[Lesly Gonzalez]

I find it mind boggling that a three-year time period when 20 million (by government admission) to 36-45 million (by historians' account) people died of famine is known as the Three Years of Difficulty, especially when the evidence suggests that suffering was brought about by an inept government that adopted a system that inflated production figures.

 

 

[Lesly Gonzalez]

I enjoyed reading the progression of Zhou Jiaying's (a.k.a. Bella) family towards middle class status. It's interesting to read how her parents are employed at the jobs assigned to them, but she will have the freedom to choose her career.

My favorite part of this article is towards the end, when Bella's teacher nominates her to the Communist Youth League. She begrudgingly fills out the application so as to not get on her teacher's bad side. Bella then quotes a Chinese proverb, "A person who stands under someone else's roof must bow his head." 

[Lesly Gonzalez]

I wasn't able to find specifics about this propaganda poster, but I believe it is part of the collections at the Musée du Vivant @AgroParis Tech. It was created in 1970.

This image demonstrates one of the social programs of the Cultural Revolution. Mao had the vision that academians (middle school graduates and above) from China's cities should go to the rural areas to work in People's Communes/collectives to learn how to farm and work with farmers to increase harvests. This was not a voluntary relocation for urban scholars and they were only allowed to return home in the late 1970's. An underlying reason for this program was to minimize the ability of Red Guards to agitate.

Of note is the plentiful harvest and abundant food at the forefront and the transmission tower and factories in the background.

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[Lesly Gonzalez]

Here, Mao clearly and simply states the dual goal of the Communist Revolution, to create a new society and new state for the Chinese nation. The way Mao explains it, this requires a new China culturally, politically, and economically.

I personally enjoyed how Mao gave so much information in so few words. He references the events and ideas that we've covered in this seminar (e.g., defining the role of the imperial family post-1842 and foreign hegemony).

He also defines China in a way that is clear, feudal, colonial, semi-feudal, and semi-colonial.

[Lesly Gonzalez]

It was interesting to read how Confucian ideals played a role in determing the economic role of women in Choson, particularly in the upper classes and ruling elite.

I especially enjoyed the narrative about the husband and wife who make a pact sacrifice pleasure and leisure for 10 years in order to accumulate wealth. In this tale, it is the wife who ensures the couple stays true to their commitment to the very day. According to Pettid, this narrative demonstrates how "economic wherewithal" outweighed other, "Confucian virtues such as extending one's lineage."

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[Lesly Gonzalez]

Now that we've had the three-sided discussion, I think I will incorporate this activity into my unit plan. I will now begin trying to identify the topic for the discussion...

[Lesly Gonzalez]

I liked how the film allowed the conversations between workers, activitsts, and other individuals to tell this story with little to no narration. It gave these people the opportunity to tell the story of struggle directly to the viewer.

Also, this film had me wondering about the rigidity of the Chinese government. It is difficult to organize workers in any country, including our own; it is not uncommon for organizers and rebellious workers to face reprisals from their employers or their government. In this documentary China, in my memory, reacts like some Western nations would.

[Lesly Gonzalez]

The big challenge China faces is the chasm between industrialed nations and traditional ones. Nations like the U.S., the U.K., and increasingly Japan, have focused their new means of production to build modernized militaries that include steamers. There is no way China's military can successfully compete with these innovations. Until China joins these powers in development, it will have to bestow, "most favored nation" status to all but itself.

The solution to this problem is to preserve national unity; united China will industrialize, modernize its military, and renegotiate treaties that have limited its ability to charge tarrifs, govern over its territories, extert itself over its sphere of influence.

[Lesly Gonzalez]

Prof. Kurashige's lecture offered a twist on the narrative on racial discrimination. He provided example of voices of dissent, but more importantly to me, profiled individuals who shifted their views on race. It is this particular concept that I hope to highlight in my classes. History is often generalized so as to make it processable (amongst other reasons). Prof. Kurashige's work offers a tool with which to demonstrate the complexity and richness of history and the elasticity of viewpoints in a lifetime.

[Lesly Gonzalez]

It was surprising for me to learn that "80% of heavy industry, 76% of mining, and 92% of electricity-generating capacity," lied in the north of Korea prior to the division. "Light manufacturing and agriculture dominated in the South." This, compounded by U.S. bombing of all structures of economic value in the north, means that Korea north and Korea south had to completely rebuild and redefine themselves, at least economically.

[Lesly Gonzalez]

Now that we've had a few sessions of our seminar, I've identified that I would like my students to compare/contrast Confucianism in China, Korea, and Japan during/approx. the Middle Ages.

I did not find anything that appears to support me with that goal, but the film about Chinese railroad workers could be useful in my 8th grade class when we study Western Expansion and the experience of Chinese-Americans.

[Lesly Gonzalez]

I particularly liked the short story, Cranes. There are so many unspoken and undescribed interactions between the two friends in the story, that the reader is sucked into the story, visualizing and constructing the scenes. I also really enjoyed how the writer uses the imagery of cranes in a landscape in the climax of the story. "Go and catch a crane!"

The story about Dr. Yi Inguk is just as superbly written, but I did not enjoy it as much as cranes. In large part, because I did not enjoy getting to know Kapitan Lee. This is a character who is willing to do almost everything and anything to maintain his wealth and status regardless of which state has supremacy over Korea.

I would like to thank Professor Jung-Kim because I think she prepared me well to better understand this reading. Without her previous lecture, I would have had a harder time processing the meaning of Nami's name change and Dr. Yi's sentiment that his infant son was his only, "flesh and blood."

 

[Lesly Gonzalez]

It is fascinating to read about the role Christianity played in Japan's decision to isolate itself from the West.

[Lesly Gonzalez]

I am also an 8th grade history teacher looking to bring in more primary sources to my classroom. I like this source but would like to learn more about:

• the Emperor's knowledge of the U.K. (esp. militarily) prior to issuing his response
• what counsel did he receive
• what maneuvers was the U.K. already preparing, even before the response was relayed
• what manufactured goods did he receive as gifts

[Lesly Gonzalez]

Since session 1, I have been asking myself more questions about current developments with North Korea. For example, now that North Korea has launched another missile whose trajectory took it over Japan, I am wondering how much of the colonial history between these two nations plays a role in North Korea's planned trajectories, or are the missile trajectories simply logistical?

 

 

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