Presented By: Nam Center for Korean Studies
Nam Center Colloquium Series | Borderland Dreams: the Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers
June Hee Kwon, Associate Professor, Sacremento State University
Attend in person or via zoom: https://myumi.ch/5yX7W
In Borderland Dreams, June Hee Kwon explores the trajectory of the “Korean dream” that has fueled the massive migration of Korean Chinese workers from the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in northeast China to South Korea since the early 1990s. Charting the interplay of bodies, money, and time, the ethnography reveals how these migrant workers, in the course of pursuing their borderland dreams, are transformed into a transnational ethnicized class. Kwon analyzes the persistent desire of Korean Chinese to “leave to live better” at the intersection between the neoliberalizing regimes of post-socialist China and post–Cold War South Korea. Scrutinizing the tensions and affinities among the Korean Chinese, North and South Koreans, and Han Chinese whose lives intertwine in the borderland, Kwon captures the diverse and multifaceted aspirations of Korean Chinese workers caught between the ascendant Chinese dream and the waning Korean dream.
June Hee Kwon is Associate Professor of the Asian Studies Program at California State University Sacramento. Trained as a cultural anthropologist,
Dr. Kwon's teaching and research have focused on Korean diaspora and transnational migration, borderlands and political ecology, materiality and affect, gendered labor and class formation, and human suffering and memories. Her area of expertise spans contemporary Korea (North and South), China, and Japan and includes postcolonial and post-Cold War culture and political economy across East Asia. As a sequel to her first book, Borderland Dreams, Dr. Kwon works on the next book project, Citrus Island: The Social History of Fruit Trees in Jeju, Korea, examining the intersection among transnational migration, fruit farming, and ecological transformation.
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at ncks.info@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
In Borderland Dreams, June Hee Kwon explores the trajectory of the “Korean dream” that has fueled the massive migration of Korean Chinese workers from the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in northeast China to South Korea since the early 1990s. Charting the interplay of bodies, money, and time, the ethnography reveals how these migrant workers, in the course of pursuing their borderland dreams, are transformed into a transnational ethnicized class. Kwon analyzes the persistent desire of Korean Chinese to “leave to live better” at the intersection between the neoliberalizing regimes of post-socialist China and post–Cold War South Korea. Scrutinizing the tensions and affinities among the Korean Chinese, North and South Koreans, and Han Chinese whose lives intertwine in the borderland, Kwon captures the diverse and multifaceted aspirations of Korean Chinese workers caught between the ascendant Chinese dream and the waning Korean dream.
June Hee Kwon is Associate Professor of the Asian Studies Program at California State University Sacramento. Trained as a cultural anthropologist,
Dr. Kwon's teaching and research have focused on Korean diaspora and transnational migration, borderlands and political ecology, materiality and affect, gendered labor and class formation, and human suffering and memories. Her area of expertise spans contemporary Korea (North and South), China, and Japan and includes postcolonial and post-Cold War culture and political economy across East Asia. As a sequel to her first book, Borderland Dreams, Dr. Kwon works on the next book project, Citrus Island: The Social History of Fruit Trees in Jeju, Korea, examining the intersection among transnational migration, fruit farming, and ecological transformation.
If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at ncks.info@umich.edu. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
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