GHS208-05 Fall 2019 China and the Islamic Middle East

I was intrigued by the debate about the role of government in the lives of the people in Ancient China, I find it interesting how after thousands of years we still haven’t been able to close the debate. If Anything our view of the role of government has been coming even more sharply dividing than in the past.

Ancient Chinese Confucian scholars debated if the government should be involved in planning what farmers should grow, artisans should produce, and if traders should be held accountable by government and taxes levied to ensure the government can function and maintain these roles.

What is very interesting though is the counter point that was made and it is farmers should grow what brings them most profit in their eyes, artisans should make what someone asks them to make and is willing to pay for and traders should be able to buy and sell goods at the best prices to make them the most money. The fact that these scholars discussed the idea of supply and demand thousands of years before its institutional definition and concept were framed.

We can stretch our imaginations a bit and say that thousands of years ago, Confucian scholars were discussing the idea of implementing a Capitalist or a Socialist state. It is a stretch but it is by no means wild. The terms Capitalism and Socialism are more modern but in the reality of life they are really the only two economic plans to survive the test of time and they still compete against one another and are the main focus of economic dialogue today.

The dynasties discussed are the Qin (256-206 BC), Former Han dynasty (206-8AD), and Later Han dynasty (25-220 AD). Women are discussed throughout the dynasties. Women were expected to first obey her parents, then obey her husband, and then lastly obey her son. They were expected to be humble to display her low status and respecting the men above her. They were always not supposed to act appropriate. We can compare that to the US. The US used to have similar views on women. It wasn’t until 1929 when women could vote. We have slowly been giving women equality with men.
During the Han dynasty, the silk road was very prominent. Roman women were able to acquire silk from the Chinese. This allowed different cultures to interact with each other.
During the Han dynasty we see Confucianism. As the Han dynasty declined, Neo-Daoism became popular. Afterwards, around 500AD, Buddhism had spread all throughout the country. This caused a unified nation in China instead of just being a group.
Cross cultural things discussed is language, selfishness, and gender roles. We can compare how China has different dynasties with different emperors who had different thoughts and beliefs and the US’s president. Our president gets voted into office who promise change and each election we get a new president with a different goal.

Taiwan is looking to ban mainland protesters who were involved in vandalism crimes in Hong Kong during the protests. In addition to this, President Tsai Ing-wen also wants to impose sanctions and travel bans on individuals who were involved in harassment crimes during their stay in Taiwan. With famous national monuments such as the Lennon Wall being vandalized, Taiwan’s president stated that such acted will not be tolerated in Taiwan. In addition, replicas of the Lennon Wall have been set up on a few campuses around Taiwan which have then been vandalized by mainland students.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3031447/taiwan-likely-ban-mainland-chinese-visitors-targeting

In the beginning of Chapter 2, it talks about how China was started and where everyone was settling into. It brings up a point that if “the western civilization had experienced similar continuity it would have progressed all over current Europe”. This would have been crazy to see a modern work of all of that speaking the same language and all reading the hieroglyphics. The modern day world would be unreal to see how we would operate. In the world we live in today, maybe that would be a good idea if we all had the same language because it would maybe then make us all feel more connected to one another and become unified. We learned in this section about how unified and split China was with all of the dynasty that were around at this time in history. This moment in history helped shape all of the world, and who knows if it was for the better or worse…

https://www.thoughtco.com/chinese-wedding-rituals-687490
This article discusses modern and ancient China marriage. In ancient China, marriages were arranged, and were influenced by Confucian principles. There were two reforms that changed ancient Chinese traditional weddings to what they are today. The first reform was in 1950 and the second reform was in 1980. Chinese were able to select their own partners. In 1984, homosexuality was not a crime anymore but was looked down and disapproved.

Throughout the readings for Tuesday’s class, there was a common theme of women. The three stories in Ha Jin’s, The Bridegroom, and the short reading in the GHS reader all shared insight into the cultural views on women in Chinese society. The GHS reader discussed how a woman should always have the best interests of her family in mind when making decisions. This was seen when Meniscus’ mother moved around until she found the right place for her son to grow up. This was considered as the way of motherhood. Now, in our society, a family would not move around multiple times to find the best environment for a child to grow up in. There are many cases where families can not move due to financial or other reasons. There are more instances where families are not moving for their children than there are of families moving for their children. The reader continued to talk about a woman’s duties within the family. One idea I found interesting was the “three submissions”. This states that “when she is young, she must submit to her parents. After her marriage, she must submit to her husband. When she is widowed, she must submit to her son.” I thought this part, in particular, was interesting because I would never have thought that a woman should “submit” to their children. I do not think that in general anyone should be submitting to anyone. I understand that children should respect their parents and that people should be equal in a marriage, but I don’t think anyone in either situation is submitting. In today’s society, children usually take care of their parents when they can no longer take care of themselves, but no one is submitting. If you want to read more about the role of women in Chinese society from the past and today click here. 

I really liked exploring the idea of how different genres of music may sound the same to one person while also being diverse and interesting to another and why that may be. I think that Professor McGrath input that was along the lines of “with familiarity comes noticing those kinds of differences” helped me better conceptualize and make sense of why this might be. When we talked about this in class, I realized how true this idea is due to my own likes and dislikes have changed throughout the years. When I was younger, I listened to country music all the time because that’s what my mom liked. I rarely listened to modern hip-hop, but when I did I didn’t like it and it all sounded the same. Now that I’m older, I listen to all kinds of music that I wasn’t exposed to as often when I was younger and they no longer sound the same like they did when I was less accustomed to listening to them. Now, I don’t listen to country as often and they somewhat run together. It’s interesting how the tables can turn. It’s also scary to think that many people do this everyday except with people, cultures, etc. I think familiarizing one’s self with other cultures is crucial to understand and appreciate other people as well as to get along better with people that may be very different from you. I really believe that this is something America as a whole struggles with. This causes lots of problems because we have so many unique and diverse peoples in this country.

Privacy is one ideal talked about in these stories. There is a loss of/ lack of privacy discussed in these stories. In America we value and have the right of privacy, while there is a lack of privacy in China in these stories. We don’t go to prison for affairs, but Chinese do. It is just frowned upon here in America which may be grounds for divorce. Marriage is private, social, and public due to legalizations.
What is marriage for? In ancient times we can see people wanting to pass down their assets, to have labor on farms, to have someone to take care of you when you are old, and to be remembered. There were no retirement homes.
What is considered adultery? In ancient marriage you could have multiple wives or concubines, but if you had sexual relations with a married individual then that was adultery.