Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Chinese Government's Implementation Of Soft And Hard Power Policies Within Xinjiang And Tibet To Encourage Assimilation, Amanda Pace

Honors Theses

Today there is an increasing unrest among the minority populations of China and the government enforces different policies both to encourage assimilation and enforce order within minority regions. My research compares two different minority regions in China, Xinjiang and Tibet, and examines Beijing’s education, language and religious policies within these two minority regions. Beijing uses special mechanisms to implement these policies. I categorize these different policy realms according to their relative power. I find that in order to achieve desired objectives, Beijing will either enforce strict laws or fairly lenient laws depending on the policy realm. I argue that Beijing …

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 …