After viewing the examples of Modern Chinese art work, I noticed a lot of similar themes such as nature, reverence for the old and respect for authority from Ancient Chinese Art.

During Dr. Yu’s presentation covering “Beyond the Recent History 1977-1989” of Chinese Contemporary Art we were exposed to art depicting life during and after the Cultural Revolution.
The first piece of art we saw showed an account what young adolescents might have been facing during the revolution as part of the Red Guard. This art, although depicting a scene in 1968, wasn’t created until 1979 after the death of Mao. In stark contrast, art produced during the Cultural Revolution was state sponsored and propaganda focused on the support of Mao and the Cultural Revolution.
Focusing on common core and curriculum integration, this particular discourse reminded me of utilizing primary documents for analysis of historical events. When analyzing primary sources, such as artwork, students can use context clues to help them understand and critique work. Students can look at the year of the work, artist, title, purpose, tone, and intended audience of the work initially. After this initial analysis students can then ask the “bigger questions” of what does this say about what is happening is society? In government?

I found a few pieces in the lecture this afternoon that could be beneficially integrated into an English class. I found Xiao Lu's "Dialogue" to be especially interesting, and imagine that it could spark a discussion in class and provide a perfect subject matter for a student's essay. Students could research the exhibit in which Lu presented her work, examine the different reactions to her provocative shooting, and then cite evidence to support one of those claims/suggest a different motivation behind her action.

Wow! Today was very inspiring. Thank you! I had a lot of ideas during the afternoon session. For example, Xu Bing's Square Calligraphy was a poignant blending of linguistic identities that resonated with me. The summative assessment for my first unit is an autoethnography. Leading up to this independent writing assignment students will examine different representations of cultural narratives. In my morning session post I shared the idea of using visual media to share these cultural experiences. Reshaping English text to look like Chinese calligraphy represents the beauty and difficulty creating new cultural identities. The 10th grade curriculum that the World History teacher and I have created prompts our students to challenge the historical legacies of colonization as we move from the Age of Enlightenment to the Cold War. I think the Wang Guangyi piece, Great Castigation Series: Coca-Cola would be an interesting piece to analyze during a media literacy unit I teach that uses culture jamming as the summative assessment by asking students to challenge corporate mindsharing in public spaces. My students are required to choose a corporation to research its labor practices, environmental impact, political contributions, and advertising/branding message(s). I always have an Apple project for this assessment. I have necessary seen the I definitely want to use the Wang Dongling Apple calligraphy. My students always find evidence in their research of the labor disputes with Chinese workers protesting unfair labor practices in factories that manufacture Apple products. I am so curious to see how my students would evaluate this piece in light of their inevitable research findings.
edited by lbernard on 8/4/2015

I thought the lecture was quite interesting but very heavy on the information. I would have liked to hear more on China's turbulent history and how that affected their artwork.

Today Christina Yu Yu discussed the history of the Pacific Asia Museum and the Cultural Revolution of China. I loved hearing the history of the Pacific Asian Museum. I found it fascinating that the original owner deeded the rights of the building to the city due to her economic problems. She then lived on the second floor and had the museum underneath. For me as an artist, this would be ideal! I was also impressed that it was a group of Pasadena folks that rallied together to save this beautiful building in the 1960s. It makes me realize the power of citizens uniting together. Their efforts helped lead the way for the Pacific Asia Museum to be at the forefront of holding art shows for contemporary artists and preserved as a historical landmark. Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol both held their first shows in the PAM and I'm interested to know who else. I also noticed the parallels between the history of the PAM and the Cultural Revolution in China. In my lesson I would use the parallel theme of "The Power of Banding Together For Change." I would like to discuss the PAM history and also parts of the Cultural Revolution. I would show a few pieces of collaborative artwork made during the Cultural Revolution and use the Visual Thinking Strategy to encourage responses and critical thinking. Next, students would pair off into groups and make an collaborative artwork that deals with with people coming together for a common purpose.

I was impressed by Dr. Yu Yu's presentation. Her presentation was extensive and had a lot of depth with facts but was very entertaining and visually stimulating. It was great to get a better understanding of how these pieces of art were influenced by the world and events around them. It made the art more understandable and gave it life and to know why it was created and what was its purpose. Seeing as I teach about China, I can totally incorporate the art in my lessons to spark conversations and to visually fortify what the students are already learning. I can show a piece of art that was created during the Cultural Revolution prior to the students learning about the subject and have them engage in conversation of why a certain piece was created, what was its purpose, who was the audience, what thought or feeling are they trying to convey. Get the students minds engaged prior to learning and use the art as an intro. You could also show how the interest of the government and people dictated what was important and what could be expressed. You can show the art as a concept of what people could do and believe during the Cultural Revolution and show how their sphere of influence and thought changed after the revolution.