This thesis is an initial attempt to investigate the Chinese perspective in the ivory trade debate, which often falls short in Western representations. The author used a qualitative analysis of...Show moreThis thesis is an initial attempt to investigate the Chinese perspective in the ivory trade debate, which often falls short in Western representations. The author used a qualitative analysis of various sources such as white papers, academic articles, newspaper articles and websites in order to analyse Western depictions of the Chinese role in the ivory trade, which were then contrasted with a Chinese actors' depiction of their involvement and motivations. Finally the thesis discusses NGO awareness campaigns aimed at Chinese consumers. Through the analysis it was found that NGOs generally take into account Chinese customs and realities in their targeted campaigns. It was furthermore concluded that the depiction of China's voracious ivory consumers does not reflect the reality, as the extent of consumption is overemphasized due to China's population size.Show less
This research is about the use of the ba construction in Taiwan Mandarin. This construction marks the object by inserting the morpheme ba, and preposes it to the front of the sentence structure. It...Show moreThis research is about the use of the ba construction in Taiwan Mandarin. This construction marks the object by inserting the morpheme ba, and preposes it to the front of the sentence structure. It has also been called a disposal construction, since it denotes how the object is affected by the subject. Taiwan Mandarin is heavily influenced by Southern Min, a language which is spoken by a large proportion of the Taiwanese population. The Southern Min ka7 construction is very similar to the ba construction: it marks the object as patient and preposes it in the sentence structure. However, its use is also quite different from the use of the ba construction. In order to find out if this ka7 construction has influenced the ba construction, I took spoken example sentences from Taiwanese television shows and written example sentences from Taiwanese Facebook pages. The data from these sources suggests that in some cases the ba construction in Taiwanese Mandarin does behave differently, and some of the differences can indeed be explained by the ka7 construction.Show less
This thesis, by means of a case study shows how conflicts such as the Shida Night Market case in Taiwan show how various actors use framing to influence media and politics. This thesis has not only...Show moreThis thesis, by means of a case study shows how conflicts such as the Shida Night Market case in Taiwan show how various actors use framing to influence media and politics. This thesis has not only investigated what framing attempts were made, and how they were formulated, but also what gave certain framing attempts strong resonance while others remained weak. In the case of Taiwan this thesis shows that the definition of culture is an important aspect when gaining popular support, and culture is both defined as a remnant of Japanese colonial rule, or as Taiwan's attempts to be(come) something else than Mainland China but still have a cultural background that is Chinese. This in turn shows how Taiwanese nationalism is defined and shaped, and how it is utilized in certain situations.Show less
The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (CSPFTZ) has been established on September 29th 2013 in Shanghai. Shanghai has been the center of many historical events. In the 19th century, Shanghai...Show moreThe China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (CSPFTZ) has been established on September 29th 2013 in Shanghai. Shanghai has been the center of many historical events. In the 19th century, Shanghai was opened up to the outside world and forced to outside trade relations due to the Nanking Treaty of 1842 after the First Opium War (1839-1842) and was selected as a new port: the ‘Shanghai International Settlement’. The British, American and French settled in Shanghai and after 100 years Shanghai developed as the largest foreign trade port in China. Meanwhile, during the first Sino-Japanese War of 1895, China was mauled by a strong, Western influenced Japan. Attempts to reform China into a modern nation failed but after the 1911 Revolution, Shanghai emerged as a center of modern activities. The population doubled between 1895 and 1910 from 245,675 to 501,541 people as many Chinese were attracted by the city. During World War I (1914-1918) many people left while the diminished supply of Chinese export goods led to a higher demand of these export goods. Especially in the 1920s and 1930s, Shanghai grew as many silk filatures, cotton mills, and chemical works emerged. In the 1930s, Shanghai’s Port served as the main shipping center in the Far East; the city was seen as a cosmopolitan city. However, in 1937 Japan bombed Shanghai and occupied parts of China again, which lasted until 1945. People lived under brutal circumstances under the occupation of Japan and the conditions to develop into a cosmopolitan city moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong. In 1949, the CCP, led by Mao Zedong, took power and focused on rural regions resulting in neglected cities; the nation controlled Shanghai and the city was forced to dispose of its cosmopolitan life. However, when Mao Zedong died in 1976, the balance of power changed: Hua Guofeng established the ‘Open Door’ policy in 1977 before Deng Xiaoping returned to power in 1978. The new policy led to the beginning of its modernization process and several Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were established mainly to attract foreign direct investment. Since the opening up until 1997, China attracted billions of foreign investment (US dollars) and by the mid-1990s, the economy moved away from a command economy to a functioning market economy. After 1978, China’s modernization process took off really quickly and created a gap between South China including its coastal regions and North-East China as the South and its coastal areas are developing much faster. Therefore, China can be divided into two different phases of modernization according to Rostow’s Five-Stages of Growth (1960). The South and its coastal regions can be assigned to the final phase of modernization while the North-East part of China can be assigned to phase three. The SEZs which have been established since 1978 are particular geographic regions in countries used to encourage export services, industry, and manufacturing. In China, initially four SEZs were established in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen and Shantou to test the new policies and new institutions for the market-oriented economy in order to improve China’s economy. The role SEZs, and especially Shenzhen, played in China’s modernization process was quite apparent as average annual growth has been 9.4 percent since the 1980s: the SEZs boost China’s economy and moved towards a more technology-intensive and higher-value economy. 34 years later, on 29th September 2013, a new SEZ was established in Pudong, Shanghai: the CSPFTZ. The CSPFTZ has been established to enhance China’s economic position globally and to develop a new, replicable financial and administrative system which can be implemented in every region of the country. Nevertheless, the privileged status of ‘special’ is diminished since there are already many SEZs in China. However, as analysis shows, the zone operates differently from the majority of the SEZs which enables the CSPFTZ to offer enough advantages to attract foreign investors to be successful. The chances of success nonetheless depend on the government. The government encourages so many aspects and is experimenting with so many measures that the chance of success is questioned. But, if the government is able to achieve its aims, the CSPFTZ can be successful and could contribute to China’s South and coastal regions’ modernization process as the leading sectors shift towards more durable consumer goods and services in Rostow’s final phase.Show less
I will show that contemporary studies have been focusing mainly on the creation of a single, more or less standardized Japanese cuisine, rather than on variations in local cuisine. I will further...Show moreI will show that contemporary studies have been focusing mainly on the creation of a single, more or less standardized Japanese cuisine, rather than on variations in local cuisine. I will further discuss the current situation of the Japanese food culture and rise in the popularity of 'affordable versus expensive food' and how this popularity is used in the domestic tourism sector of Japan. This will be done by two case studies: the first is tourism promotion through television and the second is through travel guide books.Show less
In this thesis I examine the complications in constructing an identity that is based in a past of conflict, an identity that has been hidden and negatively approached. I focus on three Indisch...Show moreIn this thesis I examine the complications in constructing an identity that is based in a past of conflict, an identity that has been hidden and negatively approached. I focus on three Indisch-Japanese descendants, whose stories show the problems they faced in constructing an identity in a sphere of taboo. I will show how by deriving more information about their past, they can rethink the memory of their history and as such bring a new form of negotiating their identity. In this thesis, I look at the trip to Japan as a central source of gathering information about their background. The stories show that identification to a Japanese background is a process that takes shape over time.Show less
This thesis examines how Japan's declining birth rate and women's work-life balance are related, and how the government has responded to this in terms of policies.
Casting the Other in a villainous light has been a trend long known in the U.S. entertainment business. Asian villains have been employed since the late 19th century, leading to the birth of the...Show moreCasting the Other in a villainous light has been a trend long known in the U.S. entertainment business. Asian villains have been employed since the late 19th century, leading to the birth of the yellow peril trope in entertainment narratives. More recently a trend of shifting this yellow peril trope from Chinese, Japanese, or any other Asian nationality to North Korean has appeared. Since the late 20th, but mostly 21st, century there has been an increase of North Korean antagonism in entertainment media. This thesis examines this shift and attempts to explain and explore this, including the effects essentialist representations (could) have on the consumer. This is done by analysing 3 films and 2 video games, all dealing with North Korean antagonism as narrative. There are also parallels drawn between the increase of North Korean antagonism in fiction and real politics, as fiction often feeds off of reality to create dramatic storylines.Show less
This thesis offers an insight into the hardships of Japan’s largest minority group, the Burakumin. Whilst the generally accepted explanation for their social ostracism is that they are descendants...Show moreThis thesis offers an insight into the hardships of Japan’s largest minority group, the Burakumin. Whilst the generally accepted explanation for their social ostracism is that they are descendants of Japan’s former feudal outcaste community, this narrative, when held up to the light, contains sporadic, ambiguous and unempirical building blocks. All the same, it remains the master narrative in most of the discussion, even in those who are inherently victimized by it and those who wish to end this discrimination, such as Buraku activist groups. What this thesis will attempt to research then, is in how far this Buraku master narrative influences Buraku self-identity and the possible solutions to the Buraku issue.Show less
This thesis examines in what way the modern South Korean National Identity is represented in contemporary Korean cinema that takes the colonial past as its subject. The Korean colonial past still...Show moreThis thesis examines in what way the modern South Korean National Identity is represented in contemporary Korean cinema that takes the colonial past as its subject. The Korean colonial past still is a sensitive and much discussed historical subject and modern film representations of this often present biased views. Cinema is taken to be a preeminent way of representing the past that not only tells us a lot about present-day views on a subject, but also influences these views. Firstly a theoretical framework is provided in which the importance of both modern-day national identity and the influence of cinema on this form of identity is discussed. In light of this framework six contemporary South Korean films are discussed with a division placed between male representations and female representations of national identity. Throughout this discussion it becomes clear that in an attempt to reshape the national identity and historical memory of Korea to a more positive one, these films place a heavy emphasis on the masculine spirit of the nation and often neglect to include female agency in the fight against Japan.Show less
The phonetic component in Chinese characters is assessed automatically in reading. The psychology of reading characters reveals that native readers have a genuine assessment of the phonetic...Show moreThe phonetic component in Chinese characters is assessed automatically in reading. The psychology of reading characters reveals that native readers have a genuine assessment of the phonetic component. It facilitates the reading of compound characters with beneficial statistical values in the corpus. This highlights the importance of reading experience. The native reader serves as a blueprint for an "ideal" near-native reader. In the psychology of learning Chinese as a second script, there are possibilities and constraints regarding this goal. In order to approximate near-native reading, non-native learners need to acquire a flexible and comprehensive assessment of the phonetic component. Long-term study of graphs and their individual parts as well as reading experience are essential.Show less
In the globalizing society we live in today, movies are made available to a broad and international audience through the translation of their contents – dubbing, voice-overs and subtitling. Of...Show moreIn the globalizing society we live in today, movies are made available to a broad and international audience through the translation of their contents – dubbing, voice-overs and subtitling. Of these, subtitling has proven to be an effective tool for the transmission of the core message to a different target audience without affecting the original too much. It is common practice in Japan to add Japanese subtitles to American film productions; regardless of genre, motion picture rating and popularity. The same is done for domestic Japanese cartoons (anime) and TV programs through the use of open captions. These types of subtitles are especially appropriate for hearing audiences of whom the people can hear the dialogues, sounds and background music themselves. Subtitles for non-hearing audiences, like deaf and hearing impaired viewers, need a different approach as the translation of sound to (written) language is also necessary. Only with this second layer of translation, can the deaf have a complete cinematic experience and be exposed to all cinematic clues. Nonetheless, in Japan this second layer of translation of American movies is insufficient, if not almost absent. In recent years, this issue has surfaced in the academic field of audiovisual translation studies in Japan. This thesis attempts to contribute to this nascent research area and takes a closer look at the subtitling options for a deaf Japanese target audience and tries to detect areas of improvement.Show less
Consuming certain kind of products can shape someone’s identity and status in society. Within this framework, this paper looks at two representations of a specific place and period in time, the...Show moreConsuming certain kind of products can shape someone’s identity and status in society. Within this framework, this paper looks at two representations of a specific place and period in time, the Japan of the 1950s. Japan was recovering from the Second World War, its economy started to slowly grow again and consumption became an important matter in creating a homogenous middle‐class in society. Important in this process was the idea of “electrifying” households. This thesis looks at representations of consuming through the lens of cinema and analyzes how patterns of consuming electronic products such as the “three sacred treasures” (sanshu no shinki), the black and white television, the refrigerator and the washing machine, are displayed and what kind of effect acquiring these products may have on individuals and the people surrounding them. It leads to the following research question: In representing the elements of everyday life in 1950s Japan and displaying the effect of the consumption phenomenon and the electrification of society, what differences in the function of consuming electronics such as the “three treasures” are present in the films "Ohayō" and "Always: Sanchōme no Yūhi?"Show less
Upon becoming prime-minister of Malaysia in 1981,Mahathir initiated the “Look East” policy. This policy looked at Korea and Japan and sought to use these countries as examples. The policy was not...Show moreUpon becoming prime-minister of Malaysia in 1981,Mahathir initiated the “Look East” policy. This policy looked at Korea and Japan and sought to use these countries as examples. The policy was not only meant as an economic measure, but also as a cultural policy to aid the poor Malays. This thesis tries to answer the question to what extent the policy was aimed for the latter and how this was to be implemented. Firstly, it will look at Malaysia's cultural background and Mahathir's view on the matter before becoming prime-minister. It focuses on his book, the Malay Dilemma, where he stressed the need for Malays to change their values. Secondly it will look into the initiation of the “Look East” policy and what it aimed to do. Thirdly, it will go into Japan's image and how Mahathir sought to transfer values from Japan to Malaysia. Then, it will look at the implementation of the policy and how it was executed. Lastly, the conclusion talks about the cultural influence of the “Look East” policy. Saying that the policy was not effective in changing the values of the Malays, but did bring out a change in direction from looking to the West towards looking to the East.Show less
