<p> The global trade across multiple countries has greatly increased in the last few decades. Nationalist organizations are focusing on global trade (Rhinesmith, Williamson, Ehlen, &amp; Maxwell, 1989). China and Japan are the driving forces in Asian global trade; but countries like Thailand are developing their global economies as well. The volume of western based leadership research benefits global businesses entering the U.S. market place compared to Japanese or Chinese culture. The lack of leadership research on Thailand creates challenges for large corporations wanting to outsource or manufacture in Thailand. Large multinational companies can enter Thailand but understanding how the culture affects all aspect of life there is crucial for success. </p><p> The purpose of this study was to determine the leadership characteristics of successful Thai leaders in their global organizations. This descriptive phenomenological study utilized 15 selected leaders who met the research criteria. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The interviews included ten open ended questions that followed the interview protocol. The results found two notable findings. The first is that the Thai leaders were benevolent in their leadership. This included their concern for subordinate&rsquo;s happiness and growth. Adaptability was the other finding. These Thai leaders were very adaptable with their work force having to adapt to the foreign workers, global challenges and changing business environment in Thailand. The study examined these two notable findings to identify what characteristics make a successful Thai leader in global business. Utilizing the data charts and the key findings may assist organizations which want to operate in Thailand.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation is an ethnographic examination of how young Japanese men in contemporary Japan are negotiating the effects of postindustrial shifts on the production, consumption, and performance of heterosexual male desire within the "economies of intimacy" of sex, love, and marriage. Moving beyond popular pathologies of Japanese men and of "crisis," I argue that men have been increasingly economically and socially alienated from intimate institutions, provoking either anger toward the larger gender system or a reorganization of personal paths to manhood. This dissertation is based on fifteen-months of research in Tokyo between 2013 and 2014. In addition to interviews with young, unmarried Japanese men and masculinities studies scholars, I conducted participant observation in several key sites, such as "anti-love" demonstrations, matchmaking parties (<i>machikon</i>), and gender equality workshops. My work draws on historical and contemporary popular culture to examine modern discourses of male virginity, debates on romantic love, and the history of sexuality.</p><p> Setting the scene of contemporary Japanese manhood, the dissertation begins with a gendered history of postwar Japan culminating in the ideal of the <i>dekiru otoko</i> or "man who can do." This conception of masculinity as ability directly affects the three key intimacies of concern to both the greater Japanese public and to young men themselves. These intimacies of sex, love, and marriage, what I term the "economies of intimacy," and their varied articulations with&mdash;and affects on&mdash;the lives of young Japanese men form the core of this dissertation. I argue that it is through their ability to "do" sex, love, and marriage that men receive social recognition and value in postmainstream Japan. Amidst the continuing importance of marriage to social ideals of male adulthood and personal desires for children, many young men find the marital union to be unachievable. These men, broadly categorized as "undesirable" (<i>himote</i>), are questioning the current marital-gender order. Specifically addressing the financial burdens and feelings of economic objectification that marriage engenders, I argue that these "undesirables" are challenging feminist scholarship on men as the primary beneficiaries of marriage. </p><p> Historically situating the contemporary ideology of "love supremacy-ism" (<i>ren'ai shij&omacr; shugi</i>) within the longer trajectory of Japan's modernization, I engage with the various critics of this new ideology, examining how romantic love in contemporary Japan is both intimately entwined with, and mimics, capitalism. Termed "love-capitalism" (<i>ren'ai shihon shugi</i>), this system is a form of evaluative schema in which men are valued and recognized based on their ability to do the <i>work</i> of love. Lastly, I discuss Japan's sexual modernity and the increasing importance of what I term the postwar "sexual contract"&mdash;the implicit agreement between the state and its citizens that they will engage in <i>reproductive </i> sex&mdash;within a contemporary pronatalist regime. Challenging this contract is the rise of male virgin (<i>d&omacr;tei</i>) "movements" whose members and allies are questioning the importance of sexual activity (broadly defined) to both themselves and to the greater public.</p><p> Writing against claims that gender exerts less of an influence on men's life choices&mdash;a claim predicated on women's upward social mobility globally&mdash;I argue that the Japanese gender system, with its increasing demands on men, is forcing young men to renegotiate their desires and abilities. This research brings men's concerns to the forefront of current feminist and queer studies debates on institutions such as marriage and love, particularly the absence of financial concerns and the globally circulating discourses on how sex, love, and marriage are all social goods.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation examines the transformation of the South Indian city of Kanchipuram into a major cosmopolitan sacred center during the course of the eighth through twelfth centuries. In this pivotal five hundred-year period, Kanchipuram served as the royal capital for two major dynasties, the Pallavas and then the Cholas. Both dynasties sponsored the production of prominent sacred monuments built from locally sourced stone. These temples were crowned with pyramidal towers, adorned with sculpted and painted figures of deities amid groves and palatial landscapes, and elegantly ornamented with courtly Sanskrit and Tamil inscriptions. Over time, the temples functioned as monumental statements of power, sites of devotion, and municipal establishments where diverse social groups negotiated their claims to political authority and economic prosperity. In Kanchipuram, temples also played a crucial role in defining urban space by demarcating the city's center and borders, marking crucial junctions, and orienting the gods towards avenues, hydraulic features, and royal establishments. As religious monuments, they also fostered vibrant circuits of pilgrimage and travel that were integrated with a broader Indian Ocean network.</p><p> The dissertation argues that the construction of temples fundamentally shaped and reordered landscape. The four chapters, organized chronologically, address the expanding geography of Kanchipuram and its widening sphere of influence. The first two chapters trace the city's shifting contours and the emergence of a major pilgrimage route that led precisely through the urban core. The city was radically reconfigured around this new central road, which functioned as a processional pathway that created relationships between monuments both inside the city and beyond its borders. The third chapter reveals patterns of movement linking the city with its rural and coastal hinterland, and considers connections with Southeast Asia. Temples in more remote areas disclose links to Kanchipuram through their use of shared architectural forms, a standardized iconographic program, and inscriptions that detail economic and political ties to the urban hub. The fourth chapter focuses on colonial-era encounters with Kanchipuram and the city's role in the broader production of colonial knowledge. As a site of antiquarian interest and military history, Kanchipuram was subject to competing narratives about India. Whereas European officials and surveyors such as James Fergusson saw in the city's monuments India's past glory and inevitable decline, other travelers found no evidence of rupture or disrepair. I read these conflicting representations against the grain to expose Kanchipuram's continuity as a flourishing cosmopolitan center. The dissertation's goal is twofold. First, it documents Kanchipuram and maps its monuments spatially and chronologically in relation to each other, the city, and features of the natural environment. Second, it situates the temples within their ritual and civic functions as agentive establishments that both served and fostered a growing urban landscape.</p><p>

<p> To pursue higher education in the United States can be a rewarding opportunity for many Chinese/Taiwanese international students. However, many challenges including acculturative stress may hamper the students&rsquo; ability to succeed in the US. Previous literature about the factors affecting Chinese/Taiwanese international students&rsquo; acculturative stress indicates mixed findings. One of the purposes of this study was to add clarity to this literature base by re-examining the impact of a range of factors noted in the literature, paying close attention to two distinct groups; students from mainland China and peers from Taiwan. Data was collected via an online survey from a predominantly minority serving institution on the West coast of the United States. In all, 112 Chinese/Taiwanese international students completed the survey. The results indicated that age, gender, and years in the United States do not predict Chinese/Taiwanese acculturative stress. However, education level was significantly related to Chinese/Taiwanese acculturative stress. Additionally, graduate Chinese/Taiwanese international students experienced significantly lower acculturative stress than undergraduate. No meaningful differences in terms of acculturative stress patterns were found between mainland Chinese and Taiwanese because of the small Taiwanese sample size.</p><p>

<p> Inspired by the recent approaches of the New Qing History school centering on ethnicity and empire and the South Chinese Studies school focusing on local societies, this dissertation probes into Han Chinese and Manchu becoming Mongols in Qing Mongolia using the Qing archives in Mongolian, Manchu, and Chinese preserved in Mongolia, China and Taiwan. This research focuses on two case studies: 1) Descendants of Han Chinese settlers in Outer and Inner Mongolia; 2) Offspring of Manchu bondservants as human dowry in Inner Mongolia. These groups of Han Chinese and Manchu settlers migrated, legally or not, to Mongolia since the seventeenth century. They married with local Mongolian people, raised children, and learned the Mongol way of life in Mongolia. Ultimately, they and their offspring even acquired Mongol status, which is considered the most important marker of mongolization. The Great Shabi as the estate of the Jibzundamba Khutugtu and the Manchu-Mongol marital alliance are also discussed in this dissertation as the main mechanisms facilitating the identity and status changes. Intermarriage and Buddhist belief were the two criteria for those Han Chinese and Manchu settlers and their offspring to be integrated into Qing Mongolian society. The immigration of those Han Chinese and Manchu settlers into Mongolia was initiated by the Qing government, but the Qing government wanted to keep the occurance of mongolization at a minimal level. This research draws a parallel between the problems of nativization faced by the Qing and Russian empires, and provides a case study to compare Han Chinese settlers in Inner Asia and Southeast Asia to explore different modes of Han Chinese migration. In the end, this dissertation argues that the ethnicity in late imperial and modern China is a negotiation between the religious and livelihood decisions for the Han Chinese settlers or state service for the Manchu settlers, the social institution of the Mongolian local authority, and the rules of the Qing state.</p><p>

<p> China's unique system of hiring and promoting talented people within the state, under the supervision of the Communist Party, has been held up as an important institutional factor supporting its remarkably rapid and sustained economic growth. Jointly with Professor Peter L. Lorentzen, we explore this meritocracy argument in the context of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's ongoing anti-corruption campaign. Some question the sincerity of the campaign, arguing that it is nothing but a cover for intra-elite struggle and a purge of Xi's opponents. In the first chapter of my thesis, we use a dataset I have created to identify accused officials and map their connections. Our evidence supports the Party's claim that the crackdown is primarily a sincere effort to cut down on the widespread corruption that was undermining its efforts to develop an effective meritocratic governing system. First, we visualize the "patron-client'' network of all probed officials announced by the central government and identify the core targets of the anti-corruption campaign. Second, we use a recursive selection model to analyze who the campaign has targeted, providing evidence that even personal ties to top leaders have provided little protection. Finally, we show that, in the years leading up to the crackdown, the provinces later targeted had departed from the growth-oriented meritocratic selection procedures evident in other provinces. </p><p> In addition to its motivation, I also discuss the campaign's effects on economic efficiency. The second chapter of my thesis tests the "greasing-the-wheels'' hypothesis in the context of China's residential land market. We show that China's anti-corruption campaign, aimed at removing corruption in China's monopoly land market, caused a decrease in land transaction volumes. Furthermore, not removing any form of corruption would also lead to a similar decrease. It is only necessary to remove corruption that enables real estate developers to circumvent red tape and reduce trading costs. Our findings support the "greasing-the-wheels'' hypothesis hypothesis: when an economy has a low outcome owing to some preexisting distortions, corruption could be a positive factor in that it offers a "second-best world.''</p><p>

<p> This study used a phenomenological research design to investigate how process features of child care quality are experienced in Hmong licensed family child care settings. Interviewing with open-ended questions was relied on as the data collection method. The results included eight major themes: playtime and learning activities are structured to promote individual child&rsquo;s cognitive and physical development; the child care program is founded on licensing standards of health, safety, and well-being; child care provider uses child-centered interactions in their involvement with the children; child care provider uses positive behavioral guidance in shaping children&rsquo;s behaviors; fostering a bi-cultural identity in Hmong children through different approaches; the relationships between the child care providers and children are strengthened by a kinship-based-relationship and a display of affection/love and care; feeding practice is adjusted to meet the needs of each child; and the child care provider seeks support to improve his/her child care practice. The findings from this study revealed that as Hmong, the child care providers appear to perceive themselves as a bridge that connects to the next generation, and it is their moral responsibility to instill a strong foundation in cultural identity, while providing the necessary academic preparations in the Hmong children in order for those children to be a bridge for another Hmong generation. The success of bridging from one generation to another will ensure the preservation of the Hmong culture, as well as the future success of the Hmong. These results can have important implications for early childhood professionals and organizations, as well as for the Hmong community.</p><p>

<p> After the bloody Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China (CCP) suffered a devastating blow among the overseas Chinese (OC). The CCP responded to the challenge by implementing transnational outreach policy in the OC community, which includes substantial efforts to increase the Party&rsquo;s influence in the overseas Chinese-language media (OCLM). By conducting a qualitative analysis of the evolution of the CCP's OC policy, this thesis finds that the Party has made tremendous progress in achieving the policy&rsquo;s strategic goals: modernization and transnational legitimacy. The CCP&rsquo;s increased influence in the OCLM has made crucial contributions to the Party's success in restoring transnational legitimacy in the OC community. This thesis finds that the China News Service (CNS), China's second-largest news agency operating under the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, plays a major role in the CCP's attempt to influence the OCLM and centralize the production of Chinese-language news.</p>

<p> Despite being a popular tool for counterinsurgency, the literature on pro-government militias remain divided. One strand focuses on the security benefits that the militias bring, while the other argues that they generate a political backlash. Using India's counterinsurgency campaigns in Kashmir and Chhattisgarh, I test a wide variety of hypotheses generated from the literature. </p>

<p> When discussing Asian Indian population in the U.S. their economic success and scholastic achievement dominates the discourse. Despite their perceived economic and scholastic success and their status as a &ldquo;model minority&rdquo;, Asian Indians experience discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization from mainstream American society. These experiences of discrimination and perceived discrimination are causing second generation Asian Indians to give up on total assimilation and re-ethnicize. They are using different pathways of re-ethnicization to re-claim and to create an ethnic identity. This thesis provides evidence, through secondary sources, that Asian Indians in the U.S. do experience discrimination or perceived discrimination, and it is historic, cultural, and systemic. This thesis also uses secondary sources to explain several pathways of re-ethnicization utilized by second generation Asian Indians who have given up on complete assimilation. The process of re-ethnicization provides second generation Asian Indians agency, positionality, and placement in American society. Asian Indians through re-ethnicization occupy and embrace the margins that separate mainstream American society and the Asian Indians community in the U.S. It allows them to act as &ldquo;go &ndash;betweens&rdquo;.</p><p>