Asian History Commons^™

Avoiding The Subject: The Opium War, Opium-Markets, And The Exclusion Of Chinese Laborers In The United States, Canada, And Mexico, Olivia L. Blessing

Olivia L Blessing

The 19th century saw significant increases in the number of Chinese immigrants entering North America, most significantly on the west coast of the United States. Already facing increasing divide amongst the American population over the issue of the Opium Wars and the resulting Opium-addiction amongst the Chinese, the United States found itself now confronting the problem in the form of immigrant workers. Although the Opium Wars and the issue of the Chinese Opium Dens were highly disputed outside the courts, the State and Federal courts surprisingly avoided discussing the topic in their legislative discussions surrounding the Chinese Exclusion Act of …

From Philosopher To Cultural Icon: Reflections On Hu Mei's "Confucius" (2010), Joseph Lee, Ronald Frank, Renqiu Yu, Bing Xu

Joseph Tse-Hei Lee

No abstract provided.

Maneuvering Modernity: Family Law As A Battle Field In Colonial Taiwan (1895-1945), Yun-Ru Chen

2013 New England Association for Asian Studies Conference

Twenty five years after launching its own legal modernization in response to Western imperialism, Japan imposed a modern legal system upon its first colony, Taiwan. In accordance with the “respecting old custom” colonial policy, the Japanese created a system called Taiwanese customary law, a mixture of imperial Chinese laws, local customs and European legal concepts, and gradually implemented its newly adopted European-style Meiji Civil Code (1898). However, even since the late 1910s when the colonial policy changed into “full-flag assimilation,” family law remained an exception to the transplantation of Japanese laws. That did not, however, mean that family law was …

Searching In The Dark - Han Learning And The Controversy Of 1799 Metropolitan Exam, Shiu On Chu

2013 New England Association for Asian Studies Conference

This paper investigates the introduction of Han Learning (hanxue 漢學) in Qing civil examinations from an institutional perspective. Focusing on the controversy over the 1799 metropolitan examination, I argue that hanxue was resisted not only by the intellectual orthodoxy Cheng-Zhu learning, but also a concept of “proper advancement” (zhengtu 正途) from examination.

The 1799 metropolitan examination was often seen as a triumph of Han Learning because the chief examiners Zhu Gui (朱珪1731-1806) and Ruan Yuan (阮元1764-1849), who were famous patrons of Han scholarship, awarded degrees to a number of established Han scholars. Contemporaries attributed this high rate of …

The Emergence Of Singlehood In The 20th And Early 21st Century: Hong Kong, Japan, And Taiwan, Joanna Kang

2013 New England Association for Asian Studies Conference

In East Asia, Confucian philosophy is the dominant value system, especially its prominent doctrine of filial piety. Filial piety is a requirement of life, and being filial is an essential approach to acquire public recognition as an individual with integrity. The most unfilial and unforgivable behavior is being unmarried or sonless.[1] However, there are more and more Asian women who are immersed in this social milieu yet are choosing to embrace their singlehood. The liberation of Asian women is one of the momentous outcomes of Western modernization. This is also a trans-cultural trend that spans nations, societies, and ideologies. What …

Field And Factory: Chinese Revolutionary Posters, Molly E. Reynolds

Schmucker Art Catalogs

The images on display for Field and Factory, political propaganda used by the Communist Party of China during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, construct a fictitious world. In perceiving these kinds of illustrations, the audience is asked either to visualize the society in its ideal form or unify in opposition to a national enemy. In the first half of the twentieth century, before the possibilities of the television advertisement were fully realized, posters were one of the most popular forms of propaganda: cheap to produce in mass quantities and simple enough to hang in any public building. The art form’s …

宋明清的郊祀論述及儒臣對神明的概念 (The Song-Ming-Qing Discourse On The Suburban Sacrifice And The Confucian Conception Of Spirits), Thomas A. Wilson

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Modifications Vs. Modernization: Korean Gayageum In The 20th Century, Soun Sheen

Honors Theses

After the period of Japanese colonization and the Korean War in early 20th century, Korea rapidly adapted to Western influences as it recovered from the nationwide political and economic turbulence. As Western culture quickly traditional Korean cultures, Korean recognized the importance to conserve their authentic characteristics. Music played an important role during this cultural revival/ Korean musicians began to internalize the imported Western music to create a new traditional music, through which Korea sought to re-establish its national identities. However, this manipulation of traditional music to conform to the Westernizing society has led to dilution of the unique musical qualities …

Generations Apart: Cultural Revolution Memory And China's Post-80'S Generation On The Chinese Internet, Vincent R. Capone

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis examines how the memory of the Cultural Revolution is used on the Chinese internet by China's post-80's generation and the Chinese Communist Party to describe and highlight examples of social instability. These comparisons are representative of the broad historical narrative written by the Party which forms the basis of how China's younger generations learn about and internalize the Cultural Revolution. This study analyzes how the memory of the Cultural Revolution is held by China's post-80's generation as viewed through the lens of the Chinese Internet. Specifically, this research engages with the intended purposes of the post-80's generation for …

Preserving Dance Forms In India Through Education And Performance: A Curriculum For Bollywood Dance, Kimberly Martin

Masters Theses

This project is a practical curriculum of Bollywood dance that can be used to assist in the preservation of dance forms in India through education and performance. The goal of this curriculum is to systematically equip dancers of all ages with the basic knowledge and experiences needed to excel as dancers and choreographers of Bollywood dance. This will be achieved through practical experience that is built from the basics of Bollywood dance and founded in classical tradition and theory as presented in Bharat Natyam. This curriculum is broken up into four sixteen-week semesters and covers a series of steps, basics …

Interview Of Charles A. Desnoyers, Ph.D., Charles A. Desnoyers Ph.D., Remus Lee

All Oral Histories

Dr. Charles Albert Desnoyers (b. 1952) was born and raised in North Plainfield, New Jersey with his parents and five younger siblings. He attended St. Joseph’s Parochial School and North Plainfield High School for the duration of his primary school education; it was in North Plainfield High School where he began showing an interest in history, due to the influences of his history teachers. He later attended Villanova University, changing to a sociology major after a year of general sciences. His graduation from Villanova University with a minor in history led him down the path to getting a Ph.D. and …

Political Interpretations Of The Lotus Sutra, James Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

The Sutra on the White Lotus of the Sublime Dharma (Sk., Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra; Ch., Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng; Jp., Myōhō renge kyō), commonly known as the Lotus Sutra, is arguably the most influential sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism, and certainly one of the most revered sacred texts in East Asia. Via parables and short stories, the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sutra indirectly present a number of core doctrines of the early Mahāyāna, the form of Buddhism that first emerged in India and West Asia roughly five centuries after the death of the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563–486 …

A Response To Professor Wu Zongjie’S ‘Interpretation, Autonomy, And Transformation: Chinese Pedagogic Discourse In A Cross-Cultural Perspective', Thomas D. Curran

History Faculty Publications

In response to an essay by Prof Wu Zongjie that was published in the Journal of Curriculum studies [43(5), (2011), 569–590], I argue that, despite dramatic changes that have taken place in the language of Chinese academic discourse and pedagogy, evidence derived from the fields of psychology and the history of Chinese educational reform suggest that patterns of Chinese thought and culture have proven resistant to change. Not only have deeply rooted tendencies to perceive the world in ways that may be distinguished from Western analogues persisted but, not unlike contemporary school reformers, educators in the early twentieth century typically …

Resource-Sharing And Genealogical Research On Islamic Chinese Names In Guilin, Sheau-Yueh J. Chao

Publications and Research

Jiapu家譜, the Chinese Family Register, has been used for thousands of years to trace the genealogical history of a clan and lineage, including a family’s origin, its collateral lines, the migration history of the clan, names and ages of the members, records of marriages, births and deaths, merits and deeds, ancestral biography and ancestral locality. This paper examines the historical evolution and value of Chinese genealogical records with the focus on researching the Islamic Chinese names found in Jiapu and used by the people living in Guilin, Guangxi Province. It provides the historical background of genealogical records and analyzes the …

Confucius Institute Fall 2013 Publication (Report), Dr. Wei-Ping Pan Director

The Confucius Institute Publications

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Modern Mass Education Bureaus (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Zhou, Huimei. 近代民众教育馆 = A Study of Modern Mass Education Bureaus. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 2012. ISBN 9787303137077 (pbk.)

Prof. Zhou’s book is a general history of the Mass Education Movement that the Guomindang government conducted in the 1920s and 1930s. Topics covered include the movement’s ideological objectives, its organizational characteristics, it activities, and its reception by and impact on local communities. The work is carefully balanced between exposition and analysis, and it is supported generously by evidence drawn from a wide range of primary sources. Those sources include government publications, local gazetteers, …