Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
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This thesis has focused on the transition of the 798 Dashanzi factory from 'artist village' to 'art zone' to show the positive and negative effects of the implementation of creative industries in...Show moreThis thesis has focused on the transition of the 798 Dashanzi factory from 'artist village' to 'art zone' to show the positive and negative effects of the implementation of creative industries in the Chinese urban context. I traced its evolution from its origins as an electronics factory, to an appropriation of urban land by artists and workers of the creative field, to an institutionally-accepted and promoted centre for 'creativity' and innovation. This evolution is deeply intertwined with socio-economic factors which the Chinese government supported as vehicles of (urban) development since Deng's 1978 'Open-door Policy': the dismantling of the danwei (work unit) structure; urbanization; the emergence of a real-estate market, and the rise of an urban upper-middle class. In addition, since the mid-2000s and following the explosion of Chinese contemporary art in the global art market, the government has supported the implementation of Culture Creative Industries as a strategy to build Chinese soft-power and capitalizing on intellectual property. If, on the one hand, these policies had indirect positive effects, such as the preservation of former industrial structures and the incrementation of the local economy, on the other hand they had dramatic consequences on the social environments which were subjected to them. In particular, in the case of 798, the artist community that gave rise to the artist village has been dismembered in favour of commercialization and gentrification of the area. Contemporarily to 798, the Caochangdi artist village sprang up as an urban village on the fringes of Beijing and has constituted itself as an independent reality, taking advantage of the semi-regimented rural status and falling into the cracks of Beijing's residential administration system. Thanks to its semi-illegal configuration, it has managed both to take advantage of the new creative policies implementing local economy, and to maintain the local community somewhat untouched by top-down urban rehabilitation. By adopting a perspective from the theories of place-making and place-branding, the comparison among the two artist villages and the analysis of their transformations helped me to stress the importance of the role of communities in the management of these areas.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
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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)
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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)
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Contrary to the stereotype that Zhang Shi 張栻 (1133-1181) always followed Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 (1130-1200) ideas, this thesis, by examining Zhang’s social origins, socio-political thoughts, and disciples,...Show moreContrary to the stereotype that Zhang Shi 張栻 (1133-1181) always followed Zhu Xi’s 朱熹 (1130-1200) ideas, this thesis, by examining Zhang’s social origins, socio-political thoughts, and disciples, argues that Zhang represents a transitional Neo-Confucianism, which is based on exiled bureaucrat and emphasizes military-fiscal skills and state activism. Zhang Shi learning provides an alternative to statism Wang Anshi 王安石 (1021-1086) learning in the Northern Song (960-1127) and typical Neo-Confucianism represented by Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuxuan 陸九淵 (1139-1191) in Southern Song (1127-1279) , which is based on local spontaneous elites and emphasizes the role of society and local volunteerism. The social origin and foundation of this transitional Neo-Confucianism was the former (potential) capital bureaucratic family who were exiled due to the fall of the Northern Song. They took the northern expedition to return to the capital as their goal and gave up the run of their hometowns and the local communities in which they lived. They were skeptical of Zhu Xi’s social program, such as the community compacts (xiangyang 鄉約), the community granaries (shecang 社倉) and private commercial publishing, which later became the typical behavior of Neo-Confucian. Based on the ideas of Mencius (Mengzi 孟子), Zhang Shi developed the theory of “spontaneous disinterestedness” (wu suowei er ran 無所為而然), which underpinned his ideas on the distinction between righteousness/public/king and profit/selfish/hegemon. Though Zhang learning relied on the state, it cut sharply with Wang learning in the aspect of “motivation”. For Zhang, the power of the state was not an end in itself, but rather the state should be consistent with the spontaneous disinterestedness from the heavenly principle. With a particular emphasis on military-fiscal skills, Zhang and his disciples sought to take over the state apparatus left behind by Wang Anshi’s reforms and to make this state act out of righteousness in the hands of Neo-Confucianism gentlemen. Zhang and his disciples proposed and participated in all the northern expeditions during the Southern Song period. However, the northern capital could never be returned, and the number of exiled bureaucrats who were the social base of Zhang learning (and of the Huxiang 湖湘 school in general) dwindled over time. Zhu Xi, who came from a family of low-ranking exiled bureaucrats, found a new world in the local community in the south, and endeavored to transform himself into a member of the local elite, stepping out from behind Zhang Shi. After Zhang’s death, the local students he left behind in Hunan 湖南 and Sichuan 四川 were eventually aborted by the emerging typical Neo-Confucianism (Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan school) that spoke for the local elites. Zhang as a kind of transitional Neo-Confucianism eventually faded from history, completing the transition from the Northern Song learning to the later typical Neo-Confucianism. By reframing this transitional and alternative Neo-Confucianism, this thesis refines the Hymes-Bol’s localism paradigm about the explanation of why and how Neo-Confucianism raised.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
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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
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 assesses several 13th- and 14th-century Chinese and Tibetan histories which detail the Mongol conquests of these regions, scanning their contents and form for subjective views by their...Show moreThis thesis assesses several 13th- and 14th-century Chinese and Tibetan histories which detail the Mongol conquests of these regions, scanning their contents and form for subjective views by their respective authors. It finds that Tibetan historians, for several reasons, do not detail fighting or military expeditions in Tibet itself. Chinese authors, on the other hand, use their writing about the Mongols for several historic apologetics, as well as pejorative remarks against the Mongols themselves or other peoples, such as the Jurchen. In all, this topic remains vastly understudied and requires the attention of more scholars.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
open access
In the midst of the 2019 UK general election, a story broke that an affiliate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party, was openly campaigning for Conservative...Show moreIn the midst of the 2019 UK general election, a story broke that an affiliate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party, was openly campaigning for Conservative Party candidates in forty-eight marginal constituencies. The ideology of the BJP and its affiliates in the Sangh Parivar, Hindutva, has often been treated by scholars as a siloed entity that only affects India and the Indian or Hindu diaspora. Instead, this paper argues that Hindutva has become a transnational, right-wing populist vernacular that is grounded in the UK as a local political discourse through the principal Hindu nationalist organisational network, the Sangh Parivar. So, this paper asks; How has the organization and discourse of the Sangh Parivar vernacularised in the UK and affected the discourse of British politicians? Events such as Modi’s 2014 ascent to power and Brexit (2016) in the UK have facilitated the move of right-wing populist repertoires into the mainstream. This shift simultaneously enables the Sangh Parivar and Hindu nationalists’ growing confidence and organisational visibility. Thus, this paper updates previous scholarship's mapping of the multifarious network of the UK Sangh Parivar, highlighting the importance of identifying the component organisations of the Sangh Parivar to understand the discourse of global Hindutva. Moreover, this paper highlights how right-wing populist and far-right discourses intersect with Hindutva discourses in the UK. Right-wing, far-right and Hindutva discourses are networked in online spaces, such as social media platforms, where the difference between national and international discourses is often blurred. Finally, this paper argues that the activities of the Sangh Parivar have also affected the parliamentary discourse of British MPs. This effect shows the broader impact of Sangh Parivar discourses in the UK, and on other Hindu organisations that seek to represent British-Hindus and Indians. Thus, contrary to what previous research has assumed, the Sangh UK is political. Importantly, the Sangh Parivar UK has also contributed to the development of global Sangh organisations and collaborations. As such, the Sangh Parivar is a multi-polar, multi-directional and diffuse network of organisations that non-Sangh organisations and individuals, such as British-Hindu umbrella groups and parliamentarians, become entwined with. This can best be understood as ‘Sangh International.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
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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)
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This thesis aims at gaining a deeper understanding of the relation between yoga and death in the early Śaiva tradition of the Pāśupatas, based on two Pāśupata texts: the Pāśupatasūtra and the...Show moreThis thesis aims at gaining a deeper understanding of the relation between yoga and death in the early Śaiva tradition of the Pāśupatas, based on two Pāśupata texts: the Pāśupatasūtra and the Skandapurāṇa. The thesis presents an analysis and interpretation of textual passages that treat the last moment of the life of a Pāśupata ascetic in order to find out whether or not his death can be interpreted as a form of ‘self-induced yogic death’. The inquiries start with introducing the philosophical and religious environment wherein the Pāśupatasūtra and the Skandapurāṇa were written. After that, the relation between yoga and death in upaniṣadic and epic sources is treated, thereby referring to early manifestations of utkrānti (rising upwards, ‘yogic suicide’). The pivot of this thesis is a translation, analysis and discussion of fragments of the Pāśupatasūtra and the Skandapurāṇa. With regards to both texts I discuss the possibility of interpreting the death of a Pāśupata as a self-induced yogic death. This is followed by a conclusion. Following the analysis of the primary sources, it will become clear that yoga and death stood in a much closer relation than one might expect; this thesis claims that the death of a Pāśupata can be interpreted as an early form of self-induced yogic death.Show less
Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
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In this thesis I conduct discourse analysis on the traditional values of talent show The Voice of China (TVoC). Whereas former talent shows have been suspended because of ‘low moral standards and...Show moreIn this thesis I conduct discourse analysis on the traditional values of talent show The Voice of China (TVoC). Whereas former talent shows have been suspended because of ‘low moral standards and vulgar content’, TVoC already finished its third season in 2014. In this thesis I show that traditional Chinese values can intertwine perfectly with the Western values of TVoC, and that the discourse of harmony is reinforced multiple times in the end. The traditional values and the concept of harmony are in line with what the Chinese government propagates. Taking this and the restrictions on former talent shows into account I therefore argue that self-censorship of TVoC due to soft-power of the government has been the case in talent show TVoC.Show less
