Current History, the century-old international affairs journal, presents its September 2022 issue: the annual China and East Asia issue. https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/issue/121/836. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter: @CurrentHistory1.
The September issue includes the following:
China’s Zero-COVID Campaign and the Body Politic
Dali L. Yang (University of Chicago)
For its draconian approach to containing the novel coronavirus, the party-state ramped up its coercive powers. The siege of Shanghai revealed the heavy costs of uncompromising lockdowns.
China’s leadership has promoted its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, deploying lockdowns and other aggressive measures to keep cases and deaths low, as a demonstration of the superiority of its Communist party-state system compared with the pandemic performance of other forms of government around the world. But the zero-COVID approach has come with heavy economic and social costs that have become more visible with the spread of more transmissible variants of the virus. These costs, and the party-state’s unyielding approach of turning pandemic control into a militaristic national campaign, culminated in the long lockdown of Shanghai—a veritable siege—in the spring of 2022.View Article
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Desinicizing Taiwan: The Making of a Democratic National Identity
Ming-sho Ho (National Taiwan University)
As the Taiwanese people’s pride in their tolerant, inclusive democracy has grown, they have become less inclined to identify as Chinese, or to consider their island homeland as a part of China.
Over the quarter-century since the Asian financial crisis, social inequality has become more visible, and precariousness is now a part of daily life for many in South Korea. Examining patterns of disparity in different areas and the ways in which social discontent with increasing inequality is manifested and politicized will advance our understanding of the politics of social inequality—how perceived inequality leads to political preferences and collective action. This essay describes how different forms of inequality have evolved in South Korea since the late 1990s, what narratives have formed around these issues, and how they have shaped South Korean politics.View Article
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The Politics of Parasite in South Korea
Myungji Yang (University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa)
Economic inequality has become pervasive in South Korea, fraying the social fabric and undermining the national image of a developmental paragon.
Twenty years after gaining independence, following a violent exit from Indonesian rule that succeeded centuries of Portuguese imperial neglect, Asia’s youngest country is thriving in some ways and struggling in others. Its democracy is vibrant, yet power remains in the hands of an aging cohort of former anticolonial fighters. Rich oil and gas deposits have funded a growing state budget, but there are not enough jobs for the youthful population.
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Okinawa’s Unsettled Membership in Japan
Gabriele Vogt (Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich.)
Fifty years after its “reversion” to Japan, the burden of hosting US military bases is one of the perceived injustices that have limited the southernmost prefecture’s sense of national belonging.
In 2022, the 50th anniversary of Okinawa’s reversion to Japan from postwar US control was commemorated. To many Okinawans, however, this was no reason for celebration. Seventy percent of the US military deployed in Japan is stationed in Okinawa, and protests by citizens and local and prefectural-level politicians against this persisting imbalance have persisted for decades. As their demands continue to be neglected by the national government in Tokyo, many Okinawans question the quality of their membership in the Japanese nation-state.
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A Season of Youth in Timor-Leste
Douglas Kammen (National University of Singapore)
Two decades since its violent birth, Southeast Asia’s newest nation is stable and at peace with its neighbors, but domineering elder statesmen and reliance on oil revenue raise concerns.
Twenty years after gaining independence, following a violent exit from Indonesian rule that succeeded centuries of Portuguese imperial neglect, Asia’s youngest country is thriving in some ways and struggling in others. Its democracy is vibrant, yet power remains in the hands of an aging cohort of former anticolonial fighters. Rich oil and gas deposits have funded a growing state budget, but there are not enough jobs for the youthful population.
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The Urban Geographies of Philippine Transnationalism
Arnisson Andre C. Ortega (Syracuse University) and Evangeline O. Katigbak (De La Salle University, Manila)
From gated communities in Manila to island resorts, overseas migration and other international connections are putting their stamp on everyday life in the Philippines.
Overseas Filipinos have had an enduring impact in facilitating urban change in the Philippines. This article focuses on three sites—gated subdivisions, islands, and homes in peri-urban villages—that demonstrate the different ways Filipino transnationalism is entangled with urban transformations in the Philippines. The diaspora has an important role in the production of urban spaces, where houses, condominium units, and other structures are not just profit-driven investments, but are intimately linked to aspirations and dreams anchored in diasporic homelands.
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PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine and the Limits of China-Russia Friendship
Ed Pulford (University of Manchester)
Notwithstanding claims that their bond knows no limits, leaders in Beijing and Moscow have a history of official friendship that tends to last only as long as it remains expedient.
China’s tacit support for Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine raises questions about the extent of the two countries’ official “Friendship.” Studying the history of this tie, including during past crises comparable to the current war in Ukraine, shows that Friendship has its limits, even as the current global moment encourages Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to tout their bond.
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BOOKS
China’s Booming Fiction Industry
Michel Hockx (University of Notre Dame)
A survey of contemporary Chinese literature illuminates the country’s huge appetite for fiction in new online formats, going beyond the usual foreign focus on political dissidents.
China’s literary scene has taken off online: millions of novels are being published, catering to strong demand for an array of genres. A new book is a guide to the breadth of this booming market, going beyond the usual foreign focus on dissident literature.
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Current History publishes nine times per year. Each month’s issue focuses on a single region or topic—including annual issues on Africa, China and East Asia, Russia and Eurasia, the Middle East, Latin America, South Asia, Europe, and Global Trends, plus special issues on topics such as Climate Transformations, Pandemic Exposures, Rethinking Criminal Justice, and A Decade of Aftershocks.
Links to other essays relating to China and East Asia available online in Current History’s archives follow
Party-State Capitalism in China by Margaret Pearson, Meg Rithmire, and Kellee S. Tsai
Indonesia’s Economic Futures: Who Will Pay? By Doreen Lee
Did China’s Public Health Reforms Leave It Prepared for COVID-19? by Katherine Mason
The Lose-Lose Trade War by Xiangfeng Yang
Japan’s Model of Immigration Without Immigrants by Erin Aeran Chung
The Power and Limits of Populism in the Philippines by Nicole Curato
A New President Aims to Change South Korea’s Course by David C. Kang
Migrant Workers’ Fight for Rights in China by Anita Chan
The Misconceived One-Child Policy Lives On by Mei Fong
China’s Embryonic Public Sphere by Sebastian Veg
Is Vietnam on the Verge of Change? by Jonathan London
China’s Bold Economic Statecraft by Gregory T. Chin
The Paradox of Chinese Civil Society by Elizabeth J. Perry
History’s Unfinished Business in East Asia by Rana Mitter
The Evolving Tactics of China’s Green Movement by Judith Shapiro
China’s Post-Socialist Inequality by Martin King Whyte
Japan’s Post-Catastrophe Politics by Steven Vogel
The China-US Relationship Goes Global by Kenneth Lieberthal
America’s Place in the Asian Century by Kishore Mahbubani
China’s Beleaguered Intellectuals by Merle Goldman
China’s Unpeaceful Rise by John Mearsheimer
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