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

[Nira Sun]

That exact same slogan was also printed all over the walls within residential areas as well. It was a pretty heavy exposure to the citizens. At the same time, the little red book was read and held by everyone throughout the country. The worship that Mao wanted from the citizens back then was no less than what the emperor wanted in ancient China. Other forms of worship included popular songs written to complement how much Mao has changed the country. It was quite interesting to look back at that period of history to learn that how deeply this emperor system has affected major Chinese citizens.

[Carlos Oyarbide]

I think this is an excellent idea Jasmine. I especially like using these texts to explore authoritarian states in the 20^th century. I have used the DBQ structure a few times in my classroom this year when we explored the Salem Witch Trials and was very happy with how the students progressed through the different documents. It was also very helpful to teach the difference between primary and secondary sources. If you wanted to have students write an essay at the end citing several sources, I think that this would make for a very interesting unit. If you wanted to focus more on the female perspective is by maybe including some primary sources of women and their experiences during this time. Or if you prefer, you could use this female perspective as its own separate mini unit or mini DBQ with the essential question something like: How did the Authoritarian Regimes in the 20^th century affect the lives of women?  This topic would make for either complex essays or rich discussions with students that really challenges them to think rather than just memorize facts about the topic. It would make for excellent philosophical dissection. Hopefully some of this might be useful.

[Chris Hertzog]

Fascinating to look at the last 100+ years of the U.S. relationship with China and how our national policy or approach towards China has changed so much over these years, how do we understand and explain this policy? How do our students come to understand this policy?  Is China a friend or foe?  Are they equal or someone we can use and abuse?  

After the opium wars, the U.S. eventually gets their foot in the door, with the “Open Door Policy” but the Boxer Rebellion had already begun and the Boxers vehemently opposed foreign influence.

Then comes the 1911 revolution and the Nationalists, the U.S. has a friend in China again, and another foot in the door, but the Communists could cause problems, which they do until Japan invades.  

The U.S. supports China against Japanese aggression, but at the end of the war, China goes back to war with itself and the U.S. backs the losing side with the Communists winning.  Would Mao be a friend?  1949 Time magazine thought maybe so, but no.  Communism and Mao are determined to be bad, not friends of the U.S., so U.S. policy again goes away from China, until 1972 and President Nixon declares China is ok again.  So what is U.S. foreign policy towards China?

Our students can look at the back of their cell phones and see that they are made in China, but how did this all happen?  Given this up and down relationship over the last 100 years and the communist government still in power, are they are friends?   They make most of our products, but are they are friends?  Aren’t they communists?  Isn’t the U.S.  fundamentally opposed and against communism?  Then why do they make our products?

This is good question for our class discussions.  Clay brought this up several times tonight, that while modern China is communist, it is like what cold war warrior Ronald Reagan said, it is not a communism he recognized.  This is a complex story, so important for our students to ponder the hows and whys of all this, where we came from and where we are today… and where we are headed tomorrow.

 

[Evelyn Mendoza]

Reading your post was really illuminating! I went back and forth between your pictures a couple of times to get a better understading of the connection between the propaganda poster and the Chinese flag. Researching the background, history, ideology, etc. behind the design of a country's flag would be a great activity for students. 

[Nira Sun]

When Prof. Dube showed the picture where it says "婚姻自主"- freedom of marriage, it was quite interesting to think about what kind of freedom they had. Compared to the old "arranged marriage", people had the choice to choose who they would like to get married with. However, their marriage was still under the management and control of the country. The country promoted late marriage and they would put a limit on when you should get married. I remembered my parents mentioned that they needed the appoval for having children as well. Although the control and mangement was necessary at that time, it just didn't seem to give too much of freedom either.

I also remembered the "food stamps" that we had back when I was little which put limit on how many eggs, milk, and produces that one family could have. During certain time of each month, people were allowed to take the food stamps to exchange for fixed amount of food. The limit was removed later on. The daily grocery was open for purchase as often as we wanted to. Nowadays, people can purchase whatever at whenever they would like to. The change was due to the open door policy in early 80s which brought in the concept of free trading and acceptance of foreign products.

[Tanish Fortson]

I read the articel Gilded Age, Gilded Gage about Bella who is a child growing up the Chinese middle class. I can completely understand how and why parents put pressure on their children to excel in school and life. But the pressure that is put on Bella from the age of 4 is just ridiculous.  Bella takes English classes, acting classes, plays the piano, takes swimming lessons, and studies very hard in school. China’s emerging middle class brings much pressure to them to keep up with the ever-changing world.

In just the fifth grade you are given a entrance exam to determine the type of middle school you will attend to their scores.  If you did poorly your changes of getting into a good middle school, high school, and college will diminish. When I think about the fifth grade students at my school, they are not this disciplined. They are not yet thinking about high school and college. They don’t seem to understand the concept that what we do now in school may one day affect our future. I like the fact that China is now allowing more opportunity and circumstances for families are improving. Bella’s family moved into a bigger home and is renting out their other apartment. They have a cleaning lady, a nice car, and takes holiday vacations. But the long term effect of all this pressure along with extremely high expectations may have a negative impact on thier children. 

[Eric Hoh]

This reminds me of a more modern catastrophe in which the Chinese government tried to minimize responsibility for shoddy construction of a school campus that was ravaged by an earthquake in 2008. Ai Weiwei is an artist and activist who sought to confront the Chinese government in assuming responsibility for neglecting to uphold safety standards in construction, ultimately leading to thousands of lives lost in a single natural disaster. He has been arrested based on what have been speculated to be made up charges by the Chinese government, and he has also been a political refugee. 

 

It is important for our students to consider the potential for governments to cover up shameful histories, and also the liberties that we are afforded in the United States to speak truth to power. I want to be careful to not sound overly-critical of Chinese politics, especially because the United States has quite a track record of its own (and currently in the making)!

[Chris Hertzog]

Good point Carlos, when we teach on the "isms"; communism, totalitarianism, socialism and such, we tend to use this clear cut categories.  I confer, I never thought about how a Leninist system lines up or how it works in a system.  When we begin to look at the system and break it down into a mechanism then we can see how it works, not just how it is defined.  It is easy to give a definition with a simple description without looking at how it actually works, like you said, make communism a synonym for dictatorship. I confess that I have done this over the years without looking at or comparing the mechanics of the system.  Looking at the different legislature styles and mechanics of them we can see how they work and what they are underneath the rhetoric.  I think that is a great idea about comparing and contrasting how those systems work out and comparing them to our own government or even the proposed government styles (Virginia vs New Jersey plans). What a great way to get the students to see the inner workings.

[Jacqueline Mercado]

I too was impressed reading about the increasing pressures a child like Bella experiences within the educational system in modern China.  While we do not know the long term negative impacts such a system will have on her, we can sense from this reading that Bella experiences a nostalgia for a simpler life as a child.  She eloquently states, "the teacher wants us to say goodbye to childhoold...I feel a loss".  Through these words we sense she is not happy and feels the anxiety of her parents placing all of their high expectations on her.  That is an unnecessary burden placed on her, but is a reality facing an emerging middle class.  As her parents struggle to enrich her academic experience by adding more and more classes, tutoring and more assignments, they realize they must if they are to secure Bella's future prospects.   This seems to be the price an emerging middle class family pays for social mobility within this new system ripe with opportunities in China.  

[Jacqueline Mercado]

As I read Gilded Age, Gilded Cage, what stood out to me was the phrase "political change is complicated".  As I read about Bella's experience in school and about her relationship to her parents, and her teachers, what became most apparent to me was that there is this overarching tension between the old and the new.   This tension is apparent in how her parents struggle to create in Bella an independent spirit while worrying that that autonomy will not get her in trouble in school.  We see this in Bella's education, that while there is much competition to achieve and she is being pushed academically, the education system in China seems to be regimented and does not foster self reliance or independent thinking as is evidenced in the script that students are given when running for elections and when Bella falls in line with what her teacher wants her to do.  While her parents want to foster a new independence in Bella that match their middle class status, her education is still rooted in the old way of thinking, very traditional and controlled.  Hence, while Bella's family is experiencing social mobility and improving their economic standing we see that the more traditional ways of thinking are so entrenched in China's educational society and larger society.  We can surmise that Bella and her generation will overcome these old ways of thinking but the reality is that they are being educated within that system.   Will Bella and her peers rise up and demand change in how they are governed or will they find ways to accomodate themselves to  that same system and continue to fall in line?  When I consider Bella's experience in China's educational system, I think of it in terms of this larger political question and within this tension of the old and the new.

[Jane Shen]

My parents also experienced the Cultural Revolution in China. My parents both graduated from college and were assigned to a research government company. I was born during the movement of scholars transformation.My mom was pulled out from her research work and sent to a nursey to baby sit the heritage of the revolutionaries. My father was also pulled out from his archetecture designin position and was sent to the most needed part in a factory to stay with the very lowest boiler workers. He had been working in the boilers workshop in the factory for 10 years before recovered back to the professor position.

In my memory, both my parents , expecially my father were having so many meetings after work. They were studying so hard Mao's red book. There were totally 4 series of Mao's work before I went to school when the 5th just published. At first grade, I need to study Mao's 5th Red book with my teachers at school and with my parents at home.

This kind of political study lasted until to the end of my first Grade when Zhou En Lai, the premier of China passed away, then Mao passed away a few months later. The whole county were mourning for the lost. And at school, the teachers were crying every day, we had a memorial hall while all the students need to show respect by bowing to Mao's photos daily. I am not sure how long was it last, but it seemed to be almost 3 months since a national mourn for a loss of King is 100 days.

[Jane Shen]

Hi Evelyn, I liked how you described the need to simplify the Chinese characters for the sake of their own citizens. Yes, it was true that in old China, only the rich or the nobles were literatured. The mojority people were literaturally blind. When Mao announced the foundation of the New China, there were more than 80% of the Chinese are literatullly blind. They could not even write their own name. So as you said, Chinese characters has been an obstacle for the Chinese government to communicate.

So after 3 years of the new nation was founded, Mao ordered to simplified the Characters, and also made the Pinyin. So with several years of education, one can write a letter with the help of a dictionary.

As a Mandarin teacher, I appreciate the reform of the Chinese literacy since it also made it a lot easier to teach non-Chinese speakers to learn Chinese as a foreign language.

[Amir Osterweil]

I had known about the Great Leap foward in only very basic details. I had not idea that it was this bad as outlined in the article. The article mentions acts of canabalism, last surviving members of a village going insane, and yet people were still beaten for trying to tell the truch about grain output. This was China's attempt at a 5 year plan, and it failed miserably. It is not wonder that Jiheng's book must be smiggled into China through Hong Kong. Much like the Cultural Revolution and Tianeman Square, the party would like to erase this evnet from history.

[Christine Xu]

Chinese characters are interesting to learn. As we all know, besides Pinyin, Chinese use characters to read and write.

Simplified and traditional characters are two written forms. Simplified Chinese characters have fewer strokes than traditional Chinese, that is why it is called “ simplified”. However, as a Mandarin teacher, I encourage my students to be able to recognize both, because both of them are very important. Simplified Chinese characters are easier to write than traditional Chinese characters, and this is why many people choose to learn simplified nowadays.  However, traditional characters had been writing by Chinese people for thousands of years. It has many years history, and some traditional Chinese characters have their special beauty and meanings. For example, “love愛” in traditional Chinese character it combines actions and heart, and it means to love people through your actions and with your heart.

Teaching how to write Chinese characters is just like to teach an art. Also, you can make your lesson be more interesting if you teach Chinese calligraphy while teaching written of the Chinese characters.

 

[Gerlinde Goschi]

Chairman Mao and us are always care about with each other.

I was not able to find the image of my card including the words mentioned above.  But, I did some research about some of the depicted parts in the picture.  The "little red notebook," or "Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong" the correct and complete title, was a collection of 267 aphorisms from the chairman (source: Wikipedia).  This book was part of the Chinese Cultural Revolution during 1960's and 1970's.  The color red, the symbol of the communists, represents the blood of the workers who lost their lives against capitalism.  In the picture on my card, the wise leader. Mao, who wrote the little red book, visits the workers, who adore him and seem very happy.  My original guess was not correct, as the notebook is not a savings book, but rather a "teaching," or a "credo" book for the workers to study and apply to their daily lives.  They wave it at Chairman Mao with adulation and gratitude.

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