3/10 - Ye - Cosmopolitan East Asia

I have a limited knowledge of art in general but one difference I see western art and the Chinese art we saw today is that the Chinese art blurs the line between poetry and painting. I say this because most of the paintings we saw today had writing on them, often a poem. This is in contrast to most Western art where paintings often lack words. It would be interesting to see how the poem influences the interpretation of the paintings and vice-versa.

I like what Rudolfo said, that chinese art is different because of this mixing of writing, stamps, and the image so often. Professor Ye was funny, interesting, and knowledgeable. One minor point that I appreciated was his chanting rendition of Yeat's poem "Lake Innisfree." I had never quite made this connection that poems can and often were chanted like religious mantras. Professor Ye seemed to be able to fuse the Eastern concepts with Western whenever he wanted to.

I enjoyed his take on the Japanese ritualization of Chinese cultural imports. It was helpful to see how Chinese divide up historical periods differently than the West.

One thing I would like to see in any of the future sessions is a focus on a work of art, literature, text...that can be used in the classroom for a Socratic Seminar/Shared Inquiry discussion. It would be helpful to have a well chosen interpretative question(s) for structuring such a discussion. I love doing discussions in the round but often I need help finding a interpretative question that truly has no simple answer and can sustain a 30 minute discussion.

In thinking back on Professor Ye's lecture, the parts that stood out most to me as an English teacher were the chanting of the poems and the artwork that included writing by the artist. I must confess that while I have read some of Yeats's poetry, I was unaware that he intended some of his poems to be chanted. I think using this to connect poetry to song in the classroom could be extremely useful. It could also be an interesting way to discuss how words create mood. The use of writing that some of the literati poets used was also very interesting to me. Viewers usually spend much time analyzing paintings; the notion of the artist presenting commentary or extra verse right on the painting itself is fascinating. This made me think of an assignment I had my students do last week in which they selected a photo from National Geographic to use as the basis for a poem. Next year when I do this assignment with them, I think it could be valuable to show the students some examples from the Chinese literati artists.

It was not what I expeceted. I'm not sure what I expected but I was ususpectingly pleasantly surprised. I've always wondered about the text (characters) on so much Asian art. I'm not sure I completely understand it but the idea of projecting ownership onto the art is interesting. I collect books and write lots of journals and poetry and letters and stories and so on and always love to mark up things with my own personal stamp. I bought this here on such and such a date and so on. Adding to art work and changing it makes it into a living piece that changes through time. I'm not aware of it in Western art and it opens some new ways of thinking/seeing for me. I look forward to Professor Ye's next visit.

GG

I found Professor Ye's hinge question, "What went wrong?" that each of the dynasties or philosophies tried to answer about their predecessor, a good launching point for discussion. So good I've already used it in a class. It prompted me to immediately begin answering even before I had the full knowledge necessary.

I also appreciated the connection between art and poetry, and the then current popular philosophy or religion. I am again amazed at the ability of the human to take seemingly contrasting methodologies and use them concurrently. As in Buddhism and bureaucracy in the Tang era. I know about bureaucracy, but I think I need to know more about Buddhism to see why they worked well together.

I loved his chanting. The Chinese language makes song as it is spoken to begin with, but when melody is added reaches an entirely different dimension. The concept of Literati paintings would be a good to add to many of the texts my students read in Language Arts. I will try having my students do paintings with poems on their themes.

The pictures added greatly to his presentation. Another reminder to add this to my teaching [Edit by="mseeger on Mar 21, 3:07:29 PM"][/Edit]
[Edit by="mseeger on May 3, 3:44:44 PM"][/Edit]

I'll have to start with the obvious regarding the presentation that Dr. Ye provided: his personality and ability to make the connections among Chinese thinkers/officials and material with which I, and I assume most of the other participants in the seminar, are more familiar. He modeled one of the key elements of learning (making connections) that we all try to promote in our classroom, and as with Dr. Schaberg, I know that by being a student for the evening and having the example set, I am a better teacher during the week.

The discussion of calligraphy and Dr. Ye's recounting of his own experiences with the art were fascinating. I found it challenging to keep up with the pace of the presentation at times, and I found myself simply writing down names of artists and their works so that I could look them up when I had more time later. I have really enjoyed it during the last ten days or so.

The most significant part of Dr. Ye's lecture was his discussion of the officials and their various desires. Reading about the official who was so keen to shirk his duties that he insisted that his lice problem would prevent him from doing so reminded me not only of my own life (with regard to the desire to avoid responsibilities at time, not the personal hygiene issue!) but also of readings I have done in other studies and even my theology classes. There are many examples of figures in the Christian faith tradition, namely Jesus, who have attempted to avoid the burdens that come to them.

Something Dr. Schaberg mentioned became especially clear while and after Dr. Ye was teaching: we are all part of a greater human community, and if we are able to keep that in mind, we can more easily and fully access the content we are studying. Dr. Ye facilitated that process extremely well.

in response to John post-
I was tripping out when I was reading about Ming Taizu's son Chengzu and his reaction to those who turn down a government official appointment. (dismemberment + executing all relatives to 10th degree)
Tying this back to Professor Ye's mention of the confucian scholar that had written that long poem articulating why he would be an incompetent official, reading about Chengzu made me question the poem. I had understood the poem to be an artistic/sarcastic rejection letter by an educated dissident, but now that I think about the consequences the confucian faced- maybe it was a desperate attempt to avoid execution.

also, when Professor Ye was talking about Mao and his despotism- it made me question if he really was that bad in comparison...