3 research outputs found

    Medea and Its Chinese Audience

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    This dissertation starts with chapters on the legends of Medea and the dramatic analysis of Medea centred on the filicide and the magic chariot, in which I argue that Medea is portrayed mostly as a positive figure, not a heartless demon, and Euripides is not a misogynist as some have argued. The center piece of the dissertation are the English and Chinese (Mandarin) translations of Medea. In Chinese translation, I aim to produce a lucid, literal and faithful prose translation of the Greek original. So far, the only available Chinese translation of Medea is that by Luo Niansheng, first published in 1938 and reprinted in 2004. My translation, utilizing the more recent editions of Greek text and commentaries, is a more up-to-date translation in modern Chinese. The Chinese translation is followed by a commentary written for the benefit of Chinese readers. The commentary is focused on the linguistic and cultural differences encountered in translating ancient Greek into modern Chinese. The perceivable difficulties Chinese audiences would face viewing Greek tragedy are discussed and some general theatrical differences between Chinese operas and Greek tragedy are explained, using the examples of Chinese adaptations of Greek tragedy in recent years. I conclude that Greek tragedy can be a source of both confusion and fascination for Chinese audiences. In explaining the linguistic, cultural and theatrical context of Greek tragedy and Medea, I hope Chinese readers and audiences will gain a better understanding of Medea and appreciate more the immense power of Euripides' words

    TAKE IT TO THE SEA: NONMILITARY ACTORS IN CHINA’S MARITIME DISPUTES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT

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    Two decades into the 21st century, China still faces a plethora of unsettled territorial and boundary disputes on its maritime frontier spanning from the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and the South China Sea. These disputes cover strategically significant maritime space and involve U.S. treaty allies. As China’s power grows and it aspires to exert greater control over its periphery, how China handles local incidents arising from these disputes touches on the fundamental question of whether its rise will mean peace or instability for the region. There is a growing number of incidents arising from these disputes over the past twenty years, but China’s way of handling these incidents has varied widely. It has not always adopted an assertive, escalatory posture as its power continues to grow, nor has it invariably taken an accommodating, deescalatory posture as its good neighborly diplomacy strategy would suggest. When will China escalate an incident arising from its maritime disputes and when will it opt for deescalation? Should it choose to escalate, how does China calibrate its escalatory measures in terms of their nature (nonmilitary or military) and strength (restrained or forceful)? To account for the variation, this study develops a two-step theoretical framework to explain when, why, and how rising powers such as China choose to escalate or deescalate local incidents arising from unsettled maritime sovereignty and jurisdiction disputes. I argue that when deciding whether to escalate such incidents, leaders often simultaneously face two types of costs generated respectively by domestic and international audiences with oftentimes competing expectations, and thus a decision to escalate or deescalate entails a tradeoff between these two types of audience costs. Should China choose to escalate, it calibrates escalatory measures based on its assessment of one of the two criteria: the likelihood of being presented with a fait accompli by the adversary; or, should it have already been presented with a fait accompli during the crisis, the prospect of reversing it through negotiations. Several key findings emerge from this study. First, China has not been invariably prone to taking an escalatory posture in maritime disputes as its power grows. Rather, its decision of escalation or deescalation is a function of the interplay between the pulling and hauling among its domestic parochial interests on the one hand and Beijing’s assessment of China’s geopolitical environment on the other. Second, and counterintuitively, smaller countries can have substantial leverage over rising powers, contrasting the long-enshrined Thucydides dictum that “the strong do what they have the power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept.” China cares as much about its reputation for resolve as that for its image of nonbelligerency, suggesting that rising powers’ understanding of reputation is often two-pronged. Third, China has demonstrated a high level of sensitivity to the prospect of the adversary engaging in a fait accompli tactic. A fait accompli that China views as irreversibly altering the status quo, be that physically or nonphysically, can create strong motivations for China to undertake highly risky military escalation to compel for a reversal or compensate for its perceived losses

    Concept Mapping Strategy For Academic Writing Tutorial In Open And Distant Learning Higher Institution

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    Universitas Terbuka (UT) an open and distant higher education institution of Indonesia conducts the in-service teacher education program. In order to complete the program, the students – mostly teachers - have to submit the final academic paper. In fact, most of the UT students have difficulty to write this academic paper. UT offers an academic writing course to solve this writing program. Most of the student view academic writing still as a difficult assignment. Most of the students view academic writing as a difficult assignment to complete. UT has to find an appropriate instructional strategy that can facilitate student to write the academic writing assignment. One of the instructional strategy that can be selected to solve the academic writing problems is concept mapping. The aim of this study is to elaborate the implementation of concept map as an instructional strategy to facilitate the open and distance learning students io complete academic writing assignments. A design based research was applied to measure the effectiveness of using concept mapping strategy in helping students to gain academic writing skills. The steps of research and development model from Borg, Gall and Gall which consist of instructional design and development phases were implemented in this study. The result of this study indicated that students were facilitated and enjoyed the process of academic writing used the concept map strategy
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