Asian History Commons^™

Eating Soup With A Spoon: The U.S. Army As A "Learning Organization" In The Vietnam War, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Articles and Research

Standard Vietnam War narratives often argue that the U.S. Army lost the war because it failed to learn and adapt to the conditions of an unconventional conflict. Based on a reappraisal of learning processes rather than on the outcome of the war, this essay argues that as an organization, the U.S. Army did learn and adapt in Vietnam; however, that learning was not sufficient, in itself, to preserve a South Vietnam in the throes of a powerful nationalist upheaval. A reexamination of the Army's strategic approach, operational experiences, and organizational changes reveals that significant learning did occur during the Vietnam …

Imperial Designs. Italians In China, 1900-1947. By Shirley Ann Smith, Simone Brioni Dr.

Department of English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Caracalla's Armenia, Lee E. Patterson

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

We are hard pressed to understand the events of Caracalla's Parthian war, including the role Armenia played in the conflict, because of gross inadequacies in our sources. A careful analysis suggests that Caracalla intended to annex Armenia but never saw the project through. His intentions can be gauged by his treatment of Edessa, for whose annexation the evidence is more solid. Caracalla was trying to secure his rear, from Osrhoene to Armenia, in preparation for a full-scale Parthian war. Because the goal of stabilizing Armenia proved elusive, given local hostilities, Caracalla had to scale back his plans.

Caracalla's Armenia, Lee Patterson

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

We are hard pressed to understand the events of Caracalla's Parthian war, including the role Armenia played in the conflict, because of gross inadequacies in our sources. A careful analysis suggests that Caracalla intended to annex Armenia but never saw the project through. His intentions can be gauged by his treatment of Edessa, for whose annexation the evidence is more solid. Caracalla was trying to secure his rear, from Osrhoene to Armenia, in preparation for a full-scale Parthian war. Because the goal of stabilizing Armenia proved elusive, given local hostilities, Caracalla had to scale back his plans.

A Response To Professor Wu Zongjie’S ‘Interpretation, Autonomy, And Transformation: Chinese Pedagogic Discourse In A Cross-Cultural Perspective', Thomas D. Curran

History Faculty Publications

In response to an essay by Prof Wu Zongjie that was published in the Journal of Curriculum studies [43(5), (2011), 569–590], I argue that, despite dramatic changes that have taken place in the language of Chinese academic discourse and pedagogy, evidence derived from the fields of psychology and the history of Chinese educational reform suggest that patterns of Chinese thought and culture have proven resistant to change. Not only have deeply rooted tendencies to perceive the world in ways that may be distinguished from Western analogues persisted but, not unlike contemporary school reformers, educators in the early twentieth century typically …

A Study Of Modern Mass Education Bureaus (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Zhou, Huimei. 近代民众教育馆 = A Study of Modern Mass Education Bureaus. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press, 2012. ISBN 9787303137077 (pbk.)

Prof. Zhou’s book is a general history of the Mass Education Movement that the Guomindang government conducted in the 1920s and 1930s. Topics covered include the movement’s ideological objectives, its organizational characteristics, it activities, and its reception by and impact on local communities. The work is carefully balanced between exposition and analysis, and it is supported generously by evidence drawn from a wide range of primary sources. Those sources include government publications, local gazetteers, …

Village Elections And Their Impact: An Investigative Report Of A Northern Chinese Village, Yusheng Yao

Faculty Publications

This article examines a series of four direct elections and their impact in a poorly governed Chinese village near Beijing. Based on the problems exposed in the elections and governance, it identifies the main contradiction in the village to be that of economic justice between villagers on one side, and the old and elected officials, and village toughs and predatory entrepreneurs, on the other. It illustrates the dynamics of politics in the village, in particular factionalism, since the beginning of direct elections and the rise of village toughs and predatory entrepreneurs in recent years and the damaging effect of the …

Women And Political Life In Meiji Japan: The Case Of The Okayama Joshi Konshinkai (Okayama Women’S Friendship Society), Marnie S. Anderson

History: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Resource-Sharing And Genealogical Research On Islamic Chinese Names In Guilin, Sheau-Yueh J. Chao

Publications and Research

Jiapu家譜, the Chinese Family Register, has been used for thousands of years to trace the genealogical history of a clan and lineage, including a family’s origin, its collateral lines, the migration history of the clan, names and ages of the members, records of marriages, births and deaths, merits and deeds, ancestral biography and ancestral locality. This paper examines the historical evolution and value of Chinese genealogical records with the focus on researching the Islamic Chinese names found in Jiapu and used by the people living in Guilin, Guangxi Province. It provides the historical background of genealogical records and analyzes the …

Social Piracy In Colonial And Contemporary Southeast Asia, Miles T. Bird

CMC Senior Theses

According to the firsthand account of James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, it appears that piracy in the state of British Malaya in the mid-1800s was community-driven and egalitarian, led by the interests of heroic figures like the Malayan pirate Si Rahman. These heroic figures share traits with Eric Hobsbawm’s social bandit, and in this case may be ascribed as social pirates. In contrast, late 20^th-century and early 21^st-century pirates in the region operate in loosely structured, hierarchical groups beholden to transnational criminal syndicates. Evidence suggests that contemporary pirates do not form the egalitarian communities of their …