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Performance as cultural text: defamiliarizing the performing art tradition of Purulia Chhau Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2024-08-02 Maheshwar Kumar
Referring to the social and cultural anthropological perspectives and employing a qualitative approach as the primary methodological tool, this PhD dissertation explores the performing art traditio...
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“In the middle of up and down ikigai is there”: Japanese women’s embodied narratives of personal crisis Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2024-07-30 Jamila Rodrigues
This study focuses on Japanese women’s embodied narratives of personal crisis and explores notions of self and understandings of ikigai, loosely translated as “meaning in life” or “life worth livin...
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Ways of eating: exploring food through history and culture Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2024-07-22 Cornelia Reiher
Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 23, No. 3, 2024)
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Hearing attuned: an exploration of the sonority of the Aravan festival in India Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2024-06-06 Anupama K P
The paper explores the sonic aspect of the annual Aravan festival celebrated in the rural village of Koovagam, Tamil Nadu, India. The festival has gained popularity as the “Koovagam transgender fes...
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Expanding the range of lifestyle migrants and related populations: effectiveness of vocational training in a rural community Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2024-05-08 Nao Ishikawa
This study aims to clarify the kind of awareness and change that vocational training in the community can bring about and how this impacts the emergence of migrants and related populations. Multipl...
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Threatening dystopias: the global politics of climate change adaptation in Bangladesh Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2024-02-26 Sajad Ahmad Mir
Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 23, No. 1, 2024)
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Less than equals, more than comrades: variety of patron–client relations in the Hawaiian longline tuna fishing industry Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2024-02-16 Tomomi Shigefuji
This research focuses on international labor migrants who have the least freedom of movement (as they are confined on fishing boats), but who, paradoxically, are apparently the most well traveled f...
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Women-centric development schemes and its impact on the livelihood of the women of the Lodha tribe in a “Model Village” of Paschim Medinipur District, West Bengal, India Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Sujan Bera, Sumahan Bandyopadhyay
The paper explores the women-centric development schemes and programs launched by the government for the tribal people in India in general and the female members of the Lodha community in particula...
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Misreading the Bengal Delta: Climate Change, Development and Livelihoods in Coastal Bangladesh Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2024-01-31 Fahmid Al Zaid
Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 23, No. 1, 2024)
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Asymmetrical power relations and their influences on climate change adaptation and transformation in Vietnam Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Van Thi Hong Le
In response to a recent call on reducing social inequality and improving climate resilience, the attention has been shifted to examine power relations that influence disadvantaged groups’ represent...
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Precarity and indeterminacy in a prized forest mushroom: traditional practice to frenzied urban marketplaces in Northern Thailand Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-12-10 Elliot Lodge
Across Northern Thailand, het thop mushrooms (Astraeus) are foraged and sold into an increasingly commodified marketplace. A species of wild fungi that only appears for a short time each year, it i...
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Making of a capitalist frontier: tobacco cultivation and changing agrarian relations in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-11-27 Mohammad Tareq Hasan, Shaila Sharmeen
Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) were mainly covered with forest and interspersed jhum—shifting cultivation—plots until the beginning of the British colonial period in 1760. Since then, po...
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Administering Affect: Pop-Culture Japan and the Culture of Anxiety Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-09-11 James D. Letson
Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 22, No. 4, 2023)
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Volunteers’ listening as a “non-free gift”: an ethnography of Active Listening volunteering in Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-08-31 Nanase Shirota
This paper argues that the act of listening offered by active listening volunteers is a “gift” that requires reciprocity from elderly people. Active listening volunteers (keichō borantia) in Japan ...
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On the use of Chinese characters and Romanization in English publications Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-07-23 Joseph Bosco
Abstract Publications are not consistent in how they use Asian scripts and their romanizations. In the case of Chinese (though also applicable to other Asian languages), authors should take advantage of current digital technology by using characters in text to identify terms for readers who know Chinese, and only use romanization when they expect readers who do not read Chinese to know how to pronounce
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Places in Knots: Remoteness and Connectivity in the Himalayas and Beyond, Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-07-12 Tina Harris
Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 22, No. 4, 2023)
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Magic, luck, and permeable personhood in the Philippines Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-07-07 Hannah Bulloch
Abstract The Cebuano term palihi denotes a range of rituals to induce desired outcomes through analogical causation. It is predicated on the understanding that at inceptions - including the New Year, building, planting, and pregnancy - qualities may be transmitted from an entity or process to another that is in genesis or renewal. A type of sympathetic magic, palihi is intended to direct these forces
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Visa policies, migration industry and the ethnic entrepreneurship trap: the case of Nepalese restaurant businesses in Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-07-03 Gracia Liu-Farrer, Dalima Tamang
Abstract Ethnic entrepreneurship can be an alternative economic strategy among immigrants whose labor market opportunities in the host society are hindered by language deficiency, institutional constraints or racial discrimination. However, it can also constrain migrants’ social economic mobility. This is especially likely when, with particular visa policies, ethnic business is appropriated as a channel
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Being active and sharing happy moments: exploring the relationship of political participation and subjective well-being Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-05-30 Sebastian Polak-Rottmann
In my thesis, I provide a relational approach on how political participation in rural Japan is linked to the activists’ well-being. While existing research has not come to a clear conclusion, this ...
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Modern dharma: the moral worlds of Newar middle-class families in Bhaktapur, Nepal Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-05-30 Paola Tiné
Abstract The dissertation “Modern Dharma: The Moral Worlds of Newar Middle-Class Families in Bhaktapur, Nepal” explores family transformations among an emerging middle class in the Nepali city of Bhaktapur. By examining personal narratives of conflict and adjustment in domestic settings and among kin, this work sheds new light on the negotiation of social roles and relationships in the pursuit of an
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Life behind a mosquito net: foreign student experiences of North Korea’s backstage Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-05-09 Alek Sigley
Abstract North Korea-based foreign students enjoy unique circumstances as long-term foreign residents of Pyongyang. In contrast to short-term outside visitors such as international tourists, they partake in freedoms and privileges that the xenophobic North Korean state seldom grants to foreigners, such as the ability to walk the streets of Pyongyang unaccompanied. They also interact extensively with
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The meanings of tenshoku for Japanese young regular workers: a self-reliant strategy to pursue well-being Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-04-11 Xiaolin Xiong
Abstract Tenshoku means changing jobs: quitting one’s company and starting work in a new company. Under the lifetime employment system, regular workers have enjoyed the security and stability provided by corporations, and tenshoku used to be rare among regular workers. In the decades after the Japanese economic bubble burst in 1991, tenshoku has become a more common practice in Japan. However, even
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Ethnohistory of the creation of a new religion in multicultural Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-03-28 Christopher Reichl
Abstract Japan as a multicultural and polyreligious society is illuminated in this article by reference to the creation of Ijun, which is both a revival of Ryukyuan culture and a new religion of Japan. The similarity between Ijun and Seichō no Ie can be understood by reference to ethnohistoric context, to international activity, and to flows of information, religious ideology and capital. The philosophy
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Not myself tonight: subjunctive selves and the in-sincerity of service in Japanese queer nightlife Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-03-07 Marcello Francioni
Abstract What is the relationship between truth, sense of self and being a professional in Japanese queer nightlife? For service industry professionals’ spontaneity is not a fruitful quality to cultivate to establish oneself. Instead, commitment to customers’ satisfaction and adaptability to their wants, needs and grudges are considered by customers and providers to be paramount qualities of a service
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Making kinship away from home: chronic disease and the Pakistani diaspora in the US Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-01-20 Sanaullah Khan
Abstract The article considers several generations of Pakistani immigrants from Karachi to various cities in the United States such as Chicago and New York and explores how chronic diseases are shaped by the reverberations of conflict in kin relations in the US and Pakistan. Instead of examining the experience of chronic illness in isolation, the article considers how webs of evolving relations, tensions
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Can the Malay Muslims be Thai enough in Thailand’s far South? Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2023-01-09 Kee Howe Yong
Abstract This essay examines the construction of minorities in Thailand, questioning its naturalness, both theoretically and practically. Investigating the plight of Malay Muslim minorities in Thailand’s far south can show how minorities are central to the construction of state power in Thailand. This article argues that Siam’s annexation of the Sultanate of Patani requires a revision that brings its
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The anatomy of loneliness: suicide, social connection and the search for relational meaning in contemporary Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-11-23 Gordon Mathews
Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 22, No. 2, 2023)
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Lithic devotionality and other aesthetic strata: Buddhist garden shrines in rural Java Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-10-06 Roberto Rizzo
Abstract In this article I explore the contemporary practice of establishing garden shrines in Buddhist rural Java. While on the surface the placement of shrines follows the demands of environmental upgrading and beautification strategies, often in accord with eco-tourist imaginaries, the practice reveals a complex aggregation of material and discursive threads. The article situates the project, ethnographically
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The moving city: scenes from the Delhi Metro and the social life of infrastructure Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-10-03 Weihang Wang
Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 22, No. 1, 2023)
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Blood work: life and laboratories in Penang Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-10-03 Ayo Wahlberg
Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 22, No. 1, 2023)
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Coping with loneliness in southern Myanmar Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-09-30 Samia C. Akhter-Khan, Johanna Drewelies, Khin Myo Wai
Abstract Little is known about the experience of older adults’ loneliness in Southeast Asia. Situated in southern Myanmar, this study uses ethnographic interviews to shed light on coping strategies that older adults deploy to prevent and reduce loneliness. A resilient mindset was identified as essential to alleviating loneliness in older adults, a strategy described as including acceptance of loneliness
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Correction Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-04-12
Published in Asian Anthropology (Vol. 21, No. 2, 2022)
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Special issue: Exploring rural Japan as heterotopia Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-03-09 Paul Hansen, Susanne Klien
(2022). Special issue: Exploring rural Japan as heterotopia. Asian Anthropology: Vol. 21, Rural Japan as heterotopia, guest edited by Paul Hansen and Susanne Klien, pp. 1-9.
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Agriculture corporations in rural Japan: fractured mirrors of past, present and future Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-03-09 Nancy Rosenberger, Ayumi Sugimoto
Abstract In order to increase productivity in national agricultural land and help depopulated villages with aging farmers, current agricultural policy in Japan rewards small farmers who contribute their land to agriculture corporations in which they own shares, have a vote, and labor in the fields for a low wage. Membership is individual, and the sacred link between household and land is virtually
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Rural emplacements: linking heterotopia, one health and ikigai in central Hokkaido Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-01-24 Paul Hansen
Abstract For over fifteen years the author has conducted fieldwork in a rural area of central Hokkaido. During that time the linkage between individualistic notions of life’s meaning, wellness and location or environment have been popular conversation topics among a wide array of interlocutors both native and newcomer. This article briefly outlines three distinct theoretical strands—heterotopia, specifically
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Japanese rural resettlers: communities with newcomers as heterotopic spaces Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-01-05 Ksenia Kurochkina
Abstract The increasing number of young urbanites settling into the countryside of Japan compels urgent research on communities with newcomers and newly emerging lifestyles. This article explores the daily practices of newcomers to rural areas to understand the complexity of the transformation of rurality in contemporary post-growth Japan. This study was conducted in 2011–2015 and draws upon ethnographic
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Success and succession: agritourism, heterotopia and two generations of rural Japanese female entrepreneurs Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-01-05 Ayumi Sugimoto
Abstract Agritourism is promoted as a tool for rural revitalization in Japan. Farm inns are an example of agritourism and are run often by female farmers. They usually start a small family business to find a sufficient and comfortable way to make a living, with some of them focusing very little on profit and growth; they are lifestyle entrepreneurs. This article, based on multiple interviews conducted
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“The young, the stupid, and the outsiders”: urban migrants as heterotopic selves in post-growth Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2022-01-05 Susanne Klien
Abstract This article explores heterotopic selves by examining the practices and trajectories of urbanites in their thirties and forties who have relocated to rural areas, some of them as rural revitalization volunteers (chiiki okoshi kyōryokutai). Funded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, this program started in 2009 and has been highly popular with urbanites. Participants have
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Feral Atlas: The More-Than-Human Anthropocene Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2021-09-21 Maya Kóvskaya
(2021). Feral Atlas: The More-Than-Human Anthropocene. Asian Anthropology: Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 278-281.
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The inconvenient generation: migrant youth on Shanghai's edge Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2021-10-07 Arianne M. Gaetano
(2021). The inconvenient generation: migrant youth on Shanghai's edge. Asian Anthropology: Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 288-290.
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Skateboarding and urban landscapes in Asia: endless spots Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2021-08-20 Indigo Willing
(2021). Skateboarding and urban landscapes in Asia: endless spots. Asian Anthropology: Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 282-283.
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From tragedy to triumph: tsunami mitigation and Bōsai (disaster prevention) tourism in Tarō, Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2021-07-06 Christopher Thompson
Abstract Tarō is one of many small fishing communities on the northeastern coast of Iwate Prefecture which was decimated by Japan’s catastrophic tsunami on 11 March 2011. Historically, in most parts of the world, including Japan, post-disaster sightseeing has often been portrayed as a form of Dark Tourism emphasizing death, loss and devastation. However, in Tarō, community-led tourism post-2011 has
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Bodies in place: the transformative atmospherics of lightscapes in Mahikari Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2021-05-27 Philip Swift
Abstract Practice centers (dojos) in the Japanese new religion Mahikari are perceived to be spaces suffused with divine light. This article examines this understanding in terms of the enactment of a particular kind of atmosphere – a lightscape – which is deemed to be capable of automatically producing transformative effects. As a key ethnographic example of this idea of atmospheric effects, I consider
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Seeing like a child: inheriting the Korean war Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2021-04-12 Bryce Anderson
(2021). Seeing like a child: inheriting the Korean war. Asian Anthropology: Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 286-287.
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Cosmopolitan rurality, depopulation, and entrepreneurial ecosystems in 21st-Century Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2021-03-03 Paul Hansen
(2021). Cosmopolitan rurality, depopulation, and entrepreneurial ecosystems in 21st-Century Japan. Asian Anthropology: Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 284-285.
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African presentations and Japanese discourses: the construction and projection of difference Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2021-01-22 Paul Capobianco
Abstract This article examines the different ways Africans present themselves in Japan and considers what these differences explain about the function of ethno-racial categories and discourses in the Japanese context. Specifically, it highlights the importance of cultural factors in shaping the ways Japanese discourses conceptualize and engage categorical difference, as well as the limitations of examining
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International labor migrants: longline tuna fishing in the Pacific Ocean Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2021-01-21 Tomomi Shigefuji
Abstract International labor migrants have been widely studied, particularly on land. However, this anthropological research aims to shed light on the working and living conditions of labor migrants at sea, in the longline fishing industry on the Pacific Ocean based out of Honolulu, Hawaii. When working on a fishing boat, labor migrants encounter two distinct working environments: at port and in international
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Asianisms in motion: Asian selves and customized Asia among Japanese sojourners in the Pacific West and East Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-08-03 Etsuko Kato
This article critiques the concept of “being Asian” by focusing on practices and discourses of Japanese sojourners living in or moving between Canada, Australia, and Singapore. By adopting the fram...
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Who owns a cuisine? The grassroots politics of Japanese food in Europe Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-06-25 James Farrer, Chuanfei Wang
Culinary borrowings are so common as to seem trivial, and yet they are consequential for many of the actors concerned. People’s livelihoods, professional status, and social identity may be tied to ...
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Globalization of Sichuan hot pot in the “new era” Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-06-24 James I. McDougall
This paper explores the transformation of the Sichuan hot pot from a regional Chinese food to a global cuisine. It first analyzes how Sichuan food businesses had been “gentrified” by rigorous state...
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Asian food and culinary politics: food governance, constructed heritage and contested boundaries Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-06-24 Yuk Wah Chan, James Farrer
This introduction outlines the conceptual framework of the special issue. Culinary politics involves a contest over the social organization and cultural meanings of food by a variety of actors: bot...
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Creating a wine heritage in Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-06-16 Chuanfei Wang
This paper examines how Japanese grape wine production has been promoted as cultural heritage, through the collaboration of local official and private actors. In 2018, Japan’s wine making was desig...
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A post-colonial instance in globalized North Malabar: is teyyam an “art form”? Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-05-20 Filipe Pereira, Madina Ziganshina
Abstract The ritual of the teyyams, in north Kerala, has been referred to as “art form,” “folk art,” “ritual art,” and such, not only by tourist guides and leaflets, but also by academic works and, more and more, in the everyday speech of local communities.1 In this article we intend to question the adequacy of such categorizations, in light of plausible definitions of art and folklore, and investigate
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Same-sex marriage and the question of queerness – institutional performativity and marriage in Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-05-18 S. P. F. Dale
Abstract In 2015, Shibuya ward became the first district in Japan to start issuing same-sex partnership certificates, signifying the first step towards public recognition of same-sex couples in Japan. Same-sex marriage in Japan has been a contentious issue, with opponents arguing that it will end up supporting the patriarchal and discriminatory family registry system. Marriage nevertheless serves as
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Queer and normal: dansō (female-to-male crossdressing) lives and politics in contemporary Tokyo Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-04-29 Michelle H. S. Ho
Abstract Though dansō—female-to-male crossdressing—has been historically embedded in Japan as tradition, performance, and entertainment, in the last fifteen years it has fractured and increasingly become commercialized, adopted by young people—a phenomenon I call “contemporary dansō culture.” One example this article explores are dansō café-and-bars—establishments where employees dress as another gender—which
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Unqueer queers—drinking parties and negotiations of cultural citizenship by female-to-male trans people in Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-04-23 Shu Min Yuen
Abstract In the last twenty years, Japanese transgender people have acquired increased visibility in mainstream Japanese society. Notwithstanding that, female-to-male (FTM) trans people continue to be misunderstood by the Japanese public, and largely underrepresented in Anglophone academic scholarship. This paper therefore seeks to account for one aspect of FTM cultural life in present-day Japan that
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Beyond romance: fieldwork in Sarawak Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-04-14 Atiqah Abd-Rahim
(2020). Beyond romance: fieldwork in Sarawak. Asian Anthropology: Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 295-296.
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Transnational mobility to South Korea among Japanese students: When popular culture meets international education Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-04-03 Atsushi Takeda
Abstract Conventional destinations for Asian students have been primarily English-speaking countries, including the US, England, Australia, and Canada, and accordingly, existing literature on mobility among such students has mainly focused on flows from Asia to Western countries. In the last decade, however, South Korea (henceforth, Korea) has emerged as an increasingly popular study abroad destination
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Introduction: queer lives in contemporary Japan Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-04-02 Sabine Frühstück
Abstract This introduction aims to situate four research articles on “Queer Lives in Contemporary Japan” in the larger field of gender and sexuality studies. It argues that, historically, the concepts “queer” or “transgender” are not particularly novel. Early twentieth-century progressives in Japan observed and sought social acceptance and suggested that individuals thought of as “sexually abnormal”
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Kopi culture: consumption, conservatism and cosmopolitanism among Singapore’s millennials Asian Anthropology Pub Date : 2020-04-02 Cheryl Chang, Ian McGonigle
Abstract In Singapore, traditional local coffee (kopi) and coffee shops (kopitiam) compete with a growing slew of third-wave cafés and their specialty brews. In this context, we show that coffee offers a window into understanding contemporary millennial youth culture in the society. This report tracks this phenomenon through ethnographic work in Singapore’s cafés and coffee shops, combined with interviews