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Christine XuNeo-confusicanism had a lasting impact on China, Korea, and Japan. Most modern scholars consider Neo-confucianism to be the keynote philosophy of Tokugawa Japan. It was originated with Zhu Xi, a Chinese scholar. Zhu xi stressed the “unity of the three decrees”, the unity of the three great philosophies of Buddhism, confucianism, and Taoism, which had been considered mutually exclusive and contradictory. This three-way unity was called “ Three Religions” in Chinese “ San Jiao”. It is interesting, and it seems Japanese learned a lot from china.
Christine XuThe article about Japanese marriage is interesting, and it is happening in china as well. Nowadays, more and more young Chinese people are marrying at their later age, or sometime not at all. Also, they chose to have “0” kid or less kids after they get married. I think there are several reasons made this happen.
Economic reason:
Women seek men with financial security. Men want to be able to provide it. This is not easy. For new couples usually they may want to have their own places as a home. However, in big cities (for example Beijing and Shanghai) and even in smaller cities, properties/ houses are very expensive. Most of the young people could not afford it at the age 20s or 30s, so they may have to wait and develop their career first, and keep saving money until they have enough money to buy a house to get married. This would delay their marriage.
2. Personal reason:
More and more young people prefer to be free which they prefer dating than marrying. They may think marriage is just for a paper. The young people follow their own mind. While romance and coupledom are much endorsed by both men and women in their 20s and 30s, marriage as a legal institution is no longer a must. Also, for young, professional Chinese urbanites who have access to modern entertainment, a cool, and enriched life can well be spouse-free.
Additionally, many male and female young migrant workers, a third of whom are at marrying age, however, they work more than 44 hours a week, this leaves them little time and energy to build relationships.
Christine XuIn China, water pollution is a big concern of the government and the people for years. The water pollution caused lots of health problems according to the health agency. Because of this, the country's economic growth is at risk. The government begun to turn its attention to solve the country's water issues.
They examine three majors ways to solve its water crisis.
1. moving the rivers
It is an idea from Chairman Mao, the founder of the People’s Republic of China. He said that south has lots of water, and the north has less, so if it were possible, it could borrow a little. So since December 2014, enormous canals built from Danjiangkou Dam, in Hubei, and water from the south began to flow into Beijing. However, the project costed more than $80 billion, and according to the expert that the project had only given northern China a “lifeline” of water in the short term.
2. Changing the cities
China is experimenting with innovative urban design to solve flooding and water shortages . They are called “ sponge cities”. In 2015, Chinese government announced 16 cities and districts would test the “sponge city” program. Wetlands and green spaces capture and reuse water that previously would have vanished down the drain. However, no amount of drinking water will help china if it totally unusable due to pollution
3. Cleaning the swamps
According to official statistics, more than half of northern chinas groundwater is currently undrinkable because of pollution. In 2015, the state council announced a major action plan that tackle water pollution. It was a plan focused on specific polluting industries and targets to be met by 2020 and 2030 for water quality across the country. Expert said that if the plan enforced properly, it cold help clean china’s water.
I visited china 2 years ago, and experienced that the whole community ( dozen apartment buildings) stoped pipe water supplies for 24 hours. So people had to lined up for water which the community office got from somewhere far away, and the water was smelly.
Note: For our 5th graders, we do ending year exhibition regarding environment every year. Water pollution ( also air pollution) in China is a good topic which we used to talk for the exhibition.
Christine XuThe letter from china's Qianlong emperor to Britain's King George III in 1793 showed the emperor's intelligent diplomatic strategy rather than being arrogance.
When the first British envoy visited China in 1793, Emperor Qianlong senced the military threat from the west to the Qing Danasty. He refused the requests from the King George III, and one of the requests is that they wanted the trading restrictions to be relaxed. Qianlong used some excuses and refused British trading requests which were beneficlal to the british side. The Emperor wanted them to leave as quickly as possible. From the letter, people also can feel that Qianlong was arrogant and ignorant in relation to foreign affairs. He believed that China was at the centre of the world. People may think that as the emperor rufused the trading, he also rejected western technology and the products from the industrial revolution. China may missed its opportunity of modernizing and opening up to the world. However, as an emperor, he was thinking defending his territory. Qianlong strengthened military defence, and on guarding against suprise attacks by Britain. One of the the point Qianlong made was that Britain was demanding some area for them to trade, so he believed they had to not only observe the coastlines carefully, but also prepare military defence. This shows Qianlong was aware of the potential threat posed, and could explain his actions in rejetiong British.
Christine XuHi,
My name is Christine. I teach k-5 (Mandarin) at Academia Moderna Charter school (LAUSD). This is my 5th year teaching as a Mandarin teacher.
I was born in china, and I love this topic" rise of East Asia". I would love to learn some knowldege from this seminar and use it into my classroom teaching.
