East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Review: Ikuho Amano, Decadent Literature In Twentieth-Century Japan: Spectacles Of Idle Labor., James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Congregation Of Heroes: A Skyrim Representation, Richard Smith 17

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Migration On Mosuo Cultural Identity: A Case Study Of The Mosuo People In Lijiang, Isabel Ullmann

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

China is currently in the midst of the largest labor migration in human history and yet we know very little about the cultural impact on the migrants themselves. For many ethnic minorities, like the Mosuo, who have been isolated from urban, if not Han, influence for much of their history, this migration is sure to result in some cultural disruption. As a matrilineal culture defined by large extended families traced by the matriline, a distinct, non-exclusive sexual-reproductive system, a housing layout that reflects religious beliefs and social structure, and a fluid interplay of the local ddaba religion and Tibetan Buddhism, …

Chinese Origin Of The Term Pagoda: Liang Sicheng's Proposed Etymology, David Robbins Tien, Gerald Leonard Cohen

Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works

Western reference works regard the architectural term pagoda as being of uncertain origin, but an overlooked etymology proposed by Liang Sicheng convincingly solves the mystery: The word is Chinese, with the literal meaning “eight” (pa) “cornered” (ko) “tower” (La). Liang Sicheng, who pioneered the serious study of classical Chinese architecture, pointed out:

‘The octagonal pagoda, which first appeared in the Tomb Pagoda of Ching-tsang in 746, was the first “pa-go-da” in the real sense of the term.’

This 746 date is of course centuries before the first appearance of pagoda in a European language, viz. 1516 in Portuguese, so the …

Remapping Emotion And Desire: Same-Sex Romance In Ah Cheng's "The King Of Chess", Yanjie Wang

Asian and Asian American Studies Faculty Works

This article examines the representation of emotion and desire in Ah Cheng's The King of Chess (Qi wang). The interpretation of The King of Chess has been oriented toward an allegorical reading that revolves around grand cultural concepts, such as aesthetics, Taoist tradition, cultural consciousness, and national identity. In this paradigm of reading, the literary text has largely become a footnote of the master narrative of China's cultural reconstruction of the 1980s. Following the recent interpretative turn of this story from cultural to existential and from allegorical to corporeal, the article extends to yet another domain, that of emotion, intimacy, …

Using Ignatian Pedagogy To Teach Chinese Literature, Dale Hoiberg

Ignatian Pedagogy Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Anime And War, Carol Sun

Honors Papers and Posters

This poster examines the growth and development of anime in Japan in post-World War II Japan, particularly its ability to make audiences question the trajectory of humanity and society and to "critique the society that relies on technology...as a means to prevent or discourage war and conflict".

Letters To Mei Lanfang, Alexandra Dare Norman

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

As a male actor of female Dan characters, Mei Lanfang (1894-1961) is known throughout the world as the most representative performer of Chinese opera – particularly for his performance of Concubine Yu in the Peking opera Farewell My Concubine. A feminist analysis of his work in this opera reveals a series of assumptions about the definition of “Woman” in both theatre and life. This project is solo performance piece formatted in a series of open letters to Mei Lanfang, interspersed with personal stories investigating what it truly means to be a Woman – as an actor, a Christian, a feminist, …

Taiwanese Cinema, James N. Udden

Cinema & Media Studies Faculty Publications

Like the island itself, the cinema of Taiwan has always been in a perpetual state of liminality. Taiwan was a Japanese colony for fifty years (1895–1945) and during that time no cinema that could be labeled as distinctively “Taiwanese” emerged. After World War II, Taiwanese cinema was still caught between a political rock and an economic hard place. Despite allowing some low-budget films to be made in the Taiwanese dialect, the Kuomintang (KMT, aka “Nationalist”) government made sure its cinema did not violate its core ideological tenets of a “Greater China.” This came largely at the expense of anything specifically …

A Summary Of The 13th Annual Meeting Of The Society Of Chinese Literary Theory And The Conference On Reviewing And Rethinking Chinese Literary Theory Of The Past Century , Jian'gang Yang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

No abstract provided.

New Changes Of Confucianism During The Late Qing Dynasty And The New Novel's Imagination Of The Nation, Jun Zhu, Xun Sun

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

New Novel's imagination of the nation in the 20th century marked the beginning of modern Chinese novel as well as the narrative of a modern nation state. It was related both to the introduction of western modernity and new changes of Confucianism during the late Qing Dynasty. The convergence of the evolution theory in Gongyang studies and that in the West changed the traditional temporal and spatial structure in Chinese novels, which consequently resulted in the shift from traditional utopians to the imagination of the future "New China". While Chinese writers were introducing western political ideas by writing political novels, …

An Interpretation Of Zhang Xuecheng's Idea "The Philosophers And History Failed, Yet The Collection Flourished", Xu Fu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In Shijiao Zhang Xuecheng argues that "the philosophers and history failed, yet the collection flourished", using refined words to summarize the change of academic studies after Warring States. Not only does the argument describe the change of private writing's form, but also reveals its substantial change, which is the loss of purposes. In his discussion of the decline of history, Zhang Xuecheng especially emphasizes the loss of specialized subjects. This argument contains Zhang's academic ideal, and provides a frame of reference when it comes to other topics in Wenshi-Tongyi. The multiple dualities in this argument are consistent with the meaning …

Game Impulse's Negation Of Time In Time: Temporality In Schiller's Aesthetics (Ii), Yanshun Liu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Temporality is the key to Schiller's aesthetics and aesthetic education, which should be elucidated. Schiller believes that temporality must be followed in order to give a clear account of the fundamental differences between the perceptual impulse and the rational impulse in terms of their composition. He argues that the game impulse, which is of narrow temporality, cannot have far foresight, that the rational impulse as maxims, ethical norms and religious gods can negate time, and that temporality is by no means a tertiary criterion independent of the other two impulses. Only in the game impulse can rationality be activated and …

Jonathan Culler And Feminism, Fang Wu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Jonathan Culler constructs Feminist reading theory from the angle of literary deconstructionism. He elaborates on Feminist reading theory from three facets: reading and interpretation of women's experience, women's reading that identifies with men and that asserts reason. As a male theorist recognized by many women critics, Culler fully affirms Feminism and reflects upon it from a deconstructionist perspective.

The Logical Basis Of "Illocution" And The Problem Of "Intentionality": Quine's "Reducto Ad Absurdum" And The Dispute Between Wittgenstein And Kripke, Yunke Lin

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

With the introduction of analytic philosophy in general and the analysis of everyday language in particular into studies of literary theory, illocution has become a widely accepted theoretical resource therein. The ready application of this theory in literary studies without considering its evolution within analytic philosophy has caused many problems in literary theory, the most visible of which is the issue of "intentionality" contained in illocution. Searle's seminal paper "The Logical Status of Fictional Discourse" marks the involvement of analytic philosophy in studies of literary theory, but his "given intentionality" stance has become a new problem. The logical status of …

The Neo-Noir Crazy Stone Phenomenon, H. Kuoshu Harry

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The Crazy Stone phenomenon in China is often described as the black carnival of both the movie goers and the concerned scholars. The filmic and discursive enthusiasm for Crazy Stone has drawn much attention to the carnival theory by M. Bakhtin and the postmodern theoretical attention to mass culture. Surveying the cultural implications of craziness and how Crazy Stone connects with both the global as well as domestic film cultures, the author of this article observes the absence of such concepts as film noir and neo noir in this round of discussion and argues that Crazy Stone discourse and many …

The Theoretical Evolution And Literary Orientation Of "Symptomatic Reading", Wenfang Yao

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The term "symptomatic reading" initiated by Althusser, as far as the origin of the term is concerned, can be traced to Freud and Lacan. Freud uncovers meaning from slips of tongue, dreams and the symptoms of the insane. Adopting philosophy, psychology and linguistics in rebuilding psychoanalysis, Lacan seeks to restructure, in a scientific and systematic manner, Freud's view that symptoms are meaningful. This is what lays the foundation for the theory of "symptomatic reading" put forward by Althusser. In the process of establishing the theory, Althusser derives the method from the form of negation Hegel investigates in his Science of …

Zhuzhi Poetry's Shift Of Writing Pattern And Its Improvement Of Status In The Qing Dynasty, Yi'an Zhu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Compared with the composition features in the Ming dynasty, zhuzhi poetry becomes more realistic in the Qing dynasty. Zhuzhi poetry and hundred endemic poetry are used to write detailed comments in ancient books and local chronicles, which pay special attention to documenting events and reality. These changes are related to the popularity of pragmatism that encourages contribution to society. At the same time, the intentional practice of taking part in compiling historical books enables many poets write local chronicles in the form of zhuzhi poetry. Because of their use of zhuzhi poetry to offer supplements to local chronicles and their …

Analyzing Poetics With Calligraphy: Calligraphy And Poetics Of The Classicist School In The Ming Dynasty, Xianpo Yuan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Analyzing poetics with calligraphy is an important strategy for the Ming dynasty classicist poetics. It originates from Su Shi and Yan Yu, flourishes with the first seven celebrities and the last seven celebrities, and ends in the five litterateurs. Such a combination of calligraphy and poetics aims to establish classical aesthetics by learning from calligraphy in terms of its classical characteristics, and thus to find a theoretical basis for ancient poetics. Furthermore, the classicist school moves beyond the connection of form between calligraphy and poetics by emphasizing practice, namely, composing poetry in the way of coping calligraphic works. In short, …

On Terry Eagleton's Revolutionary Criticism, Wei Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The “revolutionary criticism” which Eagleton uses in the interpretation of Walter Benjamin is often equated with “political criticism” or “ideological criticism” by some researchers, but what have been downplayed or even ignored are the relationship between “revolutionary criticism”, cultural revolution, and the revolutionary cultural practice, as well as the revolutionary energy generated among them. Eagleton points out that the “revolutionary criticism” has anticipated the practice of contemporary deconstruction criticism, and yet they have qualitative difference. Significantly, some of his descriptions of deconstructionism are simplistic. Some scholars believe that the “revolutionary criticism” is his ideal criticism, which neglects the problem of …