Session 2 - August 5, Clayton Dube, USC

[clay dube]

The One Village in China series by Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon captured giant American audiences in the early 1980s. Her father (who she didn't live with because she stayed with her mother in Beijing when William Hinton returned to the US). The Hinton story is an interesting one.

Hinton's Longbow group: http://www.longbowgroup.com/about.html

William Hinton wrote Fanshen (and a follow-up Shenfan) about land reform. An obituary: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/may/24/guardianobituaries.china

Joan Hinton, a physicist and Bill's sister, stayed behind in China working on farms. Her obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/science/12hinton.html

 

[clay dube]

Men marrying into families happens mainly when families lack a male heir, which has become common with the family planning program. In earlier times, it mainly involved families bringing in a male from a poorer family to ensure they would have a descendant. This has also happened in Japan.

[Joel Jimenez]

I was very interested in the 24 stories of filial devotion and the concept of familism morals.  I read the 1st story called, "Filial conduct that moved the heart/mind of heaven: Shun the Great".  The story involves, a noble filial man with great integrity, called Shun.  His family did not get along and were verbally and emotionally abusive towards him. However, Shun never publically showed anger, or ill will towards his family.  Instead, he kept his emotions hidden and would release them privately.  But he worked hard every day.  He then was chosen as the successor to Emperor Yao.  This story has great lessons on respect, integrity, hard work and perseverance.  It is interesting how the Chinese government has construcuted the 24 new stories of filial devotion to fit the digital and technological times of modern china.

[clay dube]

Taiwan became the first Asian jurisdiction to permit same sex marriages. Here are some links:

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=USC%20U.S.%20-%20China%20Institute%20%20same%20sex%20taiwan&epa=SEARCH_BOX

US-China Today (our student-driven magazine): https://uschinatoday.org/features/2019/02/23/qa-with-yu-mei-nu-on-same-sex-marriage-in-taiwan/

About same sex relationships in China, student Ashley Jiang on her OutChina project: https://uschinatoday.org/features/2017/02/03/outchina-sources-of-hope-for-chinas-lgbt-population/

 

[Joel Jimenez]

Amy,

Thank you for sharing your input on this issue.  While these ideas and policies were progressive for its time during communist China and while they did aim to bring gender equality in marriage and 'divorce laws' for property, you have to look at the macro-level policies that also took place as a result of the cultural revolution.  While this did provide women's rights in china, there were humanitarian rights on a massive scale that were being implemeted to the detriment of the Chinese people.  During the cultural revolution, cultural, historical artifacts, educaiton, and the economy practically came to a halt and educated youth were sent to the rural areas to farm and partake in other labor intensive jobs.  Mao's policies helped to exacerbate the famine and his policies during 'The Great Leap Forward' and 'The Cultural Revolution' led to tens of millions of people, mostly poor to die.  Like any communist regime that has come to power whether in the Soviet Union, Cuba, China or Congo, the transfer or power and the enforcement of new policies has been bloody and detrimental to these countries' populations.

[Deanna Wiist]

Nira, 

Thank you for your perspective growing up in a traditional Chinese family. It gives me insight that I would not otherwise have. It seems as if things are changing, even if it is slow.

 

[Kimberly de Berzunza]

Thank you!

[Nichole Morales]

In Nancy Lee Swann’s translation, Bao Zhao seemed like she was in a constant state of stress. Words in the introduction I noticed are “distressed,” “feared constantly,” and “disgrace.” I’d like to use this excerpt in my English class to analyze Bao Zhao’s rhetoric to convince her daughters about how to behave. 

[Amy Chen]

I followed this closely and talked to my cousins who live in Taiwan about it. Although there's still a lot of opposition toward the new legislation, I am proud of Taiwan being the first to permit same sex marriages in Asia.

[David Ojeda]

I agree, Kimberly! What I like about the story, though, is that it provides an opportunity for dialogue and students diving into perspectives (the mother's in this case). I like that the stories easily communicate cultural values. They reminded me of the time my seventh graders and I analyzed Grimms' Fairy Tales. We focused on the elements of a story, the theme, cultural values it instilled on the reader, reasons for it, and also presented the opportunity for students to discuss their opinion on said values. Here are some of the following questions that we often discussed:

• How are aspects of this somewhat seen in our culture?
• How have we changed?
• How have we stayed the same?
• Is this change/stagnation good or bad?
• Why might they want to instil these ideas?
• Are they effective? 

I would love to enhance that unit and not just focus on Grimms' Fairy Tales. I think it would be great for students to analyze tales from different cultures and see how we compare and contrast and determine possible reasons for certain similarities and differences.

[clay dube]

We included coverage in Assignment:China:

program launch https://china.usc.edu/assignment-china-opening

forced abortions https://china.usc.edu/assignment-china-1980s

 

[Joy Chao]

There were an additional of 12 lessons later added onto the existing 24 filial piety stories so it became "the 36 filial piety stories." I remember reading these stories growing up in Taiwan and it was one of the required readings in elementary school. These stories in the books are usually accompanied with colorful pictures depicting the filling sons (and a few daughters) with their aging and ailing parents. Without knowing they’re aquiring one of the most important virtues in the Chinese society, children learn the concept of filing piety through reading these stories with vivid description and drawings as they would with any other fictional stories. As you can see the importance of being filial is a must in the Chinese society, you don't even question it as it is a way of life, very much the same here in the US where we emphasize the importance of being independent. Being filial make you an acceptable member of the society and those who aren't are being frowned upon and harshly criticized by all. 

[Frederic Vial]

I agree with you.  The examination of both sides of a coin prior to reaching an educated decision and/or opinion is what I constantly invoke to my students in their study of past civilizations, while relating them to our present.  It's so important to objectively examine something prior to imposing one's own belief system upon it.  The emotional-trigger environment, purposely orchestrated by our media and political apparatus so as to sell/push product and ideas, is only effective if people engage in intellectual laziness and uninformed practices.

 

[Amy Chen]

Thank you for your insight. I do understand the negative impact of the cultural revolution at the macro level especially with my ancestors being personally affected by it. Even though I consider marriage laws progressive, the greater purpose of the laws are to make sure women can work and be productive in a communist society. The intent of the laws was not to really give women equality but to include them as workers. 

[clay dube]

Eva raises a great question about mandates on male behavior. Most of early Chinese philosophy is aimed at men, how they are to cultivate their best natures and such. In a male-centered world, there is a lot of attention to "making men" and "making men better." Most of those authors neglect women and treat them as objects, when they consider them at all.

One exception is Mencius, who focuses on men, but does highlight the vital role his own mother played in raising and teaching him (she moves to get him into a better environment). http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/items/show/189

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