East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Not Or But And: Tusán Identity In 1920s Chinese-Peruvian Poetry, Zachary Young

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Land, Language, And Liberation: The Politics Of Ainu Self-Representations, Kevin James Cohen

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

The Artist's Diary, Anamae Gilroy

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Kanshi: The Vehicle Of Cultural Exchange And Feminism, Xin Guan

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

History, Ritualization, And The Rhetoric Of Legitimacy In Decem Libri Historiarum And Wei Shu, Bo Wen (Kent) Zheng

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Historical scholarship since the Second World War has, in general, successfully challenged the nationalist notion that ethnic identities are essential and stable markers of self-hood. One of the most influential entries from this bibliography is Benedict Anderson’s seminal study on the “horizontal” affect of the nation-state, Imagined Communities(1983), wherein the author identifies print capitalism and mass literacy as key contributors to the birth of “national communities” in the modern parlance. Less well defined in Anderson’s story of the nation, however, is the potential effect of pre-modern historical experiences on trajectories of modern state-formation. In response, this thesis explores the …

Nintendo Is Coming To China: The Struggles And Hopes Of Chinese Popular Culture, Qiaohui Amy Wang

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College. Games are an important component in modern popular culture. Games are a form of entertainment that people all around the world enjoy. They allow people to overcome the limitations created by physical society. Before the Reform era in 1980s, China was a society that lived only under collective interests. When Deng Xiaoping ended the Cultural Revolution and brought China to the world, global giants are coming to China and introduce entertainments to this society. This study takes Nintendo as an example to analyze how oversea entertainments would …

Imagined Realities: The Rise Of New Wave Cinema In Post-War Japan, Asia Miro Smudde Tom

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Project Submitted to the Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

My thesis explores cinematic representation in post-war Japan leading up the the New Wave movement. I examine the work of Yasujiro Ozu and Sun Tribe youth films and their relationship with conventions of cinema to bring awareness to narrative constructions of historical periods.

The Cultural Blueprint Of Laotian Society From The Contexts Of Traditional And Modern Music, Nandi Ampone Woodfork-Bey

Senior Projects Fall 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies and The Arts of Bard College

Navigating The Tide: Localism, Transnationalism, And Historiography In Zhejiang Chao, Sijin Gao

Senior Projects Fall 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Seasons Of Genji, Elizabeth Mudry

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Artist Statement

The Seasons of Genji

The Tale of Genji was written for Empress Fujiwara no Shoshi by Murasaki Shikibu, a fellow court noblewoman, during the Heian Period of Japan (794 AD to 1185 AD). One could dismiss The Tale of Genji as a romantic tale of a prince and his lovers, a story full of beauty, poetry, and women named after flowers. While Genji is a shining prince with poetic affairs, the focus of the tale never lingers too long on the sweetness of love. Rather, the tale explores the cycles that grip Genji’s life and the control they …

The World We Live In: Human Subjectivity, Psychological Breakdown, And The Urban Environment In Japan Literature Of The 1920s, Carmen Chen

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

On First-Person Narration In The Disguise Of Shōjo ——An Analysis Of Dazai Osamu’S “Joseito” And Kon Satoshi’S Perfect Blue, Yimeng Sun

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

New Perspectives On Contemporary Chinese Growth: The Developmental State Model And China’S Success In The Reform Period, Adam T. Savino

Senior Projects Spring 2021

The success of China since 1979 has often been boiled down to market fundamentals, neglecting its largely state directed system. This essay compares the developmental state theory of growth, established by historian Chalmers Johnson, to China’s economic practices over the last 40 years. Ultimately, the purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that China’s growth is based on a unique application of the developmental state model, and that this model is potentially transferable to other economies that have yet to develop as robustly.

From The Traditional National Style To The Artistic Development Of Contemporary Traditional Art, Mengshen Li

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Changing The Angle Of Perception: Making Meaning For Identity Performance In China And On The Internet, Cecilia Cs Twanmo

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Viewing The Covid-19 Resilient Skincare Market Through A Sociohistorical Lens: The Patterning Of Conspicuous Consumption Mediated By Marketing, Siren Chen

Senior Projects Fall 2020

The Chinese skincare market distinguishes itself with an inelastic consumer demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project employs the endogenous preferences economic framework and a sociohistorical lens to analyze the social forces that sustain the resilient beauty market. Through setting up a socially embedded framework for economic analysis, this project highlights the active role of marketers, which are omitted in mainstream economics, in fostering a bond between consumers and skincare products. With a comparative analysis of both the colonial and the COVID-19 pandemic contexts, this project demonstrates how marketers connect consumers to skincare products through reference to the system of …

A Cultural Clash Of Emotions And Music: Connecting My Passion Of Music To The Buddha Passion, Weilan Li

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Soft Burial: An Exploration Of History, Memory, And Trauma In Contemporary Chinese Literature, Megan Elizabeth Halm

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Beyond Their Homeland: Understanding The Experiences Of Black Women In Japan, Bernadette Tisha Benjamin

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Understanding how Black women conceptualize the role their racial and gender identities play within their experience in Japan.

Programming Proletarian Literature: Kobayashi Takiji’S "Kani Kôsen" And Gaming As Reading, Jacob Philip Fisher

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Abstract

This project translates a novel, Kobayashi Takiji’s, Kani Kôsen (The Crab Cannery Ship, 1929) into a video game. As a joint project between Computer Science and Japanese, its focus is to develop a game for the original Game Boy (1989) narratively based on a work of Japanese proletarian literature. Specific tools used in development were the Game Boy emulator: bgb, the Game Boy Developers Kit (gbdk), the Game Boy CPU manual, as well as a foundation in the C programming language, and some lower level systems experience. Being based on a novel, the play style utilizes text …

"Rebel Girls: Radical Feminism And Self-Narrative In Early 20th-Century Japan And China", Corrina Gross

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

​ Manga In China’S Reform Era: Transformation, Assimilation And Imagination Of Popular Culture, Danhui Chen

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Framing The Superheroine: Form And Character In Contemporary Comics And Manga, Dana Elizabeth Lubow

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.

Edo In The Manga World: Appare Jipangu! And Early Modern Japanese Literature, Parker Christian Cassidy

Senior Projects Spring 2019

This project offers a complete translation of the first volume of the Japanese manga Appare Jipangu! by Yuu Watase. An essay that examines the relationship between the manga's own content and the literature of the Edo period, and an exploration the author’s intentions behind having her story set in that particular time follows the translation. With the historical content in the manga and the general format of manga, the translation of Watase’s work created more intense challenges in naturalizing the original Japanese, some requiring new methods of translation to be utilized. Watase calls her manga an “Edo-style” comedy, and many …

Nationalized Bodies: Kuroda Seiki And The Birth Of The Nude In Meiji Japan, Ziyan Wang

Senior Projects Spring 2019

Senior Project Submitted to The Divisions of Arts and Languages and Literatures of Bard College.

Deconstructing Hikikomori: From Literature To Reality, Lydia Perry

Senior Projects Fall 2019

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Multidisciplinary Studies of Bard College.

This work explores the growing trend of socially withdrawn individuals in Japanese society known as "hikikomori." Through the lenses of philosophy, literature, anthropology, economics, and more, I deconstruct the common perceptions of hikikomori and expand upon the cultural critiques inherent in choosing a life of solitude.

Los Chinos De La Chinesca: Destabilizing National Narratives And Uncovering The Forgotten History Of The Chinese In Mexico, Mya Hansel Gelber

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

A Case Study: Gender Equality In The Workplace In Post-War Japan And Its Global Implications, Lee Michelle Cummings

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Gender equality is an issue that is coming to the forefront of all nations, not just because of feminist ideals, but economically as well. This project focuses on why this is occurring and how some countries’ cultures impact this issue more then others. To do this, gender equalities issues in the workplace in Japan are used as a case study. The idea of men being the breadwinners in the outer sphere, while women take care of and remain in the home in the inner sphere, is a phenomenon seen not only in Japan but other Asian nations, such as China. …

Mao Zedong's Rise To Power: How One Man Changed The Future For The Better; Then Changed It For Himself, Shadeed Haneef Ali Ii

Senior Projects Spring 2018

An in-depth look into the rise of Mao Zedong from the period of 1949-1959. talking specifically about how despite poor decisions made by Mao during both the first Five-year plan and the Great Leap Forward how he remained in power. the analysis of this is reading both the letter Peng Dehuai, his (Vice Premier) had written him in response too the decisions he had made and the overall outcome of this pinnacle Lushan conference.

"Time Is Surely Passing" Progress And Decline Toward An Inevitable End In Murakami Haruki's Trilogy Of The Rat, Madison C. Grubb

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College.