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This dissertation presents a comprehensive exploration of the bamboo branch song (zhuzhici 竹枝詞), a classical Chinese poetry genre. One of the defining features of the bamboo branch song genre is its emphasis on all aspects of local culture. As a result, these poems typically have a specific focus on a particular place. This dissertation takes the bamboo branch songs of Shandong Province as its primary subject. The dissertation is divided into two parts. The first section focuses on a cultural study of the bamboo branch song genre. By examining the genre, this dissertation concludes that the bamboo branch song is a genre of vernacular poetry in imperial China. The language has a vernacular style, and the content has a clear focus on local affairs. The subsequent section delves into the Bamboo Branch Songs of Shandong Province, with almost 2,000 poems collected from different sources. From everyday routines to customs, travel culture, and historical episodes, the poems cover a wide range of topics, offering a detailed glimpse into the various facets of the region's society. Women play a significant role in the poems about social life in Bamboo Branch Songs of Shandong Province. They were often the central figures in the ceremonies of festivals, and their behaviour was given special attention. The bamboo branch song genre has an internal character as a form of travel writing. The poems were usually written by authors who had made observations on their journeys. This dissertation delves into the travel culture of the capital Ji'nan, through the lens of bamboo branch songs, providing valuable insights into the region. Another common motif of bamboo branch songs is history. Some nostalgic poems deal with local historical sites, events, legends and personalities. This dissertation finds that these poems contain unique historical information with a microcosmic and individual perspective.
This dissertation explores the local gazetteers of West Lake that were compiled by literati of the Ming dynasty. In 1547, the first West Lake gazetteer was published by the local literatus of Hangzhou, Tian Rucheng 田汝成. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, accompanying the huge enthusiasm for West Lake and the flourishing of its tourism, the production of West Lake gazetteers reached its peak. This trend, however, was reduced by the turmoils in the last years of the Ming and the dynastic transition, a period when West Lake had also experienced destruction. Nevertheless, the practice was resumed in the first decades of the Qing dynasty by some literati who had survived the disasters. One prominent work of this period was compiled by the Ming loyalist and “remnant subject” Zhang Dai 張岱, who wrote an author’s preface in 1671. This dissertation can be divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the editorial principles of compilers, e.g., which materials are included, how they are organized and presented. It explores various possible intentions of the compilers, such as scholarly and documentary, practical and oriented toward tour-guiding, didactic and educational, and personal and nostalgic ones. The second part focuses on some of the perceptions, attitudes, and values of literati focusing on West Lake. The discourses analyzed in this part include West Lake as a hybrid between metropolitan city and sheer wilderness, as a national symbol and object of nostalgia of the lost dynasty, and as a place of pleasure-seeking and indulgence. While a discourse often had a long tradition and historical development, the emphasis of the study is on the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, i.e., the late Ming.
Sales forecasts are an essential determinant of operational planning in entrepreneurial organizations. However, in China, as in other emerging markets, monthly sales forecasts are particularly challenging for multinational automotive enterprises and suppliers. A chief reason for this is that conventional approaches to sales forecasting often fail to capture the underlying market dynamics. To that end, this dissertation investigates the application of Artificial Neural Networks with an implemented backpropagation algorithm as a more “unconventional” sales forecasting method. A key element of statistical modelling is the selection of superior leading indicators. These indicators were collected as part of the researcher’s expert interviews with multinational enterprises and state associations in China. The economic plausibility of all specified indicators is critically explored in qualitative-quantitative pre-selection procedures. The overall objective of the present study was to improve the accuracy of monthly sales forecasts in the Chinese automotive market. This objective was achieved by showing that the forecasting error could be lowered to a new benchmark of less than 10% in an out-of-sample forecasting application.
With the late twentieth-century reform of the labour market in China, jobs ceased to be guaranteed by the government, and higher education became more and more a requirement for even low-level positions. A surplus of academics and a lack of skilled workers are consequences of these developments - yet vocational education, a clear solution to this problem, has had a persistently negative reputation as a second-class education, suitable only for weak students whose results are too low for an academic middle school.
Against this background, Entering Society analyses the social environments, personalities, values and perceptions of vocational education students over three years in Shanghai. The results show how adolescents stigmatized by society view themselves, their education, their identities and their futures.