Author: emallen2

There was a moment in class today when the idea of speaking out against a leader was mentioned in the context of “Bad Joke.” Last semester, I took a class on Machiavelli and the first thing I thought of when it came to this story was the idea of power and authority and how you keep power. Machiavelli teaches the idea that a leader must stop revolutions before they begin because a spark will produce a flame and any revolutionary ideas can grow. This idea was very present in both “Saboteur” and “Bad Joke.” The police stop speech against authority before it become something more. A Machiavelli quote from The Prince that sums this up is his ideas about fear and love, “Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? One should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved.” The communist party realizes that it must employ fear to keep the people in line, and this concept is very present in Machiavelli’s teachings. This is still seen today in the rule of Xi Jinping. He evokes love in the citizens who follow his laws and benefit from them, but he is not afraid to produce hate in those he needs to control. Whether it is other party officials who disagree with him or ethnic groups that challenge the China he wants, Xi Jinping understand that he must suppress these groups in order to maintain absolute power. However, before we judge China, we must remember that the United States was founded on some of the same beliefs that Machiavelli had, and Thomas Jefferson is known to have kept a copy of The Prince.

An interesting part of these two readings was the extreme contrast between the way that women and men’s sexuality was discussed. In “The Woman from New York,” rumors about Chen Jinli and impropriety spread, and she was unable to get a job or see her child. No one can understand why Chen Jinli would want to leave China because she has a husband and daughter. When she returns, she is treated with hostility. This made me wonder if it went back to the root of Confucianism and filial piety. She had not fulfilled her duty to her family in the eyes of the people. Chen Jinli was an outsider in China and in America, and her presumed sexual impropriety caused her to lose her husband and her daughter. However, in “An Official Reply,” the opposite reaction occurs with Pan Chendong. He is able to have multiple sexual relationships with young women and still stay with his wife. There are no consequences for his behavior in that regard. However, a young woman he gets pregnant is sent away to the countryside. Despite the inequality of the relationship and the rumors he forced the girls to perform sexual acts in order to get their stories published, Chendong is not punished. These two stories illustrate what happens to men and women in China when they break norms about purity. It also illustrates the difference between men and women when it comes to success and power and what people assume about them because of it.

In these readings and in the documentary, it was obvious that women were not treated as equals to men. Like I discussed in my last post, the policy of having one child perpetuated the inequality between men and women especially in marriage. Something I have always found interesting but never learned much about was foot binding. I never knew why the tradition originated or what exactly happened to women’s feet. I found this idea intriguing because it kept a woman from being able to walk or move and would keep her oppressed. She had no escape in the most basic usage of the phrase. The tradition is thought to have originated in the 10th century by a woman who was a dancer. The size of a woman’s foot directly related to her marriage perspectives, and a three-inch foot was seen as the most desirable. Although it is easy to look at this process and assume that it was a horrible act of violence that could never happen here, it is important to look at our own beauty standards that subject women to pain. Foot binding was not unlike corsets that kept women’s waists tiny and kept them from moving around freely. It is easy to judge China and this cruel practice, but before we do, we must examine ourselves and see the inequalities that we are still perpetuating today.

The reading “Flame” deals with the idea of marriage. This is currently an issue in China because due to the one child policy many baby girls were aborted or given up for adoption creating a disparity between men and women in China. According to Statista, in 2018 there were 713 million men in China and 681 million women. This leaves a 31 million more men than women in China.This disparity leaves Chinese men in a predicament especially because of what we have learned about how important the family line is in China.This problem has led to a surge of sex trafficking in China. “The New York Times,” wrote an article about one woman’s experience being trafficked from Myanmar. Her story is not unique, and the article estimates that 21,000 women from Myanmar have been trafficked to China. The story “Flame” highlights the fact that this woman could not marry for love, and it also shows the importance of marriage in China and the emphasis placed on it. Although things have changed in China since this story was written, the issue has evolved. The same values that required Nimei to marry for economic reasons rather than love and the emphasis on family and ancestors have created a problem that is leading to the atrocities that are happening to these young women. It is easy to look at sex trafficking and minimize the problem and the scale of it. However, the problem is likely to continue as more and more young men want to marry and find that there are simply not enough Chinese women.

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.

My version of the Daodejing is a different translation than the text many used in class, and this led me to become curious on how the translation has changed over time. Some of the classes favorite poems have an entirely different version when comparing different texts. #67 changes from translation to translation which can be seen in the difference between Gia-Fu Feng’s translation created in 1972 and Agnieska Solska’s version in 2005. Feng says, “I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion,” while Solska says, “I have three treasures which I hold and keep safe. The first is compassion. The second economy. The third not daring to take the lead.” Each of these versions completely change the meaning of these ideals. Solska moves the first lesson to compassion giving it greater emphasis and changes simplicity to economy which has a very different meaning. Economy transforms the meaning from something that could be applied to many aspects of life such as relationships, but economy’s meaning refers to resources. She also changes patience to not daring to take the lead. This once again changes the meaning and creates the idea that someone who follows the way must always follow and never lead while patience can mean many other things. Two other versions by J. H. McDonald in 1988 and Jim Clatfelter in 1996 also give different meanings to these verses. McDonald states, “There are three jewels that I cherish: compassion, moderation, and humility,” while Clatfelter says, “I have three treasures that I keep. The first is friendliness. The second is to stay behind. The third is wanting less.” These translations show how the message of the Daodejing can change over time and be molded to fit different applications. However, with all of these translations it is difficult to tell the true meaning of the text, and how it should be translated. This is a very interesting exercise that has taught me to look further into books with translations and be sure to see which liberties the translator has taken that might change the original meaning.

In the documentary we watched for class, something that stuck out to me was that women are not mentioned in Confucius’s thinking. This was something I wanted to investigate further especially after seeing that in the documentary there were girls attending the Confucius Institute. According to “Women Existing for Men: Confucianism and Social Injustice against Women in China” by Xiongya Gao, there was inequality for women before Confucius, but his teachings made things worse for women. Gao details the idea of yin and yang, and the woman being synonymous with dark and passive, but still, an important part of society. Gao suggests that by leaving out women Confucius is intentionally teaching the reader that women should be silent and forgotten. The idea that women should obey their father first, then their husband, and then their son, also known as “The Three Obediences and Four Virtues,” is certainly something that Confucius would have agreed with in the idea of filial piety. One of his loyal disciples, also endorsed these ideas. Later, Confucian scholars made widows remarrying illegal, and a woman ending her life after her husband’s death was seen as honorable. While all of this information does not necessarily point to Confucius himself believing women were below men, he certainly did not give them a place within Confucianism which later led to their being mistreated in the name of the philosophy.

Something I found particularly interesting about Daodejing was how similar its teachings were to other religions practiced throughout the world. Most of the ideas match other religions such as living for others and correcting faults within ourselves. These notions were even more interesting when looking at some of the passages that mirrored Christianity even though they were created hundreds of years before Christ. Something that was also interesting about these teachings was the idea of being peaceful and passive. This contradicts the Western ideas that one should act and “work hard” to attain their goals. This could contribute to the different philosophies when it comes to living and working in the east versus the west.
Another aspect I thought was particularly interesting was the view of women within the texts. The idea of “mother” is used several times. I was surprised to find this language based on how Christianity tends to use father. Especially for a text written thousands of years ago, I did not expect such high esteem to be placed on female characteristics. Although later the Daodejing refers to women as passive and men as active, I was shocked that women would be so included in the teachings.

An interesting aspect of these readings was the idea of honor and bravery. This is a concept that is present in each reading. In “A Tiger-Fighter Is Hard to Find,” Huping is willing to risk his life to fight a tiger, but when he fails to bravely attack the tiger for the next take, he has a breakdown. He cannot get past the fact that he failed to “kill” the tiger. He violently attacks the man in the tiger suit the next time to avenge his cowardice and restore the honor he felt by “killing a tiger.”

The idea of honor is also present in “The Biography of Yu Jang.” In this story, the servant is willing to risk death multiple times to avenge the honor of his master. This concept is respected by his master’s killer, and he allows the servant to go free. He states, “’The earl of Chih died with no heir, and yet this subordinate of his wanted to avenge him. He is truly one of the world’s worthy men’” (41).  However, the servant cannot achieve true honor until he avenges his master’s death, so he attempts to kill his master’s killer once again. He loses and then falls on his sword to maintain his honor and bravery. This story and the idea of avenging honor is praised in this culture. This idea of bravery and getting honor from defending yourself and your master might come from a period in Chinese history that was characterized by war. In The Heritage of Chinese Civilization, the Warring States period is described as large territories formed and vied to unite China (Craig 11). These ideas of honor may come from the need to form close groups with those in one’s territory and fight to keep one’s territory in power.

China has recently been in the news due to the tense trading situation between China and the United States. Last Wednesday, President Trump signed a trade deal with China in an attempt to ease the tension between the two countries. Both China and the United States’ economies are some of the world’s largest. In the agreement, China agreed to buy an extra $200 billion of American goods by 2021 and ease up on the tariffs on American goods. However, the United States will still keep tariffs on Chinese goods. President Trump hopes to do further dealings with China to remove all tariffs.

This trade issue reminded me of the short story, “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town.” This story follows the struggles and realizations of Chinese workers employed at an American restaurant. The story details many ways that dealings in China and America are done differently. It also emphasizes how the economies are intertwined. On page 185, a cultural clash between business proceedings in the U.S. and China occurs, “We didn’t need a cheap customer like this one and should throw him out. Mr. Sharpiro said we ought to follow the American way of doing business- you must try to satisfy your customers” (Ha Jin). Another passage that illustrates how the two countries work with each other is on page 187, “It used Chinese produce, and labor and made money out of Chinese customers, then shipped its profits back to the U.S.” (Ha Jin). This line shows how this business was exploiting China to gain profits in the U.S. and help its economy.

Nevertheless, the employees being paid spend money in China which stimulates their economy and creates a relationship between both countries. In “An Entrepreneur’s Story,” there are less obvious connections to the trade war, but there are still connections between people’s reactions to money. In this story, a young man creates a successful business, and it changes the attitudes of the people around him, “Money is a funny thing. It can change your personality. No, not that you actually change inside, but the people around you change their attitudes about you” (Ha Jin 120). The view of money and success going hand in hand is a concept that is also seen in America. There is a deep respect in America for entrepreneurs and people who have created businesses from the ground up. The attitudes in this story remind me of attitudes in America when it comes to money. Overall, there are many links between America and China when it comes to money. These connections can be seen in the news and in these stories.