Search

This thesis is a study of the Chinese diaspora in Singapore from 1819 to the 1950s. It begins by situating the diasporic subject in a historical context, highlighting some of the key moments in the diaspora's development, such as the advent of colonialism during the nineteenth century, and the formation of an ethnic enclave in the settlement. The discussion then calls into question the construction of the Chinese subject in colonial discourses, and interrogates the ways in which the diasporic population was constituted within the framework of colonialism. The main purpose has been to examine how the diaspora in Singapore has evolved, and to explore the adequacies, or inadequacies, of existing diasporic theories in the ways they relate to the Chinese experience. This is achieved by recapitulating the theoretical implications of existing diaspora frameworks, and questioning the tensions and limitations generated by such discourses. Simultaneously, this study takes into consideration the construction of a "Chinese identity", and does so by presenting possible ways of conceptualisng what it means to be "Chinese" for subjects of the diaspora. In discussing the extent to which the subject's sense of "self" and belonging has been shaped by its immigrant past, this research draws on and studies the writings, both literary and non-literary, that have emerged from the community. A central concern in all this is the identity and subjectivity of the diasporic subject, and the point here is that not every subject experiences diaspora in the same way, but that these alterities are important in the constitution and formation of a Chinese identity. As I note in the introduction, the issue of what it means to be Chinese, and indeed, the issue of home and belonging, is one that is always contested for people in the diasporic community, and the aim of this thesis has been to continually deconstruct the idea of a "single" Chinese diaspora, and to expose it as a heterogeneous, fragmented, and internally differentiated construction.

An avatar is a representation of an identity in an online virtual world. Most virtual environments provide options for avatar customization. This means that a person can either create an avatar from an existing selection of body parts and apparel or design an even more personalized image. Second Life, the investigative site for this study, is a popular online virtual world that provides almost endless possibilities for avatar assembling to anyone with the vision, skills, and patience to realize them. The process of creating an avatar usually involves negotiating with identity and body image, as it is necessary to select the avatar's gender, race, body type, features, and clothing style. These elements are all identity markers in the physical world. Even when a person creates a non-human avatar, the avatar is still likely to reflect something about that person's identity choices. As people are increasingly spending significant amounts of time in online environments, avatars are becoming an important medium for communicating and understanding identity. Though learning about identity is generally considered a critical component of contemporary art education, studies that address the virtual body from the perspective of art-making, self-making, and knowledge-making are scant. In this study, I argue that the processes of creating and communicating through avatars constitute a means of learning about identity through art-making. I argue that avatars are a medium and that avatar-making is art-making defined on the basis of three theoretical frameworks: Allan Kaprow's Happenings, Joseph Beuys's idea of social sculpture, and Nicolas Bourriaud's theory of relational aesthetics. Moreover, avatars are a medium for creating art within the broader practice of Net art. In using the term "avatar re/assembling," I refer to creating avatars through an art-making process that relates directly to the genre of assemblage. In connecting avatar creation to art-making, I not only emphasize the purposefulness, complexity, and creativity inhering in presenting an avatar, but also postulate avatar re/assembling from a critical position. Further, I frame the knowledge-making and self-making experience of avatar re/assembling through Elizabeth Ellsworth's (2005) discussions of the anomalous place of learning and the learning self in the making. Using this framework of learning to understand avatar creation, I perceive avatar re/assembling as an experience of knowledge in the making and envision the self as emerging from the experience of avatar re/assembling. Moreover, I contend that we do not create avatars in order to grasp an "already-made" knowledge of identity and socio-cultural ideas of the body, although doing so might teach us these. Rather, we assemble avatars to create experience and gain knowledge of the learning self in the making--a self that is constantly learning, transforming, and becoming. I ask: How do different kinds of avatar-making experiences tell stories about self-making? How does avatar creation constitute art-making? How are these experiences pedagogical? Using the avatar as a methodological device (specifically, I observe avatar culture and reflect on my own avatar creation experience), I draw on two qualitative research methodologies: participant observation and autoethnography. I have investigated the experiences of people new to avatar creation, of those who continually change their avatars' appearance and post photographs of the outcomes online, and of those whose avatars do not represent an idealized human form. Through fictional dialogues, I create performative texts that present my interpretations of the findings. I consider the fictional dialogues as offering knowledge (Denzin, 2005; Neilsen, 2002) and insights through which others can learn about avatar re/assembling and make connections to their own experiences. I found that most participants in my study saw themselves as engaging in a creative process whereby they were able to give aspects of themselves fuller expression than in the physical world. Even those new to avatar creation whose avatars tended to reveal the limits of their incipient technological knowledge focused on creating avatars that reflected their physical appearance in some way, whether literally or in an idealized version. In addition, from my interviews and observations, I found that the experienced participants considered avatar creation crucial to their ongoing negotiation of identity and body image, their avatar-assembling experiences constituting a mixed-reality existence in which their virtual and physical bodies work together to create a learning self. And, based on the participants' experiences in this regard, I was able to identify the knowledge-making and pedagogical moments inhering in avatar embodiment. To translate these research findings, I suggest avatar pedagogy as an element of art education. In theoretical terms, such an incorporation would involve using avatar creation to provoke critical discussions about body image, identity, and technology. In practical terms, drawing from participants' experiences, I recommend processes that can be exercised and transformed in teaching in service of a meaningful and effective avatar pedagogy. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Although the design of Multistage testing (MST) has received increasing attention, previous studies mostly focused on comparison of the psychometric properties of MST with CAT and paper-and-pencil (P&P) test. Few studies have systematically examined the number of items in the routing test, the number of subtests in a stage, or the number of stages in a test design to achieve accurate measurement in MST. Given that none of the studies have identified an ideal MST test design using polytomously-scored items, the current study conducted a simulation to investigate the optimal design for MST using generalized partial credit model (GPCM). Eight different test designs were examined on ability estimation across two routing test lengths (short and long) and two total test lengths (short and long). The item pool and generated item responses were based on items calibrated from a national test consisting of 273 partial credit items. Across all test designs, the maximum information routing method was employed and the maximum likelihood estimation was used for ability estimation. Ten samples of 1,000 simulees were used to assess each test design. The performance of each test design was evaluated in terms of the precision of ability estimates, item exposure rate, item pool utilization, and item overlap. The study found that all test designs produced very similar results. Although there were some variations among the eight test structures in the ability estimates, results indicate that the performance overall of these eight test structures in achieving measurement precision did not substantially deviate from one another with regard to total test length and routing test length. However, results from the present study suggest that routing test length does have a significant effect on the number of non-convergent cases in MST tests. Short routing tests tended to result in more non-convergent cases, and the presence of fewer stage tests yielded more of such cases than structures with more stages. Overall, unlike previous findings, the results of the present study indicate that the MST test structure is less likely to be a factor impacting ability estimation when polytomously-scored items are used, based on GPCM.