Organizer: Kim Reimann, Georgia State University

Chair: Susan J. Pharr, Harvard University

Discussant: Thomas B. Gold, University of California

Due to numerous political and economic changes and the forces of globalization, new forms of societal activism have emerged throughout Northeast and Southeast Asia in the past two decades. This new societal activism has been impressive in both its scope and diversity, ranging from local environmental protests and national anti-corruption networks within countries to transnational movements that span numerous countries. With the growth of NGOs and new social movements in East Asia, both civil society and state-society relations are now undergoing transformations that are reshaping politics in the region.

  This panel explores these new forms of societal activism and their implications for state-society relations. Focusing on the local and national level, Quisha Ma’s paper provides an overview of the rise of grassroots NGOs in China and assesses their role in providing a new channel for self-expression in post-Mao China. Apichai Shipper’s paper provides a comparative perspective with an analysis of NGOs that assist foreign workers in Korea and Japan and shows how local societal activism can bring about both social and political change. C. Julia Huang’s paper combines national and transnational perspectives with a study of Compassion Relief, a transnational religious NGO based in Taiwan that now has more than 5 million members and reaches Chinese societies worldwide. Finally, Kim Reimann’s paper analyzes the rise of transnational environmental networks in East Asia and examines a transnational movement to halt ecologically harmful shrimp farming in several Southeast Asian countries.

Qiusha Ma, Oberlin College

In the aftermath of the 1978 reforms that created a market economy and diversified public interests and social life in China, new institutions and organizations outside of the state system increased dramatically in number, size, and influence. These nongovernmental and nonprofit entities have been facilitating the evolution of civil society in China. In China’s new NGO landscape, grassroots organizations are the most vibrant and fastest growing subsector. This paper examines grassroots NGOs in China and asks: What are these organizations? What are the dynamics behind their upsurge? What is the social and political significance of such a development?

  To answer these questions, the paper focuses on three important aspects of China’s grassroots organizations: (1) the types, missions and common characteristics of grassroots NGOs; (2) the dynamics and leadership of these organizations; and (3) the significance and limitation of the grassroots NGO development in China. The paper argues that grassroots NGOs have become a new institutional channel for ordinary people to express their interests and participate in decision-making processes. In addition to providing opportunities for civic engagement, the growth of these NGOs in the past 10 years has also increased social capital, civility and a sense of citizenry and social responsibility among people in China. Today, more and more people are aware of their right to a voice in private and public affairs. After thirty years of dictatorship, these changes are profound and are nourishing a vibrant civil society.

Apichai Shipper, University of Southern California

Immigrant associations can create and intensify long-distance nationalism among their members. In Japan, members of the North Korean association, Souren, hold strong ideological views and have preoccupied themselves with political activities in their "home" country, despite the fact that these Korean have little, if any, experience with their "home" lands. Moreover, their ancestors actually came from South Korea. For them, "home" is more "imagined" than "experienced" through their ethnic associations. The paper argues that Souren actively promotes ethnic attachment to North Korea through: a) political participation of elite associative members in the home country's politics; b) official exchange of gifts, letters, and financial assistance; and, c) their administration of Korean ethnic schools. As a consequence of being closely attached to their "home" lands and less loyal to Japan, these ethnic associations can be targets of attack by natives, particularly right-wing, anti-communist groups, who may see them as representative institutions of North Korea. In recent years, public opinion and the government attitude towards Souren have turned increasingly hostile, after North Korea launched a ballistic missile test over Japan in 1998, two encounters with North Korean spy boats in the Sea of Japan in 1999 and 2001, and the confirmation in 2001 of North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens. As a result, government officials increasingly view Souren as a threat to Japan's national security and try to force it into dissolution.

C. Julia Huang, National Tsing Hua University, Republic of China

Religion has been historically and contemporarily a major component of Chinese "civil society." This paper examines the historical roots of engaged Buddhism in contemporary Chinese societies. Compassion Relief (Ciji) is a lay Mahayana Buddhist movement under monastic leadership that focuses on relieving suffering for living beings through secular actions. Since the 1960s, CR has grown from a small grassroots group of fewer than forty women in Taiwan to a major international organization, under continuous female leadership, claiming five million members worldwide. Following Duara’s works, CR can be seen as resonant with the "redemptive societies," which thrived under the Manchurian, Japanese, and Nationalist regimes. CR can also be viewed as the latest reincarnation of the "Buddhism of the human realm" of Yinshun, the scholar-monk who was silenced by the Nationalist regime and then later vindicated during the 1990s Buddhist revival. Today, CR remains powerful and controversial in Taiwan, as its mission traverses borders, and it is recognized as an NGO with UN consultative status, forging protocols across the Strait and within the Chinese diaspora. It is through this cutting across of cultural roots and events that CR has created a de-territorializing practice and transcendental identity for civil Buddhism. These new practices and identities in turn have rendered political borders porous and called attention to shifting state-society relations. This paper will explore these issues.

Kim Reimann, Georgia State University

Over the past two decades, NGOs working on environmental and development issues in both Northeast and Southeast Asia have proliferated and are now part of an increasingly dense web of societal groups and activists with local, national, regional and international ties. Since the 1990s, these new transnational networks in East Asia have organized numerous environment-related campaigns which have challenged the status quo and influenced the public debate on global governance and sustainable development in the region.

  This paper examines the growth of these transnational NGO networks in East Asia and how they have affected politics and governance at both the regional and national levels. After examining factors behind the growth of these new transnationally linked environmental movements, the paper focuses on the case of environmentally destructive shrimp farms in Southeast Asia and a transnational network of activists, scientists and local residents dedicated to promoting more sustainable aquaculture practices in the region in the 1990s and early 2000s. This network provides a good example of both the challenges and opportunities of globalization: how global market forces have exacerbated social and environmental problems, while the globalization of society and social activism has provided new resources for resistance and political participation. The case also calls attention to the role of scientists and transnational epistemic communities – their potential and their limitations – in promoting sustainable development in East Asia.