Borderland Dreams: The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers

by June Hee Kwon

Overview

In Borderland Dreams June Hee Kwon explores the trajectory of the “Korean dream” that has fueled the massive migration of Korean Chinese workers from the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in northeast China to South Korea since the early 1990s. Charting the interplay of bodies, money, and time, the ethnography reveals how these migrant workers, in the course of pursuing their borderland dreams, are transformed into a transnational ethnicized class. Kwon analyzes the persistent desire of Korean Chinese to “leave to live better” at the intersection between the neoliberalizing regimes of post-socialist China and post–Cold War South Korea. Scrutinizing the tensions and affinities among the Korean Chinese, North and South Koreans, and Han Chinese whose lives intertwine in the borderland, Kwon captures the diverse and multifaceted aspirations of Korean Chinese workers caught between the ascendant Chinese dream and the waning Korean dream.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478020516
Publisher:	Duke University Press
Publication date:	11/17/2023
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

June Hee Kwon is Associate Professor of Asian Studies at California State University, Sacramento.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments  ix
Introduction. Winds of Migration  1
Part I: The Rising Korean Dream
1. Ethnic Borderland  29
2. The Un/Welcoming Homeland  52
Part II: Dreams in Flux
3. Rhythms of “Free” Movement  77
4. The Work of Waiting  100
Part III: Dreaming Anew
5. The Leaving and the Living  123
6. Break the Cycle!  150
Conclusion. The Afterlife of the Korean Dream  177
Notes  187
References  213
Index  231

Editorial Reviews

Borderland Dreams tells a powerful, complex, and ethnographically driven story about capitalist modernity in China, ethnicity, borders and labor migration, remittance economies, and the temporalities of global capitalism. Drawing on highly original and important fieldwork, June Hee Kwon depicts the dreams, aspirations, and frustrations of her interlocutors through lively and engaging prose.

Making Peace with Nature: Ecological Encounters along the Korean DMZ - Eleana J. Kim

"Borderland Dreams is a beautifully written book that will attract a wide audience of scholars and students who are interested in migration, ethnicity, transnational temporality, and political economy. Its engaging ethnographic accounts and clear writing make it suitable for both undergraduate and graduate students."

Korean Studies - Young-a Park

"Kwon’s book richly weaves the multidirectional, multilayered, multivocal stories of Korean Chinese migrant workers as they move restlessly between regions, countries, and households in pursuit of dreams of a better life. . . . Borderland Dreams makes a wonderful contribution to the literature on migration and borderlands, especially since much of the existing literature often focuses on the global south with respect to North America or Europe."

Francis L.K. Hsu Book Prize - Aaron Su

Offering ethnographically rich insights into labor migration between China and South Korea from the early 1990s to the mid-2010s, June Hee Kwon tracks ethnic and kin affinities and tensions amid changing political and global economic conditions, providing nuanced descriptions and analysis of the distinct temporal-spatial experiences of the Korean Chinese migrants entangled in transnational flows of labor, money, and consumption. Borderland Dreams makes an important contribution to scholarship on translocal and transnational migration, political economy, ethnicity, and China and East Asia.

Cosmologies of Credit: Transnational Mobility and the Politics of Destination in China - Julie Y. Chu

"Kwon’s longue-durée analysis is ethnographically rich and analytically insightful. Borderland Dreams was a long time in the making. For readers, the wait was long, but it was certainly worth it."

Korea Journal - Nora Hui-Jung Kim

"Borderland Dreams transcends the confines of the academic monograph to present a remarkable ode to the relentless yet diverse, ever-changing but ever-present human quest for financial stability and self-realization amidst the ebb and flow of trans-national geopolitical and economic tides. Kwon’s sympathetic curation of multiple voices of Korean Chinese and her meticulous observations invite readers to contemplate the intangible and tangible forces that shape our perceptions of self and home, freedoms and enslavements, work and life, and dreams and futures."

Journal of Anthropological Research - Hyung-Gulynn

"Offering ethnographically rich insights into labor migration between China and South Korea from the early 1990s to the mid-2010s, June Hee Kwon tracks ethnic and kin affinities and tensions amid changing political and global economic conditions, providing nuanced descriptions and analysis of the distinct temporal-spatial experiences of the Korean Chinese migrants entangled in transnational flows of labor, money, and consumption. Borderland Dreams makes an important contribution to scholarship on translocal and transnational migration, political economy, ethnicity, and China and East Asia."--Julie Y. Chu, author of "Cosmologies of Credit: Transnational Mobility and the Politics of Destination in China"

"Borderland Dreams tells a powerful, complex, and ethnographically driven story about capitalist modernity in China, ethnicity, borders and labor migration, remittance economies, and the temporalities of global capitalism. Drawing on highly original and important fieldwork, June Hee Kwon depicts the dreams, aspirations, and frustrations of her interlocutors through lively and engaging prose."--Eleana J. Kim, author of "Making Peace with Nature: Ecological Encounters along the Korean DMZ"

From the Publisher