June Hee Kwon, "Borderland Dreams: The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers" (Duke UP, 2023)

Dec 18, 2023

June Hee Kwon, author of 'Borderland Dreams: The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers', discusses the migration of Korean Chinese workers to South Korea. The podcast explores topics such as the motivations and challenges faced by migrants, dual identity and gender dynamics of Korean Chinese women, the historical overview and identity formation of Korean Chinese workers, the complexities of belonging, and the social history of tangent interest and the migration of things.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Borderland Dreams: The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers

02:24 • 14min

The Complex Identity and Gender Dynamics of Korean Chinese Women in Transnational Migration

15:56 • 3min

Korean Chinese Workers: Historical Overview and Identity Formation

18:32 • 29min

'On Homeliness' and the Complexities of Belonging

47:06 • 7min

The Social History of Tangent Interest and the Migration of Things

53:45 • 5min

Migration is a theme intertwined with hopes and dreams. In Borderland Dreams: The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers (Duke UP, 2023), 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 ethicized 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 in the Asian Studies Program at California State University Sacramento. Her research and teaching focuses include 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. She received my Ph.D. from the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University.

Yadong Li is a PhD student in anthropology at Tulane University. He conducts ethnography among ufologists in China. His research interests lie at the intersection of the anthropology of time, hope studies, and post-structuralist philosophy. More details about his scholarship and research interests can be found here.

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