East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

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 …

Understanding Africa’S China Policy: A Test Of Dependency Theory And A Study Of African Motivations In Increasing Engagement With China, Nkemjika E. Kalu

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

African states are increasingly engaging with China--politically, socially and economically--especially through the machinations of the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). This dissertation asserts that Africans are willing partners of the Chinese, motivated by their state-centric belief that engagement with China is in their national interest. This assertion contradicts the assumption of most literature to date that appears to borrow from the logic of dependency theory and presents African nations as pawns, subject to the demands of a dominant and exploitative China, who is benefiting at Africa’s expense. Economic trends from the decade before the launch of the FOCAC and the …

Confucian Influences On Popular Values In China And Taiwan, Lukas Danner

Lukas K. Danner

No abstract provided.

White Snake, Black Snake Folk Narrative Meets Master Narrative In Qing Dynasty Sichuanese Cross-Stitch Medallions, Cory Willmott

Cory A. Willmott

The cross-stitch medallion in figure 1 was collected by my grandmother, Katherine Willmott, in the early 1920s when she was a missionary in Renshow, Sichuan Province, West China. Many years after I inherited it, I learned that it depicts a folk narrative called “White Snake; Black Snake” that was traditionally performed both on stage in the legitimate theaters and in Chinese shadow puppet dramas (Highbaugh n/d:6).

The story may be summarized as follows: There were two female snakes, White Snake and Black Snake, who were inseparable friends. They both changed into beautiful young women. White Snake got married and bore …

Reforming The Chinese Sports System: A Case Study Of The Hebei Provincial Tennis Team - The Perspective And Analysis Of A Foreigner Working In The System, Matthew Bryan Haugen

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a case study of the Hebei tennis program, which works under the auspices of the Chinese governmental sports system. The research is intended to take the reader on a chronological journey through the Chinese sports system, beginning with the infrastructure of the program, the identification and selection process of players, the methodology of education, training, and competition, the benefits and hardships, and its future as a state-controlled entity.

It is a multidisciplinary thesis that uses the Hebei tennis program and my job as the head coach to provide analysis and perspective of daily life in the Chinese …

The Death Penalty In A Changing Socialist State: Reflections Of 'Modernity' From The Mao Era To Contemporary China, Elizabeth Lehmann

Honors Theses

In the past century, China has abandoned its feudal system, created a republic, ended the republic for a communist socialist society, closed its markets and then opened them; now, China is an established world power, has a strong economic base, and is often perceived as having an iron fist regarding domestic crime and punishment. Modern day China’s criminal law, in the context of capital punishment, has undergone many drastic transformations in the past sixty years. The death penalty has been so differently implemented in modern China that within a span of twenty years, the usage of the death penalty and …

Diagnosing The Roots Of Chinas Growth Miracle: An Examination Of Strategies That Have Most Influenced Chinas Economic Development In The Twenty-First Century, Katharine Manko

Honors Theses

There are significantly different views regarding what strategies underlie China’s economic growth and development in the past decade. An examination of these varied opinions will indicate the complexity of determining which strategies have been most conducive to China’s economic expansion. This paper will use data from several developing and developed countries along with an analysis of a number of strategies that economists and scholars have listed as aiding the economic growth process. The analysis of the scatter pot data will then be applied to China as a case study to determine which factors and strategies have been most conducive to …

The Fragmentation Of Collective Action In Contemporary China: Micro-Regions And Occupation, Jessica Sherrod

Honors Theses

Since the creation of labor markets in China, there has been a rapid increase in collective contentious action, such as striking and protesting, and this has attracted the attention of many scholars. Because the country contains such a myriad of diverse regions, scholars have commonly analyzed Chinese collective action through a “regional” lens. While that approach has been useful, this paper goes further by disaggregating Chinese collective action along two dimensions: by micro-region and by occupational sector. More specifically, this research disaggregates large macro-regions to show diversity at the city-level within regions. It also considers differences in collective action across …

Time To Cry Over Spilled Milk: An Investigation Into China's Food Safety System, Rachel Baker

Honors Theses

China is plagued with food safety scandals ranging from contamination of dairy, to exploding watermelons in the countryside. This thesis explores the four main reasons that China has many food safety regulatory issues: the wide dispersion of farms in China, the fragmentation of the food safety regulatory system, weakness of local implementation, and the poor structure of commerce. Using the case studies of the dairy and pork industries this thesis examines these four proposed flaws and proposed solutions for improving food safety in China. Governmental flaws and mistakes are mostly responsible for these problems, but the current structure of government …

Does Race Influence Executive Compensation In Chinese Firms?, Elizabeth Mahoney

Business and Economics Honors Papers

In this study, we considered the effects of Chinese cultural and political influences on executive compensation in Chinese firms. The chief focus of this study is on whether the race of executives or the racial composition of the compensation committee affects the average compensation of executives, though other factors such as sales, industry, and compensation committee size were also included in the model. Data was collected from Chinese firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with data for the companies gathered for the year 2009 and executive salaries collected for the year 2010.

Pure Land And The Social Order In Twelfth-Century China: An Investigation Of "Longshu’S Treatise On Pure Land", Trevor Davis

Student Work

A 2012-2013 William Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Trevor Davis (Saybrook College '13) for his essay submitted to the History Department, “Pure Land and the Social Order in Twelfth-Century China: An Investigation of Longshu’s Treatise on Pure Land.” (Valerie Hansen, Professor of History, advisor.)

Davis' essay makes a powerful argument about the Pure Land Buddhist Wang Rixiu's understanding of Southern Song (1127-1279) society. Although Pure Land Buddhism is often thought to be egalitarian - or at least to challenge traditional hierarchies - Trevor shows that for Wang Rixiu, an egalitarian Pure Land coexists …

The Human Flesh Search Engine: Democracy, Censorship, And Political Participation In Twenty-First Century China, Vincent Capone

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

The Human Flesh Search Engine is a recent, unique phenomenon on the Chinese internet. Comprising of thousands of forum, micro-blog, and entertainment websites and mobilizing the overwhelming number of Chinese internet users, or netizens, the search engine is able to quickly find obscure information and identify seemingly anonymous internet personalities. These websites allow netizens to have their voices heard in an otherwise restrictive government, however these websites also become a hotbed for dissent, with web users highlighting stories and figures which they deem harmful to society. Through clever investigative work, netizens hunt down an individual's identity with the goal of …

Mncs And Chinese Workers: The Foxconn Case, Lukas Danner

Lukas K. Danner

No abstract provided.

On Chinese Foreign Policy: A Big Stick, An Equally Big Carrot, Hannah K. Fishman

The Macalester Review

This paper attempts to provide a framework for analyzing China's newfound assertiveness. Does a rising China pose a systemic threat to the world order, or will Beijing's rise be characterized by what policy officials refer to as a "Peaceful Rise"? This paper argues that China is "building a bigger stick and a bigger carrot" to increase its hard and soft power capabilities; however, this policy won't necessarily pose a threat. The United States must strengthen Western-central international institutions and guide Beijing into this framework if the US wants to see a "Peaceful Rise."

导论, 布雷特•麦考密克, 乔纳森• H• 平

Jonathan H. Ping

No abstract provided.

Jazz Meets East: Cultural Dimensions Of Asynchronous Jazz Music Development In Modern China, Terence Hsieh

Honors Papers

Two important questions arise regarding the development of Jazz music in China. First, what common elements explain why Jazz music in these two cities, and indeed the country as a whole, is so less well developed than in other non-Western countries that managed to import and adapt it? Second, what explains the different aesthetic foci in the country's two greatest cities and major centers of such Chinese Jazz music? I will examine Jazz music in these two cities, with reference to the historical roots of Jazz in China, the competing co-development of different concepts of Chinese modernity in Shanghai and …

The Sino-Tibetan Dialogue: Talk Shop Or Path To Resolution?, Rene Kamm

Honors Papers

What degree of autonomy for Tibet is realistically achievable in a new world largely defined in terms of China's rise, a world in which international criticism weighs far less in the minds of Chinese leaders than the imperatives of holding on unchallenged to the reins of power? This thesis examines the ebbs and flows of the relationship between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama with regard to resolving the Tibet question; it also attempts to develop a realistic assessment of prospects for greater autonomy in the coming near future. It does so through a chronological account that tracks past …

The Dragon Takes Flight: China's Journey Toward Building Its C-919 Large Passenger Aircraft And Its Impact On The Us And Boeing, Derek Adam Levine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the enormous risk associated with the development of a large indigenous airliner, China after a failed attempt in the mid-1980s, since 2003 has decided once again to embark on a journey toward the development of a 190 seat commercial airliner. Nations are typically interested in the development of indigenous airliners because of the potential spillover effects that years of research and development have on the economy and the military. Equally important is that China no longer wants to relinquish its large commercial airplane market to foreign companies such as Boeing and Airbus with their market expected to constitute nearly …

The Ji Self In Early Chinese Texts, Deborah A. Sommer (司馬黛蘭)

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

In much recent scholarship on notions of self in Chinese studies, the term "self" is usually used in a general sense. In this essay, however, Sommer focuses specifically on unraveling the fields of meaning of one Chinese character: ji 己, which may often be rendered as "self." She compares this ji self with other terms for body and person current in classical times. This ji self is strongly individuated, but it exists primarily in relation to other human beings (ren 人 ). These "others" are almost never one's own kind and are usually people who fall outside one's ascribed …

Tibetan Buddhism And The Chinese Communist Party: Moving Forward In The 21st Century, Evan Zwisler

CMC Senior Theses

I examine the state of Tibetan Buddhism that exists in China in the 21st century and what are the best methods to increase religious freedom and political autonomy. I look at what cause China and Tibet to reach this point, and why do the respective nations do what they do. Man people fundamentally misunderstand the reasons why the Chinese Communist Party oppresses Tibetan Buddhism; they aren't concerned with eradicating religion, they want to simply maintain longterm political legitimacy in Tibet.

China's Censored Leap Forward: The Communist Party's Battle With Internet Censorship In The Digital Age, Caitlin Feeney

CMC Senior Theses

Citizens around the world are using the Internet to connect with an international community, speak out against governmental injustices, and dissolve informational barriers. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a regime known for its strict control and harsh repression, is faced with the challenge of balancing an appropriate amount of civilian freedom on the Internet while still maintaining its monopolistic power. How does a one-party system successfully maintain control over the flow of information and sustain its unchallenged control of citizens in an increasingly-liberalized world? The Party’s answer to this question is a finely-tuned Internet censorship strategy, which this paper seeks …

Flash Cards: Poems By Yu Jian, Tr. Wang Ping And Ron Padgett, Wang Ping

Wang Ping

No abstract provided.

The Paradox Of Gender Among West China Missionary Collectors, 1920-1950, Cory A. Willmott

Cory A. Willmott

During the turbulent years between the Chinese nationalist revolution of 1911 and the communist victory of 1949, a group of missionaries lived and worked in West China whose social gospel theologies led to unusual identification with Chinese. Among the regular social actors in their lives were itinerant “curio men” who, amidst the chaos of feuding warlords, gathered up the heirlooms of the deposed Manchurian aristocracy and offered these wares for sale on the quiet and orderly verandahs of the mansions inside the missionary compounds of West China Union University. Although missionary men and women often collected the same types of …