[Jennifer Marquez]

First, I would like to acknowledge the beautiful art and textiles from this era. I actually have a BFA in Fiber Arts and love the embroidery work that I saw in these lectures. I am currently teaching my Intro to Art students how to sew dolls from gloves, and as an extension how to embroider details onto the dolls. 

After reflecting on the Proclamations of the Hongwu Emperor, it is important to note his disdain for the riff-raff of a community because they do not aid in bettering the community. He was also very clear in stating how those individuals would be punished. I think that our students could reflect upon this Proclamation and make comparisons to how we approach discipline in school and in our cities. It could become a very interesting debate, and ideas could be organized in a double bubble map. I think the philosophical ideals that they were drawing upon was Confucianism and Daoism, because they were really putting an emphasis on the elders upholding the ruling of law.

[Jennifer Marquez]

There are many beautiful images, paintings, sculptures, and buildings dedicated to Buddhism. I think that one way to approach Buddhism in a secondary art class would be to start off with a KWL Chart for the students. Have them first fill out what they Know/ or think they Know about Buddhism, then also fill out the What I want to Know portion after a small class discussion of what they think they know. I think that the students would be interested in learning about a different world religion that does have historic roots here in Los Angeles, as we have a lot of temples. After learning about Buddhism the students would complete the What I Learned portion of the KWL Chart. This could be a start to a Zentangle project where students learn the basics of what is Zen and how to create patterns in a meditative practice. There is also a cute TEDEd video that explains some of the principles of Zen Buddhism    https://youtu.be/9p5Oi4wPVVo 

 

[Jennifer Marquez]

After this lesson I was left with a lot more questions on why the Dutch were the only Westerners to be allowed access to trade and commerce with Japan. I know that they promised to not try to spread Christianity throughout Japan, but how where they able to convince the shogunate and the emperor of that? I often think of how the Dutch, being a small nation, were very lucrative and brutal in their trade. The Dutch East India Company, responsible for a lot of slave trade to the Americas, were able to convince the Tokugawa to trust in them. Did the japanese also sell some their people into slavery as well?

[Jennifer Marquez]

Reflecting on the Excerpts from the book of Ser Marco Polo and the lecture, I think that it is very fascinating to hear someone’s take on the fact that none of these adventures most likely never actually happened. I am of course very familiar with who Marco Polo was, and have seen movies and television shows based off of this individual. But it makes perfect sense that he probably never experienced some of these stories himself, or even went to China at all. The Mongol Empire really helped open up China to trade and different cultures, and it is very likely that there were many European merchants that traveled to and through China and shared their stories with other Europeans. Also around that time Christians also traveled the Silk Road to try to spread Christianity to the East. This definitely has me questioning other written stories and histories that we consider legend and those that we consider fact.

[Jennifer Marquez]

Mencius states " A warped piece of wood must wait until it has been laid against the straightening board, steamed, and forced into shape before it can become straight; a piece of blunt metal must wait until it has been whetted on a grindstone before it can become sharp. Similarly, since man's nature is evil, it must wait for the instructions of a teacher before it can become upright, and for the guidance of ritual principles before it can become orderly. If men have no teachers to instruct them, they will be inclined towards evil and not upright; and if they have no ritual principles to guide them, they will be perverse and violent and lack order..." 

My father who has shamed our family greatly has been issued an option in punishment. One he can choose a sentence of death, or two he can relinquish his rights to his personal belongings and family and live out the rest of his life in a monastery devoting himself to the teaching of Confusian Thought and never see our family again.

 

[Jennifer Marquez]

I grew up in Catholic education from Kindergarten to 12th grade and it was around the age of 10 that I stopped agreeing with most of the basic principles of the Catholic faith. What has continued to fascinate me is how so many different dominant religions and philosophies have so many parallels between morals and social constructs of how people should live their lives. The Confucius philosophy of hierarchical relationships between people and the primary loyalty to a father figure is similar to the Catholic and Christian hierarchical relationships between people as well. Another comminality of the two philosophies is that Confucianism claims that human nature is basically good but when born a man's nature is evil and wants profit, and Catholicism claims that humans are born with original sin and that they have to go through baptism and repentance throughout their lives to be considered good. 

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[Jennifer Marquez]

Living in Southern California, I noticed a lot of parallels between the importance and struggles of water conservation, over usage, and pollution in our waterways similar to what China is facing. Both China and California are large industries of textiles and agriculture. Los Angeles’s water is supplied by The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and they pull water from the The Colorado River and they have been draining the California Valley groundwater. This is very detrimental to our state, as it is causing ecosystems to collapse and we are quickly running out of water. Additionally, this is destroying communities of people and continues to affect our Native population of the Paiute Indians.

[Jennifer Marquez]

Hello, my name is Jennifer Marquez and I am a high school visual art educator in East Los Angeles area of LAUSD. I am interested in learning about the Asian culture and influence in the West, since they are topics that were not addressed often in my education of world history. Also, here is a snap shot of some of the art work I created recently in a digital painting class. 

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