East Asian Languages and Societies Commons^™

Nationalistic Massacre Victims Triumph Over Ccp, Nathan Huffine

Voces Novae

Following the Japanese invasion of mainland China, and the subsequent Nanjing Massacre in 1937, Chinese Massacre survivors gained a nationalistic perspective as a result of their lived experiences. Later, these survivors’ nationalistic perspective came in direct conflict with the class-based perspective held by the Chinese Communist Party. This clash in political views helps shed light upon much of the internal and external Chinese historical narrative throughout the mid to late twentieth century.

Crazy Rich Asians: Exploring Discourses Of Orientalism, Neoliberal Feminism, Privilege And Inequality, Devi Vijay

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

In this review of Crazy Rich Asians (2018), I examine elements of orientalism, neoliberal feminism, privilege and inequality that layer the film. Specifically, I interrogate the film’s American inflection of orientalism, surfacing a constant duel between essentialized Asian and American values, where what is American eventually wins out. Independent, entrepreneurial women are integral to this narrative of global capitalist accumulation. Yet, as the East meets the West in the globalized consumptive spaces of the super-rich, inequalities in the United States and Singapore are either repackaged under the myth of meritocracy, or conveniently erased. While the film demarcates a new Hollywood …

Before “Fire And Fury”: The Role Of Anger And Fear In U.S.–North Korea Relations, 1968–1994, Benjamin Young

Research & Publications

Since the beginning of the Korean War, the North Korean and U.S. governments have been involved in emotional warfare. From North Korea’s stated “eternal hatred” of the U.S. imperialists to Washington’s demonization of Pyongyang as an insidious Soviet pawn, emotions have been at the heart of this hostile bilateral relationship. Using three case studies (the 1968 Pueblo incident, the 1976 axe murder incident, and the 1994 nuclear crisis), I examine the ways in which the two sides have elicited emotional responses from their populations for their respective political goals. By portraying the U.S. as the source of all evilness in …

Cultural Diplomacy With North Korean Characteristics: Pyongyang’S Exportation Of The Mass Games To The Third World, 1972–1996, Benjamin Young

Research & Publications

During the 1970s and 1980s, the communist government in Pyongyang sent Mass Games instructors to the Third World in order to improve the image of North Korea abroad and promote its version of socialist modernity. The Mass Games, a huge choreographic gymnastics event of 100,000 performers, artistically exhibited the North Korean idea of "ilsim-dangyeol (single-minded unity).” In the era of decolonization, postcolonial leaders in the emerging Third World turned to East Asia for developmental inspirations and some leaders, notably Idi Amin of Uganda, admired the North Korean model of collectivism and discipline. The Mass Games, epitomized the communalistic values of …

Islamic And Middle East Area Studies Librarianship, Walid Ghali, Waseem Farooq, Paul Auchterlonie, Arnoud Vrolijk

Abdou Filali-Ansary Occasional Paper Series

The three papers collected here are based on a seminar on Islamic Studies Librarianship held on 31 January 2019 at the Aga Khan Library (AKL), in conjunction with the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC). Curators, area studies directors, and collection librarians, who are currently involved in this field, gathered to discuss common challenges and to identify strategic areas for collaboration.

Modernity In Miniature: Maoism And The Beijing Department Store, Samuel M. Hellmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the Beijing Department Store as a contradictory structure embedded in the world’s largest Communist revolution. By looking at the urban planning decisions behind constructing a colonial form in the center of the socialist capital, I attempt to unravel the complex intersection of economic development and egalitarian mass action in the early Maoist period. Constructed in 1955 during the first Five Year Plan, the Department Store sheds light on the specific parameters of post-revolution modernization campaigns. Furthermore, by looking at the conceptualizations of the building by the Party, architects, and the workers inside the store, I examine how …

The Chinese Calligraphy Stone Gallery, Yingying Xie

Student Works (2020-2029)

This dissertation studies the reshaping of cultural memory in helping to increase cultural self-confidence and to gain cultural identity. Nirvana Group placed great emphasis on promoting Chinese culture and on the basis of respecting culture; it has established the Chinese Calligraphy Stone gallery. This dissertation found that the Chinese Calligraphy Stone gallery which is specially constructed through the installation of represented structures of China showcased the Confucian principles and Taoist thought. Cultural memory has been reconstructed based on the permanent collection of diachronic masterpieces of the elite culture of calligraphy tradition. I would like to say that the spirit of …

The World’S Greatest Hero: An Examination Of Superhero Tropes In My Hero Academia, Jerry Waller

Master's Projects and Capstones

In this paper the author explores the cross-cultural transmission of genre archetypes in illustrated media. Specifically, the representation of the archetype of American superheroes as represented in the Japanese manga and anime series, My Hero Academia. Through examination of the extant corpus of manga chapters and anime episodes for the franchise, the author draws comparison between characters and situations in the manga series with examples from American comic books by Marvel Comics and DC Comics. By skillfully incorporating foundational themes of American superhero comics into the shonen manga genre, My Hero Academia joins a growing collection of media that draws …

The Darker Sides Of The Isekai Genre: An Examination Of The Power Of Anime And Manga, Curtis Lu

Master's Projects and Capstones

This study illustrates characteristics of the isekai genre, presents connections between this genre and social problems commonly found in Japanese culture and society, and demonstrates the widespread impact of Japanese popular media. By analyzing some of the most popular forms and categories of isekai, this research pinpoints important characteristics – in the form of certain themes, characters, and plots – that contribute to social problems like suicide and shut-ins. Escapism is a central theme in many isekai works, and while escapism is healthy to a certain extent, some take the concept too far, often getting lost in their own …

A Changing Tea Culture, A Changing China: Variations In Conceptions Of Gift Tea Among Tea Sellers, Tiana Wang

Student Work

A 2019-2020 Williams Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Tiana Wang (Ezra Stiles College '20) for her essay submitted to the Department of Sociology, "A Changing Tea Culture, A Changing China: Variations in Conceptions of Gift Tea Among Tea Sellers” (Jeffrey Alexander, Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology, advisor).

Tiana Wang’s essay, “A Changing Tea Culture, A Changing China: Variations in Conceptions of Gift Tea among Tea Sellers” makes substantial use of original interviews and observations with twenty tea sellers across Jinan, Shanghai, and Beijing to show that tea culture is changing with new …

Redefining Through Remembering: China’S Political Objectives As Reflected In Chinese State Commemoration Of The Korean War, 1950 - 2010, Yoojin Han

Student Work

A 2019-2020 Williams Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Yoojin Han (Berkeley College '20) for her essay submitted to the Department of History, "Redefining through Remembering: China’s Political Objectives as Reflected in Chinese State Commemoration of the Korean War, 1950 - 2010” (Denise Ho, Assistant Professor of History, advisor).

A highly analytical and engaging senior essay grounded in an impressive array of both primary and secondary sources, Yoojin Han’s thesis, “Redefining through Remembering: China’s Political Objectives as Reflected in Chinese State Commemoration of the Korea War,” utilizes Chinese “leadership speeches” made and published during …

A New Exploration Of The Title Of "Cheng Xiang" In Xunzi, Chaobin Zou

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The meaning of the title "Cheng Xiang" in Xunzi is controversial. Through close reading, this paper analyzes "Cheng Xiang" in Xunzi from such new angles as evolvement of literary style and cultural integration. It is found that "Cheng Xiang" in Xunzi consisted of three relatively independent articles when Xunzi originally wrote them. "Cheng Xiang" was not simply titled by using several characters in the opening passage. Instead, it was consciously named after its literary style. "Cheng Xiang" as a literary style resulted from the integration of rites and music culture in the court of the Zhou dynasty and folk ballad …

Indefinability, Mystique And Theological Implication In Adorno's Natural Beauty, Ting Wang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

In Adorno's aesthetics, there is a natural beauty with a particular form: it has no clear concept, but only undefinable and impalpable characteristics. This distinguishes it from rational things, for the essence of natural beauty is unconditional and transcendent. Being transcendent, it is beyond reason. Since indefinability and mystique are appearances presented at its experience level, natural beauty can only be referred to through detour and negation. The rationale for Adorno's set of natural beauty originates from Kant's aesthetics. Like Kant, Adorno distinguishes knowledge from beauty; he differs from Kant in that Kant draws natural beauty from experience and leads …

"Istoria" In Leon Battista Alberti's Painting Theory: An Application Of The Method Pseudomorphosis Into The Study Of Renaissance Aesthetic Concepts, Xi He

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Della Pittura (On Painting) by Italian humanist Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) is considered as one of the most important works in the history of Western art theory. In this book, Alberti constructed a system of terminologies and a set of principles, in order to structurally describe the content of paintings, to accurately convey the technique of paintings, and to systematically understand and evaluate the meaning and value of paintings. With the method of "quasimorphosis", this paper explores Alberti's artistic term "istoria" in three steps. Firstly, it traces the origin of the term back to the Classical Age; secondly, it describes …

Is "Place" Ended: Dialectical Thoughts On Space Theory, Jun Zhu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Globalization has reshaped our sense of place and this reshaping has profound impact on human aesthetic experience. Modern transportation, media, mass culture and theme — parkization of cities accelerate the proliferation of the aesthetics of placelessness. Facing the crisis of “the end of Place”, Marxist theorists on space believe that “place” has become increasingly important due to its multiple deformations. Place not only reshapes the structure of senses but also reconstructs urban situation and social structure. This paper claims that there is at present a need to discard the narrow understanding of place while retaining the aesthetic appreciation of particularity …

Reportage As A Non-Fictional Narrative Mode, Xiaoyuan Ding

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Reportage is a literary genre emerged out of modern journalism, featuring its blending of news, literature, and political commentary. With the changing of time, particularly due to the advent of the "Age of Omnimedia", its function to report news has significantly declined. Writers of reportage begin to develop its non-fictional narrative aesthetics, in order to accommodate themselves to the reader-objects and rising reader expectation. Reportage, as it stands, has shifted from its original style of reporting to a new genre of "literary reportage", a non-fictional narrative mode with distinctive features such as non-fiction, narrativity, and literariness.

The Characteristics Of Chinese Creative Culture And Its Form Of Existence , Xuan Wu

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Chinese creative culture intersects with modern Western culture in the following aspects. First, Fuxi's xiantian bagua (Prenatal Eight Trigrams Numbers), "creating symbols of humanity via nature," and the idea of "respecting Confucianism while creating philosophy of individualism" discussed in the Records of the Grand Historian and The Yi Commentary of Su Shi all represent the Chinese-style implicit creative experience of "respecting and transforming reality." Such experience — "creation of the individual within the whole" — is distinguished from creation out of binary opposition in the West. Second, the worship of vitality and the cherishing of life in ancient times, which …

The Emergence And Development Of Poetic Treatises During The Ming Dynasty, Miaomiao Zheng

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

Among literature on poetry during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) there was poetic treatise, which focuses on theoretical and systematic expounding on the basics of poetics. This type of writing evolved through three stages of emergence, improvement and maturation. Li Dongyang's Poetry Commentaries from the Foothill Studio and Xu Zhenqing's On the Art of Poetry were two key works in the first stage. Li's work presented a gradually strengthened emphasis on the systematicity of poetry criticism, while Xu's work substantially centered on poetry criticism, marking the formation of poetic treatise. In the second stage, Wang Shizhen's Rambles in the Garden of …

The Political Dimension Of Vernacular Fictions During The Ming Dynasty As Exemplified By Fictions On Major Historical Events, Qingchuan Wan

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The deterioration of political ecology during the Ming dynasty led to intense conflicts among various political powers and interest groups. Due to the development of publishing technology and Dibao Gazette, lower classes of the society were increasingly involved in political activities. The varying degrees of involvement of different social classes in political struggles influenced related writers' fiction writing and dissemination. In this sense, fiction, especially those based on major political events and historical figures, gradually became an auxiliary vehicle for political struggle. Through the selection and (re)interpretation of historical materials, authors expressed their political views and appeals, attempting to influence …

The Postmodern Or The Present: Time As The End, Yaojun Zhang

Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art

The postmodern is not a concept with definite historical times, but is still related to time, especially to the present. There are two different concepts of the postmodern in Lyotard's writings, which correspond to the present of two different kinds. One is the finished status of modernity, which embodies an eternal present that leads to the "inhuman" depressions on humans. The other is an instantaneous moment that has burst out emotionally, which not only reflects on the former kind of the postmodern, but also forms a particular style of postmodern existence.