session #11 10/23 (dube) china after the cultural revolution

[Cindy Nguyen]

The slogan "in agriculture learn from Dazhai" was first said by Mao and has become the epitome of China's "complex and diverse" culture.  This city is a model for other agricultural communities to follow with its six criteria for Dazhai-type commune.  Chinese leaders have used Dazhai as an example for others because the city exemplifies the Communist core ideology of hardwork, dedication, and commitment.  Dazhai became popular of its use of self-reliance, pure man-power and many agriculture achievements.

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[Michelle Levy]

I am extremely interested in what the Chinese and Japanese call World War 2. It’s intriguing that the Chinese call it the “anti-Japanese War” and the Japanese call it the “Pacific War.” I had not considered that Asian countries would not think the whole world was involved. Although I don’t teach about the world wars, I could consider integrating a lesson on why different people (or cultures) would feel the need for War, and why they would name it different things. Perhaps the reason one country fights is not the same for all countries.

[Michelle Levy]

I liked learning about the May 4th movement,where students went to homes of diplomats and threatened them. When Chinese talk about May 4th, 1919, they talk about these demonstrations.  Today, it’s a holiday in China.  It’s called “youth day” to celebrate student activism (with a positive outcome). I like that we can compare this day to holidays we have in the U.S.

 

The purpose of the Road to Rangoon was to bring supplies to China. It went from India, through Burma, to China. Joseph Stilwell was the head of this. Everyone was focused on Germany, so this was not as observed. The United States were actually supplying China and this came as a shock to me. I think of it as sneaky, although Professor Dube mentioned it was not kept secret.

[Michelle Levy]

I liked the reading from Professor Dube on the ideology definitions of Chinese words and their English meanings. In a way, it seems to tell it’s own story. Learning the meanings of ideologies from simple words “from” and “seize” to “chasing” “freedom” in the end. In the middle we learn to “take a stand” “perpetually” at a “tremendous pace.” I think I could create a great lesson here to celebrate communities and cultures, and most importantly languages. Students can take a collection of words in other languages and create a simple story, or paragraph. It would be challenging, but completely worthwhile. 

In a way, this correlates to the reading on the famine of 1949. No one wanted to mention this horrible wave of deaths for years, and then this author decides to write a book called “Tombstone.” Yang Jisheng writes the truth about the famine of the Henan Province in which 1 in every 8 people died of starvation and brutality. Key words spoke out in this article which helps me connect the to the simple definitions reading. However, both seemingly need to be read.

 

[Cindy Nguyen]

This is one of the saddest story I have ever read.  Yang Jisheng wrote about the worst manmade disaster recordeed in Chinese history in his book Tombstone.  In this book, he compiled horrific stories of relatives, families, and communities experiencing horrendous death due to starvation.  The Great Famine is rarely spoken of in China due to the massive failure of agriculture reform and the large volume of brutal attacks against farmers.  It gives accounts of cannibalism, mass murders, and the horrible deaths of farmers who were silenced because high Communist commanders didn't want to admit their total failure in agriculture.  This would be a good article for students to read and annotate on their own and then share their thoughts with the class and/or their elbow partner.  The lesson would help students understand that some government would only want to project to their citizens and foreigners only their accomplishments and not their failure.  Students could also relate this story to their own experiences of government coverup.

[Lesly Gonzalez]

I enjoyed reading the progression of Zhou Jiaying's (a.k.a. Bella) family towards middle class status. It's interesting to read how her parents are employed at the jobs assigned to them, but she will have the freedom to choose her career.

My favorite part of this article is towards the end, when Bella's teacher nominates her to the Communist Youth League. She begrudgingly fills out the application so as to not get on her teacher's bad side. Bella then quotes a Chinese proverb, "A person who stands under someone else's roof must bow his head." 

[Michelle Levy]

I liked this reading too, Lesly. It made me think of how I could integrate this into my elementary classroom. The proverb you mentioned can be compared to the moral or lesson at the end of a fable or folktale. It just so happens that the unit we are working on right now is on fables and folktales. I have an idea to read excerpts from this story (obviously only the appropriate parts) and have the students decide what the proverb means, “A person who stands under someone else’s roof must bow their head.” This is a great 21st century skill to have them complete this! Thank you for writing about this to give me this lesson plan idea!

[Evelyn Mendoza]

In today's session I also learned that the prominent people in this propaganda poster are the 'holy trinity' of China: Worker, Peasant, Soldier. This is very significant because it glorifies the contribution of these three types of Chinese people for Chinese society. Their role in society is seen as a centerpiece for the revolution, they are the new rulers.  

Chinese Posters.net: Workers, Peasants, Soldiers

[Lesly Gonzalez]

I find it mind boggling that a three-year time period when 20 million (by government admission) to 36-45 million (by historians' account) people died of famine is known as the Three Years of Difficulty, especially when the evidence suggests that suffering was brought about by an inept government that adopted a system that inflated production figures.

 

 

[Jasmine Wang]

I appreciate these readings because I can use them ALL (but I might not) use them for a unit next semester.  For my IB curriculum, I get to cover the topic "Authoritarian States in the 20th Century," so Mao and cultural revolution.  With the "Ideology and Dictionary" text, it is a great way to get students thinking about the power of language and indoctrination.  Students have to take a Theory of Knowledge class (like Philosophy 101), and this is a text we could use to discuss the use of propaganda and indoctrination.  Students could discuss the power of propaganda in China and compare and contrast it to other countries' use of propaganda under an authoritarian state, or as a way to push for a creation of a state. Moreover, students could use this text to create propaganda posters (in conjuncion with their Mandarin teacher?). 

Moreover, I would like to use the texts "The Red Guards" and "Victims" while students read Red Scarf Girl (see attached link to book online) to help them contextualize and visualize what was going on during the cultural revolution.  It's really interesting to see the contrast between those who actively particpated with the Red Guards and those who were victims of the revolution.  In Red Scarf Girl (even though I haven't finished it), the young girl recalls participating with the Red Guards, but questoining her own actions at the same time.  While the actions of the Red Guards begin to increase, like seen in the text and the book, Ji-Li is forced to pick on and bully her own aunt to get in line with the party (like seen in the "Victims" text).  It would be great to have students read and discuss the nuances of these actions during this time and how it affected society.  Furthermore, it would be ideal to have students research the role of and impact on women and "minorities" during this time. 

http://campbellenglish.weebly.com/uploads/8/3/1/8/8318203/red_scarf_girl_-_ji-li_jiang.pdf

[Evelyn Mendoza]

Many Chinese writers such as Lu Xun started moving toward a more simplified form of writing, making books more accessible for the common Chinese citizen. Perhaps Chinese characters were simplified for much the same reason… as Workers-Peasants and Soldiers become the pillars of Chinese society, they needed to be able to access the propaganda and the literature of the revolution. According to a Wikipedia article, many intellectuals saw the traditional Chinese writing as an obstacle in modernizing China. For example, Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the “writing of ox-demons and snake-gods”. Lu Xun, said that, “If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die.” There were likely other factors, such as practicality, that contributed to the simplification of the Chinese characters, but I wonder how big a role the revolution played.

This simplification of language is very rampant today, but not for such a political cause. As social media and text messaging grew in popularity, written and verbal language began to deteriorate in complexity. I will never forget the time a student told me, in response to his friend’s comment, and my subsequent confusion, that “literally is the new figuratively”!

Interesting how history repeats itself, though for different reasons.  

Source: Wikipedia

[Carlos Oyarbide]

 

 

After all these years, all the movies and articles I have read, nothing ever explained how a Leninist Party power structure was organized. For all the information that is disseminated about communism, I was a bit stunned when I realized that I had absolutely no idea how the internal mechanism of powers worked in a Leninist system of government. Such a fundamental idea is so important in understanding the politics of China. Too often we gloss over the details that shed so much light on a subject. We have almost become numb to the word “communist” and we seem to almost view it as a synonym to mean “dictatorship.” And while there is certainly some overlap between the two concepts of government, there is a substantial difference. I think that comparing the top down power structure of a Leninist party to Americas’ three branches of government or other political structures such as bicameral legislatures. Students could compare and contrast different features of the structures and disgust the possible benefits and cost of each systems as it pertains to the people being governed. I think that too often, we speak about government systems besides our own with this inherit sense of inferiority and this prevents us from thinking critically not only of other government’s, but of our own government. 

[Jasmine Wang]

I like the idea of having students annotate the reading and help them understand the role of government in these horrific events.  Moreover, I would ask for students to examine the short and long term effects of The Great Famine.  While the Great Famine is "officially" three years, students could look at the effects of this period after the three years, especially in more rural areas.  My students could do some research as to how communities developed post Great Famine. 

[Nira Sun]

Both my parents experienced the movement around the age of 16-27. I have heard lots of stories from them about that period of time. They were pulled away from the school system and sent to the rural areas when they were around 8th grade. They had the chance to come back to the city which was quite lucky.

During the time of there, they were assigned with tasks everyday which were mainly farm work. They clocked in / clocked out at certain time. By completing the tasks, they would earn certain "work credits" in order to meet the requirement. The living condition was obviously poor. They didn't have a room of their own. The most common "bedroom" was a huge flat bed with probably 5-10 people slept on there all together.

Lots of people didn't get to come back to the city at all because they eventually got married and had families with the locals since they had no idea of when they would get the chance to go back. If your family had some sort of "connection", it would help to transfer your "Hu Kou" - household registry- back to the city as early as possible.

In the year of 1978, the college-entrance exam was opened again to the public. However, my mom has excceeded the age limit to enroll for the exam which caused her losing the only opportunity going back to school. This has always been her biggest regret she ever had.

One of the controversial part of this movement was that it created a huge education gap in that generation which caused the quality of China civilization moved back a decade.

[Jane Shen]

In today's lecture, Professor Dube showed some posters in China during 1950s propagate the independence of marriage. Here it is said "  independence", not the " freedom" .

My understanding is that the couples to wed are independent from their two related family elders. They could decide who to marry . However, they need to register at the government bureau. Which means, they could release from the parents pressure but still need the government approval.

 

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