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The people's republic of china culture
The people's republic of china culture
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In his memoir River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Peter Hessler explains his time teaching English in the town Fuling. However, he paints a portrait of China that defies the preconceptions that a Westerner would have. Furthermore, while doing so, he discusses all the personal challenges and experiences that one would have in being a westerner in China at the time period. Ultimately, however, the value of his book comes from the image that he paints, which shows a side of the country that many do not know. One of the strengths of the novel is how it parallels his own journey living in Fuling. When the memoir begins, he has very little knowledge of Chinese and knows almost no one in the town. As he continues, however, he begins to learn more Chinese, and even some of the local dialect. The reader then sees his knowledge of Chinese growing. For instance, in the beginning he mentions a sign on a trail that he routinely ran on. At first, he can barely read the sign. Later on, he revisits the same site, and has the ability to read the sign completely. Due to this parallelism, the reader almost feels as if they, too, are learning. Another strength in his writing is …show more content…
Instead of talking about traveling in one of the big cities like Shanghai or Beijing, he discusses life in a relatively small area. By doing so, he creates a picture that may not be what people know. For instance, he describes the life and struggle of the various farmers that live near Fuling, as well as the “stick-stick soldiers” who act as porters. Additionally, he describes their hopes and dreams of the future. For example, one man he talked to wished to eventually have his own car, which would be a luxury in that part of the country. That is just one example of the many other people who wished to own similar items, including cell phones, beepers and videodisc
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...
With the perception of a bright and new beginning they willingly forced themselves to forget about the “colors of the Beijing sky” and “what they no longer could bear hope for” (Chang 33, 29). Sacrificing their past life, they wanted to give their son Charles a life of fulfillment and opportunity in the land of dreams, America. Their Chinese culture and traditions were neglected in the corner of their basement and the American lifestyle was rapidly immersing the Hwangs family. With the pressure to learn and comprehend this new American culture, the relationship between father and son slowly became disconnected. Ming’s demand to forget his past and the pressure to absorb new cultural ways, took a toll on the relationship between him and his son causing it to drift and become almost non-
There might be an emotional response at the tragedy of thousands of people plucked from their homes to live in a foreign place, but it is far more effective to show these struggles through the eyes of one person, rather than from an economic or or national viewpoint. Anyi does exactly this in “The Destination”. Anyi never forgets the individual hardships of each character, she demonstrates what “It was not easy to live in Shanghai” (Anyi 137) means to each person. Characterizing their hardships with compassion and understanding that, young or old, changes in China had an effect on all, and all have the right to acknowledge
Timothy Brook’s book, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China is a detailed account of the three centuries of the Ming Dynasty in China. The book allows an opportunity to view this prominent time period of Chinese history. Confusions of Pleasure not only chronicles the economic development during the Ming dynasty, but also the resulting cultural and social changes that transform the gentry and merchant class. Brook’s insights highlight the divide between the Ming dynasty’s idealized beliefs, and the realities of its economic expansion and its effects. Brook describes this gap through the use of several first hand accounts of individuals with various social statuses.
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.
However, Chunming possesses a different approach on searching for a better life. Not only that, Chunming stresses the real meaning of “purpose” moving to the city. However, the difference with Chunming is, she does not only promote self-purpose to herself, but to other struggling Chinese workers as well. This is evident on the diaries she makes. On one of her diary, she states, “What’s important is: What kind of person do you want to become in the future? For what purpose have we traveled thousands of miles and left our homes behind to come out to work---To earn money! (68). Chunming using the word “we” suggests that she does not only speak for herself, but she encourages for Chinese workers to look for their purpose as well. For Chunming, without purpose means there is no point in moving to the city. This complicates her economic exigencies because say readers assume that she is feeling as though she lost her purpose---she can also go back to her diary for self-motivation which can lead to success. Therefore, her diary is a symbol for her bold imagination or even great ambitions. However, Chunming’s diary is not the only thing that defines her bold imagination. Trying to make her quality of life better, Chunming chose a different path to make money. Due to her impressive imagination, she started working for a company that requires selling hangers and molding parts. It is almost like
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
...had gotten a document about China from the Europeans, and that wasn't just about their type of government, but what the government did, and what their economy and social life was like.
What is so brilliant about this novel is the absolutely compelling way that it portrays the world through the eyes of a young boy. Jim was 11 when the Japanese seized Shanghai and 15 when the war ended. Throughout the novel, everything is seen as Jim sees it. It is his interpretation of the confusing events that is given, along with his strange thoughts about the war. The "real" knowledge of adults is not allowed to intrude and there is no attempt to preach a particular morality or make any specific point.
This is evident in the persistence of elderly characters, such as Grandmother Poh-Poh, who instigate the old Chinese culture to avoid the younger children from following different traditions. As well, the Chinese Canadians look to the Vancouver heritage community known as Chinatown to maintain their identity using on their historical past, beliefs, and traditions. The novel uniquely “encodes stories about their origins, its inhabitants, and the broader society in which they are set,” (S. Source 1) to teach for future generations. In conclusion, this influential novel discusses the ability for many characters to sustain one sole
When she arrives, she feels somehow proud to be Chinese. But her main reason why she went back home is to reflect her mother past life on her present life. Through the setting and her relatives, Jing Mei learns the nature of Chinese American culture. The main setting takes place in China, effects of the main character’s point of view through changing her sense of culture and identity. The time period plays a large role on the story, there is disconnect between the mother and daughter who came from different culture. In “A Pair of Tickets”, we learn it’s a first person narrator, we also learn detail of what the narrator is thinking about, detail of her past and how life compared to China and the US are very different. The theme is associated with the motherland and also has to deal with her mother’s death and half sisters. Her imagination of her sister transforming into adult, she also expected them to dresses and talk different. She also saw herself transforming, the DNA of Chinese running through her blood. In her own mind, from a distance she thinks Shanghai, the city of China looks like a major American city. Amy Tan used positive imagery of consumerism to drive home her themes of culture and identity, discovering her ancestral
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Hoobler, Dorothy, Thomas Hoobler, and Michael Kort, comps. China: Regional Studies Series. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Globe Fearon, 1993. 174-177.
Retrieved March 21, 2001, from the World Wide Web: http://english.peopledaily.com. Chinatown Online is a wonderful site with an abundance of information about China. http://www.chinatown-online.com/. Henslin, J. M. (1999). The Species of the Species. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach (4th ed.).
The Warring States is the subject and title of Griffith’s third chapter, which gives an enlightening look at the life and times in China after the defeat of the rule of Chin at Ching Yang in 453. (p. 20) The country was divided into eight individual warring sects (with the exception of Yen...