General Discussion Forum for the Class

I was wondering if anyone has read the novel Waiting by Ha Jin? It is about a man in 1960s China who is in an arranged marriage. He is a medical student and doctor living far from home and only returns to his home to ask for his wife's permission to divorce (for 18 years). Meanwhile he has become involved with another woman who he waits for. On another level it involves Confucian filial piety and duty to the government during the cultural revolution. It would make a good film if it hasn't already. The main characters display the universal struggle between the needs of the human heart and requirements of duty. All this is played out across different areas and climates of China. The book is restrained in the beginning for Western readers expecting explosions and "hooks" due to the inaction and lack of decision made by the main characters. Indecisiveness results in a decisions/consequences in an ironic way. Great story about China at this time in history.

Tell me what you think.
Betse Amador

There have been quite a stir lately about child labor in garment production is this something that also takes place in China? What has been done to make sure that children are not exploited in such a way?

It is interesting that there has been a surge of the manga and anime culture in the United States. I grew up reading manga like any other novels/books and did not consider it a cartoon book, in a traditional sense. I think my perception about it was affected by the fact that the adults around me were also reading manga as literature or everyday reading (like a newspaper, for example). It is common for mangas to teach morality -- Professor Miyake covered that during the section about filial piety cartoons. It is also interesting that within the Asian culture, themes are similar cross-culturally: I've read many stories in both Japanese and Korean that covered similar topics or themes.

1-Dec 15, 8:48:05 AM

3-Dec 15, 8:48:16 AM

Unfortunately, it appears that the East is following the footsteps of the West in the way in which societies should evolve. The West's social evolution is better represented by the term of involution, regression of culture and social improvement. In addition, the industrial-market economies of the developing nations are being cloned after the West's models, and, more so, the U.S. model which is pregnant with individual human and civil rights deformities. China's abandonment of its cultural/ethico-moral principles supplanted by the West's laissez-faire, anarchistic and irresponsible expansive economies propelled by greed is the last strike against human societies. Th U.S. and China appear to be the most egregious culprits in offending nature's and human rights: the US in its ever-increasing hunger for consumption, and China in its ever-increasing greed in production and flooding world markets with its over-production of consumer goods. China, with its 1.5 billion people, appears to me to have lost sight of its sense of universal and human responsibility and has become more zealous than any other country in its application of the Darwinian principles of "survival of the fittest". Everything in China is expressed in superlative absolute terms: the most, the biggest, the largest, the greatest, etc., just like the U.S. I do not see any indication of a change in this trend... Even India appears to be following a similar social involution... irresponsible conduct towards the protection and expansion of universal and human rights.

6-Dec 15, 8:48:36 AM