Recently the Authoritarian State surpassed Japan in economy. With the government's censoring on media, western countries are unaware of the real China. While it appears that the Chinese economy is doing well and the country seems to be prospering, there are many internal problems within China. All these problems are addressed in the book From the Dragon’s Mouth written by Ana Fuentes. The book features ten stories about real people that each address a different complication.…
On the other hand, the latter story demonstrates how particular elements of the city remained the same, such as the Chinese’s unfavorable attitude towards foreigners. With further analysis of these two tales, the audience can visualize the circumstances that Shanghai experienced prior to and during the control of the CPC. With reference to the story “(Tofu) Worker Poet Bao I,” there are several instances that reveal how social infrastructures were…
A Dive Into Culture In the story, “The Old Man Isn’t There Anymore,” the author, Kellie Schmitt, focuses heavily on the differences between Chinese and Western cultures. Schmitt challenges the reader by introducing concepts that were not yet known to the reader and making her recall the differences that she has faced in the past regarding different cultures. Schmitt uses her experience from the past three years of her living in Shanghai, China, she illustrates the contrast between the two cultures using her encounters with her “housemates” in China. By sharing her experience of attending a funeral and living in a house with multiple people, Schmitt effectively demonstrates the gap between the expectations and ceremonies of the Chinese and Western societies.…
“Son of the Revolution” is an autobiography written by Liang Heng. Heng shares his firsthand account of growing up in a very telling era in China. Not only does Heng take us through the milestone events of Mao’s Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, but also through the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the Anti-Rightist Campaign as well as the Socialist Education Campaign. Heng provides a look into these historical pillars in Chinese history in a way that the Golf and Overfield texts could only dream of. It’s a truly breathtaking account of events that are still being felt throughout the nation today.…
This memoir makes sense because of how communism affected their family. When Chen’s family lost their house near the end of the passage, his dad had been discharged from his job, and since their country's government is based on communism, it's very hard to get a job. Also, they weren’t allowed to practice any religion whatsoever. At the last paragraph, Da Chen writes how he had to hide the fact he wasn’t allowed to practice buddhism. It's crazy that if you had lived at that time in China, you would have to hide your religion from other…
A person’s sense of identity is often heavily determined by their views and place in society. Especially in a country like China where there are rigid social norms and morals, different people may have conflicting perspectives about their identity. Gene Luen Yang’s two volume graphic novel, Boxers and Saints, illustrates the parallel stories of two young kids caught up in China’s late nineteenth century Boxer rebellion. Throughout their lives, questions arise about their identity and personal choice of actions. Both Bao and Four Girl are presented with challenging circumstances and experiences that stir their decisions about faith, rebellion, and pursuits.…
Through the third book club meeting, my role as Literary Luminary brought a palette of both hope and despair. Forbidden City does not bode a happy ending, so neither did our discussions. The talk of death and betrayal had set a vice grip around our ideas that translated into our discussions, and dishonesty was quick to be added in that list. However, an unlikely glimmer of hope exists in every dark hour. Firstly, in Forbidden City, many protesters died standing up to the military that was sent to clear them from Tiananmen Square.…
Anthropology 3AC: Research Paper A Comparison of Immigration: Chinese Peril The Yellow Peril, the yellow plague, the yellow spectre, they were all names used to describe the immigration of Chinese immigrants coming from mainland in search of work and jobs. Arriving in the new landscape, most Chinese men took menial jobs as a way to support their families back home and enjoyed a comparatively wealthy way of life compared to back in China where they were treated horribly by their own government, taking their land, political instability and declining economic growth. The first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived from 1850 to 1890 where over 300,000 Chinese immigrants ultimately made the perilous journey, coming in search of “all kinds of labor,…
We all hear stories about our parent’s or our grandparent’s past. Whether it was when we were little at their house, or during a holiday when there was nothing left to talk about. Some would hear stories bigger than what they would ever expect. This happened to Lindo Jong’s daughter. Who heard the story of her mother’s greatest sacrifice.…
Within the story of, “A Pair of Tickets,” the setting is located in China and Jing-mei, one of the daughters of the mother is arriving to meet her long-lost half-sisters. As the background information regarding the mothers’ abandonment of the daughters completes, the three sisters all take a picture in unification and realize that they all look similar to their mother. Therefore, the overall story is a father and his daughter reuniting with the two, once abandoned, sisters. As Jing-mei lives in California and embraces the American culture, the travel experience to China allowed for the first-hand experience of the Chinese culture, society, and overall economical aspect that was portrayed during the journey. The arrival in China allowed…
I grew up walking in two worlds. One foot slapping the concrete sidewalk on the way to my thirteen-story apartment in the bustling ocean-side city of Wenzhou, China, and another thudding on a red dirt road to my grandmother’s hut, where I forced down the worst egg soup (because that’s love). I spent years surrounded by signs of poverty in the rusty pagodas from nearby villages that took the loud, crowded train to the big city in hopes of bringing enough home for a meager supper. They were in the shadows of my own home, forcing my father to migrate to Shanghai for a small teaching job and pushing my preschool teachers to wait with me long after dark while my mom rushed to pick me up from her grueling job at the train station. I was in poverty-adjacent.…
Amy Tan style of writing came from culture impact of the third generation therefore Amy work was highly inspired by her American up bring and her chinese background. Most of Tan’s novel have one similar connection the importance of mother daughter relationship. The Joy Luck Club was made up into sixteen stories each about club members and American born daughters who immigrated from china. The mothers and daughters share stories of there lives about their families in china and the families that they have in the united states. Amy Tan theme of the novel focuses on mother daughter relationship in both culture and also focus past an present generation.…
The Question of Hu by Jonathan D. Spence reconstructs the journey of Father Jean-Francois Foucquet and John Hu from China to Europe during mid-seventeenth century. Throughout the book, Spence addresses several issues on cultural differences between China and Europe, with their varied definitions of sanity, moral obligation, and social status. Hu’s question, after spending almost three years in a lunatic asylum, “why have I been locked up?” raises the question whether Hu is insane or not. Spence provides both supporting and contradicting evidences for Hu’s insanity leaving us to evaluate and come up with a conclusion on our own. My conclusion is that Hu is not clinically insane; he is mistreated and misunderstood by people around him.…
By proposing the question of “when is this ever going to end” Xu Sanguan displays his hopelessness. As rights and freedoms were taken away, the people of China were too weak physically and mentally to fight back. The author uses sugar as a representation of the past because Xu Sanguan’s children no longer remember the sweet joys of life before the Revolution. The youth of China have been conditioned into Mao’s communal thought of being concerned for the present and future of China. The tragedy that has overtaken their lives has made them forget the pleasures and freedoms they had in the past.…
Yiyun Li’s A Thousand Years of Good Prayers reflects Chinese culture in a foreign cultural background. This essay focuses on communication, a significant theme in this short story. Affected by the restrained culture in expressing oneself among Chinese, inadequate communication has led to the broken family relationship between the Chinese woman, Yilan and her father, Mr. Shi, and the broken romantic relationship between her and her husband. This essay will give evidence on how this idea is conveyed through Mr. Shi’s scandal and Yilan’s divorce, and its inspirations to present Chinese society. Mr. Shi’s scandal reflects the extent of surpression in Chinese society by that time, and how it erodes of the parent-child relationship.…