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Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw is a Taiwanese Aboriginal pop artist of the Pinuyumayan ethnic group. His albums have been acclaimed by Aboriginal listeners and Han-Taiwanese mainstream music critics for capturing the traditional Aboriginal sound and evoking the presence of the ancestors. In this thesis, I explore why Sangpuy's songs are understood to evoke ancestral spirit imaginary using a semiotic approach. I compare his music to traditional Pinuyumayan music such as pa'ira'iraw and shamanic songs to demonstrate how he uses similar musical gestures to evoke the sense of ancestral spirits. Other sonic elements such as the inclusion of the soundscape of a Pinuyumayan village provides a direct link to the lived experiences of the Pinuyumayan. I also position Sangpuy's music in the broader context of nationalism in Taiwan and how Sangpuy uses his music to negotiate Aboriginal issues such as land rights and environmentalism. Through this analysis, I demonstrate how Taiwanese Aborigines are incorporating their Indigenous ideology into popular music to carve out a space for themselves in Taiwanese society and garner more support for Indigenous rights in Taiwan.

Since the 1980s, growing international recognition for Taiwanese auteurs has placed Taiwan on the map of world cinema. However, in the new millennium popular tastes have gradually become a key concern for Taiwanese filmmakers; in the years since 2008, the dramatic box office success of Cape No.7 has further boosted their commercial production. Through four case studies, this thesis investigates four major filmmaking strategies among Taiwanese filmmakers, seeking to provide a wide-ranging picture of Taiwan cinema since the turn of the century. These case studies represent different approaches to filmmaking and indicate the different audiences that Taiwanese filmmakers may address. Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon not only demonstrates that Asian films can achieve international box office success but also raises issues of cultural authenticity and cultural translation. Chapter One describes how the global success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has promoted transnational co-production in Asia. The Hollywood-funded project Double Vision and Taiwanese filmmakers’ engagement in intraregional co-production are outlined in Chapter Two, examining the development of pan-Asian co-production in Taiwan cinema. The immense popularity of Cape No.7 in Taiwan reflects Taiwanese viewers’ demand for cultural products with local colour. Chapter Three views this domestically-produced film as a local response to cultural globalisation and revisits the significance of nativist imagination to the production and consumption of contemporary Taiwan cinema. The last chapter examines auteur-oriented filmmaking in this area and underscores the dependence of art cinema in Taiwan on the film festival economy and international niche markets. These case studies highlight the influence of transnational connections on the production, consumption and content of contemporary Taiwan cinema, showing that Taiwan cinema should be understood in a transnational context.

The prose essay, a once dominant genre in pre-modern Chinese literature, is now a marginalized category as compared with fiction in modern Taiwanese literature. This speculation, however, does not apply to the reversed status of these two genres in the middle school literature education. The prose writing, especially the artistic essay, still occupies the largest portion of modern literature education. While universities are commonly seen as a site where literary canons are produced, revised and distributed, and where literary history is debated and constructed, these canons and literary history may be not as influential as one might think. Concurrently, a very different curriculum–which also means a different way of assessing value–is being taught in secondary schools, a place where social relations and structures are reproduced. This thesis aims to study this disjunction between the literature research and literature education. By examining the crucial moments when the literary genres and selections significantly changed, this study aims to reveal the often-overlooked ideologies hidden behind the adoption of a specific form in contemporary Taiwan’s literary textbooks. By examining the historical contexts, national policies, public consensus and the particular trajectories of the involved intellectuals, this study aims to explore the possible but less perceptible beliefs behind the adoption of a specific literary form, which is often veiled by common presumptions. / text

Purposes/Aims: The purpose of this study is to examine the role of self-transcendence along with illness perception and selected demographic factors in the experience of depression in Taiwanese men who have oral cancer. There are three main research questions: 1) What are the relationships among the following variables: demographic variables (age, education level, marital status, income, and work class), illness perception, self-transcendence, and depression? 2) How does self-transcendence relate to depression–directly or as a mediator between illness perception and depression? 3) What set of variables best explain the variance in depression? Significance and Conceptual Framework Oral cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths among men in Taiwan since 2003. Depression is common in oral cancer patients and is associated with poor quality of life and negative health outcomes, such as morbidity and mortality. Illness perception is the person’s understanding of his/her health threat based upon previous experiences and how perceptions affect an individual’s coping. Self-transcendence is an inner resource of which research evidence suggests that it promotes well-being and decreases level of depression in the context of significant life-altering health events. It is proposed then that during the crisis of diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer, self-transcendence may be an independent contributor to well-being, or function as a mediator in alleviating depression. Method: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive design. A convenience sample of men who have a confirmed diagnosis of oral cancer was recruited from the department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Oncology, which is located at two medical centers in the same county in Taiwan. The inclusion criteria are male, ages 18 or older, ability to communicate in Mandarin or Taiwanese, and agreeing to participate in this study. Participants completed a Demographic and Health Related Questionnaire, a Chinese version of the Self- Transcendence Scale, Chinese versions of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire, and a Chinese version of Beck’s Depression Inventory. Data analysis included use of descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. Results and Implications The results of this study support a clinical focus on facilitating self-transcendence to improve healing outcomes during this stressful event. Obtaining information about the role of self-transcendence in Taiwanese men with oral cancer may be particularly helpful in designing interventions or support programs to prevent or minimize depressive symptoms. Self-transcendence practices may help mediate the impact of negative illness perceptions on the emotional distress of men with oral cancer. Continued research and evaluation of practice applications of the theory will contribute to nursing knowledge concerning the relationships of illness perception, self-transcendence and demographic and health-related factors in depression among Taiwanese men with oral cancer.

Social support has been implicated in health outcome through the functions of neuroendocrine responses. One function of body neuroendocrine responses is sleep behavior. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis of a positive relationship between social support and adaptation to sleep in Taiwanese hospitalized adults. Subjects for this descriptive study included 94 Taiwanese hospitalized adults from two hospitals. Of the 94 patients, 30 had social support with the presence of a relative or friend. Subjects were required to have spent two consecutive hospitalized or post-operative nights in order to be included in the study. Data analysis showed an insignificant difference between supported and unsupported groups in terms of disturbance and effectiveness of sleep. It is recommended that more appropriate measurement of social support be used to test the conceptual framework in the future.

This paper analyzes Taiwan’s cross-Strait trade regimes from 1987 to 2006. The situation across Taiwan Strait has changed remarkably since 1987 when the Kuomingtang government lifted martial law and allowed Taiwanese people to enter to the People’s Republic of China. By now it is estimated that Taiwanese businessmen have invested more than US$ 100 billion in mainland China. China has become Taiwan’s largest trading partner notwithstanding the government’s restrictions. The laws and regulations have changed since 1987, too. There are many players that participate in the decision making process and implementation of policies in Taipei. This paper explains the factors that have lead to current situation and explains why there is a big gap between official policies and real volume in terms of investment and trade. These factors include different players of the game (e.g. leadership, political parties, organizations, and businessmen) as well as broader trends (i.e. democratization, globalization, and vertical disintegration.) Key words: Cross-Strait relations, Taiwanese investment and trading.

The main purpose of this practice-led research is to explore the relevance of present day Taiwanese aboriginal weavers’ work to contemporary society and how it might be integrated into today’s production processes, and used on stage as well as in exhibition. My research focuses on my costume design work for two theatrical productions, Africussion and Romeo and Juliet, for which the costumes were made with traditional Taiwanese aboriginal woven textiles, and is based on the assumption that the process of costume design affords a space to explore other aesthetic possibilities for aboriginal woven textiles, and that the theatre provides a context in which the conventional conceptions of Taiwanese aboriginal textile design can be challenged, broken apart and renewed. This research deals with both the theoretical and the practical considerations that apply to aboriginal weaving, and examines the intellectual traditions of the philosophy of art and aesthetics to be found in its theory and application. My thesis challenges the notion upheld by many of today’s aboriginal weavers that their ‘traditions’ are fixed and unchangeable, and argues for the importance of individual creativity if modern, contemporary needs and tastes in textiles are to be met by materials woven in the aboriginal way. My practice-led research is grounded on the techniques of aboriginal backstrap loom and weaving and basket weaving, which were learned from aboriginal weavers in a 20-month tribal fieldwork. This project approaches aboriginal woven textiles as artistic objects in the context of theatre productions and performances instead of as mere commercial entities. It also argues that theatrical costume design is much more than just the making of simple costumes that complement performances.

Master of Music / Department of Music, Theater, and Dance / Virginia Houser / Folk songs are songs of unknown authorship passed down orally generation to generation, and often found in variants of words and tunes in different parts of a country or in different countries. They often represent the culture, the tradition, the life style and the music style in their era. Although there are many folk songs are still popular, they are rarely played during the piano lessons in Taiwan. In today’s piano lessons, the teaching mainly focuses on Western music and theory, like the major-minor system. The student begins to learn piano by the methods such as John Thompson or Nancy & Faber Piano Adventures. These methods build the foundation of their playing technique and the music theory. As their level goes up, they might have some opportunities to play the folk songs that are sung in different countries, such as the Hungarian folk music arranged by Bela Bartok. In the meantime, the piano teacher in Taiwan should not forget that they may have the responsibility to help the next generation to preserve the folk songs which present their culture. My research consists of an examination and performance of sixteen Chinese and Taiwanese folk songs in two collections: Piano Pieces on Chinese Folk Tunes for Children by Shui-Long Ma and Piano Pieces on Taiwanese Folk Tunes by Ching-Yi Lin. Each piece will be carefully graded into five levels: Elementary; Late Elementary/Early Intermediate; Intermediate; Upper-Intermediate; and Advanced. The features of each level will be discussed as well as the historical background and pedagogical aspects in particular piece of each level.