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.