Recent Senior Theses

The senior thesis represents the culmination of the undergraduate curriculum at Princeton. For students in the Department of East Asian Studies, the thesis should be an original contribution to scholarship on East Asia, based at least in part on source materials in the student's language of specialization.

Class of 2023

Class of 2022

Class of 2021

Class of 2020

Author

Title

Adviser

Sofie Kim

Fashion and Upheaval: Bottom-up Creations of Intimacies in East Asia

Ksenia Chizhova

Leanna Nguyen

The Growth of Ed-Tech Under China's Market Education System

Chih-p'ing Chou
& Jennifer Jennings

Cecilia Vergara

Have you eaten?: Analyzing young Korean women’s relationship with food in K-Dramas and its intersection with K-Pop and K-Beauty

Amy Borovoy

Jacob Williams

Re-Queering Utena: Localized and Global Queerness in the Anime Series Revolutionary Girl Utena

Brian Steininger

Seth Paternostro

Tasting Communism: Comrade Cookery and the Politics of Eating in Mao’s China, 1949-1965

He Bian

Soyeong Park

Assembling This Corean Body

Franz Prichard

Brandon Mintzer

An Objective Identity: The Role of the National Palace Museum in the ROC and Taiwanese Narratives

Guangchen Chen
& Anna M. Shields

Natalie Nagorski

Do Women Still Hold Up Half the Sky? An Analysis of Female Representation in the Contemporary Political Landscape in China

Anna M. Shields
& Joshua Freeman

Coby Goldberg

Knowing Subjects and Known Objects: The Disappearance of the Individual in Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction

Paize Keulemans

Eunice Kim

Those Who Have Eyes to See, Let Them See: Examining Media Representations of the “Comfort Women” Issue

Atsuko Ueda

Isabella Chung

Southeast and East Asian Documentary Films: The Responsibility of Filming Violence

Erin Huang

Michael Kamsky

China’s Mismanagement of Medical Supply Chains: Analyzing Inefficiencies and Identifying Solutions for the Blood and N95 Mask Supply Chains

Sheldon Garon

Class of 2019

Class of 2018

Class of 2017

Author

Title

Adviser

Andrea Jenkins

“不如死一半,給一半人吃飽” “It is Better to Let Half of the People Die so that the Other Half Can Eat Their Fill”: Analyzing Consumption Patterns During China’s Great Famine (1958-1962)

Benjamin Elman

Matt Wie

Yi Chong-jun’s “A Story of Us Worms” (Beolle iyagi): A Translation and Critical Reading

Ksenia Chizhova

Murad Mahmudov

Will China’s debt crisis and real estate bubble implode? Determining the origins, the severity and the Chinese government’s tools in managing the debt and real estate crises.

Sheldon Garon

Sophia Su

"Under the Same Blue Sky:" A Study of Media Portrayal of Children of Chinese Migrant Workers and Education Inequality

David Leheny

Matt Blazejewski

Transnational Horror Cinema: Seeing with New Vision in Jian Gui and The Eye

Pieter Keulemans

Jiyoon Kim

Translated Selections from Come Back by Friday: The Sewol Ferry and the Construction of Cultural Trauma through Narrativized Interviews

Steven Chung

Alicia Lamb

Seeking an Oasis: Alaer City, Economic Development, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in Contemporary China

He Bian

Sadiki Wiltshire

Secure Communication and Intelligence Exchanges: An Analysis of the Mozi Hao Satellite and Beijing’s Quantum Communication Program

Christopher Chyba

Sheila Sisimit

The Politics of Colonial Identity: Collaboration and Development in Yun Ch’i-ho’s Diary

Ksenia Chizhova

A.J. Ohiwerei

Nihon wa nandesu ka: Discerning Okinawa's Place in Modern Japan

Atsuko Ueda

Charles Argon

Inter-Imperial Experts: Administration and Conflict in Ningbo, 1832-1862

He Bian

Class of 2016

Class of 2015

Author

Title

Adviser

Jameson Mitchell Creager

Vengeful Ghost: The Evolution of the Woman Ghost Antagonist from Japanese Folktales to Modern J-Horror

Federico Marcon

Lucas Broïdo

Re-Imagining Identities through "Japanese" Literature

Atsuko Ueda

Charles Thomas Fortin

Nurturing Life Amidst the Smog: The Air Pollution Experience in Contemporary China

Benjamin Elman

Andres L. Parrado

Not Here to Stay?: Chinese Globalization and Transnationalism in Serbia

David Leheny

Oliver Marsh

Music as an Instrument of Colonization in Meiji Japan

Thomas Hare

Jennifer Jee Cho

Monster Movies as National Allegories: Difficulties in Defining Genre in Korean Cinema

Steven Chung

Gavin Gillespie Cook

The Misery of Quicksilver: Myth, Memory, Performance, and Soil Pollution Remediation in China

David Leheny

Kelsey Jennifer Henderson

"A Matter of the Greatest Urgency": An Evaluation of the Work-Life Balance of Working Women in Japan

Sheldon Garon

Jessica Daryl McLemore

It Takes a Village to Feed a Child: Motives of Food Education in Japanese Elementary Schools

Amy Borovoy

Julia Rose Knox Hammer

A Hungry Dog Isn't Afraid of a Wooden Stick: On Allegory, Social Critique, and the Rise of ‘Pop Avant-Garde’ Theater in Contemporary China

Pieter Keulemans

Erin Kim

The Good Life in the Context of South Korea: A qualitative study on Korean college students’ perception and experience of well-being

Steven Chung

Hugo Jin Yi Ou

Debunking "Copycat" Culture in China: An Examination of the Chinese Internet Landscape

David Leheny

Michael Noah Katz

Bridging Zhongguancun and Silicon Valley: How the Chinese Government is Constructing a Technology Ecosystem That Conforms to Western Standards of Innovation

Janet Chen

Class of 2014

Author

Title

Adviser

Jennifer Memie Alexis Greene

“Somehow, Crystal: A Translation of Tanaka Yasuo’s Nantonaku, Kurisutaru”

Atsuko Ueda

Alexandra Elizabeth Small

“Putting a Price on a Hero: Marketing Morality & Martyrdom Through Model Emulation Propaganda in Reform-Era China”

Janet Chen

Emily Hannah Erickson

“The Paper Tiger of PRC Policy: Nuclear ‘No First Use’ in China’s National Defense White Papers, 1998-2013”

Thomas Conlan

Cameron Langeluttig White

A New Kind of Border Town: Spatial Intersection in Tourist Fenghuang

Everett Zhang

Mary Kathleen Schulman

“The King’s Speech: Language and Ritual in the ‘Great Proclamation’ of the Classic of Documents”

Martin Kern

Max Batt Behar

Japanese Language Textbook Development Following WWII — The Meaning of the Japanese Textbook in the 21st Century

Steven Chung

Margaret Kathy Wang

“From Essential Mandates to Forgotten Classrooms: A Framework to Examine English Education Policies in Rural Counties”

Everett Zhang

Asumi Shibata

“Fan Creations, Fan Expressions: A Comparative Study of Derivative Works as Reflections of Fan Communities of Anime and Manga in Japan and the USA”

David Leheny

Marianne Nichole Nell-Tascon

“Crying ‘Nanking’: The Microblog Approach to Macro-Level Sino-Japanese Relations — A Pop Cultural Analysis”

David Leheny

Leila Arisa Howard

“A Comparative Visual Analysis of Graphic Design in China”

Steven Chung

Ruofan Cheng

“‘Broad’ Nationalism Among the Young Turk and Chinese Revolutionaries?”

Willard Peterson

Nicole Jian Min Hung

“All in the Family: A Filmic Analysis of Family Caregiving of the Mentally Ill in Contemporary China”

Brian Steininger