Articles and Dr. Yan's lecture

[Kimberly de Berzunza]

First I found the articles really interesting, especially the one about "Being the Right Woman for Mr. Right," but I was disappointed in the end where she gave up her career and ended up living with her in-laws and trying to be Super-mom.  Not that it is exclusively Asian- there are lots of women around the world in this position, but this story frustrated me more than others.  I have various Asian mom friends in the US and one in Japan, and they ALL work, and none of them live with their in-laws.  They have fought to keep their careers and to raise- and yes- push, their kids.  I know it is always a challenge to balance it all, and the cultural norms of millenia are hard to fight. Were Ban Zhao's writings influential? I think they were. Even if they were based on Confucian and other ideas, these were written directly for and to women, and the fact that we're having this conversation illustrates to me that yes, they were effective.

I enjoyed every minute of Dr. Yan's lecture and, like others, wish we could have heard more about his own experiences.  One of the points that really stood out to me were the concept of reproduction ensuring one's eternal life as an ancestor and the concept that the individual doesn't really exist apart from our ancestors and our descendents.  Another was the idea that "a person is a process," and that one is not "finished" until having grandchildren. Really interesting. It made me think of the blue bar on the computer when a new program is being installed.  A third fascinating point for comparison is that lack of a concept of rights: Fulfilling obligations earns you privileges, but your are not born with natural rights.  This would be a great place for me to connect this information to US History when teaching the Declaration of Independence and how big a contrast the concept of "unalienable rights" would be.

As for my 7th grade curriculum, I see lots of opportunities to give depth to Confucian and Buddhist teachings with examples and explanations of "familism."