Reflections on Session #2 (10/8)

I have always had a difficult time grasping Philosophy so for me it was difficult to get through the readings this last week. Although it was difficult I did make some connections with some of the philosphies. I do teach about the Age of Enlightenment in my classroom and I found that the teaching of John Locke (who greatly influenced the U.S. Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution) had some similar philosophies of a follower of Confucius. Mencius, who lived 1,500+ years before Locke, wrote about the same principles. He felt that people were naturally good and had the right to rebel against tyrannical rulers. This would make a great connection for students in World History classes. After teaching about Enlightenment students could find other philophers who openly spoke out for their right to rebel against tyranny. It seems that Mencius was the first recorded rebel.

I have always been interested in Philosophy. I found it enjoyable to study the four main schools of Chinese philosophy. I find that Confucians and Mohists are the most similar. Both philosophies believe that people are fundamentally good and that virtuouse role models will benefit society. They differ in that Confucians believe that good behavior and strong ethics start in the home so therefore family relationships are the most important. Mohists believe that being partial to certain relationships is what causes strife. They do not believe in familial relationships above all else but rather in universal love. Mohists believe that people must be impartial to avoid conflict and war. Daoism seems to be the most simple philosophy. It stresses following the natural way, which means striking the proper balance (yin and yang) among all things. Daoists believe that desire for power and money trap people in a prison of sorts. One should rid themselves of desire and focus on the natural way. Legalism is the most different philosophy. It is the only of the four different schools of thought that believes that humans are fundamentally evil. They think that people can learn to be good, but they are born bad. In order to teach them how to be righteous, the government should be very harsh. Through harsh punishments the Legalist government believes it can control the people. Legalism does not encourage free thinking. They burn books and try to manipulate the people into obeying their laws.

I was baffled by the number of people that live in both Japan and Korea. Yes, I knew they were way overcrowded and yes, I've seen pictures of their streets filled with massive amounts of people in cars, on bikes, and on foot. Yes, I've seen how small the country is on a map. I've even been to Seoul and experienced the overcrowding there. But it didn't quite sink in as to JUST how crowded it was in both those countries until we saw the population numbers compared to the US and even California alone. Seeing those numbers next to each other and then seeing Japan's and Korea's size compared to the US and California was just shocking. I started thinking about how I was always complaining about the traffic and the amounts of cars on the freeway--I can't even IMAGINE how much worse it is in Japan! And especially for Japan, which is not large to begin with, the cities are all congregated in certain areas as the rest of the areas are all mountains! That just condenses the living space even more! INSANE! I thought we had it bad with overcrowding here in the San Gabriel Valley. That's NOTHING compared what Tokyo must feel like.

The discussion in class in regards to the two magazine covers, I found insightful! I assume that there is a lot of politically driven motives behind creating the pictures and titles on these magazine, but on the Time Magazine cover which said The New Great Wall, Why China is building barriers to foreign companies, I would never have assumed that this had a connection to the US in which we did not allow windmills back in 1990. Then, with the Economist Magazine cover, We COme in Peace, and then having the picture of the military, I assumed that this was a play on words since military can often be seen as the people doing all the fighting. These covers take me back to my statistics class in college where my professor was always saying, never believe what you hear and see as you can construe any data.

I agree that there were more moon cakes than I could imagine and in some cases really would care to see, referring to being "mooned" by moon-cakes. However, I do appreciate the emphasis on the celebration because I think that when we understand the cultural significance and importance of these events, it is easier to relate to our families and students when they are excited about these events. Encouraging them to share about family celebrations may also help them feel more connected to the class and can be used to build relationships based upon genuine caring and interest. The philosophy readings were very helpful for understanding the flavor (no moon-cake pun intended) of the cultural foundation that has been a part of many of our Asian families for centuries. Being raised in a Democratic society, there is much that I take for granted in my everyday thinking about freedoms, family, and individual responsibility to preserve traditions that I can not begin to understand in such a deeply rooted foundation as the East Asian cultures we are learning about.

I’m not sure where to post on some musings that I’ve had about East Asia “In the News”, so I will post one here. It is interesting to read about the U.S. fears of the danger of U.S. dominance by China, as a result of the rapid rise of China. It has been said that the long-term U.S. goal is to “contain” it – to prevent it from becoming the pre-eminent power in the region. It is a well-known fact that the Chinese have the largest military in the world.
Why can’t we all be “humanists” rather than “nationalists”. There would be much fewer casualties.

Laura, I was also impressed by the videoclip from Chinese National Day commemorations held in Tiananmen Square. Rituals are so important to the Chinese which I really admire. I think rituals have the ability to unite people in a positive way by creating pride and unity. I did not love how they had a pin in the soldier's neck to keep his head at the perfect angle. I thought that was taking it a bit too far.