The UT-SNU-NCCU Symposium “Media in Globalized Asia” was held at Fukutake Hall on November 24th and 25th, 2017. Originally held annually at the University of Tokyo (UT) and Seoul National University (SNU) for more than 20 years, the symposium is now exploring the potential of triangular interactions between Japan, Korea and Taiwan since National Chengchi University (NCCU) joined last year. This article is divided into two parts and reports the first day of the two-day symposium.

Opening & Plenary Speech

In the opening speech, Dean Sakura Osamu of III/GSII, UT welcomed the guest participants, followed by representatives from the three universities. Prof. Kang Myung-koo from SNU traced the pre-history of the symposium back to the 1980s, when the exchange activities were still unofficial and remained on the personal level, and the idea of “Asia” was not as clear as it is nowadays. Prof. Shih Tsungjen from NCCU then expressed his gratitude to the two universities for including NCCU in the symposium as a new partner. Finally, Prof. Hayashi from UT shared her personal memories of the symposium and described its over 20 years of history as being itself a “globalizing process”.

Faculty Session

The opening speeches were followed by presentations of faculty members from the three universities, introducing their respective research achievements in the field of media and communication studies.

Prof. Chen Pai-lin from NCCU presented a several-meter long pedigree relationship chart of Taiwanese local families, and showed us how a study of family histories can be combined with a network analysis approach using digital visual tools. Prof. Kim Eun-mee from SNU then presented her research on news sharing behavior on both MIM (mobile instant messenger) and SNS (social networking sites). She concludes that in today’s media environment, where emotional and humorous contents prevail, news sharing behavior actually reflects individual Internet user’s motivation for self-presentation and self-image management.

Prof. Khohchahar of UT presented his study of comparative legal cultures in Asia, using early modern judicial records, which had long been neglected, to examine the differences between the “Well-Organized Model” (Edo Japan), the “Safety-Oriented Model” (Korea), the “Bureaucratic Model” (China) and the “Authoritarian Model” (Mongolia). Prof. Kang from NCCU presented her research on young female SNS users’ self-sexualization, depicting their practice of boundary making between “good sex” (sexiness with symbols of cultural capital and with no reference to men’s gaze) and “bad (slutty) sex”.

The final presenter, Prof. Hahn Kyu-sup from SNU, presented his joint research with economists, using economic experiments to test North Korean refugees’ behavior under capitalist market rules, and concluded that it may be highly challenging for North Koreans to adapt in a market economy scenario. Finally, with regard to all the five faculty presentations, Prof. Sakura and Prof. Maeda of UT gave their comments and had further discussions with the presenters, thus concluding the morning sessions.

(To be continued Part2)

Please also see the article from NCCU.
– Scholars from 3 Asian Top Communication Programs Met in Tokyo (In Mandarin here)

Text: Lim Dongwoo (MA student), LIN Yi-Ren (PhD student), David Buist (Project senior specialist)
Photo: Rei Horikoshi (MA student), Kiyoko Toriumi (Project assistant professor)
Proofreading: David Buist, Kiyoko Toriumi, Shin Mizukoshi (Professor)