Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cultural Re-Presentation And Translation : Chinese And English Anthologies Of Tang Poetry, Chi Man, Cecilia Chan

Theses & Dissertations

Due to its unique prestige, classical Chinese poetry written during the Tang dynasty is often anthologised. These anthologies serve various purposes (e.g. recreational, educational, or both), but they are generally expected to feature works high in aesthetic value, and represent the culture wherein they are produced. While the functions of anthologies are seldom contested, representations of Tang poetry in anthologies have many different manifestations.

Using China’s most famous anthology, Tangshi sanbaishou 唐詩三百首, as an opening case study, research shows that within its home culture, the anthologising of Tang poetry has a long history by itself, and anthologists negotiate between ideological …

Alternative Sexualities/Intimacies? Yuri Fans Community In The Chinese Context, Ka Yi Yeung

Theses & Dissertations

Yuri is a Japanese manga sub-culture which refers to all kinds of works (manga, animation) that portray attraction between two girls, including spiritual bonding and shared values. Through examining the value and interpretation of this sub-culture by Yuri fans, this paper attempts to explore the construction of alternative sexuality identity among Yuri fans. This Japanese sub-culture has been implanted in Chinese fandom with the popularity of hit Yuri-related animations since 2004. With decades of development, Yuri has extended its application to various mediums including the slash fandom in TV dramas, idol groups, movies and spread its usage on Chinese …

Ceo Traits And Loan Contract, Yiu Chung Ma

Theses & Dissertations

The first part of the thesis investigates the relationship between managerial overconfidence and loan covenant usage. Empirical findings show that creditors use significantly more covenants, increase covenant intensity, and rely on different types of covenants, such as debt-to-cash flow and coverage ratio to lower the default risk emanating from managerial overconfidence. Besides, creditors tighten individual covenants, such as debt-to-cash flow covenants and current ratio covenants in order to alleviate their risk exposure. Covenant usage is reported to be quantitatively larger in the loan contracts of firms with higher market-to-book ratios, reflecting that high-growth firms provide opportunities for overconfident CEOs to …

Social Capital, Health Literacy, And Access To Healthcare : A Study Among Rural And Urban Populations In Ghana, Padmore Adusei Amoah

Theses & Dissertations

There is ample evidence supporting the association between social networks, and health and well-being. However, existing research and policies to address health-related inequalities in Ghana, have largely neglected this critical nexus. To address the knowledge gap, this study uses the concept of social capital (social relationships and the resources embedded in them) to investigate how and to what extent social relationships influence healthcare access and health literacy among selected rural and urban people. The study also examines how the stock of social capital, and the forms it takes, can influence implementation, and sustenance of local level pro-poor health policies. One …

Learning To Be A Lesbian : Identity And Sexuality Formation Among Young Hong Kong Lesbians, Yuk Ying, Sonia Wong

Theses & Dissertations

While the LGBT equal rights movements in Hong Kong have become increasingly visible and popular in recent years, and lesbians, when compared to homosexual male, seem to enjoy high visibility in the city’s public space and relevant safety from violent discrimination, their presence in the public sphere continue to be low. Writings by local queer activists and scholars such as Mary Kam Pui Wai (2001) and Denise Tang (2011) point out that instead of violent attacks, since the beginning of local LGBT activism, female have been facing systematic silencing and marginalizing within the community, their presence invisible, and their problems …

两次鸦片战争期间中英交涉中口译者的主体性和能动性 (1840-1842,1856-1860), Zhen Yuan

Theses & Dissertations

两次鸦片战争期间（1840-1842,1856-1860），中英两国正式开启了官方交涉活动与外交谈判。在这些交涉活动中，双方口译者均发挥了重要作用，展现了特有的主体性和能动性。本文拟对当时较具代表性的三位口译者进行个案研究，他们分别是中国译者鲍鹏、黄仲畬和英国译者马儒翰。笔者通过挖掘相关的一手、二手资料，并对它们进行缜密的文本分析，试图对三位译者在各自的外交口译中所体现的主体性和能动性作出详尽的考证和论述。本文得出的结论是：在两次鸦片战争的特殊情境中，口译者往往背离“忠实性”原则:有的受到自身生活或工作经历之影响，在口译活动中常带入自己的主观想法，独立做出决定，此可谓口译者主体性的表现形式；有的采取跨界策略，在交涉双方不同立场和态度之间游移，以达到斡旋和协调的目的，充分体现了口译者的能动性。

Status, Revisionism, And Great Power Strategy : Us-China Positional Competition And The Struggle For Leadership In Asia-Pacific, John Hugo Simon Åberg

Theses & Dissertations

The dissertation addresses the core IR problem of revisionism and relates it to both the declining superpower and the rising great power, both the United States and China. The dissertation also offers a novel conceptualization of international order in terms of which revisionism is understood. The theoretical innovation of the dissertation modifies established structural realist theories and shifts the explanatory focus from security to status. Since status, defined as social position, is composed of both power and prestige, both change in the balance of power and the balance of prestige explain revisionism, which then cause dissatisfaction in the form of …

The Impact Of Cooling Measures : Evidence From Hong Kong Residential Re-Sale Market, Mengna Hu

Theses & Dissertations

To understand the effects of credit constraints and transaction taxes in housing market, this paper exploits the cooling measures imposed by the Hong Kong government aimed at addressing the overheated property market. The cooling measures include mortgage tightening measure which decreases the financial leverage for households and stamp duty measure which heightens the transaction costs for certain buyers. By using a comprehensive transaction-level dataset, we first assess the impact of both measures on trading activity in the residential re-sale market. The empirical findings suggest that the mortgage tightening measure does not have a significant impact on the overall trading activity …

The Bakla And The Silver Screen : Queer Cinema In The Philippines, Michael Nuñez Inton

Theses & Dissertations

This study looks at representations of the bakla in Philippine cinema from 1954 to 2015. I argue that the bakla, a local gender category that incorporates ideas of male homosexuality, effeminacy, cross-dressing, and transgenderism, has become a central figure in Philippine cinema. I examine the films of Dolphy, the actor who was the first to popularize bakla roles in mainstream cinema, and I outline several tropes that create the bakla image in movies: “classical” kabaklaan (being bakla), which involves crossdressing, effeminacy, and being woman-hearted; the conversion trope, where the bakla stubbornly resists being forcibly masculinized by the men that surround …

Ownership Structure Impact On Exchange Rate Exposure Under The Rmb Regime Reform, Luning Jia

Theses & Dissertations

This thesis investigates effects of exchange rate exposure upon stock returns of a large sample of Chinese firms when they are divided into SOEs and non-SOEs. I obtain the exposure estimates first and examine their determinants. By extending the current literature, I introduce the ownership structure into the framework and I compare different ownership impacts on the exposure before and after the Reform. My study shows that a SOE or non-SOE firm makes no difference in facing the exchange rate exposure before the Reform. If a firm is a SOE, the firm faces smaller exposure after the Reform. I further …

The Roles Of Knowledge Assets In Promoting Firm Productivity And Innovation In China, Jingsi Yang

Theses & Dissertations

This paper investigates how intangible knowledge assets impact upon the firm’s products and the output of new products through a large panel data set covering all manufacturing firms from the period of 1998-2007. We hypothesize that more knowledge assets have a positive impact on total factor productivity and the ratio of new products to total products, but only up to a point, due to the importance of complementary assets. The inverse quadratic relationship found in the relationship between the ratio of knowledge assets to total assets and TFP suggests that it is necessary to balance knowledge assets with complementary assets …

Four Empirical Essays In Development Economics, Haftom Bayray Kahsay

Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation contains four empirical studies on related topics in development economics. The four studies are all randomized field experiments and all of them use original data obtained from rural households in Northern Ethiopia for empirical analysis. The first study examines the medium term effects of commercial weather index insurance. I examine a randomized controlled trial in which commercial weather index insurance was offered to rural households who are highly vulnerable to drought. The results show that weather index insurance can significantly improve agricultural investments, agricultural yield and also household finance.

The second study evaluates the effects of weather index …

Examining The Generation Effects On Job-Hopping Intention By Applying The Theory Of Planned Behavior (Tpb), Sze Hang Yuen

Theses & Dissertations

Job hopping is about people changing jobs frequently. This concept is slightly different from normal turnover in terms of employees staying in the present company for a short period of time only before they move on to the next job. While there appears to be an increased level of acceptance of job hopping, the phenomenon has also been associated with different problems faced by organizations, such as retaining experienced and trained employees. Past research has been directed to examining the roles of various social (e.g., perceived job availability) and psychological (e.g., job satisfaction, turnover culture, values and attitudes) factors in …

The Discourse Of Ruination : Interrogating Urban Renewal In Hong Kong, Eun Soo Lee

Theses & Dissertations

As stated in the Urban Renewal Strategy (2011), “the problem of urban decay” has been identified as the major task of urban renewal in Hong Kong. Rows of densely packed, “dilapidated” tenement buildings constitute the imaginary of a declining urban landscape that, much like the squatter areas of the 1950s, are seen to pose threats to public health and to the “prestige” of Hong Kong. I propose the concept of the discourse of ruination as a way to interrogate and at the same time, de-naturalise the pervasive assumption of the problem of decay, which serves to rationalise and perpetuate the …

Does Democracy Promotion Promote Democracy? The Zimbabwean Case, Ruvimbo Natalie Mavhiki

Theses & Dissertations

Why has the increase in election funding by both Western international organizations and governmental donor agencies not resulted in the deepening and consolidation of democracy in most African countries? This study assesses this question with reference to Zimbabwe. Significant financial and technical commitments have been invested for the establishment and consolidation of democracy in Zimbabwe, but instead of democratic consolidation, Zimbabwe has oscillated from a de facto one party state to a competitive electoral democracy and then to an electoral authoritarian regime. What explains this puzzling phenomenon? Can democracy promotion promote democracy, and if not, what are the pre-requisites for …

Repertoire, Framing And Visions : The Occupy Movement In Hong Kong, Ho Man Leung

Theses & Dissertations

The Occupy Movement is one of the most significant civic events in recent Hong Kong History. This thesis is an attempt to make a comprehensive understanding of the movement by analyzing the actual movement activities and illustrating occupiers’ justification of actions. Three major issues are of concern here. First, what actually happened during the movement? Second, why did the occupiers join the movement? Lastly, how did the occupiers justify their actions during the movement? In this regard, the concepts of repertoire, framing and vision, will be employed to guide this study. Considering the three main factions of the movement, including …

Performability And Translation : A Case Study Of The Production And Reception Of Ying Ruocheng’S Translations, Yichen Yang

Theses & Dissertations

The active scholarly contribution made by practitioners of theatre translation in the past decades has turned the research area into what is now considered a burgeoning field. Despite recent developments, it seems that performability, a long-discussed yet controversial concept in the study of theatre translation, would remain part of the practitioners’ discourse. Based on a historical survey of the production and reception of the translations of Anglo-American plays by Chinese actor-director Ying Ruocheng (1929-2003) in and around the 1980s, this study explores how the performability, or theatrical potential, of a translated playtext is constructed through the negotiation between/among the norms …

Rising Powers And Foreign Intrastate Armed Conflicts : Trends And Patterns Of China’S Intervention In African Civil Wars, Obert Hodzi

Theses & Dissertations

What influences one state to intervene in another’s intrastate armed conflict? In answering this question, existing scholarship has tended to emphasise the position of the intervening state in the international system; suggesting that, that is the main determinant factor of a state’s external intervention behaviour. As a result, existing research on intervention in foreign intrastate armed conflicts is dominated by a focus on great powers and their intervention methods. Employing the neoclassical realist causal logic, this thesis argues, on the contrary, that whether a state intervenes in a foreign intrastate armed conflict is a factor of both systemic and state …

在不明不暗的虚妄中寻找青春 : 当代中国“80 后”非政府组织工作者的价值观和行为转变研究, Guoyuan Sun

Theses & Dissertations

这是一个关于人的成长和转变的叙事研究。本研究的问题意识是：一方面，1990 年代以来，伴随着中国社会的进一步市场化，青年文化呈现出去政治化、物质主义、“小时代”的窄化的走向。越来越多的青年人希望进入“体制”，以求得社会认可、物质有保障之生活。但另一方面，1990 年代以来亦是中国民间非政府组织（NGO）迅速发展的时期，一小部分青年人选择在NGO 工作。然而，NGO 长期以来面临着公众的不理解、政府一定程度的漠视甚至猜测以及物质上的低回报。本研究正是希望进入NGO 工作者的生命故事，理解他们为何逆社会窄化的价值之流、选择在NGO 工作，形成了怎样的文化以及如何形成这一文化。另一方面，本研究亦希望向组织内部回观以批判性地分析NGO 携带的意识形态、操演等如何对工作者的价值观和行为产生不经意的影响，以期改造其身处之社会脉络。

因此，本研究试图回答的研究问题是：在1980 年代以来的社会脉络之下，“80 后”NGO 工作者如何与发展主义和“小时代”的青年文化、以及NGO 内部的文化与操作进行协商？形成了怎样的价值观和行为方式？

本研究通过叙事研究方法，深入理解10 位NGO 工作者的生命故事和日常实践。采取Dorothy Holland 等(1998)的形意世界(figured worlds)理论视角，本研究认为：一方面，NGO 工作者在参与NGO 的过程中增进了自我认识和成长，对社会发展有更深的理解和反思，并且形成一定的介入社会和公共生活的行动。另一方面，NGO 的操作中，可能带有缩窄批判思考和开放的学习多种思想资源的空间，缺乏对社会问题成因和解决方案的深入分析与公开论述，习惯性地以“主流”/“另类”二元简化的分析视角，这无益于NGO 工作者的成长，也可能阻碍NGO 对于社会和人的改造的工作。

The Role Of Translation In The Nobel Prize In Literature : A Case Study Of Howard Goldblatt's Translations Of Mo Yan's Works, Yau Wun Yim

Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the role of the translator and translation in the Nobel Prize in Literature through an illustration of the case of Howard Goldblatt’s translations of Mo Yan’s works.

As the most significant international literary prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature is well discussed in media. However, insufficiently detailed attention has been given to the role of translation in the Prize. In many cases, the works that the Nobel judges evaluate are in fact translations, not the prize winner’s own words. Despite the importance of translation in the selection process, no research has ever …

「超越藍綠」、想像「中國」、參照「香港」下的台灣政治論述, Keng Liang Cheng

Theses & Dissertations

本論文疏理台灣民主化過程中，訴諸「超越藍綠統獨」的「台灣」民主共同體形構及其「中國」想像。「超越藍綠」是分析對象，包括1980年代末以來國民黨與民進黨的「藍綠」政治論述，以及「超越藍綠」的社會運動論述，想像「中國」是分析當中台灣主體形構的「中國」想像，參照「香港」是以香港的「中國」想像為對照，並試圖回應「今日香港明日台灣」的說法。

本論文分為四章節：「中國統一」與「台灣獨立」、國民黨與民進黨的「藍綠統獨」、知識批判界與社會運動的「超越藍綠」，香港的「中國」想像。本論文指出，台灣國民黨的反共「中國統一」與反國民黨的「台灣獨立」意義，是訴諸他者「中國」的威脅，建構政治現代化的自我。在此論述下，國民黨與民進黨在國家認同與兩岸主張上，形成「藍綠統獨對立」的立場，但各自政治論述又共同召喚面對「中國」（中共）的政治與經濟危機想像，共構政治上捍衛台灣「主權－民主」完整與經濟上追求兩岸「經濟發展共榮」的共同體想像。社運與批判知識界的「超越藍綠」，雖然企圖超越藍綠民粹化的對立，並修補政黨輪替後民進黨執政的「民主創傷」，但隨著國民黨重新執政與強調兩岸共榮的中國政策/超越藍綠」接合「藍綠」的「中國」迫切焦慮，從解決內部「民主創傷」轉為「捍衛台灣民主」、對抗外部「中國因素」的政治修辭，藍綠政黨也挪用此修辭標榜自身優於對方政黨的正當性。「超越藍綠」成為消費性的符碼，陷入「藍綠統獨」的迴圈。香港的「中國」想像，則凸顯「中國」內在於香港人民基層歷史與日常生活中，有難以切割的距離，進而問題化「香港」與「中國」的對立指稱，是台灣重新想像「中國」的可能參照。

知識批判上，本論文疏理台灣「藍綠統獨對立」問題的「中國」論述，作為未來「中國」轉向的討論基礎。政治意義上，本論文反思政治「藍綠」到社會運動「超越藍綠」的民粹化困境。最後，本論文嘗試提出「人民」與「階級」的「第三方」，作為超克前述困境與「中國」想像侷限的未來方向。

Greed, Grief, A Gift. War-Traumatized Women And Contextualizing Expressive Arts Therapy, Sjoukje Marloes Van Houten

Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores the universality of trauma-storing in the body and the need for contextualization when it comes to treatment. Of the two central themes addressed, the first is war-related trauma and the intersection of expressive arts therapy and South (East) Asia (Nepal and Hong Kong in particular) with its specific imagery, art, and culture, and to see how both feed into each another and can transform as a result. The question is how to locally sensitize expressive arts therapy, which has its roots in Europe and the United States, to the Hong Kong setting; more specifically, to working with …

Trash, A Curatorial : An Ethnographic And Visual Study Of Waste In Urban Hong Kong, Anneke Coppoolse

Theses & Dissertations

This is an ethnography of waste in the streets of urban Hong Kong and a curatorial inquiry into the significance of its visuality. Presented in the form of a triptych, the dissertation probes and portrays fragments of urban life in Hong Kong, consequently opening up a new vista for intellectual and social engagement at the juncture of aesthetics, lived experiences, and power. While urban density provides for its equivalent in trash, much of Hong Kong’s refuse first lands in the streets. It is thereupon regulated to be rendered invisible through government organisation which corresponds with what Gay Hawkins (2007) calls …

Effect Of Self-Interruption And External Interruption On Error Detection, Sze Yuen Yau

Theses & Dissertations

Knowledge workers are frequently bombarded with interruption and are required to constant multitask. Previous observational studies found that frequent interrupted activities cause more errors and induce feelings of stress and frustration. Therefore, the aim of the current research is to investigate how interruption affects error detection performance. Current error detection research focused on the effectiveness of different checking methods. In this thesis, we concentrate on the psychological mechanism of error detection. A series of experiments was carried out to examine the effects of self-interruption (i.e. the pilot study and Study I) and external interruption (Study II) on error detection performance …

Why Do Girls Stay Silent? An Exploratory Research On Young Women's Tolerance Toward Stranger Harassment, Sui Lau

Theses & Dissertations

Stranger harassment has been a rising issue regarding gender equality globally. Nevertheless, this issue has been rarely explored in Hong Kong. This study aims at discovering its prevalence, the frequency of its occurrences, local women’s reactions toward it and variables that may determine women’s reactions in a local context. Both personal qualities, including gender-related belief, self-objectification and body image, as well as situational qualities, namely perceived situational norms, are examined.

350 self- administered questionnaires were collected from local women aged between 18 and 25, in either pencil-and-paper or online forms. Results showed that more than 80% of respondents reported experiencing …

Extending The Jd-R Approach To Predicting Work/Study Engagement And Creative Performance : Evidences From Chinese Employees And Students, Mengyuan Wu

Theses & Dissertations

Although innovation and creativity play an increasingly important role in helping organizations survive in today’s highly competitive environment, less is known about the antecedents and mechanisms of creative performance in the Chinese context. To bridge the gap of knowledge, this thesis adopted and extended Bakker (2011)’s Job Demands-Resources model (JD-R model) to exploring four antecedents of creative performance, namely, creative requirement (job demand), creative self-efficacy (personal resource), perceived support for creativity (job resource), and work/study engagement. It was hypothesized that engagement would mediate the positive effect of creative self-efficacy, perceived support for creativity and creative requirement on creative performance. Creative …

Political Reunification With Taiwan : Perspectives From The Leadership, Intellectuals And The General Public In Mainland China, Peiji Yu

Theses & Dissertations

This thesis studies Mainland China’s standpoint of political reunification with Taiwan in the contemporary era (2008-2014). The exploration examines the perspectives of leadership, intellectuals and the general public under the analytical framework of state nationalism and popular nationalism.

In general, the standpoints that “Taiwan as an integral part of China” and a “political reunification with Taiwan should be realized” are still the mainstream views in Mainland China. However, detailed reunification views vary among the different perspectives. In terms of the state nationalism composed by leadership and establishment intellectuals, the settlement of the Taiwan issue and the realization of the complete …

Why Get Lost In Translation? On The English Translations Of Wen Yiduo's Poems, Choi Yung Ng

Theses & Dissertations

The debate over the translatability of poetry has been a long-standing issue for decades. Relatively few discussions, however, have focused on the concrete reasons of poetry being translatable (or untranslatable). Moving beyond traditional ways of elucidating the matter through theoretical argument, this study aims to investigate the question of poetry translation in a more solid, empirical manner by looking into linguistic and language-based aesthetic differences between Chinese and English, in particular their prosodic features and capacities. Part One seeks to answer the question “Why does poetry get lost in translation?” from a linguistic and language-based aesthetic perspective, using the English …

Is Big Brother Playing Fair? Exploring Effects Of Perceived Nepotism In Public Institutions On Trust In Strangers, David Amon Neequaye

Theses & Dissertations

Trust has proven to be a vital social capital. It has been implicated in a myriad of socially beneficial initiatives. While trust vested in familiar others remain important, trust extended to strangers is crucial to the continued development of social capital. This is because such interaction, though risky at times, forms a springboard to untapped opportunities. Using a multi-round trust game and self-report assessments the present study explored explanations for observed cultural differences in trust in strangers. Data was drawn from university students in Ghana and Hong Kong. Factor analysis showed that self-report trust in strangers was associated with trust …

Newspaper Portrayal And Legislative Voting Process : A Case Study Of Statutory Minimum Wage In Hong Kong, Ngai Chiu Wong

Theses & Dissertations

Statuary Minimum Wage (SMW) has been discussed for 13 years in post-colonial Hong Kong and was finally legislated for in 2010. Scholars have attempted to explain how and why SMW was legislated for in post-colonial Hong Kong. They have argued that the growing public demand for the legislation created huge pressure for legislators. Even though previous studies have provided explanations for how the policy was made, they have failed to articulate two fundamental questions: how the Legislative Council lawmakers took notice of the problem of working poor and the need to vote in favor of SMW in Hong Kong? These …