2025/09/11 by Mun Young Cho, Yang Zhan, Jing Xu · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Japanese History and Culture #Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
paper · doi:10.1111/aman.70023
openalex publication_date 2025/09/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
ABSTRACT This interview with Professor Mun Young Cho, a leading cultural anthropologist at Yonsei University, explores her intellectual journey and research on poverty, labor, development, and youth in China and South Korea. Trained in South Korea and the United States, Professor Cho reflects on her encounters with socialism, neoliberal reforms, and the intellectual shifts between these contexts. The conversation delves into her work bridging academic scholarship with public engagement and activism, addressing themes such as the precarious conditions of contemporary youth, the historicity of poverty, and the intersections of anthropology and politics. Professor Cho highlights the concept of “implication,” emphasizing how individuals, including academics, are entangled in the structures they critique. The interview further examines her innovative initiatives, including the “Empathy Forum,” which brought together Korean and Chinese graduate students to encourage cross‐national dialogue and collaboration amid rising nationalism and anti‐China sentiment. By reflecting on her fieldwork and public‐facing anthropology, Professor Cho discusses the tensions between empathy and critique, the politics of precarity, and the potential of ethnography to bridge divides and create transformative encounters. This dialogue offers insights into anthropology's potential to engage with pressing social issues, rethink binaries such as China versus the West, and contribute to a more inclusive and nuanced understanding of global crises and inequalities.