Asian Art and Architecture Commons^™

“The Product Of That Finer Mould”: The Role Of Chinese Porcelain In The Making Of Early American Images Of China, Emily Meryn Hospodor

Honors Theses

This thesis asserts that Chinese material culture, specifically porcelain, was instrumental in the development of American perceptions of China in the colonial period through the late 19th century. The first chapter examines how the quality, durability, and uniqueness of Chinese export porcelain led Europeans, and by extension American colonists, to view China as an advanced and abundant civilization populated with ingenious craftsmen. The second chapter addresses the emergence of negative views of China among American traders and scholars after the establishment of direct contact with China during the Old China Trade (1784-1844). In contrast, the third chapter demonstrates that Americans …

The Transition Of Guanyin: Reinterpreting Queerness And Buddha Nature In Medieval East Asia, Robert Wilf

Religious Studies Honors Papers

Avalokitesvara, better known by the Chinese name of Guanyin, is perhaps the second most pervasive figure in all of Buddhism after the historical Buddha himself. Part of this popularity comes from his adaptability and willingness to change to order to save everyone, no matter what part of society they might be from. It is thanks to this adaptability that Guanyin’s iconography varies wildly by region, with much of Theravada and tantric Buddhism depicting him as a man, while Mahayana Buddhism tends to revere her as the patron of women. From their earliest description, Guanyin was known to transcend boundaries to …

Chinese Government’S Inability To Use Film – One Of The Most Powerful Cultural Tools Of Soft Power Expansion – To Achieve Its Soft Power Expansion Goals: Lessons For China To Tackle Its Soft Power-Deficit Problem, Kyungin Kim

International Political Economy Theses

Many scholars of Chinese soft power commonly believe that despite the fact that China has been working hard to achieve successful soft power expansion, one of the biggest factors that leads to Chinese soft power deficit or failure of the Chinese government to effectively trump “China threat” is its inability to use its cultural industries as a tool to fulfill its soft power expansion goals. This is a major obstacle to China in achieving its goal of successful Chinese soft power expansion, as it is said that culture is the most traditional and powerful source of soft power expansion. This …

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 …

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 …