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
Author	Title	Adviser
Mylz Hahn	“Hello There! Welcome to the World of Pokémon!” An Analysis in Series Prosperity Through the Fundamentals of a Global Franchise	Brian Steininger
Alexandra Hong	UNFIT FOR THE NATION: UNCOVERING THE HIDDEN REALITIES OF TRANSNATIONAL ADOPTION OF SOUTH KOREA-BORN CHILDREN, 1950–1990	Ksenia Chizhova
Josephine Kim	Surveillance and Scapegoating: A Disciplinary Reproduction of the Social Imagination of Contagion	Steven Chung
Eric Park	Keyhole Tumuli in the Southwestern Peripheries of the Korean Peninsula	Thomas Conlan
Anne Wen	“You are My ‘Treaty of Nanjing,’ The Beginning of My fall”: A Cultural Analysis of Contemporary China's Obsession with “Little Fresh Meat” 小鲜肉	Ksenia Chizhova & Anna M. Shields

Class of 2022
Author	Title	Adviser
Felicity Audet	The Perception of Difference: Combating Cultural Consciousness of Mental Illness within Contemporary Japanese Society	James Raymo
David Haemisegger	The Russian Tea Mystery: A Translation of Arisugawa Alice’s Roshia Kōcha no Nazo	Amy Borovoy & Yukari Tokumasu
Edelyn Lau	“Shanghai’s Seasonal Fantasy”: An Analysis of Select Foreign Terms in Mu Shiying’s “Shanghai de jijiemeng” via Translation	Anna M. Shields
Kisara Moore	“Skinships,” “Shutter Chances,” and “Speeding Down”: Janglish as a Reconceptualization of Japanese Cultural Identity Through the Lens of Entertainment Media	Steven Chung
Braulio Romero Bakker	An In-Depth Analysis of The State of Cryptocurrency in China	Joshua Freeman
Jaylin Spruill	Sublime Sensoria: Somaesthetic Sensations and Sensitivities in East Asian Cinema	Franz Prichard
Zeytun West	Kpop and Islam in Turkey: The Pious Generation and the Heathen’s Music	Ksenia Chizhova
Peter Yang	Infected and Deviant: Korean Netizen Responses to Early COVID-19 Outbreaks	Steven Chung
John Zepke	Dishonor of Kings: The Monetization of Aesthetic in Contemporary Digital Media	Paize Keulemans

Class of 2021
Author	Title	Adviser
Madeline Wu	HEARD, BUT NOT SEEN: An Exploration of East Asian Representation through Music in American Musical Theater from the 1950s to the Present	Erin Huang
Sergio Serna	Protecting the Little Guy: A Confucian Perspective on Conceptions of Intellectual Authorship and Exchange during Song Dynasty China	Xin Wen
Louison Sall	One Belt - Many Roads: The People's Republic of China's Rhetoric Surrounding the Silk Road and the Minzu (民族) That Helped Build It	Xin Wen
Samuel Choi	Juingong: Examining Reader-Character Interaction in Korean Webtoons	Steven Chung
Reginald Quartey	“Where Are They Now?”: Analyzing Depictions and Perceptions of the Monstrous in Online Chinese Fantasy Novels	Federico Marcon
Morgana McGrath	"Korea's Online Persona"	Steven Chung
Alec Leng	Kikuchi Kan and Prewar Film	Atsuko Ueda

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
Author	Title	Adviser
Sophie Wheeler	(Re)Constructing Tohoku: Iterations of Tabi in Post-March 11th, Tohoku Japan	Franz Prichard
Kai Liu	Modeling Minorities and Model Majorities: Picturing Neoliberal Commodities in the film Crazy Rich Asians	Paul Nadal, Erin Huang, & Franz Prichard
Faith Garcia	“The Blood Soaked Cry of Those Who Seek Revenge / is Ringing in The Sky Over Sinchon”: An Analysis of the Portrayal of the Sinchon Massacre in North Korean Propaganda	Steven Chung
Ashley Berland	Japan’s Brand of Entrepreneurship: A Contemporary Look at its Development and Modern Manifestation	Federico Marcon

Class of 2018
Author	Title	Adviser
Alisa Fukatsu	Urban Folk Religions: A Study on Modern Manifestation of Japanese Folk Religion	Federico Marcon
Julie Goldstein	The Development of Public Health in China: An Exploration of Health Education in Chinese Primary and Secondary Schools	Amy Borovoy
Melanie Ho	Hip Hop as a Constructed Identity: Understanding the Social and Political Movement of Hip Hop from the US to Asia through Afro Asian Relations	Erin Huang
Audrey Lee	The Struggle for Greater Autonomy: Article 23 and the Development of the Pro-Democracy movement in Hong Kong (An Examination of Post-Handover Challenges)	Anna M. Shields
Elizabeth Maxey	“They are Our Fellow Countrymen:” Koryo Saram and the Korean Nation	Ksenia Chizhova
Julia Selignan	“WHY HAVE THERE BEEN NO GREAT WOMEN ARTISTS?” An Analysis of the Art World, Gender Bias and Feminist Discourse in Contemporary China	Martin Kern
Guoen Sheng	Atmospheric Water Generation: Disruptive Technological Solution for Addressing Chinese Potable Water Demand	Franz Prichard
Mathew Troiani	Language Choice and Identity in Hong Kong	Yu Xie

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
Author	Title	Adviser
Zoe Zhang	Winter-Worm Summer-Grass: Caterpillar Fungus and the Invention of a Wonder Drug?	Benjamin Elman
Briana Christine Teresa Freeman	Stereotypes Traverse Language: Being "Raced" in English-to-Japanese Translation	Patrick Caddeau
Nicholas G. Keeley	Rhetorical Ambiguity and Its Reception Abroad: A Roadside Perspective of the "One Belt, One Road" Project	Pieter Keulemans
Ross Donovan	Radical Intimacies in the Queer Public Sphere of Postsocialist China	Erin Huang
Bradley Berman	Jia Pingwa's December, January: Social Status and Influence in China in the Aftermath of Post-Collectivization: An Analysis and Translation	Pieter Keulemans
Joyce Da-Hyun Kim	Exploring Communication and Language Change in South Korea	Steven Chung
Daniel Nicholas Taub	Dreaming in Chinese: The Politics of China's Entrepreneurship Promotion	Yu Xie
Megumi Minaki	Caregiver or Laborer? Examining the Role of Japanese Women from the 'Japanese-Style Welfare Society' to the 'Social Investment' State	Amy Borovoy

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

Class of 2013
Author	Title	Adviser
Benjamin Goldstein	Watching the "Political Show" From Afar: Chinese Media Coverage of the 2012 United States Presidential Election	Martin Kern
Jonathan Cheng-Ping Lin	Uneven Rural “Development” in Contemporary China: The “Neoliberalization” of Space and Bodies in Two Chinese Villages	David Leheny
Chloe Ferguson	Towards a Southern Sun: Race, Order & Empire in Japanese Micronesia	Martin Kern
Thomas Merckens	Spirit Wood by Liu Qingbang: Translation and Critical Introduction by Thomas Merckens	Pieter Keulemans
Daniel Velasco	Remolding Japanese Minds: Combating Low Fertility with Pronatal Policy and Social Education	Amy Borovoy
Adam Chin	The Politicization of Disaster Relief: A Comparative Study of the 1999 Taiwan Earthquake and the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake	Pieter Keulemans
Jackson Popkin	Party Over: Communist Party Prestige, the History of Modern China Series, and the Cultural Revolution	Benjamin Elman
Anna A. Lorentz	The New Chinese Diaspora in Brazil: Changes in Overseas Chinese Policy Reflecting the PRC Agenda to Foster China-Brazil Trade Ties,1990 - 2012	Janet Chen
James A. McGlone	Mobile Values and Moral Devices: The Rise of Mobile Phone Culture among Chinese College Students and the Ideological Response	David Leheny
Kendra Meilin Namiko Simon	“An Impossible Art”: Early Japanese Bible Translation In the Nineteenth Century	Patrick Caddeau
Connor Carreras	Examining Governmental and Non-Governmental Efforts to Improve Migrant Children’s Access to Education in China	Martin Kern