Rethinking Representations of Asian Women ─ Changes, Continuity, and Everyday Life

Based on historic and ethnographic approaches, this volume examines how ideological images of Asian women are produced, circulated, appropriated, and pluralized. Contributors reflect on the interaction between the formation process of ideological representation (within the contexts of imperialism, colonialism, nationalism, and the post-colonial present) and the everyday practices of women who re-contextualize and resist these images. Chapters describe women's efforts to reconstruct relationships as well as their struggles for independence when they experience removal, separation, and deprivation. One example of such efforts is the reconstruction of intimate relationships, such as reframing the family or constructing a network outside the family for childcare and elder care. The volume features examples from Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Noriko Ijichi is Professor at Osaka City University, Japan. She is the author of The Life of People in Jeju Island as Viewed by a Japanese Scholar.

Atsufumi Kato is Assistant Professor at the East Asia Liberal Arts Initiative, University of Tokyo, Japan. A specialist in political anthropology, he is the editor of Weaving Women's Spheres in Vietnam: The Agency of Women in Family, Religion and Community.

Ryoko Sakurada is Associate Professor at Ikuei Junior College, Japan. She is the editor of Taberu no Jinruigaku [Anthropology of Eating] (forthcoming, in Japanese).