Thoughts about session 3

[Anonymous]

the foot binding topic sounds terrible nowadays to people outside china, but it was true. I still remember my grandmother' tiny feet and the special shoes she wore. She had a special long piece of cloth like our socks to keep the feet warm. She could not walk fast with the bounding feet. She told me that it was very painful when she first bounded it. She told me that girls at that time could not get married if they did not have the binding feet. I think I am so lucky I was not born in that time to suffer like that.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Professor for your information and resources on foot binding. This interesting subject relates to the idiom, “The beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and it shows how people change their standards and expectations in terms of perceiving beauty differently throughout history. However, I was surprised when none of my Chinese students knew about this custom. They were quite flabbergasted.

[Anonymous]

I was shocked when I read that feet binding is interesting. It is neither a kind of beauty. I am sure no girls at that time were happy or loved to have their feet bound like that. Imagine the pain they suffered.

[Anonymous]

It's been a long time since I studied any Chinese history, and the history I do know is mostly ancient, so this evening's class was quite informative for me. While it's unlikely that I'll be able to incorporate much of this material into the classes I'm teaching at the moment, I was struck by Prof. Dube's description of the Manchu recipe for success: accommodation of the various ethnic groups that they incorporated into China (Mongolians, Tibetans, etc.). I suppose that we tend to focus on the elements of history that seem relevant to our own time, and so current history textbooks often emphasize the cultural diversity of past empires and the necessity for different groups to work together for continued security and stability. As a society, are we learning this lesson from history, or just hoping that our students learn it and create a more stable future?

[Anonymous]

The great wall of china is always interesting to talk about in class at any level. Even in a class full educators as we where, we found it enlightening to discuss the wall. I remember when I visited the wall several years ago. I was impressed by its size and the fact that it follows the topography of the land. instead of the land being altered. Some sections of the wall where very steep and it was hard to walk, other sections so narrow that all the tourist had to go single file in that section. The wall stands as monument to the people who built it and it will be there for many more years to come.

[Anonymous]

I read all the quotes from Mao, and i think that all of them are out of date except the"The Three main Rules of Discipline ane the Eight Points for Attention; Each army should have disciplines. Mao gave a whole picture of the rules and points that helped to ensure that they coulld get more help from the ordinary people for their victory.

[Anonymous]

Session three covered an important war before the new china was founded in 1949. That was the Civil War between Kuoming,led by jiang jieshe,and the communist party,led by mao zhedong. The war took place right after the anti-Japanese War. Millions of Chinese people died in the wars.The civil war led to the seperation of China, mainland China and Taiwan. This is the answer to many students' question about taiwan.

[Anonymous]

The only thing many of my students know about China is the Great Wall. Unfortunately, most of what they know about the Great Wall is wrong or quite distorted. One of the most cited "fact" is that the Wall can be seen from space. As discussed in this session, the Great Wall cannot be seen in space, but many people still believe that it can, and are teaching their students that same incorrect information. In 2001, I took a class on modern China and the professor, who lived through the Cultural Revolution -- with lots of great stories -- told the class with 100% certainty that we could see the Great Wall from space. I'm always amazed at the misinformation that my students bring into the classroom. Once, I talked to my students about Columbus' voyage and the motives behind it. I asked my students to tell me what they already know, and many of the students said the voyages were to prove the world was round. This was in my AP World History class. When I told them that the educated people in Europe believed the world was round at the time of the voyages, some of the girls were shocked and a few were near tears. They had believed this "fact" for so long that it was disturbing to be told something totally different. I've since broken such misconceptions more gently.

[Anonymous]

I had exactly the same experience like you. I learned 20 years ago that the Great wall could be seen from the space and I told my students so. later I learned that it was wrong, but I have no chance to correct myself in front of all those students in my class. I feel so sorry about that.

[Anonymous]

Over the years, I have taught ESL to adults from Asia and have always noticed the friction between Japanese and Chinese people although, they have many similarities in their philosophies and writing characters but have never figured out why. After this lecture many of the puzzle pieces fell in place and I can begin to understand some of the roots of their dissentions.
Also, after this lecture I have many topics to research with my students: Foot binding, Menchu men hairstyles, Marco Polo, The Great Wall of China, Matteo Ricci, Japan conflict with China, Forbidden City…- more resources for this topics are welcome!

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Hi all,

Please share your thoughts about session 3 on March 22 by replying to this thread. You may raise questions and share thoughts either before or after the session.

Best,
Xin

[Anonymous]

In this session, one of the topics Dr. Clay talked about was the breakout of the Japan-China War. The event that caused the Japanese troops invaded deeper into the northeast China is called the Sept.18 Event. The Japanese army stayed in Shenyang, which is the door to northeast China, but wanted to go further into northeast China, so they created an excuse to do that by using their own soldier to bombard a section of railroad and then declared that the Chinese Northeast Army did it. So they started to attack Chinese army and occupied more of lands. This has been regarded as something shameful by the Chinese people. Now every year on September 18, the local government will start a siren for 3 minutes to remind people that Japanese started to invade China that day. I was born in the city. Now there is a museum on the spot where it happened.

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