Allen Bullock HST 407 7/24/2003
Jiang Zemin, as the President of China, will be leading the world's most populous country into the 21st century. A new biography of Mr. Jiang describes him as an economic reformer but not a political reformer and as someone often mistakenly believed to have blundered his way to power. Bruce Gilley is the author of the first western full-length study of the Chinese leader.
Historians, political scientists, and journalists hungry for reliable information about Chinese politics have to rely on official publications, and on the semiofficial and nonofficial accounts that bubble up in Hong Kong. These are the same methods of tracking and analyzing China's political movements that outsiders have used for decades. It is in this Byzantine context that Bruce Gilley has written Tiger on the Brink, a biography of Jiang Zemin and a highly readable account of modern Chinese politics. Unfortunately, Gilley is sharply limited by the same lack of access as every other student of Zhongnanhai. A correspondent for The Far Eastern Economic Review who covered China out of Hong Kong, Gilley has done an admirable job of scouring Chinese-language publications for tidbits about Jiang's personal background. But hamstrung by lack of information, this story of Jiang's decade at the top of China's Communist Party only partly satisfies.
Tiger on the Brink is essentially a first-rate job. However, Gilley had to rely overwhelmingly on secondary sources; as he relates in the preface, the closest he ever got to his subject was when he ran into the portly president in the men's room at the Great Hall of the People. And Jiang left the restroom before a surprised Gilley could think of a question to ask.
The big cat in the book's title apparently refers to China, not Jiang, for it is unlikely that anyone would ever mistake the genial and cautious leader portrayed by Gilley for such a ferocious creature. Gilley reinforces the assessment of Jiang as a politically slippery but tenacious survivor, less tiger than “Mr. Tiger Balm,” a moniker he once gave himself, which Gilley uses to head a chapter. Jiang Zemin emerges from this book as a skilled political tactician, who distinguished himself over nearly 50 years of Communist Party politics not as an intellectual or a fighter but by his ability to get along with superiors and inferiors alike, and by making use of an unsurpassed knack for currying favor with influential men.
Rae Yang’s Memoir “Spider Eaters” is a poignant personal story of a girl growing up amidst the political upheaval during the establishment of People’s Republic of China under Mao Zedong’s Communist leadership. Yang describes the fascinating journey of her life from her early years as the daughter of Chinese diplomats in Switzerland to a student in an elite middle school then a fanatic Red-guard and eventually a laborer in a pig farm. Her experiences through the revolution serve as an eye-opener and lead to her eventual disillusionment of the Communist revolution in China. There are many factors that contributed to her growing discontent with communism such as the anti-rightist movement which was an effort to rule out any criticism against the government, corruption and violence of the party leaders who abused their power and continued to exploit the peasants, the false claim of proletariat dictatorship used merely to eradicate bourgeoisie and further the interests of party members.
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to Market. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. Print.
Although it has been argued that Deng was leading a totalitarian regime, historians tend to overlook the idea that the Chinese have different ideologies and morals than people in the west. Chinese intellectuals who looked to the west as a model for democracy absorbed themselves into the western culture, and believed that everything that China stood for was ‘backward.’ This view of the Chinese society forced the people to hold resentments against Deng, which led to Democratic uprisings and movements. Deng simply wanted to create a better economy for the Chinese people to live in according to Chinese values, but the society did not see it this way as an inflow of western attitudes and beliefs had been embedded into their minds. Deng knew that China’s problems were coming from within the political system, and he attempted to solve these problems, but when he realized that these problems could not be solved, he resorted to more of an authoritarian rather than a democratic regime.
Vince Lombardi, a football coach who led the Green Bay Packers to win two Super Bowl championships, once said, “Leaders are made, they are not born. They are made by hard effort, which is the price all of us must pay to achieve any goal that is worthwhile” (Bio.com). The influence of individuals who have developed strong leadership can be seen in all levels of society, from families to governments. In particular, one individual that stands out throughout history for his lasting leadership is George Washington. Washington was an effective leader who left a lasting legacy and did not let the power he held affect his personal character.
Women, the daughter of a family, mother of children, wife of a husband, are beautiful beings created by a god. In Creation and the Cosmos, a collection of stories about how the world was created, many of the stories tell us that God created both man and woman. Although both men and women was created by a god, a woman’s obligations were different from a man’s. Since the beginning of mankind, women were viewed as secondary citizens. Even the word “mankind” uses the word man rather than woman. Women are the objects of men, owned by their fathers and husbands. They follow the tasks given to them. They stay home, clean, cook, and take care of children, in essence, they are housewives. While the men worked, fought in wars, and were the backbone of
Deng Xiaoping position as a “China’s leader and laid the groundwork for a generation of economic reform. ( Encyclopedia Britannica editors)
Friedberg introduces the root of China’s rise to post Cold-War, when China’ economy began to grow and expand rapidly under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. Though their process of growth and rise to power has been marked by “a mix of insecurity
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
Mark Twain is an experienced writer and knows that when one writes the words are a tool not only to craft a story with their simple meaning but can evoke something simply by the way they are structured. If someone were to expect the worst of Mark Twain and his writing they may say that his story on the earthquake becomes unfocused as it goes on and no longer narrates his experience in an order like the first half. They would emphasis that his narration becomes scattered as he lists these so called “Curiosities” of the earthquake with no obvious structure which in any way fits the first half. In his writing Mark Twain outlines the start of the fabled day of the “‘great’ earthquake.” as though the earthquake is the last thing he expects to occur. And why shouldn’t he “it was just afternoon, on a bright october day.” hardly the setting for such an event. Before and as the earthquake occurs the writing plays out on a classical narrative structure, events stay in order and constantly relate back to Mark Twain. But as the city crumbles around Mark Twain so does the prior structure of the essay. No longer does he refer to himself but goes from event to event with seemingly little care to how they are connected. Before judging any further take a step back. If a person were to find themselves in a disaster how would they process it? Before it occurred it would be likely to play out similar to the thoughts of any other day. And even as it begins one may hold together there composure but soon it is likely to fall apart. What they take in may become scattered, the proper way of thinking falls apart. The structure of the writing does not have a loss of focus in the sense that the author himself loses focus well writing but in the author losing focus during the event itself. And when proper thought falls apart what is left? Instinct. Throughout the latter half of the writing Mark Twain does not once
Rosemary Foot, The Practice of Power: US Relations with China since 1949, (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1995), 96.
Lieberthal, Kenneth (2003). Governing China: From Revolution to Reform. New York City: W.W.Norton and Company
Power is the ability to obtain, retain, and motivate people and to organize informational and material resources to accomplish a task( Leadership, n.d). Power is central to the leadership process in the development of a manager’s self-confidence and willingness to support staff members ( Schmidt & Wilkinson, 1990). The desire for power is universal. From this vantage point, power should be accepted as a natural part of any individual organization. Power is not evenly distributed among individuals or groups, but every individual has some degree of power.
The educational system is plagued by disparities in achievement, the absence of pedagogical reform, and inclusive curricula. When students are deprived of fair and equitable educational opportunities this hinders their ability to flourish and grow into healthy learners. Lundberg and Ornstein said it best, children develop best through a foundation of diverse education, essential elements of the Humanistic Learner Centered ideology, culturally responsive teaching, and culturally responsive curriculum development as well as, character
The great equalizer in America is education, because it provides the surest path to opportunity and social mobility (Golston). Education should be a right not a privilege in order to make the American Dream achievable to all. We do not have a democracy of only the rich are educated. Allan Golston says, “Students deserve an education that will propel them to high school graduation — and success beyond.” Unfortunately, a child’s odds of receiving a great education too often come down to the income of the parents or the color of his or her