Thoughts on Session 11 (W/Dr. Dube)

As an immigrant from China (Taiwan), I grew up assuming Chinese people who move away from China come to the United States (directly or indirectly). Only "recently" did I realize many Chinese immigrate to other places in the world, such a Central and South America, Europe, Australia, so on. Now I should add Africa, too! I came across this video(http://www.wimp.com/chineseafrica/) by Al Jeezera. Im' still forming my thoughts on it. Hope it will stimulate yours too.

The session ended and I was left wanting to know more about present day China. Just like the lectures about Japan, I was able to understand why the Chinese culture now (or Japanese for that matter) has certain rituals, why Chinese people behave in certain ways, for example, why tea is served with most meals or the importance of family heritage or their tendencies to save rather than spend. Also, I often wondered why China, for the longest time, was not part of the major economic powers...yesterday I learned the reason. Thank you Dr. Dube, for you enthusiasm and your desire to share your knowledge.

I, too, would like to thank Dr. Dube for his informational and interesting lectures. When I was in school, I never liked history, not to mention the long Chinese history. After attending this seminar, I found a new love and appreciation of history and finally enjoy learning about it. Thank you again Dr. Dube. I’ll miss your Monday lectures and my fellow seminar participants.

At the last session, we went over the family instructions from the Miu lineage in Guangdong, China. Back then, the Miu family was instructed not to celebrate one’s birthday until one turned sixty years old. That’s why Dr. Dube mentioned that “60” is the magic age.

I remember when I was little, my family held a huge banquet at a restaurant to celebrate my grandfather’s 60th birthday. Before that, I don’t recall celebrating anybody’s birthday this way. It wasn’t until mid 80s that my family started to celebrate important birthdays such as 20, 30 and so on. I think in the old days, people’s life expectancy was shorter. People who could live up to 60 were considered to have a long life and it was worth celebrating.

Re: the celebration of birthdays. My wife finds it so interesting that my parents don't make a big deal about their birthdays. I had the benefit of the American-style celebrations growing up.

The level to which every single aspect of their lives was structured in the family instructions was quite extraordinary. However, the "boiler plate" contracts were totally mind-blowing to me! It was as if legalzoom.com traveled back in time to get the idea from China.

When we started linking to the rise of the Industrial West, I found myself really interested by the amount of interconnectivity that existed between China and the western world (particularly the US) that existed that far back. I guess from a Chinese cultural perspective it hasn't been that long, but considering that China has been a part of a national consciousness since before we were a nation boggled my mind a little bit. The little details of Franklin's books on the subject and Jefferson's use of Chinese motifs at Monticello were particularly intriguing.

Growing up in an Asian family myself, I never recall celebrating my parents birthday as well. Most of my aunts and uncle didn't celebrate their birthday's either because most never had birth certificates to remember the day or year they were born. Again, they don't make a big deal out of their birthdays nor did they make a big deal out of ours. Now, as some mentioned, as my generation got older in their 20s and 30s, we celebrate our parents birthday and of course, we make a big deal out of it now.

I thought I had posted something under the final session but apparently I did not. Even though it has already been said, I want to thank Professor Dube and Professor Yamashita for their work and dedication to the class. As teachers we don’t hear that enough. I want to say that it was certainly interesting to come to class and learn a little about the history of the region. Teaching in a school that has a lot of Asian students (nearly 50%) I can see the benefits for the background. I plan on incorporating some of the legal documents in my Economics class.
I also want to thank my colleagues that came ready to discuss the materials and for their input into the class. Your insight into the class and the readings was invaluable. Collaboration is always great and thank you all.
I did want to comment on the class itself. There was certainly a theme of respect from all the cultures and countries we saw. All the lectures seemed to have a focus on hierarchy and respecting the authority in place. Whether it was form teachers, or the ruling class, etc. there was always a level that was emphasized. Interesting to see that some themes are universal. However I also noticed that were times where the class lacked that respect for Clay. I was a little disturbed to see so many people arriving late and leaving early throughout the entire course, especially on the all day Saturday class at USC. I just think that we owe it to the Professor to arrive on time and to extend him our courtesy. There were also many instances when people were just browsing online while he was lecturing and I wonder that if it were our students not giving us the respect we would like, how would we feel react? I understand everyone is busy but I just feel that as professionals, we need to act as such. I don’t mean this to be a criticism but rather an observation.