After reading CHINA ROAD, Chapters 8-15, share FIVE specific insights Gifford makes about Chinese culture that you find important, and ONE specific question you have after finishing the reading.
Please use 2-3 sentences for each observation, and cite page numbers, so we can all follow your thinking.
Post your reading response below, as part of this blog thread.
Xie Xie,
Dr. W
Chapter 8 (page 86): The three things on Gifford’s China Checklist: a local guide, a safe cell phone SIM card, and the right pair of underwear. vs. The China MOJO Checklist: map of Beijing, Passport, and hotel business card.
ReplyDeleteChapter 9 (page 98-105): The three explanations for why China has maintained its current political state is for political, ideological, and social purposes.
- Political: The unification of China under one major political banner, the first being the Qin Dynasty and the most recent being the Communist Party.
- Ideological: The Han Dynasty combining the ideology of Confucianism with Legalism into Chinese society allowed the ruling family not only to have a divine right to rule, but to have a religion controlled by the government, which would prevent the religious sector from creating checks and balances upon the ruling family.
- Social: The idea established by Confucianism that “man is by nature good” allowed for corruption to creep into the ruling classes of China by requiring not external checks.
Chapter 11 (page 130): The Communist Party persecuted Christians until 1976 when “religious freedom” came to China. Now there are 75 million Christians in China with only 70 million in the Chinese Communist Party.
Chapter 12 (page 141): Culture, rather than land, is what has defined China. It was more pertinent what religion and government an individual followed than where he or she lived.
Chapter 15 (page 180): A family planning official is a head nurse who checkups on families to make sure the wife has no more than the “legal” amount of children. If a woman is pregnant with a child she is “not allowed” to have the head nurse tries to persuade her to have an abortion, if she refuses the local police department will bring the woman to the nearest clinic by force, even if the woman is past her first trimester.
- Shi biyao de – “it is necessary”
- Zhong guo ren tai duo le – “there are too many people in China”
Question: How many miles is Route 312? Where does it start? Where does it end?
87) I don't plan on stumbling across something could have me detained. But if that situation comes where I'm being interrogated by police, i'll have special made under garments to hide all the sensitive values I muster up. (I don't look for trouble, sometimes it finds me.)
ReplyDelete107) Attention! This art is not for the fragile psyche of westerners. Modern baby art with the most decrepit renditions.
113) There may be no capitol city in the west but there is a Holy Mountain. I'd visit the hermit too if were trying to figure out Dao or "the way".
117) A cup of wine, under the flowering trees;
I drink alone, for no friend is near.
Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,
For he, with my shadow, will make three men.
I like the poem a lot except I'm thrown off by the last line. Usually the moon is referred to as feminine object.
146) "We have such low thresholds of annoyance in our cozy Western world." This being said, the Chinese remind of old timers in America who grew up in the 30's, 40's or 50's and cuts no slack for younger generations. Just deal with it, is what I'm sensing from the Chinese mind state.
Even with all the negative connotations in China, why is it that I can't wait go?
1. (pg 88)- Henan is thought of as a place that is very big but the people are bad. Nongovernmental organizations state that there are at least 300,000 people infected with HIV in the province and this is caused and covered up by the Communist government!
ReplyDelete2. (pg 98)- Not checking up on state power has made human rights something of a dream for some. The power of the state is unrestrained and that is because there were not check ups on the state government when it was created although the west was doing it.
3. (pg 108) Traditional chinese art said a lot about the way the Chinese viewed the world. They focused more on the mountains, rivers, and human figures that were playing a large role in their society at the time.
4. (pg 136) The fear of slowing down economic growth in China has lead the government to not treating the sewage or factory outflow. Most of the water(not bottled) is dangerous polluted. SO DONT DRINK IT!!!
5. (pg 166) The fact that the government allowed the showing of River Elegy goes to show that they were letting the intellectuals explore ideas about which way the government should go.
Question: Why did they choose to go with a communist government instead of a democracy? Should I already know this? I can't remember...
1 Page 87-88) I guess every country has their own version of New Jersey. But this is the fist time I have ever heard of this province so I guess the CCP has done a good job of keeping it under wraps.
ReplyDelete2 Page 100) I never knew just how big the terracotta army was, I never thought it was 8,000 statutes. I thought it was 100 or less. All made for one man to protect him in death.
3 Page 114) I really enjoy that the religions of China are more schools of thought and philosophies rather than just a religion. I believe that they provide more depth than the Abrahamic religions because they don't really provide an outlook on the world that can be explained beyond "Well, because its in the bible, Torah, Qur'an.
4 Page 162-164) It is sad to see Tibet in such dire straits. To have them compared to the natives Americans brings the subject home to something we should all know about. Having such a great culture at risk of fading into obscurity is unnerving.
5 Page 167) Gifford talks about how China may never be able to preform independent thinking. Its hard to imagine what 2000 years of imperialism and suppression of freedoms has done to the country's psyche. The west has had generally democratic rule for a few hundred years and already nobody is willing to give up rights that they exercise on a regular basis.
Question: IS emperor Qin the only man to have such a lavish tomb, or are there others who have such a tomb?
Hen Hao for your posting, Mojo colleagues!
ReplyDeleteMissing:
Colin
Katrina
Jennifer
Rob
Git those posts up!
10 days and counting,
Dr. W
1. Foreign nongovernmental organizations estimate that there are at least 300,000 people infected with HIV in Henan province alone, and the epidemic has been entirely caused, exacerbated, and then alone covered up by the local Communist Party government. AIDS is a problem that, in the Western mind, has not been largely associated with China. The epidemic that has decimated southern Africa has not yet reached such proportions in Asia, although the United Nations has warned that there could be 10 million cases in China by 2010 unless serious action is taken. China does have problems similar to those of the rest of the world when it comes to the drug and sex trades, which are both growing rapidly. But Henan province has been the center of another, perhaps even more shocking. source of HIV/AIDS: government-run schemes encouraging farmers to sell their blood. (page 88-89).
ReplyDelete2. In the 1980s, in art as in so many areas, China emerged from its Maoist shell and tried to work out where to pick up after a thirty-year assault on traditional Chinese culture. The result has been a mix of a rewind to establish Chinese forms and a fast-forward to a completely postmodern style, which pushes the boundaries of art even more than Western postmodernism. If traditional Chinese art was too rooted in tradition, modern Chinese art is in danger of being completely deracinated. This has not stopped contemporary Chinese art from becoming hugely fashionable among China’s nouveaux riches, and also internationally. In November 2006, a painting by modern artist Liu Xiaodong sold at a Beijing auction for $2.7 million. (page 108).
3. Since the 1980s, the church has gone through several decades of astonishing growth, filling the spiritual vacuum left by the demise of Communism. The Party has now quietly accepted that it will not be able to get rid of religion. In fact, amazingly, Chinese officials will admit off the record that Chinese people need something to believe in. But the growth in numbers does not mean that all Christians are treated well, this again being a choice that comes down to local officials. If they don’t like Christianity, they can make life difficult for believers, as they can for anyone. If they don’t mind Christianity, then life is smoother, as it seems to be here in Shuangzhao. (page 131)
4. A problem in poor regions is that few of the sons of the farmers can find a wife. Many women aborted female fetuses in the early 1980s, when the one-child policy was introduced because if they could have only one child, they wanted it to be a son. Now that generation of men has come to marrying age, and there are too few women available. Again, the problem is the same all over China. The government says China will be short 30 million brides by the year 2020. One of the mothers I meet says the only hope is that her twenty-three-year-old son will go to the city and meet a migrant girl there. “He will never find a wife here,” she says. “And even if he does. the bride-price will be too high.” The market economy is working, even in the mate selection. (page 136)
5. It seems as though every time someone starts to think outside the box politically, either the state collapses or the people doing the thinking are crushed. Many people’s mind-sets about science and progress have been changed, but the government will still not allow people to think about political change. (page 167)
My question is did the United Nations prediction come true about the AIDS epidemic in China? Is there actually 10 million cases of AIDS?