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Nira SunHi Marco,
I agreed with you on the unintended concequences caused by the one-child policy. The rising imbalance in the ratio of men to women in China has be brought to the attention of the officials. China now has the law to ban the sex-screening of infant to avoid the situation where couples choose to keep or abort the fetuse. It is now illegal to give the test.
However, this does not stop couples from getting to know the gender of their babies through illegal channels. This is more of a "unintended concequence" of the ending of one-child policy. Couples who try to get a different sex from their first-born tend to take the risk to explore the secret.
Nira SunThere are so many exampls of how people get away with crimes and or minor violations due to Guanxi. The most popular saying in China now is "Do you know who I am?". It sounds very funny to me, honestly. People weight highly on others to become aware of their fames and reputations. They take advantage of the sitatuion where their fames can get them out of trouble by expecting the guanxi they have with someone up in the high of the food chain will cut them loose. Little favor becomes huge favor.
Moving froward from individual level to national level, there are guanxi among countries that can still get very complicated. The recent arrest of the Huawei CFO in Canada led to China authority to "threaten" Cananda officials to be prepared to take serious concequences if they don't release her. It is guessed that the concequences most likely will be trade related. Once again, this is all about the relationship and connection built between two countries.
Politics are all about guanxi as well. The passing of one bill may come with the sacrificing of the other. The policy makers are the ones who try to negotiate a common ground that benefits all parties while ordinary citizens are crazy about being the decision makers only to realize that they are not afterwards.
Nira SunYes, definitely. It seems that "receiving education", "finding a job", "getting married", and "having babies" are the different stages we HAVE TO experience as huamn being. This concept is indeed deep into Chinese traditiona family value system. Back in the days, not being able to have children is considered disgrace to men and women. Often, women were the ones to be blamed for. Men can choose to have another wife using the excuse of his wife unable to bear children. Nowadays, with the changes of how we precieve women and the development of fenimism, younger generation tend to not have or postpond having children as soon as they get married. People still talk (gossip), but the pressure on that has declined. Parents, of course, can still use that excuse to overworry about the marriage of their children.
Nira SunRegardless of the subject and background of the students we teach, the common ground in one classroom that is significant to teaching is to truly understand our students so that our content relates to their everyday life outside the classroom. This is essentially crucial when it comes to language and culture learning. I also believe that this is the reason teachers like us chose to spend our own time attending PD or seminars. One benefit of it is for us to meet with and learn from other teachers who share common or different perspectives. At the same time, we get ourselves updated with what’s going on outside our little classroom.
In this seminar, we were exposed to vast variety of social issues and concerns in the contemporary China: the population, the Hukou system, the economy, the technology development, the social transformation, the young generation, the relationship with the rest of the world, and etc. I started to feel that there are a lot of information I’m able to bring back to my classroom.
I personally feel that the topics about the technology development and the current young generation will be interesting topics that my students can find themselves relate to in terms of culture learning. These are real events that happen in our lives regardless of the locations. The connection that students feel with the rest of the world might be stronger than how we used to feel. They simply just need teachers to integrate them into the curriculum and expose them to our students.
Because of this session, it makes me think how to introduce these little topics to my students. I used to believe that we shall design some types of complicated thematic unit in order to introduce them. After seeing the complexity and diversity of the topics, I started giving the information as they appear. For instance, I have introduced the 11.11 online shopping festival for students to compare with the black Friday and cyber Monday here in the US. I showed them the countdown they had for the gigantic e-commerce company Alibaba in China and how much they were making in seconds. Students were astonished to find out how this so-called festival has developed and how much of impact it had made in Chinese people’s life. This is not something we can describe with words. It also certainly relates to students’ life here.
Nira SunHi Natali,
Teachers in China has the definite authority. It's the level of respect that we cannot expect to have in the US. It is fair to say that "teacher knows best" is an overall perspective on teachers in China even though her observation was conducted in a high regarded school.
I believe this situation stems from the traditional Confucianism which taught people the basic ethnics that rule the society which are the four virtues. What four virtues, loyalty, filial piety, contingency, and righteousness, emphasize on are basically respecting authorities. There is a saying in Chinese which is "尊師重教" which is translated to respect teachers and value education. Teachers are the authority in education.
With the development of technology, teachers are utilizing all sorts of technology to stay connected with parents in China. I often heard my friends in China talking about how teachers leaving works in the wechat group. Parents do need to be extremely involved with school work for their children to succeed in modern education system. Certainly, there are teachers who took advantage of the situation and expect parents to do everything that teachers are responsible for.
As for the part where you mentioned whether students are aware of being privileged or disadvantaged, I would say that most of them is aware of the situation. In China, another popular term is "network" as in relationship with others. It's not about how much effort you devote, it's about who you know. If you have an amazing "network" and know the right "person", you literally can get whatever you want. That is a sad but true reality. Even a "Hukou" system draws a huge line between urban and rural citizens, imagine the gap between privileged and disadvantage groups.
Nira SunAlthough the "Leftover Park" video is only 8 minutes long, it represents some aspects of traditional Chinese values towards dating and marriage.
Nira SunYes, both men and women in China face the same amount of pressure when it comes to marriage. I have heard about people "buying wifes" from Southeast Asian countries. However this is my first time watching a documentary on that topic. The guy named Lan Sui (hope I got it right) seemed to be super happy when finally he was able to get a wife who can acutally speak Chinese. He mentioned that one of the top duties as a man in the household is to "have a son to carry on the family name". There is an old saying from Meng Zi which is "There are three ways to be unfilial; having no sons is the worst." According to certain explanation, "having no son is the worst" is considered as a misinterpretation of what Meng Zi's original meaning. However, this misinterpretation has been deeply rooted as one of the Chinese traditional values.
Men is more valuable than women due to the fact that they are capable of more labor work. Even though there are some perspective and value changes in big cities, it is still traditional in rural areas. I personally feel bad for the Indoesian lady who had no idea what she is facing in her future life. Let's just hope that Mr. Sui will treat her well. They are both the victims of this traditional value.
Nira SunHi Natali,
I absolutely agree with you on the significant contribution made by the immigrants in California and the migrants in China. Roma wasn't built in a day and, certainly, wasn't built by "higher-class" citizens only. I think the issue that Chinese central government facing now is how to deal with the poverty and underdeveloped medical and education situation in rural areas so that either people are willing to stay or they feel secure with the children that they left behind.
Nira SunHi Marcos,
Your children were absolutely right about "nothing new" anymore. Due to the vast development of technology, people are no longer excited for small invention. Just look at where apple is going with its technology invention, you can see that consumer' appetite is getting bigger and bigger.
In terms of Chinese characters, I personally think it's quite similar to English letters even though there are only 26 letters. The 900 characters are just the basic formality of words. In order to really comprehend the meaning of certain messages or texts, you will need to grasp way more than that. In addition, most of the vocabulary and phrases are various combinations of dfferent or same characters..
For example, 好 is good. 不好 is not good. If you only know 好 but with no knowledge of 不, you will never guess it's the opposite meaning. Similar to English, you know "view" is to look at something. Without knowing what "pre" means, you will never guess the meaning of "preview". It's a game of making combinations. I think "making connections" is what we need to teach our students so that they are open to different ideas, concepts or theories instead of being ignorant.
Now going back to the Wechat topic. It is indeed convenient when you can leave a voice message instead of typing. Just like you mentioned, it's probably due to the tiredness of typing. Any intention of the modification to technology always seems to satisfiy our needs as human. : )
Nira SunThe YouTube video for "Urban Migration of Young People" is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1suPxXTrpmw
Why did hundreds of millions of Chinese leave their rural homes for the cities?
Just like the YouTube comments under the "Lunar New Year Migration", the journalist, Michael Chance, didn't get the translation correctly on his second interview. The second guy mentioned that he got paid better which means family can have a better life if he works in Beijing. All these people who migrate to bigger cities because they are looking for better work opportunities. Can they support the family by doing farm works? Yes they can. However, younger generation tend to move to bigger cities to learn skills that they cannot learn in country side. Ahong in the video of "Urban Migration of Young People" is a perfect representative of such migration trend. He went from an assistant to a stylist in a salon in quite a few years. Who would need a hair stylist in his rural hometown? If he stayed there, he would never have the chance to master the skill nor have the opportunity to practice his skill. This is the opportunity that young people are striving for in big cities. With the money he made as a hair stylist, he was able to afford an apartment and a car. Imgaine how much the quality of life can be improved at his rural hometown. Again, he will never enjoy any of these if he stays at his hometown.
What problems were they trying to solve?
Migrating to bigger cities doesn't necessarily mean having a better life. There are differenty types of struggles that they are facing each day. Migrants who do not master certain skills continue doing "lower-class" work which are longer hours and lower pay. Due to the Hukou system, migrants are not considered as residents of the big cities which leads to social security issues. When they are sick, they cannot receive the same quality of service in the hospital. When they (especially males) want to get married, no girls would consider them because they are unable to provide a "financially stable" life in the city.
What new problems did they encounter? What of the children who are left behind?
Except those who couldn't walk or work, most people migrate to big cities to look for work. According to the founder of the "Freiends of Migrant Workers", urbanization of bigger cities broaden the gap between the poor and rich. The actual issue was never solved in rural areas. Even though migrants move to big cities, they are not entitled to health care or free edcation in big cities either due to the Hukou restriction. There was no compensation given to the workers who help with urbanization but also have families back in the rural areas.
For children who left behind, they are usually taken care of by the grandparents generation. Children's education is a dilemma to migrants parents. If children stay in the rural area, they are unable to receive high quality of education due to lack of teachers and facilities in the area. If children go to cities with their parents, they cannot be admitted to schools either due to no city residency.
A famous film directed by Zhang Yimou back in the 1990s explicitly exposed the poverty and education issue of children who are left behind. The film is called "Not One Less" (Yi Ge Dou Bu Neng Shao). I couldn't find a full movie on YouTube but there are quite a few clips you may want to watch to learn more of the left-behind children issue.
Nira SunI watched both videos about the development of Wechat, a popular social media app in China. I use wechat with my AP Chinese students. It's quite a convenient way to stay connected with my AP students and provide them access to the language outside the class time. Whenever I drive around San Gabriel area, I take pictures of signs or anything I see in Chinese. I send those pictures to my students as random homeworks. As mentioned in the video, the voice message is a great function which I got to apply to my class as well. Sometimes I left them voice message for them to practice listening or responding. Students also recorded themselves based on the prompts I provided. It's instant and convenient. As a teacher, I can always go back to grade on their speaking. Students are big fun of such interacting learning apporach. I hope my students get to experience the true authentic language materials that come from daily life. From such experience, I also get to deliver the message that language learning doesn't have to be restrained inside the classroom.
Nira SunHere is an article dicusses the Hukou Reform.
https://thediplomat.com/2017/02/chinas-hukou-reforms-and-the-urbanization-challenge/
Nira SunHi Genaro,
The objective of Hukou system was to put restriction/control on the social mobility. The registration of Hukou is based on the location of residency. Althought there are agricultural and non-agricultural Hukou, it was not meant to differenciate one social class from another one. After the restriction got loosened, more people from rural area went to urban cities (small or major ones) to look for employment opportunities. Students go to universities and colleges in big cities in hopes of staying in the cities.
With increasing amount of migrants in big cities, it is understandable for local governments to put restrictions on what benefits one can get according to his/her Hukou. It's not difficult to see the reason is to maintain the resources and benefits for Beijing residents. Migrants are not "illegal" in Beijing. They just cannot get houses or cars in Beijing. Again, it is understandable. Imagine giving the rights to all 21.7 millions people in Beijing to purchase houses and cars? Look at the situation we have in LA. Most of people who want to purchase houses got pushed out of the LA county. We cannot even afford housing in LA even if we have legal status and stable income here. Traffic in LA is another huge issue too. I commute from Ontario to downtown LA each day to work. I stay at school till 7pm so that I can go home with less traffic. I cannot imagine what LA traffic and housing will look like in another decade. Beijing is facing the similiar issue now.
I know it sounds very brutal that Beijing is "getting rid of" low class population. The question here is why they are "low-class"? There are migrants in Beijing work white-collar jobs who still don't have Beijing residency. They are not considered as low-class but they don't get the benefits as Beijing residents either. What Chinese central governmnet needs to consider is whether "getting rid of low-class population" is an effective solution to current situation. Why don't these people want to stay with their families in their hometowns but rather be "low-class citizens" in big cities? How come they couldn't get the same quality of education back in their villeges? These are the root of them being classified as "low-class". It is not the migrant status. It is the lack of education and skills.
Nira SunHi Everyone,
I'm a Mandarin teacher at Mendez High School in Los Angeles. This is my 4th year teaching Mandarin at our school site. It has been a great pleasure to teach our children to learn a different language and culture. I'm glad that I have the opportunity to learn so much about China and other East Asian countries from all the seminars I have attended. I was also able to integrate the materials, such as movies, art forms, and musics to my class learning. As usual, I'm looking forward to this seminar.
Nira SunHi Ms. Rodarte,
I absolutely agree with you in terms of how disconnected our children are with the history of their families. Some students tend to take it for granted for the part that they were born and grew up in the State. When they couldn't make the reference with their home countries or family histories, they are unable to relate to the struggles that immigrants have. Hence the ignorance. I hope what we discuss or present in the classroom will help to elicit their interests in finding out the histories/stories from their parents/grandparents.
