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Full-Text Articles in Asian History
Genre Paintings, Elisa Allan
Genre Paintings, Elisa Allan
BYU Asian Studies Student Journal
Artistic responses to the changing socio-political stability in Korea during the eighteenth-century indicate the growing disillusionment and dissatisfaction with yangban (gentry class) consolidated control, the thinning control of Confucianism over class, and the blossoming of contending ideas.
Suna No Onna: An Absurd Reading, Charisa Player
Suna No Onna: An Absurd Reading, Charisa Player
BYU Asian Studies Student Journal
Woman in the Dunes (Suna no Onna), written by Kobo Abe, readily lends itself to analysis as an existential novel, which is described as a work that “subverts and ridicules traditional genres of realistic fiction, asserting its non-mimetic autonomy over against the conventional expectations and interpretative customs of the reader” (Goebel). However, because of the way in which the novel presents its world, and the way that the narrative ends, Suna no Onna finds itself in a somewhat separate category from other existentialist texts. In his article “Kobo Abe: Japan’s Kafka,” Goebel explains Abe’s writing in Suna no Onna is …
Valmiki And Hesse: Maya Through The Ages, Kevin Blankinship
Valmiki And Hesse: Maya Through The Ages, Kevin Blankinship
BYU Asian Studies Student Journal
The Vedic poet Valmiki could hardly have imagined that, with his discovery of shloka, or poetic meter, and the subsequent advent of literature as a separate aesthetic genre, Hindu notions of reality would lend expression of outrage to war-weary Germans thousands of years later. Or perhaps he did: Brahma’s benediction provided that, “so long as the mountains and rivers . . . stay on the face of the earth / So long will the story of Rama endure / So long will your fame remain.”1
Liu Na'ou And The May Fourth Tradition, Katie Stirling
Liu Na'ou And The May Fourth Tradition, Katie Stirling
BYU Asian Studies Student Journal
According to Leo Ou-fan Lee, the city was, for Liu Na’ou, “the only world of [his] existence and the key source of [his] creative imagination” (191). Liu Na’ou stands among Shi Zhecun and Mu Shiying as writers preoccupied with the fast-paced life and materiality of the city of Shanghai in the 1930s. Considered to be one of the leaders of the Japanese-inspired neo-sensationist school in China, Liu pioneered the use of descriptions of sensory experiences and experimentations with time in narrative in order to create his cityscapes and develop the tension between fascination and repulsion with the city that characterizes …
Saikaku's Tales From Various Provinces, Josh Dalton
Saikaku's Tales From Various Provinces, Josh Dalton
BYU Asian Studies Student Journal
n 1685, Ihara Saikaku published his Tales from Various Provinces, a five-volume collection consisting of thirty-five short stories. Saikaku explained: “I went throughout the provinces in search of subject matter for my writings.” The result was a compilation of humorous and bizarre local legends. “Reflecting on the experience,” Saikaku wrote, “I can only conclude that people are all spooks.” By interweaving his own wit and imagination into the tales he gathered, Saikaku closed the gap separating fantasy from reality. As a result, he simultaneously emphasized both the unique nature of the human experience and the universal aspects that everyone can …
Writing Over Silence: The Asian-American In-Between Identity, Amy Scott
Writing Over Silence: The Asian-American In-Between Identity, Amy Scott
BYU Asian Studies Student Journal
My daily routine is pure ritual and thus pure theatre. A routinely perfect production of a comfortable unwritten script: stage dark, save for a dim morning light; spot on tousseled black hair, white pillow, and a blanket nest. Wake up, pad into the bathroom; mise-en-scène a student’s sanctuary. In the bathroom, suit up: costume, makeup/mask, deliberately casual—as if any day could become a beach day. Flip on Elvis and dance while pouring milk onto cold cereal. The door opens, and the play begins en force.
Kim Chi-Ha's Poetry Of Yesterday And Today, Gerrit Van Dyk
Kim Chi-Ha's Poetry Of Yesterday And Today, Gerrit Van Dyk
BYU Asian Studies Student Journal
I n the 1970s, the Korean poet Kim Chi-ha was perhaps the most internationally well known Korean artist. During this time, Kim wrote many poems speaking out against the Park Chung Hee regime which began with Park’s coup in 1961. One of Kim’s most famous works, “The Five Bandits” (The Golden-Crowned Jesus and Other Writings) was so politically charged that it began a series of incarcerations of the poet on allegations of communist sympathies. Many international organizations and dignitaries defended Kim and called on Park to release the poet from prison. After Park’s death, Kim was released, and …
Confucian Creatures, Sarah Cutler
Confucian Creatures, Sarah Cutler
BYU Asian Studies Student Journal
From the tortoise shells used in ancient divination to the colorful camels of Tang tombs and from companionable oxen of the rice fields to singing birds in their cages, animals have been a significant part of Chinese culture. Perhaps most intriguing to the Western mind are the fanciful mythological animals of China adorning temple roofs, tomb walls, and traditional stories. Study of these creatures reveals a deep insight into Chinese culture for not only do the traditions about them indicate the ideas humans have about the animal world, but also the animals themselves are symbolic of various ideas maintained by …
Exploration Of Japanese Gothicism In Izumi Kyoka's World, Emily Mitarai
Exploration Of Japanese Gothicism In Izumi Kyoka's World, Emily Mitarai
BYU Asian Studies Student Journal
Kyoka draws upon his inspiration of the past and seeks, in his own words, “not to portray reality as reality, but to seek beyond reality for some more powerful truth” (Carpenter 154). Izumi Kyoka (1873–1939) was a prolific writer in the Meiji Era of Japan who depicted the literature of his past from the kusazoshi (illustrated fiction of the Edo Era), the ghostliness of Ueda Akinari, and the supernatural of the No Theater (Carpenter 154). Although a prolific writer, few of Kyoka’s works have been translated into English. His works are rich with imagery, yet the scenes are not in …