Rick and Morty is an animated science fiction sitcom that has become wildly popular among teenagers and young adults in recent years. While many people point out how it has many references to classic movies, the philosophical under-pining of nihilism seems to be subtle. With reference to the philosophical views of Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Camus, this paper discusses the philosophers’ views on nihilism in terms of how Rick and Morty’s actions, their interactions, and their dialogue allude to aspects of nihilism in three episodes of the series: Rick Potion #9, Rixty Minutes, and Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind. By avoiding thinking about the meaning of human existence and by disrespecting social customs and religion, Rick and Morty often cope with nihilism by adopting different strategies to avoid becoming overwhelmed with the meaninglessness of their lives and of everything that they do. In these three episodes, the series hints at nihilism through the characters’ behaviors and the decisions that they make, and the plots continually break the fourth all when the characters step out of character to convey to the audience a sense of nothingness.
https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1154&context=forum
Disney has always been criticized for embedding powerful patriarchal concepts and elements in the series of princess movies, which deeply influences children’s cognition about gender. Recently, Frozen seems to break this traditional framework and create a new definition for the princesses through plot arrangement and characterization. The female protagonists are active and less clinging to men. Also, the prototype of the “happy ending” in a Disney fairy tale story is broken. The ending of Frozen is not a “the prince and the princess lived happily ever after”. On the contrary, sisterhood is emphasized instead. However, with a close examination of the film, it is found that Disney still includes some patriarchal elements in Frozen to meet the audience’s expectations for a Disney fairy tale to make the profit.
http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/doc/1411552
https://www.academia.edu/9502786/Critical_Analysis_of_Frozen
“From Hag to Heroine: The Evolution of Female Protagonists from Frozen and Maleficent.” Walt Disney animation films have long been known to adapted classic fairy tales from Brother’s Grimm, Anderson, and Perrault. Since films are thought of as a reflection of the society and culture, Disney films portrays the social expectations, and cultural identities on their distinctive princess image. During three periods of feminist movements, Disney also presents its princesses based on the social and cultural expectations, which on the third stage, the protagonists are no longer princesses but heroines challenging the traditional stereotypes of women. As former villains, Elsa and Maleficent in Frozen and Maleficent are turned into main protagonists with the aim of achieving self-identities. It blurred the boundary between good and evil, showing human nature and reality. Therefore, this paper discusses the evolution of female villains, analyses of the protagonist according to their appearance and purpose, and how do these heroines relate to feminism.
“Women of the New Era: Rapunzel and Merida’s Journeys toward Female Empowerment in Tangled and Brave.” Recent Disney
princess films portray female characters as strong and powerful young women who have the right to make decisions about their own fates. The two princesses in Tangled and Brave, Rapunzel and Merida, are characters who resist others to control their lives, and they decide to take charge of their destinies. By examining these two Disney princess films, this paper focuses on how the two princesses demonstrate female empowerment through their personalities and decisions. With non-romantic plots and the princesses’ unique personalities, the films show audiences that young women have the right to live their own lives and that women can be as powerful as men. Tangled and Brave demonstrate female empowerment through the non-romantic plots, the female characters, Rapunzel and Merida’s, unique personalities, and their decisions to assert their individual identities and needs.
Psychology & Aesthetics
Myths of Women of Letters: Bipolar Disease in Female Artists”Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels. And the ability to carry out daily tasks. By analyzing the mechanism, behavior, and mental activities of the Manic Depressives by inspecting the 2 films “Sylvia” and “The Hours”, differences occur and there are some contrasts comparing to the reality.
Bipolar Disorder Statistics - Depression and Bipolar Support
The Harlem Renaissance in the United State and the popularity of blues music during the 1920s are two noteworthy events in African-American history in terms of significant reformations in African-American culture and self-identity. As one of the important writers during the Harlem Renaissance period, Langston Hughes merges two literal and musical transformations into his poetry. Instead of excluding the middle-class lifestyle and the theme of survival from literature in pursuit of a pure aesthetic, Hughes’s attempts to introduce blues music, an African-American folk tradition, into his poetry causes him to stand out from other black writers of the Harlem Renaissance, such as W. E. B Dubois and James Weldon Johnson, who tended to reject placing “vulgar” blues and jazz into literature. Examining Hughes’s three poems, “The Weary Blues,” “Misery,” and “Homesick Blues” from the collection entitled The Weary Blues (1926) and Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927), this paper argues that these poems are good examples of blues poems because they incorporate the rhythmical, the lyrical, and the thematic characteristics of blues music, thus reflecting a new form of writing style. By incorporating blues music into his poetry, Hughes offers a possible solution to a troubled sense of self-identity, in which most African- Americans experienced, through the techniques of the blues narrative, so as to inspire African-Americans to find beauty in their own culture and traditions.
American Sniper directed by Clint Eastwood and The Hurt Locker directed by Kathryn Bigelow are similar to other war films that depict the realities of combat, such as the inhumanity of war and the handicaps that adhere to heroism, but with more attention given to the post-traumatic stress disorder American soldiers suffer from after they return from the war zones in Iraq. This is one feature of both films that distinguishes them from other films in this genre. This paper compares and contrasts how both films portray the ever-lasting nightmares American soldiers experience after fighting in wars, thus depicting the post-traumatic stress disorders the characters Christ Kyle in American Sniper and William James and Owen Eldridge in The Hurt Locker endure. It is not only that they witness innumerable merciless killings during the war, but also their guilt over their failures to save their comrades, that contribute to the traumatic memories that linger in the soldiers’ minds, detaching them from the realities of their daily lives. The accelerated pace of military life, allied with the sophisticated war machines they use, inevitably militarize these soldiers’ perceptions of the world, subsequently rendering them unfit for civilian life.
Hannah Baker’s suicide in the series 13 Reasons Why can be broken down to three main factors, multiple experiences of sexual violence, relationship issues with people around her, and encounters of bullying. However, most of the critics indicate that adolescent suicide can be prevented through the assistance of people around those suicidal teens and prevention strategies. This paper argues that not all adolescent suicide can be prevented because of the over-enthusiastic rhetoric from the treatment community, and will use Hannah Baker’s case to discuss why a completed adolescent suicide can be silent.
https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/thirteen-reasons-why/analysis
Education
The purpose of this research is to close the relation between Vincent van Gogh’s artworks and mental status by analyzing his use of color, techniques and environmental effects in his final two years. van Gogh committed suicide in 1890 and left many well-known artworks for following generations for people to appreciate and to learn. Instead of just discussing van Gogh’s paintings and mental illness separately, this research will delve into van Gogh’s inner emotions by examining his complete letters, psychological studies, color theories and some of his artworks created from Arles to Auvers-Sur-Oise periods.
As the world becomes a global village, English learning is an inevitable process in the growing experience of a student. With tons of research focus in finding the ways to improve English abilities for beginners and intermediate English as foreign language (EFL) learners, there seems to be little chance for English major to advance their English ability to a higher or native level. Therefore, this study aims at providing an insight in terms of the influences of learning English through popular songs in English majors’ English abilities and learning motivation by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The participants are from the Department of English Language and Literature at Fu Jen Catholic University (FJCU). Research data include the Motivation Test Battery, pre- and post-test of English vocabularies, and one-on-one interviews. The data are analyzed by quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. The results of this study can be served as references for teachers and professors in designing syllabus, and for English majors to choose useful learning materials even for self-learning.
Vincent van Gogh is one of the most well-known artists throughout history, and his popularity is evident because of all the books written about him and his art, and the exhibitions revolving around him. This post-impressionist artist has a distinct painting style that makes his artwork so recognizable and unique. One of the most prominent characteristics of van Gogh’s paintings would be his color palette, more specifically, his heavy usage of the color yellow in his paintings. This research paper discusses Van Gogh’s usage of yellow by analyzing three of his most famous paintings: Starry Night, The Night Café, and Wheatfield with Crows. This paper seeks analyzes the color usage of the three aforementioned paintings while briefly offering some possible psycho-physical reasons behind Van Gogh’s choice of color. Sources consulted include analyses of the paintings, psycho-physical studies of Van Gogh that are based on his usage of colors, articles regarding color theory and complimentary colors, and articles written about post-impressionism.
Due to the advent of technology, the way of learning has been transformed. There are more and more people taking advantage of online self-education. Consequently, this research paper aims to explore the motivation of students at Fu Jen Catholic University in their online self-education. What are the motivations to study online and what affect the motivations of students are the main research questions. After the literature review, the researcher distributed an online questionnaire to at least 90 students through Google Form and analyzed the data quantitatively. It examined under what circumstances will they self- educate online, figured out if different personalities of students such as being an introvert or an extrovert motivate them to self-educate online, and studied the relation between different years of study and their motivation. The outcome serves as the reference for the teacher when designing online courses, and the reference for informing students about what situation can they start self-educating. This paper indicates since the need for online self-education of college students has scaled, the motivations should be valued.
Love wins & Peer and Parental Influences
Acne vulgaris, also called acne, has been an albatross for countless people of all ages. They are prone to pay more attention to the physical discomforts of acne due to its redness, inflammation (pains), and warmth. But, aside from the physical pains, the enduring psychological and social impacts of acne on late adolescents have often been ignored or less noticed by the public. Through the survey, the results show late adolescents with milder acne syndromes have a more positive psychological and social status. In addition to more modest acne conditions, those getting medical assistance in acne problems are more likely to decrease the negative impacts of acne on them. Based on the results, after late adolescents with acne apply the treatment given by dermatologists, they mention the improvement of their acne conditions. Therefore, the positive correlation between acne and negative psychological and social impacts could demonstrate the importance of receiving medical assistance. By doing so, it would drastically improve late adolescents' acne condition and decrease the negative impacts of acne on them.
Heartbeat bill was proposed by Shofar Conversion Community Alliance as a referendum in Taiwan that aims to shorten abortion time limit from 24 weeks to 8 weeks. Despite it claims that its intention of heartbeat bill is to ensure the fetus’ right and guarantee the autonomy of women’s body, there are issues on the bill that not only jeopardize women’s health but female’s autonomy. While the heartbeat bill was introduced to Taiwan from the United States and it has been discussed intensely in both States and Taiwan, Taiwan has a lack of discussion on the motivation of the bill. In this paper, it is going to discuss several factors how this bill is unable to apply in Taiwan as it is in the United States due to custom, regime, religion and social value system. This paper aims to analyze the purpose behind the heartbeat bill through the telescope of misogyny and argues that its intention violated the autonomy of women’s body and has a sense to control women’s body.
www.link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10943-009-9273-7.pdf
Tobacco and alcohol are the two most common substances that people would use and addicted to. People usually use addictive substances by multiple factors, like pressure and emotional issues, or even just by the easy accessibility of these two addictive substances. Furthermore, for college students, to use tobacco and alcohol may be a consequence of peer influence. Hence, some college students may use addictive substances by peer pressure. The paper aims to research the relation between peer influence and substance abuse among college students and finds out whether peer influence is the major contributor to substances abuse among college students. A questionnaire was designed to collect college students’ responses to the main reason of using tobacco and alcohol and whether peer influence affects college students’ behavior of using this two substances. By disturbing the questionnaire the research found that peer influence is the major contributor of using tobacco and alcohol among college students. Also, the result indicated that peer influence and peer pressure both can influence college students on using tobacco and alcohol.
In 2011, Amy Tan released her book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother;” the book has raised the attention of the world, especially Western countries, regarding the parenting system. Apparently, parents from the Western countries do not approve the Asian parenting, also known as “Tiger parenting,” which involves highly controlling over children’s acts and behaviors, demanding high-standard academic performances from the children, and dictator-like child-parents relationship. The Asian parenting are often considered as “authoritarian parenting” by the Western countries. The presentations of Asian parenting are shown in many American TV series such as “Fresh Off the Boat.” At the first glance, many stereotyped presentations of Asian parenting are obvious to preserve, and the most apparent one is the demanding, controlling, and conservative mother who upholds and follows the Chinese tradition. However, Asian parenting is not all about being “controlling” and “restrictive;” The misunderstanding of Asian parenting among the western countries is serious. Parents from the Western countries consider Asian parenting too tough for the children, since Asian parenting usually gives only heavy pressure to the children, punishments if the children failed to accomplish their parents’ requirement, which means the loves and cares for the children are put aside. However, according to Ruth K. Chao, there is a key difference between authoritarian parenting and Asian parenting, where Asian parenting involves loves and cares for the children, and authoritarian parenting is not. In my research paper, I aim to clarify the differences between authoritarian and Asian parenting by analyzing Jessica Huang in “Fresh Off the Boat” as the evidences to prove that Asian parenting is authoritative instead of authoritarian, and further discusses parenting’s influences and impacts on the children.
The legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan in May 2019 did cause a sensation, but until today, the controversy has never dissolved. The status quo of people discussing about same-sex marriage bill in Taiwan is that different groups of people seem to have much communication, but while taking a deep look into their discourse, they don’t actually respond to each other’s opinions. Obviously, there is uncommunicative communication between them. Within the year right after the legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan, since most of the discourse analyses take people’s standpoints as separated elements, I conduct a survey to figure out the factors affecting people's attitudes. In the survey, those factors are separated into three parts which are the crucial political moments, (including the legalization of SSM bill and the 2020 Taiwanese election,) different standpoints and also different organizations' advocating activities. The research paper aims at figuring out the reasons why uncommunicative communication in the discussion of same-sex marriage persists even after the legalization of same-sex marriage and much public debate.
https://taiwaninsight.org/2020/02/05/the-publics-view-on-same-sex-marriage-legalisation/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0957926519880035
To Buy or Not to Buy: Consumer Behavior
In this digitally connected world, mobile payment has shown great potentials to change the way people pay for goods and services. Among a wide range of mobile payment providers in the market, Line Pay and WeChat Pay show considerable similarities because they are both digital wallet services integrated into the original messaging platforms. This study compares customer acceptance of Line Pay and WeChat Pay in Taiwan and Fu Jian Province of mainland China, aiming to provide some insights into how Line Pay and WeChat Pay can improve consumers’ mobile payment experience. By expanding the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT), this research proposes an extended model to examine the factors that determine consumer acceptance of two mobile wallet services. Significant support for the model was obtained from 608 valid responses collected from two identical questionnaires issued respectively to consumers in Taiwan and Fu Jian provinces of mainland China. The proposed model not only confirms the classical role of technology acceptance factors but also shows that network externalities and perceived risks are also factors that can directly influence consumers’ intention to use mobile wallet services. In addition, the moderating effects of demographics on the relations among the variables are found to be significant.
Slow food movement is sweeping the world in recent years; a further development of Slow Food is the farmers’ market, which builds on the ideas of Slow Food. Following on from the three principles of Slow Food, farmers’ market has become an emerging marketing channel in Taiwan. There is very little research on farmers’ market in Taiwan. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to examine consumers’ perceptions of farmers’ markets and observe their characteristic and behavior towards the choice of farmers’ markets. A questionnaire was designed to collect people’s responses to the growing trend of farmers’ markets; also, adopt food-related lifestyle model in the questionnaire in order to explain consumer characteristic and behavior towards the choice of farmers’ markets. By distributing the questionnaire, the researcher found most of Taiwanese are unfamiliar with farmers’ markets. The result indicated that consumers’ lifestyle are positively correlated with their behavior towards the choice of farmers’ markets.
www.slowfood.com/slow-food-earth-markets-a-farmers-market-like-no-other/.
As the trend of using mobile payments as the first choice for paying around the world, Taiwanese people also rely on using mobile payments, especially among the age from 26 to 55. They choose to pay with mobile payment mostly because of the convenience and the discount and cash back offered. In this research, although most of the respondents and interviewees realize the risk of revealing the personal information through this transaction system, they would keep using it for the convenience and believe that the mobile payment companies would protect their private information. However, some specialists indicate how and in what extent mobile payment users are under the risk of being revealed their private data. This paper concludes with the assumption that mobile payments will not totally replace cash in a short future.
www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/mobile-payment-security-risks.php
With the continuous optimization of social media, the improvement of network speed, and the convenience of buying things online, social media is now an integral part of people ’s lives. Besides, some articles argue that social media influence people’s buying behavior though several ways. Therefore, this paper will use a Google questionnaire to collect data and analyses the result from the survey. The questionnaire takes Taiwanese university students as an example to explore whether their consumer behavior is affected by social media and find out the reasons for the impact.
www.researchgate.net/publication/326098250_Impact_of_Social_Media_on_Consumer_Behaviour