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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lee, Yoonkyung, 1965- author.
Militants or partisans : labor unions and democratic politics in Korea and Taiwan / Yoonkyung Lee.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8047-7537-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Labor unionsPolitical activityKorea (South) 2. Labor unionsPolitical activityTaiwan. 3. DemocracyKorea (South) 4. DemocracyTaiwan. 5. Korea (South)Politics and government. 6. TaiwanPolitics and government. I. Title.
HD6835.5.Z65L44 2011
322.2095195dc22
2011004860
Typeset by Newgen in 10.5/13.5 Bembo
E-book ISBN: 978-0-8047-8174-9
Acknowledgments
When I first embarked on a study of this somewhat unpopular topic on Asian labor, it was hard to imagine that one day I would be writing acknowledgments before the manuscripts publication. The day has come, and I am exuberated to write the names of the many people and institutions that aided and encouraged me to carry out this research project. First of all, I would like to thank Herbert Kitschelt, my dissertation advisor, who guided me to undertake a dissertation on labor unions in East Asia and carry it to its completion. His intellectual vigor, discipline, and acuity have been the guiding lights during my graduate studies at Duke University and beyond. My transformation from an activist to a scholar would not have been possible without his generous understanding and rigorous training.
My sincere appreciation goes to Stephan Haggard for offering me a fellowship to spend a semester at the University of California at San Diego to write this manuscript. With unending inquisitiveness and a cheerful spirit, he was a wonderful mentor to nurture this study into publication. The arguments presented in this book were obviously sharpened thanks to his meticulous reading of all the chapters and the insightful criticisms he offered. I also want to extend my gratitude to the participants of two workshops Stephan organized at UCSan Diego, where I presented an earlier version of this manuscript. I am especially grateful to Jong-sung You, Jaejin Yang, Jinhee Choung, and Kuniaki Nemoto for the scholarly conversations and camaraderie we shared during my stay in San Diego.
Hagen Koo is another person I am greatly indebted to. Although we have never worked in the same institution, he has shed tremendous intellectual influence on my study of East Asian labor through his lifetime of research on Korean workers as well as generous compliments and critical feedback on my research over the years. At the University of New York at Binghamton, where I teach and research, I am blessed to work with Fred Deyo, Ravi Palat, Benita Roth, and Leslie Gates, who with their invaluable collegial spirit helped me reevaluate my approach to labor studies from broader perspectives. I also want to thank the graduate students in the Sociology Department who took the seminar on Democracy and Labor I offered in fall 2009. The discussions in the seminar reaffirmed to me the significance of studying labor in the social sciences and provided me the impetus to get to the final revisions of the manuscript.
I would like to further express my appreciation to two anonymous reviewers who carefully read the manuscript and offered invaluable and productive comments. Their reviews enabled me to strengthen and broaden the theoretical arguments in this study while clarifying the connections with comparative cases. Stacy Wagner and Jessica Walsh at Stanford University Press deserve special thanks for their enthusiasm, promptness, and editorial professionalism from the first contact to the last minute while transforming this manuscript into a book. It was a wonderful experience to work with them as a first-time book author.
As a field researcher, I have also accrued a huge debt to many people in Korea and Taiwan. I thank Jangmin Kim, Taehyun Kim, Yoosun Kim, Hoichan Roh, and Kwangyoung Shin, who shared their insights and labor-related data and helped me better understand the historical and present complexities of Korean labor relations. During my field research in Taiwan, I immensely benefited from intellectual exchanges with Heng-hao Chang, Ming-sho Ho, Michael Hsiao, Chang-ling Huang, and Hwan-jen Liu. Special thanks go to Ru-hsin Chang, Jia-ning Hong, and Carry Su, who befriended me, translated for me, and guided me to find my way through their political histories and labor politics. Without the generous support and guidance from these scholars and activists who willingly shared the knowledge and experience they gained from their lifetime of dedication, this comparative study on labor would not have been completed.
During my field research I met many workers, rank-and-file unionists, and union leaders whose names are not fully identified in this book. I perhaps owe the greatest debts of gratitude to them. I was humbled by their willingness to spare their time to share their stories, expertise, and insights on labor politics in Korea and Taiwan with me. They not only inspired me to undertake this research project, but they also offered the crux of empirical evidence to connect the causal claims in this study. While I am entirely responsible for all the shortcomings of this book, I hope I am not misrepresenting their valuable contributions.
My field research in Korea and Taiwan at different points of time between 2000 and 2008 was made possible by generous financial support from various institutions. I thank Duke University, the Association of Asian Studies, the University of CaliforniaSan Diego, the United University Professions, and the State University of New York at Binghamton for offering various summer fellowships and research grants. This work was also supported by an Academy of Korean Studies Grant funded by the Korean government (AKS-2007-CB-2001) that provided the research fellowship at UCSan Diego.
Finally, I want to thank my family and parents. My husband, Chaeho Shin, and my daughter, Isue Shin, have been the anchors and joys of my life. They accompanied me on this long journey from the inception to the completion of this study with their tremendous optimism and generous understanding. I was able to survive and balance my multiple roles as an academic professional, foreign immigrant, and mother/wife thanks to the laughter, patience, and encouragement that they infused into our family life. I feel blessed that they are a part of my life and that I am a part of theirs.
