Session 5 - Clay Dube, 10/13 morning

[Lindsay Reiss]

I find it interesting to look at all the propaganda cards and see the image the party wanted to project and instill in the Chinese people. These images of prosperity and celebration of working for the common good. I also read "China's Own Critics" and saw that even then China had people who were able to criticize China. I'm sure this was very dangerous but also important.

[Lin Kuang]

After Mao has passed away many years, Chinese still memorized him as a great leader, an educator, pholosopher, writer, military thinker, et. becasue he contributed to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and completeld liberized all peasants from the landlords, evil gentry, and local tyrants. In 1927, Mao tried to motivate peasant movements to take over the power and establish ideal governments that benefit majority of the farmers atarting from his hometown Hunan. Mao realized that in China's southern, northern, central provinces, there'er hundreds of millions of peasants would be rise like a mighty storm. so No power could hold it back. It actually happened as he predicted. the peasant movements started from Hunan like the little fire blowing all over China. They threw over the local tyrants, evil gentry, and lawless lanlords and became their masters who owned their own lands legally.

[Lin Kuang]

As the founding Father of the Republic of China.  In the article provided by Dr. Dube , Sun Yat Sen mentioned three points that China must be made of Republic. First, it is widely known that the people constitue the foundation of nation and they are all equal in their own country.  Secondly, from the historical point of view, "Chinese were forced into the position of anished and suffered oppression for moeth two hundreds and six year."  A third reason,  "That in China prolonged periods of disorder usually followed a revolution was due to the desire of every insurgent to be a king and to his subsequent contention for the throne.", which strongly and precisely stated his reasons why China has to be made republic .

[Kim Leng]

I highly recommend The Occupational Outlook Handbook https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ for students to use for career research.  It’s very easy to use.  They may browse by “Occupational Groups,” and there are also selections by pay, level of education, and more.  If students know the name of the occupation, they may just search for it alphabetically or type in the name in the search query.  Once an occupation has been selected, the information about an occupation are displayed in easy to use tabs divided into these categories:  summary, what they do, work environment, how to become one, pay, job outlook, state and area data, and similar occupations.  If students can find a person to interview in their field of interest, that would be awesome. Finding work after college can be stressful.  It's a great assignment for students to think about their possible career choices now. 

[Kim Leng]

The amount of opium that the British exported to China from 1729 – 1832 increased dramatically from just 200 chests in 1729 to 23,570 chests in 1832.  What a way to get people addicted and destroy its people from the inside!  The Chinese government was unable to stop opium from illegally coming into the country.

I think a great assignment for this time in history would be for students to create a visual presentation on https://piktochart.com/.  They can be creative about how to display the data.  I think when you visually take a look at 200 chests compared to 23,570 chests, it’s astonishing how many more chests were exported to China.  I played with around with the website and created a sample chart:  https://create.piktochart.com/output/35273013-untitled-infographic.

Students can also create one on the Nanking Treaty and compare how many ports were open prior to the treaty and after.

[Sophia Kang]

Despite both the Kuomintang and Communists' differences, they are similar in that they both seek to uplift the spirit of the people. Chiang Kaishek states, "If we do not destroy ourselves, no outside force can destroy us." Although they deviate in social revolution and Kuomintang places less emphasis on separation from social revolution, both aimed to overthrow the imperialist government in exchange for popular rights. This reminded me of my interview with a North Korean refugee who when asked about her commentary on the North Korean educational system, stated that first, they must question the imperal family's heavy protectiveness of nuclear power. This type of government seems to hold their power through this nuclear technology. Similarly, both Mao Zedong and Chiang Kaishek state that first, they must rid the country of imperialism and feudalism. The seminar helped me realize that any country that attempts to fight the older governmental system must first establish military rule, which Sun Yatsen lacked. 

[Christine Moguel]

As an art History major, I was thrilled to take a look at all the illustrations portrayed in the Propaganda cards for this assignment.  Strength in numbers, strong mono republic  ideologies, but perhaps my favorite depictions were of the strong women.  These depictions were intent on the premise that women are essential to the communist movement (although I am not for the communist movement) however, they are included.  Historically, it is the role of men as the stronghold in society, yet these illustrations and the ideas behind the images were that women were a vital part of the equation to the success of the campaign.  Young strong, independent, courageous, women are to be reckoned with in the campaign.

[Sophia Kang]

Wow, I am so inspired and charged by your response to the student's comment! I think this is also relevant when talking about college with students. Some of my kids think it's useless because all you're doing is reading and writing more, but I would like to show them charts that show the effects of development versus growth on not only their own education but also their careers. 

[Kathryn Sutherland]

I too enjoyed reading Mr. Chabudo--I feel like the "chabudo" attitude is very, very kindergarten, and I think my students would enjoy a children's story about Mf. Chabudo.  Reading the article you posted was interesting to see both sides of chabudo--the inventiveness, the adlibbing, the jazz of trying to fix things or make things that you have no business fixing or making.  Improvisation is such a great skill to have, and the ability to be okay with a job that isn't exactly how you thought it would be is a great lesson in flexibility and creativity.  However, the danger of chabudo is real--we rely everyday on things being built perfectly so that we can survive.  The rejection of chabudo to reach benchmarks and standards is what leads to progress in both education and the real world.  I would love to have a discussion with my students about chabudo. I think they would have some really great ideas and opinions about its strengths and weaknesses!

[Lindsay Reiss]

The idea of growth vs development and which is better is something that I think my students would understand. The idea that growth is not as good as development because development implies advancements while growth is just that...growth. This triggered my brain to think and really analyze the difference and I think it would do the same for my students.

[Kathryn Sutherland]

I enjoyed reading Xu's perspective of post world war I America. My takeaways from his takeaways: 1. For Americans, time is money, and money is the most important thing in the world (guess not a lot has really changed there...) 2. Superstitions are so silly (again, not a lot has changed there, too!) 3. The households are clean, and families look outwardly happy (perhaps the family unit and the role of women is the thing that has changed the most since Xu's visit...) 4. It's good to be a woman or a child in the United States (birth control! education! we got it all!) 5. America loves its universities and they are everywhere and they are all sizes--but the ones on the east coast are the best (couldn't disagree more! 😉 

I'd be interested to know what Xu would think of his trip to the United States today.  Would there still be a culture shock? Or would he have grown up in an increasingly globalized world, and not have as much insight into the differences between the US and China? 

[Kathryn Sutherland]

The Treaty of Nanjing, in all its unequalness, begins modern Chinese history and marks the first time the Chinese empire has been threatened by someone on the outside.  And they weren't just threatened, they were thrashed; completely defeated in the first opium war, left to sign a treaty that granted the British Hong Kong in perpetuity, money for all the opium that was destroyed, extraterritoriality, and 5 ports open to British trade (to ship in more opium, of course). This lead to the US demanding the same treatment, the French get permission to send in missionaries, and the unequal treaties snowball.  This imbalance of power led western countries to think of China as weak, uncivilized, a plaything of the "big dogs"--quite a far cry from its status now!  These unequal treaties drained Chinese wealth to the west, leading to more development in these countries that were already far ahead of China in terms of industrialization.  My, how things change.  Now the west is addicted to Chinese exports (not opium, but consumer goods)--has the unequalness been reversed?

[Kim Leng]

In "Things About America and Americans,"Xu Zhengkeng made some good observation for just being in the US for two years.  He was able to gather that Americans love time and that Americans seem to always be in a hurry.  But I think that can be said of people all over the world.  Who doesn’t value time?  However, I think it’s true that living in America can be fast paced.  I find that I need to slow down sometimes.  I wonder if two years of living in another country is an adequate amount of time to be able to generalize the value of its people.

[Reynaldo Mangabat]

That was an impressive deconstruction ofyour first picture. I like how you emphasized on the gender issue which is very much in the spirit of Mao's revolution. Its very good to teach our students to analyze using different perspectives and be propaganist themselves. I tried this with my students before using different socilogical perspectives from feminist, conflict, structural-functionalist, historical and symbolic interactionism. Trust me it stimulated them and engaged them even more to the discussion of history. 

[Reynaldo Mangabat]

I am also fascinated by the role of Sun Yat sen as the father of Republic of China, Chiang Kai-Shek and his Koumintang Party and his significant role in the Sino-Japanese war, and Dr. Kung Hsiang-Hsi an economist banker influential for the Koumintang Led-nationalist government of Ching Kai-Shek. However, I was more intrigue by the role of the Soong sisters feature in the movie "Soong Sisters" who all grew up in the Qing Dynasty - the dynasty that was weakened by one of the sister's huband, Sun Yat Sen. The sisters were raised by a rich and prestigious printing magnate. These women were behind these peowerful men hin Chinese history and worth analyzing according to herstory.

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