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SummaryThe maritime exploits led by the Chinese eunuch Zheng He (1371-1433) are one of the most fascinating periods in Chinese history. Unfortunately due to the destruction of historical records, information about those voyages is absent from most historical sources. What is certain is that Zheng He's armada made seven voyages between 1405 and 1433. The main purpose of the voyages, presumably, was to showcase China's naval power and to force foreign countries into compliance within the nation's tributary system. Moreover, the voyages were also conducted to establish imperial control over the maritime trade. Zheng He's fleet landed on the shores of Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. After emperor Xuande's death, China shut itself from the outside world and turned back inward. This paper explores if Zheng He is still relevant in today's Chinese society. If so, how is he presented to the Chinese people? In my analysis, I made use of a varied range of research material: articles from the Chinese quality newspaper Renmin Ribao, passages from Chinese textbooks, the segment during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games representing Zheng He's voyages and one episode from the CCTV television series Zhenghe Xiaxiyang. The research method I have been using during my analysis includes agenda-setting and framing. Agenda-setting comprises two levels: agenda-setting 1 and agenda-setting 2. This paper is built around three central questions: what is the relevance of Zheng He (agenda-setting 1), which characteristics are generally emphasised (agenda-setting 2) and what is the impression of Zheng He (framing analysis). The conclusion we can draw is that Zheng He is still remarkably relevant in today's Chinese society. The particular characteristics the Chinese government and media tend to associate Zheng He with are the ships, the paramount technology the fleet had available, the cooperation with foreign polities and the cult of Zheng He. Through a framing analysis I discovered the most prominent frames are the human interest frame, the morality frame, the cooperation frame and the development frame. The way the news coverage about Zheng He has been built up is intended to generate feelings of sympathy and empathy. The Chinese media claim Zheng He represents the Chinese identity, mentality and some typical Chinese characteristics. Zheng He's power and technical superiority are considered an augur of increased international respect and admiration for China, helping to wipe out the memories of humiliation, resentment and grudges. Furthermore, Zheng He's status as a cultural symbol and an international hero bears a strong unifying power in a nation torn apart by ethnical differences and political instability. The evocation of Zheng He's legacy is not only prompted by national motives but is also very useful in showcasing the image of a peaceful, non-expansionary China to the international community and Southeast Asia in particular. The story of Zheng He is used as proof of China's peaceful intentions in reclaiming its prominent position on the international stage. Not in the least the nations in Southeast Asia are torn apart between attraction to and fear of China's power.

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Deze masterproef gaat over merken en meer bepaald logo's op de Chinese markt. Veel westerse bedrijven kampen bij het betreden van een nieuwe markt met de vraag of ze hun marketingstrategie moeten lokaliseren of blijven standaardiseren. Logo's zijn een belangrijk onderdeel van de strategie aangezien ze de visuele belichaming van het bedrijf voorstellen. In deze masterproef ga ik op zoek naar wat voor logo's nu succesvol zijn op de Chinese markt en welke eigenschappen ze hebben.In het eerste deel van de paper wordt nog verder toegelicht waarom een logo zo belangrijk voor een bedrijf kan zijn. Het tweede deel vervolgens geeft een historisch overzicht van de ontwikkeling van merken in China specifiek. Ook de moderne ontwikkelingen worden toegelicht. De veranderingen die plaats hebben gevonden sinds de hervormingen van Deng Xiaoping zijn niet te verwaarlozen. Hoofdstuk 3 dan vertelt wat voor eigenschappen een succesvol logo in Oost-Azië en meer bepaald China moet hebben. De bekende problematiek van standaardisering versus lokalisering worden even belicht in hoofdstuk 4 en om het literatuurgedeelte af te sluiten haal ik dan nog culturele issues aan waar westerse bedrijven die de Chinese markt willen betreden rekening mee moeten houden. Mijn eigen onderzoek wordt uitgebreid weergegeven in hoofdstuk 6. Ik heb gekeken naar logo's in de praktijk en dan vooral de Chinese logo's. De logo's die ik zal analyseren komen uit een lijst van de vijftig meest waardevolle Chinese merken uit 2013 gepubliceerd door de website BrandZ. Elk van deze vijftig logo's heb ik beoordeeld op verschillende criteria. De resultaten heb ik dan samengevoegd waardoor we een duidelijk beeld krijgen van de eigenschappen van Chinese logo's. De meeste criteria heb ik ook gebruikt om een zelfde aantal Amerikaanse en Europese logo's te beoordelen om ze met de Chinese logo's te kunnen vergelijken. Deze vergelijking wordt nog verder ondersteund met de Chi-kwadraat toets naar verbanden binnen de Chinese logo'...

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AbstractThe purpose of this thesis is to analyse the threat of industrial espionage for Western companies in the high-tech industry in China. Due to the emerging economy and the higher level of development, high-tech companies take the opportunity of investing in China. The literature study explains why the threat might be considered higher in China than in other countries, what methods spies apply and what kind of prevention measures companies can implement to protect their trade secrets against industrial espionage. The research consists of in-depth interviews with employees of Belgian high-tech companies doing business with China. The first chapter puts the concept of 'industrial espionage' in a broader context. It includes a short introduction to the definition and history of industrial espionage. Furthermore it explains why industrial espionage not only affects the companies and individuals involved, but also the economy and society as a whole. Finally the chapter points out that in the recent years industrial espionage evolved from more technical methods to cyber espionage and how this consequently affected the international relations between countries. Cyberwar especially increased the distrust between China and the US. The second chapter describes industrial espionage as a problem and the additional difficulties that this topic generates. The biggest difficulty for the research part concerning industrial espionage is the lack of transparency of companies and known information in this typical field. The problem for the companies is the dilemma between the indefinable risk and the cost of prevention measures. The third chapter explains the threat of China in industrial espionage. To a large extent we can attribute the threat to the current policy of the Communist Party that encourages the development of high-tech that does not depend on foreign companies. The fourth and fifth chapter analyses the methods of industrial espionage and the profile of a spy. Furthermore the thesis examines how companies can protect their trade secrets with prevention measures against industrial espionage in the sixth chapter. The literature study finishes with an evaluation of the Chinese legal system and the intervention of the Belgian government in the protection of intellectual property. The second part of the thesis consists of the research. The assumptions made in the literature study are tested through in-depth interviews on Belgian high-tech companies that invest in China. The final conclusion states that the companies are aware of the threat of industrial espionage in China. All the companies confirmed that they implement an awareness program to limit the risk of industrial espionage and some carry out additional measures. A standard procedure to protect companies from industrial espionage does not exist, mainly because most companies are fundamentally different. The companies search for the most efficient measures for their industry and for their business through experience. The best improvement for the future would be the help and advise from the Belgian government, to guide companies when they invest in a foreign country like China. However, industrial espionage is a problem occurring in all countries when doing business and has a repeating pattern: developing countries that aren't able to generate their own technology will copy from developed countries. If in the future China reaches its goal of becoming world leader in the development of high technology, we might be the ones copying from the Chinese.

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The art of manipulating words, written or spoken, to persuade people has a long and profound history in the west. This artform, more simply known as 'rhetoric', has been studied by scholars from as early as the glorious Greek and Roman empires of the past. To Westerners, rhetoric not only holds the meaning of the art of eloquence, but also the study of the techniques and methods that might contribute to the development of this art. In China, however, the study of rhetoric is still at its infancy stage. Only since the early 20th century rhetoric has become an object of discussion in the academic spheres of Chinese universities. Even until today there is no unanimously accepted definition of distinct features of Chinese rhetoric. Because of the young age of the academic discipline in China and the lack of a translated systematized canon of Chinese rhetoric in the West, Western scholars in the research field of comparative rhetoric have have begun to search Chinese literary texts for rhetorical devices and concepts.. It did not take long before a heated debate between different the scholars arose. One of the main points in this debate is the relevancy of the western-influenced conceptual framework some pioneering scholars adopted in their research. Their adversaries claim that such a model caused the results of their research to depend on western biases towards rhetoric and that therefore their research lacks of objectivity. The author of this thesis wants to test the validness of above conviction. Moreover, he aims to proof that, while the research in which one lays concepts belonging to his or her own culture as the basis of their method might influence the results in some ways, such research can also create new insights into non-Western discourse patterns and rhetorical conventions. To make his point he uses a critical rhetorical analysis, developed by the linguist Antoine Braet (1942º), which is based on the structural conventions and rhetorical devices as designed by Aristotle (384-322 AD), Cicero (106-43 AD) and Quintilian (35-96). The author applies this method to twelve speeches were originally held by the current chairman of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping. The speeches have been randomly selected and afterwards organized into three categories: speeches for a crowd with foreigners, speeches on routine occasions and speeches on special occasions. At the end of the thesis, the author draws four tentative conclusions from the analysis. Firstly, he argues that Xi Jinping is a good rhetorician, if we judge him from our Western perspective. Secondly, he posits Xi Jin ping is not likely to give discourse to alternative viewpoints during speeches as evidenced by simply stating the solution he has chosen to implement without delving into a further explanation of why that theory is best.Thirdly, he notices that Xi often uses set phrases and cultural allusions in his speeches. He considers this to be an outcome of a different idea of creativity that Chinese have. Lastly, he marks out several differences between the three used categories. Finally, the thesis concludes by remarking that scholars should not necessarily strive away from their own cultural framework when doing research on rhetorical discourse in Chinese. According to the author, such framework might give researchers a different perspective or new insights and is necessary to build towards a better understanding of Chinese political discourse.