This thesis investigates how Chinese exchange students have come to experience Dutch society during their time in the Netherlands in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this thesis...Show moreThis thesis investigates how Chinese exchange students have come to experience Dutch society during their time in the Netherlands in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this thesis also investigates how this experience abroad has made Chinese exchange students reflect on their own national identity.Show less
Repatriating cultural artifacts that have been illegally traded in the past is more difficult than we may anticipate. The Chinese government has been attempting to repatriate its 'lost cultural...Show moreRepatriating cultural artifacts that have been illegally traded in the past is more difficult than we may anticipate. The Chinese government has been attempting to repatriate its 'lost cultural relics' since the 1990s. The term 'lost cultural relics' is used to describe “cultural objects that were looted, stolen, excavated or trafficked immorally or illegally from China” (Liu 2015). In the past, a discreet number of studies have focused on the issue of repatriating lost cultural relics to China, but there has been little research on Chinese collectors buying Chinese antiquities from other countries. This study attempts to understand how the state-run media Global Times portrays Chinese collectors purchasing lost cultural relics and how it frames their intentions in obtaining the objects at expensive prices.Show less
Primary school textbooks are filled with images and text that provide information about other countries, even if the intention of those books is not to teach about world orientation, but how to...Show morePrimary school textbooks are filled with images and text that provide information about other countries, even if the intention of those books is not to teach about world orientation, but how to read and write. This thesis studied Dutch “Lijn 3” reading and writing books of Malmberg through Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), which encompasses both textual Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Visual Discourse Analysis (VDA), and found that there is a significant amount of information on China within them. This information is often stereotypical, and corresponds to existing prejudice and humour on China and the Chinese ethnic minority in the Netherlands. Furthermore, interviews with teachers showed that they are aware of harmful effects of stereotypes and prejudice, but they are reluctant to intervene when they encounter stereotypes in books. They prefer to ignore stereotypes because they argue that children do not see them. This incorrect observation, that children are unable to see and understand stereotypes, creates a non-critical environment for children and teachers, in which stereotypes and prejudice teach children a power hierarchy. In this hierarchy, the Caucasian Dutch are dominant, and the rest is subordinate. This thesis suggests that stereotypes in textbooks need to be acknowledged by teachers, and communicated to children, or illustrators and authors need to eliminate stereotypes out of books, in order to change this problematic power hierarchy.Show less
China’s economic success over the past decades has led to a massive increase in private car consumption. Even though this rise in private car use has positive societal effects, it is favorable to...Show moreChina’s economic success over the past decades has led to a massive increase in private car consumption. Even though this rise in private car use has positive societal effects, it is favorable to limit the consumption of private cars from an environmental point of view. For instance, because private cars cause a large amount of carbon emissions. One way to reduce private car use is by adopting shared cars. Earlier studies showed that consumers portray a positive attitude towards shared cars, but adoption rates remain low. To help the promotion of carsharing, this thesis has studied what values Chinese consumers create when using a car sharing service. This was done by distributing a qualitative questionnaire among mostly Chinese university students and analyzing the results by using the theory of consumption values. The findings of this survey showed that functional and emotional values are the most salient considerations for using shared cars. With regards to functional values, a car sharing service should be convenient, low-cost, and of high quality. To enhance emotional values, shared cars should be safe and hygienic, and provide freedom for users to go wherever they would want to go. The findings of this thesis show that the theory of consumption values is applicable to analyze consumption behavior within the sharing economy. Practically, the findings of this thesis also allow car sharing service providers to improve and promote their offerings.Show less
It has been five years since Xi Jinping introduced the concept of ‘Chinese Dream’ and it is still a hot topic, also online. While some scholars regarded this new concept of the Chinese Dream as a...Show moreIt has been five years since Xi Jinping introduced the concept of ‘Chinese Dream’ and it is still a hot topic, also online. While some scholars regarded this new concept of the Chinese Dream as a positive development for China, others considered it as a rather strategic narrative of the CCP to influence the image of China domestically and international (Boc, 2015; Callahan, 2015; Mahoney, 2013; Lu, 2015; Wang, 2016). However, most academic researches concluded that the concept ‘Chinese Dream’ is rather vague and does not imply for who it is meant (Li, 2015). As bloggers are also a part of the ‘citizen intellectuals’ that can reshape the future of China, I analyzed the blogposts of common users on the microblogging platform Sina Weibo and how they perceive this concept (Callahan, 2013; Gleiss, 2015). This thesis concludes that even though the government gives space to talk about the Chinese Dream, the narrative online is still lead by the Chinese government rhetoric.Show less
The goal of this thesis was to research the influence of Ahok’s political situation on the ethnic identity of Chinese Indonesian students who temporarily stayed in the Netherlands. Therefore, 23 in...Show moreThe goal of this thesis was to research the influence of Ahok’s political situation on the ethnic identity of Chinese Indonesian students who temporarily stayed in the Netherlands. Therefore, 23 in-depth interviews were conducted, in which positive and negative views on Ahok’s political situation were discussed. Additionally, questions in relation to their ethnic identity were asked.Show less
