Multicultural Challenges and Redefining Identity in East Asia

Globalization and increased migration have brought both new opportunities and new tensions to traditional East Asian societies. Multicultural Challenges and Redefining Identity in East Asia draws together a wide range of distinguished local scholars to discuss multiculturalism and the changing nature of social identity in East Asia. Regional specialists review specific events and situations in China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines to provide a focus on life as it is lived at the local level whilst also tracing macro discourses on the national issues affected by multiculturalism and identity. The contributors look at the uneven multicultural development across these different countries and how to bridge the gap between locality and universality. They examine how ethnic majorities and minorities can achieve individual rights, exert civic responsibility, and explain how to construct a deliberative framework to make sustainable democracy possible. This book considers the emergence of a new cross-national network designed to address multicultural challenges and imagines an East Asian community with shared values of individual dignity and multicultural diversity. With strong empirical support it puts forward a regulative ideal by which a new paradigm for multicultural coexistence and regional cooperation can be realized.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables, Notes on Contributors, Acknowledgements, Introduction: Locality and Universality of Identity under Globalization in East Asia, 1 Foreigner Street: Urban Citizenship in Multicultural Shanghai, 2 Multicultural Challenges in Korea: Liberal Democracy Thesis vs State Initiated Multiculturalism, 3 From Kokusaika to Tabunka Ky?sei: Global Norms, Discourses of Difference, and Multiculturalism in Japan, 4 Taiwanese in China and Their Multiple Identities, 1895–1945, 5 Successfully Misunderstood: The Untold Realities of the Thai-Chinese Assimilation “Success Story”, 6 Ethnic Minorities and the State in Vietnam, 7 Diverse and Divisive: Multiculturalism in Singapore, 8 Beyond Multiculturalism: Redefining Indonesian Nationhood in a Globalized Age, 9 The Plural Society and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore, 10 Gendered Migration and Filipino Women in Korea, Index

About the Author :
Dr. Nam-Kook Kim works as Jean Monnet Chair Professor at Korea University. He studied at Seoul National University and Oxford University, and received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. His research concerns are in philosophical interpretation of public policy in the areas of citizenship, human rights, and multiculturalism in Europe and Asia.

Review :
’The ten in-depth studies on the East Asian countries, from China and Japan to Indonesia, reveal their internal cultural diversity. Thanks to a consistent conceptual framework, the new policies on migration and eventual social integration can be assessed in a transnational perspective.’ Frank Delmartino, Leuven University, Belgium ’Multicultural Challenges and Redefining Identity in East Asia is an important collection of well-researched essays. It grounds the all-to-often overly abstract notion of multiculturalism in both state policies and everyday realities of people throughout East and Southeast Asia. Readers who want to understand the changing identities and challenges facing people and societies throughout globalizing, transnational Asia would do well to pick up this book.’ Eric C. Thompson, National University of Singapore, Singapore 'Multicultural Challenges and Redefining Identity in East Asia is an excellent collection of articles, edited by an outstanding scholar, who is well grounded in related discourses on East Asia - the focal sub-region of the book. ... this book is a must read for policy planners (who are involved in modern day nation building across the globe), academia, international development practitioners and indeed freelance readers.' East Asian Integration Studies