The COVID-19 pandemic was a monumental exogeneous shock to the Colorado economy. Prior to the pandemic’s onset the state reported historically low unemployment alongside robust growth in personal income levels and state revenue. While the negative economic effects of the pandemic were sharp, the state’s economic recovery is outpacing what many economists previously projected. The General Assembly was compelled to impose major cuts to last year’s budget, many of which were restored with the enactment of the budget for the 2021–2022 fiscal year. The General Fund budget of $13.6 billion proposed by Democratic Governor Jared Polis represented a substantial spending increase of 20 percent from the prior year. The enacted $13.1 billion General Fund budget received nearly unanimous approval among Democrats and modest Republican support. Policymakers ultimately sought to balance competing priorities across many issue areas, while also preparing for the future with a major investment of $1.5 billion to the state’s reserve fund.

In this master thesis, I focus on a controversial historical movement—the 1930s’ Chinese Leftist Film Movement (1932-1937) to study its development, function, main characteristics and influence. I argue that in the 1930s because of the serious national crisis, shared circular history of the community and various discussions on cultural values, Chinese intellectuals in the film field transformed their transcendences, which might more or less contain a radical tendency, into a dialogical degree. The dialogical transcendence also contributed to the formation of a public space in the film field. Conversely, the public space promoted the transformation of the transcendence. Thanks to the effect of the dialogical transcendence, discussion and negotiation became an effective method to address social issues. Chinese film production also changed in this situation. More and more filmmakers turned to concentrate on portraying social issues. Cinematic strategies like an open ending, which could encourage and broaden the engagement of discussion, were employed in the 1930s film practice. Accordingly, in the 1930s film texts, various discourses and multiple truths coexisted.

Being a component of the 1930s film practice, the leftist film movement shared a similar tolerance to alien discourses. On the other hand, it also had its specific distinctiveness. Relying on discussion and negotiation, intellectuals achieved a comparative consensus and drew a framework with two core principles for leftist film production: exposing social darkness and looking for an alternative modernity. In this framework, various attitudes and expressing forms were acceptable. The constitution of participants in this movement was complex. Some filmmakers took an active part in it; but some might be passively selected because their particular texts could fit in this framework. In addition to filmmakers, intellectuals in the printing press field were also engaged. Some of their film reviews showed a trend to guide film interpretation to a particular political perspective, even though as cultural texts, leftist films are open to diverse interpretations. In this sense, the leftist film movement actually was in a canonization process

I use two leftist film cases: Street Angel and Big Road to concretely analyze the different cinematic strategies used by filmmakers to expose social issues and express their inclination to an alternative modernity, like using the POV to fix the audiences’ identities and the dynamic object/subject relationship between male and female characters. The two films also construct allegories to educate the masses to be modern subjects.

Although leftists and the members of the Chinese Communist Part (CCP) took part in this movement and worked as influential roles, the CCP’s ideology cannot completely and perfectly explain the whole process and cultural meanings of this movement. Nevertheless, as open texts with a mission to look for an alternative modernity, the leftist film movement leaves enough room for the CCP to modify and re-narrate it in its own ideology after 1949. Actually, the 1930s Leftist Film Movement was reduced in the process of the CCP’s second canonization from the perspectives of film list, textual richness and cultural complexity. It may be a reason why scholars always face contradictions when they study this movement based on the CCP’s film lists and interpretations.

By most metrics, Colorado’s economy continues to recover from the recession. State revenues have reached the point where tax refunds mandated under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) are a distinct possibility. Governor Hickenlooper’s 2015–2016 budget is generally in line with his previous budgets, while including contingency plans for TABOR rebates. The legalization of recreational marijuana has provided the state with a new revenue stream, although taxes and fees collected in 2014 fell short of initial projections.

During the final year of Governor John Hickenlooper's second term as governor the General Assembly passed a state budget including $11.42 billion in General Fund spending that increased funding for nearly every state department. Governor Hickenlooper prioritized increased spending for education and the criminal justice system as Colorado residents also considered tax increases for education and transportation. Colorado’s economic trajectory remains generally positive, and recent budgetary reform has allowed policymakers to make greater investments in key issue areas.

In 2010, the famous writer Fei Dao called Chinese science fiction “a lonely hidden army,” emphasizing both its marginalized position and its power to contend with the state. Ten years later, Jing Tsu described science fiction as the “secret weapon in China’s soft-power arsenal,” drawing attention to the “grassroots fan base” and its enthusiasm about the genre. These changing metaphors indicate the potential significance of reading Chinese science fiction not just as a literary genre, but participatory culture. Taking Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy as an example, this thesis gives a chronological review of the development of the Chinese science fiction fandom, and close-reading of the original work and selected fan productions. Through positioning colonial inferiority, state censorship, and gender bias in the frame of fandom, this thesis argues that Chinese science fiction and its fandom together form a space for fans’ reimagination, reinvention and resistance that yields alternative historiographies of China.

This thesis will examine the presence of Jay Chou’s China Wind (Zhongguofeng), a term describing a style of Chinese popular music that incorporates Chinese elements, in the PRC during the first decade of the 21st century. Despite the fact that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has ceaselessly implemented strategies in attempts to subvert the fact that songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan dominated the mainland’s popular music space at this time, Jay Chou, who is from Taiwan, surprisingly received their endorsement. This thesis will attempt to answer why the aforementioned phenomenon occurred and simultaneously answer why Jay Chou’s China Wind is tremendously popular in the PRC. Rather than regarding the CCP’s strategies as a complete failure against songs from Hong Kong and Taiwan, this thesis argues that Jay Chou’s China Wind style is fundamentally different from those songs in terms of ideology. From there, this thesis argues that Jay Chou’s China Wind style is in accordance with both the CCP’s ideological agenda and PRC consumers’ tastes and desires from the perspectives of gender, nationalism, and modernization. Lastly, this thesis argues that Jay Chou’s China Wind allows the PRC government and consumers to form a symbiotic, rather than antagonistic, relationship.