Research

Performing the Meanings of Money in the Trials of War Orphans against Japan

With Kwai Hang Ng, in the American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Volume 12, pages 25-52 (2024)

• Honorable Mention, Asia Law and Society Association Distinguished Article Award (2024)

Utilitarian accounts of monetary disputes hinge on too limited an understanding of the nature of money. This limitation is particularly salient when it is applied to studying the disputes regarding compensation in historical grievance litigations. This article, based on in-depth interviews with 40 “war orphans,” Japanese citizens who were left behind in China after Japan’s surrender in 1945, shows how parties primarily disagree on the question of “What for?” and not “How much?” We argue that the disputes centered around the meaning of the money offered by the Japanese government. We identify three types of “money acts” through which money is demanded and justified, labeled and categorized, divided and distributed. The lingering resentment felt by the war orphans can only be made sense of by attending to the meaning dimension of this legal-cum-political dispute that lasted for a decade.

Empowering Victimhood Through Litigation: Two Trial Cases from the Jeju April 3 Uprising and Political Repression

Forthcoming in Law and Social Inquiry (2025)

• Student Paper Award in the International Conference on Sociology of Korea (2023)

This article addresses a critical gap in the study of victimhood in historical grievance cases by examining the transformation from passive and powerless victims to active, empowered victim identities through litigation. Focusing on the aftermath of the 1947-1954 political repression and violence in Jeju Island, South Korea, known as the Jeju April 3 Incident, this study draws on archival research and in-depth interviews with survivors, bereaved family members, activists, and lawyers. It demonstrates how litigation plays a crucial role in empowering victims by allowing survivors and families to actively engage in the legal process, where they publicly perform, socialize, and symbolically mobilize their narratives. The Jeju April 3 trials show how survivors and bereaved families, once stigmatized as “rioters” or “families of rioters,” reclaimed their dignity and transitioned from passive subjects of injustice into active agents of social change. By highlighting how court proceedings serve as crucial spaces for marginalized individuals, this study contributes to the scholarship on legal mobilization and identity transformation, particularly in the contexts of state violence and historical grievances. 

Typologies of Historical Grievances Victims in East Asia (R&R)

• Research Handbook in Law and Society Series, Edited by Alice Bosma, Veronica Michel-Luviano, and Robyn Holder, Edward Elgar Publishing 

Contested Reparations: Strategic Ambiguity in Addressing the Jeju April 3 Incident 

• Presentation, Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements. American Sociological Association, August 2023. Philadelphia, PA.

• Presentation, Mobilization Conference, June 2023. San Diego State University, San Diego, CA.  

Money Acts in Reparations for Historical Grievances 

• Presentation, North American Taiwan Studies Association, June 2023. University of California, Irvine, CA 

Model Transitional Justice Myth (with Dr. Lee, Yi-Li)

Building Solidarity of Victim Community Through Litigations: The Cases of Taiwan and South Korea

Thin and Thick Reconciliation (Book Project)

Bridging Divides through Local Reparations in the U.S.