教师及职员
Joseph Bosco

Associate Professor / Head, Graduate Division / Director, MA Programme
OfficeNAH 302
OfficeTel.3943 7675
Emailjosephbosco"at"cuhk.edu.hk
EducationqualificationPh.D.with distinction, Columbia University, Department of Anthropology.
M.Phil.Columbia University, Department of Anthropology.
M.A.Columbia University, Department of Anthropology. Member of the JointProgram in Applied Anthropology with Teachers College.
B.S.with honors. University of Notre Dame. Major: Biology, and Concentration inAnthropology.
LanguagesEnglish, Italian,Putonghua, French, Spanish; basic level facility in German, Cantonese, Hokkien
Introduction

Prof. Joseph Bosco majored in Biology andAnthropology at the University of Notre Dame and received his postgraduatedegrees (MA, MPhil and PhD) at Columbia University in the City of New York. Hisfirst fieldwork was a summer MA project on deforestation in Panama. His PhDresearch examined cultural aspects of Taiwan’s rapid industrialization,focusing on the role of family businesses in rural development. He has alsodone research on Chinese popular religion, particularly on temples of thegoddess Tianhou (also known as Mazu and Tin Hau). He has done research on rugby in Hong Kong, and studied the rise of consumerism in South China by focusing on the rapidadoption of the use of shampoo. He is currently researching the use, misuse,and fear of pesticides in Taiwan, focusing on how farmers and consumers dealwith the uncertainty of science, the risk of poisoning, and the difficultieswith organic farming. He has also led work on an online Wiki English-Chinesedictionary of Anthropology. Prof. Bosco teaches a popular course entitled“Magic, Myth and the Supernatural” that examines the cultural creation ofreality in phenomena such as ghosts, witchcraft, and UFOs.
Research interests

Political economy,economic culture, peasant societies, political anthropology, economicdevelopment, consumerism and the environment, religious movements
Geographicalareas of research

Taiwan, Mainland China,Latin America, Mediterranean Europe
Courses taught

Fall 2015On research leave,conducting fieldwork in Taiwan

Spring 2015

ANTH 6020 Seminars in ResearchMethods

ANTH 5251 Seminars in theAnthropology of China II (coordinator)
Current research

Pesticides and Pollution: SustainableAgriculture and the Risks of Development in Taiwan (GRF Grant 2014-2016)“Selling Shampoo to China: Global Consumerism and theSources of Desire.” (book ms)

The 2012 Child-abduction Rumors in HongKong (article)

Magic, Myth and the Supernatural (book ms)

The Hong Kong Rugby Sevens: Sport, Business and Globalization (article)

New Asia College Graduation PhotoDay video and wiki ethnography (click here for higher resolution version video).

SEAAEnglish-Chinese-English Dictionary of Keywords in Anthropology
Awards

SCGE Exemplary Teaching Award in General Education 2013–2014
Other positions held

Editorial board memberships
Member,Editorial Board, AmericanAnthropologist, 2012 to present.

Member,Editorial Board, RevistaNuevas Tendencias en Antropología

Member,Editorial Board, Asian Anthropology,2002 to present.

Member,Series Editorial Board, “AsianAnthropologies” Series, Berghahn Books, Oct.2005 to present.

Member,Board of Directors, AFSIntercultural Exchanges Hong Kong, Oct.2006 to present, and Vice-Chair, April 2012 to present.

Member,Board of Directors, Rehabaid Society (HK) Jan. 2007 to present.

Other


Co-Chair, AFS Hong Kong (Intercultural Exchanges) (2015–2016)

Selected Publications

Books
2004MakingAnthropology in East and Southeast Asia Shinji Yamashita, Joseph Bosco, andJerry Eades, eds. Oxford: Berghan Books.
1999屏东县万丹乡万惠宫 (TheWanhui Temple of Wandan Township, Pingdong County [Taiwan]). Pingdong: Pingdong CulturalCenter. (Bilingual)
1999Temples of the Empress of Heaven (with Puay PengHo). Images of Asia Series. HongKong: Oxford University Press.

Bookchapters and journalarticles
2016"The Sacred in Urban Political Protests in Hong Kong." InternationalSociology doi:10.1177/**5767.
2015"Urban Processions: Colonial Decline andRevival as Heritage in Postcolonial Hong Kong." In Peter van der Veer, ed.,Handbookof Religion and the Asian City: Aspiration and Urbanization in the Twenty-firstCentury, pp. 110-130. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
2015"ChinesePopular Religion and Hong Kong Identity". AsianAnthropology 14(1): 8-20.
2014"The Problemof Greed in Anthropology: SumptuaryLaws and New Consumerism in China." EconomicAnthropology 1: 167-185.
2013"The HongKong Ocean Park Kidnapping Rumor." Ethnology 50(2):135-151.
2012"TheFormula as a Managerial Tool: Audit Culture in Hong Kong". Journal of WorkplaceRights 16(3-4) 383-403.
2010"The Problem with Relativismin the Comparative Study of Religion." In Aspects of Transformation throughCultural Interaction, (bilingualpublication in English and Japanese), edited by Shinohara Hirokata, InoueMituyuki, Huang Yun, Hino Yoshihiro, and Sun Qing, pp. 3-49. Osaka, Japan:Institute for Cultural Interaction Studies, Kansai University.
2009“UndergroundLotteries in China: The Occult Economy and Capitalist Culture” (with LuciaHuwy-Min Liu and Matthew West). In Researchin Economic Anthropology: Economic Development, Integration, and Morality inAsia and the Americas, No. 29, Donald C. Wood, ed. Emerald Publishing.(Winner of OutstandingAuthor Contribution Award Winner at the EmeralsLiterati Network Awards for Excellence 2010).
2009“SEAA 人类学词汇维基辞典的简介”. 西北民族研究 第63期：102-105.
2007“YoungPeople's Ghost Stories in Hong Kong”. In TheJournal of Popular Culture 40(5):785-807.
2004“AsianAnthropologies: Foreign, Native and Indigenous” (with Shinji Yamashita and J.S.Eades). In Making Anthropology in East andSoutheast Asia ShinjiYamashita, Joseph Bosco, and Jerry Eades, eds. Oxford: Berghan Books, p. 1-34.
2004“Local Theories andSinicization in the Anthropology of Taiwan.” In Making Anthropology in East andSoutheast Asia ShinjiYamashita, Joseph Bosco, and Jerry Eades, eds. Oxford: Berghan Books, pp.208-252.
2004"Anthropological Fieldwork in the 1980s:The Final Years of Martial Law." Issues& Studies 40(3-4):428-439.
2004"Hong Kong." In Encyclopediaof Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, MelvinEmber, Carol R. Ember, and Ian Skoggard, eds. NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers,pp. 506-514.
2004"Longer Contemplation." In New Reflections on AnthropologicalStudies of (greater) China, ed. Xin Liu. Berkeley: Institute of East AsianStudies, University of California, pp. 71-77.
2003 “The Supernatural in Hong Kong Young People'sGhost Stories.” Anthropological Forum 13(2):141-149.
2003“Tianhou gong zhi chongjian yu huoli: Taiwan yuXianggang bijiao yanjiu (The rebuilding and vitality of Tianhou Temples: ATaiwan and Hong Kong Comparison).” In Mazu xinyang de fazhan yu bianqian(Mazu Belief and Modern Society). LinMeirong, Chang Hsun and Tsai Hsiang-hui, eds. Taipei: Taiwan Association forReligious Studies and Beigang Chaotian Gong.pp. 95-116.
2001“The McDonald’s Snoopy Craze in Hong Kong” inGordon Mathews and Lui Tai-lok, eds. ConsumingHong Kong, pp. 263-285. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
2001“Hong Kong.” In Ember, Melvin andCarol R. Ember, eds. Countriesand Their Cultures Volume 2,pp. 991-1000. New York: Macmillan Reference USA.
2001The Tianhou Temple Ritual and Architecture (CD-ROM) (with PuayPeng Ho). Published by theDepts. of Architecture and Anthropology, Chinese University, and distributed byThe Chinese University Press.
1999“An Anthropological View of the Hong KongMcDonald’s Snoopy Craze.” HongKong Anthropologist, No. 12:23-30.
1998“Anthropology among the natives: theindigenization of Chinese anthropology.” In Sidney C.H. Cheung, ed. On the South China Track:Perspectives on Anthropological Research and Teaching. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute ofAsia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, pp. 23-44.
1997– 2000Co-Editor (with Grant Evans) Hong Kong Anthropologist (no. 10, 11, 12, 13).
1996“Pagers and Culture in Hong Kong.” The Hong Kong Anthropologist No. 9, pp. 16-23.
1996“Taiwan jiating qiye de wenhua quanshi [OnCultural Explanations for the Development of Family Factories inTaiwan].” (In Chinese) Zhongguo shehui kexue jikan(Chinese Social Sciences Quarterly) vol.14 (April).
1995Editor, TaiwanStudies: A Journal of Translation, issue on “Land Issues in Taiwan History”edited by Joseph Bosco and Chiu-kun Chen (vol. 1 no. 1), published by M.E.Sharpe, Armonk NY.
1995co-editor (with Mau-kuei Michael Chang) of vol.1 no. 2 of TaiwanStudies: A Journal of Translation, issue on “Ethnic Relations and NationalIdentities.”
1995“Better the Head of a Chicken than the Tail ofan Ox: On Cultural Explanations for the Development of Family Factories inTaiwan.” Taiwan StudiesWorkshop, Fairbank Center Working Paper No. 12, Harvard University.
1994“Taiwan Businessmen Across the Straits:Socio-Cultural Dimensions of the Cross-straits Relationship.” Working Paper No. 1, Department ofAnthropology, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
1994“Faction versus Ideology: MobilizationStrategies in Taiwan’s Elections.” ChinaQuarterly 137: 28-62.
1994“Yiguan Dao: ‘Heterodoxy’ and Popular Religionin Taiwan.” In Murray A.Rubinstein, ed., The OtherTaiwan, 1945 to the Present. Armonk,NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., pp. 423-444.
1992“The Emergence of a Taiwanese PopularCulture.” In American Journal of Chinese Studies 1(1):51-64. Reprinted in Murray A. Rubinstein,ed., 1994, The Other Taiwan, 1945to the Present. Armonk,NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.. pp. 392-403.
1992“The Effects of Land Reform on the PoliticalEconomy of Wandan Township.” LandIssues in Taiwan History. ChiuK. Chen and Hsueh-chi Hsu, eds. TaiwanHistory Field Research Office, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
1992“Research Note: The Role of Culture in TaiwaneseFamily Enterprises.” ChineseBusiness History 3(1):1-4.
1992“Taiwan Factions: Guanxi, Patronage, and theState in Local Politics.” Ethnology 31(2):157-183. Reprinted in Murray A. Rubinstein,ed., 1994, The Other Taiwan,1945 to the Present. Armonk,NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.. pp. 114-144.
1992Approaches to Teaching About Taiwan (background bookletfor social science teachers). Publishedby the East Asian Curriculum Project, Columbia University. Also wrote sections on “Family,”“Social Relations,” and “Taiwan” for China:A Teaching Workbook.
Which Joseph Bosco is this?

Tomy utter shock, after I had been studying anthropology and Chinese and moved toHong Kong to teach, two other Joseph Boscos emerged who also, as improbable as itseems, were interested in Taiwan and China. (There are still other Joe Boscos, butlet's not go there…) One is a lawyer who worked for former MassachusettsGovernor John Volpe, then went to Washington as Volpe’s special assistant whenhe was named Secretary of Transportation by President Nixon. That Joe Bosco has also been a professor atGeorgetown and is a national security consultant. His full name is JosephA. Bosco (I don't have a middle name orinitial). He wrote a few opinion pieces that led some friends to wonderwhat had happened to "me"; here is a WashingtonPost Op-Ed from2001, and a TaipeiTimes column thatargued against China's legal claims to be able to use force to unite Taiwanwith the mainland. He argued for the containment of China, and for pressingChina on issues of US interest, thus taking a politically conservative orhawkish point of view. Here isa more recent opinion piece in the LA Times thatargues the US should end the policy of 'strategic ambiguity' and make clearthat it would protect Taiwan from attack, and in return Taiwan should agree to"forgo formal independence for now." He also makes a point that Itend to agree with, which is that "Two democratic peoples could peacefully manage the questionof unification, independence or association." (Still, much work would needto be done to convince Beijing that this policy is not designed to stealthilypromote Taiwan independence.) Morerecent (2010) articles include one in the Washington Times on the need tocontain China’sgrowing threat anda call inthe Christian Science Monitor forObama to call a summit of Nobel Peace Prize winners to protest China’s jailingof Liu Xiabo.
Theother Joseph Bosco (who like the Georgetown lawyer alsohad the middle initial “A”, but did not use it) was a journalist and the authorof a bookon the OJ Simpson trial. I only had occasion tomeet him once in November 2006 before he died at a relatively young 61 years ofage in July 2010 (see his LATimes obituary here). He had hisfans, but seemed to have some enemies (seethis blog andthis LA Times Boyarsky column). Hewas very nice in person when we met, but seemed sometimes pugnacious in hisblogs, other times regretful about unspecified choices in his life. In2002, he took a job teaching English in Fujian, and the next year moved toBeijing where he was Visiting Professor of Journalism at the Beijing ForeignStudies University. During his time in Fujian, the journalist Joseph Bosco developed strong opinions on theTaiwan issue, though unfortunately (for posterity, but fortunately in otherways), hisblog entries are no longer on the web. The journalist Joseph Bosco viewed himself as a liberal, but sincehe had never been in Taiwan, he viewed the issue exclusively through PRCeyes. He dismissed and disparaged Taiwanese claims for independence,noting that the PRC will never accept an independent Taiwan. He wrote soglowingly of the PRC that he attracted the attention of the right wing press(see this Newsmax article for a right-wing attack on JB). The glowing piece on China was actually an attack on the other Joseph Bosco, so Ifelt caught in battle of Joseph Boscos!
Needlessto say, I am not them. The Library of Congress knows me as Bosco,Joseph, 1957- sinceI don't have a middle name. I considered taking a middle name or initial,but a librarian told me that would be even more confusing. So there weare. Bosco isnot a common surname in Italy; thissite willshow you, however, that the name is not rare and is spread throughout Italy(for the record, my Bosco ancestorsare from Vasto,in the Abruzzi,and 3 generations before that arrived in Vasto fromthe Marche according to family tradition, but from Puglia further southaccording to government records). Joseph, or Giuseppe, is probably themost common male given name in Italy; San Giuseppe, on 19 March, was once anational holiday. So that is why there are 3 of us. But it is still quitesome coincidence that there are 3 Joseph Boscos (Boschi?) who have written about Taiwan and China.

I am also known by myChinese name LIN Zhou (林舟). Lin is a common surname and means forest (which is what Bosco means in Italian). Zhou soundslike "Joe." I hope any other Joseph Boscos take different Chinese names (at leasta different character, like周or 州or even 粥 J) to avoid confusion!
Personal interests

AFS HongKong (Intercultural Exchanges)Rehabaid Society

Blog: AnthropologicalFragments