Asia in Focus 3

The Elephant-shaped Hole in the Universe: A literary analysis of Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things INGVILD BADHWAR Beyond Historical Humiliations TROELS KJEMS PETERSEN The Simple and the Complex Nature of Humor and Laughter in Finnish-Chinese Negotiations SANTA STOPNIECE Oh the horror! Genre

ISSUE 3 2016 Asia in Focus is a peer-reviewed journal published online twice a year by NIAS - Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. NIAS is a Nordic research and service institute focusing on Asias modern transformations. Asia in Focus was initiated by NIAS to provide Master students and Ph.D. student

Contents 02 Editorial Introduction SIDDHARTH SAREEN 04 The Elephant-shaped Hole in the Universe: A literary analysis of Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things INGVILD BADHWAR 14 Beyond Historical Humiliations New ways of understanding the significant role of historical conflicts in Chinese history

Editorial Introduction What is the role of a journal and indeed of academic production in the ever-changing world of scholarly publishing? At a time when the EU is putting a deadline of 2020 for all publicly-funded research to be published on open-access platforms, prominent journals have begun to o

ins and outs of running a smooth ship, plagiarism checks and online presence, and refin- ing our review process. Happily, we have retained most of the founding editors, lending us continuity and a strong sense of collegiality. A few have moved on (geographically) with their careers, and others have

The Elephant-shaped Hole in the Universe: A literary analysis of Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things INGVILD BADHWAR In this essay, I read Arundhati Roys The God of Small Things as a melodrama in order to explore the relationship between the subaltern and the world of everyday life. I draw upon S

I The God of Small Things explores the Small Things in the hybrid space between the Big Things. Ammus En- glish niece Sophies visit to the family leads to the Big Thing, little Sophies drowning, and to the Small Things, the murder of the untouchable Velutha, the banishment of the subaltern Ammu, and

sition as a well-read member of the English elite. When he tells Rahel and Estha that Ammu has no Locusts Stand I (Roy, 1997, p. 57), he is paradoxical- ly misquoting the Latin term locus standi, which in law is used to state the right of a party to appear and be heard before court (locus standi, n.

ability to communicate, understand and be under- stood. In other words, there is no common ground for communication between the family and Sophie. The twins mother tongue, Malayalam, is placed at the bottom of the linguistic hierarchy, and must surrender in favor of the British vernacular. Upon So-

ed memory of Sophie Mol is more alive than the orig- inal Sophie ever was. society has generated as parameters of right and wrong, by following its laws and orders and by nev- er questioning its truthfulness, by not challenging their roles or the reality that has been arranged around them. Their cha

Curiously, the more they doubt their ability to re- veal their true identities to their audience, and the more they attempt to take on an identity that does not belong to them, the more they seem to resort to melodramatics. Along the same lines, as long as Ammu cannot speak the language of everyday

just one, public narrative, but several perspectives from which the story can be understood. So, if the subaltern is inevitably led to silence and skepticism, and skepticism results in an unre- coverable voice, how can we ever be able to hear the subalterns version of the story? To rephrase Spivak,

Ingvild Badhwar Valen-Sendstad is an MA student of Cross-Cultural Studies at the University of Copen- hagen. Her primary research interests are endan- gered languages, languages in conflict, cultural and linguistic heritage and linguistic human rights. Email: vildvalsengmail.com 11

References Baker, M. (2006). Translation and Conflict. A Narrative Account. New York, NY: Routledge. Brooks, P. (1995). Ch. 1: The Melodramatic imagination. In The Melodramatic Imagination: Cavell, S. (1996). Introduction. In Contesting Tears: The Hollywood Melodrama of the Unknown Woman (pp. 345).

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Beyond Historical Humiliations New ways of understanding the significant role of historical con- flicts in Chinese history education TROELS KJEMS PETERSEN In recent years, various studies have taken on the task of examining history education in Mainland China. However, within this field of study the

I education. However, it is my belief that the exclusive focus on textbook material and political stipulations by previous researchers suggests a serious gap in our understanding of Chinese history education, since they only offer insight into the politics behind history education in China, rather t

vious sign of this. To the contrary, all of the teachers at the school used the same pre-produced Power- Point slides for all their lessons on Chinese history. Even the few teachers using the blackboard tended to write up the same content on the blackboard as that of the PowerPoint slides. The Power

Table 2: Narrative structure of the classroom content Notes: Table 1 & 2 gives an overview of the difference in narrative focus between the official textbook content and the content of my classroom observations. Figure 1: PowerPoint slide from the class on ancient Chinese history develop the politic

various revolutionary committees was a step back- wards in the building of political organization. 4) The National Peoples Congress and the institutions of consultation encountered violations and destruc- tions. (Petersen, 2014, Appendix I) It is clear from these four manifestations that the CR was

example here, when describing lesson three in the chapter on Ancient Chinese political history the guideline mentions the 3 secre- taries, 6 ministries of the Tang Dynasty and the partition of the ministerial power of the Song as an illustration of the development of the characteristics of the polit

The national myth of the decline and rebirth of Zhonghua minzu in the contemporary period. In Figure 3, the teach- ers used a graph to illustrate to the students the political development in the contemporary period, and at the bottom, it is stated that the building of democratic politics was charact

spired by both traditional Chinese historiography and Marxist materialism. Given that both the tradi- tional cyclical view of the past and the linear view from historical materialism is an integrated part of Chinese historiographic tradition, it seems only nat- ural that the teachers at the school w

the lessons that I observed with the teachers use of the concept of Zhonghua minzu. In the lessons at the school, the Zhonghua minzu represented the historical essence of China that went through a cy- cle of decline and rebirth as each historical conflict threatened its hegemony. I would argue that

References 23 Callahan, William A. (2004). National Insecurities: Humiliation, Salvation and Chinese Nationalism. Alternatives, 29, 199-218. DOI: 10.1177/030437540402900204 Gries, Peter H. (2005). Chinas New Nationalism, pride, politics and diplomacy. London: University of California Press. Hughes,

Wang, Zheng. (2008). National humiliation, History Education, and the Politics of Historical Memory, patriotic education campaign in China. International Studies Quarterly, 52 (4), 783-806. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2478.2008.00526.x Wang, Zheng. (2012). Never forget National Humiliation: Historical memo

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The Simple and the Complex Nature of Humor and Laughter in Finnish-Chinese Negotiations SANTA STOPNIECE This article explores humor and laughter as sites of the search for common ground and power positioning in the context of Finnish-Chinese co-operation. It is mainly based on data obtained by inter

T stereotype is that Finns are not good at small talk, and humor is normally a part of small talk or talking in less formal circumstances. All these aspects make humor and laughter in Finnish-Chinese co-opera- tion an interesting area to understand. There are only a few studies focusing on na- tiona

merous choices about how to position themselves in response to an unfolding narrative and to change and adjust their position (Davies & Harré, 1990). In telling a joke, whether explicitly or implicitly, a speak- er assigns parts and characters in the episodes de- scribed, both to themselves and to o

counts as a joke if it is 1) spontaneous, 2) intentional, and 3) accompanied by laughter (Grindsted, 1997, p. 164). Humor in the workplace can reduce stress and enhance group cohesiveness and communication (Romero & Cruthirds, 2006). During the interviews, Finnish representatives spoke of having hum

When there are negotiations, of course, we laugh together with the Chinese, but it is not so clear why. It is more like a habit or polite- ness to laugh about some, I would say, not so funny joke, but at least that is something to share with them. That is also a way to relax people to tell a joke (

operation. Humor involves accommodating two dif- ferent face needs the need for autonomy and the need for affiliation, one of which may be stronger in a particular culture (Brown & Levinson, 1987). One way to explain humor deals with superiority theory: we laugh at the errors of others because they

While these Finnish participants said the Chinese do not enjoy laughing about themselves much, it was also said that the Chinese would like to laugh about the Finnish stereotypical weakness: they make jokes on us about drinking too much. (IV6). Referring to positioning theory (Harre, 1991), when one

The primary contribution of this study has been to document the meanings that Finns attribute to their co-operation with the Chinese. An obvious limitation is that it was not possible to interview Chinese visitors, whose views and perceptions on humor would be equally interesting and important to co

References Attardo, S. (1993). Violation of conversational maxims and cooperation: The case of jokes. Journal of Pragmatics, 19 (6), 537558. Briggs, Charles L. (1986). Learning how to ask: A sociolinguistic appraisal of the role of the interview in social science research. Cambridge: Cambridge Unive

Scollon, R. and Scollon, S. B. K. (1983). Face in interethnic communication. In J. C. Rich- ards, R. W. Schmidt, Language and Communication (pp. 156-191). Routledge: Lon- don. Silverman, D. (2006). Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analysing talk, text and interaction. London: Sage Publicat

Oh the horror! Genre and the fantastic mode in Japanese cinema LEENA EEROLAINEN Ever since the emergence of the so-called J-horror in the late 1990s and early 21st century, Japanese horror cinema has been a staple of both Japanese studies and film studies. Researchers, critics and film directors ali

J the fantastic exists as a site of difference, one that privileges the alien, the illusory, and the irrational in contrast to a vision of modernity that subsumes all difference under a bland rubric of homogeneity, materialism, and rationality, and that it is to be seen as any conscious departure fr

new understanding of old material, but also pro- motes films previously considered an uneasy fit in the category of horror as suitable targets for anal- ysis. Through its departure from the real, the fan- tastic actually helps us to understand these reali- ties as portrayed in film. It is a viable n

of horror, but rather that of period drama (Shimura, 2014), which is one of the most prominent Japanese film genres. It is also possible that both monsters and ghosts belong to the realm of the fantastic, as suggested by Napier (1996, p. 95). Thus, it is clear that McRoys division offers a framework

that horror booms tend to appear within certain pe- riods of time: with no imminent crises looming on the horizon people are able to enjoy fictional hor- ror but, as horror films are often cheap to make, economic downturns also provide an opportunity for the production of these films. By contrast, N

mirai (2003) has weirdly multiplying medusas, but that does not make a film horrific. Doppelgänger (2003) almost becomes a farce when the battle of the minds between the protagonist and his alter ego accelerates, or when the protagonist gets chased by an enormous disco ball. What we have here is a d

spaces and authors. Fantasy is, at times, more real than reality itself and cinema is but one in the long line of popular culture products that have been used to discuss what lies beneath the surface of the seemingly peaceful everyday life. By utilizing the notion of the fantastic, it is possi- ble

References 43 Asada, A. (2000). J-kaiki no yukue. Retrieved from http://www.kojinkaratani.com/critical- space/old/special/asada/voice0003.html Balmain, C. (2008). Introduction to Japanese Horror Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Blake, L. (2005). The Wounds of Nations: Horror Cinema, Hist

Cinema (pp. 1-10). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nakata, H., Shimizu, T., & Takahashi, H. (2015, October). Masters of J-horror. Talk show at Shinjuku Piccadilly organized by Tokyo International Film Festival. Napier, S. J. (1996). The Fantastic in Modern Japanese Literature. London: Routledge. Na

Filmography 45 Fukuda, J. (Director). (1958). Densō ningen Film. Tōhō. Honda, I. (Director). (1958). Bijo to ekitai ningen Film. Tōhō. Honda, I. (Director). (1960). Gasu ningen dai-ichi-gō Film. Tōhō. Honda, I. (Director). (1954). Gojira Film. Tōhō. Imamura, S. (Director). (1979). Fukushū wa ware ni

Wacky Japan: A new face of orientalism WESTER WAGENAAR The way that Japan has been represented in the West has been problematic, the West is considered the norm, and Japan is set aside as the Other. Since Edward Saids (1978) Orientalism was published in the late seventies, the concept of orientalism

J to the onlookers own culture. By framing Japan and its people as weird, the West thus confirms its nor- malcy. When observing a foreign country, it is natural to find strangeness at face value as, in this sense, ones own country and another are different. Yet, in the case of Japan it goes further.

providing the framework for what I call wacky ori- entalism. I develop the concept through examples from popular culture and different media. Lastly, I problematize this form of orientalism. The scope of the essay is limited to Western perceptions of Ja- pan and I thus purposefully lean towards a We

with Europe and the United States in terms of tech- nology, a new form of orientalism emerged. Since the traditional condescending image of Japan as a more or less backward society did not apply anymore, David Morley and Kevin Robins (1995, p. 168) argued that a new techno-mythology is be- ing spun,

The examples usually provided by academics on the subject of Western imagining of techno-orientalism are Ridley Scotts film Blade Runner (1982) and Wil- liam Gibsons novel Neuromancer (1984) (e.g. Da- vid Morley & Kevin Robins, 1995; Goto-Jones, 2015; McLeod, 2013). Both play on fears of hyper-con-

even though people who are into these games are a small minority in Japan. Despite young men playing video games of the dating sim genre all over the world, one fifth of the documentary was devoted to this subject, only serving to reinforce the notion of Japan as the weird Other (Hinton, 2014, p. 10

weirdness. Thirdly, this stereotypical image is ca- tered to because it sells. Further research on wacky orientalism is re- quired. Firstly, to better understand how it func- tions, it is necessary to find out how this form of orientalism came to be. Possible explanations could be the popularity of

References 53 Alliance Rainbow. (2016, April 3). WTF? Kanamara Matsuri 2016 - Festival du Pénis Japania YouTube video. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkZ- RaCeu7ek Allison, A. (2001). Memoirs of the Orient. Journal of Japanese Studies, 27(2), 381398. Alphen, J. van (2015, June 4). Re

Holt, J. (2014). Samurai and Gentlemen: The Anglophone Japan Corpus and New Avenues into Orientalism (Part I). Literature Compass, 11(1), 3646. Larabee, A. (2014). Editorial: A Year in Japan. The Journal of Popular Culture, 47(3), 427429. Lie, J. (2001). Ruth Benedicts Legacy of Shame: Orientalism a

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The Dispute Over the Diaoyu/ Senkaku Islands: How media narratives shape public opinion and challenge the global order Ed. by Thomas A. Hollihan. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. vii, 316 pp. ISBN: 978-1-137-44335-9. KIM JARLE WROLDSEN T he Dispute Over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Is- lands explores th

such as, An analytical report by Xinhua News on Decem- ber 2 blamed the United States for the un- folding crisis . Despite these efforts to urge the United States to keep its nose out of the dispute, however, on January 18 Clinton again acknowl- edged that the Diaoyu islands were under the ad- mini

The EUs Human Rights Dialogue with China: Quiet diplomacy and its limits Kinzelbach, Katrin. Routledge, 2014, 236 pp., ISBN: 9781317610489 (e-book). SERENA DE MARCHI K atrin Kinzelbachs book The EUs Human Rights Dialogue with China is a valuable contribution to the world of human rights di- plomacy.

fact that the majority of Chinese dissidents reside in the US and not in Europe (p. 197-198). This passage is a little ambiguous though, and Kinzelbach does not provide a clear definition of European civil soci- ety, which is a concept that might be worth deeper analysis. As the Dialogue proved to b

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