Shaping futures in Sino-character: What's in a name of East Asian futures studies?

This paper highlights how the Sino-character system, because it lacks a plural form, hinders promulgating and popularizing the concept of plural and diverse futures in Korea, Greater China, and Japan. Difficulties are revealed when East Asian futurists emphasize the plural concept of 'future + s', because the linguistic conventions of Sino-character languages and cultures do not clearly express plurality. The singular-form wording for 'future + s' excused by East Asian futurists tends to unintentionally stick a knowledge divide between public and futurists. It also shapes a more uniform, less diverse image of the future. This paper suggests that those engaged in East Asian futures studies adopts a standardized and more intuitively understandable Sino-character term for 'future + s' to enable futurists to effectively publicize and popularize the more plural, diverse and alternative values of futures studies. It also suggests related guidelines for creating and establishing a more popular term for 'future + s'. Finally, author coins the term 'multi + future' in Sino-characters as a useful term to effectively spread a more diverse, pluralistic concept of alternative futures in East Asian countries.