thoughts about session 9 (China w/Dr. Clayton)

[Anonymous]

We cannot say that Jianqing controlled the Culture Revolution. At the time, in Mao’s eighties, he himself was not clear about what he was doing. It seemed everything was messed up. Mao great assistant Zhou Enlai died at the beginning of 1976, and Commander- in -chief Zhu de died in July. People around him who supported him left.
He himself was seriously sick. At this time, Jiang qing wanted to take the control of China. With the help of Yao and Zhang, and Wang Hongwen among them who was appointed as the successor of Mao, they thought they could succeed in taking the control.
But other people in the party did not agree to that.

In fact, at the beginning, Mao made use of the Gang of Four” because Yao and Zhang could write good articles about his policies.

The reason why Mao’s monument was built was that Mao’s influence was so huge that no one could say anything opposite about him. He was like the God in China. People wished he could live for a thousand years to make a happy life for them.

[Anonymous]

Last year, more than half of my students were “only child” from China. It was the most challenging class in terms of social and behavior issues. When I had numerous conferences with parents and guardians of those students, they even labeled their children as “spoiled” due to the one child policy. They asked me how to discipline their child at home. This year, however, my “only child” students are one of the best behaving students. It is an interesting matter that I want to observe more attentively next year.

[Anonymous]

In my end-of-the-year student evaluation forms, I ask the students what topics they most enjoyed learning about in my World History class. Aside from the typical WWII and Holocaust references, I received a great deal of enthusiasm about Modern Issues (child labor, terrorism, human trafficking, etc). While not the completely same topics, I share my students' sentiments in enjoying learning about topics that occurred in fairly recent history. I feel this way for 2 reasons - (1) we can still see the immediate effects of these issues today and (2) honestly, I still feel like such a student compared to my older peers when it comes to historical events that happened in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Because I wasn't even born when many of these events happened, I admire the ability to remember, talk about, and even reference these historical events. This year was my first year teaching World History and I feel like I've gained so much from this class, especially since my knowledge is pretty limited to a few readings in college (sadly, we never got this far in the book in high school!). I feel more confident talking about the Modern era (about East Asia, at the very least) and I'm so glad I took this seminar

[Anonymous]

2 things stood out to me in Session 9:

(1) The trial of the Gang of Four - especially Mao's widow. It was interesting to learn about how it was such a scripted process and that it was likened to the Nuremberg Trials. I still don't completely understand why his widow was put on trial. I know she was involved in his dealings, but I wonder to what degree. Was she that deeply involved with "seizing and misusing power and causing 25,000" or was she simply guilty by association?

(2) It still blows my mind how a nation like China has become such a world power having only successfully industrialized 30-40 years ago while other world powers got their start over a century ago. It wasn't until 1984 when all the communes were wiped out and replaced by townships, and even after, the diversification of their rural economy was slow. There really IS a great deal to say about MANPOWER!

[Anonymous]

I agree with Ron in my enthusiasm to learn more about the ONe-Child Policy in China, because it's something I still don't completely understand. it was so fascinating to hear about the Family Planning Policy that was adopted in 1979 as a matter of national security. I can't believe women's menstrual cycles were monitored up on the wall at factories! Although I can understand some of the reasons behind such a policy (population control for resources), China should embrace one of their strongest resources (manpower!) and attempt to regulate elsewhere. Then again, I don't really know the first about running a country :/ I'd really want to discuss/explore the One Child Policy more on our last session!

[Anonymous]

Another topic that I continuously think about when teaching about China is the One Child Policy. In my culture the woman is the one that sticks around and takes care of the family, not the man/ brother. In fact, it is the daughter that will cook and clean for the elders and when they can no longer take care of themselves, they will move in with the daughter-- it is frowned upon to send your parents to a retirement home. While it's true that the woman won't carry the family name once they marry, it is more advantageous for parents to have a girl. Much different from China's initial view

[Anonymous]

When discussing the Cultural Revolution, we mentioned the loss of religion and destruction of Religious monuments, structures and individuals. The religious aspect of the Cultural Revolution reminds me of what happened to the Jewish people living in Spain during the Spanish inquisition and in Russia during communist rule. People were forced to either convert, flee or conceal the religion. In fact, my ancestors chose to leave Spain at the end of the 15th century and move Turkey, where at the time, they were religiously tolerant and accepted many Jews that sought refuge.

[Anonymous]

At the time of the Cultural Revolution, did many people flee China for freedom of religion? Is there any documentation of people who practiced their religion in the privacy of their home as a way to not lose touch spiritually, yet not face persecution? Or any changes in the religion that exist today as a result of this period? I know that in Judaism the Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews have different rules that they are expected to follow during high holidays as a result of the different levels of persecution that the people faced in their host country.

[Anonymous]

The One Child Policy has been a fascinating subject for me. I've read much about it in college, and have spoken to a few people in China about the policy. I was able to witness that policy in practice a couple of years ago. The enforcement of the One Child Policy was not that uniform throughout the country. It was also not uniform depending on the different socio-economic level of the family.

The official policy is that each family has one child. But the reality was that some families, those who could afford it, could have more children. I met a family who had two boys and a girl. The way it was explained to me was that the government charged an amount equaled to the average household income of the city or town.

I did see lots of boys in the school where I volunteered. I worked with elementary school age children, and more than 3/4 of the classes were boys.

This policy is completely alien to my students. Many of my students have lots of siblings. I have students who are the youngest in their family, and they are the youngest of 6 or 7 children in the family. One particular girl is the youngest and her oldest sibling is 32 years old. I have another student who's nephew is older than he is.

In any case, most of my students have a difficult understanding the concept that a government can choose the number of children a couple may have. Getting them to be able to see that different governments/cultures do things differently is a goal I have every year.

[Anonymous]

The Gang of Four photo is awesome. I plan on using it in my world history classes next year. This is editing history through photographs is happening all the time. I taught a photography class last year where students research the ethics of editing photos. The Associate Press has guidelines on what is acceptable and what is unacceptable editing. For example, dodging and burning are acceptable so is cropping. Removing people of a photo is not acceptable.

The two photos definitely show two different stories, and the people who look at those two photos will see two different stories, but I think the bigger issue is the rationale behind editing.

[Anonymous]

One of the interesting aspects of the one child policy has brought about a serious weight problem in China. When I went to China a couple of years ago, I did noticed that several children were heavy. Parents and grandparents give their only child everything he or she wants from food to gifts. McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza Hut are becoming very popular in China, particularly among school-aged children and young adults. Adults also offer children electronic games, which cause children to be less physically active and gain weight. I was informed that Summer Camps for children are becoming popular in China. Parents are willing to pay the price in order to help children to become more physically active and loose weight.

[Anonymous]

I agree with Dkeo, I think the photo of the gang of four will be a great tool to use in class when teaching about the government and how they were able to change history for future citizens. In my class we spend a bit of time going over the different governments around the world, discussing censorship and the different freedoms or lack there of that certain governments provide their citizens with. I think this photo will be a great concrete example to show students of censorship. It will make for great discussion.

[Anonymous]

One child policy started in late 70', and people then were not happy about it. Chinese peoples used to believe more children, more prosperity.They wanted to have a big family with more kids.That's why chinese population grew super fast since 1949. Chairman Mao enjoyed having a big country with big population. Deep in his mind, he thought it was good to be prepared with man power in case of war. But with some decades' growing, food turned out to be a big problem for people. China was so poor and many people went hungry without food. So, after he died, the later government decided to adopt this polity. Now people in big cities have to like this policy, because it is too expensive to raise a kid and they can not afford more than one.

[Anonymous]

Talking about the Cultural Revolution, poeple all over the country were called to write articles to criticize Confucious. People were not allowed to follow the old thoughts that were worshipped for more than two thousands years. Students did not respect their teachers any more, and some children from important families stood out to criticize the so called guilty parents. One child from Liu Shaoqi's family just did so. In some places people started the destruction of Religious monuments, structures and individuals, such as Confucious Tomb. People started to get crazy and the governments lost the control of the culture reverlution. Many people said that was a nightmare. Down with the cultural revolution.

[Anonymous]

What I found most intresting was the gang of four, and how Mao's successor and the party used propeganda and the media to vilafy them as they where being percicuted. Much like Hitlor and the Nazi Party did to the Jews and other races they felt where inferior or a threat. The trails where also unbelievable, talk about being "rail roaded". How could Moa's widow have a fair trail if the party leaders had her testamony scripted in their favor. I dought that this could ever happen in the U S.

[Author]

Posts