Publication

In traditional Korean medicine (TKM) clinics in South Korea, acupuncture is a popular therapeutic practice to remove physical discomforts. This paper examines the cultural semiotic rendering of an abstract, kinesthetic quality called “shiwŏnham” into medical efficacy through acupuncture treatments, observed through ethnographic fieldwork in a TKM clinic. By employing the conceptual framework of qualia, I argue that shiwŏnham in TKM clinic is the sign of efficacy expressed through the body, both in linguistic and synesthetic forms. The analysis of shiwŏnham also reveals the semiotics of change: the qualitative dynamics of changes-of-state and the cultural change across generations in Korean society. I examine an extended interaction observed in a TKM clinic, during which a young patient learns to experience and interpret the senses and sounds of shiwŏnham as a sign of efficacy through conversations with an older family member and the doctor. This interaction illustrates how participants attempt to bridge their intergenerational, interpretative gaps about the relevant qualia and the conventional qualisign of shiwŏnham. Together through this semiotic analysis of shiwŏnham, I show how central shiwŏnham is to the expressive evidence for TKM, that is, culturally legible evidence of efficacy reflecting modes of awareness, expression, and the value of a sensation.

Arguments about escalation incite and condone racial violence by denying constitutional rights to critique and protest the government during police-civilian interactions and acts of free assembly. To understand how racial minorities are coerced into giving up these rights to save themselves from being perceived as escalating agents and being at the receiving end of excessive force, one must examine the legacies of slavery and genocide and the role of video surveillance inUS policing. We argue that escalation does not characterize the pace of events but is instead a language ideology buttressed by interdiscursive processes shaping social personae across discrete communicative events. We discuss how the racial optics of the military-police-entertainment industrial complex transform video surveillance into potentially harmful technologies by reaffirming the belief that visual and aural signs of escalation are measurable markers of conflict. We analyze Black-aligned voices engaging in communicative acts of protected speech and free assembly to offer a theoretical framework for understanding White supremacy as upheld by diverse communicative practices related through the logics of escalation. We conclude by considering how the video discourse analysis of speech, gesture, and movement can elucidate the interactions, ideologies, and institutional structures that justify the scaling up of police responses.