Asian History Commons^™

What In Chinese Culture And Political Philosophy Makes It Difficult To Share Power At The Top?, Natalie Lyman Shields

BYU Asian Studies Journal

天高皇帝远, Tiān gāo, huángdì yuan, is an ancient Chinese proverb that translates to “Heaven is high and the emperor is far away.” Starting anciently in the Shang Dynasty, China typically had an emperor who ruled over his subjects, yet in a far away manner: “For two thousand years China had an emperor figure who was state power and spiritual authority rolled into one” (Wild Swans, 261–262). The most notable emperor was the first blazing Emperor Qin Shi Huang who unified the land around 247 B.C. Many emperors followed, claiming the Mandate of Heaven, until the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty …

Full Issue

BYU Asian Studies Journal

No abstract provided.

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 …

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.

Mansfield, Marines, And Mothers: The Politics Of Resistance To The American Intervention In North China From 1945-1946, James Robert Compton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

At the conclusion of World War II, American citizens, including millions of deployed servicemen, reasserted the democratic freedoms they sacrificed to win the war. The American intervention in North China during the Chinese Civil War presented a ripe opportunity for civic restoration in late 1945. Controversial and seemingly at odds with the stated goals of the Second World War—namely the “Four Freedoms” and the Atlantic Charter—the US military presence in North China faced formidable domestic political obstacles. This thesis explores the nexus of domestic politics and foreign policy in the post-World War II era. Focusing on 1945-1946, this project steps …

Picturing A Storm Center In The Far East: Geopolitical Image And Representation Of Korea In Early American Newspaper Visuals, Jihyung Kim

Master's Projects and Capstones

This Capstone Project explores the image and representation of Korea in early modern American newspaper visuals during the period when Korea and the U.S. first began to engage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The American newspaper visuals, which interact with headlines, captions, and texts, are represented with specific patterns and features in close links to the newspaper's geopolitical discourse production, specifically the “Far Eastern Question,” which was produced by western powers and Japan. The visuals were intended to show Korea as a dangerous and uncivilized place, “a storm center in the Far East.” Such geopolitical visuals in …

Disrupters:Three Women Of Color Tell Their Stories, Dulce María Gray, Denise A. Harrison, Yuko Kurahashi

The Seneca Falls Dialogues Journal

This essay is an amplified version of the presentation we made at the 7th Biennial Seneca Falls Dialogues. Our aim is to story back into the world our first experiences and motivations for investing in suffrage and democratic activism. We are three American professors of disciplines in the humanities, who for decades have taught and lived across the United States and have traveled the world. Yuko Kurahashi’s essay tells the story of how Raichō Hiratsuka and Fusae Ichikawa, Japanese activists in their suffrage and peace movements, helped shape her personal and professional life. Denise Harrison talks about the first wave …

The Political Act Of Writing Feminism- Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain And The Utopian Vision, Mashall Momin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Feminist Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain lived a life of seclusion and oppression like many middle-class Muslim women in colonial India during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. During this period, Rokeya used writing as a tool to fight against the oppression women faced from the patriarchal society and reimagined their gendered position in society. Rokeya wrote two novels, Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag, both set in feminist utopian societies. In these works, Rokeya expresses that the problem to the oppression of women can be traced to the purdah system or the seclusion of women, the solution is to grow …

Nationalist Theory And Politicization Of Archaeological Resources: Manifestations In Iraq, Andrew Vang-Roberts

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

Archaeological resources have been used by political regimes to further their own interests across time and space for many decades since the discipline was established as a profession in the late 19th century. Regime-backed 20^th century dictators like Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein, Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak understood that whoever controls a nation’s archeological resources controls the nation’s memory. By controlling collective memory, a regime can assert control over its people. Archeological resources can be used to validate a regime’s control over physical space as well. Educating a population about its archeological past can …

Understanding Religious Tolerance In Yongchang, China, Liming Gao

Honors Theses

The formation of China is a process of national integration and a fusion of different beliefs. However, under Chairman Mao (1949-1976) and specifically during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), people were reeducated to focus on Communism and expel remnants of traditional Chinese culture including the various religions. Although, after the Cultural Revolution, China reinstated its policy of religious freedom, there were still strict laws against religion. Despite such circumstances, Chinese people still practice their religious beliefs. The Yongchang area, located in Gansu Province in the northwest of China is a typical region of Chinese culture. At the same time, compared to …

Civichon 1.0: City In A Village, Catalogue For Civichon Exhibition In Vienna Biennale 2021, Albert L. Park, Kyong Park, Annie Pedret

EnviroLab Asia

No abstract provided.

The Fall Of The Ikko Ikki: The Demise Of The Honganji In The Late Sengoku Period, Alexander M. Remington

Student Publications

During the late Sengoku Period Japan witnessed the fall of the Honganji, a sect of Pure Land Buddhism. The Honganji was a significant military, political, and economic power and commanded armies of commoners known as Ikko Ikki. The Honganji fell because it challenged the traditional social order of Japan, lacked unity, and stood against warlord Oda Nobunaga during his bid for hegemony. The fall of the Honganji resulted in consequential policies and impacted Japanese society going into the Tokugawa period.

An Effective Role Of A Library In The Development Of Faculty And Students: A Case Study Of Quaid-I-Azam Library, Dr. Ghulam Shabbir, Mr. Nusrat Ali

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

A library is not only a collection of material, books, journals and other sources, but it is also responsible to educate its users with modern knowledge. A library plays a vital role in the development of society, faculty and students. It is basic essential to measure the role or development of a university through its libraries. Quaid-i-Azam Library is basically a group of 11 libraries that are working under the flagship of the University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan. It provides the access to its users of more than 134,000 books, 45,000 e-books, peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings and articles through 17 …

Expanding Horizons: China’S Perception And Management Of Globalization, Xiaofan Mu

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

No abstract provided.

Making A Muslim: Reading Publics And Contesting Identities In Nineteenth-Century North India, S. Akbar Zaidi

Faculty Research - Books

Using primarily Urdu sources from the nineteenth century, this book allows us to rethink notions of 'the Muslim', in its numerous, complex and often contradictory forms, which emerged in colonial North India after 1857. Allowing the self-representation of Muslimness and its manifestations to emerge, it contrasts how the colonial British 'made Muslims' very differently compared to how the community envisaged themselves. A key argument made here contests the general sense of the narrative of lamentation, decay, decline, and a sense of self-pity and ruination, by proposing a different condition, that of zillat, a condition which gave rise to much self-reflection …

The Fight For Freedom Of Two Oppressed Groups: Indian Nationalism And African American Liberation, Denzel D. Goodman

Theses (2016-Present)

This study examines the activities of two revolutionaries, one Lala Har Dayal (1884-1939) who established in the U.S. the Ghadar Party as an Indian revolutionary party against the British rule in India and the other was Huey P. Newton (1942-1989) who was a founder of the Black Panther Party which violently agitated against the longstanding chokehold of the “White” rule over the African American people. Juxtaposing the two different time periods and two different continents, which are incompatible phenomena give further understanding of what caused both such movements, regarded as aggressive resistance by their peoples to their oppressive rulers, to …

The Influence Of China/Asia On The West, Junli Diao

Publications and Research

This chapter provides a description of cultural communication between China and Europe before 20th century. It discusses the influence of Chinese materials to Western libraries, archives and museums.

The Hijacked War: The Story Of Chinese Pows In The Korean War By David Cheng Chang, Austin Dean

History Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Retelling Mecca: Shifting Narratives Of Sacred Spaces In Volga-Ural Muslim Hajj Accounts, 1699–1945, Danielle Ross

History Faculty Publications

This article examines how Volga-Ural Muslims narrated their encounters with the sacred spaces visited during the hajj. It examines nine accounts hajj composed from the 1690s to the 1940s, to consider how changes in international politics, Russia’s domestic politics, and the culture of Islamic learning within the Volga-Ural Muslim community led to writers to revise narratives of why the sacred spaces of Mecca were sacred, how best to experience the power of these sacred spaces, and how these sacred spaces fit into the local culture of Volga-Ural Islam under Russian and Soviet rule.

Book Review: China’S Good War: How World War Ii Is Shaping A New Nationalism, Alexandro Serrano, Brittany Mondragon, Jacqulyne R. Anton, Sarah West

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Vernacular Industrialism In China: Local Innovation And Translated Technologies In The Making Of A Cosmetic Empire, 1900–1940, Alexandro Serrano

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

The Compensations Of Plunder: How China Lost Its Treasures, Fred R. De Leon

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

From Concubine To Ruler: The Lives Of Emperor Wu Zetian And Empress Dowager, Hannah Ferla

History in the Making

Emperor Wu Zetian and Empress Dowager Cixi were the only two women to hold full control over China. They lived during different periods in Chinese history, but they accomplished the same goal. This paper will begin with the history of these two remarkable women, and it will give some background information on the respective dynasties that they lived under, the Tang (618- 907) and Qing (1644-1900). Then, the reader will learn about their journeys from the concubines of emperors to the most powerful people in China. Next, this article will cover the interesting information about Empress Dowager Cixi that Princess …

The Weight Of Silk: An Exploratory Account Into The Developing Relations Between Byzantium And China, Jeanna Lee

History in the Making

History has repeatedly proven that the nation, country, or region that controls the most key raw materials will dominate the surrounding global networks, be they economic, diplomatic, or political. When narrowing this focus to ancient Eurasian cultures, there are two obvious global powers: The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) in the West and the Chinese Empire in the East (the Han Dynasty). While the scholarly independent research conducted on these powers is incredibly rich, what is understood about their interactions is limited and constantly evolving. Evidence explained later in this article shows that there was little more than an awareness of …

“Unspoken Understanding”: The Evolution Of Chinese American Adoption Communities, Annie Abruzzo

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

While scholarly work on adoption, transnational adoption, and specifically international adoption from China has been robust, it has tended to focus on studying parents and parenting. This paper analyzes the resources used by both parents and children to discuss race, culture, and adoption, and seeks to understand the effects of these parenting strategies on Chinese American adoptees, who have begun to reach young adulthood in the last ten years. Examination of the recent growth of adoptee communities reveals that a shared and complex adoptee identity is a more powerful nexus than shared Chineseness.

Mary Rodning's History, Mary Rodning

Sumi-e

Mary Rodning provided a written document of her life story and her work with the Sumi-e group in Mobile, Alabama

Imperial Crossings: Chinese Indentured Migration To Sumatra's East Coast, 1865-1911, Gregory Jany

Student Work

A 2020-2021 Williams Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Gregory Jany (Jonathan Edwards, '21) for his essay submitted to the Department of History, “Imperial Crossings: Chinese Indentured Migration to Sumatra's East Coast, 1865-1911" (Denise Ho, Assistant Professor of History, advisor).

Gregory Jany’s thesis, “Imperial Crossings: Chinese Indentured Migration to Sumatra's East Coast, 1865-1911,” is elegantly written, deeply researched in multiple archives—British materials, Dutch archives, and Qing documents—and uses several languages beyond English: Bahasa Indonesia, Dutch, Chinese, and Classical Chinese. Grounded in the literatures of the late imperial China, the Chinese diaspora, and colonial Southeast Asia, …

The Construction And Formation Of Chinese Character, Lejia Zhang

Theses - ALL

Chinese characters are very unique. As one of the most widely used scripts in the world, its complex forms and large volume of characters make it always daunting for beginners, which is related to the long history of Chinese characters. This paper is divided into five parts, based on a definition of the nature of ancient Chinese characters. In the first part, it is argued that Chinese characters are made up of smaller elements. A single Chinese character, as a morpheme, is the smallest ideographic unit of the Chinese language, but a single character may also be formed by combining …

The Impact Of Religion On Chinese Government, Society, And Civilians, Liyan Tang

Master's Projects and Capstones

This research project analyzes the importance of religion in Chinese society from ancient to contemporary times and how the role of religion has changed throughout history. The Cultural Revolution had a major impact on the perception and use of religion in Chinese society, and the effects still exist in the present day. In order to explore how religion functions in these specific time periods, this research examines various secondary sources, which include scholarly articles and interpretations. Moreover, primary sources, which include official documents of the government and news articles, show how the Chinese government and the citizens have diverse points …

Placing God: Defining “Post-Christianity” For Contemporary Japanese Christians, Leryan Anthony Burrey

Master's Projects and Capstones

This work suggests that we consider a new, working definition of post-Christianity. This new paradigm is in response to Western Christian thought being too dominant a force that fails to take into enough account other global experiences— like those of Japanese Christians. These reflections are based on scholarly opinions claiming that Christianity is a “global culture,” and ultimately argues for more international inclusivity in Western Christian thought and institutions, especially regarding the Asia-Pacific. Moreover, this paper illuminates how iitoko dori allows Christian thought to peacefully coexist in Japan’s greater society. The research also explores specific Japanese cultural practices that make …