Menu
close
Nira SunIt is interesting to know that some of the countries held surprisingly similar history of development.
Both Japan and China were built upon a system with strict hierarchy. Warriors are highly respected in Japan and, hence, on the top of the system. Even though there was no such strict warrior system in ancient China, the ending and rising of each dynasty mainly started from some sort of rebellion organized by commoners or royal families who held authority or power of military. The concept of “royal family” or “royal background” played significant role in ones’ path of life.
Another similarity was that both modern Japan and China started with an era of “closing the door” to the outsiders. During the post-Sekigahara time, Japan made a move to close itself especially to western countries. China has experienced a similar period of time during Qing Dynasty when no western religions, cultures, and technology were allowed to be introduced to the citizens of Qing Dynasty. The” closing the door” policy affected the spreading and influence of western culture in the development of modern Japan and China which had caused them being behind on developing as a country as well as catching up with the rest of the world. That was when all the unequal treaties were signed and applied to Japan and China.
I took some of my Mandarin students to the Chinese garden in Huntington Library last school year. Due to the ending of the Chinese garden program, Huntington Library still holds a Japanese garden program that I’m interested in taking my students to. After understanding the differences between the Chinese and Western architectures and landscaping styles, it would be very interesting for students to compare the similarities and differences between Chinese and Japanese architectures and landscaping styles. As for a teacher, with the understanding of the Japan history and culture, it’s going to be very helpful to discover the cultural differences and similarities when we visit the Japanese garden.
Nira SunIt’s fascinating to learn about the history of a country. What I have noticed from the changes in Korean society is the factors that decide a person’s life and fate.
Back in the days, a person’s family background says everything about this person. If you were born in a royal family, you would have access to all the resources including finance, jobs, and even women. The social hierarchy and family background was quite significant and, most importantly, fixed. One cannot change his life and fate if he wasn’t born in a royal family. It was all about who you were and what kind family you came from.
Majority of the Asian history will somehow mention the so called “Western influence”. In my opinion, the western influence brings out the focus on individual achievement and improvement rather than simply and solely relying on family and background. This includes the rise of the power of Asian women. Women don’t need to hide their appearance or their intelligence anymore. They become elites in all possible professional fields. People who were born with no advantages can still succeed with enough efforts.
I believe this is the greatest and the most beautiful part of the changes in all Asian countries.
Nira SunSimilar to Japan, the aging issue is getting quite serious in China as well. The recent relaxed “one child policy” was meant to promote the idea of having a second child, and, ultimately help with the aging situation. However, it’s not that simple. Most of my friends in China refused to have a second child due to several reasons:
Similar to getting married, it’s quite expensive to raise a child in China now. Unlike how we were raised, the parents now have to spend quite a lot of money on getting high quality and non-polluted food from overseas. As long as the parents want the best for their children, they are willing to invest on food and clothing items to ensure their children get the BEST. When children get to the school age, parents need to get ready to invest on schooling, inside and outside school hours. Extra academic works from tutoring on weekend are quite popular in China. I, personally, still remember my Dad used to ride bicycle to send me to weekend English program so that I could be ahead of my classmates in English learning. And that was more than two decades ago. Parents’ investment on children’s education (academic & extra-curriculum ones) nowadays are getting more heavily.
As mentioned by Prof. Dube in class today, one young couple now need to take care of 4 parents (2 from the wife side, and 2 from the husband side) in addition to dealing with the chores within their own family. Younger generation also prefer to buy their own houses instead of living under the same hood with older generations. With that said, in order to take care of them, young couple will need to make extra trips to parents’ houses to help out as needed.
As opposed to the traditional Chinese family dynamics, older generations start releasing themselves from helping to take care of grandchildren as well. I have quite a few friends been complaining the fact that no one can take care of the child while they have to be at work. What they end up doing is to send the child to daycares at very early age which adding more financial burden to what they are already dealing with.
Different from the “9-5” works that our parents used to have, our younger generation has been dragged into tons of over time that they have to commit to at work. In order to maintain a stable financial situation, both wife and husband need to work. I often see my friends in China posting about them still working at late hours. If they are lucky, they will have one of their parents pick up the children and cook dinner for them.
Quite obviously, none of these reasons are isolated. They are all somehow connected and contributed to the aging of the society. With all the pressures that they are dealing with now, it seems to be a quite bright idea to not have a second child.
Nira SunHi,
My name is Nira Sun, a high school Mandarin teacher in LAUSD. I have students from 9th all the way to 12th grades. This is my third year teaching. I enjoy my time with my students and I'm happy to see them learning and growing everyday in my classroom. I was born and grew up in China. I went to UCI majored in Psychology and minored in Educational Studies. I also finished my Master in Cal State Long Beach two years ago. I was introduced to this program by one of our Spanish teachers who used to teach Social Studies. I'm excited to have this opportunity to learn and share with everyone.
