Asian anthropologyPub Date : 2021-03-15DOI: 10.1080/1683478X.2021.1903134
Philip Swift
{"title":"Bodies in place: the transformative atmospherics of lightscapes in Mahikari","authors":"Philip Swift","doi":"10.1080/1683478X.2021.1903134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2021.1903134","url":null,"abstract":"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 the case of the primary training course, participation in which is the means of entry into Mahikari. Although the course itself appears to be didactic in design, I suggest that, as an event, a different dynamic is at work, in which the major aim is less about the transmission of information than it is about the elicitation of transformation, a change which is understood to be largely a consequence of the atmospheric conditions in the dojo.","PeriodicalId":34948,"journal":{"name":"Asian anthropology","volume":"20 1","pages":"173 - 189"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/1683478X.2021.1903134","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43204465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian anthropologyPub Date : 2021-03-02DOI: 10.1080/1683478X.2021.1896271
Jing Wang
{"title":"Between merchant network and memory work: Islamic cosmopolitanism along the Silk Road","authors":"Jing Wang","doi":"10.1080/1683478X.2021.1896271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2021.1896271","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the studies of Islamic cosmopolitanism in Asia, merchant networks and religious mobility have received much scholarly attention in the past two decades. Yet, more studies are still needed to understand how memory work—especially the historical memory of trauma among diasporic communities—contributes to the transnational connections in Muslim Asia. Situated in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), this article focuses on how merchant networks and memory work contribute to fostering Islamic cosmopolitanism in Asia. Building upon fieldwork between 2015 and 2020, my ethnography reveals that remembrance rituals and survival narratives become entangled with the merchant networks as Sinophone Muslims move between China and Central Asia. While striving to preserve the memory of historical trauma through rituals, Muslim individuals and associations also selectively downplay the past of ethnoreligious conflicts through heritage performance. In other words, Sinophone Muslims turn to traumatic memory through both remembering and selective oblivion, which is key to facilitating connections beyond the official BRI discourse.","PeriodicalId":34948,"journal":{"name":"Asian anthropology","volume":"20 1","pages":"155 - 172"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/1683478X.2021.1896271","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45121639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian anthropologyPub Date : 2021-02-20DOI: 10.1080/1683478X.2021.1889788
D. Poupard
{"title":"Writings on the wall: powerful inscriptions in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands","authors":"D. Poupard","doi":"10.1080/1683478X.2021.1889788","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2021.1889788","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article investigates public textual inscriptions in China’s Naxi minority region and the role they play in projecting power. Cliff inscriptions in Chinese minority areas may be an attempt to enforce the hegemonic project of the “civilizing centre,” which sees Han culture as a civilizing force on the “barbarians” that live in China’s border provinces. Despite the nominal equality of China’s ethnic minority groups, the language and writing system of the Han majority occupy an undeniably privileged position in the country’s linguistic hierarchy. But powerful writing does not necessarily have to emanate from the centre of political control, and I argue that there are examples of graphic pluralism where the hierarchy is upturned. One such example of powerful, informal public text acts are the graffiti found on the walls of a cave in an ethnically Naxi township of Baidi in Yunnan province. The most powerful and prestigious graffiti inscriptions are those that are written in the native Naxi logographic script. An analysis of these inscriptions may help to reveal the social implications of writing in heterographic situations, showing how the ritual act of writing Naxi inscriptions on the wall inculcates Naxi values and suggests that China’s linguistic hierarchy is not immutable.","PeriodicalId":34948,"journal":{"name":"Asian anthropology","volume":"20 1","pages":"210 - 229"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/1683478X.2021.1889788","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47328951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian anthropologyPub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/1683478X.2020.1773616
V. Mak
{"title":"The heritagization of milk tea: cultural governance and placemaking in Hong Kong","authors":"V. Mak","doi":"10.1080/1683478X.2020.1773616","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2020.1773616","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article uses the heritigization of milk tea making technique as a lens to explore post-colonial cultural governance, placemaking and identity building in post-colonial Hong Kong. Based on the data and information collected through ethnographic study, personal interviews, and media researches on milk tea production and consumption, this study investigates how the Hong Kong government, the entrepreneurs and consumers interactively commodify tradition and culinary skills in tea-making for city branding, economic development and identity politics. This paper reveals that the meaning of milk tea in the official narrative supports the government vision of a harmonious society with docile labor. In contrast, the younger generation considers milk tea an icon representing an alternate Hong Kong spirit of rebelliousness, indicating a widening gap in the interpretation of cultural values and political orientation between the Hong Kong government and the younger generation under the background of Hong Kong’s rapid political change.","PeriodicalId":34948,"journal":{"name":"Asian anthropology","volume":"20 1","pages":"30 - 46"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/1683478X.2020.1773616","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47977348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian anthropologyPub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/1683478X.2020.1774960
J. Farrer, Chuanfei Wang
{"title":"Who owns a cuisine? The grassroots politics of Japanese food in Europe","authors":"J. Farrer, Chuanfei Wang","doi":"10.1080/1683478X.2020.1774960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2020.1774960","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract 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 their stake in the defining boundaries of culinary cultures. When dominant groups or powerful actors such as multinational corporate chains adopt or reinvent the cuisine of weaker and marginal groups, it may be regarded as cultural appropriation. However, the definition of the situation becomes more complicated when multiple weak and marginal actors compete over ownership of a cuisine. This article discusses how Japanese and other Asian migrant actors participate in grassroots culinary politics surrounding definitions and uses of Japanese cuisine in the context of a Japanese food boom in Europe. It shows how the “borrowed power” of one migrant group may threaten the status and even livelihoods of the foundational stakeholders in a culinary field.","PeriodicalId":34948,"journal":{"name":"Asian anthropology","volume":"20 1","pages":"12 - 29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/1683478X.2020.1774960","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45725759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian anthropologyPub Date : 2020-10-01DOI: 10.1080/1683478x.2020.1765465
Filipe Pereira, M. Ziganshina
{"title":"A post-colonial instance in globalized North Malabar: is teyyam an “art form”?","authors":"Filipe Pereira, M. Ziganshina","doi":"10.1080/1683478x.2020.1765465","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478x.2020.1765465","url":null,"abstract":"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 the motivations for such classifications, considering the correlations of social and political power in post-colonial circumstances. We defend a need for an integrated, informed and careful address to the cult of the teyyams (like any other post-colonial reality) and argue that the post-colonial discourse, despite its advantages over colonial rhetoric, can still be improved upon. It can be improved upon by acknowledging, besides the obvious consequences of the colonialist cultural and political heritage, the traces of the local, more ancient or discrete influences, interlaced with the later colonial heritage, and can provide clues for understanding of the present in its complexity. The example of the teyyams is not a random choice but rather a specific example in which the history of the relations of power, which continues from pre-colonial times, is visible on the one hand in local political discussions, and on the other hand has been fully inscribed, as tension and transgression, into the ritual in a metaphorical way.","PeriodicalId":34948,"journal":{"name":"Asian anthropology","volume":"19 1","pages":"257 - 272"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/1683478x.2020.1765465","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44108204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian anthropologyPub Date : 2020-08-03DOI: 10.1080/1683478X.2020.1789308
Etsuko Kato
{"title":"Asianisms in motion: Asian selves and customized Asia among Japanese sojourners in the Pacific West and East","authors":"Etsuko Kato","doi":"10.1080/1683478X.2020.1789308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2020.1789308","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract 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 framework of Asianist studies, the article elucidates how the identification of “being Asian” is chosen by individual Japanese sojourners differently in the Pacific West (Canada and Australia) and the Pacific East (Singapore). In Canada and Australia, “Asian” is a covert category in daily practice that provides Japanese sojourners with almost the only strategy to legitimate their sojourn. Meanwhile, in Singapore, “Asian” is an overt discourse and a self-reconstructive category often contrasted with the “West(erners)” and “Japan(ese).” Nevertheless, the article points out that 1) Asian selves are not necessarily free from West- and Japan-centric hierarchical worldviews; 2) “being Asian” has positive meanings only in Anglophone, globalized, urban areas; and 3) “being Asian” is meaningful only in customized, progressive narratives.","PeriodicalId":34948,"journal":{"name":"Asian anthropology","volume":"20 1","pages":"93 - 112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/1683478X.2020.1789308","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44465503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian anthropologyPub Date : 2020-06-26DOI: 10.1080/1683478x.2020.1778154
Xianghong Feng, Qiaoyang Li
{"title":"Poverty alleviation, community participation, and the issue of scale in ethnic tourism in China","authors":"Xianghong Feng, Qiaoyang Li","doi":"10.1080/1683478x.2020.1778154","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478x.2020.1778154","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract While tourism development has become an important strategy for poverty alleviation, especially in China’s ethnic minority regions, existing studies observe widespread development problems, including uneven distribution of benefits and the marginalization of local residents. These realities challenge the popular belief in “scaling up” economic growth. Focusing on its gongfen (work-point) system, this article provides an ethnographic account of Upper Langde’s community-based tourism development and its evolution, especially the transition from no outsiders’ involvement to the county-government-directed “second development.” It records stakeholder interactions and narratives in quotidian routines, and reveals the internal village tensions, as well as its conflicts with the county government and the county-government-owned tourism company. Through this case study, I argue that “small” (scaled-down) and “slow” (low or no growth) might be what it takes to strengthen community participation and achieve fair distribution for poverty alleviation.","PeriodicalId":34948,"journal":{"name":"Asian anthropology","volume":"19 1","pages":"233 - 256"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/1683478x.2020.1778154","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42885421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asian anthropologyPub Date : 2020-06-24DOI: 10.1080/1683478X.2020.1779970
J. Mcdougall
{"title":"Globalization of Sichuan hot pot in the “new era”","authors":"J. Mcdougall","doi":"10.1080/1683478X.2020.1779970","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1683478X.2020.1779970","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract 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 regulation and control. With a series state-led food standardization and industrialization programs, hot pot restaurants quickly developed a franchising business model. In the late 2010s, several famous hot pot brands have established in different locations in the bustling cities in the United States. Challenging the taste buds of world food consumers, the hot and numbing sensation of the Sichuan hot pot is part of the national trajectory that aims to enhance China’s soft power. The paper argues that unlike the previous waves of Chinese food globalization brought by the earlier migrants from China, the globalizing hot pot is a different kind of Chinese food globalization developed within a political and economic context that witnesses China’s rise to global power.","PeriodicalId":34948,"journal":{"name":"Asian anthropology","volume":"20 1","pages":"77 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/1683478X.2020.1779970","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43824728","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}