Prof.

Aihwa Ong
2013
TuTh 11am 12.30pm
C. Zee
175 Barrows
1-3, Caffe Strada
aihwaong@berkeley.edu
jerryczee@gmail.com

Spring
GSI: Jerry
GSI Office Hours. Th

Anthropology 189a (BLUM GPP):

Asian Capitalism: labor, land & life in an emerging region
This course considers the problems of developing economies in Asia
from the perspectives of transformations in the mobilization of labor,
land, and life. While most of our discussion is focused on capitalist
strategies and effects in China and SE Asia, other sites in Asia are also
considered. We investigate shifting morality & ethics surrounding
labor relations (part 1); the (re) territorialization or flows of actors,
jobs, & practices (part 2); and the sustainability of life shaped by
capitalism & technologies (part 3).
Part I, examines how ideas of morality and ethics change in the
transition from agrarian to industrial economies. We learn about the
moral economy of elite-peasant relations; the moral crisis of neophyte
workers; new moral assessments of migrant labor; and "corporate
moralism" for regulating factory workers.
In Part II, we learn that neoliberal logic sets into motion a variety of
actors, ideas, & forms that interweave multiple sites into an
economically integrated region. The proliferation of new desires and
practices shape diverse subjectivities in employment, lifestyles, and
urban innovations.
Part III focuses on questions about the sustainability of capitalism and
the unease it raises in biomedical research; everyday affects of hope &
activism; and environmental intervention. Broadly, the class examines
how capitalist activities in many domains destabilize cultural notions
of morality and ethics, and raise complex questions about the links
between neoliberalism, technology, & sustainability in Asia today.
Course Requirements: This is a Blum GPP upper division course. It is
limited to juniors & seniors from the GPP program and other
disciplines. Students are expected to have read assigned readings,
and to participate in class discussions.

There will be a midterm and a final. Grades will be assigned in the

following order: class participation (20%) mid-term (35%) final (45%)
There will be a Reader (articles & book chapters), available at Copy
Central on Bancroft by the 2nd week of the course. Select readings will
be available on the course bSpace site.
1. Introduction (1/22, 1/24)
Freedman, M. 1959. The Handling of Money: A Note on the
Background of the Economic Sophistication of Overseas Chinese. Man
59: 64-65.
Huntington, Samuel P. 1996. The West Unique, Not Universal.
Foreign Affairs 75(6): 28-46.
Part I: Morality & Ethics of Labor (1/29, 2/1)
2. The Moral Economy of Agrarian Cultures
Scott, J. The Economics & Sociology of the Subsistence Ethic," in The
Moral Economy of the Peasant, 1976
A. Ong, "A Momentary Glow of Fraternity," in Flexible Citizenship,
1999.
3. Moral Borderlands (2/5, 2/7)
Ong, Aihwa. 1987. The Production of Possession: Spirits and the
Multinationational Corporation in Malaysia American Ethnologist
15(1):28-42.
Lindquist, Johan 2010, Putting Ecstasy to Work: Pleasure, Prostitution,
and Inequality in theIndonesian Borderlands. Identities: Global
Studies in Culture and Power 17(2-3): 280-303.
4. The Quality of Labor (2/12, 2/14)
Ann Anagnost, The Corporeal Politics of Quality (Suzhi), Public
Culture, 16 (2):189-208
A. Ong, A Bio-Cartography: Maids, Neo-Slavery, and NGOs, in
Neoliberalism as Exception

5. Transpacific Corporate Morality (2/19, 2/21)

Pun Ngai, Reorganized Moralism, in Privatizing China
Foxconn: Radio talk The Agony & Ecstasy of Steve Jobs
Video: B.A.T.A.M. by J. Lindquist
Part II:
6.

Territorializations

Territorializing capital & desires (2/25, 2/28)

Tsing, Anna. 2000. The Global Situation. Cultural Anthropology 15(3):

327-360.
Rofel, L. "From Sacrifice to Desire: Cosmopolitanism with Chinese
Characteristics," In Desiring China

7. Diaspora Economies (3/5, 3/7)

Nonini & Ong, Introduction, in Ungrounded Empires
Schein, L. "Neoliberalism & the Hmong/Miao Transnational Media
Ventures," In Privatizing China
8 MIDTERM Week (3/12, 3/14)
Video : "Last Train Home"
MIDTERM 3/14
9. Zoning Spaces (3/19, 3/21)
Ong, A. Zoning Technologies in East Asia, in Neoliberalism as
Exception,
Nyiri, P. Investors, Managers, Brokers, and Culture Workers: How the
New Chinese are Changing the Meaning of Chineseness in
Cambodia. Cross-Currents, 2012
Spring Break, March 25-29

10. Urban Lifestyles (4/9, 4/11)

Zhang, L. Private Homes, Distinct Lifestyles: Performing a new Middle
Class, in Privatizing China
Haines, C. "Cracks in the Facade: Landscapes of Hope & Desire in
Dubai,"
in Worlding Cities, 2011
11. Circulating Urban Models (4/2, 4/4)
Chua Beng Huat, Singapore as Model in Worlding Cities, 2011
Lisa Hoffman, Urban Modeling & contemporary technologiesin
Dalian, in Worlding Cities, 2011

Part III

Sustaining Life

12. Biocapitalism (4/16, 4/18)

Wilson, A. Medical Tourism in Thailand in Asian Biotech , 2010
Sunder Rajan, K. The experimental machine of global clinical trials in
Asian Biotech,
13. Hope (4/23, 4/25)
Miyazaki, H. Economy of Dreams: Hope in Global Capitalism and Its
Critiques. Cultural Anthropology 21(2): 147-172, 2006
Ackbar Abbas: "Faking Globalization in Globalizing Cities, 2010
Allison, A. "The Cool Brand & Affective Activism of Japanese Youth.
Theory, Culture & Society (Spr. 2009).
14. Sustainable Homes? (4/30, 5/3)
Shannon May, Ecological Urbanization: Calculating Value in the Age of
Global Climate Change, in Worlding Cities

Video: Up the Yangtze

FINALS