Department: East Asian Languages and Literatures ![[clear]](close-x.png "Remove this limiter")
153 matches in the database.
These are records: 1 - 30.
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2.
Ananth, Priya.
Acquisition of tense and aspect in Toki 'when' clauses in Japanese as a second/foreign language.
Degree: PhD, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2007, Ohio State University
► This study examined the acquisition of tense-aspect in toki ‘when’ clauses in…
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▼ This study examined the acquisition of tense-aspect in toki ‘when’ clauses in Japanese among adult learners of Japanese as a second or foreign language. The objective of the study was to investigate if native languages (Language Transfer Hypothesis) and/ or inherent semantic characteristics of verbs (Aspect Hypothesis) play a role in the selection of the -ru/-ta endings in toki ‘when’ clauses. The experimental study was conducted with 37 participants in Experiment 1 (with Achievement verbs in the toki clause position) and 34 participants in Experiment 2 (with Accomplishment, Activity and Stative verbs in the toki clause position) using a Truth Value Judgment Task. The experimental results suggest that the Language Transfer Hypothesis seems to be working independently for the Durative verbs (Experiment 2) category, while the Aspect Hypothesis seems to be independently working for the Achievement verbs (Experiment 1) category. There were two sets of results obtained that were not predicted by the two hypotheses. The Language Transfer Hypothesis does not predict the good performances of the Chinese and English speakers for the S1 ru toki S2 ta pattern in the Durative category, while the Aspect Hypothesis does not predict the absence of over-use of -ta with Accomplishment verbs in the present study. The first unpredicted result can possibly be explained by offering another hypothesis, that learners are also sensitive to the durative semantic aspect (or lack thereof) of the verbs in question. As for the second result that deviated from the predictions, it can be conjectured that learners do not focus on the endpoint of the Accomplishment verbs, but rather treat them as Activity verbs with a finite duration. These results have important pedagogical implications in that it may be useful to introduce the inherent semantic characteristics of the verbs such as durativity, telicity and punctuality in the Japanese language classroom and teaching materials. Since the learners seem to be naturally sensitive to these characteristics, introducing them in the classroom will assist them in their internal processing as well as production of the time expressions in Japanese.
Advisors/Committee Members: Noda, Mari.
Subjects: Language, Linguistics
Keywords: Japanese tense and aspect; Language Transfer; Aspect Hypothesis
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3.
Angles, Jeffrey Matthew.
Writing the love of boys: representations of male-male desire in the literature of Murayama Kaita and Edogawa Ranpo.
Degree: PhD, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2004, Ohio State University
► During the twenty-five years between the beginning of the Taishō period in…
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▼ During the twenty-five years between the beginning of the Taishō period in 1912 and the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, the spread of medical psychology and sexological discourse helped contribute to the development of new ideas about masculinity and gender in Japan. Popular literature represented one forum in which people explored, promoted, and qualified these new ideas. The manifestations of male-male desire that one finds in the literature of the period, however, do not just passively reflect changes in contemporary ideology. Literary developments also helped shape the idioms that writers used to describe the subject. This dissertation examines the representations of male-male desire in the bestselling works of two authors active during this window of change: the poet, writer, and painter Murayama Kaita (1896-1919) and the mystery author Edogawa Ranpo (1894-1965). Through critical analysis and original translations of their works, this dissertation shows that their depictions of desire between men were shaped not only by changing ideas about gender relations but also the artistic movements and genres with which both authors were associated. By combining elements of gender studies and literary history, this dissertation examines the thematic interests, genre-related assumptions, and social expectations that molded their treatments of the subject. Chapter One examines the florid representations of boyish desire in Kaita's poetry and diaries from the early 1910s. These writings reflect Kaita's pseudo-symbolist notion of the poet as a visionary who drew upon manifestations of beauty to create art. Chapter Two examines the relationship between decadent sentiment, male beauty, and Kaita's own artistic aspirations in "Bishōnen Saraino no kubi" ("The Bust of the Beautiful Young Salaino"), a story about a dream-like competition with Leonardo da Vinci for the love of one of Leonardo's disciples. This chapter also examines the connections between pre-modernity, decadence, and male-male desire in Kaita's story "Tetsu no dōji" ("Children of Iron") and the play "Shuten dōji" ("The Saké-Drinking Youth"). Chapter Three examines "Satsujin gyōja" ("The Murdering Ascetic") and "Akuma no shita" ("The Diabolical Tongue"), two mystery-adventure stories from 1915. Both describe antisocial outlaws who act upon their desire for other men; however, the texts describe the characters' desires as displaced by the logical order of modern civilization. Chapter Four examines Ranpo's essays on representations of male-male desire in Kaita's work, which he saw as embodying an innocent and especially poignant form of boyish affection. These essays, along with Ranpo's autobiographical essays about his crushes on other schoolboys during his youth, implicitly attempt to disassociate the love of boys from the moralistic and pathologizing rhetoric of sexology. As Chapter Five shows, some of Ranpo's early fiction, including "Ningen isu" ("The Human Chair," 1925), Issun-bōshi ( The Dwarf , 1926-1927), Ryōki no hate ( The Fruits of Curiosity-Hunting , 1930), shows an ambivalent attitude toward male homoeroticism. These works contain caveats reassuring readers about the "strangeness" of male homoeroticism even though they cater to the scopophilic curiosity of readers by incorporating scenes of male-male attraction. Similar dynamics are visible in the novel Kotō no oni ( The Demon of the Lonely Isle , 1929-30), which features a man who prefers sleeping with men. Although the narrative voice describes the character's feelings in sensational terms, at other times, Ranpo allows the character to describe his feelings in ways that make them comprehensible to the audience. Chapter Six examines Ranpo's essays from the 1930s on same-sex desire in the writing of other authors, including Edward Carpenter, John Addington Symonds, and Walt Whitman. These essays represent a product of Ranpo's ongoing explorations of the meaning and historical manifestations of same-sex love. Although these essays deal gingerly with the subject of male homoeroticism, these essays, like Ranpo's autobiographical essays, defend boyish love and male camaraderie as beautiful and socially useful while arguing for the important position of male-male desire has played in literary history.
Advisors/Committee Members: Tyler, William J.
Keywords: Japan; Japanese literature; Japanese fiction; Japanese poetry; queer literature; queer studies; queer theory; gay literature; gay studies; homosexuality; nanshoku; doseiai; dōseiai; dôseiai; detective fiction; mystery fiction; symbolism
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4.
Babb, Kara C.
Research of China’s Private Enterprises and Brands on a Global Background.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2011, Ohio State University
► The opening of China’s domestic market in the late 1980’s and the…
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▼ The opening of China’s domestic market in the late 1980’s and the internationalization and rapid development of its market not only provided new technological innovations and foreign capital, but also opened the market to foreign competition. This competitive rivalry often resulted in the purchase, loss of controlling shares and/or the eventual disappearance of many well-known Chinese domestic brands. China’s admission to the World Trade Organization further exposed the country’s internal market to intense competition from world-class international brands. Increased competition and strict international standards has forced China to examine its own international competitive position, as well as strengthen the international competitiveness of domestic brands. In recent years, numerous quality issues with Chinese- made products has attracted the attention of global consumers, and has negatively influenced international consumer opinion towards “Made in China.” China can no longer passively remain at the lowest end of the Value Chain, as the “World’s Low-Cost Factory”, but rather must encourage and promote the transformation of private enterprises from low-cost Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM), to the producers of competitive brands with highly recognized quality standards.
Advisors/Committee Members: Wang, Jianqi.
Subjects: Asian Studies
Keywords: China's Domestic Private Enterprises; brand development strategy; competitive strategy
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5.
Bao, Ying.
In Search Of Laughter In Maoist China: Chinese Comedy Film 1949-1966.
Degree: PhD, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2008, Ohio State University
► This dissertation is a revisionist study examining the production and consumption of…
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▼ This dissertation is a revisionist study examining the production and consumption of comedy film – a genre that has suffered from relative critical and theoretical neglect in film studies – in a culturally understudied period from 1949 to 1966 in the People's Republic of China. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, it scrutinizes the ideological, artistic, and industrial contexts as well as the distinctive textures of Chinese comedy films produced in the so-called "Seventeen Years" period (1949-1966). Taking comedy film as a contested site where different ideologies, traditions, and practices collide and negotiate, I go beyond the current canon of Chinese film studies and unearth forgotten films and talents to retrieve the heterogeneity of Chinese cinema. The varieties of comedy examined – mostly notably the contemporary social satires in the mid-1950s, the so-called "eulogistic comedies," and comedian-centered comedies in dialect and period comedies, as well as lighthearted comedies of the late 1950s and the early 1960s – problematize issues of genre, modernity, nation, gender, class, sublimity, and everyday life in light of the "culture of laughter" (Bakhtin) within a heavily politicized national cinema. Situating my study in the current scholarship of comedy and Chinese cinema, Chapter 1 historicizes the genre of comedy and provides an overview of its definitions in both Western cinema and Chinese cultural criticism. Using Unfinished Comedy – a 1957 satire banned before its completion – as a starting point, Chapter 2 revisits the crisis of the genre in the early years of the PRC and examines the tensions between artistic autonomy and the control of the authorities through a case study of the director Lü Ban. Chapter 3 looks into the mechanism of how ideal social relations were imagined and articulated in eulogistic comedy. Chapter 4 focuses on dialect comedies and film adaptations of folk comedies across regional divisions, which engage a complex dialogue between the local and the national. Chapter 5 examines how filmmakers tried to fuse satire and eulogy in lighthearted comedies of family life and work life. The epilogue reflects on how comedy films transcend a binary opposition between propaganda and entertainment, and it seeks to prompt further studies on the resonance of films from the Mao era in contemporary China.
Advisors/Committee Members: Denton, Kirk.
Subjects: Art History; Asian literature; Mass media; Motion Pictures
Keywords: comedy film, Chinese cinema, the Mao era, genre, the Seventeen Years
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9.
Bowman, Frederick Charles.
Etymology, History, and Mythology in the Work of Christopher Beckwith.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2011, Ohio State University
► This thesis concerns the work of Christopher Beckwith, particularly Koguryo: The Language…
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▼ This thesis concerns the work of Christopher Beckwith, particularly Koguryo: The Language of Japan’s Continental Relatives and Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Its argument is that in these two books Beckwith’s principal goal is to present what he refers to as the Central Eurasian Cultural Complex and to provide it with as many members as possible. To this end, it is argued, he makes use of onomastic material relating to the ancient Korean kingdom Koguryŏ from the Samguk sagi, Japanese etymology, and North Iranian ethnic names to create an etymological underpinning between Japan and Koguryŏ, Koguryŏ and the Scythians, and hence of both with the Central Eurasian Cultural Complex. Ultimately, it is asserted, Beckwith’s goal is mythopoeic, having as its end the creation of a consistent Central Eurasian mythology, which he calls the First Story, and its opposition to the characteristics of what he calls the Littoral System and its offspring Modernism, which is in Beckwith’s view responsible for the calamities of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A rejection of modernism and rediscovery of our Central Eurasian cultural heritage as expressed in the First Story is proposed as a remedy for our current situation; establishing the broad scope of the First story and the Central Eurasian Cultural Complex is necessary to make this a compelling case, and this establishment is the aim that drives Beckwith’s use of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Indo-European materials.
Advisors/Committee Members: Unger, James.
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10.
Brooks, Evan Thomas.
The Adaptive Media Strategy of Greenpeace in China.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2012, Ohio State University
► Greenpeace, one of the world’s largest environmental organizations, has existed for more…
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▼ Greenpeace, one of the world’s largest environmental organizations, has existed for more than 40 years on the Quaker principles of “bearing witness” and “non-violent, direct action.” Its roots lie in North America during the. Based on the aforementioned principles, and those of ecological and social equity, this international non-governmental organization eventually expanded across the globe. Nearly 10 years ago, Greenpeace made it to mainland China. Nevertheless, Greenpeace found that its stalwart tactics of bearing witness and direct action were much more difficult to implement. Greenpeace needed to adapt to the nuances of Chinese society. This caused Greenpeace to take a slightly more indirect stance with its media strategy; rather than its traditional and rather direct approach of exposing scandals and staging elaborate media stunts. This paper aims to analyze Greenpeace’s media strategy and the adaptations it required to achieve any sort of success in China. It will look at the foundation of Greenpeace’s thinking, its perceived methods for affecting positive change and the results of that work. This paper will show that Greenpeace places great value in its existence in China and is willing to learn more and adapt accordingly to China’s society in order to achieve its goals.
Advisors/Committee Members: Walker, Galal.
Subjects: Ecology; Environmental Studies; International Relations; Language; Mass Communications; Mass Media
Keywords: Greenpeace; China; media strategies in China; environmentalism in China; adaptation to Chinese society
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11.
Bryant, William Davis.
What Master Masafusa Said: An Analysis of the Content and Rhetoric of the Gōdanshō.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2012, Ohio State University
► Though the Gōdanshō is traditionally considered a member of the setsuwa genre,…
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▼ Though the Gōdanshō is traditionally considered a member of the setsuwa genre, a type of text that mostly contains short and sometimes didactic stories, this classification fails to account for both the text’s content, which more closely resembles a reference work on aristocratic Heian (794-1185) history, and its rhetoric, which seems to be taken from the mold of the Analects and other such examples of masters literature, with roots in ancient China. The text’s content and rhetoric will be examined from this potential viewpoint, showing that the text attempts to present itself as a sort of historical reference on upper-class Heian society, particularly focusing on the emperors and the Fujiwara regents, using a framework also derived from continental culture. Finally, the thesis will show how the text’s rhetoric derived from masters literature, including detailed depiction and praise of the scholarly class, particularly the family and person of the text’s supposed originator, Ōe no Masafusa (1041-1111), and also the use of dialogue and rhetoric typical in oral storytelling, portrays a work well aware of its own intentions and purpose.
Advisors/Committee Members: Fukumori, Naomi.
Subjects: Asian Literature
Keywords: Godansho; Oe no Masafusa; Heian literature; setsuwa; masters literature; rhetoric; master and disciple
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12.
Burns, Drew MacGregor.
The Self-Understanding, Self-Evaluation and Analysis of China's New Social Stratum.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2008, Ohio State University
► As a result of the economic reforms China undertook in 1978, the…
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▼ As a result of the economic reforms China undertook in 1978, the country's social structure has undergone drastic change. One of the most important results of this social re-structuring is the emergence of what the Chinese government has termed the "New Social Stratum", which is a group of people who make their living in the non-public sectors of China's economy. In order to understand how the members of this group will exert that influence as China continues down its path of rapid growth, this research conducted a survey of articles on the group, beginning with Li Yi's "The Structure and Evolution of Chinese Social Stratification", as well as a series of interviews with members of this social stratum. It reveals a group of people rapidly accruing influence in China's continuously privatized economy, and are ready to take the reins as their country enters its next golden era.
Advisors/Committee Members: Walker, Galal.
Subjects: Economics; Sociology
Keywords: China; economic reform; opening up; new social stratum; social change
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15.
Chai, Donglin.
Toward a Program of Acquiring Culture Themes by Beginning Students of Chinese as a Foreign Language.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2012, Ohio State University
► Culture themes are actions that convey social values. The acquisition of culture…
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▼ Culture themes are actions that convey social values. The acquisition of culture themes goes beyond being knowledgeable about the social values underlying communication in Chinese to include the ability to conduct actions that convey social values. Pedagogical materials are responsible for not merely informing learners about the facts of social values, but cultivating the actions required to convey the social values. The results in this study of conducting interviews among beginning level students show that receiving abundant experience and training on culture themes is important in acquiring culture themes at the beginning stages of learning the Chinese language. An exploration of gamification as a strategy for introducing and evaluating culture themes in Chinese language instruction is presented, enabling non-native Chinese learners to convey social values in Chinese culture in a way that Chinese people recognize and accept as part of a communication event.
Advisors/Committee Members: Walker, Galal.
Subjects: Pedagogy
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16.
Chang, Mei-rong Lee.
The Art of Liu Tsung-Yuan's Fables.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 1984, Ohio State University
Advisors/Committee Members: Lao, Yan-shuan.
Keywords: FABLES; Tzu; LIU; TSUNG; LIU TSUNG; wen; Chuang Tzu
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18.
Chen, Guangyan.
Developing a Culture-Based Rating Criterion Model for Assessing Oral Performances in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.
Degree: PhD, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2011, Ohio State University
► The study develops a culture-based rating criterion model for assessing oral performances…
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▼ The study develops a culture-based rating criterion model for assessing oral performances in teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in the United States. Two problems in the current language assessment area suggest the need for such a model. First, most current Foreign Language (FL) proficiency guidelines claim to assess the communicative competence of a FL speaker. However, dimensions of communicative competence have not been adopted unanimously. Second, proficiency tests claim to assess learners’ communicative competence by providing a global rating. Nevertheless, few proficiency guidelines provide a way of using one unitary rating to assess multi-dimensional competence. The study develops a culture-based rating criterion model to compensate for the problems outlined above. Accordingly, the study answers five research questions: 1. which scale should be used to assess oral performances: a global scale or analytic scales? 2. Which rating criteria can be used to assess oral performances? 3. What are the relationships between overall proficiency and analytic scales? 4. Upon whose standards should the rating criteria be based: Teacher(s) of Chinese (TC), Naïve Native speaker(s) of Chinese (NNC), or experts in language assessment? 5. Does proficiency level affect the rating criterion pattern? The study involves the following procedures. First, three American learners were videotaped individually. Then, each video was placed online. Second, descriptive items relevant to the videos were generated in order to evaluate the three learners’ performances. Then the subjects of the study (TC/NNC) went online and evaluated learner performances using these items. Finally, I ran two statistical procedures—factor analysis and analysis of variance—to analyze the data. The rating criterion model developed in this study consists of the following aspects. The number of rating criteria was retained as six. The six rating criteria can be determined from the ten statistically independent rating criteria identified in this study based on individual needs and specific assessment purposes. In the six-criterion structure, the criteria of communication appropriateness, Chinese cognitive patterns, and positive evaluation from the communication perspective were relatively more important than other rating criteria in determining the overall proficiency level of the speaker. The six-criterion structure accounted for 50% of the global rating of an oral performance, rather than 100% of it as usually assumed. The above rating criterion model was based on the following assumptions, which were either validated by the results of this study or defended over the course of the study. First, the language rating scale is a multidimensional structure. Therefore analytic rating scales are proposed in this study. However, TC/NNC tend to prioritize the two most important rating criteria when assessing learner oral performances. Second, proficiency level did not affect the rating criterion pattern. Third, there were no significant differences between TC’s and NNC’s rating criterion pattern. Fourth, this study argues for TC’s and NNC’s judgments as the rating standards that experts in CFL assessment should consult.
Advisors/Committee Members: Walker, Galal.
Subjects: Foreign Language
Keywords: Oral performance assessment, Exploratory factor analysis, Rating criteria
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19.
Chen, Litong.
Shaoguan Tuhua, a Local Vernacular of Northern Guangdong Province, China: A New Look from a Quantitative and Contact Linguistic Perspective.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2012, Ohio State University
► This thesis reanalyzes data collected from published fieldwork sources and brings a…
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▼ This thesis reanalyzes data collected from published fieldwork sources and brings a new perspective to Shaoguan Tuhua, the genetically unclassified vernacular speech used in the Shaoguan area, northern Guangdong Province, China. The reanalysis consists of a quantitative study of the Shaoguan Tuhua varieties and some Hakka varieties (the regional lingua franca) and a contact linguistic study on one of the Shaoguan Tuhua varieties, Shibei Shaoguan Tuhua, and its Hakka neighbor, Qujiang Hakka. This thesis uses a combined methodology. It consists of the traditional Chinese dialectological research methods, phylogenetic network (computational) methods, and contact linguistic frameworks. Neither phylogenetic network methods nor contact linguistic frameworks are sufficiently used in Chinese dialectology. In terms of studying Shaoguan Tuhua, the use of these methodologies is new. This thesis first of all introduces the historical and sociolinguistic contexts of Shaoguan Tuhua. Shaoguan Tuhua has been in contact with Hakka for about seven hundred years, and Hakka speakers significantly outnumber Shaoguan Tuhua speakers. The majority of Shaoguan Tuhua speakers, especially the younger generation, can speak fluent Hakka. Based on the historical and sociolinguistic background, this thesis goes on to examine the result of the Shaoguan Tuhua-Hakka contact. A phylogenetic network method is then conducted by drawing distance-based graphs called neighbor-net splits. This thesis encodes the data and generates network graphs using the SplitsTree4 software. The graphs show that on lexical, phonological, and morphosyntactic levels, Shaoguan Tuhua and Hakka do not diverge categorically but the differences are gradual. In the continuum, Shibei Shaoguan Tuhua and Qujiang Hakka form a cluster, which indicates their similarity on all levels. These two varieties are lexically and structurally closer to each other than they are to other varieties in the Shaoguan area—than even to their own sister varieties. Then, under Van Coetsem’s (1988) framework of “borrowing and imposition”, this thesis proposes that the mechanism of the Qujiang Hakka-Shibei Shaoguan Tuhua transfer of language materials is imposition. This means that the transfer is carried out by those bilinguals who are more fluent in Qujiang Hakka, and the direction of transfer is from Qujiang Hakka (the Source Language) to Shibei Shaoguan Tuhua (the Recipient Language). The proposal is then corroborated by statistical, structural, and sociolinguistic evidence.
Advisors/Committee Members: Chan, Marjorie K. M.
Subjects: Asian Studies; Linguistics; Modern Language
Keywords: Chinese dialectology; contact linguistics; quantitative analysis; phylogenetic network methods; SplitsTree4; China; northern Guangdong Province; Shaoguan Tuhua; Hakka; bilingualism; imposition
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20.
Chen, Qin.
Allegories and Appropriations of the “Ghost”: A Study of Xu Xu’s Ghost Love and Its Three Film Adaptations.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2010, Ohio State University
► This thesis is a comparative study of Xu Xu’s (1908-1980) novella Ghost…
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▼ This thesis is a comparative study of Xu Xu’s (1908-1980) novella Ghost Love (1937) and three film adaptations made in 1941, 1956 and 1995. As one of the most popular writers during the Republican period, Xu Xu is famous for fiction characterized by a cosmopolitan atmosphere, exoticism, and recounting fantastic encounters. Ghost Love, his first well-known work, presents the traditional narrative of “a man encountering a female ghost,” but also embodies serious psychological, philosophical, and even political meanings. The approach applied to this thesis is semiotic and focuses on how each text reflects the particular reality and ethos of its time. In other words, in analyzing how Xu’s original text and the three film adaptations present the same “ghost story,” as well as different allegories hidden behind their appropriations of the image of the “ghost,” the thesis seeks to broaden our understanding of the history, society, and culture of some eventful periods in twentieth-century China—prewar Shanghai (Chapter 1), wartime Shanghai (Chapter 2), post-war Hong Kong (Chapter 3) and post-Mao mainland (Chapter 4).
Advisors/Committee Members: Denton, Kirk.
Subjects: Asian literature
Keywords: Xu Xu, Ghost Love, film adaptation, Evening Liaison, Shanghai Nostalgia
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22.
Chino, Noriko.
Miyabe Miyuki's Place in the Development of Japanese Mystery Fiction.
Degree: PhD, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2008, Ohio State University
► This study examines the mystery fiction of Miyabe Miyuki (b. 1960) in…
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▼ This study examines the mystery fiction of Miyabe Miyuki (b. 1960) in the context of the development of mystery fiction in Japan. In the hands of Matsumoto Seichō, Japanese mystery fiction was transformed in the postwar period: the focus of mystery fiction shifted from the puzzle-solving schema to uncovering the motives and psychology of the criminals. Miyabe Miyuki has become a master of the techniques of the genre. But she deploys them for broader purposes other than entertainment. The extraordinary popularity of Miyabe’s fiction is surely due to the fact that it teaches us how to respond to, or at least think about, a chaotic world full of deception. In this sense, it represents the best of what Japanese mystery fiction has had to offer in the postwar period. Miyabe incorporates mixed genres in her mystery fiction, but her overriding concern has been the realistic depiction of her contemporary society and the social problems it faces. In this sense, she has inherited the mantle of Matsumoto Seichō. Indeed, as Japanese fiction has become more interior and consumer oriented or, much in line with what critics have called postmodernism – Miyabe’s brand of mystery fiction can be seen as the inheritor of Japan’s distinguished tradition of realism from naturalism to social realism. This study points out that the basic structure of most of Miyabe’s mystery fiction coincides with the generic framework of mystery fiction. This observance of generic markers grounds the narrative in a clearly comprehensive and entertaining story. At the same time, however, Miyabe emphasizes characterization and motivation, which are more important in her fiction than the puzzle-solving aspect. Thus, the process of solving the crime often “teaches” the reader about real life issues: identity theft, excesses of the mass media, and so forth. Even when Miyabe incorporates mixed genres, such as, features of horror, science fiction, or fantasy in her works, she consistently uses these to the larger purpose of delineating the social problems that afflict contemporary society.
Advisors/Committee Members: Torrance, Richard.
Subjects: Literature
Keywords: Miyabe, Japanese, Mystery Fiction
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24.
Cummins, Evan Davis.
An Analysis of the Present State of Sino-American Mergers and Acquisitions and Their Reasons for Success and Failure.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2011, Ohio State University
► Due to the ever-increasing trend towards economic globalization, cross-border mergers and acquisitions…
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▼ Due to the ever-increasing trend towards economic globalization, cross-border mergers and acquisitions have sharply increased over the last two decades. The early 1990’s saw cross-border mergers and acquisitions entering into a new phase, becoming the primary method for foreign direct investment, and since then they have had a rapid and significant influence on the world economy. Representing the world’s two largest economies, Sino-American mergers and acquisitions have become increasingly more prolific, with a new wave occurring in the household appliance, IT, and manufacturing industries. This growing wave shows no signs of slowing down, and will most likely only continue to increase during the foreseeable future. Using cross-border mergers and acquisition theory as a basis, this paper looks at the issue of Sino-American mergers and acquisitions from the respective viewpoints of Chinese and American companies, focusing on the acquiring or dominant firm. Through detailed analysis of a series of successful and unsuccessful cases, this paper identifies the current major motivations, mistakes, and challenges of companies engaging in or seeking to engage in these mergers and acquisitions. This paper also uses detailed case analysis to highlight successful tactics that have been used by firms to lessen or avoid the associated risks and to bring about a successful outcome. This paper also enters into a detailed analysis of the current legal, political, economic, and societal factors that can affect the outcome of Sino-American mergers and acquisitions. Following the identification of the major risks, mistakes, and challenges associated with Sino-American mergers and acquisitions, a number of strategies are proposed for controlling risk and increasing the chances of success. This paper also proposes a number of recommendations for creating a legal and political environment more conducive to Sino-American mergers and acquisitions in both China and the United States. Lastly, this paper discusses the future focusing on the way in which current Chinese and American political, societal, and legal trends will create a more or less advantageous environment for companies engaging in or hoping to engage in Sino-American acquisitions in the future.
Advisors/Committee Members: Wang, Jianqi.
Subjects: Asian Studies; Economics; Finance; Law
Keywords: China, America, Mergers, Acquisitions, Sino-American, Binggou
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25.
Durgin, Timothy George.
Pollution Prevention in Lake Tai.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2010, Ohio State University
► The water pollution in Lake Tai is one of China’s most serious…
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▼ The water pollution in Lake Tai is one of China’s most serious environmental problems. The pollution in the lake can be divided into two types: agricultural (non-point source) pollution and industrial (point-source) pollution. The federal, provincial and local governments have instituted a large amount of laws, regulations, and other measures, hoping successfully deal with the pollution by levying fees on polluters and/or closing factories that emit pollutants. However, up until this point the water quality in Lake Tai has not shown any signs of improvement. In fact, the water quality has grown worse as the “3 long corners area’s” economy continues its rapid development. In light of the fact that the current pollution fee collection system has failed to produce results, this paper argues that the best way to combat pollution in Lake Tai is to institute a pollution trading credit system and increase the environmental awareness of the local populace, while at the same time fixing loopholes in existing environmental law and more strictly enforcing the regulations already in place. Raising the environmental consciousness of the populace will combat agricultural pollution, while instituting a system of water pollution credit trading will be effective against industrial pollution.
Advisors/Committee Members: Walker, Galal.
Subjects: Area planning and development; Environmental science
Keywords: Lake Tai; algae; pollution credit market; environmental consciousness
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26.
Eda, Sanae.
Processing of intonation patterns in Japanese: implications for Japanese as a foreign language.
Degree: PhD, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2004, Ohio State University
► Accent and intonation in foreign language instruction tend to be treated in…
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▼ Accent and intonation in foreign language instruction tend to be treated in a haphazard manner for two reasons: lack of research analysis that can be applied to the second language acquisition (SLA) situation; and absence of pedagogical materials that effectively train learners on this aspect of the target language. Japanese language instruction at all levels will benefit from both deductive and inductive instructions on accent and intonation at the level of utterance and discourse. Such a seemingly challenging task can be accomplished by using a computerized exercise that involves the effects of various accent and intonation patterns. The experimental study presented in this dissertation examined the processing of three types of prosodically marked syntactic and pragmatic contrasts by native and non-native speakers of Japanese. Three results are salient. First, there was a statistically significant difference between the performance of native and non-native speakers in both the discrimination and the interpretation tasks. Second, while non-native speakers performed equally well in the discrimination task regardless of their proficiency, their performance in the identification task was strongly predicted by their proficiency. Finally, native speakers of the Tokyo dialect and speakers of other dialects performed differently on the interpretation task. As an extension of the investigation, I propose ways to make the topic of accent and intonation a part of the curriculum at all levels of instruction. I will also demonstrate a computer program currently being developed to help Japanese students improve their communicative effectiveness by directing their attention to the effects of variation in accent and intonation patterns.
Advisors/Committee Members: Noda, Mari.
Keywords: INTONATION; speakers; JAPANESE; utterance; 話者ã¯; non-native speakers; pronunciation
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27.
Filler, Stephen.
Chaos from order: anarchy and anarchism in modern Japanese fiction, 1900-1930.
Degree: PhD, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2004, Ohio State University
► Anarchism was an important social and political movement in prewar Japan, promoted…
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▼ Anarchism was an important social and political movement in prewar Japan, promoted by Kôtoku Shûsui in the first decade of the 20th century and developed into a rich political and artistic philosophy by Ôsugi Sakae in the 1910s. Japanese anarchists saw industrial capitalism as the cause of the suffering of the working class, and sought the destruction of the capitalist system and of all external government, championing individualistic rebellion as the vehicle of revolution. Literary anarchism gave artistic form to the values of anarchism and sought to promote political and social revolution. This dissertation explores selected works of literature by anarchists in order to trace the development of an anarchistic style. Chapter One identifies the main elements of literary anarchism: realistic reporting on the lives of the poor; the reification of concepts like “nature” and “life” in a philosophy celebrating the growth and evolution of individuals and society; the championing of violent, nihilistic rebellion; and radical individualism. The origins of these elements are explored in a discussion of earlier journalistic writers and the fiction of early Japanese naturalist writers like Shimazaki Tôson. Chapter Two discusses the creation of a truly anarchist literature through Ôsugi Sakae’s anarchistic philosophy of art, which was put into practice by writers like Miyajima Sukeo, who welded the elements of journalism and naturalism to a firmly anarchist political stance, creating a dramatic new form of revolutionary literature. Chapter Three discusses the development of anarchist literature through the late 1920s. Two important “proletarian” writers with heavily anarchist sympathies, Hirabayashi Taiko and Yamakawa Ryô, utilized realistic prose and anarchistic themes to deal with the conflicts which attended their lives as members of the “proletarian” movement. Also discussed is the flourishing of anarchist avant-garde poetry by such writers as Hagiwara Kyôjirô. Such poetry gave anarchism its most dramatic and original expression, but also revealed the decline of anarchism as a political movement due to internal conflicts and external persecution by the government.
Advisors/Committee Members: Torrance, Richard.
Keywords: Japan; Japanese literature; Japanese fiction; Japanese poetry; Anarchism; Anarchy; Socialism; museifu shugi; anakizumu; anakisuto; anakisuto bungaku; shakai shugi; Proletarian literature; puroretaria bungaku; Dadaism; terrorism; nihilism; nihilist
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28.
Filler, Stephen.
Hasegawa Nyozekan : the pedagogical value of fiction for a political philosopher.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 1997, Ohio State University
► Hasegawa Nyozekan (1875-1969) was a liberal journalist and social critic who worked…
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▼ Hasegawa Nyozekan (1875-1969) was a liberal journalist and social critic who worked to popularize democracy, women's suffrage, worker's rights, and other liberal causes while maintaining a highly critical stance against Japanese imperialism and ultranationalism. Nyozekan's Critique of the Modern State and other collections of social criticism are well-known to Japanese historians, but the relationship of his fiction to his social thought has not been seriously explored, despite Nyozekan's wide readership and favorable response to his fiction from such figures as Natsume Sôseki.Nyozekan was heavily influenced by the group of journalists known as the Seikyôsha, who advocated Japan's adaptation of Western ideas and institutions, but insisted that this adaptation should be selective, based on the needs and particular character of the Japanese people. Nyozekan derived many elements of his theory of social evolution from Herbert Spencer, and his literary theory shows a strong Marxist influence. The importance of Nyozekan's upbringing in close proximity to the urban merchant class of Tokyo is also apparent in his literature. Nyozekan saw in this class of people democratic traits such as tolerance and a cooperative spirit which rendered them receptive to liberal ideas. Many of his stories feature members of this class, and the successful use of dialect is one of the outstanding qualities of his fiction. Nyozekan used fiction to promote his liberal agenda, and made use of many of the stylistic techniques of popular to appeal to a mass audience. At the same time his stories deal with abstract social issues in a philosophical way. Perhaps the best way to view his literature is as a form of political essay, which deals with social problems in a vivid and appealing way.
Advisors/Committee Members: Torrance, Richard.
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29.
Fujita, Naoya.
The genitive subject in Japanese and universal grammar.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 1988, Ohio State University
► This thesis provides an analysis of the genitive subject in Japanese. The…
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▼ This thesis provides an analysis of the genitive subject in Japanese. The genitive Case marker no can optionally replace the nominative Case marker ga in relative clauses. This is the so-called ga/no conversion. I argue that this phenomenon is not peculiar to Japanese, but is governed by universal principles. I employ the notions "argument/adjunct" and the Unaccusative Hypothesis. In combination with the Subjacency Condition, these universal notions help us to predict which genitive subjects are grammatical .
Advisors/Committee Members: Miyagawa, Shigeru.
Keywords: Unaccusative; TIHE'-NP'B; Verb; gg; Taro; Argueents; relative clauses
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30.
Fuse, Naoki.
Tokieda Motoki and His Theory of ‘Language as Process’.
Degree: MA, East Asian Languages and Literatures, 2010, Ohio State University
► This thesis explicates the language-as-process theory (LAPT) (gengo katei setsu) developed by…
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▼ This thesis explicates the language-as-process theory (LAPT) (gengo katei setsu) developed by Japanese linguist Tokieda Motoki (1900-1967). The LAPT is a theory of language that views language as a mental process. The LAPT defines this mental process as action of expressing one’s own thinking as well as understanding the thinking of others. With this definition of language at its core, the theory includes three essential factors that condition language activity: shutai (a performing subject), bamen (relevant social and psychological context including addressee and attendant circumstances, etc), and sozai (contents to be spoken or written). Shutai’s expressive valuation of language and skills to realize valued expressions are also considered indispensable elements of language. It is also important in the LAPT’s system that there are two distinct standpoints in language phenomena: a subjective standpoint and an observational one. These ideas constitute the LAPT’s fundamentals. Consequently, the LAPT has a wide range of applicability to language phenomena. It deals with issues concerning language communication, and from there, it proceeds to explain the social nature of language in terms of interpersonal relations. It also treats literary works from the perspective of language activity. Finally, it theorizes the history of language as a history of language life. Although Tokieda’s theory has been well recognized and has received some criticism within Japanese linguistic circles, only a few studies that treat the theory have appeared in academic scholarship in English. George Bedell’s Kokugaku Grammatical Theory (1968), and Amanda Stinchecum’s Narrative Voice in The Tale of Genji (1985) are two of these. Some limiting issues, however, can be identified in both studies. The former focuses on grammatical ideas rather than the LAPT as the whole that it is. The latter applied core ideas of the LAPT such as its triadic preconditions for language to its analysis of narrative texts, but it goes beyond Tokieda’s approach to literary works. In order to better understand the essence of the LAPT, this thesis examines how its inventor, Tokieda Motoki, developed the theory, and some of the factors that influenced him. Tokieda began his study of the Japanese language around 1920 amidst a nationalistic fervor for language and its study in Japan. As early as 1924, he proposed a hypothesis in his graduation thesis that language is a process of expression. Utilizing ideas of phenomenology, Tokieda substantiated his hypothesis, and eventually in 1941, published Kokugogaku genron, ‘Principles of the Study of the Japanese language,’ in which he explicated the fundamental ideas of his theory of language. He continued to expand his theoretical framework while engaged in discussions of practical issues, such as language education and language policy. Finally, in 1955, he revealed a new system of the LAPT in Kokugogaku genron zokuhen, ‘Principles of the Study of the Japanese Language, a Supplementary Volume.’ Thus, the LAPT became a theory that situated itself in analyzing and understanding issues such as linguistic communication, the social nature of language, literature as language, language life, and the history of language.
Advisors/Committee Members: Quinn, Charles.
Subjects: Language; Linguistics; Literature; Philosophy
Keywords: Tokieda Motoki; theory of language; kokugogaku
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