Rickshaw Boy “Beijing—filthy, beautiful, decadent, bustling, chaotic, idle, loveable and ancient city, is the only friend Xiangzi got. Rickshaw boy also known as Camel Xiangzi written by famous Chinese realistic writer Laoshe. The novel describes the tragic life of a rickshaw puller in Beijing of the 1920s, who tries to fight destiny and eventually destroyed by his fate and surrender to the society. It reflects the ancient Chinese society during 1920s before and after the Opium War. The downfall of a noble person is not only caused by his fatal flaws, but also the environment the character living in. Xiangzi’s experiences reflects the Chinese cultural themes of oppression and exploitation in the 1920s, showing the importance of literature in …show more content…
In chapter eight “Accident”, after Xiangzi first time got enough money to buy his new rickshaw, a corrupted police officer finds him and threaten Xiangzi to give the money to him otherwise he will accuse Xiangzi stealing. “Hurry up, give the money already, my people are waiting outside. They are not as kind as me. I am telling you Xiangzi, today, I can let you live or I can kill you right here like killing an ant!” says Officer Sun. Author uses one officer to represent the whole society. Officer Sun symbolized the corruption among the government. His threatening is also the beginning downfall of Xiangzi. Through a small character in a big government system, the author dramatically proves the entire political system abusing its power. When police officers can threat an innocent civilian and takes away his money as they like, how good the government can be? Author also suggests that during 1920s, poor people’s lives are worse than money and goods, only the people who have power and money can survive. Single individualist’s hard work or surrender won’t change their …show more content…
“People were used to indifference themselves from animals, but now they are trying to drive others back to animals.” Says by Laoshe in the book cover. Animals are merciless, heartless, they barely know what love, caring and compassion is. Eating and mating are two things they do for their entire lives, but people are different. We are called people because we love and care about each other. However, in the society of Rickshaw boy, in order to gain more advantages and profit, people rather re-join the animals. Rich people use lower class worker to death and treat them as animals, but on the other hand, when rich people give up their compassion and love, they are also ironically becoming the animals as well. In chapter 19 “Boss Liusi”, Liusi is an owner of a rickshaw factory, he always afraid of losing his all money, even for his own daughter. He uses rickshaw pullers to death. The poor old man “Lao Matou” and his grandson were frozen to death on the street because Liusi forced them to work in storm in winter. More ironically, they dead right in front of a restaurant where Liusi was celebrating his birthday with his friends. His actions are nothing but an animal. When he ran away with his money and Xiangzi’s two years income, he destroyed most of Xiangzi’s
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
In the Chinese detective novel, Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, a view into the Chinese judicial system during the Tang dynasty is provided. After reading the novel, one finds that the Chinese judicial system worked in similar but also in different ways compared to modern day judicial systems around the world. In order to notice this correlation, this paper will analyze the responsibilities and measurements the judge had to undergo in order to solve the crimes that occurred in his district. The judge or magistrate during the Tang dynasty had a lot of power, “this government official united in his person the functions of judge, jury, prosecutor and detective” (IX). Judges had full responsibility and authority over all phases of the life of the
The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is an educational historical novel of northeastern China during the seventeenth century. The author's focus was to enlighten a reader on the Chinese people, culture, and traditions. Spence's use of the provoking stories of the Chinese county T'an-ch'eng, in the province of Shantung, brings the reader directly into the course of Chinese history. The use of the sources available to Spence, such as the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling convey the reader directly into the lives of poor farmers, their workers and wives. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang consists on observing these people working on the land, their family structure, and their local conflicts.
There are many things that most people take for granted. Things people do regularly, daily and even expect to do in the future. These things include eating meals regularly, having a choice in schooling, reading, choice of job and a future, and many more things. But what if these were taken away and someone told you want to eat, where and when to work, what you can read, and dictated your future. Many of these things happened in some degree or another during the Chinese Culture Revolution under Mao Zedong that began near the end of the 1960’s. This paper examines the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie and a book by Michael Schoenhals titled China’s Culture Revolution, 1966-1969. It compares the way the Chinese Cultural Revolution is presented in both books by looking at the way that people were re-educated and moved to away, what people were able to learn, and the environment that people lived in during this period of time in China.
China has gone through many changes in its history. Changes include economic, political, and social. In the early 1500 and throughout history, mostly all social classes followed Confucianism. Confucianism is a type of religion based on an ideal society (Chang 2012, 22). China was molded though Confucianism but that slowly deteriorated as years went on. One main group that has been a main part in these changes is the Chinese literati. The Chinese literati include the higher-class people such as officials and scholars. The Chinese literati were the dominant social class during the 1500’s but their power slowly decreased throughout history. Throughout my paper, I will explain the Chinese literati involvement as centuries passed.
of three sons. But as time goes on, Wang Lung becomes rich and he loses his attraction for
There is no better way to learn about China's communist revolution than to live it through the eyes of an innocent child whose experiences were based on the author's first-hand experience. Readers learn how every aspect of an individual's life was changed, mostly for the worst during this time. You will also learn why and how Chairman Mao launched the revolution initially, to maintain the communist system he worked hard to create in the 1950's. As the story of Ling unfolded, I realized how it boiled down to people's struggle for existence and survival during Mao's reign, and how lucky we are to have freedom and justice in the United States; values no one should ever take for
According to him the turbulence never brought order to the community. The authority is with persons who were strong physically but not educated, they expected Mr. Chui to be silent because he looked weak physically compared to them, but he emerges as the most talkative (Ha Jin, 2017). The policemen’s actions were an injustice to Mr. Chui, such as wrongly interpreting his jokes and calling him a criminal ending up to imprisoning him. He had to overcome his own inflexibility and arrogance so that he would be left free. In a real situation, those who try to challenge the authority on important issues are stopped because they reveal unacceptable conducts like misuse of funds, corruption, and oppression of workers. They are shut down by either being passed through difficulties when trying to undergo important processes especially those involving the state of law, imprisonment or even
The notion of individualism is extremely important in exercising the duty people have to cease from the...
In the article of "Why do species matters?" by Lilly-Marlene Russow, the author establish the desire of species,, why individuals tend to treat living being (creature) distinctively in light of the fact that they are an alternate animal groups; and furthermore treat certain creatures of an animal groups with more thought. She additionally emphasize on the issue which is figuring out what commitments a man may have toward one creature over another.Russow argues that one commitment toward animals for some is to secure declining or endangered species, yet this does not really stretch out to the whole types of that animal. As indicated
The Chinese people experienced rapid changes, in government and their own culture in the 20th century. In the book, Wild Swans, by Jung Chang, she depicts the experiences of not only oppression and suffering, but the development of the communist revolution, under Mao. Also, to show how the Chinese people, women in particular, fought against impossible odds by interweaving historical and personal stories from the twentieth century China.
Literature’s a best friend that is always at your side. It gives you a sense of belonging, guides you, and provides an escape from all your troubles and worries. Snow Falling in Spring, a memoir by Moying Li, takes readers into her rocky past as she endures some of China’s most tempestuous times. Throughout these turbulent times, literature remains a haven for Moying Li and guides her on the path to becoming the influential woman she is today. Moying Li loses the innocence of her childhood when the draconian claws of Chairman Mao and the Red Guard wrench it away.
At that time, the police was the hero of the world, the social order was relatively good. ; at that time, unlike the case so complex at today’s world,
Zhao Zhenkai also known as Bei Dao is a Chinese born in Beijing, China. He’s one of the most outstanding, extraordinary and distinguished Chinese poet of his generation. By many, he’s seen and considered as one of the major writers in modern China. Bei Dao which literally means “Northern Island” is the pen name of this Chinese poet and he’s won copious international awards for his poetry, he’s been nominated severally for the Nobel Prize in literature and he’s an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and letters. He’s also an author of short stories. He’s known through his writing as a critical thinker who creatively constitute a driving force culture and he’s seen as a pervasive, Insuppressible media machine that is incessantly grinding lives into story lines and human voices into carefully gleaming sound bites. Bai’s poetry core concern at this time is a solicitation for the reimposition of personal space and life’s ordinariness against a general indigence of humanity in china for the past ten years. Bai has written many poems which challenge the issue of a corrupt society, abuse of power and bloody landscape of the fascist dictatorship in China. Some of Bei Dao’s books of poetry and essay include, Blue house (2000), Unlock (2000), Midnight Gate (2005), The August Sleeper (1988), Old Snow (1991) and at the Sky’s Edge Poems (1991-1996) and untitled.
Police force has always been an indispensible appendage of the state organization in almost all the civil societies of the world. Of late the duties of