Asian History Commons^™

Review- Archives And Human Rights, Alexandra Pucciarelli

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Archives and Human Rights edited by Jens Boel, Perrine Canavaggio, and Antonio González Quintana utilizes seventeen case studies to examine the role archives and archivists can play in international justice after human rights violations. The cases include but are not limited to; Rwanda, Spain, and Cambodia.

Tea As A Motivator For British Imperialism In China, Grayden R. Varisco

CAFE Symposium 2023

This poster is based on a research paper that sought to find out what influence the tea trade had on developments in Sino-British relations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Through research, the paper concluded that the strong British desire for tea influenced British attempts to change its relationship with China, as a more "open" China would lead to more and cheaper tea for Britain. Ultimately, this desire led to Britain flooding China with addictive, illicit opium, and waging the imperialistic Opium Wars against China.

Cultural And Philosophical Beliefs In Tea Poetry, Julia M. Minor

CAFE Symposium 2023

Tea is a commodity that has greatly changed the course of history. One example of the influence of tea is in poetry. This project analyzes some examples of tea poetry from China and Japan to understand how tea in poetry conveys cultural and philosophical beliefs of given time periods. China and Japan are looked at collectively because their histories are very entwined. In the two Chinese poems, tea is tied to hierarchical relations and the importance of Taoism. In the Japanese poems, tea is greatly related to nature and appreciating simplicity. Three of the four poems are a reaction to …

David Versus Goliath: The Power Of Weakness In Asymmetric Warfare—Lessons From History, Nicholas K. Petaludis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Under what conditions do violent nonstate actors (VNA) succeed against states? Why does David sometimes beat Goliath? Since at least the time of Thucydides and the Peloponnesian Wars, the realist narrative in international relations measures power primarily in relative, coercive, and deterrent terms. Strong states should accordingly face fewer constraints and enjoy more options while pursuing their national interests. Unconventional warfare, and its subsets of terrorism and insurgency, should—given these circumstances, end in VNA failure. Sometimes, however, VNAs find success. By comparing the literature on historical and current case studies, I propose that a set of preconditions and two mechanisms …

Swarming Infrastructures, Jack Greatrex

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The first car on the roads of Malacca, a town in the British Straits Settlements colony on the Malay Peninsula, was reportedly nicknamed The Swallow. Images of the eponymous bird were painted onto the vehicle: an avian metaphor fitting for the new, emerging age of the automobile, with its associations with freedom, rapidity and the smoother flows of modern life (Hillier 1961: 99).1

The United States And The Origins Of The Second World War, Kerry Irish

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

This brief but detailed narrative of the origins of World War II evaluates the claims by both Axis and Allied powers that they were fighting a just war.

Away From Home: William Gifford Palgrave's Letters From India, 1847-1848, David E. Latane

English Publications

William Gifford Palgrave (1826-1888) became one of the great Victorian travelers, immortalized in a poem by Alfred Tennyson, “To Ulysses,” in 1888. The letters transcribed here are the record of his first voyage outward in 1847 as an Ensign in the 8th Bombay regiment of native infantry, just after his graduating with a First from Oxford. The letters are found in volume 5 of the Palgrave papers (British Library Add. MS 45738). The first letter is to his mother, dated 28 January 1847 from “Off Cape Mondego” in Portugal, and it describes life on board an outbound steamer. The last …

The Road That Never Existed: Orientalist Myth Making Within The Historiography Of The Silk Road, Margaret Kathryn Curtin

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay………………………………....4

II. Primary Documents and Headnotes………....28

III. Textbook Critique……………………………...40

IV. New Textbook Entry………………………......45

V. Bibliography…………………………………....48

The Othering Of An Empire: A Historiographical And Pedagogical Assessment Of Orientalism, Genghis Khan, And The Mongol Empire, Edward Stehr

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay………………………………....3

II. Primary Documents and Headnotes………....28

III. Textbook Critique……………………………...40

IV. New Textbook Entry…………………………..44

V. Bibliography…………………………………....50

The Function Of Sound Symbolism In The Japanese Language, Madison Buckles

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

his paper examines sound symbolism in the Japanese language, primarily its role in linguistic qualities of onomatopoeia, and why it occurs in relation to language theory. Several reasons for the occurrence of sound symbolism are discussed, namely vowel and consonant associations; context of a speaker’s language; and the development, significance, and necessity of these words. The paper concludes by arguing that the lack of research in the field of sound symbolism, despite its prominent role against the prevailing theory of language (which states that words are arbitrary in conjunction with their meaning), is another example of the Western world’s tendency …

Yingyin's Vow, Jackson Keys

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Romantic fiction of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) often contains a scene that reads as such: Two lovers, usually a young scholar and a beautiful young woman, cast their fate towards heaven as they decide to make vows of devotion, promising each other that they will marry none but the other. This couple will then go through challenges and setbacks, and although it seems there is no possible way for them to be together, their devotion to one another allows them to ultimately overcome all obstacles and live happily together. This structure, with roots dating back to the Tang (618–907) chuanqi …

दहेज: Dowry And Its Repercussions On Indian Society, Lindy Miller

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

I n Dudu, a small village in the Indian state of Rajasthan, the bodies of three sisters and their children were found at the bottom of a well in the spring of 2022. Kalu, Kamlesh, and Mamta Meena stated in their suicide letter, “We don’t wish to die but death is better than their abuse. Our in-laws are the reason behind our deaths. We are dying together because it’s better than dying every day” (CBS 2022).

How The West Is Represented In Modern Fictional Chinese Dramas, Natalie Lyman Shields

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Lois Tyson once said, “Neither human events (in the political or personal domain) nor human productions (from nuclear submarines to television shows) can be understood without understanding the specific historical circumstances in which those events and productions occur” (Tyson 2006, 54). To parrot Lois Tyson, in order to understand human productions such as modern Chinese dramas, one must understand the specific historical circumstances set around those story plots. This paper will dive into how the West is represented in modern fictional Chinese dramas. In order to do this, this paper will explore the cultural and political circumstances at the time …

The Complications Of People In Diplomacy, Kiner Kwok

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

In the late 18th century and early 19th century, European embassies eagerly interacted with Qing China (1644–1912). In 1792, Lord George Macartney (1737–1806) led the first British mission to Qing China. During this mission, even though Lord Macartney met with the Qianlong emperor (r. 1735–1796), his goal of establishing free trade and diplomatic relations with the Qing court was rejected. A few years later, in 1795, a mission, sent out by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), arrived at the Qing court to congratulate the Qianlong emperor’s 60th anniversary of his governance. Then again, in 1805, a Russian mission, led …

From Farm To Table To Factory: Paths Of Cambodian American Foodways, A. C. Smith

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes the history of Cambodian Americans using theoretical frameworks utilized by food studies scholars. Cambodian refugees and their families experienced a historical process that I describe as being “from farm to table to factory.” Many Cambodians maintained a self-sufficient agricultural lifestyle prior to the Cambodian Civil War. As Cambodian refugees resettled in the United States, they faced a slew of challenges in navigating urban infrastructures and governmental institutions, as well as in adjusting to hegemonic discourses. Such issues constitute a metaphorical table to which Cambodians needed to adjust as they made their lives in the US. Adaptation also …

Map, Census, Museum: Imagining The Malaysian Nation-State And The Malay Identity, Jackson Rockett

Honors Theses

Using historian Benedict Anderson's framework from his seminal text Imagined Communities of examining nation-building and identity construction through colonial artifacts, this thesis turns to maps, censuses, and museums to better understand the colonial and post-colonial imagining of the country that is now known as Malaysia. Reconciling with regional histories that predate the nation-state and defy the contemporary boundaries of territoriality, this thesis largely seeks to elucidate the contestation between colonially-imposed ideas of spatiality, categorization, and the reproduction of history with the modern Malaysian nation-state and the conflation of ethnicity with nationalism from which much of this contestation is derived from.

Full Issue

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

No abstract provided.

Christianity On Home Brew, Brayden Lane

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

In 1659, after enduring three years of torture and refusing to renounce his teachings, a Christian priest was executed in Nagasaki by decapitation under order by local officials. This man, who had taken the name of Bastian at his baptism, had spent the previous several years leading and teaching his fellow Christians in the villages near Nagasaki. He did this in secrecy, for in those days, professing belief as a Christian had been declared illegal by the Japanese government under penalty of death. In the course of his ministry, he saw many of his brethren meet their deaths for their …

Book Review L Boats In A Storm: Law, Migration, And Decolonization In South And Southeast Asia, 1942–1962 By Kalyani Ramnath (Stanford University Press 2023), Anwesha Ghosh

Articles

Kalyani Ramnath’s Boats in a Storm undertakes the formidable task of retelling the histories of decolonisation in India, Burma, Malaya, and Ceylon using characters who would rarely fit the description of conventional historical actors. Ramnath departs from the rich political and diplomatic histories that celebrate the independence of nation states from the yoke of imperial rule. Instead, she focuses on the ways in which these states, with their newly re-instituted legislative, juridical, and bureaucratic regimes, wreaked havoc on the lives of itinerant migrants who straddled between ‘homes’ and places of work across the Bay of Bengal and eastern Indian Ocean …

Asian American Identity And Museum Collections, Natasha Wang

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

In June of 2022, the Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture Act was passed in Congress (Commision to Study 2022, 117-140):

As part of the report, the Commission will need to address: (A) The availability and cost of collections to be acquired and housed in the Museum (B) The impact of the Museum on existing Asian Pacific American history-related museums. (Hirono 2022)