East Asian Studies Senior Integrated Projects
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This collection includes Senior Integrated Projects (SIPs, formerly known as Senior Individualized Projects) completed in the East Asian Studies Department Abstracts are generally available to the public, but PDF files are available only to current Kalamazoo College students, faculty, and staff.
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Item COVID-19 Policies and the Effects of the Pandemic on South Korea and the United States : An Autoethnography based on Study Abroad Experiences(2023-03-01) Evans, Gabrielle; Frost, Dennis J., 1976-When I was studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I made several interesting observations about the differences and similarities between its COVID policies and the United States’ and the effects that the virus had on each country. This autoethnography is a record of my experiences in both South Korea and the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a collection of research I conducted about how each of these countries handled the virus and how they were affected by it based upon my personal observations and experiences. When I got back from my study abroad trip, I decided to compile my interests and majors together to form my final senior project at Kalamazoo college. I wanted to analyze and learn more about what happened in the background of my experiences and observations in each country. I organized these differences and similarities I noticed into different sections through this autoethnography and dived into the reasoning why and what each country was going through and attempting to do to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.Item Magic of Choice(2023) Schroeder, Madeline; White, BrianMagic of Choice is a visual novel that explores the genre of anime known as "magical girl." Popularized by shows such as Sailor Moon, the magical girl genre focuses on young girls who gain magic powers through transformation. This game calls into question the agency of these girls, who often do not ask for this power or the responsibility it brings. Please read the README file contained in the Zip folder. To play the game, unzip the zip folder corresponding to your computer's operating system.Item Understanding Anxiety Through the Lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine(2020-11-01) Huynh, Li-LiThis paper aims to showcase how Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, view anxiety. Since a great deal of people already know about the Western medicine approach to mental health issues, specifically anxiety, this paper will be geared more towards introducing Traditional Chinese Medicine on a deeper level. There is no doubt that Chinese medicine is one of the oldest medical forms of practice in the world with a history of more than 2,500 years. It refers to a form of medical practice or a discipline created by the common people of the Han nationality in China that mainly studies the science of human physiology, pathology and diagnosis and the prevention of diseases. The knowledge of TCM is very rich and is embedded within the Chinese culture and in people's daily lives. In order to view anxiety through the lens of Traditional Chinese Medicine, also known as complementary and alternative medicine in the West, one must understand some basic concepts and terminology of TCM such as what does TCM mean when it refers to "Qi" or what is "meridians"? How the organs and zang-fu work within the TCM context? Understanding Yin and Yang theory, Five Elements theory, Eight Principles of Syndrome Differentiation, and what are the TCM Four Diagnostic Methods. By having some basic knowledge about TCM, then viewing anxiety through the lens of Chinese medicine and Western medicine will be a lot more interesting. As a bonus, there will be some TCM self-care tips included.Item Beyond and Behind : K -pop Female Idol Groups' Rooting and Development(2019-11-01) Cai, Xiu; Frost, Dennis J., 1976-K -pop, the abbreviation for Korean pop music, refer to pop music and dance performed by Korean idol groups, which usually contain five to ten members. Mainly targeting teenagers, K-pop first appeared in Korea 'in the early 1990s. Using the Japanese well-developed idol system as a model, Korea soon localized the system and developed a unique and attractive one. Over the next twenty years, Kpop has grown into a well-known world-wide music genre. Not only in East Asia, the popularity of K-pop also expanded to Europe and North America. Similar to the "Cute" (Kawaii) culture in Japan, K-pop culture is also considered a crucial softpower of South Korea. When it comes to the topic of K-pop, there are apparently plenty of boy bands gaining people's attention from all over the world. However, female girl groups have also occupied their fans' hearts. Starting from the debut of Fin.K.L and S.E.S, female idol groups successfully entered the mainstream of K-pop as early as the 1990s. Later on, the first and second decades of the 21st century were also known as the golden age of K-pop female idol groups. During these fifteen years, girl groups with variety concepts and styles were successfully debuted. For instance, Girl's Generation, which is known as the most popular female idol group among K-pop's history, is famous for its innocent, next-door girl image when they first debut. However, later on, the group has shifted their concepts for several times, and finally changed into elegant and independent ladies. On the contrast, 2NE 1, another female idol group which debuted in 2009, is known for its unique concept that is called "Girl Crush", which differs them from other idol groups. In addition, also debuted in 2009, the girl group f(x) had become the first female idol group that contained a tomboy member. Different from typical female idol groups, f(x) is playing with the idea of being a K-pop female idol by not being effeminate. Thanks to the hard work of second-generation female idol groups, K-pop has already occupied a position in worldwide music genres. Girl's Generation's · successful debut in North America is an appropriate example. As the K-pop girl groups gained attention from all over the world, the talent agency started to notice the huge potential market in foreign countries. Thus, during the second decade of the 21st century, entertainment companies started to hire foreign trainees and give them chances to debut in local K-pop groups. The boundary between distinct countries were broken by the idol groups and the talent agencies behind them. New groups debuted recently also showed the tendency of cracking down the boundaries between different countries by containing more foreign members. As for the next twenty years, K-pop will most possibly continue developing as one of the most important world-wide music genres. It is reasonable to believe that the K-pop girl groups will also continue to grow stronger in the next few decades. Not only containing more international members, future K-pop female idol groups also showed the tendency of having various concepts, creating closer relationships with fans, as well as debuting from reality shows and survival shows to gain public attention.Item Chinese Religion Research: What Is Falun Gong(2019-11-01) Xiao, Ray; Frost, Dennis J., 1976-In mainland China, the government has defined "cult " as a criminal organization that goes against the Communist Party of China(CCP) and socialism. But what is a "legal organization" in China? It is an organization that registers in the government system, which means it needs to agree with the way the CCP manages. There are fifteen organizations currently defined as a "cult" in the mainland, and the most famous and the most influential one is Falun Gong. However, this cult is different from others. While Falun Gong is an organization known as a cult by Chinese people, it is protected by human rights organizations in the world. Falun Gong is a nominal cult since it does not match the definition of cult in Oxford dictionary but matches the one in Chinese law, because the stubbornness of the practitioners in Falun Gong terrified CCP so that they got banned and persecuted, then became an enemy of CCP.