This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Nation in action : making Chinese in the rural borderland between China and North Korea Chen, Shiwei 2019 Chen, S. (2019). Nation in action : making Chinese in the rural borderland between China and North Korea. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/90268 https://doi.org/10.32657/10220/48473 Downloaded on 08 Oct 2021 10:58:46 SGT NATION IN ACTION: MAKING CHINESE IN THE RURAL BORDERLAND BETWEEN CHINA AND NORTH KOREA CHEN SHIWEI SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES 2019 Nation in Action: Making Chinese in the Rural Borderland between China and North Korea CHEN SHIWEI School of Social Sciences A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2019 Statement of Originality I hereby certify that the work embodied in this thesis is the result of original research, is free of plagiarised materials, and has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. 23 April 2019 . Date Shiwei Chen II III Authorship Attribution Statement This thesis contains material from 2 papers accepted at conferences in which I am listed as an author. Part of the content of Chapter 4 was presented as Chen, Shiwei. “Monuments of Revolutionary Martyrs in the China-North Korea Borderland: Displaying National Authority and Perceptions of Local Residents.” at 12th Annual International Ethnography Symposium, Manchester, UK in Sep 2017. Part of the content of Chapter 6 was presented as Chen, Shiwei. “Transnational Family Ties and Migrant Incorporation: Borderland Living among Korean-Chinese.” at the International Sociological Association (ISA) Research Committees RC06 (Family) and RC41 (Population) Conference, Singapore in May 2018. 24 April 2019 . Date Shiwei Chen IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation has been produced through an almost five-year journey involving many locations on different continents. I am deeply grateful to many people I have encountered throughout the journey. Although I am not able to include everyone, the following is the beginnings of my gratitude and appreciation. First of all, I would like to thank all the participants in this PhD project. Their names can’t be disclosed, but I am extremely grateful for all the help from them. I would also like to specially thank the people from my main fieldsite – the village about ten kilometers from the Chinese-North Korean border – who kindly accepted me to stay in the community for such a prolonged period, invited me to numerous joyful events and generously shared their life with me. 보고 싶은 우리 촌의할아버지, 할머니, 아저씨, 아줌마, 오빠, 어니, 동생께: 그동안 덕분에 즐거운 시간을 보냈습니다. 정말 감사합니다! Reflecting on the research journey, I came to realize that two renowned scholars who are always passionate about conducting research influenced me to become enthusiastic about my study. It is my great honor and pleasure to have the wonderful opportunity to complete my PhD dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Shirley Sun and Prof. Min Zhou, who are both extremely supportive, encouraging, caring and motivating. I would like to thank Prof. Sun for guiding me step by step through this research journey. Your rigorous research attitude continuously inspires me to carefully conduct my research at every stage. Thank you for believing in me and always being so patient and reassuring whenever I encountered difficulties and started doubting myself. Thank you for creating various wonderful opportunities for me to develop crucial skills for being an academic. I am also deeply grateful to my co-supervisor Prof. Zhou, whose wealth of knowledge and commitment, particularly in the field of migration and ethnicity is inspiring and contagious. Thank you for guiding me into the field and sharing your valuable research experiences without reservation. Thank you for modeling for both my professional and personal development. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Thesis Advisory Committee members Prof. Laavanya Kathiravelu and Prof. Hong Liu, for the tremendous academic support and inspiration, for the insightful advice and for the valuable feedback and the investment all the way through my research proposal, data collection to the final draft. This dissertation would not be possible without the generous help and support from the Professors and graduate students I met in Yanbian. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Prof. Zhenan Quan and his wife Ms. Honghua Jin, for the immediate welcoming and warmth when I first nervously and cluelessly arrived in Yanbian, for introducing to me the beauty of the place – both the earnest people and the delicious local cuisine, and for the continuous support and caring through my stay. I would also like to thank Prof. Jinhai Piao, for her expertise in the field, for connecting me with local communities, and for always being supportive and encouraging. I thank Prof. Hongxi Li who generously lent his large personal out-of-print collections to me; Prof. Binghao Jin and Prof. Chunri Sun, who tirelessly elaborated and contextualized important concepts. Their guidance rapidly increased my local knowledge and helped me to understand the local discourse. I would also like to thank Hongwei Wang, Dr. Guochuan Du, Dr. Jianlin Liu, Jie Jin and Yang Yang for the generous support, meaningful discussions and tremendous hospitality. I gratefully acknowledge the institutional support that I have received in the last five years. I thank Nanyang Technological University for supporting me with generous scholarship so I could concentrate and fully commit to my PhD research project. I am grateful to the Academy of Korean i Study for sponsoring my six months stay in South Korea. I also thank the Japan Student Services Organization for offering me scholarship to study at Waseda Univeristy in Tokyo for a semester. I would like to extend my gratitude to whom I had valuable opportunities to study with in the last four years: Prof. Shaohua Zhan, Prof. J. Patrick Williams, Prof. Francis Lim and Prof. Sam Han from my home institute Nanyang Technological University; Prof. Gracia Liu-Farrer, Prof. Roberts Glenda S. and Prof. Patrick Boyd from Waseda Univeristy; Prof. Hee-Young Kwon from the Academy of Korean Studies. Thank you all for sharing your immense knowledge and giving me numerous constructive advices. I also thank Prof. Genaro Castro-Vázquez for the guidance and inspiration during my time studying with him. I would like to specially thank Prof. Zhenjiang Zhang at Sun Yat-sen University. I was fortunate to participate in his research projects twice during my undergraduate study. The summers exploring the mountain areas in Southwest China truly broadened my imagination of what it means to conduct research and led me into the field of ethnography. I am grateful to Prof. Zhijiang Wei for his expertise and introducing me to the field of Korean studies, as well as connecting me with the research community and the renowned scholars in the field. I would also like to thank Prof. Jiangang Zhu, my undergraduate final thesis advisor, and Prof. Paul O’Connor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong where I studied my master. Their teaching and thinking inspired me at the early stage, which ultimately drew my interests to the field of everyday nationhood and ethnicity. I am grateful to Prof. Teresa Kuan and Prof. Sidney Cheung for their guidance and inspirations during my Master study, and their continuous encouragement and support to me to further pursue my research study. My gratitude extends to the staff of my school, Ms. Sufei Li, Mr. Kadhiresan Bala and Ms. Wahidah Binte Mohamed Ali, for all the help and warmth. I would also like to thank my colleagues Dr. Bernadette Bartlam, Prof. Helen Elizabeth Smith, Charlene Soon and Aloysius Chow at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, NTU-Imperial College London, for the warm support and inspirations at the last stage of my PhD journey. In the formation of this thesis, I was fortunate to be fully sponsored to attend academic events in Germany, Poland, Hong Kong and South Korea by the following organizations – The International Sociological Association, Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung at Bielefeld University (funded by Volkswagen Foundation), Korea Foundation, Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology, Research Centre on Migration and Mobility at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The School of Social Sciences at Hong Kong Baptist University. My dissertation has been greatly benefited from the exchanges with the most renowned scholars in the field. I would like to thank Jia Jia Teo, Dr. Judit Kroo and Dr. Sirui Ma to accompany me on this journey. Our numerous discussions with wine and snacks delighted this research path. I thank Wang Yu-Ying for her kindness, warmth and all the joyful moments during my fieldwork in South Korea. Some special words of gratitude go to my NTU friends who have always been a major source of support and joy: Dr. Xiwen Ni, Fun Lau, Ka Lon Sou, Lijun Zhang, Mohamed Shahril Bin Mohamed Salleh, Dr. Ratih Oktarini and Lidia Luna Puerta. I would also like to thank my life- long friends Anqi Huang, Yanna Wu, Minqi Liu and Huimin Cui for their friendship and accompany. Thank you for always being a phone call away. Thank you for encouraging me, and when I was confused and uncertain about myself, constantly reminding me of my dream and the ii person I always wanted to be since I was a little girl. As the only child, I am so fortunate to have you all like my sisters. Finally, I would like to genuinely thank my family in Guangzhou and Cologne, for the unconditional support and love, for the encouragement to pursue my dream.