My thoughts on Deng Xiaping

My views after I watched the Tiananmen Square massacre were that of shock and disgust. I was amazed at how Deng Xiaoping ordered his troops to basically kill anyone who was in the square at the time. I did not know the context for the reason the Chinese were protesting in Tiananmen square or the reason why the government responded so violently. I thought that the Chinese were protesting for democracy and democratic rights but after reading an article I realized that the Chinese barely even knew what democracy was. Rather, they were protesting against inflation, police brutality, media censorship, human rights abuses and cramped student dormitories. They weren't protesting for democracy but just better rights in general. Another article complicated my original reaction to Deng's crackdown on the protests because it stated that in order for Deng to keep China from falling apart he had to act violently to keep central power. Deng Xiaoping knew that if he had to put down the revolution at any cost or there would be an uprising. It also made me think about the possibilities; what would China be like today if those same people in Tiananmen Square had overthrown the government, it would have been chaos. The only thing I don't understand is why Deng Xiaoping and the Chinese Government just couldn't have given them some more rights instead of killing them all.

How "To Live" part two relates Mao

We returned to “To Live” during the Great Leap Forward. This part of the movie lets us delve even deeper into the life of an average Chinese person under the rule of Mao. This part of the movie shows us more of the social life than before. I think a key part that shows the social life was during dinner in the community kitchen when the son dumped noodles on another kid’s head for bullying his sister. The father then calls the son, and therefore the father, a revolutionary just because he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to do. This shows how many people were fearful of being against Mao because if you were you would be severely punished. Chinese people back then basically worshipped Mao and did whatever he said, and Mao said that reactionaries should be punished. Since they are devoted to Mao, people will do whatever it takes not to become a reactionary, such as disrupt the community kitchen. Another important scene is when school kids come to tell the mother that the son needs to go to school to help smelt steel. This showed me a surprising insight into life during that time period; that even the kids were worked so hard until they didn’t even have the energy to stay awake. This then leads to the death of the son because he was asleep against a wall when a truck crashed into it and killed him. We stopped at the scene were Fugui and his wife are mourning the death of their son and refused all sorts of help, such as money, from the man who killed their child.

How "To Live" part one was a mini history lesson

The movie starts off during somewhere in the 1940's following a man named Fugui. Fugui is quiet a rich man and shows how a typical upper-class person’s life would be. However, atypical of a normal Chinese person, Fugui spends all his money and loses his house gambling. After this, he has to work as a puppeteer, which then led him and his partner to be conscripted by the Chinese Nationalist Army. The part where Fugui is taken also shows many more men around him being taken in; men being taken from their homes and jobs to join the Nationalists army was very common during the time period of the first Chinese civil war. “To Live” shows the hard life of being a soldier during the first civil war by showing how many died and how ill-equipped the army was. Many people were killed by the communists but even more died of the cold, hunger and diseases. The movie then skips ahead in time to the time of the Great Leap Forward. This part of the movie portrays history by giving the viewing an insight into how life would be like during that period. It shows how people had to give up so much to smelt steel but were still enthusiastic about the revolution.

The 500 year story of Wave 4: Decades of Disasters

The 500 period that started around 1370 and ended at about 1900 was one full of dismal events for china. The main theme during this period was one decades of disaster, around every ten years a tragedy occurred in China. One of the earliest events, and maybe the most disastrous, was the introduction of Christianity. Christianity was brought to China by the many Western explorers and missionaries that were traveling the seas at the time. At first the missionaries and Confucians got along, as shown in the relationship between Matteo Ricci and the Ming Court. But the relations soon dissolved and the Western Christians wanted the Chinese Christians to stop practicing their beliefs and so on. This led to the Rites Controversy, the first of the disasters. This downfall in the relationship between the West and China indirectly led to many other catastrophes such as the Opium wars and Taiping Rebellion. The Taiping Rebellion was another event in Chinese history where Religious strife led to conflict. The leader of this rebellion, Hong Xiuquan, thought he was the brother of Jesus and needed to purge China of its corruption. His revolution didn't succeed but it did result in needless deaths. There was a constant struggle between Religions throughout this 500 year period. Another important theme that occured during this dynasty was that of political strife. There was major disagreement between the governments of Great Britain and China. The first major political strife was the first opium war which opened China's doors to oncoming calamities such as the second opium war and the Boxer Rebellion. Event after terrible event has made this time period for China one of great struggle. I believe the main theme, or trend was that of political and religious strife with foreigners.

Wave Three, Top Five

This is a list of my top five things that interest me from least to most interesting:

5. The Lute: A Rhapsody Extract

This piece of poetry was written by Xi Kang during the Period of Disunity. It caught my attention as I scrolled through pieces written by the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Groves because it is so true and is a great example of the types of writings during the Period of Disunity. His first paragraph caught my attention right off the bat because of the interesting concepts he wrote about. In his first paragraph Xi Kang talks about how music brings solace to people who live in poverty and deal with hunger, and how music will never get boring as tastes do. He also says that music will never decay and will never die like objects do an. Reading this first paragraph, new ideas sprung into my head as I had never thought of the usefulness of music until then. The extracts from The Lute were interesting to me because before reading this I didn’t really think of a lute being anything of interest but now I see it as Xi Kang did, not just an instrument but a tool used to bring peace and tranquility.

4. Zen Buddhism
Zen Buddhism is quite interesting because it came from the same hearth as the other types of Buddhism such as Vajrayana and Theravada Buddhism, but its values are so very different. Zen Buddhism was so influential in many Asian countries but it didn’t even originate from its heart, India. Buddhism spread from India to China, from where it flourished and changed to other forms of Buddhism, like Zen Buddhism. Buddhism’s beliefs are based on a man named Siddhartha Gautama, or more commonly known as the Buddha. It started in India around450 BC but only migrated to China at around 100 CE. Zen Buddhism is a branch of Mahayana and is known as Chan Buddhism in China (it is called Zen Buddhism in Japan). What I like most about Zen Buddhism is the belief that if one is devoted to Buddhism than that person shall be absolved.

3. Woodblock printing
I found woodblock printing interesting because the oldest printed book found was miniature Buddhist book dating back to 650 to 670 CE, which was way earlier than any printed script found in Europe. The development of Woodblock printing was a key event in Chinese history. It allowed for the mass production of scripts and books which made books more available to the people which led to a higher literacy rate in China. This then prompted more and more lower class Chinese to take and pass the Imperial Examinations. Even though the early Chinese woodblock printing method was slow and tedious it worked better than hand writing every script and it was the first step towards mass production of writings. I found this interesting because I always thought the Europeans were the first to invent the printing press and I was also amazed to see how much earlier the Chinese developed a printing press than the Europeans.


2. Martial Arts in China
Did you know that the term “Kung Fu” doesn’t specifically relate to martial arts? Because I sure didn’t; kung fu just refers to any accomplishment that attained through hard work or the development of a skill. The term in Chinese that specifically relates to martial arts is Wushu. Another fact that surprised me was that over the thousands of years since Wushu, or kung fu has developed hundreds of different styles have formed. Martial arts were practiced in the Shang dynasty (1766-1066 BCE) but modern kung fu techniques weren’t developed till later. However the thing that surprised me the most was how Kung Fu is not used for self defense or attacks as many other martial arts, but it is used to harness chi or improve fitness and tranquility.


1. Leisure activities
The tang period was renowned for its leisure activities and how the upper class spent their free time. It was interesting to see how developed the social world of the upper class was compared to the rest of China and to the rest of the world. The upper class were way higher in quality of life than the lower class of china but both experienced higher quality of living during the Tang period than before. Not only did the Chinese during the Tang period have much leisure time but they also celebrated many holidays such as the Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, was one of the biggest events in ancient Chinese life. It was quite cool to see how even though Chinese New Year was created so long ago it is still celebrated today.