Emancipating Expressions, Anodyne Multiculturalism, and Beyond: Four Decades of a Local Activist Group in Japan

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Abstract

Based on the author’s intermittent ethnographic field research (1999 to date), this paper explores how a local activist group transforms in negotiation with shifting socio-political contexts and diversifying life courses. The Gathering Space (hereafter GP, a pseudonym) had its first madang-guk performance back in 1986. Madang-guk is an interactive theatric performance originated in the South Korean democratization movement of the 1970s and the 1980s. The GP has been holding regular meetings and practices, co-maintaining with a local labor activist group a modest practice/meeting space in a neighborhood where both Korean minority and Japanese Burakumin (historic occupational/residential caste minority) reside close to each other. The GP members have been playing a pivotal role in launching and continuing an annual local event (1993- ) which symbolizes multicultural celebration. The GP has supported the event as its section leaders and performers.
The GP’s founding objectives were inspired by South Korean Minjung (people’s) movement and culture (whose thematic foci include pro-labor, anti-capitalist, and anti-military dictatorship throughout the 1970s and the 1980s), expressing solidarity with the people who challenge oppressive social forces. Although the GP started as minjok/minjung mungwha pae (peoplehood/people’s culture group). As younger members grew up and some founding members reduced their engagement due to increasing family responsibilities, Korean drum performances had gradually replaced their core form of expressions. This fundamental shift proceeded throughout the 1990s, when resident Korean activism in general lost its momentum. The current GP members do not necessarily hold a unified vision concerning their objectives and goals. Occasional tensions among the GP members illustrate the complex unfolding of what it means to be part of an ethnic minority with obscured boundaries, all the more in recent ages of hate speech and populism.

Author

• Youngmi Lim, Musashi University