Session 2 - August 5, Clayton Dube, USC

[Diana Corey]

I also found this process very engaging. The content got me pretty riled up inherently, so my headings got fairly snarky, and I decided to highlight words that fit into a certain theme that I decided upon myself. My students love being snarky, sarcastic, and silly, and I would encourage that in this kind of exercise if it shows they have engaged with the text. To use this with my students, I would need to find material for them to read/skim that is in Chinese, and would need them to be able to access and articulate key points without being able to understand every word, or even every other words. This exercise could be good at any level, but particular the intermediate to advanced levels. 

[Madeline George]

Hot Moms.   Hot Mums.  Sounds like our bull dozer or lawnmower parents. Parents that clear all obstacles from the path of their precious darling’s path.  Women who give up all their ambition to  make their child’s future their only ambition.  Sounds like some parents I know, but perhaps it is more prevalent in China. Mom must not only raise the child, have a job, make all the right choices for her child.  And make everything just “so”. Are the filial exemplars taught to children at school? At home?     What kind of tenacity or resilience do children of these super moms have? 

[Madeline George]

David and I were struck by the way the filial exemplars mirrored fairy tales and myths. I guess morality tales are a universal throughout time.  The idea that your devotion, responsibility will reap rewards, maybe not now, but in the future. Seems to be ever present.  Cinderella was pointed out.... however I think the exemplars are a little more elegant, maybe? I think I would like to use them in my class .... and see what connections my students would make to other stories they know.  I don’t have a clear plan yet, but. It could be interesting to investigate.  I want to ponder this.    

How does a nation all come up with the same social plan?as was share$ in the Nakahara Case ? How does everyone in an entire community or nation follow the same plan without it being enforced?  It seems kind of odious, but it must have been practiced on a relatively large scale for the entire nation to have no/ minimal growth overtime?  This doesn’t seem to be the type of thing that randomly occurs. 

[Kimberly de Berzunza]

Right?! I had the same exact reaction to this. Thanks for expressing it so clearly!

[Kimberly de Berzunza]

It's basically the instructions given to Mulan when she's going to the Matchmaker.  I agree that having instructions will be better than not having instructions, but it's very difficult for me to wrap my head around how this all can be a positive in a society.

[Marcos Rico]

This document tries to convey the qualities and rules that the ideal Chinese woman must follow (according to old traditions). According to the text a woman must be humble, industrious, and worship the ancestors. It also talks about the proper  roles of husband and wife in their marriage. The text says that women must have four womanly qualifications, virtue, words, bearing, and work.

This text was produced to teach women the proper way that they are expected to behave.

I believe that it was effective in the past, since we are still reading it.

The first 2 paragraphs could go under the heading of: Educated, but unprepared for marriage. The author claims to feel unprepared for her role as a wife and mother, even thought she was educated academically and trained in good manners.

Paragraphs 3-7 could go under the heading of: Early start on the three basic lessons. Teach girls that they are lowly and weak, teach them to work with kitchen utensils, teach her to worship her ancestors.

Paragraphs 8-15, Proper roles in marriage. It sets the expectations for proper behavior of husband and wife.

Paragraphs 16-23, Four Womanly qualifications. It explains what are womanly virtue, womanly words, womanly bearing, and womanly work.

 

“...wearing the Gold and Purple,...”

“...that you still have not learned the proper customs for married women.”

“On the third day after the birth of a girl the ancients observed three customs:

first to place the baby below the bed;

second to give her a potsherd with which to play;

And third to announce her birth to her ancestors by an offering.”

“The Way of husband and wife is intimately connected with Yin and Yang.”

This writing was meant as Lessons for married Women.

[Kimberly de Berzunza]

I just cannot get past how bizarre this was to me. All these pictures of model-types in fashionable clothing holding their babies just looked so terribly unnatural and not motherly at all.  I get it, but I don't get it. I understand the desire to have one's own life and own body back after having a baby, and I'm all for a woman losing baby weight and looking and feeling good about herself, but what I saw and read in these pieces did not say "feminism" to me- it said, "we will continue to opress women by making them think they need to look a certain way and not even becoming a mother will be good enough."  That, to me, is the opposite of feminism.  Likewise, in the articles about the Japanese feminists, I find it all not convincing.  I do believe they want equality for Japanese women, but I don't believe their concept of what that would look like is anything like ours, and I can't really grasp or envision what it is they are fighting for.

[Kimberly de Berzunza]

One point that stood out to me from the afternoon session was regarding a lack of individual identity for some women, which is different for men. This came up in the point where Liu is only known by her surname and where a husband calls his wife "the woman in the kitchen" or "the mother of my son". What surprised me was not the lack of identity, but the individual identity attributed to a man in a society that is supposedly centered on family or communal good.

From the filial piety reading activity the story I read seemed the most powerful and interesting to me, about the boy who defends his cruel stepmother to save her and the family, when he has been suffering her harshness without complaint.  On the one hand, I hate this story. But on the other, it is a powerful illustration of self-sacrifice, filial duty, responsibility of a child to a parent AND of a father to a child.

[Kimberly de Berzunza]

Article 8- a woman can become part of the man's family OR HE CAN BECOME PART OF HERS??? Does that ever happen?

Article 15- children whose parents are supporting them sufficiently can sue their parents? Does this ever happen?

The rest of it looks like laws here. Although the infanticide wording is odd.

[Marcos Rico]

I think that this would be a great document to read with 4th graders and to compare it with marriage laws of the USA of the same time period. 

I find it interesting that they had specify in the law of 1950’s that the marriage of brothers and sisters is prohibited...

China’s marriage law of 1981 has only 37 articles!!! Article 37 states when this Law will come into force. Article 5, states that the man must be at least 22 years of age and the woman 20 years of age. I wonder why they selected those ages?

 I was looking for information on California marriage law and I found “Family Code, division 3. Marriage [300-536]” Does that mean that we have 236 laws about marriage in California? I am going to have to ask this question to the next lawyer that I meet...

 

 

 

 

[Xiaowei Hunt]

After reading "Classic of Filial Piety (Han Dynasty)", I learned that filial piety began with respecting and taking care of one's parents, and this resonated with Han Wendi tasting/testing his mother's prescription before feeding it to his mother plus waiting on her for full three years without grumbling and resenting the toil and tedium. Filial piety applied to every part of life where rulers showing no arrogance to common people who in return followed the laws of nature to utilize the earth to their best advantage; scholars served their mother as they served their father as well as demonstrated loyalty to their rulers. This was part of Confucianism that aimed at building a harmonious society, I think.

Question: In the article, it states, "The Master says, "There are three thousand offences subject to the five punishments, but of these none of is greater than lack of filial piety." What are the five punishments? I could not find them within the article. 

[Jennifer Chang]

Please let us know if you find out about the marriage laws in California! 

[Jennifer Chang]

You bring up a good point about Ban Zhao's confidence in being able to instruct women on how to lead an exemplary life, but also describe herself in these lowly terms. I wonder if these words were used to make herself seem more humble and modest, again keeping that image that she would like women who read her works to achieve. 

[Jennifer Chang]

I found these comics on filial devotion rather fascinating and some almost appalling to read. I was most shocked at the story of "Burying Son to Save Mother" and how the couple justified their action by saying that "We can have another child but not the mother". It really does showcase (in this case, very extremely), the couple's devotion to their parents. However, it also goes against the core idea of the importance of reproduction. I wonder, in the story, how the grandma would react if she were to find out that the couple had buried her grandson alive in order to save her. Would she be on the same page as the couple? 

I am also very curious to use these cartoons/stories of filial piety with my students. I can already imagine several of my students having very negative reactions and opinions to some of these stories, and am interested to the discussion it would lead to. I also think that these stories are really great to introduce as we do cover Confucianism in our Ancient China unit. 

[Jennifer Chang]

I was also surprised at how easily the man joked in the film when he called his granddaughter small happiness and his grandson big happiness. 

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