Reflections for Session #3 (Sat., 2/9)

[Anonymous]

As expressed by some colleagues, Saturday's session taught me much more than I expected. Asian culture is rich in content and we do not emphasize enough how much influence religion and philosophies play in the creation of a country. As I mentioned during class, China states were in turmoil due to wars against other states. They seemed to need a leveling field to claim not only political ground but a moral one. As I teach my students about "A New Nation" in my U.S. class, I could just imagine the level of chaos suffered by the Chinese. Structure was needed, a set of rules that would determine how people would live.

[Anonymous]

Today I opened up my International Business class with a few questions related to the Chinese Lunar New Year:

Happy New Year!
A) How is the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year determined?
B) Which countries celebrate the Lunar New Year?
C) How is this holiday traditionally celebrated?

I thought it was appropriate to discuss this in International Business, given the prevailing dominance of China in the business world. Also, a majority of my students are Chinese and spent the weekend celebrating with their families. I asked for volunteers to share a little about how they and their families celebrated. Some responses included:

A) I got new clothes and a new haircut.
B) We swept our homes to rid them of the "bad fortunes".
C) We ate a lot of good food.
D) My mom made a traditional Chinese cake called "Nian Gao".
E) We got red envelopes filled with cash.
F) My family and I went to a temple ceremony to pray for fortune and good luck.

I also explained how the Lunar Calendar is tied to a 12-year cycle of animals in the Chinese Zodiac, which makes 2013 The Year of the Snake. I encouraged my students to research which zodiac sign corresponded with their birth years and found we have a mix of Pigs, Rats, and one Rabbit.

In other news, I visited the San Diego Zoo this past weekend and saw baby panda, Xiao Liwu (picture attached). His name translates into "Little Gift". I picked up a few interesting facts related to Pandas:

1) There are only 4 U.S. zoos that have Pandas (San Diego Zoo is one of them).
2) All the Pandas in the U.S. are owned by China (they are basically leased by the zoos here)
3) China has a say in the naming of Pandas here in the U.S. They got to vote on a list of names that were sent to them.
Once the list was narrowed down, the potential names were then put on the Zoo's website for a public vote.

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edited by dsalama on 2/12/2013

[Anonymous]

Just like "ping pong"/table tennis diplomacy, they call this panda diplomacy. It would be interesting to know if they do that with all the pandas in zoos around the world.

[Anonymous]

The discussions about the different Chinese philosophies were very insightful and informative. The time spent on each of them was thorough enough to gain a general understanding of each of them. I unfortunately was unable to stay the extra time to listen to the lecture on Legalism because I had to leave to catch a 2pm flight at LAX. And that was the philosophy that I was supposed to defend in the debates. But the preparatory readings were informative and they gave me a glimpse of the important points of this philosophy.

I found that Legalism is beneficial to the ruling class. The readings proved to me that the teachings and outcomes are best suited for the safety of the rulers. This translates to maintaining order among the masses. I can see how ultimately this philosophy would win out because an orderly society will be one that will last because of its stability of infrastructure.

I also read the PDFs on Confucianism merely out of curiosity. I enjoyed the passage about common people being able to quote much of Confucius' sayings. I knew that the teachings of Confucius were renown, but that passage shed new light on this fact.

Paul Perez

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Dear Colleagues,

Please write your reflections and comments below.

[Anonymous]

I never knew that looking at stamps could be so entertaining, and at the same time, educational. Without Professor Dube discussing the symbols in each stamp I would have just looked at how pretty they were and how good the art is. Now I want to look at stamps from other countries celebrating other holidays and see what they have to offer.

[Author]

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