Du Fu is one of China's most celebrated and influential poets. His poems about paintings are a highly innovative subset of poems rich with imagery and emotion. Received ideas about these poems fail to account for any role played in them by Du's aesthetic ideas. This study analyses Du's poems about paintings in order to bring to light Du's theory of art. Du's theory of art combines ancient Chinese ideas about aesthetics, literature and the nature of humanity's relationship to the universe. These traditional ideas serve as the foundation for a unique theory. Du's theory of art posits the painter as a higher being whose paintings have magical qualities as a result of his mastery of the craft of painting and the richness of his inner world.

Learning a language can be hard. Learning a language that contains tones to convey meaning is even harder. This dissertation presents a novel methodology for creating a language practice using augmented reality that has never been used before. The design of a new app in AR and non-AR versions can evaluate the same practice methodology. This methodology was applied to new software and was examined in regard to the importance of this software. Although the study results are inconclusive, progress has been made in answering research questions on the effectiveness of AR versus non-AR and the reliability of peer assessment. This study is essential for developing future language applications using design and methodologies in AR and peer evaluation.

One of the well-known Chinese revolutionary classics The White-Haired Girl (baimaonü, 白毛女) has gone through different adaptations as a propaganda of Chinese Communist Party from the 1940s to the 1960s. In recent years, the 2011 and 2015 operas are presented by the Ministry of Culture. The 2015 opera became especially widely known for Xi Jinping’s wife, Peng Liyuan’s involvement as an artistic director. What is the purpose of remaking this outdated propaganda in post-socialist China? How can these new adaptations work effectively as a means of propaganda? My study on the new adaptations of the White-Haired Girl (hereafter WHG) can serve as an example of the changes of the propaganda in the age of post-socialism. To do so, this study will use the 2011 opera and the TV reportage program which analyzes the 2011 and 2015 opera in the following ways: examine the 2011 opera as a representative work of the 21stcentury adaptations and focus on the TV reportage program Cultural Focus (Wenhuashidian, 文化视点) which demonstrates the intention of the production through interviewing the main artists and staffs of the 2011 and 2015 operas, and the Chinese public. By doing so, I argue that the emphasis of propaganda is switched from class struggle to social harmony in the 2011 and 2015 operas compared to the film (1950) and the ballet film (1971). This social harmony is achieved by promotion of familial and generational harmony. Also, the heroine, Xi’er is represented as a female individual who can contribute to the unification of the nation instead of being presented as a class subject. In this regard, the endeavor of seeking social harmony through new adaptations reflects anxieties over social disintegration in contemporary China.

Translation is an important language skill in multilingual societies and the globalized world. Some scholars even claim that translation skill should be the fifth language skill in addition to the conventional four basic skills of second language competence - listening, speaking, reading, and writing (Newmark, 1991; Naimushin, 2002; Leonardi, 2011). However, the current mainstream communicative teaching approach tries to avoid the use of translation in language classrooms, mainly because of the possible negative transfer of the first language and low priority given to writing. This study aims to identify the pedagogical role of translation in language teaching through the exploration of the relationships between learners’ second language competence and translation ability, in the hope of providing empirical evidence to support the application of translation in language teaching. A total of 48 participants learning Chinese as a second language participated in this study. The participants’ translation ability was measured by a translation task and their language competence was measured by the course final oral and written test. We found that translation can expose learners to their weaknesses in the following aspects including word order, word choice, omission, and featured grammar structures like descriptive complements. The expanding gap between Chinese to English and English to Chinese translation, as well as the gap between accuracy and expression, show that learners’ translation ability cannot be developed in a balanced way without interruption. In addition, we found that participants’ translation ability is positively correlated with their second language competence, which shows that students’ translation ability potentially has a positive effect on second language competence. Moreover, we observed a strong correlation between translation and speaking at the intermediate level, which supports that utilizing translation in second language teaching could be beneficial to second language competence, especially for speaking competence. Moreover, a relatively loose correlation between translation ability and reading and writing competence shows that we cannot expect a person who can read and write to be a natural translator. Therefore, proper training in translation is necessary if we believe translation is an important skill that students need to acquire.

The tide of warfare that swept the Chinese mainland culminated in the birth of a new government. The People's Republic of China was formally proclaimed on October 1, 1949. The Common Programme, which was adopted by the People's Political Consultative Conference and which be- came the law of the new regime, was the first law enacted to cover the administration of justice. The law presently in force, relating to the same subject matter, is the Constitution of 19542 adopted by the National People's Congress on September 20, 1954.

There is a book printed in Chinese by Yeh Mung Tau during the reign of Kan Lung 1736 to 1796 in which he states that he found these documents in a Buddhist Monastery though he was unable to find the originals. The title of this book is the T'al Shang Ken-Ying Pien Chih Chiang Treatise of the Exalted one on Response and Retribution, with Commentery. It is a collection of treatises which deals with the same subjects as the teachings of Lao Tzu. Ce of the treatises in that voluse is entitled T'ai Shang Ch'u Paa Hun (A), the Precious Teachings of the Exalted One. It is not stated whether it was or was not written by Leo Tau but It is in the was category of 11tereture as the Tao Te Ching (道德經), end to a recognized generally in China.

This computational study reveals the primacy of language contact in the variation of language (Sarah Grey Thomason 2003). The visualization and further analysis confirm the reconceptualization of Chinese linguistic history with the theory of Horizontal Transmission (Shen 2016). Horizontal Transmission situates the development of Mandarin and other Chinese dialects in a sociopolitical landscape as a cultural complex and introduces imperfect learning to the time-capsulated process of Language Shift as an inevitable social phenomenon. The nature of language largely determines how it can change(Janda and Joseph 2003). We have to ruminate on the fact that the grammar of language is a symbolic system of representation while living language is a complex adaptive system generated and regenerated by individuals (Shen 2015). The descriptive capacity of Shen’s theory is compatible with the nature of language being dynamic idiolects alongside a real linguistic history embodied by individual speakers in time and space. The descriptive capacity of Shen’s theory is compatible with the nature of language being dynamic idiolects alongside a real linguistic history embodied by individual speakers in time and space. Only by understanding the change mechanism of Chinese from the perspective of language contact and through the lens of language shift, the variation of Mandarin and emergence of Chinese dialects find their explanations in a salient chain of logic to create a holistic account of Chinese evolution where the intertwined influence of languages finds its manifestation.

The Chinese language features a rich class of words called measure words that serve as units for counting objects and actions. In comparison with English and other Indo-European languages, Chinese makes much more extensive use of measure words. American students who study Chinese as a second language often find it hard to acquire the usage of Chinese measure words. To obtain a comprehensive and objective evaluation of students’ measure words acquisition, I designed an experiment where measure words as introduced in Integrated Chinese are collected. In the current study, measure words are divided into two categories by their semantic features: Concrete Measure Words and Abstract Measure Words. If a measure word directly relates to its object’s concrete exterior shape, and image thought plays an important role when people try to use this measure word, it is called a concrete measure word. Abstract measure words are those which have no obvious relation to an object’s exterior image, and whose usages mainly rely on people’s abstract thought. Students are divided into two grades based on how long they have studied Chinese: Grade 1 and Grade 2. Survey results show that students’ acquisition of concrete measure words is significantly better than their acquisition of abstract measure words. Furthermore, there is no obvious difference between measure words acquisition of the two grades; visual aids can facilitate concrete measure words acquisition to some extent. Conclusions of survey results reveal some practical principles of measure words teaching. First, concrete measure words and abstract measure words should be treated differently in classroom teaching. Second, different teaching strategies should be adopted to teach students from different grades. Third, analyzing semantic features and providing visual aids are useful methods when teaching concrete measure words. This thesis includes five chapters. Chapter One summarizes related work in previous studies and points out the importance of future research on Chinese measure words acquisition. Chapter Two focuses on the design of the survey where experimental settings, including objects, participants, survey design, and study methods, are introduced. In Chapter Three, I discuss the experimental results in more detail and summarize typically misused measure words. Chapter Four focuses on the teaching material study where I analyze the arrangements of contents related to measure words, and discuss the merits and shortcomings of the teaching materials currently used. In the last chapter, I summarize some suggestions on teaching strategies inspired by this study.

This study seeks to investigate the modern derivative of Beijing opera, known as yangbanxi, through macro and micro approaches. The first part of the thesis surveys the development of Beijing opera under the historical context and in its social, political, and cultural perspectives. The second part, taking a microscopic perspective, undertakes an in-depth analysis of the compositions that were solely created by composer Yu Huiyong. First, it assays the application of Yu’s theory to his compositions of various Beijing opera arias. Second, it analyzes Yu’s instrumental music in compositional dimensions such as material, structure, and techniques, considering the larger implications of Yu’s approach. Third, it explores the highly acclaimed opera Azalea Mountain as a case study, integrating compositional analysis and sociopolitical perspective in order to give a relatively full picture of Yu’s final work as sole composer. The analysis also focuses on three aspects of the yangbanxi. The first aspect is the role of composers, in which Yu Huiyong was largely responsible for shaping the musical language and influencing the direction of Beijing opera. The second aspect is the role of politics, focusing on Jiang Qing, who had a clear vision to transform Beijing opera along revolutionary lines and the artistic and political wherewithal to implement that transformation. The third aspect is the role of culture in shaping society, with an emphasis on yangbanxi, as the artistic centerpiece of the Cultural Revolution, and special consideration is given to its role in creating a new mass culture. Beijing opera, as a living art form, had been undergoing a process of modernization throughout the first half of the twentieth century, but it was Yu Huiyong who clearly articulated what needed to be done to make the traditional art form relevant to modern audiences. In particular, the most significant achievement of yangbanxi was its music development, which achieved a new height in artistic development thanks to Yu Huiyong’s fully constructed music theory and newly established music and performance system. As the main composer, designer, theorist, and organizer of yangbanxi, Yu Huiyong made the greatest contribution to these developments. His academic research laid the theoretical framework of the further development of opera music, and his hands-on practice and music innovation provided valuable experience for the younger generation.

Having conducted a successful long range ballistic missile test in December 2012 and a third nuclear test in February 2013, North Korea increasingly poses a security threat to Northeast Asia. Given these heightened escalations, the international community has come to depend more and more on China’s potential to influence North Korean behavior. Beijing’s unique leverage is based on the historical bilateral relations between the two countries in addition to China’s sole willingness to support the North Korean regime. Therefore, the following paper seeks to determine whether China’s North Korea policy shifted during the consecutive Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping administrations in response to North Korean provocations. Ascertaining China’s North Korean paradigm is constructive and worthwhile in order to understand the future development and hopeful resolution of the North Korean security dilemma. In order to better examine the two administrations, the paper first defines China’s strategic interests regarding the Korean peninsula. Song Jooyoung’s dual threats model and Taewan Kim’s politico-economic linkage model are then used to assess the different factors that influenced China’s decision-making process when deciding whether to maintain its support after each North Korean provocation. Analysis of the two administrations reveals that Beijing’s underlying foreign policy objective of stability remains unchanged. On the other hand, unyielding North Korean provocations have forced Beijing to reassess its current policy of bolstering the North Korean regime toward the end of the Hu administration and even more so during the current Xi administration. In addition, North Korean actions in defiance of China’s public warnings illustrate a North Korea diverging from its usual subservience to Chinese influence. More importantly, the defining reason for the shift in China’s policy is the fact that North Korean behavior undermines Beijing attempts to posture itself as a responsible global power in addition to fulfilling its own strategic interests. Assessing China’s North Korean paradigm is meaningful due to Beijing’s capacity to resolve the North Korean security dilemma. Although skeptics question whether China will ultimately break from its customary support for North Korea due to fears of damaging instability, increasingly public statements rejecting North Korean provocations signal the Xi administration’s recalibration.