Clever Hans

The immortalization of the seven peaks of the Taishan Mountain is critical to understanding the cultural significance of the temple. The Temple of Heaven has two main altars along with some smaller altars. Of the two main ones, the first is called the Circular Mound of Heaven, and the other is the Altar of Prayer for Harvest. At the time when the temple was created, China was plagued with ill weather and famines, because of which it became important for the people to pray to the Gods for a…

The international arena is full of rapid change, challenges, and uncertainty. Scholar use theoretical tools to further understand global politics. The most prominent theory driven tools used today are Realism and Liberalism. These two theories vary in definition and people ascribe to them as ways of viewing the world, predicting the future of events and furthering their understanding of state behavior. Two great books that exemplify such theories are “The Tragedy of Great Powers” by John J.…

Han Shaogong captures the emotion and experiences of the Cultural Revolution, and the Down to the Countryside Movement from the perspective of an educated youth in his novel, “A Dictionary of Maqiao.” In the novel, the reader follows an educated youth as he travels to the countryside as a part of Mao’s “Down to the Countryside Movement.” The “Down to the Countryside Movement” was an effort by Mao Zedong to eradicate the anti-bourgeois thinking that he believed was prevalent in his country. Mao…

The second type of transgression against more conservative, traditional Chinese values is the portrayal of gender fluidity in The Butterfly Lovers. It is no new concept or phenomenon in many other parts of the world. For example, gender variant individuals, known as two-spirit people, are a part of the indigenous Native community. Two-spirit individuals often hold important shaman and ritual roles in their society (Kimmel, 2000). These individuals are born biologically a specific sex, but can…

Introduction Taiwan is a small island located in Southeast Asia, right next to Japan and the Philippines. As of 2015, the population of this country is about 23.4 million, across an area of 13, 972 square miles. Taiwan is predominately Chinese making up most of their population. Thus, their official language is a Chinese dialect called Mandarin, also known as Guoyu. About two-thirds of Taiwan is covered by mountains, including the tallest mountain in northeast Asia known as Jade Mountain…

One of the honoured accomplishments of my life was earning my undergraduate degree, in spite of the struggles I faced during my early adulthood. My future seemed to point in the opposite direction of success due to the financial problems that my parents faced in sending me and my four siblings to school. I managed to get part-time jobs at local retail stores during the vacations so as to help my parents with my tuition fee. I saw a changed world opening up to me, seeing a motivating environment,…

Article Hagiwara, Y. and Trudell, C. 2015a, ‘Toyota warns of tougher China market, raises Japan target’, Bloomberg, 4 August, viewed 21 Aug 2015, Summary Hagiwara and Trudell (2015a) elucidate Toyota’s challenges in responding to the declining growth of the Chinese economy. The article also discusses Toyota’s plans to expand their Japanese operations in order to compensate for their recent performance in the Chinese market. Whilst being affected by China’s economic crisis, Toyota continued to…

China and Rome both structure their societies very similarly through their military, social structure, and religions. And while these civilizations were great, when their empires fell, their falls were from the same source of problems. These civilizations also had differences through how they first started expanding, how the people they conquered assimilated, what their empire were influenced by, and what happened to China and Rome after their falls. A major similarity between China and Rome…

Confucianism and its key values Confucianism is the mainstream value of Chinese people. The ideas of Confucius strongly affect Chinese people’s mind and behavior. Confucianism is a very important part in Chinese history and culture. it acts like intangible guidelines for people to consider what is morally good and bad. Chinese people need to study the Analects of Confucius since primary school. The thoughts of Confucius are so broad and complicated. There are several key values of Confucianism…

In the novel, River Town, Peter Hessler writes about his time teaching English and American Literature in Fuling, China. Hessler came about this opportunity by volunteering in the Peace Corps. Hessler taught classes in writing and speaking, but most of his time was devoted to teaching literature to third-year students. Throughout the book, Hessler also describes his time in Fuling. His intensive detail about the small fishing villages in the mountain, the housing situation the students have on…