起死回生(Resuscitation): Japan's Search For Machines And Their Meanings, Justin P. Mcdonnell

Master's Projects and Capstones

Japan’s lost decade(s) ushered in a new era of economic and societal malaise, marked by a shrinking population, an increased proportion of elderly people, inequality, neo-nationalism(s), uncertainty, and isolation. This project seeks to understand how Japan is trying to address these issues and reconstruct itself from the lost decade(s) with the use of artificial intelligence (jinkou chihou) and robotics along with the societal implications of this technology. This interdisciplinary research utilizes innovative, historical narratives (Morris-Suzuki,1988, Hornyak 2006), and the socio-cultural milieu of Japan and its traditions (Allison 2013; Katsuno 2010) to further appreciate and acknowledge Japanese perspectives and …

Making Japan Great Again: Japan's Liberal Democratic Party As A Far Right Movement, Wesley Yee

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In recent years, far right-wing political parties have gained power around the world. Far-right movements build a populist, anti-establishment support base through the use of ethno-nationalism and xenophobic policies and slogans. This article applies the models and party frames used to study European far-right movements and applies them to the case of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP), a party whose policies under prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe have pushed the party from having a center-right stance to having more of a far-right nationalist and populist one. Using this framework I find that the LDP has utilized …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 15 No. 2, Spring/Summer 2018, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Introduction by Melissa S. Dale

The editor reflects on this issue's new articles, which focus on climate change as it is being experienced across Asia, and the different local responses it has provoked. From China to India to Southeast Asia, the relationship of nature to each local worldview shapes how communities view climate change, its effects, and their responses to it.

Fengshui Forests as A Socio-natural Reservoir in the Face of Climate Change and Environmental Transformation by Christopher R. Coggins and Jesse Minor

Chinese lineage villages are social-ecological systems (SESs) designed according to principles of fengshui (“wind-water”). Fengshui …

Curating Contemporary Japanese Art: Exhibition Catalogue Production For Hidden Landscapes: Yasuaki Onishi And Invisible Space, Emily Lawhead

Master's Projects and Capstones

In the last decade, there has been a telling increase of attention given to contemporary Asian artists exhibited in the United States and Europe. Since 2008, artists from China, Japan, South Korea, and Central Asia have been featured in exhibitions from the Venice Biennale to the Whitney Biennale, and are becoming ever more present on the Western art stage. Meanwhile, curatorial practice, once focused on the care of objects, is shifting to encompass a wider range of creative activity. Curators are taking time to engage with living artists in a collaborative setting, rather than as impartial facilitators. This capstone seeks …

The Chinese Cultural Influence On Filipino Cuisine, Brandon Chase Lantrip

Master's Theses

This paper illustrates the impact of the Chinese cultural influence upon the Philippines with the primary focus being on Filipino cuisine. It examines how the Chinese cultural influence not only contributed to the development of Filipino cuisine, but how Chinese culture has also influenced the everyday life and culture of the Philippines through language and customary practices for over a millennium. The first section of the paper analyzes the cultural connection between China and the Philippines. The second section illustrates the Chinese language influence and it’s effect upon Filipino cuisine and culture. The third section explores the contested origins of …

Japan's Employment 'Catch-22': The Impact Of Working Conditions For Women In Japan On Japan's Demographic Population Crisis, Mary Perkins

Master's Theses

This thesis examines Japan’s aging population crisis and gender inequalities in the workplace. This topic presents an interesting and challenging phenomenon for Japan, as Japan’s economy and technology have developed more rapidly than almost any other country, establishing Japan as one of the Group of Seven industrialized nations. Yet Japan still significantly lags behind other industrialized nations when it comes to women’s rights and opportunities for advancement in the workplace. This is in turn hampering efforts for Japan to address a population crisis, with an older population growth rate far outpacing the growth of demographic groups that would support the …

Xinghun: A "Cooperative Marriage" Ties Chinese Lesbians And Gays, Rongdian Zhu

Master's Projects and Capstones

In modern China, although the normality of homosexuality has been officially admitted, misconception and discrimination against homosexuals are still prevalent in the mainstream of Chinese society. Chinese LGBT people endure two main sources of pressure: one is from the external and another is from the internal. From the outside, Chinese LGBT people bear the suppression made by the normality of sexual orientation and the hegemonic culture of heterosexuality, in particular heterosexual marriage. And such discrimination is still occurring now in our society. LGBT people themselves are heavily tortured by the pain and pressure of self-denial. A lot of them cannot …

Celebrating The Feminine: Daoist Connections To Contemporary Feminism In China, Dessie Miller

Master's Projects and Capstones

Contemporary feminism and its emergence in the early 20th century may seem like a recent phenomenon; however, the idea of feminism has been evolving over the centuries and what may be called a “proto-feminism” could be found in one of China’s classical literary masterpieces, known as the Daodejing. Classical Chinese philosophy has influenced and helped shape what feminism is today in China. For this project, I analyzed the use of language in the Daodejing to demonstrate the feminine imagery throughout the text. Secondly, the characters having significance for feminist interpretations for the Dao and Yin-Yang were deconstructed and analyzed in …

Korean-Ness: Creating And Embracing New Identities Through Language And Culture, Damon Dohe, Daniel Shin

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

Technological advances in communications and transportation have unlocked new pathways for mobilizing transnational flows of people, information, and culture. The cyber-networked landscape in which we now live has enabled a pluralistic existence, no longer restricted to singular definitions of citizenship, identity, and cultural membership. In the era of the internet and globalization, the world is often said to be “shrinking.” However, instead of a smaller or simpler world, our project illustrates far more layered and complex relationships and positionalities. This multi-sited research project focuses on the ways in which Korean immigrants and Korean Americans use language to establish cultural networks, …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 15 No. 1, Fall 2017, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Introduction by Melissa Dale

The editor reflects on this issue's new articles, which focus on historical and contemporary expressions of masculinity in China, Japan, Korea, and India.

Asian Masculinity Studies in the West: From Minority Status to Soft Power by Kam Louie

Material focusing on Asian men and sexualities which had in the past resisted analysis, has sparked original and innovative modes of analysis that have become commonplace. In this exciting period, Asian masculinity studies have attracted some adventurous minds and new territories are being explored every day. While carving out an interdisciplinary field for itself, Asian masculinity …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 14 No. 2, Spring 2017, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Introduction by Melissa Dale

This issue presents the latest research on the history and life experiences of mixed race individuals in China, Japan, and Korea.

Eurasians and Racial Capital in a "Race War" by W. Puck Brecher

The ubiquity of racist propaganda in Japan and the U.S. during the Pacific War and the extraordinary cruelty of the fighting have fostered the perception that Japanese and Americans harbored a deep racial hatred for each other. Indeed, historical research convincingly interprets the Pacific War as a “race war” within the contexts of military engagement and state rhetoric. We know little, …

De-Westernizing The Far East, Jericho K. Kakaio-Edwards

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Isolated by the Tibetan highlands which frame Yunnan’s northwest fringes, the ethnic minorities who call the region home live in rural settings ranging from rice-terraced fields to tropical forests; lifestyle unchanged for hundreds of years. However, with globalization causing an exposure to western standards of living, in conjunction with the country’s predisposition towards all things foreign, the people of Yunnan have begun forgoing generations of vernacular architecture in favor of modern materials and regionally defunct construction methods. Here, we will seek to address this foible of architectural development by offering theoretical construction methods for housing types found throughout the region, …

The Taiwanese-American Perspective On Discrimination In English Language Teaching, Kuan Cheng Song

Master's Theses

This is a qualitative study examining the perspectives of five Taiwanese-American English teachers on their experiences of discrimination in the English language-teaching field of Taiwan. An extensive amount of literature has been written about the nativeness paradigm and its effect on the English language-teaching field, but the Taiwanese-American experience concerning those issues has yet to be explored. The study used Asian Critical Race Theory, Social Identity Theory and Asian American Racial Identity Theory to analyze the history of English language teaching in Taiwan, the critical studies on native and non-native English language teachers and the social issues affecting Asian Americans …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 13 No. 2, Fall/Winter 2015-2016, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Introduction by Melissa Dale

Small Things of Great Importance: Toy Advertising in China, 1910s-1930s by Valentina Boretti

From the turn of the twentieth century, playthings acquired a key role within the Chinese childrearing discourse as tools to train children, the prospective rescuers of China from its perceived decline. As a possibly unintended result, both children and toys acquired a marketing value: advertising employed them as icons to publicize a wide array of products. At the same time, the nascent toy industry “poached” the new discourse to brand its playthings as symbols of (made-in-China) educated progress, seeking to convince …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 14 No. 1, Fall 2016, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Introduction by Melissa Dale

This special issue presents five papers focused on themes related to the social history of medicine and contemporary cultural understandings of disease and patients' lived experiences in the Asia Pacific.

Rethinking Breast Mountain (Yuam): Surgical Treatments of Breast Cancer in South Korea, 1959-1993 by Soyoung Suh

This article analyzes premodern Korean medical treatises, professional surgical journals, and patient memoirs to expand our understanding of surgical treatment of breast cancer between 1959 and 1993 in South Korea. This essay discusses changing historical connotations of breast ailments, treatments, and surgical interventions. Although the depiction of breast …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 13 No. 1, Spring/Summer 2015, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Guest Editor's Introduction by Dayna Barnes

Protestant Funeral Processions in Southeast China: From Gangnam Style to Overt Evangelization by Chris White

Christian funeral services and processions, replete with Christian-inspired banners and signs, church bands, and conspicuous crosses, are ways in which Protestant communities in South Fujian actively promote their faith. They are also formative because the expressions of social cohesion are meant top elevate the status of the church community or family in the eyes of society at large. This article will demonstrate that the renao (socially vibrant) atmosphere of Protestant funerals reflects how such activities are important avenues …

Participatory Democracy In The Chinese Cyber World: Case Studies From Weibo, Duyi Li

Master's Theses

This thesis discusses features of citizen communication on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, and its relationship to participatory democracy in China. Weibo is a complex social space due to the interplay of different forces and social actors. On the one hand, Weibo provides the space for bottom-up political participation: it expands the horizontal discursive space where plural discourses coexist and interact; provides a social sphere where counter-discourses are created; a space where the culture of resistance is formed; and serves as an alternative source for information. On the other hand, the vertical political control of the state, and the …

Hoisan-Wa In Jest: Humor, Laughter, And The Construction Of Counter-Hegemonic Affect In Contemporary Chinese American Language Maintenance, Genevieve Leung

Rhetoric and Language Faculty Publications and Research

This research examines the language and cultural maintenance of Chinese Americans of a specific heritage: Hoisan-wa people. Hoisan-wa is one of the languages linking nearly all early Chinese immigrants in the U.S., but this language background has been pushed aside by the presence of other Chinese languages in America, such as Standard Cantonese and Mandarin. It has also been perpetually omitted from research for the last 150 years.

Drawing from 93 sociolinguistic interviews with Hoisan-wa heritage people, I explore instances of humor and laughter as these participants talk about their cultural and linguistic heritage. Home and family remain two of …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 12 No. 1 Fall/Winter 2013-2014, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Introduction by Melissa Dale

Empress Meisho (1623-96) and Cultural Pursuits at the Japanese Imperial Court by Elizabeth Lillehoj

In 1629, a seven-year-old girl was selected as Japan’s Empress Regnant. Known as Empress Meishō, she was the daughter of the current emperor and, on her mother’s side, she was the great-granddaughter of the founder of the Tokugawa warrior government. Although scant scholarly attention has been paid to Meishō, surviving documents and artifacts reveal that she participated in a rich material culture at the Japanese imperial court. Extant sources tell of her engagement with art works, entertainments and diversions, particularly …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 12 No. 2, Spring/Summer 2014, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

What's in a Game? Transmedia Storytelling and the Web-Game Genre of Online Chinese Popular Fiction by Heather Inwood

This paper uses a genre of online Chinese popular fiction known as Web-Game fiction as an entry point for exploring the influence of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) on linear narrative fiction. By offering a thick description of MMORPG gameplay and of gamers’ movements between online and offline worlds, Web-Game fiction narrates and “deinteractivates” the subjective experiences of players as they progress through the levels of online role-playing games. This essay proposes that the genre offers an alternative perspective …

The Media Is A Funhouse Mirror: Comparing Economic Interaction Issues In The U.S. And Chinese Media, Yiye Zhang

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

This project studied the differences between mainstream news reporting in the U.S. and China. I employed content analysis to analyze the major features of 427 news reports about the economic interaction between the two countries. The research focused on the key media frames in the two sets of news media, the factors that shaped these media frames, and the real meanings behind those reports. The study found both similarities and differences. The two sets of media showed significant differences in their reporting of news and events about economic issues in terms of the selection of topics, and the discourse …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 10 No. 1, May 2011, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Introduction by John K. Nelson

The Contemporary Global Political and Economic Context for Interreligious Dialogue Including China and India by Eric Hanson

The recent political and economic advances of China and India, and their changing relationships to each other and to the rest of the world, constitute the most crucial long term national adjustments necessary in the current international system. The differences among religions of the book, religions of meditative experience, and religions of public life make it extremely difficult to use any understanding of religion in itself as the focal piece for such dialogue. Religion and Politics …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 10 No. 2, November 2011, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Note by Joaquin Jay Gonazalez and John Nelson

Beyond the Hot Debate: Social and Policy Implications of Climate Change in Australia by Lawrence Niewójt and Adam Hughes Henry

This paper discusses the social and policy implications of climate change on the world’s most arid populated continent. Warmer average temperatures will have real, identifiable impacts on human health, marginalized sectors of the population, and the sustainability of rural and coastal communities in Australia. By analysing indicators of environmental health and social welfare we can identify emerging threats posed by a warmer climate. Policy-makers will need to devise a suite …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 9 No. 2, June 2010, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

The Sea Otter Islands: Geopolitics and Environment in the East Asian Fur Trade by Richard Ravalli

The origins of the sea otter trade can be traced to inter-Asian fur markets that developed centuries prior to the well-chronicled journeys of Vitus Bering and James Cook in the North Pacific. Japanese merchants and Ainu hunters traded for otter pelts as part of a larger system of exchanges in the Western Pacific. Russian entry to the trade by the early eighteenth century intensified territorial disputes in the Kuril Islands. A series of Russo-Japanese showdowns in the region helped forge an international borderland …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 9 No. 1, December 2009, University Of San Francisco, John Nelson

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Introduction by John Nelson

Grounding Terrorism on Ground Zero: How 9/11 Informs U.S. Press Coverage of Political Violence by Kevin Mack

This study analyzes the breaking news coverage of the United States press during the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. Previously, scholars such as Robert Entman and Elisabeth Anker found that U.S. media melodramatically framed the September 11, 2001 attacks and constructed a “War on Terror” ideology. Working from that theoretical perspective, the author posits this ideology influenced U.S. reporters and their style of reportage about the Mumbai attacks, as did breaking news characteristics and general patterns within journalism, …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 8 No. 1, June 2008, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Jack London Reporting from Tokyo and Manchuria: The Forgotten Role of an Influential Observer of Early Modern Asia by Daniel A. Métraux

ack London is regarded as one of America’s most popular writers for his novels and short stories. Less known today is the fact that he was also a first-rate observer of East Asian politics, societies, and peoples. Working as a journalist for several newspapers and magazines, he filed numerous articles and essays covering the Russo-Japanese war and even foresaw the rise of Japan and China as world powers. This paper provides an overview of his journalistic and …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 7 No. 1, July 2007, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Editor's Introduction by Joaquin L. Gonzalez III

Cross-Regional Trade Cooperation: The Mexico-Japan Free Trade Agreement by Sarita D. Jackson

Latin American and Asia-Pacific countries are fervently forging economic cooperative relationships, which began with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in 1989. The two regions have shifted away from looking intra-regionally for economic stability against the forces of globalization. Rather, they have moved towards emphasizing cross-regional trade pacts. Cross-regional trade pacts present a number of advantages for member countries. The Mexico-Japan FTA, as a case study, shows us that trade and FDI between member countries increase with cross-regional free trade agreements (FTA). …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 6 No. 1, May 2006, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Philippine Studies and the Centennial of the Diaspora: An Introduction by Joaquin L. Gonzalez III, and Evelyn I. Rodriguez

Primerang Bituin: Philippines-Mexico Relations at the Dawn of the Pacific Rim Century by Evelyn I. Rodriguez

Since the end of WWII, the region of countries bordering, and various island nations within, the Pacific Ocean, has drawn much attention, and been subject to a variety of institutional arrangements intended to promote certain political, economic, and environmental interests. Because of this, the mid-twentieth century is widely held as the starting point for Pacific Rim relations, and studies of Pan-Pacific interactions almost strictly …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 6 No. 2, September 2006, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Protectionist Capitalists vs. Capitalist Communists: CNOOC's Failed Unocal Bid in Perspective by Francis Schortgen

China, Inc. is on the move. Whether or not this presents a welcome development for particular political and/or business interests – not just in the United States but worldwide – it is a reality that cannot be ignored, wished away, or warded off with protectionist measures in the medium- to long-term. The real question is: What is an appropriate China strategy in the age of Chinese multinational corporations? How and to what extent does the U.S. government’s current China strategy have to be revised so …

Asia Pacific Perspectives Vol. 5 No. 2, August 2005, University Of San Francisco, University Of San Francisco

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Contents:

Is There Room for More Social Responsibility in Asia's Business and Economic Turn Around? by Joaquin L. Gonzalez III

This article provides an overview of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its impact on social development with a special emphasis on Asia. One underlying argument that it makes is that, although many of the CSR interventions being applied globally are relatively ”new” to Asia, CSR, when operationally defined as “corporation-community collaboration (CCC) towards social development,” becomes a vintage concept familiar to generations of Asian entrepreneurs and the communities they serve. However, in spite of its long history, Asian corporation-community collaboration …