[Marcos Rico]

Hello Heidi,

It is wonderful to have more elementary school teachers in this group. You are teaching a 4/5 combo class!! Wow, it is a difficult thing to teach combo classes, but when they have a seasoned teacher like yourself it must be a great experience for the students. My only experience teaching a combo class (also 4/5) was on my first year as a teacher, it was not a great experience for an inexperienced teacher, but I survived 🙂    

Where you on the fall 2018 Online seminar on Contemporary China? That was my previous Seminar with USC. 

[Marcos Rico]

Good Morning everyone,

My name is Marcos Rico. I was born and raised in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Immigrated to the U.S.A.  in 1993, (10th grade). Because of my limited knowledge of the English language, I was places in English as a Second Language (E.S.L.) classes.   Thanks to the encouragement and support of my teachers and AVID program, I was able to enroll straight into San Diego State University. At S.D.S.U., I worked hard on improving my knowledge of the English language and earned a Bachelors in Science in Psychology along with a double minor (Spanish and Mexican-American Studies). I earned my BCLAD through an intership program at San Diego Unified School District.

I currently teach 4th grade at The Language Academy in San Diego. Our school is a Magnet school, we have students from all over the world. It is an interesting mix of different cultures and languages. Our two biliteracy programs are French/ English and Spanish/ English. People are surprised when they find out that I am part of the French program. I have been teaching 18 years at San Diego Unified School District, one of my favorite grades is 4 grade. California history is a complex and intereresting topic to teach. This is my third school in the district, and I have had the pleasure of teaching different grades such as 2, 3, 4, 5 and even a 4/5 combo (yes,on my 1st year as a teacher).  

Looking forward to learn more about China and share the knowledge with my 4th graders.

[Marcos Rico]

Now, I have another list of videos that must watch on YouTube 🙂  (My teenage sons, claim that they have never heard any of them...)

Top 10 K-Pop Songs of All Time 1. “Lollipop” by Bigbang & 2NE1 2. “Trouble Maker” by Trouble Maker 3. “Monster” by Bigbang 4. “Twinkle” by TTS (Taetiseo) 5. “Because I’m the Best” ("Roll Deep" internationally) by Hyuna ft. Jung Ilhoon 6. “Run” by BTS 7. “Don’t Wanna Cry” by Seventeen 8. “Face” Nu’est 9. “Really Really” by Winner 10. “Up&Down” EXID

[Marcos Rico]

     I enjoyed learning about contemporary China. Most of my knowledge was based on information about China prior to the 1900’s. It is embarrasing to admit, but until last year I was ignorant and confused about the relationship of Taiwan and China. I did not understand how China passed from being our ally on WWll to becoming a Communist country. Now, I had an excellent opportunity to learn about join a group of educators to increase our knowledge about modern China. It was an eye opening experience, it filled many gaps on my knowledge about China (Plus, I am having the opportunity to earn Continuing Education Units).

     I teach 4^th grade, Social Studies, our focus is on California. On Chapter 7 Transportation and Communication, we talk about the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, and Rails across California. Central Pacific Railroad Company hired mostly Chinese workers to build the railroad tracks (late 1800’s). Chapter 8 A Growing Economy, Lesson 1 we talk about Immigration and Migration, we talk about Angel Island, About Prejudice, Racism and Discrimination that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. This was the area where I would stop teaching about China and Chinese Immigrants.

     After having completed this seminar, I know have the knowledge to teach about Contemporary China during our Final unit, California Today and Tomorrow. Chapter 11 The Golden State, specifically during, A Modern Economy and Overcoming Challenges. There are many economic and cultural links that connect China and California (there is some trouble due to current leadership in our government). We belong to the Pacific Basin region. Apple, the most successful California based company develops their ideas and design in our state, but has their final products manufactured in China. China was also the main purchaser of California’s recyclable materials, but changes in the market has made China no longer interested on purchasing California’s recyclable refuse (Overcoming Challenges). China and California also face serious trouble with water shortage in some regions of their territory, and have dealt with it in similar ways. I now have a better understanding of the transformation that has been taking place in China over the past 50 years, as it moved from an underperforming Agricultural economy towards the second strongest industrial economy in the world.

I am thankful for this wonderful learning experience and will be using my new knowledge to the benefit my 4th graders. 

[Marcos Rico]

”No chance against China”: Gas deal worries Filipino fishermen.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/indepth/features/chance-china-gas-deal-worries-filipino-fishermen-181101213758521.html

Author:   Santiago Arnaiz and Vittoria Elliott

Title: ”No chance against China”: Gas deal worries Filipino fishermen.

Publication Title: Aljazeera

Date: November 1st, 2018

This article states that China and the Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte have a great relationship. Unfortunately that is bad news for fishermen on the island of San Salvador, Philippines. Fishermen used to earn supplemental income of about $130-$165 dollars per week by catching aquarium fish near Scarborough Shoal, in the past six years things have changed a lot. Now on a lucky week fishermen might be able to earn about $37 dollars, because Scarborough Shoal has become offlimit. The reason why filipino are no longer allowed to fish there is because China established a blockade on the area.

A court from The Hague, ruled that China had broken U.N Convention laws, and that the shoal is within Philippines territory. The area below the sea bed is estimated to be rich in oil and gas, The Filipino President, signed an agreement to allow China extract oild and gas from the disputed area. It is great for businesses, but not for the local fishermen.

 

[Marcos Rico]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/world/asia/taiwan-name-republic-of-china.html

Taiwan will be holding a referendum to see if they should compete on international sporting events as Taiwan instead of their current one “Chinese Taipei”. This referendum has led to a reponse from the Chinese minister of Defense Wei Fenghe “If someone tries to separate out Taiwan, China’s army will take the necessary actions at any cost.”

[Marcos Rico]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/world/asia/china-kindergarten-stabbing.html

Sad news about an attack on a Kindergarden in the city of Chongqing. The article mentions that stabbing attacks are not uncommon in China and that they are usually directed at children. The attacker was a middle aged woman. 14 children were injured, does not mention any dead.

Unfortunately, we hear a lot about terrorist attacks all over the world, many of them over misguided religious beliefs. We just had another one in Pittsburgh at a Synagogue. Do we know what is driving this terrorist attacks in China?

[Marcos Rico]

Wow!  For the longest time I believed that my cousins( both female and male) and my younger sister had it tough dealing with our Grandmother, aunts and mothers asking about when they will get married and start having kids (I married at age 25, and never had to endure the barrage of questions and inquires from our female elders). Mexican moms and aunts love to play match maker. The Chinese parents in the video took it to the next level. Not only are they looking for a candidate to date their unmarried “Left over” sons or daughters, but they have a long list of specific requisites that must be meet. Things Such as height, age, and place of employment, etc. 

This park is a small real life match making site. I wonder how long will it take to evolve , into the sometimes even messier online dating sites that we have in other countries.

[Marcos Rico]

As people started to notice the negative effects of pollution in the environment and their health, they pushed their governments into making changes that would create improvements on their environment. This led to stricter controls on vehicle pollution and the improvement or shut down of heavy polluting factories. These heavy polluting factories ended up relocating to poorer developing countries such as China. Several Countries,United States among them, are spending billions of dollars cleaning up the contamination caused by decades of poorly regulated factories and industries. Most of the contamination is limited to relatively smaller concentrated areas.

China is now dealing with the consequences of having opened its doors to heavy polluting factories and industries, unfortunately due to the reuse of contaminated water the effects are more wide spread, making it harder  to clean up. It is estimated that 16% of all the land in China is polluted. Pollution is heavily concentrated on rural areas and about 20% of all arable land is polluted. This is one of the reasons why China relies a lot in imported food and vegetables. Now China is trying to find a way to clean up their environment, but it will be a difficult and expensive task.

China is becoming a leader in renewable energy production. It produces about 29% of the worlds’s hidropower, 25% of the world’s wind power, and 20% of the world’s solar power. Unfortunately it still relies heavely in coal and oil for their energy production.

I remember hearing on the news that China was no longer purchasing materials such as plastic for recycling, this created a problem for my home state of California. California was selling most if not all of its reciclable refuse to China. Now, we will have to come up with new ways to deal with our recyclable materials once they are collected.

 

[Marcos Rico]

Traditional Chinese culture has changed alot over the last couple decades. The pressure to succed and accumulate wealth has driven people to focus on their career and push families to a secondary role. In Traditional Chinese culture, elders where revered and cared for by the younger generations. With the shift in economy and culture the focus now is on helping the younger generations to succed (in part due to the one child only policy).

Those who live in the city and enjoy a higher education tend to focus on their education and career, usually getting married at an older age than ever before. If they get married, some are opting for not having any children.

As a whole the percentage of older people in our world keeps on increasing. Pretty soon China will have the largest percentage of people over 60 years of age in the whole world. China needs a lot more babies and Younger adults in order to take care of and financially support their aging population.

The one child only policy worked too well to slow down their population growth, but it had several unintended consequences. Such as female babies being aborted, infanticide and the current population inbalance  of males and females in marrying age.

[Marcos Rico]

#11 Attracting Mosquitoes to Drink his Blood

An 8 year old child from a very poor family, makes sacrifices to protect his parents. The family could not afford mosquito nets for their beds due to their extreme poverty. On hot night the boy would attract the mosqitoes to himself sparing his parents of the mosquito bites. People find out of his sacrifice and the emperor gives him a scholarship and his family receives an allowance.

self sacrifice, the younger providing for their elders, parents must be protected and revered by their children.

[Marcos Rico]

#5 Fillial example tell us about a young man who takes care of his eldery parents, he makes sacrifices everyday in order to provide for them. Eventually the eldery parents die and he moves away. Thanks to his hard work and intelligence he end up working for the king and becomes wealthy. He has everything that his heart desires, but misses the old days when he would struggle and did not have wealth, but had his parents. 

Taking care of you parents is more important and rewarding than wealth. Your parents will not last forever, enjoy them while you have them. No sacrifice is too great when you are taking care of your elders.

[Marcos Rico]

It briefly talks about the behavioral and physiological change that humans experience when they move from the country to the city, and become “Urbanized”. One of the surprises was the chart with several countries were being compared side to side. It claimed that the USA has a literacy rate of about 86%, while China has about 95% literacy. How is this possible?

The speaker also point out that while the gap between the rich and the poor keeps on growing, China has managed to lift 350 million people out of poverty. The benefit being mainly for people on urban areas, while people on rural areas suffer.

I remember from studying world cultures back in Middle School that China was a powerful empire, but I never understood what had happend or when China had lost it’s place among the rich and powerful empires. The speaker mentioned how until the 1500’s China was a powerful empire that dependend on its agriculture. China had control of  about 25% of the world’s economy. Then the industrial revolution happened, other countries improved and urbanized. While China kept on doing thing the old way, because it had worked well in the past. It took them a couple hundred years but China is now the 2nd largest economy, just behind the USA.

[Marcos Rico]

After Lecture 5: Expanding Choices, I was under the impresion that Christianity was allowed by the Chinese government. After watching the video The Rise of Christianity in China, I realized that it is not really allowed, but more likely just tolerated as long as they follow the rules set up by the Chinese governemnent. 

Churches are not allowed to display crosses on the outside of their buildings, or the government will forcefully remove the cross, and sometimes even demolish the building. It is estimated that there are more than 140 million Christians in China. Mostly Catholics and Protestants. Protestants being the fastest growing religion in China. Pretty soon China become the largest Christian country in the world.

I remember that I read an article back in September about Pope Francis making an agreement with China about the appointment of bishops. Vatican will officially recognize several bishops appointed by the Chinese govenement. China has the official, government regulated and approved Catholic churches. (Bishops are appointed by the governement) and secret, underground Catholic churches where the bishops are chosen by the Vatican. Pope Francis agreement with China’s government angered many catholics around the world, specially in China.

[Marcos Rico]

The people of China has gone through a lot of changes in a relatively short amount of time. It has changed from having a small percentage of their people living in an urban area about 20% (early 1980’s) to currently having about 60% of its people living in urban areas. In comparison, according to some statistics that I found on http://www.census.gov, in 2015 about about 63% of people in the U.S.A. lived in urban areas. Back in the early 1900’s the USA already had a 39.6% Urban Population and 60.4% rural. 

China has experience a big shift from rural to urban. Originally the governement was very restrictive of their citizens movility within the country. Finally at the end of the 1970’s, the governement eased on the restrictions. People moved from small villages to the city in search of better economic opportunities, they have achieved economic success at the expense of social isolation and loneliness.

One way that urban citizens try to combat isolation in by the use of their highly monitored internet. Cell phones are a great choice for those who can afford them. Migrant workers with a tight budget use internet bars, where they can do video chats, play games or even watch movies.

U.S.A. Movies and video games are very popular in China, they are modified to meet Chinese government requirements for the Chinese market.

Now there are many colors and styles of clothing to choose from. Not only that, but the government now allows them to engage in social dancing. They can also choos among several USA restaurants such as KFC, McDonalds, Starbucks and even P.F. Chang’s.

Chinese citizens enjoy some religious freedoms, as long as it pre approved by the government of course. Catholic, and Protestan churches are allowed as long as they do not get in trouble with the local authorities. More local religions such as Buddhism, and  Falun Gong are presecuted by the governement. 

Currently Chinese citizens enjoy more freedoms than ever before since the Communist revolution, but these freedoms are highly restricted by their government.

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