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Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 18 No 1. 2023, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Articles

Urban Youth on the Margins: Inequality in China’s Sent Down Youth Movement by Sanjiao Tang

Chinese Firms in the Belt and Road Initiative: A Cross-Sectoral Study of BRI Activities in Kenya by Yabo Wu

Book Review

W. Puck Brecher. Animal Care in Japanese Tradition: A Short History by James Stone Lunde

From Sanitation To Soybeans: Kitchen Hygiene And Nutritional Nationalism In Republican China, 1911–1945, Sarah Xia Yu

Asia Pacific Perspectives

This article investigates evolving expectations for Chinese individuals to clean, cook, eat, and nourish in their private kitchens, and how certain diseases became urgent touchstones for the change in public health priorities. Reformists promoted personal responsibility and popular interest in kitchen and dietary hygiene, which increased as Chinese audiences became exposed to globally- circulating ideas of sanitation and nutrition in individual homes. Furthermore, this occurred in tandem with increased institutionalized government developments for improved infrastructure. This article also highlights Chinese participation in the transnational dietary science movement of the early twentieth century, as reformists developed methods for beriberi and tuberculosis …

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

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

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. 2, Spring/Summer 2018, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Introduction by Melissa S. Dale

The editor reflects on this issue's new articles, which focus on climate change as it is being experienced across Asia, and the different local responses it has provoked. From China to India to Southeast Asia, the relationship of nature to each local worldview shapes how communities view climate change, its effects, and their responses to it.

Fengshui Forests as A Socio-natural Reservoir in the Face of Climate Change and Environmental Transformation by Christopher R. Coggins and Jesse Minor

Chinese lineage villages are social-ecological systems (SESs) designed according to principles of fengshui (“wind-water”). Fengshui …

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

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

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

Contents:

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

Contents:

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

Contents:

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. 10 No. 1, May 2011, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Editor's Introduction by John K. Nelson

The Contemporary Global Political and Economic Context for Interreligious Dialogue Including China and India by Eric Hanson

The recent political and economic advances of China and India, and their changing relationships to each other and to the rest of the world, constitute the most crucial long term national adjustments necessary in the current international system. The differences among religions of the book, religions of meditative experience, and religions of public life make it extremely difficult to use any understanding of religion in itself as the focal piece for such dialogue. Religion and Politics …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 10 No. 2, November 2011, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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Editor's Note by Joaquin Jay Gonazalez and John Nelson

Beyond the Hot Debate: Social and Policy Implications of Climate Change in Australia by Lawrence Niewójt and Adam Hughes Henry

This paper discusses the social and policy implications of climate change on the world’s most arid populated continent. Warmer average temperatures will have real, identifiable impacts on human health, marginalized sectors of the population, and the sustainability of rural and coastal communities in Australia. By analysing indicators of environmental health and social welfare we can identify emerging threats posed by a warmer climate. Policy-makers will need to devise a suite …

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

Contents:

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. 2 No. 2, May 2002, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

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The Changed World of South Asia: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India after September 11 by Richard J. Kozicki

The unprecedented attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 dramatically reoriented American policy interests in South Asia. Before the attacks, the George W. Bush administration had nearly relegated Pakistan to the category of a ‘rogue state’ because of its coup against a democratically elected government, its support for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, its involvement in terrorist insurgency in the Indian-controlled Kashmir, and its involvement in nuclear and ballistic missiles deals with China and North Korea. In the immediate aftermath …