The readings for tomorrow seemed to have an overall theme of different corruptions of the government in China. Both short stories detailed wrongdoings of the police as an authority figure. In the short story, “Saboteur”, the police officers who arrested Mr. Chiu took advantage of their power and disrespected Mr. Chiu, his wife and his former student on multiple levels. They even took it as far as torturing the former student for trying to stand up for what was right. In “Bad Joke”, the two men who made a joke about the Party and were arrested for what we consider freedom of speech. The authorities proceeded to charge them with the crime that they may or may not have committed just so someone would take the fall. Basically, both short stories, as said before, detailed the mistreatment of citizens of the country. Situations like these also happen in America which begs the question, is is just human nature to get power hungry or to take advantage as an authority figure? The pages from the reader went in detail about how the authority of a country should run and support its people. It explained details about how a leader is put into power by his people and is therefore there to serve the people and how this may fail due to greed. But the authors proceeded to explain how a country can work to overcome its failures through breaking down the bad, old ways and reconstructing them as well as incorporating new ideas to enhance the country.
Bad Joke
Bad Joke was a very interesting, clever, and somewhat funny reading. The short story begins with policemen surrounding a building to arrest two men. Next, it does a little background story about how two men walk into a store and one of the men wanting to buy a pair of rubber loafers. Then, once the man found out the price of them increased he proceeded to give the shoes back, and said a “joke” as he left with the other man. The women helping the man in the store overheard this so called “joke,” and soon it spread like wildfire all over the City. Fast-forward to the police station, the two men were being interrogated about the “joke” they said, and what the context around which chairman they were targeting. The men kept up the process by saying how its all a misunderstanding but later they end up getting sent to the city prison for making up the “joke.” What really surprised me is how the policemen mentioned they would serve a month to a lifetime there. Furthermore, he added how they were lucky since most people who make up rumors or jokes get executed. This whole concept in the story made me laugh because now a days people are so sarcastic it’s sometimes hard to tell if they are being serious. In addition, people spread rumors not just in person but all over social media as well. If this law/policy was in place, oh boy that’s a lot of executions… This made me think about death penalties, as mentioned in this article , apparently China executes thousands of people a year (to date in 2019). They ruled out shooting executions in 2010 but still carry out lethal injections. Even though, The Bridegroom is a collection of fiction/literature short stories, it does contain some facts. For example, listed in the article is how they still carry out executions for economic and political crimes. Even though the readings in Ha Jin are getting stranger they still are enjoyable.
Baseball in China
Hi all!
I will be looking at several different topics throughout the semester that connect to the course, but one that Professor McGrath recommended was looking at baseball in China and making some connections there. So here I am posting a link to an article back from 2017 that talks about how the MLB has plans to build 20 baseball development facilities across china over the next 10 years. These facilities will teach the fundamentals of the game to grades 7-12 in an attempt to continue to grow the sport in China as the Asian percentage of players in the MLB today comes primarily from Japan, Taiwan, and the Koreas. https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb-announced-10-year-deal-significantly-grow-baseball-china-181457400.html
Ha Jin “Saboteur”
After reading this short story from Ha Jin, I was pretty astonished at the events that took place within the reading. Mr. Chiu was arrested early in the story when two policemen seemed to “throw” tea onto the feet of himself and his bride, which I thought was extremely odd. Mr. Chiu and his bride were doing nothing but minding their own business, and for two policemen of all people to throw tea on them was just weird. This short story definitely gave the reader a sense of some sort of discrimination towards Mr. Chiu and ultimately his old student who had attempted to rescue him from imprisonment. It seems the policemen targeted Mr. Chiu from the beginning, and then after refusing to accept the false statement, Mr. Chiu was kept in a prison cell for over two days which just seemed absolutely ridiculous. As another classmate already noted, this was not an event that took place very long ago. That is shocking in and of itself. I also found the police to act very brutally, especially towards Mr. Chiu’s rescuer. He was handcuffed to a tree in the middle of a very hot day and was slapped by the policemen and had water thrown on him so he “would avoid heatstroke” as the policemen stated. There have been some present cases of police brutality here in the United States, and its very fascinating to make some connections between the different law enforcements between cultures. Unfortunately, I think both the United States police and Chinese police face backlash from incidents such as these and this creates tension between the people and law enforcement as we have seen in the recent years with the Ferguson riots and so on. Lastly, I was kind of confused on the ending of this short story. It provided that Mr. Chiu went around to many different restaurants before getting onto the train home. It was stated that he ate very briefly at each restaurant before going to the next and his student was curious as to why he didn’t just eat his fill at one restaurant. Then, at the very end, it stated that there were 800 cases of hepatitis, which was a disease that Mr. Chiu had. Did Mr. Chiu’s hatred of the Muji policemen really cause him to attempt to spread his disease around the city? This seems a bit far fetched, but an intriguing thought!
IPS Newcomer Week 1 -ICR
IPS Newcomer is a public school that provides education from third grade to eleventh grade. However, this is not your ordinary public school. Last week, I sometimes attended the facility twice (Monday and/or Wednesday), everyday is a challenge but I learn something new from the students and the teachers. To my surprise I did not know that majority of the students would be foreign. As well as, majority of the students did not speak english but the teachers only spoke english. I’m currently in a Spanish class but it is not my native tongue. The language barrier is very hard for the teachers and also some other students. Students come from all over, even though majority of them are coming from an ethnic background of Hispanic, Mexican, or Latino, in one of my classes a girl only knows french. I am able to understand only those who speak english, and I can slide by with some Spanish. The classes I assist in are english, music, math, and science. In english, we are going over pronouns, meanings to root words, and adjectives. I sometimes help compare the english word to something that defines similar in Spanish. In music, they are learning how play a song on the piano, guitar, and were being examined on the ukulele. Luckily, I have had some music background so I can assist them in places of fingers/hands on instruments, as well as, read notes. Math is a fun one because it really test going back to stuff I haven’t done in a while, also it is very hard to teach someone math when they don’t know english. LUCKILY!!! I taught one kid how to calculate volume using hand signs and some Spanish. However, I have not had a chance to attend the science class since my volunteer schedule was a little messed up on the days I chose plus, they also have an A/B schedule. I was nervous at first to go to the site but I am really excited now and look forward to it. I learn a lot from these sites and how different it is for someone of another culture be thrown into a new one (bit of culture shock). I didn’t know this but kids are randomly added throughout the year, which is very weird. But I learned how it is because they come straight from their native land and are enrolled into school here. They have to just catch up on everything which seems very tough. So, I see where us Butler students come in big time to help because we are like another “teacher” to go around and help.
At first I wasn’t sure how to relate this site to the course but I actually can in so many ways. For example, students coming over here from their native country made me think of the short story Woman from New York, in Ha jin. How a woman named, Jinli, grew up her whole life in Muji City and then left to go to the U.S. Even though, a lot her experience in the U.S. was not included in the short story, when she returned is when this culture change was noticed. When Jinli returned many people didn’t know what to believe and they all assumed she was unsuccessful there. This relates to the IPS Newcomer since a lot of students come all over and we all assume they don’t know anything about our country, but they have the drive to learn. They all try really hard to communicate in english, as well as, they even know a lot on traditions here (aka Halloween). We all make the assumption how they only celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but they also partake in some culture traditions here as they did in their native country. I look forward each week to go and find more and more about their experience plus help teach them on each course subject.
The Prison System
While reading the two short stories in Ha Jin, I noticed that both stories had people getting arrested. As I was reading, I noticed that some of the procedures that the police followed would not have been allowed here in the United States. For example, in the United States, one can not be arrested without probable cause. This might have given Mr. Chiu a better defense than his own word that he did not throw the hot tea, but the policemen caused him to. There also would not have been an arrest for the two jokers, as they were only making a joke to each other. Neither of these situations would have been grounds for an arrest if they had occurred here in the United States. I also noticed that in “Saboteur”, Mr. Chiu was not able to see anyone when he was sick or had requested to talk to the leaders about having a heart condition and hepatitis. The guard had simply informed him that there was no leader on duty during the weekend. This would not have happened in the United States as there are always people in charge that could be called in or who would have been able to help, as leaving someone in jail and with-holding medical assistance as this could have been considered a violation of their Eighth Amendment rights and classified as cruel and unusual punishment. I also found it interesting that in “A Bad Joke” it was interesting that the police were able to find the two people that had said the joke about the Chairman. In reality, it is unlikely that the police would be able to find two people that told a joke or started a rumor here in the United States. I am not sure if this would be possible in China, but I still think it would be unlikely. I think this shows the difference between the culture in American and China.
This week, representative negotiators from China and the United States will be meeting for an additional meeting to hopefully reach a trade agreement. Both sides are unable to be read on whether they will bend to make concessions for the other side in a trade agreement. However, talks of impeachment towards Trump is being held in high standings as a card for the Chinese government. This negotiation will be held in Washington D.C. In the meantime, Trump is still maintaining his policy of isolating China to drive up prices in the Chinese economy.
https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3031403/china-us-seen-have-good-reasons-reach-interim-trade-deal
Ha Jin- Saboteur
While reading the short story “Saboteur” I had a picture in my mind that this was an event that took place kind of a long time ago. Between Mr Chui being arrested for something as silly as spilling tea- especially because it was not even his fault. Or because he was in prison, very sick, due to not receiving medication for his Hepatitis. I thought this story took place a long time ago, but in the story, it said after the cultural revolution. I looked up when the cultural revolution took place, and it said from 1966-1976. So this story took place sometime after this, meaning that it was not that long ago. It’s hard to imagine someone going to prison for multiple days basically for doing nothing except eating outside and then the having the police come up and bump your tea- and then arresting you for it. The story seems so outdated, and like this is such a crazy thing that could never happen, especially in a country that does not have an authoritarian government that tries to control the people. But, I guess things like this happen even today, in the United States. Stories come out often about a police officer planting drugs on people and then arresting them for it. So, although the story seemed absolutely ridiculous and totally unfair and unjust, things similar to what happened in the story happens today, in the United States. It’s interesting to do the readings and find connections between ancient china- modern china to the United States today.
Volunteering at Nur-Allah Week Two
This week while volunteering at Nur-Allah, we finally helped with the Sunday school. Last Sunday, we just helped with an open house and cleaning up the Mosque, but this Sunday the kids were there. There were six children- ranging from Preschool to High school. We got there about thirty minutes before the kids got there to help clean up and make sure everything was ready for the day. I actually wrote the Arabic alphabet on the board- it was actually quite challenging because the letters are all really swirly. After the children got there, we split into groups by age level. I helped with the three high school-aged children. I wrote a prayer on the whiteboard that is an opening prayer to Allah, and the children copied the prayer down and memorized it. It was a pretty long prayer, but two of the children had it just about memorized and the third is still working on the prayer. The main teacher then taught some basic words such as “Apple” which is “Tafaha”, “Cherry” which is “karz” and “banana” which is “muz”. There was also another Mosque member there that spoke about the community garden that is funded by Nur-Allah. The mosque oftentimes makes meals for the members, and the garden supplies fresh fruits and vegetables for the meals. After she spoke to the children about how important knowing where your food comes from, and she taught other Arabic translations to the foods. We then concluded the learning time and I helped set up and serve lunch. Lunch is always provided during the weekend school because a lot of times this is one of the only meals that the children get on Sunday’s. It was a very fun day not only helping with teaching the children but also learning some Arabic for myself. There isn’t much class reading to connect my service too yet, but I am excited to learn more about Islam starting in the next unit.
Gender Roles in “The Woman From New York” (Oct. 3 Class)
In Ha Jin’s story, “The Woman From New York,” traditional gender roles are shown very soon into the narrative. As talked about in class, and as many people likely know by now, it is traditionally the woman’s job to be a housewife and keep everything clean, everyone fed, and everyone happy. In the story, after she returns from New York, she starts cleaning almost immediately. I found it interesting how much detail Ha Jin goes into, calling her husband a messy man and describing the weird pieces of trash in random places, like eggshells under the beds. I found it interesting that this story fits in with the stereotypes that men are messy and sloppy, and that it is okay for them to live like this because their wife will clean up after them eventually. In modern day, of course there are some couples who still live with this dynamic, but get on any social media and you will see people complaining about destroying these social constructs, saying that men can be the clean one in the relationship and women can be the slobs, or that cleaning and housework can be a team effort. I think it is interesting to see these traditional roles and how they have changed not only over time, but from culture to culture.