Introduction to Part III

Summary

This part brings together four book chapters to discuss how techno-identities and digital labour conditions in the Northeast Asian region are shaped in the domains of esports, robotics, and pachinko. In Chapter 7, Keung Yoon Bae examines the transnational labour flow of South Korean esports. Bae uses Nick Dyer-Witheford's concept of biopower to examine the global participation of South Korean esports despite restrictions on intellectual property rights controlled by international game developers. In Chapter 8, Peichi Chung adopts a political-economic perspective to evaluate new labour conditions in South Korea's esports. Keiji Amano and Geoffrey Rockwell focus in Chapter 9 on the historical turn to understand Japanese cinematic imageries associated with pachinko, to show how the game – as a racialised technology – reflects Japan's deeper intercultural struggle among subcultural groups. In the final chapter, Shawn Bender researches the emerging human–machine relationship in Japan's robot therapy developed to serve the country's ageing society by functioning as feeling machines designed to increase the sociality of Japanese elders. The four chapters collectively reveal diverse techno-cultural spaces that speak about the existence of various subcultural and emerging class subjectivities in Japan and South Korea.

Keung Yoon Bae studies the global competitiveness of South Korean esports players, using Nick Dyer-Witheford's concept of biopower to explain the global circulation of South Korean esports players. The chapter first describes the commercial operation of esports organisations, which apply business principles to professionalise esports. This explains the desire of game developers to seek control over their players through intellectual property rights management. Bae sees corporations’ intention to build governance across the global esports landscape as a reflection of militarised hypercapitalism. The second part of the chapter elaborates on South Korea's use of technology to disrupt corporation control. Bae perceives that local features embedded in South Korean culture are contributing factors in South Korean competitiveness. It is common to see South Korean esports players joining US or European teams, and Bae sees that the key reason behind the global circulation of South Korean esports players is that these players tend to employ a more dedicated attitude to training, self-improvement, and mutual respect for peers and elders, which makes South Korean players more team-oriented. Another unique local feature, the PC bang, lies at the root of the gaming culture that has contributed to the biopolitical production of South Korean professional esports.