Where are feminism and gender studies in Asia headed?

Where are feminism and gender studies in Asia headed? Trimita Chakma (bio) Editors of Pandemonium spoke with Trimita Chakma on August 16, 2023. Hi, I'm originally an Indigenous woman from Bangladesh and I'm joining you from Seoul, South Korea, today. My key expertise lies in feminist participatory action research (FPAR). I recently cofounded an organization called Feminist Participatory Action Research Academy (FPAR Academy), which is an online learning platform for feminist education and activism. For us, FPAR is a political choice. It is a collective, bottom-up, intersectional feminist methodology. We support and empower marginalized groups to advocate for changes in their communities. FPAR challenges patriarchy, racism, heteronormativity, fascism, and other forms of social injustices. The End Page 123 aim of the FPAR Academy is to foster feminist education through deepening our understanding of how FPAR can contribute to building and strengthening movements to create long-lasting structural change. We are incorporated in Malaysia, but we are transnational in nature. I also currently work as an independent consultant with several feminist organizations. I graduated with my MA this year from Ewha Womans University and my topic of research was conceptualizing Asian women's studies. My goal was to understand women's studies in the Global South, in Asia in particular and from Asian perspectives, and I wanted to study it in an Asian context, so that is why I went to Ewha in South Korea. My perspective is maybe not so scholarly, because I identify more as an activist, so maybe a lot of my views will come from that experience. But, I mean, for me, I don't see much difference between women's and gender studies and feminist activism. Because, you know, it's all intertwined. But maybe I can give you more perspectives on the attacks that have been launched against feminism in general in the parts of Asia I am most familiar with, and I think academic feminism has been a target of some of that, in part because academic feminism is sitting on that line between institutionalized feminism, state institutions, and civil society. It's important to keep in mind that, in Asia, feminism and gender studies are seen as Western imports, in general, right? So feminist institutions are not as strong or deeply rooted as they are in the U.S., for example, especially in terms of academic institutionalization of feminism. The other complexity in all this is Asian as an identity. Everyone wants to decenter the West, but at the same time, they Ewha Womans University are trying to create a center in East Asia, you know, even though there are all these other South Asian or Southeast Asian countries and the idea of being "Asian" is up for grabs. It was interesting to me to find that Koreans don't actually think of themselves as "Asian," and when they say "Asian women's studies," they mean women who I would say are Southeast Asian, but not necessarily Korean or Japanese, who are East Asians. Living in Korea has been an interesting experience in terms of understanding gender here. But I would say it's a bit messy in terms of what "Asian" women's studies is or whom it applies to or who is centered in all that. For me, I would say that there is no such thing as Asian women's studies, because we haven't been able to define what an Asian woman is. There is not enough understanding of that complexity, I think the theoretical foundations of that, and an overemphasis on local contexts, singular national contexts, has been a limitation End Page 124 for growing the field and connecting Asian scholars to each other and activist groups. Let's say it could be better. So, just to give you a bit of understanding of South Korea: it also has one of the worst gender pay gaps, and when I came here in 2020, there was also the Nth Room digital sex crime case, so that was really exploding. Women in South Korea are not in executive positions—very few women, maybe 5 percent in large companies. It's better in the National Assembly, but still...