Pub Date : 2021-06-10DOI: 10.1163/15700615-20211019
Julian Schwabe, C. V. Nguyen, M. Hassler
This study explores the barriers faced by white shrimp farmers in Vietnam in linking directly with food processing companies. The shrimp sector in Vietnam is still characterised by highly informal structures, weak implementation of food safety regulations and a lack of expertise among farmers to comply with international standards. The Vietnamese government anticipates modernising shrimp production and enabling farmers to achieve the quality standards of international retailers. While international food processing companies have established locations in Vietnam to serve international markets, farmers often lack the resources and expertise to comply with their requirements. The main challenges are related to infrastructure for transport and payment transfers, risk management and overcoming established production routines which are mostly based on tacit knowledge and experience. Hence, efforts are needed to improve infrastructures, establish risk management tools for farmers and promote successful cases which can act as guiding examples for adapting white shrimp production.
{"title":"Linking Shrimp Farmers and Food Processors","authors":"Julian Schwabe, C. V. Nguyen, M. Hassler","doi":"10.1163/15700615-20211019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-20211019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study explores the barriers faced by white shrimp farmers in Vietnam in linking directly with food processing companies. The shrimp sector in Vietnam is still characterised by highly informal structures, weak implementation of food safety regulations and a lack of expertise among farmers to comply with international standards. The Vietnamese government anticipates modernising shrimp production and enabling farmers to achieve the quality standards of international retailers. While international food processing companies have established locations in Vietnam to serve international markets, farmers often lack the resources and expertise to comply with their requirements. The main challenges are related to infrastructure for transport and payment transfers, risk management and overcoming established production routines which are mostly based on tacit knowledge and experience. Hence, efforts are needed to improve infrastructures, establish risk management tools for farmers and promote successful cases which can act as guiding examples for adapting white shrimp production.","PeriodicalId":35205,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of East Asian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46483317","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}
Pub Date : 2021-05-21DOI: 10.1163/15700615-20211016
R. Neironi
{"title":"Southeast Asia after the Cold War. A Contemporary History, by Ang Cheng Guan","authors":"R. Neironi","doi":"10.1163/15700615-20211016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-20211016","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35205,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of East Asian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43000010","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}
Pub Date : 2021-05-21DOI: 10.1163/15700615-20211015
Marco Bünte
{"title":"Myanmar—Politics, Economy and Society, by Adam Simpson and Nick Farrelly (editors)","authors":"Marco Bünte","doi":"10.1163/15700615-20211015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-20211015","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35205,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of East Asian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43614541","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}
Pub Date : 2021-05-21DOI: 10.1163/15700615-02001019
Mathieu Duchâtel
{"title":"Protecting China’s Interests Overseas, Securitization and Foreign Policy, by Andrea Ghiselli","authors":"Mathieu Duchâtel","doi":"10.1163/15700615-02001019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-02001019","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35205,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of East Asian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49082017","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}
Pub Date : 2021-05-13DOI: 10.1163/15700615-20211018
Zhi-nong Li, Shuqing He
The Tibetans who live among the valleys and mountains of the Jinsha River region, on the southeastern edge of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, still retain a considerable number of polygamous marriages. Through fieldwork in a Tibetan village, the authors discovered that polygamous marriage is a rational choice compatible with Tibetans’ traditional culture and natural environment, which can improve family well-being and lead to a good life. Our findings provide new fieldwork materials to support theories of cultural relativism advocated by the Boas school, which emphasises that the environment greatly affects culture, and Malinowski’s functionalism, which stresses that culture has been created to satisfy people’s practical needs.
{"title":"Tradition, Habitat and Well-Being","authors":"Zhi-nong Li, Shuqing He","doi":"10.1163/15700615-20211018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-20211018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Tibetans who live among the valleys and mountains of the Jinsha River region, on the southeastern edge of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, still retain a considerable number of polygamous marriages. Through fieldwork in a Tibetan village, the authors discovered that polygamous marriage is a rational choice compatible with Tibetans’ traditional culture and natural environment, which can improve family well-being and lead to a good life. Our findings provide new fieldwork materials to support theories of cultural relativism advocated by the Boas school, which emphasises that the environment greatly affects culture, and Malinowski’s functionalism, which stresses that culture has been created to satisfy people’s practical needs.","PeriodicalId":35205,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of East Asian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47781949","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}
Pub Date : 2021-05-07DOI: 10.1163/15700615-20211017
Ruijing Wang
This article explores the question of ‘a good life’ through a daily-life perspective. It focuses on a case regarding the abolition of infanticide, through which the relations and interactions between the socialist state and ethnic minorities of southwest China are examined. By elaborating how an Akha custom (infanticide) that guarantees communal goodness/purity was abolished, the research reveals three competing or collaborating notions of ‘good life’, where the Akha’s cosmological ‘good life’ is partly reformed to obey state law and to meet its members’ personal desires. This is an unusual case in that the ethnic cultural authorities from a small, politically marginalised, frontier-dwelling and egalitarian group in southwest China do not ‘resist’ or ‘collaborate with’ the state in the expected way. Instead, they draw on state power to oppose their own customs. With such a unique case, the research helps to diversify our understandings of state–society relations in southwest China.
{"title":"Good Baby, Good Life","authors":"Ruijing Wang","doi":"10.1163/15700615-20211017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-20211017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article explores the question of ‘a good life’ through a daily-life perspective. It focuses on a case regarding the abolition of infanticide, through which the relations and interactions between the socialist state and ethnic minorities of southwest China are examined. By elaborating how an Akha custom (infanticide) that guarantees communal goodness/purity was abolished, the research reveals three competing or collaborating notions of ‘good life’, where the Akha’s cosmological ‘good life’ is partly reformed to obey state law and to meet its members’ personal desires. This is an unusual case in that the ethnic cultural authorities from a small, politically marginalised, frontier-dwelling and egalitarian group in southwest China do not ‘resist’ or ‘collaborate with’ the state in the expected way. Instead, they draw on state power to oppose their own customs. With such a unique case, the research helps to diversify our understandings of state–society relations in southwest China.","PeriodicalId":35205,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of East Asian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49166599","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}
Pub Date : 2021-04-23DOI: 10.1163/15700615-20211014
I. Baird, Santi Piyadeth, Chanthavisouk Ninchaluene
Lowland rice cultivation is changing in southern Laos. A formalised survey and informal interviews in the lowlands of Savannakhet Province indicate that while some farmers still raise water buffaloes, farmers now mainly use hand-held mechanised ploughs to till their fields. More chemical fertilisers are being used, and improved seed varieties have become dominant, with native varieties disappearing. Due to these changes, rice yields have increased substantially, with many more farmers selling surplus rice. The trade-offs are, however, not simple. Through applying the lens of risk perception, this article presents data about how lowland rice farming—the main occupation for rural people in Savannakhet Province—has changed over the last twenty years, critically assessing how farmers perceive and act upon risk during this time of rapid agrarian change.
{"title":"Risk Perception and Lowland Rice Farming Change in Savannakhet Province, Southern Laos","authors":"I. Baird, Santi Piyadeth, Chanthavisouk Ninchaluene","doi":"10.1163/15700615-20211014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-20211014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Lowland rice cultivation is changing in southern Laos. A formalised survey and informal interviews in the lowlands of Savannakhet Province indicate that while some farmers still raise water buffaloes, farmers now mainly use hand-held mechanised ploughs to till their fields. More chemical fertilisers are being used, and improved seed varieties have become dominant, with native varieties disappearing. Due to these changes, rice yields have increased substantially, with many more farmers selling surplus rice. The trade-offs are, however, not simple. Through applying the lens of risk perception, this article presents data about how lowland rice farming—the main occupation for rural people in Savannakhet Province—has changed over the last twenty years, critically assessing how farmers perceive and act upon risk during this time of rapid agrarian change.","PeriodicalId":35205,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of East Asian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49655696","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}
Pub Date : 2021-04-13DOI: 10.1163/15700615-20211012
Lan Wei
Over the past two decades, Chinese rural architecture has experienced dramatic changes through the Building the Chinese Socialist New Village movement. Thousands of new houses, particularly in the model of the New Village, have risen abruptly out of the ground. These Western-style new houses with a garden (huayuan yangfang), which often appear in the media as typical family houses in Western society, largely represent the image of the good life of the state and the peasant in contemporary China. In this article, I focus on how the family house is produced and consumed in Baikou New Village in south China. By presenting the materiality of the dwelling space, this paper probes the intertwined processes of the materialisation of the blueprint of the good life and how the new houses influence family life (especially intergenerational relationships) in post-socialist Baikou New Village.
{"title":"Materialisation of the Good Life in the New House","authors":"Lan Wei","doi":"10.1163/15700615-20211012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-20211012","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Over the past two decades, Chinese rural architecture has experienced dramatic changes through the Building the Chinese Socialist New Village movement. Thousands of new houses, particularly in the model of the New Village, have risen abruptly out of the ground. These Western-style new houses with a garden (huayuan yangfang), which often appear in the media as typical family houses in Western society, largely represent the image of the good life of the state and the peasant in contemporary China. In this article, I focus on how the family house is produced and consumed in Baikou New Village in south China. By presenting the materiality of the dwelling space, this paper probes the intertwined processes of the materialisation of the blueprint of the good life and how the new houses influence family life (especially intergenerational relationships) in post-socialist Baikou New Village.","PeriodicalId":35205,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of East Asian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41416097","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}
Pub Date : 2021-04-13DOI: 10.1163/15700615-20211013
Kil-joo Ban
Which is needed more: sovereignty or security? The autonomy–security trade-off model sees this as a trade-off between a client and a patron. A client surrenders some measure of autonomy to a patron and, in turn, receives security. This paper explores whether the underlying logic is applicable to quasi-alliances between a state and a multinational regime, such as the United Nations Command (UNC). South Korea has maintained a quasi-alliance with the UNC since the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. The level of trade-off between South Korea and the UNC, however, has been changing over time, particularly while being affected by the power growth of South Korea, a client, and the preference changes of the US, the most important actor of the UNC, a patron. This paper attempts to explain why South Korea is much more enthusiastic in seeking full sovereignty and more autonomy in the 2018–2019 détente era.
{"title":"The Clash of Security and Sovereignty in Quasi-Alliance","authors":"Kil-joo Ban","doi":"10.1163/15700615-20211013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-20211013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Which is needed more: sovereignty or security? The autonomy–security trade-off model sees this as a trade-off between a client and a patron. A client surrenders some measure of autonomy to a patron and, in turn, receives security. This paper explores whether the underlying logic is applicable to quasi-alliances between a state and a multinational regime, such as the United Nations Command (UNC). South Korea has maintained a quasi-alliance with the UNC since the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. The level of trade-off between South Korea and the UNC, however, has been changing over time, particularly while being affected by the power growth of South Korea, a client, and the preference changes of the US, the most important actor of the UNC, a patron. This paper attempts to explain why South Korea is much more enthusiastic in seeking full sovereignty and more autonomy in the 2018–2019 détente era.","PeriodicalId":35205,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of East Asian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46265739","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}
Pub Date : 2021-03-24DOI: 10.1163/15700615-20211011
Youngjin Kang
The Japanese genkan provides a space where one can take off and put on one’s shoes; yet this practical function is also accompanied by a social/symbolic one. As a transitional area, it embodies the Japanese concept of uchi/soto (inside/outside). In this article, the Japanese genkan was analysed to identify (1) what types of interaction take place in a genkan; and (2) what cultural concepts can be used to identify and classify those types of interaction. The current article suggests that (1) a visitor is identified as either an uchi (inside) or soto (outside) person, and (2) any tension or conflict in this person’s uchi/soto identity grants the visitor an ambiguous status, which unless it is resolved ensures that the interaction between visitor and householder is conducted within a genkan. The paper analyses sixteen possible situations in a genkan and takes examples of each from Shōwa-era films by the Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu.
{"title":"Interaction and Identity in a Cultural Space","authors":"Youngjin Kang","doi":"10.1163/15700615-20211011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/15700615-20211011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Japanese genkan provides a space where one can take off and put on one’s shoes; yet this practical function is also accompanied by a social/symbolic one. As a transitional area, it embodies the Japanese concept of uchi/soto (inside/outside). In this article, the Japanese genkan was analysed to identify (1) what types of interaction take place in a genkan; and (2) what cultural concepts can be used to identify and classify those types of interaction. The current article suggests that (1) a visitor is identified as either an uchi (inside) or soto (outside) person, and (2) any tension or conflict in this person’s uchi/soto identity grants the visitor an ambiguous status, which unless it is resolved ensures that the interaction between visitor and householder is conducted within a genkan. The paper analyses sixteen possible situations in a genkan and takes examples of each from Shōwa-era films by the Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu.","PeriodicalId":35205,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of East Asian Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46534408","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}