Asian History Commons^™

Men And Masculinities In Contemporary China (Book Review), Wenqing Kang

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Formation Of A Sacred Political Site : The Birthplace Of Mao Zedong At Shaoshan, Zhe Dong 1988-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Between 1949 and 1966, Mao Zedong’s cult of personality swelled into a kind of secular religion in China, and his birthplace, the remote village of Shaoshan, became a sacred site and s signal representative of national commemorative culture. This study rediscovers Shaoshan’s memorial projects undertaken during this period and explores how they embody the complex interplay between art/architecture and politics and the artistic tensions between rural and urban settings in post-Revolutionary China. The text focuses on four endeavors: the historic preservation of Mao’s Old House; the urban renovation plans advanced during the Great Leap Forward; the Exhibition Pavilion constructed by …

The Sacrality Of The Mountain, Manuel Rivera Espinoza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I explore the conception of the mountain as a "sacred space" based on the definition provided by Mircea Eliade in The Sacred and The Profane and other works. I recognize three major elements in Eliadean sacral spatiality: a) order and orientation b) liminality and c) reality. Using various sources but mainly the oracle bones inscriptions, the Yugong ("Tributes of Yu") of the Shujing ("Book of Documents") and the Shanjing ("Classic of Mountains") of the Shanhaijing ("Classic of Mountains and Seas"), I demonstrate how the three basic components of sacrality are to be found in each of the …

From Topos To Utopia: Critical Buddhism, Globalization, And Ideology Criticism, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Oxford Handbook Of Ancient Iran, Edited By D. T. Potts, Lee E. Patterson

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Oxford Handbook Of Ancient Iran, Edited By D. T. Potts, Lee Patterson

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Hagiography & Historicity: Li Wenyu's Quanhuo Ji Account Of The 1900 Siege Of Beitang, Anthony E. Clark

History Faculty Scholarship

By 1879 the Shanghai Jesuit, Li Wenyu, SJ, 李問漁 (1840-1911) had distinguished himself as one of Shanghai’s leading writers and editors; he had established both Yiwenlu, 益聞錄 Shanghai’s third newspaper, and the Gezhixinbao, 格致新報 the area’s most popular scientific journal. Less famous, though habitually consulted by historians of China’s turbulent Boxer era (1898-1900), was his protracted and hagiographic narrative of Boxer violence, the Quanhuoji 拳禍記. Li’s meticulous collection of witness testimonies and documentary materials recounting Boxer incidents remains an often-cited source in present historical research; this paper examines the historical reliability of his Quanhuoji, first published in 1905. Careful scrutiny …

Chinese Undergraduate Students’ Preference For Chinese Tas And American Tas In The U.S. Context, Ruochen Li

Open Access Theses

This study researches and compares Chinese undergraduate students' (N=70) perceptions of and preferences for American TAs and Chinese TAs, and identifies factors that play significant roles in influencing Chinese students' perceptions and preferences. Multiple independent variables were measured, including age; gender; years at Purdue; years in the U.S.; GPA; overall TOEFL score; experiences with Chinese TAs; effectiveness of Chinese TAs; effectiveness of American TAs; English ability of Chinese TAs; and native speaker preference, ethnic identity, and level of acculturation, among which ethnic identity and level of acculturation are the major variables the current study aims to examine. Preference for Chinese …

The Tokugawa Samurai: Values & Lifestyle Transition, Kathleen A. Mcgurty

Student Publications

The Tokugawa period of Japan was a time of great prosperity but also great strife among the social classes. Of the most affected peoples of the Japanese feudal system was the samurai, who had so long been at the center of military and even political power. For hundreds of years, these highly revered peoples had lived a consistent life based off of virtues passed on through a code, and have also lived comfortable lives due to special powers that were reserved for them.

However, with a lack of warfare and increasing Western influence on the political, social, and military system …

New Uses Of Family History In China: Economic Development And Political Unification, Cecilia Chien

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Spartans In Vietnam: Michigan State University's Experience In South Vietnam, Jake T. Alster

Grand Valley Journal of History

In this article, the relations between various colleges (with special attention to Michigan State University) and the United States Government are explored in relation to America’s effort in nation building in South Vietnam in the late 1950s. During America’s efforts in Vietnam more reliance was put upon collegiate institutions to help negotiate foreign policy. One of the major issues regarding South Vietnam was technical assistance, and how we should implement assistance into the third world. Michigan State University, under the presidency of John Hannah, became the most important university in the technical assistance program. John Ernst argues that this was …

Oh Project: Healing From Cambodian Genocide Headnote, Patricia A. Schechter

Oral History Interviews

This brief essay introduces the "The OH Project: Healing from Cambodian Genocide." The OH Project interviews were conducted in Portland, Oregon in the Spring of 2009. The project was developed by the Cambodian American Community of Oregon, a non-profit organization that provides cultural activities and social support to families and children. The purpose was to conduct intergenerational interviews between youth and elders in order to transmit to pass heritage from the migrating generation to youth born in the United States, and to use storytelling to help narrators heal from wartime trauma. Participants attended oral history workshops at PSU in order …

Failure Of Democratic Consolidation: The Three Year Interlude Of Military Rule (1958-1962) In Burma, Zaw Thein

Masters Theses

Many scholars believe that the period between 1948 when Burma won Independence and 1962 when the military took over the country from the elected civilian government as the parliamentary democracy era. During this era, there was a three-year interlude where the military leaders ruled the country as the Caretaker Government- a euphemism for the three-year military interlude. My argument is that this interlude happened due to the growing strength of the military as an institution and the decline of political parties in Burma. The strength of the military institution was due to the civil war that broke out just after …

Japan's Inclination Towards The Right-Wing, Anti-Korean Ideology Must Not Be Neglected: Korea-Japan Relations Through The Lens Of The Great Kanto Earthquake, Jinhee Lee

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Japan's Inclination Towards The Right-Wing, Anti-Korean Ideology Must Not Be Neglected: Korea-Japan Relations Through The Lens Of The Great Kanto Earthquake, Jinhee Lee

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Blood-Filled Street: Devastation Of The Kanto Massacre Captured In Documentary Films, Jinhee Lee

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Colloquium Focusing On The Massacre Of Koreans During The Great Kanto Earthquake Hosted By Kunkuk University, Jinhee Lee

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Blood-Filled Street: Devastation Of The Kanto Massacre Captured In Documentary Films, Jinhee Lee

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Colloquium Focusing On The Massacre Of Koreans During The Great Kanto Earthquake Hosted By Kunkuk University, Jinhee Lee

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Seno'o Giro: Life And Thought Of A Radical Buddhist, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Mandala And Charisma: The Federalist Potentials In Traditional Indonesian Political Culture, Yuhao Wen

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

This research explores the federalist elements in the mandala (a graphic art pattern in Southeast Asia) and political charisma to discuss their constructive roles as traditional Indonesian political culture in federalizing Indonesia. Since August 17, 1945 when Sukarno declared the independence of the country in Jakarta, the newly–born Indonesia was also finalized as a centralized presidential republic. However, till today, societal diversities in Indonesian society are continuously increasing, the tendency of federalization, therefore, has never entirely faded away. Both the mandala and political charisma de facto have spontaneously generated their own initiatives for federalization since ancient times. Upon illustration of …

Kashmiri Marsiya (Elegy) Manuscripts: The Valuable Sources For The Dissemination, Reconstruction And Safeguarding The History And Culture, Tawfeeq Nazir, Javaid Hussain Bhat

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Manuscripts are the links to the historical facts that will otherwise remain unknown to the world. They contain authentic information and facts about the social, political and cultural aspects of a nation. Therefore their intellectual value cannot be over emphasized. Many countries and nations are joining hands towards preserving such cultural assets by way of taking conservation and preservation measures including digitization and documentation.

Marsiya or Elegy has gained more importance after the Martyrdom of Imam Hussain (a.s) and his companions and household in Karbala. Marsiya has been since written and recited in order to mourning the tragic events of …

Reading Nation In Translation: The Spectral Transnationality Of The Malaysian Racial Imaginary, Fiona Hsiao Yen Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent decades, literary studies has experienced a global turn, often understood as a move beyond national paradigms of analysis, which are deemed to be narrow and particularistic. Although wary of the tacit universalizing tendencies of global frames, scholars of race and postcoloniality have critically embraced the global by arguing for the need to theorize transnationalism from marginalized perspectives. However, casting the global and the national in oppositional terms ignores the fact that national racial ideologies both actively shape and are shaped by globally circulating ideas about race. An understudied site in postcolonial studies, Malaysia--formerly known as Malaya--is an exemplary …

Too Far From Mecca, Too Close To Peking: The Ethnic Violence And The Making Of Chinese Muslim Identity, 1821-1871, Jingyuan Qian

History Honors Projects

This article examines the ethnic conflicts during the 19th century in Yunnan, China. Between 1821 and 1871 a series of ethnic riots took place between the dominant Han Chinese and the Hui, a Muslim ethnic group in Yunnan. This article attempts to explain how the Hui’s blended identity as both Chinese and Mulims caused the two ethnic group’s misconceptions of each other, and how these misconceptions were reinforced by the nation-building efforts of Imperial China. This project also sheds lights on the contemporary ethnic relationship on China’s western frontier.

Dreamcatcher From Mao's Last Revolution: My Venture Into Creative Social Documentary Video, Christopher Shea Howard

Student Publications

Dreamcatcher From Mao’s Last Revolution is a filmmaking venture into creative social documentary production undertaken by this filmmaker as his own experimental departure from narrative feature film production and the fiction genre. This thesis report not only describes aspects of this film production that are specific to the methodology of documentary film production, but also describes the film’s cinematic expression of memory and the filmmaker’s telling of the story. Some cinematic and conceptual aspects of the story are related to the film’s influences, specifically to those theoretical concepts and techniques employed by documentary filmmaker, Werner Herzog.

The documentary story is …

Imagining Female Tongzhi: The Social Significance Of Female Same-Sex Desire In Contemporary Chinese Literature, Ashley Mangan

Asian Languages and Cultures Honors Projects

In the wake of shifting cultural attitudes about gender and sexuality in Post-Mao China, new discourses have emerged about desires and subjectivities that had previously been denied visibility. This thesis takes one such emerging discourse as its focus, the discourse of female homoeroticism in contemporary Chinese literature. The project has three major purposes: (1) to investigate the historical and cultural conditions that have contributed to the emergence of this discourse in the 1990s, an era of profound ideological and cultural change in China, (2) to explore the local and global analyses that contribute to the discourse, and (3) to discuss …

The Broad, Toiling Masses In All The Continents: Anticolonial Activists And The Atlantic Charter, Mark Reeves

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The 1941 Atlantic Charter’s references to self-determination galvanized anticolonial nationalists during the Second World War. These activists used the principles enumerated in the Atlantic Charter to frame their demands. This thesis examines three cases in the broader global context during the war, from vastly different colonial and wartime situations: British-ruled India, French-ruled Syria, and the U.S.- ruled Philippines. Across these different situations, anticolonial nationalists used the Atlantic Charter in an attempt to legitimate their own projects. This thesis shows that the elite nationalist movements examined here used a common rhetoric from the Charter, but in variable ways. Each case study …

Admiral Thomas C. Hart And The Demise Of The Asiatic Fleet 1941 – 1942, David Dubois

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Admiral Thomas C. Hart And The Demise Of The Asiatic Fleet 1941 – 1942 is a chronicle of the opening days of World War II in the Pacific and the demise of the U.S. Navy’s Asiatic Fleet. Beginning with the background of Four Star Admiral Thomas Hart, this chronicle shows the history of the nearly obsolete ships that fought in the beginning of World War II. The reader will come to realize how and why this fleet ceased to exist within ninety days from the start of the war. Historical evidence will show that the damage inflicted on the Japanese …

The Influences Of The American Boxer Indemnity Reparations Remissions On Chinese Higher Education, Xiaojuan Zhou

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to consider the influences of the American Boxer Indemnity Reparations Remissions (ABIRR) on Chinese higher education. These remissions were used to establish two universities, to establish the American Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program (ABISP) to support Chinese students’ studying in America, and to support other higher education- related projects.

This study focused on higher education considering ABISP as an individual case. The ABISP students were selected from all the students who studied in America in the corresponding period in part because of the inconsistencies of research before 1949.

Through tracking 1,152 ABISP students of Type …

An Assessment Of Ho Chi Minh’S Strategies For Gaining Support In The Vietnamese Revolution, Madeline Fraser

Young Historians Conference

Despite Americans’ awareness of Vietnam in the context of America’s crusade against communism, little attention is paid to Ho Chi Minh as a national revolutionary in the creation of an independent Vietnam. This paper addresses Ho Chi Minh’s tactics for inciting a revolutionary spirit in the Vietnamese people, particularly his blending of communism and nationalism. Although Ho was characterized as a fervent communist in the West, an examination of his strategies reveals a man who recognized the need to diversify his platform. Ho not only employed nationalistic propaganda, but also adopted fragments of varying political ideologies and appealed to the …