• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.13-20
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to describe the overall physical environment's features of nursing homes for Korean American elders in the United States. This investigation was conducted in Korean American nursing homes on the East Coast and in the Midwest with multiple qualitative data collection methods, such as interviews, observations, document review, and field notes. The findings of this study are as follows: 1) Although almost all respondents were unable to speak and understand English at all, most written materials in nursing homes were in only English; 2) The nursing homes were placed near or within the Korean communities; thus, it contributed to close ties with religious Korean American groups and other groups in the ethnic communities; 3) Whether the facility's physical features looked like those of a hospital or a home, many residents did not consider a nursing homes as a real home; 4) A fenced garden in the nursing home in the Midwest was the residents' favorite public space; 5) Due to being forced to room with residents who had dementia and were bedridden, they were more likely to have conflicts with their roommates and feel uncomfortable living in their room; and 6) The facilities seemed to be designed without consideration to protect residents' privacy.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.149-185
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• 2022

Objectives: The Barak Valley is well known for its rich diversity of medicinal plants. Ethnomedicinal practices are prominent among Barak Valley's major and minor ethnic groups. This systemic review focuses on traditionally used medicinal plants found in the Barak Valley as reported in different ethnobotanical surveys. Methods: We searched various databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, to find ethnomedicinal surveys conducted in the Barak Valley. The search was performed using different terms, including ethnomedicinal survey, folk medicine, indigenous knowledge, and Barak Valley. Potential articles were identified following the exclusion and inclusion criteria. Results: A total of eight ethnobotanical surveys were included in this study. We identified a total of 216 plant species belonging to 167 genera and 87 families, which are widely used by the ethnic communities who live in the rural areas of Barak Valley for the treatment of various diseases and ailments. Conclusion: Folk medicine is the result of decades of accumulated knowledge and practices by people who live in rural communities based on their needs and provides an important source of information to assist the search for new pharmaceuticals. Therefore, available information on traditional medicinal plants needs to be explored scientifically to find effective and alternative treatments for different diseases.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.235-276
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• 2013

Recent incidents of lethal violence in the Rakhine State of Myanmar between the majority Buddhist Rakhine and the Muslim Rohingya have been the source of much concern for the international community. Unlike the past, the killings and incendiary attacks by both communities have intensified to a critical level, proving to be a great liability for the forward-thinking Myanmar government, whose recent transition to civilian rule after a long military one has made it eager to move on. The roots of the conflict trace back to the military regime, who branded the Rohingyas living in Rakhine state as illegal immigrants and refused to confer upon them official recognition as Myanmar citizens. The discord then moved to an ethnic conflict, pitting the Rohingya not merely against the Myanmar government but rather the majority Buddhist Rakhine. The conflict, as it has developed into the present, is an immensely complicated one that simultaneously encompasses ethnic and religious issues, all intertwined together. This study aims to see how the two ethnic groups have come to resort to such violence, despite having lived in each other's presence for many centuries, and why the violence persists. It will attempt to reconcile the fact that Rakhine had historically been a place of convergence for two groups, the Buddhist Rakhine and the Rakhine Muslim(the Rohingya). Based on the argument, this study also seeks to uncover, identify, and understand the Rohingya identity with the extreme arguments exhibited by both sides, and from there, locate the underlying causes of the greater religio-ethnic conflict in Rakhine that has so ravaged the place as of recent.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.53-70
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• 2022

This article compares archetypal heroes in Nguyễn Huy Thiệp's "The Tiger's Heart" and John Steinbeck's The Pearl. It aims to explore the voices of marginalized groups and ethnic minorities who suffer amidst the clash of civilizations. In exploring cultural communication between minority and mainstream communities as embodied by the archetypal heroes in the two works, this article highlights implications of resistance against values of the dominant. The method of "mythization" in modern Eastern and Western Literature, as this article argues, demonstrates the importance of minority discourses in as far as cultural conflicts in the globalizing world are concerned.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.53
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• pp.79-115
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to understand the women's experiences of negative perception, discrimination and 'ethnicized stigma' in South Korea. For this purpose, data were collected through in-depth interviews from 8 women escaped from North Korea and 4 professionals. The findings of this study are as follows: Almost of them experienced negative perception and discrimination caused by language, pronunciation intonation, and differences of ways to express their emotions. And they experienced the disapproval as the native perception and confusion of ethnic identity. Several participants in this study try to build or organize their communities to give emotional and instrumental support for them. However, in these processes, they experience emotional conflicts and crises feelings of disorganization of their communities because of they didn't have experience to involve communities, and didn't have ideas of membership and their roles. And they were learned to criticize with each other in North Korea. They worry about their families' safety in North Korea. For this reason, they can't have trustful personal relationships among Koreans including people escaped from North Korea in South Korea. They want to participate in Korean's community activities, and learn to adjust to everyday lives in South Korea. In conclusion, based upon the outcomes of this study, it is expected that any practical implications or solutions for North Korean defector's welfare would be suggested.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.35-40
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• 2011

The recent listing of Preah Vihear Temple as a World Heritage Site has awakened a longtime simmering border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over a few square kilometers surrounding the ancient Khmer Temple. While the listing of the site by UNESCO was expected to revive the economy of the impoverished border towns near the temple due to the increased tourism and funding for the preservation of the archeological site, it has had the opposite effect due to the sharp increase in violent conflict carried out by the armed forces and nationalist activists from both sides. Military skirmishes and violent protests have brought the local economy to a halt in addition to causing considerable physical damage to the local infrastructure and to the local transnational network of ethnic Kui, local business owners, Khmer and Thai villagers. This paper shows how the dispute is viewed and undertaken by three distinct communities involved in the conflict, the militaries, the metropolitan political elites and activists, and the local villagers. The three communities represent three different cultures of conflict with different interests and most importantly with differential access to the media and official representations of the dispute.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.487-500
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• 2010

In the history of colonization, how and to what extent the colonizer interacted with the local population differed according to race relations in specific periods. Generally speaking, social or sexual contact between two communities was tolerated when race relations were relatively relaxed. When the racial relationship became aggravated, however, such contact between the colonizer and the colonized was discouraged in order to forge and maintain ethnic solidarity. In Ireland, the colonizer's interaction with the colonized was not different from that of colonized countries in the Third World. Unlike those colonies, however, the settlers, that is, Protestants, simply could not be treated as the colonizer because they had lived in Ireland long enough to assert their Irishness. Joyce is keenly interested in intergender ethnic boundary crossings. In his works, two kinds of ethno-sexual interactions are presented from two totally different perspectives. As shown in the cases of the young lady in the street stall, Polly, Milkwoman, Sheila, and Cissy, Joyce describes the interaction of Irish women with Englishmen from a skeptical viewpoint. All of those cases demonstrate typical relationships epitomizing power relations in a colonial society. They reflect the turbulent time at the beginning of the century when Ireland had to fight with England to gain its independence. At such a transitional time, the ethnic relationship became aggravated and boundary crossings were discouraged. On the other hand, through the relationship between Stephen and Eileen, Girty and Reggy Wylie, Browne and Irish ladies, and Mr. & Mrs. Kernan, Joyce presents the interaction between Protestants and Catholics in terms of romantic or human relationships rather than power relations. From his description of those interactions, we can assume that Joyce, in the time of nation building, provided a blueprint for the future Irish nation, where Protestants and Catholics could build a nation and live harmoniously.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.149-167
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• 2008

Korea has persisted in the notion of "ethnic nationalism." That is "one race, one people, one language" as a homogeneous entity. This social ideal of unity prevails, even in overseas Korean communities formed by voluntary and involuntary displacement in the turmoil of modern history: communities made intermittent with the Japanese colonial occupation and with postcolonial encounters with the West. Given that the Korean people suffered from the trauma of deprivation of the language caused by the loss of the nation, nation has been equated with the language. Accordingly, "these bearers of a homeland" are also firm Korean language holders. The linguistic patriotism of unity based on the intertwining of "mother tongue" and "father country" has become prevalent in the collective memory of the people of the Korean diaspora. Korean American literature has grappled with this concept of the national history of Korea and the Korean language. The aesthetics of Korean American literature has been marked by an influx of literary resources of 'Korea' in sensibilities and structure of feelings; Korean myth, folk lore, songs, humor, traditional stories, manners, customs and historic moments. An experimental use of the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, written down as pronounced, provides an ethnic flavor in the midst of the English texts. Despite its national framework of mind, however, Korean American literature as an interstitial art reveals a keen awareness of inbetweenness, and transnational hybrid identities. By exploring the complex interrelationships of cultural and linguistic boundary-crossing practices in Korean American literature, this paper argues that the poetics of the Korean diaspora challenges the closed structure of identity formation, and offers a transnational sphere to deconstruct a rigidly demarcated national ideology of "one race, one people, one language," for the world literary history.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.269-278
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• 2024

Objectives: The Chepang people, an indigenous ethnic group in Nepal, experience substantial marginalization and socioeconomic disadvantages, making their communities among the most vulnerable in the region. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and factors associated with adolescent pregnancy in the Chepang communities of Raksirang Rural Municipality, Makwanpur District, Bagmati Province, Nepal. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2022 to April 2023 among 231 Chepang women selected using simple random sampling from Raksirang Rural Municipality. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for interviewing the mothers. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed, using odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Variables with a variation inflation factor of more than 2 and a p-value of more than 0.25 were excluded from the final model. Results: The study revealed that the prevalence rate of adolescent pregnancy among Chepang women was 71.4% (95% CI, 65.14 to 77.16). A large percentage of participants (72.7%) were married before the age of 18 years. Poor knowledge of adolescent pregnancy (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 10.3; 95% CI, 8.42 to 14.87), unplanned pregnancy (aOR, 13.3; 95% CI, 10.76 to 19.2), and lack of sex education (aOR, 6.57; 95% CI, 3.85 to 11.27) were significantly associated with adolescent pregnancy. Conclusions: The prevalence of adolescent pregnancy among the Chepang community was high. These findings highlighted the importance of raising awareness about the potential consequences of adolescent pregnancy and implementing comprehensive sexuality education programs for preventing adolescent pregnancies within this community.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.324-339
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• 2013

This study aims to investigate the characteristics of cyber communities composed of migrant workers from communities without propinquity in Korea. Its methods are both qualitative and quantitative. It further seeks to discover the relationship between the social capital formed and reproduced within these cyber communities and participants' cultural adaptation to Korean society. The study revealed that ethnic and non-ethnic communities differed in terms of strength of cohesion, space constraints, and links with the outside world. The former showed characteristics of a localized community type. The main motivations for migrant workers' participation in the ethnic cyber community were communication and friendship rather than cooperation and sharing among members. They usually used cyber communication media to communicate with one another. Conversely, the latter showed characteristics of an integrative type. Despite the difficulties in applying for membership and information provided in Korean, a high percentage of migrant workers participated in the community to obtain crucial information. The results did not show a significant correlation between social capital and migrant workers' traits within the cyber community, while a strong correlation emerged among four factors of social capital: faith, norms, networking, and political participation. The study showed that social capital in the cyber community was in direct proportion to an integrative type of cultural adaptation to Korean society. In particular, there was a strong connection between the cultural adaptation exhibited by members of the migrant subculture and their participation in discussions on political issues and human rights, with some migrants even functioning as agents of social change as participants in citizens' movements. The findings suggest that the cyber community facilitates the migrant subculture's communication with and integration into the indigenous Korean culture. Migrant workers' participation in the cyber community is therefore validated as an instrumental practice for members of this subculture to adapt to Korean society.