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Diana CoreyThe way Professor Tran picked out quotes from the various texts and projected them with a question was really engaging. It really got me thinking about the text, the historical, political, and social context, and got me processing my own thoughts and feelings. I would like to use this exercise in my classes for comprehension and for getting students thinking about and relating to what they are learning about Chinese culture through what they are reading. Excellent lecture!
Diana CoreyI love this idea, Xiaowei! I have been thinking all week about incorporating lots of things we have been reading and learning into my lessons about family. This is a story I plan to introduce in my beginner class this year. I am going to use your idea to have students rewrite the story! Thanks for sharing!
Diana CoreyThis is a great movie, and the only thing holding me back from wanting to show it in class is that it is in English! Perhaps it would be a good pick for Chinese Club instead, where there is less of a language objective and more of a cultural immersion objective. I could also show clips showing relationship dynamics and then discuss them in Chinese, and there are a few scenes where the characters speak a little Chinese. I can think of many points in my curriculum where something from this movie would be useful to show and discuss.
Diana CoreyI think many of my students will be interested in this movie. I am not sure yet what unit I could fit it into or create around it, but I would introduce supplemental vocabulary like the words for planets, elements, and some key phrases like "save me" and "go on living" that come up throughout the film. As a writing assignment, students could write a summary or reaction in Chinese, or could create their own story with similar elements trying out some supplemental vocabulary. I would be interested to get ahold of the original story in Chinese to share excerpts along with the film. Students can identify similarities and differences in the story and the movie and can use the text to help them better articulate their thoughts on the film in Chinese.
Diana CoreyThis has been one of my favorite sessions so far. I will be bringing back these readings and film suggestions to our history and literature departments as well as our SciFi Philosophy teacher. I am also interested in finding some of these stories in the original Chinese to see how I could use excerpts in my Chinese classes. I have not had time to finish all of the readings yet, but am really enjoying what I have read so far and am looking forward to reading the rest!
Diana CoreyI have really enjoyed the exercise of going through this film, watching only a selection of scenes, carefully selected and cut, hearing about and engaging in discussion about what is going on, what the director is trying to convey, and the political backdrop that shaped his creation of the film. I show a film each year in each of my classes and provide discussion questions for each and additional activities at the upper levels. I could incorporate more films by using this process, only showing a few scenes, maybe focusing on select lines of dialog, relationship dynamics, or images depending on what my objective during that unit is. This would generate interest for students to go watch the rest of the film and be immersed in Chinese that much more. I always retain a lot more through videos than readings, so this is an approach that would work well for my personal learning style, and would certainly be engaging for my students.
Diana CoreyThis is something I have been trying to look for ways to do more of. My school only offers Spanish and Mandarin, and a lot of students lately have been choosing my class because they are really into anima or manga, video games, or K-pop. They are learning Japanese and Korean on their own time, and have chosen my class because there might be more crossover. I am all about helping them find cultural connections and exploring the wide world as much as possible, even though the main content of my class is Chinese.
Diana CoreyThe article on cosmetic surgery made a number of references to contestants participating in makeovers as a way to be filial. I am having some trouble understanding exactly how cosmetic surgery is a way to be filial and hope that our speaker this afternoon will speak more about this. Is having an average appearance shameful for the parents? Does it make girls less likely to marry a good husband? In the final section of the article the author describes parents thanking their children for their hard work. Is the hard work to improve what links cosmetic surgery to filial piety?
Diana CoreyOur school participates in Poetry Out Loud every January, so I like to introduce Chinese poetry when we return from our winter break as every student in the school has been working over the break to memorize a poem for the competition. Typically, I offer a book of Tang Dynasty poem excerpts and students choose one to interpret and recite. It would be interesting to introduce poems written in Classical Chinese during the Heian period (introducing some Japanese culture and information about language and gender of the time) along with some Tang Dynasty poems. Given some cultural context, students could review several poems and guess whether they are Heian poetry or Tang Dynasty poetry, much like we did during the session today trying to guess whether the translated poems were written by men or women.
Diana CoreyI also found this process very engaging. The content got me pretty riled up inherently, so my headings got fairly snarky, and I decided to highlight words that fit into a certain theme that I decided upon myself. My students love being snarky, sarcastic, and silly, and I would encourage that in this kind of exercise if it shows they have engaged with the text. To use this with my students, I would need to find material for them to read/skim that is in Chinese, and would need them to be able to access and articulate key points without being able to understand every word, or even every other words. This exercise could be good at any level, but particular the intermediate to advanced levels.
Diana CoreyBan Zhao presents herself beyond humbly. She makes sure to label herself unworthy, unsophisticated, unintelligent, careless, and stupid in the opening lines of her book alone. I imagine giving herself these labels gave her credibility as a female writer. I am not sure what exactly the purpose of this work was, if not to do what it says and offer girls advice on how to behave, but I believe that being prepared for a difficult situation allows people to bear it better and perhaps even strategize to gain some leverage. I hope that in its day this work gave many young women a more clear idea about the hellish lives they were being groomed for and allowed them to prepare and cope better.
Diana CoreyI was struck by the incentives to take longer maternity leaves revealed in this chapter. It is the kind of thing I can only dream about as a mom in America. Women were given the option to take 3 years at home while receiving 75% of their salary? Sold! This sounds like such a great deal to me! But to see the institutional reasons for encouraging this is just enraging. It's not about the health of the woman or the baby, but in order to avoid budget lines for nurseries and rooms for nursing or pumping, and ultimately there is no desire to have these women in the workplace and no real job security for them. This is a good reminder to look not just at the face value of opportunities, but examine why they are being offered and ensure that nobody (usually a category of people) is being hurt by it.
Diana CoreyI really enjoyed reading this chapter. I can be provided with a wealth of fascinating information, but what really tends to stick with me is personal stories. I agree with Frederic when he said that what he really wishes we could have heard more from Professor Yan is his own personal story.
Diana CoreyBefore reading to prepare for this session, I had never heard the term "familism" before. This lecture and these readings have given me something extra to add into my lessons on family. I teach a unit on family in my beginner Chinese classes and introduce some aspects of Chinese family culture in the process. I am now thinking about ways that I can incorporate what I am learning about gender and generation in the family structure, and adding the vocabulary word "familism" alone places extra emphasis on how integral these family structure traditions and changes are in Chinese culture. I will be revisiting a family unit in a more advanced class this fall and am very excited to go deeper with them into what the Chinese family structure looks like.
Diana CoreyMy name is Diana Corey. I teach Chinese to junior high and high school students at an independent school in St. Louis, MO. I am grateful for this opportunity. It will be a great way to kick off the school year!
