Abstract
This chapter establishes the rationale for studying the emotional geographies of international students in East Asia, a topic which has received less attention compared to European and North American student mobilities. We introduce the theoretical approaches that have inspired our research—studies of governmentality and postcolonial feminism—as a basis for complicating long-held understandings of the rational, calculating, utility-maximising East Asian student. We describe the manifold ways in which student-emotional encounters open up possibilities for an affective regionalism that lends itself to an East Asian governmentality of goodwill. The chapter ends with a brief biographical account of our education-driven migrations, and our investments in a politics of critique and care.
We attribute this term to David Scott’s magisterial work, Conscripts of Modernity: The Tragedy of Colonial Enlightenment.
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Notes
- 1.
Hypercapitalism (sometimes conflated with ‘late capitalism’) is a term used in scholarship inspired by Marxist sociology to critique contemporary forms of political economy that feature extensive, intensive and rapid flows of material and immaterial goods, people and information.
- 2.
We have used pseudonyms to present student and alumni interview data. However, senior university officials have been identified by their position.
- 3.
The study, funded by Singapore’s Ministry of Education Tier 2 research grant R-111-000-093-112, was conducted between 2009 and 2012 in nine universities across five countries: China (Renmin University and Sun Yat Sen University), Japan (Tokyo University, Osaka University and Asia Pacific University), Singapore (National University of Singapore) South Korea (Korea University and Seoul National) and Taiwan (National Taiwan University). Authors of this book are from the project team.
- 4.
These aggregate statistics were obtained from websites and by request from the university.
- 5.
Unless stated, the gender of university leaders can be assumed to be male.
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Sidhu, R.K., Kong Chong, H., Yeoh, B.S.A. (2020). Emotional Geographies of International Students: Beginning an East Asian Conversation. In: Student Mobilities and International Education in Asia. Mobility & Politics. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27856-4_1
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