Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The chapters in this book examines specific cases of the constitution of these borders either horizontally between the states or vertically within social, racial and ethnic strataand demonstrates that though practiced locally and subjectively in various forms, the issue of borders is over-determined globally. Acknowledging the establishment of East Asian borders defined by international politics over the past two centuries, the essays in this book are committed to a careful examination of historical processes and complex discursive contexts so that borders are questioned, problematized and pluralized. The geographical border, linguistic border, ideological border; whether it is the external physical border or the internalized bordered consciousness; each author offers new insights as to how it might be possible to divert from the axis of empirical translation and to point to transferential and transgressive translation as modes of intervention and resistance.