session #8 readings (dube, 10/16)

[Jane Shen]

Sun Yat Sen, was considered as the father of modern China. He is the only one who was respected by both the communist mainland China and the capitalist Taiwan. 

I personally believe that he is over evaluated  by the Chinese history due to complex reasons. His three principles of revolution which is first the priciples of Nationalism, second the Principle of Democracy, third the Principle of livelihood are famous however did not work well in Chinese history, there were few influence made to the Chinese.

He was respected by Jang Je shi, the President in Taiwan since he was the mentor for Jang. He was also respected by Mao since his wife Song Qingling, the 2nd older sister to Jang's wife, choose to stay in Beijing after the Civil war.

Besides his political fames, he is the one who took his friend's daughter out of China to Japan and later on married her who is 27 years younger. And he left her as a widow at age 32 after 10 years of marriage.

Now as a mom and a woman, I think the history had prettified his personal life under the cover of his political glorification.

[clay dube]

I love the discussion here among several of you. Here's a series of posts that touch on the theme of "what's beautiful?" As we know standards vary over time and place. I love the points Tanish and Christine have shared. Please take a look at these posts: http://china.usc.edu/k12/forums/asia-my-classroom/whats-beautiful

Also - don't hesitate to browse the Asia in My Classroom and other forum posts and to use the search tool if you're after something specific. You can use it to search across the public forums.

Let's keep the discussion going.

 

[Christine Xu]

Empress Dowager Cixi is one of the most significant and controversial political figures in modern Chinese history. Except her political roles, she also was an excellent artist. She was good at painting, Chinese Calligraphy, and court art.  She is one of the good examples to talk about if you teach Chinese history, culture and Chinese art.

Cixi had involved in the Wanchun yuan (Garden of ten thousand springs) reconstruction project. This indicated that her strategy of asserting political power through art but also provided a rare glimpse of how a patron’s creation and decoration of space can be read as a self-portrait. Cixi utilized the location and scale of the Tiandi yijiachun ( spring united between Heaven and Earth), her own place, as a symbol of her continuous power struggle with Qing imperial tradition.  She designed the palace’s layout and interior decoration, and it suggested Cixi’s feminine and religious identities. Cixi was the person who finalized all instructions when it came to the construction of the Wanchun yuan and the Spring Palace as well.

[Christine Xu]

Empress Dowager Cixi is one of the most significant and controversial political figures in modern Chinese history. Except her political roles, she also was an excellent artist. She was good at painting, Chinese Calligraphy, and court art.  She is one of the good examples to talk about if you teach Chinese history, culture and Chinese art.

Cixi had involved in the Wanchun yuan (Garden of ten thousand springs) reconstruction project. This indicated that her strategy of asserting political power through art but also provided a rare glimpse of how a patron’s creation and decoration of space can be read as a self-portrait. Cixi utilized the location and scale of the Tiandi yijiachun ( spring united between Heaven and Earth), her own place, as a symbol of her continuous power struggle with Qing imperial tradition.  She designed the palace’s layout and interior decoration, and it suggested Cixi’s feminine and religious identities. Cixi was the person who finalized all instructions when it came to the construction of the Wanchun yuan and the Spring Palace as well.

[Lin ZhaoDavison]

        Qiu Jin was highly regarded as a national martyr. People around China mourned for her death and held 9 burials to memorize and honor her.  She was beheaded by the state because of her critical female voice calling for revolution and change.  As China went through "a century of humiliation", which was a testimoney of the failure of the state governing system, calling for rebellion and revolution was jusstified.  Self-strenghtening and reform were not enough to put the country on tract to the right direction. Democracy and people's participation in governing should be advocated and individuals like Qiu Jin should be respected.  For example, a trial system should have been established to determine if Qiu Jin should be prosecuted with a death penalty because of her political views.  The highly centralized state power and governing system jeopardized the country internally and externally.

 

 

 

[Jacqueline Mercado]

I found Xu's commentary on America and Americans interesting.  While he points out that Americans love money and profit, he seems to be particularly impressed by the relationship that Americans have to time and money. He aptly states that Americans have a saying that time is money.  He points out that Americans are adept at commerce and know how to capitalize on economic growth by its ingenuity in inventing machines that save time, but also know how to capitalize on time and do not waste time idly.  He depicts Americans as ingenious, industrious and economically savy.  He observes that it is the American self reliant and independent spirit that propels America to such material wealth and that its economic system is great and to be emulated.  It  seems as if he is stating such observations because he feels that the Chinese can emulate such productivity and economic growth.  While the US is ahead of China economically, however, he seems to question its civilized status.   He points out that while the US brags it is a civilized country and ridicules the Chinese as highly superstititous, Americans are just as superstitious. I thought this was a curious point.  Xu Zhengkeng presents a different view of American culture than the one I am accustomed to in this regard.

[Jacqueline Mercado]

Indeed, I found the historical encounters activity to be effective in getting me to think more deeply about the issues related to my group. This kind of activity is a strategic way to incorporate multiple learning modalities in any lesson as student can act out their character if they are more theatrical or a visual learner.   As a teacher, I look for ways to include various opportunities for self expression.  As I was looking through the various images posted in this forum of Chinese propaganda posters, it seemed to me that these images can also be combined with this historical encounters activity through which students can be assigned a propaganda poster and they can become the characters in that poster and write a narrative, a speech or act out the scene as historically accurate as their research permits. This activity would be cross curricular as students would focus on historical perspectives of character and also incorporate theater and writing and other learning modalities.  Utilizing visuals or posters with the historical encounters activity could also be an effective learning strategy.

[Amir Osterweil]

If you can get a hold of the this film, it opens with a disussion of Western Democracy in China I'm not sure if the character is Sun Yutsen, or one of his followers I saw the film over a year ago. It is a long martial arts movie about a plot to assassinate Sun. The opening clip might be useful to you.

[Cristina Hernandez]

This was a very interesting topic, even though many people might think this was barbaric, we in the western societies are still doing something similar which is wearing high heels.  It is an unspoken rule that women have to wear high heels in order to look more sophisticated.  I teach a unit for my Expository Reading and Writing class on the way looks control females in our society.  I think this will be a great way to see that this problem with looks has been going on for a long time.

[Sonia Arrayales]

"Things About America and Americans", by Xu Zhengkeng, was an interesting read. Zhengkeng had his opinions on what he thought about American culture, domestic life, education, and superstitions. I must say that I do agree on one of the things that he discussed in his book, “How Americans Cherish Time”. I do believe that Americans are driven by the all mighty dollar. We are a capitalist country and are driven by innovation. Zhengkeng makes a point to discuss vending machines. He understands the convenience of them, yet he feels sense of sadness at their use. The superstitions that he discusses, I was aware of, while others, I had no idea of. I knew of the 13 rule, but not about the bees. I must agree with the author about it being strange. Although, this was written for more than 70 years ago, I don’t think much has changed. I found that what Zhengkeng wrote still applies to this point in time. It could be tweeked some, but it still applies to our time.

[Nira Sun]

What's interesting is that Chinese also has the proverb of time is gold. However, from Chinese perspective, time is as precious as gold. The next line of this proverb is "Productivity is life". One of the function of this proverb serves as a warning to people to become aware that once you lose the time, it goes away and will never come back. Just like once you lose your gold, you will never get them back either. This proverb also encourages people to be more productive and stop being procracinating. The underlying intention of being productive has nothing to do with making money, especially before 1990s. Being productive means that you are able to contribute more to the collective benefit. (collectivism of Chinese value)

It's quite amazing that with one proverb, we could have two different perspectives. Xu's understainding of American's "time is gold" was about the obsession of money making. This projected with the individualism of the American value.

[Eric Hoh]

I love the opportunity to teach students more about arts and culture in East Asian societies. Oftentimes, I feel that instruction on art in history gets trapped in the European Rennaissance. However, it is clear that their is a rich history of art and entertainment which exists in East Asian cultures. One way to get students to start thinking about East Asian performance and entertainment might be to show a video of K-Pop. These videos often portray men in a highly gender-fluid, androgynous image. This might be paralleled to the practice of Kabuki performance amongst Japanese males. In addition to this, a discussion regarding gender binaries and LGBTQ communities and inclusive practices and attitudes could be presented. This is a highly relavent issue that could be made more palatable through the discussion and learning of arts and cultures which demonstrate an affirmation of gender fluidity. 

[Gerlinde Goschi]

It never occurred to me to include the art of Chinese tea drinking in one of my lessons I am planning to teach about Chinese culture and traditions.  I will definitely include the types of tea and explain the importance of tea houses and tea gardens in China.  I will research the internet to find photos about Chinese architecture reflected in the tea gardens.  I am thinking about bringing in some teas for students to sample as well.  Thank you for this great idea!

[Beverly Nettles]

Learning about the Modernization of China (1939 – 1949), AKA the Start of China Modernization is a part of History that I had never knew or heard about.  I think this is an important period of China's History that our students should understand and know.  During this time transformation begin and foreign nations invade China and make demands: The British and French moves in and declare the rights to send missionaries, and merchants.   In 1845 American signs a treaty with China, and introduces a new idea - Most Favorite Nation Status, which states, what other get we get it too.   They too sent missionary into China, as well as technology.  As China is modernize China began to lose it power and special privileges are granted, such as ‘Extra Terroriality,’ which means that the land is not China, but the country from which I’m from.  Our students can learn from these situations; upper grade students could have debate on foreign right in other countries, verse a countries right to protect their land and culture…  However, I do not see how younger students (TK/Kindergarten) can benefit from or understand exactly how such a war can begin.  

[Beverly Nettles]

I would love to teach my Kindergartens about change, and how American takes for granted our everyday luxuries; however, I know many of the topics are to mature for them.  My thoughts are to perhaps build up various scenarios were they can role play, and think about how the people of Asian descent may have felt; Any suggestions?

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