Chinese horror films have special oriental cultural elements as well as rich traditional culture, but in the last decade, Chinese horror films have declined sharply in the mainland as well as in the international market. The inferiority of the cinematic effect of horror elements, the receding passion of the market, and the cultural regulation under CCP rule are all factors that have led to the gradual disappearance of Chinese horror films. This thesis compares Chinese and Western horror films to further understand the horror genre, the characteristics of Chinese horror films, and the prospects and possibilities of market development.

This thesis explores Walter Benjamin's development of the new concept of experience and selects key parts of it to develop the significant arguments of this speculative philosophy of experience and why he remains of contemporary interest. This horizon of experience is based on reflecting on the epistemology of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Benjamin sought to expand the concept of experience in Kant's legacy, challenging the limits of philosophy with experience. He tries to provide a solution to the weakening of experience (erfahrung). I look at the sources of his work and find that his theological and historical materialist view of time is an important element that he provides for recasting a new concept of experience. This recasting of the concept of experience is a foundational connotation throughout his research and is also reflected in his literary works.

In the first chapter, I first explore the philosophical background of the concept of experience and provide a separate introduction to the two types of experience erfahrung and erlebnis in the German tradition, which became the inspiration for Benjamin's grasp of modern experience in later years. Then, with a specific analysis of “Program of the coming philosophy” and some other texts, aligned with a review of Kant's theory, I argue that Benjamin inherited and challenged Kant's concept of experience in an epistemological sense. In this challenge, he resorts to religion, language, and the present time to enrich the totality of experience.

In chapter 2, I choose to enter the text of “On the Concept of History” to demonstrate how discontinuous time is, and particularly what his "now-time" can provide for an empirical perspective. Through the standstill, the dialectic of present and past, and the shock of these appeals, Benjamin succeeds in establishing a historical materialist experience of time.

In chapter 3, I analyze the expression of temporal experience in “Berlin Childhood around 1900” as a literary practice for a new conception of experience. Through the analysis of the imagery of rain, I argue that his experience of time is conscious, spatial and in the present. And to this end, I introduce the similarities between the artistic approach of classical Chinese poetry and Benjamin's conception of the subject and object. Mimicking Proust's methodology of involuntary memory, Benjamin's literary practice in Berlin's childhood searched for ways to recover experience as erfahrung.

This thesis undertakes a comparative reading of the two reality television competition series Drag Race Thailand (DRT) and RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR). Drawing insights from Asian queer studies, this thesis attempts to negotiate the tension within gender studies as related to contemporary debates around trans identity within the world of drag performance. Featuring drag performance and queer culture, Drag Race has become a transnational cultural phenomenon with the rapid international expansion of the Drag Race franchise in recent years, and DRT is the only Asian platform as of this writing. Following the interdisciplinary matrix of Asian queer studies, this thesis compares and contrasts the representation of drag on DRT and RPDR with particular focus on Season 2 and Season 9, respectively. Reading the two series together raises the question of why these two versions of Drag Race embody drag in different relations to transgenderism. This thesis further traces the problematic statements against trans drag queens on RPDR and sets this negative perspective against the very different operating structures of the Thai gender system. Under the common name of drag, gender formations on the two series diverge in fundamental ways as a result of their distinct history and gender epistemologies. Comparing the two series in the Drag Race franchise therefore defies the assumption of Westernizing homogenization in drag and queer culture, and DRT provides insights into the criticism of transwomen exclusion on RPDR. Through the comparative study, this thesis demonstrates the need for the critical reading of Asian drag and Asian queer culture apart from America-based theorization and the further exploration of comparative Drag Race studies.

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