Message from gtyau

[Anonymous]

Professor Yan's talk on Globalization and the Individual in China was so helpful and illuminating. What I appreciated most was learning more about some of the misconceptions (I held) about communism, socialism and capitalism as distinctly different ideologies. There's clearly so much "gray area" that it's easier to see how a capitalist market economy can function in a communist governed society. There is indeed room for individuality in China as long as it doesn't ruffle the feathers of the powers that be. It will be interesting to see in 50 years where we (in the U.S.) are compared to PRC; I would bet we will be even more similar culturally than dissimilar, which is both exciting and sad.

There is a lot of material to use to spark discussion and debate with my students in a very simple compare and contrast model. However there is also a lot of room to explore individual topics in further depth as mini-research units. I want to learn more about China's place in the greater Pacific Rim. I do have more questions about why China hasn't really accomplished what South Korea seems to have accomplished lately in terms of cultural spread; is it because they don't have to???