This thesis investigates the link between the PRC's Anti-Monopoly Law and its broader economic development goals. The research illustrates that there is a link between these two. The Chinese Anti...Show moreThis thesis investigates the link between the PRC's Anti-Monopoly Law and its broader economic development goals. The research illustrates that there is a link between these two. The Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law, a law that is mainly targeted towards Chinese Platform companies, is argued having a strong control mechanism towards Chinese Platform companies. This controlling mechanism can guide Platform companies in the PRC government's economic and technology interests.Show less
Indonesia is experiencing a phenomenon that is called the moral turn. Increasingly, people are aiming to regulate the moralities of others and their private lives. This trend is happening at the...Show moreIndonesia is experiencing a phenomenon that is called the moral turn. Increasingly, people are aiming to regulate the moralities of others and their private lives. This trend is happening at the same time as others, like polarization. By analysing three pieces of recent (proposed) legislation that are examples of the moral turn (the Family Resilience Bill, the Sexual Violence Bill and the Criminal Code), I look at whether and to what extent the moral turn is polarizing Indonesian society. In the end, I argue that the moral turn in Indonesia has highlighted the divisions between pluralists, nationalists and liberalist on the one hand and moralists and Islamists on the other, but that it has most importantly brought these groups together as they came to several agreements around the legislative debates.Show less
An average thought is that Thai Boy’s Love (BL) is just like any other BL in other countries. BL stories are love stories with a male same-sex romance. This thesis shows that Thai BL, called in...Show moreAn average thought is that Thai Boy’s Love (BL) is just like any other BL in other countries. BL stories are love stories with a male same-sex romance. This thesis shows that Thai BL, called in this thesis series wai, is an innovative and hybrid subgenre within the BL genre. The transmedia popularity and the focus on masculinity and gender roles cause the subgenre to be different from the Chinese, Japanese, South Korean, and Taiwanese BL subgenres. The transmedia popularity shows that it is not only about the series, but mainly about the imaginary couples. The research found that series wai reflects the ideals of siwilai, namely, “romantic monogamous heterosexuality.” This makes series wai innovative and hybrid, as it is not about the series only and it combines society ideals with series which do not follow the ideal society at the first glance.Show less
The Great Translation Movement is a digital activity organised by Chinese diasporic netizens, having launched during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The movement seeks to translate the...Show moreThe Great Translation Movement is a digital activity organised by Chinese diasporic netizens, having launched during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The movement seeks to translate the ultranationalist, pro-Russian and anti-Western sentiments, as well as the ongoing discussion about the social events from the China online discourse and show them to the broader audience in the West. In fact, what lies behind online comments such as "Putin the Great", "US is demeaning China," and " the system is fatally broken" is the phenomenon of digital nationalism in China. Thus, this paper examines the two sides of digital nationalism. On the one hand, by promoting nation-patriotism online, the authoritarian regime of China increased support by the Chinese people worldwide. But on the other hand, nation-building in the age of ICT is a complex process that produces unpredictable outcomes, especially under the circumstances such as polarised online discourse and social discord. Thus, this paper examined the most recent data curated by the GTM, aiming to comprehend GTM's participant's ideas and behaviour and the consequences of CCP's engagement in the digital nationalism process.Show less
The Korean peninsula knows a long history of book culture, and attention to it has ranged from the earliest known texts to the recently growing interest in modern Korean literature that came with...Show moreThe Korean peninsula knows a long history of book culture, and attention to it has ranged from the earliest known texts to the recently growing interest in modern Korean literature that came with the ‘Korean wave’. Many of the now canonical works find their roots in the colonial era in Korea (1910-1945) and various aspects pertaining to textual production during this era have been researched by scholars. However, an often-overlooked history is that of the printers and printshops in colonial Korea who had a significant influence over book production. With this loss of primary source material directly stemming from these printshops, the only other source indicating the printer of a text is the included colophon. This colophon is often damaged or simply missing in older books, and to this date there is no efficient method to recover this lost information. Thereby preventing any sizeable quantitative study of printshops in colonial Korea. This MA Thesis will examine the possibility of using convolutional neural networks (ConvNet) to identify the printshop of a given text dating to colonial Korea in order to allow large- scale quantitative research into colonial Korean printshops, which has been impossible thus far It will do this through a case study approach that aims to successfully classify books of four colonial Korean printshops, namely, the Hansŏng Tosŏ Chusik Hoesa (漢城圖書株式會社), Taedong inswaeso (大東印刷所), Sinmungwan (新文館), and Chosŏn inswae chusik hoesa (朝鮮印刷株 式會社). The findings here can be applied to a more extensive set of printers, given enough data and time. Therefore, this research is of high importance to the field of Korean history, as it is an essential step in charting the history of colonial Korean printers. Additionally, the benefits gained from this study are also helpful in the field of digital humanities, as this study will not only focus on the production and performance of a model but also include dataset construction and model explainability. The latter is a vital part and often missing in other DH scholarly work related to ConvNets. Hence, this paper is highly relevant to Korean historical research, and its methodology can be used far beyond the context of colonial-era printshops.Show less
Image building within and about China-Africa relations play as major role in the way this growing international engagement is understood. Despite recognition for its important role in high level...Show moreImage building within and about China-Africa relations play as major role in the way this growing international engagement is understood. Despite recognition for its important role in high level dialogue and policy creation, non-media platforms, such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, are often overlooked as an important image-building medium. Therefore, by questioning how Chinese and African officials frame their own relationship through official FOCAC-discourse, this thesis seeks to add to contemporary framing theory on China-Africa relations. Three case studies on written and visual framing processes within important FOCAC policy documents, photographs and speeches highlight the multiplicity of frameworks that contribute to the creation of a relational self-image. These analyses reveal how images of China-Africa relations are built on co-existing, but contrasting discourses, and how different framing mechanisms influence each other to shape a multiplicity of images.Show less
This thesis examines the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (ETAT) and the Setouchi Triennale (ST), two of the largest and best-known Art Triennale in (and outside) Japan, and considers how these art...Show moreThis thesis examines the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (ETAT) and the Setouchi Triennale (ST), two of the largest and best-known Art Triennale in (and outside) Japan, and considers how these art festivals intend to provide a solution to the continuing ageing population and declining birthrate in Japanese rural areas. Japan contains the largest proportion of elderly people in the world and its population continues to decline since 2004. Yet, this decrease is especially severe in rural areas because the majority of the population consist of elderly people. The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale (ETAT) and the Setouchi Triennale (ST), have been established as strategies to tackle Japan’s increasingly ageing population. The former was established by Kitagawa Fram (1946-present) whereas the latter was co-founded in 2010 by Kitagawa Fram and Fukutake Sōichirō (1945/46-present). The common aim of the ETAT and ST initially seems to be the restoration of these economically declining rural areas through contemporary art projects. Yet, this thesis claims that Kitagawa’s and Fukutake’s idealistic views about the countryside and ‘traditional’ countryside lifestyles resulted into their attempt to reshape Japanese society by reidentifying neglected rural areas through contemporary art. This is because both men’s strong partnership and their active involvement in both Triennale shape these art festivals according to their own convictions and objectives. Therefore, this thesis demonstrates that the ETAT and ST’s purpose exceeds rural revitalization and is actually about the creation of a ‘new’ society which is brought together by the art festivals.Show less
This present study provides a historical correction to a common misinformation on the nature of the Second Kongsi War in West Borneo, between 1850 and 1854. The Chinese settlement of West Borneo...Show moreThis present study provides a historical correction to a common misinformation on the nature of the Second Kongsi War in West Borneo, between 1850 and 1854. The Chinese settlement of West Borneo were recruited under the authority of Malay sultans to the mining sector in the mid-eighteenth century. Thereafter these immigrants established themselves in the island by building their communities, based on lineages and brotherhood in the vicinity of the mining fields. Gradually, they became independent economically, militarily, and culturally. Within the near one-hundred-and-thirty-year settlement, internal conflicts between the Chinese communities frequently turned into violent and bloody battles. Since the interests of everyone in the region of West Borneo were interrelated, those internal disputes between the Chinese communities, the Chinese and other groups, developed into regional conflicts, involving every party, from Malay sultans and Dayak tribesmen to Europeans and other Chinese counterparts who attempted to remain neutral during the wars. This study specifically centres on the Chinese experience of the Second Kongsi War, between 1850 and 1854, during which different ethnic and political parties in West Borneo were engaged. By employing a bulk of Chinese letters stored at Leiden University Library, I sorted out four strategies used by the Chinese kongsis in West Borneo to win the inter-Chinese war. As a result of these strategies, militarily and diplomatically, the inter-Chinese disputes developed into a regional conflict, with the Dutch colonialists, which were however not beneficial for the kongsis. The wars unfortunately, resulted in serious defeats of the Chinese in 1854, and hence, the decline of the Chinese political institutions of West Borneo by the turn of the mid-nineteenth century.Show less