This thesis addresses popular works of fiction written or produced near or after 1989 in Japan and examines the roles that sexual orientation, gender and 20th century social and discursive history have had on the conceptualization of familial relations in postwar Japan. This thesis will analyze the means by which writers and artists during the 1980s and 1990s have engaged discourses of family in their works and will argue that these writers explicitly use queer (hereby defined as non-heterosexual and/or non-gender conforming) individuals and narratives to question, reshape and propose alternatives to culturally received images of heterosexual marriage and the nuclear family model. In Japan, the earliest legal model of family was the ie or house system, which codified earlier social structures that had existed amongst the samurai class of the Edo period (1600-1868) and enshrined the concept of male primogeniture into law. This was changed after World War II, when the Ie system was abolished and replaced by a model of conjugal (nuclear) familial relations. This new model of household organization was promoted by the Allied Occupation, major businesses and corporations, and the postwar Japanese government, and its attendant gendered division of labor was the foundation upon which Japan recovered economically in the postwar period and remade itself as an export-driven, capitalist country in the 1960s and 1970s. This model of family, however, has come under increased socioeconomic pressure as a result of the 1990 real estate market bubble bursting and subsequent economic contraction, as well as by continuing demographic trends that indicate a long-term, decreasing population. This thesis will argue that the model of familial relations propagated during the postwar period, particularly during the 1960s and 1970s is ideologically rooted in a historically contingent model of sanctioned heterosexual relations, and that through examining depictions of those precluded from these sanctioned relations, a better understanding of the operation of gender, sexuality and familial relations as they operate in the Japanese popular and cultural spheres can be achieved.

As one of the most prominent female film directors, Sylvia Chang has always had women as the main subject of her attention. Previous researchers focused on the analysis of female characters, and explored the awakening of female consciousness in her films, but they often ignored the analysis of male characters. Other scholars thought the female consciousness was very limited in her films. In this thesis, from the perspective of female consciousness, I would like to explore how women resolve dilemmas in Chang’s three films, 20 30 40 (2004), Murmur of the Hearts (Niannian念念, 2015) and Love Education (Xiang ai xiang qin 相爱相亲, 2017). I argue Sylvia Chang’s works demonstrate a new perspective of female consciousness: Women’s dilemmas are from the traditional gender roles in love, family and society. They can resolve these dilemmas by searching for self-identity, psychologically transforming, and reconciling. After their rebirth, women, as liberated individuals, can choose what role to fulfill, regardless of whether that choice is traditional or not. During this process, men are not always seen as barriers for women’s growth.

This thesis examines the perfective marker dao in the Nanjiang dialect and traces such usage in history. The morpheme dao in the language variety can be used as perfective marker in a variety of constructions, whereas in the Early Modern Chinese period dao's perfective use was relatively limited: measure phrases are employed to modify either the main verb or the object of a transitive verb. By reflecting on semantic changes of dao taking place in Early Modern Chinese, we suggest that relativization is a key step in the development of dao as an aspectual marker, that is, V(erb) dao O(bject) may be a direct reanalysis of V dao (as a modifier) + Head Noun, different from what is assumed in the literature, the substitution/analogy hypothesis about how the object of a transitive verb is placed after the post-verbal particles like le.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether manga and anime can be used as learning materials. Manga is one of the biggest entertainments in Japan and is read all over the world. Many Japanese language learners read manga for fun and use it as a learning material. Similarly, several Japanese language learners watch anime for fun and use it as a learning material. Due to the fact that Japanese language learners use manga and anime as learning materials, this study examines whether using manga and anime together provide high contribution for inferring novel words. There were 6 participants analyzed in this study. The result showed that using both materials together had positive effects on Japanese language learners’ inferencing skills if there is no huge difference for the amount of information between manga and anime. However, if there is a huge difference for the amount of information, most Japanese language learners did not get any effect. These results indicate that using manga and anime together provide high contribution.

At present, the East Asian Monsoon (EAM) influences water availability for nearly one third of the global population. The intensity and position of the EAM has varied considerably since its onset, but disagreement still exists related to the precise latitudinal and intensity shifts of the Westerly Jet and associated storm fronts, which mark the northern extent of the monsoon. Paleoclimate research can assist in improved assessment and prediction of EAM intensity, radiative forcing, and biogeochemical cycles in the Japan Sea and North Pacific, especially under the currently changing climate. My research primarily focuses on using major-, trace- and rare earth elements in sediments from International Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 346 in the Japan (Ulleung Basin) and East China Seas (Okinawa Trough) to track variability in the EAM on millennial time scales. Using geochemical and multivariate statistical techniques (Q-Mode Factor analysis and Constrained Least Squares multiple linear regressions), I differentiated compositionally similar terrigenous aluminosilicate materials (continental crust components, eolian dusts, volcanic ash) from these sediment archives. I successfully constructed a robust record of aluminosilicate provenance, which enables more precise determinations of EAM position and intensity than previously possible. Most of my research focused on the interpretation of aluminosilicate records over several different timescales from three sites from Expedition 346. In tandem with this research, I also refined values of the well-known, and widely used, Standard Reference Material (SRM) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Basalt (BHVO-2). In the Okinawa trough (Sites U1428/U1429), I identified and tracked the increase in flux of five continental crust materials, loesses, and volcanic ashes during glacial cycles, continental shelf exposure, and the migration of paleo-rivers in the last 400 kyr. Additionally, I constructed a 12 Myr record, which identified and quantified the dust fluxes to Ulleung Basin (Site U1430), and emphasized the importance of the Taklimakan and Gobi Deserts as main sources of dust to the Japan Sea and Pacific through the Cenozoic. Collectively, these aluminosilicate flux reconstructions are first to identify multiple specific Asian source regions through the Cenozoic, and highlight the complexity of accurately reconstructing monsoons and other aspects of paleoclimate from sediment in dynamic environments.

The Miocene climate evolution in North China is preliminarily discussed by means of comparisons in seven climate parameters quantitatively reconstructed by the Coexistence Approach on 34 selected macro- and microfloras over North China. The Miocene temperatures show no great difference in the western and eastern part of North China. Temperature fluctuations, particularly in mean annual temperature, are found within floras from several sites. The fluctuation pattern, from a climate optimum in the Mid Miocene to cooling decline in the Late Miocene, is generally consistent with the global trend of Miocene temperature change. The reconstructed precipitation from all the sites studied shows much wetter conditions in North China during the Miocene than at present, which corroborates the results from paleoprecipitation proxy of fossil mammals. Like the situation in paleo-temperature, the Miocene precipitation from North China shows no distinct difference between the western and eastern regions. It is suggested that North China, particularly in the western part, was by no means under an arid or semi-arid environment during the Miocene. North China is an ideal region for study of the impact of the East Asian monsoon system, however, the pattern of precipitation change derived from the monsoon index (MSH) and mean annual precipitation (MAP) shows contradictory results. Therefore, there appears no definite conclusion on when the East Asian summer monsoon intensified. Possible reasons for inconsistency in temperature and precipitation changes are discussed. Directions of future work to improve the resolution of climate evolution are also pointed out.

This paper adopted second language acquisition theories and research methods to investigate how second-language (L2) Chinese learners acquire Chinese directional complements (DCs). It included two main parts: a corpus study and a questionnaire survey. The corpus came from the compositions of 47 Chinese learners at intermediate and advanced levels at a New England university. And the data also included the questionnaire survey of 82 novice, intermediate, and advanced levels’ Chinese learners and 15 native Chinese speakers who study in the same university. The corpus study shows that L2 learners at intermediate and advanced level preferred to use DCs with extended meanings. Moreover, they preferred to combine verb with DC as an entirety rather than placing the object between verb and DC. The error analysis based on the survey data shows that omission errors of DCs accounted for the largest percentage, the percentage of misordering errors and misuse errors were very close, and addition errors were limited. Moreover, a relative acquisition sequence was constructed according to accuracy rate and the usage rate. This acquisition sequence reflects several phenomena: 1) the position of the object influenced the acquisition significantly; 2) some errors were caused vi by interlingual transfer 3) DCs with extended meanings were easier than DCs with directional meanings in some cases; 4) the type of DC was not an important factor to affect the acquisition sequence; 5) L2 learners’ comprehension competence was better than the expression competence at all level; 6)and some DC patterns’ average accuracy increased at higher level, however, the errors of certain DC patterns were fossilized. Since the presentation of the DCs in the textbooks can impact the acquisition. The researcher evaluated the presentation of DCs in participants’ textbooks. There were some deficiencies, such as overwhelming introduction in one lesson, repeating introduction of the same DC, and so on. At last, some implications to teaching DCs were provided based on the findings in previous chapters.

The present works of reading Chinese poetry offers a biographic reading method, but it cannot fit for reading Han Shan’s poetry, as he had unclear recording in history. Focused on exploring the persona and religion in Han Shan’s poetry world, I examine reading Han Shan’s poems in Buddhist way. Chapter 1 provides the biography of Han Shan, and presents his vernacular expression as different from other poets in history. Chapter 2 introduces some new methods on reading poetry brought up by some literature critics. Chapter 3 presents the Buddhist reading method that I have adopted to read and understand Han Shan’s poems. This reading method is inspired by the similarity between Han Shan’s writings and Buddhist texts. Chapter 4 explains how to read Han Shan’s poems in the Buddhist way. In this chapter, I analyze the persona and Buddhist thinking in the world of Han Shan’s poetry with the explanation of Buddhist sutras and literatures.

Linked verse is a communicative and dynamic poetic form in which a series of verses are usually composed by several poets. It existed in both China and Japan and was fully explored by Han Yu’s circle and Bashō’s school, respectively. This thesis is a comparative study of the lian ju (Chinese linked verse) by Han Yu’s circle and the haikai (Japanese popular linked verse) by Bashō’s school, with focus on the arts of linking, the most important and interesting aspect of this unique poetic form. This study begins with a broad introduction and comparison of the two literary groups and their linked verse compositions. Representing the highest level of linked verse compositions in China and Japan, Han’s lian ju and Bashō’s haikai share some similarities. Yet whereas the former never outshone individual poetry in terms of influence and popularity, the latter dominated the entire poetic field, at least in Bashō’s day. In the second chapter, I investigate how the verses are linked. In terms of linking techniques, Han Yu’s circle basically used “close link,” including “word link” and “content link,” which does not exceed the range of the Chinese poetic tradition. In contrast, Bashō’s school valued the “distant link,” which is usually beyond expectation and needs analysis and imagination. In both cases, the linking is usually a combination of “complementary linking” and “competitive linking.” However, the competitive atmosphere prevails in the former while the complementary characteristic is represented more often in the latter. The third chapter continues the topic of linking, but it focuses on how the verses in a sequence are integrated as a whole. The verses in a lian ju sequence share a topic and are organized as in traditional individual poetry. In a haikai sequence, however, verses with different topics and images are disciplined by detailed rules. Finally, I compare the styles of the two schools. Both of them created a “new” poetic style by searching for the “old.” Nevertheless, the content of their poetry and their ways of composing poetry are very different.

This thesis analyzes the development of the Jingika book in the first seven Japanese waka anthologies (chokusenshū). Jingika are Japanese poems written on the gods of the heaven and the earth and illustrate man’s interactions with them through worship and prayer. They have characteristics in common with what modern scholars term the Shinto religion, and have been referenced as such in past scholarship. However, jingika are more accurately a product of the amalgamation of native kami cults and foreign Buddhist doctrine. Although the first independent Jingika book emerged in the seventh anthology (Senzaishū), poems which can be termed Jingika book predecessors exist as early as the first (Kokinshū). The second chapter of this thesis determines which of those early poems had the most influence over the development of an independent Jingika book. The last chapter provides a full original translation of the thirty-three poems of the first Jingika book and analyzes the intricacies of their arrangement introduced through new methods of association and progression by Fujiwara no Shunzei. The shrines that are mentioned in the poems also correspond to the development of a state religion centered on a small number of shrines designated as protectors of the state. In light of this, the arrangement of the poems in the Jingika book creates a metaphysical pilgrimage to the most important shrines at the dawn of the medieval period and asserts the emperor’s position as cultural center during a time of political turmoil.