Month: February 2020

After reading the short story Flame, and the discussions we had in class and in our small groups I think one thing in particular stood out to me. Out of all the points and themes in this story I thought the relationship between Nimei and her mother, and the cultural contrast between the relationship with most Americans and their parents really caught my attention. With Nimei clearly choosing obedience to her parents over the man she was in love with, it was obvious where her priories lied. Even though she came to regret her choice later, at the time I think she was confident in her choice and in her loyalty to her mother, and even in a way to her town. However, I think that situation would have played out a lot differently if it were happening to an American family, and it also made me question what I would do in that situation. Although I think it is normally an important American value to respect and honor your parents, it’s definitely not as important as it is in Chinese society. In most cases in the U.S. people marry completely based off of love, or maybe some economic reasons in different cases. And although that makes the choice sound completely independent, I think our parents still play a large role in who we marry. After all they raised us for years, and we all most likely share some of their preferences and they strongly effect most decisions we make. So  at a first glance I thought that this was a very strong cultural difference, but reflecting on it further I really think Chinese and American culture aren’t all too different in this aspect.

In this weeks reading, Chuang Tzu, discusses the importance of knowledge in Part C. The viewpoint discussed in the story had never crossed my mind before.

The quote, “A good cook changes his knife once a year-because he cuts. A mediocre cook changes his knife once a month-because he hacks. I’ve had this knife of mine for nineteen years and I’ve cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the blade is as good as though it had just come from the grindstone” stood out to me.

This metaphor touches on the idea of knowledge in a range of deep ways. I understood the knife represented the range of knowledge. As many derail from their paths of knowledge, others continue to build on their paths. There are other individuals that choose to continue their knowledge paths, holding onto their previous knowledge and mastering it. I have learned from this metaphor that the people of this culture value mastering knowledge and showing pride in this.

After much thought, I realized that our own society revolves around the same concept. As a college student, I am working to receive a degree in order to master my major, marketing. Future employers look for degrees as it is important for employees to have much knowledge in their fields.

Recently, the coronavirus gained additional attention as the death toll in China reached 1,106; 108 of these deaths have taken place within the last twenty four hours. That being said, a lot of the news coverage has been focused solely on the epidemic at hand and the disease itself. Outside of the obvious however, the coronavirus has impacted several other aspects of daily life. The Chinese economy, as well as the global economy, is being negatively impacted by this outbreak.

With one of the “world’s largest economies” being idle at the moment (The New York Times), the economy as a whole is at risk. When businesses and factories were initially shut down, it was assumed that things would have begun to reopen by now. But given their indolence, there is now worry that this may be an ongoing ordeal. It has therefore been predicted that production as a whole will begin to decline in the foreseeable future. That being said, trade has already been negatively affected; even before businesses recently began running out of parts and manufacturing necessities, countries were hesitant to continue interacting with the previously active supply chain that China has played a big part in because of the risk associated with the coronavirus.

Within China specifically, inflation has been pushed to an eight-year high (The New York Times). Although this is mainly to an increase in food prices, as it has been especially difficult to maintain a sufficient amount of products within the current market, nonfood related prices have also rose slightly. Hopefully, the coronavirus will begin to decline within the upcoming weeks. If not, the economy will continue to suffer.

Ha Jin’s “Flame” story was one that when I first read, I thought could have been told in about a fourth of the amount words that it was. However, after careful thoughts about the writing, I realized that the length of the story actually contributed to the message I got out of it. The length of the story highlights the lengths that Nimei went to in order to impress her lover, Hsu Peng, from sixteen years prior. 

“Flame” highlights how shame and honor can play a role in the certain Chinese cultures. Nimei went to great lengths by sacrificing money, time with other patients at the hospital, and her positive self-image in order to avoid shame from her first love who was possibly coming to visit her. She was so fearful of embarrassment that she made her husband make fresh fish stew everyday for one of her patients, so she would be able to get a political favor out of him later on in order to bring more honor to her family for when Hsu Peng arrived. It was interesting that the smallest indication that Hsu Peng may come visit Nimei made her change the entire course of her daily actions. She began working out more and spending time with patients for the sake of her husband maybe getting a better job. I think this shows that Nimei really was in love with him when they were young adults, but also that shame is something that should be avoided at all costs.

The ending of this story made me think that shame and honor are not always things that we need to be fearful of or attempt to gain and that often it is better to come as you are. The people that truly love you will want you to be your authentic self, and not care about your social status, material items, or the hardships you have been through.

I found the readings, and therefore the teachings, of Confucianism to be a little more confusing than the readings from the Tao Te Ching. I found this video that helped summarize some key lessons from Confucianism that we can apply to our real life.

I liked the first point that was focused on in the video. Finding beauty in everything is difficult to do, especially in our busy society today, is very important. I think this could be a parallel to the teaching of Taoism that is to find balance in everything. Our world can be so busy at time but appreciating the small moments in life is important to make life feel fulfilling.

The final point mentioned in the YouTube video was to embrace getting older. As a 21-year-old, I have embraced getting older, but it is well-known that many people wish they did not age. We spend countless hours doing pointless activities that do not bring us joy. However, if we appreciate getting older and becoming wiser, the video mentioned that you are more likely to engage in more fulfilling activities and life a healthier, happier life.

There is also a video by the same YouTube channel on the 10 life lessons of Taoism if you are interested.

On page 54 of Tao Te Ching, the passage reads:

“Therefore,

Through self contemplate self,

Through family contemplate family,

Through community contemplate community,

Through country contemplate country,

Through world contemplate world.

How do I know the world?”

This was my favorite reading from the Tao Te Ching. The final line is impactful in that it demonstrates how you can never really know the world completely and there is always an opportunity to learn more. The first several lines to me demonstrate the importance of being curious. Having strong roots does not have to hinder curiosity but can in fact aid curiosity. At Butler, I am always pushed by professors to use my prior knowledge and resources while pushing myself to be curious and stimulate my own learning. This course is an excellent example of one of those courses. The course itself provides the foundation for learning about China and Islam while we are encouraged to pursue other materials to stimulate new learnings in areas we are interested in.

A marketing course that I had last semester here at Butler proved the importance of being curious. Using the prior rooted knowledge, we had of the marketing world, we prepared a creative marketing strategy using a target market and topic we were interested in. Not only did this solidify the knowledge we had about marketing, but it stimulated growth in a brand-new area. This was a very valuable course and a great way to learn, which leads me to believe this course will be similar.

Taoism teaches balance is important. Roots of knowledge and the unknown might seem like opposites, but Taoism teaches embracing these opposites is important. This passage is a great demonstration of how important curiosity is and how it can be used in conjunction with strong roots.

Today, I went to Northview Central Middle School and assisted with the English as a Second Language (ESL) course for adult learners. Within the class that I assist, twenty different countries are represented within the body of students. It was evident that there was such a diverse group when we went around and introduced ourselves and stated our home country. A large percentage of the class is Chinese or from a country in the Middle East. Today’s topic for the Level 1 learners, which was the small group I worked with, was understanding the continuous present tense of the English language. This includes words like “swimming,” “writing,” and the like. We also worked on answering the following question: “What is he/she/they/you doing?” I spent a little more than two hours working with the class. Most of that time was tutoring my small group while a small portion of time was working one-on-one with a woman from the Middle East. She was working on more basic vocabulary words. I enjoyed my time working with the ESL class, and I am looking forward to next Thursday already. Here is a link that describes the course offered within the Washington Township district.

I did not know what to expect when I committed to my ICR placement with an ESL class. All I knew was that everyone taking the class had come to the United States within the last twelve months and that there was a long waiting list for the class itself. On page 54 of “Tao Te Ching,” the final line reads “How do I know the world?” I am often consumed in “the Butler Bubble” and do not get to truly experience the community I am part of. Being involved in this ESL class forced me to examine that question for myself. As an American, I was a minority in the class. All the students came from different countries, but they were each trying to help one another and help others understand. In a time of confusion and frustration trying to learn a new language, every student tried to help his neighbor despite the language barrier. This lesson is far superior than any lesson I could take away on the literal linguistics of the English language. The readings we have examined on Confucianism have emphasized the importance of social harmony and relationships. The students were building relationships with one another despite not being able to speak the same language. Community is not always an important value in the American culture, but it was evident that community provides great support and can be built among very different individuals.

I have started learning the basics of the Arabic alphabet through Duolingo. Learning the alphabet of another language helps me understand how difficult it is for others to learn the English alphabet. There was an exercise we did in class where the teacher or aid (me) held a whiteboard in front of our mouth. Then we spoke a series of letters. The students were to respond by writing down the letters they heard. When the teacher spoke “A, E, I, O, U” the students gasped at the difficulty of identifying the different letters despite the similar sounds. To me as an American, this seemed like such a simple task. However, learning the Arabic alphabet all sounds the same to me as well.

Just being part of the class for the short time that I was proved that building community is important and can and should be done across cultural barriers. I developed a deeper appreciation for slowing down and listening to the students. It is important to speak slowly when talking to new English language learners, and Americans are not known for wanting to slow down. When I worked one-on-one with the woman in my class, she did not understand the course material in the same way that the other students were learning it. I had to use creative problem-solving skills to figure out a new way to help her learn the material. Being involved in this ESL class was a great learning experience for me while I help my fellow community members learn English as well.

The debate about “good” and “evil” in class prompted me to think deeper about what we see as truly evil as a society and how that differs in other countries with different beliefs. One thing that we find horrific and unforgiveable in this country are serial killers. This led me to examine serial killers in China to see if they have the same impact, and I found that the United States has many more recorded serial killers than China. According to Radford University’s Serial Killer Database, in 2010 the United States has 117 serial killers while internationally there were 113. Also, according to these statistics, the United States has 3,204 reported serial killers total while China has 57. This could have many different factors playing into it including the fact that some countries may be less likely to report serial killers and detectives may be unable to stop serial killers. However, the statistics showing the number of serial killers in the United States is truly shocking. The statistics also showed European countries following the United States with some of the highest numbers of serial killers. This led me to wonder if the individualistic tendencies of Western societies enabled serial killers. Although this would be very difficult to prove, the Chinese philosophy of a wholistic society where families are held in high regard and your worth comes from your role in society not as an individual, may be beneficial when it comes to preventing serial killers. If this is true, Chinese philosophies on morality and how to live are preventing “bad” people.

This Tuesday I had the amazing opportunity to volunteer at my ICR site for the first time. I am volunteering on Tuesday mornings this semester at the IPS Newcomer school. This school is for students in the Indianapolis community who are experiencing their first year in the United States. Almost all of children are refugees or immigrants. I am helping out is Mrs. Latta’s art room for the semester.

I helped the kids with their art projects on pointillism for this unit. I spoke to kids from many different countries with many different cultural backgrounds. Many of the students speak little to no English so being in an art room with them is great because art is a language in itself. I was speaking Spanish with a few of the students, and mind you I am not very good at Spanish, when I must have messed up a phrase and a group of them laughed at me. Initially I was embarrassed, but then I realized that they must feel like I did every single day while trying to learn English. In that moment I could sense the children getting more comfortable with me and that mutual failures can bring people closer together.

In Tao Te Ching, I interpreted text 33 as you need to understand yourself before you can begin to understand and help others. I think this text is directly related to the somewhat embarrassing experience I had with the language barrier. Before I could even begin to understand what some of these kids have been through, I need to understand myself first and be able to make some connections to them.

This experience helped me gain an understanding of probably the most diverse community that I have ever worked with a little bit better. This community is diverse in terms of culture, childhood trauma, and places of origin. Even on the first day of class I improved upon my listening skills as a girl told me all about her picture she drew that represented strength for her using as many words as should could in English. We were able to use art through images to combat our cross cultural differences. I am looking forward to seeing the kids smiling faces next Tuesday morning.