Matching Items (4)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Asian studies
- Language: Chinese
Description
Sacred apocalyptic texts claim to foretell coming events, warning the faithful of some terrible fate that lies beyond the present. Such texts often derive their power from successfully recasting past events in such a way as they appear to be "predicted" by the text and thus take on additional meanings beyond the superficial. This ex eventu status allows apocalyptic texts to increase the credibility of their future predictions and connect emotionally with the reader by playing on present fears. The fifth-century Daoist apocalyptic text, the Scripture on the Cycles of Heaven and Earth (Tiandi yundu jing, 天地運度經), is no exception. This thesis examines the apocalyptic markers in the poetic sections of the text, attempting to develop a strategy for separating the generic imagery (both to Chinese texts and the apocalyptic literary genre as a whole) from the more significant recoverable references to contemporary events such as the fall of the Jin dynasty and the subsequent founding of the Liu-Song dynasty.
ContributorsBussio, Jennifer Jean (Author) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Thesis advisor) / Chen, Huaiyu (Committee member) / Cutter, Robert J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Biophysics, rockets, and the state: the making of a scientific discipline in twentieth-century China
Description
This study takes biophysics--a relatively new field with complex origins and contested definitions--as the research focus and investigates the history of disciplinary formation in twentieth-century China. The story of building a scientific discipline in modern China illustrates how a science specialty evolved from an ambiguous and amorphous field into a full-fledged academic discipline in specific socio-institutional contexts. It focuses on archival sources and historical writings concerning the constitution and definition of biophysics in order to examine the relationship between particular scientific styles, national priorities, and institutional opportunities in the People's Republic of China. It argues that Chinese biophysicists exhibited a different style of conceiving and organizing their discipline by adapting to the institutional structure and political economy that had been created since 1949. The eight chapters demonstrate that biophysics as a scientific discipline flourished in China only where priorities of science were congruent with political and institutional imperatives. Initially consisting of cell biologists, the Chinese biophysics community redirected their disciplinary priorities toward rocket science in the late 1950s to accommodate the national need of the time. Biophysicists who had worked on biological sounding rockets were drawn to the military sector and continued to contribute to human spaceflight in post-Mao China. Besides the rocket-and-space missions which provided the material context for biophysics to expand in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Chinese biophysicists also created research and educational programs surrounding biophysics by exploiting the institutional opportunities afforded by the policy emphasis on science's role to drive modernization. Biophysics' tie to nationalistic and utilitarian goals highlights the merits of approaching modern Chinese history from disciplinary, material, and institutional perspectives.
ContributorsLuk, Yi Lai Christine (Author) / Koblitz, Ann Hibner (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane A (Committee member) / Tillman, Hoyt C (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The Vimalakirti Sutra is one of the classics of early Indian Mahayana Buddhism. The sutra narrates that Vimalakirti, an enlightened layman, once made it appear as if he were sick so that he could demonstrate the Law of Mahayana Buddhism to various figures coming to inquire about his illness. This dissertation studies representations of The Vimalakirti Sutra in Chinese painting from the fourth to the nineteenth centuries to explore how visualizations of the same text could vary in different periods of time in light of specific artistic, social and religious contexts. In this project, about forty artists who have been recorded representing the sutra in traditional Chinese art criticism and catalogues are identified and discussed in a single study for the first time. A parallel study of recorded paintings and some extant ones of the same period includes six aspects: text content represented, mode of representation, iconography, geographical location, format, and identity of the painter. This systematic examination reveals that two main representational modes have formed in the Six Dynasties period (220-589): depictions of the Great Layman as a single image created by Gu Kaizhi, and narrative illustrations of the sutra initiated by Yuan Qian and his teacher Lu Tanwei. The latter mode, which became more popular than the former in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), experienced adaptation from handscroll to panoramic mural. It is also during this period that a minor scenario, the Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers, became a necessary vignette for representation of the sutra. Since the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers gradually became an independent theme. This author investigates the thematic shift caused by various factors. These include the transformation of later Chinese narrative painting and the prevalence of shinu hua 仕女畫, painting of beauties, in later Chinese painting. There is also a change in the role of the Heavenly Maiden from one of many maidens to the only and necessary partner of Vimalakirti. Ultimately, the image of the Heavenly Maiden evolves from a Buddhist heavenly being to a Daoist fairy and later to a symbol representing auspicious meanings.
ContributorsLiu, Chen (Author) / Brown, Claudia (Thesis advisor) / Chou, Ju-hsi (Committee member) / Wu, Jiang (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description企业并购是经济管理领域长盛不衰的研究话题，也是企业高投资与高风险并行的战略举措。并购后对品牌进行有效整合是实现并购价值的重要过程，只有对并购后的品牌进行整合，才能使并购取得应有的并购协同效应。在消费者导向意识不断深化，服务导向逐渐成为服务行业的主流导向的背景下，研究品牌并购中消费者感知及其忠诚显得尤为重要。企业并购过程中面临的风险与挑战之一就是消费者未必对商家的品牌并购行为买账，消费者忠诚受到影响。尽管已有学者提出品牌并购的企业更应关注消费者及其忠诚，但目前从消费者感知角度研究企业或品牌并购行为的研究较少。为了揭示消费者感知品牌并购的过程，探究品牌并购是否及如何影响消费者感知及忠诚，本文基于深度访谈法与情境下问卷调查法分析了消费者对品牌并购的感知及结果，并设计两项研究：研究一在理论分析与前人研究基础上，通过对消费者的深度访谈，确立了消费者感知的品牌并购价值的四个维度，分别为品牌联想、产品联想、组织联想与人员服务品质，并在借鉴前人研究结合本研究的具体背景，得出消费者感知的品牌并购价值的测量条目。研究二通过情境模拟下的问卷调查法，检验了消费者感知品牌并购价值、感知质量、感知价值、品牌忠诚、产品涉入以及品牌知名度之间的关系。在此基础上，本文对L教育集团在实践运营过程中的品牌并购案例进行详细分析，发现了L教育集团发起品牌并购的原因以及并购过程中存在的问题和改进建议。
研究结果显示：（1）消费者感知的品牌并购价值的四个维度分别为品牌联想、产品联想、组织联想与人员服务品质；（2）消费者感知品牌并购价值与感知质量有显著正相关关系，表明消费者感知品牌并购价值能够提高消费者的感知质量；（3）消费者感知质量对其感知价值有显著的正向影响，表明感知质量正向预测消费者的感知价值水平；（4）消费者感知质量对其品牌忠诚有显著的积极作用；（5）消费者感知品牌并购价值与消费者感知价值存在显著的正相关关系；（6）消费者感知品牌并购价值对消费者品牌忠诚的路径系数达到显著性水平；（7）消费者感知质量在感知并购价值与感知价值、品牌忠诚之间起部分中介作用；（8）产品涉入与品牌知名度在消费者感知并购价值与感知质量的关系之间起调节作用。
研究结果显示：（1）消费者感知的品牌并购价值的四个维度分别为品牌联想、产品联想、组织联想与人员服务品质；（2）消费者感知品牌并购价值与感知质量有显著正相关关系，表明消费者感知品牌并购价值能够提高消费者的感知质量；（3）消费者感知质量对其感知价值有显著的正向影响，表明感知质量正向预测消费者的感知价值水平；（4）消费者感知质量对其品牌忠诚有显著的积极作用；（5）消费者感知品牌并购价值与消费者感知价值存在显著的正相关关系；（6）消费者感知品牌并购价值对消费者品牌忠诚的路径系数达到显著性水平；（7）消费者感知质量在感知并购价值与感知价值、品牌忠诚之间起部分中介作用；（8）产品涉入与品牌知名度在消费者感知并购价值与感知质量的关系之间起调节作用。
ContributorsHan, Liqing (Author) / Pei, Ker-Wei (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Anmin (Thesis advisor) / Zhu, Qigui (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019