Thesis (M.A.)--Taiwan da xue. / Reproduced from typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-176).

Thesis (M.A.)--Taiwan da xue. / Title from spine. Reproduced from typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 325-326).

Thesis (M.A.)--Taiwan da xue. / Spine title. Includes bibliographical references (p. 779-831).

Thesis (M.A) --University of Hong Kong, 1976. / Also available in print.

This thesis aims to explore the image of women in Bai Juyi’s (772-846) poetry with a narratological approach. It selects 108 of Bai’s poems about women as the research objects and divides them into two main categories: the poems written in a male voice and those written in a female voice. A total of 24 poems are examined as examples. Chapter one serves as a general introduction to the research background, providing information about the poet and the tradition of Chinese poetry. Chapter two outlines two narrative concepts, “narrator” and “focalization”. Also, it explores the image of women in the 14 example poems written in a male voice. Chapter three includes 10 example poems written in a female voice, investigating the differences between the image of women created in the male and female voices. This study finds that the use of the female voice presents the female characters’ thoughts and feelings to the reader and allows the reader to empathize with them easily. / Graduate

Sona of Pi-Pa is a composition set to a poem to be performed by soprano and mixed instrumental ensemble. The formal plan is through-composed and the organization of each individual piece is largely determined by the structure of the poetic text. The text, drawn from Song of Pi-Pa by Po Chu-i, depicts the story of how the poet became overwhelmed by the chance hearing of a virtuosic performance of a woman playing the pi-pa. The general characteristics of the work reflect the assimilation of certain non-western musical and philosophical influences. Traditional western compositional techniques are also employed in the treatment of thematic materials, musical form, instrumentation, and the developmental process. The total performance time for this composition is approximately twenty-six minutes.

Sericulture has been a part of Chinese culture since ancient times. The silk dress was a symbol of the social privileges of the educated elite and the court. On the other hand, silk production and silk processing were also part of the everyday life of common villagers. For Chinese society, silk was an important material both economically and culturally. This diploma thesis analyzes how various aspects of life in Tang society, which were connected to silk, are portrayed in the works of the middle Tang poets Wang Jian 王建 (cca. 751-830) and Bai Juyi 白居易 (772-846). This paper identifies various themes and describes meanings that silk as a literary motif helps to express.

This paper applies a hermeneutic approach to analyze, and a comparative approach to examine, Bai Juyi’s poems referenced in Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon, Tongguk Yi Sang-guk Chip by Yi Kyu-bo and Kyewŏn Pilgyŏngjip by Ch’oe Ch’i-wŏn. Through exploring Bai’s poetry in these texts, the author discovers how Murasaki, Sei, Ch’oe, and Yi contributed to transculturuation in Korea and Japan. Furthermore, the transculturation demonstrated by these literati shows a diversity of patterns: cultural mobilization from west to east; the emergence of overlapping histories in different eras and locations; a disappeared culture, recovered through being transmitted to other regions; cultural transplantation or transformation resulting from cultural contacts; and cultural products helped to stimulate economic growth. Subsequently, Bai Juyi’s works stand as a testament to the power of great poetry to improve and enhance cultures across a broad span of time and space.

This paper applies a hermeneutic approach to analyze, and a comparative approach to examine, Bai Juyi’s poems referenced in Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon, Tongguk Yi Sang-guk Chip by Yi Kyu-bo and Kyewŏn Pilgyŏngjip by Ch’oe Ch’i-wŏn. Through exploring Bai’s poetry in these texts, the author discovers how Murasaki, Sei, Ch’oe, and Yi contributed to transculturuation in Korea and Japan. Furthermore, the transculturation demonstrated by these literati shows a diversity of patterns: cultural mobilization from west to east; the emergence of overlapping histories in different eras and locations; a disappeared culture, recovered through being transmitted to other regions; cultural transplantation or transformation resulting from cultural contacts; and cultural products helped to stimulate economic growth. Subsequently, Bai Juyi’s works stand as a testament to the power of great poetry to improve and enhance cultures across a broad span of time and space.

Composed for soprano, tenor, and baritone voices, woodwind, percussion, and string instruments, Three Voices is a polyglotic work that includes German, Chinese, and Spanish texts. The texts are chosen from Brecht Bertolt's Das Schiff, Po Chu I's Lang T'ao Sha, and Frederico Garcia Lorcá's Mar. Significant features of the piece are 1) application of Chinese operatic singing methods to vocal material in the sections that use Chinese text, 2) use of western instruments to emulate the sound of certain Chinese instruments, and 3) employment of Sprechstimme and dramatically inflected speech to create theatrical effects and highlight the sections that use German and Spanish texts.