Tuesday Onsite Presentation Session 3

Challenging & Preserving: Culture, Inter/Multiculturalism & Language

Session Chair: Hugh Schuckman

13:40-14:05

67730 | Healthcare Practices of Yapayao-Isneg Tribe: An Ethnographic Study

Mark Gil Vega, Visayas State University, Philippines

Nelson Arguilles, Marikina Polytechnic College, Philippines

Luisito Evangelista, Philippine Normal University, Philippines

Indigenous healthcare practices have played an integral part in human evolution and development since ancient times and have been exercised in every culture around the world. Traditional knowledge and practices from Yapayao-Isneg had sustained their communities long before Westernization had any significant impact. However, they are affected by different environmental factors, especially when it comes to medical practices that affect their beliefs and traditions. This descriptive-ethnographic research was to determine the traditional healthcare practices and beliefs among the Yapayao living in Adams, Ilocos Norte. Informants were nine (9) elders of the Yapayao tribe. Findings revealed that they once operated distinctly primitive healthcare practices throughout life, primarily affected by their beliefs and traditions. However, most of their old beliefs and practices are influenced by modernization. It only implies that the Yapayao are receptive to changes that may affect their way of living. More so, their community's government health care and educational support significantly affect their present way of living. The local government discouraged them from doing their old healthcare practices in their community, explicitly giving birth for safety and hygienic purposes. Despite the changes and influence of modernization on healthcare practices, few Yapayao still practices their traditional exercises.

14:05-14:30

69171 | Looking Beyond What is Visible: How We Regard History Through Memorials

Yukiko Terazawa, Tokyo City University, Japan

A memorial serves to commemorate someone or something. It not only represents what one wishes to remember but also reflects how one wishes to, and wishes others to, remember it. The message is conveyed through the physical images of the memorial, such as its inscription and design. Still, in the process of establishment, certain memories are intentionally excluded or eventually made invisible. This paper takes up two memorials: the Japanese American Memorial, which commemorates Japanese Americans forced into incarceration camps during WWII, and the Statue of Peace, which was first erected in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in 2011 to honor the victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery and demand an official apology from the Japanese government. By examining how these memorials reconstruct and obliterate memories, I intend to show how crucial looking beyond the visible is, and how we should help students regard history and pass on memories.

14:30-14:55

69086 | “People Are Poison” – A Case Study of Chinese Young Adults’ Printed Clothes as Linguistic Landscape from Wearers’ Perspective

Ruijie Li, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Printed clothes have been treated as a special type of mobile linguistic landscape and wearing these clothes can be regarded as a conscious communication act. Previous studies have paid their attention on producers and printed clothes themselves, but wearer is also an essential step which should not be ignored in forming printed clothes as linguistic landscapes. In this study, wearers, as the "second" decision in printed clothes that they choose from existing printed texts to express themselves were explored, to see how different social and linguistic factors influence the final presentations of printed clothes. Applying an ethnographic approach, twenty three private items were collected from six Chinese young adults who are now locating in three global cities: Shanghai, Hong Kong, and London, and interviews were conducted for exploring the agency of buying and wearing texts on their bodies. Based on Spolsky’s (2004) framework of language policy, this paper gives a glance of young Chinese adults choosing or not choosing to wear clothes with texts to express their own identities, and how sociocultural factors lead to the results that Chinese, as their first language, is absent in this communication act. Finally, I suggest that the final presentations of these printed clothes do not only reflect wearers’ own language and cultural ideologies but also globalization of English from economic and cultural perspectives.

14:55-15:20

68829 | Global City, Unbound: Teaching Songdo Korea’s Local Stakeholders to Promote a Internationally Accessible City

Hugh Schuckman, University of Utah–Asia Campus, South Korea

Grace Stewart, University of Utah, United States

Daisy Hall, University of Utah, United States

Chae-eun (Erica) Yang, University of Utah, South Korea

Korean global tax-free development zones such as Songdo, Korea have successfully attracted talented professional talent and students from around the world. Developed through public-private partnerships, these Korean tax-incentivized hubs have bolstered the Korean effort to promote economic, cultural, and political entanglement among friendly nations. But the local government and businesses have often overlooked vital needs from the international community, making medical, educational, and commercial opportunities inaccessible. Over the past year, we have researched this challenge and possible reforms in two stages. First, we interviewed several tranches of Songdobased foreigners (newly arrived; 1-year living experience; 2-5 years, etc.) about their greatest challenges to living, working, and studying in Songdo. Based on this semi-structured interview data, we held focus-group workshops to test possible targeted interventions business and government stakeholders might employ to promote greater access to the global community. Our findings indicate three promising possibilities: promoting English for non-English speaking foreign communities, holding regular meetings between local business owners and native English speakers for multi-cultural perspectives and translations, and further connection and support between local government and global citizen online communities. Our presentation argues that supporting all three of these interventions would help Songdo (and possibly other similar planned cities) promote greater access to the city’s resources among the city’s international residents.