We used to talk about air pollution and water pollution during our 5th grade exhibition. Now China’s soil pollution would be a new a topic that students can discuss and share about ideas. 

China is facing a real challenge to soil pollution according to Lucy Hornby. This is a big problem that people can not see, and can not complain about it. Soil pollution could cause a lot of problems, such as cancer, learning disabilities, infant death, deformities, food security problems, etc. 

Some experts said that china’s urbanization is increasing the risk of soil pollution through waste disposal and acid deposition derived from urban air pollution. 

In our “ Go Green “ project we also can compare China’s urbanization and America’s urbanization. And we will talk about how to solve soil pollution and how to Go Green.

Hi Christine,

Your GO- GREEN concept acually feeds our idealology. "Green is a way of life, not just a color" from which our school name came from  Green Design with its envrionmental goals amd mission. My best friend, Dr. Pride actually was the first one to raise up the issues in 2014. He always reminded us "GO GREEN" without papers. His office was super GREEN and shinny without any papers, and all his intructional ideals and concepts resched to his faculty completely online. Interestingly to mention he always sent us all greens and healthy stuff through online forum, which helped us stay physically and mentally GREEN.

While there were no readings prior to today’s session,(as Ms. Catherine stipulated in the forum) and to refer to the past readings for today’s session.  As always today’s session was quite interesting. First of all while I was still enthralled with the morning session  presenters, (Smba, Bill Blakies, and Ms. Hornby,  Mr. Dube did a good job as always, in giving us all pertinent information, pertaining to today’s topic/s, that being, “The Shunzhi Emperors”, and prior information on previous lectures. Today’s session continued about the Qing Dynasty, (I apologize if I did not spell it correctly). However, towards the end of the lecture Mr. Dube mentioned on the previous reading about “Emperor Qianlong: Letter to George III, 1793”, which I found this reading /letter to be such an interesting and great reading. I love this reading.

I really enjoyed the emperors’ responses to the writer, (King George), as it all really made quite great sense once one analyzes the emperor’s responses. The emperor was not being mean or unreasonable, on the contrary, the emperor, was quite reasonable with his response to King George. The emperor was not retaliating back, but simply answering the questions with the facts that were to happen if the king went ahead with his intensions. To date this is one of the best readings I have read. I have read it a couple of times just so that I can enjoy the mockery of Emperor Qianlong, I feel of the emperor when I read this reading/letter. The enlightenment the emperor was reciprocating to King George.

I reiterate, I love this reading. I think I will leave this reading in my coffee table, so that when company comes over, they can pick it up and read it and then we can have a good conversation about the reading.

I can utilize this reading to teach my students about pleasantries towards one another,  of one’s alliances, and how to be just and fair to one another and each other.

Professor Dube's lecture on the Qing Dynasty was refreshing and pointed out some facts that I had not seen in the past. He began his lecture by returning to queue and how that came to represent and to show loyalty to the Qing Emperor even if you were laying out train tracks in the middle of California's central valley or a petty merchant in the streets of Beijing. It was an expectation that extended throughout the realm and permeated all facets of society- completely fascinating. 

Returning to his question a few weeks back, what made the Qing successful at ruling China as opposed to the Yuan. Prof. Dube went on to point out that the Qing accommodated people in its empire including all ethnicities to deal with its demographic realities- Muslims in Western China, Tibetans from the south, and Mongolians in the north and so on. The Qing also continued to uphold Confucian and Buddhist thought and its bureaucracy. It manage to continue ruling China through its Imperial Examinations, though they also tried to keep a distinct Manchu identity eventually disappeared in their pursuit of all things Chinese, poetry, literature and governing. Despite the fact that the Manchu's had almost doubled the size of China and had brought realms that were once frontiers the true beneficiaries to this expansion were the Han who were able to make inroads into these lands, as Prof Dube pointed out that at one point there are two Han suing each other in Manchuria and the judge chooses to highlight the fact. The cost of this social mobilization and embracing of Chinese culture eventually led to Sinification and a loss of resource mobilization. I was not aware that though the GuoMinDang moved to Taiwan, they still saw lands that had been conquered by the Qing; Outer Mongolia; as belonging to the Chinese Republic.

The arts seemed to have flourished and have reached greater forms of sophistication with Qing rule. The Peking Opera developed and actors became national heroes. Along with the opera, traveling troupes managed to keep the populace entertained, along with sword swallowers. Handicraft production grew with the production of cotton and cotton textiles. This was due to agricultural land production having maxed out and peasants having to find other ways of making money, like becoming day laborers. It was at the peak of this cultural explosion and economic expansion that the Qing met its biggest foe to date- Britain.

Taking a step back from Prof. Dube's lecture one needs to see that as the Qing having conquering new lands and bringing new realms into their rule there is also another country that has been doing the same and that was Britain. It had been colonizing the Eastern coast of North America for more than a hundred years now, and had the means to move people around to globe. So it seems that the Qing Dynasty is soon to plunge into a world where it is no longer the center of the earth, and though it will continue to see itself as that for a few more decades, England and its allies will go to war with China and eventually cause it to open its doors to trade.

In middle school the Qing are not talked about much, and at the same time the history of England is mostly seen from the American point of view, meaning the colonialism that took place in the east coast of North America. The links that Britain had between Africa, India, South East Asia, China and other parts of the Americas in not really talked about. Which possess an interesting question, how much of the British Empire is really taught in schools? How did the British Empire affect the dynamics of the world once it came to dominate world affairs? From the point of view of Chinese history, Britain came to be the empire where it had seen itself one amongst many, and no longer as one above all.

As a comparative study the British and Qing expansions around the world would be an interesting question to pose to students. Where were some disadvantages that the Qing might have had when it was confronted with a foe that refused to play by its rules? What do you when the rules of a game have to be changed to accommodate others? What if some refuse to be accommodating? I'm not sure if these questions are right to propose to students but I suppose that it is a starting point. I feel like the Qing Dynasty and China's history during this time is best suited as a comparative history with other rising power in the world. It is an opportunity for us to show case who different societies who have been leagues apart are not interacting with one another. In many ways it also appears that this aspect of Chinese history becomes more integrated with Europe and soon with North America. By the 1800's the Qing and the people of China were living in a world that was a bit different. The Qing's attempt to keep things as they had been in the last two centuries by simply collecting taxes and maintaining internal and external security would pose new problems when confronting the ever growing number of European nations that wanted to trade with China. On a side note, as Prof Dube points out, these factors were influenced by silver coming from the Americas, which furthermore points to the changing of trade trends and military challenges that the Qing faced.

When Lucy Homb talked about how schools in China, (Beijing area) were trying to market to the parents by telling them the air quality and quality of food at their school....this makes me think about my first that I taught at.  This school was in South Central LA, where there are mostly industrial plants and factories.  Even though the school is fairly new, built in the 1990s, there was questions about the grounds that was built on.  Most parents, staff, and students did not care at the begining but after several years, there were very high profile case of cancer that took the lives of teachers....and people started to question the site school was built on.  

We, as Americans, looked at China and critized the air and food quality ...but, just in Los Angeles, the air was unhealthy a few decades ago and food quality is still an issue both at school and at home.  May be these types of problem part of the growing pain of becoming developed country....

Mei Lanfang, was one of the most famous Beijing Opera artists in modern Chinese theater. He was exclusively known for his female lead roles (dan) and particularly his “verdant-robed girls” (qingyi), young or middle-aged women of grace and refinement. He was considered one of the "Four Great Dan", along with Shang xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqqiu, and Xun Huisheng. 

More than eighty years ago, Mei Lanfang introduced Beijing Opera to the outside world. He was the first artist to spread Beijing Opera to foreign countries, participating in cultural exchanges with Japan, the United States, and other regions. 

When imperial Japanese army occupied Beijing, the commander of the Japanese army ordered Mei to perform for them and appointed to a high rank official position, but Mei refused to sing throughout the duration of the war and endured an impoverished lifestyle until the war ended in 1945.

Some of his most famous roles are Bai Niangzi in Duanqiao ( “Broken Bridge”), Lin Daiyu in Daiyu Zanghua ( “Daiyu buries flowers”), Yuji in Bawang bieji (“Farewell My Concubine”), and Yang Yuhuan in Guifei zuijiu (“Concubine Gets Drunk”).

In my class, we are going to do research about Mei Lanfang, and Beijing Opera. We are going to have a Beijing opera show. Students will perform different kind of roles during the show. 

Sources: wiki/ britannica.com 

Lucy Hornby’s lecture was quite interesting. Her explanation about the types of pollution affecting modern China cities and rural areas was quite eye opening. I particularly enjoyed her deep analysis of the types of pollution, the images of factories and the analysis of soil pollution, a sometimes forgotten issue due to the fact that we can’t actually see soil pollution. I learned a lot more about the environmental dangers China and the U.S face today through her analysis of the war trade and explanation on what we are actually trading (pollution). I also found interesting the way some elite schools and theme parks located in polluted areas market their businesses. I can see a connection between these practices and the practices of many modern global companies putting profit before people and finding the loopholes to make this invisible to the population.

It was a true honor learning about these current environmental issues that we all face globally from someone with the experience and leverage of Lucy Hornby. The data, images and real life explanations about these issues really helped me understand more about issues such as soil pollution, which was somewhat under my radar. It’d be nice hearing about the success of the measures the Chinese government is putting in place in order to deal with these issues in a decade or so from her own words too.