GENDER IN CONTEMPORARY EAST ASIA
Aya Ezawa
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Swarthmore College
First offered as an ExEAS course at Columbia University in Fall 2002
COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Gender structures the situation of women and men in all societies, yet varies in shape and dynamics. The study of gender in contemporary East Asia provides a unique opportunity to explore differences in the articulation of gender between countries and regions, as well as compare and critically examine existing conceptualizations of gender. Going beyond dichotomies of East and West, traditional and modern, this course will examine gender issues from a theoretically informed and comparative perspective. In discussing different conceptualizations of feminism, gendered effects of economic change, women’s relationship to politics and the state, local and global processes of cultural production, and historical and transnational contexts which shape gender relations, the course will provide insight into the situation of women in contemporary East Asia, as well as extend our understanding of the dynamics of gender in the contemporary world.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Yuko Ogasawara, Office Ladies and Salaried Men, Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).

James Roberson and Nobue Suzuki, Men and Masculinity in Contemporary Japan: Beyond the Salaryman Doxa, ( London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003)

Laura Nelson, Measured Excess: Status, Gender, and Consumer Nationalism in South Korea, ( New York: Columbia University Press, 2000)

Lisa Rofel, Other Modernities: Gendered Yearnings in China After Socialism, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).

Robin M. LeBlanc, Bicycle Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999)

Coursepack

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Midterm and final take-home exams

Topics for the two exams will be distributed in class two weeks prior to the due date. In your essay, you will be asked to discuss particular issues raised by the assigned readings and class discussion so far. The essay should be no more than five pages long.

Film reviews:

You are required to write critical reviews of two of the three films we will watch during the semester. Your reviews should integrate relevant class materials and be no more than two pages long.

Final paper:

You should submit a one-page proposal with a bibliography, which outlines the major questions you intend to address in your paper. The final paper should be fifteen to twenty pages long.

Class participation and web-memos:

You should read the assigned materials in time for class and actively participate in class discussion. In addition, you should make at least one web-memo posting per week on the course website, in which you discuss the assigned class readings.

Evaluation:

Take-home exams: 30%

Film reviews: 10%

Final paper: 40%

Class participation and web-memos: 20%

CLASS SCHEDULE

INTRODUCTION: FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON EAST ASIA

1. Introduction

2. Feminisms, East and West

Edward Said, “Latent and Manifest Orientalism,” in A.L. Macfie (ed.), Orientalism: A Reader, pp.111-114, ( New York: New York University Press, 2000).

Bryan S. Turner, “From Orientalism to Global Sociology,” in A.L. Macfie (ed.), Orientalism: A Reader, pp.369-374, ( New York: New York University Press, 2000).

Chandra Talpede Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” in Chandra Talpede Mohanty, Ann Russo and Lourdes Torres (eds.), Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, pp. 51-80, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991)

Geraldine Heng, “’ A Great Way to Fly’: Nationalism, the State, and the Varieties of Third World Feminism,” in M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty (eds.), Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures, pp.30-45 (New York: Routledge, 1997).

3. Feminism in Japan

Chiyo Saito, Interview and “What is Japanese Feminism?,” in Sandra Buckley (ed.), Broken Silence: Voices of Japanese Feminism, pp. 257-270 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997).

Chizuko Ueno, Interview and “Are the Japanese Feminine? Some Problems of Japanese Feminism in its Cultural Context, “ in Sandra Buckley (ed.), Broken Silence: Voices of Japanese Feminism, pp. 293-301 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997).

Sandra Buckley, “A Short History of the Feminist Movement in Japan,” in Joyce Gelb and Marian Lief Palley (eds.), Women of Japan and Korea, pp.150-186, (Phiadelphia, Temple University Press, 1994).

Recommended:

Kazuko Tanaka, “The New Feminist Movement in Japan, 1970-1990,” in Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow and Atsuko Kameda (eds.), Japanese Women, pp. 343-352, (New York: The Feminist Press, 1995).

Mioko Fujieda, “Japan’s First Phase of Feminism,” in Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow and Atsuko Kameda (eds.), Japanese Women, pp. 323-343, (New York: The Feminist Press, 1995).

4. Democracy and women’s movements in South Korea

Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, “Minjung Ferminism: Korean Women’s Movement for Gender and Class Liberation,” Women’s Studies International Forum 18 (4): 417-430 (1995)

Bang-Soon L. Yoon, “Democratization and Gender Politics in South Korea,” in Rita Mae Kelly (ed.), Gender, Globalization, and Democratization, pp.171-194 ( Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001)

Cho Soon-kyoung, “The Limits and Possibilities of the Women’s Movement in Korea,” in Cho Hyoung and Chang Pil-wha (eds.), Gender Division of Labor in Korea, pp. 275-291, (Seoul: Ehwa Women’s University Press, 1994)

5. Feminism and Socialism

Elisabeth Croll, “New Standards,” Feminism and Socialism in China, pp.223-259 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978)

Mayfair Mei-hui Yang, “From Gender Erasure to Gender Difference: State feminism, Consumer Sexuality, and Women’s Public Sphere in China,” in Mayfair Mei-hui Yang (ed.), Spaces of their Own, pp. 35-67, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999)

Li Xiaojiang, “With What Discourse Do We Reflect on Chinese Women? Thoughts on Transnational Feminism in China,” in Mayfair Mei-hui Yang (ed.), Spaces of their Own, pp. 261-277, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999)

WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY

6. Women and the Japanese labor market

Mary C. Brinton, “Introduction,” and “Women in the Japanese and U.S. Economies, Women and the Economic Miracle,” pp.1-18; 24-70 (Berkeley:University of California Press, 1993).

Yuko Ogasawara, Office Ladies and Salaried Men, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). Introduction & Chapter 1

7. The Japanese company

Thomas P. Rohlen, For Harmony and Strength (Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1974), Chapters 1& 3

Yuko Ogasawara, Office Ladies and Salaried Men, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). Chapter 2

8. Office Ladies: powerless subjects or agents of resistance?

Yuko Ogasawara, Office Ladies and Salaried Men, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). Chapters 3-6, Conclusion

9. Men and marginalized masculinities in Japan

James Roberson and Nobue Suzuki, “Introduction,” Men and Masculinity in Contemporary Japan: Beyond the Salaryman Doxa, pp. 1-19, ( London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003)

James Roberson, “Japanese Working-Class Masculinities: Marginalized Complicity,” in James E. Roberson and Nobue Suzuki (eds.), Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan, pp. 126-143 ( London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003)

Tom Gill, “When Pillars Evaporate: Structuring Masculinity on the Japanese Margins,” in James E. Roberson and Nobue Suzuki (eds.), Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan, pp.144-161 ( London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003)

Recommended:

Masako Ishii-Kunz,“ Balancing Fatherhood and Work: Emergence of Diverse Masculinities in Contemporary Japan,” in James E. Roberson and Nobue Suzuki (eds.), Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan, pp. 198-216, ( London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003)

10. Economic growth, class and consumption in South Korea

Laura Nelson, Measured Excess: Status, Gender, and Consumer Nationalism in South Korea, ( New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), Chapter 1-3

Derek Robbins, “The Concepts,” Bourdieu and Culture, pp. 25-37, ( London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2000).

Recommended:

John Lie, “The Political Economy of South Korean Development,” International Sociology 7 (3) 285-300 (1992)

11. Patriotism and women’s consumption

Laura Nelson, Measured Excess: Status, Gender, and Consumer Nationalism in South Korea, ( New York: Columbia University Press, 2000), Chapters 4-6

Recommended:

Seungsook Moon, “Begetting the Nation: The Androcentric Discourse of National History and Tradition in South Korea, in Elaine H. Kim and Chungmoo Choi (eds.) Dangerous Women, pp. 33-66, (New York: Routledge, 1998)

12. Redefining modernity

Aihwa Ong, “ Anthropology, China, and Modernities: The Geopolitics of Cultural Knowledge,” in Henrietta Moore (ed.), The Future of Anthropological Knowledge, pp. 60-92 (London: Routledge, 1996).

Lisa Rofel, Other Modernities: Gendered Yearnings in China After Socialism, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), Introduction

Merle Goldman and Andrew J. Nathan, “Searching for the Appropriate Model for the People’s Republic of China,” in Merle Goldman and Andrew Gordon (eds.), Historical Perspectives on Contemporary East Asia, pp. 297-322, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000)

13. Discourses of liberation

Lisa Rofel, Other Modernities: Gendered Yearnings in China After Socialism, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), Chapters 1-3

14. Shifting meanings of authority

Lisa Rofel, Other Modernities: Gendered Yearnings in China After Socialism, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), Chapters 4-6

Emily Honig, “Maoist Mappings of Gender: Reassessing the Red Guards,” in Susan Brownell and Jeffrey Wasserstrom (eds.), Chinese Femininities, Chinese Masculinities, pp. 255-268, ( Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002)

15. Marriage, motherhood and femininity after socialism

Lisa Rofel, Other Modernities: Gendered Yearnings in China After Socialism, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), Chapter 7, Coda

Emily Honig and Gail Herstatter, “Making a Friend: Changing Patterns of Courtship,” and Translations, Personal Voices: Chinese Women in the 1980’s, pp. 81-136, (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988)

16. Midterm essay due

Film Screening: Through Chinese Women’s Eyes (1997), directed by Mayfair Mei-hui Yang (52 min).

WOMEN, POLITICS, AND EMPOWERMENT

17. Housewives and citizenship in Japan

Robin M. LeBlanc, Bicycle Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999), Chapters 1-3

Ruth Lister, “Women’s Political Citizenship: Different and Equal, in Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives, pp. 145-167, (New York: New York University Press, 1997)

Recommended:

Pharr, Susan, “The Background to the Contemporary Struggle: Gaining Political Rights in Japan,” Political Women in Japan, pp.15-41 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1981).

18. Women and politics in Japan

Robin M. LeBlanc, Bicycle Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999), Chapters 4-6, Conclusion

19. Women, politics, and the One-Child Policy in China

Yuk-Lin Renita Wong, “Dispersing the ‘public’ and the ‘private’ – Gender and the state in the birth planning policy of China,” Gender and Society, 11(4): 509-525 (August 1997)

Susan Greenhalgh, “Fresh Winds From Beijing: Chinese Feminists Speak Out on the One-Child Policy,” Signs 26 (3): 847-886 (Spring 2001)

Tyrene White, “The Origins of China’s Birth Planning Policy,” in Christina K. Gilmartin, Gail Herstatter, Lisa Rofel, and Tyrene White (eds.), Engendering China, pp.250-278 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994)

Recommended:

Margery Wolf, “The Birth Limitation Program: Family vs. State,” in Revolution Postponed, pp.238-259 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985).

GENDER, NATION, AND TRANSNATIONAL GENDER RELATIONS

20. War, memory, and the ‘Comfort Women’ issue

Hyun Sook Kim, “History and Memory: The Comfort Women Controversy,” Positions 5 (1): 73-106, (1997)

John Lie, “The State As Pimp: Prostitution and the Patriarchal State in Japan in the 1940's, ” Sociological Quarterly 38 (2): 251-264 (1997)

Hiromi Yamazaki, “Military Sexual Slavery and the Women’s Movement,” in AMPO (ed.), Voices from the Japanese Women’s Movement, pp.90-100, (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996)

Kim Pu Ja, “Looking at Sexual Slavery from a Zainichi Perspective,” in AMPO (ed.), Voices from the Japanese Women’s Movement, pp.157-160, (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996)

Habitual Sadness: Korean Comfort Women Today, directed by Byun Young-Joo (1999, 70 min)

21. Women, military bases, and international relations

Cynthia Enloe, “Base Women,” Bananas, Beaches & Bases, pp. 65-92. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989)

Katherine H. S. Moon, “Prostitute Bodies and Gendered States in US-Korea Relations,” in Elaine H. Kim and Chungmoo Choi (eds.) Dangerous Women, pp.141-174, (New York: Routledge, 1998)

“Ms. Pak,” in Saundra Pollock Sturdevant and Brenda Stoltzfus (eds.), Let the Good Times Roll: Prostitution and the U.S. Military in Asia, pp.208-239, (New York: The New Press, 1992).

22. Women and military bases in Okinawa

Koji Taira, “Troubled national identity: Ryukyuans/Okinawans,” in Michael Weiner (ed.), Japan’s Minorities, pp. 140-177, (London: Routledge, 1997).

Chalmers Johnson, “The 1995 Rape Incident and the Rekindling of Okinawan Protest Against the American Bases,” in Okinawa: Coldwar Island, pp. 109-129 (Cardiff: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999)

Linda Isako Angst, “The Sacrifice of a Schoolgirl: The 1995 Rape Case, Discourse of Power, and Women’s Lives in Okinawa,” Critical Asian Studies 33 (2): 243-266 (2001)

Recommended:

Ruth Keyso, Women of Okinawa: Nine Voices from a Garrison Island ( Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000).

23. International migration and intermarriage

Saskia Sassen, “Economic Internationalization: The New Migration in Japan and the United States,” Globalization and Its Discontents, pp.55-76, (New York: The New Press, 1998)

Mike Douglass, “The Singularities of International Migraton of Women to Japan: Past, Present and Future,” in Mike Douglass and Glenda S. Roberts (eds.), Japan and Global Migration, pp. 91-120, ( London: Routledge, 2000)

Nobue Suzuki, “Of Love and the Marriage Market: Masculinity Politics and Filipina-Japanese Marriages in Japan,” in James E. Roberson and Nobue Suzuki (eds.), Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan, pp.91-108 ( London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003)

THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

TRANSCENDING GENDERS AND BORDERS

24. Beyond ‘male’ and ‘female: Takarazuka theater

Screening of: Dream Girls, directed by Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams (1993, 50 mins.)

Karen Nakamura and Hisako Matsuo, “Female Masculinity and Fantasy Spaces: Transcending genders in the Takarazuka Theater and Japanese Popular Culture,” in James E. Roberson and Nobue Suzuki (eds.), Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan, pp. 59-76, ( London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003)

25. Fantasies of empowerment

Napier, Susan, Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke, ( New York, Palgrave, 2000), Chapters 1, 2, 10

Anne Allison, “Sailor Moon: Japanese Superheroes for Global Girls,” in Timothy J. Craig (ed.), Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture, pp. 259-278, (Armonk: M.E.Sharpe, 2000)

26. Cross-border fantasies and desires

Final essay due

Kathleen Erwin, “White Women, Male Desires: A Televisual Fantasy of the Transnational Chinese Family,” in Mayfair Mei-hui Yang (ed.) Spaces of their Own, pp. 232-257, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999)

Karen Kelsky, “Flirting with the Foreign: Interracial Sex in Japan’s “International” Age,” in Rob Wilson and Wimal Dissanayake, Global/Local, pp. 173-192, (Durham: Duke University Press, 1996)