How does the Chinese Party-State renew its political elite and maintain its cohesion in the post-Mao era? This is a key question to understand the evolution of China’s political system and still the explanations one can find in the literature are far from satisfactory. Overall, the literature on transformation of the Chinese political elite focuses on the broad outcomes, the fact that since the 1980s officials tend to be younger and more educated, but it falls short in unveiling the mechanisms at play. It gives a limited answer to the elite renewal issue as it leaves politics aside. By focusing on educational levels and technical skills it forgets about the importance of political commitment. I approach these questions through a unique account of the role played by the Chinese Communist Youth League (CYL) in terms of cadres’ recruitment and promotion since the 1980s. Using biographical data and a snowball sample of 92 interviewees I reconstructed the trajectories of CYL cadres. Beyond my focus on the central organization of the CYL in Beijing, I compared the situation of the CYL in the capital cities of two very different provinces and in four universities. Through this mixed methods approach, I could assess the evolution of the CYL as a path to power in post-Mao China. My main findings are as follows: First, due to post-Cultural Revolution politics and the need for leaders at the time to recruit loyal young cadres, a “sponsored mobility” system was developed to renew the Party-State’s elite. College students are recruited and trained through the Party’s youth organizations. They are put then on a unique promotion path, which includes specific opportunities and trainings, and which leads them to leadership position in the Party-State. This contrasts with what happened in the Soviet case in particular. Under Khrushchev (1953-1964), the Soviet elite was renewed through the cooptation of professionals with technical skills rather than by recruiting young cadres who spent their whole career in the Party-State. Second, through the various steps of the sponsored mobility process, the young recruits develop a specific social role as future officials and transform their social circles. As a result, they cultivate a political commitment to their career in the Party-State and to the survival of the regime. Third, the decentralized nature of the Party-State and its youth organizations make it difficult for the young recruits to establish cohesive groups which could organize against the Party-State itself.

As the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) collapsed, two outstanding novels were authored, Supplement to the Journey to the West (Hsi-yu Pu) and Prayer Mat of Flesh (Jou P'u T'uan). Although modern critics have studied these two works, important aspects of each novel have been overlooked. Therefore, this study explores three elements of Jou P'u T'uan: the novel as a picaresque novel, the hero's character consistency, and the book's morality. Also examined are the Ch'an Buddhist aspects present in Hsi-yu Pu. Information on the authors, editions, and controversies of these novels has also been presented. An initial chapter is provided discussing the historical and intellectual background. Finally, a comparative study of the two authors and their works has been undertaken to further understanding of both novels. Thus, it is hoped that this work has made a valuable contribution to the study of these two novels.

Thesis (MBus) -- AUT University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (78 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.) in the Archive at the City Campus (T 658.162 PEN)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2002. / Zhi dao jiao shou: Lü dale 880-04 Includes bibliographical references.

Chuck Palahniuk’s Lullaby is a novel that evaluates modern spaces both abstract and physical, especially in regards to an individual’s experience in and attachment to domestic, regulated space as a source of identity, intimacy, and spatial representation. My thesis demonstrates how the destabilization of domestic space as a result of loss and grief led the characters of the novel to question their normative perceptions of space, and in turn, incited them to produce a new kind of space, a heterotopia, to compensate for their loss of identity and place in the world. The critical analysis of this text within this thesis demonstrates how Chuck Palahniuk employs his literary style, complex characters, and surreal plot to highlight the significance of how individuals interact and are affected by space, especially in regards to identity and relationships within society, particularly when confronting cognitive dissonance and uncanny affect. By assessing the haunting attributes of domestic space, the heterotopia that arises from cognitive dissonance, and the sentimental traits that anchor us to certain social spaces, readers will be able to value the influence of spatial practice, not only in the novel, but also in everyday life.

The main objectives of this dissertation are: to research the theatrical term “artistic director”; and to investigate how an artistic director of a theatre troupe performs as an “auteur in contexts”. Through the case study of Dr. Joanna Chan (Chan), the second-ever artistic director of the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre (“the Rep / HKRep” / the Theatre), this dissertation examines the execution of her artistic directorship while she worked for a theatre company established and operated by the British colonial government. Auteur theories, Andrew Sarris’ in particular, are applied to investigate Chan’s creative works. “Artistic director” is a relatively new term in drama history. No serious or special studies have been conducted on the position, despite the fact that the job-holder is the creative force of a theatre company – by no means a meagre role. This dissertation closely studies the artistic directorship of Chan as an “auteur in contexts” when she took up the position at HKRep during Hong Kong’s final decade under British rule, particularly after the Sino-British Joint Declaration had been signed. Taking advantage of special political and social contexts, and as a Catholic nun with a broadly exposed, overseas educational background and an established career in theatre, Chan created local discourses in Hong Kong as an “auteur in contexts” by writing original plays and setting up the Rep’s first-ever theme for its drama season – Facing Deadlines. The bold and unique offerings of the drama season she designed, along with her other artistic works, all explored individuals’ dilemmas, social anxieties, and the Hong Kong people’s conflicting identity, induced by “the 1997 deadline”. Her emphasis on writing and promoting original plays had greatly contributed to the shift in the Rep’s programming from purely artistic offerings to productions tinted with social agendas. Through first-hand information obtained by interviewing Chan, other industry insiders and drama critics; through close study of Chan’s plays for textual analyses; and through research carried out particularly in the Rep’s news clippings library, this case study investigates how Chan as an artistic director managed to carve out a space for herself, to display her own style as an “auteur in contexts” of the text of HKRep, and to influence the local drama scene while working under a system replete with governmental constraints as well as facing larger political, social and cultural changes in society

With this essay I aim to illustrate the simultaneous tension between and entanglement of narratives of mire and modernity in Sara Lidman’s novel Hjortronlandet. Both mire and modernity are understood wide concepts; as temporal as well as spatial markers relating to nature. Through the theoretical frame of Kate Soper’s What is Nature?, Yi-Fu Tuan’s Space and Place and Doreen Massey’s Space, Place and Gender I explore how concepts of nature, time and place are conceptualized, discussed and rewritten in the novel. The analysis shows that nature, time and place are simultaneously understood through narratives and through the intimate experience of material surroundings. Narratives are thus discussed and rewritten when applied to new material surroundings, and the natural surroundings are experienced through already established narratives. Hjortronlandet explores the lives of poor settlers in northern Sweden during the first half of the 20th century in their attempt to convert their allotted wetland to farmland. Throughout the novel the propaganda narratives of the Swedish state clash with the settlers’ intimate experience of place and natural surroundings. All the while, the settler project is undertaken on behalf of the state and plays a part in the creation of a unified modern state. I argue that though an exploration of the perceived dichotomy of mire and modernity presented by the state the entanglement of the two concepts is made visible in the novel. By examining ostensibly contrasting positions I conclude that the novel exposes the untenable approach of the modern state to material surroundings.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on July 28, 2010). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosphy in English, Department of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta." Includes bibliographical references.

Sylvia Plath’s poetry continues to receive considerable attention from a variety of groups and has been the target for such diverse critical approaches as Feminism, Ecocriticism, and Marxism, to name but a few. My paper focuses on a less investigated area of her poems: Space, and more specifically uncanny space in her later poetry. Here, I take a closer look at seven of her poems using as my preferred methods deconstruction and psychoanalytical theory.

銅色吉祥山 (Copper-Coloured Mountain)，藏音「桑東巴日」(Zangdok Palri) (zangs mdog dpal ri)，為寧瑪派傳承祖師－蓮花生大士的藏傳淨土，並且是專屬西藏所獨有且唯一以「聖山」形相方式呈現，將聖山與淨土結合，可以視為「聖山化的淨土信仰」。 此鄔金淨土與其他諸佛淨土不同之處有二：首先是，銅色吉祥山淨土，不在遙遠的他方虛空處，而是存在於世間，眾生所居住的南瞻部洲。繼之，於蓮師傳記所述，銅色吉祥山淨土的前身，本為食人羅剎居住的恐怖之地。蓮花生大士將羅剎國，轉化成清淨的圓滿淨土，即為蓮師悲智雙運的展現、殊勝伏藏寶地，更是西藏宗教傳統中獨有的純藏式淨土，寧瑪派傳承伏藏師與修行者，欲意通往的神聖究竟皈依處。 銅色吉祥山，以地行剎土的形式化現。山形，狀如倒立的心臟。山的底部，深達地底龍王的國界；山的半山腰處，是空行剎土；山的頂峰，直入梵天之境。整座銅色吉祥山，受藍色大海與羅剎諸島所圍繞。山中虹光如雲，廣大的平原處，矗有一座由四種珍寶，象徵法、報、化三身圓成的三層式蓮花光越量宮殿，圍繞各式神尊護法與空行聖眾蓮師，共護擁於虹光界的本尊－蓮花生大士。 本論文以銅色吉祥山淨土為母題，從地方/空間的視角，研究伏藏傳記的文字傳統、不丹壁畫與西藏唐卡的圖像傳統，以及香港舉辦銅色吉祥山法會的儀式實踐傳統，瞭解銅色吉祥山淨土，透過三大傳統多重共構而成的藏傳淨土。文字、圖像與儀式三大傳統，於第三、四、五章進行探討，主要從六個面向探討與延伸：其一，在佛教經典中，展現極致象徵的視角、多方詮釋的空間意涵。其二，於大伏藏師淨觀之相，是自然地景與神聖空間，動態交融而入的掘藏寶地，實得蓮師與空行殊勝法教。其三，圖像傳統中，瞭解重要構圖元素、宮殿本尊的多種配置、蓮師形態與法相的殊異。 其四，在跨圖像研究中，以蓮師八神變相為主題，過度至金剛舞儀式時，兩傳統呈現動態空間的交應。其五，伏藏師秋吉林巴淨觀之相為例，比較蓮師淨土諸相，如何共譯於傳記與圖像。最後，從香港蓮師法會田調，記錄銅色吉祥山如何透過儀式實踐，具象地再現出蓮師立體壇城，分析儀式中聖俗地方與空間的再造與轉化。 結論部分，以七個觀點總結，瞭解並再次確認：銅色吉祥山淨土，是三大傳統多重共構而成的藏傳淨土。以此基礎，更進一步以「地方」與「空間」的視角，帶出三個基本的原則：多重性、互融性與創造性。證實筆者的假設：銅色吉祥山淨土，不只是多重共構的藏傳淨土，更是神聖地方/空間並存與交融的多重共構體。 進一步歸納全文，分析銅色吉祥山淨土，其存在與化現的真實所在處。最末持以結論為研究立基，展望未來學術研究，繼續深入蓮師淨土，亦延伸至其他藏傳淨土的探究與比較。 透過三大藏傳佛教重要的傳統中的技藝表現，了解這三大傳統支撐、延續並強化蓮師信仰的傳統，同時也共構出專屬於西藏獨有的蓮花生大士銅色吉祥山淨土的大傳統，即是自成一個聖山空間化淨土信仰的傳統特色。銅色吉祥山作為自身傳統的中心點，一處無法被真實且具體定位的所在處，讓蓮師淨土成為普現於世間每處的人間淨土，是蓮花生大士最善巧方便與智慧的莊嚴相。 / The Copper-Coloured Mountain, pronounced as Zangdok Palri (zangs mdog dpal ri) in Tibet, is the Tibetan pureland of Padmasambhava who is the founder of the Nyingma Tradition. The Copper-Coloured Mountain pureland manifests itself in the form of a mountain with the combination of sacred mountain and pureland which can be seen as “a sacred mountainized belief of pureland.” The pureland of Copper-Coloured Mountain is to be distinguished from other purelands of Buddha for two reasons: Firstly, this pureland is not remotely located in a realm of void space apart from our world. It existed in the Jambudvīpa inhabited with all beings instead. Secondly, according to the accounts of Padmasambhava’s biographies, the Copper-Coloured Mountain was originally inhabited by fierce flesh-eating rākṣasas. Padmasambhava transformed the kingdom of Raksas into a pureland of peace and perfection. This origin is founded not only upon a revelation from Guru Rinpoche’s unity of compassion and wisdom of a sacred place of “Revealed Treasures” (terma), but also has the real uniqueness of being a purely Tibetan pureland and an ultimate divine refuge for all tertöns and practitioners in the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. The Copper-Coloured Mountain manifests itself in the form of an island and is shaped like an inverted heart. The bottom of the mountain penetrates deeply into the underground of Naga’s realm. On the mountainside, it belongs to the realm of daka and dākinī. On the peak, the mountain reaches the realm of Brahma. The entire mountain is surrounded by a blue sea and the islands of the Rakshasa. In the vast plains of the mountain, Padmasambhava abides in a large three-storied edifice called The Lotus Light Palace. Made out of four gems, it is surrounded and protected by various deities and dharmapāla and also symbolizes the Trikāya of a Buddha, namely dharmakāya, sambhogakāya and nirmānakāya. The dissertation aims to analyze the “space” and “place” in the motif of the Copper-Coloured Mountain Pureland through an investigation into three main Buddhist traditional sources, namely the tertöns’ biographies of Revealed Treasures, the paintings from Bhutan murals and Tibetan thangkas, and my own field research in the ritual practices of the Copper-Coloured Mountain in Hong Kong during the year 2014. It is found, as explained in Chapters Three, Four and Five respectively, that the Copper-Coloured Mountain Pureland is multiply-constructed within the three traditions from six main perspectives: first, in the Buddhist scriptures, delicate symbols are used in interpreting the multi-spaces and places of the Copper-Coloured Mountain; second, in tertöns’ pure visions, the Copper-Coloured Mountain becomes a mixed-space of landscapes and sacred spaces for gaining the mind-treasures from Padmasambhava and his dākinī consorts; third, painting traditions convey the vital elements of its composition, such as the palace of the deities in multiple configurations and different figures in the appearances of Padmasambhava; fourth, in translation studies of the iconography, the paintings of Guru Tsangye (gu ru mtshan brgyad) reveal the varja dances of Padmasambhava with dynamic spaces for dialogues in both traditions; fifth, in Chokgyur Lingpa’s pure visions, both autobiographies and paintings engender differences and similarities in depictions of the journey into the Copper-Coloured mountain; and, finally, field researches of contemporary ritual in Hong Kong record the practices in visualizing a three-dimensional mandala of a three-storied Lotus Light palace that embodies holy and secular places/spaces-making and transformation. The conclusion comprises seven points confirming the understanding of the Copper-Coloured Mountain Pureland as a configuration multiply-constructed by three traditions. Based on the analysis of “place” and “space” in the three distinct traditions, the hypothesis concerning the basic principles of Multiplicity, Interfusion and Creativity is substantiated. The Copper-Coloured Mountain Pureland is not only a configuration built out of three traditions, but remains a sacred place/space coexisting and integrated into a single object of multiple constructions. Furthermore, in the conclusion of my research of the Copper-Coloured Mountain Pureland, I suggest the authentic locations of the Copper-Colored Mountain Pureland and look forward to further investigating Padmasambhava’s pureland and extending the study with comparisons to other Tibetan purelands of Buddhas in future research. Through the three main Tibetan Buddhist traditional sources of its important crafts in the Copper-Colored Mountain Pureland, it is recognized that the traditional belief of Padmasambhava receives the agency of sustainability, continuity and consolidation. Also, the Copper-Coloured Mountain Pureland manifests itself as a multiply-constructed tradition in a sacred form of a Tibetan Buddhist mountainized space of pureland belief. The Copper-Coloured Mountain Pureland reveals a sacred pivot for its tradition where cannot be able to locate in an authentic and specific site. For this undiscoverable reason, the Copper-Colored Mountain Pureland becomes an universally revealed pureland on our earth and the very way of wisdom and compassion from Padmasambhava’s solemnity.