As ownership of Hong Kong changed hands from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in 1997, citizens and filmmakers of the city became highly aware of the political environment. Film director Wong Kar-Wai creates visually stimulating films that express the anxieties and frustrations of the citizens of Hong Kong during this period. This study provides a political reading of Days of Being Wild (1991), In the Mood for Love (2000), and 2046 (2004) through analyzing various story elements and details within the mise-en-scene. Story elements include setting, dialogue, character relationships, character identities, thematic motifs, musical references, numerology, and genre manipulation. Wong also uses details within the films' mise-en-scene, such as props and color, to express political frustrations. To provide color interpretations, various traditional aesthetic guidelines, such as those prescribed by Taoism, Cantonese and Beijing opera, and feng shui, are used to read the films' negative comments on the handover process and the governments involved. When studied together the three films illustrate how Wong Kar-Wai creates narrative and visual references to the time and atmosphere in which he works, namely pre-and-post handover Hong Kong.

Based on the above findings and the preliminary theoretical framework, resource mobilizing and responsibility boundary is input to construct the support model of foster family. The characteristic of social support in substitute family is concluded. Recommendation about foster care policy and services is also provided. / Based on the review of literatures of foster care and social support, a preliminary theoretical framework is constructed. The important findings include: (l) The support relationship between foster families and foster adolescents is influenced by foster care service center and the natural family information of foster adolescents. Different foster families have different affection boundary and responsibility boundary. The boundary of support is constructed differently. Four types of support relationship is found: Totally Inclusive Supporting, Totally Exclusive Supporting, Semi Exclusive Supporting, and Passive Supporting. (2) In the support relationship between foster families and foster adolescents, foster families mobilize all kinds of family resources and outer resources to provide support to foster adolescents in living care, education, eliminating discrimination, development plan. (3) The support type of foster family is changing continuously. If the affection boundary and the responsibility boundary do not match with each other, the support relationship is not stable, or conflict with each other, and even collapse. / Since the 1990s, in the context of socialization of social welfare in China, the modern family foster care began to develop in China. This study is conducted in Shanghai, China. Qualitative research method is adopted. 16 foster adolescents and their foster families participate in this study. The aims of the study include exploring the support relationship between foster families and foster adolescents, researching the process of foster family's support to foster adolescents, finding the development of the support types, filling in the gaps of foster care study in China, expanding the study of social support in substitute family, advocating the foster care policy and services in China. / 王玥. / Advisers: Ngan-pun Ngai; Sek-yum Ngai. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 376-391). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Wang Yue.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, many powerful lineages appeared in the Jiangnan area. In this thesis, I take the Hua lineage of Wuxi county as an example, to study the emergence and transformation of these institutions, as well as the change of local society in the period. / In the Hua lineage, the word "lineage" includes two kinds of meanings: one is continued by blood, the other is constructed by special means. The former is implied in the the Hua Zhengu story in early Ming dynasty, which described when the family arrived at the bank of Lake E, reclaimed land, and, in time, became a lineage having many descendants. The latter was performed in ceremonies by many people surnamed Hua who lived in Wuxi county, including Hua Zhengu's descendants, who, through the ceremonies, designated themselves members of a large lineage. The ceremonies were supported by the building of ancestral halls, by compiling genealogies, and recalling stories of their connections to the ancestors. In the middle of the Ming dynasty, people of the Hua surname at Dangkou, where Hua Zhengu had settled, came to be known as a great lineage in Wuxi County. / My focus is not on building a "lineage society" . In the Jiangnan area, lineages were actively built only by a small number of people, while most of their members kept only a loose connection with their lineage. So the lineage exerted little authority on its members. In fact, the importance of the lineage lies in its economic function. Under the process of economic development, by building a charitable estate, lineage became a corporation, which in turn further accelerated the economic development of local society. Through the study of the impact the lineage and the town it settled had on each other, this thesis describes the specificity of the Jiangnan lineage in the Ming and Qing dynasties. / 余艶. / Adviser: David Faure. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-148). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Yu Yan.

Liao Weichun. / "August 2004." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-268). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In 1901, three German American candidates ran for the office of mayor in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The winner, Henry Berghoff, had emigrated from Germany as a teenager. This thesis examines the election discourse in the partisan press for signs of ethnic tension. The first chapter places Fort Wayne in historical context of German immigration and Indiana history. The second and third chapters investigate the editorial pages for evidence of ethnic tension. I also reference a few articles of an editorial nature outside of the editorial pages. The second chapter provides background information about the election and examines indications of the candidates’ ethnicity and references to the German language papers. The third chapter considers the editorial comment about Germany, the intertwining of ethnicity and the issues, and ethnic name-calling. In order to identify underlying bias for or against Germany and to better understand the context of the references to German ethnicity, the fourth chapter explores the portrayal of Germany in the Fort Wayne papers.