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Most of the previous research on cultural taste supports class determinism. However, rapid cultural flow following globalization makes it possible for consumers of different classes to access various cultural products, which declares the failure of class determinism in cultural taste. The paper proposes the regional shift and the classificatory shift in taste research. It also examines the effect of globalization on cultural taste through "horizontal" and "vertical" omnivorousness in East Asian societies. The study finds that: (1) social class fails to predict cultural omnivorousness; (2) individuals with higher level of globalization have a wider range of cultural taste; (3) the process of globalization on national level encourages people to appreciate various cultural products. The discussion on the effect of globalization on cultural omnivorousness in East Asia helps to better understand patterns of cultural taste in a globalized context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to theorize the welfare state formation in advanced East Asian capitalist economies in the context of economic development strategy. State-led, export-oriented industrialization pioneered by Japan and followed by the Four Tigers of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore set the basic parameters of the Neomercantilist Residual Welfare State (NRWS): low social spending and heavy reliance on family and enterprise welfare. While other theoretical approaches see a general 'underdevelopment' of social welfare in these economies, this paper argues that the NRWS employs 'surrogate social policies' that compensate for the lack of conventional welfare policies without proper noticed in the comparative welfare state literature. Among others, agricultural subsidies for small farmers and the statutory retirement payment for the working and middle classes in Japan, Korea and Taiwan can be considered as such.A major divergence within the East Asian NRWS stems from two factors. One is that Singapore and Hong Kong are small city-states without rural hinterlands; the other is colonial legacy in that the city-states inherited the British-introduced social welfare institutions while Japan, Korea and Taiwan developed the social insurance-based system through policy diffusion and importation. Therefore, the NRWS has two subsets, the city-state and the nation-state model. The NRWS was predicated upon the development strategy that enabled the East Asian 'economic miracle' in the late twentieth century. Recent changes in political economic environments, often summarized into globalization and democratization, have set off a complex process of global convergence/regional divergence of the welfare state in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a focus on East Asian modernity, this paper tends to challenge the western-centric understanding of modernity by including a discussion of Asian cultural perspectives by study coffee consumption in East Asia. this is an study to understand how a society adopts foreign goods. Does Starbucks tell the story of Macdonaldization we have now, or how different they are? By historical documents, in-depth interview and business statitsics, this paper analyzes the history of coffee consumption and it sociological meaning for local societies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there a single East Asian welfare state model? How did economic policies, globalization, democratization, and economic crisis affect the welfare regimes of the East Asian societies? Such factors have been examined within the context of western advanced societies. Also, the studies on the East Asian cases tend to remain in the 20th century. This paper sought to expand the welfare state debates using a comparative dataset of the representative East Asian societies (Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines) since the late 1980s to 2005. During this period, these societies experienced post-industrialization, globalization, and democratization with different degree, pace, and tracks. Unlike the western societies, they experienced such changes in a short time-span. Thus, the eight East Asian societies present unique opportunities to examine the recent debates on welfare state programs not only for the region, but welfare regimes in general. With a comparative analysis of the trends of various factors, the paper concluded that the East Asian welfare regimes diverged into two types. Also, it argued that such divergence can be explained by the institutional legacy based on the developmental state programs (or, production regimes) and the degree of democratization. Also, economic globalization and economic crisis in late 1990s did not directly affect long-term trends of social welfare. They influenced the current welfare regimes only in conjunction with the level of democratization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparing the linkages between political economy and social welfare between advanced capitalist economies in East Asia, this paper suggests a two-model approach toward the East Asian welfare states. On the one hand, there are the nation-state model of Japan, Korea and Taiwan, and the city-state model of Hong Kong and Singapore on the other. The nation-state model, in particular, is based on historical ties between these three countries and similarities in their political economic regimes that feature a strong developmentalist orientation and welfare conservatism. But the recent move towards democratization in Korea and Taiwan has destabilized the conservative model of welfare capitalism, bringing about significant welfare expansion in these two countries. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of giant transnational contractors, based primarily in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and China, who operate factories throughout the world, is a yet-unstudied trend that has important implications for global development. These factories are primarily found in East Asia (China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia), Mexico, and Central America, although in certain sectors (such as apparel) they are beginning to appear in Africa as well. The emergence of giant transnational contractors portends a dramatic shift of organizational power within global supply chains, as large factories provide a potential counterweight to the growing power of retailers. This paper offers some preliminary observations on two aspects of global supply chains: how the trend towards concentration of production in large transnational East Asian contractors impacts the relative power of contractors vis-à-vis retailers, and the extent to which large contractors generate linkages with other firms and sectors locally that contribute to industrial upgrading and thereby broader-based economic development, as well as working conditions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explanation of economic interactions within East Asia has long been split between those who view action as an outcome of rational decision-making by an autonomous state and those who view it as a result of cultural patterns ingrained in Confucianism and other elements of traditional culture. This paper shows how these two approaches can used in a complementary rather than conflicting manner to explain the origins of cooperative private enterprise in East Asia under very different structural circumstances than in the west. It does so by examining ways in which cultural norms act as kind of social capital, providing points of convergence for rational actors in situations of strategic uncertainty which would otherwise induce multiple equilibria. Norms as social capital will be particularly important at those points in history when new institutions are being formed, and can lead to distinct institutional forms. Once created, however, the institutions themselves can structure incentives in a way that leads to self-perpetuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the mid to late 19th century, Japan and other East Asian countries faced major shifts from internal and external factors. International relations in East Asia before the mid 19th century was based on Sino-centric and hierarchical suzerainty. Japan, which was peripheral to the suzerain state system later came to dominate East Asia economically and militarily. Japan abandoned the suzerain state system model to adopt the model of international law. Though Japan's exposure to international law was through the unequal (Ansei) treaties of 1853, but international law aided Japan's dominance in the region. The paper explores why and how Japan interpreted international law in the 19th century using theories from international relations and comparative historical sociology. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study approaches East Asian colonialism with the psychoanalytic concept of 'melancholia'. Through exploring the cases of two famous comic series, one South Korean and the other Japanese - Nambul and Zipang, this paper delves into the triadic structure of East Asian colonialism which has affected memory, interpretation and representation of modern history in East Asian societies. Both works in this study are alike in the respect of dealing with imaginary war stories, (re)constructing alternative history, and presenting nationalist revision of historical experiences. Moreover, their view of pre-existing history involves melancholia, which Freud regarded as pathological sentiment and attitude to the loss. Their melancholic despair and the revision of history in both Nambul and Zipang lead us to pay attention to the triadic structure of non-Western colonialism in East Asia. It is a crucial key of understanding how colonial history is remembered and represented. It affects modernity in East Asian societies in these days as well as in colonial times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe the demographic characteristics and dynamics of the 20-21 million Muslims in China. We ask whether Chinese Muslims could ever have the national and international impacts of Muslims elsewhere in the world. Will Chinese Muslims ever be expected to impact China, the East Asia region, and the world in the same manner as, say, Muslims in Iraq or in Iran, have impacted their countries, the Gulf region and the world? Owing to the vast differences among the Muslim groups and the uneasy if not suppressive relationship of the Chinese government to any body with a political agenda involving separatism, among other reasons, we conclude that it is doubtful that Chinese Muslims could ever have the national and international impacts of Muslims elsewhere in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we focus on the roles of the steel and shipbuilding industries in Korea's rapid economic ascent to a leading role in the global economy. We will address three specific questions. First, how did the Korean government foster the development of leading firms that became leaders in their global industries? Second, how did the Korean firms survive the competition with Japanese firms in these industries? We focus on the main strategies for the success of the Korean steel and shipbuilding industries in terms of organization, international cooperation, and the adoption of various new technologies. Third, what are the implications of the emergence of Chinese competitors and China's rapid economic ascent for the Korean steel and shipbuilding industries? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over world history, analysts recognize the presence of disruptive periods that come to impact the patterns of everyday life. In European history the medieval period is often referred to as the Dark Ages, an interval in time characterized by political disunity, chaos, wars, population loss, and a disruption of exchange networks (Chew 2001a). This study argues that East Asia has historically undergone similar periods as political, social, and economic life is disrupted. Centuries after the collapse of the Han dynasty, China fell into political disarray and decline. The chaos and disorder experienced in China bears a strong resemblance to that often referred to by historians as the European Dark Ages. East Asian history, and in particular Chinese annals, is witness to these periods. This study examines the presence of East Asian Dark Age from the third century A.D. up until the seventh century A.D., this disruptive period is very much tied to a pre-Dark Age period characterized by intense resource utilization, consumption, abundance, and prosperity. The implication for subsequent periods is an altered and depleted environment. When coupled with political fragmentation, wars, disease, famine, and drought, an ecologically unstable situation leads to a decrease in trade and cultural contacts. This study finds that environmental features also come to characterize Dark Age periods. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the policy studies of East Asia in general, and Taiwan in particular, by analyzing the discursive politics affecting the articulation of women's productive and reproductive labor rights in policy development within a historical context. In the last 50 years, Taiwan has gone through three distinct eras, each characterized by different articulations of nation-building. However, each also share the same core ideology of nation-building as benefiting the collective good.

Current writing in the macrosociology of development argues that developmental states require an elaborate set of historical preconditions. These preconditions increase the autonomy of the state technocracy against pressures from local capital and regional elites, preventing state development initiatives from becoming ineffective by falling into clientilism and capture by private interests. The comparative impact of this is to set up an implicit contrast between East Asia and the rest of the world - with the rest of the world being viewed as less promising for state led development.This paper argues that while such preconditions are without question desirable, it is entirely possible for states to have effective development policies in the absence of such ideal conditions. Three case studies of economic development in northeastern Brazil are used to show that state development mechanisms suggested by James O'Connor, Peter Evans and Claus Offe are all capable of promoting development, even in settings rife with corruption, and private sector meddling with social policy. The secret in all of these cases is that the development initiatives concerned are all relatively inexpensive - and they all require low levels of technical skills in order to execute. When development projects are cheap and easy, even flawed governments can execute them well. This greatly expands the theoretical domain of applicability of state led development theories beyond the ideal cases of East Asia and suggests that the ability of states to raise standards of living beyond that expected from market levels may be quite widespread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I use historical and contemporary documentation of migration from Korea, Japan, and China to explain the variation and changes in international migration patterns from the three countries in the pre- and post- 1980s East Asia. I contend that the patterns of migration for the pre-1980s' migrants are "inter-national" in character and result in large part from different structural conditions of the respective home and host societies. However, the patterns of migration from the three societies after the 1980s become increasingly similar with one another, therefore "transnational": I hypothesize that this outcome arises from emerging transnational economic similarities that go across societies. This shift in salience from distinctive local and national conditions to similarities in global conditions portends substantial changes in the patterns of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports results from a network analysis of global airline passenger flows and international commodity trade data in order to test propositions related to the effect of globalization on the relationship between the world-system of cities and the interstate world-system. Recent discussions of a world city hierarchy relate that structure to the wider global international division of labor and world-economy. Many scholars suggest that the broader parameters of the world-system structures the urban hierarchy embedded within it, but recently others argue that the urban hierarchy is decoupling from the world-system. Our analyzes show that there has been some modest convergence in the distribution of power in the world city system. Moreover, they suggest that the mechanism for this divergence/convergence is has been the upward mobility of cities located in the semi-periphery and the East Asian region. We close by considering the implication of these findings for a larger understanding of the relationship between globalization, the structure of the world city system and its isomorphism with the world-system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research moves beyond the civilizing versus destructive moral views of market society to examine the emerging local/transnational Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) market in Taiwan. The author adopts Fourcade and Healy's (2007) approach of "moralized market" to understand the moral landscape of an emerging market and its economic orders. Multiple research methods were utilized for data collection, mainly fieldwork, in-depth interview, and secondary source data search. The author argues that social actors mobilize contesting justificatory logics to do moral legitimacy, through which the moral and economic orders of commencing ARTs care have been generated, practiced, and experienced. In addition, my findings suggest that there is a variation in the ARTs market organization. This research contributes to the old question about morality and market in economics and economic sociology. Positioning in economic and organizational sociology, feminist studies, and science, technology, and society (STS) studies, this research specifically contributes to the body of literature on the moralized market by incorporating techno-scientific and feminist lens, and contributes to the previous feminist and STS studies of the ARTs by incorporating a moralized market approach. Moreover, this research offers an empirical understanding of the emerging global ARTs market in our current time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deteriorating employment circumstances for young adults have been posited as one of the major factors contributing to fertility decline in East Asia. Using two nationally representative longitudinal data of young adults in Japan (Japanese Panel Study of Consumers) and South Korea (Korean Welfare Panel Study), we examine relationships of women's work (e.g., unemployment, standard, and nonstandard employment) with fertility outcomes in these two countries. Results from discrete-time hazard models show that women in standard employment delay childbirth for both first and second birth. In addition, women in nonstandard employment are least likely to make a transition to first and second childbirth. These patterns are found to be the same in Japan and South Korea. We speculate that the reasons for delaying childbirth may vary by women's employment type. Women in career jobs with standard employment may postpone childbirth for career advancement. In contrast, women in unstable employment conditions with nonstandard employment may postpone childbearing because of economic constraints. Findings of this study will help us understand interrelationships between precarious work, gender, and fertility. They will also shed light on the role of social, economic, and policy contexts that may condition these relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased prevalence of premarital pregnancy is thought to be a key indicator of family change in East Asian societies. Drawing on retrospective data on women's pregnancy histories collected in 2016, we investigate prevalence, trends, and factors associated with premarital pregnancy in China. Overall, 12% of Chinese married women born between the 1970s and the 1990s have experienced at least one premarital pregnancy. Women in more recent cohorts are more likely than their counterparts born in the 1970s to have premarital pregnancies. Moreover, the cohort trend toward increased premarital pregnancies is largely because women with very low levels of education are increasingly more likely to have premarital pregnancies across cohorts. The diverging patterns of premarital pregnancy challenge the second demographic transition perspective that attributes family change in low-fertility countries to ideational change and the diffusion of innovative attitudes and behaviors from more advantaged groups to others. The findings suggest that in the midst of the sexual revolution and drastic social change in China, there has been a growing social divide between those with very low levels of education and those with more education. With the growing diversity in Chinese families, more research should be devoted to investigating whether people follow different trajectories depending on their class position and what the consequences are for children, family, and social inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of "world revolutions" comes from studies of the Europe-centered ("modern") world-system, referring to periods in which protests, rebellions and revolutions broke out in the same decades in different parts of the system. We propose to evaluate the world revolution hypothesis as it may have operated in the East Asian world-system since the Bronze Age. We will examine the timing of protest and rebellion events to see if they cluster in time and across space. We consider economic and political contexts, synchronies of rebellions, and connections among those that rebelled and among those that sought to repress or ameliorate the rebellions. And we will eventually quantitatively test hypotheses about the interactions among within-state and between state conflicts, the role of rebellions in dynastic cycles and the relationships between rebellions and changes in the scale of polities and cities in the East Asian worldsystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies in Western countries and cross-national comparisons have shown that there are several important factors contributing to the level of happiness of individuals. Utilizing the East Asian Social Survey Health Module (2010), the present study examines this relationship in four East Asian countries: China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. East Asian countries are interesting cases for this inquiry, due to the cultural contexts such as traditional gender relations. Therefore, we focus on gender differences in predictors of happiness of individuals and attempt to answer three questions: (1) Do gender differences in happiness exist in East Asian countries? (2) Does marriage still serve as the norm and thus contribute to individual's happiness? (3) Does conforming to traditional gender roles contribute to or deteriorate individual's happiness? (4) Is the availability of social support (i.e., emotional, financial, and instrumental) positively associated with happiness of individuals? We find that there are gender differences in the level of happiness and its determinants in East Asian countries. The result also indicates that marital status is a strong indicator of happiness in East Asian countries, especially for men but not necessarily for women. In addition, full-time employment is positively associated with men's happiness in China but negatively associated with women's in Japan. Finally, social support is positively associated with an individual's happiness, especially for women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research empirically enquires change of state role of East Asian countries through longitudinal data. To support my argument, I search international governmental organization data (i.e. UN and OECD et al.) and some historical document. As a result, I find that governmental sizes have been reduced and their role has been transferred measured by expenditure, and this shows that role of nation state has been changed to social state. Most previous researches argue that governmental role has decreased; even some predicts that nation states will disappear. Actually, however, we can not find these phenomena in the world, instead evident of shift of role can be found in various easily. In addition, although difference of governmental regime and societal features make countries various, East Asian countries would go their way to become isomorphic because people's social needs are similar, but also they are embedded in world society source of global norms related with social state. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant variation exists in the levels of national pride that East Asian nations report, yet this variation has yet to be addressed in the sociological literature. While previous literature on national identity and pride, in particular, is relatively thin, past research suggests that support for the government and religiosity increase national pride, while globalization and international influence decrease it. I test these hypotheses in eight East Asian countries by conducting individual-level logistic regression analysis using data from the 2004 wave of the AsiaBarometer survey. Younger respondents and the better educated are less likely to report high national pride, while income is insignificant. Support for the government and high religiosity increase national pride, but no significant relationship is found between national pride and globalization/international influence. However, highly significant differences between nations suggest important areas for future research. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article criticizes that A. G. Frank’ Reorient neglects the important role of Choson Dynasty(1392-1910, in Korea) in East Asia. Frank tried to see world between 1400 and 1800 in unity in diversity and concluded that various parts of Asia, especially East Asia were far more important in and to world economy than all of Europe. He treated mainly economic, demographic, and technical development of Japan and China in East Asia. But without Choson Dynasty, anyone cannot understand and analyse properly international economic and foreign relation of East Asia. The reasons are as follows. First, Choson between 1400-1800 had developed economically as much as China and Japan. Second, Choson had played a great role in connecting China and Japan and had influenced much positive effects on development of Japan. Third, Choson could overcome so-called ‘seventeenth century crisis’ and succeeded in continuing its political system, although the Myng in China had fallen. This shows that diverse local or national ‘internal’ circumstance can cause different way of development in East Asia. So we need to reappraise Reorient’s basic proposition, a ‘horizontally integrative macro-history’ of world. Only when role of Choson can be properly estimated, dynamics and diversity of East Asia can be understood. Futhermore this right estimation of Choson between 1400-1800 can be useful in preventing danger of a newly emerging Chino-centric trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In East Asia, traditionally older adults were highly respected and adult children were obligated to financially support and take care of older parents. However, in 2000, Taiwan's elderly poverty rate was higher than 26 Western countries included in the LIS study. Previous studies reveal that East Asian older adults are vulnerable to poverty risk due to limited social provisions. These previous studies are generally aggregate and bivariate analyses. However, personal poverty risk results from a mix of household-level and structural factors. The present study compares the poverty risk of Taiwanese households including older adults with that of 21 Western countries. The robust-cluster logistic regression analyses reveal that, with household-level characteristics being held constant, Taiwanese households including older adults are still more likely to be poor than those of the social democratic and conservative countries, but not significantly different from those of the liberal, South European, and communist countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]