[Xiaohong Lin]

During the workshop, someone brought up the dog meat eating question. I have been asked many times whether Chinese people eat dog meat. Here, I would like to recommend a Ted talk related to this topic. Authentic Food Choices by Melanie Joy. 

After watching this video, the question for me is not why some people eat dogs, it turns into why people of different cultures choose to eat certain kinds of animals. Everyone cares about certain animals around the world, meanwhile, we choose to eat certain kinds of animals. In this video, it mentions the psychology of eating animals. For me, my biggest takeaway is the question Melanie asked :

Have you ever wondered why you might eat certain animals but not others?

Have you wondered why you haven’t wondered?

For me, I never think of these questions, as Melanie says, eating animals is just a given. But we have the choice to be vegan or carnism.

 

 

[Xiaohong Lin]

Speaking of McDonald’s, the main function is for eating. But in China, it is not just for eating. In the article Compilation of materials about McDonald’s in China Mr. Dube attached, it says that when McDonald’s in China at the beginning, Chinese also held weddings and had wedding proposals there, which is novel and interesting for me, though it is rarely seen nowadays. And as Megan mentioned, in Taiwan, students also study there and hang out with friends. In mainland China, there are always Mc Donald's around the train station, so people can eat there 24/7 while waiting for their train. For me, if my train arrives during midnight, I will also go to McDonald’s rest until dawn. So I guess this is quite different from the US. What I want to say here is that, a restaurant would bond to people's life closer if they do something more than eating. But I also wonder why and how the extra function in McDonal’s happen in China?

[Xiaohong Lin]

Hello, everyone. My name is Xiaohong Lin and I currently teach Mandarin and Exploring Asian culture in a charter high school,  Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I like the weather best here. It is a coastal city, not too cold and hot. I come from China but I haven't visited other countries in East Asia. The pandemic changed my teaching style a lot. At the beginning, I taught everything virtually, then transferred to hybrid mode, where I have to use technology a lot. So how to engage students and let them stay on task becomes the top of my teaching. It also affected my teaching curriculum a lot during the pandemic, but fortunately we are going back to in-person in the upcoming semester. It is a great pleasure to participate in this workshop with you guys and look forward to learning and seeing you all!

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