It is through the enriched poem China… Woman Oodgeroo explores the aspect of life within different cultures and their inextricable link between their ancient cultures and their identity today. “the great wall, twins itself… like my rainbow serpent” It is through this imagery that places the audience to view the close connections each culture has to their ultimate ancestry. Comparing her aboriginal identity to China’s culture, explores story telling however, ultimately, allows the audience to make connections that ancient cultures are still present, and that may had a similar belief of the connectivity to land. It is further exploited through the strong metaphor of “falling, crushing… weeping wild flowers” that positions the audience to view that individual’s spirits and identity has not only been physically crushed due to colonisation however also mentally and emotionally drained. The alliteration promotes and demotes the strong connection of the nature world and people and the calling to be reborn, restabilised and renowned.…
One cannot celebrate a man who left so little impact on the world. Have you ever heard the name Zheng He? Likely not, and with good reason. Zheng He was born Ma He, in a muslim village in southwestern China. Ma was captured during a northern chinese raid, and was forced to watch his father’s execution. He was taken shortly after, and was forced to become a eunuch under the new name Zheng He and serve the staff of the royal family. Zheng He quickly gained the trust of the emperor at the time, and rose the ranks and became a military general and advisor to the emperor. The emperor eventually gave him the task of commanding a fleet of ships down the coast of China all the way to India. Including the first, Zheng He made seven voyages total. In…
After the sock girls were taken away Sookan was forced to go to a Japanese school. When there she had a Japanese name and was not allowed to speak Korean. For most of the day they would listen to propaganda but for another part they would make weapons and walls to fight the "White Devils." After a hard day of this in the relentless heat a boy spoke up. "The principle kept droning on and on about the white devils until suddenly one of the big boys shouted, 'Stop, stop, stop! Don't…
Athens and Han China were two great civilizations that were successful. Both Athens and Han China had different philosophers that influenced their civilization. Though Athens and Han China were almost five-hundred years and a continent apart, they both made similar successful communities with their citizens, government, geography, and lifestyle.…
Given that China and Athens were located in two separate places, they both had very different forms of government, geography, and daily life.…
After Liu’s extensive introduction he begins to inform the reader of his childhood and his parents. His parents did not strictly follow Chinese culture. Instead they clung to the relaxed American culture and in turn, did not force Chinese culture on Liu. Liu suggests that this is how he was able to assimilate so easily. While in fourth grade he made no distinctions between races. It made no difference if one friend was black and the…
The book ‘Thai-Riffic!’ written by Oliver Phommavanh is about a young boy named Albert Lengviriyakul (Lengy) who just finished primary school and is moving on to secondary school. He is like lot of other kids starting high school. He’s worried about making friends, hopes no-one will make fun of him and wants to avoid every kind of way that will make him embarrass himself. Lengy’s family, his mum, dad, and little brother Kitchai own a restaurant named Thai-Riffic and he finds it embarrassing when someone he knows comes in.…
In a world where our roots are often ignored, and who we are is shaped by outside pressures, our communities have become the place where we proudly embrace our true selves. Understanding identity strengthens community. In a world where people have to live with the fact that they are a minority, where their culture is denied and forgotten, covered up with a new image, flag, and name, what is left for people to unite as one? People lack persistence as it usually takes a lot of effort, but not for the narrator’s mother from “Borders” by Thomas King. While she’s on a trip to visit her daughter in Salt Lake City, she must cross the border, and to do so, she must admit she’s from the “Canadian side or American side”, but she is from the “Blackfoot…
The graphic novel American Born Chinese (2006), by Gene Luen Yang, is a very modern and influential piece of work that can be compared to the short indie film Two Lies (1990), directed and written by Pamela Tom, which had preceded the novel by 16 years. These two different forms of work, both utilizing their ability to teach the audience, are used as powerful venues for the topic of identity crisis among the Asian people in a majority European American world. In the film, we have Mei and her family who are all having some trouble adjusting to their lives in Southern California but more specifically we have Mei and her trouble to understand her mother 's cause and intent for having undergone double eye-lid surgery. In ABC, we have our protagonist, Jin, who is having trouble fitting into his new school in San Francisco since he is one of the very few Asian admitted to the school. Another time line in the novel is the story of the monkey king who does anything to get rid of the fact that he is a monkey in order to fit into society. The third is the story of Danny, a European American who has trouble and often becomes embarrassed with his hyperbolic Chinese cousin, Chin-Kee. This character is first introduced by saying "Harro Amellica!" while Jin 's father, carrying giant Chinese take out container says "I 'll put your luggage into your room, Chin-Kee" (48). All three of these time line show our characters having some sort of shame or embarrassment to the fact that their own image or background is different from those around them.…
When Danny feels as if he has fit into his new school, his cousin Chin-Kee comes to visit, making him feeling embarrassed at school. Yang portrays Chin-Kee as the stereotype of a Chinese person; he is smart and does not know how to speak fluent English. For every question the teacher asks, Chin-Kee knows the answer to it. The author emphasizes together the intelligence and the language stereotype, “Ooh ooh! Chin-Kee knows this one”(Yang 111). Yang portrays Chin-Kee as the smartest in his class, illustrating how American-Asians are seen as the smartest people. At the end of the novel Danny turns back into Jin and realizes his mistake in mistreating Chin-Kee. Racial stereotypes have made the characters feel insecure and a social outcast. The visual appearances of the comics play a big role in portraying the racism. In the novel, Chin-Kee is introduced on a “full-page panel arranged to look like the opening title of an old television show”(Song). The full page of the character portrays the stereotypes associated with Chin-Kee. Yang also presents Chin-Kee on his own page with “Everyone Ruvs Chin-Kee” written in big letters to depict the racial stereotype of broken English language. Chin-Kee’s image is drawn with yellow skin, bucked teeth, long braided hair, and dressed in traditional Chinese clothing with his pupils nowhere to be seen. The visuals assist in conveying all the stereotypes that the author wants the reader to see. When introduced later in the novel to Chin-Kee he has transformed completely, this time but now as a “ Chinese coolie”(Song). A car beating with music pulls up next to the café. Yang does not depict Chin-Kee coming out of it; however, he is seen on the next page smoking a cigarette. Yang utilizes visuals to accurately illustrate Chin-Kee’s stereotypical…
He talked about how the Chinese changed from obeying the law and staying clear of crimes, to joining gangs and committing criminal activities. The perceptions of Chinese Americans have changed several times throughout America's history. The first stereotype of Chinese Americans were the Fu Manchu and the Charlie Chan image as well as the coming of dim opium dens and filthy gambling halls. Then, with the coming of the WWII, China was America's ally and Chiang Kai Shek was a hero to all. The American people heard about the clean, amiable, upright, and industrious Chinese Americans. It was in the late 1970's and early 1980's that the Chinese American was the face of the Model Minority. Chiu says that the Chinese are no different from any other ethnic group and that they don't need any special attention. He is sick of hearing how well the Chinese Americans are doing in school and how the Chinese Americans are being stereotyped as either subhuman or superhuman. Chiu says there is another side of academic and economic success of the Chinese American. Some do steal, cheat, and murder; the media needs to report on Chinese Americans the way they are--a human being, no more or…
Words are powerful. They can harmless or harmful at the same time. People have to use words wisely. As an Asian, I’ve never experience people calls me “FOB” in China until I moved to America when I was 13 years old. I remembered that the first time I walked into the school; I was very nervous and excited at that time. As I walked past the classroom’s window, I heard people laughing and giggling at me while I was waving my hand at them. The school principal had led me into a classroom. I still remember that the classroom was as quiet as a graveyard. When I was sitting in…
As I walked into the room filled with eyes shooting my direction, I noticed that I was one of two Asians in my class. During the second week of school, a chubby Hispanic girl mumbled “ugh, china” as she passed the glue during our project. The feeling of anguish in one’s stomach and cold anger that I felt when she called me that was well, hard to stomach. They say that revenge is best served cold but at the time I did not know what the word china meant but I knew that it could not have been good because all the kids were laughing at me. The lone feeling of being in the middle and the laughingstock deeply scared my memory and made me a very cold and introverted person. Because of the clear segregation between…
Li Ching-Yuen, also known as Li Ching-Yun found the secret fountain of youth, as he was reportedly the oldest human on Earth, having lived 256 years. His 1933 obituaries which were featured in Time Magazine and the New York Times stated that he had outlived 23 wives and his amazing lifespan exceeds by far the oldest living person up to date, who lived 122 years and 164 days.…
Chinese history is long and complex—with records dating to around 1600 BC. Within this extensive period, many forms of art and philosophy were developed by the Chinese people. Poetry was an art form which was very important in Chinese history. One of the most famous Chinese poets was Li Bai. He lived nearly 2000 years ago, during the Tang dynasty. He grew up near Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, which is adjacent to Yunnan Province in the western part of China. Li Bai was influenced by Taoism which is one of the most influencing religions way back more than two millennia.(Robinet, 1997) It puts emphasis on the link between people and nature and much of Li Bai’s poetry portrayed nature and human interaction with it; this type of poetry was known as Jue Ju poetry. (Heifer International) The main themes of the above poems written by Li Bai are connected with Taoism, since inspiration is drawn from the Taoist belief that man has an intuitive connection to nature. The relationship of man to nature is the central theme of Li Bai’s poems.…