Theses (Pacific and Asian Studies)
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Item The making of the Cambodian People’s Party: Patronage, power, and politics after the Khmer Rouge(2025) Frolov, Iurii; Jamkajornkeiat, ThitiThis thesis investigates the formation of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), tracing its transformation from a fragmented anti-Pol Pot resistance into Cambodia’s dominant political force. It explores three critical dimensions of the CPP’s creation: broader Cold War dynamics in Southeast Asia, shaped by the Soviet-Vietnamese alliance that set the stage for the establishment of the PRPK (predecessor to the CPP); the unification of diverse anti-Pol Pot Cambodian left-wing factions into a single party; and the party-building strategy between 1979 and 1981 that solidified the CPP’s vanguard structure. Drawing on memoirs, oral histories, and Soviet diplomatic reports, this research shifts the focus from individual political figures to the institutional history of the CPP, providing a new perspective on Cambodia’s power dynamics. It challenges multiple existing narratives, arguing instead that the CPP emerged from Cambodia’s grassroots anti-Pol Pot resistance before being institutionalized with the backing of Vietnam and the Soviet Union. The Party’s key characteristics—its vanguard design, strong presence in key peripheries, and balanced distribution of authority within its ranks—laid the foundation for the Party’s structure. These political trajectories, unfolding between the mid-1970s and early 1980s, collectively defined the process of the CPP’s formation. By offering a nuanced understanding of the CPP’s origins, this thesis enriches the scholarship on Cambodia’s political history and sheds light on the interplay between Cold War geopolitics and the local political conjuncture that resulted in the Party’s formation.Item Engendering fashion: Gender performativity, fashion, and formal occasions in Japan(2025) Garcimartín Carmona, Iván; Lee, SujinThe sartorial choices of individuals on formal occasions in Japan reveal the gender differentiation of clothing in Japanese society and how people utilize fashion to embody gendered norms. By examining non-normative experiences and representations of gendered individuals in Japanese media, this thesis addresses the question: How do Japanese individuals construct gender identities through fashion in relation to formality? To answer this question, this study combines Judith Butler’s performativity with an intersectional, non-normative, and queer framework. It analyzes media representations– such as manga, movies, and images of other formal occasions alongside first-hand experiences from surveys and an interview. This thesis also examines coming-of-age ceremonies, an example of a formal setting in Japan where fashion is key in conveying and embracing gender norms. These highlight the tensions between expectations and individual aspirations regarding gender. The analysis reveals that modernization from the Meiji period and the consequences of war created a differentiation between traditional and modern fashion, shaping gender binaries. While men gravitate towards Western-style clothing, women often use traditional garments such as furisode or hakama. Non-normative events, such as Kitakyushu’s coming-of-age ceremony, reveal the fragility of gender norms and how individuals negotiate their identities, showing their contentious nature. Additionally, exploring diverse ethnic experiences, such as the Zainichi community, challenges the idea of a homogenous Japan and broadens the understanding of gender identities. Thus, this thesis aims to construct an inclusive space to examine experiences that fall outside of the norm and put them at the centre of the discussion while considering the role of material culture in understanding the intricate patterns of Japanese society.Item Across time, space and discourse: The elusive nature of visual novels(2024) Renovica, Srdan; Bodden, Michael; Hatakeyama, MamoruIn software publishing as well as in recent academic scholarship, visual novels have come to be viewed as a type of story-driven video game originating in late 20th century Japan, conveying their stories through the mixture of text and audio-visual component, while being characterized by a number of formal elements (e.g. anime-inspired art, nonlinearity and eroticism). Although most academic conversations center on works produced during the 1990s and later, the period of 1980s - whose software I argue to be equally important in the context of how this perception of visual novel came to be - is largely omitted from discussion. This thesis offers a comprehensive analysis of the variety of sources connected to visual novels (e.g. game software, periodicals, visual novel databases, informal scholarship, online blogs, academic writing), reexamining the genre's current conceptualizations and classification criteria, highlighting the overarching trends and implications present in the 1980s visual novel precursors and employing the aforementioned findings in order to bridge the temporal, interregional and discursive gaps presently existing in the scholarly conversation, with the ultimate aim of discovering a more globalized lens for exploring the visual novel and its history in the academic setting. Illustrating its points through the means of various canonical as well as outlying game software, this thesis argues in favor of recognizing the menu-based mechanical paradigm and the perceived cultural point of origin as two underappreciated criteria that have so far been used to delineate the visual novel from other video game genres, and point to potential next steps in driving the global studies of this genre towards terminological unity.Item Yoroboshi: A modern Noh Play(2024) Razavi, S. Hassan; Poulton, M. CodyThis thesis examines the implications of designating an adaptation with the source material's name when the two bear little resemblance. Focusing on Mishima Yukio's Yoroboshi, a play from his Modern Noh Plays collection, this study investigates the effects of this practice on the imagined audience. By classifying a Western-style drama (shingeki) under the highly formalized genre of Noh and creating the category of "Modern Noh," Mishima merges the contrasting notions of tradition and modernity. This thesis posits that this fusion suggests that solutions to contemporary issues critiqued in the play, such as the erosion of national identity, may be found in the past. Mishima's Yoroboshi, adapted from a classical Noh play of the same name, introduces a family court to adjudicate the legal parentage of a young man blinded in an aerial bombing. The thesis explores the sociopolitical context of its time and the impact of labeling it as "Noh" on the audience. This analysis involves contextualizing the play, conducting a critical translation, and comparing it with the source material to assess its nature as an adaptation. Through this examination, this thesis aims to enhance understanding of Mishima's Modern Noh drama in the postwar context and its significance for the audience.Item Seals, script & sacred sites: A study of goshuin 御朱印 in modern Japan(2024) Brittain, Tanya L.; Poulton, M. CodyI argue in this thesis that while shinbutsu bunri was highly successful institutionally in many ways it failed in practice. Goshuin, provided at both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in the contemporary period exemplify the enduring complexity of Japanese cultural and religious practices. From an academic perspective however, they have been hiding in plain sight. Although goshuin have long endured as a cherished tradition in Japan they have not yet been studied in English language scholarship and remain underexplored even among Japanese academics and researchers. This lack of comprehensive investigation has left a significant gap in our understanding of the social and historical significance of goshuin as forms of material culture.Item Negotiating a truth of the underprivileged through affect in the Sinophone: Hooligan Sparrow and One Child Nation(2024) Zhou, Yiping; Chau, AngieThe public discourse surrounding Chinese-American filmmaker Nanfu Wang’s two social issue documentaries, Hooligan Sparrow (2016) and One Child Nation (2019), which focus on the social and political dynamics of contemporary China but are only publicly circulated in the West, revolves around “truth,” either praising the films for revealing the untold truth about China or criticizing them for failing to do so. Meanwhile, the aesthetics of both films have been interpreted by scholars and film critics as first-person or subjective. In this dichotomy between objectivity and subjectivity, the first-person interpretation fails to explain the dominant public truth discourse in its immediate social and political context. In order to understand the truth discourse and reconsider the film aesthetics in their historical specificity, this study approaches these films from Shu-mei Shih’s concept of the Sinophone, which explains the mechanisms of meaning production of cultural products on the margins of a prescribed and hegemonic concept of “China,” and reveals the power relations in which these films are produced and interpreted. Moreover, by applying a power-knowledge-affect framework, this research proposes to understand the concept of affect as a power or knowledge that reflects, shapes, and negotiates with social constructions of meaning. This thesis argues that the affective aesthetics of Hooligan Sparrow and One Child Nation, as power or knowledge itself, negotiate a truth about the underprivileged in China – those who have fewer advantages, privileges and opportunities, either economically, socially, politically, or ideologically than most people – with the discursive power relations that play out in the Sinophone. Specifically, this negotiation takes place through affective mechanisms and techniques, including the appropriation of the thriller genre and the use of free indirect discourse in both image and sound. By introducing the Sinophone concept into China-related social issue documentaries made on the margins of China, this project also exposes the limitations of current discourses in Chinese studies, such as the exclusion of non-Han cultural products, the tendency to fetishize China and ignore China’s racialized minorities, and specifically bridges the fields of independent Chinese documentary studies and Sinophone studies.Item Ideological change in the People's Republic of China : analysis on the criticism of Hu Shi, 1950's-1980's(1990) Xu, YingAs the title suggests, the basic theme of this thesis is a theoretical analysis of ideological change in the People's Republic of China from the 1950's to the 1980's that is based on the criticism of Hu Shi's ideas. An introduction to Hu Shi's educational background is followed by an account of his contributions to Chinese intellectual history. The analysis of evaluations of Hu Shi in the l 950's and the l980's forms the third part of the thesis and is highlighted. This thesis attempts to indicate that political needs are central in the People's Republic of China. All changes, economic, cultural, and ideological, have to meet the requirements of political struggles. Changes in these areas also reflect the situation of political struggles. Marxism is always the theoretical base for evaluation in Communist China. The criticism of Hu Shi's ideas after 1949 followed this pattern. Although the evolutions of Hu Shi in the 1950's and the 1980's are different, the change is slight. The study of Hu Shi in the 1980's is still based on Marxist theory. Based on this argument, this thesis suggests that the evaluation of Hu Shi cannot make profound changes by holding Marxist theory in esteem only. The solution to this problem is to exchange culture and ideas freely with other countries, including the West.Item Mapping the female body : the discourse on prostitution in Japan (1868-1926)(2003) Ueno, SonoeThis thesis provides a historical analysis of the discourse on prostitution in Japan during the Meiji and Taisho periods (1868-1926) . By tracing the discourse on prostitution, this study delineates the origins of the boundary that divides women into good women and prostitutes-this boundary still remains today. This research demonstrates that the dichotomy is not a unproblematic natural given, but is a historical product which has been shaped and determined by a multiplicity of factors: a series of laws issued in the early Meiji period, the implementation of the "good wife, wise mother" ideology, and the whore stigma that emerged from anti ·prostitution movements.Item Na sala vakavanua, na sala vakailavo : the Fijian way of life, the money way of life(1991) Thompson, Douglas KimThe title of this study --Na sala vakavanua, na sala vakailavo-- means the Fijian way of life, the money way of life. The objective of the thesis is to obtain an understanding of Island Fijian socioeconomic conditions. It takes the approach that the Island Fijian socioeconomic system consists of two sides --reciprocity and commodity-- and focuses on the interplay between these sides. With reference to direct observations and field based materials from various parts of Fiji, the thesis examines recent changes in the processes of socioeconomic life in Fiji. It is observed that Island Fijians are using commodities and money to fulfill reciprocity requirements, converting commodities and money into gifts, using the reciprocity side for commodity production.Item Looking at the past : a description of the visible characteristics of the NeyYeh chapter of the GoanTzyy(1994) Reeve, Michael A.H.Item Etiquette and feminine servitude in contemporary Japan(2001) Ou, Hui-HuiThis study analyses the role etiquette plays in the socialization of women into the philosophy of "good wife, wise mother." While etiquette is normally thought of as cursory stylized bodily behaviour, in Japan, the philosophy of etiquette embodies women's life-long devotion to family, husband and children. This research analyzes Japanese women's lifestyle / cooking magazines and etiquette manuals and their disciplinary force on women's bodies.Item Japanese involvement in Papua New Guinea from an economic perspective(1993) Niu, WenyingItem Women's organizations in Indonesia's new order : pressing needs and strategies for survival(1998) Miller, Danielle MargaretThis study presents a survey and analysis of non-government organizations for women in Indonesia. Independent women's organizations are successfully working toward social change in a political climate that is inherently discriminatory toward women. The New Order government developed a series of initiatives that legitimize State Ibuism, an ideological construct that excludes women from power and decision making processes. Independent women's organizations have emerged to challenge this dominant social paradigm of gender inequality by addressing issues such as violence against women, the marginalization of women in the labour force and gender-based social disparities. The study provides an analysis of the activities, objectives and ideological foundation of the groups and examines the methods employed to achieve social change. In order to be effective, women's NGOs adopt a series of strategies of resistance which allow the organizations to pursue goals of gender equity without placing themselves at high risk of government intervention.Item "An analysis of postmoderism and its influence on Li Ang" : an investigation into the intricacies of the postmodern condition through an analysis of Li Ang's most recent work(2000) Lin, Rita Hsia-yiSome commentators are puzzled by the degree of Li Ang's familiarity with postmodemism On the one hand, it appears that she is familiar with a number of key concepts and practices of postmodermsm. On the other hand, there are very obvious discrepancies between Li Ang's tertiary style and the deeper contents of her story. Her style of writing quite often seems to be an application of postmodemism. However, the deeper contents do not appear to be bound by the dictates of postmodernism Therefore, the relations between her work and postmodemism are ambiguous and controversial. Perhaps the best way to describe her views is to take the metaphor of a kite tied to the ground. She sees the world as a chaotic and fragmented arena m which nothing is sold or substantial but is mitigated by the anchor of community.Item State-peasant relations in 20th-century China(1998) Lansdowne, HelenThis study is a socio-economic and political analysis of peasant-state relations in 20th Century China. Peasants as families, as communities, and as a socio-political stratum have been greatly affected by the relative strength of the central state which at different times has ranged from near disintegration to almost complete, centralized control of society. Employing a historical approach, I have examined the changes undergone by both the national and the local state, and I have considered what bearing these changes have had on the world of the Chinese peasant. Reaction to the reach of the central state has been at two levels, that of the local cadre and that of the peasant. These two entities have at times operated in concert and at others in conflict with one another. As China is a vast country with regions marked by great physical and social differentiation, this study uses a comparative approach and concentrates on the North China Plain and the Pearl River Delta as two areas of study. The findings suggest that although regional differentiation should not be dismissed, the differences in peasant state relations are not only between macro-regions such as the North and the South, but are apparent also within regions.Item Economic development and local transformation in coastal China after 1978 : an examination of the validity of the actor-oriented perspective(2000) Kimura, MikaThis thesis evaluates the alternative perspective, actor-oriented approach proposed by Norman Long in order to determine whether it can provide greater understanding of diverse local economic development patterns. To this end, I have examined the triangular relationship between global, national, and local forces in each locality with particular emphasis on local actors' roles in three localities of Coastal China, Wenzhou, Sunan, and the Eastern delta of the Pearl River Delta. The findings from the case studies in this thesis suggest that each locality's unique economic development pattern is determined by configurations of these three forces. The influences of exogeneous forces necessarily interact with each locality's unique endogeneous forces . Within the given structural circumstances, either constraining or beneficial, local actors also formulate plans and act on them. For this reason, this thesis suggests that an actor-oriented approach, in conjunction with other structural approaches, may provide greater understanding of the complex process of local economic development patterns.Item A dream of red heroesmyth in chinese socialist realist fiction(1992) Keefer, James RobinsonItem A history and annotation of Taiwan hsieh-shih (realist) fiction, 1920-1979(1985) Haddon, Rosemary M.During the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan (1895- 1945), a number of social and literary movements took place in the colony which in many ways resemble the May Fourth Movement in China. Collectively entitled the Taiwan New Literature Movement (1920- 1937), these movements produced the first vernacular forms in Taiwan-the pai-hua ( "plain speech") which is rooted in the Chinese classical language (wen- yen-wen). These forms, first romantic then realist in genre, derived their primary stylistic influence from romantic and realist literature from China which was reprinted in Taiwan journals in the mid-l920s . World literary influences, particularly nineteenth-century European literature, also played their part in shaping Taiwan's vernacular. The first instance of a home-grown Taiwanese literature appeared with the works of Lai Ho (1894- 1943). These fictional pieces, written in a style of realism (hsieh-shih) which set a dominant trend in subsequent Taiwan fiction, were the first specimens of Hsiang-t'u (Homeland or Native Soil) literature in Taiwan . To date, Hsiang-t'u literature is Taiwan ' s first and only truly regional literature. After brief periods of sublimation, Taiwan realist fiction reemerged in the decades of the 1960s and 1970s as the product of the first native Taiwanese generation of writers. In the mid-1970s, this literary form blossomed in t he Hsiang-t' u Literary Movement during which writers such as Huang Ch'un-ming (1939-), Wang T'o (1944-), and Ch'en Ying-chen (1937--) wrote highly didactic stories based upon their perception of the corruption of Taiwan society and life . During this phase , Hsiang-t'u literature was reduced to little more than ideological polemics directed against the American and Japanese presence in Taiwan. The Hsiang-t'u movement was brought to an end in 1979. Since that time , however, the realist style has continued in the works of younger native Taiwanese writers such as Sung Tse-lai. These contemporary fictional pieces are a tribute to and reaffirmation of the spirit and greatness of Lai Ho- Taiwan's "Pioneer of Vernacular Fiction."Item The freedom to succeed or to fail : humanism in new era Chinese cinema(1995) Gallant, Maurice ElmerFrom 1979 to 1989, the film industry in the People's Republic of China enjoyed unprecedented creative freedom. In this ten year period, which has become known as the New Era, film artists were allowed to explore themes and content beyond the realm of political ideology. But, the New Era was not a discrete period and owed a debt to past cultural and political history. For this reason, we will analyze Chinese cultural and political history from the May Fourth Era in the 1910s to the New Era, paying particular attention to the presence of humanism in the representation of film characters. We will 'find that humanism has existed only in times of lessened political control and that the film of the eighties was part of a decades-old evolution in film. We should not think that the New Era ended in 1989, following the Chinese government's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen. There would be new creative life for Chinese cinema in the early nineties; this study covers only the initial phase in what has been one of the most exciting eras in the history of Chinese cinema.Item Ecologizing the Chinese Countryside: The Rural Fix for Urban Sustainability in the Lower Yangzi Delta(2024) Zhang, Yucong; Marton, AndrewThis dissertation examines the phenomenon of ecologization, the proliferating construction of ecological spaces (eco-spaces), which have emerged in densely populated rural areas of the lower Yangzi Delta mega-urban region in response to the sustainable development agenda and Chinese policies of ecological civilization. Drawn from the Chinese word shengtaihua (生态化), ecologization is used in this study to conceptualize the various ways ecology is interpreted and implemented in the Chinese context, as it challenges established discourses, practices and roles of spatial design disciplines which seek to address the goals of sustainable development and the ideologies of ecological civilization. The analysis of ecologization also provides a design perspective in understanding rural and urban transformation under strong environmental and cultural governance in China. Based on the interplay between environmental protection and urbanization, the process of ecologization is essentially a form of urbanization, modernization and civilization that radically transforms the spatial and social fabric of rural landscapes in the lower Yangzi Delta. As a national prototype for green and ecologically integrated development, ecologization in the lower Yangzi Delta may soon be widely adopted in the entire country, causing great loss of cultural landscapes, social sustainability and rurality in the Chinese countryside. Through extensive fieldwork, semi-structured interviews and document analysis, the dissertation illustrates how the interpretation of national environmental and ideological mandates among local planning elites in China has resulted in particular processes and patterns around the development and construction of eco-spaces. Detailed analysis of the ways spatial design disciplines interpret, implement, and govern eco-spaces highlight how ecologization across rural areas of the lower Yangzi Delta has become the fix for challenges of urban sustainability. A key finding of the research is that to fix urban sustainability statistically and aesthetically, two strategies—eco-metrics and eco-culture aesthetics —were devised by local planning elites to implement environmental and ideological tasks. Eco-metrics were achieved as top-down administrative tasks irrespective of spatial conditions, while eco-culture aesthetics composed new narratives of the rural landscapes as a continuation of culture and tradition. The evidence illustrates how ecologization is detrimental to social and environmental sustainability in rural areas. In the process, genuine social sustainability and pre-existing spatial conditions were largely disregarded, and village rationality, which maintains rurality and rural sustainability in the context of a globalized economy and rural urbanization, was lost. This outcome is inconsistent with the stated goals and rhetoric of indicator-based measurement methods of sustainable development and ecological civilization. Another key finding highlights strong cultural assertions in ecologization deliberately intended to reinforce the Party’s ideological influence, to ensure collective social value towards ecological civilization, and to harmonize conflicts between rural and urban, and local interests and national policies. Moreover, ecologization in the lower Yangzi Delta deployed spatial design disciplines as a tool to legitimize implementation of both environmental and ideological goals in eco-spaces and the surrounding countryside. Such forward-looking outcome-based approaches and the near total disregard of authentic local historical, social and cultural processes, is part of a spatial design approach that is consistent with the Party-state’s intention to wholly restructure spatial and social forms. The dissertation concludes by arguing that in-depth research and consideration of historical, contextual, and social processes must be undertaken to ensure spatial design disciplines can make meaningful contributions to genuine sustainability. Such sustainable planning and design should also be integrated into policy-making processes and be independent from administrative hierarchy and local power dynamics. The strategies and implications of ecologization in other parts of China, or in other cultural and political contexts could be further examined in comparative research.