This thesis attempts to contribute to the social history of Malaya, and of the Malay community within Malaya, in the all-important decade before the Second World War. The major source that it uses for this purpose is the Malay periodical Saudara, which was published in the Straits Settlement of Penang between 1928 and 1941. The thesis will show that, through the period of its publication, Saudara discussed at length within its pages the issues of Malay identity; the role of Islam, globally and within Malay society; the relationship between Malay adat and Islam; the role of Islamic scholars in Malay society; the question of the educational advancement of the Malays; race relations in Malaya; the establishment of the first Malay national association - Persaudaraan Sahabat Pena Malaya (Brotherhood of Pen Friends); the question of the implementation of Islamic law; the status of women; and the developing world-crisis of the pre-war period, and its implications for Malaya. It will, in other words, help to illuminate the development of Malay social, political and religious thinking in a crucial period of transition in Malay society, and will strengthen the argument that Malay nationalism did not 'suddenly' emerge as a consequence of the stresses of the Second World War, but was already taking shape in the inter-war period. It will furthermore show that parts of the Malay elite, at least, had an ambiguous attitude towards the British role as 'protector' of the Malay community in Malaya, and that a 'loyalist' attitude towards Britain need not conflict with a fundamentally nationalist perspective. The thesis is an extension in depth of an area of Malay intellectual and social history that was initially opened up by W. R. Roff. Post-Roff scholarship has tended to concentrate on the earlier Malay-Islamic periodicals, and on the mainly Islamic issues raised in these periodicals. This thesis concentrates on a later Islamic periodical which had a longer run, and concerned itself with all aspects of Malay life at the time.

There are nine chapters in the present study. Chapter one consists of the introduction. Chapters two to four contain brief surveys of the sources from which the present study draws much of its primary information. Chapter five details the changes in the administration of maritime trade in China, and the impact that it had on the role of maritime trade in the Chinese economy and on Chinese maritime trade practices. Chapter six focuses on the Malacca Straits region's maritime state-level diplomatic and trade exchanges with China, against the backdrop of changes in China's view and administration of maritime trade. Chapter seven examines the general trends that occurred in the trade in Malacca Straits region products to China. Chapter eight details the developments in the trade of key categories of Chinese products to the Malacca Straits region, and examines the changing patterns of the Chinese products trade at the regional and sub-regional levels. Chapter nine serves as the conclusion, drawing together the strands of information in the preceding chapters, and providing an overview of the changing patterns of trade between the two regions over a period of four centuries.

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The relationship between tourism and conservation was investigated in the Indonesian national park of Bromo Tengger Semeru, in East Java. Beforehand, the salient features and contradictions of sustainability, tourism and protected areas management were examined. It was found that some development strategies failed to achieve the desired outcomes through incompatibility with the socio-cultural circumstances where they were applied, particularly in the case of biodiversity conservation through protected areas establishment. More recent strategies were seen to take the realities of context into account. Aspects of the Indonesian socio-political context relevant to natural resource management and tourism were researched, and local aspects of resource utilisation at Bromo Tengger Semeru were investigated. The tripartite relationship between the local people (the Tenggerese), the tourists, and the national park was studied. The Tenggerese are farmers who relied on the national park for fuelwood and were heavily involved in providing tourism services in certain places. They maintained a strong position in tourism by retaining ownership of basic elements of the product and by demonstrating a high degree of reflexivity in reacting to available opportunities. The quality of local leadership was significant in whether social and economic initiatives were taken. Tourism-induced prosperity seemed to be reducing reliance on fuelwood by fostering a switch to convenience fuels, but only where tourism levels were substantial. A majority of tourists (70%) were domestic visitors, while the remainder were mainly East Asians and Northerners. There was little awareness amongst park administrators of the needs of different groups, and the regulatory framework designed to protect the park was not enforced. Revenues earned from the park had not resulted in improved park protection. Underlying the weak protection measures was a low level of conservation consciousness amongst the Indonesian population. Although tourism was currently successful in terms of attracting large numbers of people, and it was fostering some social and economic development amongst the Tenggerese, the conservation benefits for the national park were very limited, and it seemed unlikely that tourism here could be judged to be truly sustainable

This thesis attempts to explore within what historical context and with what documented content, A Bite of China: Season I, a Chinese documentary television series that explores the history of food, eating and cooking garners widespread popularity. By theoretical analyses, Chapter 1 concludes the relationship between documentary and the "reality" is built upon representation and there is "something beyond reality" in documentary. Moreover, in documentary representation, affect helps the "reality" to transform into "documentary reality," and affect is the key to understand "something beyond reality." In order to analyze documentary in historical context, Chapter 2 reviews and analyzes western documentary film history, Chinese television documentary history and The New Documentary Movement in China. As conclusion shows, this movement changes Chinese documentary history and provides historical context for A Bite of China. In particular, it makes common Chinese people's lives and general Chinese society become main documented content, which constitutes a non-governmental power discourse. Chapter 3 turn the case study of A Bite of China. As it concludes, historical context is the integration between governmental discourse and non-governmental discourse. As for documented content, the intertwined representation between the representation of Chinese gourmet food and affective resonance among director, documented people and spectators makes A Bite of China popular. This thesis advances "affect" as an approach to further understand "documentary reality" and provides a new viewpoint on how A Bite of China becomes a popular Chinese television documentary.

Muan Xingtao was a prominent Chan master of the seventeenth century. This study attempts to examine his religious and cultural legacy and his numerous accomplishments. Among his many achievements were his successful consolidation of the Obaku headquarters of Manpukuji in Japan and cultivation of many Japanese dharma heirs which greatly expanded the Obaku’s territories. He was praised for his artistic abilities in painting and calligraphy which led to the Japanese designating him as one of the “Obaku sanpitsu 黄檗三筆”. He earned the highest religious honors of the purple robe and obtained the patronage from the shogun and Japanese elite. He characteristically manifested the virtues of filial piety and loyalty and transmitted the Ming style of Buddhist teachings, which placed more emphasis on the lay believers, nenbutsu and monastic discipline to Japan. His life represented the religious influence achieved through the interconnection between nations.

Situated in the changing context of Mandarin learning in the United States, Mandarin these days is changing from a less commonly taught language to a more commonly offered foreign language option in American secondary schools. However, in the applied linguistic literature, "few empirical studies have focused on pre-college CFL learning" (Ke, 2012, p.98). Moreover, the transition from high school to university often entails complex social, cultural, and emotional changes (e.g., Nathan, 2006). The goal of this dissertation project, therefore, is to investigate how students' investment in Mandarin is socially and historically constructed at these three levels: personal, familial, and institutional, as they transition from high school to university. This study draws upon the theory of identity and investment (Norton, 1995) to examine how these teenage language learners are multidimensional beings with multiple desires, and how their investment is produced or reproduced from social interactions, and is subject to change. Three high school campuses were chosen, because Mandarin classes are now offered from kindergarten through twelfth grade in these schools. Six students who expressed their intentions to continue learning Mandarin in university consented to participate in this study. Data collection for this study lasted from March to December 2015, which covered these students' last semester of high school, their first semester of college, and the period between. Data were collected from interviews and monthly informal Skype chats, and supplemented with class documents. Using qualitative analysis methods, the findings show the following factors as salient to their investment in Mandarin learning at the high school stage: 1) the students' personal interest, and 2) the influence from their families and their institutions. In the university setting, these students' investment in Mandarin was mostly mediated at the personal and the institutional levels. The results reveal the identity shift from childhood to adulthood these adolescent learners experienced during the transition. Specifically, the adolescent learners became more independent in making their own decisions, and less dependent on their families, both financially and symbolically. Second, the findings also highlight how these individuals' investment in Mandarin could be constrained at the institutional level. This points to the need for L2 educators to pay attention not only to individual students' personal interests and motivations in language learning, but also to a better understanding of how students perceive their own identities and whether foreign language learning is accessible to learners institutionally.

"Yuewang Goujian shijia," the forty-first chapter of the Shiji, is one of the most important sources for the history of the ancient state of Yue. However, this chapter has not received serious scholarly examination in the West. Unlike those chapters of the Shiji which have been translated in the Shiji translation project headed by William Nienhauser, "Yuewang Goujian shijia" has not yet been translated into English. This thesis provides an annotated translation of the "Yuewang Goujian shijia." In addition, it has been argued that the history of the Spring and Autumn period in the Shiji is a compilation of earlier sources. The introduction to the translation will specifically look at the relationship of the "Yuewang Goujian shijia" to one of its proposed sources, the "Yueyu xia," which is the twenty-first chapter of the Guoyu. In comparing these two texts, it will be shown that dependence cannot be definitely demonstrated.

Ikumen, meaning fathers with small children who are--or look like they are--actively involved in childrearing are a new phenomenon in contemporary Japan, despite the prevalent images of patriarchic and absent fatherhood. But why and how did yesterday's notorious company soldiers turn into today's ikumen? This dissertation interrogates this supposedly drastic shift in the view and the conduct of fatherhood as a cultural practice on historical, political economic, and linguistic grounds. Drawing on fieldwork, mass media, and historical analysis, I explore how new styles of fatherhood have been constructed and how they embody broader social issues of gender, class, and modernity and globalization. Gender roles in the modern family since the late nineteenth century have been strained, and ikumen will allegedly liberate both men and women to achieve the ideal of "work-life balance" in a "gender-equal society." Examination of various genres of language, from metapragmatic comments to the advertising of nursery items, however, suggests that the ideology of gender roles is naturalized and "male features" are appropriated to lead men into the "female" sphere of the home. I argue that this discourse represents the heteroglossic nature of language, and that our speech, influenced by accustomed thoughts, paradoxically strengthens that discourse despite our intentions. Ikumen are not only connected to concerns about gender, but also are predicated on Japan's historical and ongoing fantasy of modernity and globalization. From the label ikumen, to state and local campaigns for male participation in childcare, to the use of terms of address for parents, the idealized West and its monolithic images of stylish and active fatherhood and romantic couplehood are covertly exploited. As a whole, the ikumen movement ends up creating an "imagined community," in which "globalism" is believed to help one obtain a more authentic and global "self" through childrearing. I argue that the ikumen movement presents the perpetual but concealed power hierarchy of modernity, and that Japan and Japanese people docilely appropriate this historical truth, institutionalizing the counterhegemony as the new hegemony and as a form of cultural capital in the context of a disturbingly low birthrate and a sluggish economy.

Kita Morio has been one of the most successful humorists of Japan's postwar period, but his work has received little attention from scholars. The intent of this study is to provide an introduction to the humorous essays of Kita Morio. In particular, after the principles of the humor mechanism are established, the nature of the essays as a type of I-novel is examined. The focus is then turned to the authorial persona that Kita uses in his humorous essays, and an overview of that manufactured fictional character and the world he inhabits is created. Finally, five individual essays are examined in the context created by the preceding chapters, with particular attention given to the manner in which humor functions in the essays, as well as the manner in which the reader can find comfort in them. Translations of the five essays examined in the final chapter are provided in the Appendix.