East Asian Societies Research Articles

Global policy paradigms, gender equality and everyday lives in Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul and Taipei

Focusing on the interface between gender equality, the labour market, and everyday lives in four East Asian societies – China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan – this article seeks to articulate the spatial expression and multi-scalarity of global governance and policy paradigms. It will demonstrate that whilst regions, places and people are influenced by global processes and paradigms, these move and embed in different ways across spaces, time and scales. In this context, the article seeks to develop a more nuanced appreciation of ‘the social lives’ of global policy models, engaging with the role of ideas and institutions and the interactions of transnational, national and local dynamics in the shaping of gender equality policies and everyday experiences. Drawing on qualitative data collected in Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul and Taipei the article draws out the perceptions of individuals from different policy, sectoral, social and cultural settings of gender equality. It highlights the tensions and disjunctures between general principles and particular situations, and in embedding gender equality policies into the social imaginaries and everyday lives of women and men. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing the role of place and power relations in shaping localized responses to and experiences of gender justice.

Toxic Academic Culture in East Asia

East Asian societies’ recent progress in higher education has been severely tarnished by a toxic academic culture. With the exception of Japan where academic culture has been substantially better developed, an academic culture that is based on meritocratic values, free inquiry, and competition is largely absent in East Asian societies. The rotten academic culture has casted a blight over East Asia’s ambitious aspiration to world-class universities, despite the region’s recent strides on the research stage and huge investment in higher education.

Confucianism, a Habit of the Heart: Bellah, Civil Religion, and East Asia ed. by Philip J. Ivanhoe, Sungmoon Kim

Reviewed by: Confucianism, a Habit of the Heart: Bellah, Civil Religion, and East Asia ed. by Philip J. Ivanhoe, Sungmoon Kim Ori Tavor (bio) Philip J. Ivanhoe and Sungmoon Kim, editors. Confucianism, a Habit of the Heart: Bellah, Civil Religion, and East Asia. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2016. ix, 235 pp. Hardcover $80.00, isbn 978-1-4384-6013-0. Paperback $24.95, isbn 978-1-4384-6012-3. The collected volume Confucianism, A Habit of the Heart, edited by Philip J. Ivanhoe and Sungmoon Kim, is the product of a conference in honor of Robert Bellah that took place at the City University of Hong Kong in 2011. Bellah, who received his training in a joint sociology and Far East languages program, began his career by studying Japanese religion but rose to prominence with the publication of his 1967 essay, “Civil Religion in America,” in which he argues that American culture is imbued with a religious dimension that can be differentiated from its various organized religious traditions. This entity, which Bellah calls “civil religion,” lacks the formal institutions of traditional religion, but it pervades throughout culture and, “commands special kind of reverence,” and can thus be understood as a “habit of the heart,” namely “the underlying, unofficial, often unselfconscious assumptions, orientations, beliefs, practices, symbols, and styles of reasoning that inform, shape, and guide life in society” (pp. 1–2). Drawing inspiration from this concept, the main goal of this book is to ascertain whether Confucianism can be regarded as the civil religion of East Asian societies. As discussed by Ivanhoe and Kim in their Introduction, while it originally emerged in pre-imperial China, Confucianism might be suited for this role as it spread throughout East Asia to eventually become an innate component, a “habit of the heart,” of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cultures, a set of “general moral principles, life orientations and aims, and styles of reasoning describing what a good person and good society are like and how one fosters personal moral development and social harmony” (p. 3). The book offers ten essays, including a closing contribution by Bellah himself, which can be roughly divided into two sections. Chapters 1–5 discuss the recent revival of Confucianism in China and its potential to serve as the foundation for a civil religion in China and beyond. In chapter 1, Fenggang Yang surveys the recent attempts by Mainland New Confucians (MNC) to reinvent Confucianism as a political, spiritual, and moral system that can function as an alternative to Christian-inspired individualistic philosophy that stands in the base of Western liberal democracy. After outlining the limitations of this project, Yang presents his own version of a potential civil religion, which will draw on the ideational and institutional resources offered by Christianity and combine them with Confucian elements in order to serve as the basis for a global civil religion (p. 43). In chapter 2, Sebastian Billioud draws on his fieldwork and argues that certain Confucian components, which [End Page 165] he defines as a “thin Confucian religiosity,” have already been incorporated into the doctrines and practices of other religious institutions to such an extent that it may now serve as the basis for a common civil religion, as long as it is promoted by grassroots organizations and communities and not enforced by the state as part of a top-down effort (p. 64). In contrast, chapters 3–5 offer a more pessimistic account. In chapter 3, Peng Guoxiang identifies two potential threats to the possibility of establishing Confucianism as a civil religion: the spread of commercialized Confucianism and its politicization by the proponents of Chinese nationalism and by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as a vehicle for authoritarian rule. He argues that the only hope for Confucianism lies in the success of its spread to the West, where it can serve as a base for a global civil religion devoid of any Chinese nationalistic and ethnocentric characteristics (p. 82). In chapter 4, Anna Sun links the reasons behind the recent revival of Confucianism in Mainland China, namely its usefulness as a perfect cultural symbol that has the aura of religiosity without having an actual popular base or institutional...

Division of Labor, Gender Ideology, and Marital Satisfaction in East Asia

AbstractUsing data from the 2006 Family Module of the East Asian Social Survey (N = 3,096), this article examines associations of marital satisfaction with divisions of housework and gender ideology in four East Asian societies: urban China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Compared with Japanese and Korean married women and men, Chinese and Taiwanese spouses were more satisfied with their marriage and had more egalitarian divisions of housework, but simultaneously they held less egalitarian gender ideologies. Multivariate analyses showed that relative share of housework was negatively associated with marital satisfaction for Japanese and Korean men and for Korean and Taiwanese women. Egalitarian gender ideology was significantly associated with lower marital satisfaction only among Taiwanese women. In addition, the negative association between housework and marital satisfaction was more pronounced for Taiwanese women who espoused more egalitarian gender ideologies. The authors discuss how differences in macro‐level social contexts explain these cross‐society variations.

THE RULE OF LAW AND EXPERIENCE OF THE KOREAN JUDICIARY

As a social norm, law in a democratic society should be established in the form of positive law by collecting opinions of people. In order for the rule of law to be properly practiced in a democratic country, the doctrine of separation of powers requires that the legislative, executive, and judicial functions should not be consolidated in a single body. However, even within a perfectly established legislative system, the principle of the rule of law may be distorted depending on the role of the judiciary. The experience of the Korean judiciary shows that even though it is designed to be a completely independent organ of the lawmaking National Assembly and the law-enforcing executive branch; it would fail to properly give effect to the country’s governing principle of the rule of law. It may be thought that the fundamental reasons lie in the endemic tendency towards the rule of man in East Asian societies. Nowadays, those who received education in a democratic society without experiencing the authoritarianism have begun to make inroads into the leadership of the judicial branch. They can be firmly determined to prevent freedom and rights of every single person from being infringed upon. In this way, they can be confident that the judiciary has fulfilled its roles in shaping a democratic country where the rule of law is exercised properly as a governing principle.

Taming the Primitive: Multiculturalism and the Anthropological Vision of South Korean Media

This study examines the meaning of ethnographic documentaries newly produced in South Korea. These TV programs present “primitiveness” to an extreme, which may reflect social changes in Korea. The South Korean media first started to show strong interest in international and intercultural issues, particularly non-Western cultures, as the society opened up to having a multicultural population; and there was also the international popularity of Korean pop culture known as Korean wave, hallyu. Korean TV documentaries illustrate complex responses to social changes and cultural diversification of the society, but recall colonialist views from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe. A colonialist vision is being emulated through concrete visuals, despite historical and cultural discrepancies between 19th-century Europe and 21st-century East Asia. This raises theoretical questions about an alternative form of postcolonial power in contemporary East Asian society.

Asian Families at the Crossroads: A Meeting of East, West, Tradition, Modernity, and Gender

East Asian societies have undergone major changes in the past few decades, including substantial declines in marriage and fertility. This article introduces the special section of Asian Families in Context by sketching commonalities and variations in patterns of marriage and family behavior in this region. A discussion of relevant theoretical frameworks from the Western literature follows. The final section briefly introduces the 6 empirical studies that comprise this section and discusses their relevance for developing and refining theory relevant to understanding family change in East Asia.

Combining Egalitarian Working Lives with Traditional Attitudes: Gender Role Attitudes in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea

AbstractIn a simple theoretical framework, egalitarian gender role attitudes emerge as more and more women participate in the labor market. Most advanced Western nations enjoy relatively gender‐egalitarian working environments, and consequently more egalitarian gender attitudes than their East Asian counterparts. Women in East Asian societies, on the other hand, are said to support both the conditions resulting in stagnant female labor‐force participation and traditional attitudes toward gender roles. In Taiwan, however, women are more economically active than in two other East Asian societies—Japan and South Korea—even though women in all three societies favor the traditional gender division of labor. Thus, in Taiwan, women experiencing inconsistencies between their active working lives and their traditional values. This study hypothesizes that this inconsistency, or the coexistence of the old and the new, is reflected in the very mind‐set of women. Using comparative data from the 2006 East Asian Social Survey, we analyzed the gap between responses to questions on gender attitudes in relation to working conditions, and other general gender role attitudes. We found there were significant differences in the size of these gaps. Taiwanese women expressed more egalitarian views insofar as the questions were concerned with practical economic interests, while they retained their basic traditional attitudes towards gender roles in their homes. This gap is larger in Taiwan than in Japan or South Korea.

A systematic review of research on educational leadership in Hong Kong, 1995-2014

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a research synthesis of substantive findings drawn from studies of educational leadership and management in Hong Kong between 1995 and 2014. The goal of the research synthesis was to identify and elaborate on key trends identified by scholars who studied educational leadership in Hong Kong over the past two decades. The synthesis drew upon on relevant articles published in eight “core international journals” specializing in educational leadership and management. Design/methodology/approach – The study first identifies a clearly delimited body of relevant literature comprised of empirical, non-empirical and review/synthesis types of studies in a total of 161 published research articles from the eight journals. Information concerning the nature of the studies as well as substantive findings was extracted from each of the articles. The findings were then initially coded in preparation for data analysis. Synthesis of substantive findings was accomplished by cross-article comparative mapping aimed at identifying key themes in the literature. Findings within four of the most robust themes were then synthesized and reported. Findings – The synthesis highlights the challenges faced in Hong Kong’s efforts to reshape its education in a multi-faceted quest for quality education in the twenty-first century. A variety of inter-related issues emerged as policymakers and education administrators sought to implement a full plate of imported globally recognized education reforms. Analysis of the research from this period yielded four robust themes: “leadership development,” “leadership for learning,” “organizational change,” “multi-level performance focus.” The findings also further highlight the impact of “education policy borrowing” on system-level efforts to revamp the structural conditions in which school leaders operate and reshape managerial, as well as teaching and learning processes in schools. Research limitations/implications – Although the scope of the sources included in the review are highly representative of the “Hong Kong literature” of the past two decades, the authors note that it was not an “exhaustive” review of all potential sources. Originality/value – Prior research by Hallinger and Bryant (2013b) had identified Hong Kong as having produced the largest volume of literature in educational leadership and management in Asia. This paper represents the first systematic review of research findings that emerged in the recent educational leadership literature produced in Hong Kong. Therefore, although the authors make no claims of generalizability to other parts of Asia or even to China as a whole, the paper offers insight into how global trends have reshaped the practice of educational leadership in one East Asian society.

A synthesis of reviews of research on principal leadership in East Asia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to synthesize findings from five systematic reviews of research on principal leadership in East Asia contained in this special issue. The goal is to identify commonalities as well as differences concerning both approaches to research and the enactment of school leadership within this rapidly developing and increasingly influential region of the world. Design/methodology/approach – The review uses thematic analysis of both structural elements and substantive findings drawn from the composite review papers. Findings – The synthesis of the research reviews found considerable variability across the five societies in terms of the volume of work accessible to international audiences, topical foci, the conceptual and methodological sophistication, and findings. Three content patterns were discerned via the thematic analysis of the five reviews: first, influences on the principalship (incorporating personal, cultural and political sub themes); second, principal leadership practices (including qualities and styles, vision, indirect influence on student learning and shared decision making); and third, principal development (including preparation, training and professional development). Research limitations/implications – In a broader sense, this synthesis paper seeks to assess the development of the field of applied study in East Asia over the past two decades. As such, the paper highlights implications for further building the knowledge base both in the region and globally. Originality/value – This synthesis, as well as the five reviews, represent the first effort to mark the boundaries of knowledge about school leadership in these East Asian societies. As such, they lay a foundation for the future development of the field in the region, and in so doing also make a contribution to a more diverse global literature in the field.

The Far Eastern Championship Games and the Development of East Asian Society

In the history of the modern Olympics, East Asia is as active an area as Europe. Its involvement can be traced back to the beginning of the modern Olympic Games, as can the closely related Far Eastern Championship Games (FECG). Held in the Philippines in 1913, and following the model of the Olympic Games, the FECG was the first international sports competition to be held in East Asia and it is also the first regional international sports competition recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Due to its great significance in the development of modern sports in East Asia, it has been referred to as the ‘Oriental Olympics’ and the ‘Modern Asian Games’. This paper tries to understand the relationship between the FECG and the development of East Asian society. It points out that the FECG has played a critical role in the development of East Asian society and has exerted many positive influences that have been beneficial to social progress and development over time.

Changing Life Courses and Risks in East Asian Societies

“Life course” refers to the sequence of activities and events in various domains throughout the stages of life. It has been argued that the life course was standardized and institutionalized, but that, since the 1980s, it has become de-standardized or increasingly diversified. Various types of risks have emerged and intensified. This paper suggests that these risks have led to a re-standardized life course, though with greater variations, in developed East Asian societies. It also examines the potential risks ? Transitional Life Course Risk, Compressed Life Course Risk and Alternative Life Course Risk - that have resulted from these changes and the tensions between individuals and systems.

Risk and Mobility: A Case Study of the Thin-Film Transistor Liquid-Crystal Display Industry in East Asia

As East Asian capitalism undergoes a series of changes, scholars have begun to study the effects of globalization on the development and decline of East Asian local industry and society. This article is a comparative analysis of the changing trajectories of the Taiwanese and Japanese thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display industries. It explores how Taiwan introduced, through collaboration, tacit knowledge from Japan, then conveyed that knowledge to mainland China, and closes with a discussion of the risks of tacit knowledge accumulation and cross-border talent mobility. Drawing on in-depth interviews and secondary-source analysis, the author shows that tacit knowledge and expertise are offshoots of the long-term accumulation of experience and technical knowledge that cannot be presented in manuals; they spread through the flow of technical personnel. Intellectual property rights cannot protect tacit knowledge. It is extremely difficult to keep it from traveling to other countries, which poses a risk for the development of Taiwanese high-tech industries. These findings help explain the surprising ways in which global technology flows affect employment in local high-tech industries.

Prevalence of dementia in East Asia: a synthetic review of time trends.

ObjectiveThis study aims to synthesise evidence on time trends of dementia prevalence in East Asian countries including Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan and assess the impact of the societal changes on future prevalence.MethodRelevant reviews and recent nationwide studies in East Asia were identified to investigate changes in prevalence of dementia over time taking into account the potential impact of methodological factors and study designs.ResultsThe robust evidence that has been interpreted to suggest a substantial increasing trend over time is less compelling once fundamental differences in study methods and populations across individual surveys are considered. In Japan, longitudinal studies in small areas suggest the potential increase of prevalence after 2000. Increasing trends in China, South Korea and Taiwan over the last 20–30 years are based on the literature review without adjustment for methodological differences. Economic development and huge societal changes alongside the rise of non-communicable disease in East Asia could lead to increasing prevalence of dementia in the future once those cohorts with high risk of dementia reached their older age.ConclusionCurrent evidence is not sufficient to suggest increasing trends of dementia prevalence in East Asia. Longitudinal studies with representative samples and stable methodology are needed to provide fundamental information of the epidemiology of dementia and identify important risk factors in East Asian societies. © 2015 The Authors. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The importance of gender and affect in the socialization of adolescents' beliefs about benevolent authority: Evidence from Chinese indigenous psychology

Belief in the benevolence and moral legitimacy of leaders in central government is theorized as a form of cultural capital consistent with the hierarchical relationalism of East Asian societies with Confucian roots. A reliable measure of benevolent authority beliefs (BAB) is introduced, and its convergent and discriminant validity relative to established measures of institutional trust are established. Its socialization as part of the political culture of Taiwan was examined among high school adolescents aged 13–16. Significant gender differences were found inconsistent with traditional patriarchy. Regression analyses showed that within the relationship with mothers but not fathers, adolescents associated higher reciprocal filial piety, authoritative parenting, and authentic (positive) affect with higher BAB. For daughters but not sons, reciprocal filial piety, authoritative parenting style, and authentic (positive) affect in the relationship with their father were positively associated with BAB. Affect‐based transfer from parent‐child relationships rather than authoritarian obligations based on rote learning was a key socializing factor in a contemporary Chinese society.

Africa, Asia, and the History of Philosophy: Racism in the Formation of the Philosophical Canon, 1780–1830 by Peter K.J. Park (review)

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Epistemic Elitism, Paternalism, and Confucian Democracy

This paper brings a fresh, epistemic perspective to bear on prominent Confucian philosophers’ arguments for (1) a hybrid Deweyan-Confucian democracy, or (2) for an illiberal democracy with “Confucian characteristics.” Reconstructing principles for epistemic elitism and paternalism from the pre-Qin 秦 Confucian thought that inspires these advocates for Confucian democracy, it finds two major problems with their proposals. For those who abandon or modify this epistemic elitism and paternalism in accordance with (1), the result is a philosophical syncretism that is either unconvincingly Confucian or unconvincingly Deweyan. For those who retain it in accordance with (2), the result is a democratic proposal that will lack legitimacy in increasingly pluralistic East Asian societies. In the end, there is a need for thinking that appropriately synthesizes Eastern and Western philosophies in a politically changing East Asia, but it would benefit from being less “Confucian.”

The Influence of Confucian Values on Modern Hierarchies and Social Communication in China and Korea: A Comparative Outline

Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, being by-products of socio-political and educational developments at various stages of Chinese history, have permeated to a varying degree several aspects of life in East Asian societies. China itself, along with its neighbouring states—such as Vietnam and Korea—despite political changes, globalization, and adoption of non-traditional systems of governance, have retained hierarchic models of communication derived from Neo- Confucianism. The nature of the doctrine and the transformative processes it underwent in the course of history are still widely discussed issues, just like the degree to which the societies in China and Korean Peninsula consciously follow the ethnolinguistic, philosophical, and moral principles of Confucianism. The goal of this paper is therefore not to focus on purely metaphysical aspects of Confucianism, but rather to examine communication patterns and modes of behaviour in various aspects of daily life in China and Korea introduced in processes of Confucianisation or influenced by Confucian philosophy, by means of the combination of qualitative method and comparative analysis.

When West Meets East: Generalizing Theory and Expanding the Conceptual Toolkit of Criminology.

This paper considers the ways in which established criminological theories born and nurtured in the West might need to be transformed to be applicable to the context of East Asian societies. The analyses focus on two theoretical perspectives-Situational Action Theory and Institutional Anomie Theory-that are located at opposite ends of the continuum with respect to levels of analysis. I argue that the accumulated evidence from cross-cultural psychology and criminological research in East Asian societies raises serious questions about the feasibility of simply transporting these perspectives from the West to the East. Instead, my analyses suggest that the formulation of theoretical explanations of crime that are truly universal will require criminologists to create and incorporate new concepts that are more faithful to the social realities of non-Western societies, societies such as those in East Asia and Asia more generally.

The effect of university ranking on learning satisfaction: Social identities and self-identity as the suppressor and mediators

The popularization of higher education has developed into a worldwide trend of ranking universities. In light of the lack of research from the student perspective and the non-individualism of East Asian society, the goal of the present study was to integrate social identity theory and characteristics of Chinese achievement goals in order to determine the relationships between university rankings and students’ university identity, major identity, self-identity, and learning satisfaction (LS). The participants included 1052 undergraduates (49.4% male, 50.6% female) from 13 universities in Taiwan. A questionnaire was conducted. The results of hierarchical regression analyses show that university ranking positively correlates with students’ university identity, major identity, and self-identity but negatively correlates with LS due to the effect of university identity acting as a suppressor. The results of structural equation modelling show that: (1) students’ major identity and self-identity completely mediate the effect of university identity on LS; and (2) university ranking has a significantly negative effect on LS after adding multiple identities as the suppressor and mediators. Furthermore, as students progress further into their studies, both their university identity and major identity gradually decline, while their self-identity remains constant. Theoretical and practical implications for higher education are also discussed.