Asian History Commons^™

The Sacrality Of The Mountain, Manuel Rivera Espinoza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I explore the conception of the mountain as a "sacred space" based on the definition provided by Mircea Eliade in The Sacred and The Profane and other works. I recognize three major elements in Eliadean sacral spatiality: a) order and orientation b) liminality and c) reality. Using various sources but mainly the oracle bones inscriptions, the Yugong ("Tributes of Yu") of the Shujing ("Book of Documents") and the Shanjing ("Classic of Mountains") of the Shanhaijing ("Classic of Mountains and Seas"), I demonstrate how the three basic components of sacrality are to be found in each of the …

The Formation Of A Sacred Political Site : The Birthplace Of Mao Zedong At Shaoshan, Zhe Dong 1988-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Between 1949 and 1966, Mao Zedong’s cult of personality swelled into a kind of secular religion in China, and his birthplace, the remote village of Shaoshan, became a sacred site and s signal representative of national commemorative culture. This study rediscovers Shaoshan’s memorial projects undertaken during this period and explores how they embody the complex interplay between art/architecture and politics and the artistic tensions between rural and urban settings in post-Revolutionary China. The text focuses on four endeavors: the historic preservation of Mao’s Old House; the urban renovation plans advanced during the Great Leap Forward; the Exhibition Pavilion constructed by …

The Oirad Of The Early 17th Century: Statehood And Political Ideology, Richard P. Taupier

Doctoral Dissertations

The early 17th century Oirad ulus represents a major turning point in the politics that dominated Central Asian during the second millennia. The Oirad rose among nomadic and settled states to take control of the Central Asian steppes and play an instrumental role as the modern world was taking shape. Following several major studies of the 17th century Oirad over the past twenty years some fundamental issues remain unresolved. One key issue is the political status of the early 17th century Oirad. Confusions arise from conflicting sources and the absence of Oirat primary texts as well as from narratives influenced …

Chinese Undergraduate Students’ Preference For Chinese Tas And American Tas In The U.S. Context, Ruochen Li

Open Access Theses

This study researches and compares Chinese undergraduate students' (N=70) perceptions of and preferences for American TAs and Chinese TAs, and identifies factors that play significant roles in influencing Chinese students' perceptions and preferences. Multiple independent variables were measured, including age; gender; years at Purdue; years in the U.S.; GPA; overall TOEFL score; experiences with Chinese TAs; effectiveness of Chinese TAs; effectiveness of American TAs; English ability of Chinese TAs; and native speaker preference, ethnic identity, and level of acculturation, among which ethnic identity and level of acculturation are the major variables the current study aims to examine. Preference for Chinese …

Failure Of Democratic Consolidation: The Three Year Interlude Of Military Rule (1958-1962) In Burma, Zaw Thein

Masters Theses

Many scholars believe that the period between 1948 when Burma won Independence and 1962 when the military took over the country from the elected civilian government as the parliamentary democracy era. During this era, there was a three-year interlude where the military leaders ruled the country as the Caretaker Government- a euphemism for the three-year military interlude. My argument is that this interlude happened due to the growing strength of the military as an institution and the decline of political parties in Burma. The strength of the military institution was due to the civil war that broke out just after …

Reading Nation In Translation: The Spectral Transnationality Of The Malaysian Racial Imaginary, Fiona Hsiao Yen Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent decades, literary studies has experienced a global turn, often understood as a move beyond national paradigms of analysis, which are deemed to be narrow and particularistic. Although wary of the tacit universalizing tendencies of global frames, scholars of race and postcoloniality have critically embraced the global by arguing for the need to theorize transnationalism from marginalized perspectives. However, casting the global and the national in oppositional terms ignores the fact that national racial ideologies both actively shape and are shaped by globally circulating ideas about race. An understudied site in postcolonial studies, Malaysia--formerly known as Malaya--is an exemplary …

Admiral Thomas C. Hart And The Demise Of The Asiatic Fleet 1941 – 1942, David Dubois

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Admiral Thomas C. Hart And The Demise Of The Asiatic Fleet 1941 – 1942 is a chronicle of the opening days of World War II in the Pacific and the demise of the U.S. Navy’s Asiatic Fleet. Beginning with the background of Four Star Admiral Thomas Hart, this chronicle shows the history of the nearly obsolete ships that fought in the beginning of World War II. The reader will come to realize how and why this fleet ceased to exist within ninety days from the start of the war. Historical evidence will show that the damage inflicted on the Japanese …

Piles Of Salt: A Narrative Of Civil War, Refugeeism, And Sociopolitical Transnationalism, Patrice M. Niltasuwan

Masters Theses

Employing oral history methodology, this research project was presented in the form of a biography. The focus was a humanistic approach to understanding the effects of civil war tlirough a first-person account of the lived experience. Through examination of the life history narrative of an immigrant refugee who survived the Laotian Civil War, the war itself is explored from a personal perspective as well as other issues relevant to refugeeism and immigration in America including policy, citizenship, identity, family, acculturation, and transnationalism.

By personalizing war through the voice of one who experienced it, a new perspective arises; not only are …

A Framework For Understanding The Us Air Bombing Campaign In Korea, 1950-51, Yonsoo P. Kang

Undergraduate Honors Theses

By the end of the Second World War, America possessed a superior air force and integrated technology as part of its military strategy. US air power and the bombing of cities were developed, perfected, and utilized to bring Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan to their knees. This success led to the creation of the US Air Force (USAF) as an independent branch from the Army, which suggested that military and political leaders acknowledged not only the advantages of air power but also the “American way of war”: a military strategy emphasizing on finesse, sophistication, and efficiency in the post-war world. …

The Evoluion Of Pacific War Cinema, Dylan J. Eldridge

History Undergraduate Theses

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th 1942, the United States became involved in World War II. Over the last seventy years film makers have attempted to chronicle the events of this war. As society changed and grew so did the interpretations of the Pacific War. Today we are left with four distinct eras of Pacific War cinema.

Japanese American Internment: A Historiographical Analysis And Evaluation Of Identity, Megan Nicole Manning

History

No abstract provided.

A Cross-Boundary People: The Commercial Activities, Social Networks, And Travel Writings Of Japanese And Taiwanese Sekimin In The Shantou Treaty Port (1895-1937), Lin-Yi Tseng

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores Japanese imperial history in East Asia and focuses on a group of "cross-boundary people"--Taiwanese sekimin (Taiwanese who registered as Japanese subjects) and Japanese--who went to the treaty port of Shantou in southern China during the period between 1895 and 1937. The starting time point (i.e., 1895) corresponds to the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, by which Japan acquired Taiwan as a colony and informal privileges in Chinese treaty ports. The ending time point (i.e., 1937) corresponds to the decline that Shantou's Japanese community experienced owing to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War on July 7, …

Forecast Of Chinese Investment In Us Shale Gas, Zhizhou Zhu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will make a forecast of the future growth of Chinese investment in the US shale gas industry in the short term (within the next 5 years) and in the long term (in more than 10 years). The thesis's purpose is to study the purpose, trend as well as the impact on China itself in China's recent asset acquisition activities in the US shale gas. Following an introduction to the shale gas development in the US and China, this thesis will make a forecast with the methodology including extrapolation, qualitative analysis, political risk analysis and scenario analysis. The conclusion …

The Changkufeng And Nomonhan Incidents - The Undeclared Border War And Its Impact On World War Ii, Tobias Block

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nomonhan and Changkufeng

Immediately following the Mukden Incident in 1931 and the founding of Manchukuo, the Japanese supported puppet state in northeastern China, the Imperial Japanese Army found itself again face to face with their old enemy Russia, now the Soviet Union. The border disputes between these two countries would soon become armed conflicts. The Japanese Korea Army as well as the Kwantung Army, stationed in Manchuria, would soon follow a policy of limited war against the Soviet Red Army, here in particular during the battles of Changkufeng, in 1938, and Nomonhan in 1939.

These two battles proved to be …

From "Lying Low" To "Harmonious World": Changes In Chinese Foreign Policy From The 1970s To The 2000s, Charles Monahan Murray

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.