Switching gears

To be honest, I haven't actually fully nailed down what I want to be doing this summer. I've already decided on the greater topic of constitutional reform in Japan and Taiwan, but I haven't figured out what angle I should approach this from. What I do know is that at this point in time, I know very little about the topic, which can be both a cause of worry and potential.

Let me backtrack a bit. As most of you probably already know, since January I've studying in Kyoto, Japan for the semester. It wasn't easy deciding to do so - I wavered and went back and forth a bit back while I was still in Michigan about whether or not I should actually participate in the program. In hindsight, many of the things that I worried about were rather petty and maybe even a bit childish, but they mattered to me regardless. I mean, there were things that I knew I would miss, such as interesting classes, my fellowship and acapella group, and interaction with my statistically significant other. It's been hit or miss - some things did indeed unfold as I had foreseen, others actually surprised me in positive ways. At any rate what I'm trying to say is that studying abroad has been quite an exhilarating experience, and if you have the chance to do it, then you probably ought to give it a shot.

I started learning Japanese seriously in my sophomore year of college - I had taken a few classes in high school, but to be honest, I never put any effort into it. Actually, that would unfortunately describe "high school Steven" fairly accurately. I had nearly perfect attendance for all my classes, and since that was rare enough as it was, most of my teachers probably felt rather bad if they didn't give me an A, so I graduated with good grades despite never really preparing for class, doing homework, or doing well on exams. All I learned from my Japanese classes back in Taiwan were roughly 40 or so hiragana. (This wasn't the fault of the teacher at all) Despite this, I always harbored a desire the learn the language, largely because I started to read Japanese manga (Dragonball and Slam Dunk were the catalysts), and became quite enamored with the pop culture. When I first entered the University of Michigan, I learned that we had a program called the Residential College which was structured rather like a small liberal arts college with a heavy emphasis on humanities, arts, and social sciences. It was also famous for its intensive language programs. I figured that this sounded pretty good to me, particularly since I wasn't interested at all in doing a major in the "real" sciences like physics or biochemistry. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely LOVE science and find myself constantly amazed and fascinated by the things that I am able to learn about the world every day, but when it comes down to it I know I wouldn't be able to hack it, because I slacked off in high school and didn't lay down the basic fundamentals for it.

Oh yeah, the fact that being an RC student meant you were obligated/allowed to live in East Quad on the UM Central Campus was also a huge motivating factor. Basically, I didn't want to live on North Campus and have to commute down south every day. Ironically, it was my laziness that compelled me to start taking one of the most intensive language courses offered by the University. Go figure.

It wasn't until I completed my first semester that I learned about Asian Studies, and after taking an introductory level survey course on Modern East Asia, I was hooked and decided to do a double major. As a result, each semester so far I've been taking at least one course in Political Science, and one in Asian Studies, and occasionally if I'm lucky (as I was sophomore year) I had classes that combined the two. I felt like I was starting to get the hang of things.

But as junior year rolled around I realized how little I really knew. Sure, I probably had an above-average grasps of politics, and particularly Chinese politics, but as far as my knowledge of the rest of East Asia was concerned, I knew little more than the average Wikipedia article. Japan's also an integral player in East Asia right? How can I not know anything about Japanese history, culture, religion, or politics, and yet call myself an expert in Asian Studies? So that was one reason why I decided to come here, and I'd describe the past semester as a crash course on Japan, in an attempt to make up for the things that I didn't learn in the past. This involved everyday life in Japan such as living with a host family, the daily two hour commute to school, the awesome game shows, courses in translation and Japanese politics, and overall just a greater understanding of the language and culture. But overall it still felt too short, and if I was honest with myself I *still* didn't know all that much. At this point I've come to realize that you actually won't ever be satisfied with how much you know, and at any rate what's important isn't necessarily the factual knowledge you have stored in your head, but rather the ability to find information when you need it.

Towards the end of the school year here, the study abroad program I participated in, the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies (KCJS) told us that they would be offering research grants for the summer, and if you got it, yu would be able to stay in Japan for up to an additional 10 weeks doing research on a topic of your choosing. At first I really didn't put all that much thought into it, since I didn't really know what I wanted to do. Then randomly it suddenly struck me - the constitution! Yeah, that sounds sort of boring and a bit random, but hear me out. As I said earlier, I really don't know that much about East Asian politics yet, but I am interested in learning more about Japan, China, and Taiwan in particular. (Korea if I have time) So far, I've already taken quite a few classes on China, and a few now on Japan, but I've always felt that what I'm most interested in is China-Taiwan-US relations. But how does it affect everyday life?

Well, in Japan the revision of the constitution is a fairly big deal, and there's been mounting pressure to do so, from various different perspectives. For example, you have the right-wing nationalists who want Japan to remilitarize and be more assertive in international politics, especially in regards to relations with China and Korea. You've also got those who want to revise the constitution if only for linguistic reasons - as the document was originally drafted in English, some of the wording is simply awkward. On the other hand, there are also people who fear that revising the constitution threatens Article 9, which is arguably the aspect of the Japanese constitution that is most famous - the one that renounces war. In this regard, the Japanese and Taiwanese situation shares some similarities.

In both cases, for better or worse the constitution was externally "imposed", under circumstances in which the affected population had relatively little say in the matter. For Japan, it was by the United States and the occupying authorities, and for Taiwan, the original Republic of China constitution drafted and designed to govern "Mainland" China. As the people in these two lands are slowly starting to come to a new recognition and grasp of identity, there is inevitable pressure to revise the constitution into something that more accurately matches the current state of the nation, and how it ought to be perceived and ruled. Yet although there are various practical reasons to do so in both cases, there are various different factors to consider. For example, Korea and China arguably see the revision of the Japanese constitution as a threat, or at least a disturbing development, because the biggest thing these two countries care about regarding this topic is Article 9. Now, whether or not this law would actually be changed is another issue altogether (I personally believed it wouldn't), but the perception certainly exists, which is that if Japan revises its constitution, one large purpose would be to get rid of the clause abandoning the use of military force.

For Taiwan, the case is even more blatant - although its constitution has been revised several times since the Chinese Nationalists took over Taiwan after losing the Civil War, overall it is still quite clunky and ill-suited towards governing an island nation of Taiwan's size. I'm not really 100% sure on this, but as far as I know there are still parts referring to Chinese provinces, and even Mongolia. Yet while it makes much practical sense to revise the constitution in order to reflect contemporary Taiwan more accurately (also the fact that it is now a Democracy, and a document that was designed to be used under a rather Leninist KMT structure just doesn't apply very well), there's international pressure - namely, from the People's Republic of China stopping this.

Now what I haven't decided on yet is what to focus my research on. I see either 1) The process of constitutional revision in both countries, such as whether or not it is interest-group based, how the laws are favorable or are heavily weighted towards maintaining the status quo, or 2) The international politics of East Asia, and the sorts of things that both nations have to take into account when considering whether or not to revise.

Either way, my conclusions won't come until later - first, I just have to read a LOT about Japanese politics in addition to constitutional law and social activism before I know where to start. But in addition, I'm going to have to learn a lot more about Taiwan too. I've complained that the University of Michigan basically offers jack squat on Taiwanese studies, and I've realized that I really ought to be taking the initiative to learn myself, if it's that important to me. As such, when I return home to Taiwan in mid-June, that will be the start of the second half of my research, which should be quite interesting. I'm going to try to become more involved and engaged with what's going on in Taiwanese society and politics, and post some commentary when I am able to.

Maybe I'm gonna be spending a lot of time in Taipei... urgh.