Message from eisler

[Anonymous]

I agree that the United States is also migrating to better lives. My paternal grandparents grew up with nothing and worked on a farm throughout their childhood and into adulthood, and they refused to have that same life for my father. Both of my parents went to college and I had grown up with the unspoken expectation that I, too, would go to college. I think migrating to better lives isn't a bad thing, because each generation wants to see better and better, but I think pushing kids into college isn't necessarily "better." I think back to our Sunday seminar and hearing from our guest speaker on the education system in China and how there are schools labelled "Good" and "okay," or similar terms. I hate that our modern culture is looking at trades as an unprofessional/undesired path in life, yet we need electricians and carpenters. I think families should be thinking about what is best for their children; this chapter seemed to show that being in Wasteland wasn't good for educational purposes and their jobs were being taken by the Eastern Fortune Rice, so moving to cities with more opportunities made sense.

I was mostly astonished with Auntie Yi's explanation of the Nationalists and the Communists fighting in her backyard in 1948 (pg 159). It's hard to explain to students why the Communists won and why people would support them, but her explanation of how the Communists came and didn't rape them like the Russians and didn't steal their goods (initially) like the Nationalists, but were kind to them and gave them food- that's how the Communists won support of the people. I will be referencing this in my class.