GHS208-01 Spring 2020 China and the Islamic Middle East

Through our China unit I noticed many Eastern values that could go along with education. My new Eastern internship placement, “Catalyst4MBA”, located in Tokyo, saw the need for connection between MBAs and top-tier organizations. The company values the level of higher education and how that effects job placement. As I have learned that respect, correlated to success, is a key value in China. I have noticed this respect value in correlation to the rest of the East as this company is focused on that aspect. The company CEO, Damon Mackey, claims that having a higher level of education is beneficial for all parties involved, growing companies to be better.

I have noticed similar values of education in the West. The higher education someone has, the more likely employers will value and want their work. In addition many MBA programs offer internships that will further education to hands on experiences, making new graduates ready for the workforce.

To juxtapose this, respect is not taken as seriously in the United States as it is in Eastern countries. A common theme in the United States is to be yourself even if other people do not embrace your values or ideals. There is a range of views and lifestyles here, which is not always accepted by everyone. This creates smaller amounts of respect for individuals with differed values, showing that respect is not values as highly as other factors in our country.

As I previously wrote about, as part of my ICR, me, as well as several of my classmates, have been learning how to perform the lion dance. This week we continued to learn and were able to increase what we knew how to do. Kwan returned to teach us again, but this time he brought more than just the lion costume. He also brought a drum and some pom poms.

The main purpose of this lesson was learning how to bow properly. It was more difficult than it seemed to get it right, and we had to practice a fair amount before we got it down. Kwan showed us how percussion is used in the lion dance, and how big of a role it has. It allows the dancers to keep time and to stay in step, while also providing some more entertainment for the audience.

The purpose of the pom poms is to have one or two people in front of the lion waving them in its face trying to get its attention, leading it around. This gives the illusion of the lion being a real animal that can be captivated by such things. It also allows for the people holding the pom poms to go off and do their own thing every once and a while, making sure the performance doesn’t get stale. I am excited for next week, where I hope to learn how to properly play the drum.

Last Monday, February 17th, as part of my ICR (which is through the Indianapolis Association for Chinese Americans) we began to learn the lion dance. One of the members from the IACA, Kwan, came to teach it to us. I was very curious what we would learn, as I had never seen a lion dance performed before.

Before we started to learn, Kwan showed us a full performance, which was astonishing. The dance consists of two people in a lion costume, working together to create the illusion of a lion dancing on stage. The coordination and chemistry between these two people was astounding, and made me very excited to start learning.

We then began actually learning how to do the basics. This consisted of us learning how to properly hold the head and shake it around, or to be in the back, creating the illusion of the lion breathing while walking around. I quickly learned that holding the head up for so long takes far more strength than I originally thought. This was just the beginning of learning how to properly perform the lion dance, but I feel like I learned a lot.

After a more negative news article earlier this week, I wanted to look for a more positive portrayal of China. I was surprised to come across a story like this, but I found it extremely intriguing. China will be sending ducks to combat the locust problem in Pakistan. One Chinese researcher suggests ducks can eat more than 200 locusts each day and can be more effective than pesticides. The Chinese government is sending targeted programs to Pakistan to help with the millions of locusts there. China has also been using ducks to manage locusts within China since 2000. I thought this was a testament to China and their willingness to help other countries in need. Also in a world where we are focused on new scientific inventions to solve problems, sometimes the simple solution really is the answer. This story shows China’s innovation and how returning to the old way of doing things can be successful. We are so used to seeing the coronavirus in the news and all of the devastation surrounding it that it is uplifting to see China is still working on other programs to help the rest of the world even as they are suffering themselves.

In the third chapter of the Craig textbook, I was reading about the Song Dynasty, and one part that really stuck out to me was how calligraphy and painting were seen as related. The skill of an artist was judged on his or her brush work, because every stroke was final and could not be covered up. Therefore, there needed to be the qualities of line, balance, and strength in both calligraphy and painting.

The crowing achievement of the Song Dynasty art was landscape paintings. Landscape painting is my favorite kind, so I was eager to look up the works of the period. However, Song landscapes are very different from what I was accustomed. Western landscapes are brimming with color and light (see below), while the Song works seem devoid of light and perspective (see above). The book describes this technique as a diffusion of light, where there is “no single source of illumination.” Nevertheless, there can be no denying the beauty in the detail and texture of the strokes, and one can see the influence of calligraphy. It is almost as if each letter or phrase in the Chinese language is a form of landscape, elegant and serene. So it is natural that the landscapes would reflect the same philosophy.

Yesterday Kwan came to teach us more about the lion dance.  We learned two new moves that we put to use along with all of the dance moves we learned in the previous meeting.  The first new move was the bow.  At the start of each lion dance the individual in the head of the lion bows three times.  The technique was a little tricky at first as I was bending down with my legs too much and not enough with my hips/back.  Once we got the hang of it we then went into our normal dance that we learned last time.

Another new aspect that we learned yesterday was the importance of the drum. Kwan was very experienced at drumming and it was cool to see him drum to various beats.  One of the jobs of the drummer is to stay in sync with the lion as it bows.  After the lion bows the drummer then plays freely until once again it is time to bow at the end of the performance.  We wrapped up our dance with a bow and wave to the imaginary audience to thank them for coming.

In my last blog post I discussed that my ICR lion dance instructor, Kwan, bought a drum to create background music for our dance. I noticed that this drum is far different than normal drum sets used in American bands. A standard modern kit contains a snare drum, (typically mounted on a stand and placed between the player’s knees). Also, there is a bass drum, played by a pedal operated by the right foot, which moves a a drum beater to create noise. In addition the set includes toms, a hi-hat (two cymbals mounted on a stand), and cymbals. These drums are played with two long, wooden sticks.

In contrast, the drum that Kwan brought was singular and very heavy. The dense drum has a thick wooden base and thicker layer on top. Listening to this drum over a normal drum set is quite different. A rock band drum set has much crisper of a noise, banging the different drum parts. A Chinese drum has much more base, creating a heavier noise. Overall I found this differentiation between the two drums interesting as it shows music preference between cultures.

Today was a fairly normal morning working with the children and teens at the IPS newcomer school. I helped Nelson with the lines on his point-perspective art project. I listened to the concerns and morning tales of other students.

To preface this story, IPS newcomer school is a section of another IPS middle school, Northwest Middle School. I had the art teacher inform me that there was a stabbing the previous day at Northwest Middle school which is located in the same building as the IPS newcomer program. The teacher was concerned for the newcomers safety and their view of the United States education system. She also informed me that there has never been problems with violence among the students in the newcomer, unlike the US citizens enrolled in all the other IPS schools.

This entire situation got me thinking about immigration policies in the United States, past and present. Certain groups and people in the United States like to blame immigrants and refugees for problems that the US has created all on its own. They are cast as criminals and that “we do not have room for them”, when in reality we are not very different at all. People need to stop blaming immigrants for US problems.

One of the course learning objectives is to do outside learning about the focus area countries of our GHS class: China and the Islamic Middle East. I did some brief research of an older immigration policy for Chinese citizens known as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.  This Act prevented Chinese workers from entering the United States until it was repealed in 1943, unless they had permission from the government. This experience at IPS allowed me to make a class connection and to learn about past immigration policies in the US regarding China. It helped me to better understand the differences in experiences of others and especially reminded me to be considerate to refugees and immigrants in a time where they are not always accepted with open arms. It has also most definitely enhanced my sense of responsibility towards society and social justice education.

I was looking for news on China, and the first story that came up on bbc.com was about Gui Minhai who was mentioned in the China:The New World Order documentary. The book seller has been sentenced to ten years in prison. I thought it was fascinating that this story, which began with his disappearance in 2015, is still ongoing, and it shows how important these issues are to the rest of the world, especially when it comes to Hong Kong and censorship. It was even more interesting to me that Gui Minhai is actually a Swedish citizen, which made me wonder if this is why he was targeted specifically out of the five book store owners who went missing. The other four were set free. China does not recognize dual-citizenship, and Gui Minhai’s citizenship had been reinstated in 2018. This was also interesting to me because Gui Minhai has been in and out of police custody since 2015, so it seems like it cannot be a coincidence that his citizenship was reinstated. Swedish foreign ministers have been asking for his release and that they be allowed to see the trial footage. However, the Chinese government said the coronavirus was the reason that the consular efforts have been put on hold. Overall, this article encompasses many issues that have been dominating Chinese news such as Hong Kong, censorship, and the coronavirus. This situation seems to me like a lesson to other foreign individuals and nations themselves that China does not take the “exposure” of their practices lightly, and that the censorship laws will be heavily enforced especially for those we are foreign.

While considering options to blog about I ended up running across one from the past that I think would be rather fun to do so. I feel as if today in America for the most part when people think about Chinese food we have a very poor idea on what it really is. Maybe it’s Panda Express, or maybe it’s some other random restaurant that is near your house the serves a questionable chicken that couldn’t possibly be just chicken breast doused in whatever sauce that you asked for.

While in Washington D.C. my uncle asked me what kind of food I would like, and I told him to pick his favorite spot. He said there’s a Chinese restaurant he loves, and that it was actually something that their Culture would serve each other. Not food just catered toward Americans. When we went very little English was spoken, but we made it clear that we wanted culturally rich food. They then gave us whatever they felt we’d like, and let me tell you what. Every ingredient was the best, most fresh ingredients I’ve probably ever had. The chicken fell apart in my mouth, the beef was clearly smoked to perfection. And it was still to the day some of the best food I’d ever had. The noodles and rice were all perfectly cooked and seasoned. Everything complemented everything on the plate that I had.

To this day I haven’t been able to find a restaurant that has competed with the level of food that I had. I obviously still can’t compare this to food straight out of China, but it’s the best by far that I’ve found in America. I encourage everyone to try and find a restaurant like this, and eat the most culturally rich food you can find.