Description

Kamila Andini is a mother and filmmaker based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her concern of social culture, gender equality and environmental issues fuels her passion to make films with a distinctive perspective of telling a story. In 2011, she released her debut feature film ‘The Mirror Never Lies’, which portrays the life of sea wanderer in Indonesian ocean. And in 2017, she released her second feature ‘The Seen and Unseen’; a cinematic universe of dualism based on Balinese philosophy Sekala Niskala. Both films had traveled through more than 50 film festivals around the world and received about 30 awards nationally and Internationally, including Grand Prix winner best feature film in Berlinale Generation kplus 2018. She also creates some short films to show her voice and vision in filmmaking. After ‘Following Diana’, ‘Memoria’, and ‘Sekar’, her last short film ‘Back home’, was part of an omnibus for Japan based production ‘Angel Sign’. Lately, she is also expanding her directing works into theatre. Her debut theatre work based on her second film; ‘The Seen and Unseen’ was performed at Esplanade Singapore 2018 and Asia Topa Melbourne 2019. And the latest one is a monologue, stage and virtual performance, ‘Nusa yang hilang’. Her third feature film, “Yuni,” an Indonesian, Singapore, French, Australian production, will have its world premiere in the Platform Competition of the Toronto International Film Festival. She is also working on her fourth feature; an intimate film, set in 1960’s, unfolding the right and wrong of a woman’s life. ‘Before, Now and Then’ (working title), is now in production stage.

In solidarity with the CAUT censure of the University of Toronto (see censureuoft.ca), the event is hosted by the Toronto Film and Media Seminar and supported by the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at the Asian Institute, University of Toronto. This event is organized in the spirit of commitments to anti-racism, gender, and religion equity.

Description

Opening remarks:
Mr. Justin Poy, Honorary Patron, Asian Heritage Month-CFACI
Mr. Gregory McCormick, Toronto Public Library

Professor Chef Leo Chan will be in conversation with Councillor Sandra Yeung Racco. The talk is organized by The Asian Heritage Month Festival and the Toronto Public Library.

Holidays and festivals are great events in the lives of people from every culture, beginning right from their childhood. Elements common to most traditional Chinese festivals are the desire for happiness and well-being, the protection of loved ones from misfortunes, the experience of oneness between humans and heaven, and most importantly, family reunion, the opportunity for rest and merriment.

According to the lunar calendar, in the fall, it is usually clear and cool, and there are seldom wandering clouds in the sky. The moon is particularly bright at night. The full moon is a symbol of reunion. The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is also called the Reunion Festival. It is closest to the North American Thanksgiving Day, and the concept of harvest after a long summer of hard work in the field.

There have been a lot of fascinations about the moon. Countless poets, writers, musicians and artists have inspired numerous songs, stories and operas to celebrate this happy festival. The moon cakes and other traditional food as round as the full moon, symbolize the completeness and togetherness of the family. Bright and round lanterns are hung from ceiling and balconies.

Leo and Sandra will share the stories, joy and traditions of the Moon Festival with the zoom audience. The talk embraces the sound and taste of home through this celebration.

Co-sponsors: York Centre for Asian Research, York University; Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto; York University; Richard Charles Lee Canada Hong Kong Library, University of Toronto; Chinese Canadian Photography Society of Toronto; WE Artists’ Group; Social Services Network; Cambridge Food and Wine Society; Fête Chinoise

Asian Heritage Month Festival is partially funded by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Asian Canadian Artists in Digital Age is funded by Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund

Description

SPEAKER 1
Julie Chen, “Wrestling with the platforms in China: precarious participation and glimmer of alternative self-organizing”

Abstract:
The number of platform-based workers in China is estimated to exceed 84 million in 2020—that is, about 10% of the national work force. The magnitude of the transformation of work due to platform power is crucial to understand the contemporary labor politics. In this talk, I will first show how China’s existing informal labor force and the capitalistic logic in the platform economy that prioritizes market dominance have shaped the platform-based workforce in its heterogeneity and scale and led to a rising centralized and infrastructural power in the hands of platform companies to regulate the fragmentated just-in-time work force. I will further discuss the contradictions between the monopolistic capital and China’s infrastructural state and the implications for the continued (old) and new labor struggles. To conclude, I will reflect on the possibility, promise, and limitations of worker’s alternative organizing by exploring a national network of self-organized drivers prior to, during, and after the dominance of the ride-hailing platforms from 2011 to 2019.

Bio:
Julie Yujie Chen is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology at the University of Toronto (Mississauga) and holds a graduate appointment at the Faculty of Information (St. George). Chen studies the transformation of labor and workers in relation to the digital technologies, capitalism, and globalization. She is the co-author of Media and Management (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) and the lead author of Super-sticky WeChat and Chinese Society (Emerald, 2018) which is the first book-length research on the largest social media in China—namely, WeChat. She publishes widely on issues related to workers on the digital platforms in China in journals including New Media & Society, Socio-Economic Review, Javnost – The Public, Work, Employment and Society, Chinese Journal of Communication, China Perspectives, and Triple C. She has been the principal investigator leading research projects which have received funds or awards from Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Connaught New Researcher Award (Canada), and International Development Research Centre (IDRC, Canada).

SPEAKER 2
Seung-yoon Lee, “Platform capitalism and the melting labor: South Korean Platform Labor work and its Mismatch with Welfare Institutions”

Abstract:
Discussions on labor rights and social rights of these platform work developed rapidly and the main topic of discussion was focused on the emergence of this new type of work called platform work. In this study, I conceptualize ‘dismantling of various boundaries surrounding the traditional forms of work and workplace, such as standard employment before the fissured workplace and pure self-employment’, as melting labor. The concept of melting labor includes the increase of new forms of work that deviates from the standard employment before the fissured workplace such as non-regular and atypical work, subcontracted and outsourced work, and also changes in the pure self-employment such as dependent/disguised self-employed as well as freelancers and platform work. Korea’s platform labor market expanded considerably in the short run and there was a diversity of platform labor. First, the labor process has been changed by using the platform in common, however, the workers’ dependence and labor control aspects are different from platform waged workers, disguised self-employed workers to gig workers. However, the differences according to the type of platform labor are as follows. First, the delivery platform was mainly mediated by four-way relations, and the domestic services and freelance platforms by three-way relationships. Second, the intensity of control and involvement of platform labor of platform companies was strong in the order of delivery platform, house service platform and freelance platform. Third, the differences in social security experiences and desires were mainly found in industrial accident insurance. Differences between platform work types also need to be considered in discussing alternatives to solve the gap in practice and institutions.

Bio:
Dr. Sophia Seung-yoon Lee obtained her Ph.D. in Social Policy from Oxford University in the UK with her thesis on a comparative study between East Asian welfare states and non-regular workers. She is an associate professor of social policy at Chung-Ang university, Seoul, South Korea. Her major research fields are East Asian welfare states and labor markets, unstable labor, institutionalism and comparative research methodology. She published peer-reviewed articles and books (co-authored) including “Female outsiders in South Korea’s dual labor market: Challenges of equal pay for work of equal value” (2020), “Korea’s Unstable Youth Labor Market and Youth Basic Income Policy Proposal” (2016), and “Institutional Legacy of State Corporatism in De-industrial Labor Markets” (2016), and Korean Precarious Workers (Co-authored Book, 2017). Currently, she is the Vice Chairperson of the Youth Policy Coordination Committee in the Prime Minister Office.

This virtual event is presented by the Korean Office for Research and Education (KORE) which is funded by the Academy of Korean Studies. This event is co-organized by the Centre for the Study of Korea (CSK) at University of Toronto.

For more information: kore@yorku.ca | https://kore.info.yorku.ca/calendar/

Description

Both Taiwan and mainland China today claim numerous contested features in the South China Sea as “inherent” Chinese territory “since ancient times” — the Pratas, Paracel, and Spratly Islands, Macclesfield Bank, and Scarborough Shoal. This portrays a static and monolithic Chinese state as having ‘always’ territorially minded or largely neglected the islands, and as having neatly disseminated national narratives of the islands onto its populace. Likewise, non-government peoples who historically interacted with the islands, such as fishers, merchants, and community organizations, are commonly subsumed under the nation-state as markers or demonstrators of national sovereignty claims.

In this talk, Chris P. C. Chung discusses the contours of a global and bottom-up approach that decenters the dispute’s origins from the nation-state. He examines predominantly top-down government archival files on the islands from the bottom-up; traces the global historical connections and developments that vitally fuelled the modern formation of China’s island claims in the early 20th century; and dissects the central roles that non-government peoples with widely diverging interests and worldviews played in Chinese maritime discourse production. This decentering approach yields a more critical and comprehensive history of maritime claims-making — and of national identity formation — in Taiwan and mainland China.

Speaker’s Biography

Chris P.C. Chung is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Toronto. Using the South China Sea islands dispute as a case study, Chung’s research investigates how the global flow of ideas and activities of everyday people vitally informed Chinese state conceptions of space and sovereignty in the maritime frontier since the late 18th century. His recently submitted doctoral dissertation, Fluid Realms: Chinese Visions of Maritime Space in the South China Sea Islands, has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. It explores the pivotal roles that non-government actors across the globe played in Qing and Republican Chinese claims-making over the Pratas, Paracel, and Spratly Islands, such as fishers, merchants, and community organizations. It extensively draws from largely unused Qing and Republican archival files that directly detailed official Chinese deliberations on the islands issue and the maritime frontier more generally.

Description

‘Poetic Visions: Focus on Le Bao’ is an online film webinar highlighting the earlier works of Vietnamese filmmaker Le Bao’s short films, ‘Coal’ and ‘Scent.’ Join us as the dialogue uncovers Le Bao’s interest and ideals pertaining to cinema, the gritty realities and emotional nuances of his films.
The webinar will be in conversation with Le Bao and Thy Phu, Professor of Media Studies at the University of Toronto, Scarborough, with English – Vietnamese interpretation. The session will be moderated by Leong Puiyee, Senior Manager and film programmer at Objectifs.

ABOUT THE FILMS:

‘Coal’
Confined in a small space, a father struggles with his drug addiction while his son tries hard to take care of him. Feeling distressed, the son decides to sell their pigs to earn some money in order to send his father to rehab. However the father tries to hinder the son and the pigs start to escape.

‘Scent’
Two homeless and pregnant girls adrift in life and in a canal, meet. When one disappears, what’s left is the memory of the emotional ties they have formed, and the brief scent of the other.

The event is co-hosted by the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota and Objectifs and supported by the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at the Asian Institute, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto.

Le Bao’s films will be made available to watch for free on the Objectifs Film Library from OCT 4 to OCT 24, 11:59pm. You will receive the screening links upon registration.

PLEASE NOTE: This event does not include a live screening of the two short films; attendees are encouraged to watch them prior to the webinar.

‘Taste,’ Le Bao’s first feature will be screening at the Asian Film Archive from October 23 – November 5, 2021. For more details, visit https://www.asianfilmarchive.org/

Description

You are cordially invited to the second part of conference, “Platform capitalism and platform labor,” featuring Juliet Schor (Boston College) and Ya-Wen Lei (Harvard University).

*Please register before October 29*

This event is chaired by Yoonkyung Lee (Sociology, U of T)

SPEAKER 1
Juliet Schor, “Interrogating the Uberization Narrative: Heterogeneity in the Platform Labor Force”

Abstract:
The dominant narrative in the platform literature is Uberization—a large, predatory platform that eliminates competitors, progressively squeezes and exploits workers, and uses technology to enact algorithmic control. In this talk I will interrogate the Uberization narrative. Relying on more than a decade of research across a variety of platforms I will present an account which stresses heterogeneity “up and down the line.” While aspects of the Uberization narrative are undoubtedly correct, the presence of considerable heterogeneity across and within platforms workers suggests the need for a more complex and dynamic theorization. Taking account of heterogeneity reveals diverse worker experiences, continuous changes in apps and platform policies, and ongoing tensions in the dominant social relations that comprise platforms.

Bio:
Juliet Schor is an economist and Professor of Sociology at Boston College. Schor’s research focuses on work, consumption, and climate change. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Schor received her Ph.D. in economics at the University of Massachusetts. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard University for 17 years. In 2020 she published After the Gig: How the Sharing Economy Got Hijacked and How to Win it Back (University of California Press 2020), which won the Porchlight Management and Workplace Culture Book of the Year. Schor’s previous books include the national best-seller The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need, and True Wealth: How and Why Millions of Americans are Creating a Time-Rich, Ecologically Light, Small-Scale, High-Satisfaction Economy.

SPEAKER 2
Ya-Wen Lei, “Delivering Solidarity: Platform Architecture and Collective Contention in China’s Platform Economy”

Abstract:
This study examines how and when labor control and management leads to collective resistance in China’s food-delivery platform economy. I develop the concept of “platform architecture” to examine the technological, legal, and organizational aspects of control and management in the labor process and the variable relationships between them. Analyzing 68 in-depth interviews, ethnographic data, and 87 cases of strikes and protests, I compare the platform architecture of service and gig platforms and examine the relationship between their respective architecture and labor contention. I argue that specific differences in platform architecture diffuse or heighten collective contention. Within the service platform, technological control and management generates work dissatisfaction, but the legal and organizational dimensions contain grievances and reduce the appeal of, and spaces for, collective contention. Conversely, within the gig platform, all three dimensions of platform architecture reinforce one another, escalating grievances, enhancing the appeal of collective contention, and providing spaces for mobilizing solidarity and collective action. As a result, gig platform couriers are more likely to consider their work relations exploitative and to mobilize contention, despite facing higher barriers to collective action due to the atomization of their work.

Bio:
Ya-Wen Lei is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Harvard University, and is affiliated with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. She is the author of The Contentious Public Sphere: Law, Media and Authoritarian Rule in China (Princeton University Press, 2018). Her articles have appeared in American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, The China Quarterly, Law & Society Review, Socius, and Political Communication. At this moment, she is finishing her second book manuscript tentatively entitled Upgrading the Nation: Promise and Peril of Techno-Developmentalism in China (Under Contract with Princeton University Press).

This virtual event is presented by the Korean Office for Research and Education (KORE) which is funded by the Academy of Korean Studies. This event is co-organized by the Centre for the Study of Korea (CSK) at University of Toronto.

For more information: kore@yorku.ca | https://kore.info.yorku.ca/calendar/