International journal of Taiwan studies/International journal of Taiwan studies (Print), May 15, 2024
This paper analyses how social media users 'reimagined' the death of an undocumen... more This paper analyses how social media users 'reimagined' the death of an undocumented Vietnamese migrant worker in 2017 in Taiwan and revealed their views on ethnic hierarchy and the judicial system as a public institution. By conceptualising posting on PTT, a Chineselanguage BBS platform likened to Reddit, as a racialising process, this paper finds posters' reimagination of this event being characterised by criminalisation, dehumanisation, and distrust of the judicial system. Laden with emotions, some users displayed racial othering of migrant workers through militant masculinity, whereas others called for intersubjectivity and respect for life and rights. Some users equated being pro-police with being pro-violence, in contrast to others' demand to regulate the police's use of firearms. The totality of these views suggests that PTT is a volatile sociopolitical space facilitating antagonistic views. The racialising discourse echoes the exclusionary guest worker system adopted in Taiwan that regards migrant workers as the disposable and inferior other.
The increasing symbiosis between contemporary mobility and global Information and Communication T... more The increasing symbiosis between contemporary mobility and global Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has been widely recognized in both migration and media studies.1 Advanced media technology, including smartphones, facilitates information exchange and instantaneous communication.2 The pervasive use of smartphones is an everyday reality for migrants, whose activities are increasingly taking place online and in real time.3 Smartphone use by migrants and their families illustrates the different scales of modern mobility within structural socioeconomic and political orders.4 Smartphones, and those applications downloaded to the device, enhance connectivity5 with regard to transactions, entertainment, socialization, networking, and activism. They help with community building and boost a sense of belonging among people who are connected via various applications.
This paper investigates the everyday lived realities of Southeast Asian migrant workers who left ... more This paper investigates the everyday lived realities of Southeast Asian migrant workers who left the formal sector of the labour market and entered the informal agricultural sector before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. Drawing on observations of migrants' daily lives and farm work and 19 in-depth interviews, it delves into migrants' subjective experiences of vulnerability, paternal
This article analyses Chinese women's e-entrepreneurship of trading nostalgic and/or conteste... more This article analyses Chinese women's e-entrepreneurship of trading nostalgic and/or contested goods in the disputed sovereign borders and virtual marketplace in the borderland between China and Taiwan. Using physical and digital ethnography, and drawing on the case study of the journey of chicken feet and other goods traded through WeChat by Chinese women in Taiwan, this article shows how the online and offline trails of these goods and the virtual marketplace generate new forms of transnationalism and connectedness between the two rivaling societies. Calling attention to Chinese women's emotions and nostalgia embedded in their e-entrepreneurship, their goods’ geographical movements, and their social networks, these findings enrich our understanding of transnational entrepreneurship as well as migrants’ agency-making and digital connectivity. However, highlighting how the worsening Taiwan-China relationship has diminished micro e-entrepreneurship, this article also reveals ...
Migration has transformed Taiwanese society in the last 20 years. The main inflows have been temp... more Migration has transformed Taiwanese society in the last 20 years. The main inflows have been temporary workers from Southeast Asian countries and female spouses from Southeast Asia and China marrying Taiwanese husbands. The main outflow has been migration to China, as a result of increased economic integration across the Taiwan Strait. These changes have significantly altered Taiwan’s ethnic structure and have profound social and political implications for this new democracy. As large numbers of these migrants take Taiwanese citizenship and their offspring gain voting rights, the impact of these "new Taiwanese" will continue to increase. This book showcases some of the leading researchers working on migration to and from Taiwan. The chapters approach migration from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including international relations, sociology, social work, film studies, political science, gender studies, geography and political economy and so the book has great appeal to scholars and students interested in the politics of Taiwan, Taiwanese society and ethnic identity as well as those focusing on migration in East Asia and comparative migration studies.
This paper probes how temporality is integral to the health examination regime that aims to prote... more This paper probes how temporality is integral to the health examination regime that aims to protect citizens from infectious diseases in Taiwan. The paper finds that migrant workers in less-skilled occupations are examined more frequently than foreign professionals. Analyzing such differentiation, this paper argues that a hierarchy of sanitization is built on and increases the inequality between them and perpetuates instability in migrant workers’ circumstances. Applying a temporal approach to the study of health examination opens new inroads into our understanding of how a “migration state” achieves the exclusion of migrant workers by making them outsiders subject to permanent intrusion into their bodies.
I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Orien... more I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination.
International journal of Taiwan studies/International journal of Taiwan studies (Print), May 15, 2024
This paper analyses how social media users 'reimagined' the death of an undocumen... more This paper analyses how social media users 'reimagined' the death of an undocumented Vietnamese migrant worker in 2017 in Taiwan and revealed their views on ethnic hierarchy and the judicial system as a public institution. By conceptualising posting on PTT, a Chineselanguage BBS platform likened to Reddit, as a racialising process, this paper finds posters' reimagination of this event being characterised by criminalisation, dehumanisation, and distrust of the judicial system. Laden with emotions, some users displayed racial othering of migrant workers through militant masculinity, whereas others called for intersubjectivity and respect for life and rights. Some users equated being pro-police with being pro-violence, in contrast to others' demand to regulate the police's use of firearms. The totality of these views suggests that PTT is a volatile sociopolitical space facilitating antagonistic views. The racialising discourse echoes the exclusionary guest worker system adopted in Taiwan that regards migrant workers as the disposable and inferior other.
The increasing symbiosis between contemporary mobility and global Information and Communication T... more The increasing symbiosis between contemporary mobility and global Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has been widely recognized in both migration and media studies.1 Advanced media technology, including smartphones, facilitates information exchange and instantaneous communication.2 The pervasive use of smartphones is an everyday reality for migrants, whose activities are increasingly taking place online and in real time.3 Smartphone use by migrants and their families illustrates the different scales of modern mobility within structural socioeconomic and political orders.4 Smartphones, and those applications downloaded to the device, enhance connectivity5 with regard to transactions, entertainment, socialization, networking, and activism. They help with community building and boost a sense of belonging among people who are connected via various applications.
This paper investigates the everyday lived realities of Southeast Asian migrant workers who left ... more This paper investigates the everyday lived realities of Southeast Asian migrant workers who left the formal sector of the labour market and entered the informal agricultural sector before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan. Drawing on observations of migrants' daily lives and farm work and 19 in-depth interviews, it delves into migrants' subjective experiences of vulnerability, paternal
This article analyses Chinese women's e-entrepreneurship of trading nostalgic and/or conteste... more This article analyses Chinese women's e-entrepreneurship of trading nostalgic and/or contested goods in the disputed sovereign borders and virtual marketplace in the borderland between China and Taiwan. Using physical and digital ethnography, and drawing on the case study of the journey of chicken feet and other goods traded through WeChat by Chinese women in Taiwan, this article shows how the online and offline trails of these goods and the virtual marketplace generate new forms of transnationalism and connectedness between the two rivaling societies. Calling attention to Chinese women's emotions and nostalgia embedded in their e-entrepreneurship, their goods’ geographical movements, and their social networks, these findings enrich our understanding of transnational entrepreneurship as well as migrants’ agency-making and digital connectivity. However, highlighting how the worsening Taiwan-China relationship has diminished micro e-entrepreneurship, this article also reveals ...
Migration has transformed Taiwanese society in the last 20 years. The main inflows have been temp... more Migration has transformed Taiwanese society in the last 20 years. The main inflows have been temporary workers from Southeast Asian countries and female spouses from Southeast Asia and China marrying Taiwanese husbands. The main outflow has been migration to China, as a result of increased economic integration across the Taiwan Strait. These changes have significantly altered Taiwan’s ethnic structure and have profound social and political implications for this new democracy. As large numbers of these migrants take Taiwanese citizenship and their offspring gain voting rights, the impact of these "new Taiwanese" will continue to increase. This book showcases some of the leading researchers working on migration to and from Taiwan. The chapters approach migration from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including international relations, sociology, social work, film studies, political science, gender studies, geography and political economy and so the book has great appeal to scholars and students interested in the politics of Taiwan, Taiwanese society and ethnic identity as well as those focusing on migration in East Asia and comparative migration studies.
This paper probes how temporality is integral to the health examination regime that aims to prote... more This paper probes how temporality is integral to the health examination regime that aims to protect citizens from infectious diseases in Taiwan. The paper finds that migrant workers in less-skilled occupations are examined more frequently than foreign professionals. Analyzing such differentiation, this paper argues that a hierarchy of sanitization is built on and increases the inequality between them and perpetuates instability in migrant workers’ circumstances. Applying a temporal approach to the study of health examination opens new inroads into our understanding of how a “migration state” achieves the exclusion of migrant workers by making them outsiders subject to permanent intrusion into their bodies.
I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Orien... more I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination.
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Papers by Isabelle Cheng