate pose unfamiliar challenges to a migrant one’s own identity, such as financial distributor.xxxii resources or durable relationships, are Findings of this article suggest that often out of reach for migrant women.xxxv the company provides these employees In this article, identity refers to a with more than just income, and so the multifarious medium by which intra- and factors for joining and staying at the firm interpersonal interactions are interpreted go beyond financial reasons. In their and reacted to.xxxvi In the construction of interviews, a number of women voiced identity, alterations in meanings and the sensibility that a job at Mary Kay was categorizations associated with the person more than a job—it was a way to enhance are implicit in alterations of the person’s one’s life by enhancing the lives of other identity. Construction is both an women.xxxiii The company and its aesthetic, internalizing and externalizing process in commercial, and operational dimensions which the self is conveyed to others from create an environment in which identity within and draws its distinctions from the transformation becomes the raison d'être outside world, though the of a beauty consultant, both for herself interrelationship between the self and and her clients. The highly visual and external social structures is multifaceted social nature of the cosmetics business and indefinite. xxxvii Identity, self- moreover provides a migrant consultant conceptualization, and self-perception are with avenues of affirmation and used here interchangeably. confirmation of her transformed identity. It is the focus of this article, using Becoming a Mary Kay consultant is then a the beauty consultants of Mary Kay way to become an approved, and even China, to explore how migrant women esteemed, member of urban society. utilize their occupation as a vehicle for identity negotiation to rectify the The Migrant Self “otherness” imposed on them. The The migratory experience does not just presentation and operation of an identity involve spatial reorientation. Dialogues depend heavily on its social context. As between the self and others are disturbed migration is essentially a change of as a migrant moves from one location to contexts, including changes in another. This change of social and employment and labor conditions, physical place results in a change in how migrant women invariably find themselves one’s identity is understood by the self in a situation of identity and others; the familiar framework in reconstruction. xxxviii Scholarship suggests which the self had been performed no that not much research on the sociology longer exists. xxxiv In the process of of organizations and identities deals migration, most prominently where there directly with the contribution of a is a transition in environment from the professional environment to the
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 5! development of personal biography. xxxix misinterpretations. Upon approval by the However, to neglect the workplace as an participant, a questionnaire would be institutional source of the self discounts emailed for completion and returned the the clearly collaborative process by which same way (see Appendix B for interview one’s self-identity is established. xl An questions). External translation assistance attempt will be made to articulate the was used to construct the surveys, though significance of this phenomenon for the all translations from Chinese to English, success of the enterprise itself, principally and any errors therein, are mine. to underscore the give-and-take nature of selfhood creation, though a thorough DEVICES OF IDENTITY dialogue on this counterpoint is beyond RECONSTRUCTION the aims of this work. Migrant women utilize the following METHODOLOGY devices of identity reconstruction to organize, verify and execute the changes Five Mary Kay China beauty consultants involved in personal transformation. On were interviewed for this study from the other hand, the company uses these September 2012 to November 2012. All implements to promote commercially women were rural migrants and had successful behaviors and to cohere its worked or were working as beauty workforce under a normative corporate consultants at the time of their interviews identity. In the case of Mary Kay China, (see Appendix A for participants’ each of the points presented is a nexus of background information). A sixth woman, interaction involved in identity who was not a rural migrant, was construction that has been identified interviewed for her extensive experience between the company and its consultants. managing and training rural migrant These items were also expressed in women for the company. Participants interviews as primary motivators or points were contacted through professional of attraction for one seeking a career as a profiles published online, and interview beauty consultant. As will be discussed in materials were sent via email. more detail later, the organization thus Angela BeiBei Bao, who had provides both method and means by conducted fieldwork on Mary Kay China which a migrant woman may assume a for an unrelated project, collected the new and improved self. The points are as other interviews cited in 2009. She follows: Material gains, organizational provided transcripts of her interviews with aesthetics, cohesive social network, and migrant beauty consultants, and also took strong ideological mechanisms. part in this research as an interview Material gains: Earnings subject. Some of the transcripts were in potential is a frequently cited motivator both Chinese and English; the content for joining Mary Kay as a beauty incorporated here is the result of my own consultant. While this comes as no translation efforts. Including these surprise, the commission-based sources, a total of 13 interviews were compensation structure for distributors consulted. presents an interesting dynamic. Although All written correspondence with the goal is to generate revenue from direct Mary Kay employees was conducted in product sales to clients, management Chinese and supplemented with English heavily emphasizes the recruitment of translations to counter any other women. All the interviewees recalled
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 6! starting at their jobs at the prompting of consultants, and this leads many women soliciting beauty consultants or their to quit early.xlvi friends who were already active Mary Kay Monthly income quotas are also a distributors. Recruitment is a fairly sore point for beauty consultants, lucrative source of income due to the especially due to the unpredictable nature commissions that drives the of the business, though opinions vary on compensation scheme. A consultant’s the topic. For junior consultants, monthly sales commission can reach up to aggregate monthly take-home pay can 30 percent depending on whether the total range from RMB1,000 to RMB3,000, order value for that month surpasses a roughly $160 to $480 US dollars, though minimum threshold. xli However, what this figure can fluctuate greatly depending remains of the proceeds is not always on the success of the individual. distributed in cash. Some consultants were “Sometimes people feel depressed frustrated to discover that a portion of because direct marketing is kind of their earnings was returned to them as unstable compared to other jobs, and they cosmetics of equal value.xlii can’t make regular pay,” said a distributor Additionally, one of the crucial named Hu Feihong, “but this is inevitable first steps to becoming a beauty in direct marketing.” As a senior, Hu was consultant is the purchase of products for in a position to impose quotas on her resale and use by the new hire. Depending subordinate consultants, and while she on the number of items purchased, this decided against it, she felt that tenacity initial investment can range anywhere was important in growing one’s business: from RMB1,000 to RMB5,000, or $160 to “[Consultants] should not complain about $800 US dollars.xliii,xliv New consultants are the quota (as some seniors do set them), then encouraged to reach out to their or the necessary transportation fees immediate personal network as well as a needed to attend company lectures and small starting set of clients to begin their salons. [The consultants] work for businesses. Mary Kay also requires themselves.”xlvii consultants to attend regularly held In terms of material gains, money company events for which they must pay is not the only reward. Along the career for the associated fees and travel route of a Mary Kay beauty consultant, expenditures out-of-pocket. Some women the company provides various material have argued that despite promises to the incentives and positive reinforcements for contrary by senior members, these top performers. Since it first came to “investment” costs are prohibitive, China in 1996, the iconic pink car—the particularly for women at the junior levels. models of which have varied over time Qiu Qin, a former consultant, remarked, from a Cadillac to an Escalade to a Toyota “I quit Mary Kay a year ago because I Camry—has become one of the most, if can’t make money from it. I cannot stay at not the most, coveted prizes for an the bottom of the pyramid.” xlv As the independent distributor. When asked what beauty consultants are considered motivates her to continue to work hard in entrepreneurs within a semi-traditional the company in the face of difficulties, company framework, their financial duties two interviewees simply replied, “to get are entirely their own; the company does the pink car.”xlviii In order to receive this not provide a base salary or other honor, a consultant’s yearly sales must assistance to support struggling individual exceed at least 1 million yuan—a seemingly insurmountable feat for most
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 7! consultants considering the modest Kay as she poses confidently in a black monthly incomes of juniors typically powersuit, a uniform reserved for the generate.xlix most senior distributors, in front of her While the pink car is ubiquitous in pink Cadillac. The caption reads: “It was all Mary Kay locations around the world, my dream when I reach 50 years old to its importance and prestige in this case is become such a charming woman.”li perhaps attributable to its stark visibility Figure 1. A senior consultant and her and the additional connotations it holds in pink car China. l Though the number of vehicles manufactured and sold in the country is steadily rising, private car ownership is still a significant public indicator of affluence and status. The iconic pink color of the car adds an extra dimension of prominence to the owner as an emphatic expression of femininity. For a top performer, a pink car is the ultimate form of qualification, professionally and personally, to her peers and the general public. This reward, seen by many as part of the last frontier of beauty consultancy, This kind of illustrative power is not as illustrates the importance of display, effectively exercised with monetary which is intimately connected to the idea rewards. Migrant workers that perform of identity as an exogenous product. On well may see a boost in income, for Hicay.com, the commercial and social instance, but a paycheck does not have the networking website for Chinese same visibility and recognition as a car. distributors, women post countless This performative quality maintains the photos of the pink car, ranging from stock desirability of rewards that may never be photos to personal photos of the vehicle. obtained as the women can actively Few of the cars are actually owned by the visualize their “new” selves attaining and posters: some of the vehicles often belong enjoying the pink car, regardless of where to senior colleagues while others are part they stand within the Mary Kay hierarchy. of an expansive lot of pink cars waiting to Certainly not all may find this prospect be bestowed. Women pose sitting in the enticing, but the pink car remains a highly car, leaning against it, or preparing to coveted and highly effective incentive for enter the driver’s seat, either alone or many consultants. accompanied by friends or colleagues. Given these findings, cash alone is Subjects are also often coiffed in the not a strong enough force to retain new equally iconic corporate uniform to consultants. Indeed, at least a few complete the image of an accomplished interviewees left the company for the woman—the car is a well-recognized reason that their earnings were not indicator of independent business savvy enough to cover even basic living and affluence, both within and without expenses. Still, according to Shang Qun, the Mary Kay domain. A beauty one such former distributor, many consultant named Ruan Laoshi (Fig. 1) migrant women remain drawn to the embodies the summit of success at Mary economic returns Mary Kay potentially
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 8! provides, and convince themselves of the confidence and create a new professional promise of financial success: image. For many consultants struggling Though Mary Kay teaches with their business, near-impossible goals you manners and how to sustain the myths of achievement and dress up, you can’t earn economic empowerment and drive them much from the company. to persevere.liv [For example] if my sales Organizational aesthetics: For are 10,000 yuan, I only get this section I consult heavily with Philip several hundred back as Hancock’s work on the utility of a income…Mary Kay has semiotic approach to the examination of many “direct selling organizational imagery, which is useful for refugees” – they say Mary considering the ways in which aesthetics Kay can help you make big may significantly contribute to identity money but actually their formation as “meaning is aesthetically own pockets are empty. inscribed on and through organizational I’m a relatively practical [artifacts].”lv Organizational aesthetics are person, so if I’m not the way in which an organization making money I’m not expresses certain corporate characteristics selling their products though the construction of brands, logos, anymore.lii architecture, merchandising, and other Other rural migrant women, like Liu Shan, visual tools. This also includes the were less concerned about material gain as performance and behavior of employees, an incentive. Liu already had the which are extensions of a broader economic resources to become beauty corporate identity. This apparatus of consultant with minimal investment: institutional identity play an important I don’t really care about role in the relationship between the the income. My husband employee and the enterprise as way of will support our family…I influencing identity construction. just bore my baby 11 As a cosmetics company, Mary months ago, five months Kay’s core operations involve the before I joined Mary Kay, commoditization of personal aesthetics. [and] working for Mary To convince consumers of the necessity Kay doesn’t require me to and efficacy of their products, the go to the company. I can company perpetuates normative ideas of sell products at home…I beauty while promoting an ideal identity don’t care about the that reflects their holistic philosophy. One income.liii migrant consultant informed me that Her circumstances allowed her to become “women must not only polish their a beauty consultant for the sake of other external dress, but also their mind and rewards. In this case and that of the spirit,”lvi while another woman declared, “refugees” mentioned before, the “People always say a woman without irrelevance of material gains does not makeup is like dry plastic flowers!” lvii mean identity reconstruction does not These ideas of female identity seem to be take place for economically resourceful at odds—one is not complete if her migrant women; rather, it underscores the development is only internal, and vice durability of Mary Kay’s intangible pull versa—but are delivered as parts of the factors, like the possibilities to build self- same value proposition. To inspire
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 9! commitment among consultants to continuity and quality control among deliver, and ultimately capitalize on, these consultants’ representation of the messages, the company first ensures the corporate image (e.g. three different consultants subscribe to the identity and women from different cities, Cao, Ruan, beliefs of the organization. and Zhao all feature the exact same text in An independent distributor is an their “About this site” section). active organizational artifact that As the commercial operations of exemplifies and promulgates the entity’s the organization have been extended to interpretation of aesthetics. lviii The the Internet, so too have its inherent experiences of one interviewee mechanisms for identity construction. characterizes this concept: Many beauty consultants utilize their I made the decision [to online presence as a way of increasing join] after attending one of their visibility to attract clients. Hicay.com their beauty salons in is an example of this on a national scale: Henan. I used to use their According to the unofficial company beauty products for years website, at least 100,000 beauty and found the effect consultants in China are registered and amazing…One reason use the platform to display their personal [why I chose Mary Kay] is brand to users of Mary Kay products and I love their products and other consultants (“Guanyu women”). would like to introduce it As a center of business where to more people. Before, visitors can purchase products from when I went out, people specific distributors online, Hicay.com is always praised my skin and foremost an extensive social network. It is said I didn’t look like a difficult to say with certainty what woman having a baby. I proportion of the Mary Kay China think that is Mary Kay’s salesforce is active online, the website effect.lix nonetheless provides valuable clues in The reality of cosmetic selling is determining how a migrant woman is able augmented by the belief among to reinvent herself in this space. A consultants that they are providing much consultant’s page can be navigated more than products; they are giving others through a directory from the homepage; tools essential for self-improvement. In a certain individuals, usually those who have video article by the New York Times, a performed well or received positive national sales manager from Mary Kay reviews from website users, are also China described the responsibilities of featured on the Hicay homepage. consultant in such a way: “The job of Mary Kay’s beauty consultant is to teach women how to find their own beauty. Once women become more beautiful and confident, they have the courage to do things they had never dreamed of doing.”lx Beauty consultants also share a common vocabulary in reference to this work. The introductory section of personal profiles on Hicay.com, for example, feature boilerplate marketing text, which enforces
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Figure 2. A screenshot of the Hicay.com leads to communal symbolic recognition, homepage and thus reinforcement of her identity.lxii Beauty consultants are indoctrinated as complete members of the organization through systematic enforcement of corporate-cultural norms, and collective rejection of the pre-Mary Kay identity. A new hire is first required to take courses and simple tests on skincare and cosmetic products and practices to gauge their initial knowledge, lxiii though as senior woman explained, most importantly, “becoming a Mary Kay user and fan is necessary before you become a consultant.”lxiv The rest of her career is populated with mandatory training sessions and salons, during which distributors congregate and learn best On the personal page, a consultant business practices from senior may display her basic contact information, consultants. These educational meetings personal photos, beauty news and advice, train beauty consultants how to assume communication with Mary Kay clients, the selfhood of a Mary Kay representative and other information. Some consultants as well as how to help others do the same. also feature blog-like posts, where Acculturation posed as self- cosmetic practices and company virtues improvement inherently suggests that a are common topics, as well as recruitment consultant is defective prior to assuming information for interested women. her role, and this alienation of the extra- Visitors may contact an independent corporate identity strengthens the distributor through her webpage by coherence of the organization’s aesthetics. submitting comments or questions or This is illustrated by the prevalence of messaging her directly. before-and-after photos as tools for This electronic platform provides motivation and instruction. migrant women with a channel for representation, demonstration, and communication: by being visible online in their organizational context, they are able to independently qualify an identity created by and through their role as a consultant, and likewise receive affirmation from others. It is another method of framing and presenting their new selves for the public, which arguably represents the fulfillment of an identity negotiation effort. lxi Combined with the on-the-ground operations of a distributor, online activities contribute to a positive feedback loop in which good performance
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Figure 3. A Figure 4. Past positive influence of Mary Kay. It should comparative photo photos of a senior also be noted that all three women are of a beauty consultant senior in the firm, which promotes the consultant idea of upward mobility as an added benefit of identity transformation. Figure 5 in fact depicts a single mother that achieved a national director status and was awarded a pink car; the admiring caption read: “No words can describe this single mother—at Mary Kay everyone can be as fantastic!”lxviii This transformative process is an attractive means by which a migrant woman can gain more power in Figure 5. A before-and-after photo establishing her identity. As discussed displayed at a conference previously, many women feel subordinate or inadequate compared to their urban peers. The transformation Mary Kay offers as cosmetic and spiritual improvements come across as a way to correct this dislocation in identity. Huang Juxian recalled how before she joined Mary Kay, she “was always turned down by people, [and because] I’m not pretty and my skin was bad, I always felt ashamed of myself.” But after joining the company and seeking guidance from a senior mentor, she learned the importance As a migrant consultant undergoes this of internal change as a supplement to professional transformation, she invariably external change in completing this alters her identity as one who, upon taking transformation of identity: “Gradually, I up a new job or role, learns how to feel that I’m changing. Sometimes some lxv “become” that new concept of selfhood. pretty girls are also attracted by my way of According to Naomi Na, a former sales thinking and speaking, as well as my development manager, the willingness to passion.” lxix The transformation she learn and the willingness to change are key experiences is the conformation required lxvi attributes of an ideal consultant, which by the corporate aesthetic body, and necessitates a rejection of the pre-hire self. because these overlap the resulting The right side of figures 3, 4, and 5 identity is qualified. personify the culmination of this Cohesive social network: lxvii change. Physical attributes include Relationship dynamics within the unblemished light skin, tasteful makeup, organization play a significant role in chic hairstyle, and diverse accessories. The identity negotiation and construction at bright smiles and assertive posture of the the individual level. The social aspects of women suggest confidence and self- the consultant network that reinforce a awareness. The dramatic change in new sense of collectivism basically dictate appearance and poise across the permissible methods of identity consultants attractively demonstrates the
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 12! negotiation within the organization. lxx with terms of endearment like “flower”, These dynamics also serve a practical “treasure” or “gold”; the use of real management function for which the names is actively discouraged.lxxiv Personal economic performance of the enterprise is profiles on Hicay also exhibit the use of paramount, regardless of more emotional such pet names, referring to colleagues in aspirations espoused by senior members their photos as “sisters” or “beauties.” to motivate employees.lxxi This is to say Centered on the “golden rule” of mutual that a migrant woman cannot simply join respect, friendship also parts of the and then realize a new self-concept; company etiquette: “One thing that complete subscription to the work culture attracted me to Mary Kay the most is its and performance of its social conventions golden rule: treat other people the way are necessary first before she can truly you want to be treated. Everyone I meet consummate identity negotiation. at Mary Kay smiles at me. In my former Otherwise, she remains in a liminal or companies, colleagues were always outright rejected state of definition.lxxii serious.”lxxv This amicable atmosphere is Internally, Mary Kay provides its conducive to the formation of meaningful, consultants with a mentorship system resourceful relationships within the whereby junior saleswomen defer to more company that many rural women tend to senior members for sales requirements, lack in urban areas. feedback, wisdom, and other things to Mass gatherings are an integral help them fulfill their responsibilities. This part of the consultancy system, and are scheme is inherent in the commission- intended to provide professional training based system that incentivizes women to and expertise enhancement for members. recruit other members and effectively take These events can vary in scale from local them under their wing. Workplace get-togethers to extraordinarily huge mentorship helps an inexperienced worker national conferences attended by support their transition into a new and thousands of beauty consultants around different selfhood. Mentors are both China, and serve to exemplify the models for emulation and aspiration, as collective institutional visual identity. well as a type of policing mechanism to Smaller-scale meetings are frequently enforce adherence to organizational conducted, during which consultants and norms.lxxiii consumers are encouraged to share their These relationships are formally experiences, accomplishments, or and informally structured. Commonly, grievances with others. Simultaneously, new hires will become the mentees of the these venues are also used to single out beauty consultants that screened and and criticize underperforming employed them; likewise, the new hire will consultants. lxxvi Invitations to larger also become an additional source of regional conferences are often conferred income for the hiring consultant. In as a reward for good performers, whereby congruence with the female-centric a consultant gets the opportunity to travel clientele and product focus of the abroad or domestically, meet other top company, and assisted by the all-female saleswomen and receive additional prizes, staff composition, internal relationships all expenses paid. Among these women, take on a sisterhood quality. Experienced the one with the best sales for the month consultants are often referred to with is ceremoniously recognized for her reverential names such as “older sister” or achievement, and receives applause, “teacher”, and peers refer to each other
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 13! jewelry and flowers and bestowed with the environment, and in general performs the title of “queen.”lxxvii same functions: establish internal Many women find this congress to hierarchies; provide venues for communal be enriching. “Mary Kay encouraged us to praise or chastisement; create a market for talk about our experiences in staff company products; proliferate meetings, and after the speech we receive information and advice to strengthen applause and flowers. Those are quite customer relationships; engage members encouraging.” lxxviii Another migrant in supportive dialogue to increase loyalty consultant echoed this sentiment: “Mary and encourage good performance; and Kay is famous for its ‘recognition and showcase the success of distributors to encouragement’ talk. During weekly attract more women to the network. This conferences, we encourage people is of course not an exhaustive list, and regardless if they are doing great or feel different platforms do not fulfill exclusive depressed to talk in front of people. We purposes. By considering each part, not give them applause.” lxxix “Some people only do we get a broad overview of the never have such a chance in their lives, company’s social structure, more but Mary Kay girls are lucky. I appreciate importantly, we can better understand in my company.”lxxx Many women cited these what ways the organization is involved in commendatory platforms as one of the the identity construction process for a main reasons why they continue to work migrant consultant. hard as a beauty consultant, and from a Strong ideological mechanisms: manager’s point of view, this “access to Cited by many consultants as one of the the stage” was also one of the reasons principal attractions of their organization, why rural women were drawn to work for Mary Kay’s people-oriented corporate the company. culture is firmly grounded on the Groups like Mary Kay use rituals founding tenets of the company’s creator, to create and preserve a collective identity. Mary Kay Ash. Inspired by her desire to By hosting special group activities like the counter gender-biased employment of massive regional conferences, a cohesive her time, Mary Kay’s business ideologies identity is announced and affirmed and continue to support women’s professional the values and believes of the group are and personal development and promoted with renewed vigor. The empowerment. lxxxii These principles have affirmation that takes place “occurs when resounded strongly with women around practices being celebrated are both the world, particularly those who are customary and already invested with a disenfranchised and benefit the most from high level of sacredness.”lxxxi In this way beauty consultancy financially and participants experience stronger social psychologically. lxxxiii One interviewee had cohesion with each other and greater been especially moved by her involvement commitment to the goals of the with the company: enterprise. As a result, these effects of It’s changed my old ritual warrant individual identity impressions of women in transformation in ways that are congruent the family and society. In with the identity of the group. fact, as long as a woman The social network in which a has the capacity to play consultant creates and affirms her identity leading roles, if she puts comprises a few major elements. Each is a her heart to it she can key part of the organization’s adjust her weak identity
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and give support to others. perception, the sales agent continued: This is a mature state of “Everyone can succeed! I learned how to mind and the independent really lovelxxxvii[…] my favorite thing about spirit of performance.lxxxiv doing Mary Kay is the ability to make This kind of organizational money while changing my quality of metanarrative strongly suggests positive life.” lxxxviii The consultant radiates the contributions to participation, satisfaction company’s principles to the client as an and productivity by employees. lxxxv By embodiment of what she purveys. incorporating the values and ideals of an The ideological mechanisms of the individual into the mission of the company go beyond encouraging women organization, the worker feels more to perform well professionally. As a appreciated and perceives their work to be consultant absorbs organizational lessons more meaningful and purposeful. The of externally- and internally- oriented self- assignment of a beauty consultant is “to improvement, it comes as no surprise that teach, not to sell” lxxxvi as a method of for some these changes influence other meeting the ultimate goal to help other spaces of life, and thus she is able to women improve their own lives. A utilize her transformed identity within migrant consultant is therefore not just a other social contexts. Qiu Qin illustrated seller of cosmetics—she is clearly this idea in her response: identified, through her work, as someone I joined [the company] with an enriched life and the expertise to because Mary Kay teaches guide others towards the same. Personal women how to run a congruency with the gospel of the family. Before I had quite organization means that a migrant woman a bad relationship with my can achieve, or at least believe she can family, including parents- achieve, a concept of herself that is in-law as well as a child. feminine, altruistic and competent, a far But now I can run my cry from the typical descriptors assigned family better; Mary Kay to someone that has been marginalized by taught me communication society. and social skills. Also, I am In the context of the Mary Kay better at matching clothes Company, esteemed business principles now.”lxxxix are echoed in the dialogue of women who In this case a migrant woman’s adhere to them. When referencing their transformation has enabled her to have experience as beauty consultants, there are more agency in her life with the added allusions to the overlap in personal and benefit of an improved appearance. To organizational values. One migrant her, the company has successfully helped woman’s description of a challenge she her remedy the disharmonies in her life; encountered early in her career illustrate furthermore, after quitting her job, she how an individual change impacted her remarked that despite having been unable ability to serve clients: “[Starting out] my to make reasonable income, she learned knowledge of cosmetics was really limited, things that are helpful in her new venture. so when helping clients with real Then, although a beauty problems I encountered many issues I consultant leaves the company the didn’t understand. By continuing to study, influences of her experience are lasting: I learned to come up with solutions.” On she does not leave behind the identity she how her job has influenced her self- has constructed, but carries the
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 15! impressions on her selfhood forward. quickly as the company allowed women to Before moving on from consultancy to effect social change through start her own business, Shang Qun had unprecedented financial accomplishment. found it difficult to completely assume her A news correspondent who had role as a beauty consultant due to a severe interviewed consultants in 2009 said that facial scar and an extremely hard many had left the countryside not just to background. She wrote, “My favorite find more growth opportunities but also thing about Mary Kay was its learning to escape patriarchal oppression, violence environment, but I didn’t like selling and abuse. Women that had been little cosmetics. Because my own appearance more than “the property of their husband was incomplete, I couldn’t get out of my or their husband’s mother” fled to urban comfort zone.” But after consigning to areas, where they were eventually drawn the ideology of the company and its to the image of Mary Kay.xci The practical emphasis on internal fortitude and and spiritual support the company external beauty as a source of holistic provided these women became tools to attractiveness, she admitted her self- exceed limitations in other parts of their conceptualization had been transformed: lives and afford them greater freedom and Mary Kay had changed a negotiating power in domestic lot of my bad habits – I relationships.xcii had been constantly on the The process of “becoming” move to survive, [so] I just cannot be completely realized if an simply wasn’t aware I was individual does not take in the operational a woman; I didn’t know and spiritual mission of the group; how to develop myself. likewise, she must also be able to bring a Through the study of part of herself into the organization. xciii Mary Kay, I learned Questions then arise surrounding the business etiquette and how autonomy of identity construction: to to use self-confidence to what degree are migrant women able to my advantage in negotiate this activity to their own business.xc specifications versus the requirements of Practical experience gained through her the organization? As established earlier, work and training is bolstered by a more the transformation of one’s self-concept personal internal development that occurs in the workplace is in large part a function from her assimilation into a large, of the fulfillment of one’s functional role complex enterprise that is both corporate and assimilation into the broader and ideological. organizational environment. If the worker While the company’s messages of cannot do this, repercussions include low beauty and empowerment are attractive to productivity and job satisfaction, poor women of all kinds of backgrounds, it is internal relationships or termination. xciv worth noting its particular appeal to But even those who have failed to buy disenfranchised women. Around the time into the ideologies of Mary Kay still Mary Kay entered China, a combination recognize the usefulness of company of sparse career opportunities for women lessons after they have moved on. One and a large pool of unemployed women migrant admitted, “What I learned from looking for work presented a viable Mary Kay is also helpful in my current market expansion opportunity. The business.”xcv network of independent distributors grew
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CONCLUSION on the exploitation and subjugation commonly associated with their work Based on a case study of beauty experience, and psychological studies of consultants in Mary Kay China, this paper rural migrants have substantiated claims examines the process of identity regarding the mental and emotional renegotiation among rural migrant consequences of social marginalization.xcvi women. My analysis has demonstrated key The analysis presented in this article began components of selfhood construction as it with these prepositions to qualitatively manifests within the organization. assess the interrelationship between Material gains in the form of money and negative exogenous influences and other commodities allow migrant women identity reconstruction as a means of to visibly display their increase in personal reconciling incompatibilities with a wealth, and the economic advancement broader social group. affords them greater independence and Beyond Chinese rural-urban authority in other areas of their lives. migration, the findings presented have Organizational aesthetics enforce implications for matters related to normative discourses on appearance and organizational ethics and labor deportment that beauty consultants are management. Academia, the media, and compelled to adhere to. The bodily most pertinently the Chinese government alterations this necessitates, seen by most have often charged direct selling women as an “improvement” to their organizations with using charismatic previous selves, externalizes their change manipulation and counterfeit sacralization in identity in a way that is verified and of commercial activities as means of supported by clients and colleagues. A exploiting distributors and aggressively cohesive social network reinforces these expanding their sales (e.g., Barboza 2009; changes as other distributors act as Hermanowicz and Morgan 1999; Lan dynamic interlocutors to exemplify and 2002). In a country like China with a guide the reconstruction process. substantial population of vulnerable and Constituents of the network are bound disenfranchised people, should Mary Kay together by strong ideological mechanisms and other enterprises, domestic and that add legitimacy and rhetorical force to international, be sensitive to such the formation of a new identity. circumstances when forming human Regardless to what degree each resource policies? For example, relatively component is effective, it has been well-off or resourceful independent illustrated that the result for many of these distributors arguably have greater capacity migrant women is a lasting influence on to negotiate working terms without how they perceive themselves. jeopardizing their employment or quality This article contributes to of life if current provisions are understanding the post-migration identity unsatisfactory. But in the more common management and workplace experiences case, rural migrant women may be of rural migrant women in China. I have discouraged from confronting workplace discussed briefly the preliminary social issues due to less fortunate socioeconomic conditions that set the framework for circumstances, disempowering identity negotiation and explored the relationship dynamics, and other factors manifestations of these circumstances related to their migrancy. xcvii Consultant within a corporate context. Past research interviews suggest that migrant employees on migrant female laborers have focused are not necessarily indentured servants
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 17! upon enlistment and are free to leave the these work organizations on migrant company if work conditions are identity. In this way we can understand unfavorable. Still, for the many migrant and appreciate the personal experiences of women for whom Mary Kay is a primary migrant women in their efforts to achieve source of income, when challenged by agency and progress in their lives. issues like unfair compensation, choosing between unemployment and a tenuous APPENDIX A livelihood seems more ultimatum than optionality. Additional background information on Certain limitations of this article the interviewees are worth noting for future studies. First, The following is current as of when the the narrative analysis is based on a interviews were conducted. Order of relatively small data set, so conclusions information, if available: name; age; based on these accounts should not be marital status; role at Mary Kay China; viewed as representative. The scope of the length of employment; location; interviews and surveys also focused on a miscellaneous information. participant’s experience as a Mary Kay beauty consultant, and did not cover her Individuals interviewed by Angela BeiBei personal history pre- and post-migration. Bao: For a broader evaluation of identity Fang Lin reconstruction among migrant women in . Beauty consultant, active since China, it may be useful to examine their 2008 social environment and self-perception . Originally from Liyang City, near before and after relocation. Though it may Changzhou. Resides in be difficult to identify with some Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. exactness the catalyst for identity reconstruction, given its complete Huang Juxian subjectivity, this article has regarded . Beauty consultant, active since employment in Mary Kay as a 2007 transformation stimulus. Additionally, . Originally from a county town questions remain whether these findings near Changzhou. Resides in are limited to the migrant women of Mary Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. Kay China, or are also reflected within other business entities and industries, Liu Shan geographies or marginalized social groups. . Married Nonetheless, this research sheds . Beauty consultant, active since light on how Chinese migrant women May 2009 reconcile self-perception with the . From Henan. Works in a town in messages of a society that explicitly and elsewhere in the province. implicitly devalues them. This article . Ran a small business with her principally focused on the features of an husband before joining Mary Kay. organization that influence the project of Highest education achieved was selfhood and the reactions of female high school. laborers to those influences. As most rural women migrate to urban areas specifically Qiu Qin for better work and income opportunities, . Former beauty consultant, active it is important to examine the impact of for 2.5 years
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. Originally from the countryside, worked in a state-owned though did not specify location. enterprise. Resides in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. Naomi Na . Former sales development Zhao Min manager, 4.5 years . Beauty consultant, active since . Originally from Harbin. Resides in 2006 Shanghai. . Originally from Suzhou. Resides . Not a rural migrant but was in Shanghai. interviewed for experience working with migrant beauty consultants. Individuals interviewed by myself: Li Min Shang Qun* . 36 years old, married . 36 years old, married . Beauty consultant, active since . Former beauty consultant, 1 2008 month . Originally from Anhui. Currently . Born in Jianzhong Town, lives in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province Weng’an County, Guizhou and works in Qingyang City, Province. Currently resides in Gansu province. Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province.
Ms. Lin *Shang Qun had been interviewed by . 30 years old, unmarried Angela BeiBei Bao in 2009 for a project . Beauty consultant, 5 years unrelated to this paper. I thank Ms. Bao . Grew up in countryside. Resides for providing her contact information and in Guangzhou City. the transcript of that initial interview, and . Highest education achieved was thank Ms. Shang for generously allowing elementary school. me to interview her again for this project.
Ms. Wang APPENDIX B . 42 years old, unmarried . Beauty Consultant, 9 years Complete list of written survey . Migrant background, though questions origin not specified. Resides in Questions appear as they were submitted Taiyuan City, Shaanxi Province. to participants, in no particular order. Not . Started a factory, but joined Mary all questionnaire respondents were Kay after her venture later failed. presented with the same list of questions.
Ms. Yang Name . 36 years old, unmarried . Beauty consultant, 3 years Age . Migrant background, though origin not specified. Resides in Marital status Beijing. . Highest education achieved was Current location junior high school. Previously
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How long you have been with Mary Kay? How did your job change the way you feel about yourself? How else has it influenced your life? Please describe your background (include hometown, education level, etc.) Did you supplement your income from How did you find out about Mary Kay? Mary Kay with other sources? What made you want to work there? What was your relationship like with your How did you find out about Mary Kay? other colleagues (seniors, juniors, peers, What made you want to work there? Why etc.)? Mary Kay instead of another type of company? Please explain why you left the company. How has your life changed since you left? What were the responses of your family and friends to your decision to work as a beauty consultant? How do you use your profile on Hicay.com to help your business? What features on a profile do you think are necessary for it to be effective? What did you enjoy and did not enjoy about your work? Why was that so? What plans or aspirations do you have for Describe some difficult situations or yourself in the future? challenges you’ve encountered. How did you handle them? Please describe your role within Mary Kay.
What kept you motivated to perform well What was attractive to you about working within the company? there? What is the public’s view of Mary Kay in China? How has the company
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 20! differentiated from other direct sellers like In what ways are migrant women Avon or Amway? particularly effective as saleswomen? How were they rewarded for good performance? Please describe the attributes of an “ideal” beauty consultant. How are consultants managed when they perform poorly? What proportion of the beauty consultant sales force are rural migrant women How often do these women get promoted? (either at your branch or in general)? An Are there many Distributors or Top estimate is fine. Directors from migrant backgrounds? What were some of the main reasons why rural women want to work for Mary Kay What were reasons why rural consultants as a consultant? left the company? How frequent is job turnover among this group? What did they do after they left? In what ways did the sales training program help rural women who were new to the company? What aspects of the program were especially helpful for them? What aspects were not helpful? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i Retrieved from “Mary Kay Quotes.” GoodReads.com. n.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2012 ii Bian, 2002; Scheineson, 2009; Shi, 2008; Zhang, 2011. iii Chen, et. al., 2011. What were some of the difficult situations iv Chen and Liang, 2004; Zhang, 2011. these women faced as consultants? How did they manage them? Do you think v Chan, 2008; Hanser, 2005; Luo, 2006. these difficulties were unique to them? vi On the issue of feminism and femininity in “proto- feminist” countries, see e.g. Ahern, Elizabeth. "The Benefits of Pink Think: A History of the Mary Kay Cosmetics Company in Domestic and Global Contexts." Tempus 12.2 (2011): 59-73. An exploration thereof is beyond the scope of this article.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! vii Chan, 2008. xxxiv Beech, 2002; Jacka, 2005; Thatcher and Zhu, 2006. viii NBOS, 2012; Scheineson, 2009. xxxv Jacka, 2005; Scheineson, 2009; Shi, 2008; Yan, 2003; Zhang, 2011. ix Sheng, 2012. xxxvi Lang and Lee, 2005; Thatcher and Zhu, 2006. x See Chan, Kam Wing. "Chinese Census 2000: New Opportunities and Challenges." The China Review 3.2 xxxvii Beech, 2002; Thatcher and Zhu, 2006; Webb, 2004. (2003): 1-12. xi Roberts, 2002. xxxviii Li, et. al., 1995. xii Chen and Liang, 2004; UNRISD, 2005. xxxix Pratt, Rockmann and Kaufmann, 2006. xiii Davin, 2005; Lou, 2006; Zhang, 2011. xl Beech, 2010; Grey, 1994; Reicher, 2004; Webb, 2004. xiv Chen and Liang, 2004; Jacka, 2005; Luo, 2006; xli Bao, 2012. Murphy, 2002; Yan, 2003. xlii One woman was said to have exclaimed, “How can I xv Davin, 2005; Tianshu, 2009. buy bread with makeup?” (Bao 2012) xvi Chen, et. al., 2011; Zhang, 2011. xliii Based on the CNY/USD exchange rate on December 1, 2012. xvii Davin, 2005; Luo, 2006. xliv Bao, 2012. xviii Chen, et. al., 2011; Fan, 2002; Jacka, 2005. xlv 2009. xix Barboza, 2009; McLaughlin, 2011. xlvi Na, 2012. xx Fan, 2002; Shi, 2008; Zhang, 2002. xlvii 2009. xxi “Company overview”; “Mary Kay, Inc.” xlviii Ms. Lin, 2012; Ms. Yan, 2012. xxii “Mary Kay to Invest.” xlix Bao, 2012. xxiii Gross, 2009; “Mary Kay to Invest.” l Gross 2009 xxiv Ahern, 2011; Lan, 2002. li Ruan, “My life at 50 years old.” xxv Booe, 2005. lii 2009. xxvi McLaughlin, 2011. liii 2009. xxvii Ip, 2003. liv Barboza, 2009. xxviii McLaughlin, 2011; Ngai, 1999; Wang, 2009. lv 2005. xxix Interview estimates placed this proportion at 70% to 80% of total beauty consultants (Bao 2012; Na 2012). lvi Li, 2012. xxx Ahern, 2011; Yeung, Niou, and Dai. lvii Cao, “Information announcement.” xxxi Gross, 2009. lviii Xu, 2007; Yang, 2011. xxxii Lan, 2002; Zhang, 2011. lix Liu, 2009. xxxiii Barboza, 2009; Mary Kay, Inc. company website, lx Wang, 2009. 2012; Yeung, Niou and Dai.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lxi Beech, 2010; Grey, 1994; Kolodinsky, Giacalone and lxxxviii Ms. Wang, 2012. Jurkiewicz, 2008; Webb, 2004. lxxxix 2009. lxii Costas, 2012. xc 2012. lxiii Bao, 2012. xci Jacka, 2005. lxiv Zhao, 2009. xcii Ahern, 2011. lxv Pratt, Rockmann and Kaufmann, 2006. xciii Lang and Lee, 2005. lxvi 2012. xciv Kolondinksy, Giacalone and Jurkieqicz, 2008. lxvii Qiu, “My comparative”; “Before and after”; Xiayi, Hicay.com. xcv 2009. lxviii Xiayi, Hicay.com. xcvi Fan and Youqin, 1998; Hanser, 2005. lxix 2012. xcvii Zhang, 2011. lxx Reicher, 2004; Thatcher and Zhu, 2006. REFERENCES lxxi Webb, 2004. Secondary Sources lxxii Beech 2010 Ahern, Elizabeth. "The Benefits of Pink Think: A History of the Mary Kay Cosmetics Company in Domestic and Global Contexts." Tempus lxxiii Pratt, Rockman and Kaufmann, 2006; Zhang, 2011; 12.2 (2011): 59-73. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. Lan, 2003. Barboza, David. "Direct Selling Flourishes in China." The New York Times 26 Dec. 2009. lxxiv Bao, 2012; Huang, 2009. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. Beech, Nic. "Liminality and the Practices of Identity lxxv Zhao, 2009. Reconstruction." Human Relations 64.223 Sept. (2010): 285-302. Web. 4 lxxvi Bao, 2012. Oct. 2012. Bian, Yanjie. "Chinese Social Stratification and Social lxxvii Bao, 2012; Barboza, 2009; Gross, 2009. Mobility." Annual Review of Sociology 28 (2002): 91-116. Web. 11 Sept. lxxviii Liu, 2009. 2012. Booe, Martin. "Sales Force at Mary Kay China Embraces the American lxxix Hu, 2009. Way." Workforce. Workforce, 30 Mar. 2005. Web. 2 Oct. 2012. lxxx Huang, 2009. Chan, Kam Wing. "Chinese Census 2000: New Opportunities and Challenges." The lxxxi Hermanwicz and Morgan, 1999. China Review 3.2 (2003): 1-12. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. lxxxii “Mary Kay Ash,” 1983. Chan, Kam Wing. "Internal Labor Migration in China: Trends, Geographical Distribution lxxxiii Ahern, 2011. and Policies." Proceedings of the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Population Distribution, lxxxiv Li, 2012. Urbanization, Internal Migration and Development. May (2008). Web. 1 Nov. 2012. lxxxv Mitroff and Denton, 1999; Kolodinsky, et. al., 2008. Chen, Xinguang, Bonita Stanton, Linda M. Kaljee, Xiaoyi Fang, and Qing Xiong. "Social lxxxvi “Mary Kay Ash,” 1983. Stigma, Social Capital Reconstruction and Rural Migrants in Urban China: A Population Health Perspective." Human Organization 70.1 lxxxvii The type of “love” mentioned was unclear, whether Jan. (2011). Web. 29 Oct. 2012. it was in reference to self-love or the love of others. "Company Overview of Mary Kay." BusinessWeek, n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2012.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Costas, Jana. ""We Are All Friends Here": Reinforcing Ethnic Identity: Interviews with Professionals Paradoxes of Normative Control in Hong Kong." Transactions of the Institute of in a Culture of Friendship." Journal of British Geographers 20.3 (1995): 342-56. Web. Management Inquiry 21.412 Apr. (2012): 377-95. 31 Oct. 2012. Web. 4 Oct. 2012. Liang, Zai, and Yiu Por Chen. "Migration and Gender in Fan, C. Cindy, and Youqin Huang. "Waves of Rural China: An Origin-Destination Brides: Female Marriage Migration Linked Approach." Economic Development & in China." Annals of the Association of American Cultural Change 22 Feb. (2012). Web. 1 Nov. Geographers 88.2 June (1998): 227-51. Web. 1 2012. Nov. 2012. Luo, Guifen. "China's Rural-Urban Migration: Structure Grey, Christopher. "Career as a Project of the Self and and Gender Attributes of the Labour Process Floating Rural Labor Force." Finnish Yearbook Discipline." Sociology 28.2 May (1994): 479-97. of Population Research 42 (2006): 65-92. Web. 2 Web. 28 Oct. 2012. Nov. 2012. Gross, Daniel. "How Do You Say "Pink Cadillac" in "Mary Kay Ash." The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Mandarin?" Newsweek 16 Nov. Management 3.1 May 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2012. (1983): 51-53. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. "Guanyu women (About us)." Meilinkai meirong guwen. Mary Kay, Inc.: Makeup, skin care, beauty tips, virtual Mary Kay China, n.d. Web. 4 makeover. Mary Kay Inc., n.d. Dec. 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2012. Hancock, Philip. "Uncovering the Semiotic in
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shi, Li. "Rural Migrant Workers in China: Scenario, Cao, Fen. "Gonggaoxiuxin (Information Challenges and Public Policy announcement)." Hicay.com. Mary Kay China, (Working Paper No. 89)." Policy Integration and n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2012. Statistics Department, International Labour Fang Lin. Interview with Angela BeiBei Bao. 2009. Organization (2008). Web. 1 Nov. 2012. Huang Juxian. Interview with Angela BeiBei Bao. 2009. "Statistical Communiqué on the 2011 National Li Min. E-Mail interview. 13 Nov. 2012. Economic and Social Development." Liu Shan. Interview with Angela BeiBei Bao. 2009. National Bureau of Statistics of China, 22 Ms. Lin. E-Mail interview. 5 Nov. 2012. Feb. 2012. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. Ms. Wang. E-Mail interview. 5 Nov. 2012. Thatcher, Sherry, and Xiumei Zhu. "Changing Identities Ms. Yang. E-Mail interview. 5 Nov. 2012. in a Changing Workplace: Na, Naomi. E-Mail interview. 3 Oct. 2012. Identification, Identity Enactment, Self- Qiu Qin. Interview with Angela BeiBei Bao. 2009. Verification, and Telecommuting." The Qiu Liping. “Wo de dui bi zhao (My comparative Academy of Management Review 31.4 Oct. (2006): picture).” Photograph. 1076-88. Web. 2 Nov. 2012. Hicay.com. Mary Kay China, n.d. Web. 2 Dec. Tianshu, Pan. “‘Working Sisters’: The everyday lives of 2012. migrant women in China’s Ruan Laoshi. “Wo de wushisui de shenghuo (My life at world factories.” Rev. of Factory Girls: From 50 years old).” Photograph. Village to City in a Changing Hicay.com. Mary Kay China, n.d. Web. 2 Dec. China, by Leslie Chang. Harvard Magazine, Jan. 2012. 2009. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. Ruan Song. "Gonggaoxiuxin (Information Wang, Jimmy, prod. Mary Kay in China. 2009. New announcement)." Hicay.com. Mary Kay York Times. Web. 20 Apr. 2012. China, n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2012. Webb, Janette. "Organizations, Self-Identities and the Shang Qun. Interview with Angela BeiBei Bao. 2009. New Economy." Sociology 38.49 Shang Qun. E-Mail interview. 7 Oct. 2012. Sept. (2004): 719-38. Web. 4 Oct. 2012. Xia Yiyan Laoshi. “Ai xing shanghai.” Photograph. Xu, Gary, and Susan Feiner. "Meinu Jingji/China’s Hicay.com. Mary Kay China, n.d. Beauty Economy: Buying Looks, Web. 2 Dec. 2012. Shifting Value, and Changing Place."Feminist “Yong meilinkai qian hou de dui bi zhao (Before and Economics 13.3-4 (2007): 307-23. Web. 25 after using Mary Kay).” Mar. 2012. Photograph. Hicay.com. Mary Kay China, n.d. Yan, Hairong. "Specialization of the Rural: Web. 2 Dec. 2012. Reinterpreting the Labor Mobility of Rural Zhao. "Gonggaoxiuxin (Information Young Women in Post-Mao China."American announcement)." Hicay.com. Mary Kay China, Ethnologist 30.4 Nov. (2003): 578-96. Web. 11 n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2012. Sept. 2012. Zhao Min. Interview with Angela BeiBei Bao. 2009. Yang, Jie. "Nennu and Shunu: Gender, Body Politics, and the Beauty Economy in China." Signs 36.2 (2011): 333-57. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. Yeung, Arthur, Ward Niou, and Nancy Dai. Mary Kay China: Enriching Women's Lives. Case study. N.p.: Mary Kay (China) Cosmetics Co., Ltd. and China Europe International Business School, n.d. Web. 29 Mar. 2012. Zhang, Nana. "The Impact of Guanxi Networks on the Employment Relations of Rural Migrant Women in Contemporary China." Industrial Relations Journal 42.6 Nov. (2011): 580-95. Web. 29 Apr. 2012.
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THE PARADOX OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND OTHER CHALLENGES: Labor Resistance in Contemporary Beijing Ruodi Duan Amherst College
ABSTRACT The rise of China in the global capitalist system created a massive Even though wildcat strikes and demand for labor in service and collective demonstrations are becoming manufacturing. The National Bureau of increasingly commonplace amongst Statistics in 2011 recorded a total of 252 Chinese workers, these mass actions have million migrant workers, a number that is yet to connect into a coherent national constantly growing. i But, as itinerant labor movement. Informed by my own workers with neither residency permits participant observation as a volunteer nor job stability, many find themselves organizer at a construction site in subject to exploitation in its varied, northwestern Beijing, my research layered forms—wage theft, contract explores the multitude of identities and violation, dangerous work conditions, the social realities that inhibit a politicized denial of basic benefits, and the threat of working class consciousness onsite. I sexual and physical abuse. The Chinese argue that grassroots labor activism, as labor law protects workers’ rights in name exemplified by the unregistered student but is rarely enforced. Bureaus of labor at organization An Quan Mao (AQM), is both the local and regional level generally impeded by a paradox of purportedly facilitate labor-market consciousness on the part of migrant relations and monitor appropriate laborers. Concomitantly, as workers are provisions of pension and social aware of class oppression on both a insurance. Simultaneously, the only trade personal and global scale, they are union allowed to organize in China is the resigned to the status quo economic All-China Federation of Trade Unions system because it appears to be in their (ACFTU), a branch of the Chinese immediate self-interest to do so. Communist Party (CCP) mired in Management then exacerbates these corruption and bureaucracy. internal divisions by capitalizing on the In this socio-political reality, provincialism and individualism that a established and grassroots organizations considerable proportion of workers of every scope and practice strive to subscribe to. The result is the frustration protect the interests of migrant laborers. of the potential movement to mobilize Some NGOs receive the support of the Chinese migrant laborers who realize the government by negotiating with the local socio-political terms of their own political leadership. ii Other “illegal” struggles. associations operate without official sanctions but effectively recruit and INTRODUCTION organize onsite. Arguably more promising are the recent cases of worker-initiated
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 26! strikes and collective actions, particularly whose interests are different from (and in the industrial regions of South China.iii usually opposed to) theirs…Class But in a larger context, the implications of consciousness is the way in which these these individual instances of resistance can experiences are handled in cultural terms: be ambiguous. American labor studies embodied in traditions, value-systems, scholar Eli Friedman pinpointed the ideas and institutional forms”. vi From a crucial question when he wrote that classic Marxist perspective, the perception “…workers [in China] are alienated from of exploitation in the workplace almost their own political activity. A profound inevitably constitutes the basis of large- symmetry exists: workers resist scale proletarian revolution. But such a haphazardly and without any strategy, trajectory does not take into account the while the state and capital respond to this paradox of simultaneous social awareness crisis self-consciously and in a coordinated and political apathy that complicates labor manner.” iv In terms of grassroots organizing in the context of China today. organizing in the industrial south, even My research addresses how this successful protests frequently appear to be understanding of class relations can then frustratingly sporadic and lacking in be qualified to account for other factors— political vision. More specifically, in from provincial identities to the Beijing, a city definitively close to central prevalence of individualism—that hinder government and home to a diverse the formation of collective working class population of itinerant laborers, differing consciousness. models of resistance to labor exploitation are layered and complex such that BACKGROUND AND collaboration becomes difficult. From METHODOLOGY their distinct advantages and My research seeks to more shortcomings, what can we infer about critically understand the efficacy of the potential for labor resistance in grassroots labor activism that claims to contemporary China to move beyond engage workers from the ground up. redress at the individual level in a way that Because the Chinese working class is not only reactionary but also constitutes the foundation for China’s constructive and transformative? recent and continual economic growth, its Orthodox Marxism, which sees formation and predilections raise class as the ultimate marker of identity, significant questions for the country’s holds that individual consciousness of social and political future. In particular, I exploitation in the workplace will, by examine An Quan Mao (AQM), an virtue of common experience, translate explicitly politicized and student-run into an uprising against the political association founded in 2008 that economy.v E.P. Thompson’s 1963 study specifically organizes workers at of working class formation in industrial construction sites in Haidian District. I England is frequently regarded as a will contextualize my fieldwork within historically significant text that integrated both contemporary research in China, Marxist class analysis with human agency. labor studies and the Marxist class Thompson defines the process of class- framework it predominantly draws from, making as what "happens when some pinpointing the paradox that inhibits the men, as a result of common experiences Marxist trajectory of personal (inherited or shared), feel and articulate consciousness translating into concerted the identity of their interests as between action. themselves, and as against other men
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 27!
An Quan Mao ( ) literally Sunday evening at a construction site near translates to “safety hat” in English, a the National Library. For the first hour symbolic expression of solidarity with and a half, we visited dormitories to speak construction laborers who wear the with workers on everything from their identifying yellow cap as a part of their families and children to the lack of uniform. Founded in 2008 by a overtime pay. To more effectively build collaboration of passionate college rapport, we spent time in the same rooms students and professors in the Haidian and gradually forged relationships with the District, AQM as an organization is same individuals. All of us would later grounded in a sense of partnership gather to project and watch a film between students and migrant workers. together huddled on the steps of the The concept of mutuality, rather than the Library. The movies would range from giving and receiving of direct aid, is thus those about the anti-Japanese war to critical to how AQM operates. Hong Kong romances. In spite of the Organizational activities are structured constantly dropping temperatures, the around weekly visits by volunteers to turnout always remained in the dozens. three construction sites in Haidian, Other events included a Mid-Autumn sessions that the students call “worker Festival celebration in September, a bookhouses” ( ). These visits variety show with song and dance typically consist of political discussions on performances by local college students in late November, and the annual gala every both domestic and global events, cultural th festivities, conversations, and film December 5 , highlighted by segments screenings. The final goal however, is not pieced together by workers themselves. only to provide outlets for recreation and In addition to providing cultural leisure to migrant workers but also to raise enrichment, the objective remains to their political consciousness, develop inspire collective consciousness and community leaders, and address cases of empowerment. Dorm visits usually wage theft and exploitation. Through illuminated the frequency and severity of periodic, multi-location “worker night wage theft and labor violations; most schools” ( ), select workers are workers for example, report never receiving government mandated bonuses trained in labor law and strategic methods for continuous extra night shifts and are to confront the rampant legal violations paid only once every year. We made on every site. Staying true to its original suggestions for securing justice and enter principles of instigating social change into discussions about methods for from the grassroots, AQM has redress, from filing cases and petitions to consistently turned down outside funding mass demonstrations. Another important of any kind and urges to formalize as an task, particularly at the National Library organization. In spite of its financial site, as this fall marked just the beginning independence and politicization, AQM is of AQM’s work there, involved actually a locally recognized group that in identifying workers with the potential to October 2011 was named one of become leaders and organizers. They Haidian’s “Ten Best Volunteer Groups” ( would then be trained at night schools ). AQM operates throughout Haidian My analysis is informed by ten multiple times during the year to become weeks of participant observation while better versed in both labor law and volunteering as an organizer with AQM. strategies for grassroots organizing. Being With other student activists, I spent every more than just “schools,” however, the
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 28! core tenet of these temporary learning at the National Library was the critical centers revolves around a two-way understanding so many of them exchange rather than one-way flow of commanded of labor exploitation, both as information. After all, the organizational applicable to their own circumstances and mission aims to transform the on a global scale. This awareness however, consciousness of not just workers but was almost invariably accompanied by the students as well, bridging gaps of resignation that inequity and stratification understanding in the process of shaping a are givens in any society, presenting an broader movement. insurmountable task for many grassroots This paper is organized into organizers. sections as follows. It begins by capturing Chen Weimin comes from a small the multifaceted picture of migrant labor village in Henan Province and is 61 years resistance at one state-owned construction old. Throughout the decades that he has site managed by private subcontractors in been in the construction trade, he has Haidian District. The ethnographic worked everywhere from Tianjin and encounters I detail highlight the various Shanghai to Guangzhou. Both of his nuances of identity and society that daughters are in their thirties, married, and complicate the development of working itinerant laborers themselves at factories class consciousness: kinship networks, in Guangdong. He generally works provincialism, and self-interest. anywhere between 7-10 months out of Ultimately, I hope to capture the multiple year, but now works less and less since his inconsistencies that characterize the plight children are grown. When I asked Chen if of the urban working class in a nominally he had heard about the recent strikes in communist country whose revolutionary China’s south, he nodded and potential had supposedly been achieved contemplated the question before sharing decades ago, whose rights are protected his take and the situation he and his co- and lives valued and whose interests, in workers found themselves in. “But for name, stand at the forefront of state most of us, doing something like that is priorities. In the context of proliferating just unrealistic, impossible. Look, we all NGO activity and worker-initiated actions got our jobs because of connections – I’m throughout China, why do cases of only here because I know the accountant migrant protest and resistance remain for this construction company – and if we scattered and individual? cause any trouble we’d all lose face. This is why going to court is also not an option. THE COMPLEX NATURE OF You just take what you can and leave CONSCIOUSNESS when it’s too bad. Strikes are never going Marxism delineates class to work here because you don’t want the consciousness as the recognition of a money but there will always be someone common working class experience in willing to work for less. You can’t win.”viii opposition to capitalists who exploit Though generally a soft-spoken man, working class labor, fostered and Chen expressed his outrage during politicized through struggle. Unity of the another visit at the actions of his bosses masses is also formed as a result of this during another one of our conversations struggle, and their strength would in late October. “All the supervisors are at ultimately overthrow the fundamentally a fancy hotel having dinner right now. unequal distribution of power in society.vii That’s why we can’t start on the night What I found remarkable throughout my shift until they get back; it’ll be my tenth interactions with the construction workers shift in a row. It’s only because we worked
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 29! hard and finished the project early that the As I sat down to watch a Sino-Japanese company received a 300,000 kuai bonus. war film with the workers one evening in But all we got was a few free meals of the early October, one man from Jiangsu same vegetables, the same rice and a asked me how things were for ordinary bottle of beer. This is how it is.”ix At this people in the United States. Having point, the worker sitting across from us witnessed the multifaceted exploitation of chimed in. “We’re all at the bottom of restaurant and factory workers in San society, what can you expect? It must be Francisco’s Chinatown as an organizer, I better in America.” attempted to explain that cases of wage This overwhelming feeling of theft and denial of benefits were rampant resignation and fatalism was salient for immigrants in the U.S. as well. Upon throughout many of my conversations hearing my descriptions, my conversation with the workers. They informed me that partner expressed no shock. To him, the in spite of the blatant violations of labor globalization of labor exploitation was rights at the site on a daily basis, no only confirmed. “It’s the same worker ever spoke up. To an extent, Chen everywhere. Inequality is just built into a was making a keen observation grounded society. The rich people have everything in reality. Workers and organizers who and the workers get nothing; it’s all overstep the boundaries—threatening the bullshit. There’s nothing you can do. This Communist Party by connecting problem cannot be solved.” Most workers individual cases and struggles into the echoed this sentiment. One worker from faint outline of a regional movement—can Hebei expressed his confusion when find their lives in danger. A government asked if he was satisfied with the work that still claims to represent the best conditions on this specific site: “What interests of workers in name can treat does it even mean be satisfied? I don’t individual instances of rights violation as know what you’re trying to find out. It is anomalies but cannot tolerate public what it is.” This cynicism is commonplace displays of mass disenchantment. In 2003, and frequently the only seemingly viable two well-known labor leaders were coping mechanism for workers who are arrested and tried on serious charges of incredibly aware of the various ways in state subversion when they attempted to which they are being cheated and violated. organize laid-off workers at various state- run businesses in northeastern China. x CULTURAL AND SYSTEMIC Renowned labor activist Han Dongfang, FACTORS who now runs the Hong Kong-based Fostering collective consciousness non-profit China Labour Bulletin, had is also extremely ambitious considering served a two-year jail sentence previously the individualistic culture of modern and concedes that “we try to depoliticize China, compounded by economic labor disputes…We’re not trying to difficulties. As a nation that has destroy anyone; we’re trying to build undergone tremendous development in something here.”xi recent decades, China has witnessed a Such a bleak context leaves even corresponding transformation of values. more questions and obstacles for activists The concept that growing economic who seek to foster change from the liberalism promotes individualism at the grassroots. The general consensus expense of collectivism has been traced amongst migrant laborers, as my field often across academic disciplines.xii In a work attests to time and again, holds that market-oriented society where little can be done and nothing will change. governmental policy celebrates personal
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 30! accumulation of wealth, about how much we expect to earn as commercialization has placed immense college graduates. “Money is everything burdens on vulnerable populations while these days. You can’t really do anything entrenching an individualistic framework without it anymore. Sometimes we don’t for interpreting social relations. In many want to admit how much it matters, but instances, labor conditions actually it’s the base for all relationships in China necessitate such an instinctually individual today. That’s why we just want our attitude. My site visit on an unnaturally children to go to college, get a good job, cold November evening elucidated this earn more, and have stability.” reality. That night, I had accompanied a Independence aside, the ability to earn a fourth-year student from Capital Normal high salary is the primary determinant of University who had organized achievement. Because most workers at intermittently with AQM for years to a this specific site were in their fifties and third-floor dorm where workers were sixties, many of their children were from Baoding, a small city in Hebei. Like preparing for the college entrance exam. other rooms, the dimly lit quarters These men’s anxieties about their family’s contained bunk beds for ten, a cracked financial futures are grounded in a social ceiling, and handmade tables and stools. context that places increasing value on Partly, perhaps, because of the main successfully maneuvering the system as an subjects of our discussion—family, their individual. children, the future—the conversation There was an intense centered around money. The university thunderstorm the night a few of our students were repeatedly asked for their students asked a group of workers how scores on the college entrance they could continue working the night examination as these parents’ shift when it was raining so hard. Chen’s preoccupation remained seeing their kids response mirrors the individualism that through a name-brand university and circumstances demanded. “You still have having them secure a well-paying job after to do it when it rains and also sometimes graduation. when it snows. If you don’t work, you’re Workers are generally insistent not paid, and we have deadlines that we that their children work hard within the need to finish things by. We have to meet system and ultimately attain a higher social those deadlines to get our wages. In times status from high earnings. One man, like these, it’s just every man for himself – whose daughter was only nine years old you do what you have to do to be safe but attended a private boarding school in while still completing your work.” The Shijiazhuang, justified his decision to send dictates of employment, because they are her away so young. “I only make 3,000- often so fraught with danger and non- 4,000 kuai/year and the school is 10,000 compliant with national labor law, require kuai/year not including all the living costs, a strong if not survivalist sense of self that but it’s the best choice for her if she wants reflects the inherent difficulties of to do well later. Nine isn’t too young. purposeful collective organizing. Don’t they all say that the younger you are The systematic organization of the when you leave home, the more construction site itself additionally independent you become when you’re heightens personal ties to kinship older?” Another worker from Hebei networks and hometowns in manners that captured the prevailing sentiment, by no obstruct the emergence of any sort of means unique to migrants or the working collective identity. One of the most class, with this qualification to a question noticeable characteristics I noticed in the
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 31! dorms was the strict physical divisions one manager clearly friendly with Wang between workers from separate provinces. wandered into the room and pressed us For instance, men from Jiangsu largely for what we are doing. When we said that populated the first floor, while the second we were college students here to screen a floor was predominantly men from film for the workers, he responded, “Why Henan, and the third men from Hebei. don’t you charge the workers for these This pattern of residential segregation is movie screenings? They earn hundreds of further exacerbated by divisions between kuai a day!” The manager’s indignant various jobs within the industry because claim harkens back to what another site workers with the same specialization tend supervisor explained two weeks prior to have been recruited by the same when I inquired if he was in charge. subcontractor and from the same “There are no leaders here. The workers hometown. The result is startling are all the same; they’re all leaders. disengagement and gaps in perception of Everything here is fair and equal.” Not conditions between labor and surprisingly, most supervisors refuse to management as well as between different acknowledge the blatant violations of roles on site. national labor law on site, insisting that On October 14th, a few other workers are satisfied with workplace students and I struck up a conversation conditions. with a worker specifically in charge of A few weeks later, as we watched housekeeping and cleaning. In a radical workers fight each other for boxes of departure from the experiences of regular clothing donations rather than stand in laborers who work continuous shifts for line, one site supervisor approached me to meager wages, Wang Guoren explained ask for my reflections. I mentioned that I his situation as he rested in bed watching interpreted it as a reminder that next time his dormmates get ready for the night we should coordinate for things to shift. “It’s much easier for me. They all proceed more smoothly. But he viewed don’t know, but I’m actually working two the situation rather differently: “You think jobs for 4,500 kuai per month. I used to if you all had just planned better it would do business and made a bit of money. To have worked? You’re wasting your time. be honest, I don’t need to be here, but I’m It’s all a problem of 'quality'. If you really old, and it’s good to travel and look want to help people, donate your things to around. I can tell you, though, that the the countryside, not here. These workers workers here have it hard. They’re only don’t need any of this; do you know how paid once a year when I’m paid every much they’re paid daily? They get 200-300 month; it’s difficult to not really have cash kuai! They get 5,000-6,000 kuai every on you. It’s easy for them to cheat you. month!” I pressed on this further and For example, the way that the meal system suggested the possibility that the runs here is bad for the workers. The employees might not have access to cafeteria charges 6-8 kuai for each dish so spending cash because they are paid you can’t eat a meal without it being at annually, to which he insisted that “they’re least 10 kuai. Our meal allowance is only paid 3 times every year, always on time. 500 kuai, and everything else is deducted They earn more than enough!” from your pay; you have no control It is thus small wonder that few because they just want your money.”xiii workers place their trust into their bosses Throughout our conversation, or the system, as represented by the local Wang also hinted at the corruption labor bureaus to protect their welfare. As inherent in the system. At one moment, Hong Kong labor studies scholar Chris
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 32!
Chan effectively summarizes, “Since the of Renmin—their enthusiasm, particularly local labour bureau and court officers for the group of five for whom this was have adopted a pro-capital approach in their first year with An Quan Mao, was handling labour disputes, labour laws and just as palpable as their anxiety. But the regulations tend to be poorly monitored realities of labor organizing in the socio- and enforced at the local level.” xiv The political climate of contemporary China campaign to win back wages in the can be daunting. One poignant episode in summer of 2011, in which AQM played a late October served as a jolting reminder significant part which I will elaborate to all of us of how challenging it really is upon later, highlights the grim reality. The to promote any sense of collective experiential disconnect between the consciousness where no such tradition authority and the worker, rather than any exists, particularly in light of the complex essential attribute of the latter, thus power dynamics that restrict our capacity constitutes the root of working class as young student activists from primarily apathy in contemporary China. Workers urban and middle-class backgrounds. necessarily come to view their struggles as It was on a chilly night that the solely their own and monetary in nature students from CIIR hauled several large rather than any kind of politicized suitcases worth of winter clothing and phenomenon. This profound difference in shoes that they had gathered from a mindset impedes organizing on the donation drive they organized on various construction site I frequented as much as university campuses to the construction it does in factories and production sites site. We decided to distribute the goods— elsewhere. It is only exacerbated by plenty enough if every worker took one societal expectations that prize item they needed—in front of the individualistic achievements, as evidenced cafeteria before making rounds in the by numerical measures like wages and test dorms to inform everyone what we scores, over community and collectivism. brought. The nonchalance with which the It becomes immensely difficult to make workers reacted to our announcement the leap from fighting for individual assured us that not too many would be retribution to mobilization for a common interested in these used articles of justice. clothing. But when masses of workers showed up and would not line up AN QUAN MAO’S APPROACH TO regardless of how many times we asked, it CHANGE became increasingly clear that several For student organizers, the ideal college students would not be able to keep of transformative consciousness is order. Indeed, within minutes, everything complicated by experiential disconnect was gone. Workers had fought each other and traditional beliefs. For activists who to take away entire suitcases as we stood approach the stark reality of labor in by shocked, frustrated that our plans to China from a politicized lens, the distribute the goods evenly completely fell difficulties inherent in grassroots through. A few of the students framed the mobilizing work can be discouraging. incident in the context of migrant laborers When I met the core group of volunteers possessing low “quality” ( ). Others with whom I spent my Sunday evenings— struggled to find more systemic five students from the China Institute of explanations. As one volunteer concluded Industrial Relations (CIIR), one from in our group reflection while we screened Capital Normal University and a graduate a Hong Kong action film after the student leader who was also an alumnus
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 33! incident, “You can’t just all blame it on do represent a remarkable selection of their ‘suzhi’. It’s more a result of where young people. While the students from they come from and the lifestyle they’re China Institute of Industrial Relations used to. They all grew up with a ‘small never chose to attend the school because farmer ideology’ ( ), where it’s of any prior political commitment, they everyone for themselves. This aggression are now volunteers who willingly dedicate and selfishness is what it takes to make a their energy to experiential learning to living in the countryside.” But in spite of deepen their understanding of issues they their attempts at empathy, it was apparent have since become passionate about. One that the frustration from the incident had student explained, “My gaokao scores hampered their enthusiasm for the time determined that I attend CIIR. But being. Morale that evening was palpably studying and being there really make me low, and the students who had organized see the improvements that have to be the clothing drive echoed each other that made to labor conditions in China. it would be difficult for anything similar to Conditions at this construction site aren’t happen again. as different from what we learn in the The prevalence of “suzhi”, or textbooks as you would think, but it’s still “quality”, in the discourse of student a unique experience to be out here and volunteers at AQM captures the persistent interacting with the workers; everything gulf in experience and understanding that seems so much more real and you really renders effective outreach and organizing feel like you’re a part of something.” such a Herculean task. The concept of Listening to the personal stories of “suzhi” figures prominently in popular migrant laborers, however, intensified the discourse; as anthropologist Andrew facts and theories from the classroom Kipnis writes, the word “has become tenfold. To be so directly confronted with central to PRC dynamics of governance… the ubiquity of exploitative practices [It] justifies social and political hierarchies highlights the immense obstacles to of all sorts, with those of ‘high’ quality actually realizing the idealized vision of gaining more income, power and status worker-led grassroots change. than the ‘low’… [and] development Most volunteers, however, already projects may be bolstered by claims that possessed a piercing awareness of the they will raise the quality of the targeted social and political context that poor.”xv Even as most students hold deep complicates organizing. One student from concern for the personal issues of the CIIR tried to rationalize our lack of workers they encounter, many have tangible progress on site. “You can’t nonetheless internalized the social measure us by all the successful strikes in hierarchy in middle-class Chinese society factories in Guangdong. The system that that naturally places migrants at a lower governs construction workers here is rung. different and makes building grassroots or It is significant to note, however, collective consciousness nearly that in spite of—and perhaps because impossible. First, there is the ‘work of—these challenges and shortcomings contract system’ on which construction that the critical consciousness of the sites operate. In addition, workers come organizer is continually transformed in the here from every province for short-term process. Coming from geographically and projects – it can be three months or a economically diverse backgrounds, the year, but then they leave without ever AQM organizers at the National Library developing a vested interest in the workplace. It’s hard to recruit leaders this
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 34! way. In construction, unlike many example, we have been successful at factories where everyone does the same recruiting volunteers this semester and job, workers also fulfill different roles that expanded the base of colleges our student come with distinct wages and benefits. It’s membership comes from. But just going hard to relate to your co-workers if they by how things have generally unfolded, might be getting paid more; there’s less very few of them stay to become solidarity.” In particular, the student’s committed members; even fewer actually keen observation about China’s unique become politicized. This kind of turnover work contract system ( ) makes our work harder because pinpoints a trend that hinders the everything depends on you building trust prospects for cross-site solidarity and over time with the workers. Rapport is mobilization. This system, which now where our work begins.”xvi constitutes the governing structure of Liu Chaoyang is a third-year construction projects throughout China, student at China Agricultural University. begins with the subcontracting of various We were waiting for other volunteers roles, such as roofing or electrical work, to before a cultural performance for workers different companies. These companies one night in mid-November when our then scramble to sign on their own conversation turned onto AQM’s efficacy distinct teams of workers with little at generating consciousness. I brought up regulation, further increasing the already- the paradox in which workers are rampant cases of non-contracted jobs. excruciatingly aware of their exploitation Li Yu is a sophomore English but simultaneously also of their major from Capital Normal University powerlessness to challenge the system. and one of the lead organizers at the She conceded that “organizing is a hard, National Library construction site. As slow process…our end goal is definitely opposed to most volunteers who come action; we want workers to realize that from middle-class Han backgrounds, Li is there are ways to fight back and that they a Hani ethnic minority from a small city in should, but it’s a difficult long-term plan. Yunnan Province. Unsure if she wishes to Like, if students who work as research ultimately settle in the city, she considers a assistants are not being paid enough career teaching English in or near her wages by their professors, would they hometown. I first met her while protest? How hard would it be to get our outreaching in a freshman dorm at friends to do that?”xvii Renmin University in early September and She then alluded to another we bonded immediately through both successful campaign that AQM volunteers political and personal conversations. It had taken part in earlier in the spring, in was during dinner one night a few weeks which a group of workers, at the later that I asked for her take on the conclusion of their project, won back organizational challenges of AQM and wages their boss had refused to pay. But how her participation had changed her when I inquired if those same workers perception of labor issues. Her response had walked away with any sort of tenable revealed an incredible depth of analysis socio-political awareness, she replied, and awareness. “I haven’t really sat down “Unfortunately, we usually lost contact to summarize everything I’ve learned, but with them after they leave the if anything comes to mind right now it’s construction site. A few of them call us that mobilization is a very difficult and once in a while, but that’s the best we can long-term process. It takes patience. For hope for. They all move on.” She fell silent for a while before adding, “It’s just
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 35! hard building long-lasting relationships had based his judgments on, the most with the workers. We try, but usually in formidable task lies not in sparking the end, they move on with their lives and individual instances of group resistance we do with ours.” xviii Her comment amongst workers already familiar with actually harkens to a different campaign each other. Rather, the greatest difficulty AQM had taken the lead on in the is in politicizing these actions in any summer of 2011, when volunteers aided a sustainable way so that their potential group of nine Hubei workers in does not halt at providing evidence for the recovering more than 30,000 yuan of lost local labor bureau that it has always been wages. on the workers’ side. Both wage theft and cases of physical violence against laborers were CONCLUSION pervasive earlier that spring at a In spite of longstanding construction site in the Mentougou differences in theory and praxis, student District of Beijing.xix In July, with funds activists and scholars from across the running so low that food had become a political spectrum concur that Chinese concern, the workers contacted various migrant labor—the backbone of China’s organizations for help including the local export-oriented growth model—has Bureau of Labor and Public Security fueled the country’s economic ascent too Bureau, the Petition Office of the Beijing often at the cost of workers’ rights and Municipal Government, Beijing well-being. Even as industrial wages in Emergency Services, and Beijing Legal other East Asian countries rose from 8% Aid Center—all to no avail. By early of U.S. wages in 1975 to over 30% in August, they had written the details of 2005, wages in China stayed stagnant at 2- their plight into petitions and marched to 3% of that in the U.S. xx Through the the municipal government before being forceful maintenance of low production promised their wages, yet again falsely. costs and suppression of organized Two volunteers from AQM assorted the dissent, the Pearl River Delta (and evidence and filed cases with the Labor increasingly, inland cities as well) have Bureau, hoping to secure redress through been able to retain status as legal means. When the only response from manufacturing capitals of the global the Bureau was the suggestion that they economy. These abuses perpetrated negotiate again with the employers, AQM against migrant laborers are also not organizers collaborated with the workers unique to special economic zones or light in further mediation sessions with site industry. Construction workers at the supervisors. In a faint victory, only the National Library, just as assembly line group of nine laborers from Hubei who workers at the Foxconn factory in had been most vocal ultimately won their Shenzhen or the garment district of back wages and returned home. But those Guangzhou, are continually denied their from other provinces, victims of the same legal rights such as on-time and overtime rights violations, would never receive the pay. But even more infuriating are wages they deserved. incidents like the one reported by the Occurrences like this encapsulate worker from Henan Province, who the blurred definitions of consciousness as witnessed his superiors flagrantly celebrate well as the murky boundaries between 300,000 kuai bonuses with extravagant successful demonstrations and failure. In meals while workers were only given Beijing, just as in the industrial areas of bottles of beer. The latter represents the the Pearl River Delta that Eli Friedman deep-seated inequity that has come to
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 36! define social relationships at the constantly violated. But with the tenacious workplace. It breaks no law, but the hold of provincialism and kinship fundamental injustice captures too well networks as well as the overwhelming the complexity of labor abuse in power of the state-capital alliance, critical contemporary China. awareness is usually coupled with This reality can be difficult to resignation that the dynamics of confront and fight. Profound exploitation are inevitable. This paradox disagreements exist in academia over the presents an enduring roadblock to both ideological framework for interpreting grassroots organizing and policy advocacy, labor resistance and the nature of class preventing the formation of a mass labor while concomitantly, different models of movement that connects struggle across activism render collaboration an arduous place and industry. task. Student organizing, as exemplified by An Quan Mao, operates with a political blueprint and attempts to galvanize !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! workers at the grassroots through the i National Bureau of Statistics, “2011 Survey and building of relationships and constant Monitoring Report of China’s Migrant Workers,” April negotiation. The ultimate sustainability of 27, 2012. their efforts may be uncertain, but the ii social consciousness of both students and Joseph Cheng et al, “The Survival and Development Space for China’s Labor NGOs: Informal Politics and worker leaders are definitely transformed Its Uncertainty,” in Asian Survey 50 (2010): 1088. in the process. Further research should provide a more in-depth examination of iii In the spring of 2010, nearly two thousand migrant the dynamic interactions between the workers struck at a Honda plant in Nanhai, Guangdong state, the market, and the public sector in Province demanding higher wages and union reform. With the span of a few weeks, the strike had spread to regulating the scope and direction of labor other auto manufacturing plants as far north as Beijing organizing. and Tianjin. For more, see Wang Kan, “Collective In spite of the comparable Awakening and Action of Chinese Workers: The 2010 objectives of scholars and organizers from Auto Workers’ Strike and Its Effects,” in Sozial Geschichte across the political continuum, the 6 (2011): 9-27. landscape of labor resistance in iv Eli Friedman, “China in Revolt,” Jacobin Magazine, modernizing China remains fragmented August 2012, 34. and paradoxical. The orthodox Marxist trajectory—which holds that class v E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class consciousness develops from the (New York: Pantheon Books, 1963): 5-8. knowledge of shared experiences in the vi Ibid, 9-10. workplace—does not account for the role of the communist state or the multiplicity vii Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy (New York: of identity. But neither will simply International Publishers, 1963): 173. recognizing and addressing individual viii Chen Weimin, personal conversation, October 14, instances of exploitation without the 2012. context of global capitalism lead the labor movement on the path to sustainable ix Ibid. change. Workers are also excruciatingly x “Subversion Charges for China Labor Leaders,” New conscious that their legal rights are York Times, January 1, 2003.
xi Kathy Chu, “Once-jailed Labor Activist Works within the System,” USA Today, November 18, 2010.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xii Richard Ball, “Individualism, Collectivism, and Zhuang. "The Survival and Development Space for Economic Development,” in Annals of the American China's Labor NGOs." Asian Survey 50 (2010): 1082- Academy of Political and Social Science 573 (2001): 72. 1106. Chu, Kathy. "Once-jailed Chinese Labor Activist Works within the System." USA Today, xiii Wang Guoren, personal conversation, October 14, November 18, 2010. 2012. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/world/2010- 11-19-chinalabor19_VA_N.htm (accessed December 7, xiv Chan, 311. 2012). Friedman, Eli. "China in Revolt." Jacobin xv Magazine, August 2012. Andrew Kipnis, “Suzhi: A Keyword Approach,” in http://jacobinmag.com/2012/08/china-in-revolt/ The China Quarterly 186 (2006): 295-296. (accessed October 11, 2012). Froissart, Chloe. "Is There a NGO Model? xvi Li Yu, personal conversation, October 3, 2012. Comparing NGOs Supporting Migrant Workers in Beijing and the Pearl River Delta." Asia Centre Conference xvii Liu Chaoyang, personal conversation, November 11, Papers 1 (2010): 1-7. 2012. Kipnis, Andrew. "Suzhi: A Keyword Approach." The China Quarterly 186 (2006): 295-313. xviii Ibid. Lee, Ching Kwan. Against the Law: Labor Protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Berkeley: University xix The story of this campaign is taken from a piece titled of California Press, 2007. Marx, Karl. The Poverty of Philosophy. New Follow-up and Reflection on an Individual Case of Rights York: International Publishers, 1963. Protection on a Construction Site ( National Bureau of Statistics. “2011 Survey ) by Li Dajun ( ). and Monitoring Report of China’s Migrant Workers.” April 27, 2012. http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjfx/fxbg/t2012042 xx Jenny Chan and Pun Ngai, “Global Capital, the State, 7_402801903.htm (accessed December 7, 2012) and Chinese Workers: The Foxconn Experience,” Ngai, Pun, Chris Chan, and Jenny Chan. "The Modern China 38 (2012): 388. Role of the State, Labour Policy and Migrant Workers’ Struggles in Globalized China." Global Labor Journal 1 REFERENCES (2010): 132-151. Ngai, Pun, and Jenny Chan. "Global Capital, Primary Sources the State, and Chinese Workers: The Foxconn Experience." Modern China 38 (2012): 383-410. Chen, Weimin. Personal conversation. Beijing, Shi, Xiuyin, and Yeping Xu. "A Game of China. October 14, 2012. Chess vs. Pawns: The Fate of Chinese Workers in Li, Ying. Personal conversation. Beijing, Globalization." Jiangsu Social Sciences 3 (2011): 40-91. China. October 3, 2012. New York Times, "Subversion Charges for Liu, Chaoyang. Personal conversation. Beijing, China Labor Leaders," January 1, 2003. China. November 11, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/01/world/subversi Wang, Guoren. Personal conversation. on-charges-for-china-labor- Beijing, China. October 14, 2012. leaders.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss (accessed Wang, Kan. Personal conversation. Beijing, October 24, 2012). China. November 21, 2012. Thompson, E.P. The Making of the English Working Class. New York: Pantheon Books, 1963. My fieldwork also drew from numerous other Tsai, Wen-Hsuan, and Peng-Hsiao Kao. spontaneous interactions and sporadic conversations "Public Nomination and Direct Election in China: An with workers at the National Library construction site. Adaptive Mechanism for Party Recruitment and Regime Perpetuation." Asian Survey 52 (2012): 484-503. Secondary Sources Wang, Kan. "Collective Awakening and Ball, Richard. "Individualism, Collectivism, Action of Chinese Workers: The 2010 Auto Workers’ and Economic Development." Annals of the American Strike and Its Effects." Sozial Geschichte 6 (2011): 9-27. Academy of Political and Social Science 573 (2001): 57-84. Chan, Anita. China’s Workers under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001. Chan, Chris. "Class or Citizenship? Debating Workplace Conflict in China." Journal of Contemporary Asia 42 (2012): 308-327. Cheng, Joseph, Kinglun Ngok, and Wenjia
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 38!
THE INTERSECTION OF CHRISTIANITY AND SUICIDE IN SOUTH KOREA Kristen Kim Princeton University
ABSTRACT their suicide rate in recent decades, South Korea’s suicide rate has increased rapidly Over the past couple of decades, South since the nineties (Organization for Korea’s suicide rate has increased Economic Cooperation and drastically and currently ranks the highest Development, 2011). South Korea’s among nations in the Organization for suicide mortality rate currently ranks the Economic Cooperation and highest among developed nations with Development. Although this over thirty-one completed suicides per phenomenon can be attributed to a 100,000 persons in 2010, more than multitude of different factors, the current double its rate in 1995 (Korean National paper examines the understudied role of Statistical Office). This translates to about religion in the suicide epidemic. Despite one suicide in every forty minutes (Kim et the fact that South Korea has become an al., 2010). From a population health increasingly Christian nation, religion has standpoint, the current suicide rate can be not served as a protective measure against considered an epidemic (Kim et al., 2010) suicide for this population. In fact, it and has therefore become an important seems likely that Christianity as it is social and health concern. This in turn has practiced in South Korea today has motivated research on the particular risk contributed in creating an environment factors associated with suicidal ideation more conducive to suicidal behavior. The and behavior in the cultural context of author examines previous research on the contemporary South Korea. relationship between religion and suicide, While suicide is a highly personal and evaluates this relationship in the act, larger ecological influences on an particular cultural context of South Korea individual’s decision to end his or her life through the lens of two main theories: cannot be neglected. Because the increase Durkheim’s integration theory and the in suicide in South Korea coincided with a religious commitment theory. The paper period of globalization and concludes with suggestions on future modernization, there are countless research possibilities. concurrent societal shifts that could be responsible (Park & Lester, 2006). For According to the widely accepted example, one important determinant of definition established by the World Health suicide rates could be economic trends. Organization (WHO), suicide is an act Following the devastating IMF crisis of that is “deliberately initiated and 1997, the national suicide rate exhibited a performed by the person concerned in the steep increase of 42.4% (Hong et al., full knowledge, or expectation, of its fatal 2006). However, the suicide rate outcome” (2009). Although the majority continued to increase rapidly after of OECD countries have witnessed a recovery from the IMF crisis, even decrease in or at least maintenance of throughout the early to mid-nineties and
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 39! during 2000-2001, when the Korean Although Christianity is not the country’s economy was thriving (Hong et al., 2006). official religion, it surpassed Buddhism Therefore, it seems that economic wealth and other traditional belief systems as the alone does not uniformly predict suicide majority religion in the nineties and rates. Other studies have suggested that established South Korea as the most conditions, such as high birth rates, high Christian nation in East Asia. South marriage rates, and low divorce rates are Korea is also home to the largest related to lower suicide rates in South megachurch in the world, Yoido Full Korea (Kim et al., 2006; Park & Lester, Gospel Church, which reported over half 2006). Of these variables, regression a million members as of 2009 (Han et al., analyses of data from 1983-2002 revealed 2009). The continued growth in that divorce rate is the strongest predictor Christianity is mostly at the expense of of the suicide rate (r = 6.52, p < .001) with those with no religion, making South marriage rates and birth rates giving mixed Korea an increasingly religious nation in results (Park & Lester, 2006). general. The influence of religion is not Furthermore, results from the only visible in church settings but also in Korea National Health and Nutrition the political realm and other private and Examination Survey administered by the public spheres of life (Kim, 2002; Lugo & Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1995, Grim, 2007). Therefore, it is appropriate 1998, 2001, and 2005 show that although to ask how the growth of Christianity and more women tend to engage in suicide its place in society relate to the concurrent ideation, men are more than twice as likely rise in suicide. While these trends may to die from suicide (Kim et al., 2010; simply be coincidental, since religious World Health Organization). Comparing beliefs shape individuals’ value systems suicide rate increases across specific age and treat issues of life and death, it seems groups also reveals that suicide risk probable that religion would affect increases with age (Kwon et al., 2009). By individuals’ suicidal tendencies. looking at total mortality and suicide rates Most major religions, including from 1986 to 2005, Kwon et al. (2009) Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, strongly found that increasing suicide rates was condemn the act of suicide (Gearing & composed of a greater absolute increase in Lizardi, 2009). In particular, when one the older group (ages 45 and up) and a considers the Christian doctrine’s greater proportional increase in the emphasis on the sanctity of human life younger group (under age 45). and Christian communities’ disapproval of Despite all the attention that has suicide, the growth of Christianity and been given to the issue of suicide in South increase in suicide rates seem paradoxical. Korea, one potentially significant factor One would expect that religious beliefs that has not yet been investigated is would serve to deter individuals from religion. The religious makeup of South engaging in suicidal behavior. Thus, it Korea has changed notably in the past seems reasonable that countries with a couple of decades. As the neon crosses greater Christian population would report scattered all across the Seoul sky suggest, lower suicide rates. In line with this the Christian population, including both hypothesis, studies have found that some Protestant and Catholic adherents, has religious countries report lower suicide been growing steadily since the early rates than nonreligious countries 1960s and currently comprises (Durkheim, 1951; Fernquist, 2012). approximately thirty percent of the total However, despite the theoretical and population (Lugo & Grim, 2007). empirical evidence for the inverse
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 40! relationship between religion and suicide, dishonorably murdered. Additionally, trends in South Korea indicate that several of these characters did not kill Christianity has not served as a protective themselves but ordered others to kill them mechanism against suicide. on their behalf. Therefore, it is The current paper explores the questionable whether these figures’ deaths potential effect of the rise of Christianity can even be considered suicides under the on suicide tendencies in the cultural contemporary definition of the act. context of contemporary South Korea. It The tone in which these cases are first discusses the stance of the Christian presented further reflects the ambiguity of doctrine and Christian communities on the Bible on the subject of suicide. The suicide. It then presents the two main authors present each of these cases in a theories on the relationship between nonjudgmental, factual manner, never religion and suicide, namely the using biased terms but simply describing integration theory (Durkheim, 1951) and the method of death (e.g., by hanging, by the religious commitment theory (Stack, burning, etc.). None of these characters’ 1983) and attempts to apply them to the deaths reveal the consequences of suicide South Korean case. Finally, the paper either for themselves or for others, concludes with suggestions on future making it all the more difficult to interpret research possibilities. a proper biblical view of suicide. Christianity and Suicide Therefore, contrary to common belief, First, we examine the ways in there is not a definitive prohibition against which the Christian doctrine and Christian suicide inherent to the Christian doctrine. communities, both Catholic and However, the values and ethics Protestant, view the act of suicide and encouraged by the Bible seem to be in those who commit suicide. Although the discordance with suicidal behavior. Bible does not explicitly rebuke suicidal Although the Christian doctrine as behavior, it does imply that one should presented in the Holy Bible does not respect and care for one’s life, which explicitly judge suicidal behavior as either counters suicidal behavior. In addition, praiseworthy or sinful, it conveys that the history of Christianity reveals that human life is sacred and that it is a divine Catholics and Protestants alike have gift that man has to protect. For example, consistently frowned upon suicide, the New Testament book of First although to varying degrees. Corinthians 3:16-17 (New International The Bible on Suicide Version) states, “Don’t you know that you The Christian doctrinal stance on yourselves are God’s temple and that suicide is unclear because there is no God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone explicit discussion on the topic in the destroys God’s temple, God will destroy Bible (Barraclough, 1992). There are only him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you a few biblical figures whose deaths may be are that temple.” This text, which equates classified as suicide depending on how the human body with “God’s temple,” one defines “suicide.” These characters implies the importance of proper include Samson, Saul, Abimelech, and stewardship of one’s physical body and Ahitophael in the Old Testament, and suggests the proscription of self- Judas Iscariot in the New Testament. destructive acts including, in the most However, most of these individuals extreme form,suicide. committed suicide only at the threat of Although the reliability of the impending death; they chose to commit Bible as a historical text is questionable, suicide as an alternative to being Christian churches emphasize its
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 41! infallibility as the divine word of God. If The Protestant community all Christian adherents genuinely generally does not judge suicide as harshly internalized these biblical teachings and as the Catholic Church and instead lived by these principles, it seems that they focuses on fostering an accepting would be less likely to commit suicide. community for those undergoing internal However, it seems that there are stronger struggles in an attempt to prevent suicide societal forces in play that override the (Gearing & Lizardi, 2009). Nevertheless, potential regulatory effect of the Christian the Protestant community, which is largely doctrine and lead to greater suicide risk. influenced by Catholic thought, also Christian History and Suicide considers suicide a sinful rejection of Despite the Bible’s ambiguity, the God’s gift of human life and treats it as a Christian community and especially the taboo. Although most of the history cited Catholic Church have openly condemned above refers to European Church history, the act of suicide to varying degrees. In because Western missionaries introduced the fourth century A.D., Saint Augustine, Christianity to South Korea, it is without a the author of City of God, was the first to doubt that these views indirectly influence denounce suicide as a sin that violates one Christianity in today’s South Korean of God’s Ten Commandments: “Thou society. shall not kill” (Gearing & Lizardi, 2009). With these historical backgrounds Although most interpret this in mind, it seems likely that individuals commandment as a prohibition against who endorse Christian beliefs and interact murder, Augustine argued that it also with Christian communities would be less applies to suicide, as it is also a form of likely to engage in self-destructive acts. In killing. Subsequently, in the thirteenth fact, Fournier (1987) has argued that century, Saint Thomas Aquinas elaborated suicide is the result of a sin and that the on Augustine’s interpretation and claimed antidote to suicide is to choose God and that suicide is a sin against oneself, open oneself to the Holy Spirit (1987). neighbor, and God, and that it is an However, Lester (1998) argues that suicide unnatural behavior for human beings who is not always a result of blatant denial and are naturally driven to self-protection. rejection of Christian doctrine. On the Saint Aquinas also considered suicide to contrary, it can be a search for spirituality, be among the gravest sins because unlike for God, for a meaning to life, and/or for other sins, one cannot confess and repent rebirth. In sum, the theoretical influence for a completed suicide. However, with of religious belief on suicidal behavior is the pathologization of suicide by the field far from straightforward and requires of psychiatry and growing public further examination. With simultaneous awareness regarding mental illness, the rises in both its national suicide rate and Church’s view on suicide became more Christian population, South Korea is an tempered and the Catholic Church auspicious setting to study this established that one has to be mentally relationship. competent in order to understand that he Theories on Religion and Suicide or she is committing a sin. Therefore, the Two main theories dominate the Church no longer holds a black-and-white literature on the relationship between ethic regarding suicide, but rather a more religion and suicide: the integration theory contextual judgment of suicidal behavior. (Durkheim, 1951) and the religious Regardless, suicide continues to be commitment theory (Stack, 1983). While stigmatized and reproved within the the former focuses on the social benefits Catholic community. of belonging to a religious society, the
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 42! latter emphasizes the psychological number of shared beliefs and practices importance of commitment to a certain among adherents. He asserted that set of core beliefs. Each model can be religious groups with more shared dogmas used to explain the possible relationship and rituals would foster greater social between religion and suicide in South integration and consequently lower suicide Korea. risk for its members. Although Durkheim’s Integration Theory Catholicism and Protestantism, the two French sociologist Emile largest branches of Christianity, are based Durkheim first developed the integration on the same basic tenets and both theory on suicide in 1897 (1951). prohibit suicide, Durkheim made a Although suicide is a psychobiosocial distinction between them based on the phenomenon that requires a multipronged religious societies they tend to produce. approach, Durkheim considered it mainly Because Catholicism tends to more as a social phenomenon that transcends fervently require its adherents to profess individual agency. He proposed that the certain beliefs and engage in certain likelihood an individual will commit practices, Durkheim hypothesized that suicide can be determined by examining Catholicism encourages greater social the two variables social integration, or the integration and acts as a more effective extent to which a person is attached to his deterrent for suicide than Protestantism. or her social groups, including family, Some examples of specifically Catholic religious institutions, and community, and beliefs and practices include confession social regulation, or the extent to which the and norms against switching to another desires and behaviors of a person are religion (Stack, 1983). Accordingly, controlled by social values and norms. He Durkheim concluded that suicide rates predicted that societies with higher social among Catholics would be lower than that integration and higher social regulation among Protestants (1951). In the mid to would have lower suicide rates, because late 1800s, he found support for this individuals within the society would be hypothesis among five nation states, more closely bonded to other members of Austria, Prussia, Bade, Bavaria, and society, and because their behavior would Wurttemberg, in which the suicide rates of be more closely monitored by social the Protestant population were at least norms, which proscribe deviants acts like fifty percent higher than that of the suicide. Therefore, he predicted that Catholic population. individuals thriving in highly integrated Durkheim went so far as to assert and regulated societies are less likely to that Protestantism would actually promote commit suicide. suicidal behavior (1951). He explained Durkheim further proposed that that because Protestantism allows a one’s religious affiliation is a significant greater degree of free inquiry, or the determinant of social integration and that freedom of individuals to interpret the it can therefore influence an individual’s Bible as they wish, Protestants have fewer risk for suicide (1951). In particular, he shared beliefs and practices. This spirit of argued that suicide varies inversely with free inquiry is paired with a relative lack of the degree of social integration of a ideological subordination within the religious society – the more closely-knit a Protestant community compared to religious society, the lower the suicide rate. Catholicism, which requires a relatively Without regard for the specific beliefs unquestioning obedience of its followers. embodied by religious groups, he Catholicism involves a stronger sense of measured social integration as the sheer collectivism, whereas Protestantism
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 43! fosters a sense of individualism. In short, which religious groups vary in terms of Durkheim argued that Protestantism lead adherent’s participation and network to lower social integration for its members, contacts, regardless of whether they are of which in turn lead to greater suicide risk. Catholic or Protestant background, The classic Durkheimian model determines suicide risk. has been widely tested and has yielded By examining twenty-seven mixed results. Spoerri et al. (2010) found religious groups (twenty-five Protestant that in modern Switzerland, the protective denominations, Catholic, and Jewish) in effect of a religious affiliation is stronger the United States, Pescosolido and among Catholics than among Protestants, Georgianna (1989) found that Catholicism lending support to Durkheim’s theory. and some Protestant denominations had However, other studies have found no lower suicide rates, whereas other conclusive relationship between religious Protestant denominations exhibited higher affiliation and suicide rates. For instance, suicide rates. This result can serve as a Morphew (1968) examined the religious revision to Durkheim’s assertion that all beliefs and practices in fifty cases of self- Protestant denominations increase suicide poisoning at the General Hospital, risk. Upon studying detailed descriptions Birmingham and found that although the of each of the Protestant denominations, Catholic patients seemed to have stronger they found that the denominations that sense of group identity and solidarity (i.e., are mostly “mainline,” “mainstream,” or higher social integration), they were no “old-line” (Episcopalian, Institutional more immune to suicidal behavior than Presbyterian, Institutional Methodist, their Protestant counterparts. United Church of Christ) tend to report Claiming the need to update higher suicide rates while more evangelical Durkheim’s theory to cater to changing denominations (Nazarene, Evangelical historical and social contexts, Pescosolido Baptist, Seventh Day Adventist, Church and Georgianna (1989) reinterpreted the of God) tend to report lower suicide rates. integration theory as a network model. Clearly, unlike Durkheim, who made the Durkheim’s studies were based on the blanket statement that Protestants are rapidly industrializing societies and newly more prone to suicide than Catholics, the established nations, such as Italy and network theory approach examines the Germany in the late 1900s (Durkheim, social mechanisms underlying each 1951). While religion held cultural denomination to clarify the effect of hegemony in these past European religion on suicide. societies, secularization throughout the While the classic integration world has considerably tapered the impact theory views religion only as a source of of religion on contemporary culture. social integration, the Neo-Durkheimian Secularization and other related network theory asserts that religious sociohistorical trends, such as societies also affect individuals’ sense of ecumenicalism and evangelical revival, social regulation (Pescosolido & have led to a renewed relationship Georgianna, 1989). Because churches are between religion and society in today’s communities, which naturally develop world. Therefore, Durkheim’s theory on social norms, churches and other religious religious affiliation and his dichotomy communities play an important role in between Catholicism and Protestantism behavior monitoring and social regulation. could be unsuitable for studies on today’s By looking at the above data, Pescosolido national suicide trends. Instead, the and Georgianna concluded that church network theory holds that the degree to groups with both high social integration
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 44! and regulation are thought to have high Christian life-affirming beliefs include the network density, whereas those with low belief in an afterlife as a reward for social integration and regulation are endurance in worldly struggles and thought to have low network density. exclude irrelevant beliefs, such as the Groups at the extremes of these measures belief in the Virgin Birth. These tenets tend to report the highest suicide rates, provide individuals with internal strength while groups with moderate levels report to tolerate suffering and a sense of hope the lowest suicide rates. While moderate for the future, thereby preventing feelings levels of social integration and regulation of depression and anxiety, which can lead can protect individuals, extreme levels can to suicidal ideation. In short, the religious actually encourage suicidal behavior. For commitment theory focuses more on the instance, atheists in times of crises have potentially beneficial micro-level influence neither a religious community to rely on of certain beliefs on individuals’ emotional (i.e., social integration) nor the guidance wellbeing instead of the social benefits of religious authorities or fellow members that religious communities provide. This (i.e., social regulation) and therefore are translates into the hypothesis that more likely to give up on their lives. At countries with greater populations of the opposite end of the network density individuals with religious commitment gradient, cults with both high social would have lower levels of suicide. integration, which prevents them from Stack and Lester (1991) found developing relationships with those some support for the religious outside the cult, and regulation by the cult commitment theory when they compared leader, can also lead to disastrous cases of it with Durkheim’s integration model. In suicide, such as the infamous mass suicide their study, they measured the at Jonestown in 1978. In sum, the independent variables religious integration, network theory argues that the social which they operationalized as religious organization within religious groups and affiliation, and religious commitment, their level of network density, and not which they operationalized as the simply religious affiliation, are what frequency of church attendance. They determine the adherents’ suicide risk. found a strong inverse correlation The Religious Commitment Theory between religious commitment and Criticism of Durkheim’s suicide ideation, r = -0.29, n = 1,687, p < integration model (and its updated 0.05. Greater church attendance, or versions) led to the emergence of an greater exposure to central Christian alternative theory relating the level of beliefs, was closely associated with lower religious commitment or devoutness to suicide rates, regardless of whether suicide risk (Stack, 1983). In contrast with individuals were Catholic or Protestant. In the integration theory, which simply a more recent study by Neeleman et al., emphasized the social benefits of religion, African-Americans had lower levels of the religious commitment theory focused suicide compared to white Americans, and on the psychological benefits of strong one strong indicator of lower suicide rates commitment to a few central, life- was a high level of orthodox religious affirming beliefs. Because religion can beliefs and devotion, as opposed to other offer a source of meaning and order in the variables, such as practice and religious world, the more strongly an individual affiliation (1998). believes in certain life-affirming religious Similar studies have used other values, the less likely he or she will engage variables to measure religious in suicidal behavior. Examples of commitment, including the domestic
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 45! production of religious books, which has countries (Stack, 1983). Therefore, it been found to correspond to the level of seems that it is not the particular belief exposure to certain religious beliefs. system and religious society, but the level Fernquist (2003) found that the of individuals’ devoutness that is linked production of religious books is inversely with suicide risk. related to female suicide rates in both high However, the evidence for the and low religious countries, whereas it is religious commitment theory is mixed. only inversely related to male suicide rates Sisask et al. (2010) found that the in high religious countries. Fernquist frequency of attending church or another suggests that females depend on the place of worship demonstrated a internal strength and comfort they gain protective effect in Brazil and Iran but not from religion whereas males depend on in South Africa and Sri Lanka, whereas the external social support of religion in religious affiliation had no significant countries where being religious is the relationship. Although this study norm. These results suggest that while the disconfirms Durkheim’s theory, it does religious commitment model may be more not uniformly confirm the religious appropriate in assessing suicide risk commitment theory throughout the among females, a Durkheimian model countries. Therefore, both theories require that focuses more on the social benefits of further development and research. religion may be more relevant for males. Nevertheless, researchers across various The religious commitment theory fields continue to rely on these theories as is not limited to Christianity, and research a framework for assessing the potential has found that it seems to hold for other social and psychological impact of religion major religions. For instance, Jahangir et on suicides on both the individual and al. (1998) found that Afghan refugees in national levels. Pakistan with higher degree of The Case of Christianity in South commitment to certain beliefs of Islam Korea were less vulnerable to suicide ideation The integration theory and the and behavior. In this study, clinical religious commitment theory can be used judgment was used to assess individuals’ to explore the relationship between level of religiosity, wish for death, suicidal religion and suicide in South Korea. plan, and suicidal attempt. The religion of Although it is not possible to make Islam, which is based on the Qur’an, definitive conclusions without substantial emphasizes positive self-regard and empirical data, these theoretical analyses accordingly has rigid sanctions against can help formulate working hypotheses suicidal behavior. The results indicate that for future studies. individuals with high levels of religiosity South Korea Through the Lens of often wished for death, but rarely engaged Durkheim’s Integration Theory in suicidal planning and behavior stating Durkheim’s integration theory and that suicide is an unpardonable sin. its variants suggest that religion can act as Therefore, it seems likely that individuals’ a deterrent against suicide when it serves commitment to their religious beliefs to increase social integration and social deter them from suicidal behavior, regulation (Durkheim, 1951; Pescosolido confirming the religious commitment & Georgianna, 1989). In particular, theory. Some studies have found that Durkheim’s classic integration theory religiously pluralistic countries, such as the states that Catholicism deters suicide while United States, report lower suicide rates Protestantism promotes it. Both Catholic than more religiously homogeneous and Protestant populations have grown in
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 46!
South Korea over the past two decades. surprising that the growth of Christianity The Catholic population, however, has coincided with a period of Westernization increased more uniformly and to a greater in general. In fact, South Koreans often magnitude than Protestantism. Between conflate Christianity with the notions of 1985 and 2005, the Catholic population Westernization and modernization increased by 6.3% while the Protestant (Lumsdaine, 2009). South Korea population increased by 2.2% (Lugo & continues to become increasingly Grim, 2007). The Protestant population influenced by Western liberalism through growth stagnated and then actually dipped channels other than religion. Especially in the nineties for unclear reasons (Han et during this past decade, South Korea has al., 2009). Protestantism began to increase undergone globalization in all realms of again around 2005 but at a slower pace life, which has led to a loss of traditional, than in the past. collective values and the adoption of a Despite the greater and more Western, individualistic culture (Park & consistent increase of Catholicism, the Lester, 2006). This phenomenon may suicide rate of South Korea skyrocketed, have shifted Korea into what Durkheim raising questions about Durkheim’s (1951) would call an egoistic state or a assertion that Catholicism acts as a pathological condition characterized by deterrent for suicide. However, looking at the breakdown or decrease of social these statistics does not reveal to what integration. Because of this disconnect extend non-Christian citizens contributed between individuals and the society, an to the suicide rate. Furthermore, it is too indicator of decreased social integration, soon to dismiss Durkheim’s assumption Durkheim proposed that individuals in an because it is possible that although the egoistic society are more likely to engage increase was greater for Catholicism, the in self-destructive acts, including suicide. overall population of Protestants, 18.3% If Christianity is evaluated purely as a in 2005, has always been greater than the Western import, it may have facilitated percentage of Catholics, 10.9% in 2005. society’s general shift toward a more Therefore, Protestantism’s ostensible individualistic culture, which is more promotion of suicide may overwhelm conducive to suicide according to whatever protective benefits Catholicism Durkheim. Therefore, the increase in might offer. In accordance with suicides may be a social phenomenon that Durkheim’s hypotheses, it is possible that has been inadvertently fueled by the the increase in Protestantism has evangelism of Western missionaries. deteriorated social integration in South On the other hand, Christian Korea society, and therefore has churches in South Korea may have contributed to the rise in suicide. National actually served to increase social level data on these trends are not integration, casting doubt on Durkheim’s sufficient to test Durkheim’s hypothesis theory that social integration is a relevant regarding religious affiliation and further variable influencing suicide risk. analyses of empirical data on more micro Interestingly, upon examining online levels are necessary. church mission statements of churches in The growth of Christianity, and both South Korea and the United States, Protestantism in particular, may have Sasaki and Kim (2011) found that South contributed to social disintegration in Korean websites tend to emphasize the other ways. Because the introduction of importance of social affiliation whereas Western missionaries spurred the growth U.S. websites tend to stress personal or of Christianity in this country, it is not spiritual growth and acceptance.
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 47!
Presbyterian churches and Catholic et al., 2009). Such dramatic changes in the churches in South Korea seem to rely economy could have led to an anomic heavily on the social benefits that church state because individuals who once had to settings provide. The relative emphasis on devote all their energy and resources to social aspects of Christianity can be obtain a decent standard of living began explained by remnants of collectivism in to live with greater comfort. This could South Korean society and the notion of potentially lead to a lack of social direction the nurturing of the interdependent self. If (Durkheim, 1951). Individuals in wealthy Korean churches are successfully societies who do not know the limits of achieving their goals of fostering loving their desires could be driven to moral relationships and accepting communities confusion as well as a lack of a sense of within their congregations, they may have purpose in life. served to increase social integration. While Another potential determinant of this is beneficial to a moderate degree, social regulation that may or may not be excessive social integration can lead to related to religion is the divorce rate. In altruistic societies, in which individuals are spite of the increase in Christianity, which too closely bonded and are driven to condemns divorce, South Korea’s divorce commit suicide for the sake of others in rate has almost doubled over the last the group (Durkheim, 1951). decade (Kwon et al., 2009). The divorce Just as South Korean churches rate has increased from 1.4 per 1000 in today may foster either too little or too 1993 to 2.5 in 1998 and 2.6 in 2005. This much social integration, they can also suggests that Christian communities in facilitate too little or too much social South Korea do not exert adequate social regulation. According to Durkheim, a lack regulation over the domestic sphere to of social regulation can lead to an anomic counter the increasing prevalence of society, or one that is devoid of social divorce. In addition, marital status is norms and other means of social control, thought to have a regulatory effect of its and overregulation can lead to fatalistic own. Durkheim argued that because society, or one characterized by the marriage is a force of social regulation, oppression of individuals (1951). Either divorce leads to decreased social type of society can be poisonous and lead regulation, especially for males (1951). to the excessive suicides of its members. It Because he believed that lower social is possible that South Korea is currently in regulation leads to greater suicide risk, a state of anomie because of its rapid Durkheim hypothesized that nations with industrialization and modernization since higher divorce rates would also show the Korean War in 1953, which also higher suicide rates. Moreover, in his marks the beginning of the growth of study of twenty-one developed countries, Christianity (Kim, 2002). Industrialization Fernquist (2003) found that divorce could can trigger cultural confusion and increase suicide risks for females in low criticism against traditional ways, which divorce countries and for males in all can lead to a disruption of social countries. These findings suggest that the equilibrium (Stack, 1983). lack of social regulation among Christian In addition, the general increase in communities could have contributed to the economic wealth of South Korea the prevalence of divorce, which in turn points to its potential state of anomie. leads to a greater lack of social regulation Overall, the per capita gross national in society at large. income increased to $16,400 in 2005 – a Johnson (1965) argued that sixty-fold increase since the 1970s (Kwon altruistic and fatalistic suicides, or those
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 48! that result from societies with high social the religion was associated with beliefs integration and/or high social regulation, and practices that promise material gains, are rare in modern societies. The such as wealth and health (Han et al., 2009; imbalance of the evidence considered Kim, 2002). Dr. David Yonggi Cho, above seem to confirm this, as it seems the past head pastor at Yoido Full Gospel likely that Christianity in South Korea has Church, emphasized “threefold blessings” contributed to the development of an of salvation, good health, and material egoistic and/or anomic state with low blessings (Cho, 1979). He preached, “You levels of social integration and/or social can tap that power for your tuition, your regulation, respectively. clothes, your books, your health, your South Korea Through the Lens of the business, everything! When you go out to Religious Commitment Theory preach the gospel you are not preaching a In contrast to the integration vague objective, a theory, philosophy, or theory, the religious commitment theory human religion. You are actually teaching focuses on the influence of suicide on people how to tap endless resources!" individuals’ psychological processes and (Cho, 1979). Yoido Full Gospel church is how genuine devotion to certain religious the largest church not only in South beliefs can serve to deter suicide by Korea but also in the world (Han et al., altering one’s thoughts (Stack, 1983). 2009) and has a significant influence on Because the increasing prevalence of the the country’s Christian culture. As such, Christian religion in South Korea does not the emphasis on the worldly blessings that seem to lead to the decrease in suicide rate, can be unlocked through the gospel is not one alternative possibility is that the foreign to the South Korean Christian relevant variable is not individuals’ population. religious affiliation but their level of Religious commitment to the devoutness. Although national rates may “prosperity gospel,” or the message that report higher percentages of those who adherence to Christianity will be rewarded are nominally Christian (Lugo & Grim, with earthly riches, can be detrimental to 2007), this may not necessarily correspond one’s mental health. Adherents that to an increase in the aggregate level of overemphasize this distorted religious commitment across all religions interpretation of the Christian doctrine in South Korea. may actually be more at risk for suicide Alternatively, it may be that the than nonreligious individuals when such core religious beliefs that Christian wishes are left unfulfilled. The prosperity churches in South Korea propagate do gospel, with its emphasis on materialism, not serve to prevent suicide. In other instills a false notion of the benefits of words, it is possible that these core beliefs religion among its followers, and the are only superficially life-affirming. widespread diffusion of such a notion Although Christianity may be based on could diminish any potential protective the same basic principles in different effects of the religion. countries, the way in which the religion is Furthermore, Christianity in South practiced may be disparate due to cultural Korea is often associated with individuals differences (Sasaki & Kim, 2011). The of affluence and higher social status. For reasons that certain religions appeal to example, Kim (2002) found that certain populations also depend on Christians on the whole tend to have context. The main reason that higher levels of educational attainment Protestantism gained such widespread and occupy higher economic class than acceptance in postwar South Korea is that Buddhists. Such social associations can
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 49! serve to further strengthen an emphasis possibility that this religion has acted as a on material gains among the Christian significant deterrent against suicide. community. If the “prosperity gospel” is Rather, it seems likely that Christianity as the central message that the churches in it is practiced in South Korea today has South Korea are preaching and that contributed in creating an environment Korean Christians are drawn to, it makes more conducive to suicidal behavior. sense that the increase in Christianity Because the increase in South Korea’s would lead to a sense of disillusionment suicide rate is a relatively recent and about the gains of practicing Christianity ongoing phenomenon, the current followed by increased despair and research on specific risk factors are limited disappointment, and in the most extreme and requires further attention. cases, suicidal ideation and behavior. To test both Durkheim’s Because religious commitment is a integration model and the religious variable that cannot be captured by commitment model, future studies on this impersonal census reports, it is necessary topic could include empirical studies of to conduct further research on the youth and adults with the independent relationship between devoutness and variables of both religious affiliation and suicide among individuals, as well as on level of religious commitment, and the the particular beliefs that individuals dependent variable of suicide ideation and commit to with the strongest fervor. It attempts. On the national level, one could would be useful to conduct a study to compare the statistics on the religious determine whether individuals who have composition and on the production of greater commitment to certain religious religious books against statistics on beliefs tend to have lower levels of suicide completed suicides. In addition, one could ideation and/or experience with suicide conduct nationwide surveys in South attempts. Korea including questions on each of the Possibilities for Future Research and three variables and run regression analyses Conclusion to determine whether significant This paper investigated the nature correlations exist, and if so, in what of the relationship between religion and direction. Data on different religious suicide, and Christianity and suicide in denominations would provide stronger particular, through the lens of Durkheim’s results. In addition, the level of religious integration theory and the religious commitment can be measured by variables commitment theory. Current research on such as the frequency of church both the relationship between these two attendance. Suicide ideation and attempts variables, as well as recent transformations can simply be in the form of direct in South Korean society, seem to indicate questions, such as “Have you ever that among a multitude other relevant thought about committing suicide?” and variables, Christianity may be playing a “Have you ever attempted to commit significant role in increasing individuals’ suicide?” Because this can be a risky topic risk for suicide, and consequently the to discuss, the survey should be designed national suicide rate. Clearly, the with a high level of cultural sensitivity. intersection between religion and suicide However, such studies are limited is a complex matter that requires thorough in that they rely on the data of large examination on both social and aggregated populations instead of on psychological levels. The current suicide individual cases. One way to avoid this epidemic in South Korea despite the limitation is to conduct retrospective increase in Christianity casts doubt on the analyses, or psychological autopsies, on
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 50! past suicide victims. By examining suicide the suicide epidemic is obtained, the notes and interviewing these individuals’ South Korean government should friends, family members, and/or implement social policies that can lower clinicians, researchers could develop a these risks and protect high-risk more thorough understanding of the populations. social and psychological impacts of Although it is too soon to assert religion on suicidal tendencies. In that religion has been playing a significant addition, researchers could conduct one- role in the suicide epidemic, it seems that on-one, detailed clinical interviews of a further investigation into the topic would random sample of individuals to gain a be fruitful. Whether future research more accurate understanding of the forces indicates that the South Korean case can of religion that influence individual’s be better explained by Durkheim’s thoughts and behaviors regarding suicide. integration theory or the religious Of course, these studies are limited in that commitment theory, any further their results cannot be generalized to the knowledge will be able to shed greater national population. In spite of these light on the issue. All in all, a collective limitations, such research is necessary in effort is necessary to reverse the current expanding our knowledge on the suicide epidemic in South Korea. It is underlying causes of the increase in imperative that South Korea quickly and suicides. fervently addresses this issue, and further Furthermore, the current suicide empirical data and analyses will contribute epidemic must be addressed both on a to successful interventions. clinical and policy level. Considering the potential impact of religion on suicide REFERENCES ideation, many have suggested that it Barraclough, B. M. (1992). The Bible suicides. could be helpful for professionals to Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 86, 64-69. incorporate religiosity into suicide risk Cho, David Yonggi. (1979). The Fourth Dimension. Plainfield, NJ: Logos International. assessments as well as any other Colucci, E. & Martin, G. (2008). Religion and psychological assessments (Colucci & spirituality along the suicidal path. Suicide and Life- Martin, 2008; Gearing & Lizardi, 2009). Threatening Behavior 38, 229-244. Durkheim, E. (1951). Suicide. New York: Free Press. Clinical settings provide natural Faupel, C. E., Kowalski, G. S., & Starr, P. D. environments for research on this topic. Sociology’s one law: Religion and suicide in the urban Furthermore, by knowing the influence of context. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 26, 523- 534. religious involvement on individuals’, Fernquist, R. M. (2003). Does the level of clinicians could better address patients’ divorce or religiosity make a difference? Cross-national needs. suicide rates in 21 developed countries, 1955-1994. Archives of Suicide Research 7, 265-277. On a policy level, it would be Fournier, R. R. (1987). Suicidal movement: beneficial for the South Korean An addiction to death or an invitation to spiritual government to compile information on formation. Studies in Formative Spirituality 8, 175-185. Gearing, R. E. & Lizardi, D. (2009). Religion suicide cases on a nation-wide database. and suicide. Journal of Religion and Health 48, 332-341. This database should include relevant Han, G., Han, J. J., & Kim, A. E. (2009). information on each suicide attempt, ‘Serving two masters’: Protestant churches in Korea and money. International Journal for the Study of the Christian including the individuals’ religious Church 9, 333-360. affiliation and activity prior to death. A Hong, J. P., Bae, M. J., & Suh, T. (2006). more systematic approach to this problem Epidemiology of suicide in Korea. Psychiatry Investigation 3, 7-14. would help identify the risk factors that Jahingir, F., ur Rehman, H., & Jan, Tahir. are specific to the South Korean (1998). Degree of religiosity and vulnerability to suicidal population. Once more information on attempt/plans in depressive patients among Afghan
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EURASIANS IN EARLY COLONIAL HONG KONG Kim Deng The Chinese University of Hong Kong
ABSTRACT Both in Hong Kong and in other European colonies in Asia, Eurasians were In the colonial past, “Eurasian” indicated often perceived as being the living a racial category of hybrid people, who embodiment of colonial encounters, were usually offspring of European and belonging to a stigmatized and isolated Asian descent. Early colonial Hong colonial category that straddled racial, Kong, namely from 1841 to the Japanese ethnic, and sometimes national occupation in 1941, represents the living boundaries. embodiment of colonial encounters, with In earlier colonial Hong Kong, namely Eurasians being collectively stigmatized from 1841 to the Japanese occupation in and separated. Their situation, caused by 1941, Eurasians had considerable racial and spatial separation, was a direct economic and political influence within result of social, cultural, and political the colony. But at a deeper level, their inferiorities. These features had a great stigmatization and isolation, caused by effect on racial categorization and led to racial separation and social segregation, much suffering for Eurasians at the time. were perhaps much more acute and The problems of Eurasian identity insidious than they appeared on the provide a fertile ground for an exploration surface. Racism had a great effect on racial of race, ethnicity, and the relationship of categorization and caused much suffering these two concepts to the colonial for Eurasians. They were collectively structural power. Specifically, this article discriminated against due to their racial historically and ethnographically sees the background, which was considered Eurasians’ livelihood in early colonial embarrassing and problematic. Hong Kong and then addresses the core Compared to other early colonies in Asia, problem of why Eurasians were Hong Kong was highly race-conscious stigmatized. This article investigates how regarding hybridity. Racial mixing in European colonizers practiced racial colonial encounters was seen not only as a norms by managing segregation both colonial transgression, but also as an socially and geographically, examines how “indication of degeneration and the “Eurasian” group was formed and abnormality, as well as a moral and how “Eurasian” was defined under the intellectual regression” (Smith 1983: 98; colonialist classification, and how Lethbridge 2006: 527). British men’s Eurasians reacted to this socially intimacy with Chinese women was oppressed identity in their daily practices. punishable under the law. There were The ultimate goal of this article is to show rules and social pressures against racial how a race concept is manipulated by mixing. Those who had intimate social, cultural, and political power. relationships with local women faced severe consequences. Any European INTRODUCTION employee found engaging in an interracial romance “not only jeopardized his career
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 53! but also risk[ed] ostracism by the In Hong Kong, the Portuguese and European community” (Lee 2003: 16). Eurasians were two distinct groups in Not all the multiracial people in colonial both social and cultural terms. The societies were regarded inferior; for category in Hong Kong called example, Eurasians in other early colonies, “Portuguese” basically referred to racially such as Portuguese India and British mixed people from Macau. They formed a India, were not considered racially community and were socially different problematic (Hawes 1996; Perdue 2003). from the “Eurasians.” The two groups During the sixteenth and seventeenth may have “looked similar” in “racial” centuries in Portuguese India, terms, but they were viewed very relationships across the racial divide, i.e. differently and grew up differently. The between British men and Indian women, Portuguese had a community, clubs, and a were common. Similarly, in British India, recognized social role. By 1860, the as Carton puts it, “set in a romantic mode, Portuguese were widely employed by the these were mostly interracial relationships Hong Kong government and British in the upper levels of both British and firms. They were considered “less Indian society, in which shared notions of problematic because of their Roman elite status were perceived to have largely Catholic ties and Portuguese names” (Lee outweighed concern over racial 2003: 20). The Portuguese practiced differences” (2009: 238). The Eurasian Catholicism, maintained their identity as a women were even highly desired by distinct group, and, because of their British men due to their symbolic religion, tended to intermarry amongst whiteness (Ibid: 238-239). Evidence also themselves. The Portuguese were never shows that, for the Portuguese, the main embarrassed by their “race.” Eurasians, in difference between Christians and contrast, were often the result of “heathens” was the primordial social prostitution and informal marriages, distinction that moderated the social causing them to be looked down upon as acceptance of intercultural marriages, “bastards” (Lethbridge 2003: 535). rather than notions of “race” (Ibid: 235). Living in a society in which cultural bias Britain’s colonization of Hong Kong was covered by racial terms, Eurasians in began a few hundred years after its Hong Kong often found themselves colonization of India. It came to Hong “stranded between two mutually aloof, at Kong with an already fully developed times mutually contemptuous, cultural imperial caste and even bigger colonialist worlds” (Lee 2003: 6)—i.e. between ambition. In contrast to Portuguese India, Europeans and Chinese. “Eurasian” in where religious norms were more colonial Hong Kong was an identity often powerful, and British India, where the based on racial indeterminacy and social Indian local caste system had already uncertainty; they were seen as “neither dominated the social hierarchy, the British fish nor fowl [ ].” Such colonizers in early Hong Kong society— characteristics led Eurasians to isolation. then still a small southern Chinese town— They were distinguished as a bounded quickly adopted the imperial Victorian racial group, even though some were able ideology of race and class and applied to “pass”—or tried to pass—as Chinese. these to the colonization effort. Thus, Social isolation was engraved into their historical and political forces together very identity, and this common trait led created in Hong Kong a race-conscious them to develop into a racially tight-knit society. group.
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There are sufficient examples illustrating Before the 1941 Japanese occupation, the discrimination against hybridity as according to Lethbridge’s (2003) research particularly a problem in early colonial on pre-war Hong Kong, the European Hong Kong. It was not a universal issue population of Hong Kong could be in many of the given colonial societies. divided into four broad groups: officials, We should note that the misfortune faced merchants, members of the professional by Eurasians in colonial Hong Kong was classes, and Europeans in supervisory or not a direct result of “being racially low-status occupations. Lethbridge asserts mixed,” even though it appeared as such that although these groups often and most people believed this to be the overlapped, nevertheless the four groups case. From the contrasting examples of did have sociological significance (2003: multiracial people in earlier Portuguese 518). Viewing the division of European and British India, and the examples of the groups by class helps to understand the Portuguese in Hong Kong, we can see tension between upper-class Europeans that although British and local Chinese and lower-class Europeans, Chinese, and treated Eurasians and Portuguese Eurasians, as well as to understand how differently, this was not simply due to each group became segregated from the what Eurasians “biologically” were, but others. rather what they socially and culturally In general, no matter which group an were categorized as. expatriate belonged to in the class These problems of Eurasian identity hierarchy, these expatriate Europeans in provide a fertile ground for an exploration Hong Kong saw themselves as members of race and ethnicity and the relationship of the elite. A pseudonymous writer, of these two concepts to the colonial “Veronica,” who in 1907 wrote a series of structural power, which this study will sketches for The Hong Kong Weekly, explore. The following sections will depicted an English-style upper-class elite explain how Eurasians were isolated, as being sharply distinguished from a stigmatized, and how the “Eurasian” racial European petty bourgeoisie and a category was manipulated by social, member of the Chinese working class. cultural, and political power. Some of the elite had adopted the lifestyle, attitudes, and behavior of the English upper class, even though they did not STIGMATIZATION OF EURASIANS belong to it by reason of birth or education. “These you will know from Social hierarchy their extreme exclusiveness and their lack of that all-round virtue charity,” Divisions of Europeans “Veronica” wrote (Lethbridge 1978: 164 In Hong Kong’s early colonial history, quoting “Veronica” 1907: 14). Historical race formed a distinct divide, and different evidence regarding the background of ethnic groups led separate lives. The Europeans supports this depiction. British colonizers tended to replicate their An analysis of the social origins of eighty- own home institutions in this new colony five cadets appointed to the Hong Kong of Hong Kong. They brought with them Civil Service from 1860 to 1941 reveals the imperial Victorian ideology of race that most army and naval cadets were, in and class, which naturally placed fact, young men who were from middle- Europeans at the top of the social class families, not rich, who had to make hierarchy. their way in the world by their own talents and hard work, with only the benefit of a
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 55! conventional upper-class education concerned with the stability of kinship and (Lethbridge 2003: 525-526). As tracing of ancestry, European Lethbridge notes, “many people stood ethnocentrism in a Chinese society high on Hong Kong’s social ladder who developed with the backbone of a strong were very small fry indeed in the consciousness of social class. provincial town or community from The upper and lower-class Europeans which they hailed” (Ibid: 526). Moreover, seemed to have had different attitudes many members of the Hong Kong Civil toward the Chinese. Upper-class attitudes Service were Scots by birth and toward the Chinese were close to the upbringing and were solidly middle and middle-class attitudes toward servants in upper class within Hong Kong’s Britain: servants in that country were hierarchy. The members of the perceived as almost like members of professional class also shared many of the another race—dumb, incomprehensible, attributes of officials and merchants and “illiterate troglodytes” (Lethbridge 2003: included a strong Scots and Irish 521-522). The upper-class Europeans Protestant contingent (Ibid: 518-519). were very exclusive and drew sharp lines This would indicate that the social between themselves and the Chinese, hierarchy in early Hong Kong was more thereby promoting their ideas of racial likely a limited “faux-reconstruction” of hierarchy and social Darwinism. The the imperial institution. It was re- Europeans rarely had contact with formalized based on the middle-class ordinary Chinese. On the other hand, Europeans’ own version of creating a lower-class Europeans more often had social structure where they were at the close contact with local Chinese in their top—a position they could never occupy work and in their residences, which in their own society. To summarize, early sometimes led to intimate relationships. on all Europeans carried with them to Hong Kong class notions derived from Contact with the Chinese their own very class-conscious society, but In such a racially hierarchical society, not their real class background. In Hong where distinct boundaries were laid Kong, they used their political power to between Europeans and Chinese, how did create a social order that maximized interracial couples meet, and how did benefits to themselves. some even end up having intimate relations? Europeans’ relationships with the The Europeans who often had close Chinese community relationships with Chinese were from the Most Europeans were ethnocentric at that supervisory and low-status occupations. time, convinced their society was superior. For example, as Lethbridge notes, “The However, the concept of ethnocentrism dregs of European society in Hong Kong does not entirely explain European were the European beachcombers and attitudes and behavior toward other ethnic prostitutes, who for one reason or another populations. Traditional Chinese society gravitated to this Britain’s distant colony. was also ethnocentric in its own way, as They formed a caste of pariahs or déclassés, well as socially hierarchical. The difference who were avoided publicly by most between the Chinese and European Europeans” (2003: 518). These Europeans ethnocentrism is that the Europeans’ use lived in areas where there were mostly of ethnic divisions was meant to maintain local Chinese residents, which increased their class superiority. Unlike the Chinese the possibility of them coming into form of ethnocentrism, which was more regular contact with the Chinese.
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There were two major reasons why these Social segregation lower-class Europeans had closer Unlike the attitudes of their Portuguese connections with the Chinese. First, colonial counterparts in Macau, the British during the years between 1880 and 1890, colonists’ attitude toward racial mixing prostitution flourished in Hong Kong as a had never embraced tolerance. Under the major social institution in European Portuguese colonial ideology, racial circles (Ibid: 519). It is not surprising that mixing was officially hailed as a positive prostitution arose in Hong Kong, since step toward social harmony and an there was an obvious market. There were important strategy of successful many single European men and married colonization (Carton 2008: 235). The men who came without bringing their British colonial leaders in Hong Kong, on families. The government succeeded in the other hand, had quite the opposite clearing most of the European prostitutes view of marriages or unions with native out of the colony in 1891, so that errant women. Racial mixing in colonial males had to seek female company in encounters was seen not only as a colonial Canton, where some prostitutes had transgression, but also as an indication of migrated, or had to find a local Chinese moral degeneration and social/racial woman in Hong Kong (Ibid: 527). While abnormality. upper-class Europeans could not use It was government policy to insist on prostitutes and keep a concubine without demarcating a boundary from the attracting negative attention, the lower- indigenous population and culture in the class European men had more anonymity colony (Lee 2003: 13). From the 1840s to and could go to red light districts more 1941, the British colonizers in Hong freely. Second, these déclassé Europeans led Kong did all they could to try to avoid lives that were distinct from the rest of the interracial mixture and maintain racial European population, lives that brought “purity.” They created strict rules to them much more closely in touch with the demonstrate the idea that racial mixing Chinese population than most officials equaled abnormality and should be a and merchants. Often, the males either punishable offence. For example, The married Chinese or Eurasian women or Hon. C. G. Alabaster, who was a member cohabited with them and lived in Chinese of the Hong Kong Legislative Council and residential quarters. later Attorney-General, asserted: Socially, those Europeans who associated with Asian women were ostracized by the [I]t [is] urgent for the Europeans above them in the class Hong Kong colonial structure (Ibid: 520). Magistrates in those government to deal with days treated such European “failures” the problem of race with great severity in their courts because mixture by declaring they were thought to lower the prestige of marriage between certain the white man in the East (Ibid: 525). This races invalid or a inevitably led the children of these punishable offence, or at European and Chinese unions to be least certain decisions as to collectively discriminated against by those the degree of blood Europeans above them in the social making a particular person hierarchy a member of one race or of another. (Lethbridge Manipulation of segregation 1978: 248)
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Even though Hong Kong never Kong was a society based on segregation established any laws against (Lee 2003:16). “miscegenation” and the legislation Spatial and social segregation were both Alabaster recommended was never carried out with the approval of the enacted, the proposal still reflects a deep- government. For example, Sir John seated uneasiness about Eurasians on the Bowring, Governor from 1859 to 1865, part of the British community. stated: Under such a rigid ideology of social segregation, the consciousness of status My constant thought has and ethnic origins increased and peaked been how best to prevent a around the turn of the 20th century, when large Chinese population sentiments like Alabaster’s were common. establishing themselves at This colonial ideology created clearly Kowloon, and as some defined ethnic groups, with “Whites” native population is viewing themselves as superior to indispensable, how best to Chinese, and seeing Eurasians as an keep them to themselves embarrassment. The Chinese view was and preserve the European less severe, but they also kept their and American community distance from Eurasians (Lee 2003: 15-17; from the injury and Lethbridge 1978: 248-249). inconvenience of This “social law” constituted by British intermixture with them. colonization influenced social interactions (Endacott 1964: 122) in Hong Kong and led people not to engage in intimate contacts with other In the 1860s, all affluent Europeans “races,” even the Russians. The chief moved to the Peak District. Lower-class manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Europeans continued to live east of the Bank, Sir V. M. Grayburn, said in 1937, city in the developing suburb of Wan Chai “foreign, native, half-caste are definitely or moved over to British Kowloon, which taboo” (King 1988: 286), referring to non- had been ceded in 1860 (Lethbridge 2003: Europeans, Chinese, and Eurasians. There 527). The Europeans claimed that their were rules and tremendous social moving to the Peak in the 1860s was pressures against interracial romances or simply because the area was cooler in the marriages, pressures that could even end summer and far less crowded than the their careers. For example, many older, low-lying residential quarters of the European employees had to sign City of Victoria. However, the fact is that documents promising not to marry a Europeans were uncomfortable living Chinese woman; otherwise, they would be close to Chinese. What Europeans knew dismissed. about conditions in the Chinese quarters of Hong Kong, gleaned from newspaper Spatial segregation reports and official publications, Spatial segregation also became very frightened them, principally because they stringent, reflecting the social hierarchy concluded that such areas were breeding and racial divisions of the colonial order. spots for plague and other contagious The British colonizers sought to separate diseases—a threat to their security and people of different classes and different way of life (Ibid: 522). ethnicities. It is said that from the time The move to the Peak had important Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842 sociological consequences. By 1905, Hong until the Japanese invasion of 1941, Hong
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Kong Island reflected the colony’s social (Lethbride 1978: 171 quoting Des Voeux hierarchy. The lower levels looked up to 1903: 223). the Peak, which was cut off from the rest The Ordinances were designed to of the colony by a number of social guarantee the exclusiveness of this barriers and by geography. The Peak thus European residential “Sukhavati.” i became a kind of “Simla” of Hong Kong Although the designation of the Peak (Lethbridge 2003: 525 quoting Moore District as a reserved area under the 1904 1999: 252), comparable to the famous Ordinance was not expressly a summer capital of the British Raj in India. discriminatory measure aimed at the The Peak acquired its own uniquely Chinese, Chinese were only allowed to British institutions, such as Anglican reside on the Peak if the Governor-in- churches, a hospital, a sanatorium, a hotel, Council concurred and so long as the a club, and recreational facilities. The Chinese conformed to certain residential move to the Peak exaggerated the standards. The Ordinance stated: “It shall separation of the European population— be lawful for the Governor-in-Council to mostly the group of Europeans at the top exempt any Chinese from the operation of of the class structure of Hong Kong— this Ordinance on such terms as the from the Chinese and other “races.” The Governor-in-Council shall think fit.” Europeans were isolated to a greater Thus, this Ordinance essentially forbade degree than had been customary in the all Chinese from living on the Peak. There early days of the colony when officials and were no non-Europeans who could taipans lived mostly in the city or on the conform to such standards since they levels immediately adjacent to it were politically an underclass and inferior, (Lethbridge 2003: 528). which made it extremely difficult for them to obtain economic and social advantages. Legitimization of segregation The only non-Europeans who slept at To ensure distance between the European night on the Peak were Sir Robert Ho and Chinese communities, various laws Tung and his family, who identified and rules were instituted to maintain the himself as Chinese but was physically segregation. One of the main purposes of Eurasian (Lee 2003: 13; Lethbridge 2003: the Ordinance and subsidiary legislation 528-529). was to see that standards of hygiene were Despite the appearance of segregation, rigorously upheld. However, the Europeans in Hong Kong continued to Ordinance was also introduced principally live two lives, one spent in the bustling to guarantee that only European-style but still socially segregated world of work houses were built and European standards downtown and the other in the rarefied maintained in this pleasant hill district. atmosphere of the Peak, far removed Both reasons meant that the Peak district from Chinese living quarters in the ultimately developed into a purely Western District of the city of Victoria European residential area for the upper (Moore 1999: 257). In sum, most of the class, as English as any small English Europeans who had sexual contact with provincial town. Sir William Des Voeux Chinese women were those who worked stated in his memoire, My Colonial Service, as servicemen or beachcombers, living “from that spot neither sight nor sound close to the Chinese quarter. It was far gave any token of human existence, and it less likely for a European who lived on seemed difficult to realize that within so the Peak, or one who had a tight short a distance was a dense population” relationship with the people of “elite” status, to have sexual relations with
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Chinese women, except for a few based “upper class” was lacking in Hong adventurous and sly bachelors who broke Kong; very few Europeans came from the rules. truly upper-class families, as the majority were from the middle or lower-middle Why were Europeans in Hong Kong classes. Therefore, the structure of Hong so racially conscious? Kong society was no mere microcosm of Why were the British so obsessed with British society, though it simulated many social status and racial distinctions? A features of class found in the British number of answers can be suggested. homeland. First, one assumption regarding social Moreover, the early expatriate Europeans ranking is that Europeans were borrowed a strong social class ideology conditioned by certain narrow, derived from the nature of colonial bureaucratic features implicit in the Anglo-Indian society—the idea of caste. structure of the administration, which Such ideas of caste were then imported integrally linked with racial ideas. into Hong Kong by early Hong Kong Beginning in the 1840s and continuing for settlers, officials, and merchants, who the following one hundred years, given “had resided previously in the great caste- Europe’s ongoing global dominance, ridden subcontinent and brought with European political and imperialist elites them to Asia not only Benares trays and continued to emphasize “racial” other Indian gewgaws but the nabob differences between so-called white and mentality” (Lethbridge 2003: 535-538). non-white “races,” and European Furthermore, one interesting theory has “raciologists” continued to affirm this traced the origin of the obsession with distinction. Even after WWII, racial ideas status to the boredom experienced by of this type were reaffirmed by scientists European wives in Hong Kong. Wright while the Western global racial order and Cartwright in 1908 emphasized the persisted (Baum 2006: 247-248). The peculiar nature of European society in European colonizers authoritatively Hong Kong—its “formalism, stuffiness, employed racial discourse, established feuding, and appalling snobberies” (Mellor racial categories and meanings, amd 1992: 192 quoting Wright and Cartwright exercised power as they “produce[ed], 1908: 5). The authors assert that those mark[ed], and fix[ed] the infinite wives led circumscribed lives in differences and diversities of human nineteenth-century Hong Kong. Since beings through a rigid binary coding” they did not work (the social climate of (Baum 2006: 244 quoting Hall 1998: 290- the day was not conducive to the idea that 298). Racial discourse establishes ideas middle-class married women might also about who should be a fully participating work, therefore few jobs were open to member of society and who “does not European women and middle and upper- belong” (Ibid: 244). European colonizers class Chinese women), they spent their were powerful and had used racial time supervising domestic arrangements discourse to justify colonialism and and organizing various dinners and racialized discrimination in social life. As a parties. Inevitably, they indulged in gossip result, the construction and use of racial and scandal, as in any small, inward- categories are integrally related to the looking community, because “they had development of a colonial society. much time on their hands and met Secondly, Hong Kong society was a frequently with the same small group of microcosm of British society. However, as people” (Ibid: 193-195; Lethbridge 2003: has been previously mentioned, a home- 538-539, 542). The obsession with status
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 60! was seen, then, as a kind of game played different social members (the term racism principally because of the insufficiencies first came into usage in the 1930s). The of colonial social life. “race” concept, as Baum notes, had been Max Gluckman argues that gossip and fundamentally bound up with scandal serve to maintain the unity of “constructing and rationalizing unequal groups (1965: 22). With the founding of social relations” (2006: 235). Baum also the Hong Kong Club, which soon became notes that, “Equality has always been the “nerve center” of the European difficult for modern nation-states to community, “certain rules of behaviors manage”, especially “in relation to the and commitment to a set of conventional dislocations, class-based,” and race-based beliefs were enforced” (Lethbridge 2003: inequalities generated by imperialism, 521). If a person did not conform, then he colonialism, and capitalism (Ibid: 8). Over would be ostracized, and that was social time, then, a distinct British Imperial death for the transgressor. Since the social order came into existence. The British resident civil population was Europeans in Hong Kong, especially the extremely small before 1941—it British colonizers, as it were, filled their numbered approximately 2,700 in 1901 allotment of social space by reproducing and only 4,300 in 1931—there was no in microcosm the various racial and class other circle to which an individual could stratifications of their homeland. The adhere for the validation of his status. As result was a highly artificial society. As the a result, the Club described here was “in power of colonialism grew, Hong Kong’s fact a matrix of cliques and gossip circles” original social stratifications were (Ibid: 521). reformed: the social status of the Chinese Thus, the gossip and scandal in Hong decreased, along with their racial status, Kong’s European community were not while the Europeans moved to the top of necessarily “disruptive”; in fact, they were the social ladder. “functional” for the society. Gossip and scandal helped in the allocation of Categorization of “Eurasians” in Europeans to positions within various colonial Hong Kong strata and thus worked ultimately to provide continuity for the European social Differences between “Portuguese” and system. Moreover, to extend the “Eurasians” argument, it isolated Europeans from the By 1860, the Portuguese were widely rest of their own universe, and by doing employed by the Hong Kong government, so distinguished this small community and many were working for British as well from others. as foreign firms, generally as clerks or To summarize, the evolution of an middle-level managers. As mentioned “impenetrably European society,” an above, the “Portuguese” were mixed-race Imperial caste, helped to manage tensions people from Macau. During the first that resulted from being an expatriate: the decade of the twentieth century, when more class-conscious and stratified their race consciousness was approaching a society became, the more familiar social peak worldwide, Alabaster distinguished life became for the British (Lethbridge between three types of Eurasians: British 2003: 539). At a deeper level, the Eurasians, “Portuguese,” and Chinese emergence of racial ideas in modern Eurasians. Of these, the Portuguese were Western societies during the nineteenth considered the least problematic because century coincided with the gradual of their Roman Catholic ties (Lethbridge diffusion of racist-based recognitions of
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2003: 20). The employment of Portuguese The common domestic structure of as clerks, shroffs (a Hong Kong term for a “Chinese Eurasian” families and their cashier), and interpreters was a direct origins result of the educational activity of the As mentioned previously, many contacts Catholic missions in Hong Kong. The between European men and Asian women missions early on also established a were conducted in a highly discreet number of small schools that provided the manner. Asian women were mostly Portuguese with an elementary education mistresses or concubines who lived in English (Lethbridge 2003: 535). separately from their European lovers. In general, the Portuguese were of a very Most of the time, the affairs were mixed nature (including not only Chinese conducted under what were referred to as and Portuguese but also Indian and “protected women” arrangements. Malay) and practiced Catholicism, but Amongst the earliest Eurasians in colonial spoke Cantonese. The Portuguese Hong Kong were the offspring of local maintained their identity as a distinct Tanka women who conducted group and, due to their shared religious prostitution on their boats for the early affiliation, tended to intermarry. When the European sojourners. According to Eitel, Kowloon Peninsula was ceded by the the Tanka (boat people) were a marginal Chinese in 1860, the Portuguese moved group of lower status than the dominant over to this new area in increasing Cantonese. Specifically, they were fisher- numbers, and their identity as a group was folk who supplied European ships with further strengthened by a degree of provisions and provided other useful residential separateness (Ibid: 535). services. Some of their daughters became One of the major differences between the the mistresses or common-law wives of Portuguese and the Eurasians was that the early European settlers and sojourners in former usually lived in Catholic Hong Kong (Eitel 1895: 169; Lethbridge environments, where racial differences 2003: 531). This practice of affairs, were less important and racial concubinage, and secret common-law consciousness was moderated. As I stated marriages seriously affected the perceived previously, the Portuguese were moral standing of these kept women and, concerned more about the difference consequently, how the early Eurasians between Christians and “heathens,” rather were looked upon by both the European than notions of “race” (Carton 2009: 235). and the Chinese communities (Lee 2003: That is to say, the Portuguese notion of 19-20). Sadly, the products of these secret religious cohesion surpassed any concerns interracial romances—Eurasian about race. Another major difference children—were usually abandoned by between these two groups was that of their European fathers, who remained in religious intermarriage. The Portuguese the colony for only a limited time (Eitel followed Catholic marriage customs, 1895: 170). For a long time, Eurasian including monogamy, no premarital sex, children were teased and looked down and no divorce, whereas “Eurasians” upon because of the absence of a father in came mainly from unmarried (and often their lives. single-mother) families (Lee 2003; Carton The “Eurasians” described above were the 2009). most common type of Eurasians in early colonial Hong Kong. They were the ones that worried Alabaster most—the “Chinese Eurasians” that he noted were “half-caste” in physical appearance but
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 62! wore Chinese clothes and a queue, went and would certainly return by a Chinese name, and followed Chinese themselves as Chinese. marriage customs, including polygamy. Those who have called There is also evidence that suggests a high themselves Eurasians in percentage of Eurasians tended to marry this Census probably only Chinese or into other Eurasian families represent the small (Moore 1999: 268; Lethbridge 2003: 531). [minority] who have been Alabaster seemed to worry about this brought up as Eurasians. group of Eurasians because their choice to They would most likely live as Chinese seemed to deny the not have any objection to superiority of British culture. Given a declaring themselves as choice between living as British or as Eurasians (Lethbridge Chinese, they had rejected British ways 1978: 175). (Lee 2003: 20-23). The declining number of Eurasians in Although the Census number was small, a the census: the effects of “passing” portion of the Eurasian population could Unlike the “British Eurasians” who were be properly designated as a distinct culturally British, the “Chinese Eurasians” community. Moreover, this fact was lived a life closer to the Chinese style, symbolized by the provision in 1890 of a mostly within the Chinese residential special Eurasian “authorized cemetery” at quarters. Even though some of them were Mount Davis (Lethbridge 2003: 531). Still, bilingual and bicultural, having learned the decreasing number of Eurasians English and British customs at missionary naturally raises the question of why the schools, they would rather live in a Eurasians wanted to dismiss their identity, manner more typical of the Chinese. The which will be explored in the following majority of Eurasians consciously section. cultivated a Chinese identity. In the 1901 and 1911 censuses, already, self-identified DESIRING TO BE ANOTHER: Eurasians were gradually disappearing “PASSING” from the population and being assimilated into the larger Chinese population. Precariousness and unease with the The census in 1901 showed that Eurasians “Eurasian” identity numbered only a few hundred. The Census Office claimed that “the number The notion of “Eurasian” identity in pre- of persons who return themselves as war Hong Kong was linked to the sense Eurasians gets fewer every Census.” This of precariousness and unease. Because of official total was a gross under-estimation their anomalous and ambivalent “racial” of the size of the Eurasian community, heritages, Eurasians were perceived as a according to the Register General’s report. threat to “pure and authentic” Europeans. This was because, as the Register General Eurasians in a European social gathering reported, often created psychological tension. They …the large majority of were difficult to classify into the Eurasians in this colony Europeans’ existing social hierarchy, as dress in Chinese clothes, they were both European and Chinese. has been brought up and They could not be allocated with ease to lives in Chinese fashion, their proper niche in the colonial social
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 63! structure, based as it was on the division they might tell us that we should not be of races. living on the Peak” (Gittins 1969: 15). In early colonial Hong Kong, racism It is true that apart from receiving unfair against Eurasians could be quite blatant. treatment from others, most Eurasians To a certain extent, Eurasians were indeed also felt uncomfortable about their own considered to be a kind of aberration in identity. On one hand, racial and social the natural order resulting from discrimination were the external reason “miscegenation.” They were described as and a core influence. On the other hand, a monstrosity: “the dragon’s tail of the the Eurasians themselves were also forced Orient…fastened to the goat’s head of to accept and then gradually internalized Europe” (Eitel 1895: 221). Note that this the colonial theories of race, which were metaphor is not simply of a monster. In predicated upon the assumption that racial choosing a goat’s head to represent differences were biological and absolute. Europe, he has chosen a symbol of the This intensified the Eurasians’ internal cuckold, suggesting immoral sexual struggle. Colonial racial thinking extended behavior. Under the oppression of such the ideas of Social Darwinism, which racial thinking, the whole society was equated “race” with “species,” producing against the racial mixing of subjects. Even an argument implicitly suggesting that some highly educated Europeans reacted “miscegenation” was equivalent to strongly against racial mixing. For aberration (Gossett 1975: 151; Grice 2002: example, Mr. Thomas Watters, H. B. M. 261). Following such racial thinking, Consul at Foochow, a Sinologue of note Eurasians were “troubled” by the subject and a Spencerian sociologist of some of “miscegenation,” and this “trouble” reputation in his time, felt obliged to write was regarded as innate, perpetual, and in his autobiography, published in 1928, unchangeable. This made them perceive “East is East, and West is West, and themselves as an embarrassing mixture of should never meet…biology proves that races and a poor product of the offspring of parents of widely- “miscegenation.” different races inherit the worst The consequences of racism on the characteristics of both sides—though Eurasians lasted for almost one hundred there is a certain amount of years (starting in the 1840s and 1850s, and precociousness, it is soon followed by lasting to 1941), long enough to entirely deterioration” (Sollors 1996: 494 quoting ruin their self-confidence as a population. Watters 1873: 47).ii As a result, Eurasians for a long time In this regard, Eurasians continuously faced a dilemma in self-identification. The encountered severe racial and social whip of harsh self-assessment discrimination. It is thus not surprising continuously cracked in their minds. For that even the most affluent Eurasian, Sir example, Han Suyin expressed this feeling Robert Ho Tung,iii the only non-European when she wrote, “I am Eurasian, and the man who lived with his family on the Peak word itself evokes in some minds a before 1945 and the colony’s first sensation of moral laxity” (Han 1952: millionaire, who was respected for his 215). The after-effect of colonial racism wealth and abilities, still experienced a lasted for decades. Those of my measure of discrimination. His daughter, informants who had spent part of their who claimed to have been the first childhood in the period from the 1950s to Chinese baby born on the Peak, said that roughly the early 1980s had a common other children “might suddenly refuse to experience of avoiding mentioning their play with us because we were Chinese, or ethnicity. The situation did not improve
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 64! until the 1990s. More examples of this will the strategic concealing or “deleting” of be presented in the next section. undesirable traits was carried out by Hence, Eurasians’ experiences in pre-war Eurasians who suffered psychological Hong Kong often had been characterized anguish from being Eurasian on a by an acute sense of “precariousness,” permanent basis. As Eurasian author Ling which was mostly produced by the wrote, “I would have given anything to discourse of racial hierarchy and the look less foreign” (1990: 166). Those who ideology against racial-mixing. Evidence “passed” permanently did so for life, suggests that for this reason, it was very severing all family ties (Hall 2003: 159). likely many Eurasians consciously A typical case of practicing “passing” cultivated a Chinese identity and, as it cosmetically was mentioned in Far’s were, passed as Chinese to the general “Leaves from the mental portfolio of a population. Eurasian,” in 1890, where the author depicted a Eurasian girl who tried very The practice of “passing” hard to mask her true physical appearance:
As mentioned in the previous section, the I meet a half Chinese, half number of Eurasians was ascertained to white girl. Her face is be small in the 1901 and 1911 Censuses. plastered with a thick The reason was also stated by the Register white coat of paint and General: few Eurasians would declare her eyelids and eyebrows themselves as Eurasian, and many are blackened so that the identified themselves as Chinese. shape of her eyes and the Practically speaking, it was quite possible whole expression of her for Eurasians to “monoracialize” face is changed. She was themselves. One major reason was that born in the East, and at racial markers in terms of names, clothing, the age of eighteen came and lifestyle were no longer reliable after West…It is not difficult, in 1911. After 1911, the Chinese population a land like California, for a began cutting off the queue and adopting half Chinese, half white Western clothing, thus assimilating to girl to pass as one of Western styles of dress (Hall 2003: 159). Spanish or Mexican origin. Given this lack of clothing markers, it This the poor child does, became quite possible for some Chinese though she lives in Eurasians to pass the racial divide nervous dread of being whenever and whichever way they discovered (Far 1890: 1). thought fit. “Monoracialization” or “passing” evolved In her book, Eaton clearly disapproves of into various forms. Both temporary and this girl’s passing tactics and rejects permanent passing were options. technologies of racial disguise as a means Temporary “passing” was usually chosen of coping with biracial identity in a hostile for practical reasons, such as getting a job. environment. However, this passage Passing as Chinese might make the person proved that, for many Eurasians, there feel more comfortable when working in a was an ever-existing “social burden” of Chinese company, while a perceived being a Eurasian in the given society (Ling Eurasian might have an easier situation in 1990: 35). a European company. Most of the time,
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What the girl had apparently done was try contact with materials and knowledge to conceal her nervousness at being related to India and China. He did so for identified as a Eurasian. Other Eurasians the purpose of covering up his Indian and practiced “monoracialization” for Chinese background. Even though his different reasons. Typically Eurasians Indian father had earned a decent position were attempting to monoracialize due to and emolument working for the Hong their insecurity about specific parts of Kong government, he still felt their ethnic background. They intended to embarrassed about his Indian background. erase the undesirable traits: the despised Having entered a school where the ones in the racial hierarchy usually were students were almost all Europeans, Alan purged, while the more desirable traits felt a sense of unease with his mixed were emphasized. Those who had an nature. Hence, pretending to be a ambiguous configuration might even pass monoracial Portuguese made him feel themselves off as belonging to an more comfortable and confident among ethnicity that they did not even belong to the white children. partially. For example, a Eurasian writer, Alan’s case was quite profound since it who was half-Chinese and half-American, reveals that in Hong Kong, racial published her work in 1915 under a institutions were so powerful that they Japanese pseudonym. The reason she superseded socioeconomic power. “We chose not to use her real name, but to use were invited to parties held in a Japanese name instead, was because at Government House several times. I once the time Sino-phobia had reached an all- saw a picture my father took with time high in most Anglo-European Gandhi.” As we can see, his father’s countries. Since her physical appearance occupational success was not able to prevented her from passing as white, she override the negative feelings caused by decided to use a “mask” to cover her his “race.” In Hong Kong, it was not the undesirable identity as half-Chinese by case that one’s socioeconomic status using a more ethnically compatible could prevent him/her from being racially identity as a Japanese (Grice 2002: 261- discriminated against. Alan’s case reflects 262). Baum’s idea that “‘racial identities’ are Practicing “passing” was prevalent among actually racialized identities,” the Eurasians in Hong Kong. My oldest demonstrating that a racialized identity has informant, Alan, a man in his 70s, whose had enormous social, cultural, and father is Indian and mother is Chinese- material consequences (Baum 2006: 241). Portuguese, told me that he had “passed” An inferior niche in the racial stratification for a long time when he was young. He had greater influence than poorer used to tell people that he was purely economic power on a person’s self- Portuguese. Even though the assessment. Racial differences were seen “Portuguese” were actually of racially- as a primordial social distinction that mixed heritage, the point was that segregated each of the social strata. “Portuguese” was an ethnicity that was It is thus obvious that the rejection of the clearly stated, culturally and religiously “Eurasian” identity was strategic. If bounded, and differentiated from people at various stages of their lives are Eurasians, as discussed above. In order to not satisfied with what they gain from convince people he was an “authentic” certain identity circles, changing identities Portuguese, Alan avoided speaking the seems reasonable. The embarrassment Indian language of his parents, which he and precariousness were naturalized and can speak a little, and also avoided having infused into this identity by the colonial
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 66! racial notions, which then led to the Even so, the rise of Eurasians in the Eurasians’ negative self-assessment. colonial power structure was evident. Eurasians tried to monoracialize There were reasons for this rise on the themselves in order to get rid of the sense part of Eurasians. From the beginning of of internal conflict and the self-denial colonization, all business was conducted produced by this socially stigmatized entirely in English (Smith 2003: 268). This identity. They tried their best to conceal meant that the acquisition and knowledge undesirable traits, or traits that made them of English had been “legislatively” feel uneasy, to better their lives by living required. The English language became a in a society where monoraciality was link to higher status in colonial society; preferable. one could earn a better position by In short, “passing” may offer possibilities speaking English. At the same time, as for improving one’s status. Some passed part of one’s work, one also needed to be as Chinese and enjoyed the same social able to deal with the Chinese community. status as the Chinese. Others maintained Essentially, to qualify for a position relations with both the native Chinese involving mediating issues between or population and the Europeans and had conducting business with both Europeans the possibility of becoming members of and Chinese, one had to be fluent in both the elite, possibly even passing as English and Chinese and had to have Europeans. Passing as Europeans helped some influence within the local Chinese Eurasians to earn greater economic community. For example, having many benefits and social equality, so long as Chinese relatives could help the individual they were able to appropriately emphasize to communicate with other Chinese in the their European traits. Most cases showed territory. that those Eurasians who had navigated In the early stages of the colonial period, obstacles to success in the colonial caste Chinese possessing all of these system were, not surprisingly, those with qualifications were rare. European the lightest skin color (Hall 2003: 151). colonizers found it difficult to locate There is no doubt that a strategic change suitable Chinese workers to fill required to a desirable ethnicity gave them a positions in the administrative system. commercial advantage. Some Eurasians Given the difficulty in finding acceptable even discarded their Chinese names for Chinese workers, these bilingual Eurasians English ones in order to capture their were sought to fill the positions. iv share of socioeconomic profits (Lee: 2003: Eurasians became widely employed by the 23-24). While racial whiteness does not Hong Kong government and Hong Kong guarantee anyone an advantaged social banks, and many worked for other position, it nonetheless remains a source Westerners’ firms. They generally worked of material advantage and social capital as interpreters or mid-level administrators (Baum 2006: 248). in the colonial offices, or as compradors in Hong Kong banks. Because they were usually locally-born residents and spoke EURASIANS’ ROLES IN COLONIAL English, they were regarded as more HONG KONG reliable and loyal than racially pure The administrative ideology sought to Chinese (Lethbridge 2003: 531). exclude Eurasians from the center of the power structure, placing them in working Eurasians as interpreters positions that were of less importance.
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During the nineteenth century, British ridding themselves of their embarrassing colonizers faced a problem in that the position in society. The opportunity to majority of the local Chinese people could work with Europeans represented a bridge not understand English and thus had to a “socially proper status.” Those trouble understanding the British legal appointed as interpreters often eventually system. This was especially troublesome went on to reach the highest status, thus because all legal transactions were bypassing the government civil servant conducted in English. Additionally, the rung of the ladder (Smith 2003: 274). British people could not understand In truth, however, their positions were Chinese customs. These problems often unhappy ones. Although they had interfered with the British colonization acquired a degree of Western culture, they effort in Hong Kong. were not accepted as social equals by their For the sake of maintaining law and order, foreign co-workers. While their salaries it seemed necessary to use interpreters and were greater than those of other Chinese translators, both for the legal profession employees, they were below those of and the courts to understand the Chinese, Westerners who also served as interpreters and to explain Chinese ways and customs (Ibid: 275). This salary structure reflected to the British (Smith 2003: 274). Thus, the social structure of colonial Hong there was also a demand for those who Kong. had the ability to understand and to use However, the shift in education did not both the Chinese and English languages. benefit most Eurasians girls the same way However, qualified interpreters were in that it did the boys. Even though it was relatively short supply. Eurasians, possible for some Eurasian girls to enter Portuguese, and Macanese were available missionary school, attending missionary for recruitment, as those groups had all schools in the nineteenth century did not grown up speaking English, Cantonese, guarantee their immunity from and often Portuguese as well. concubinage. In Eitel’s letter to the As discussed previously, many Eurasians Colonial Secretary in 1889, he pointed came from unmarried families where out, “almost every one of the girls, taught education on social norms may have been English, became on leaving school, the insufficient. To cultivate Eurasians to be kept mistress of foreigners.” This useful human resources serving the unfortunate fate of many Eurasian girls is British, and to become “proper social one reason that Eurasians were looked members,” as Eitel states, Eurasian boys down upon by Europeans and Chinese were “invariably” sent to the Government (Lee 2003: 21). Central School, where they generally distinguished themselves. As a rule, and Eurasians as compradors with some help from their European fathers, these boys obtained good As one of the characteristics of a “Chinese situations in Hong Kong, as they acquired Eurasian” described in Alabaster’s writing, well-paid jobs in the government or in being a comprador was a common career schools (Lee 2003: 21 quoting Eitel 1880: field for Eurasians. 131). As a result, some were government The position of comprador in a foreign interpreters, while others taught Chinese firm in China reflected the effort needed servants English in the factories run by to come to terms with the language and the British. business practices of different cultures. The interpreter position, for many The comprador was responsible for the Eurasians, became the first step toward
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 68! hiring, dismissal, and conduct of all Kong. However, Ho identified himself as Chinese staff. He negotiated and secured Chinese rather than Eurasian or the business of the firm with Chinese European. Even so, most European customers, and he was expected to be managers and governors and the Chinese “loyal, trustworthy, honest, and a man of undoubtedly regarded him as a Eurasian. financial standing” (Smith 1983: 93). One After World War Two, the staff in Hong of the essential qualifications of being an Kong banks were increasingly able to ideal comprador was to be of substance speak English due to expanded English with extensive business and social education in the colony, so the need to connections in the Chinese community. employ Eurasians in this special position Another was the ability to communicate decreased (Smith 1983: 101). Originally, fluently in two languages (Ibid: 98). The one of the chief reasons for establishing comprador was a man looking in two the comprador system was the barrier directions: he was a leader in the Chinese created by the use of different languages. community in Hong Kong and he was Once this barrier began to disappear, the also working for a foreign business as part system began to lose its reason for of the foreign imperialistic thrust into existence. As the years passed, the gap China. between Chinese and Western business Eurasians fit naturally into this position methods also narrowed. On both sides, because they were capable of bilingual there was a better understanding of the communication and had a certain degree two ways of doing business, and thus of knowledge of Chinese culture, customs, there was less need for specialized and practices. Thus, the Chinese side of knowledge of Chinese affairs. In essence, the business was certain to be well- the more effective the reforms in managed. They were also accepted more traditional Chinese practice, the less a by their compatriots than a total foreigner. Eurasian comprador would be needed as a Moreover, Eurasians could be counted on go-between. to be more permanent than a European In 1965, the last comprador, Peter Lee, employee was, since their home was retired; thus the last vestiges of the located in China and not some other comprador system disappeared. distant place. Their local rootedness Recruitment of staff was now the qualified them as being relatively responsibility of the personnel section, trustworthy and stable members in and terminal computers changed the financial matters when they held positions whole system of customer service. Thus, in banks (Ibid: 93-100). the importance of compradors for The most famous comprador was Sir connecting with clients also decreased. At Robert Ho Tung, who made a fortune this point, no distinction was made working for a Hong Kong trading between Chinese and other businesses. company (Jardines) from 1880 to 1889. As The title of comprador was finally a Eurasian, his bilingual nature assisted eliminated in 1965 (Smith 1983; him in his career. Working for the longest Lethbridge 2003). time in a Hong Kong bank, he became the richest non-European and most senior Eurasians’ social niche comprador (Lethbridge 2003: 527). Finally, he made his home on the Peak In the early stages of colonization, with the upper-class Europeans. Despite Eurasians were essential to the stability this, Robert Ho Tung and his family were and the administration of the colony. part of the Eurasian community of Hong
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Eurasians gained seats in administrative applied to every aspect of colonial society, structures not necessarily because they including marriage, residency and career. were “racially” closer to the Europeans, The stigmatization of “hybridity” was one but because of their mastery of English of the major consequences of this colonial and Chinese and their colonial loyalty racial thinking. As a result, most Eurasians (compared to the Chinese) (Lee 2003: 23- suffered greatly from racism—racism 26). In this regard, they constituted a supported by a discourse of social colonial community that functioned fairly hierarchy and political power. Clearly the well in the colonial society. basis of such racial thinking was However, the rise of the economic status pseudoscientific, though it was a socially of Eurasians did not seem to guarantee real chapter of colonial history. the rise of their social and political status. Undoubtedly, Eurasians exemplified It has also been acknowledged that “hybridity.” They were born into a world Eurasians were still looked down upon by that categorized as Eurasians, from the “purebred” Chinese, who habitually Chinese perspective, anyone who had any referred to them as “the Bastards” trace of European heritage or, from the (Miners 1987: 128). It is true that European perspective, anyone who had Eurasians were stigmatized by both any trace of Asian heritage. Thus, Europeans and Chinese, very likely due to Eurasians always experienced a sense of the Eurasians’ embarrassing family “precariousness” from their combined origins. Chinese had their own reasons to foreign and native elements. The “hate” Eurasians: their existence ambiguity of their position was the major challenged the traditional Chinese theory trait that qualified them to be stationed in of preserving ethnic “purity,” bringing the between the two communities. Chinese ancestral lineages to a halt, and Eurasians were perceived as a threat to the Eurasians took away the job opportunities Europeans’ colonial etiquette, principally available to the Chinese. Occupationally, because of their ambivalent racial the competitive tension between heritages—they were seen as both Eurasians and Chinese, in some sense, European and Chinese, though they were may have resulted in stronger Chinese marginalized by both groups. In this enmity toward Eurasians. highly race-conscious society, “Eurasians Regardless of how much the Chinese could not be allocated with ease to their community may have disliked them, the proper niche in the colonial social British colonizers still saw the Eurasians structure, based as it was on the division as the best candidates to support the of races” (Lethbridge 2003: 532). Those colonial elite. As stated in a dispatch racial rules arbiters would define one as written by Stubbs to the Colonial Office being of a lower class by focusing on how in 1922, “…[w]e can rely on nobody mixed a person was: no matter how except the half-castes and even they will “white” one looked, it would be inferred throw in their lot with the Chinese if they that the person was a “problem” because think they will be on the winning side” he or she was mixed. Racial mixing was (Sweeting 1986: 8). viewed by many as creating an “abnormal” identity. Hence, living in a culture where racial- CONCLUSION mixing was seen as a reflection of “moral Colonial stratification was based on race, laxity,” people of mixed heritages began demonstrating the idea that race to define themselves negatively. Evidence determines class. The racist idea was showed that Eurasians tended to refuse
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 70! their “Eurasian” identity. The feeling of present sense of internal strife regarding insecurity and unease toward their own their own “problematic race.” identity constantly shadowed them. These Psychological tension and moral unease Eurasians were forced to live with the did exist, and some Eurasians even consequences of their racial packaging learned to feel that they were the result of during every waking moment of their “moral laxity.” lives. It should then come as no surprise Eurasians were considered to be “genetic that those racial packages, such as skin aberrations.” However, their “aberrant color and facial structure, or even a nature” was socially determined. This is Chinese surname, caused some internal because their existence contradicted the strife. Much of this strife focused upon colonial racial “aesthetics” and challenged self-assessment and self-identification. the social rules, in which racial mixing was Some Eurasians could not accept the non- equated with mutation and abnormality. White part of themselves—that part had The reason that hybridity was considered been defined by colonial society as ugly anomalous was not simply a matter of and inferior. They also could not accept aesthetic disagreement. Rather, the their mixed nature, as it was defined by sentiment that Eurasians were ugly and colonial racism as abnormal or “aberrant.” embarrassing was culturally constructed. In short, this explains why so many Eurasians were not “racially” strange; they Eurasians wanted to pass themselves off were actually socially unacceptable. The as monoracial people. In a society where prohibition against racial mixing was monoraciality was preferable and precisely a response to the manner in multiraciality was “threatening,” by which multiraciality threatened to disturb practicing “passing” one might feel less and destabilize the social constraints of anxious about their hybrid nature. As Hall racial hierarchies. argues, “If such people have no particular political agenda or ethnic loyalty, then ‘passing’ may seem to be a perfectly !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! logical way of getting what they know they i A Buddhist notion referring to a heavenly place, the deserve, just as many other groups of pure land. people get what they deserve” (2003: 155). ii Thomas Watters, 1873, Journal of the North China Branch To conclude, colonial racism has always of the Royal Asiatic Society. been based on a belief in the superiority iii Sir Robert adopted the manners, deportment, and of races. This kind of essentialist racism costume of a Chinese gentleman, took a keen interest in produced a tendency to read cultural all matters relating to Chinese life, and did not seek to pass as a European, nor to enter European society. differences as absolute, and it was Europeans deliberately categorized Sir Robert as inextricably tied to biology. The Chinese and thus clarified his status as a Hong Kong assumption that the face, body, and other resident. physiognomic features may be read as iv Most Eurasian’s fathers abandoned their children and clues to internal characteristics endorsed Chinese common law wives, or visited only rarely and biologists’ theories of race and, stemming discreetly. Therefore the Eurasians could hardly learn English from their European fathers. To learn European from that, of racial superiority (Grice social customs, Eurasians had to receive missionary or 2002: 255-257). In other words, colonial government education. This will be discussed in the next racism read humans’ “racial” features as a section. cultural text that could project a particular REFERENCES identity and define a distinct class. Thus the oppression of this colonial racial Baum, Bruce. 2006. The Rise and Fall of the thinking created for Eurasians an ever-
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Caucasian Race: A Political History of Racial Identity. New Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: A Casebook. New York: York: New York University Press. Oxford Press. Carton, Adrian. 2009. “‘Faire and Well-Formed’: Mellor, Bernard. 1992. Lugard in Hong Kong: Portuguese Eurasian Women and Symbolic Whiteness Empires, Education and a Governor at Work. Hong Kong: in Early Colonial India.” In Tony Ballantyne, Hong Kong University Press. Antoinette M. Burton, eds., Moving Subjects: Gender, Moore, Sally Falk. 1994. “The Ethnography of Mobility, and Intimacy in an Age of Global Empire, pp. 231- the Present and the Analysis of Process.” In Robert 251. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Borofsky, ed., Assessing Cultural Anthropology, pp. 362- Eitel, Ernest J. 1895. Europe in China: the 374. New York: McGraw-Hill. History of Hong Kong from the Beginning to the Year 1882. Perdue, Theda. 2003. Mixed Blood Indians: Racial London: Luzac & Co. Construction in the Early South. Athens, GA: University of Endacott, G. B. 1964. An Eastern Entrepot: a Georgia Press. Collection of Documents Illustrating the History of Hong Kong. Smith, Carl T. 1983. “Compradores of the Hong London: H. M. Stationery. Kong Bank.” In Frank H. H. King, ed., Eastern Banking: ______. 1964. A History of Hong Kong. Hong Essays in the History of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Kong: Oxford University Press. Corportation, pp. 93-111. London: Athlone Press. Far, Sui Sin. 1890. “Leaves from the Mental _____. 2005. Chinese Christians: Elites, Portfolio of a Eurasian.” Quotidiana. Patrick Madden, Middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: ed., At Hong Kong University Press. http://essays.quotidiana.org/far/leaves_mental_portfo Sollors, Werner, ed. 1996. Theories of Ethnicity: lio/ accessed 1 Jun 2008. A Classical Reader. New York: New York University Gittins, Jean. 1945. I Was at Stanley. Hong Press. Kong: Ye Olde Printerie, Ltd. Sweeting, Anthony. 1986. The Social History of Gluckman, Max.1965. Politics, Law and Ritual in Education in Hong Kong: Notes and Sources. Hong Kong: Tribal Society. Chicago: Aldine Pub. Co. Hong Kong University Press. Gossett, Thomas F. 1997. Race: the History of an Idea in America. New York: Oxford University Press. Grice, Helena. 2002. “Face-ing/De-Face-ing Racism: Physiognomy as Ethnic Marker in Early Eurasian/Amerasian Women’s Texts.” In Josephine Lee, Imogene L. Lim, and Yuko Matsukawa, eds., Re- collecting Early Asian America: Essays in Cultural History, pp. 255-272. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Hall, John A. 1985. Powers and Liberties: The Causes and Consequences of the Rise of the West. Oxford: Blackwell. ______. 2003. “Nation-States in History.” In T.V. Paul, G. John Ikenberry, and John A. Hall, eds., The Nation-State in Question, pp. 1-28. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Han, Suyin. 1952. A Many-splendored Thing. Boston: Little, Brown. Howes, David, ed. 1996. Cross-Cultural Consumption. London: Routledge. King, Frank H. H. 1988. “Hongkong Bankers Inter-war, I: Policy and Managers.” In Frank H. H. King, Catherine E. King, and David J. S. King, eds., The Hongkong Bank between the Wars and the Bank Interned, 1919-1945: Return from Grandeur, pp. 257-313. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lee, Vicky. 2003. Being Eurasian: Memories across Racial Divides. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Lethbridge, Henry J. 1978. Hong Kong, Stability and Change: A Collection of Essays. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. ______. 2003. “Caste, Class and Race in Hong Kong before the Japanese Occupation.” In David Faure, ed., Hong Kong: A Reader in Social History, pp. 517- 542. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press (China). Ling, Amy. 1999. “Chinese American Women Writers: The Tradition Behind Maxine Hong Kingston.” In Cynthia Sau-ling Wong, ed., Maxine Hong
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THE EXOTIC WOMEN OF THE WEST: Depictions of Nanban Women in the Momoyama Period Amanda Tsao Columbia University
Dedicated in memory of Ms. Ellen White, who taught me how to notice rather than look, and realize beauty in the details.
ABSTRACT In the chronicle Yaita-ki, one of the oldest recorded reactions of the Through several visual analyses of nanban Japanese to the arrival of the first byōbu, or ‘barbarian screen paintings’, this Portuguese, describes the astonishment essay seeks to discuss the connection felt regarding the strikingly different between depictions of Western women in physical features of European men: Momoyama period works by Japanese These men are the traders artists and the Japanese interest in the of Seinanban [Southwest exotic nature of the West. In the late 16th Barbary]… They have to early 17th century when these screens large eyes, long noses, and were painted, artists such as Kanō are generally hairy. They Sanraku faced a dearth of physical wear voluminous clothes, references to work from when depicting especially their trousers Western women. As a result, unlike the and collars. Their outfits, Western men and boys that are often decorated in gold and depicted alongside them, these women are silver, are charming.i imaginatively rendered in an amalgam of Asian features. From their white faces and Such opinions as this are easily found in straight noses—facial qualities usually diaries and records that date back to ascribed to Japanese and Chinese around 1542, when the first Portuguese women— to their Chinese-style, thickly traders landed on Japanese shores. Often cuffed sleeves and Indian-inspired alongside these descriptions of Portuguese trousers and shoes, these women bear men are reports of their ships and of rare, little resemblance to the accurately attired, imported animals. Much more scarcely pink-faced, long-nosed nanban males that found, however, are Japanese accounts of accompany them. Conceived during an European women, who did not sail the age when Japan had just opened its doors three-year journey to Japan. As a natural and aesthetic sensibilities to foreign goods extension of this fact, illustrations of and styles, these portrayals of women nanban men, ships, and rare beasts are signify the important intersection between depicted in great detail with a the characteristic braveness for which commensurate level of historical accuracy, Momoyama artists are remembered and but the same cannot be said for the seminal impact that Western styles had illustrations of nanban women. Such an on Japanese ones, even after those doors imbalance stems from the lack of first- had closed again. hand encounters necessary to supply Japanese artists with physical references when painting nanban screens. This dearth
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 73! left artists with only their imaginings of What purpose would they serve on a what Western females looked like, and mission? Secondly, the two boys watching eventually such fantasies gave rise to from the windows of the two-tiered gate depictions of women attired in an appear to be too comfortable around the amalgam of ethnically ambiguous women they stand beside to be on costumes, largely based on designs from unfamiliar terms with them. The fair- other Asian countries. The production of haired boy in particular, hiding behind the the resultant nanban screens also collided woman dressed in blue, expresses enough with the introduction of European world affection in his behavior for one to believe maps and anthropological illustrations of that she is his mother, or at least a close ethnic clothing from around the globe. member of his family. Therefore, This intersection reached its visual assuming that the children in the scene are culmination in the Japanese people’s under the guardianship of the women they expressions of newfound interest in accompany and that those women are in international costumes, which the some way related to the group of men that imaginative renderings of Western women they walk toward and that European men aptly exemplify. Concerning perceptions did not take their families on long voyages, of cultural identity in response to the we can then establish that the scene is set inundation of anthropological knowledge in the native country of the Western men that came from the West, this essay will in the painting. also discuss the extent to which Japanese Turning our attention to the group artists adopted European modes of of women who emerge from under the rendering and applied them to figural gate, they appear to be dressed in an array depictions of their own women. of ethnically ambiguous clothes: A pair of late 16th to early 17th voluminous trousers, diagonally draped century nanban screens attributed to Kanō swathes of cloth that run across their Sanraku in the Suntory Museum provides torsos, loose, wide skirts, frilly collars, a strong example of the marked contrast pointed shoes, and head accessories with between portrayals of nanban men and ear flaps — all in a vibrant display of women (Fig.1). The left screen portrays a various colors and patterns. The woman scene of Westerners in their native wearing red trousers, for instance, wears country before their departure to Japan; green slippers that curl up at the front the right screen shows their arrival. beneath green and white feather-like Although some may argue that this scene protrusions that jut out in a circle at the of departure is not necessarily set in base of each leg. The trousers themselves Europe and instead might take place in are reminiscent of a salwar, a type of Asia, the plainly European boys scattered trousers worn by Indian women.ii A green among the group of women on the left strip of cloth hangs between her legs and portion of the left screen prove otherwise evokes a patka, a sash worn by both men (Fig.2). Firstly, why would a plethora of and women of the Mughal Empire.iii Both wealthily dressed children accompany a the trousers and the sash appear to be long voyage overseas? Judging from the heavily embroidered with gold threads, behavior of the boys playing with the lending them the opulent and ornate peacock, the pair pointing and ogling at a qualities often associated with both the sight over the balustrade, and the two items brought by wealthy nanbanjin and boys in the windows, these children textiles that came by way of the Silk cannot be older than about ten years old. Road. iv The gold buttons that stud the sides of her trousers lend mention to
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 74! another fascination that the Japanese had additions for their works when an absence with the West, as metal buttons were a of visual references prevented them from novel item introduced by the Portuguese.v representing Western subjects Moving upwards, the brown sash authentically. These inventions include the encircling her waist and left hanging at the ethnically unidentifiable plumed collars back appears to be made of cloth akin to worn by the woman carrying the long Madurese pesisir batik material, which frond and the woman in red trousers, as usually incorporates the dominant brown well as the narrow headscarf draped over color characteristic of most batik and the ears of the woman in the green blouse combines it with red and green, as seen in and the headgear flapping over the hair of the sash’s print. vi That the design motif’s the woman in the green trousers. The leaf shapes are outlined in white and women watching from the second floor of yellow, suggests an incorporation of the the tiered gate wear similar head wax-resist technique that is essential to the accessories, with added small bundles of Indonesian batik-making process. vii material atop their crowns. Hanging above the sash are the woman’s The European men to the right of wide sleeves, which have come together in the screen provide a perfect contrast to the typical arm gestural pose of Chinese the women (Fig.3). Depicted in the nobility and matching the likely cultural meticulous detail that is characteristic of inspiration for the sleeve design. viii Her the yamato-e style, the artist has given blouse and collar, however, do not seem individualistic attention to the portrayal of to be of an Asian inspiration. Instead, her each man.ix Their facial features exhibit a blouse, with its protruding, bordered visual language that conveys their shoulder seams and numerous buttons foreignness independent of their clothing: down the front indicate an aesthetic idea trimmed beards, long sideburns, and derived from the artist’s depictions of bushy mustaches stand out against their Western men, who are shown seated peachy skin and fair hair. Overall, their beside the group of women. They all wear noses, eyes, and ears are of almost the same frilly collars, buttoned-down exaggerated proportions. For instance, the fronts, and exposed shoulder seams that nanban man in the red hat with one hand are also given to virtually all members of on his hip possesses a disproportionately the nanban group of women and children large nose and ears as compared to his portrayed. pointing hand. The facial features that It appears that with certain aspects emphasize the men’s distinct European of the women’s attire, Kanō Sanraku took heritage, however, are nowhere to be even more inventive artistic liberties, found in the facial features of their female going beyond the realm of existent ethnic counterparts. Instead of the warm dress. One such example is the palm tree- coloring found in the men’s faces, their like fronds that two of the women carry, pallor is stark white against their black presumably as fans. The woman hair, eyebrows, and eyes. Unlike the men, conversing with the one in red trousers who have a range of hair colors and carries a shorter frond, while to their right, textures ranging from straight and grey to another woman in green trousers carries a curly and auburn, all of the women have longer version that rests on her left uniformly straight, black hair piled atop shoulder. Such an accoutrement highlights their heads. The female and male the predilection that artists such as Kanō attendants walking beside each other at Sanraku had for inventing fantastic the back of the group supply an even clearer example of this discrepancy in the
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 75! transfer of physical attributes. The women is not in an upright position, she clearly look unmistakably East Asian, and one sports the headscarf worn by some of the may venture further to argue that they women in the Kanō Sanraku screen, as look specifically Chinese. In view of well as the sari-like swathes of cloth Kaihō Yūshō’s The Four Gentlemanly draped across and around her body as Accomplishments, a painting in which the seen in the Kanō Naizen screen in Lisbon. four typically gentlemanly pursuits are Of course, her white complexion speaks practiced by women instead, and Kanō of the recurring Chinese face as well. Sansetsu’s Song of Lasting Sorrow, which Additionally, the frilly white sleeves and focuses on a well-known female collar that poke out of her red blouse protagonist in Chinese literature, one can obviously imply a European inspiration understand how a resurgence in the and are ubiquitously featured in both the popularity of Chinese themes during the Kanō Naizen screen in Lisbon as well as late 16th to early 17th century was the Kanō Sanraku screen. concomitant with visual manifestations of One could go on at length that trend in screen paintings such as the dissecting the inspiration for each one by Kanō Sanraku.x attribute of these women, but it is Kanō Sanraku was not the only sufficient to say that such an analysis Kanō school artist who portrayed nanban reinforces the idea that the exposure to women in this creative fashion. Kanō foreign cultures by way of the Portuguese Naizen, born only eleven years after Kanō kindled the Japanese people’s interest in Sanraku, also incorporated similar features foreign textiles and costumes. A 1542 into his work, as seen in the 17th century record written by a Portuguese captain nanban screen attributed to him in the named Antonio Galvão describes the National Museum of Art in Lisbon shipwrecked Portuguese men’s first (Fig.4). On the upper left-hand side of the encounter with the feudal lord of screen, a number of women gather to Tanegashima, who, upon being shown a watch the foreigners’ procession occurring bolt of cloth from Europe, was so in the foreground (Fig.5). Again, the use enamored of it that he immediately of culturally unidentifiable garments is summoned the city’s wealthiest merchants employed, and the women possess to trade for it, among other unmentioned xi vaguely Asian features. More specifically, items of his interest. The combination of they possess trousers reminiscent of disparately sourced fabrics and garments salwars, Chinese facial features and hair, that makes up the women’s outfits diagonally draped swathes of cloth, frilly exemplifies this fondness perfectly. collars, and structured blouses, all as It is possible that this renewed evident here as they are in the Kanō interest may have been related to an Sanraku screen. Additionally, the boy overall rise in awareness about running into his mother’s arms on the international peoples. As globes, maps, right side of the detail supports the and anthropological illustrations came to argument that this scene takes place in Japan, Japanese artists took on the role of Europe in the same way that the Kanō cartographers, sociologists, and Sanraku left screen does as well. Another anthropologists in producing works that screen attributed to Kanō Naizen in the showed Japan in a global context. A pair Kobe City Museum shows a nanban of six-paneled screens entitled Four woman crouching down in the interior Capitals of the World is one reflection of the corner of a building (Fig.6). Although she Japanese people’s newfound interest in
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 76! ethnic attire (Fig.7). In it, a large world Japanese artists’ growing familiarity with map dominates most of the area, flanked the idea of the Foreign, an idea that by two seven-by-three columns on each eventually gave rise to mixing Japanese side that show various couples from and European elements in painting. around the globe attired in their native Upon a closer examination of the garbs, holding their associated Japanese woman in Western Genre Scenes, accoutrements, and interacting in different her pose and facial features more than ways. This screen not only demonstrates faintly resemble that of certain depictions the overall interest in foreign costumes, of European women by Japanese artists. but it also highlights the implied, Her inclined head, seated repose, and acknowledged awareness of Japan in a upward looking eyes evoke the postures global context, as seen by the Japanese assumed by women in other European couple surrounded by other foreign genre paintings such as Maiden Playing the couples on the lower right, and of course Lute, attributed to 17th century artist the geographical setting of Japan alongside Nobukata (Fig.9), Scenes of Hunting and every other country on the map. European Social Customs (Fig.10), Woman Such a growing awareness allowed and her Lute (Fig.11), European Genre for some degree of introspection Painting (Fig.12), and European Social concerning Japanese views of other Customs (Fig.13).xiii All of these examples ethnicities in relation to their own. More were allegedly executed around the same precisely, the notion that there were many time. In these five works, the European other cultures to which the Japanese could women depicted express their fondness compare themselves naturally led to an for music and lean in towards the exploration of what made Japanese respective string instruments being played. traditions unique and resulted in visual It is also worth noting that this particular experimentations. Western Genre Scenes, an subject of a female strings musician recurs early 17th century pair of six-panel screens, in both individual portraits and genre exemplifies these explorations (Fig.8). It paintings that contain larger groups. Every contains an inversion of the concept woman shown in these images wears an found in Kanō Sanraku’s work as, instead outfit combining vermillion orange and of European women painted in a Japanese sage green. Because the original, style, here we see a Japanese woman European sources of these imitations are painted in a European style. According to not known, this redundant pairing implies Narusawa Katsushi, this figure is that the sources used were possibly especially noteworthy because the colorless engravings instead of paintings. Japanese artist who produced it must have If that were the case, artists would have felt comfortable enough with painting in a been forced to come up with their own Western style to apply it to a subject of his color scheme. Given that opulence and own ethnicity. xii This palpable level of contrasting, bright hues were perceived as assimilation demonstrates the ways in a characteristic of nanban goods— which European materials and techniques especially brocade material and clothing— were absorbed and utilized by Japanese the color combination of orange and artists, who were compelled to use them green might have been utilized because it in rendering subjects that related to their was understood to be the ultimate pairing own cultural identity. To a significant of contrasting colors. xiv On the other extent, these fluid forms of assimilation hand, given that there were few imported may be construed as a symptom of European paintings that contained female subjects, one image of a woman in a green
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 77! and orange outfit could have served as the widow’s peak hairline, loosely styled hair, prototype for many subsequent copies like and even the pallor of their skin is the five mentioned above. comparable—the stark white complexion Okamoto Yoshitomo, author of favored traditionally is nowhere to be The Nanban Art of Japan, refers to this found. phenomenon of redundancy as the This comparison aptly “copies of copies” phenomenon. It is demonstrates Okamoto’s phenomenon as, based on the fact that as nanban motifs in this case, the poses and expressions such as Western genre paintings became assumed by the women in the five more popular, “generations of similar aforementioned paintings all fall under the screens were copied out”, and artists who same generic formula, which presents had “absolutely no knowledge of European women as swooning ladies who Portuguese ships and no understanding of had a penchant for playing string the missionaries” would either invent their instruments for leisure. And although the own conceptualizations (as seen in the Japanese woman in Western Genre Scenes is Kanō Sanraku screens) or imitate the not shown playing an instrument, the style work of fellow artists who, in turn, had to in which she is rendered suggests that the draw from an accurate but limited number artist based her image on that of a of imported European illustrations. xv Western woman in order to keep Ultimately, this “copies of copies” consistent with the overall appearance of a phenomenon gradually ensued, and as painting in the European mode. time passed, the screen paintings that were Furthermore, the orange and green produced later were “not very combination present in her ensemble spontaneous creations but rather reinforces the strong possibility that the mechanical reproductions of set subject artist responsible for this work looked to and construction, inexorably faithful to depictions such as the five mentioned the model”.xvi earlier for inspiration. Thus, this example In support of Okamoto’s supports both Okamoto as well as argument, the two women in European Narusawa in her remark about the Social Customs and the two in European absorption and assimilation of European Genre Painting exhibit such an uncanny styles in Japanese painting. resemblance that it is entirely possible to Another example outside of the believe that one pair was derived directly one mentioned by Narusawa can be found from the other. Looking once again at the in Four Capitals of the World (Fig.7). In it, Japanese woman in Western Genre Scenes, one cannot help but notice one surprising the woman on the right side of the detail feature when examining the couple from from European Social Customs and her Japan—namely, the woman’s curly hair compositional counterpart in European (Fig.14). It is of course absolutely possible Genre Painting show a particularly strong for women of Japanese descent to possess resemblance to the Japanese woman in curly hair. However, keeping in mind that, both their poses and facial expressions. up until the Momoyama period, the only All three women are seated and lean to female painting subjects were more or less their right in a somewhat sentimental ones in illustrated scenes from The Tale of gesture. Their heads are deeply inclined Genji, the tumultuous curls with pinned- and their faces express the same serene back sections that the woman sports here look achieved by their doe-like eyes and is uncharacteristic of the typical straight rosebud-mouths. All of them possess a locks worn by female subjects in earlier works. Furthermore, it is worth noting
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 78! that her outfit also possesses the recurring to a conventionally acceptable integration orange and green colour combination, of these foreign elements into Japanese which is further emphasized by the visual art. These elements are often detectable, influence of her partner’s green clothes. particularly in reference to historically Thus, as with the Japanese woman in accurate paintings of Western women by Western Genre Scenes, the artist responsible Japanese artists, because such paintings for this work was compelled to add reflect what artists repeatedly derived European stylistic elements to a Japanese, from their sources before applying them female subject. In this case, that to female subjects of their own culture. In manifestation came in the form of the conjunction with a comparison to earlier, curly hair and color palette that is formulaic Japanese styles of female repeatedly present in European-style depiction, one is then able to chart the works, as seen in the five aforementioned movement and depth of this foreign depictions of female musicians. Such a influence. Ultimately, this movement is movement in Japanese figure painting indicative of the fact that while Japan from a restricted number of female indeed entered its well-known age of subjects depicted in generic ways to an cultural isolation at one point, there was increase in those subjects rendered in also a time when its people positively ways that were specific to European styles of representation not only exemplifies the adoption of Western styles into Japanese painting but also reinforces the overall idea of a newfound interest in European modes of fashion. It is without question that this interest was inextricably linked to a newly acquired global consciousness. As Japan’s international trading avenues expanded laterally, so did its knowledge of foreigners and their customs. Stories, maps, animals, and imported goods from the West inspired Japanese artists to formulate their own visions of Europe and its people. Even when a vague knowledge of Western women could have prevented artists from including such subjects in their work, some, such as responded to foreign cultures through the Kanō Naizen and Kanō Sanraku, visibly inquisitive immortalizations they circumvented those problems by bringing left behind. their own fantastic visualizations to life, Fig.1: Kanō Sanraku, Nanban Byoubu. Late thereby exhibiting the innovative bravery 16th – early 17th c., pair of six-panel characteristic of Momoyama artists. As screens. Ink, colours, and gold on paper. time passed, an introspection of 182 x 371 cm. Suntory Museum of Art, traditional Japanese modes of female Tokyo. depiction led to an inevitable experimentation with nanban styles in fashion and art. Eventually, this gave rise
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Fig.4: Kanō Naizen, Scene in a Foreign Country (left screen of Nanban Byoubu). 17th c. (1603-1610), pair of six-panel screens. Ink, colours, and gold on paper. 178 x 366 cm. National Museum of Art, Lisbon.
Fig.5: Detail from left screen (Scene in a Foreign Country). Kanō Naizen, Nanban Fig.2: Detail taken from left screen (Scene Byoubu (National Museum of Art, Lisbon). in a Foreign Country). Kanō Sanraku, Nanban Byoubu.
Fig.3: Detail from left screen (Scene in a Foreign Country). Kanō Sanraku, Nanban Byoubu. Fig.6: Detail from Scene in a Foreign Country (left screen of Nanban Byoubu). Kanō Naizen, Late 16th – early 17th c., pair of six-panel screens. Ink, colours, and gold on paper. 154.5 x 363.2 cm. Kobe City Museum, Kobe.
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Fig.7: Japanese, unknown artist, Four Fig.9: Attributed to Nobukata, Maiden Capitals of the World. Late 16th – early 17th Playing the Lute. Colours on paper, 54.6 x c., pair of six-panel screens. Ink, colours, 36.6 cm. Yamato Bunkakan, Nara. and gold on paper. 162 x 385.8 cm. Kobe City Museum of Nanban Art, Kobe.
Fig.10: Japanese artist, unknown, detail from Scenes of Hunting and European Social Customs. Late 16th – early 17th c., 98.2 x 310.5 cm. Nanban Bunkakan, Osaka.
Fig.8: Japanese, unknown artist, detail from Western Genre Scenes. Early 17th c., pair of six-panel screens. Ink and colour on paper. 116.7 x 308.6 cm (each).
Fig.11: Japanese artist, unknown, Woman and her lute. Late 16th – early 17th c., Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture, Nagasaki.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! are filled in with a light dye, like yellow, especially when the surrounding areas of the waxed part are darker in hue so as not to interfere with the dominant colour if the filled-in dye bleeds through the outline. Ibid.
viii Oda Nobunaga to Nanban Byōbu. Shukan Nihon no bi o meguru; no.30. Tōkyō: Shōgakkan, 2002. Print, p.7.
ix Okamoto, Yoshitomo. The Nanban Art of Japan. New York: Weatherhill/Heibonsha, 1972. Print, p.115.
x McCausland, Shane, and Matthew P. McKelway. Chinese Romance from a Japanese Brush: Kanō Sansetsu's Chōgonka Scrolls in the Chester Beatty Library. London: Scala, 2009. Print, p.108. Fig. 13: Japanese artist, unknown, detail appears to be the nickname given to from European Genre Painting. Late 16th – the feudal lord of Tanegashima by Galvão. Original text th found in Tratado que compos o nobr e enotauel capitão early 17 c., pair of six-panel screens. Antonio Galvão dos diversos e desvayrados caminhos— Colours on paper. 93 x 302 cm (each). que são feitos em a era de 1550. Lisboa, 1563. Boletim Collection of Moritatsu Hosokawa, da Segunda Classe. Vol. II. p.87-88, translated to Japanese by Okamoto Yoshimoto in Nagasaki Kaikō Izen Tokyo. Ōhaku Raiō Kō, p.35.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xii Ibid. i Boxer, C. R. The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650. xiii Okamoto, Yoshitomo. The Nanban Art of Japan, p.52. Berkeley: University of California, 1951. Print, p.28. Original text found in Okamoto, Yoshitomo. Nagasaki xiv Nanban No Yume, Kōmō No Maboroshi =: Visions of Kaikō Izen Ōhaku Raiō Kō. Tōkyō: Nittō Shoin, 1932. Nanban. Fuchū-shi: Fuchū-shi Bijutsukan, 2008. Print, Print, p.187-189. p.22-23. xv Ibid., p.115-116. ii Tierry, Tom. Fashions from India. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2003. Print, p.4. xvi Ibid. iii Description of a patka found in "Portrait of Maharaja Bhim Kunwar: Leaf from the Shah Jahan Album, Mughal, Period of Jahangir (1605–27), Ca. 1615." www.metmuseum.org. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Apr. 2010. Web.
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KOREAN COMFORT WOMEN: Nationalist Discourse in Contemporary South Korea Judy Park Harvard University
ABSTRACT discuss this issue until 1991, when a former victim first came forward publicly Although Korean comfort women, or to tell her story. In fact, many Korean enforced sex slaves to the Japanese survivors who returned to their homeland military during World War II, continues to continued to suffer due to societal shame be a popular topic on both academic and and isolation, with some even committing political fronts, very few literature has suicide. ii Therefore, critics have argued made the link between the two fields by that the Korean comfort women suffered analyzing the popular or political from a “triple crime”: daily rapes by discourse surrounding this issue today. Japanese soldiers, shaming and victim This article examines whether the South blaming once they returned to Korea, and Korean public continues to discuss the more recently, denial of coercion and comfort women issue in a way that refusal of reparations from the Japanese reflects nationalistic and patriarchal values government. iii Although most people that repressed the women into silence for believe that all but the third of these over fifty years, through the lens of an crimes have been resolved, this article advocacy organization called the Korean addresses the possibility of a fourth crime: Institute for the Women Drafted for in the early nineties, feminist iv scholars Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. It uses a began to critique the South Korean framework of discourse analysis, as government and public for exploiting the described by post-structural feminist stories of the victims for nationalist aims.v theorists, in order to argue that This article evaluates whether this contemporary discourse in South Korea nationalist discourse continues today by further objectifies the former comfort analyzing a recent publication and website women as a means to achieving nationalist of an advocacy organization called the aims, strips the women of their Korean Institute for the Women Drafted subjectivities, and normalizes gendered for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan power relations that caused their suffering (hereby known as the “Korean Institute”). in the first place. Although the contemporary discourse around comfort women appears to have improved since the nineties by focusing During World War II, the away from victim blaming and the lost Japanese military abducted or coerced chastity of the women, the Korean 80,000 to 200,000 female civilians from its Institute continues to represent the crime, conquered territories to serve as comfort the role of the Japanese government, and women, or enforced sex slaves for their even the testimonies of the former victims soldiers. i Although approximately 80 in a way that advances a nationalist agenda, percent of these women were known to suggesting a continuation of or even be Korean, South Korea did not popularly deepening in nationalist discourse.
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In this article, I first establish my comfort women, with its relevance to theoretical framework of discourse common gender issues such as sexual analysis and provide a literature review of violence, chastity, and patriarchy, serves as the relevant scholarship on comfort a valuable case study for analyzing how women. Next, I provide a general the restrictive and disciplinary notions of overview of the recent political tensions gender become naturalized in our society. between Japan and South Korea and the Furthermore, since gender “as an ongoing current status of the comfort women issue, discursive practice...is open to which serve as valuable context for intervention and resignification,” it is evaluating contemporary discussions of important to continue evaluating the issue in South Korea.vi I also provide a contemporary discourse, as well as brief history of the Korean Institute and changes in discourse over time, for the the reasons for why I chose this possibilities of new “interventions and organization as a lens into the Korean resignifications” that may contribute to public. Then, I analyze the publications, the subversion of gender categories and website, and related articles of the Korean hierarchy.viii Institute since 2005 to argue that the This project is also important for contemporary discourse in South Korea the former comfort women, many of still portrays the comfort women issue as whom are still alive today, because a national crime by the Japanese military discourse, as the ability to verbalize and instead of allowing the women’s diverse reflect on one’s experiences, often allows voices from being heard or seeking the individuals to form their subjectivities. ix reparations that they desire. Lastly, I This ability to verbalize one’s story is discuss relevant conclusions and especially valuable in cases of sexual remaining questions for future research. violence due to the common methods of silencing and shaming used to instill guilt The Value of a Discourse Analysis Framework in the victims. In fact, many of the The evaluation of discourse, or Korean comfort women have expressed how one discusses a subject in speech or feeling great relief after telling their writing, is especially relevant to the stories.x Furthermore, as poststructuralist comfort women issue, because discourse writer Chris Weedon argues, “the ways in contains the power to both regulate which particular discourse constitute society and provide opportunities for subjectivity have implications for the subject formation, as argued by post- process of reproducing or contesting structuralist theorists. In her 1990 work power relations.” xi Applying this Gender Trouble, Judith Butler explains that framework to the discourse surrounding categories such as gender, sex, and comfort women, the ways in which the sexuality are performative—socially and Korean media and publications discuss culturally constructed and subconsciously the victims’ experiences could in fact internalized by individuals—as opposed to reproduce power relations that further natural. In her explanation of this theory, oppress the victims or normalize ideas of Butler borrows from Foucault’s concept male dominance and patriarchy, which of disciplinary power, arguing that gender contributed to their suffering in the first has become “a set of repeated acts within place. Thus, it is my desire that this article a highly rigid regulatory frame that will not only contribute to the scholarly congeal over time to produce appearance work on nationalist discourse and subject of substance, of a natural sort of being.”vii formation, but also serve as a reminder Therefore, a study of the discourse around for Korean authorities to allow the former
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 84! comfort women to speak for themselves Although it is understandable that and honor their diverse experiences and Yoshimi is trying to “help” the former perspectives. comfort women by framing their experiences in a way that is relatable to the From Universalist Discourse to Postcolonial international community, such language of Feminist Critiques universality simplifies and degrades the The Korean comfort women experiences and perspectives of these emerged as a popular topic in scholarly women in a way that is common and works in the early nineties, with the knowable.xvi support of the growing feminist Nevertheless, during the same movement in South Korea and the first time as the publication of these works, public testimony of a former comfort several Korean, Japanese, and Western woman, Kim Hak-sun, in 1991. xii feminists were already starting to question Therefore, the earliest writers on this the other side of the story: why Korea topic can generally be described as kept silent for so many years and how the feminist humanitarians, whose main aim Japanese and Korean authorities have was to demand further investigation into politicized this issue in order to advance the issue and reparations for the victims, their nationalist agendas. In contrast to thereby adopting a human rights Yoshimi, who focuses on the historical framework that tends to focus on the evidence and political context behind the crimes of the Japanese military and neglect comfort women issue, Keith Howard the diverse experiences of the comfort simply allows the women to speak for women. xiii A prominent figure in this themselves in True Stories of the Korean movement is a Japanese historian named Comfort Women, the earliest English Yoshimi Yoshiaki, who in 1995 published translations of the testimonies published a book titled Comfort Women that gives a by the Korean Council for the Women comprehensive overview of the historical Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by context, recruitment process, and the Japan.xvii In his introduction to this 1995 living conditions of the comfort women. work, Howard notes that the Korean Yoshimi makes it clear that he is adopting government had silenced the victims for a human rights framework from the first almost fifty years and “that no paragraph of his introduction, where he documentary evidence survived the defeat states that “the essence of the issue...is the of Japan, hence this issue should not grave violations of human rights that detract from the need to normalize combined sexual violence against women, Korean-Japanese relations.” xviii In fact, racial discrimination, and discrimination Howard argues that “both Koreans and against the impoverished.”xiv Although the Japanese took part in coercion,” since the human rights violations by the Japanese primary reason that the comfort women military are undeniably a central aspect of did not come forward until recently was the comfort women issue, to say that this due to the social conservatism in Korea, is the “essence of the issue” undermines the which places great value on traditional diverse perspectives of the former gender roles and female chastity. xix comfort women who have the right to Testimonies in this book have indeed define the essence of their experiences for confirmed that many of the women stayed themselves. Also in the introduction, silent due to the fear of societal judgment, Yoshimi states that “the salience and and some even experienced ostracism universality of these problems have from neighbors and family members who attracted international attention.” xv learned of their experiences. xx Thus, by
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 85! focusing on the voices of the former citizens to major newspapers about victims, Howard and similar writers comfort women, as well as Korean during this time set a precedent for being concepts of han and chajonsim which wary of the politicization of the comfort describe sentiments similar to resentment women issue.xxi and pride, respectively. xxiv Therefore, by Fueled by the newly emerging analyzing the discourse around the primary sources like Howard’s comfort women issue with popular compilation of English-translated Korean perspectives and concepts, Yang testimonies and increasing discussion of makes her critique historically and this issue in the political arena, feminist culturally specific and avoids the writers in the late nineties began to focus assumptions of universality common in on the nationalist aims of the Korean the earlier works of feminist public when discussing the comfort humanitarians. women issue. In doing so, these scholars This article continues such were analyzing the tension between postcolonial feminist evaluations of the nationalism and feminism, a framework nationalist discourse around the comfort common in many works of postcolonial women issue in contemporary South feminism. One of the first writers who Korea. Although writers like Ueno and explicitly examined this tension in the Yang have already initiated such projects context of Korean comfort women was more than a decade ago, no project to Chizuko Ueno, a noted Japanese feminist date has completed a comprehensive sociologist. In her book Nationalism and overview of popular discourse regarding Gender, originally published in Japan in this topic, as Yang herself only analyzes 1998, Ueno critiques both Japanese and two news articles. Furthermore, it is Korean nationalist discourses in their important to extend this discourse analysis debate regarding whether the comfort to contemporary times, not only because women were voluntary prostitutes or the comfort women controversy is victims of Japanese coercion, because ongoing, but also because we live in a such discourses normalize patriarchal digital age in which information is widely values such as the emphasis on women’s accessible and discursive power even chastity and discrimination against more extensive. This article thus offers a prostitutes.xxii Nevertheless, Ueno mostly unique case study of discourse analysis focuses on other scholarly works in her regarding gender issues, especially for critique, which neglects the views and those interested in the Korean comfort subjectivities of the former comfort women and contemporary gender women, as well as the power of popular relations in South Korea; it argues that discourse in reproducing and regulating “progress” around gender issues needs to power relations. xxiii In contrast, in “Re- be further questioned in terms of both the membering the Korean Military Comfort discourse and primary aim. Women,” Hyunah Yang does an admirable job of juxtaposing the History of Japanese-Korean Tensions and the testimonies of the former comfort women Role of the Korean Institute with Korean popular discourse from 1992 After Japanese control of Korea and 1993 in order to demonstrate that the ended in 1945, South Korea experienced feelings of shame and guilt were often tumultuous times, with the three-year forced upon the victims from external Korean War breaking out in 1950, forces. In particular, Yang grounds her subsequent phases of autocratic rule arguments in several letters from Korean marked by protests, and rapid economic
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 86! development and modernization sentiments have been echoed by other beginning in the eighties. In fact, several politicians, including Deputy Chief scholars have cited this political and Cabinet Secretary Shimomura Hakubun, economic instability as one of the reasons who in 2007 stated, “Korean parents sold why South Korea covered up the comfort their daughters during that time.” xxix women issue for so long.xxv In fact, the Likewise, Minister of State Edano Yukio Korean government seemed more than stated in 2010, “The invasion and happy to normalize Japanese-Korean colonization of…Korea was historically relations after the war, with the 1965 inevitable.”xxx Japan was also criticized in Treaty on Basic Relations re-establishing 2001 and then in 2010 for publishing diplomatic relations between Japan and history textbooks omitting war crimes, South Korea. The documents from this including the comfort women and the treaty, which were later disclosed in 2005, Nanking Massacre. xxxi Another prime revealed that Japan provided South Korea source of conflict between the two with $800 million as compensation for countries is the dispute over the Liancourt colonial rule, and South Korea agreed to Rocks–although South Korea currently demand no more compensation after the administers the islets, Japanese school treaty. Furthermore, while the Korean children are instructed that they belong to government assumed the responsibility of Japan, and Japanese officials declared a compensating individual victims, including national holiday dedicated to the islets in the comfort women, it used most of the 2005. xxxii More recently in August 2012, money for the economic development.xxvi tensions heightened when Lee Myung-Bak This explains much of the anger of the became the first South Korean president surviving victims toward the Korean to visit the Liancourt Rocks. In reaction, government in recent news articles, such Japan temporarily withdrew its as the former comfort woman who ambassador from South Korea and reproached the Minister of Foreign threatened to bring the dispute to the Affairs and Trade, saying that the Korean International Court of Justice.xxxiii government is just waiting for all the Among these rising tensions, the victims to die off.xxvii comfort women issue has gained new Perhaps because the two countries prominence, making this an even more never reached a compensation agreement important time to evaluate whether the that was widely popular, Japanese-Korean Korean public continues to exploit the tensions have slowly escalated in the last stories of the victims for nationalist aims. few decades, especially around issues of At the center of the advocacy movement Japanese revision of history and territorial for the comfort women are two non- dispute over the Liancourt Rocks, a group governmental organizations: the of islets in the East Sea that marks aforementioned Korean Institute, first valuable fishing grounds. Over the last formed in July 1990, and the Korean few decades, several Japanese right-wing Council for the Women Drafted for politicians have made controversial Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (hereby statements denying the war crimes of known as “Korean Council”), formed in Imperial Japan, which outraged many November 1990. Although both are Korean citizens. For example, Abe Shinzo, prominent organizations, I chose to focus ex-Prime Minister of Japan, stated in 1997, on the Korean Institute, because it “Many so-called victims of comfort specializes in research and dissemination women system are liars…prostitution was of information, whereas the Korean ordinary behavior in Korea.” xxviii Similar Council is more of an activist organization
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 87! that leads the weekly demonstrations in elaborated on the English version of the front of the Japanese embassy. xxxiv I page as “disclosing the truth about the thought that the Korean public would Chongshindae [comfort women].” xxxvi turn to the Korean Institute for official Despite this mission of being dedicated to information on the comfort women issue, the “true truth” and despite criticizing and thus the publications and website of Japan of historical erasure, a close analysis the organization are crucial to the of the Korean Institute’s website shows formation of public thought around this that the organization also practices topic. selective storytelling. For example, I draw from three main sources in although the history section on the my research. One is the 2007 Ianfu Report website is very thorough, especially Vol. 1: We were Sex Slaves of the Japanese regarding the deceptive recruitment of the Military, co-published by the Korean comfort women and the involvement of Institute and the Institute for Research in the Japanese government, xxxvii it neglects Collaborationist Activities. This book the fact that many Koreans were also includes eleven English translations of involved in deceiving the women into testimonies selected out of the 225 sexual slavery for money. It also fails to published by the Korean government in criticize South Korea for the silencing and 1993. The second source is the website of shaming that occurred after the women the Korean Institute (www.truetruth.org), returned, as the section about their lives which includes a detailed history of the after the war merely states, “For the comfort women issue and the mission of victims who survived, their lives afterward the organization. Yet the majority of my were unimaginably difficult… There was analysis will be dedicated to the third no place that could soothe their torn source, the compilation of relevant articles bodies and souls… It was difficult for from major newspapers on the website of them to be dignified even in front of their the Korean Institute. Although the families, and they had to suffer through website includes articles from 1993, I will hiding from people they knew.” xxxviii focus on the ones from 2005 and beyond, Therefore, although this statement which amounts to 175 articles. Most of mentions the hardships faced by the the website and articles are in Korean and women after the war, it suggests that these were roughly translated by myself as a hardships were entirely due to their South Korean native. Through the lens of experiences in the comfort stations and the Institute’s curators, these articles undermines the complicity of the Korean provide access to the voices of the major society, since “no place could soothe their newspapers and politicians that both torn bodies and souls” anyway. The reflect and shape the discourse of the history written by the Korean Institute South Korean public. neglects the various experiences of the comfort women such as the woman who True Truth, But Not Complete Truth? was in fact sold by her parentsxxxix or those Upon entering the website of the who “committed suicide aboard civilian Korean Institute (www.truetruth.org), one ships carrying them toward Korea rather is faced with a banner displaying a picture than face a homecoming of degradation of an elderly woman in tears, along with or lifelong social isolation.”xl The entire the words next to it, “We remember, in website of the Korean Institute seems to order to avoid repeating the painful be geared towards reiterating the belief history.”xxxv This summarizes the mission that the comfort women issue was a of the Korean Institute, which is
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 88! national crime committed on Korea by back home. Even after she returned to Japan.xli Korea, she suffered from disease and Even worse, the Korean Institute poverty. Lastly, probably deleted from the has chosen to omit sections of victims’ Ianfu Report because it is damaging to testimonies in its 2007 publication, Ianfu Korea’s reputation, Hwang laments at the Report Vol. 1, which includes several of the end of her testimony, “I wonder how I same testimonies as Keith Howard’s 1995 can live the rest of my life without True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women. continually being looked down upon… I While comparing the two publications have wanted to tell my government what I side by side, I found that the Ianfu Report had to suffer, but I haven’t been given the often edited out the women’s experiences opportunity.”xlv after the war or other aspects that would One could argue that the Korean look unfavorably upon the Korean Institute perhaps took out all endings of government. For example, in the the testimonies, because as an testimony of Kim Hak-sun, first Korean organization dedicated to receiving an woman to publicly come out as a comfort apology from the Japanese government, it woman in 1991, the Ianfu Report omits her wanted to focus on the crimes that experiences after she returned to Korea, occurred during the war. In fact, when I where she lived in poverty with a husband emailed the Institute about these who abused and insulted her, calling her omissions, the representative replied that “a dirty bitch or a prostitute in front of the publishing committee “selected the [her] son.” xlii Kim further describes her parts out of the testimonies that they failed attempts at suicide and only deemed important.”xlvi Nevertheless, some coincidentally meeting someone who testimonies were published in full, while convinced her to tell her stories to the others even had their experiences during public. Her testimony greatly contrasts the war edited out. One example of a with the Korean Institute’s romanticized testimony published in full ends with the version of the story in the history section statement, “I think we must try to get of the book, in which Kim “revealed what we justly deserve from Japan: a herself at a press conference” to give her proper apology and proper “brave testimony.” xliii Instead of feeling compensation.” xlvii Although I do not brave or empowered, Kim reveals in her doubt that many women desire and testimony that she only told her story deserve an apology from the Japanese because she had nothing to lose and government, this testimony is one of the wanted to release her pent-up resentment. few that directly verbalizes this desire, Another testimony with its ending which is probably why the editors omitted is that of Hwang Kumju. In the considered this part “important” enough Ianfu Report, her testimony ends with the to be published in the book. In contrast, statement, “Sometime after I had got back they apparently did not think that the to Manchuria, Korea was liberated,” as if unique relationship between Kim Tokchin all of her suffering ended with Korea’s and a Japanese officer was as valuable, as liberation.xliv The version in Howard’s True they even took the effort to censor the Stories shows that this was indeed not the middle parts of her testimony. In the case. After this sentence, Hwang describes sections omitted in the Ianfu Report, Kim that she ran away from the comfort describes that she developed a special station after learning that the soldiers had relationship with an officer named Izumi abandoned it, begging for food and while at the comfort station, stating, “I sleeping on the road during her journey continued to meet Izumi often and came
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 89! to regard him almost as my father, victims as opposed to shaming the women husband and family rolled into one… for selling their bodies as in the past. Every day, he said he loved me… Even Nevertheless, justice for the women after I returned to Korea, we wrote to depends on not only what the Korean each other for quite some time.” xlviii media and politicians are advocating for Although such intimate relationships their sake but also how and why, and a between the Japanese soldiers and the closer investigation of the articles reveals comfort women were probably rare, Kim that most Korean and Japanese politicians obviously thought that her relationship and scholars frame the comfort women with Izumi, who in fact helped her to issue as important primarily for the escape, was important enough to include improvement of Japanese-Korean in her testimony. Furthermore, the ending relations. In other words, justice for the of Kim’s testimony, once again edited out women is treated as a means to an end of Ianfu Report, describes how the Korean rather than an end in itself. For example, society silenced the victims. Kim explains the Korean Council was quoted in a that when she first saw Kim Hak-sun’s December 2011 article as stating, “The testimony on television, she felt Japanese government has negatively compelled to tell her story as well and impacted Japanese-Korean diplomatic relieve her “resentment and anger buried activity for 66 years by refusing to assume deep in [her] heart.” xlix Yet when she legal responsibility…or give compensation consulted her nephew, he pleaded her not regarding the ‘comfort women’ issue.” lii to testify as she “will only bring trouble on This statement not only frames the [her] family and [her] children will be comfort women issue as important traumatized.” l Even after she told her primarily for Japanese-Korean relations story, she states that her son and his wife but also assumes that an apology and became despondent and she still feels compensation from the Japanese guilty whenever she sees them. li government meet the desired justice for Nevertheless, she, or any other victim for all the victims. It denies their diverse that matter, should not have to feel guilty experiences and perspectives, such as about speaking up about her experiences, those of aforementioned Kim Tokchin, especially because silencing and victim who states at the end of her testimony, “I blaming are mechanisms that perpetuate resent the Koreans who were their acts of sexual violence and patriarchy. instruments even more than the Japanese... After decades of physical, emotional, and The Korean government should grant us mental abuse, the former comfort women compensation.” liii Similar sentiments as should not have to experience any more those of the Korean Council were again distortions of their voices, especially by expressed in an August 2012 article, in their own advocacy organization. which about ten organizations in the movement to pressure the Japanese Nationalist Framing of the Comfort Women government for compensation were Issue quoted, “It is clear that the first step Broadening our perspective to the toward overcoming the Japanese-Korean recent news articles compiled on the relations crisis and creating a future of Korean Institute’s website, they at first cooperation is to resolve the ‘comfort seem to suggest progress from the women’ issue.”liv Such statements further discourse in the nineties, since almost all objectify the former comfort women by articles advocate for Japanese acceptance treating justice for the women as of the crime and compensation for the important for the sake of Japanese-
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Korean relations rather than for its own history.” lix This statement again sake. emphasizes the relationship between Korean politicians also frequently Korea and Japan as the primary goal and frame the comfort women issue as a “looking squarely at history” only as a political one, discussing its importance for means to that end.lx the sake of Japanese-Korean relations and Another way in which the comfort bringing it up during national holidays to women issue is politicized in news articles provoke nationalist sentiments. One is its repeated tie to the Liancourt Rocks counterexample to this is an article written dispute, despite the historical disconnects: on August 15, 2012, the 67th anniversary 27 articles out of the 175, or 15.4 percent, celebration of the day Korea gained tied the two issues together. Although independence from Japan, when President both issues have similarities in being at the Lee stated, “Because the comfort women center of the controversies of Japanese issue goes beyond the relations of the two history textbooks and right-wing countries as a wartime women’s rights politicians, the two issues are from issue, I urge the Japanese government to fundamentally different time periods, with take responsibility for its actions.” lv As the Liancourt Rocks dispute originating in noted in the article, this is the first time the seventeenth century and only that President Lee has framed the issue as revitalized recently, while the crime a women’s rights issue as opposed to one against the comfort women occurred regarding Japanese-Korean relations, and during World War II. Furthermore, many it shows a drastic improvement from his articles switch abruptly between the two statement during the last national holiday topics, as if it is obvious that the two ceremony in March: “We must not deny issues are similar national crimes the historical truth if Japan and Korea are committed on Korea by Japan. For to work together as true partners.” lvi example, a November 2012 article Nevertheless, it is worth considering reported that Japanese right-wing whether Lee made a conscious choice to politicians ran an advertisement in a New frame the comfort women as a women’s Jersey daily newspaper claiming that the rights issue because he was wanted to comfort women were voluntary appeal to the international audience prostitutes who earned enormous incomes. including foreign ambassadors that such a Nevertheless, the article ended with the large ceremony is bound to attract. In statement, “Last month, a sticker that read addition, the original transcript of his ‘Takeshima [Japanese term for Liancourt speech shows that he discusses the Rocks] is Japanese land’ was placed on the importance of Japanese-Korean relations Korean embassy building in New York and the collective future of East Asia both and sparked anger in the Korean before and after this statement. lvii American community.” lxi Another Furthermore, in both articles published example is an August 2012 article, which after the August 15th ceremony that stated, “In an effort to pressure the quoted President Lee, he again discussed Japanese government which is refusing to the comfort women issue as important budge on the comfort women issue, the primarily for the sake of Japanese-Korean Korean government is carefully evaluating relations.lviii In one of the two articles, Lee the proposal for an ‘arbitration stated, “We should further solidify the committee’… This is a response to foundation for a mature partnership Japan’s recent provocations such as filing between the two countries with the the Liancourt Rocks dispute to the courage and wisdom to look squarely at International Court of Justice.” lxii Both
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 91! articles primarily about comfort women politicians at the expense of the relate other news about the Liancourt subjectivity of the former victims. News Rocks almost as if they are one and the articles even find it worthy to quote same issue, treating the victims like representatives from international national property or a piece of land that organizations such as the United Nations Japan took from Korea. In particular, the and the United States House of latter article explicitly states that the Representatives, yet less than 15 articles, Korean government’s legal action or 8.1 percent, actually quote individual regarding comfort women is a direct comfort women. Such patterns show that response to the Japanese government’s contemporary discourse still falls guilty of filing the Liancourt Rocks dispute to the Chizuko Ueno’s critique in Nationalism and International Court of Justice. Gender that disputes between the Japanese Nevertheless, a complete dedication to and Korean government officials justice for the comfort women on the part regarding the comfort women issue of the Korean government would consist simulate a ridiculous situation in which a of pressuring the Japanese government at woman was raped, and her rapist and all costs, not only because Japan recently husband or father are trying to reach a provoked Korea over the Liancourt Rocks mutual agreement on the appropriate dispute. reparation.lxiv Lastly, the news articles are so focused on the controversies surrounding Portrayals of the Former Comfort Women the statements of Japanese and Korean While some articles do mention politicians and scholars, who are mostly individual comfort women, many of these male, that the former victims, who should articles seem to be used to appeal to the be the main subjects of this conversation, emotional sentiments of the reader, are left out of the picture. As Hyunah provoking anger toward Japan often Yang writes in her analysis of the Korean during national holidays. A prime example public discourse in the nineties, much of of this is a 2012 article about the March 1st the contemporary discourse is still holiday celebrating the beginning of comprised of a “Man’s talk with a Korean protests against Japanese Man…the discourse is neither about nor for colonialism in 1919. Beginning with its the (Military Comfort) women.” lxiii title, “Comfort woman halmoni’s tears on Although it is understandable that news the March 1st holiday,” the entire article articles would want to focus on recent appeals to the emotions of the reader, political events and controversies for high detailing the experiences of former readership, they still have the effect of comfort woman Kang Il-Chool, who was making the words and actions of the taken to a comfort station in China at the politicians seem more important and age of sixteen and was only able to return newsworthy than those of the actual to Korea in 2000, almost sixty years later. victims. Furthermore, the articles often Nevertheless, the article aims to channel focus on how the Japanese and Korean most of the reader’s emotions toward officials react to each other’s actions, such anger at Japan, as the subheading reads, as Japanese politicians making more angry “Only seven comfort women halmoni left statements about the comfort women [at the Sharing House]… hoping to after President Lee’s visit to the Liancourt receive Japanese apology before death.”lxv Rocks and President Lee reacting to these Such articles once again homogenize the statements, thereby focusing more perspectives of all the women to attention to the subjectivity of these demanding an apology from the Japanese
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 92! government, despite several testimonies Chung-hee, we supposedly received stating that they feel more anger toward compensation, but we didn’t know the Korean government and people. lxvi anything since the country only taught Another article written in celebration of men [to read and write].”lxix Yet despite the March 1st holiday in 2010 also her demanding the Korean government to mentions an individual woman, who is take responsibility, the article still attempts reported as shedding a tear while listening to end with a positive portrayal of the to a student’s speech during one of the Korean government and a negative one of weekly demonstrations in front of the the Japanese government. The Japanese embassy. Yet after a couple lines conversation between the woman and the regarding this incident, the article quickly government official is followed by a turns to an interview with a Japanese man statement from a representative of the named Matsubara Masaru, who formerly Ministry, “At first the halmoni scolded us, worked in a comfort station. In the but later she encouraged us to do well.”lxx interview, Matsubara discusses witnessing Yet no part in the article quotes a comfort the young comfort women in tears after woman who encouraged or showed faith they returned from “work” each night and in the Korean government. The article speculating that they had come to Japan to also mentions that the Korean send money to their family.lxvii Although government proposed bilateral talks with Matsubara gives a compelling interview, it Japan about the comfort women issue, but is unclear why the reporter could not have Japan had refused to respond for more asked the comfort women themselves than four months. In doing so, the article regarding their experiences at the emphasizes the efforts of the Korean demonstration or perhaps referred to the government, although it is obvious that hundreds of detailed testimonies the woman quoted in the article does not published by the Korean government. By consider them sufficient. It also portrays relying on the perspectives of Matsubara, the Japanese government as the only one the article ironically gives more time and responsible for the fact that the former weight to a testimony of a witness, once comfort women have still not received again male, than the testimonies of the compensation, although the woman victims themselves. alludes to the 1965 Treaty on Basic Furthermore, some Relations, in which the Korean counterexamples of articles that seem to government reached agreement with the be entirely dedicated to giving voice to the Japanese yet tricked the victims out of comfort women still serve the larger their money. Therefore, the article aims to purpose of receiving a national apology pressure the Korean government to take from Japan. One article from January more action against the Japanese while 2012 reports an interaction between a avoiding the historical crimes committed comfort woman and the Minister of on the women by the Korean government Foreign Affairs and Trade, in which she and people. As Yang writes, “By looking condemns the Korean government by outward to Japan, Koreans evade questions stating, “Is your ministry a Japanese regarding the responsibility that we have ministry? Were you pleased to see the for our own colonial history.”lxxi halmoni pass away one by one for the last Even the terms used to refer to twenty years?... Take responsibility.” lxviii the comfort women reveal much about She even goes on to explicitly criticize the the Korean public’s patriarchal sentiments history of gender discrimination in South toward the women. In articles referring to Korea: “During the presidency of Park the women while they were at the comfort
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 93! stations, the most common term used is experiences at the comfort station, this cheonyuh, which means young, unmarried article’s use of the term halmoni compels women but also refers to virgin. Thus, the readers to think of their own intentionally or not, the media’s use of grandmothers and invokes feelings of this word gives the effect of focusing on sadness and anger, especially targeted the “stolen chastity” of the women. For towards Japan. Nevertheless, as Soh states, example, in the aforementioned article one would never think of calling female interviewing Matsubara, the word cheonyuh leaders, no matter their age, halmoni. She is used a total of ten times, including the further argues that it would be more title which reads, “Korean cheonyuh’s appropriate to “use [the former comfort familial love did not cease even in a women’s] full names followed by the comfort station.” lxxii Furthermore, the honorific suffix –ssi or –nim,” which word is almost always paired with the emphasizes their individual identities and word Korean, which again obliterates the portrays them as strong subjects in charge individuality of the comfort women and of their own situations.lxxvi The comfort homogenizes them into one identity of women’s rapid transition from cheonyuh to Korean cheonyuh, defined against the halmoni in the media not only obliterates Japanese military. In addition, the term their experiences as middle-aged women most commonly used to refer to the when Korea silenced and shamed them, women during present times, is halmoni. but it also conjures up images of Halmoni is a term of respect and familiarity vulnerability on both ends, which the used to refer to elderly women, including Korean society supposedly has the one’s own grandmothers. In her 2008 responsibility to protect. In other words, book The Comfort Women, C. Sarah Soh the excessive use of these terms still gives an overview of how the comfort proliferates patriarchal sentiments that women came to be called halmoni. lxxiii She Japan stole the virginity of our Korean writes that Koreans adopted the term to cheonyuh and caused our halmoni to “shed show respect, because they felt that the tears of blood.”lxxvii term “comfort woman” conjures up Furthermore, one of the most images of prostitution.lxxiv Yet although it disturbing articles found actually brings up is understandable that the Korean media this importance of how we refer to the would choose to use this term, issues lie in comfort women, only to be completely the way and the sheer number of times dismissed by the Korean Council. This they use it. Out of the 175 articles on the article from July 2012 reports that Hillary Korean Institute’s website, 68 articles, or Clinton corrected a U.S. State Department 38.9 percent, used the term halmoni. The official during a briefing that “enforced term is also especially used in articles that sex slaves” is the more accurate term to try to appeal to the emotions of the the euphemism “comfort women.” Many readers. One such article, conveniently Korean scholars backed this movement to published during the August 15th Korean question the term “comfort women” and Independence Day, uses the term halmoni even stated that it is crucial to first ask the eighteen times, including statements like victims for their perspectives before “To us, halmoni is sadness. We’re sadder proceeding with any debate on the when August 15th comes around.”lxxv By appropriate term. Nevertheless, the first introducing the halmoni as enjoying Korean Council responded, “It has been singing and dancing and only later almost a year since the Korean revealing that she suffers from post Constitutional Court’s ruling that urged traumatic stress disorder due to her the resolution of the comfort women
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 94! issue, and it is not the time to be just national crime committed on Korea by debating about a word… The important Japan. This not only results in seeking a thing is not to change a word but to type of justice that may not fit the desires receive a sincere apology from the of all the women, but it also oppresses the Japanese government.”lxxviii Although it is women even further by suppressing their understandable that the Korean Council is subjectivities and using them as a means trying to hasten the movement to receive to another end. In addition, such an apology from the Japanese government, movements are not effective in preventing especially since the average age of the the “repeating of the painful history” as victims is 86, it is absurd that the the Korean Institute claims, because they organization advocating for the victims fail to question the patriarchal norms would completely dismiss the importance underlying our societal discourse. After all of how they are being referred to. In fact, the suffering of the women, the least that as poststructural feminists argue, the Korean society can do is to allow discourse has the ability to normalize them to speak for themselves rather than power relations: the root cause of the censoring their words or calling on the women’s suffering, not only in the authorities to speak on their behalf. As comfort stations but also after they Butler and other poststructuralist theorists returned to Korea, is the patriarchal ideas would argue, there is something positive shaped by discourse that rape can be used to be gained just by allowing the women as a weapon of war and that women are to speak up about their experiences in the ultimately at fault for being raped. This is ways they feel compelled. especially hypocritical for the Korean This project of analyzing the Council, because one of the missions contemporary discourse around the listed on their website is the “prevention comfort women issue sparks several of sexual violence against women during questions for further research. One is that war times.”lxxix Although I am not arguing while this project focused on the Korean for either term of “comfort women” or Institute as a lens, there are thousands of “sex slave,” as this is in fact a difficult other articles and publications on comfort debate, I am arguing that it is a debate women yet to be analyzed. Furthermore, always worth having, because it serves as South Korea, as one of the world leaders an invaluable opportunity to question the in Internet usage, has a very active discursive power that is normalized in our Internet culture in which people often society. It is especially important for the keep blogs and leave hundreds of former comfort women who were comments on news articles.lxxx It would be silenced for almost fifty years due to fascinating and valuable to take on a issues of representation, or lack thereof. project that evaluates whether these Korean “netizens” employ the same Discourse Analysis in the Age of the Internet; nationalist discourses found in the articles. Gender Analysis in the Age of “Equality” Discourse analysis becomes even more Despite appearing to have moved valuable in our digital age, because beyond the decades of silencing to information is so accessible and the voice wholeheartedly seeking justice for the of the average citizen has unlimited former comfort women, the Korean potential to reach the rest of the world. Institute and the news articles on its This project also reminds us the website continue to filter the women’s importance of questioning the supposed voices and use their experiences for “gender equality” in developed countries. political purposes, framing the issue as a In South Korea, for example, the country
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 95! looks equal on the surface—it has elected !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the first female president in 2012 and its vi From here on, Korean and Korea will generally refer to South Korean and South Korea, which has more accessible education system is completely publications regarding comfort women, as well as a meritocratic across genders. Nevertheless, history of direct tensions with Japan. patriarchal values still run deep, with only vii Judith Butler, Gender Trouble (New York: Routledge, 1999), 43. 60 percent of college-educated women viii Ibid. working and these working women ix Throughout this article, I will adopt Chris Weedon’s earning only 63 percent of what men definition of subjectivity as “the conscious and lxxxi unconscious thoughts and emotions of the individual, do. Particularly related to sexual her sense of herself, and her ways of understanding her violence, one estimate showed that just 6 relation to the world.” See Chris Weedon, Feminist to 8 percent of the victims report their Practice and Poststructuralist Theory, Second Edition (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1997), 32. cases to the police, while only 41 percent x See Keith Howard, ed., True Stories of the Korean Comfort of these reported cases reached a Women (London: Cassell, 1995), 114: “Now that conviction in 2009. lxxxii It is clear that everyone knows the story, however, I feel I have I have nothing to fear. So now I have told you everything South Korea still struggles with the about myself, I can rest easily.” Similar sentiments are silencing and shaming of sexual assault expressed in different testimonies on pages 87, 157, and victims, and it is no wonder that this is 167. xi Chris Weedon, Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist reflected in the contemporary discourse Theory, Second Edition (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, around comfort women. In order to 1997), 88. understand what provokes people to xii Keith Howard, ed., True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women (London: Cassell, 1995), vi; C. Sarah Soh, The commit sexual assault and even further, Comfort Women (Chicago: The University of Chicago what compels people to blame the victims Press, 2008), 43. for it, we need to analyze discourse and xiii C. Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan (Chicago: The understand its ability to shape thought and University of Chicago Press, 2008), 45. normalize power relations. xiv Yoshimi Yoshiaki, Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II, trans. Suzanne O’Brien (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), 23. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xv Ibid. i The exact number and ethnic composition of the xvi For other works with similar aims of informing the comfort women are unclear due to the destruction of public about the “comfort women” issue and the Japanese government documents from this time. necessity for Japanese state redress, see: Alice Yun Chai, “Asian-Pacific feminist coalition politics” in Korean Studies, Volume 17 (Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, iiAlice Yun Chai, “‘Comfort Women’/Military Sexual Slavery,” in Women’s Studies Encyclopedia, ed. Helen 1993) and George Hicks, The Comfort Women: Japan’s Tierney (Greenwood Press, 2002), accessed October 15, Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War (New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc, 1995). 2012, http://gem.greenwood.com/wse/ xvii wsePrint.jsp?id=id134. C. Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan (Chicago: The iii Chizuko Ueno. Nationalism and Gender (Melbourne, Australia: Trans Pacific Press, 2004), 69. University of Chicago Press, 2008), 48. xviii Keith Howard, ed., True Stories of the Korean Comfort iv I am using the word feminist broadly to mean that which aims to advance the rights and social standing of Women (London: Cassell, 1995), vi. xix Ibid., vii-7. women. xx v See Ibid., 48, 68, 78, 113, 123, and 176. For a definition of nationalist, see Hyunah Yang, “Re- xxi membering the Korean Military Comfort Women: For another pioneering work on the selective history Nationalism, Sexuality, and Silencing,” in Dangerous and politicization of the comfort women issue, see Women: Gender and Korean Nationalism (New York, Chungmoo Choi, ed., “The comfort women: Routledge: 1998), 128-129: “[that which is nationalist] colonialism, war, and sex,” in Special Issue of Positions: East affirms unified identity, based on an unchangeable Asia Cultures Critique 5:1 (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1997). essence that is transmitted through blood and xxii homogeneous culture...Like other forms of anti-colonial Chizuko Ueno, Nationalism and Gender (Melbourne, Australia: Trans Pacific Press, 2004), 92-94. nationalism, however, unified Korean national identity xxiii was constructed to a great degree through its opposition Chris Weedon, Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist to colonizing Others, including Japan.” Theory, Second Edition (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1997), 109.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xxiv Hyunah Yang, “Re-membering the Korean Military xxxiii “Japan asks ROK to join ICJ Takeshima action,” Jiji Comfort Women: Nationalism, Sexuality, and Press, August 22, 2012, accessed December 1, 2012, Silencing,” in Dangerous Women: Gender and Korean http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120821004503 Nationalism (New York, Routledge: 1998), 129-131. .htm. xxv See Keith Howard, ed., True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women (London: Cassell, 1995), vi-vii and xxxiv Chizuko Ueno, Nationalism and Gender (Melbourne, C. Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Australia: Trans Pacific Press, 2004), 70-71. Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan (Chicago: The xxvi “S. Korea discloses sensitive documents,” United University of Chicago Press, 2008), 57. Press International, January 17, 2005, accessed December 1, 2012, xxxv “Korean Institute for the Women Drafted for http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2005/01/17/SKorea- Military Sexual Slavery by Japan,” Korean Institute for discloses-sensitive-documents/UPI-38131105952315/. the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, accessed December 1, 2012, xxvii Bong-Kyu Kim, “Comfort woman halmoni, ‘Korean http://www.truetruth.org. government, are you just waiting for us to die off?’” Pressian, January 25, 2012, accessed December 1, 2012, xxxvi Ibid. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id= xxxvii For an example of this overemphasis, see Ibid: true_news&page=2&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on “This kind of transportation [of the women to the &sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=352 comfort stations] could not have been possible without . the permission and cooperation of the Japanese military… Even when civilians were involved in the xxviii Sang-Won Chang, “Abe, ‘Prostitution ordinary mobilization, it is obvious that the Japanese government because Korea had many brothels,’” Hankooki, March and military were behind them.” 20, 2007, accessed December 1, 2012, http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/politics/200703/h20 xxxviii Ibid. 07032017454421040.htm. xxxix C. Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women (Chicago: The xxix “Japan, until when will you repeat ridiculous University of Chicago Press, 2008), 11. remarks?” Yonhap News, March 25, 2007, accessed xl December 1, 2012, Alice Yun Chai, “‘Comfort Women’/Military Sexual Slavery,” in Women’s Studies Encyclopedia, ed. Helen http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&m Tierney (Greenwood Press, 2002), accessed October 15, id=sec&sid1=110&oid=001&aid=0001586057. 2012, http://gem.greenwood.com/wse/ wsePrint.jsp?id=id134. xxx “Ridiculous remarks repeated from Japanese higher officials–has it gotten out of control?” Seoul News, March xli On the English section of the website, the Korean 29, 2010, accessed December 1, 2012, Institute actually states, “The Japanese government's http://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20100 negligence of the issue, especially, makes it more 329031003. difficult but essential for us, whose nation was the primary victim, to collect all available evidence as soon as xxxi Young-Soo Kang, “Korean-Japanese civic protests in possible” (emphasis my own). movement,” Kookmin News, April 3, 2012, accessed December 1, 2012, xlii Keith Howard, ed., True Stories of the Korean Comfort http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&m Women (London: Cassell, 1995), 39. id=sec&sid1=102&oid=005&aid xliii Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities, =0000049613. Ianfu Report Vol. 1: We were Sex Slaves of the Japanese Military (Seoul, South Korea: Korean Institute for the xxxii Sang-Hun Choe, “Desolate Dots in the Sea Stir Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, Deep Emotions as South Korea Resists a Japanese 2007), 252. Claim,” New York Times, August 30, 2008, accessed December 1, 2012, xliv Ibid., 58. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/world/asia/ xlv Ibid. 31islands.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xlvi Soon-Joo Yuh, e-mail message to author, December 2012, 9, 2012. The quote was translated from Korean. http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&m id=sec&sid1=123&oid=154&aid=0000003272. xlvii Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities, Ianfu Report Vol. 1: We were Sex Slaves of the Japanese lviii “President Lee urges Japan for repentance of human Military (Seoul, South Korea: Korean Institute for the rights abuses,” Yonhap News, November 8, 2012, Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, accessed December 1, 2012, 2007), 46. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n ews&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn xlviii Keith Howard, ed., True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women (London: Cassell, 1995), 47. =off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc= asc&no=385. xlix Ibid., 49. lix Eun-Joo Lee, “Kono insists Japan own up to WWII l Ibid. sex slavery,” Joongang Daily, October 9, 2012, accessed December 1, 2012, li Ibid. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n ews&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn lii Chang-Myung Lee, “Comfort women halmoni 1000th Wednesday demonstration, still shameless Japan,” Money =off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc= Today, December 12, 2011, accessed December 1, 2012, asc&no=379. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id lx In the Korean articles on the Korean Institute’s =true_news&page=3&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=o website, Japan also seems to be employing similar n&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=34 mechanisms of politicizing the comfort women issue. 4. For an example, see Ibid: “‘If Japan denies the issue of comfort women,’ Kono [former Japanese chief cabinet liii Keith Howard, ed., True Stories of the Korean Comfort secretary] said in an interview released yesterday, ‘it Women (London: Cassell, 1995), 49. Also see Howard, 57: “The Japanese were bad. But the Koreans were just could lose national credibility.’” as bad because they put their own women through such terrible ordeals for personal profit...It doesn’t matter lxi “Japanese right wing party advertisement distorts whether we receive compensation or not. After all, what historical facts about comfort women, ‘They earned could we do with money, with so few years left before great income from prostitution…’” Herald Economy, we die?” November 9, 2012, accessed December 1, 2012, liv Min-Jeong Cho, “Civic groups, ‘Japanese government, http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n acknowledge the comfort women issue and repent,’” ews&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o Yonhap News, August 28, 2012, accessed December 1, n &select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=386. 2012, http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id lxii Sang-Hyup Kim, “Last resort for Japan’s complete =true_news&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=o ignoring of the ‘comfort women issue’: consideration of n&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=37 proposal for Japanese-Korean arbitration committee,” 3. Munhwa Daily News, August 17, 2012, accessed December 1, 2012, lv Byung-Sik Lee, “Comfort women, wartime women’s http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n rights issue,” Yonhap News, August 15, 2012, accessed ews&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o December 1, 2012, n &select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=371. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n ews&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn lxiii Hyunah Yang, “Re-membering the Korean Military Comfort Women: Nationalism, Sexuality, and =off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc= Silencing,” in Dangerous Women: Gender and Korean asc&no=370. Nationalism (New York, Routledge: 1998), 130. lxiv Chizuko Ueno. Nationalism and Gender (Melbourne, lvi Ibid. Australia: Trans Pacific Press, 2004), 75. lvii “The 67th Kwang-Bok Jeol Celebration Address,” Office lxv Hyung-Min Jeon, “Comfort woman halmoni’s tears on of the President, August 15, 2012, accessed December 1, the March 1st holiday,” Kyeonggi Daily News, March 2,
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2012, accessed December 1, 2012, December 1, 2012, http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n ews&page=2&sn1 ews&page=2&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc
=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange =on& select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=338. =headnum&desc=asc&no=359. lxxvi C. Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women (Chicago: The lxvi See Keith Howard, ed., True Stories of the Korean University of Chicago Press, 2008), 74. Comfort Women (London: Cassell, 1995), 49 and 57. lxxvii Mi-Hyang Yoon, “MB, how could you make the lxvii Bo-Keun Kim, “Korean cheonyuh’s familial love did halmoni shed tears of blood…” Oh My News, September not cease even in a comfort station,” Han Kyeoreh, 29, 2009, accessed December 1, 2012, August 4, 2010, accessed December 1, 2012, http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n ews&page=1&sn1 ews&page=1&sn1 =&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on =&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange &select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=320. =headnum&desc=asc&no=325. lxxviii Hye-Lim Suh, “Comfort woman vs. sex slave, lxviii Je-Min Son, “Comfort woman halmoni, ‘What did scholars say, ‘comfort woman is a proper noun…the you do for the last 20 years? Are you a Japanese perpetrator must be disclosed when using sex slave,’” The ministry?’” Kyunghyang News, January 25, 2012, accessed Korea Times, July 17, 2012, accessed December 1, 2012, December 1, 2012, http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id ews&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o n &select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=369. =true_news&page=2&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=o n&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=35 lxxix “Honor and Human Rights to the Halmoni,” Korean 1. Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, accessed December 1, 2012, lxix Ibid. http://www.womenandwar.net/contents/general/ lxx Ibid. generalView.asp?page_str_menu=0101. lxxi Hyunah Yang, “Re-membering the Korean Military lxxx The World Bank, “Internet users (per 100 people),” Comfort Women: Nationalism, Sexuality, and accessed December 12, 2012, Silencing,” in Dangerous Women: Gender and Korean http://data.worldbank.org/ Nationalism (New York, Routledge: 1998), 127. indicator/IT.NET.USER.P2?order=wbapi_data_value_ lxxii Bo-Keun Kim, “Korean cheonyuh’s familial love did 2010+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value- not cease even in a comfort station,” Han Kyeoreh, last&sort=desc. August 4, 2010, accessed December 1, 2012, http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n lxxxi “Gender arbitrage in South Korea,” The Economist, ews&page=1&sn1 October 21, 2010, accessed December 12, 2012, http://www.economist.com/node/17311877. =&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=on&select_arrange =headnum&desc=asc&no=325. lxxxii Bryan Kay, “South Korea’s Silenced Speak,” The Diplomat, November 22, 2011, accessed December 12, lxxiii C. Sarah Soh, The Comfort Women (Chicago: The 2012, http://thediplomat.com/2011/11/22/south- University of Chicago Press, 2008), 73. koreas-silenced-speak/2/. lxxiv Wianbu, the Korean term for “comfort woman,” is REFERENCES still used to refer to prostitutes near American military bases. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, 1999. lxxv Susan Han, “The day these women become flowers,” Chai, Alice Yun. “‘Comfort Women’/Military Munhwa Daily News, August 15, 2011, accessed Sexual Slavery.” In Women’s Studies Encyclopedia, ed. Helen Tierney. Greenwood Press, 2002. Accessed October 17,
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2012. =true_news&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=o http://gem.greenwood.com/wse/wsePrint.jsp?id=id134 n&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=38 –––––. “Asian-Pacific feminist coalition 6. politics.” Korean Studies, Volume 17. Hawaii: University Hyung-Min Jeon. “Comfort woman halmoni’s of Hawaii Press, 1993. tears on the March 1st holiday.” Kyeonggi Daily News, Chang, Sang-Won. “Abe, ‘Prostitution March 2, 2012. Accessed December 1, 2012. ordinary because Korea had many brothels.’” Hankooki, http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n March 20, 2007. Accessed December 1, 2012. ews&page=2&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/politics/200703/h20 n&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=359. 07032017454421040.htm. Kang, Young-Soo. “Korean-Japanese civilian Cho, Min-Jeong. “Civic groups, ‘Japanese protests in movement.” Kookmin News, April 3, 2012. government, acknowledge the comfort women issue and Accessed December 1, 2012, repent.’” Yonhap News, August 28, 2012. Accessed http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&m December 1, 2012. id=sec&sid1=102&oid=005&aid=0000049613. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n Kay, Bryan. “South Korea’s Silenced Speak.” ews&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o The Diplomat, November 22, 2011. Accessed December n&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=373. 12, 2012, http://thediplomat.com/2011/11/22/south- Choe, Sang-Hun. “Desolate Dots in the Sea koreas-silenced-speak/2/. Stir Deep Emotions as South Korea Resists a Japanese Kim, Bo-Keun. “Korean cheonyuh’s familial Claim.” New York Times, August 30, 2008. Accessed love did not cease even in a comfort station.” Han December 1, 2012, Kyeoreh, August 4, 2010. Accessed December 1, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/world/asia/31is http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n lands.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. ews&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o Choi, Chungmoo, ed. “The Comfort Women: n&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=325. Colonialism, War, and Sex.” In Special Issue of Positions: Kim, Bong-Kyu. “Comfort woman halmoni, East Asia Cultures Critique 5:1. Durham, N.C.: Duke ‘Korean government, are you just waiting for us to University Press, 1997. die off?’” Pressian, January 25, 2012. Accessed “Gender arbitrage in South Korea.” The December 1, 2012. Economist, October 21, 2010. Accessed December 12, http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n 2012. http://www.economist.com/node/17311877. ews&page=2&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o Han, Susan. “The day these women become n&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=352. flowers.” Munhwa Daily News, August 15, 2011. Kim, Hee-Kang. “Should feminism transcend Accessed December 1, 2012. nationalism? A defense of feminist nationalism in http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id South Korea.” Women’s Studies International Forum 32 =true_news&page=2&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=o (2009): 108-119. n&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=33 Kim, Sang-Hyup. “Last resort for Japan’s 8. complete ignoring of the ‘comfort women issue’: Hicks, George. The Comfort Women: Japan’s consideration of proposal for Japanese-Korean Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World arbitration committee.” Munhwa Daily News, August 17, War. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc, 1995. 2012. Accessed December 1, 2012, Howard, Keith, ed. True Stories of the Korean Comfort http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n Women. London: Cassell, 1995. ews&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o Institute for Research in Collaborationist n &select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=371. Activities. Ianfu Report Vol. 1: We were Sex Slaves of Kimura, Maki. “Listening to Voices: the Japanese Military. Seoul, South Korea: Korean Institute Testimonies of ‘Comfort Women’ of the Second World for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by War.” Gender Institute Issue 8 (April 2003). Japan, 2007. Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military “Japan asks ROK to join ICJ Takeshima Sexual Slavery by Japan. “Honor and Human Rights to action.” Jiji Press, August 22, 2012. Accessed December the Halmoni.” Accessed December 1, 2012. 1, 2012. http://www.womenandwar.net/contents/general/gener http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120821004503 alView.asp?page_str_menu=0101. .htm. Korean Institute for the Women Drafted for “Japan, until when will you repeat ridiculous Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. “Korean Institute for remarks?” Yonhap News, March 25, 2007. Accessed the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by December 1, 2012. Japan.” Accessed December 1, 2012. http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&m http://www.truetruth.org/know/know_03.htm. id=sec&sid1=110&oid=001&aid=0001586057. Lee, Byung-Sik. “Comfort women, wartime “Japanese right wing party advertisement women’s rights issue.” Yonhap News, August 15, 2012. distorts historical facts about comfort women, ‘They Accessed December 1, 2012. earned great income from prostitution…’” Herald http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_ne Economy, November 9, 2012. Accessed December 1, ws&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o 2012. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id n&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=370.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lee, Chang-Myung. “Comfort women halmoni Ueno, Chizuko. Nationalism and Gender. 1000th Wednesday demonstration, still shameless Melbourne, Australia: Trans Pacific Press, 2004. Japan.” Money Today, December 12, 2011. Accessed Weedon, Chris. Feminist Practice and December 1, 2012. Poststructuralist Theory, Second Edition. Oxford: Blackwell http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n Publishers Ltd, 1997. ews&page=3&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o The World Bank. “Internet users (per 100 n&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=344. people).” Accessed December 12, 2012. Lee, Eun-Joo. “Kono insists Japan own up to http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IT.NET.USER.P2 WWII sex slavery.” Joongang Daily, October 9, 2012. ?order=wbapi_data_value_2010+wbapi_data_value+wb Accessed December 1, 2012. api_data_value-last&sort=desc. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id Yang, Hyunah. “Re-membering the Korean =true_news&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=o Military Comfort Women: Nationalism, Sexuality, and n&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=37 Silencing.” In Dangerous Women: Gender and Korean 9. Nationalism, 123-139. New York, Routledge: 1998. Min, Pyong Gap. “Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Yoon, Mi-Hyang. “MB, how could you make The Intersection of Colonial Power, Gender, and Class. the halmoni shed tears of blood…” Oh My News, Gender & Society 17:938 (2003): 938-957. September 29, 2009. Accessed December 1, 2012, “President Lee urges Japan for repentance of http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n human rights abuses.” Yonhap News, November 8, 2012. ews&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o Accessed December 1, 2012. n &select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=320. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id Yoshimi, Yoshiaki. Comfort Women: Sexual =true_news&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=o Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II, trans. n&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=38 Suzanne O’Brien. New York: Columbia University 5. Press, 2000. “Ridiculous remarks repeated from Japanese higher officials–has it gotten out of control?” Seoul News, March 29, 2010, accessed December 1, 2012, http://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20100 329031003. “The 67th Kwang-Bok Jeol Celebration Address.” Office of the President, August 15, 2012. Accessed December 1, 2012. http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode =LSD&mid=sec&sid1=123&oid=154&aid=000000327 2. Soh, C. Sarah. The Comfort Women: sexual violence and postcolonial memory in Korea and Japan. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008. –––––. “The Korean ‘Comfort Women”: Movement for Redress. Asian Survey, Vol. 36, No. 12 (December 1996): 1226-1240. Son, Je-Min. “Comfort woman halmoni, ‘What did you do for the last 20 years? Are you a Japanese ministry?’” Kyunghyang News, January 25, 2012. Accessed December 1, 2012. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id=true_n ews&page=2&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=o n&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=351. “S. Korea discloses sensitive documents.” United Press International, January 17, 2005. Accessed December 1, 2012. http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2005/01/17/SKorea- discloses-sensitive-documents/UPI-38131105952315/. Suh, Hye-Lim. “Comfort woman vs. sex slave, scholars say, ‘comfort woman is a proper noun…the perpetrator must be disclosed when using sex slave.’” The Korea Times, July 17, 2012. Accessed December 1, 2012. http://www.truetruth.org/bbs2/zboard.php?id =true_news&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=o n&sc=on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=36 9.
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‘STRANGE KALEIDOSCOPIC SCENES’: Western Representations of Japanese Cities in Meiji, 1868-1912 Hannah Shepherd Harvard University
ABSTRACT Japanese city. Like Yokohama, most of the other cities visited by Western tourists This paper is a discussion of Western or travelers were ports, and their very representations of cities in Japan during status as a “contact zone”i between Japan the Meiji era. Western accounts of Japan, and the West led to their modernization whether in newspapers, travel guides or ahead of the rest of the country. For most memoirs, were instrumental in both tourists, these ports were not the end of creating and then perpetuating certain the journey and were instead a border views of Japan disseminated in the writers’ zone between their docked ships and the home countries. However, these views traditional, ‘real’ Japan that waited for largely focused on the static, ancient side them inland. However, for long-term of Japan – rather than that which in residents, their interests (mainly historical treatments of the Meiji era is commercial or diplomatic) meant that the seen as emblematic of the change which treaty ports and Tokyo were ‘home’. the country was undergoing: the The authors discussed in this paper are “modern” city. The paper will ask to what from a variety of backgrounds and fall extent the representations of Japan of this into both the tourist and resident camps. time were informed by colonial precedent Some of them wrote of experiences and to what extent they were influenced before the Meiji era, (Francis Hall) and by Japanese traditions of representation. It some published their memoirs after the will conclude with a discussion of how the death of the Emperor, (Walter Weston, dichotomy of East and West as Isabel Anderson) but their descriptions synonymous with that between tradition and accounts impart information relevant and progress could be seen as frustrating to the paper’s aims and have therefore self-representations of Japanese been included. As well as falling into modernity. different groups with reference to their relationship with Japan, they are also split INTRODUCTION by their relationship to writing itself; their circumstances and abilities were widely At the start of the Meiji era, Tokyo was disparate. However, in writing on Japan, still known as Edo, as it was until the city the authors were all part of a tradition of was opened for trade and renamed a year representation that in the second half of later. Tokyo’s shift from shogunal the nineteenth century had almost headquarters to a modern capital began in separated “Japan” from the “reality” of its earnest in the 1870s and continued existence: throughout (and beyond) the following “The whole of Japan is a pure three decades of Meiji. However, for invention. There is no such many visitors to Japan, nearby Yokohama, country, there are no such not Tokyo, was their first experience of a people…Japanese people
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are…simply a mode of style, an century was based on an unequal exquisite fancy of art.”ii relationship between the seer and the This paper firstly explores the paradigms seen. The land is landscape – something that informed the writing of all those who for the “seeing-man’s” powers of taste to attempted to represent Japan and secondly work upon.vii How this was articulated in a analyses the play between these Japanese context shall be discussed more conventions and the changing Japan that fully below, but it is important to note confronted them. here the aestheticization of the colonial land into landscape and the clear hierarchy VICTORIAN TRAVEL WRITING: THE between viewer and view. I will argue that CONVENTIONS these metropolitan norms of Before discussing specific conventions of representation were open to re- representing Japan, the wider context of interpretation in a country that had long travel writing by Victorians (here I mean commodified its landscapes and meisho for both British and other English-language domestic and, more recently, international writers of the Victorian age) in a time of consumption. empires and colonies must be addressed. Although Japan was not quite a colony, it The situation of Japan as an “Oriental” was certainly part of “the Orient”, subject nation not colonized by Western nations to (or created by) Western was unique. However, the rhetoric of representations. Many of the tropes used colonialism and empire was present in the to represent Japan were based on attitudes West’s dealings with and literature about towards to the Orient; which Setsuko Japan. Authors such as Kipling were Ono (writing before Said’s Orientalism), in writing for a colonial audience: his 1889 her work on Loti and Hearn, splits into Letters were published in the Pioneer, a three groups – the antithetical, the fearful, newspaper in Allahabad, India, and and the projective. viii The antithetical contain many comparisons between the attitude sees an utter reversal of mores in ‘natives’ of Japan and the Babu – the the Oriental nation; they are stagnant Indian white-collar class with their where the West is dynamic, they are “veneer of English culture.” iii Japan’s decadent where the West is modernizing. proximity to other Eastern colonized (or Connected to this is the idea that the value semi-colonized) nations prompted further of his or her own society could be comparisons; for many “globe-trotters,”iv confirmed through the writer’s Japan was one stop on a world tour that comparison of it to the other. In writing was largely restricted to colonies like India on Japan this takes an ambivalent stance: and the treaty ports of China. For Japan is a fairyland, a land of children, it is diplomats or merchants, Japan was also fantastical, its people are constantly at the latest posting in a career likely to have play. References to the fantastical worlds included other strategic locations in the of Carroll and Swift are widespread: Far East. This is seen in the naming (or renaming) process that Japan underwent “To hear of a thousand houses at the hands of Westerners. Yokohama being burned in a night is had a Bund, like Shanghai, v its “native appalling, but a thousand of these boats” were “called by foreigners, Lilliputian dwellings and their sampans.”vi microscopic landscape gardens In her work Imperial Eyes, Mary Louise would not cover more area than Pratt argues that the “Imperial stylistics” two or three blocks of a foreign of travel writing in the late nineteenth- city”ix
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“A large number of them Connected to fear over the loss of “true” [Japanese passengers on the train] and “pure” Japan is the desire for and were modified Europeans and anxiety over “authenticity.”xiv This is seen resembled nothing more than in much of the writing about Japan at this Tenniel’s picture of the White time as well as in the movements of Rabbit on the first page of Alice in tourists and travelers within the country. Wonderland.” x The modern periphery of treaty ports was regarded as an aberrance, to be navigated Considering that the Meiji era saw the as quickly as possible in favor of the creation of an industrializing modern timeless, static interior. The “real” Japan nation with a strong army and economy, that Isabella Bird longed to “get away we can see these descriptions as a denial into” would not be found in the cities of of Japan’s attempts to join the great Yokohama or Tokyo. For her, Tokyo is a powers, a refusal to see Japan as a threat modern destination: “It would seem quite or even an equal. an incongruity to travel to Yedo by railway, Fear of the nations of the Orient shows but quite proper when the destination is itself in writing that emphasizes the sheer Tôkiyô.”xv magnitude of their populaces. This fear However, the “authenticity” of writers’ often led to descriptions of teeming cities, accounts of their trips to Nikko, human individuals reduced to herds or Kamakura and Kyoto needed to be swarms of animals and racist depictions of accompanied by visual or material people seen as inferior to those in the support, and the “bazaars” of Tokyo and West. Tokyo is referred to as a “warren” Yokohama, as well as the burgeoning of in numerous descriptions, and its photography studios there, meant that habitations as “Brobdingnagian pigeon whilst the cities were not the loci of xi houses.” “authentic” Japan, they were the site of its Other writers projected reactions to their production and propagation. The own cultures onto the Orient; the following section will discuss the specific decadent fin-de-siecle in England was conventions that had grown up around transposed to the East, the blight of Japan’s artistic representation. The use of opium addiction was removed to China, the aesthetics and conventions of and in Japan’s case, the negative aspects of representing ‘Japan’ as it was understood modernization and industrialization were in the West appears a more deliberate criticized by writers who saw a repetition decision than the ‘imperial stylistics’ that of what had already struck their own silently inform these writers’ works and nations happening in a land which was for are readily apparent in both Japanese and many in the West the source of their Western representations. aesthetic values. Yokoyama notes the sorrow in the description of how “A line PRODUCING JAPAN: THE ECONOMICS OF of railway, not long completed, seams the REPRESENTATION fair champaign with an ugly scar of Japanese art shaped the expectations of “Western Progress” – the shibboleth of visitors to Japan and the content of their xii New Japan.” The New Japan in these writings on it. For most visitors to Japan, writers’ eyes is, Yokoyama notes, “not at there was a gap between the country that all Japan but industrialized Britain, or, in had become familiar to them through the more general terms, modern European Japonisme movement in the arts of late- xiii civilization itself. nineteenth-century Europe and America and the country that faced them upon
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 104! their arrival. As Yokoyama notes, “in spite To some extent, travel writers were also of their emphasis on the singularity of complicit in the continuation of an Japan…these writers seemed confident aesthetic vision of Japan begun by the that they knew the country fairly well. It reception in the West of meisho prints such was a paradox.” xvi The country seemed as those of Hokusai and Hiroshige. xxi familiar to many who visited it, and the Yokoyama notes this in his analysis of nature of the representations certainly Bridge’s descriptions of Japan – they are affected travelers’ reactions to the real “not too different from what one could ‘subjects’: imagine as a typical Japanese scene “I feel as if I had seen them all through the prints of Hiroshige or before, so like are they to their Hokusai.” The writer is not describing a pictures on trays, fans and Hiroshige or a Hokusai but a “typical” teapots.xvii scene informed and framed by their “Instead of blue and smiling seas aesthetics – he is removed even from backed by a glittering white cone Japanese self-representation. In their transferred to the horizon from descriptions of Japan, the experiences of amidst the cherry-blossoms of Western writers were shaped by previous some fan or screen at home, it was expectations, and Western writers something quite different that we matched their experiences to the saw when we crawled on deck at expectations of a metropolitan audience as sunset.”xviii a consequence. The domestic context of the Dixon, in his 1882 work The Land of the representations is important; Japan is at Morning, describes a Tokyo landscape once reduced to something feminine, whose “prevailing tints are grey, brown ornamental – it is all decoration, and black…away beyond the house-tops background, like the “Japanese” interiors and the undulations of the plain, the of Victorian homes. The expectation is matchless cone of the sacred Mount that the role that “Japan” plays “at home” Fuji...” xxii The reader’s inner eye moves will be continued in the country itself. The upwards through the scene, as in one of reactions to Japan refusing to conform to Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, its image as consumed in the West will be or One Hundred Views of Edo. There are discussed below. innumerable examples of this placement Like their textual counterparts that of Fuji within a Tokyo ‘vista’, perhaps to propagated certain literary, imperialist, and make up for the frequently noted lack of orientalist conventions, the art objects landmarks within the city itself. from Japan were responsible for the When language fails writers, they rely on continued projection of certain images of the aesthetic conventions of Japanese art the country and its people. However as to rescue them. Hearn describes the “far Christine Guth, like many before her, has faint high promontories…all visible in one noted, the agency for this representation is delicious view, - blue-penciled in a beauty not the curio-collector’s alone; the hunger of ghostly haze indescribable...” xxiii The for Japan and “things Japanese” was indescribable and the undiscussed are “driven as much by supply as by indications of the already rich pool of demand.” xix This is seen in the role of images and descriptions which formed the Japanese in the commercial aspects of Victorian image of Japan, and allowed (or representation – the production of encouraged) such representations. xxiv ‘Japanese’ goods for export or for a Kipling’s laconic description of the green specific tourist market.xx of the hills above Nagasaki harbor is
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 105! perhaps the finest example of this: “It was grotesqueness cannot be matched in the the green of a Japanese screen and the world, but which no pen or pencil can pines were screen pines.” xxv Kipling bring before eyes that have not looked reverses the relationship between the upon the thing itself.”xxix subject and object of representation. This Ten years later, in Seas and Lands, Arnold is similar to Davidson’s disappointment asserts that “nothing but an instantaneous that Fuji is not surrounded by the photograph, carefully coloured could decorative cherry-blossoms from back impart even an idea of the picturesque home. He highlights the problem facing population of the Nakadori or of Ginza many who visited Japan – that for them Street.”xxx To “look upon the thing itself” the ‘real’ Japan was not the country but its (in the ultimate authenticating souvenir of image. the photograph) was now possible. The development of commercial However, Arnold was not content to leave photography in Japan was closely all description to photographs (which connected to Westerners as both interspersed his text) but focused on that producers and consumers and thrived in which photography could not depict; the port of Yokohama, where motion, sound and smell: “the endless photographers such as Beato, Stillfried clatter of the innumerable wooden and later Farsari all had studios. xxvi As its pattens; the shuffling of the countless popularity rose, the aesthetics and waraji; the slow shaggy oxen dragging the technology of photography can be seen to bamboo waggons…” However, tradition influence the descriptions of Japan within is not ignored completely by Arnold; at Western writings: the end of this list of sights and sounds of “If you buy nothing else in Japan, a Japanese street, we see: and you will break yourself unless “...at the four-cross way, where a you begin as a pauper, you must long vista opens westward, Fuji’s buy photographs….On the deck grand and perfect peak sixty miles of the steamer I laughed at his off, towering above the rosy [Farsari’s] red and blue hill-sides. clouds of sunset, lifting itself to In the hills I saw he had painted our far-off gaze in such majesty of true.”xxvii form and colour as no other Kipling again here reverses the image and mountain in the world possesses - that which it represents; the hills are a sight that puts on the other confirmations of the accuracy of the sights, as it were, the Creator’s photographs of Farsari, contradicting the own mark when he made this purpose of the photograph as a validation wonderful, delightful, unique and of the traveler’s narrative whilst mysterious Japan.”xxxi emphasizing the fantastical nature of The vista of the street scene, created by Japan. xxviii Arnold, is authenticated by the inclusion Japan itself seems to be exceptionally of Fuji – a validation of the writer’s suited to photography (even to the point excursion from the norms of of requiring it) – indeed, as suggested by representation through a nod to tradition. Kipling, the photograph album became a For writers of Japan, the formation of the necessary part of the tourist’s souvenir “tradition of seeing” that informed their collection. In An Engineer’s Holiday (1880), work began with the formation of an Pidgeon remarks that “The coup d’oeil of image of the country prior to arrival, a Japanese street” is “a picture whose continued in the descriptions of colour and movement, grace and experiences and seeing within the country
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 106! itself, and was also present in the logistics extent to which the logistics of travel of viewing the country.xxxii As westerners, affected the nature of the genre.xli Riding travel writers in Meiji Japan were in a rickshaw, there is no sense of restricted by the limits placed on their continuity or relationship with the travel by the authorities but also by the geography of the place; everything is a existence of norms of travel and sites of vista, a snapshot, a vignette. interest created by their forbears and For Hearn, the rickshaw not only affected continued by a burgeoning international his mode of seeing but framed his views tourist industry.xxxiii of the city:
“YOU CANNOT APPRECIATE SCENERY “the jinrikisha…is the most cosy UNLESS YOU SIT IN A ’RICKSHAW.” xxxiv little vehicle imaginable; and the A method of transportation invented in street vistas, as seen above the Japan around the beginning of the Meiji dancing white mushroom-shaped period, the rickshaw became synonymous hat of my sandaled runner, have with the tourist experience of the cities of an allurement of which I fancy Tokyo and Yokohama. xxxv For many it that I could never weary”xlii was a sign of Japan learning from the The contrast between the very close and West while retaining the ‘charm’ of the the distant as embodied in the the Orient: “The new and the old…have runner’s hat and the vist, is reminiscent of made a compromise in the novel Hiroshige’s playful perspective in conception of the ubiquitous jin-riki- compositions such as Haneda no watashi sha”xxxvi benten no yashiro, where the hairy legs and Although it was not restricted to arms of the ferryman frame the view of westerners, the master-servant the shrine across the water.xliii relationship implied by the Western In a letter to the Pioneer, Kipling’s dry wit customer and the Japanese “horse” adds a hints at both the connection between the certain colonial dimension to the viewer and the viewed which the rickshaw rickshaw’s use. xxxvii Often relinquishing enables and also the exaggerated quality decision-making to their runners, that this has taken on as a tourist “must”: Westerners were free to gaze at the sights “you cannot appreciate scenery unless you that surrounded them whilst being sit in a ‘rickshaw.” There is a strange logic whisked around the city. Guth’s at work here – Kipling’s comment comparison between globe-trotters and requires unpacking – he mocks the “their cousins, flâneurs” informs us of the hyperbole of tourist conventions, but also nature of their gaze; they too are free to highlights the extent to which the “roam the city observing and being trappings of tourism were connected to observed without actually interacting with the act of seeing. Without riding a those they encounter.” xxxviii Lafcadio rickshaw, one is not engaging with the Hearn appears to agree: “traveling by scenery in the correct way – one is not kuruma, one can only see and dream.”xxxix appreciating Japan properly; the key Eliza Scidmore, in her aptly named responsibility of a tourist. The Jinrikisha Days in Japan, talks of the “flying conventions of tourism also become the glimpses…caught from a jinrikisha”.xl A. conventions of travel writing; no account B. Mitford, himself a writer of Japan, of the time was complete without a criticizes travel literature on Japan as rickshaw ride through the narrow streets being no more than “sketchy impressions of Tokyo, or out to Kamakura or Nikko. of passing travellers” - this suggests the
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As discussed above, in Imperial Eyes, Pratt As Bird notes above, the desire to get a highlights an important function of the “general idea” of the city, which from landscape to the Western ‘seeing-man’ – it within its narrow streets would have been is fodder for the travel writer’s (or impossible, led newcomers to high points traveler’s) “powers of taste to work around the city. Chamberlain counts “the upon.” xliv In Meiji Japan, the traveler’s view over the city from the tower on powers of taste alone were not enough; Atago-yama” as one of the principal sights intervention of some sort was required to of Tokyo.l Almost every description of the assure full appreciation (firstly by the city involves such a description; with visitor and secondly their audience) of the mixed reactions. Scidmore is taken there scene; whether the jinrikisha runner, the by her rickshaw runner, and Whitney calls photographer or the unknown artists and it a “popular place for sightseers.”li collectors involved in the transmission of The concept of a panoramic view is a Japanese aesthetics of looking. There is connected to not only the colonial gaze mediation between the seer and seen – an but also the photographic. Felice Beato economics of representation. Ono states took a five-photograph panorama from that “both the subject and object Atago-yama in 1865. The site had long participate in the creation of the image of been associated with various ‘native’ the object.”xlv In the next sections I will gazes; as a moon-viewing spot and also as argue for the complexity of this a shrine to the fire-god due to the clear participation. view of the houses below. As an observation station, Atago-yama is a ATAGOYAMA: A “RED-FUR-LIKE 40KM response to a Western phenomenon; the SIGHT”xlvi panorama or heirin (descending spread “The first thing a stranger tries to view).lii Telescopes were placed there from do, is get a general idea of the town.”xlvii the early nineteenth-century; As Screech In her discussion of the imperial stylistics argues in The Lens within the Heart, Western of travel writing in the colonial period, ways of seeing had become popular with there is one key trope in the text of the Japanese before the opening of Japan ‘discovery’ that Pratt refers to as the to the West in the 1850s. The ‘authentic’ “promontory description” – already a view of the city, a must-see for visitors to common trope in Romantic and Victorian Tokyo, was perhaps less ‘native’ than they literature.xlviii In the travel writing on Meiji realized. Menpes seems determined to cities, the promontory description is a distinguish between the Western and point of intersection between Western Japanese appreciation of “expanse of and Japanese traditions of seeing. Japan is view”. For Japanese, “it is one of their not a virgin land, the “possessive or greatest joys to look from the top of a civilizing fantasies” inspired by mountain downwards, but only at certain promontory scenes in colonial writing are times of the day.” liii For the naturally replaced here by other desires. xlix Using artistic Japanese, the material aspects of the paradigms set up in the previous two the view are not as important as the sections – the colonial/Orientalist gaze aesthetics of seeing. and the “traditions of seeing” associated The Western “discovering” of Tokyo with Japan – I want to look at the from promontories such as Atago-yama is promontory description as a study of a therefore complicated by the history of “contact zone” between Western attempts such places of viewing. It is further to see the city and Japanese ones to show complicated by the nature of the view; not it. virgin land, not picturesque waterfall or
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 108! lake, Tokyo as panorama is not sufficient The reaction, however, is different. The “material” for many Westerners’ “powers interval of over two decades brought of taste”: changes to Japan itself but also changes in expectations of it. What charmed Hall “No view of Tokiyo, leaving out frustrates Bird. Hall’s description has an the impression produced by size, appreciation of the change that Edo will is striking, indeed there is a be subject to. For now the city is “spread monotony of meanness about it. before” him – the relationship between The hills are not heights, and there the city and the viewer is a happy one; a are no salient sights to detain the meeting of expectations. For Bird, the eyes for an instant. As a city it city, as a view, fails. What is revealed does lacks concentration. Masses of not allow total comprehension. Whilst green, lined or patched with grey, Hall is happy with the misty picturesque and an absence of beginning or view, with its fading distances, Bird end, look suburban rather than requires detail, composition. A shift in metropolitan. Far away in the expectations is connected to a shift in distance are other grey patches; traditions of seeing. Bird is writing at the you are told that those are still time of the accurate, all-seeing Tokiyo, and you ask no more. It is photograph, Hall is still connected to the a city of ‘magnificent distances’ aesthetics of the Japanese landscape print. without magnificence.”liv Bird’s impression of the city from Atago- TOKYO AND YOKOHAMA: THE yama constantly compares Tokyo to some TOPOGRAPHY OF MODERNITY kind of aesthetic ideal for a city; what it “As scenery, Yokohama does not exist, so lacks is described in more detail than what we will not talk about it.”lvi it reveals. Upon what is this expectation The “contact zones” of Tokyo and based? If we compare Bird’s description Yokohama presented visitors during the with one by Francis Hall from 1862, who Meiji period with a study in the process of wrote about Atago-yama twice in his “civilization and enlightenment”. The memoirs, the material is surprisingly remarkable ability of many Western similar: visitors, (like Fraser, quoted above) to simply elide these articulations of “There it lay, spread before us in modernity is an indication of the power of the afternoon mist, streets and the Orientalist and aesthetic paradigms palaces, gardens and groves…the still at work in their writing. What was city’s sea of roofs broken here and familiar was not worth reporting; in their there by the loftier roof of a search for the “extraordinary” the temple, til its boundaries were traveler-writer omits descriptions of that indistinguishable from the plains which the Meiji government hoped would beyond. I had a clearer perception impress them.lvii than ever of the formation of the Recorded reactions to the attempts at ground on which Yedo stands…a modernity within the city were mixed. wide margin of turf, copses and Descriptions of the modern quarters such hedgerows still divide the houses as Ginza brick town, the modern and streets asunder, so that the buildings of new institutions described by city viewed from an eminence Dixon, and the failed “foreign colony” of appears an aggregation of Tsukiji are shaped by a need to relate villages.”lv them to the reader - Ginza’s shops are
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“quite as modern as those on Broadway” - described as modern. Conder’s but also by an overwhelming refusal to description of his thought process reveals allow their assimilation with “real Japan.” this: lviii “So far as my studies of the “the much talked of national styles went (and I was an Europeanization of Japan has enthusiast in the beauties of been…a mechanical rather than Japanese art) there were no chemical process. The two decorative or ornamental streams, where they co-exist at all, forms…which lent themselves seem to flow side by side, like oil constructionally to a ligneous or and wine – each remains wooden style, and it became distinct…The telegraph may run necessary to seek in Indian or overhead, but the houses beneath Saracenic architecture for forms are not other than they were in the which…would impart an Eastern days of the Shogunate; within a character to the building.”lxiv stone’s throw of the big foreign In choosing a Western architect to hotel there is a Buddhist conceptualize a national architecture, the temple…”lix Meiji government’s desires for modernity The fact that many of the modern were co-opted by a Victorian desire to buildings in Tokyo and Yokohama were root Japan in its Oriental past. designed by Westerners further This is further seen in writers who saw the complicated the reactions of travelers to signs of “young Japan” as being imitations representations of Japanese modernity. of the West rather than indigenous The work of Josiah Conder, for example articulations – the synonymy of modern was commissioned by the Meiji with European or American seen in many government to be specifically Western in texts betrays a reluctance to relinquish style. Conder’s designs for the ownership of the spoils of modernization Rokumeikan (1883) and Ueno Imperial – informed by both Orientalist desires for Museum (1882) in a “Western” style with stasis but also repulsion at the ugliness “Oriental” features were continuations of and uncanny familiarity of the new. the “High Victorian ideology of British colonial architecture”.lx The representation “Suddenly we crossed a muddy of a modern national identity through the creek by a hideous iron bridge; prism of a “Western notion of the Orient” and where were Europe and understandably produced mixed America then? Surely that dirty reactions. lxi Pierre Loti thought the canal must be wider than the great Museum ugly for its newness and foreign Pacific, for at the hotel one was style. (Western articulations of Oriental still in America, but crossing it one aesthetics lacked the sought-after was unmistakably in Japan”lxv “authenticity” of indigenous architecture.) The bridge and canal, usually symbols of An anonymous Japanese journalist the flowing city of Edo and its networks thought it “limpidly elegant, vividly of water transport, now act as a division beautiful and magnificently (the canal wider than the Pacific) but also spectacular...”lxii However, are we to see a link (the bridge, hideous, presumably, this as a reaction to its foreignness or its because it is an example of modern iron articulation of a new Japanese-ness?lxiii For construction) between traditional “Japan” one thing the Museum cannot be and Japan as “America”. The iron bridge
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 110! both replaces the canals of old Edo as street scene is an accurate representation arteries of the city and denies them the of the complexity of modernity on display power to separate traditional Japan from in the Japanese city. It also indicates the the progress it represents. refractions and distortions that the The colonial desire for authenticity and concepts of Japan, Japanese-ness and the “Japoniste” desire for aestheticism are modernity itself were subjected to by the both unsatisfied by Japanese articulations numerous parties – Japanese, European of modernity. Japanese modernity is an and American – involved in the creation imitation of the West, neither authentically and representation of the works discussed Japanese nor authentically European, and, in this paper. The bewilderment that what is more, it has lost the original Dixon expresses at the scene in Ginza, elegance and beauty of “Japan”. The which “is such a complication of what is Japanese who choose to wear Western novel to us with what is in imitation of clothing are figures of ridicule, as shown things familiar, that a considerable time is in the Kipling quotation above. They are required to take it all in,” is reflected in clever mimics, like Carroll’s White Rabbit, the complexity found in the attempts to but not modern, not quite.lxvi Importantly, represent these scenes. lxix they are also ugly: CONCLUSION What can we learn from Western writers’ “The Japanese look most approaches to the “kaleidoscopic scenes” diminutive in European dress. of the Meiji city? What did the writers Each garment is a misfit and themselves hope to impart, through their exaggerates the miserable physique descriptions, to their metropolitan and the national defects of readers? To what extent can we see these concave chests and bow legs.”lxvii writers as working in the same Attempts to appear modern simply reveal “production” of “Japan” as the Japanese the Japanese’s “national defects”, a producers and sellers of woodblock reassurance to the Western audience that prints, and later photographic albums? the very bodies of Japanese prohibit Whilst most of the authors I have change. analyzed were writing for a readership of These mixed reactions to modernity as “armchair travelers,” their approaches to articulated by the architecture and the subject of Japan’s modernization inhabitants of Japanese cities are all reflects, I believe, a wider anxiety and centered on the concept of control. tension present in interactions between Modernity is mediated through the Japan and Western nations. Whilst the Western text by omission or dismissal. In Japanese government’s efforts to the city itself it was mediated through modernize were an attempt to reach an Western architects like Conder who had agreement over issues of extra- their own “ideological baggage” and territoriality and fulfill perceived Western agenda. demands for “civilization and W. Gray Dixon, in the chapter from The enlightenment,” these accounts represent Land of the Morning on “Tokiyo and its the difficulty their projects faced in Institutions” remarks: “a strange gaining recognition as both Japanese and kaleidoscopic scene it is, the guises of East modern. Their efforts were frustrated by and West crossing and re-crossing one constructions of Japan that still relied on another ceaselessly….” lxviii The use in dichotomous ideas of East and West as several texts of the metaphor of the synonymous with tradition and progress. kaleidoscope in descriptions of a Tokyo In the Meiji cities of Japan, the “guises of
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East and West” cross and re-cross each !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! other ceaselessly, but both the producers xxii William Gray Dixon, The Land of the Morning, (Edinburgh: James Gemmell, 1882) p.224 and consumers of this fabricated “Japan” xxiii Lafcadio Hearn, Glimpses of unfamiliar Japan, (London, conspire to ensure that, as Kipling wrote, Osgood, McIlvaine, 1894) p.21 “never the twain shall meet.”lxx xxiv Ono, in A Western Image of Japan, notes how by not discussing or describing something, the author depends heavily on readers’ preconceived ideas about the Orient. xxv Kipling, Kipling’s Japan p.36 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xxvi About which there is sadly no space to write at length i Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and here, but is discussed in detail in Hirayama and Transculturation (London, New York: Routledge, 1992) p.4 Rousmaniere, eds. Reflecting Truth: Japanese Photography in the ii Oscar Wilde, “The Decay of Lying” in The Nineteenth Nineteenth Century (Leiden, Hotei 2004) and Ann Wilkes Century, Jan 1889. Quoted in Rudyard Kipling Kipling’s Tucker et al. The History of Japanese Photography (New Japan: Collected Writings, ed. Cortazzi and Webb (London: Haven, CT; London, Yale University Press, 2003) Athlone Press, 1988) p. 45 n.5) xxvii Kipling, Kipling’s Japan, p.131 iii Kipling, Kipling’s Japan, p.79 xxviii Farsari was aided by his team of Japanese hand-tinters, iv A term coined in Yokohama itself: see “Globe Trotters” who were responsible for the colouring of the in The Japan Mail 22 Aug, 1873 photographs and often had previously worked on the v The etymology has colonial roots; from Urdu, meaning production of woodblock prints. embankment or causeway. xxix Quoted in Hugh Cortazzi, Victorians in Japan: in and vi Isabella Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (London: J. around the treaty ports, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Murray, 1880) p.7. From the Chinese san (three) ban Press. 1987) p.88 xxx (board). Edwin Arnold, Seas and Lands, (London: Longmans, vii Pratt, Imperial Eyes p.9 Green & co., 1895) p.194 xxxi Arnold, Seas and Lands, p.197 viii Setsuko Ono, A Western Image of Japan: What did the West xxxii see through the eyes of Loti and Hearn? (Geneva: Imprimerie By “writers of Japan”, I mean those who wrote on the du Courrier, 1972) p.191 subject of Japan, and by doing so were involved in ix Eliza Scidmore, Jinrikisha Days in Japan (New York: creating its image. Harper and Brothers,1891) p.59 xxxiii Itself informed by existing domestic institutions of x Kipling, Kipling’s Japan, p.68 travel and tourism. xi See John R. Black, Young Japan: Yokohama and Yedo, xxxiv Kipling, Kipling’s Japan, p.132 (London: Trubner & co.,1880) xxxv Although its inventor remains unknown, many at the p.40, and Kipling, Kipling’s Japan, p.180 time attributed it to a Western resident of Yokohama, xii C.A.G. Bridge, writing in Fraser, 1878, quoted in Toshio Yokoyama, Japan in the Victorian Mind: A Study of Stereotyped Jonathan Scobie, who supposedly designed it for his Images of a Nation 1850-80, (Basingstoke, Hampshire: invalid wife. Macmillan, 1987) p.162 xxxvi Dixon, The Land of the Morning, p.205-6 xiii Yokoyama, Japan in the Victorian Mind, p.162 xxxvii Dixon, The Land of the Morning, p.146 xiv Christine Guth, in her work Longfellow’s tattoos: Tourism, xxxviii Guth, Longfellow’s tattoos, p.66 Collecting and Japan, (Seattle; London, Washington xxxix Lafcadio Hearn, Out of the East: Reveries and Studies in University Press, 2004) writes that for Europeans and New Japan, (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1895) p.71 Americans, visiting Japan would allow them to “come into xl Scidmore, Jinrikisha Days, p.64 contact with a culture having qualities either lacking or xli Quoted in Rand Castile, “Tokyo and the West” in Tokyo: rapidly vanishing in their own” (xx) Souvenirs and Form and Spirit, ed. Mildred Friedman et al. (Minneapolis: photographs were objects which authenticated this visit. Walker Art Center, 1986) pp.6-16 xv Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, p.14 xlii Hearn, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, p.2 xvi Yokoyama, Japan in the Victorian Mind, p.6 xliii “Haneda Ferry and Benten Shrine”, number 72 in xvii Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, p.17 Hiroshige’s Meisho Edo Hyakkei (c.1858) xviii Augusta M. Campbell Davidson, Present-Day Japan, xliv Pratt, Imperial Eyes, p.218 (Philadelphia, the J.M Lippincott Co., 1904) p.13 xlv xix Christine Guth, Longfellow’s tattoos, xv Ono, A Western Image of Japan, p.24 xlvi xx See Anna Jackson, “Imagining Japan: The Victorian Timon Screech, The lens within the heart: the western scientific Perception and Acquisition of Japanese Culture,” Journal of gaze and popular imagery in later Edo Japan, (Richmond, Design History, v.5, no.4, (1992) pp. 245-254 Surrey: Curzon Press, 2002) p.230 xlvii xxi Often, as Guth notes, not through the meisho tradition Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, p.175 xlviii itself, but “its impact on designs in laquer, ceramics and Pratt, Imperial Eyes, p.198 xlix textiles as well as painting and prints.” Longfellow’s tattoos, Pratt, Imperial Eyes, p.217 p.36
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! l Basil Hall Chamberlain, Things Japanese: being notes on various Davidson, Augusta M. Campbell. Present-Day subjects connected with Japan for the use of travellers and others, Japan. Philadelphia: the J.M Lippincott Co., 1904. (London: J. Murray, 1902) p.82 Chamberlain, Basil Hall. Things Japanese: being li Clara Whitney, Clara’s Diary: An American Girl in Meiji notes on various subjects connected with Japan for the use of Japan (Tokyo; New York: Kodansha International, 1979) travellers and others. London: J. Murray, 1902. p.52 Checkland, Olive. Britain’s Encounter with Meiji lii Screech, The lens within the heart, p.230 Japan, 1868-1912. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, liii Mortimer Menpes, Japan: A Record in Colour, (London, 1989. Adam Charles Black 1901) p.88-89 Cortazzi, Hugh. Victorians in Japan: in and liv Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, p.171. This proved a around the treaty ports. Cambridge: Cambridge University popular description, quoted wholesale without reference Press, 1987. Dixon, William Gray. The Land of the Morning. by Sir Henry Knollys seven years later in his Sketches of Life Edinburgh, James Gemmell. 1882. in Japan (London: Chapman and Hall, 1887). Friedman, Mildred, ed. Tokyo: Form and Spirit. lv Francis Hall, Japan through American Eyes: The Journal of Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1986. Francis Hall Fujitani Takashi. Splendid Monarchy: Power and 1859-1866, ed. F.G. Notehelfer (Boulder, Colorado: Pageantry in Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of Westview Press, 2001) p.292 California Press, 1996. lvi Mary Crawford Fraser, A Diplomatist’s Wife in Japan, Fraser, Mary Crawford. A Diplomatist’s Wife in (London: Hutchinson, 1899) p.6 Japan. London, Hutchinson, 1899. lvii Guth, Longfellow’s Tattoos, p.51 Guth, Christine. Longfellow’s tattoos: Tourism, lviii See Isabel Anderson, The Spell of Japan, (Boston: Page, Collecting and Japan. Seattle; London: Washington 1914) p. 55 and Scidmore, Jinrikisha Days, p.46 University Press, 2004 lix Anderson, The Spell of Japan, p.22-23 Hall, Francis. Japan through American Eyes: The lx Toshio Watanabe, “Josiah Conder’s Rokumeikan: Journal of Francis Hall, 1859-1866. Edited by F.G. Architecture and National Representation in Meiji Japan”, Notehelfer. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2001. Art Journal, v.55, (1996) p.25 Hearn, Lafcadio. Glimpses of unfamiliar Japan. lxi Watanabe, “Josiah Conder’s Rokumeikan”, p.27 London: Osgood, McIlvaine, 1894. lxii Watanabe, “Josiah Conder’s Rokumeikan”. p.26 ------Out of the East: Reveries and lxiii Alice Y. Tseng, in “Styling Japan: The Case of Josiah Studies in New Japan. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1895. Conder and the Museum at Ueno, Tokyo” Journal of the Hirayama, Mikiko & Rousmaniere, Nicole Society of Architectural Historians, v.63, 4 (2004) pp. 472-497 Coolidge, eds. Reflecting Truth: Japanese Photography in the sees an “interest not in architecture that was Japanese but Nineteenth Century. Leiden, Hotei, 2004. in architecture that he believed to represent Japanese- Jackson, Anna. “Imagining Japan: The ness” underlying Conder’s conceptualization of a Japanese Victorian Perception and Acquisition of Japanese national architecture. p.487 Culture.” Journal of Design History v.5 no.4 (1992): pp. lxiv Institute of Japanese Architects acceptance speech in 245-254. Kipling, Rudyard. Kipling’s Japan: Collected 1920, quoted in Tseng, “Styling Japan”, p.487 Writings. Edited by Hugh Cortazzi & George Webb. lxv Anderson, The Spell of Japan, p.19 London: Athlone Press, 1988. lxvi To adapt Homi Bhabha’s phrase from The Location of Maeda, Ai. Text and the City; essays on Japanese Culture. modernity. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. lxvii Bird, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, p.27 Menpes, Mortimer. Japan: A Record in Colour. lxviii Dixon, The Land of the Morning, p.205 London: Adam Charles Black, 1901. lxix Dixon, The Land of the Morning, p.194 Ono, Setsuko. A Western Image of Japan: What lxx did the West see through the eyes of Loti and Hearn? Geneva: Kipling, “The Ballad of East and West”, 1889 Imprimerie du Courrier, 1972. Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing REFERENCES and Transculturation. London; New York: Routledge, 1992. Anderson, Isabel. The Spell of Japan. Boston: Ryan, James Picturing Empire: Photography and Page, 1914. the visualization of the British Empire. London: Reaktion Arnold, Edwin. Seas and Lands. London: Books, 1997. Longmans, Green & Co., 1895. Sato, Tomoko and Watanabe, Toshio, eds. Baty, Thomas. “The Literary introduction of Japan and Britain: An Aesthetic Dialogue 1850-1930. Japan to Europe, III. The Modern Writers.” Monumenta London: Lund Humphries, 1991 Nipponica v.8 (1952): pp. 15-46. Scidmore, Eliza. Jinrikisha Days in Japan. New Bird, Isabella. Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. York, Harper and Brothers, 1891. London: J. Murray, 1880. Screech, Timon, The lens within the heart: the Black, John R. Young Japan: Yokohama and western scientific gaze and popular imagery in later Edo Japan. Yedo. London: Trubner & Co., 1880. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2002.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Smith, Henry. “World Without Walls: Kuwagata Keisai’s Panoramic Vision of Japan.” In Japan and the World - Essays on Japanese History and Politics in Honour of Ishida Takeshi. Edited by Gail Lee Bernstein & Haruhiro Fukui, pp. 3-19. London: Macmillan, 1988. Tseng, Alice Y. “Styling Japan: The Case of Josiah Conder and the Museum at Ueno, Tokyo.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, v.63 no.4 (2004): pp. 472-497. Tucker, Ann Wilkes, Iizawa Kotaro, Kinoshita Naoyuki & Junkerman, John, eds. The History of Japanese Photography. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2003. Watanabe, Toshio. “Josiah Conder’s Rokumeikan: Architecture and National Representation in Meiji Japan.” Art Journal, v.55, Fall (1996): pp. 21-27. Weston, Walter. A Wayfarer in Unfamiliar Japan. Bristol: Ganesha, 1999. Whitney, Clara. Clara’s Diary: An American Girl in Meiji Japan. Tokyo; New York: Kodansha International, 1979. Yokoyama, Toshio. Japan in the Victorian Mind: A Study of Stereotyped Images of a Nation 1850-80. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan, 1987.
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RE-BALANCING OR COUNTER-BALANCING? Assessing America’s Response to China’s Rise through Bilateral Investment Treaties Esther TranLe New York University
ABSTRACT has dominated the international political and economic system since the end of World War The rise of China as an economic II. But for the last 40 years, China has powerhouse with an aggressive leadership developed into a major power. Today, China is challenges America’s status as world second to the United States in economic size superpower. In an international system and even exceeds the United States as the increasingly dominated by economic relations, world’s largest trading partner. i In terms of scholars have determined that specific economic power, it is fair to say that China is a international trade measures support strategic primary competitor for the United States. policy objectives. China’s rise has engendered uncertainty and My research addresses whether the concern in Washington, most notably United States government seeks to counter- uncertainty for how Beijing will use its balance China’s growing economic influence economic power and concern for world order through bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in a stability.ii certain set of countries. Using a logistic (logit) These developments raise questions regression, I show that Washington is trailing about which foreign policy the American China and signing BITs with the same government should adopt towards the Chinese. countries. However, the same logit regression As Chinese and American governments gauge for Canada and Italy shows that they too are how the other will react, scholars and signing BITs with the same countries as China. politicians on both sides have urged for a wide Because following China’s BITs is not unique range of foreign policies. Currently, there is the to the United States, there is not enough notion that the American government has evidence to conclude that the American sought to contain China’s influence by government is using BITs as a strategic tool to hindering its economic and strategic rise. counter-balance Beijing. Rather, the United Beyond the question of which foreign policy States, Canada, Italy, and China are engaging in the United States government should assume normal, competitive trade. towards the Chinese government, a more My thesis provides empirical analysis of pressing question asks whether the United the current U.S.-China strategic and economic States government has already embarked on a relationship. It sheds light on the rhetoric policy of economic counter-balancing the exchanged between the American and Chinese Chinese. leaderships, hopefully alleviating concerns of American foreign policy towards China Chinese scholars and policy-makers that has been ambiguous. Nonetheless, three pillars Washington is seeking to prevent China’s rise. hold the Sino-American relationship together, according to Professor James Hsiung:iii [1] the INTRODUCTION Shanghai Communiqué of 1972, which paved the way for normalization of Sino-American With the largest economy and most relations, [2] the 2nd Communiqué of 1979, powerful army in the world, the United States when the United States officially normalized
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relations with China and recognized the United States is in fact not economically Communist Chinese Party (CCP) as the counter-balancing China. Using a robustness country’s sole, legitimate government, and test, I determined that it is not only the United finally [3] the 1982 joint communiqué, which States that is following China’s BIT signature demanded that the United States government lead but also non-strategic countries such as stop selling weapons to Taiwan. These three Canada and Italy. pillars have framed American foreign policy These results contradict the common towards China, allowing bilateral relations to point of view that the United States is indeed fluctuate between aggravated and peaceful but pursuing a hawkish foreign economic policy never severing the tie. against China through trade agreements, such Today, China has become a great power as BITs. By answering that the United States is in the international system. The United States not economically counter-balancing China, I perceives it as a substantial strategic and hope to assuage fears of a renewed Cold War economic competitor. American scholars and or zero-sum game between the United States policy-makers are engaged in an ongoing and China. I also provide empirical evidence to debate on whether the United States’ political decide how foreign investment can be used as and economic strategies towards China should foreign policy tools. deviate from the three fundamental pillars. In The first section of this paper is an light of the Obama administration’s “pivot to extensive literature review, covering the Sino- Asia,” will Sino-American government relations American relationship, the importance of change since President Nixon and former economic relations in the new world order, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger reopened China’s rise to power, and how trade, relations with Chinese leaders? Or, will they specifically BITs, is used in international remain constant, amidst the rhetoric of the politics. In the second section, I explain my United States reasserting its position as a research design model, which includes my regional Pacific power? theory and descriptions of my independent Economic relations dominate world variable, dependent variable, controls, and politics as money flows have become more and sources of data. I will describe my results in the more globalized. Nations are becoming third section and proceed to discuss their increasingly economically interdependent, thus impact in the fourth section. Finally, I will making the world economy grounds for discuss the meaning and impact of these results strategic ploys. American scholars and in a fourth section, labeled “Discussion,” and politicians are also concerned that as China’s end the thesis with a summary of research in a economy becomes more important in the conclusive fifth section. international economic system, Chinese leaders will force its influence in international Literature Review relations. iv There is fear that the Chinese 1. American Foreign Policy Towards government could use its economy to build up China an army more powerful than the United States.’ Historically, the United States The research put forth in this thesis government’s policy towards China has come determines whether the American government off as sweet-and-sour. The literature addressing is attempting to counter-balance China’s American foreign policy towards China economic rise by examining and analyzing if expresses the ambiguous continuum of policies United States bilateral investment treaties that range between containment and (BITs) follow those of the Chinese. engagement. My results show that although there is a Most relevant to this thesis is American significant relationship between the signature of foreign policy after the Chinese Communist a Chinese BIT and an American BIT, the
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Party (CCP) took over leadership of China’s and constantly threatened by American government in 1949. The CCP takeover intervention. Although Washington dropped ushered in twenty years of antagonistic the isolation aspect of containment by the relations between the United States and China,v 1960s, American leaders still believed in during which the American government reigning in Beijing’s influence on its neighbors. followed a rigorous policy of containment It was not until the early 1970s that towards China. Scholars such as James Peck American and Chinese leaders began to argue that the United States went beyond consider reopening Sino-American relations. containment, conducting policy that forcefully Former Secretary of State and National Security isolated China: “American hostility was driven Advisor, Henry Kissinger, recalls in On China by a fear of China’s attaining a great-power how President Nixon shifted the outlook on status capable of allowing it to challenge an China from hostile to neutral, choosing instead Asian system shaped by America.” vi In to focus on a common enemy—the Soviet addition, Washington feared the Chinese for Union:xi their revolutionary, nationalist fervor: “Chinese nationalism was now viewed as a revolutionary It was a revolutionary moment blend of communism and radical nationalism in U.S. foreign policy: an that required an almost pathological fanaticism American president declared and hatred for the United States and the that we had a strategic interest Western world.”vii Washington saw China as a in the survival of a major ‘double-threat’: [1] a leader of revolutionary Communist country with which struggle for the recently decolonized, we had had no meaningful independent countries and [2] a third great- contact for twenty years and power rival allied with the Soviet Union. against which we had fought a Containment became policy when the war and engaged in two military Truman administration refused to recognize confrontations. the People’s Republic of China as sovereign, turning instead to the Republic of China, also The desire for reconciliation was not known as Taiwan. Washington perceived China solely American. In fact, it was Mao Zedong to be a “Soviet satellite” ruled by an illegitimate who first addressed the need for re-opening government. viii Before the Korean War, dialogue between the China and the United Washington’s primary containment strategy was States. xii For Mao, rapprochement was a withholding China’s entry to the United strategic play. At the time, Sino-Soviet relations Nations. Once the Korean War broke out, were hostile, and it was in China’s interest to Washington’s containment avenues broadened turn to the Soviet Union’s largest enemy—the to include Taiwan recognition, an economic United States—for potential support. Nixon, embargo on China supported by increased on the other hand, saw the opportunity as one Japanese trade, and placement of the 7th fleet in to “redefine the American approach to foreign the Taiwan Strait.ix Historians, such as Franz policy and international leadership.” xiii Thus, Schurmann, explain how the American both nations believed in a Sino-American administration at the time not only needed rapprochement as a way to obtain their own Chinese revolutionary and communist strategic interests. influence contained but also all of China In 1972, Nixon carried out the isolated in order to construct an effective reconciliation when he visited Mao in Beijing American, capitalist system. x Isolating China and then left China having signed the Shanghai took a military, economic, and ideological form, Communiqué of 1972—the first pillar in what leaving China shunned by the international frames present-day American foreign policy community, insulated from regional neighbors, towards China.xiv In signing the 1972 Shanghai
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Communiqué, Nixon agreed that the United the United States. Conflict States would abide by the One China Policy, would arise if the United States recognizing the People’s Republic of China as regarded China as essentially a the only China. However, the United States rival to be blocked or government did not actively support the One contained, or if China viewed China Policy until the second joint the United States as an communiqué in 1978, which effectively implacable enemy.xix normalized relations between China and the United States. Normalization required the These tensions still exist today as United States government to recognize the American leaders struggle to make CCP as the sole legitimate government of room for China’s increasing influence China and terminate the mutual security in the world and Chinese leaders adjust agreement with Taiwan.xv The third pillar of to their increasingly powerful role at the America’s foreign policy towards China is the regional and global levels. 1982 joint communiqué, in which the American The most recent juncture for Sino- leadership at the time agreed to phase out American relations has occurred in the last weapons sale to Taiwan. But in retaliation, twenty years, during which China’s economic American congress under the Reagan growth propelled it onto the world stage. administration passed the Taiwan Relations Act American foreign policy towards China under to salvage the relationship between the United George W. Bush and Barack Obama has States and Taiwan. The act declared that the wavered between “the competing notions of United States would continue to sell self- China as either a ‘strategic partner’ or a defense weapons to Taiwan on an unofficial ‘strategic competitor,’” xx The discrepancy basis, allowing interest groups and other parties between these two terms illustrates how to maintain trade and cultural ties with Taiwan conflicted the United States government still is without formal US government recognition.xvi in response to China’s rise as a strategic and During the 1970s and 1980s, China and economic world power. the United States were quasi-strategic partners Most recently, since the United States as they sought to counter the Soviet Union.xvii hosted the 2011 APEC Summit, containment However, the fall of the Soviet Union altered of China seems to dominate discussions about Sino-American dynamics. Post-Cold War, the American foreign policy. Out of the United States found itself as the world’s negotiations has come a reinvigorated superpower, while China had become a major commitment to the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional power in East Asia.xviii Observing this, (TPP), featuring an outline of a trade Washington took the position that “no one agreement including nine countries, several of power should dominate East Asia,” implying which are located in Southeast Asia. Its that the United States government would seek purpose is to “enhance trade and investment to prevent China from becoming a regional among the TPP partner countries, promote hegemon. On the other hand, the Chinese innovation, economic growth and government sought out opportunities to development, and support the retention and becoming a regional leader. McDougall retention of jobs,” as described by the Office explains how these new positions pitted the of the United States Trade Representative. United States and China against each other: Coinciding with the summit was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s statement titled With these different “America’s Pacific Century” in Foreign Policy perspectives there was scope magazine. The article confirmed the United for both conflict and States’ will to invest a majority of its resources cooperation between China and and policies in the Asia Pacific: “Harnessing
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Asia’s growth and dynamism is central to percent who supported a strong relationship American economic and strategic interests and with China. a key priority for President Obama.” xxi The The United States government emulates TPP and Clinton’s article are key parts of the these ambivalent views when rhetoric and Obama administration’s foreign policy legacy— policy contradict each other. Research fellow the “Asia pivot” or “Re-balancing” towards for the China Foundation for International Asia. Studies Wu Zhenglong notes that the Obama administration “welcomes China’s peaceful 2. Chinese Reactions to Re-Balancing rise,”xxiv giving the example of Secretary of State Clinton urging American policy-makers “to In his most recent book, China Goes find a new answer to the ancient question of Global: The Partial Power, China expert David what happens when an established power and a Shambaugh elaborates on the world’s most rising power meet.”xxv On the other hand, the st recent perspectives of a rising China in the 21 United States government has carried out century. He observes how “China’s global aggressive policies, such as the announcement reputation has fluctuated over the past decade that it will deploy “60 percent of its warships to and has, in fact, declined globally in recent the Asia Pacific region by 2020.”xxvi It has also xxii years.” Coinciding with the financial crisis of held joint military exercises aimed at deterring 2008, worldwide views of China have gotten the Chinese army, sold arms to allies, such as more negative. Interpreting data from the Pew Taiwan, and taken sides in regional disputes as Global Attitudes Poll and British Broadcasting with Japan and South-East Asia nations.xxvii Service (BBC) polling, Shambaugh reports that Chinese leaders see these developments there is a “globally mixed perception of China”: as the resurfacing of antagonistic American foreign policy towards China. A victim of China’s rise in world affairs has aggressive containment during the Cold War, been disconcerting for many, Chinese leaders since Mao have been especially with China often seen as wary of the American government’s motives to enigmatic, nontransparent, reorient foreign policy towards the Pacific truculent, propagandistic, and theater. Professor Yong Deng of the United dismissive of foreign concerns. States Naval Academy claims that containment China is also seen by many as is a familiar policy for Washington, and one not comfortably fitting into the that Chinese leaders are convinced the United existing international liberal States would renew if directly threatened by order and having a hidden China.xxviii “revisionist” agenda to overturn Today, American leaders are less xxiii that order. apprehensive of China as an agent of These views resonate with Americans. monolithic communism as they were during the Pew Polling has also reported on American Cold War. Washington is instead concerned public opinion towards China. As told by with China’s accruing of economic capabilities China-US Focus, in early 2011, 53 percent of and whether this increased wealth will compel Americans appeared to have a more positive Chinese leaders to expand the country’s view of China, answering that “it was more military prowess on a regional level and important to build a strong relationship with possibly a global one: “Indeed, China’s rise has China.” This number compared to 40 percent led to fears that the country will soon who believed in a more hawkish approach to overwhelm its neighbors and one day supplant China. But by late 2012, 49 percent now the United States as a global hegemon.”xxix An supported a hawkish approach versus 42 added dimension to these concerns is the uncertainty regarding whether the new Chinese
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leadership, with Xi Jinping in charge, will “foster domestic markets and tap into accelerate the Chinese government’s desire to international ones.” xxxv Given this trend, he seek a more powerful stance within the believes that the Chinese leadership will be international system or keep with the status primarily concentrating on “securing a more quo. comfortable and decent life for its people.”xxxvi On the other hand, as claimed by It is Zheng, in fact, who coined the term Professor Yong, Beijing leaders, including Xi, China’s “peaceful rise.” President Hu Jintao are all too aware of the United States’ confirmed Zheng’s analysis of the Chinese increasingly wary perception of China. Chinese national interest in his speech to the opening leaders view the United States as a “hegemon ceremony of the 2004 Boao Forum for Asia, on the offensive.”xxx The Chinese government’s with the less threatening term: “peaceful evaluation of American leaders’ grand foreign development.”xxxvii policy strategy is one that maintains American global primacy. Analyst Wang Jincun expresses 3. “Age of Geo-Economics” Chinese officials’ believe that, “the United States will contain, besiege, and even launch a As Zheng addressed in his article, the preemptive military strikes against any country economy is indeed a key variable in the which dares to defy the U.S. world hegemony international system’s structure. According to or which has constituted a latent challenge to Hsiung, the international system is becoming the United States.”xxxi Other Chinese scholars dominated by geo-economics, in which a conclude similarly: “Most Chinese strategists country’s economic security is more important xxxviii assume that a country as powerful as the than its military security. Hsiung argues that United States will use its power to preserve and individual states do not necessarily balance one enhance its privileges and will treat efforts by another. Instead, the power balance is played other countries to protect their interests as out between economic blocs, like the Eurozone threats to its own security.”xxxii The literature bloc, the North-American Free Trade conveys how Chinese politicians are convinced Association (NAFTA), and the hypothetical that as China continues to rise, the United East Asian Summit (EAS). Through this age of States will find a way to counter it. According geo-economics, Pacific Asia’s combined to Yong, the Chinese government has economies have outperformed the world’s responded by balancing American power in the other economies. Hsiung concludes that, in an Asia-Pacific region in three ways: allying with age of geo-economics, Pacific Asia will be at Russia, forging ties with its neighbors, and center stage of the global economy, with China xxxix bolstering the CCP’s power.xxxiii in the spotlight. However, China’s policy-makers would Recent data does not contradict argue otherwise and say that what remains Hsiung’s prediction. China and the United crucial to China, rather than counter-balancing States have the world’s largest economies, with American power, is enhancing the country’s gross domestic products (GDPs) of $15.09 economic and technical capabilities. Long-time trillion and $7.3 trillion as of 2011 respectively. advisor to the Chinese leadership Zheng Bijian The countries are also the world’s largest explains in his Foreign Affairs article, “China’s trading partners, with China recently surpassing ‘Peaceful Rise’ to Great-Power Status,” how the United States in November 2012. In terms China set itself a goal in 1978 under Deng of GDP growth rates, China has seen Xiaoping’s leadership: “the development path outstanding growth for the last decade, to a peaceful rise.” xxxiv Zheng explains how sustaining growth rates between 7 to 11%. In Deng, and all Chinese leaders since, have comparison, the United States has seen growth driven China to keep up with economic between 1 to 2% annually. China is also the globalization, carrying out economic reforms to largest holder of foreign exchange reserves and
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has the second largest military budget. xl One aspect of economic counter- Furthermore, professionals and scholars have balancing in the 21st century is the strategic predicted that the Chinese economy will motives behind trade agreements. Trade can be overtake the United States in the next 10 or so perceived as a foreign policy tool because it can years. be used as a concealed path for political Given these economic developments, influence, in the same way as foreign aid.xliii Hsiung’s case for the age of geo-economics Richard N. Cooper and Albert Hirschmann offers a plausible explanation for why the argue how governments do in fact use trade as United States government feels threatened by a foreign policy tool. Cooper asks whether China’s rise as an economic power and would trade policy can truly be classified as ‘high be motivated to follow a policy of economic foreign policy’ versus ‘low foreign policy’ even containment. if trade issues are only injected in diplomatic matters when leaders want to make them high 4. Trade as a Foreign Policy Tool policy factors. xliv He argues that bad trade relations between countries, irrelevant of The international system is becoming original categorization, affect high policy more dominated by economic relations, foreign relations. Quoting scholar T.C. meaning that a nation can achieve its strategic Schelling, Cooper writes: “Broadly defined to goals by influencing other countries with its include investment, shipping, tourism, and the economy. In the case of the United States- management of enterprises, trade is what most China relationship, the question is whether the of international relations are about. For that American government will use its economic reason trade policy is national security prowess to prevent China’s rise. policy.”xlv Historically, economic containment can This thesis treats bilateral investment be observed in three fashions: [1] economic treaties (BITs) as trade agreements, as is done warfare through sanctions, [2] strategic by the Office of the United States Trade embargoes, and [3] tactical linkage. All three Representative. BITs serve the purpose of strategies have the same goal of weakening the “increasing [a nation’s] prosperity through adversary state’s economy to diminish its foreign investment.” xlvi The United States xli military might. Given the tight Sino-American government put out a framework in 2012 of economic interdependence, economic model BITs. The document elaborates on the sanctions and embargoes would be tactless and purpose of BITs between the United States and unwarranted in today’s international politics. other countries, including the promotion of However, there is potential for undermining greater economic cooperation between two the Chinese economy through tactical linkage nations through investments and the where trade is viewed as a tool of foreign establishment of a “stable framework for policy: “Linkage rewards (or promises to investment” to carry out investments more reward) desirable behavior by permitting or efficiently. One of the document’s notable promoting trade, and punishes (or threatens to points is the agreement of both investment punish) undesirable behavior by prohibiting parties, meaning from both countries, to xlii trade.” This type of tactical linkage is reserved protect investments. primarily to bilateral state relations. The As discussed by K. Scott Gudgeon, economic containment that I will address is United States BITs were in fact created subtler than the policy followed by the United specifically as foreign policy tools “as a means States during the Cold War, which is why I will of strengthening principles of customary from now on refer to it as economic counter- international law and practice as observed and balancing. advocated by the United States.” xlvii Another scholar, Kenneth J. Vandevelde, makes the case
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that BITs are a form of economic nationalism. for its national interests. Thus, trade with other He concludes that bilateral investment treaties countries generally comes with conditions for a are tools used more for the protection of state target country to adopt American norms, such interests than the liberalization of trade. as intellectual property rights, policy Vandevelde supports his argument by assessing concessions, and so on. As a consequence, recipient states of BITs and their host states. when studying Sino-US relations, trade For the purposes of my research, it is crucial to agreements, such as BITs, can be seen as recognize Gudgeon’s point that investment foreign policy tools meant to influence protection measures actually help preserve the countries to adopt American versus Chinese host states’ interests, and investment neutrality norms for economic or strategic policy. permits it “to dictate the circumstances under For now, however, most of the debate which its investors will be permitted to invest about Washington’s renewed economic abroad.”xlviii counter-balancing of China is rhetoric, most Taking a step back and looking at all recently provoked by the 2011 Trans-Pacific trade as a strategic tool, Hirschmann identifies Partnership and Obama’s announcement that two effects: [1] the supply effect and [2] the his administration plans to refocus its attention influence effect. xlix The supply effect is a towards the Pacific theater. There has not been positive one through which a participating a formal, holistic statistical study confirming country’s potential military force is enhanced. that the United States is engaged in economic The influence effect, in contrast, occurs when counter-balancing of China. Thus, the bilateral foreign trade leads countries to depend on and trade investments I analyze open up a influence one another. When countries decide discussion, backed by empirical evidence, for to trade with one another, they also have the whether the United States government is potential to stop trading. If trade stops, then indeed pursuing economic counter-balancing other countries are forced to find other markets towards China through BITs. and sources as replacement. The stoppage of trade thus incurs costs on the target country: “A country trying to make the most out of its Research Design strategic position with respect to its own trade 2. Theory will try precisely to create conditions which I argue that the United States government make the interruption of trade of much graver has the incentive to counter-balance China’s concern to its trading partners than to itself.”l rise through economic means, but there is not Country A trading with Countries B, C, or D enough evidence to conclusively say that this is creates a situation in which these countries indeed happening through bilateral investment depend on Country A’s trade so much that they treaties. would be “content to grant A certain The United States’ motivation for advantages—military, political, economic—in economically counter-balancing China is due to order to retain the possibility of trading with the changing world order in which economic A.”li relations are taking a more prominent role in American policy-makers appear to have international relations. In this changing sought to apply this influence effect. Chuck international environment, the world has Hagel writes for the Foreign Affairs magazine: watched China take the economic lead as its “All nations can share in the prosperity that government builds up its economic abilities, comes from sound economic governance catching up to the United States. This turmoil practices and trade-based growth policies.” lii in the world order has led to a renewed fear Indeed, since the Bush Jr. administration, that China aims to become a regional power United States foreign policy officials have and will then seek to usurp the United States’ aimed to recreate a world order advantageous
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place as the world’s leader of the international economic and political system.liii
In order to prevent China from gaining US BITi,t = β0 + β1 CH BITi,t-n + logGDPi,t momentum in the overturn of the American world order, the United States could potentially + logDISTANCEi,t + logPOPULATIONi,t undermine China’s international economic relations by using trade as a foreign policy weapon.liv Here is a conceptual example: when ! the United States government agrees to sign a In my model, the dependent variable, trade agreement with another country, it allows labeled as US BIT , is measured by 1 if a BIT another country preferential access to its i,t exists between the United States and countryi market. Although not all trade agreements and by 0 if no BIT exists between the United require the target country to reciprocate, the States and country The independent variable, United States still ends up having power over i. labeled CH BITt-n, is also measured by 1 or 0— that country, as it has the capacity to take that 1 if a BIT can be observed between China and preferential trade treatment away if the target country and 0 if no BIT is observed between country does not comply with American i lv China and countryi. I also lag the independent strategic objectives. variable by n amount of years from year t. For my analysis, I chose to test BITs, as I control for the effects of gross they are the best available trade agreement to domestic product (GDP)—variable GDPi —of assess the United States’ foreign economic each BIT target country. It is well known that actions. The Office of United States Trade the size of a country’s economy could adversely Representative treats all multilateral trade affect the regression between United States agreements, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), BITs and lagged China BITs. lvi The variable Trade & Investment Framework Agreements DISTANCE controls for the distance (TIFAs), and BITs as official trade agreements i,t between countryi and the United States. It is employed by the United States in foreign also recognized that the closer in proximity one affairs. BITs are the best indicators for my country is from another, the more likely they research because they are quantifiable for both are to trade, thus increasing the chances of the the United States and China, and they are creation of a trade agreement. The third control numerous for the purposes of testing. Hence, is population of country , which I label as for the scope of my research, I solely use BITs i variable POPULATIONi,t. Population is as representative of foreign trade as a strategic- controlled for because countries with larger setting tool. populations are generally better at providing for themselves, relying less on trade than smaller 3. Model countries. As stated by Edward Mansfield and To test my theory, I conduct four different Rachel Bronson regarding international trade analyses, for which I determine whether a and alliances, “Bilateral trade flows will be relationship exists between the Chinese directly related to the GDP of i and j and government signing a BIT and the American inversely related to both the population of i and government following suit by signing its own j and the distance between them.”lvii BIT with the same country. I analyzed the As aforementioned, the data for United following research design model: States BITs comes from the Office of the United States Representative, which is listed under their Trade Agreements section on their website. I collected data for China BITs from the International Centre for Settlement of
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Investment Disputes (ICSID), which defines States BITs and China BITs, where I observe itself as “an autonomous international the American government rushing to sign BITs institution” with the purpose of arbitrating and within one to two years of China initially settling disputes between investors and States. I signing a BIT with a specific country. retrieved GDP and population data from the World Bank. The statistics for distance Results proximity is from Kristian Skrede Gleditsch’s data.lviii Table 1. Logit Analyses of US BITs following I conducted a logistic (logit) regression China BITs, lagged by 2, 3, 4, 5 years using country-year as the unit of analysis. My null and alternative hypotheses are as follows: (1) (2) (3) (4) Lag: 1 Lag: 2 Lag: 3 Lag: 5 year years years years BIT China 1.890** (t-1) Null Hypothesis: (0.619) There is no relationship between an BIT China 2.516** observed BIT between the United States (t-2) (0.505) and countryi and an observed BIT BIT China between China and country . i (t-3) H0 : β1 = 0 2.224** H : β > 0 A 1 (0.551) Alternative Hypothesis: BIT China 1.406* There is evidence suggesting that the (t-5) United States reacts to an observed BIT (0.742) log(GDP -0.085 -0.109 -0.131 -0.173 between China and countryi by signing its per capita) own BIT with countryi. (0.106) (0.108) (0.109) (0.113) log(Distan -0.287 -0.315 -0.332 -0.362 ce, in km) I use a logit regression because I am (0.293) (0.296) (0.296) (0.295) working with dichotomous categorical data log(Popula rather than data that can be measured 0.203 0.218 0.236* 0.273* continuously. A logistic regression allows me to tion) model how different variables affect changes in (0.139) (0.141) (0.142) (0.143) a dependent variable that can only take values of 1 and 0. If I were to use a linear regression, Constant -3.873 -3.368 -2.915 -2.099 my model would not fit the data, giving me (3.066) (3.090) (3.108) (3.143) negative predictions, which are impossible in this context. Pseudo-R2 0.02 0.04 0.03 0.01 I expect to see a positive and significant relationship between the signature of United
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N 6752 6752 6441 5585 Table 1 illustrates, all coefficients are positive as hypothesized. Coefficients lagged by 2, 3, and 4 years are significant above the 0.05 level while a * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05 lag of 5 years proves significant above the 0.10 level. My hypothesis examines the In order to understand the magnitude relationship between China’s national of these effects, I computed the predicted government signing a bilateral investment probability that the United States government treaty (BIT) with a particular country and the sign an agreement with given countryi, holding United States’ government following suit by all other variables at their median. The results signing its own BIT with this same country. are reported in Table 2. For example, for a lag Table 1 presents the significance of the of two years, I recorded a predicted probability relationship between Chinese BITs and baseline level of 0.50 percent. There is 0.50 American BITs, while Table 3 and Table 4 shed percent chance that the United States light on Canada and Italy’s reaction to Chinese government will sign a BIT with countryi given BITs. the Chinese government has not previously signed one two years prior. However, this Table 2. Predicted Probability Holding All predicted probability increases given the other Values at Median Chinese government has indeed signed a BIT
with countryi two years prior. In this case, the (1) (2) (3) (4) United States government is 5.91 percent more
Lag: 1 Lag: 2 Lag: 3 Lag: 5 likely to sign a BIT with countryi. The year years years years magnitude of this change is statistically significant, as shown in the regression table. (0.35%, (0.33%, (0.35%, (0.38%, No 0.72%) 0.68%) 0.71%) 0.77%) BIT Robustness Check: Canada and Italy react to China 0.54%** 0.50%** 0.53%** 0.58%** China To check the robustness of the (-0.46%, (0.73%, (0.86%, (-0.93%, relationship between US BITs and China BITs, BIT 7.34%) 1.11%) 9.4%) 5.77%) I ran two other logit regressions with Canada China BIT and Italy BIT as my dependent variables, 3.44%* 5.91%** 4.74%** 2.41% respectively, reacting to CH BITt-n with a lag of two years. As Table 3 shows, coefficients for * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05 both Canada and Italy were positive and significant, just as they were for the United US and China BITs States. Table 4 illustrates that Canada’s Table 1 shows the logit analysis of the government is 3.27 percent more likely to sign United States government contracting a BIT a BIT with countryi, given the Chinese with countryi as a dependent variable and government has signed a BIT with that same China’s government contracting a BIT with the countryi two years prior. With the same two- same countryi, lagged by 1, 2, 3, and 5 years, as year lag on China’s BIT signature, Italy’s the independent variable. I coded the variable government is also more likely to sign a BIT by
US BITi,t as “1” for all country-years when the 4.42 percent. United States government signed a BIT with I chose to run the logit regression for countryi. A “0” was coded for all others. The Canada and Italy BITs because both countries logit analysis ran the variable US BITi,t and all are part of the G-7, making them relative independent variables, including CH BITt-n. As economic powerhouses. However, Canada and Italy would not be considered strategic players
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on the world stage. Thus, their reasons for (-0.12%, (0.46%, 8.38%) following China’s BITs are not expected to be BIT China 6.67%) geo-political. Because significance for Canada 3.27%* 4.42%** and Italy BITs was indeed found, the significance of the relationship between US * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05 BITs and China BITs is not robust. Discussion Table 3: Logit Analyses of Canada and Italy The results show that the American BITS following China BITs, lagged by two government is more likely to sign a BIT with a years country given that the Chinese government has also signed a BIT with that same country.
(1) (2) However, this positive progression in the Canada BIT Italy BIT relationship does not indicate that the United States is definitely counter-balancing China. BIT China (t-2) 2.556*** Italy and Canada, which can be considered non-strategic countries in the international (0.568) system, are also more likely to sign a BIT with BIT China (t-2) 1.610*** the same country as China. Instead, it appears that these target BIT countries have particularly (0.483) sought-after lucrative markets. The United log(GDP per 0.202 -0.025 States government, rather than pursuing an capita) antagonistic economic policy towards China, is (0.130) (0.076) instead engaging in competitive economic behavior like other member governments of log(Distance, in -0.356 -0.315* the international system. km) (0.360) (0.145) My analysis determines that the United log(Population) -0.064 0.261** States government is not economically counter- balancing China through BITs, but this does (0.168) (0.101) not mean that economic counter-balancing is Constant -6.310 -5.522** not happening at a microeconomic level. It is possible that these target BIT countries have (4.208) (1.805) particular resources that the United States Pseudo-R2 0.06 0.03 government wishes to prevent the Chinese government from monopolizing through BITs. N 6803.00 6803.00 However, a microeconomic analysis of critical microeconomic indicators causing rifts in Sino- * p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.10*** US relations is beyond the scope of this thesis.
Table 4: Predicted Probability of Canada and What does this say about American Italy BITs Holding All other Values at Median foreign policy? It proves that the United States’ motives for signing BITs with the same country of China are neutral at the macroeconomic (1) (2) level. But given that China is second to the Canada BIT Italy BIT United States in economic size, and set to overtake it in the next decade, another puzzle No BIT (0.13%, 0.39%) (0.67%, 1.16%) comes to light: what foreign economic strategy China 0.26%** 0.92%** should the United States adopt given that it will
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soon no longer be the eminent economic world BITs. With a lag of two years, the relationship power? between Canada and Italy BITs and China BITs is similar to that of United States BITs and China BITs. Conclusion Although the United States government The purpose of my thesis was to assess is indeed reacting to the Chinese government the United States’ response to China’s rise as a signing of treaties, Canada and Italy’s strategic and economic world power. From the governments are as well. Because Canada and studied literature, there is evidence pointing Italy are non-strategic countries, it seems towards the American government unlikely that the United States is in fact economically counter-balancing China to counter-balancing China through bilateral prevent it from replacing the United States as investment treaties. Rather, countries are all the world’s superpower. Historically, American seeking to maximize their economic power by foreign policy has wavered between investing in the most attractive markets. The containment and relative engagement. There United States government appears to be appears to be a significant amount of engaging in an economically competitive consensus among Chinese scholars that the behavior towards China, just as Canada and United States would not hesitate to renew an Italy are. aggressive foreign policy against China in order The two-level testing approach to my to prevail as the world’s supreme global power. thesis prevented me from prematurely A changing world order, in which economic concluding that the United States government relations increasingly dominate international is economically counter-balancing China. politics, puts the United States at risk when However, the research I put forth in this thesis faced with China’s economic growth. The only observes one type of trade agreement, importance of economic relations also means BITs, and only at the macro-economic level. that power-play in the international system will There is potential for future research by be subtler, less reminiscent of Cold War zero- looking into microeconomic indicators such as sum games. Instead, states might be more the resources in target BIT countries that are so tempted to derail rival, strategic powers attractive to major powers such the United through trade or monetary policy. My research States and China. Once more complete data on analyzed whether the United States government China’s foreign aid is collected, more research has been using trade agreements, specifically should be done on efforts of the United States BITs, to counter-balance China’s growing to outmatch China’s foreign aid donations to influence over international economic relations. key countries. To test my theory, I used a logit The research put forth in this thesis regression hypothesizing that the United States provides empirical evidence for the government has been following Chinese BITs. international political economy of BIT use My results do indeed show that the United between the United States and China. I find States government has been trailing the that the United States government is not using Chinese government in the signing of BITs BITs as an economic counter-balancing tool with the same countries. However, by against China, but that other economic conducting an additional robustness test, I indicators need to be studied to conclusively observed that non-strategic countries, such as argue that the United States government is Canada and Italy, which have no geopolitical definitely not engaging in economic counter- interests in counter-balancing China, are also balancing against China. reacting to the Chinese government signing
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i Shambaugh, 2013. Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce and Alastair Smith. ii Hsiung, 2001. 2007. "Foreign aid and policy concessions." Journal of iii Hsiung, 2001. Conflict Resolution 51 (2): 251-284. iv Shambaugh, 2013. China-US Focus Administration. 2013. v McDougall, 2007. “China-US Relations Are Now at a New Juncture.” vi Peck, 2006. China-US Focus. vii Peck, 2006. Clinton, Hillary. 2011. "America’s Pacific viii Hsiung, 2001. Century." Foreign Policy 189: 56-63. ix Peck, 2006. Cooper, Richard N. 1972. "Trade policy is x Schurmann, 1974. foreign policy." Foreign Policy: 18-36. xi Kissinger, 2011. Gleditsch, Kristian S. 2002. "Expanded Trade xii Kissinger, 2011. and GDP data." Journal of Conflict Resolution 46 (5): xiii Kissinger, 2011. 712-24. xiv Hsiung, 2011. Gudgeon, K. Scott. 2012. “United States xv Hsiung, 2001. Bilateral Investment Treaties: Comments on Their xvi Hsiung, 2001. Origin, Purposes, and General Treatment Standards.” xvii Kissinger, 2011. Berkeley Journal of International Law 4 (1): 105-135. xviii McDougall, 2007. Hagel, Chuck. 2004. "A Republican foreign xix McDougall, 2007. policy." Foreign Affairs: 64-76. xx McDougall, 2007. Hirschman, Albert O. 1945. National Power xxi Clinton, 2011. and the Structure of Foreign Trade. Berkeley: University xxii Shambaugh, 2013. of California Press. xxiii Shambaugh, 2013. Hsiung, James C. 2001. Twenty-First Century xxiv Wu, 2013. World Order and the Asia Pacific: Value Change, xxv Wu, 2013. Exigencies, and Power Realignment. New York: xxvi Wu, 2013. Palgrave. xxvii Wu, 2013. Hsiung, James C. 2009. “The Age of xxviii Yong, 2001. Geoeconomics, China’s Global role, and Prospects of xxix Nathan and Scobell, 2012. Cross-Strait Integration.” Journal of Chinese Political xxx Yong, 2001. Science 14 (2): 113-133. xxxi Yong, 2001. Hu, Jintao. 2004. “China’s Development is an xxxii Nathan and Scobell, 2012. Opportunity for Asia.” Xinhua News. xxxiii Yong, 2001. Kissinger, Henry. 2011. On China. New York: xxxiv Zheng, 2005. The Penguin Press. xxxv Zheng, 2005. Lederman, Daniel. 2007. “Geopolitical xxxvi Zheng, 2005. Interests and Preferential Access to U.S. Markets” xxxvii Hu, 2004. Economics & Politics 19 (2): 235-258. xxxviii Hsiung, 2009. Mansfield, Edward D and Rachel Bronson. xxxix Hsiung, 2009. 1997. “Alliances, Preferential Trading Arrangements, xl Shambaugh, 2013. and International Trade.” American Political Science xli Mastanduno, 1985. Review 97 (1): 94-107. xlii Mastanduno, 1985. Mastanduno, Michael. 1985. “Strategies of xliii Bueno de Mesquita and Smith, 2007. Economic Containment: U.S. Trade Relations with the xliv Cooper, 1972. Soviet Union.” World Politics 37 (4): 503-531. xlv Cooper, 1972. McDougall, Derek. 2007. Asia Pacific in World xlvi Vandevelde, 1998. Politics. Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers. xlvii Gudgeon, 2012. Nathan, Andrew J. and Andrew Scobell. 2012. xlviii Gudgeon, 2012. “How China Sees America.” Foreign Affairs. xlix Hirschmann, 1945. New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & l Hirschmann, 1945. Trade. “Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership li Hirschmann, 1945. Agreement.” lii Hagel, 2004. Peck, James. 2006. Washington’s China: The liii Shambaugh, 2013. National Security World, the Cold War, and the Origins liv Hirschmann, 1945. of Globalism. Amherst & Boston: University of lv Lederman, 2007. Massachusetts Press. lvi Mansfield and Bronson, 1997. Shambaugh, David. 2013. China Goes Global: lvii Edward Mansfield and Rachel Bronson, 1997. The Partial Power. New York: Oxford University Press. lviii Gleditsch, 2002. Schurmann, Franz. 1974. The Logic of World Power: An Inquiry into the Origins, Currents and REFERENCES Contradictions of World Politics. New York: Pantheon Books.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! U.S. Department of State. 2012. “2012 U.S. Model Bilateral Investment Treaty.” Vandevelde, Kenneth J. 1998. “The Political Economy of a Bilateral Investment Treaty.” American Journal of International Law 92 (4): 621-641. World Bank. World Development Indicators. Wu Zhenglong. 2012. “Shaping a New Type of China-US relationship.” China-US Focus. Yong, Deng. 2001. “Hegemon on the Offensive: Chinese Perspectives on U.S. Global Strategy.” Political Science Quarterly 116 (3): 343-365. Zheng, Bijian. 2005. “China’s ‘Peaceful Rise’ to Great-Power Status.” Foreign Affairs 84 (5): 18-24.
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PEARLS OF THE FAR EAST: Remaking and Reclaiming Vietnam through Cinema Elizabeth Shim New York University
ABSTRACT are both primordial and contemporary. Over the course of seven vignettes, the I contend that emerging Vietnamese- film presents a multivariate narrative and Canadian filmmaker Cuong Ngo’s Pearls of engages the audience in a de- the Far East (2011), a series of fictional familiarization of the ‘Third World’ histories of contemporary Vietnam based woman, a commonly marginalized on stories by award-winning Vietnamese archetype in Hollywood films and other author Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc, remakes forms of American entertainment that and adapts the visual culture of a country depict Vietnam. Further, each vignette in commonly associated with war in the the film is set in timeless Edens. The busy United States. Pearls of the Far East both streets of Hanoi and Saigon are de-territorializes and re-territorializes remarkably absent, and the apolitical and Vietnam through cinema, exploring diffuse aesthetic of ‘Indochic’ in the film themes of forbidden desire and true love is indicative of a newly emerging through female protagonists whose voices postmodern sensibility within the
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Vietnamese diaspora. Ngo’s ‘nouveau’ become largely responsible for negotiating Vietnam constitutes a post-Doi Moi society an understanding of Vietnam outside the and is representative of a larger social and narrative frame of American films. political movement lending to the However, and perhaps because of the reconstruction of memory and national recent history behind the migration, symbols in late socialist Vietnam. discourse in the United States still focuses on the experience of refugee “boat INTRODUCTION: THE people” fleeing persecution or poverty. VIETNAMESE DIASPORA It is true that Vietnam's displaced Since time began, when people leave population has had few opportunities to Each leaving represents a truth. express the sense of loss or grief that has - Du Tu Le (b. 1942), Vietnamese followed in the wake of mass migration. poet Some refugees recounted their good fortune to leave the country prior to the Since the ‘Fall of Saigon’ in 1975, Vietnam communist takeover. According to Natalie has witnessed a steady outflow of its Huynh Chau Nguyen, who later resettled population to the West. More than two in Australia, repressed sentiments million Vietnamese left their country in produced lapses into depression for her the two decades following the communist displaced South Vietnamese father, a takeover of South Vietnam.i Its overseas symptom the author directly relates to the population now numbers less than four larger collective history of Vietnamese. million and has settled mostly in the United States, Canada, France, and Vietnamese diasporic Australia but also in disparate locations histories are often such as Israel and Norway.ii Meanwhile, fragmented and Vietnam’s population with its median age incomplete. The of 28 yearsiii is too young to remember the reverberations of this civil conflict that took place for the better experience, in terms of part of three decades. They now have to damaged lives, damaged rely on memory and representation to relationships, and the guide them to a homeland that is no secondary trauma that was longer a battlefield but a container waiting transferred to the second to be being filled with certain ways of and third generations still understanding Vietnam’s place in the have to be fully broader global arena. articulated.iv
In ‘Commemoration and Community,’ However, against the receding waves of Hue-Tam Ho Tai duly observes, “If a past tragedy, and even as the narrative of community creates and sustains memory, the Vietnamese diaspora remains the reverse is also true: memory creates incomplete, a new movement is emerging, and sustains the community.” But who is chiefly among the more creative members most preoccupied with the remembering? of this dispersed community. In the And how are overseas Vietnamese, United States, novelists like Vietnamese residing in the neoliberal West, regarding American Monique Truong are writing their rapidly evolving homeland from a fiction with the aim of reclaiming distance? In many instances, the Vietnamese colonial past. v In a parallel transnational Vietnamese diaspora has development, Vietnam-based writer,
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 131! actress and dramatist Nguyen Thi Minh misgivings, dealing with personal grief or Ngoc has been instrumental in connecting regret. with the diaspora through tales of a familiar yet exotic homeland rich in Such a typecasting of women in the symbolism, fantasy and memory. Her postcolonial narrative is not unique to literature embodies Doi Moi, Vietnam’s Vietnam. In Nationalism and the Imagination, policy of economic reforms launched in Gayatri Spivak notes that manipulations in the late 1980s translatable as “changing literature and the arts “can support an for the new.”vi The “new” in Minh Ngoc’s advanced nationalism,” with the role of case involves the definition of a social women and their placement in the soul drawn from apolitical archetypes “reproductive heteronormativity that positing a cultural unity among supports nationalisms” ix providing some Vietnamese. explanation for a national discourse suffused with gender. If Vietnamese FILM ‘PEARLS OF THE FAR EAST’ women carry the charged aura of the (2011) nation, then it is also a cultural belief that lends women that metaphorical Minh Ngoc’s short tales of fiction, Pearls of distinction. the Far East, were recently made into film by a team of Canadian filmmakers, led by But the quotidian images of Vietnamese director Cuong Ngo. Ngo, a Saigon-born women in Pearls of the Far East (daughter, Vietnamese Canadian, represents a new wife, mother) never quite portray a young generation of international Vietnamese victim of patriarchal oppression, an image whose lives and careers have taken a that has carried weight in post-war global path, often one which leads them Vietnam, where the female condition was back to Vietnam. Ngo’s adaptation is utilized to represent war and war losses.x currently making the rounds within the The Vietnamese women in Pearls of the Far international film festival circuit. The film East also underscore the remarkable contains seven tales of Vietnam told from absence of previous forms of typecasting the viewpoints of various women prominent in the West, a practice perhaps protagonists, a grand narrative wrought by the history of modern underscoring a commonly held Vietnam, one with colonial beginnings in Vietnamese belief that women “carry the the late 19th century marked by foreign charged aura of the nation.”vii incursions (by France, the United States, or China) and subsequent Vietnamese Ngo’s previous film, The Golden Pin, dealt resistance and victory. War, however, as with themes of homosexuality and Christian Henriot notes, constitutes a marginalization,viii but by turning the lens marginal narrative in a country that has on women in a pastoral Vietnamese faced both war and colonialism as landscape, Pearls of the Far East becomes a something external to the Vietnamese spiritual tribute to Ngo’s homeland and to people, but in the largely American the archetypal women who often imagination, the war in Vietnam that drew dominate the national imagination. The American involvement for the better part women to whom we are introduced across of three decades (1955-1975) has also a span of seven vignettes are the mothers, invited a biased range of cinematic roles daughters, and sisters of Vietnam: living for Vietnamese women. their daily lives, falling in love, having HOLLYWOOD’S VIETNAM
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rewriting of history, liberally used young In Vietnam, colonial records Vietnamese women’s bodies to build a reveal that human trafficking narrative around a woman whose life and was a widespread phenomenon. allegiances are torn in the midst of civil Colonization triggered an conflict. Rape, unexpected pregnancy, acceleration and extension of prostitution, and sexual relations with kidnapping and abduction Americans are just some of the primary across the border region with depictions Stone draws into the tale of Le China. Ly Hayslip (played by actress Hiep Thi -Christian Henriot, Le), who traverses two continents to “Supplying Female Bodies: rebuild her life in America after the Fall of Labor Migration, Sex Saigon. Hayslip’s body is used as a Work, and the metaphor for a war-torn country on Commoditization of multiple occasions, and her particular Women in Colonial narrative segues with Stone’s vision of a Indochina and wartime Vietnam. Contemporary Vietnam” VIETNAM’S WOMEN In peace and wartime, the history of 20th century Vietnam is filled with poverty. Hollywood has adeptly provided a slice of This has compelled the underprivileged to America’s Vietnam and perhaps a very seek a living as sex workers, with “sex particular Vietnam no longer in work … one of the most visible forms,” circulation, but in its particular obsession or manifestations, of the commodification with bringing to the fore the experience of of women’s bodies in Vietnam. In Isabelle America’s war veterans, mainstream Tracol-Huynh’s study of colonial era movies of Vietnam often lapse in prostitutes in the city of Hanoi, records depictions of the country itself, at least as indicate the loss of individuality for sex seen through the significantly different workers, with official records lens of Vietnamese. The reality of unceremoniously noting a sex worker womanhood, and its role in national death as “prostitute no. x.”xi memory and representation, is more complicated, often contradictory, and In Hollywood depictions of Vietnam and symbolic of a late socialist Vietnam the Vietnam War, we see how this visible reconstructing a 21st century nation-state and dehumanizing form of sex work is that is supposed to combine seamlessly often utilized and exploited to titillate the with a global economy. viewer with images of a colorful alterity and “otherness”, with the gendered Contrary to a Western hegemonic Vietnamese subaltern depicted as needing narrative of Third World victimhood that salvation from communism, violence, and demands marginality but also salvation, their own communities. This protagonist, according to Hue-Tam Ho Tai, the Third World woman who needs to “Vietnamese cultural expectations escape the wrath of her fellow Third regarding women’s proper place and World men, is best represented in the responsibilities were so varied” xii that 1993 Oliver Stone film Heaven And Earth. women’s deployment in the military was perceived by the then-North Vietnamese Stone, who understands better than most state as mutually compatible with their the role of the image in the production or role as wives, mothers, and managers of
Princeton Journal of East Asian Studies! 133! the domestic sphere. In many instances, a In this vignette, a commercially successful national narrative that expected women to fashion designer (played by Nguyen be both courageous and resourceful rarely herself) recounts her numerous, failed left room for the victimized womanhood attempts at marriage. This roughly that is at the heart of Oliver Stone’s fictionalized version of herself, along with retelling of Le Ly Hayslip’s undue other characters in separate vignettes, suffering. Vietnamese ambivalence illustrate the personal but familiar towards women, then, represents a problems of emotional life. Each of the wartime legacy that is still playing a role in protagonist’s six engagements ended in contemporary Vietnam. failure, and she has six unworn wedding dresses. However, the elusive nature of The presence of women in the public romantic love is rarely cast as a gender- sphere since the war era also correlates construed problem or a patriarchy with the observation that “women figure designed to oppress the woman prominently in the historiography of protagonist. modern Vietnam.” xiii According to Christian Henriot, there is also the “long According to Diamond, another highlight tradition of equating women’s virtues with of Minh Ngoc’s biography is her rejection courage and ardent patriotism.”xiv Beyond of opportunities to leave the country, even historical notions, it is worth noting as she traveled to France, Australia, and women in Vietnam rank second in the Canada to collaborate on films and plays. Asia-Pacific in the proportion of women This last footnote illustrates the in the National Assembly. xv Their legal multivariate and mutually contradictory and political status has also greatly predicament of post-war Vietnamese. improved over time, but according to While many embody the trauma of Catherine Diamond, an enduring problem refugee status and resettlement, others like for Vietnamese women exists not within Minh Ngoc, who elected to stay in the realm of the political, but rather in the Vietnam, illustrate the possibilities of life personal: “What remains problematic are in post-war Vietnam. The opportunities personal relations between men and provided to artists after the launch of Doi women,”xvi and these problems are often Moi to redraft the national narrative, the subject matter of a female-dominated especially with regards to a past or contemporary theatre scene. common heritage.
In both her writing as well as in real life, REASSESSING ‘DAMAGED LIVES, Diamond explains, the novelist Minh DAMAGED RELATIONSHIPS’ Ngoc, author of the short stories that inspired Pearls Of The Far East, has With Marxism discredited and devoted her work to and personified the Leninism increasingly relationship “problems” across the sexes uncongenial to the younger in contemporary Vietnam. Minh Ngoc, generation, will the Vietnamese now in her late fifties, is a Ho Chi Minh at last be able to find their own city-based writer, actress and playwright. authentic identity, and with it, Her unmarried status is the biographical true independence and a greater background for a vignette in the film; ‘The measure of freedom? Awakening,’ is based on her novel, ‘The -Frederick Z. Brown, Diary of an Abandoned Woman’. “Vietnam Since The War (1975-1995)”xvii
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visit Vietnam in rising numbers. For many The multivariate experiences of exiles who repatriate, “the past is a contemporary Vietnamese post-1986 familiar place and a familiar time; it is the invite a scholarly reassessment of the present that is strange,”xxi an observation Vietnamese diaspora and pose the that could explain why a repatriating following questions. Is the secondary Vietnamese Canadian filmmaker would trauma of refugee status or the “damaged choose to reimagine Vietnam through lives, damaged relationships” of the imagination and memory rather than resettled or displaced population merely a through negotiations with Vietnam’s production of a diaspora’s memory? If a reality, and why so many scenes in Pearls of life of exile is purely voluntary, to what the Far East are bucolic and define extent is history and country, versus themselves as sites of Indochic and personal but tremendous life decisions, material abundance. The heavily feminine responsible for the emotional outcomes focus also aligns with Hue Tam Ho-Tai’s of the transnational Vietnamese observation of Doi Moi: with the experience? expansion of the private trading sector, a “traditional feminine domain,” xxii the The Doi Moi reforms within Vietnam have postwar economy has “reversed not only influenced policy but also shaped traditional equations between gender and public memory inside the country, which power and has emasculated once powerful according to Hue-Tam Ho Tai is males.”xxiii “characterized as much by confusion as by profusion,”xviii and is symbolized by a state Pearls of the Far East then represents a new simultaneously erecting monuments to the wave of transnational Vietnamese Communist victory and moving away collaboration, in this case between a Viet from the old socialist vision. Hue-Tam Kieu filmmaker and a Ho Chi Minh City- Ho Tai places this confusion in the based writer. As artists, they are context of Vietnam’s 20th century history, concerned with new visions, not where each new uprising, or attempt to necessarily of the past, but of a time and shape the future, was justified by place more aligned with the essence of a redefining history, or remaking the past. neo-traditional present. For Ngo, the film “The past, like the future, is an eternally as love letter to Vietnam, a place that can unfinished project,” Hue-Tam Ho Tai only reside within the filmmaker’s notes, “(and) relative prosperity and emotional retelling, secures the most prolonged peace have encouraged other accurate description. For Minh Ngoc, the actors besides the state to try to occupy stories of the personal rather than political the space of memory.”xix provide an opportunity to reimagine Vietnam through storytelling, but without The actors Hue-Tam Ho Tai speaks of are challenging her country’s official narrative. not necessarily defined by the boundaries Their transnational collaboration signifies of geography, especially in a 21st century the possibility that together they are where “diaspora and transnationalism “emissaries of a future still waiting to be have exploded the boundaries of identity born, the future that is supposed to and community.” xx The Viet Kieu, or replace the Communist utopia of yore.”xxiv overseas Vietnamese, she reminds us, are playing a prominent role in the PEARLS OF THE FAR EAST: reconstruction of the past and the COUNTER-CONDUCT CINEMA OR economy as they continue to repatriate or REVISIONIST EXCESS?
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of Doi Moi. Ngo’s film also points to a “Now we are at peace, we need Viet Kieu negotiation of identity outside a new theme around which to the grand narrative of Hollywood. It organize a historical narrative.” proves Maurice Halbwachs’ assertion that -From The Country Of “individual memory is not permanent and Memory: Remaking The Past complete, but socially produced, formed In Late Socialist Vietnam and re-formed in interaction with others’ conceptions of the past.” xxv That this The veiled but very present movement of interaction for the filmmaker leans heavily reinvention that continues in late socialist towards a turn towards Vietnamese or post-socialist Vietnam has led to literary imagination and a search for a various reexaminations of collective and common past shows early signs of a individual memory. Pearls of the Far East is creative effort to move beyond a concerned in both style and substance Hollywood narrative that demands with the creation of an apolitical past and Vietnamese marginality. Pearls of the Far reflects how this ongoing reexamination East, then, draws significance if regarded could be a transnational manifestation of as a renewed search for identity in a Doi Moi. Rather than raising provocative diaspora seeking alternative answers while questions, the film placates the viewer increasingly looking ahead. with halcyon scenes of Vietnam’s beaches, mountains, and general vistas of APPENDIX ‘Indochic.’ The frequent loneliness of the women protagonists induces viewer The seven vignettes in 'Pearls of the Far sympathy, but not much more. The film’s East' are based on six original short stories largely pleasant demeanor enables critical and one novel written by Nguyen Thi viewers to dismiss it as stylistically Minh Ngoc. memorable but underwhelming in its refusal to address the politically charged Chapter 1 Childhood is based on 'Between themes that come to mind when the Two Mountains of Love' describing ‘Vietnam’ as a country and a Chapter 2 The Message is based on 'The concept. Package of Cam le Tobacco' Chapter 3 Blood Moon is based on 'Blood However, as much as official Hollywood Moon.' The original story took place in memory of Vietnam is painted in the urban Vietnam, and had other characters broad brushstrokes of undue suffering of including the siblings' mother. women, treacherous Viet Cong, and Chapter 4 The Boat is based on 'Beauty'. general one-sidedness, it is equally Chapter 5 Awakening is based on Nguyen's possible a Viet Kieu artist-filmmaker like novel, 'The Diary of an Abandoned Ngo should want to rectify this war film Woman' perspective. Ngo’s film is an act of Chapter 6 The Gift is based on 'Love Is Out individual resistance to this frequently Of Mind' cited American memory of a country Chapter 7 Time is based on 'Beyond The synonymous with belligerence, rather than Truth' the prolonged peace of recent decades. It is this use of memory and Ngo’s !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! independent, artistic resistance to official i Nguyen, Nathalie Huynh-Chau, Memory Is Another hegemonic memory that is crucial to Country: Women of the Vietnamese Diaspora, ABC-CLIO examining his film and the larger context LLC, 2009, p. 4
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ii Ibid., p. 4 xvii Brown, Frederick Z., Vietnam Since the War (1975- 1995), The Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 1 iii CIA World Factbook, 2012 (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- xviii Hue Tam Ho-Tai, The Country of Memory: Remaking the factbook/geos/vm.html) Past in Late Socialist Vietnam, University of California Press, 2001, p. 2 iv Nguyen, Nathalie Huynh-Chau, Memory Is Another Country: Women of the Vietnamese Diaspora, ABC-CLIO xix Ibid., p. 3 LLC, 2009, p. 5 xx Ibid., p. 228 v Benfey, Christopher, Ordering In, The New York Times, April 6, 2003 xxi Ibid., p. 229 vi Hue Tam Ho-Tai, The Country of Memory: Remaking the xxii 182 Past in Late Socialist Vietnam, University of California xxiii Press, 2001, p. 1 185
xxiv vii Henriot, Christian, Supplying Female Bodies: Labor Ibid., p. 229 Migration, Sex Work, and the Commoditization of Women in xxv Ibid., p. 137 Colonial Indochina and Contemporary Vietnam, Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-9 REFERENCES viii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Pin Benfey, Christopher, “Ordering In,” The New York Times, April 6, 2003 ix Spivak, Gayatri, Nationalism and the Imagination, Seagull Books, 2010, p.42 Brown, Frederick Z., “Vietnam Since the War (1975-1995),” The Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 1 x Hue Tam Ho-Tai, The Country of Memory: Remaking the Past in Late Socialist Vietnam, University of California Diamond, Catherine, “The Supermuses of Press, 2001, p. 171 Stage and Screen: Vietnam’s Female Dramatists,” Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. 16, No. 2 xi Henriot, Christian, Supplying Female Bodies: Labor Migration, Sex Work, and the Commoditization of Women in Henriot, Christian, “Supplying Female Bodies: Colonial Indochina and Contemporary Vietnam, Journal of Labor Migration, Sex Work, and the Commoditization Vietnamese Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 1-9 of Women in Colonial Indochina and Contemporary Vietnam,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1 xii Hue Tam Ho-Tai, The Country of Memory: Remaking the Past in Late Socialist Vietnam, University of California Hue Tam Ho-Tai, The Country of Memory: Press, 2001, p.176 Remaking the Past in Late Socialist Vietnam, University of California Press, 2001 xiii Henriot, Christian, Supplying Female Bodies: Labor Migration, Sex Work, and the Commoditization of Women in Nguyen, Nathalie Huynh-Chau, Memory Is Colonial Indochina and Contemporary Vietnam, Journal of Another Country: Women of the Vietnamese Diaspora, ABC- Vietnamese Studies, Vol. 7, No. 1, p.1 CLIO LLC, 2009 xiv Ibid., p.1 Spivak, Gayatri, Nationalism and the Imagination, Seagull Books, 2010 xv http://www.unescap.org/huset/women/reports/vietna The United Nations Economic and Social m.pdf Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Report on the State of Women in Urban Local xvi Diamond, Catherine, The Supermuses of Stage and Screen: Government Vietnam Vietnam’s Female Dramatists, Asian Theatre Journal, Vol. (http://www.unescap.org/huset/women/reports/vietna 16, No. 2 m.pdf)
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