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Before We Go: Vacation Reading Suggestions

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

China Beat will be taking a holiday break until January 3. Before we move on to 2011, though, here’s a short round-up of pieces from 2010 that you shouldn’t miss:

• We’re still doing a bit of catching up as we recover from the end of the fall academic quarter, so please forgive us for being a bit behind on covering both the recent tensions between North and South Korea and also the controversial release of documents by WikiLeaks. On North Korea, read Evan Osnos, “Lips and Teeth,”and listen to Mary Kay Magistad of PRI’s The World. For a China …

Reading Round-Up, December 17

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It seems there’s been an outpouring of writing about China lately—so much that we actually haven’t been able to keep up with it all (especially since for the China Beat editors, December brings with it the madness and mayhem that mark the end of an academic term). So, before we settle in for the holiday break, we thought we’d bring you a pair of reading round-ups that point to all the pieces we wish we’d been able to write during the past few weeks. We’ll post part I (focusing on Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace prize win) today and part II …

One Hundred Years Of Controversy, Paul R. Katz

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

“History is never for itself; it is always for someone” — Keith Jenkins, Rethinking History, p. 16

Controversies about the past are nothing new to modern Taiwan, but this one is something completely different, centering not on how to remember the Japanese colonial era, the 228 Incident, or the White Terror, but the forthcoming 100th anniversary of the Republic of China’s founding on January 1, 1912 (建國百年).

At the center of the current sturm und drang is Taiwan’s Academia Historica (國史館), the putative successor to the imperial Historiography Institute (same Chinese name) established from the Song to Qing dynasties. In …

In Case You Missed It: Chop Suey, Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In 1961, Julia Child published Mastering the Art of French Cooking, among the most celebrated cookbooks of the 20th century. Designed to demystify the intricacies of French cuisine and convince the “servantless American cook” that she could conquer any of the recipes contained therein, Child’s book helped to bring French food out of upscale city restaurants and into the kitchens of families across the country.

Sixteen years earlier, Buwei Yang Chao had taken on a similar task, though she met with much less widespread success than Child would. Chao’s How to Cook and Eat in Chinese (1945) did not only …

How One Family Created Chinese America, Angilee Shah

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Hyphenated cultures seem to be a natural part of California’s landscape today, but it wasn’t always so. The Lucky Ones by Mae Ngai offers a fresh look at California history by reconstructing the lives of immigrant and second generation pioneers who lived between cultures when it was not such a common phenomenon. Ngai’s narrative brings Chinese Americans into a richer tradition of historical storytelling by humanizing an ambivalent, middle-class immigrant family, situating their lives within the more well-known histories of Chinese laborers and those who suffered from the 1882 Exclusion Act.

Ngai is a professor and immigration historian at Columbia …

New Release: Heart Of Buddha, Heart Of China

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

James Carter, Professor of History at Saint Joseph’s University and Chief Editor of the journal Twentieth-Century China, has recently published Heart of Buddha, Heart of China: The Life of Tanxu, a Twentieth Century Monk (Oxford University Press). To explore the life and work of this extraordinary individual, Carter embarked on a series of “travels with Tanxu,” spending time in Buddhist temples from Harbin to Hong Kong (with stops in Qingdao, Ningbo, Yingkou, and Shanghai along the way). Here, in an excerpt from the prologue to his book, Carter explains the challenges he encountered in tracing the life of Tanxu, an …

Year In Review: Books, Books, Books

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As 2010 draws to a close, many media outlets have begun releasing their year-end “best of” lists. We always take a careful look at these to see which China-related titles appear, and have seen more than a few familiar names pop up. At the New York Times, the “100 Notable Books of 2010” include Peter Hessler’sCountry Driving and Yunte Huang’s biography of Charlie Chan, as well as Pearl Buck in China: Journey to The Good Earth by Hilary Spurling. Spurling’s work is also celebrated by Margaret Drabble at The Guardian, while both Pankaj Mishra and AS Byatt include Yiyun Li’s …

Sources Of Altruistic Calling In Orthodox Jewish Communities: A Grounded Theory Ethnography, Stephen J. Linenberger

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Scholarship

This study of altruistic calling the Orthodox Jewish community began with a line of inquiry, grounded in previous hypotheses and studies of factors that motivate altruism in the general population, including empathy, unintended consequences of altruism, altruistic role modeling, collectivism, and principlism. Counter to past research suggesting altruism is activated along an empathy-altruism path (Batson, et al., 2007) the findings of this study revealed a consistent low empathy response by participants when asked about their feelings about those in need. However, when asked to describe outcomes of helping situations, there was a consistent high empathetic joy response, indicating the helper …

Hu Jingcao On Liang Sicheng And Lin Huiyin

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In October, CCTV’s high-definition channel broadcast a new six-hour, eight-episode documentary on the famous husband-and-wife duo Liang Sicheng (梁思成, 1901-1972) and Lin Huiyin (林徽因, 1904-1955). Liang is renowned as a pioneering architectural historian, Lin as a writer, but their presence in China’s historical consciousness defies easy categorization. Both came from prominent families (Sicheng’s father was Liang Qichao, the scholar and reformer of the late Qing and early Republican period) and they left multifaceted legacies (their son, the noted environmentalist Liang Congjie, died in Beijing on October 28; American artist Maya Lin is Huiyin’s niece.)

Titled “Liang Sicheng Lin Huiyin,” the …

News Consumption Habits Of Students At The University Of Nebraska, Ford G. Clark

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

People in America today have many choices when it comes to the media. There are hundreds of channels available on cable or satellite television, hundreds of radio stations across the United States, as well as myriad newspapers. Many of these traditional media outlets have Internet websites available as well. Many studies have been done as well as current ratings, subscription information and website tracking to determine who is consuming news in this country. However, information about college students and news consumption is difficult to find. This study attempts to find out what, if any, news is being consumed, and through …

Examining Early And Recent Criticism Of The Waste Land: A Reassessment, Tyler E. Anderson Mr.

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

My thesis will closely examine recent trends in criticism of "The Waste Land," namely the ideological rebuttal against the New Critics proposed by recent historicists such as Lawrence Rainey. I will show that Rainey has unfairly characterized the so-called New Critics as supporting a reading of the poem that only sees it for a work of order and unity while in fact they acknowledged many organizational inconsistencies within the text. A central tenet of my thesis will be that ideological characterizations of earlier critics should never substitute actual close readings of the texts themselves. My findings will lead to broader …

Re-Reading Chalmers Johnson, Daniel Little

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Chalmers Johnson, co-founder and president of the Japan Policy Research Institute at the University of San Francisco and long-time professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Diego, died on November 20, 2010. (Here are several notices — The Atlantic, theNew York Times, and The Nation.) In the past ten years or so Johnson has become widely known for his critical books about American empire (Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (2004), The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (2005), Nemesis: The Last Days of the …

Three Works For Flute By Ian Clarke: An Analysis And Performance Guide, Shelly L. Monier

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

British flutist Ian Clarke is currently recognized as one of the leading flutist/composers of today. His compositions have been performed at national conventions and used in competitions hosted by the British Flute Society and the National Flute Association and have been included in the Peters Edition reference of the Edexcel GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) Anthology of Music as a music example of extended instrumental techniques. Many of his works, while heavily influenced by popular music, explore unconventional sounds, using inventive avant-garde flute techniques and notations that are unfamiliar to many flutists. Since there has been little scholarly research …

Innovation And Tradition In Lisan Wang’S Piano Suite Other Hill, Rongjie Xu

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

Lisan Wang is one of the most celebrated musical figures in China. His five-movement piano suite Other Hill (1980) is the composer’s response to the “New Wave”, a compositional trend generated in China after the 1977 Cultural Revolution. Gaining fame as a piano composition for showing the application of multiculturalism and syncretism to music, Other Hill is regarded as a prime example of cross-cultural piano composition in China. Wang challenges Chinese traditional piano composition with different artistic media—philosophy, calligraphy, poems, and various folk elements in Other Hill. This document proposes an interdisciplinary study of Lisan Wang’s musical fusion of …

Aquí Se Vende Todo: La Ciudad Y La Desmemoria En La Capital Del Olvido De Horacio Vázquez-Ria, Amalia Ran

Spanish Language and Literature

Aunque « memoria » sea la palabra más usada en el contexto histórico reciente de Argentina, es el olvido aquello de lo que más se habla, y lo que domina al final el discurso público de las últimas décadas. ¿ Cuáles son las distintas formas de « recordar » el pasado doloroso en un entorno que intenta silenciarlo al transformar la memoria en un objeto-fetiche ? ¿ De qué modo conserva el espacio urbano —la ciudad y sus múltiples lugares abiertos y cerrados— una memoria de la desgracia y del horror ?, y ¿ cómo se refleja ese espacio urbano …

Liang Congjie, Public Intellectuals, And Civil Society In China, Guobin Yang

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Liang Congjie, professor of history and founder of China’s first environmental NGO, Friends of Nature, died on October 28, 2010 at the age of 78. His death was widely noted in the Chinese and international media: obituaries appeared in theNew York Times, The Atlantic, and other major English newspapers and magazines. The major web portal Sina.com dedicated a special section on its web site to Professor Liang. Friends of Nature, the organization which Professor Liang co-founded and led for many years, has posted a collection of commemorative essays from his former colleagues, friends, and followers and admirers. Much has been …

A Metrical Analysis And Rebarring Of Paul Creston's Sonata For Alto Saxophone And Piano, Op. 19, Christopher Kyle Sweitzer

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

The Sonata For Alto Saxophone and Piano Op. 19 is one of the most popular pieces in the saxophone literature, commonly played by professional saxophonists during their training. It features exciting rhythmic devices like irregular and mixed meter, the notation of which is the main focus of this paper. Although Creston often used irregular and mixed meter in his compositions, he rarely specifically notated them, choosing instead to use accents, beams, slurs, and other phenomenal cues at the musical surface to create the effect of these metric plans. Time signatures often remained constant throughout entire movements. Creston believed this would …

A Stylistic Analysis Of Three Flute Pieces By David Froom: Circling For Flute And Clarinet, To Dance To The Whistling Wind For Solo Flute, And Lightscapes For Flute And Piano, Candice Behrmann

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Creative Work, and Performance

American composer David Froom has worked with groups such as the New York New Music Ensemble and the 21st Century Consort. His music has been performed extensively, and he continues to receive commissions from individuals throughout the United States. He is best known for his piano sonata (1980) and his chamber concerto (1991); his flute music is relatively unknown.

This study focuses on three of Froom‘s flute works: Circling (2002), To Dance to the Whistling Wind (1993), and Lightscapes (2006). It provides an analysis of each work and examines Froom‘s use of motivic and intervallic relationships in each movement. Scores …

How The World Turns Quietly, Dana N. Boyer

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis is composed of original poems written while studying both writing and literature at the University of Nebraska. The introduction partially discusses the role that women have played in writing in the past century. It discusses the poetry of Elizabeth Spires, and the prose of Virginia Woolf and Tillie Olsen. More specifically, it focuses on the work that these authors have done on the subject of silence, focusing on whom and what have conspired to work against authors, specifically female ones. These obstacles include economic standing, gender, and emotional issues. The introduction then branches out to discuss the specific …

Coaching Leaders: Co-Creating Purpose Based Innovation, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

The purpose of the presentation was to demonstrate the importance and effectiveness of coaching leaders in today's global economy. Leadership coaching has the potential to co-create innovation in organizations of all sizes. Three case studies were shared. In each example, Dr. Connie presented the effectiveness of her coaching program. Each case study demonstrated the power of leadership and innovation on the economy, society and individual.

Revealing Robert Owens: A Study Of Compositional Style And Performance Practice In The Song Cycle Heart On The Wall, Jamie M. Reimer

Glenn Korff School of Music: Faculty Publications

The songs of ROBERT OWENS (b. 1925) constitute a relatively unknown body of twentieth century American music. Born in Denison, Texas, and raised in Berkeley, California, Owens has written the majority of his vocal music since moving to Munich, Germany in 1958. His work appears in anthologies of songs of African American composers, but has not yet been widely recorded or performed. The material presented in this article results from interviews conducted by the author during a residency and subsequent performances with Mr. Owens in 2007.

Owens's songs reflect two major artistic influences in his life: live theater (he is …

The Lost Art Of Interdependency: United Nations Leadership In The Suez Crisis Of 1956 And Its Ramifications In World Affairs, Matthew Walker

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The following study examines the relationship between competing national interests and the implementation of multilateral diplomacy as characterized by the United Nations. Although primary attention focuses on the events Suez Crisis of 1956, the scope of work analyzes this dichotomy from the Suez Canal’s construction to the post-Suez era of the 1960s. Adopting a more comprehensive approach to understanding the crisis and its impact on international diplomacy provides adds a new and timely perspective to scope of the crisis and the complexities of conflict resolution.

In many respects, the diplomatic maneuvering of the nineteenth century remained a constant in diplomatic …

Keep Going, Jeff Lacey

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Keep Going is a collection of poetry whose themes include life in modern America, man’s relationship with the natural world, and living in the Midwest. The collection includes both free verse and metric poetry and both narrative and lyric poetry.

Textile Society Of America Newsletter 22:3 — Fall 2010, Textile Society Of America

Textile Society of America Newsletters

Reflections of a Symposium Co-Chair [Textiles and Settlement: From Plains Space to Cyber Space, 12th Biennial Symposium, Lincoln, Nebraska, October 6–9, 2010]
From the President
TSA News
TSA Member News
In Memoriam: Elayne Zorn, 1952–2010
Symposium Exhibition: Binary Fiction: Digital Weaving 2010
Conference Reviews
Exhibition Reviews
Book Reviews
Featured Collection [Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Durham, England]
Collection News
Textile Community News
Publication News
Calendar-Conferences & Symposia, Exhibitions, Lectures
Call for Papers

The William Suhr Papers At The Getty Research Institute, Alison G. Stewart

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Faculty Publications and Creative Activity

This article will describe the collection known as the William Suhr Papers in the Getty Research Institute and its contents, explain who Suhr was and when and where he was active, what his papers have to offer, and why consulting them should be considered by both researchers interested in twentieth-century paintings and painting restoration and by art historians and historians engaged with Germany and the vicissitudes of immigration between the two World Wars. I will also address my involvement with the Suhr Papers within the context of Pieter Bruegel’s Wedding Dance painting in the Detroit Institute of Arts and how …

Review Of He Was Some Kind Of A Man: Masculinities In The B Western By Roderick Mcgillis, John M. Clum

Great Plains Quarterly

It takes something of a masochist to watch close to two hundred B westerns, but Roderick McGillis claims to have done that in researching this book. For those of you who are not film history buffs, a B movie was a cheap, relatively short (sixty to seventy-five minutes), formulaic genre film made to be the second half of a double feature. A lot of B movies were westerns because they were cheap and popular, particularly with boys and young men. They had their own stars, many of whom moved on to television, which killed the B movie: Roy Rogers, Gene …

Wish List Wilderness Endgame In The Black Hills National Forest, Robert Wellman Campbell

Great Plains Quarterly

In January 1979 Dave Foreman loosened his tie, propped his cowboy boots up on his desk, and brooded awhile on RARE II. In a second try at Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE), the u.s. Forest Service had just spent two years deciding once and for all how much of its undeveloped land should be designated Wilderness. To Foreman, a Washington executive of the Wilderness Society, RARE II tasted of bitter defeat, and he lonesomely "popped the top on another Stroh's" as he brooded. The Forest Service had just recommended increasing its Wilderness acres from 18 million to 33 million, …

"If The Lord's Willing And The Creek Don't Rise" Flood Control And The Displaced Rural Communities Of Irving And Broughton, Kansas, Robin A. Hanson

Great Plains Quarterly

In this case study, I examine how the residents of two displaced rural Kansas towns, and their descendants, exhibit a sense of identity common to small farm communities throughout the Great Plains, and how tenacious these ties are even after the physical reminder of their communal bonds no longer exists. By examining the struggles to survive faced by these two towns, Irving and Broughton, the resiliency of the people who called them home, and the continuing expression of community solidarity by the individuals associated with them, I propose that the individuals living within these communities created a transcendental identity similar …

Review Of Delaware Tribe In A Cherokee Nation By Brice Obermeyer, Dawn G. Marsh

Great Plains Quarterly

The federal acknowledgment process is a highly contested procedure under the best of circumstances. For the Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma the negotiations to establish their national identity while living within the physical boundaries of the Cherokee Nation continue to divide its members and challenge modern interpretations of enrollment. Brice Obermeyer, a cultural anthropologist at Emporia State University and NAGPRA representative for the Delaware Tribe, provides a comprehensive discussion of this historic relationship.

Obermeyer summarizes the histories that brought the Cherokees and Delawares to eastern Oklahoma and the legal efforts to establish an independent Delaware identity since the 1867 Cherokee-Delaware Agreement. …

Review Of The Girl In Saskatoon: A Meditation On Friendship, Memory And Murder By Sharon Butala, Susan Maher

Great Plains Quarterly

On a warm May evening in 1962, young Saskatoon resident Alexandra Wiwcharuk left her flat to mail some letters and enjoy a little time on the banks of the South Saskatchewan River before reporting in for her night shift as a nurse at City Hospital. Sitting near a weir, she was within sight of a parking area and city streets. Many others were out that evening, sharing Alex's delight in heat and late sun on a holiday weekend, walking the paths, laughing over jokes and shared gossip, watching children play, and soaking in the city scene. But none of them …