Digital Commons Network^™

Legitimizing The Invented Congolese Space: The Gaze From Within In Early Congolese Fiction, Kasongo Mulenda Kapanga

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

Postcolonial discourses describe colonization as a process of invention to impose the will of a conquering West on "backward" societies. The will to power conjugated with the need for row materials served as the main catalysts. They put side by side a hegemonic intruder bent on duplicating itself, and a powerless and compliant native unable to react to the blitz of transformations. Hence, the master/slave or father/child relationships that describe the colonial framework. The task is to interrogate these generally accepted assumptions and binary oppositions. Although marginalized, the Congolese native was unwilling to become on object for the colonizer's gaze. …

Economic Incentives Preempt Independence Movements: A Case Study Of The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region In China, Iman Jafarynejad

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Self-determination and freedom from foreign territorial acquisition and annexation still are core issues in the international arena and a source of human rights struggles. Through the consolidation of economies in the twenty-first century, there has, however, been a shift in the importance of these issues and in the meaning of “occupied” territories. This paper challenges the idea that the status quo of self-determination is the most important element of the human rights agenda of the indigenous Uyghur community in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China.

Police Violence In Brazil, Kyra Moon

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“This was just the beginning. They want war, and they‟ll get war. The problem of trafficking will only be resolved with blood. It is the only language they understand.” This was the response of Mario Azevedo, chief delegate of the 21st police precinct in the Bonsucsso neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, after drug traffickers killed three police officers. Three days after that assault, one hundred and twenty heavily armed police officers stormed into the Nova Brasilia favela (the Brazilian term for slum or shantytown) and killed thirteen residents, four of which were minors. Press reports initially described this incident in …

More Than A Cultural Celebration: The Politics Of Chinese New Year In Post-Suharto Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In the aftermath of the May 1998 riots that forced President Suharto to step down, ethnic Chinese received unprecedented freedom to assert their long suppressed cultural and religious identity. Following the transition from assimilation to multiculturalism, for the first time in over three decades Chinese culture became more visible and ethnic Chinese could finally enjoy the freedom to celebrate Chinese New Year (Imlek) publicly. This article focuses on the politics of the re-emergent Chinese New Year celebration in the Indonesian public sphere. It demonstrates the significance of Imlek as an ethnic symbol to Chinese-Indonesians. Borrowing Hobsbawm’s concept of “invented tradition”, …

When Is A Terrorist Not A Terrorist?: American And Chinese Media Portrayals Of The Chinese Uighur Minority Pre And Post 9/11, Anna File, '09

Honors Projects

Over the past sixty years the Uighur population in China has faced a variety of complex issues, both domestically and internationally. In large part due to their geopolitical positioning as inhabitants of Xinjiang Province as well owing to several issues with their Muslim faith, Uighurs have constantly been at odds with the Communist traditions imposed upon them by the central Chinese government. Not only do problems with their religion affect them nationally, but more recently with the trend towards suspicion of Muslim groups by Westerners, the Uighurs are in a seemingly helpless position. This paper hypothesizes however, that this has …

Explaining Ethnic Peace: The Importance Of Institutions, Rebecca Tong, '09

Honors Projects

This paper examines the cause of ethnic peace, and subsequently, the cause of ethnic violence. Varying theories explain ethnic violence: primordialism, instrumentalism, and constructivism. The question central to this study is how master narratives, scarce resources, and democratic institutions have influenced the occurrence of ethnic violence. Small n comparison is used to analyze two pairs of sub-Saharan African nations in order to control for other explanatory variables: (1) Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, and (2) Kenya and Tanzania. In each pair, one nation is relatively peaceful and the other relatively violent. Drawing from ethnographic research papers, and news sources this paper …

Whose Peoples’ Games?, James Leibold

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

With the self-professed slogans of the Green Olympics, High-tech Olympics and the People’s Olympics, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) should have anticipated criticism. It left nothing to chance in hosting the world’s athletes and spectators—gleaming stadia, smiling faces and blue skies: all as ordered. But as many Western observers noted, BOCOG forgot to invite the Chinese people—with security guards, CCTV cameras and robot-like volunteers ensuring little spontaneity or popular emotion at the so-called People’s Games.

In the wake of the unprecedented media coverage of China’s global “coming out party,” few have paused to consider who and …

No. 22: South African Government And Civil Society Responses To Zimbabwean Migration, Tara Poizer

Southern African Migration Programme

This policy brief discusses a key paradox in relation to Zimbabwean migration into South Africa. While Zimbabwean migration since 2000 has been the largest concentrated flow in South African history, South Africa’s reaction to this movement has been characterised by the attempt to continue with ‘business as usual’ and ‘no crisis’ responses.1 Compared with most other developed and developing countries, where an inflow of tens or hundreds of thousands of people is usually treated as a political crisis, such a non-response to over a million immigrants requires explanation.

The lack of commensurate responses is especially noticeable within the various departments …

Washington Heights/Inwood Demographic, Economic, And Social Transformations 1990 – 2005 With A Special Focus On The Dominican Population, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning New York City based Latinos in Washington Heights and Inwood – particularly Dominicans.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Since the 1980s the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights/Inwood has been transformed by the immigration of a large Latino population of whom Dominicans have been the most prominent national group. Latinos made up …

Latino Language-Use Patterns In New York City, 2005, Carolina Barrera-Tobón

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines the linguistic patterns of New York City Latinos in comparison to other race/ethnic groups as of 2005.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Among all four racial/ethnic groups the foreign-born population reported speaking English at home at lower rates than the domestic-born population, a finding which could have been anticipated. Yet, Latinos reported speaking English at home at …

The Problem Of China: A Revisitation, Peter Zarrow

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Even though Dewey and Tagore have gotten more attention lately in scholarly works on Chinese education and ruminations of Chinese interactions with other countries, we at China Beat remain equally interested in the third famous foreign philosopher who gave a high profile set of lectures to audiences in Beijing and other cities during the aftermath of World War I: Bertrand Russell.

We thought about him when running our series on Jonathan Spence’s Reith Lectures, since Russell gave the inaugural ones sixty years before that. And we think of him when perusing the sections of Chinese bookstores devoted to philosophical matters …

Catch That Pepsi Spirit

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This interview was conducted over email between Kelly Hammond and Micki McCoy in parallel with McCoy’s article in Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art(forthcoming January/February 2009) on the depiction of ethnic minorities in propaganda posters in the People’s Republic of China made prior to the Opening and Reform. The posters can be seen as historical predecessors for contemporary official depictions of ethnic diversity such as that seen at the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Yet this imagery is distinct from current commercial visualizations of ethnicity and nationality in the PRC, as described in the interview below regarding Hammond’s participation in a …

Ashes Of Time Redux, Matthew David Johnson

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Six years before Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo long cang hu, 2000), Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai was a pioneer in the genre of stylish, star-loaded, and festival-ready wuxia filmmaking. His Ashes of Time (Dung che sai duk / Dong xie xi du, 1994) reinterpreted martial arts fiction for a generation more accustomed to motion pictures and television serials than novels, at a time when Hong Kong’s economy was riding a crest of growth triggered by the opening of adjacent Guangdong to direct investment. Ashes represented a major investment for its producers, with a reputed budget of HK$40 million. Despite …

Wmu International News November 2008, Haenicke Institute For Global Education

WMU International News

In this issue:

WMU joins Internationalization Laboratory of the American Council on Education

Japan university awards honorary doctorate to WMU emeritus physics professor

Fall activities feature flags, apples, Halloween and Chicago

Quenching the Middle East’s thirst for water is desired outcome for WMU geoscience researchers

New innovative summer program in Egypt

International lady Broncos share tips for succeeding on the field and in the classroom

Love of linguistics leads to ESL career for Ila Baker

Nobody (?) Likes A Spoiler, Miri Kim

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On July 31st, SBS, a major South Korean broadcast network, aired a short clipshowing details of the carefully guarded rehearsals for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (the video clip has now been removed from all major news and video sites). As the news (and the clip) spread on the web, Chinese and Korean news, portal sites, and users on blogs and message boards expressed, to put it mildly, consternation. On popular Chinese portals like sina.com and 163.com, polls show that a large percentage of the respondents support revoking the offending station’s broadcasting privileges, or investigating who bore …

Smoke And Mirrors: China And India

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

After reading a short excerpt from Pallavi Aiyar‘s new book, Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China, at Danwei.org, we wanted to ask her a few questions about her experience as a journalist and writer working in China (Danwei has also postedan interview with Aiyar, asking for her insights on the relationship of and comparisons between China and India; and additional reviews of the book have been posted at the WSJ China Blog and The International Herald Tribune). Here are her answers to our questions, followed by a short excerpt from the book.Smoke and Mirrors can be purchased at this …

Image Worship In Chinese Popular Religion, Margaret Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Wei Cheng: From An Elite Novel To A Popular Metaphor, Xi Shi

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat is a global operation (with posts being written thus far everywhere from Beijing to Boston, Colorado to Cambodia) but it is edited at the University of California, Irvine, and more than a few CB pieces have grown out of casual conversations held on this campus. This post, for example, began when one of us mentioned to Xia Shi, who moved here from Beijing last year to do graduate work in history, that an interesting essay on the novel Fortress Besieged had appeared in the June 12 issue of the New York Review of Books (alas, only a teaser …

The Career Of Major George Broadfoot In Afghanistan And The Punjab (1888), William Broadfoot

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

The career of Major George Broadfoot in Afghanistan and the Punjab compiled from his papers and those of Lords Ellsworth and Hardinge, by Major W. Broadfoot with portrait and maps.

L’Éthique De La Différence En Traduction : Le Cas De Deux Romans Africains Francophones Et De Leur Restitution En Anglais, Augustine H. Asaah

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Translation advances the cause of the international community as it plays a vital role in global development and understanding. The literary text needs to be translated before readers from diverse linguistic communities can apprehend and enjoy it. To a large extent, the success of the translation enterprise is a function of the accuracy of the target-text. With illustrations drawn from two francophone african masterpieces, Ahmadou Kourouma’s Les soleils des indépendances and Mariama Bâ’s Une si longue lettre, this article seeks to determine the extent to which the target-texts in English respect the spirit and the letter articulated by the source-texts. …

Gregory Veeck, Margaret Von Steinen

International Faculty Researchers

Dr. Gregory Veeck, professor of geography, has completed extensive international research specializing in economic geography, agriculture, rural development and rural environmental/ecological issues in the United States, China, Japan, and Korea. Veeck has been conducting field research for 29 years.

Gregory Veeck's website

Wmu International News June 2008, Haenicke Institute For Global Education

WMU International News

In this issue:

Jordan university turns to WMU to build its faculty

Masquerading was a ball

Digging into the archaeology of New France

Major National Security Exchange Program awards for two WMU students

Study abroad experience translates into a career

Canadian Bronco footballer and teammates preparing for 2008 season

Initiating A New Information Systems Course: A Case Study In Educational Innovation, Michael Eccles, June Pym, Kevin Johnston

The African Journal of Information Systems

If South Africa is to transform its educational landscape, access to higher education is crucial. However, if equity of access is not coupled with equity of success, participation, and relevance, access can become problematic.

The Information Systems Department at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, has been concerned for a number of years about both the relevance and coherence of its first year Information Systems course. In 2007, the Department re-conceptualized this course. This case study looks at the background to the problems and motivation for the change and the proposed changes and course redesign, as well as the …

Five Sites For Lesson Plans And Teaching Materials On China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Many of us who write for China Beat are also teachers. There are multiple web resources that we use, recommend, and, in some cases, have even contributed to. If you teach about China, or are interested in learning more about how Chinese history is being taught in the United States, take a look at these innovative websites and programs.

1. Asia for Educators: Based at Columbia University, this website provides a variety of background information for educators on Asia history topics like the Song Dynasty, China and Europe comparisons, Chinese religion, and the Mongols. The website includes images, literature selections, …

The Influence Of The Brazilian Dictatorship On Brazilian Music: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Protest Songs, Fernanda P. Rezende

Senior Honors Theses

In 1964, Brazil suffered a military coup that established a dictatorship in the country until 1985. During this period, the armed forces used unrestrained violence to suppress the opposition, and the government placed a heavy censorship on the media and the arts. Music was a targeted area due to its great influence on society, especially on the youth, and many songwriters and singers were exiled. In order to escape from the censors and still be able to convey a revolutionary message to the people, they had to use different literary devices and create new methods of writing. It was in …

Acceso Limitado A Educacion Y Los Efectos En La Experiencia Familiar Por Los Jovenes Aymaras Traslado, Adaptación Social Y La Identidad En Arica, Kate Mooney

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This work, completed during the month of May 2008, characterizes the experience of rural Aymara families and the experiences of their children, who migrate from their pueblos in the Andean high plains to the city of Arica in the first region of Chile for educational reasons. The study consists primarily of qualitative analysis of interviews with youth who currently reside in Arica while studying, their caretakers in the city, their mothers in the pueblos and directors of educational organizations in both Putre and Arica. Principally, the study seeks to understand the perceptions of the city held by rural youth, their …

Wmu International News April 2008, Haenicke Institute For Global Education

WMU International News

In this issue:

International Festival draws thousands

43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies in May

Three languages not enough for double-major freshman

Russian motherland enriches study abroad work

WMU and Haenicke Institute representatives land in Middle East and India

Succeeding globally theme of 2012 International Education Week

The Stories Of Juruti Velho, David Mittelman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper presents a collection of stories from the communities of the Juruti Velho region of the municipality of Juruti, Pará, Brazil. The inhabitants of this region represent just one group affected by the current mining undertaking by the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa). Following some important background information on ribeirinhos populations, Amazonian development, and Alcoa’s history of displacing communities, the study presents the past, present and potential future of these communities in their own words. Stories were collected in loosely structured interviews and transcribed, in order to capture what is important to the community members’ sense of identity and …

Fighting The System From Within: Cmpio And Education Reform, Anna Marshall

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The current system of public education in Oaxaca is riddled with problems too numerous to list here. There is an obvious need for reform or for a new system all together. The argument presented in this paper is that the latter is not a feasible option for most in Oaxaca, especially for rural indigenous communities. For reasons explained throughout this study, it is necessary to work within the present confines of the existing education system in order to make significant improvements in the quality of education for these communities. Many activists seek to reject “the system” all together, but this …

China Travel: Finding The "Real" China, Kate Merkel-Hess

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

I recently received two new travel books (of sorts) in my mailbox, one of which I wrote a few short bits for. Beijing Time by Michael Dutton, with Hsiu-ju Stacy Lo and Dong Dong Wu, (due out in May from Harvard University Press) andUrbanatomy: Shanghai 2008, edited by Nick Land (published by China Intercontinental Press in 2007) fall at opposite ends of a rather loosely envisioned “travel book” spectrum, but both promise an on-the-ground look at “new” China.

Beijing Time, by Goldsmiths, University of London Professor of Politics Michael Dutton and independent scholars Hsiu-ju Stacy Lo and Dong Dong Wu …