Thoughts on Session 9-10 (W/Dr. Dube)

[Anonymous]

Well it was a long day as we all know, but still as always interesting. I enjoyed viewing the Qiao Family courtyard segments while we waited for everyone to arrive. It was interesting as we talked how it would be cool to compare Asian dramas to say Korean to Spanish soap operas and other forms of dramas. Would be a neat class to see how cultures clash and compare.

I do appreciate the exercise on tacking the timeline in the morning to visualize the time of unity versus division. I am a visual person so that helped me organize the dynasties. It was useful. Also a good exercise for me was to keep looking at those essential themes that were presented: a closed vs. open China. The entire lecture I kept thinking about the closed nature and the openness that China continues to struggle with and how that correlates to the controlling governments. It goes back to the cyclical nature of history. There is a constatnt shift between one extreme and another. One of the reasons why I like teaching and learning about history.

[Anonymous]

Professor Dube mentioned how serendipity plays a role in history and I have to agree with this. Throughout world history, there have been serendipitous events that easily could have had much different outcomes, and several of the events in Chinese history are no exeception. What if the Mongols had not invaded China or if certain dynaties had lasted for longer periods of time? Surely events would have played out differently. I often think about this whenit comes to western/American history. What if the framers of the US were not all alive at the same time? What if the great outpouring of political thought that occured during late 18th centuryin America had nor occured? How would things be different? I think of the same things with some of the events that we learn about in the class. What if the Polos for example missed their trip? What if they had not ventured as far as they did? Just fun to think about and speculate about all these things.

I also want to comment again about the expansion of China and the open versus closed nature. I loved having the maps to help visualize the expanding and contrasting nature of China. Again helped me see the correlation with the nature of open and closed borders of China. Thanks professor for providing these maps.

[Anonymous]

I should have posted this under the serendipity thread that I commented on, but oh well. I really enjoyed at looking at the European influence in China, especially the Marco Polo expedition. I am going to have to steal that for my World geography class. Never really thought about the overall question of does it matter if he went or not, becuase that is a good question for a class debate. I can see using that as a way of spurring class discussion and seeing where it goes. Also had no idea of how much influence religion had in that region. Cool to think thatthe Mongols were accepting of outside thought yet there is such a closed minded appeal afterwards and even today. Even so, I can see the elements of all the philosophical thoughts we looked at earlier in the class (Confucianism/Daoism/Mohsim/Legalsim). It's kind of a hodgepodge, really not much different than the US today.

[Anonymous]

It is quite amazing that back in 15th century, China already had the technology to build large vessels and Admiral Zheng He was able to lead his fleets to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Unfortunately, it didn’t pass down to later generations. I know that Zheng He commanded seven expeditions in the Ming dynasty, but I never knew that he was a Muslim, and was not pure Chinese. I am even more surprised to know that he was a eunuch. Last December, I had the opportunity to visit the Ventura County Maritime Museum. To my surprise, there is a statue of Zheng He and a model of a Ming dynasty ship.
Click on the following two links for information.
http://www.vcmm.org/?q=node/30 (The web page still uses the museum’s old name)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mharrsch/sets/72157624632081168/detail/ (Pictures of the model ship and Zheng He’s statue)

[Anonymous]

Oh my god, the jade lettuce! I was soo amazed by it, I have been looking at the picture for a while now.
The contracts made me sad but I also had a good laugh reading them. I think you can understand so much about the culture because of those contracts. The fleet that Zhen He commanded was amazingly huge. I really thought England was the only country that had such huge vessels during that period.

[Anonymous]

I had read the Travel of Marco Polo and loved it, assuming of course, that it was all true. I still think it was, but Francis Wood makes a good argument that it isn't, based on the fact that he was not mentioned as being a magistrate in the Chinese records; he never mentioned tea or foot binding. It might be interesting to read her book and see what else she had to say.

[Anonymous]

A wide ranging couple of days! After struggling to get through Gate 3 (after taking a little detour through another gate), I walked in on a discussion about arts. The main thing I took away from Saturday's seminar really had to do with the theme of open vs. closed moments in history. They cycles that "China" went through (I put it in quotes because it seems like the sum of its parts does not equal each historical moment). While there were lots of similarities and a retrospective sense of continuity, it really does seem like Chinese history through the middle and late imperial eras really was a succession of unique moments dominated by different cultural heritages.

A peak into the arts was also really fun, jade cabbage notwithstanding.

Monday's session was particularly interesting to me when we started looking at the interplay of Chinese culture with the West, particularly the USA. I had no idea how present China was in the consciousness of our Founding Fathers. It's curious to think about that relative to the current issues we face politically and economically.

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Please share your thoughts on the Saturday session with Dr. Dube.

-Xin

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