Bakugai! Explosive Shopping and Entangled Sino‐Japanese Mobilities

Bofulin, Martina; Coates, Jamie

doi:10.1111/an.314

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Today many of these students have found work or started businesses in Japan since first studying there, attracting relatives to Japan through kin-based “chain migration” (Brettell, 2003). Alongside these migration patterns, favourable exchange rates between the yen and the renminbi, has seen a boom in trade and tourism between China and Japan (Bofulin and Coates, 2017). Scouting for “explosive shopping” (爆買い, bakugai ) opportunities, and the purchasing of consumable products for gifting and re-sale (代购, daigou ) has become a significant source of revenue for many young Chinese people in Japan.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Between Product and Cuisine: The Moral Economies of Food among Young Chinese People in Japan

Coates

2019

Journal of Current Chinese Affairs

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Trade and consumption of food in the Sino-Japanese context connects the two countries’ tense political relationship to the everyday lives of its citizens. Previous research has shown how food-related incidents have imbued Sino-Japanese relations with political and moral discourse that connects security concerns to everyday fears. This article explores how young Chinese people in Japan navigate multiple moral economies related to food. Through analysis of “products” ( chanpin/shipin) and “cuisine” ( cai/liaoli), this article shows the differing meanings of Chinese moral economies of food from the perspective of young Chinese people living in Japan. In the Sino-Japanese context, products embody more metonymic and nationalised values associated with modernity, whereas the metaphoric possibilities of cuisine afford young Chinese people to negotiate dominant moral economies of food in Japan. Using this example, I argue that greater semiotic attention needs to be paid to the multiple meanings of food and its moral economies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%