S E C T I O N N E W S February 2001 Anthropology News

head of the Marin Food Policy Council and the non-profit Marin Food and Agriculture project of the Tides Center. She serves on the Marin Agn- cultural Land Trust Education Committee and facilitated the formation of the Berkeley Food Policy Council. As a member of the Marin Or- ganic Farmers Association, she was instrumental in designing an “ecdabel” for certified organic farm produds in her county. Brown is involved with the Center for Ecoliteracy, which is active in modifymg the Berkeley school lunch program, using a grant from the USDA, to purchase food from local farmers to feed 10,OOO school children in the Berkeley public school system. The Center helped to modify the curriculum to include use of school gardens, farm field trips and cooking classes with local chefs. The Tides Center, whose primary activity is the Marin Gleaning Project, brings students and their families to Marin County farms to resme produce that would not otherwise reach the market, distributing it to pro- grams serving the needs of low-income people. In three years the project has delivered over 25,000 pounds of fresh organic produce to these pro- grams while providing a service learning educa- tion component to public and private schools in the country and helping young people under- stand how food reaches the table.

Jim Tischer spoke on “What Farmers Need/Are Doing to Survive.” He identified a number of farmers’ activities as well as the role CAFF plays in supporting a local food system. CAFF is a non- profit orgarlization of farmers and urban people who foster family-scale agriculture that sustains the land and local economies and promotes social justice. One of CAFF’s programs facilitates localized, farmer-to-farmer and farmer-to-con- sumer networks that promote exchanges of tech- nical information, community building and out- reach.

I f you haw anything of interest please send it to: Steve Morin, SSD, UW, MCPO Box 3127, 1271 Makati Ciw, Philippines; tel 63-2 845-0563 at 713, tel (fiom USA) 650/833-6620 at 713, fa 650/833- 6621, s.mori&giar.org or Melina S Magambol, m.magsumbol&giar.q.

East Asia Sedon ERIBERTO P LOZADA, JR AND JOHN MCCREERY, CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Domesticating Globalization in China

By Eriberto P Lo&, Ir (Butler U) On the streets of Shanghai in the summer of ZOOO, as I sipped my iced mocha latt6 at a Star- bucks, I was bombarded with e-commerce adver- tisements on the brightly decorated buses that drove by. Throughout the world, computers and the internet have come to symbolize globaliza- tion. The internet connects people and makes possible what many have trumpeted as a new age of opportunity. It provides opportunities for those who can stake out claims in the uncharted

@a& ~ i f u n s ) in-1978,~~ Shanghai internet cafe, late at night number of very success- ful entrepreneurs have improved their standards of living in highly visi- ble ways. Many symbols of modernity have become standard accoutrements for highly mobile professionals. In 1993, when I started doing fieldwork in China, the gadget that most often served as a badge of success was the beeper (BB jo. By 1998 the beeper had been surpassed by cellular phones. Now, in the 21st century, the computer has become the symbol of success in China, spawning a thriving cybermlture whose participants are using computers and the inter- net. Regular computer users are a small minority, comprising a cosmopolitan elite who are doing well with globalization.

The computer and internet industries in China exploded in the 1990s. China is seen by industry analysts as the market with the highest potential for growth. Today, the Chinese domestic market itself has an estimated value of US$11.5 billion, and Chinese computer companies like Legend Computers command the greatest market share. China has around 17 million internet users, in contrast to the U S who has 92 million regular internet users. But analysts have projected that by 2005, China will have the second largest popula- tion of internet users in the world.

But what drives the computer craze in China? Though many western politicians seem hopeful that the popularity of internet cafes (wangba) is a sign of a nascent democracy in China, it would appear that many internet cafe patrons are there for less political pursuits: playing popular com- puter games such as “Age of Empires II” or “Star- craft” together on networked computers. Though a seemingly trivial leisure activity, the importance and power of computer gaming cannot be ignored. The Chinese entertainment and educa- tional software industry is h@ly successful. This year, it is estimated that approximately 2.8 billion RMB (US5341 million) worth of software wiil be

sold in the PRC. Despite the endemic problems of software piracy, computer game connoisseurs want the real thing, and they want powerful, net- worked computers to play them on.

In Korea, “Starcraft” is thought to have kept the internet service provider industry alive dur- ing the Asian economic crisis through the growth of internet gaming rooms. Because group play in “Starcraft” requires a high-speed network, Korean computer gamers needed to go to internet gam- ing rooms where PCs were linked together through a local area network. Now that the Korean economy is on the mend, computer gamers using “StarcrafV’ have spurred the expan- sion of broadband internet access because of the extreme popularity of this game in Korea. As the percentage of PC ownership and familiarity increases in China, computer gaming may have a similar effect on the Chinese computer and inter- net industries.

Join E-ASIA(S)! As a new section, we have one year to officially register 250 members. Please make sure that when you renew your membership to check off the box for the East Asian Studies in Anthro- pology section (dues are $10 for faculty, $5 for students). Send in the membership form en- closed in this newsletter or call AAA member services at 703/528-1902 ext 1. LASIA(S) website: http://fpwebs.~~on.edulitraplind~. html.

Please send comments or contributions to this column to En- bzada, AnthroporogV Pmgram, Butler U, 4600 Sunset Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46208; elozada@ butler.edu.

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