Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
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As influential Chinese Constitutionalists, Liang Qichao and Yanfu were the earliest to introduce and interpret Jean-Jacques Rousseau during the late Qing dynasty. They offered most of the...Show moreAs influential Chinese Constitutionalists, Liang Qichao and Yanfu were the earliest to introduce and interpret Jean-Jacques Rousseau during the late Qing dynasty. They offered most of the interpretations of Rousseau’s thought among intellectuals during the late Qing period mainly by writing articles in the late Qing newspapers. This determined Rousseau’s image and interpretations of some modern Western concepts during this time. This thesis will analyze their interpretations of Rousseau and understandings of some modern political concepts in their articles related to Rousseau in the late Qing newspapers. This will be done as a means to decode how Rousseau and some modern political concepts were interpreted by constitutionalists at the beginning of his introduction. On the whole, Liang Qichao experienced two stages in introducing and interpreting Rousseau's thought. In the first stage from the period of 1899 to 1903, Liang Qichao applauded Rousseau’s thought. However, from the 1904 to 1910 period of the second stage, he started to question and even oppose Rousseau’s thought (this was especially after his visit to America in 1904). Differing from Liang Qichao’s perspective, Yanfu criticized Rousseau during the beginning of his contact with The Social Contract. Yanfu denied Rousseau’s thought as "studies without roots" (无根之学). Meanwhile, he further argued that Rousseau's thought was just dangerous fantasies. Under the political crisis of the late Qing government and missions of saving the state, race, and Confucianism of Chinese intellectuals, Yanfu and Liang Qichao, as Constitutionalists, treated the thought of Western thinkers as tools for saving China from the crisis. Although they held different attitudes towards Rousseau in the beginning, they both eventually criticized Rousseau’s thought as both dangerous and unrealistic. In chapter one, research motivations will be proposed. Next, the literature review of the thesis will be discussed, including the literature review on the research of modern Chinese thought, as well as Rousseau’s role in modern Chinese thought. Then, research methods and sources will be addressed. Chapter two proposes two features of Nakae Chōmin’s translation, namely, Nakae Chōmin’s translation in the Chinese historical context and the tendency toward revolution; from fighting against the tyrant to fighting against the monarchy. In chapter three, Liang Qichao’s interpretations of his approval of Rousseau from 1899 to 1903 will be discussed. Later, chapter four argues Liang Qichao and Yanfu’s critiques of Rousseau from the 1904 to 1910 period. Finally, a conclusion of the thesis will be provided.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
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This thesis moves beyond the dichotomy of analyzing normal and abnormal behavior in Japanese education, and shows that individual experiences in education need to be more thoroughly investigated....Show moreThis thesis moves beyond the dichotomy of analyzing normal and abnormal behavior in Japanese education, and shows that individual experiences in education need to be more thoroughly investigated. Being part of formal education means confrontation with existing forms of knowledge that clash with individual social practices. Although there is a strong argument to be made against the ability to practice resistance in an increasingly neo-liberal environment, this thesis shows the opposite. It is possible to differentiate between complete resistance to the expectations that accompany education and more subtle ways of resistance. In fact, all the respondents in this study have shown some form of resistance and consequently, a reconfiguration of individual behavior. This can be resistance to existing language practices, or a complete rejection of anything associated with being Japanese. This thesis shows that there is a space for resistance in Japanese education that extends well beyond teachers’ classroom practices and into students’ individual behavior. Most importantly, the analysis gives a clear example of how resistance against the neo-liberal economization of the individual can be practiced, and is already being practiced in the framework of Japanese education.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
open access
2022-06-01T00:00:00Z
This thesis researches the Chinese community of the videogame Dota 2. It focusses on nationalism and how larger narratives are negotiated in the everyday experience. It argues that daily encounters...Show moreThis thesis researches the Chinese community of the videogame Dota 2. It focusses on nationalism and how larger narratives are negotiated in the everyday experience. It argues that daily encounters (in this case in the dota community) are processed through national narratives which constitute a 'normal' way of framing the world.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This paper proposes a new perspective to understand the local self-government movement during the late Qing New Policies era. On the one hand, this new perspective moves beyond the common practice...Show moreThis paper proposes a new perspective to understand the local self-government movement during the late Qing New Policies era. On the one hand, this new perspective moves beyond the common practice of interpreting the local self-government movement as failed state efforts to bridle the local elite by enlisting them into bureaucracy, and instead looks at it from the perspective of local society. On the other hand, it emphasizes the relations between local self-government institutions and other contemporaneous professional associations, like the chamber of commerce, education association, agriculture association, and the anti-opium bureau. To facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the local self-government movement, this paper examines the case in Jiaxing from 1905 to 1914. This period witnessed the whole process of the first wave of the local self-government movement from its start and preparation in the last years of the Qing to its abolition by Yuan Shikai in the Republic. A clear understanding of local power structure is indispensable for researching local self-government. Previous scholars generally draw a line between upper-degree elites and lower elites, urban elites and countryside-based elites, suggesting that there were serious conflicts between upper urban elites and lower elites during the local self-government movement. My research on Jiaxing shows provides corrective to this interpretation. Traditional degrees and lineage were still important, but they were no longer major factors for elite to form establishments, seek support, and construct identity. By participating in various professional associations, Jiaxing elites gradually began to organize themselves along with associations and take action in the name of these associations. The emergence of professional associations was a significant political development in modern Chinese history. They performed many local works independently and often advocated for public benefits, local self-government and a constitutional government, either alone or together with other associations. There were numerous examples of the close cooperation between different professional associations and local self-government institutions. It were the members of professional associations who first promoted and dominated the self-government institutions. For the Jiaxing elites, local self-government was merely one among the many organizations for them to participate in local affairs and exert influence. All these linkages and cooperation between different institutions and associations contributed to a power balance in Jiaxing society in the last years of the Qing dynasty. Public management functions were clearly delineated among various associations whose members were mainly New Policies activists who wished to make the country better and stronger by building local society. There were some peasant uprisings, but during this period the urban-rural conflict may not have been essential in Jiaxing. The 1911 Revolution changed this kind of balanced local power structure among local officials, self-government institutions, and professional associations. Magistrates gradually lost their control of local society, while local assemblies and executive boards became the major decision-making institutions in the first years of the Republic. The clearly delineated functions among self-government institutions, professional associations and local governments were disrupted. Eventually in 1914, Yuan Shikai abolished all of the local self-government institutions.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
open access
Despite the exalted status of Southern Song (1127-1279) scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200) in the contemporary body of research, relatively little effort has been dedicated to understanding his views on...Show moreDespite the exalted status of Southern Song (1127-1279) scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200) in the contemporary body of research, relatively little effort has been dedicated to understanding his views on military affairs and policy. Furthermore, analyses of his military policy recommendations and assessments of his participation in the debate on the Jin-Song conflict have not yet benefited from a thorough comparison with his more “philosophical” works, most importantly the Four Books and his later statements collected in the Thematic Discourses. This paper seeks to both expand and nuance the current understanding of Zhu Xi’s military thought by taking into account a broader array of historical sources, ranging from the foundational Four Books to his private letters and assorted sayings. The structure of the present paper is divided into two main parts. In the first part, I shall examine several general discussions on topics of warfare as they occur in the Four Books, basing myself primarily on Zhu Xi’s commentaries and his collected statements on its topics. The aim of this section is to establish the importance of military policy within Zhu Xi’s political thought, serving analogously to the institution of legal punishment as a functional expression or “tip” of the “root” of moral government. “Barbarians”, as physiologically and, by extension, morally deficient creatures, constituted a special object of military action. Lastly, while military conduct should always depart from an understanding of Principle as the determinant of “things as they should be”, practical and strategic considerations remained a legitimate and indeed necessary topic of inquiry. In the second part of the paper, based on the historical and philosophical framework reconstructed previously, I aim to reexamine Zhu Xi’s public and private writings concerning specifically the issue of Jin-Song relations. Three topics prove to be of particular relevance. Firstly, addressing recent claims that Zhu Xi supposedly abandoned the revanchist cause later in life, I will argue that his gradual reconceptualization of the state and its sovereign as the primary foci of revanchist sentiment enabled him to maintain this cause unabatedly. Secondly, through a reassessment of his early private and political writings I will address claims of Zhu’s supposed “hawkish” attitude towards the conflict, instead arguing that his acute perception of Song military weakness informed his consistently defensive and preparatory stance. Lastly, building on recent suggestions that Zhu had argued chiefly for a process of “moral rearmament” as the basis for military reconquest, I will examine his practical and concrete policy suggestions. Throughout, I shall emphasize possible loci of interaction and interdependence between Zhu’s political and philosophical writings, ultimately arguing that the two are inextricably related.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
This study attempts to reconstitute the trajectory of the reception of Western classical music in the late-colonial era Korea by employing Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital. How did the...Show moreThis study attempts to reconstitute the trajectory of the reception of Western classical music in the late-colonial era Korea by employing Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital. How did the recipient classes acquire and secure Western musical taste as a new form of cultural capital and what kinds of aspects facilitated this process? In order to shed light on the multilayered colonial context behind this phenomenon, Arjun Appadurai’s five ‘scapes’ concept is applied to the following method of historical research: to examine, evaluate, and analyze official documents, contemporary newspapers, magazine articles, and advertisements, as well as previous studies on the history of Western music in Korea. This approach examines the reception of Western music from various angles. This research is a study of both ‘colonial modernity’ and the sociology of music, grafting the research framework of area studies onto that of musicology.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis makes use of the place-based approach to pilgrimage to investigate the past and present role of the Taipei Tianhou-gong (a temple in the Ximen district of Taipei) as a crossroads of...Show moreThis thesis makes use of the place-based approach to pilgrimage to investigate the past and present role of the Taipei Tianhou-gong (a temple in the Ximen district of Taipei) as a crossroads of pilgrimage. Past approaches to pilgrimage have either been blind to the particularities of pilgrimage across cultures, or placed too much stress on the contested character of pilgrimage sites. My primary aim is to show how the two discourses that informed the Taipei Tianhou-gong in turn in the past, at present do not compete or exclude one another, but rather appear to run parallel. Before the Taipei Tianhou-gong as it stands today was built, the site was home to the Kobo-ji, a temple constructed during the Japanese period that functioned as the headquarters of Shingon Buddhism in colonial Taiwan. The Kobo-ji eventually served as the starting point of a copy of the Shikoku Henro (a 1,200-kilometer-long Japanese pilgrimage circuit) in Taipei. After the Japanese left Taiwan in 1945, the Kobo-ji was remodeled by the Taiwanese and dedicated to the Fujianese sea goddess Mazu. Today, and with the current popularity of the actual Shikoku Henro among the Taiwanese, we see how the Shingon Buddhist heritage of the Taipei Tianhou-gong is in the process of being reactivated. This reactivation presents us with a significant case of a pilgrimage site where meaning is not contested, but which is instead characterized by a parallelism of discourses.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
This thesis examines the ways in which the history of 1965-66 is remembered and represented in contemporary Indonesia, both in national public space and among a group of high school pupils in...Show moreThis thesis examines the ways in which the history of 1965-66 is remembered and represented in contemporary Indonesia, both in national public space and among a group of high school pupils in Yogyakarta. The history of 1965-66, a history of mass killings and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of alleged communist Indonesians, has for a long time been silenced and mystified by anti-communist myth-making that was created under Suharto’s authoritarian rule. Despite the end of Suharto’s regime in 1998 and numerous attempts to counter the state propaganda, this master-narrative that labels victims as perpetrators deserving of their fate is still widely available in contemporary Indonesian state and society. This thesis examines how and why master- and counter-narratives of “1965” continue to exist and circulate in Indonesia today. By combining a focus on contestations of the past in public space with research into the perceptions of the younger generation in particular, it explores how the politics of memory work in everyday practice. A survey conducted among 170 high school pupils in Yogyakarta provides unique insight into the highly complex and problematic ways in which the history of 1965-66 is remembered by a group of young Indonesians today. Thereby, this thesis provides further insight into the lasting legacies of mass violence in post-authoritarian Indonesia.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
open access
2020-08-31T00:00:00Z
The contemporary Japanese author Murakami Haruki is world-renowned for his work as a novelist, essayist and translator. This study examines how his celebrity authorship is fabricated in the...Show moreThe contemporary Japanese author Murakami Haruki is world-renowned for his work as a novelist, essayist and translator. This study examines how his celebrity authorship is fabricated in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. It poses the hypothesis that his celebrity authorship is inherently paradoxical, as the author seems to be invested in a multiplicity of subject positions.Show less
