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AnonymousSpeaking of footbinding--several years ago, when I was in high school, I was able to watch a National Geographic segment on practices, and footbinding was one. Of course, it's a dying practice and all of the ladies are really old with really old husbands. But back to the interesting point--both the ladies and their husbands love her bound feet. To the husband, his wife's feet are beautiful, tiny, and precious. His ego has increased because his wife depends on him for many things. In the segment, the wife cannot go very far, and depends on her husband to help her walk around. When the husband goes off to farm, the wife follows him and sits and wait for her husband to have lunch or take a break off of work. To which the husbands responds as being the luckiest guy because his wife is around him all the time! (Can she really go anywhere else on her own, though?!) 😐
AnonymousI find the lecture and these discussions on the role of women in East Asia very interesting. I also found it interesting to see how little research their has been on women in East Asia in general according to the professor. I'm sure like in all countries and culture the reality is that their had to be all kinds of amazing women in East Asian history but the reality continues to remain that we live in a sexist patriarchal world so therefore one must dig deep to find these stories. One other thing I found interesting was the narrative about young girls helping raise their brothers or sisters which is not really all that amazing or rare but something that is part of women's contribution to our world since forever. I once read that women today do 70% of all the work in the world while men do 30%.
AnonymousA great web page for Chinese Revolutionary Art is the site International Institue of Social Art. It has a great collection of art of art coming out of the Chinese Communist tradition Before 1949 and after and also a great deal of art that came out during the Cultural Revolution. If you are teaching anything about the Chinese Revolution and want to show your students some of this art it can be helpful in many ways![Edit by="esanchez on Jul 25, 9:56:49 AM"][/Edit]
AnonymousI found this great lesson on Women and Confucism on the internet. It could be very helpful to facilitate a discussion with your class on the repressive nature of Confucist Ideology on women in East Asia. A section has Confucist saying about women which are very interesting.
http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/lesson3.html
Here they are:
"Women are to be led and to follow others."
" A woman's duty is not to control or take charge."
"Woman's greatest duty is to produce a son."
"A woman ruler is like a hen crowing."
"A husband can marry twice, but his wife must never remarry."
"We should not be too familiar with the lower orders or with women."
"The woman with no talent is the one who has merit."
" It will be womens neither to do wrong nor to do good. Only about the spirits and the food will they have to think."
"Disorder is not sent down by Heaven, it is produced by women."
"Those who cannot be taught, cannot be instructed. These are women and eunuchs."
" Man is honored for strength; a woman is beautiful on account of her gentleness."
"There are three unfilial acts: the greatest of these is the failure to produce sons."
[Edit by="esanchez on Jul 25, 9:56:23 AM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="esanchez on Jul 25, 9:57:09 AM"][/Edit]
AnonymousOn a separate topic, I read an editorial from Hearst papers by Robert S. Dudney that China's air power is growing based on their blasting an orbiting satellite to bits. Dudney is the editor for AIR FORCE MAGAZINE. He quotes General T. Michail Moseley, the Air Force Chief of Staff that the January test against a defunct weather satellite is "a strategically dislocating event". He compares it to when Sputnik went up.
He futher quotes,"This is not ....a country that has just discovered the Wright brothers' airplane," he said. "This is a country that is very serious about making the big leagues in air power." I guess (together with their navy buildup) the inevitable question is: Are we witnessing a military buildup by China and the beginning of another Cold War for the 21st Century?
AnonymousI am just wondering if anyone really believes this anymore about women, and isn't Confucious outdated when it comes to critiques on" feminine" thinking? I think a better question is with the rise of the consumer factor and instant gratification how is this impacting the consumption of the woman in China as a commodity. Do they have more control or less control over their image now than in the time of Confucious? And how much of a role are women playing in marketing this commodity. [Edit by="jcsmyth on Jun 9, 1:17:44 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousIronically in the west whenever we hear of some bizzarre practice from other countries we are so quick to past judgement and comment on how "their culture" is so demeaning to women.
With refence to footbinding: mothers creating an image for their daughters to be highly desirable for marriage. As seen to the west as such an inhumane practice, yet daily in the 21st century when we turn on our radios on the way to work, there are endless advertisements to reconstruct what nature has given us to look like some famous actor.
So really what is so foreign about foot binding? Why is it so demeaning to women?
All these women are doing, which they have been doing for centuries is to create an image of what they preceive is pleasing to attract men, to make them desirable.
Consequently, foot binding does not require the adding of a foreign object into ones body (just a thought).
Another side note, many are passing judgement on muslim women, the wearing of the hijab(or scarf to over their heads) or being fully dressed. These women are practicing a dress of modesty to "NOT" bring attention to themselves. Therefore their beauty is not on public display and does not warrant the attention of undesirables. So perhaps if one is seeking appropriate attention or to be not judge by meer physical appearance, muslim women might perhaps have the answer...
AnonymousDid anyone else receive the magazine "Education About Asia" ? It is a wonderful magazine about Asia and education with several ideas about curriculum planning. Sometimes I receive a magazine out of the blue, and god knows where it comes from. It may have been been sent by the USC/China Institute but who knows.
Regardless, the topics include academic areas along with film reviews, and the virtual world. The review by S L Bhalia is especially interesting about a lesson on the Silk Road set to music and geography. I am going to send her an Email on a superb job of creative lesson planning. Let me know if anyone else found it of interest.
clay dubeHi JC,
Yes -- the USC US-China Institute provides each NCTA participant with a year's subscription to Education about Asia. You'll get three issues. Please put any comments you have about the contents of the magazine into the "Asia in My Classroom" forum. Many other teachers will be interested in your thoughts about what might work and what might not.
AnonymousShocking blurb in the Times today. Reminds us how lucky we are...
WORLD IN BRIEF / CHINA
Brick kiln slavery suspect is captured
From Times Wire Reports
June 18, 2007
Police have caught a man accused of starving and beating workers to keep them enslaved at brick kilns, state media reported, in a case that has shocked China and exposed links between Communist Party officials and the kiln owners.
The New China News Agency also said that "another 20 slave laborers at brick kilns and other illegal workplaces in north China's Shanxi province" had been freed, bringing to 568 the total number of workers freed in Shanxi and neighboring Henan province.
It said Heng Tinghan, accused of using slave workers since March, was captured in central China's Hubei province after a nationwide hunt.
More than 20,000 police officers were deployed in Shanxi.
AnonymousExactly
The women in our society do just as "inappropriate" or "demeaning" things to their bodies as well. I personally cannot see the difference between foot binding and starving oneself. With plastic surgery and make-up one could say that its not making the woman's life any harder (foot binding makes it very difficult to walk) but I think it does the same psychological damage. What are we teaching our young ladies by telling them that the way they are, is not good enough to be happy and in love? In addition, what are we teaching our young men that for women to be beautiful they must change who they are?
However, I believe that the muslim Burka (I think I spelled that right), is taking the other extreme. It's more like cover up the temptress because men have no control. It doesn't make the woman or the man very favorable. I do believe that the muslim act of modesty is good. Too many of our students dress like sex symbols that it's very disturbing.
I just don't understand how "Take everything in Moderation" saying died. It would truly make our world a better place in so many ways.
Lisa
AnonymousHas anyone tried to make a post and after writing a couple of paragraphs only lose it?
AnonymousOn the topic of slavery in China, I think that it is horrible that slavery is happening in China.. But when we talk about "how lucky we are" we forget to look at our own country or certain people within it. The southern poverty law center released a study a couple of months back entitle "Close to Slavery" it basically outlined the legal slave system within the U.S. when it comes to their migrant agriculture system. The study showed how the u.s has a system of bringing in immigrant workers to work as farmworkers and that they are super-exploited, paid almost nothing and have no labor rights. This is done in the name of capitalism and profits. The current proposal on immigration is continuing some of the same practices and planning to make it more concrete. If people want to look at the report just type in "Southern Poverty Law Center" or http://www.splcenter.org
AnonymousYes I recieved the magazine "Education About Asia"
I also thought it was great. I thought the film reviews were great and made me want to look for the films. Especially the one about a Japanese man who travels to China and the one of U.S. citizens deciding to denounce their citizenship and move to China after the Korean War. One guy decided to live in China because he was a socialist, another a Black man, to esacpe the racism within the U.S. the third I forgot why but he was the only one of the people whose story they told who lived the rest of his life in China. I think this film would be fascinating to watch.
AnonymousAlthough, the immigrant situation is quite a quagmire it is by far not analogous to brickyard slavery as headlined in the Los Angeles Times on Page A-3 on June 16,2007 by Ching-Ching Ni, and I think it was also reported by NPR. I know it is attractive to self analyze when viewing other countries but it is quite tragic and no way compares to the domestic /immigrant situration mentioned in your message. Children were abducted and taken from their parents to work in a brick factory or kiln in two provinces of China with alledged collusion of the Communist Party. They toiled as slaves with little food, no pay , and others subjected to regular beatings. Please refer to the article. It may have never came to our attention if 400 men with missing sons not sent out a message through the Internet. It was fortunate the message filtered to the outside since there are state controls on their information highway with complicity from Google.