Digital Commons Network^™

Profiles In Influence: Shaping American Perceptions, Attitudes, And Policy Towards China, Benjamin Merritt

Masters Theses

Pearl Buck, Henry Luce, Edgar Snow, and Richard Nixon have profoundly influenced Sino-American relations throughout the 20th century. Their impact on American perceptions, attitudes, and foreign policy has played a pivotal role in shaping the current state of relations between the United States government and the People’s Republic of China. Pivotal historical events such as WWI & WWII, the Sino-Japanese War, China’s Civil War, and the Soviet-Sino conflict—among other events—have also significantly influenced the dynamics of Sino-American relations. Despite their importance, there is a notable absence of studies that comprehensively explore the collective impact of these individuals and events. Understanding …

Princess Chives, Yuxuan An

Masters Theses

Princess Chives is the greatest contemporary ruler of Chiveism. Princess Chives brilliantly, comprehensively, and resourcefully promoted and developed Chivesism, taking it to a whole new level.

Princess Chives ideology is a powerful ideological weapon against everything, and it serves as the foundation for all of the work of the entire party, army, and country.

We must always raise the great flag of Princess Chives’ ideology, to fortify the minds of the people of the country with Princess Chives’ ideology, and adhere to the use of Princess Chives’ ideology in all work. To militarize the mind is the fundamental mission of …

China’S Geopolinomic Goals In Argentina, Chile, And Ecuador: How Chinese Resource Extraction Is Reinvigorating The Debate On Dependency, Eric Stephen Cruz

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to identify signs of economic dependency China creates in South America. The study builds on dependency theory by challenging China's self-categorization as a periphery nation. Using the mixed-methods case study approach, this study explores the effects of China's going out policy in South America. Specifically, the focus in the study is on asymmetric trade, increased debt, and economic dependency in the context of Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador. One of the study's significant findings is that dependency begins with access. China is efficient at securing access to natural resources through its trade arrangements, which seem …

The Use Of High And Medium Resolution Imagery To Detect Agricultural Land Cover In Chinese Cities: A Case Study Of Nanjing 2000 To 2015, Erik Breidinger

Masters Theses

According to McGee and Ginsburg’s desakota hypothesis, rapidly growing Asian cities differ from large Western cities in their land cover/land use (LC/LU) as they retain a significant portion of agricultural land and labor despite rapid urbanization. However, significant amounts of agricultural production within desakotas takes place in plastic greenhouses, causing a unique problem when calculating LC/LU estimates via traditional remote sensing techniques. While greenhouses appear equivalent to developed land spectrally, their purpose is entirely agricultural. This study provides an improved method of calculating greenhouse land-cover as agricultural land-use using Jiangning District in the city of Nanjing as the study area …

Open Community : Break Up The "Superblock", Ke Xie

Masters Theses

This thesis proposes a redesign of the "superblocks" of Wuhan (China).

Regional Expression In The Renovation Of Remote Historic Villages, Jie Chen

Masters Theses

Due to the fast-pace of urban development, there is a large demand for labor in big cities in China. Also, because of a huge income gap between countryside and cities, an increasing number of youths in rural areas have chosen to leave their homes and transfer to the cities causing a rapid decline of population and the vacancy of properties. This phenomenon is referred to as “Hollow Village”. Especially in case of some remote historic villages, due to labor turnover, villages which has precious historic and culture value are abandoned and stopped from development. Only children and elders are left …

Measuring Quality Of Life For Internal Migrants Working Urban Renewal Sites In Shanghai, China, Jacob A. Watkins

Masters Theses

Chinese internal migrants continue to struggle to obtain social and economic equity in some of China’s largest cities. Shanghai, China’s largest city, houses one of the largest floating populations in the country. As city officials and the Chinese Communist Party continue to spend on urban renewal sites in the city proper, new opportunities may be emerging for migrant workers. These sites contain hundreds on new commercial and service based businesses that could potentially provide stable employment for rural-tourban migrants in Shanghai and influence migrant quality of life as well as provide the means for migrants to remain in the city …

The Use Of Public Plazas In China And The United States: Measuring The Differences Using Direct Observation In Boston And Chongqing, Maozhu Mao

Masters Theses

China’s development during the last several decades has happened at an amazing speed, and public plazas in China have changed considerably. For example, public dancing has become a very popular activity in most public plazas, and many more people than before are using these new plazas. However, some plazas are less popular than others. Therefore it is important to know what are the elements that affect people’s use of China’s public plazas? In the United States, William H. Whyte’s research proposed seven elements in public space that affect people. This study tried to answer the following questions: 1) Do William …

Innovation Of The Residential Buildings And Community In The Emerging City Rongcheng, Xing Yu

Masters Theses

Nowadays in China, every province is implementing urbanization, which is a national policy goal. In this process, Copinism is very obvious. Almost everything is being done by Western World rules, from buildings to lifestyles; apparently, China needs to learn a lot from the western world. However, with the development of urbanization, the inadequacy of this approach becomes more and more evident, especially in old cities with rich culture heritages. The overly rapid development speed even sharpens the resulted contradictions when it brings chances. With decades of “copying”, it’s time for China, a country with such a different culture system from …

Li Remembered, Meredith (Yue) Du

Masters Theses

This thesis work arose from my interest and concern in the ongoing transformation happening in China socially, culturally, and environmentally. As a child of hydro engineers, I grew up on the construction site of Lishui Hydro project. In my experience, the hydroelectric plant was a poetic place, a huge geometric structure surrounded by beautiful water and views of mountains. In my research, I found that many people argue against hydro projects, especially Three Gorges Dam, and the main focus of their objections has to do with demolition and the displacement of people from their homes. Through publications, documentary films, and …

Analyzing Two Key Points Of The Huaihai Campaign Using Sun Tzu's Net Assessment, Jimmy Chien

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on the Huaihai Campaign (Nov. 6 1948 - Jan.10 1949) in the Chinese Civil War (1927-1936, 1949-1950). This war involved the Republic of China’s (ROC) Kuomintang Party (KMT) and the emerging Communist Party of China (CPC). Over the course of a few months and around one million combatants, the Communists pulled off a resounding victory dealing the final blow to the KMT which led to the CPC’s governance over mainland China. This case study of two key turning points in the Huaihai Campaign is analyzed using Sun Tzu’s five net assessments from The Art of War. …

Spatial Patterns Of Drought Persistence In Xinjiang (A.R), China, Guzhaliayi Sataer

Masters Theses

Droughts have become one of the crucial hazards affecting Xinjiang, Northwest China, the biggest agricultural province and an important area for the grazing husbandry industry in China. Investigations about droughts in Xinjiang have been conducted from various perspectives by previous researchers. However, there are very few studies that focus on drought persistence and seasonal drought frequency. These issues are particularly important as they influence water resource management and forecasting, crop yields, agricultural development and energy consumption. Seasonal drought persistence describes how well drought conditions persist from one season to next season and is expressed as probability of persistence. In this …

The Unnatural World: Animals And Morality Tales In Hayashi Razan's Kaidan Zensho, Eric Fischbach

Masters Theses

Kaidan is a genre of supernatural tales that became popular during Japan’s Edo period. In 1627, Hayashi Razan translated numerous supernatural tales from China and collected them in five volumes in a work known as Kaidan zensho, the “Complete Collection of Strange Works.” Hayashi Razan was an influential Neo-Confucian scholar and was instrumental in establishing Neo-Confucianism as a dominant ideological force in Tokugawa Japan. As his teachings and stories reached a wide audience, and the government was supportive of Neo-Confucian ideas in Japan, his Kaidan tales, which contained subtle didactic elements, enjoyed success. However, Kaidan zensho was never translated into …

Exploring Naxi Baisha Xiyue, Nicholas Kircher

Masters Theses

"Exploring Naxi Baisha Xiyue" is a qualitative research descriptive paper delving into the origin of the Baisha Xiyue music style among the Naxi people based in northwest Yunnan province of the People's Republic of China. A brief historical background of Baisha Xiyue includes the Yuan dynasty (AD 1279-1368) invasion by Kublai Khan when he and his army entered Yunnan province in AD 1253. The topic of the remaining eight songs is a Naxi historical conflict with a neighboring tribe. As musical instruments are essential in the performance of this genre, each of the commonly used instruments are introduced and described. …

Master’S And Doctoral Theses On Second Language Writing: A Survey Of The Emerging Voices In China, Yue Chen

Masters Theses

Graduate students in China have addressed concerns about second language writing (SLW) in their theses and dissertations since 2000, but their voices are not represented in the current SLW literature. The present study aimed to investigate resident Chinese graduate students’ research in the field of SLW. The author reviewed the abstracts of all master’s theses and PhD dissertations on SLW completed in Chinese Universities between the year 2003 and 2012. The abstracts were collected from China Doctoral Dissertations Full-text Database and China Master’s Theses Full-text Database. Each abstract was coded for major topic, research type, and target population. The coded …

Across The Red Steppe: Exploring Mongolian Music In China And Exporting It From Within, Thalea C. Davis

Masters Theses

Mongolian music culture as it exists in China is a unique entity unto itself as it features a base of traditional Mongolian practice and also includes aspects of Chinese music and culture. As the world becomes more interconnected and as China continues to display a markedly Han society to the world at large, Mongolian musicians and Mongolian-music enthusiasts in China maintain and evolve their musical culture in a nebulous middle-ground between Mongolian and Han-Chinese culture. How Mongolian music culture in China came to be and its ultimate function in global society are the key questions being investigated in this thesis. …

Factors Influencing The Choice Of Shared Bicycles And Electric Bicycles In Beijing -- A Stated Preference Approach, Andrew Archibald Campbell

Masters Theses

Public bicycle systems, also known as bikeshare systems, are growing rapidly throughout the world, but nowhere more so than in China. At the same time the country’s most rapidly growing mode of private transportation is the electric two wheeler, or e-bike. Despite the popularity of this mode and the similarity to conventional bicycles, there are currently no large scale public e-bike systems. To evaluate the adoption and use of an e-bikeshare system, this study employs a stated preference survey to investigate the factors influencing the choice to use a shared bike or e-bike system. An intercept survey queries 620 respondents …

Just Sing What You Want To Say: The Importance Of Linguistic Tone In Bai Songs, Lisa Andrews

Masters Theses

The Bai people, a minority group in the People's Republic of China numbering at least 1.6 million, live mostly in the Dali Autonomous Prefecture in northwest Yunnan. Historically, Bai from the central region would gather annually at the base of Shibaoshan Mountain to sing partner style love songs in search for a suitable marriage partner; today, this time is marked by a three-day festival officially titled "Shibaoshan." The annual song competition invites skilled singers to spontaneously compose melodies in response to their counterpart, crafting lyrics to flatter or tease their singing partner. The study quantifies the close relationship between Bai …

Income Inequality And Social Stratification: The Effect Of Market Versus State In Transitional Urban China, Qiong Wu

Masters Theses

The rise of inequality in China is one of the most serious social problems in the reform era in China. Previous studies have debated the relative importance of human capital, political capital, and other factors in determining personal income. By using a new dataset from 2006 China General Social Survey (CGSS2006), I replicate earlier tests to measure whether the market or state has more impact on incomes as a way to the competing hypotheses related to human versus political capital.

The results of the ordinary least squares regression analysis show no significance in party membership, state ownership, and work experience, …

Analysis Of The Dutar Playing Technique Of Abdurehim Heyt, Michael Alan Kee

Masters Theses

Uyghur dutar player Abdurehim Heyt is hailed by many Uyghurs as the Dutar King, referring to his mastery of the instrument. This thesis examines several of Heyt's songs and compares them with songs from three other Uyghur dutar players in an attempt to isolate and define the unique characteristic of Heyt's dutar playing technique that sets him apart from other Uyghur dutar players.

This study presents a brief examination of the concept of music ornamentation as it has developed in the West. The Uyghur concept of music ornamentation - purakh - is then explained and compared with the Western concept …

The Women House Church Leaders Of China: Interviews With A Muted Group, Timothy R. Wommack

Masters Theses

While studying the Bakweri people of Cameroon in the 1960s, Edwin and Shirley
Ardener discovered that it was the men who dominated and controlled the power and language of the group and created the societal understanding and the cultural makeup of their tribe's identity. The men did not allow the women to speak or have a say in the elements of their culture; these women were muted. Throughout history many individuals, especially women, have been muted in any number of ways. These include political, economical, social, cultural constrictions, even to the point of death, to keep them from being represented. …

The Church In China And Contemporary Christian Strategy, Samuel Fang

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.