<p> My dissertation explores a cultural history of the body as reflected in meditative and therapeutic forms of the Chinese martial arts in nineteenth and early twentieth-century China. Precursors of the more familiar present-day <i> taijiquan</i> <b>[special characters omitted]</b> and <i> qigong</i> <b>[special characters omitted],</b> these forms of martial arts techniques focus on the inward cultivation of <i>qi</i> <b> [special characters omitted]</b> and other apparently ineffable energies of the body. They revolve around the harnessing of &ldquo;internal strength&rdquo; or <i>neigong</i> <b>[special characters omitted].</b> These notions of a strength derived from an invisible, intangible, yet embodied <i> qi</i> came to represent a significant counterweight to sports, exercise science, the Physical Culture movement, physiology, and other Western ideas of muscularity and the body that were being imported into China at the time. </p><p> What role would such competing discourses of the body play in shaping contemporary ideas of embodiment? How would it raise the stakes in an era already ideologically charged with the intertwined issues of nationalism and imperialism, and so-called scientific modernity and indigenous tradition? This study is an inquiry into the epistemological and ontological ramifications of the idea of <i>neigong</i> internal strength, tracing the popular spread of the idea and its impact in late Qing and Republican China vernacular discourse. I pay particular attention to how the notion of &ldquo;internal strength&rdquo; might shed light on thinking about the body in the period. Using the notion of <i>neigong</i> as a lens, this project examines the claims of the internal forms of Chinese martial arts, and the cultural work that these claims perform in the context of late Qing and Republican China. I locate the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the key formative period when the idea first found popular conceptual purchase, and explore how the notion of <i>neigong</i> internal strength became increasingly steeped in the cultural politics of the time.</p><p> Considering the Chinese internal martial arts not only as a form of bodily practice but also as a mode of cultural production, in which a particular way of regarding 'the body' came to be established in Chinese vernacular culture, may additionally yield rich theoretical fodder. How might such claims about a different kind of &ldquo;internal strength&rdquo; revisit or disrupt modernist assumptions about the body? The project highlights the neglected significance of the internal martial arts as a narrative of the Chinese body. More broadly, it suggests fresh avenues for scholarship on the body, in showing how these other-bodily "ways of knowing" took on meaning in the period and beyond.</p>

<p> When an object is introduced to a new culture for the first time, how does it transition from the status of a foreign import to a fully integrated object of that culture? Does it ever truly reach this status, or are its foreign origins a part of its identity that are impossible to overlook? What role could the arts of that culture play in adapting a foreign object into part of the culture? I propose to address these questions in specific regard to early modern Japan (1550&ndash;1850) through a black lacquered <i> &omacr;tsuzumi</i> drum decorated with a gold powder motif of intersecting arquebuses and powder horns. While it may seem unlikely that a single piece of lacquerware can comment on the larger issues of cultural accommodation and appropriation, careful analysis reveals the way in which adopted firearms, introduced by Portuguese sailors in 1543, shed light on this issue. </p><p> While the arquebus&rsquo;s militaristic and economic influence on Japan has been firmly established, this thesis investigates how the Kobe Museum&rsquo;s <i> &omacr;tsuzumi</i> is a manifestation of the change that firearms underwent from European imports of pure military value to Japanese items of not just military, but also artistic worth. It resulted from an intermingling of Japanese-Portuguese trade, aesthetics of the noble military class, and cultural accommodation between Europeans and Japanese that complicates our understandings of influence and appropriation. To analyze this process of appropriation and accommodation, the first section begins with a historical overview of lacquer in Japan, focusing on the Momoyama period, and the introduction of firearms. The second section will go into the aesthetics of lacquerware, including the importance of narrative symbolism and use in the performing arts with a particular emphasis on the aural and visual aesthetics of the drum. Finally, I will discuss this drum in the global contexts of the early modern era, which takes into account the tension between the decline in popularity of firearms as well as the survival of the drum. Pieced together, these various aspects will help to construct a better understanding of this unique piece&rsquo;s place in the Japanese Christian material culture of early modern Japan.</p>

<p> This dissertation focuses on the religious commitments of the Peng clan of Suzhou. From the early to mid-Qing dynasty (1644-1911) the Pengs were arguably the most successful corporate lineage in the entire empire in terms of civil examination performance. They were also pioneers of a charitable style of status justification in which the Pengs explained their worldly success as divine reward for their good works. By the early eighteenth century, many of the Pengs&rsquo; peers and social inferiors promulgated their claims as well. In the thriving genre of morality books <i>(shanshu)</i> particularly successful Peng patriarchs served as iconic shorthand for the terrestrial reward of civil examination success for philanthropic acts. Examination hopefuls and morality book consumers throughout the empire sought to obtain a portion of the prosperity of the Pengs by emulating their charitable commitments. </p><p> Drawing on source materials ranging from autobiographies and genealogies to the transcripts of spirit-writing sessions, I focus my study on the pivotal figure of Peng Dingqiu (1645-1719). Dingqiu&rsquo;s 1676 <i>optimus</i> distinction and self-presentational strategy were critical in the consolidation of the concrete and symbolic power of the Peng lineage. Exploring the role of spirit-writing altars in intra-elite relations, I argue that Dingqiu&rsquo;s claim of a prophecy of his civil examination success had wide ranging consequences for his descendants and his own posthumous persona. In documenting the collective devotional commitments of the Peng lineage in realms such as a tower complex devoted to the deity Wenchang and local Daoist institutions, I provide a nuanced portrait of elite religiosity and its impact on the late imperial cityscape. Simultaneously, I use attention to the familial lineage in order to explain the centrality of religious modes of discourse in elite self-organization.</p><p> A descriptive catalog of works by Peng lineage members from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries illustrates the scope of members&rsquo; cultural impact and provides a basis for understanding how successive generations represented their ancestors through editorial and publishing endeavors.</p>

<p> This dissertation presents an analysis of the reconstruction of urban folk arts as cultural heritage in China. Focusing on material culture and folk performances revived in two Beijing folklore markets, the dissertation discusses the neoliberal marketization that coincides with urban commercial zoning in China since the 1980s. The dissertation examines the intertwined cultural and economic dimensions of collective nostalgia, urban marketization and heritage developmentalism. Based on ethnographic and archival research in Beijing from 2010 to 2015, the dissertation addresses China&rsquo;s collaboration with UNESCO in world cultural heritage program. It looks closely at the process of cultural heritage marketization, which is geared toward a developmental agenda. Such a heritage construction appears in conjuncture with the rise of the new Chinese cultural industry and cultural entrepreneurship, reconfiguring the sociopolitical role of folk arts and folk artists in China. </p><p> Through the ethnographic lens, the dissertation focuses on depicting the everyday life in contemporary Beijing surrounding folklore marketplaces. In particular, it describes material engagements established by connoisseurs and collectors in two major folklore markets, the Shilihe and the Panjiayuan market, demonstrating a new Chinese folklore connoisseurship that ascends and reconfigured in contemporary Beijing. This dissertation argues that the desire, and the collective effort, to overcome the post-Mao social and cultural transformation have materialized in the revival of folk traditions as marketized cultural heritage. It contends that the ascending cultural market propels the hope of national rejuvenation while bringing about a new form of possessive individualism alongside the process of privatization.</p>

<p>The work of Japanese contemporary artist Aida Makoto (1965-) has been shown internationally in major art institutions, yet there is little English-language art historical scholarship on him. While a contemporary of internationally-acclaimed Japanese artists Murakami Takashi and Nara Yoshitomo, Aida has neither gained their level of international recognition or respect. To date, Aida?s work has been consistently labeled as otaku or subcultural art, and this label fosters exotic and juvenile notions about the artist?s heavy engagement with Japanese animation, film and manga (Japanese comic book) culture. In addition to this critical devaluation, Aida?s explicit and deliberately shocking compositions seemingly serve to further disqualify him from scholarly consideration. This thesis will argue that Aida Makoto is instead a serious and socially responsible artist. Aida graduated with a Masters of Fine Arts from Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music in 1991 and came of age as an artist in the late 1980s during the start of Japan?s economic recession. Since then Aida has tirelessly created artwork embodying an ever-changing contemporary Japanese identity. Much of his twenty-three-year oeuvre explores the culturally significant social sign of the shojo or pre-pubescent Japanese schoolgirl. This thesis will discuss these compositions as Aida?s deliberate and exacting social critiques of Japan?s first and second ?lost decades,? which began in 1991 and continue into the present.

<p> Of the thousands of Buddhist manuscripts discovered at Dunhuang, there are many examples of non-official <i>s&umacr;tras</i> and <i> dh&amacr;ran&dotbelow;&imacr;</i> collections more difficult to identify than those with titles identical to canonical <i>s&umacr;tras</i>. Manuscript collection catalogs are the first sources consulted when one undertakes research involving manuscripts and in order to be a truely valuable resource, they need to reflect current scholarship. This thesis studies the Dunhuang manuscript, Pelliot <i>chinois</i> 3538, from different perspectives, examining its ritual, iconography, and textual variances. It compares its iconographical program to manuscript <i>s&umacr;tras</i> and canonical scriptures, uncovering new information regarding the content of multiple manuscripts. From this research it is apparent that P.3538 is an Avalokite&sacute;vara <i> dh&amacr;ran&dotbelow;&imacr;</i> ritual that is iconographically informed from a variety of canonical texts: <i>s&umacr;tras</i> in the <i> N&imacr;lakan&dotbelow;t&dotbelow;ha</i>/Qianshou cluster, the <i> Mah&amacr;pratisar&amacr; dh&amacr;ran&dotbelow;&imacr;s&umacr;tra</i> and its corresponding amulet culture, and <i>s&umacr;tras</i> connected with the bodhisattva&rsquo;s narrative history. In examining other manuscripts from Cave 17, we have found that it is a member of a Dunhuang manuscript cluster and is visually represented in an ink on paper altar diagram, Stein no. Ch.00189, from the British Museum. Integrating these findings would enrich descriptive catalogs for future research.</p>

<p> With its roots in 1920&rsquo;s and 30&rsquo;s Japan, the term eroguro nansensu (erotic grotesque nonsense) refers to an artistic movement with an aesthetic that focuses on grotesque visuals and bizarre humor. My project is to examine the contemporary form of eroguro nansensu as an avenue for considering how mass culture changes and develops over time. Focusing on how mass culture changes is important because it could potentially illuminate breaks/openings where something can escape the hegemony of the culture industry. The method of change, and potential mode of escape from the culture industry that I identify here is <i>escalation</i>. Escalation both contains and explains mass culture&rsquo;s propensity towards repetition but also allows for a certain amount of change. Eroguro nansensu may also have a unique place to reflect on and potentially critique the manga (comic) industry and what this says about Japanese culture more generally. While eroguro nansensu may be rejected by many due to the intensity of the erotic and grotesque imagery, or ignored as simply meaningless nonsense, there are enough artists and fans interested in this aesthetic that there is hidden potential here that I aim to bring into the light. Nonetheless, no extended scholarly work has yet been done on the contemporary revival of eroguro nansensu as a genre of manga in the last few decades of the 20^th century. I am attempting to fill in some of that gap with my own analysis as well as by presenting information on contemporary eroguro nansensu as a mass culture movement, about which little has been written in English or Japanese to date. In my dissertation I begin with the historical background of eroguro nansensu, and proceed through analysis of its use of humor and aesthetics, all as a means of considering mass culture and its critique.</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> The Dark Valley Period and its resultant Asia Pacific War remains an open question in Japan; this era is consistently revisited in both public debates over textbooks and state apology as well as in popular culture and literature. The discussion of the Dark Valley Period and the conflicts it generated also exists within manga, a widely consumed media, and has shifted genres multiple times in the decades following the Japanese surrender. Some genres, such as early senki-mono, portrayed the war as a heroic, although ultimately futile, action undertaken by self-sacrificing youth. Semiautobiographical works, such as those created by the late manga artist Mizuki Shigeru, countered this narrative by showing the war as brutal, senseless, and useless. Often, the popularity or decline of a genre skewed closely to the general attitude concerning the wartime period. </p><p> Due to its wide-scale consumption by youth, manga has the potential to both represent and forward shifts in public perception. Additionally, historical revisionists and anti-Article 9 proponents have shifted their discourse into manga in order to appeal to and influence a younger audience. This strategy is further strengthened by previous genre works, such as the Space Battleship Yamato series, which reframed the Dark Valley Period and the Asia Pacific War in a positive light indirectly through their narrative. This dissertation posits that the discussion has recently shifted into sh?nen/seinen fantasy manga and that this discussion reflects a level of sympathy with revisionist historians that would normally cause a public backlash against the series in question if this sympathy was not masked by genre.</p><p>

<p>The dominant narrative mode in Ainu studies today stresses an activist agenda that, although worthwhile, limits the potential for new research in the field. In this thesis, I analyze historical accounts of the development of Ainu bear carvings as a case study of the characteristics of the dominant activist mode and present an alternate narrative in order to demonstrate the need for a variety of approaches to Ainu research. </p><p> The activist narrative mode is structured to engender sympathy for Ainu people and respect for their cultural heritage. Activist accounts of Ainu bear carvings often claim that the carvers were pressured by the Japanese tourist industry to violate religious taboos against producing realistic depictions of bears. In this way, the carvings serve as a symbol of oppression of Ainu people under Japanese imperialism. At the same time, activist scholars state that the Ainu bear carvings followed a linear progression from tourist souvenirs to respected works of &ldquo;fine art.&rdquo; Thus, the carvings also reinforce optimistic projections regarding the future status of Ainu culture and socioeconomic condition. </p><p> My alternate narrative focuses on the complexities and ambiguities in the field and avoids judging events in moral or sympathetic terms. I explore a broad range of contextual issues, tracing the regional production of wooden bears from the paleolithic ancestors of Ainu people, examining the role of bears and woodcarving in Ainu culture, analyzing Ainu interactions with Japan, Russia, and other neighboring empires, and investigating the commodification of bear carvings as tourist souvenirs. </p><p> Activist narratives have contributed a wealth of valuable research to the field of Ainu studies and remain a useful tool for promoting social and cultural equality for Ainu people. However, automatic conformity to the dominant activist mode perpetuates the obfuscation of certain details in Ainu history, including the diversity within Ainu and Japanese cultures and institutions, instances of political cooperation between Ainu and Japanese communities, and unanswered questions regarding the complex development of Ainu cultural practices and beliefs. Although any historical account (including this thesis) inherently simplifies its subjects, varying our narrative approach helps us to identify and fill some of the gaps. </p>