University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

published_or_final_version / History / Master / Master of Philosophy

This study demonstrates the flexible nature of relations between “peripheral” polities imperial “core” polities. The decentralized nature of the Mongol and Iroquois confederacies enabled them to dictate terms during negotiations with the Ming dynasty or British, respectively, giving them a higher degree of agency in their relations. Comparing the experiences of the Mongols and Iroquois provides a better understanding of how indigenous confederacies acted and reacted under similar circumstances. Likewise, this study aims to demonstrate the capacity for “peripheral” confederacies to resist, selectively adapt, and negotiate with “core” empires. / Confederacy in action -- Iroquois historiography -- Mongol historiography -- Social structures and foundation myths -- "Relative" relations. / Department of History

The purpose of this study is to arrive at a critical overview of politics and literature in the Chinese context. The relationship has increasingly become a "field" of studies and theoretical inquiry that most scholars in either disciplines are wary to tread. This thesis tries to venture into this problematic field by a theoretical examination as well as an empirical critique of Chinese literature and politics, where the relationship seems even more paradoxical, but adds more insight into the argument. The Introduction and Chapter One set up a framework by asking some general but fundamental questions: what literature is, and how it is to be related to politics. Chapter Two examines the historical function of literature and Chinese writers in society to establish the basis of argument in the Chinese context. Chapter Three focuses the discussion on the relationship between politics and literature during the Mao era and after. Chapters Four analyses the literary works published during the post-Mao period to establish the argument that literature, as part of our perception of the world, is most concerned with human society and social amelioration and participates in the socio-political development by contributing to it through a discourse that is otherwise inaccessible. Chapter Five explores the argument further by extending it into the field of cinema, which basically comes from the same narrative tradition of prose literature, but offers a wider and different dimension to the argument pursued. Chapter Six and the Conclusion try to draw together the argument by examining literature as both form and content to argue how and why literature is related to politics and how it has functioned in a political manner in Chinese society. To summarise, Chinese literature in this period will b& shown to be involved In a process of political reform and development by way of bringing the reader to participate in a critical and philosophical dialogue with power, history and future. In the long run, it offers emancipating visions and possibilities revealed to the reader in ways that are historical, developmental, philosophical and comparative. This study focuses on the prose fiction published in this period, for it is the leading force in China's cultural development and constitutes the major trunk of the modern Chinese canon. In addition, the research also extends to drama and films, and the way they, together with prose fiction, make up the most popular perception and intellectual discovery of contemporary Chinese society and politics and best inform the argument of the study of politics and literature.

This research report examined the implementation of villager self-governance in China, of which the election of village leader is the most distinct feature. Unlike previous studies of village self-governance, which focused on policy intentions of the Chinese leadership or the speculation of scholars about what may happen, this study attempted to examine whether or not the elections are competitive and what the consequences of self-governance are.

This dissertation studies a critical facet of Chinese politics, inspections by higher Chinese government to villages. Principally, it looks at how village economic development determines government inspection decisions and how inspections, once conducted, impact village politics. Specifically, I argue that villages perceived as destabilizing to the Chinese regime, villages with higher levels of economic inequality and villages located at the two extremes of economic development, should see more inspections. In addition, I argue that inspections, in return, drive village politics: they increase village leaders' governing efficacy and raise villagers' political awareness. This theory has received strong support from both field work and quantitative empirical tests using the Chinese Household Income Project (2002) dataset.

The central argument of this thesis is that a series of China's state policies, before and during the reform era, were conducive to the rise of the 1989 Chinese Student Movement (CSM). The most important of these were (1) leftist policies during Mao's era which fostered the formation of pro-democratic yet impractical intellectuals and created a university ecology that was remarkably conducive to student movements, and (2) the state-led reform which over produced students on the one hand, and blocked upward mobility channels for intellectuals and students on the other hand. These and other conducive factors to the rise of the 1989 CSM were not simply state mistakes. To a large extent, they were characteristic of the regime. / The thesis does not reject non-state centered factors such as anomic feelings toward uncertainties brought by the reform, the conflict between reformers and hardliners within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the rise of civil society during the eighties, the impact of Western ideologies following the open door policy or the intrinsic character of Chinese culture, that have all been hitherto proposed to explain the rise of the CSM. Rather, it incorporates these explanations under a state-centered paradigm in light of a general model (the DSSI model) that I am proposing to explain the general causes, and to a lesser extent, the dynamics of large scale social movements.

This thesis examines the political activism of Hong Kong youths known as the Post-80s. In contrast to dominant discourse in Hong Kong claiming that these youths are driven by economic concerns, based on 18 months of fieldwork, I suggest that the Post-80s are instead striving to reimagine what politics means as a part of life in the postcolonial city. It is emphasised that youths are 'protesting' as an act of rejecting mainstream politics, and as a means to realise their desire for a different form of politics to emerge in the city. By bringing youth voices to the forefront, this thesis addresses two broad themes - why and how the Post-80s protest. The thesis first provides an overview of Hong Kong politics, arguing that youths express a deep sense of dissatisfaction towards the political culture in society dictated by financial interests, and towards the hierarchical structures within the political domains that stifle the public voice. The thesis then reviews how the Post-80s challenge these conditions by positing a form of alternative politics predicated on individualistic self-representation manifesting through the self, body, and space. I look at youth claims that becoming political is an 'individual choice', and the ways in which their strong sense of individuality interacts with/counteracts the limitations on their political participation imposed by familial ties and gender roles. I then explore Post-80s attempts to dispel bodily passivity in protests through the incorporation of performance art into their political actions to empower the individual activist, and analyse youth attempts to reconfigure urban space into political sites of individualistic experimentation. The conclusion reviews the impact Post-80s activism has had on the realpolitik of the city, noting the inherent contradictions within the political efforts of the Post-80s and their limited ability to inflict widespread structural changes in Hong Kong politics.

Doctorat en sciences sociales, politiques et économiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished