Etnoantropološki problemi / Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology
During the Covid-19 epidemic, Japanese and Chinese have overwhelmingly tended to wear face masks,... more During the Covid-19 epidemic, Japanese and Chinese have overwhelmingly tended to wear face masks, while Americans have not. Why? In this paper, based on ethnographic interviews with members of these three societies as well as examination of mass media and scholarly reports, I provide a preliminary interpretation of this question. I first consider social psychologists’ large-scale analyses of collectivism versus individualism; China and Japan are both considered to be collectivistic societies, whereas the United States is considered to be individualistic. I also consider ethnic belonging to one’s nation in China and Japan, as opposed to civic belonging to one’s nation in the United States. These explications have value in understanding Covid-19 policies but seem of limited use in explaining mask-wearing. For such understanding, I turn to ethnographic interviews—some twenty in each society—as well as participant-observation in public sites. My findings are these: While...
Asylum Seekers in Hong Kong: The Paradoxes of Lives Lived on Hold
Springer eBooks, 2014
This paper discusses the global crisis of asylum, with developing-world peoples clamoring to be a... more This paper discusses the global crisis of asylum, with developing-world peoples clamoring to be admitted to stable and wealthy developed-world societies, and illustrates this crisis through the case of Hong Kong, where I have been teaching asylum seekers for the past 6 years. Hong Kong’s asylum-seeker population is relatively small: there are 8,000–10,000 from South Asia and Africa who have come to Hong Kong to have their cases decided by the UNHCR or by the Hong Kong government, a process that may take 6 or more years. Many asylum seekers have come to Hong Kong not to escape political persecution, but to try to make a better living than they could in their home countries. Asylum seekers are legally forbidden to work in Hong Kong, but most work anyway, because under Hong Kong law, they are difficult to apprehend and prosecute. The ironic situation this creates is that those asylum seekers who illegally work are physically and psychologically better off than those who do not work, obeying the law. The former, once their cases are rejected, as almost all cases are rejected in Hong Kong, will go home with a nest egg, while the latter, who are more likely to be genuine in their claims, gain nothing and only interminably wait, while living with the fear of being returned home to face possible imprisonment or death.
This brief report discusses the Hong Kong protests of 2019-2020 in terms of cultural and national... more This brief report discusses the Hong Kong protests of 2019-2020 in terms of cultural and national identity. It examines how Hongkongers have had no concept of what it means to belong to a nation throughout their history; but because of the ham-handed efforts by the Hong Kong government to enforce Chinese national identity, many young Hongkongers have reacted by embracing a different "nation": Hong Kong. It also examines how many young Hongkongers have embraced a civic rather than an ethnic concept of who can be a Hongkonger, one that may lead, paradoxically, to a rejection of mainland Chinese as Hongkongers and to an acceptance of those who are not mainland Chinese.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, Mar 6, 2023
This paper critically considers the concept of 'productive aging,' maintaining that although the ... more This paper critically considers the concept of 'productive aging,' maintaining that although the term emerged as an effort to aid older people, it may be normative and potentially coercive. The paper illustrates this premise through an examination of Japan, through analysis of interviews conducted over decades, and, more fully, an analysis of advice books for Japanese seniors over the past twenty years. These advice books show how seniors in Japan are now increasingly urged to find contentment in old age as they themselves see fit, without concern over 'contributing to society.' In crucial respects, Japan has been moving from 'productive aging' to 'happy aging' as a guide for how to age. The paper then considers the judgment inherent in the term 'productive aging'-are some forms of aging better than other forms of aging?-by examining competing conceptions of happiness, advocating on the basis of this examination that the term 'productive aging' be replaced by 'happy aging.' Keywords happy aging • Japan • productive aging • retirement
Etnoantropološki problemi / Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology
During the Covid-19 epidemic, Japanese and Chinese have overwhelmingly tended to wear face masks,... more During the Covid-19 epidemic, Japanese and Chinese have overwhelmingly tended to wear face masks, while Americans have not. Why? In this paper, based on ethnographic interviews with members of these three societies as well as examination of mass media and scholarly reports, I provide a preliminary interpretation of this question. I first consider social psychologists’ large-scale analyses of collectivism versus individualism; China and Japan are both considered to be collectivistic societies, whereas the United States is considered to be individualistic. I also consider ethnic belonging to one’s nation in China and Japan, as opposed to civic belonging to one’s nation in the United States. These explications have value in understanding Covid-19 policies but seem of limited use in explaining mask-wearing. For such understanding, I turn to ethnographic interviews—some twenty in each society—as well as participant-observation in public sites. My findings are these: While...
Asylum Seekers in Hong Kong: The Paradoxes of Lives Lived on Hold
Springer eBooks, 2014
This paper discusses the global crisis of asylum, with developing-world peoples clamoring to be a... more This paper discusses the global crisis of asylum, with developing-world peoples clamoring to be admitted to stable and wealthy developed-world societies, and illustrates this crisis through the case of Hong Kong, where I have been teaching asylum seekers for the past 6 years. Hong Kong’s asylum-seeker population is relatively small: there are 8,000–10,000 from South Asia and Africa who have come to Hong Kong to have their cases decided by the UNHCR or by the Hong Kong government, a process that may take 6 or more years. Many asylum seekers have come to Hong Kong not to escape political persecution, but to try to make a better living than they could in their home countries. Asylum seekers are legally forbidden to work in Hong Kong, but most work anyway, because under Hong Kong law, they are difficult to apprehend and prosecute. The ironic situation this creates is that those asylum seekers who illegally work are physically and psychologically better off than those who do not work, obeying the law. The former, once their cases are rejected, as almost all cases are rejected in Hong Kong, will go home with a nest egg, while the latter, who are more likely to be genuine in their claims, gain nothing and only interminably wait, while living with the fear of being returned home to face possible imprisonment or death.
This brief report discusses the Hong Kong protests of 2019-2020 in terms of cultural and national... more This brief report discusses the Hong Kong protests of 2019-2020 in terms of cultural and national identity. It examines how Hongkongers have had no concept of what it means to belong to a nation throughout their history; but because of the ham-handed efforts by the Hong Kong government to enforce Chinese national identity, many young Hongkongers have reacted by embracing a different "nation": Hong Kong. It also examines how many young Hongkongers have embraced a civic rather than an ethnic concept of who can be a Hongkonger, one that may lead, paradoxically, to a rejection of mainland Chinese as Hongkongers and to an acceptance of those who are not mainland Chinese.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, Mar 6, 2023
This paper critically considers the concept of 'productive aging,' maintaining that although the ... more This paper critically considers the concept of 'productive aging,' maintaining that although the term emerged as an effort to aid older people, it may be normative and potentially coercive. The paper illustrates this premise through an examination of Japan, through analysis of interviews conducted over decades, and, more fully, an analysis of advice books for Japanese seniors over the past twenty years. These advice books show how seniors in Japan are now increasingly urged to find contentment in old age as they themselves see fit, without concern over 'contributing to society.' In crucial respects, Japan has been moving from 'productive aging' to 'happy aging' as a guide for how to age. The paper then considers the judgment inherent in the term 'productive aging'-are some forms of aging better than other forms of aging?-by examining competing conceptions of happiness, advocating on the basis of this examination that the term 'productive aging' be replaced by 'happy aging.' Keywords happy aging • Japan • productive aging • retirement
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Papers by Gordon Mathews