Wednesday afternoon -- Rep. Chinese lit (Bernards)

[Anonymous]

On the discussion of traditional roles of literature in Imperial China we were introduced to the following fundamentals: recording dynastic history, moral and philosophical teachings, imperial examinations (8 legged essays), and ritual poetry. These fundamental areas closely align with the government’s beliefs and desired society. The model of imperial examinations which creates the scholar-class in imperial china. This is not a lost concept. The Ga Cao is the rigorous test used today that ultimately determines the educational opportunities available to students in China.
For my curriculum integration, I plan on using current event topics, perhaps two OpEd articles (one in support of the test, one in support of getting rid/ replacing it). We can further parallel it to the disillusion of the STAR/CST testing and new adoption of Common Core. Currently, high school students have experienced both. Perhaps they favor one over the other or have valid arguments over why we shouldn’t use them at all. How would their education and opportunities change if they lived in a country where the Ga Cao testing culture thrived? This is an eye opening experience for our students to not only assess their testing culture, but to relate and contrast their educational experience to their peers in Asian countries.

[Anonymous]

This has been a common theme throughout history. The literate write history. The victors write history. The wealthy write history.
Further, what happens when stories are translated in Mandarin by non-Chinese? Are these stories lost in translation? Are stories naturally lost in translation over time? This is an imperative conversation introduced by Dr. Bernards.
This fundamental concept transcends Asian literature to a larger scope of all history, all primary sources, and most classical literature. This open discussion is a great introductory set into any history subject/grade level from elementary to college. I will open my history class off this year with the questions of: what is history? How do we have history? Who writes history? How do we research history? What can we learn from history?

[Anonymous]

This particular story might fit in more appropriately in a women’s literature class or in the unit of gender roles, but in regards to the lack of identity or importance of Hsiang Lin’s wife we could integrate this prose into many narratives in our curriculum. I might bring this in when we cover women’s rights and discuss the issue of women’s suffrage and how many different cultures have viewed female roles and identity throughout history. Sure makes me thankful to be a woman living in the 21st century in the United States.

[Anonymous]

This was an interesting story. I think it is very revealing about life in China during that time period. I think it could spark a lot of discussion about so many different topics - tradition, superstition, servants/classes in society, treatment of women, treatment of the mentally ill, etc. I'm still not sure how I will use it in my class, but I liked it enough I'm going to find a way to use it.

[Anonymous]

The lecture this afternoon was very interesting and informative. I wish there were more time to hear all of his lecture, but I realize we only have limited time. Hearing the background on the various authors really put the literature into context. It was also so interesting to view the literature as an allegory for what was happening politically in China. When I read Diary of a Madman I didn't even think of it as an allegory for the unrest in China, but after hearing the lecture I think it would be interesting to see if my students could read it and view it in that light and make connections. There was so much information I'm still a little on overload - which is a good thing.

[Anonymous]

I loved all the descriptive words that Eileen Chang used in her writings of "The Golden Cangue." She verbally created scenes where you felt like you could see the actual color or actually be standing in the book scene. Some of the phrases that made me want to go grab my paintbrush to mix the colors were: "The sky was a cold, bleak crab-shell blue," "Red like a watermelon split open," "Color of sesame dotted soy paste," "The golden cangue," "Mirror bright black silk." These are only a few of her beautiful similes. My students are constantly writing artist statements about their artwork and doing group art critiques. It has been a struggle to teach my students how to be enhance their artist statements, verbal critiques, and their writing skills. I want to use a couple pages of "The Golden Cangue" to teach the power of using similes. This will be a great activity for my ELL students! First, students will receive a hand out that includes 4 pages of "The Golden Cangue." Next, in groups of two, students will read out-loud and highlight the descriptive sentences. Then students will share the descriptive detail that came to life in their mind. We will then have a open practice of describing a historical piece of artwork by having students come up with similes to describe the artwork. Then they will conclude the lesson by turning in 5 similes that describe their own painting or drawing. This activity will help my students learn how similes make writing and talking about art more relate-able and vivid. I will reinforce this concept throughout the semester.

[Anonymous]

This session was more informative. Professor Bernards gave a very detailed account of Chinese genres of literature. I believe the stories would be to heavy and academically challenging for my students to understand ton heir own. I would select sections of certain readings to discuss with my students about the style and meaning. I would greatly appreciate his power point presentation, this would help me provide a clear and concise background of Chinese writers to my students.

[Anonymous]

As a 6th grade teacher, I was having difficulty finding spots in my curriculum to incorporate all the great novels and authors that we were introduced to today. This will take careful planning and much more research on my part. The traditional roles of literature in imperial China introduced us to moral and philosophical teaching as well as imperial examinations. The "eight legged essay" would be a great sample for my students. The amount of students that come into my class complaining about the difficulty of writing a 5 paragraph essay is always high in the beginning of the year. As the year progresses, they learn the format and improve their writing skills. Unfortunately, they forgot during the summer because the 7th and 8th grade teachers hear the same complaints. The eight legged essay sounds rigorous. Students need to be able to identify and quote philosophers, have a certain number of syllables in a line, and/or have rhyming lines. This task seems impossible with some students. Showing them work from students in China might serve as a drive for them to work on their own writing.

[Anonymous]

Some of the samples that we were given about Chinese literature really made me think how I could use them in the classroom and to which other books or stories I can draw parallels with. I suppose it isn't always necessary to find something similar ans one should enjoy literature without always finding a context for it. But perhaps for elementary school students we feel that we do need some foundation. Lao She's "Cat Country" reminded me, by way of the professor's explanation, similar in tone or theme to Orwell's Animal Farm, or Planet of the Apes. Interesting as his book was from the 30's and Animal Farm, and Apes 40's and 60's respectively. The latter two books I read in High School, so perhaps a high school teacher could look into Cat Country and draw similarities about a place where animals dominate and impose an order over humans...

Rickshaw Boy has a theme of running in a rat maze, going but never going anywhere. I know there is some philosophy about that kind of life...the Buddhist in me thinks it's that life of searching for material goods.

Golden Cangue was difficult but in the context of tv shows like Dynasty, Downtown Abby, and Spanish telenovelas perhaps we can have students better understand the drama of this story. If I had to teach or use this story I would have to include that family tree resource page and have it on their desks or on the board for reference. The professor mentioned changing the names, and I had thought about it, but maybe that would take away from the fact that it's Chinese Literature. Why change Feng-hsiao to "Frank?" ut we could just shorten it to "Feng" I suppose.

[Anonymous]

Lu Hsün "The New Year's Sacrifice" required rereading multiple times to grasp even a general understanding of the complex characters. After having listened to the discussion and viewing the video I have my own interpretation of the piece, which leads me to consider it for my literary criticism unit. Tara stated one of the obvious criticisms, which is examining the gender roles in the narrative using Feminist criticism, and I add that Marxist criticism would definitely work as well even without the historical context to examine the representations of social class, but after listening to the brief discussion in comparison to my interpretations I'm convinced that this piece would work to exemplify reader response criticism, which is one I don't like to directly teach because theoretically all English teachers prior to my students coming to me have taught their students to read literature this way; they just didn't tell their students that's what was happening. I usually give them the term so that they have the academic vocabulary to understand that because of our individuality we interpret literature differently. Through our common humanity we can identify similar themes, but often our interpretations of characters, settings, tone, mood, etc. can be very different. This story, in particular, really struck me because the tone was so cold and callous about what seemingly was a heartbreaking story about a disenfranchised and impoverished woman without her own name, but upon reading, and rereading and rereading I find evidence that Hsiang Lin's wife was becoming empowered in the narrative because in the beginning she would not talk to people, in the middle she screams to protest her forced second marriage, and in the end repetitively narrates the story of her son's death to everyone (Hsün 20, 22, 25). She is still characterized as a disenfranchised woman of the feudal system, but there are underpinnings of empowerment. For example, perhaps she killed the second husband in the mountains she was forced to marry and perhaps her son Ah-Mao was disemboweled and eaten by wolves as some kind of cosmic retribution giving her in the end domestic independence because she is sacrificed to the New Year in an explosion of fireworks (Hsün 22-23). Hsün writes that the husband was strong and young, and after becoming ill with typhoid, he improved in health until Hsiang Lin's wife served him rice (23). I kept reading this over and over and no one mentioned it in the brief discussion, so I thought I misinterpreted it. However, if my student supported an interpretation like this with evidence from the text (CCSS) then my feedback would be based on the reasoning not whether or not I agreed with the interpretation. The implication in the word choice and the structure of the narrative being told out of chronological order from a third-person limited perspective suggests that there is a possibility of foul play, guilt, redemption through sacrifice. I didn't see Hsiang's Lin's character (possibly named Wei) as pathetic as she was interpreted to be in the film adaptation presented this afternoon.

Lastly, there is a common core reading standard about how an author's word choice, structure, and perspective affect meaning that I could definitely work with as well. I just don't like using the same texts that I've interpreted to model concepts and skill sets for their output; meaning if I shared my interpretation of this narrative to teach the concepts structure, word choice, and perspective I wouldn't ask them to and write a literary analysis essay as a summative assessment because they would just reiterate my thinking. Instead I would need additional pieces for them to analyze structure, word choice, and perspective for independent practice. I do like this story for guided practice though because it is complex and requires deep analysis to access its multiple layers of meaning. It makes me say hmmm...

[Anonymous]

In response to the afternoon session with Professor Bernards, I especially liked the section talking about the rise of new fiction and foundational canon. It seems that authors like Lu Xun really played on the divisions and class roles of Chinese society at the time by writing literature that moved away from classical popular fiction that primary focused on folktales and romance. As Professor Bernards says, it seems to be an attack on the old society of China and an ushering in of the new modern China focused on building a new identity, while pursuing enlightenment and building upon, but not being limited to, its nationalism. This allegory was also addressed by Lao She’s Cat Country, in which he attacks the ills of human nature in a society dominated by cats on Mars. It seems that, overall, the motivation to write stemmed from the authors’ transition to a focus on human relationships.

[Anonymous]

I have wondered if ancient literature had an agenda, bias, lean, etc. After the lecture I was enlightened as to the role of literature in Imperial China. Middle schoolers can appreciate the recording of history; after all the pyramids, pantheons, ziggurats, etc. were built to record history of the current occupants of the temple or throne. Teaching philosophers in China will not be a far reach as in pertains to reading about the moral and philosophical teachings. When teaching the lettered part of various contributions the teachings can be brought into line with the examinations, especially during the Ming Dynasty. Finally, not necessarily in China, but perhaps Japan, ritual and poetry (Heian and Samurai) can be further mentioned with the various examples already available to students in the textbooks and ancillaries.

Finally, I am sure I can scrounge up a few romantic legends not too heavy for middle schoolers and a quick glimpse of battle scenes from such classics as the Three Kingdoms ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM0kq3y2AMk ) while introducing the Period of Disunion.

[Anonymous]

The Golden Cangue was my favorite. I wish we had more time to talk about it. It was very appreciated to know that people think Eileen Chang is a Nobel Prize level writer. I like her a lot, because she was so good at writing about women's delicate emotions. Through her words, I can truly feel a woman's dilemma between her pride and the reality of financial situation/family relationship/romance relationship. The "golden" in The Golden Cangue represents the things people care the most. Qiqiao were restricted by her "gold", which were marriage at the beginning, then status in family and romance, and eventually money. But she didn't have any choice under the society at that time to let her life end up as a tragedy. When I read this story before, I never blamed on the society. I am too familiar with that part of history to critize it. The presentation today really made me think of it again, and look from a different perspective.

[Anonymous]

In reviewing the short film clip from the film "Rickshaw Boy" I was surprised by the overt political theme. The way the actors spoke negatively about the "rich" came across to me a anti-capitalist. This surprised me because it was written at least 10 years before Cina's Communist Revolution.

[Anonymous]

This session was packed not just with literature but the history behind the works. I found the details about Imperial Examinations and the eight-legged essay very relevant to my students, since they are in high school and must pass a CAHSEE exam with a five paragraph essay in order to graduate. It would be beneficial for them to see beyond their own exam and look at the culture of taking exams throughout the world. Perhaps if they feel a connection to the historical act of test taking, they will hate it less—especially if they see how simple their essay is compared to the Imperial Exam’s eight legged essay. Though the Imperial Exams had a different purpose, I believe it could be inspirational for my students to know how far back these types of exams span and make them feel grateful for the lower level of difficulty of the CAHSEE. Additionally, I found the literature introduced by Bernards interesting. To use any of these works in my special education classroom, I would need to probably take excerpts in order to illustrate big ideas, as opposed to utilizing entire texts.

[Author]

Posts