The Yangzhou Storytelling of Rogue Pi Wu A Case Study of Yang Mingkun and His Repertoire

Yangzhou pinghua is a genre of Chinese chantefables. It is a living tradition with a history of more than 300 years and is listed as China’s intangible cultural heritage. The present research project is designed primarily as a case study of the Yangzhou pinghua performance of Rogue Pi Wu by Yang Mingkun, the ninth-generation heir of the Pu School of Pi Wu. This study combines methods borrowed from anthropological, linguistic, and literary fields to examine the history and performance of the Yangzhou pinghua repertoire of Rogue Pi Wu. Through observing both the performance tradition of the Pu School and the repertoire of Rogue Pi Wu performed by Yang, this study finds that the Yangzhou dialect acts as a special channel through which Yang communicates with his audiences in a most effective and intimate way. This study also finds that Yang develops a powerful narrative strategy by skilfully integrating oral narrative with written narrative into a coherent whole. Based on these findings, among others, I argue that Yang acheives a special aesthetic effect for his version of Rogue Pi Wu by creatively preserving and developing the Pu School of Pi Wu

Natural Sciences in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage

A Special Issue of the international journal Sustainability under the section Sustainability of Culture & Heritage has been made, entitled Natural Sciences in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage. The bridge between science/technology and the humanities (archaeology, anthropology, history of art, and cultural heritage) has formed a well-established interdisciplinary subject with several sub-disciplines; it is growing exponentially, spurred by the fast development of technology in other fields (space exploration, medical, military, and industrial applications). On the other hand, art and culture struggle to survive due to neglect, lack of funding, or the dangers of events such as natural disasters and war. This volume strengthens and exerts the documentation of the sustainability of the issue that arises from the outcome of resulting research and the application of such a duality link. The sustainable dimension emerges from society, education, and economics through the impact of cultural growth, all of which produce a balanced society, in which prosperity, harmony, and development are merged at a sustainable local/regional/national/social level. A wide range of subjects linking the applied natural sciences with archaeology and the cultural heritage of innovative research and applications are presented in this volume

A Comparative Study: The Tangxieben and Songkanben of the Shuowen Jiezi

abstract: The Shuowen jiezi 說文解字 [Explaining depictions of reality and analyzing graphs of words] (100 AD), written by Xu Shen 許慎of Eastern Han dynasty, is known as the first comprehensive dictionary for Chinese characters. However, the earliest complete edition of the Shuowen available today is the Songkanben 宋刊本 (Woodblock printed edition from the Song dynasty). As a result, Songkanben is employed as the primary source in most studies on the Shuowen conducted by scholars after the Song dynasty. In 1982, the discovery of Tangxieben Shuowen mubu canjuan 唐寫本說文木部殘卷 (The incomplete juan under wood classifier of the Shuowen written in manuscript form in the Tang), shed light on a new angle of view in examining the Shuowen, mostly developed from Songkanben. In this paper, after an introduction on the Songkanben by Xu brothers, as well as the discovery and dating of the incomplete manuscript form of Shuowen from Tang, a comparative study between the Songkanben and Tangxieben of the Shuowen from five aspects: order of entries, the appearance of the Small Seal script of a few entries, the explanation of the meaning of some characters, the graphic analyze and the fanqie 反切 phonetic notation for some entries. The hypothesis presented in this thesis is that Tangxieben, with its antiquarian value, advantages and features, though not older for sure, may belong to an older tradition. And it suggests that there is a scholarship of the Shuowen during the Tang. And Xiao Xuben 小徐本by Xu Kai 徐鍇 (920-74), from some specific aspects in the comparison, tends to be closer to Tangxieben compared with Da Xuben 大徐本by Xu Xuan 徐鉉 (917-92). Consequently, as the original text of the Shuowen is not available today and what we have studied on the Shuowen basically is based on the editions by Xu brothers, it would be reasonable to keep this in mind, and refer to different editions of the Shuowen and critically examine them in philological studies related to it when apply and study the Shuowen nowadays.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Asian Languages and Civilizations 201

SIGNIFYING THE LOCAL: MEDIA PRODUCTIONS RENDERED IN LOCAL LANGUAGES IN MAINLAND CHINA SINCE 2000

My dissertation examines recent cultural productions rendered in local languages in the fields of television, film, fiction, popular music, and the Internet in mainland China since 2000, when the new national language law prescribed the standard Putonghua Mandarin as the principal language for broadcast media and movies. My dissertation sets out to examine this unsettled tension and to explore the rhetorical use of local language in different fields of cultural production. In television, local language functions as a humorous and satirical mechanism to evoke laughter that can foster a sense of local community and assert the local as the site of distinctive cultural production. In film and fiction, local language serves as an important marker of marginality, allowing filmmakers and writers rhetorically to position themselves in the margins to criticize the center and to repudiate the ideologies of modernism. In popular music, increasingly mediated by the Internet, local language has been explored by the urban educated youth to articulate a distinct youth identity in their negotiation with a globalizing and cosmopolitan culture. Drawing on cultural and literary theories, media studies, sociolinguistics, and dialectology, my interdisciplinary research focuses its analysis on many important but overlooked issues. I explore at length the rhetorical use of local languages to represent ?the marginal and the unassimilated? in the underground and independent films of Jia Zhangke and others; I apply Bakhtin?s theory of folk humor to the ambiguous laughter evoked by Zhao Benshan?s comic sketches that are deeply rooted in the Northeast folk performing art Errenzhuan; I explain how the laughter wrought through the presence of local language in the regional TV shows can help foster a sense of local community. My research on the significance of locality also contributes to the study of globalization. If globalization is seen as homogenization and centralization, the local language texts assert the value of pluralism and diversity, and at the same time resist the dominance of both global and national cultural colonization. The burgeoning regional television shows rendered in local languages and the proliferation of the use of local languages on the Internet attest to the urgency of re-imagining a distinct local community for the local inhabitants in the increasing uncertainty of defining locality. Both the global, national cultures and the traditional, indigenous cultural resources are appropriated for self-definition and self-development. On the dialectics of the global and the local, the global and the local do not pose as cultural polarities, but are interpenetrating, interacting, and mutually signifying

Guqin and Guzheng: the historical and contemporary development of two Chinese musical instruments

This thesis examines two Chinese musical instruments, the gitqin, a seven-string zither, and the guzheng, a larger zither of up to twenty-one or more strings. Both of the instruments appear to have been in existence since early times, but the guqin has traditionally been much more heavily documented due to its associations with Confucianism and the literary upper classes. Consequently references to the instrument may be found in the early classical writings and, in later times, preserved in handbooks for the instrument. The guzheng did not enjoy these same associations and was viewed much more as an instrument of the people. However, since it was a versatile instrument it gradually became used for music of all classes. This thesis begins by examining some of early musical history behind the two instruments including some of the development of writing, classical texts, and the philosophies of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. In examining the organological development of the guqin and guzheng similarities are drawn with the zithers found in neighbouring countries. In some cases such instruments have been more greatly preserved in these countries than in China itself The development of the guzheng is often difficult to trace due to similarities with the se, another Chinese zither of up to fifty strings. The literary history of the guqin is further shown by the systems of notation used for notating the musical scores of the instrument. The earliest known guqin tablature is wenzipu, a system of writing down playing instructions in full script, unlike the later systems which adopted short-hand simplified methods. It is difficult to separate the system of notation and performance directions as understood in Western music and so these two systems are discussed together. It is difficult to make generalisations about the music of the guqin and guzheng due to vast area of China throughout which both instruments are difiused. In examining some of the regional styles of playing, further influences upon the music such as dialect and folk-singing may be seen. The final chapter moves into the twentieth century and examines how political developments have encouraged the development of the guzheng whilst stifling the guqin. The thesis concludes that the guqin has been preserved by its philosophical associations, while the versatility of the guzheng has allowed it to develop according to the musical requirements of society. In the twentieth century however, the instruments have begun to share their social contexts bringing them closer together

TMG 1 (2014): Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death, ed. Monica Green

The plague organism (Yersinia pestis) killed an estimated 40% to 60% of all people when it spread rapidly through the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe in the fourteenth century: an event known as the Black Death. Previous research has shown, especially for Western Europe, how population losses then led to structural economic, political, and social changes. But why and how did the pandemic happen in the first place? When and where did it begin? How was it sustained? What was its full geographic extent? And when did it really end? Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World is the first book to synthesize the new evidence and research methods that are providing fresh answers to these crucial questions. It was only in 2011, thanks to ancient DNA recovered from remains unearthed in London’s East Smithfield cemetery, that the full genome of the plague pathogen was identified. This single-celled organism probably originated 3000-4000 years ago and has caused three pandemics in recorded history: the Justinianic (or First) Plague Pandemic, around 541-750; the Black Death (Second Plague Pandemic), conventionally dated to the 1340s; and the Third Plague Pandemic, usually dated from around 1894 to the 1930s. This ground-breaking book brings together scholars from the humanities and social and physical sci­ences to address the question of how recent work in genetics, zoology, and epi­de­miology can enable a rethinking of the Black Death\u27s global reach and its larger historical significance. It forms the inaugural double issue of The Medieval Globe, a new journal sponsored by the Program in Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This issue of The Medieval Globe is published with the support of the World History Center at the University of Pittsburgh.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medieval_globe/1000/thumbnail.jp

The Medieval Globe 1 (2014) - Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death

The plague organism (Yersinia pestis) killed an estimated 40% to 60% of all people when it spread rapidly through the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe in the fourteenth century: an event known as the Black Death. Previous research has shown, especially for Western Europe, how population losses then led to structural economic, political, and social changes. But why and how did the pandemic happen in the first place? When and where did it begin? How was it sustained? What was its full geographic extent? And when did it really end? Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World is the first to synthesize the new evidence and research methods that are providing fresh answers to these crucial questions. It was only in 2011, thanks to ancient DNA recovered from remains unearthed in London’s East Smithfield cemetery, that the full genome of the plague pathogen was identified. This single-celled organism probably originated 3000-4000 years ago and has caused three pandemics in recorded history: the Justinianic (or First) Plague Pandemic, around 541-750; the Black Death (Second Plague Pandemic), conventionally dated to the 1340s; and the Third Plague Pandemic, usually dated from around 1894 to the 1930s. This ground-breaking book brings together scholars from the humanities and social and physical sci­ences to address the question of how recent work in genetics, zoology, and epi­de­miology can enable a rethinking of the Black Death\u27s global reach and its larger historical significance. It forms the inaugural double issue of The Medieval Globe, a new journal sponsored by the Program in Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This issue of The Medieval Globe is published with the support of the World History Center at the University of Pittsburgh

Lability of Verbs and the Change-of-State Construction in Chinese.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017