Session 1 - August 5, Yunxiang Yan, UCLA

[Celeste Modster]

I enjoyed Yunxiang Yan's lecture on Familism and Neo-Familism. Both his article and lecture provided me with an introduction to the origin and progression of ideologies and practices in Chinese social life. I found the discussion of gender and generation very enlightening and I could immediately see opportunities to generate relevant and relateable conversations about cultural similarities and differences in my classroom. Essential questions come to mind. It would be interesting to hear my students response to 1. Identify familial roles of Great Grand Parents, Grand Parents, Parents, Aunts, Uncles, Siblings and Self.  2. Looking at your family history and their interactions, can you identify any dominant ideologies and or practices that stand out to you? 3. Who played/s what role? 4.How have any practies or roles changed over the years/generations? 5. Take inventory. Yunxiang Yan's Neo-Familism And The State In Contemporary China would provide a great spring board for the development of the lesson or unit. 

 

[Joy Chao]

I was fascinated by the notion that after thousands of years of oppression, the status of women in the Chinese society, in most people's eyes, have reverted and liberated. In today's lecture with Prof. Yan, we learned about how moms in their 20s-40s nowadays are called the "super moms," who are the core of their families; she's the person in charge of her family life and her children's education, and on the other hand being the wife of supporting her husband by working and, very possible, taking care of her in-laws or even her own parents in many cases. So, are women in the current Chinese society really "liberated" or having even more pressure than before? Maybe their status might have been elevated and not be seen as inferior than their counterparts, but in reality, are there more expectations putting on their shoulders? Interesting lecture today that let me ponder on things and new perspectives that I've never thought about before. 

 

[Madeline George]

After reading the articles for this lecture, I felt like the Chinese were stuck in the 1950’s , but instead of the church designing/ setting  their moral compass, the government is.  Parental oversight, government and parental judgement and the conflict between choosing career over marriage and vice versa.   It sounds like there is A LOT of pressure to be a super duper mom and to make all the correct decisions.  Society is very ”judgy” but China sounds super Judgy!

 

 

[Madeline George]

Dr Yan’s lecture made me think that Chinese women, and moms in particular are under more pressure than ever.  It seems the shift is from supporting the husband to creating your own perfect child... no pressure there!   It seems like the government dismantled the importance of the family, implemented rules limiting family size and then realized,”Oops! We can’t handle all of the responsibilities that the family unit covered!”  Oh no! Be spontaneous!  Innovate!we can’t make it work’ but you all, just  innovate!”    Good Grief!

 

 

 

 

 

[Kimberly de Berzunza]

I agree, Deanna, I found that to be really eye-opening, and it really made me think about how a big part of the Cultural Revolution was abolishing all those "old-fashioned" ways of thinking that were so deeply ingrained into Chinese thought.  I recently read "The Last Eunuch of China," and this concept reinforced even more what a terrible fate that was, in addition to all the physicial and emotional trauma, the inability to have children was the inability to live on into eternity.

[Celeste Modster]

Professor Yan spoke today about gender inequality and generational hieracrchy having been operated through gender and generation inequalities. As paradigm shifts occur and value systems are redefined, it would seem that the inequalities over time, have and will continue to adjust. What might speed that process, if at all possible. As neo-familism, gender and generation continue to evolve, how do the hopes, challenges and risks for woman effect the choreography in the Improvisational Dance that Professor Yan discussed? I would love to engage students in the process of developing suggestions or possible solutions to navigating new gender roles or helping to define the dance.

[Monica Munguia]

Professor Yunxiang Yan's description of the inverted family answered many questions to the family structure and gender roles of my students.  I believe western culture is very similar to the changes in China.  Students are given authority at home with intentions of entitlement that they no longer need teachers because they are exposed to an overwhelming amount of information.  Yet, they do not know how to decipher learning and create areas of emotional breakdowns.  I am sure this is why education is being geared toward creating learning options, and students teaching each other while teachers transition into facilitator roles.  Yet, as in Being the Right Woman for "Mr. Right" within their cultural traditions and roles, students must still comply to family expectations. 

[Madeline George]

It’s all about the children.  Interesting that female children are outsiders— simply on loan to the family until she is married off to another family. 

[Kimberly de Berzunza]

First I found the articles really interesting, especially the one about "Being the Right Woman for Mr. Right," but I was disappointed in the end where she gave up her career and ended up living with her in-laws and trying to be Super-mom.  Not that it is exclusively Asian- there are lots of women around the world in this position, but this story frustrated me more than others.  I have various Asian mom friends in the US and one in Japan, and they ALL work, and none of them live with their in-laws.  They have fought to keep their careers and to raise- and yes- push, their kids.  I know it is always a challenge to balance it all, and the cultural norms of millenia are hard to fight. Were Ban Zhao's writings influential? I think they were. Even if they were based on Confucian and other ideas, these were written directly for and to women, and the fact that we're having this conversation illustrates to me that yes, they were effective.

I enjoyed every minute of Dr. Yan's lecture and, like others, wish we could have heard more about his own experiences.  One of the points that really stood out to me were the concept of reproduction ensuring one's eternal life as an ancestor and the concept that the individual doesn't really exist apart from our ancestors and our descendents.  Another was the idea that "a person is a process," and that one is not "finished" until having grandchildren. Really interesting. It made me think of the blue bar on the computer when a new program is being installed.  A third fascinating point for comparison is that lack of a concept of rights: Fulfilling obligations earns you privileges, but your are not born with natural rights.  This would be a great place for me to connect this information to US History when teaching the Declaration of Independence and how big a contrast the concept of "unalienable rights" would be.

As for my 7th grade curriculum, I see lots of opportunities to give depth to Confucian and Buddhist teachings with examples and explanations of "familism."

[Eva Morales]

I see how you could find these concepts of the inferiorty to be shocking. I found that she was shaped by the only thing that she had ever learned which was the ancient male perspective. I think she just internalized the message that she always heard from men. I don't believe she analyzed the reason behind why women had to be told how to behave, but there were no instructions on how men should behave. I was also disturbed by the fact that female babies were kept underground to symbolize that they were less. In regards, to the comment of men opposing gender equality that did not shock me, because I believe we are still expected to live in a system that was made by men for men. I believe that even the current American system is threaten by women. I do not if anyone has seen that after the Democratic debates, Tulsi Gabbard was the most Googled person of the debate but Google censored her message, because it goes against the traditional capitalist way of thinking. She is currently suing Google for censoring her message. 

[Jennifer Chang]

Hi Kimberly! 

I was also very disapointed that Wang Rui chose to sacrifice her career in order to become a super mom and an ideal wife. I also have some friends in Japan and Taiwan and they do mention their unwillingness to give up their careers in order to get married. However, they also mention the tension this causes when discussing this issue with their parents. 

Ban Zhao's writings were definitely very influential to these women, and I couldn't help but come back to the part where Zavoretti mentions that Wang Rui had a very well thought out strategy when she was looking for Mr. Right - and the end goal was to create a stable and prosperous family. Do you think deep down she already knew what her future would look like? 

[Jennifer Chang]

What an interesting and informative lecture by Dr. Yan today! I really enjoyed how he thoroughly explained and compared how the roles in the family shifted from ancient to contemporary China. What really made everything connect was when he showed us a chart of the family tree labled "The Generation-age-gender hierarchy in Chinese family", broke down the privileges that each member had which was defined by their position in the family, and then explained the importance of having descendants to continue worshipping you and remembering you in the afterlife. I would not want to become a hungry ghost and be driven away!! These core ideas make it easier for me to understand why people were so keen to make sure their lineage was continued, and why they made sacrifices to ensure this. Sacrifices made by women such as Wang Rui in "Being the Right Women" (fulfilling the role of a dutiful mother at the expense of her career) eventually gave her an "increased sense of self-worth and status within the family". I guess, at the end of everything, her sacrifices were well worth it? 

In my 6th grade classroom, I would love to introduce this Chinese family chart in discussions about ancienct China, and then have them compare and contrast it to the dynamics in their own families. 

[Nichole Morales]

Yan Yunxiang’s discussion on the development of individuals after the cultural revolution interested me. It puts words to what I witnessed when I lived in China. There were stark differences between generations and genders in terms of how individualism presented. For example, in my own experience I found young women born in the 1990s to be more individualistic than young men or people who grew up before 1980. But I had not realized there were such complex anthropological explanations. And so, I’m particularly interested in the ideas of zuoren and how the individual in a collective culture will continue to develop.

[Zoey McKinney]

Dr. Yan's lecture challenged my beliefs about societal structure in modern China. I certainly associate Chinese culture with patriarchy and familism, but I see now how that idea is based on my knowledge of China's traditions. Chinese culture is certainly steeped in those ideas, but I was unaware of how these have been changing since the turn of the twentieth century. A point that was particularly interesting to me was that one might find those traditions better preserved in Chinese societies outside of mainland China. It certainly makes sense to me that people in Taiwan, Singapore, the U.S., etc. would go to extra lengths to maintain and pass on their culture as they knew it, for fear of losing it. On the other hand, people in China would not feel as pressured to preserve their culture, since it is all around them. This can relate to my students since most of them are first or second generation Americans, with the majority of their parents coming from Iran or East Asia. How do we reconcile the culture that we (or our parents) left behind with the culture that has been evolving ever since? 

[Nichole Morales]

I agree. I don't think Bao Zhao proposed the idea either. And the topic is a lot more complex than women are simply inferior. Just like filial piety requires the old and young to perform in some reciprocal way, I assume men and women had a similiar balance. A Chinese woman once told me that while her husband may be the head of the household, she is the neck upon which the head finds it's direction. 

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