To my utter shock, since I have been studying anthropology and Chinese, two other Joseph Boscos have emerged who also, as improbable as it seems, are interested in Taiwan and China.  (There are still other Joe Boscos, but let's not go there…)  One is a lawyer, former aid to the late US Senator Paul Tsongas, and previously professor at Georgetown.  His full name is Joseph A. Bosco (I don't have a middle name or initial).  He wrote a few opinion pieces that led some friends to wonder what had happened to "me"; here is a Washington Post Op-Ed from 2001, and a Taipei Times column that argues against China's legal claims to be able to use force to unite Taiwan with the mainland.  He argues for the containment of China, and for pressing China on issues of US interest, thus taking a politically conservative or hawkish point of view.

The other Joseph Bosco (who like the Georgetown lawyer also has the middle initial “A”, but does not use it) is a journalist and the author of a book on the OJ Simpson trial. He seems to have some enemies (see this blog and this LA Times Boyarsky column).  In 2002, he took a job teaching English in Fujian, and the next year moved to Beijing where he is Visiting Professor of Journalism at the Beijing Foreign Studies University.  During his time in Fujian, the journalist Joseph Bosco developed strong opinions on the Taiwan issue.  The journalist Joseph Bosco views himself as a liberal, but since he apparently has never been in Taiwan, he views the issue exclusively through PRC eyes.  He dismisses and disparages Taiwanese claims for independence, noting that the PRC will never accept an independent Taiwan. He writes so glowingly of the PRC that he has now attracted attention of the right wing press (see this Newsmax article for a right-wing attack on JB).  The glowing piece on China is actually an attack on the other Joseph Bosco, so I feel caught in battle of Joseph Boscos!

Needless to say, I am not them.  The Library of Congress knows me as Bosco, Joseph, 1957- since I 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 we are.  Bosco is not a common surname in Italy; this site will show you, however, that the name is not rare and is spread throughout Italy (for the record, my Bosco ancestors are from Vasto, in the Abruzzi, and 3 generations before that arrived in Vasto from the Marche).  Joseph, or Giuseppe, is probably the most common given name in Italy; San Giuseppe, on 19 March, was once a national holiday.  So that is why there are 3 of us.  But it is still quite some coincidence that there are 3 Joseph Boscos (Boschi?) who write about Taiwan and China.

I am also known by my Chinese name Lin Zhou (林舟). Lin is a common surname and means forest (which is what Bosco means in Italian).  Zhou sounds like "Joe."  I hope the other Joseph Boscos have different Chinese names, at least.

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Fall 2007

ANT 1010 Humans and Culture (also listed as UGC 268U)

ANT 2340 Magic, Myth, and the Supernatural (also listed as UGC296U)

Spring 2008

On Leave

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  2004  Making Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia Shinji Yamashita, Joseph Bosco, and Jerry Eades, eds. Oxford: Berghan Books.

  1999 屏東縣萬丹鄉萬惠宮 (The Wanhui Temple of Wandan Township, Pingdong County [Taiwan]).  Pingdong: Pingdong Cultural Center.  (Bilingual)

  1999 Temples of the Empress of Heaven (with Puay Peng Ho).  Images of Asia Series.  Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

  2007 “Young People's Ghost Stories in Hong Kong”.  In The Journal of Popular Culture 40(5):785-807.

  2004 “Asian Anthropologies: Foreign, Native and Indigenous” (with Shinji Yamashita and J.S. Eades).  In Making Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia Shinji Yamashita, Joseph Bosco, and Jerry Eades, eds. Oxford: Berghan Books, p. 1-34.

  2004 “Local Theories and Sinicization in the Anthropology of Taiwan.” In Making Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia Shinji Yamashita, 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 Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World, Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember, and Ian Skoggard, eds.  NY: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 506-514.

  2004 "Longer Contemplation." In New Reflections on Anthropological Studies of (greater) China, ed. Xin Liu. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, pp. 71-77.

  2003 “The Supernatural in Hong Kong Young People's Ghost Stories.” Anthropological Forum 13(2):141-149.

  2003 “Tianhou gong zhi chongjian yu huoli: Taiwan yu Xianggang bijiao yanjiu (The rebuilding and vitality of Tianhou Temples: A Taiwan and Hong Kong Comparison).”  In Mazu xinyang de fazhan yu bianqian (Mazu Belief and Modern Society). Lin Meirong, Chang Hsun and Tsai Hsiang-hui, eds.  Taipei: Taiwan Association for Religious Studies and Beigang Chaotian Gong.pp. 95-116.

  2001 “The McDonald’s Snoopy Craze in Hong Kong” in Gordon Mathews and Lui Tai-lok, eds. Consuming Hong Kong, pp. 263-285.  Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

  2001 “Hong Kong.”  In Ember, Melvin and Carol R. Ember, eds. Countries and Their Cultures Volume 2, pp. 991-1000. New York: Macmillan Reference USA.

  2001  The Tianhou Temple Ritual and Architecture (CD-ROM) (with Puay Peng Ho).  Published by the Depts. of Architecture and Anthropology, Chinese University, and distributed by The Chinese University Press.

  1999 “An Anthropological View of the Hong Kong McDonald’s Snoopy Craze.”  Hong Kong Anthropologist, No. 12: 23-30.

  1998  “Anthropology among the natives: the indigenization 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 of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, pp. 23-44.

  1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Co-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 [On Cultural Explanations for the Development of Family Factories in Taiwan].”  (In Chinese) Zhongguo shehui kexue jikan (Chinese Social Sciences Quarterly) vol. 14 (April).

  1995  Editor, Taiwan Studies: 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.

  1995 co-editor (with Mau-kuei Michael Chang) of vol. 1 no. 2 of  Taiwan Studies: A Journal of Translation, issue on “Ethnic Relations and National Identities.”

  1995 “Better the Head of a Chicken than the Tail of an Ox: On Cultural Explanations for the Development of Family Factories in Taiwan.”  Taiwan Studies Workshop, 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 of Anthropology, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

  1994 “Faction versus Ideology: Mobilization Strategies in Taiwan’s Elections.”  China Quarterly 137: 28-62.

  1994 “Yiguan Dao: ‘Heterodoxy’ and Popular Religion in Taiwan.”  In Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., The Other Taiwan, 1945 to the Present.  Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., pp. 423-444.

  1992 “The Emergence of a Taiwanese Popular Culture.”  In American Journal of Chinese Studies 1(1):51-64.  Reprinted in Murray A. Rubinstein, ed., 1994, The Other Taiwan, 1945 to the Present.  Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.. pp. 392-403.

  1992 “The Effects of Land Reform on the Political Economy of Wandan Township.”  Land Issues in Taiwan History.  Chiu K. Chen and Hsueh-chi Hsu, eds.  Taiwan History Field Research Office, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.

  1992 “Research Note: The Role of Culture in Taiwanese Family Enterprises.”  Chinese Business History 3(1):1-4.

  1992 “Taiwan Factions: Guanxi, Patronage, and the State 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.

  1992 Approaches to Teaching About Taiwan (background booklet for social science teachers).  Published by the East Asian Curriculum Project, Columbia University.  Also wrote sections on “Family,” “Social Relations,” and “Taiwan” for China: A Teaching Workbook.

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Last revised: 12 March 2008