Author: cpatscot

Almost a month ago today, I posted a blog post about how Coronavirus was reported in the China Times. One month later, there is a much greater spread of COVID-19 with many countries across the globe affected. I thought it would be interesting to compare the news reports of COVID-19 from different areas of the country, especially those that pertain to our class.

News report from China, published in People’s Daily: People’s Daily is the largest newspaper group in China, the official paper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in China, and published worldwide. A brief glance at the homepage of the website indicate that China is conveying prominent news, but it is trying to do so in a way that provokes nationalism for Chinese readers. A few titles of articles featured on the homepage include:

·       “Italian people sing their gratitude for Chinese help”

·       “China’s experience in battle against COVID-19 brings hope to the world”

·       “Trump calls coronavirus the ‘Chinese Virus,’ the world disagrees”

There are several other articles featured on the homepage that promote China’s cultural and entertainment news, including sporting events and fashion shows. Comparing the homepage of this news site to one of the American press sites, the articles aim to promote more positive feelings about China and the way it is handling life amidst the pandemic. The Chinese communist government strictly regulates news and press, so it is understandable how the government would want to invoke these feelings as opposed to provoking fear, disappointment, or concerns about the government’s choices.

According to Statista, the most popular news site in America was Yahoo News as of May 2018. The article titles featured on the homepage of Yahoo News are much grimmer:

·       “Sanders whacks Trump, says the 1^st coronavirus priority is to ‘shut this president up right now’”

·       “Hackers attack health agency amid virus crisis”

·       “Italians sound dire warning on coronavirus”

Every media site conveys its opinion and tone through its articles, but it is evident that the American media is stimulating more depressive feelings than the media does in China. This is understandable considering the regulation of China’s media, but the American media can be blamed for causing extreme panic in the United States. There are many different news sites that the American public go to for accurate news reports, but it is difficult to assess which news reports are truthful and which are not.

I wanted to blend the first unit of Islam into the assessment of the coronavirus in global news. Indonesia is the country with the largest portion of Muslims; however, I struggled to find a trusted news site that could be translated into English. India is another country that has a largest percentage of the global Muslim population, and it too is struggling with the coronavirus pandemic. India Times is the third-largest newspaper in India. I examined some of the key articles featured on its homepage:

·       “Why social distancing matters for India’s nurses, doctors, and poor people”

·       “Nobody is safe! Doctor who treated India’s 1^st Coronavirus victim tests positive for COVID-19”

·       “It’s not all gloom: India has successfully cured 13 Coronavirus patients”

The India Times also featured articles about cultural activities and other types of positive news. The India Times appears to present a blend between the grim American news sources and the potentially overly positive Chinese news. With the world consumed in COVID-19, it is interesting to analyze the similarities and differences between news reports, as that is how the public stays informed on the health crisis that exists today.

I volunteered with the ESL class through Washington Township district. Today, the class started a new unit on careers. We started the class with a new activity packet that promoted reading and writing development for the students. I also led work with a small group in one of the activities in the workbook. With the Level 1 students, we focused mainly on pronunciation of words and having conversation about the careers. The Level 2 students were more focused on writing and reading comprehension and ability.

I learned more about the different cultures that each student represents because of the conversations we had about common careers and different workplaces. Additionally, I recognized different students care about achievements and perfection due to the cultural values that they traditionally hold as important. The head teacher of the class pointed this out to me after I had been working diligently one-on-one with the Chinese students. The value the Chinese students place on achieving perfection is much more evident than the other students in the class. At first, I overlooked their focus. However, when it was pointed out to me that they maintained this focus because of their cultural tendencies and values, I understood more about how the Chinese students learned and functioned in the classroom.

We also discussed the differences of gender in the workplace from the different countries the students came from. In America, we have come closer to gender equality in the workplace and not stereotyping certain careers for specific genders. Although America as a whole is far from perfect in this regard, it was a cultural adjustment for some students to recognize that both genders could be recognized for a certain job. It is important to recognize that the working woman is different in various cultures. For some of the women in the class, it is very important for them to take care of the household. It is important to recognize different cultural differences in this regard but also be accepting of everyone’s views. This idea of blending cultures connects to the idea of being a chameleon in Serageldin’s novel. It is important to accept other cultures while still remaining true to your own roots, which can sometimes be difficult to do.

It is difficult to work with an entire small group when there are clashing types of learners that comprise the group. However, this helps me develop problem-solving skills in how I can help each learner while also progressing the group as a whole. I must listen to each student and understand how I can assist them while still accomplishing the tasks that need to be accomplished.

On Tuesday, March 3^rd, I went to English as a Second Language course through the Washington Township school district. In class today, we started a new unit on careers. We began the class with a worksheet that helped students with their reading and writing development. Next, we worked on pronunciation of key words in the unit. Today was also a day that students who had reached a certain hour threshold needed to complete a reading and listening test.

The speaking component of the lesson was the most difficult for the students. In Leila Fadel’s speech, she addressed the difficulty of people from diverse community groups blending their two groups in traditions, practices, behaviors, and attitudes. The Cairo House also addresses this difficulty of blending the different community groups. The speaking and conversation piece of the ESL class demonstrated this difficulty firsthand. Students have a hard time understanding how to break their native language pronunciations. Certain words have different associations in the English language versus the many other languages that the students in the class speak. Learning a second language (for some students English is their third or fourth language) is a difficult task. Understanding how to blend the two languages and learning the unique elements of the English language demonstrates these diverse individuals trying to blend the two community groups they share an identity.

The students are very dedicated to learning English. I understand this is a very difficult task for anyone, especially someone who has spoken one language for their entire life and has come to a new country recently. Witnessing the students trying to blend their tradition and culture with the traditions and practices of traditionally American life is very inspiring. I love serving the community through volunteering with this ESL class because it shows me the importance of cultural diversity and the challenges that many individuals face when trying to adopt a new culture as part of their lives, which helps me develop a deeper appreciation for the student aiming to blend their traditions with new ones.

This evening, I attended Leila Fadel’s keynote speech on reporting on the Muslim community in the American media. Leila Fadel is an NPR journalist who reports on stories that pertain to diversity groups in the nation. Many of her stories pertain to Islamic communities in the United States. Fadel was very interesting in her reporting perspective because she was formerly an international correspondent for these diverse community groups and has since come to the United States to write honest stories about the Islamic community groups. It is evident that Fadel is passionate about telling the stories of diverse community groups in the United States. She shares the truth behind the stories that she reports on, which is a truth that many viewers/listeners would not hear without her reporting.

I learned a lot from Fadel sharing some of the stories she has reported. One of the stories that stood out to me was about two sisters that lived in the Bay area and were Muslim. One of the sisters was a 23-year-old teacher. On 9/11, the woman walked into her classroom and it was vandalized with derogatory words like “ISIS” and “terrorist” and other related terms that were very hurtful to the young teacher. She was asked if she wanted to switch schools. She stated, “I am not the problem.” The woman was part of an Islamic community that was praying in a barn because they could not get the community to support their group building a small mosque. The community said they could not build a mosque because of environmental concerns. This young woman’s story demonstrates to me the struggles that those in this community experience. It is easy to overlook the challenges that diverse community groups like this Islamic community and this Islamic woman experience because the vast majority of us in America do not experience the same challenges. However, it is wrong to overlook the issue of what Fadel described as the the demonization of Islam. Fadel’s speech was eye-opening and made me realize there is sometimes a lack of honest coverage for pertinent issues in our society.

Meteor Garden is a Chinese television series that is on Netflix. The series is about an eighteen-year-old girl, Dong Shancai, who just got into a top university in the country, but she encounters an elite clique of popular students and finds love.

It was interesting to notice the differences of a romantic comedy series that is traditionally American versus this Chinese series. The emphasis on academics is evident from the beginning, which demonstrate the value of academics and academic performance within the Chinese culture. Shancai getting into the premier university is the first important point in the episode. There is a lot of pressure put on her to get into the university and the appropriate department. There is a great celebration for Shancai when she does get accepted into her program. Once at school, Shancai quickly encounters the popular group of boys called F4. In an American series, these male students would likely be portrayed as handsome, athletic, and stereotypically good with the ladies. However, in Meteor Garden, F4 is portrayed as students who are very smart within their respective departments and are talented at the game Bridge. There is still a commonality between Shancai’s love story and one that would be presented in an American series. In the romantic comedy Mean Girls, the elite clique of girls is portrayed as dumb and beautiful. This is a popular American romantic comedy and demonstrates the difference in what Chinese and American viewers want to see and value in their own lives.

Another difference that stood out to me is the difference in how family life was portrayed within Meteor Garden and other American romantic comedy series. Many American families are unconventional in that American society has strayed significantly from the nuclear family household. American series typically portray this trend in family life by mirroring that with the families in the series. In Meteor Garden, Shancai has two parents that are married. She is an only child. Her father provides for the family by working as a logistics manager and her mother stays home and cooks for the family and other friends. Typically, these details would not be shared as explicitly in an American series so soon in the episode. These details were revealed within the first couple minutes of the first episode in Meteor Garden. Shancai still lives with her family while she is at university, which is not traditional for American schooling. In the show Modern Family, this demonstrates the unconventional family structure that is popular in American society today. This draws a stark contrast to the way family life is portrayed in Meteor Garden.

I found the first episode of Meteor Garden interesting and analyzing the differences between an American series and a Chinese series demonstrates some cultural differences between China and America. Many of these differences were drawn from differences in cultural values, many of which we have discussed in class. If you would like to watch Meteor Garden for yourself, you can stream it on Netflix.

The China Times is a daily Chinese newspaper published in Taiwan. It was briefly mentioned in “An Official Reply” in Ha Jin’s book. A visit to the website of the China Times clearly indicates the concern for the coronavirus epidemic.

There is a separate tab on the China Times website for all stories related to coronavirus as well as the top news stories being about the virus or issues related to the virus. All the stories I read were translated with Google Translate, so there could have been translation errors in the actual text. Nevertheless, it was still very interesting to read the stories about coronavirus from a Chinese newspaper’s perspective.

One of the stories that stood out to me most was a news article titled “When does the new crown pneumonia epidemic recede? A fortune teller reveals mystery.” This news article reported how a woman known as the master of psychics looked for signs about the epidemic. According to the article, the teller received the 13^th sign. The 13^th sign indicated the “government will meet in a dignified manner to discuss” the Wuhan pneumonia and work with the appropriate medical professionals to face this epidemic. The article continues to discuss many signs and signals that I am not familiar with, including the way the seasons, stars, and moons are aligning. The article recommends the people should be following government regulation more than trying to conquer the epidemic themselves.

This article stood out to me for two reasons. Primarily, an article that pertains to “signs” would not be printed on the first page of a newspaper here in America. I correlate this to astrology, which would not be trusted by Americans when it comes to an epidemic like the coronavirus. Media that pertain to issues related to illnesses and diseases would likely be accompanied by an official statement from the CDC. The second reason this article stood out to me was that the end of the article pointed back to following government regulation. This is a focal point for China and the government is highly regulatory. Chinese media is strictly regulated by the government, so it made sense that the final suggestion pertained to following government instruction.

Today, February 13^th, is the day before Valentine’s Day. In ESL class today, I worked with two small groups on English activities that pertained to Valentine’s Day. With the Level 1 learners, we worked on speaking and understanding vocabulary words that pertained to the Valentine’s Day holiday. This included words like cupid, valentine, mailbox, and other similar words. We worked on simple reading exercises that pertained to a Valentine’s Day story. With the Level 2 students, we focused on a cultural discussion about the meaning of Valentine’s Day in the United States. We discussed the differences between Valentine’s Day traditions in the United States compared to the different countries the students were from.

I had a lot of fun discussing the different Valentine’s Day traditions with the Level 2 students. Sharing holiday traditions is a great way to learn about other people’s cultures and stimulate conversation about differences between the cultures. Sharing in the cultural discussion helped me progress towards achieving the third course outcome that is outlined on our course page: to understand the benefits and challenges of living in a culturally diverse and globalized world. With students from twenty different countries, there were so many different types of Valentine celebrations compared to how we celebrate in the United States. It is important to understand the cultural differences because the way I would celebrate the same holiday in another country is much different. It was difficult for the students to understand some of the American traditions to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Many students did not understand that children as young as elementary school celebrated Valentine’s Day. This is one of the challenges of living in a culturally diverse world: having cultural misunderstandings. However, our conversation was very productive and demonstrated the positive effects of understand each other’s culture as well.

Partaking in the cultural discussions helped me develop a deeper appreciation for different cultures. The way each student described the Valentine’s Day holiday in his/her country was special and indicated certain values that were important to that country’s culture. I thought Valentine’s Day was an American holiday, but it turns out that Valentine’s Day has significant history and is celebrated in many countries. It was important to share the typical Valentine’s Day traditions in the United States, but it was also important to respect and understand the traditions that were important to each of the students. The reason we have many traditions and types of celebrations in the United States today is because of the rich cultural diversity that is present in the United States.

After discussing the Letter from Feng Yen to his Brother-in-Law, it led me to wonder what the history of gender equality has been in China. The letter exemplified many ways that men and women were not considered equal in ancient times:

• The man mentions he has several “concubines” and that was permitted, but the woman was not allowed to do the same.
• The man speaks in a vulgar tone about his wife. He is saying she is lazy I would not call a woman lazy who takes care of five children and a husband.
• The husband draws a parallel between the tyrant Jie of Xia, who is traditionally regarded as the one who caused the collapse of a dynasty.

When researching the history of gender equality in China, it was evident that the movement for gender equality in China has had many obstacles with the male-dominated Chinese society. Arranged marriages were a common custom in the Chinese culture. In China, this was a woman given to a man. Not until 1950 were women in China allowed to initiate divorce. The Chinese Marriage Law of 2001 offered mediation services and compensation for couples that suffer from domestic violence issue.

There continues to be a significant gap between males and females in the level of education. There are significantly less women who finish primary and secondary school than men. Healthcare has mostly been focused on men as well. The leading cancer for women in China is cervical cancer, which can be detected through a routine check-up.

The One-Child Policy, which was relaxed in 2015, allowed each married couple to have one child. Many married couples wanted to have a son, which stimulated an influx of sex selective abortion. Males were thought to be of greater value to a family.

Although many people think poorly of sweatshops and poor labor conditions in China, it has empowered women to be able to work in these types of roles. As of 2017, about 92% of married women were employed. Although there are still traditionally feminine jobs in China, much of this is due to the education gap that still exists.

There is a history of foot binding, trafficking, prostitution, lack of ability to own property, low participation of women in politics, and many other indications that women are not valued as highly as men in China. It is evident that gender equality is still a work in progress for women in China, although the mistreatment is not nearly as significant as in ancient times.

The source I utilized for this blog post can be accessed here.

After reading the story “Flame” by Ha Jin and briefly discussing cultural trends that affect marriage, it led me to become more curious about the differences between China and America in terms of the idea and culture of marriage.

I first examined one study, which you can learn more about here. This study included 214 college students in China and 154 college students in America. This was completed in 1999, so it is a bit dated and does not address the modernized version of marriage that exists today in America. However, some of the findings were still interesting. Overall, Chinese students expressed higher acceptance of divorce when children were involved and believed that children were necessary in marriage. More American students thought one parent should stay home with the children, but American students did not think it always had to be the woman and that women were equally entitled to a career. More Chinese students believed women had more household chores than men. However, women from both cultures believed that household chores should be split equally between spouses. Chinese students were far more interested in coming up with ways to communicate better with their spouse and were more likely to seek out premarital counseling. American students felt very strongly about parents not intervening in marriage matters, but this idea did not bother Chinese students at all (Xie, Dzindolet, & Meredith, 1999).

I then looked at a more recent study conducted in 2016. The paper first examined marriage customs. The paper was able to pinpoint specific dates and traditions that have impacted Chinese marriage customs throughout history. However, the American marriage customs were much less specific and defined. American marriage customs have adapted over time due to the diversity of the population within America. American marriage customs have been significantly influenced by many different countries; therefore, it is harder to specifically identify marriage traditions and customs from points in history. Overall, Americans place more of a value on falling in love in the grand scheme of marriage whereas Chinese see marriage as a ritual (Guo & Wang, 2016).

This paper mentioned the strong influence that Confucianism has on attitudes of marriage in Chinese culture. The family unit is seen as a pillar of social stability, so marriage became an opportunity to unite family units and for young couples to become stabilized in a social community. Husband-wife is one of the renowned Five Relationships that is taught in Confucianism (Guo & Wang, 2016).

The matter of the cultural differences and attitudes about marriage can be studied across many different cultures. There are many differences between the attitudes and customs of marriage between America and China. My research was very limited, but it is interesting to learn more about the history behind the marriage trends in each of the cultures today. The differences in the way marriage is viewed definitely affects the way a reader would respond to “Flame.”

Lei Guo, Lan Wang. Comparison Between Chinese Traditional Marriage Customs and American Marriage Customs. Humanities and Social Sciences. Vol. 4, No. 4, 2016, pp. 123-126. doi: 10.11648/j.hss.20160404.17

Xie, X., Dzindolet, M., & Meredith, W. (1999). Marriage and Family Life Attitude: Comparison of Chinese and American Students. International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 29. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/23070629?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

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.