The Finger-Guessing Game is a novel with many layers of themes, characterization, and metaphor, and conveying all of these varied aspects requires a detailed, careful approach to translation. With this thesis I aim to show that strictly adhering to a singular translation method, such as “word-for-word” or “sense-for-sense,” will produce unsatisfactory results at certain points within the novel. This is accomplished by an overview of several different unique aspects of the writing style of this novel, viewpoint, the theme of fate, and the use of idioms and metaphors. Following this will be an analysis of these aspects’ functions within the novel, and how to best translate them to retain their original meaning. In the end, I advocate for a case-by-case approach to the translation of this novel, wherein each unit of translation is considered individually, and the translator judges how to translate it in the best way possible. Only in this way can the meaning present at all levels in the text, from the themes down to the very language used, be translated in a manner which both reads naturally in English and still carries as much of the original meaning as possible.

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When Chinese language learners reach intermediate level, approximately in the second year of their Chinese study, they start to encounter near-synonyms, words that have the same translations in English, and characters that look alike. These words are often called 易混淆词 yi hunxiao ci “easily confusable words” by Chinese scholars. This lexical acquisition study researches a group of near synonyms about Chinese verbs of ‘change’, which either express a stative change (where an argument which expresses the result of the change is required) or causative change (where an argument which expresses the instigator or cause of the change is required). The study selected seven typical Chinese verbs, which are approximately equivalent to the words ‘to change’ and ‘to become’ in English. This study explores how the seven verbs of ‘change’ are different from each other through both literature review and an analysis of native speakers’ corpus. Among Chinese verbs of ‘change’, the most difficult pairs are 变成 biancheng and 成为 chengwei, 改 gai, 变 bian and 改变 gaibian, because of their morphological, semantic and syntactic similarities. 变成 biancheng and 成为 chengwei are very close in meaning, however, 成为 chengwei indicates a change that has gone through a development, while 变成 biancheng emphasizes on the comparison of status before and after the action. 成为 chengwei is used mainly to describe getting a new job or obtaining a special status, while 变成 biancheng is mostly to describe physical changes. As for 改 gai and 变 bian, under the sense of ‘to change’, 变 bian is more often used as an intransitive verb to express a stative change, 改 gai in contrast, is frequently used to express a causative change. As for collocations, 改 gai, 变 bian and 改变 gaibian collocate with very different nouns and other syntactic structures. This acquisition study then adopts an interlanguage analysis and experiment test as means to determine the effect that these semantic differences have on language learners. Heritage language learners have demonstrated advantages since the first year. Participants in their fourth year of Chinese classes have demonstrated their full knowledges on the verbs’ pronunciation and meaning, including secondary meaning of polysemy, which are comparable to Chinese speakers. Nevertheless, foreign language learners after four years of learning have not yet achieved native level in term of using the verbs correctly in sentences. The most difficult lexical pairs are 改 gai and 变 bian; 变成 biancheng and 成为 chengwei. Even though heritage and foreign language learners have different learning patterns, it is found that as students proceed in studying Chinese, their performance on Chinese verbs of ‘change’ improves in U-shape patterns. With in-depth comparison and analysis, it is determined that the causes of difficulties may come from English and Chinese differences, complexities of Chinese verbs of change, transfer of training.

China was already old in its own eyes by the year 221 B.C. To picture that age in its proper perspective, it will be necessary, for a while, to look backwards toward an even more distant time, adjusting sight onto a day when China was young, and with what memories still extant, try to reconstruct, uncovering and making clear, that complex which caused a dawn, one magnificent moment, to explode, brilliantly and deadly, into the day of the Legalist, fortunately brief, where a God reigned on high in the guise of cruel Law--and the People suffered...

This study aims to investigate the acquisition of verb-noun collocations in Chinese by learners who study Chinese as a foreign language. By conducting a survey, this research attempt to discuss the following issues. 1) Does learners’ acquisition of verb-noun collocations increase with years of learning? 2) Is learners’ acquisition of verb-noun collocations related to the usage frequency of the verbs? 3) Are there any differences between patient objects and non-patient objects in verb-noun collocation acquisitions? 4) Does natural L2 exposure have an impact on collocational competence? Seven verbs are selected in this study, 看 kan, 开 kai, 做 zuo, 走 zou, 放 fang, 打 da, 带 dai. In order to answer the research questions, a survey which consisted of four parts was conducted. This survey was done in a public university in Massachusetts, USA. In total, 82 Chinese learners have participated in this study, and they were grouped into three instructional levels: Second-Year Chinese learners, Third-Year Chinese learners, and Fourth-Year Chinese learners. The data in this research show that the use of collocations is related to learners’ language proficiency, and this study has identified a hook-shaped learning curve in the acquisition of verb-noun collocations. In addition, the frequency is significant to the verb-noun acquisition, and the usage frequency of verbs plays a vital role compared to nouns. Furthermore, at all three proficiency levels, learners had a higher accuracy rate with regard to patient objects in verb-noun collocations. Collocations are problematic for learners who study Chinese as their foreign language; thus, it is essential for instructors to discuss effective teaching methodology for collocations. In this paper, some implications for teaching Chinese verb-noun collocations are provided by the researcher.

In 2013, Zhang Jiajia 张嘉佳’s book I Belonged to You (从你的全世界路过； thereafter Belonged) became a huge hit and a miracle of publication. In 2013 after half a year in circulation, the paper print sold more than 2,000,000 copies and was soon adapted to two movies. In 2014, both the kindle and paper edition of Belonged won No.1 for the best books list on Amazon China. Zhang Jiajia’s incredible success is a miracle, and it can only happen with the easy access of Internet. In addition to that, the lifestyle Belonged depicts is what post-80s and post-90s generations in China are experiencing now. My thesis studies how the Internet and Sina Weibo platform make the popularity of Belonged possible and why post-80s and post-90s readers from Sina Weibo like this kind of story. By investigating the reasons behind this book’s popularity, I argue that Internet literature and literary works in a similar genre to Belonged fulfill the emotional needs of post-80s and post-90s generations, which the literature works written by writers who receive government stipends cannot meet.

In the past fifteen years, the Beijing writer Feng Tang has enjoyed great popularity, especially among young readers. As a versatile writer, he published not only novels but also essays and poems. His representative work is the semi-autobiographical The Beijing Trilogy which depicts the coming-of-age of a boy named Qiushui and his friends. The main theme of this trilogy is the growth of youth and thus establishes a youth narrative. Based on a close reading of the trilogy, this paper aims to explore the true nature of the youth narrative that Feng Tang presents in his The Beijing Trilogy. This paper is divided into five sections: section one introduces the writer Feng Tang and The Beijing Trilogy; section two discusses the feature of youth narrative in the realm of the genre bildungsroman; section three analyzes the counter-sublime tendency associated with the writer’s rebellion from the official discourse and mainstream ideology; section four focuses on the phallocentrism that is pervasive in the story; and section five is the conclusion.

Three des, as structural particles in Chinese, are phonologically the same, but written differently. Through analyzing the written forms of these three homophonous particles, the research has come to some valuable conclusions that cannot be obtained by only observing the speaking language of Chinese. This paper studies the relationships among three “des” (de1 as “的”; de2 as “地”; de3 as “得”), which function as structural particles in the written language of Chinese, by examining their mutual replacements in blogs. The research regards every living language as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) with continuing changes. So this study’s perspective not only helps us understand more deeply the structures with three des, but also opens a new window to explore the variation of Chinese on the cognitive linguistic layer, including syntactic and semantic aspects. Through analyzing the authentic data, which is obtained from a corpus built of articles in personal blogs including 400,000 Chinese characters, there are several worthy findings. First, the mutual replacements are asymmetric along with the generalization of de1. Secondly, there is a positive correlation between the frequency of replacements and the linguistic positive relevance among the three des, especially the syntactic and semantic aspects. Finally, the replacements among the vii three des present a diverse and complicated situation when investigating the written forms of idiolects. The syntactic factor plays the main role in the replacements among the three des. The related degree of de1 & de2 is significantly higher than the one of de1 & de3, which is especially obvious on the writers with relatively frequent replacements.

Zhongguofeng music 中国风流行曲 has had an impact on the Chinese pop music industry. Although the style of music uses familiar overtones that have been in wide usage within Western pop music, Zhongguofeng aims to emphasize more of a connection to a unified sense of Chinese culture, ethnicity, and identity. Specifically, I will argue that “Chineseness” is constructed through lyrics, which contain cultural references to the imperial era of China, and accompanying music videos, which provide visual imagery that further draws the viewer into an idealized “China”. In addition, the song’s instrumentals blend Western pop stylings with traditional Chinese instruments and vocal techniques. In this thesis I will use semiotics, or the study of signs and their meanings, to illustrate the listener’s perception of “China” in modern pop music. I will first introduce expressions of “Chineseness” in previous genres of Chinese pop music and then examine well-known Zhongguofeng songs. My goal is to question the nature of “Chineseness” itself and explore the process of “semantic snowballing”, in which terms change over time, depending on the individual performer and/or historical circumstances. I will analyze three different songs by artists from different regions, all released between 2006 and 2007 at the height of Zhongguofeng’s popularity : S.H.E.’s “Chinese Language” 中国话, Vincy Chan’s “Daiyu Laughs” 黛玉笑了, and Wang Lee Hom’s “Mistake in the Flower Fields” 花田错.

This thesis examines the theories and practices surrounding the rural land takings law in modern China. It identifies and rejects the dominant Transition Paradigm in the existing literature which treats the contemporary crisis of rural land expropriation in China as a case of unfulfilled constitutional promise and dispenses prescriptions aimed at developing the Chinese expropriation law towards the supposedly more advanced models of takings law found in other countries, especially the USA. By unearthing the long overlooked historical lineage within which the rural land takings law evolves over the past century in China, including the almost forgotten original takings clause in the 1954 PRC Constitution and the foundational theories propounded by both the communist and nationalist parties, this thesis offers a much richer picture on how and why the Chinese expropriation law has become the way it is today. It shows that the widely recognized phenomenon of “land finance” is a symptom rather than cause of the problem, which lies in the deeply entrenched tradition of rural land takings for the party-state’s social transformative programmes, rendering the Chinese experience incomparable to that of any other countries. The current takings clause in the 1982 PRC Constitution and the present law in this area, despite the relevant reforms over the past decade, remain to faithfully reflect such a tradition characterized by the state’s plan-based top-down control over rural land and the presumption of state expropriation in non-agricultural use of rural land. Since these have been the paramount features of the Chinese land regime for over half a century and are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, most of the reform recommendations made in the existing scholarship are either irrelevant or unfeasible. However, this is not to say that no change is possible. A more modest yet more realistic reform proposal will be put forward.