<div> <p> This dissertation examines medical representations, or what I call “fiction medicine,” in post-1949 Chinese literature and film. It is not uncommon to evaluate whether medical facts are scientifically portrayed in literary and cinematic works. Insightful and reasonable as this method is, the interpretation of relevant descriptions from a single medical perspective tends to exclude what may be labeled as misrepresentations from scholarly attention. Therefore, without judging the value of fiction medicine in accordance with scientific standards, this dissertation analyzes how and why medical (mis)representations are formed in the way they are shown, which allows me to unearth those factors, such as politics, international relations, ideology, and the like, that exert considerable influence on the construction of medical landscape in cultural works. </p> <p> By exploring the interaction between representations and medicine under the Chinese revolutionary context, I argue that during the socialist period (1949-78), while revolutionary concerns tightly regulated the writing of fiction medicine to consolidate the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s rule, the production of fiction medicine was not always monolithic, containing tensions and even resistances against the prevailing ideology. I also argue that, after 1978, although socialist fiction medicine was deconstructed in many ways, some remnants of its legacies have kept influencing contemporary literary and cinematic imaginations. Based on my main arguments, I will further explore why some socialist legacies were preserved and remained influential while others were abandoned as reminders of the past. I suggest that this phenomenon was highly related to the shifting goals of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the post-1978 political, ideological, and economic reorientation.</p> </div> <br>

This paper demonstrates how the Cantonese language can simultaneously serve as a threat to the Beijing government and a counter-hegemonic articulation of Hong Kong protesters against the Beijing government by applying the theory of hegemony and the method of critical discourse analysis to Hong Kong newspapers during the Umbrella Movement. Focusing on how the Cantonese language is used to communicate messages of protest leads to a more thorough understanding of the significance of the language in a Hong Kong identity context.Thus, while Cantonese plays a larger role in the Umbrella Movement protests than scholars give credit for,newspaper discourse also plays a large part in obscuring the connection between Cantonese and the protests. By addressing four research questions regarding Cantonese, I conclude that the three studied newspapers largely conceal the Cantonese discourse in relation to the Umbrella Movement protests. However, when Cantonese is discussed it is mainly along the lines of the political affiliation of the newspaper. Though some newspapers do hint at the counter-hegemonic abilities of Cantonese, this aspect is often undervalued and underappreciated. Likewise, when Cantonese issues are brought up they often converge with issues of national identity, but in a manner to downplay the Cantonese identity.As such, Wen Wei Po makes no effort to detail a Cantonese nation, but instead uses the concept of “Zhong hua min zu” (Chinese nation/Chinese race) to negate any differentiation. Meanwhile, Apple Daily and the South China Morning Post do insinuate the differences of Cantonese and Hong Kong, but keep the dialogue firmly within the “one country, two systems” setup to avoid angering Beijing. The analysis reveals that while newspapers sometimes use the voice of Hong Kong Cantonese,this generally takes place through a small amount of direct quotations and images of signs rather than a large-scale showcasing of the Cantonese identity and Cantonese vernacular.

<p dir="ltr">How do we navigate complex social situations? What tools, strategies, and experiences do we use in our attempts to connect with each other? This project delves into the pervasive nature of performativity in everyday life, particularly within the context of Vietnamese Americans navigating predominantly white geographies in the Midwest. Drawing from theories of performance, spatial dynamics, labor geography, and racial capitalism, this project explores how Vietnamese Americans strategically leverage their identities and cultural heritage in spaces such as Vietnamese restaurants. These performances serve as strategies for survival and legibility, shaping both economic prosperity and social recognition within marginalized communities. The research questions posed aim to uncover how marginalized bodies utilize performance to navigate white spaces, leverage specific performances in socially constructed spaces, and negotiate the complexities of the American dream across generations. Situated in the Midwest, this project particularly focuses on Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, where Asian American communities often contend with hypervisibility as racialized Others and spatially isolated exclusion. By examining performance and performativity as lived practices, I shed light on the cultural reproduction and negotiation of spaces within Asian American communities in the Midwest.</p>