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The Digital, The Local And The Mundane: Three Areas Of Potential Change For Research On Asia, Radu Leca

Asia Pacific Perspectives

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a game-changer for academic research because it has affected all of its aspects, starting from the “where,” which influences the “what” and the “how.” Given these changes, I would like to suggest a few possibilities for updating the “where,” the “what,” and the “how” of research on the Asia Pacific region. I will illustrate these possibilities with some of my own strategies developed or reinforced during the pandemic, as a historian of the art and culture of early modern Japan. Three dimensions of the changes guide my suggestions: the digital, the local and the mundane.

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 16 No. 1, Fall/Winter 2018-2019, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Editor's Introduction by Melissa S. Dale

Within this issue, we share three examples of the latest research on cultures of dress, clothing, fashion and the formation of identity in the Asia Pacific region. These articles reveal the innovative work that scholars are currently pursuing in this area of research, ranging from the history of the tattooing in Japan, to fashion exchange between China and Mozambique, to the phenomena known as cosplay.

Fashioning Tattooed Bodies: An Exploration of Japan's Tattoo Stigma by John M. Skutlin

This article uses a cultural anthropological approach to examine tattooing stigma in contemporary Japan, particularly …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 15 No. 1, Fall 2017, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Editor's Introduction by Melissa Dale

The editor reflects on this issue's new articles, which focus on historical and contemporary expressions of masculinity in China, Japan, Korea, and India.

Asian Masculinity Studies in the West: From Minority Status to Soft Power by Kam Louie

Material focusing on Asian men and sexualities which had in the past resisted analysis, has sparked original and innovative modes of analysis that have become commonplace. In this exciting period, Asian masculinity studies have attracted some adventurous minds and new territories are being explored every day. While carving out an interdisciplinary field for itself, Asian masculinity …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 14 No. 2, Spring 2017, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Editor's Introduction by Melissa Dale

This issue presents the latest research on the history and life experiences of mixed race individuals in China, Japan, and Korea.

Eurasians and Racial Capital in a "Race War" by W. Puck Brecher

The ubiquity of racist propaganda in Japan and the U.S. during the Pacific War and the extraordinary cruelty of the fighting have fostered the perception that Japanese and Americans harbored a deep racial hatred for each other. Indeed, historical research convincingly interprets the Pacific War as a “race war” within the contexts of military engagement and state rhetoric. We know little, …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 13 No. 2, Fall/Winter 2015-2016, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Editor's Introduction by Melissa Dale

Small Things of Great Importance: Toy Advertising in China, 1910s-1930s by Valentina Boretti

From the turn of the twentieth century, playthings acquired a key role within the Chinese childrearing discourse as tools to train children, the prospective rescuers of China from its perceived decline. As a possibly unintended result, both children and toys acquired a marketing value: advertising employed them as icons to publicize a wide array of products. At the same time, the nascent toy industry “poached” the new discourse to brand its playthings as symbols of (made-in-China) educated progress, seeking to convince …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 14 No. 1, Fall 2016, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Editor's Introduction by Melissa Dale

This special issue presents five papers focused on themes related to the social history of medicine and contemporary cultural understandings of disease and patients' lived experiences in the Asia Pacific.

Rethinking Breast Mountain (Yuam): Surgical Treatments of Breast Cancer in South Korea, 1959-1993 by Soyoung Suh

This article analyzes premodern Korean medical treatises, professional surgical journals, and patient memoirs to expand our understanding of surgical treatment of breast cancer between 1959 and 1993 in South Korea. This essay discusses changing historical connotations of breast ailments, treatments, and surgical interventions. Although the depiction of breast …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 13 No. 1, Spring/Summer 2015, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Guest Editor's Introduction by Dayna Barnes

Protestant Funeral Processions in Southeast China: From Gangnam Style to Overt Evangelization by Chris White

Christian funeral services and processions, replete with Christian-inspired banners and signs, church bands, and conspicuous crosses, are ways in which Protestant communities in South Fujian actively promote their faith. They are also formative because the expressions of social cohesion are meant top elevate the status of the church community or family in the eyes of society at large. This article will demonstrate that the renao (socially vibrant) atmosphere of Protestant funerals reflects how such activities are important avenues …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 12 No. 2, Spring/Summer 2014, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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What's in a Game? Transmedia Storytelling and the Web-Game Genre of Online Chinese Popular Fiction by Heather Inwood

This paper uses a genre of online Chinese popular fiction known as Web-Game fiction as an entry point for exploring the influence of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) on linear narrative fiction. By offering a thick description of MMORPG gameplay and of gamers’ movements between online and offline worlds, Web-Game fiction narrates and “deinteractivates” the subjective experiences of players as they progress through the levels of online role-playing games. This essay proposes that the genre offers an alternative perspective …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 12 No. 1 Fall/Winter 2013-2014, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Editor's Introduction by Melissa Dale

Empress Meisho (1623-96) and Cultural Pursuits at the Japanese Imperial Court by Elizabeth Lillehoj

In 1629, a seven-year-old girl was selected as Japan’s Empress Regnant. Known as Empress Meishō, she was the daughter of the current emperor and, on her mother’s side, she was the great-granddaughter of the founder of the Tokugawa warrior government. Although scant scholarly attention has been paid to Meishō, surviving documents and artifacts reveal that she participated in a rich material culture at the Japanese imperial court. Extant sources tell of her engagement with art works, entertainments and diversions, particularly …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 11 No. 1, August 2013, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Editor's Note by John Nelson and Dayna Barnes

Languages of Human Rights in Timor-Leste by David Webster

This paper examines the historical process by which Timorese embraced the language of human rights, and their transnational support networks as diffusion belts for “rights talk.” It argues for a two-way understanding of rights diffusion, suggesting that Timorese framing of rights have contributed to a global shift towards a wider understanding of human rights as more than simply civil liberties in the Western tradition. Human rights, in other words, is a language that has served the Timorese independence cause, and in turn …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 9 No. 2, June 2010, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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The Sea Otter Islands: Geopolitics and Environment in the East Asian Fur Trade by Richard Ravalli

The origins of the sea otter trade can be traced to inter-Asian fur markets that developed centuries prior to the well-chronicled journeys of Vitus Bering and James Cook in the North Pacific. Japanese merchants and Ainu hunters traded for otter pelts as part of a larger system of exchanges in the Western Pacific. Russian entry to the trade by the early eighteenth century intensified territorial disputes in the Kuril Islands. A series of Russo-Japanese showdowns in the region helped forge an international borderland …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 8 No. 1, June 2008, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Jack London Reporting from Tokyo and Manchuria: The Forgotten Role of an Influential Observer of Early Modern Asia by Daniel A. Métraux

ack London is regarded as one of America’s most popular writers for his novels and short stories. Less known today is the fact that he was also a first-rate observer of East Asian politics, societies, and peoples. Working as a journalist for several newspapers and magazines, he filed numerous articles and essays covering the Russo-Japanese war and even foresaw the rise of Japan and China as world powers. This paper provides an overview of his journalistic and …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 6 No. 2, September 2006, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Protectionist Capitalists vs. Capitalist Communists: CNOOC's Failed Unocal Bid in Perspective by Francis Schortgen

China, Inc. is on the move. Whether or not this presents a welcome development for particular political and/or business interests – not just in the United States but worldwide – it is a reality that cannot be ignored, wished away, or warded off with protectionist measures in the medium- to long-term. The real question is: What is an appropriate China strategy in the age of Chinese multinational corporations? How and to what extent does the U.S. government’s current China strategy have to be revised so …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 5 No. 1, December 2004, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Introduction by Joseph Tse-Hei Lee

In East Asia, the complexity of church-state relations can be better understood if one takes into account the involvement of local community in negotiating with the state over sacred and secular matters. This article argues that the church, state, and community were not independent variables, but constantly negotiated with each other over the control of religions, religious institutions and rituals. When the state was strong, the church and community participated in the formation of the state power. As the state power declined, the church and community reverted to their original independence and crossed the …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 4 No. 1, May 2004, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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The Future of U.S. Relations with Japan and China: Will Bilateral Relations Survive the New American Unilateralism? by Rita Kernacs

The following paper examines how America's bilateral relations with Japan and China may be affected by Washington's recent move towards an increasingly unilateral foreign policy. Immediately after the tragic attack on the United States on September 11th, it appeared that relations with Japan and China, as with many countries around the world, would grow stronger. Finding a common enemy in "militant Islam" did much to improve U.S.-China relations. But, despite the temporary warmth, issues related to Taiwan, a lack …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 3 No. 1, May 2003, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Nuclear Nonproliferation: A Hidden but Contentious Issue in US-Japan Relations During the Carter Administration (1977-1981) by Charles S. Costello III

This paper is a study of specific aspects of the relations between the United States and Japan during the Carter Administration, centering three subjects: [1] Jimmy Carter’s relationship with the Japanese prior to becoming the President of the United States, [2] the Tokai Nuclear facility in Japan and its impact on U.S.-Japan relations during the first year of the administration, and [3] a look at the relation of these issues and nuclear non-proliferation in today’s world.

Making substantial use …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 1 No. 1, Spring 2001, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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To Change China: A Tale of Three Reformers by Greg Anderson

The cyclical rising and falling of historical Chinese dynasties has often been punctuated by the emergence of reformers who attempted to bring about improvements and to set the nation on what they believed to be the correct course. This paper examines the lives, motivations, reform programs, and results achieved by three such reformers – Wang Mang of the Han, Wang Anshi of the Song and Zhang Juzheng of the Ming – in an effort to understand the conditions that drove them to reform, and to draw lessons for …