It really is crazy to think how much content you can fit in 6 weeks or so and be able to retain so much of it. Starting with Ha Jin, then onto Confucius, and things like Mencius and yin-yang, and a bunch of other elements dealing with Chinese teachings. It is cool to learn a lot about things that I have briefly heard of and finally understand what it means to its fullest and where I can apply that to my education.
In Ha Jin’s short stories, there are a lot of different aspects that deal with Chinese culture, staying true to your roots, and ultimately just learning about life. I think the book does a really good job of spitting out morals in a very fun and creative way. Then, in the span of the last 6ish weeks, we have discussed and gone into depth about things like Confucius and who he was, what ying-yang embodies, and Mencius. We gained a lot of insight on man from Confucius and he really set a standard for what being a good person should look like. With the ying-yang symbol, it explains how one can live in harmony: light and dark, good and bad, virtuous and evil. And then with Mencius, about who he was and some insight into his life. Overall, there really are a lot of elements from China that come up more than expected and just provides another perspective.