Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 615-644). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Honors Project--Smith College, Northampton, Mass., 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-31).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Ceylon. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Justus-Liebig-Universität, Giessen, 1980. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 228-236).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 615-644). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

The current thesis aims to offer a new perspective to understand identity creation in the city. It is an investigation into how the identity of a place is constructed by the text displays of Chinese calligraphy in landmarks of physical construction in urban space in Hong Kong. The study was inspired by an earlier inquiry into architecture and a concurrent interest in Chinese culture, and as such this thesis tries to use the language of architecture and that of Chinese calligraphy which is a quintessential form of Chinese arts, to weave out the identity markers in the city. Chapter Two then deals with the background theories in the study of text in urban space. By putting the text of calligraphy back into the context of urban space to create a spatial narrative, the homogenous urban space rediscovers a possibility to attain its distinctive character for a place. To facilitate the discussion, a thematic perspective was taken in the investigation. The thesis will explore the issue through the analysis of both visual and textural materials in the city context. By putting the study of text of calligraphy back in the context of urban space, it reveals a new dimension in identity creation which has seldom been thoroughly investigated. Chapter Three opens up the discussion with the calligraphy of the political figure, Dr. Sun Yat-sen who is regarded as the founding father of China. His brushworks are used to mark the footprints of his presence in Hong Kong through extensive urban construction. Chapter Four deals with the use of calligraphy in two sites, both bear an emblematic meaning on the earlier history on the cessation of Hong Kong to the British. Despite of the fact that both sites are designed as Chinese garden, the use of historical reference has taken in completely different approaches. Calligraphy is again a key element in identity creation. Chapter Five looks into the religious venues where ample amount of calligraphy works in different formats can be found. By referencing to historical incidents, the religious content is intermingled with the consents from government officials and emperors to create a common identity. Chapter Six further examines the creation of public text of calligraphy by the commercial scene in urban space. The verticality of streetscape infested with commercial icons entails the use of large character writing in a more dramatized style. Thus, the tradition of calligraphy practice when carried out in the colonial urban space compels certain modifications to fit into the context. The conflict in reading direction of English and Chinese in many biliterate signage shows a contrast in cultural identity. Based on the findings from this thematic investigation, the thesis opens up a new dimension in the understanding of brushworks of calligraphy in social and cultural context. By reading the calligraphy in its urban context in Hong Kong, it turns out that the text not only embodies the presence of the calligrapher but also links this presence to a richer spatial background. This crucial link between text, people and space is the fundamental activities for the creation of identity.

This dissertation’s essential aim is to understand the collective nature of a rapidly evolving twenty-first-century city. Looking closely at Doha, Qatar - a city that can choose to be anything it desires - reveals a tension between the regime’s aspirations and the expectations of its (mostly foreign) constituents. Doha’s fundamental transformation from village to metropolis provides an interpretation of ‘city’ that discloses the possibilities and limitations of civic culture in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. This thesis’ contribution to knowledge is four-fold: (1) to add generally to architectural and urban theory, and particularly to Arabian Gulf studies; (2) to develop an analytical framework based upon hermeneutic phenomenology that incorporates architecture into its structure of understanding; (3) to use this framework to illuminate the structure of Doha’s urban culture during its most transformative period; (4) to publish previously unseen documents and gather original personal narratives related to the period of study. This thesis takes as its central concern how the institutional order within Doha, Qatar, provides the ground for ethical and ontological orientation; how one specific urban society, Doha, Qatar, uses architecture and its representation in its search for an authentic orientation in history when caught between the pull of tradition and the push of modernity. This tension is expressed in the city’s architecture and urban order as a mechanism to enable a shifting institutional order: new institutions arise within new forms, which in turn yield new architectural embodiments and new cultural articulations. This is Doha’s search for city: the constant attempt to reconcile what the world seems to be with what it might be.

This thesis is a study of Tottenham High Road, and how the urban blocks which comprise its depth are composed. Depth has a number of components: architecture, space and time; depth is the armature in which people live their social lives, and the place where local cultures emerge. The conception of depth offers a way of capturing urban life in its richness and its reciprocities. The literature about high streets offers few detailed analyses of their spatial and psycho-social ordering and this thesis seeks to fill that gap. The approach is a hermeneutics of praxis, using ethnographic methods, in-depth interviews, and situating the information spatially using architectural drawing techniques. It offers a novel method of investigating and understanding the structures and processes which make up the high streets and which, in aggregate, make the whole city. Tottenham High Road is used here as a case study, a vehicle through which to interpret evidence about the existence and nature of depth, with its manifold structures. Understanding depth is vital to understanding high streets, so this thesis allows a deeper and richer interpretation of high streets than has previously been possible. There is a problem in planning orthodoxy around high streets, typified in Tottenham: the richness of depth is flattened and codified, in order to frame swathes of city as sites from which to reap economic reward. In fact, depth contains all of human life, and understanding it, therefore, is an ethical responsibility for planning. Depth has a number of characteristics, ordered by different processes and forces. Firstly, physical order, shaped by both economic and social forces. For example, the most public uses are found in the ‘shallowest’ parts of depth, and these are the most valuable sites because they command the greatest passing trade. Secondly, depth has a social order, through playing out of place ballet by people as they live their lives. The social order operates interdependently and reciprocally with the physical order of depth. Commitment between people and places (citizenship) results in special place cultures, which are hosted in depth. Depth has variation in the scope of decorum from the outer edge of the block to the centre: more things are possible inside the block than at its edge. The insights about depth in this thesis are relevant to many areas of life: to planning, to politics and to existing theory, because depth provides an account for the ethical order in which other areas of human life take place. With an understanding of depth it is possible to evaluate planning proposals, efforts at ensuring political participation, to shed light on existing theories such as Cosmopolitanism, and to add a valuable layer of information about the real structures of London to the existing literature.

In the late 18th century an artist named Torii Kiyotsune 鳥居清経inherited and mastered a style of ukiyo-e that was soon to go out of fashion. Few of his prints survived and he left little impression on Japanese art history, despite his association with such a prominent school as the Torii. Yet the very association may have contributed to his obscurity. The assumption that Kiyotsune was primarily an ukiyo-e artist led to the overshadowing of his work in another arena, popular books known as kusazōshi. In fact he was quite prolific in that medium, illustrating over 130 kibyōshi, as well as works in other genres. Analysis of one of his kibyōshi, Kaminari no hesokuigane 雷之臍喰金, shows that there is still much to be learned about him and his contributions to early modern Japanese visual culture. Through an analysis of Kaminari no hesokuigane this thesis also explores the unique set of characteristics that distinguishes kibyôshi from other forms of visual-verbal narratives such as comics or illustrated books. Moreover it argues that, despite their having served as cheap, disposable fiction in their time, kibyōshi can serve as an informative lens through which to examine how the ordinary inhabitants of Edo identified with their city, creating a culture of their own and developing the Edokko type that has survived into the modern era.

Norton Simon was a unique collector because he let passion guide his collecting interests, but he controlled his passion by making his purchases based on smart economic decisions bolstered by years of experience in successful business negotiations. The Norton Simon Museum, today in Pasadena, California, displays the eccentric collectors life work as he created one of the greatest and most recognized collections on the west coast. By examining the progression and establishment of Norton Simon Inc., alongside the creation of the Norton Simon Art Foundation, multiple parallels can be drawn between Simons’ unique approach to business and the application of his unorthodox techniques to his purchases in the art world – Norton Simon’s “two hats”.