Chinese Studies Commons^™

Du Fu And Chinese Poetic Expression: How Politics, Nature, And Self Become One, Binhnam Nguyen

Young Historians Conference

The Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu introduced a new style of writing to Chinese poetry with his new interpretation of how to write poetry and for what purpose it can serve. Living in the midst of political turmoil, Du drew inspiration from the instability and used poetry as a means of expressing his anguish, but nationalist sentiments that wished for the prosperity of China. His different stylistic approach to poetry personalized the art of poetic writing and changed its language to express something more lyrical and with feeling. Du’s role in changing the course of Chinese poetic expression can be …

A Bridge Across The Pacific: A Study Of The Shifting Relationship Between Portland And The Far East, Michael Todd Gagle

Dissertations and Theses

After Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, both Japan and China sought the support of America. There has been a historical assumption that, starting with the hostilities in 1931, the Japanese were maligned in American public opinion. Consequently, the assumption has been made that Americans supported the Chinese without reserve during their conflict with Japan in the 1930s.

The aim of this study is to question the accuracy of that assumption in the case of Portland, Oregon. An analysis of newspapers and print material specifically focusing on Japan and China from before the conflict reveal that the general American opinion of …

Review Of "Strangers At Home: History And Subjectivity Among The Chinese Communities Of West Kalimantan, Indonesia" By Yew-Foong Hui, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Review of "Strangers at Home: History and Subjectivity among the Chinese Communities of West Kalimantan, Indonesia" by Yew-Foong Hui, published by Brill, 2011.

Taiwanese Language Medical School Curriculum: A Case Study Of Symbolic Resistance Through The Promotion Of Alternative Literacy And Language Domain Norms, Philip John Sweeney

Dissertations and Theses

In contemporary Taiwan, Mandarin language proficiency and literacy in Han characters are not only key skills needed for success in academic institutions and employment markets, but they also carry meaning as symbolic markers of national and supranational Chinese identity. This study examines how Taiwanese-language medical studies curriculum planners are promoting alternative linguistic practices as a means of resisting the influence of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan and striving to replace it with a rival Taiwanese nationalism. I conducted research for this study during the 2010-2011 school year in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I collected data for this study by engaging in participant observation …

Shaping The Future Past: Finding History, Creating Identity In The Kwan Hsu Papers, Lisa Chere' Donnelly

Dissertations and Theses

Dr. Kwan Hsu was neither a superstar nor a celebrity. Her name does not come up in conversations about important contributors to her field of biophysics nor is she instantly recognizable for her contributions to Portland State University's international program or the state of Oregon's business ties with China. Yet she was a contributor, a cog-in-the-wheel, at the very least, in all of these areas and more. She was a peripheral member of a well-known Chinese family, but few in the United States know of or perhaps have interest in, but otherwise, she had no great connections or family ties …

The Spiritual World Of A Hakka Village, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper examines spiritual beliefs and practices in the Hakka Malaysian community of Pulai, focusing on the pantheon of deities and spirits worshipped and propitiated; the system of local beliefs in the power and efficacy of these deities; and the manner in which individuals and families have reproduced and altered these spiritual beliefs over time. Unlike my previous writings about religion in Pulai, which have emphasized the sociological components of local religion practices, my goal here is to explore the cosmological system, world view, and system of meanings conveyed through religious practices in this Hakka village.

As with many Chinese …

Chinese Indonesians : Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting, Edited By Tim Lindsley And Helen Pausacker, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Review of Chinese Indonesians : Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting, edited by Tim Lindsley and Helen Pausacker edited by Tim Lindsey and Helen Pausacker, and published by ISEAS, 2005. 208 pages.

Chinese Minority In A Malay State By Tan Chee-Beng, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Review of Chinese Minority in a Malay State: The Case of Terengganu in Malaysia, by Chee Beng Tan, published by Eastern Universities Press, 2002.

Review Of "Reason And Passion: Representations Of Gender In A Malay Society," By Michael G. Peletz, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Review of "Reason and Passion: Representations of Gender in a Malay Society" by Michael G. Peletz, published by University of California Press, 1996.

Review Of "Malaysia And The "Original People": A Case Study Of The Impact Of Development On Indigenous Peoples" By Robert Knox Dentan, Kirk Endicott, Alberto G. Gomes And A.B. Hooker, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book review of "Malaysia and the “Original People”: A Case Study of the Impact of Development on Indigenous Peoples" by Robert Knox Dentan, Kirk Endicott, Alberto G. Gomes, and A.B. Hooker. Published by Allyn and Bacon, 1997.

Ah Ku And Karayuki-San: Prostitution In Singapore, 1870-1940. By James Francis Warren, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Review of James. F. Warren's "Ah Ku and Karayuki-san: Prostitution in Singapore, 1870-1940," published by Oxford University Press, 1993, xvi, 434 pages.

Review Of "Creating Chinese Ethnicity: Subei People In Shanghai 1850-1980" By Emily Honig, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book review of "Creating Chinese Ethnicity: Subei People in Shanghai 1850-1980" by Emily Honig, published by Yale University Press, New Haven, 1992.

The Role Of The Chinese News Media In The 1989 Pro-Democracy Movement, Mei Liao

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the role of the Chinese news media in the 1989 pro-democracy movement. The three functions of this thesis are: 1) to provide evidence of changes in the pro-democracy movement; 2) to identify corresponding changes in the press coverage of the movement; 3) to examine what relationship exists between changes in the movement and changes in the press coverage of the movement.

Review Of "Opium To Java: Revenue Farming And Chinese Enterprise In Colonial Indonesia, 1860-1910" By James R. Rush, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book review of "Opium to Java: Revenue Farming and Chinese Enterprise in Colonial Indonesia, 1860–1910," by James B. Rush, published by Cornell University Press, 1990.

The Foundation For Revolution : Educational Reforms In Late ChʻIng China, Andrea Asbell

Dissertations and Theses

Historical consensus has labeled the educational reform efforts of China's scholar-officials in the second half of the nineteenth century as merely reactions to external circumstances and therefore has concluded that these reforms were "failures". The youthful revolt against Chinese cultural traditions, which culminated in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, has frequently been cited as a clear demonstration that previous educational reforms had failed. However, when viewed as the intellectual phase of the revolutionary process, reform activities among members of China's bureaucratic and scholarly elite in the four and one half decades from the 1860s to the early 1900s can …

Facing Both Ways: Yan Fu, Hu Shi, And Chen Duxiu -- Chinese Intellectuals And The Meaning Of Modern Science, 1895-1923, Niobeh Crowfoot Tsaba

Dissertations and Theses

The concern of Chinese intellectuals with the "idea" of modern science from the West in the transition generation from 1895 to 1923 was fundamentally a concern about "national survival" and modernity. The value and meaning that accrued to science as "method" -- as a "thinking technique" -- and to the evolutionary ideas of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer as the "science of choice" among Chinese intellectuals of this period, was due to belief or disbelief in the power of these ideas to describe, explain, or solve the problematic of "modernity" in a Chinese context.

Yan Fu's (1853-1921) translations of Thomas …

Chinese Politics In Malaysia: A History Of The Malaysian Chinese Association, By Heng Pek Koon, Sharon A. Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book review of Chinese Politics in Malaysia: A History of the Malaysian Chinese Association, by Heng Pek Koon, published by Oxford University Press in 1988.

From Myth To History: Yap Ah Loy And The Heroic Past Of Chinese Malaysians, Sharon Carstens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The exploration of differing historical interpretations has become an area of growing interest to anthropologists and historians alike, who have come to recognize that diverse interpretations of the same events can create as powerful a force for future actions as the events themselves. Following this approach, history becomes not so much a narrative progression of events, as shifts in meaning structures over time. The impact of such a perspective on scholars of Southeast Asian societies has led to both an increasingly critical use of colonial sources as well as to renewed interest in native or indigenous documents. We have also …

Occupational Patterns Of Three Generations Of Taishan Chinese : A Reconsideration Of Middleman Minority Theory, Wei Wei Lou

Dissertations and Theses

Middleman minority theory explains why certain minorities in America have made impressive socioeconomic achievements. It is found that their occupational patterns play an important role in their socioeconomic success. Middleman minorities usually concentrate in certain occupations and dominate these occupations. The term "middleman" indicates that such ethnic minorities are functioning as middleman between lower and upper class, customer and producer in the host society.

The three preconditions through which middleman minorities get into these occupations are cultural, contextual and situational variables.

The cultural variables concern mainly the homeland of the minorities, the value system of their native culture, and the …

The History Of Mutual Support Organizations Among The Chinese In Portland, Oregon, Scott Manchester

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis is an examination of the history of the Chinese community in Portland, Oregon, with special emphasis on the mutual support organizations developed by this community.

The study is primarily descriptive in nature. It includes background information on social, economic, and political conditions in China in the nineteenth century; an account of the history of the Chinese and Chinese organizations in Portland, and an examination of the issues involved in providing social services to Asian communities.

Chinese Attitudes And Knowledge Concerning Social Services: A Survey Of The Portland Chinese Community, Laura Lum Sing, Wendy Po-Kow Chan, Peter Tau-Ping Wang

Dissertations and Theses

The professional social worker needs to understand, wide social issues, including the culture and cultural background of minority persons and groups in the United States. One minority group with which social work has not much contact, and thus has little knowledge about, is the Chinese. Regarding professional social work knowledge about minority groups, the Chinese could be considered a "silent minority."