Tag: Tuong Vu

Transnational Professionals: Agency and Practice of Highly Skilled Foreign Employees in American Transnational Corporations

Presenter(s): Shuxi Wu − Anthropology, Asian Studies, Economics, International Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Tuong Vu

Oral Session 3S

Research Area: Social Science

Funding: UROP Mini-grant

Anthropological examination of transnational migration up to current day has focused primarily on the clearly disadvantaged (low-skill workers vulnerable to exploitation) or the driving figures of globalization (what has been termed the “transnational capitalist class”), whereas the middle strata of skilled employees has received scant attention. In policy debates, skilled
foreign employees are seen as displacers of American workers. In economic analysis, professional knowledge is regarded as valuable capital. It is imperative to put these fields in dialogue with each other for a non-fractured image of highly skilled foreign workers. This ethnographic study of relocated, highly skilled East and Southeast Asian employees or “global hires” of two Portland-based transnational corporations (Nike, Inc. and Columbia Sportswear Company) examines the experience and agency of global hires in the transnational circuit. I analyze how the status of foreign workers with special knowledge construe both leverages and obstacles in the employees’ relocation experience and result in a variety of strategies for negotiation of better opportunities within their structural position. Drawing theoretical inspirations from global commodity chain (GCC) analysis and discussions of organizational migration, I first attempt to show the methods and rationale with which corporations condition the transnational labor flow in the new knowledge economy. I then discuss global hires’ strategies in negotiating for mobility and workplace niche – strategies informed by agentic considerations of possibilities and limitations attached to their status; Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and practice will be seminal here.

From Massacre to Genocide: Redefining the Sook Ching

Presenter(s): Lauralei Singsank

Faculty Mentor(s): Tuong Vu

Oral Session 4 M

Sook Ching is a Chinese term meaning “purge through cleansing.” Operation Sook Ching took place in Singapore from February 21 to March 4, 1942. The Sook Ching was a military operation carried out by the Japanese with the intent of executing anti-Japanese Chinese men between the ages of 18 and 50. Ultimately, it is impossible to know exactly how many people were killed; the Japanese official figure is 5,000, while unofficial estimates reach as high as 50,000. These men were called into screening centers, where it was decided if they were anti-Japanese.These determinations have been said to be extremely disorganized. The legacy of the Sook Ching lives on to today as one of the greatest tragedies in Singaporean history.
The intent of this paper is to argue for a redefinition of the Sook Ching as a genocide rather than a massacre. The United Nations’ definitions and qualifications of genocide, as well as contemporary sources discussing the event, act as the cornerstones of the research. This research is important because it sets a precedent of accountability, as well as acknowledging the wrongs that the Japanese committed during the second World War. This presentation will discuss the Sook Ching, its legacy, and the steps required to address the incident and right the wrongs that occurred. It will also examine the racial and political environment that set the stage for the tragedy, as well as the scars it left behind.

Dimana? Disini: The effects of migration and political strife on the Chinese Indonesian family, name, and identity.

Presenter(s): Kezia Setyawan—Journalism

Faculty Mentor(s): Sung Park, Tuong Vu

Session 4: Cultural Considerations—The Other

Dimana? Disini . Translated, this means, where are you/us? I/We are here .
Over the span of many generations, Chinese Indonesians have migrated to all corners across the globe . I hope to reckon and reflect upon how my family has changed and how others in our community have . This professional project will explore how identity and values shift through the lens of migration and assimilation for Chinese Indonesians . I have conducted in-person interviews in English and Indonesian and taken portraits of each interviewee . Through the process, I have tried to parse together patterns that show similarities in perspectives and what are contradictions . The final work is split into different components, one aspect is the literature review, which provides context and background information that informs contemporary Chinese Indonesian existence, timelines that illustrate historical events and family migration illustrating the changes in familial names over generations, and a series of studio lit portraiture on location with captions from their interview on what informs who they are . The project matters because it is a multimedia journalistic package that has many different entry points for the audience to engage with cultural identities different than their own .