History Commons^™

Contextualizing Filipina/O Experiences Through The Life And Lens Of Virgil Duyungan, Benjamin Huff

History Undergraduate Theses

This paper serves a dual purpose: to examine the world of Filipina/o immigrants and Filipina/o Americans during the 1930s in the Puget Sound region, as well as look at the life and death of Filipina/o labor leader Virgil S. Duyungan. Incorporating these two different aspects into one paper reveals how Duyungan’s experiences contextualize and highlight key issues of the greater Filipina/o community in the region at the time, such as racial identity and tensions, labor rights, corruption and exploitation, and socio-economic conditions. By utilizing a body of primary and secondary sources, such as books, journal articles, government documents, images and …

The Batavia Massacre: The Tragic End To A Century Of Cooperation, Kimberly Wilhelmina Wells

MSU Graduate Theses

From its establishment in 1602, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was an extensive and powerful trading company that sought to gain a monopoly over the spice trade in Southeast Asia, often using coercion to do so. In 1619 the VOC established its central base of operations in Batavia on the Indonesian island of Java. From the start, the VOC pursued a relationship of cooperation with the Chinese merchants in Batavia, which eschewed the use of violence in favor of other means of control, such as taxation and requirements to register with the authorities. For one hundred and twenty-one years, …

Review Of China Tripping: Encountering The Everyday In The People’S Republic, Byron Williams

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

Confucius’ Timeless Analects, Federico Guevara

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

The Soft Power Practices Of The Ming Dynasty And Zheng He’S First Voyage, Peter Weisser

History in the Making

This article will examine the soft power aspects of Zheng He’s life as well as the soft power efforts of the People’s Republic of China in the modern day, using Zheng He as an example to show the historical parallels between the two while examining the motivations of the PRC which is a search for legitimacy. This article will look into the parallels that exist between Zheng He and the soft power practiced in the fifteenth and twenty-first centuries within China. Furthermore, the perceptions and meanings of soft power in China may be different than that of other nations or …

Imperial Fastballs: The Cultural Imperialism Of American Baseball, Cameron Van Note

History in the Making

From the eighteenth and nineteenth century Imperialism was a major instigator for conflict across the globe, being split into many different subcategories such as economic, cultural, and military imperialism. This paper looks at the aspect of American Baseball being used as a tool of cultural imperialism over Japan prior to, and well after, World War II. Baseball in Japan was different than other examples of Imperialism because of how Japan accepted and integrated baseball culture into their own, resulting in Japanese and American players bonding over the culture surrounding the game. It was not easy to form these bonds however, …

Zheng He And The American Liberal Arts Education: Contexts And Complications, Marla Lunderberg

Faculty Publications

Zheng He was a eunuch of Moslem family heritage who held great authority early in the Ming Dynasty, primarily under the Yongle emperor (reign: 1402–24), as he led seven maritime expeditions, of which three reached the eastern coast of Africa. Of recent English language projects on Zheng He, Henry Tsai (1996) explores the context of the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty in defining Zheng He’s work, and Edward Dreyer (2007) and Timothy Brook (2010) portray Zheng He within the context of the Chinese tributary system. However, other images also hold power over the Western imagination: Louise Levathes (1994) portrays Zheng …

Book Review: The Untold History Of Ramen: How Political Crisis In Japan Spawned A Global Food Craze By George Solt. Berkley: University Of California Press, 2014., Daniel Stolp

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

Manchus: A Horse Of A Different Color, Hannah Knight

History in the Making

The question of identity has been one of the biggest questions addressed to humanity. Whether in terms of a country, a group or an individual, the exact definition is almost as difficult to answer as to what constitutes a group. The Manchus, an ethnic group in China, also faced this dilemma. It was an issue that lasted throughout their entire time as rulers of the Qing Dynasty (1644- 1911) and thereafter. Though the guidelines and group characteristics changed throughout that period one aspect remained clear: they did not sinicize with the Chinese Culture. At the beginning of their rule, the …

Comparative Book Review: Chopsticks And The Land Of The Five Flavors, Jacob P, Banda

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming Tiananmen: The Politics Of Space Within Tiananmen Square, 1989, Amanda Castro

History in the Making

The word Tiananmen in any context now brings to mind the 1989 protests and their goals rather than evoking thought of a center for Chinese Communist Party Power. The 1989 Tiananmen Square activists chose to alter their surroundings in two distinct ways in order to create a space that would serve as a tangible representation of their feelings as a whole. The first way in which they chose to alter the Square came at the start of the protests when students systematically transformed the Monument to the People’s Heroes in the middle of the square to memorialize Hu Yaobang’s death. …

Daughters Of The May Fourth, Orphans Of Revolution, Hector Lopez

History in the Making

Confucianism, an ideology that dominated Chinese society for millennia, became a stain in Chinese culture. The youth in China at the turn of the twentieth century were determined to rid their society from Confucian influence. There was only one problem; they did so by taking small steps in ridding Confucianism one piece at a time. The biggest issue, filial piety, became the toughest challenge China faced during the revolutionary period. Authors like Lu Xun and Chen Duxiu used literature to protest against filial piety, influencing many others to do the same. Women like Xiao Hong and Ding Ling also exposed …

Virtuous Life, Honored Afterlife And The Evolution Of Confucianism, Jasmyn Murrell

History in the Making

Confucius states that we must not focus on the afterlife, because we know so little of it, and we must focus on everyday life. However, Confucianism holds a philosophy of afterlife, even if it is not outright said or depicted. This paper will aim to prove just that. First, through Confucian ideals of being a dutiful person, to grant yourself an honored afterlife, and second, through how Confucianism influenced other religions such as Buddhism and Daoism, which will show a clear depiction of afterlife by considering death rituals, festivals, commune with ancestors, prayers, tomb decor, and the ideology of Confucianism, …

An Ole Coyote’S Tale: Life Is A Journey, Not A Destination, Brock Barrows

History in the Making

Describes the author's travel experiences in Thailand.

Flc- Implementing High Impact Practices To Address Dfwi Rates - History 140, David Yaghoubian

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

History 140 syllabus for Fall 2019 addressing DFWI issues.

This Is A River: Malaysian Borneo Research Expedition, Gigi Buddie

EnviroLab Asia

No abstract provided.

The Shortcomings Of The Philosopher President: Sun Yat-Sen’S Provisional Presidency Of 1912, Sean Gray

Undergraduate Craft of Research Prize Papers

This paper explores the brief administration of Sun Yat-sen, the first president of China, and why he failed to maintain power. I argue that during the provisional presidency, Sun tried to lay the groundwork for a modern constitutional republic centered around the “Three People’s Principles,” but he failed due to the broader political uncertainty brought by Yuan’s presence. When Yuan took power, Sun initially supported his administration, but soon he became frustrated with Yuan’s increasingly autocratic decisions. Sun’s political involvement, then, did not cease with the end of his presidential term; instead, he was politically active and even belligerently idealistic …

Viktor Vasnetsov’S New Icons: From Abramtsevo To The Paris “Exposition Universelle” Of 1900, Wendy Salmond

Art Faculty Articles and Research

This essay examines Russian artist Viktor Vasnetsov’s search for a new kind of prayer icon in the closing decades of the nineteenth century: a hybrid of icon and painting that would reconcile Russia’s historic contradictions and launch a renaissance of national culture and faith. Beginning with his icons for the Church of the “Savior Not Made by Hands” at Abramtsevo in 1880–81, for two decades Vasnetsov was hailed as an innovator, the four icons he sent to the Paris “Exposition Universelle” of 1900 marking the culmination of his vision. After 1900, his religious painting polarized elite Russian society and was …

The Great Leap Famine And Amartya Sen, Chang-Dae Hyun

Grand Valley Journal of History

Amartya Sen, a Nobel Laureate argues, “in the terrible history of famines in the world, no substantial famine has ever occurred in any independent and democratic country with a relatively free press.”[1] According to Sen, severe famine does not happen if a country is autonomous (independent), fair and accountable (democratic), and encourages free exchange of ideas (free press). Autonomous government has the power to allocate resources according to domestic concerns, and democratic government has duty to accommodate societal concerns guided by the rule of law. Relatively free press allows citizens to express their concerns freely and notifies government with …

A Study Of The American Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program And Its Influence On Chinese Education: Taking Shandong Students As An Example, Pengxiu Sun

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The American Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program (ABISP) was one of the most important events in the modern Chinese history of overseas education. This thesis focuses on the group of Shandong students which has representative characteristics of the whole American Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program (ABISP) students to provide descriptive data for the influence on Chinese higher education through the achievements of Shandong students in the American Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program (ABISP) in higher education. Through tracking the forty-two Shandong ABISP students, the thesis shows the establishment of Tsinghua University and ABISP students’ study and life in Tsinghua and the United States. …

Q2s Faculty Learning Community, History Department (Murray, Hist 142), Jeremy Murray

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

Syllabus with writing intensive elements in a large lecture course.

Health Preferences And Culturally Appropriate Strategies To Reduce Bear Bile Demand In Northern Vietnam, Shannon Randolph, Laura Zhang, Lena Tran, Mai Nguyen, Kimberley Ha

EnviroLab Asia

Animal products, such as pangolin scales, rhinoceros horns, tiger bones, and bear bile have been used in East Asian traditional medicine (TM) for more than 2,000 years. However, markets for medicinal wildlife products have expanded dramatically in countries like China and Vietnam in recent decades where economic prosperity has enabled a larger proportion of the population to afford wildlife products (Olmedo et al. 2017). Related new farming and commercialization practices to meet growing international demand pose environmental and human health risks. Animal products also symbolize shared cultural and historical medical practices that are distinct from the dominant Western medical model.

Theatre & The Environment: Cross-Cultural Exchange Through Travel And Performance Activism, Betel Solomon Tesfamariam

EnviroLab Asia

Performance activism, collaborative and cross-cultural, were keys to the success of EnviroLab Asia's clinic trip to Thailand in May 2018. Working with peers in Thai universities, this writer reflects on the degree to which her immersion in local environmental struggles in Thailand, and the compelling theater project that grew out of it, also has helped her understand some of the same pressures that confront her home communities in Africa.

Letter To My Homeland, Vy Thuy Doan

EnviroLab Asia

"I never thought I would be returning back to Vietnam to study its environmental issues and in studying them, also unravel more of my identity," the author writes about her remarkable experience on the January 2018 EnviroLab Asia Clinic trip to Vietnam. Hers is a compelling meditation on the diasporic experience.

Privileges For Being Slaves: Christian Missionaries In The Early Qing Court, Litian Swen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation works to elucidate the long-term confusion over the identity of the Christian fathers in the early Qing court. The identity for which this dissertation argues is straightforward: Christian fathers were identified by the Kangxi emperor as his family slaves. The master-slave relationship has long been overlooked because it was overshadowed by an overwhelming focus on the Jesuit Adam Schall, who entered the Manchu court as a Chinese-style minister.

Shifting the focus from Schall, this dissertation starts by showing two seldom mentioned Jesuits, Ludovico Buglio and Gabriel de Magalhaens, who entered into Manchu service as slaves. It was, this …

The Afterlife Of Corpses: A Social History Of Unburied Dead Bodies In Qing China (1644-1911), Joohee Suh

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation began with the reading of numerous Qing-dynasty records pertaining to dead bodies that remained on the ground without proper burial. These bodies were not necessarily the victims of extraordinary events such as wars or natural disasters, but the remains of ordinary people whose families failed to arrange a burial site. A wide range of historical materials recorded the presence of these bodies, such as commentaries and critiques on popular burial customs written by the imperial government and literati elites, and Qing popular tales where these bodies were described as man-hunting zombies (jiangshi 僵屍). These sources demonstrate unburied dead …

Living In This World: A Social History Of Buddhist Monks And Nuns In Nineteenth-Century Western China, Gilbert Zhe Chen

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation relies on about 600 legal cases from the Ba County Archive that survive from the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century to investigate the social life of ordinary Buddhist monks and nuns. Although they played a crucial in maintaining the survival and proper functioning of Buddhism at the local level, they have remained significantly understudied. This dissertation adopts a bottom-up approach to investigate ordinary monastics’ involvement in various socioeconomic activities. By shifting the analytical focus from elite monks to their more mundane counterparts, this study illuminates how deeply ordinary monastics were embedded in their communities. The shift also …

Planning For A War In Paradise: The 1966 Honolulu Conference And The Shape Of The Vietnam War, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Articles and Research

This article explores the impact of one of the key non-military events in the U.S. war in Vietnam, at least in the crucial years from 1964 to 1968. During a two-day U.S.–South Vietnamese conference held in Honolulu in early 1966, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and Secretary of State Dean Rusk laid out a series of overarching strategic objectives, both military and political, that shaped the allied war effort through the 1968 Tet offensive, and even beyond. The goals outlined at the summit remained the touchstone of U.S. military strategy until they were superseded in 1969 by a policy …

Deep Imprints 20th-Century Media Stereotypes Towards East Asian Immigrants And The Development Of A Pan-Ethnic East-Asian-American Identity, Christopher Maiytt

Masters Theses

Existing scholarship on ethnic representation in the American film industry most prominently features Black and Latinx subject matters, with little attention devoted to Asian American depictions. In contrast, this study tracks the use of persistent stereotypes in the American film industry directed at East-Asian immigrants and the influence American racism in popular media has on the emergence of a Pan-ethnic East-Asian American identity. The first appearance of a cooperative Pan-ethnic minority group materializes during the Yellow Power Movement of the 1960s, which is followed by the emergence of East-Asian film direction en force. Analysis of these films and in the …

Becoming A Superpower: China’S Rise And The Belt And Road Initiative In Latin America, Garrett Bullock

History Summer Fellows

Is China a Superpower? Will it become one? After half a century of establishing a strong international military presence, thriving economic growth, domestic/international political authority, and considerable cultural “soft power”, the PRC has emerged as a hegemon capable of competing in international geopolitics. Nevertheless, these questions remain unanswered. For this reason, this research explores what it means to be a superpower, whether China is or will be a superpower, and, importantly, what impact China’s rise has on the world. To do this, this research explores existing debates surrounding China’s current global status, the historical emergence of the PRC as a …