In the readings for the Session 7 lecture I was chosen as a rebel and was interested in Yatsen Sun who is considered the father of the Republic of China. I had no idea that many Chinese went to Hawaii and attended school there and saw a different way of life and attempted to return to China to make their mark by implementing Western ideals. Sun championed revolution to get things done but Sun never accomplished what he set out to do. He stepped down to avoid civil war and made a decision for the good of the country instead of his political gain. This is a great lesson to teach our students.

I’m really curious about how Han Dongfang feels about his mother country China. After all they have put him through I am curious if he feels betrayed by his country or does he still have a patriotic feeling toward them. I think this film and discussion will be a chance to see images that show what is really going on and what life is like in China. It is hard to get a real feeling about this massive country by listening to the news or reading articles. Images will be nice to see for ourselves and let them tell us the story rather than news outlets.

Collective bargaining, social justice and workers rights; organized labor and bargaining, not revolution.  We assume democracy will deliver, but there is Walmart within a democratic society.  Enough said there. Han Dongfang brings up a great of information on the workers, their struggle and their fight for basic rights as human beings.   Teaching through history, we hit many of these topics in U.S. or World History to connect a film like this to.  Many examples come to mind immediately; 18th-19th century Britain, France and Germany.  In the U.S. 1800 industrialization periods, child labor, strikes continuing into 1900s, 1920s, 1940-50s with different groups and immigrants, many of course were Chinese.  Now we see into China and get a real clear picture of the abuses and human rights and worker crisis is happening, and it is filling our shelves.  Change did come to Euorpe, change comes to U.S. and now it is China's time.  Han Dongfang paints a dark picture, but looks back on the history of Europe and the US and paints a picture of hope, or at least, as each of those went through change, so can China.  I hope to show that to my students.

I was deeply impressed by "We the Workers" and its portray of a factory worker's struggles in China.  It was shocking to see how unfairly the workers were treated by the government and the factory owners.  It seemed that the government is more interested in maintaining their power and money than to help their own citizens.  I would include parts of "We the Workers" during the unit of social changes in America during the 1900s.  By doing this, I am hoping my students would realize how fortunate we are today to have workers' rights and protection. Some students could also relate to this subject because of their parents/family members who might work in factories.  We could use this connection to help students to relate to the material.

It was surprising to see the unjust behavior that the employers place upon the people. Even more so I was surprised that the people did not know that they and rights.  The purpose behind the film was to simply document for the future.  Yet, the film itself gained more attention than expected.  The employers were more interested in keeping the leverage with the communist rather than helping the people.  The downside is that, when there are issues at such in any place of the world the people of those communities do not always bind together to stand up for what is right.  If all workers participated in the strikes and stood up for their rights there would be a downpour of employers focusing on the survival of their companies and businesses.  There are times where people will only show sympathy, yet sympathy is not enough. Interestingly enough the world around us is experiencing turmoil.  The only way that we as a people and as humanitarians can grow toward what is simply right is by standing up and fighting for our neighbors.  Our economy is, as well as the rest of the major economies around the word, money driven and this theme continues to be prominent as we hold discussions in this seminar.