Wittenberg University Journals
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Youth, Ecstasy, and the World: Beyond the Postmodern and the Post-Subcultural through Rave Culture in South Korea
No full textThis article investigates complex and variegated responses from South Korean youth to western commodities advertised online for global rave culture in South Korea. The investigation is to trouble concepts of globalization and glocalization that are fundamental to scholars who theorize on global youth culture. Take for example Douglas Kellner or A.C. Besley, who, like many scholars, interpret transnational youth culture as either a) a product designed to integrate non-western youth to the logic of global capitalism, or b) a product designed to do such things that ends up becoming hybridized or glocalized by non-western youth who appropriate global culture through local experiences and cultural backgrounds.
However, this article delves into the language of South Korean youth on western commodities, which illustrates how global youth culture does not follow merely two scenarios. In fact, the discrepancy between western theorists and the theorized subjects is wide. The last section considers another discrepancy, one that exists between western scholars and South Korean schoalrs on the same subject of youth culture to similarly question the authority of western theoretical concepts placed on non-western subjects
Indicators of Gender Identity in Contemporary Japanese Fictions
No full textThis paper analyzes gender identities in Japanese by examining the linguistic practices of male and female characters in contemporary popular fictions. Considering the immense impact of print media on the norms of talking in daily life, a study on linguistic styles in popular literature might shed some light on the changing speech patterns in Japanese language. This paper finds that the stereotypical idea of Japanese as a strictly gendered language may be outmoded and misleading. I conclude that while the use of masculine and feminine Japanese are still observed in novels, the fine line that distinguishes masculine forms and feminine forms is sometimes ambiguous and blurred. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to demarcate unequivocally the boundary between masculine Japanese and feminine Japanese
Bakumatsu: Black Ships on the Horizon of the Empire of the Sun
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to discuss both the internal and external factors that led to the downfall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Furthermore, its purpose is to discover the extent to which Commodore Perry’s visit influenced the political landscape of Japan. I am attempting to answer whether or not the downfall of the Tokugawa was brought about by contact with the West, specifically Commodore Perry. Within ten years of Perry’s arrival the Tokugawa Shogunate had been overthrown in a civil war. In the aftermath, Japan emerged under the leadership of Emperor Meiji, beginning a campaign of technological advancement and westernization that put Japan at the forefront of East Asian geopolitics. Commodore Perry’s mission to Japan is an illustration of the power politics that occurred in East Asia during the nineteenth century and the effect that Western influence would have on modern Asian nations of the Far East
Yu and Qing as Raw Materials of Love: Rethinking Desire and Sentiment in Ming-Qing Novels
No full textThrough literature, authors attempt to both elucidate and more profoundly understand the nature of the world around them, simultaneously expressing and refining their own beliefs and perceptions. For this reason, literature is an important vehicle to understanding the nature of human inquiry and the questions occupying the minds of authors and their contemporaries. The Plum in the Golden Vase and The Story of the Stone are two late imperial Chinese masterworks involving the interplay of the sexual and the social, the psychological and the relational. Through these works, the novels’ authors both critique and question social reality, human nature, and their ties to moral responsibility. Our examination endeavors to better understand the novelists’ perspectives through consideration of philosophical and social developments leading up to and during China’s late imperial period. While relying on a firm grounding in Chinese thought, this examination also considers insight drawn from the Catholic philosophical tradition. This intercultural perspective is justified by the universal nature of the questions at stake (despite specifically cultural manifestations and variations in form), as well as certain similarities between the Neo-Confucian and Catholic outlooks. Through this investigation, we are able to identify sentiment and desire as primary agents acting as both ingredients of and impediments to virtuous love
Chinese Foreign Policy in African Energy Engagement and the WTO: A Realpolitik Perspective
No full textDespite signs of China’s increasing involvement in global affairs and institutions, which some scholars have perceived as ‘integration’ into the status quo, there are still areas of Chinese foreign policy which are seemingly characterised by a traditional realpolitik mentality. This essay, using a realpolitik framework, examines two key areas: that of energy security, focusing particularly on Sino-African oil policy, and that of China’s engagement with the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Specific studies of Sudan and the TRIPS Agreement respectively support the proposition that key aspects of Chinese foreign policy are still dominated by a realpolitik philosophy. It is clear that China’s foreign policy should not be generalised as purely ‘integrative’, when there may exist even further key elements which are likewise realpolitik-orientated
Textual Authenticity and Timeline of the Laozi through the Guodian Bamboo Strips
No full textDiscovery of the Guodian segments of the Dao De Jing provided important insights of the composition of the Dao De Jing. For given chapters that appeared in the Guodian edition, comparing texts that are missing in the Guodian version, but are present in the Wangbi and Mawangdui version suggests a particular scenario for the composition of the Dao De Jing. I hypothesize that there are three stages to the formation and transmission of the Dao De Jing. First, the Guodian text, only a third of the received length, is compiled with other raw material texts of equal weighting through horizontal transmission to form a prototype of the received edition. Then textual corruptions that are medium and small in size are vertically transmitted onto received texts in the second and third stages of textual transmission
Propagandizing Songs: A Historical Analysis of How Chairman Mao Reconstructed Music Before and During the Cultural Revolution
No full textChairman Mao Zedong utilized Chinese music as propaganda to mobilize the Chinese people to carry out his revolutionary agenda for a new China. From the Yan’an Rectification Movement (1942-1944) to the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Chairman Mao consistently pushed for a new China based on his personal interpretation of Marxism. By applying a historical approach, one can see how Mao’s reign over the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) before and during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution changed Chinese music, and how Chinese music was affected by the changing of leadership over the course of Mao’s career
Terrifying Toilets: Japanese Toilet Ghosts and Sexual Liberation in the Postwar Period
Get PDFA brief look into the history and potential formation of the ghosts Toire no Hanako-san and Aka Manto during Japan\u27s post-war years
Mirror Images: The (Lack of) Parallels Between Nogami Yaeko and Her Female Protagonists
Get PDFCertain characteristics of Japanese woman writer Nogami Yaeko\u27s career and personal life were significantly different from those of her peers. Reading Nogami\u27s works in context of her life story therefore provides an interesting platform on which to perform a literary analysis. This paper performs such an analysis on two of Nogami\u27s short stories, "Persimmon Sweets" (1908) and "A Story of a Missing Leg" (1931). In particular, I show how Nogami was able to make unobtrusive societal criticisms through her writing because the lives of her female protagonists did not closely mirror her own life. As a dedicated wife and mother, Nogami appeared to be a very traditional woman in the eyes of literary critics, who therefore considered her a mere amateur author who wrote without any particular agenda. Nogami used this misguided impression to publish subversive writings which were not recognized as such by critics. In "Persimmon Sweets" and "A Story of a Missing Leg", the protagonists reject the stereotypically female roles that society tries to force on them. However, because Nogami\u27s own life seemed to be in compliance with the rigid adherence to gender roles that her characters renounce, critics did not view her writing as revolutionary. Only by doing a careful reading and remembering that Nogami was not at all an amateur author--as I do in this paper--can readers appreciate the true depth of her social commentary
Existentialism, Choice, and Morality in Ichikawa Kon’s Fires on the Plain
Get PDFIn this essay I explain how the protagonist of Ichikawa Kon\u27s film Fires on the Plain, Tamura, embodies the essence of humanism. The story portrays the development of an unassuming army private as he refuses to accept the fate his superiors have chosen for him. For Tamura, the ability to determine his own actions becomes his resolve. He achieves this by acknowledging the power of choice within himself, a fundamental notion of humanism that he develops throughout the film. In this paper I propose that the character of Tamura, through his personal decision making, is a living allegory for humanism. To support this thesis, I cite specific scenes in the film that reflect the protagonist\u27s evolution from dogmatist to humanist and link them with their corresponding elements of humanism. In conclusion, I find that Tamura effectively represents the functionality of humanism as defined by a selection of modern thinkers