Block+C+Journal+Rachel+Moon


 * Journals **

//Please take a couple of minutes to respond to the reading. What stood out for you? What do you think of it, is it exaggerated?//
 * __2/19__**

Korea is indeed a severely Confucius country. As a student living in Korea, I know that there are severe social rules about elders and age. I know that women used to be repressed by society; they were not considered as equal to men. However, I think that the author of the reading was a little bit exaggerated, because she mentions that until the 20th century, women couldn't even go outside of their home. I don't really think that this is true, for my grandmother had told me that although women were not considered able or ideal for governmental positions, schooling, and other "man" jobs, they were not severely suppressed either. She remembers that her childhood was relatively happy, and she was also home schooled; that is how she learned how to read. But I guess that that's my grandmother's family - they were relatively liberal in bringing up their children. But also, there were other things about the reading that I was not aware of before, such as the huge segregation between men and women.

__**2/23**__ //If Rabbit is too smart for his own good, Owl is the Brain, and Piglet...Pooh...?//

Pooh is the Taoist, who views the world in a positive light all the time. He believes that nothing bad will happen, and because of this philosophy, Pooh can live a content and happy life. Within Hoff's "The Tao of Pooh", there is a section where Rabbit, Owl, Christopher Robin, Pooh, and Piglet talks about how to spell Tuesday. The Owl, although intelligent, is not the most logical or the most enlightened. He spells Tuesday like Twosday, and when Christopher Robin asks what the next day is, Owl says, proudly, that its Thirdsday. Pooh is basically the "uncarved block", which is innocence in one sense and ignorance in another. Piglet is similar to Pooh also. Piglet says, when asked what this day is, he says, "It is today!". He is right, but he is not completely correct. Pooh, the always happy and positive one, says, "My favorite day."

__**2/27**__ // The Tao says that the ruler should "rule by inaction" How do you make sense of this? Is it at all possible?//

By "rule by inaction", it means that the ruler must be passionate, and have a sense of authority, but he must let the nature rule above him. Th ruler must let the nature way of things work, and if the ruler chooses to ignore this, then the parallel of the world will fall. Also, the ruler must not be aggressive - aggressiveness leads to violence within the people. This is the perfect way to rule for the Taoists, for they believe that they have to let the nature be above everything else. As we read in the Tao of Pooh, the "most successful" animal within that book was Pooh, because he had just let the nature flow into whatever direction it needs to flow. He did not try to bend the nature, nor did he try to rule above it. Therefore, a Taoist leader must be responsible for his job; he needs to be arduous about his nation, but he also needs to let the nature flow in the right direction.

__**3/11**__ // Explain right mindfulness and right concentration. Do you see how you could apply this to your daily life? Why or why not?//

Right mindfulness is the controlled cognition. It is most known as the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. This usually begins with an impression induced by thought, but then it does not stay with the mere impression. We interpret them and set them in relation to other thoughts and experiences, which goes beyond our original train of thought. As a result, we often sees things not clearly and instead, obscured. The right concentration refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, or concentration. Concentration is a state where all mental faculities are unified and directed at one particular object or thought. Buddhists practice right concentration through meditation, and this meditating mind focuses on a certain object. I don't really think that we are able to use this in a daily level, in my opinion, because right mindfulness and right concentration both require a certain level of meditation. However, if I were to apply this in my daily life, there would be benefits such as no stress because it does not require a person to multitask.

__** 4/1**__ //In describing Japanese development, a British Professor in 1873 declared that he felt 400 years old by the end of the century. Explain the historical context behind this quote.//

By declaring that he felt like 400 years old, the British Professor says that the Japanese went through a lot of changes in a limited amount of time. The Meiji Reform that had taken in Japan was really quick development, and thus, it was really rapid and tiring. There were too much change in little time, and thus, it was really tiring for the British who had witnessed the reform. The Japanese went through huge development after the Shogun had been abdicated; they adopted western forms of education, they industrialized the country so there were more jobs available, and so on and so forth. I know for a fact that the educational system changed dramatically, such as letting the girls into the scene of learning. This was a really big change, because before, only boys were allowed to learn. There were many disagreements over this resolution, and people, especially the ex-samurai's had rebelled several times in Japan. I guess by saying he felt like 400 years old, the person who had seen all of this development and all of this incredible changes had been amazed as well as tired out.

__**4/13**__ //What do you find most shocking about what you have read so far? How do you make sense of such cruelty?//

I think the most shocking about the Rape of Nanking was how brutal the Japanese soldiers were. They merely treated the Chinese as pigs, something killed without the feeling of guilt. I remember reading within the Rape of Nanking how some of the Japanese soldiers played games while going to Nanking, such as who could kill more men. I think this is cruel and full of injustice. I can compare this horrible massacare with the Holocaust, when the Jews were also killed guiltlessly. Also, I think another thing that was pretty shocking to me was how the Chinese women were treated. They were treated as mere "toilets", and they were often killed and beaten, not to mention raped countlessly. Thousands of women were killed by the Japanese, and those who survived the violence could not bear the scars that were implanted on them.I think the reason why the Japanese did this acts were because of the propagandas and the disappointment. The educational system of the Japanese were based on military and hatred on the Chinese. It was like the Germans when Hitler made the Germans hate the Jewish, and created propagandas about them. Another shocking thing was the abrupt change in the educational system. It was so military, and abusing the children were daily routines.

__**4/28**__ //Is it better to be a Communist or non-communist?//

I believe that neither of the status is beneficial because both side were treated severely. The South Koreans, who were the non-communists, were banished to Pusan because the North Koreans advanced on them. However, the North Koreans, or the Communists, would have to worry about other risks such as what would happen to them, and the other resistances. However, if I had to choose a side, I would choose the North Koreans because they were vulnerable to many injustices, such as execution if you were caught doing something that you were not supposed to do.

__**4/30**__ //Do countries have an obligation to compensate each other for injustices done in time of war?//

I believe that countries do have an obligation to compensate each other for injustices. Many wars of the past, especially large ones, deemed a certain country as responsible for the war and they made the country pay for it. An example of this would be Germany after the World War 1 and 2. They had to apologize and compensate for initiating the war and the injustices they had done during the war. I guess since I'm Korean, I'm more open to the idea of compensating because if you did something wrong, you should be the one to recognize that wrong doing and fix it. It would be harder as the time goes on, when the people living in society are not the people who had lived in the era of the war. They would not want to compensate for the crimes because they weren't the people who had initiated and played a part of the war.

 __**5/8**__ //Explain the meaning of "Shattered Faith" how does it relate to the story?//

"Shattered Faith" can be explained literally, as well as symbolically. Literally, it can mean as something had shattered the faith of Honyong, and in this case, it would be the loss of Yongwoon. Losing her oldest son had caused the narrator extreme pain, and not even her other children and her husband could relieve that pain. Symbolically, Lee's faith in God had been broken. She no longer believes in God, for she cannot believe how much pain she is infliced with during and after the war. I think this is interesting, becuase many people during the war tended to look for God, telling him to save their families. However, after the war, many people were denying God because there were so much debris and damage done to their country. They thought that if there was a God, then there wouldn't be a war.

//Who is the subject? Describe what you see. How is the subject portrayed?// The subject in the picture is obviously Mao Ze Dong, and the picture is basically Mao standing in a middle of a furious river. Mao seems to be bitter than most of the other objects in the picture, such as trees and mountains. Mao is holding a red scroll, since red is the color of communism, we can clearly understand that Mao is holding wisdom of the communism. Mao seems to be walking on top of the water, which can be portrayed as almost parallel to Jesus. Jesus had the power to walk on top of water, and he had the power to control everything. For people who do not know much about Christianity, Jesus was a savior of the people, bringing the words of God to save the people from sin. I think that here, Mao is almost portrayed as a god-like figure.
 * __5/26__**

__**5/29**__ Reactions to Mao - two letters written 1966 by a Chinese middle school teacher and a 19 year old student expressing different reactions to Mao - teacher: "I can't go to sleep...I decided to make today my birthday" - visited Beijing and the Red Guards called him as counterrevolutionaries - committed suicide - student: total opposite to the teacher; wants to withdraw from the communist youth party of China - sentenced to prison for life - released after the Cultural Revolution

Changes during the summer of 1966 - students wanted to spread Mao's thinking - conducted Cultural Revolution - first stage of the C.R. - concentrated on denouncing anti-party - indoors - second stage - active outside - drums, songs, slogans - propaganda began to spread - national flags, slogans, Little Red Book - "Long live Chairman Mao" - middle school students became the Red Guards - hung posters - changed the name of the street shops, enterprises, etc.

Burning Books - except for the books that had the portraits of Mao, they burned every single books - thought that the books contributed to capitalist ideas - books = bourgeoise - Black Gang = people who were enemies of the Cultural Revolution - the black gang were abused and was forced to burn the books

__**6/2**__ //What does it tell you about the cultural revolution?// The first image is of a Buddha statues, and the people are taking it down and is basically sabotaging it. All of the images that follow are people taking down religious figures by destroying it or by taking it down. This tells us that the people during the cultural revolution did not approve of religious figures and either publicly shamed them or destroyed them. The religious figures were considered four-old because they were of old tradition and old belief. Religion, espeically, rely all on the old beliefs and are thus considered to be a extreme four-old.

__**6/4**__
 * Chinese Cultural Revolution**

//1) When was this document written and by whom?// This was written by the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee in 1981, which was after the Cultural Revolution.

//2) According to the document, who was largely to blame for the excesses and mistakes of the Cultural Revolution?// In this document, the blame is put on the Black Gang, which were Lin Biao, Jiang Qing, etc., the people who tried to abdicate Mao and his ideals. This created disasters and chaos.

//3) What errors does the CCP believe Mao was responsible for?// The CCP believed that Mao was responsible for the confusion during the CR. Mao had said that the middle class and the counterrevolutionaries were spying the party, and ultimately trying to control China. Mao believed that in order to stop all of this, they needed to create a cultural revolution and encourage the communist ideas. However, in the end, he actually created confusion in the people because he denounced the Marxist ideas and encouraged the capitalist ideas.

//4) Who seems most responsible according to the document? How does this play into the memory of Mao as a leader and his Cult of Personality?// The document portrays the Black Gang as the one who was responsible for the failures. This plays into the memory of Mao as a leader and his cult of personality because the CCP viewed Mao as in a positive light, while they denounced everyone else that contributed to the Cultral revolution.

//5) What does the CCP believe the consequences of the Cultural Revolution are? (4 of them) each person in your group read one, and explain it to others.// First of all, one of the consequences of the cultural revolution was that there were confusion between the Marxist ideas and the capitalist ideas. It led to the confusing of right and wrong on a series of important theories and policies. Many things that were denounced as revisionist or capitalist during the CR were actually ideas that should be encouraged. It basically led to disintegration of the buildup that Mao had created. Second of all, the confusing of right and wrong led to the confusing the people with the enemy. The people who actually believed in the Marxist ideas were considered as enemy, and the enemy was considered to be an achiever. The whole point of the cultural revolution was to lessen the class struggle, but it actually created confusion between the people and created a line of division between the classes.

//6) Why do you think the document mentions achievements made by China during the Cultural Revolution?// I think that the document mentions achievements made by China during the Cultural Revolution because, as stated in the answer below, the author is Chinese and he is very nationalistic, even if he does not agree with the Cultural Revolution and its ideals.

7) Describe the tone at the end of the document. Why do you think it ends this way? The tone of the author is extremely nationalistic, a typical tone for people during and after the cultural revolution. I think that it ends this way because the author is chinese, and he believes that china is the best, even if he does not agree with the cultural revolution itself.