Academic literature on the topic 'Kai Xian (Sichuan Sheng, China)'

Bereavement, an unavoidable event in everyone’s life, brings endless missing, grief, and suffering to people. Among all kinds of bereavement, losing a child is considered the most sorrowful and traumatizing. It is extremely difficult for parents who lose a child to recover from their deepest pain. On May 12, 2008, an earthquake, measuring 8.0 Ms, occurred in Wenchuan, Sichuan province, China. The earthquake killed more than 70,000 people and left about 20,000 missing. During the earthquake, some school buildings collapsed and as a result, hundreds of students died. Their parents experienced overwhelming bereavement. To understand what bereaved mothers experience and how they cope with bereavement after the loss of children, the author conducted this longitudinal study based on the dual process model of coping with bereavement (DPM), and applied qualitative inquiry using interpretative phenomenological analysis. In this study, the author has reported on her 4 waves of interviews with these parents, regarding how they coped with grief over 2 years. The author conducted 4 waves of in-depth, face-to-face interviews with mothers who lost their children during the Wenchuan earthquake (N= 43). The findings reveal that three levels of stresses exist in these bereaved mothers’ (BMs) grief experiences, including individual, family, and society levels. On the individual level, they experienced not only emotional distress, such as overwhelming grief, despair, and anger, but they also experienced cognitive distresses, such as regret, guilt, meaninglessness and hopelessness. On the family level, BMs experienced various stresses, such as family incompleteness, despair of their family life, and tensions with their spouses. On the society level, these BMs experienced pressure from social expectations and public opinion. They felt segregated and detached from their social networks. Life became meaningless to these BMs, resulting in suicidal thoughts. These BMs practiced a variety of coping strategies to deal with their endless grief and stresses in their daily lives. These BMs actively worked through their grief and negative emotions. They adjusted their cognition to deal with their children’s deaths, and made efforts to reconstruct their lives; through things like having another child, rebuilding their life purpose, and rebuilding relationships with others. Avoidance strategies included proactive avoidance and reactive avoidance coping. Respite was manifested in the BMs temporarily devoting themselves to other things in order to distract themselves from tremendous bereavement. This study verifies and enriches the DPM in the Chinese socio-cultural context, while indicating suggestions for social work practice and social policy.<br>published_or_final_version<br>Social Work and Social Administration<br>Doctoral<br>Doctor of Philosophy

Tan, Xilin.<br>Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011.<br>Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-127).<br>Abstracts in English and Chinese ; includes Chinese.<br>Chapter Chapter 1: --- Introduction --- p.1<br>Controversies over the Ghost City --- p.1<br>Fengdu --- p.2<br>The Ghost City and Popular Religion --- p.3<br>The Three Gorges Reservoir and the Relocation --- p.8<br>Developing Tourism --- p.9<br>Popular Religion in China --- p.13<br>Revival of Popular Religion --- p.13<br>Legitimatization of Popular Religion --- p.15<br>Organization of the thesis --- p.17<br>Chapter Chapter 2: --- The Landscape of Fengdu --- p.20<br>Landscape of Fengdu County --- p.20<br>The Reservoir Area in Chongqing --- p.20<br>Population --- p.23<br>Influence of the Dam --- p.25<br>Fengdu Religious Landscape --- p.30<br>The Ghost City after the 1980s --- p.33<br>The Divine Palace: A Modern Amusement Park --- p.48<br>Chapter Chapter 3: --- Legitimating the Ghost City --- p.51<br>The Ghost City in Dispute --- p.51<br>The Ambiguous Use of Wenhua --- p.52<br>“The Culture of the Ghost City´ح --- p.54<br>Promoting Righteousness --- p.56<br>New Symbols of Fengdu: from Ghost to Divinity --- p.60<br>Promoting the Ghost City --- p.63<br>Another Version of Local Culture --- p.65<br>Conclusion --- p.67<br>Chapter Chapter 4: --- Fengdu Temple Festival 2009 --- p.70<br>Fengdu Incense Festival in the Past --- p.70<br>Festival Origins and the Incense Festival Before 1949 --- p.70<br>Names and Organization --- p.73<br>The Fengdu Temple Festival in 2009 --- p.75<br>The Parade: Memories of Fengdu --- p.77<br>Emperor of the Netherworld and His Wedding --- p.78<br>Fengdu in History and the New Cultural Symbolism --- p.80<br>People's Participation --- p.80<br>Conclusion --- p.84<br>Chapter Chapter 5: --- People's Religious Life in Current Fengdu --- p.87<br>Tourism and Its Influence --- p.87<br>Tour Guides --- p.87<br>Communal Temples --- p.96<br>The Wantian Shrine --- p.101<br>Why do local people go to the Ghost City? --- p.102<br>Spirit Mediums --- p.107<br>Grandma Long --- p.108<br>Water Bowl Augur --- p.109<br>A Physiognomist --- p.110<br>Conclusion --- p.111<br>Chapter Chapter 6: --- Conclusion --- p.113<br>A Rise of Superstition? --- p.113<br>In the Name of Development --- p.115<br>Promoting Tourism as a Means to Vitalize the County's Economy --- p.116<br>The Wenhua of the Ghost City --- p.117<br>The Culture of the Ghost City --- p.118<br>The Lost Ghost --- p.118<br>Popular Religious Practices in Daily Life --- p.119<br>Alternative Interpretations of the Ghost City --- p.119<br>Local Pilgrim --- p.121<br>Bibliography --- p.124

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)<br>In 2008, grassroots NGOs formed 13 alliances in response to the need for emergency relief and post-disaster recovery after the Sichuan Earthquake that occurred in West China and killed approximately 87,000 people. These alliances served to raise and deliver relief materials, train and supervise volunteers, promote information sharing, and assist victims with mental health and livelihood recovery. However, all alliances were terminated within less than four years. Although plenty of scholarship discusses how corporate alliances evolve or fail, few studies focus on interorganizational collaboration among nonprofits. To explore how NGOs developed collective actions in China’s adverse sociopolitical environment, the author performed three years of observation in four coalitions and interviewed 60 alliance leaders, employees, and volunteers. This paper identifies four types of termination these NGO alliances experienced: three of them failed at their very births, five self-disbanded shortly after the end of emergency aid, three dissolved due to failed institutionalization, and the remaining two evolved into independent organizations. Tracking their life cycles, this study finds four main factors accountable for their terminations: political pressure, funding shortage, short-term orientation, and leadership failure. In particular, the repressive NGO regulation regime and limited funding sources fundamentally restricted all alliances’ capacity and sustainability. Further, the transient nature of disaster relief efforts and the conflict between disaster management and planned work areas contributed to the short-term orientation among alliance members and, thus, led to the closure of some alliances shortly after they provided emergency relief. In addition, though generally exempt from internal rivalry that often undermines inter-firm partnerships, NGO alliances of all types were confronted with leadership challenges—partner misfits concerning resources, strategy, and mission; flawed governing structures, and undesired individual leadership. The four factors interplayed and led to alliance dissolution through different combinations. The paper points out that, in addition to environmental uncertainty, leadership failure has become a major challenge for nonprofit collaborations.