• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.79-86
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• 2015

Myths and architectural spaces are cultural products symbolizing ideologies and objects respectively. Myth has the structure and the contents of a unique view of the world that reflects thoughts and representations of the nationalities. This study is about 'the spaces of the memory' adapted by the mythic tradition among many aspects of the Japanese tradition. The process of this study is illustrated as follows: At first, it mentions the concept of Gilbert Durand's mythic imaginaries and prototype with the method on how the myth is applied to the architectural spaces in the cultural context. Secondly, It clarifies basic meaning arrangement of the Japanese traditional spaces related to the myth. It shows sourceful 'prototipical system' that lies in the relation between thoughts and representations, regarding the shinto's spaces in terms of mythical imaginaries and Japanness. Thirdly, it ascertains mythical structure represented in the traditional space designs on terms with 'prototype' from symbolic system of the myth. It selects the cases among Japanese contemporary architects's works designed after 1960's, and analyses the meanings. In conclusion, it clarifies that this way can be a suggestion as the space design method combining the human's imaginary property with the time-stratigraphic region, and offering creative ideas for the strategy of the space design brand image that embraces a wide range of culture, ecology, and sensibility.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.125-147
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• 2020

On the World Refugee Day in 2017, Yao Chen, a Chinese actress, philanthropist, and social media influencer, posted messages in her Weibo in support of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Yet, social media users quickly interpreted this supportive message of the refugee program as encouraging people to "accept and receive refugees" (jieshou nanmin) into China. Particularly, the category of Middle Eastern refugees elicited most criticism in China's cyberspace. As the inclusion of refugees is an integral part of immigrant multiculturalism, this article examines the limits of multicultural imagination of refugees―particularly those from the Middle Eastern and North Africa―in contemporary China. I argue that the limits of multicultural imagination in contemporary China is profoundly shaped by an intricate interweaving of domestic policies and global imaginaries toward refugees. By deploying a mixed methodology, such limits are examined from legal-institutional, ideological, and sociocultural perspectives. More specifically, three interrelated aspects will be highlighted in the article: (1) the global circulation of right-wing populism imaginaries, and their entanglements with the anti-Muslim sentiments in contemporary China; (2) the current insufficiency of the legal-institutional framework regarding refugees and asylum-seekers, which needs to be contextualized in China's modern history of dealing with refugee issues; (3) population politics, the rise of Han-centric nationalism, and their constraining impact on the interpretation of historical events related to cultural diversity. In conclusion, this article also offers potential implications for further examining the different yet potentially intersected genealogies of multicultural imaginaries beyond the Middle Eastern and North African refugees in Asia.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.49-72
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• 2010

As the first of Philip Roth's recent series of novels that delve into American Cold War history deeply entwined with the post-war Jewish American experience, American Pastoral traces the tragic fall of a third-generation Jewish American named Seymour "Swede" Levov, whose dream of complete assimilation to the post-ethnic American paradise is irrecoverably disrupted when his young daughter blows up the local post office to protest against the Vietnam War. This essay proposes to examine Swede Levov's interrupted pursuit of the American dream by locating it within specific Cold War contexts and national imaginaries propagated particularly during the years from John F. Kennedy to Lyndon B. Johnson. In so doing, I will argue that Roth presents a paradoxical vision of Jewish American identity that could be acquired by performing perpetual self-effacement and submergence into the non-place of anonymity and doubleness, a mythic location of the post-ethnic Cold War American family. Levov's life becomes true part of the mythic narrative of American history when he realizes that his life, just like the nation's history, is a series of temporalities radically discontinued without any manageable detour ot divine bypass to cross over. Rather than indicating Roth's retraction from the postmodern understanding of subjectivity, the novel's historical realism, I will argue, serves to illuminate the postmodern conditions of American Cold War history and ethnic identity.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.66
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• pp.184-210
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• 2014

There have been technologically distorted naturalization and overzealous digital culture in the formation and development of digital society in Korea. While the suppressive aspects of the 'neo-'authoritarian control and regulation have been excessively centered on the Internet, the autonomous actions of online users from below, with regards to their roles in agenda-setting function, have been evolved as the political. This paper aims to investigate the specificities in the developmental mode of digital technology in Korean society since the mid-90s. In this paper, 'techno-surplus' depicts the state that the abnormal is embedded within a technological artifact beyond its receptive ability. 'Techno-surplus society' designates such an extreme case of specifying technological surplus. In fact, the term of 'techno-surplus society' can be used for a metaphor symbolizing our society, in which social distortion and abnormality caused by 'techno-surplus' have been quite frequently happening, in its comparison to a degree of normality in the institutional politics. This paper explores the local specificities of 'techno-surplus society', in which the regressive aspects have stand out as being more different from the technological developments in China, Japan and the U.S.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.65-95
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• 2014

The recent decades have seen a growing rate of international cooperation in science, technology, and innovation (STI) including in the field of green technologies. However, current approaches to national systems of innovation (NSI) have not kept up with this development. International aspects are rather treated as external conditions within which policymakers operate and respond but not influence. This paper tackles this problem by applying a refined NSI concept that includes an international dimension and complements past frameworks by focusing on those Korean government policies, actors, and activities relevant for the internationalization of STI. Austria and Korea have both formulated differing strategies to acquire international leading positions in the field of innovation and the development of green technologies. In the first step, the paper assesses Korea's international activities within the field of green technologies that transcend national boundaries and establish international connections. The government has still a strong influence on selecting technology areas for strategic funding but our findings show that international STI actors have difficulties in identifying the appropriate point of contact to initiate cooperation or apply for related funding. Second, an external perspective on Korea's international collaborations in the field of green technologies is offered. Austria has tentatively identified the East Asian country as a second-priority cooperation partner for its future STI internationalization activities. Interviews with Austrian stakeholders in the field of green technologies indicate a high interest in cooperation with Korea that is facilitated by a similar business culture based on personal networks. Moreover, researchers and policymakers referred to a shared need of small countries for intelligent decision-making processes regarding potential cooperation partners abroad. However, in order to enhance awareness, visibility and demand for Korean STI cooperation in European countries, more long-term funding programs featuring a more permanent point of contact should be introduced.

• Journal of Korea Game Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.77-86
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• 2022

This article argues that electronic entertainment has continued to this day, contrary to the existing view that it has been absorbed by digital games since the 1990s. From a media archaeological point of view, it tracks in what cultural and technical context the electronic entertainment called "Pump It Up", which has been popular since the late 1990s, has been accepted and used by gamers. The big trend of 'Pump' took place through a "performative shift" of gamers' creative game performing, and the rise and fall of the 'Pump' took place through competitions and interactions between imaginaries and practices that each subject surrounded the game had. In conclusion, it suggests the necessity of media archaeological research on various genres of arcade games.