Global, Area, and International Archive
2 total works
In modern states, John Lie argues, ideas of race, ethnicity, and nationality can be subsumed under the rubric of peoplehood. He argues indeed, that the modern state has created the idea of peoplehood. That is, the seemingly primitive, atavistic feelings of belonging associated with ethnic, racial, and national identity are largely formed by the state. Not only is the state responsible for the development and nurturing of these feelings, it is also responsible for racial and ethnic conflict, even genocide. When citizens think of themselves in terms of their peoplehood identity, they will naturally locate the cause of all troubles--from neighborhood squabbles to wars--in racial, ethnic, or national attitudes and conflicts. Far from being transhistorical and transcultural phenomena, race, ethnicity, and nation, Lie argues, are modern notions--modernity here associated with the rise of the modern state, the industrial economy, and Enlightenment ideas.
This book traces the origins and transformations of a people-the Zainichi, or Koreans 'residing in Japan'. Using a wide range of arguments and evidence - historical and comparative, political and social, literary and pop-cultural - John Lie reveals the social and historical conditions that gave rise to Zainichi identity, while exploring its vicissitudes and complexity. In the process he sheds light on the vexing topics of diaspora, migration, identity, and group formation.