Asian History Commons^™

Show Me Nagara, Tell Me Shinji:, George Dibble

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Evangelion is widely regarded by fans and critics as a masterpiece, with its final episodes often described as transformative and perfect (Shinseiki Evangerion, 1995-1996; Erter; Azuma). With its release, Evangelion “entered among the most widely discussed TV series in anime history” (Solomon). However, this profound impact invites a critical examination of its narrative conclusions. In Dr. Mick Broderick’s article “Anime's Apocalypse: Neon Genesis Evangelion as Millennarian Mecha,” he writes that the anime’s protagonist, Ikari Shinji, “learns to break free from his self-absorption, the anomie of selfpity and hatred that has prevented true interaction with family, friends and colleagues.” Yet I …

A Grammatical Analysis Of Code-Switching In K-Pop Lyrics, Sydney Christley

BYU Asian Studies Student Journal

Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, has been a rapidly growing area of study for scholars over the past few decades. However, previous research focuses on topics such as the globalization and diffusion of Korean culture instead of examining that diffusion from a linguistic standpoint. As such, there is still a gap in the literature that deals with Korean-English code-switching and, specifically, K-pop song lyrics. This paper attempts to address this gap by analyzing the grammar of English-Korean codeswitching in K-pop song lyrics according to Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame Model. This model argues that one language involved in code-switching is more …

To Negotiate A Labyrinth: Indonesia Within And Without Asean During The Third Indochina War (1978-1991), Daniel Mccoy

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

When the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Southeast Asia arrived at its most stable condition since the close of World War II. In Indochina, international communism triumphed over Western democracy. However, regional peace was fleeting and tenuous. Disparate communist ideologies and combustible, extra-regional power designs soon clashed. American retrenchment emboldened the Soviet Union and China, two competing communist forces, to fill the power vacuum and inflame the enmity unfolding between their respective client states: Vietnam and Cambodia. Mounting violence between the pair culminated in late 1978 when Vietnam invaded Democratic Kampuchea, unleashing the Third Indochina War. The Vietnamese-Cambodian War, the …

Transformation Of Buddhist Musical Practices From The 7th-13th Centuries As A Response To Political And Social Disorder In Medieval India, Stephan Duran

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

This article gives an account of the development of Buddhist musical practices on the Indian subcontinent from their earliest, datable instances, to the disappearance of Buddhist institutions from India proper, demonstrating the persistence of descendant traditions of Sanskrit Buddhist chant and song in contemporary Japanese, Tibetan, and Newar esoteric Buddhist communities. It is argued that the Buddhist musical theory and praxis of these three cultural spheres both preserve features of ancient and medieval Indian Buddhist music and sonically illustrate the transition from political and social order to de-centralized social organization, a shift that took place between the 7^th and …

From Civil War To Cold War: China, The Us, And The Korean Conflict, Ethan Paul Foss

Honors Theses and Capstones

This history honors thesis investigates US foreign policy in East Asia during the early Cold War, specifically from 1945 to 1953, focusing on the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War. This thesis argues that American policymakers misjudged Chinese communism, Korean nationalism, and regional dynamics due to ideological assumptions and Cold War anxieties. The research examines missed diplomatic opportunities with Mao’s China, the flawed occupation of South Korea, and the escalation of the Korean Conflict, revealing how rigid anti-communist policies contributed to the Korean War's outbreak and strengthened communist alliances. Ultimately, it argues that the Korean War was less an …

Book Review: The Malayan Emergency: Revolution And Counterinsurgency At The End Of Empire By Karl Hack, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This book review critiques the scholarly contributions of historian Karl Hack's new book on the Malayan Emergency.

Meteorology, Weather And War In South East Asia: Malaya C. 1940-1960, Fiona Williamson

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article interrogates the positioning of British colonial meteorology in Malaysia and Singapore from the 1940s to 1960. This period spanned a global conflict and an internecine war, effecting profound sociopolitical changes from which neither Malaysia nor Singapore would emerge the same. The meteorological services were essential to Britain's armed conflicts, providing vital weather information to the army, navy and, especially, the air forces, as well as supporting the aviation and shipping industry often in difficult and dangerous circumstances. This article argues that British military policy in South East Asia and the specific concerns of the colonial government in Malaya …

Access And Entitlement: Investigating The Contours Of Public Health In Late Colonial Bengal And Post Colonial West Bengal (1920-1960), Ametasree Bhattacharya

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation employs the comparative framework of “Access and Entitlement,” which serves as a metric to measure the goods and services the state could responsively provide to the public. It utilizes this framework to analyze the realm of public health in Bengal/West Bengal before and after decolonization. The main body is divided into two parts: the first three chapters focus on malaria, and the last three on nutrition. The first chapter explores debates over malaria control between 1919 and 1935. The second examines anti-malarial efforts from 1935 to 1947, emphasizing the influence of communal politics and the Second World War …

Fermented Resistance: The Role Of Kimchi In Preserving Korean Identity Through Colonialism And Modernization, Francis M. Ferreira

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis began with a simple observation during my year abroad in Seoul: kimchi was everywhere. It appeared at every table, in every household, and soon, in every question I had about Korean identity. What started as a personal curiosity evolved into a deep historical inquiry into how this single dish — made of fermented cabbage, radish, and spices — came to represent the soul of a nation. This thesis traces kimchi’s journey from a humble survival food in agrarian Korea to a symbol of resistance during Japanese colonization, a tool for reclaiming identity after liberation, and ultimately, a globally …

Exporting Culture, Building A Nation: South Korea’S Use Of Pop Culture As A Soft Power Tool, Nathaniel J. Kim

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the multiple governmental plans, policies, and actions by the South Korean government to support and globalize their pop culture products. After the crumbling of its economy and global image due to many external factors in the 1900s, South Korea found itself in poverty with very little global influence. To rebuild their nation, the government implemented many actions to help grow and strengthen their pop culture products to make them more desirable, domestically and internationally. This thesis analyzes three of the major pop culture exports for South Korea, television, movies, and music, and demonstrates how the government has …

Damn The Dams: Framing ‘Schizophrenic’ Discourses Of The Hindu Right, Nandita Ghosh

Critical Humanities

This article examines the concept of schizophrenia as a cultural metaphor in order to analyze the Hindu Right’s contradictory language-framing politics within the public domain, particularly in relation to building mega dams on rivers Narmada and Bhagirathi. In so doing, it intends to examine the nature of the public domain itself that enables such framing politics within the context of late 20^th-early-21^st-century global capital. Language battles in the public domain have intensified during this period, especially through various forms of digital media. In India, the various groups that form the Hindu Right have often mixed the …

Origins Of Art: Demystifying The Scheuring Icon Collection, Mikayla Klemp

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

They Never Left: Drivers Of Memory Of Dictatorship And Impressions Of Ferdinand E. Marcos As President After February 1986, Jorge V. Tigno, Geoffrey M. Ducanes, Steven Rood, Vladymir Joseph A. Licudine

Economics Department Faculty Publications

Between 1972 and 1986, Ferdinand E. Marcos of the Philippines headed an autocratic system that allowed him to rule with little to no accountability. Some 36 years after FM (as he is popularly called) and family were driven from power into exile in Hawaii, his son, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, Jr., was overwhelmingly elected President in the May 2022 general elections. This turnaround seemed puzzling to many, but others saw a long-term deliberate process of rehabilitation after the family returned to the Philippines. Our paper explores how Filipinos remembered FM in the years after his ouster. What drives the memory of …

Colonial Policy, Ecological Transformations, And Agricultural “Improvement”: Comparing Agricultural Yields And Expansion In The Spanish And U.S. Philippines, 1870–1925 Ce, David Max Findley, Noel Amano, Ivana Biong, Greg Bankoff, Patricia Irene Dacudao, Francis A. Gealogo, Rebecca Hamilton, Ruel Pagunsan, Patrick Roberts

History Department Faculty Publications

Burgeoning global trade and colonial policies promoted transformations in land use and agriculture throughout tropical regions in the 19th and 20th centuries, but the local and regional ecological consequences of landscape changes are still being identified and analysed. The Philippine Archipelago, which experienced successive colonial regimes across more than 7100 islands, exemplifies the multiplicity of ecological outcomes produced by these transformations. To better characterise diverse landscape change, we use colonial censuses and datasets to assess land use, production and agricultural yields in the Philippines during the late Spanish and early U.S. colonial periods (ca. 1870–1925). Our novel digital, quantitative analysis …

From Race To Culture: Southeastern Mindanao Peoples And Their Crafts, 16th To 20th Centuries, Patricia Irene Dacudao

History Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Recovering Constitutional Identity In Colonial South India: Sedition, Sovereignty, And Small-C Constitutionalism In Pudukkottai, Bharath Gururagavendran

National Law School Journal

Constitutional identity is easiest to identify when it has already been credentialed: by a constitutional text, constituent authorisation, or judicial recognition. What remains visible when those markers are absent? Through a historically grounded study of the ‘Little Kingdom’ of Pudukkottai, a princely state in colonial South India, this article examines whether constitutional identity can be recovered from the small-c life of a polity whose opportunities for formal constitution-making were structurally foreclosed. Pudukkottai had no big-C moment. Its constitutional life, if it had one, must be reconstructed from less authoritative materials. The article argues that the absence of a constitutional text …

Surviving And Thriving On The Gold-Capped Mountain; The Entrepreneurial Sucessess Of Chinese Women In Early Nevada, Madison Campbell

Undergraduate Research Symposium Podium Presentations

As a result of shifts in historical methodologies, women’s history began to rise in prominence but only recently have historians shifted their focus to specific marginalized groups. Chinese women in Nevada at the turn of the 20th century are noteworthy due to their entrepreneurial successes in a time of rampant discrimination, yet have not been discussed in the literature as a collective. By analyzing the impacts of anti-Chinese legislation, public commentary in newspapers and political cartoons, and first-hand accounts of Chinese women from the region during the period this project develops an untold narrative. Secondary material provides further claims on …

Inaba, Reimagined: An Analysis Of Persona 4’S Rural Setting In A Neoliberal Context, Stanley Reid

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Persona 4, through the use of nostalgia and the process of native-place making known as furusato-zukuri, creates a fictional rural space, using authentic Japanese imagery and cultural symbols to make Inaba a 21st-century furusato. In doing so, Persona 4 critiques city life in a neoliberal society, which causes a growing disillusionment with urban living due to a constant state of unrest. Furthermore, through its use of nostalgic imagery which normally emphasizes gender norms in the Japanese culture, Persona 4 flips this idea on its head by showcasing powerful female leads, who, despite living in a space normally …

Wearing Many Hats: Chinese Muslim General Bai Chongxi And The Chinese Muslim Association During The War Of Resistance, Kelly Hammond

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

Bai Chongxi’s illustrious military career needs no introduction for military historians. What is less recognized is his influence on the development and integration of Chinese Muslims into the KMT’s national agenda during the War of Resistance. Bai leveraged his military positions to advance the aims of Chinese Muslims through his participation in the first national association for Chinese Muslims. By putting Bai’s military successes and failures during the War of Resistance into conversation with his efforts to mobilize Muslims, we see how his efforts were central to state making and nation building beyond the battlefield. In the ongoing reassessment of …

Chasing The Albino Pygmy Giraffe, Charles H. Haddad

School of Communication and Journalism Faculty Publications

It's never a good sign when someone is knocking on the door of your hotel room at seven in the morning. That's especially true if you have been schlepping eight college students across Western China, as I had been for the past week. I now heard in this soft rapping the death knell of my fledgling professorial career. Wrapping a ratty, threadbare pillow around my head, I tried to shut out the insistent rapping. Of course, that didn't work. Bad news has a way of butting in.

So begins my novel “Chasing the Albino Pygmy Giraffe.” It is a laugh-aloud …

Asia In Saint Louis: Synergy Of Library Instruction, Digital Humanities, And Community Engagement, Joan Wang, David Romney

Journal of East Asian Libraries

This article explores the integration of library instruction, digital humanities, and community engagement through the "Asia in Saint Louis" project at Washington University in St. Louis. Led by subject librarians Joan Wang and David Romney, in collaboration with digital humanities specialists and local community organizations, the project aimed to digitally reconstruct and showcase the histories of Asian Americans in St. Louis from the late 19th to the 20th century. Funded by the Missouri Humanities Council, the project employed ArcGIS StoryMap technology to create a series of interactive narratives. These StoryMaps, supported by archival research and community involvement, highlight key themes …

In Conversation: Patricia Irene Dacudao On Abaca Frontier: The Socioeconomic And Cultural Transformation Of Davao, 1898–1941, Patricia Irene N. Dacudao, Philip Gooding

History Department Faculty Publications

In this interview, Patricia Irene Dacudao discusses her book Abaca Frontier: The Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformation of Davao, 1898-1941, which was published by Ateneo de Manila Press in 2023.

Chinese Piracy In The Late 18th And Early 19th Centuries And Its Contribution To The Fall Of The Qing Empire, Benjamin J E Smith

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

Abstract

In the decades before the First Opium War, Qing China faced many internal and external crises. One of the least studied of these crises is that of pirate risings. Although pirates have always existed in the Asian world, between 1790 and 1810, pirate groups organized themselves into a cohesive confederation that openly opposed Qing authorities. These pirates represented a significant threat to the stability of China in the early 19th century. Not only did they cause severe damage to the Qing navy, but they had a major negative impact on the Jiaqing’s outlook on his mandate. This paper will …

The Provenance Of A Pali- And Thai-Language Manuscript At The Rollins College Library: A Buddhist Book Of Merit And Its Long Journey From Southeast Asia To America, Wenxian Zhang

Faculty Publications

Through researching the provenance of a Buddhist manuscript written in the Pali and Thai languages currently held at Rollins, this article seeks to answer the question of how a religious document created in Thailand ended up in a liberal arts college library in America. Regarded as an act of devotion by many Buddhist followers in Southeast Asia, the use of folding manuscripts (samut khoi) has been observed for centuries. The folding manuscripts served as handbooks and chanting manuals for Buddhist monks, who often recited in religious ceremonies while paying tributes to the deceased, with the hope of reincarnation in a …

胡適在台灣 : 殖民地、黨國體制、民主化時代的閱讀史, Yi Zeng

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

自1920年代起，殖民地台灣的思想文化界開始勃興。台灣本土知識分子不得不思考位於日本與中國兩個大國間的自我定位。此時，胡適成為他們的尺度。日治時期台灣本土知識分子對胡適等文本的詮釋，揭示了台灣人在對抗日本帝國內地延長主義中，追求身分歸屬與文明價值的心靈框架。

1949年歷史巨變後，胡適於美國、台灣發表諸多鼓吹民主、人權、憲政的文字，卻常被認為其在政治上保持著「機會主義者」的身份。在國民黨黨國體制下，對「胡適文本」的理解存在多重面向，集中表現在出版、審查與閱讀三個方面。胡適作為中華民國在台灣的象徵，蔣中正政權一方面憂心共匪滲透、煽動輿論，面對民間批判胡適的聲音，令警備總部等國家機器發起政治獵巫，以保障胡適的名譽權利；而在形勢受控時，卻又放任民間輿論，任由批胡言論發酵散佈。在國民黨政權的操作下，胡適創作之《史達林策略下的中國》成為戰後台灣關於國民黨戰敗而失去大陸的歷史論述之重要根源。

1962年，胡適溘然長逝，胡適紀念館幾經周折而成立。胡適紀念館長期處於「主義」與「學術」之間的漩渦中，交織著戰後中央研究院內部同仁的緊張，以及東亞冷戰的紛爭局面。胡適逝世後，李敖等人「擁胡」的「全盤西化論」與胡秋原等人「批胡」的「超越前進論」，在台灣思想界展開中西文化論戰，隨後固守為兩種保守思潮的對抗。在內戰與冷戰邏輯交織的狀況下，以胡適為核心的「五四」、「保釣」等議題，呈現出統一運動與革新保臺的路線之爭，以及反帝反殖與自由民主之間的對立話語。隨之以張忠棟為典型的自由主義知識分子開始拓展胡適的自由主義意涵，「台灣意識」開始勃興。戰後圍繞胡適的思想爭論，逐漸由「中西之爭」演變為「中台之爭」。

透過21世紀台灣的「胡適再詮釋」，追求台灣文化的主體性、建立具有主體性的台灣文化等理念，亦即「台灣文化民族主義」（Taiwanese cultural nationalism），已成為不可阻擋的潮流，然而華人、漢族、客家文化等多重因素，將當代台灣推入新一輪的認同危機。

Japan’S “Big Lie": The Negation Of Oral Testimony Of Sexual Violence, Robert O'Mochain, Yuki Ueno

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In recent years, powerful actors in Japan’s political elite have consistently denied the oral testimony of so-called “comfort women.” The denial of this and related historical crimes is made in the service of a claim we denote here as the “big lie.” This is the erroneous assertion that the Asia-Pacific War was a straightforward war of liberation by the Japanese Imperial Army, inspired by a blameless Emperor and carried out by morally exemplary military forces. This denial of historical realities, especially those related to “comfort women,” has constituted a contributory factor for a pattern of denial regarding all historical crimes. …

A Retrospective Of “Comfort Culture:” A Paradigmatic Study On The Creation Of The “Comfort Women” System Constructed By The Imperial Japanese Military From 1932 To 1945, Emma Nicolini

All Theses

From 1932 to 1945, the Imperial Japanese military sexually enslaved approximately two hundred thousand Asian women from Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. This institution was known as the comfort women system, which the Imperial Japanese government created to ensure the sexual and mental health of Imperial Japanese military personnel. This provision of comfort for Imperial Japanese military personnel was enabled by cultural influences introduced in the Early Modern period of Japan, which normalized a contemptuous attitude toward sexual labor. This blend of Early Modern Japan, as well as the beliefs that facilitated the need for comfort women, …

The Revival Of Buddhism, Chandrabhan P. Yadav

Popular Media

Book Review: Douglas Ober, Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India (Stanford University Press 2023).

From “Defilement” To “Modernity”: How Japan's Encounter With The West Brought Beef To The Table, Ying Yi Tan

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The long Tokugawa – Meiji transition (1850s – 1880s) is arguably one of the most profound socio-economic transitions that Japan underwent in its history. This paper uses beef consumption in Japan as a lens to further investigate the players involved in this transition. Historically more eschewed than other types of meat and tightly associated with the notion of the “other,” beef became an embodiment of progress and modernity during the Meiji Period. Through tracing the historical shift in the Japanese perception of beef, this paper argues that the evolution of beef consumption corresponds to the radically shifting attitudes of the …

The Impact Of Islam On Malaysia Before Independence, Sadiqa Binti Abdul Rahman

Journal Of Middle East and Islamic Studies

This article discusses the influence and significance of the introduction of Islam in the Malaya on Malays before achieving independence. Prior to the advent of Islam, the Malaya was heavily influenced by several belief systems, including Hinduism, Animism, Buddhism, Dynamism, Hyang, and others. Nevertheless, Malaya, like other regions influenced by Islamic Civilization, has embraced the Sunnah teachings of Prophet Muhammad. Since 12 AD, the way of life in Malaya has been firmly rooted in Islamic teachings. The research objectives are to examine the general background of Malaysia and analyse the impact of the arrival of Islam in Malaya on the …