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Strenghs and weaknesses about writing skills
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Rebellion in modern literature
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Ha Jin is a contemporary Chinese –American author who comes from the city of Harbin. His short stories are established in Muji city in China (Rabau, 2016). Characters of his stories present people who go through day to day encounters like a struggle for social class, for example, the literate and illiterate. In Saboteur, the main character is Chui who is a very knowledgeable and intellectual person. The setting of the story is after the Traditional Uprising of China and portrays the people’s irony that was experienced after the instability (Ha Jin, 2017). He is annoyed by the way the police are biased and work very hard to fight this but end up being locked up for two days and forced to sign the self-criticism sheet (Rabau, 2016). Just like in today’s world, police officers are very corrupt in some countries, and they seriously harass civilians so that they can be dreaded and seen as powerful. …show more content…
According to him the turbulence never brought order to the community. The authority is with persons who were strong physically but not educated, they expected Mr. Chui to be silent because he looked weak physically compared to them, but he emerges as the most talkative (Ha Jin, 2017). The policemen’s actions were an injustice to Mr. Chui, such as wrongly interpreting his jokes and calling him a criminal ending up to imprisoning him. He had to overcome his own inflexibility and arrogance so that he would be left free. In a real situation, those who try to challenge the authority on important issues are stopped because they reveal unacceptable conducts like misuse of funds, corruption, and oppression of workers. They are shut down by either being passed through difficulties when trying to undergo important processes especially those involving the state of law, imprisonment or even
“So don't let your mind dwell on just one thought, that what you say is right and nothing else.” (lines 799-800) These were just some of the many words from Haemon to his father (Creon) describing the action that he isn't taking. Haemon's contrasting ideas led to the development of Creon as a tragic hero while also advancing the plot and developing the theme.
Jonathan D. Spence weaves together fact and fiction in his book The Death of Woman Wang. Approaching history through the eyes of those who lived it, he tells a story of those affected by history rather than solely recounting the historical events themselves. By incorporating factual evidence, contextualizing the scene, and introducing individual accounts, he chronicles events and experiences in a person’s life rather than episodes in history. Spence pulls together the narrative from a factual local history of T’an-ch’eng by scholar Fenge K’o-ts’an, the memoir of magistrate Huang Liu-hung, and fictional stories by writer P’u Sung-ling. The book closely resembles an historical fiction while still maintaining the integrity of an historical reconstruction.
Not all rules are always agreed on by every individual. Oftentimes people tend to keep to themselves about their differentiating views, but others fight for what they believe in. In order to make any type of progress for a specific cause, effort and determination needs to be put into a person’s every attempt towards a positive development. Individuals who rebel against an authoritarian society are often faced with the challenges to fight for what they believe in in order to make a change.
The Confucian method of directing the challenging demands and characters we play in a community is to make equilibrium between them and “find the single gentle
Salzman also showed that there was great oppression. The people of China were under constant surveillance and control. Rarely were they able to make important decisions f...
There is no better way to learn about China's communist revolution than to live it through the eyes of an innocent child whose experiences were based on the author's first-hand experience. Readers learn how every aspect of an individual's life was changed, mostly for the worst during this time. You will also learn why and how Chairman Mao launched the revolution initially, to maintain the communist system he worked hard to create in the 1950's. As the story of Ling unfolded, I realized how it boiled down to people's struggle for existence and survival during Mao's reign, and how lucky we are to have freedom and justice in the United States; values no one should ever take for
The family's personal encounters with the destructive nature of the traditional family have forced them to think in modern ways so they will not follow the same destructive path that they've seen so many before they get lost. In this new age struggle for happiness within the Kao family, a cultural barrier is constructed between the modern youth and the traditional adults, with Chueh-hsin teeter tottering on the edge, lost between them both. While the traditional family seems to be cracking and falling apart much like an iceberg in warm ocean waters, the bond between Chueh-min, Chueh-hui, Chin and their friends becomes as strong as the ocean itself. While traditional Confucianism plays a large role in the problems faced by the Kao family, it is the combination of both Confucianism and modernization that brings the family to its knees. Chueh-hsin is a huge factor in the novel for many reasons.
Chapter one, The Observers, in the Death of Woman Wang demonstrates the accuracy of the local historian; Feng K'o-ts'an, who compiled The Local History of T'an-ch'eng in 1673. The descriptive context of the Local History helps the reader to understand and literally penetrate into people's lives. The use of records of the earthquake of 1668, the White Lotus rising of 1622 and rebels rising vividly described by Feng the extent of suffering the people of T'an-ch'eng went through. Jonathan Spence stresses on how miserable the two-quarter of the seventeen-century were to the diminishing population of the county. The earthquake claimed the lives of nine thousand people, many others died in the White lotus rising, hunger, sickness and banditry. P'u Sung-ling's stories convey that after the loss of the wheat crops there were cases of cannibalism. On top of all of this came the slaughtering of the entire family lines by the bandits. The incredible records of women like Yao and Sun in the Local History present the reader the magnitude of savagery the bandits possessed. All of these factors led to the rise of suicides. The clarity of events Spence given to the reader is overwhelming.
In analyzing these two stories, it is first notable to mention how differing their experiences truly are. Sammy is a late adolescent store clerk who, in his first job, is discontent with the normal workings of society and the bureaucratic nature of the store at which he works. He feels oppressed by the very fabric and nature of aging, out-of date rules, and, at the end of this story, climaxes with exposing his true feelings and quits his jobs in a display of nonconformity and rebellion. Jing-Mei, on the other hand, is a younger Asian American whose life and every waking moment is guided by the pressures of her mother, whose idealistic word-view aids in trying to mold her into something decent by both the double standards Asian society and their newly acquired American culture. In contrasting these two perspectives, we see that while ...
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
Sanki (Japanese and Koya’s friend) started off as a banker forced to protect his corrupt boss and when fired from his job at the Joryoku Bank, he ended up working in the Trade Division of Far East Cotton Mills zaibatsu. Fang Qin-lan was the beautiful Chinese-female communist spy/ factory worker for the Far East Cotton Mills company. Qian Shi-shan is an opium addicted Chinese pro-capitalism/Nationalist who believes that China must support Chinese capitalism to become world power and no longer be exploited by European imperialist powers. These characters best represented the opposing sides in Shanghai during the timeline of the novel. Their struggles gave a look into the personal experiences of the day to day workings of the every aspect of life for the residents of Shanghai.
“I don’t want to be part of this kind of denying reality. We live in this time. We have to speak out” (Klayman). Ai Weiwei is an internationally known Chinese artist as well as activist, and his motivation and determination can be summed up by this quote. In all of his pieces, Weiwei critically examines the social and administrative issues facing China today. Many of his works exhibit multiple themes that can be interpreted in various different ways. This lends itself to the universal appeal of his art and makes it a more effective medium of conveying his messages to viewers. Ai Weiwei’s activist artwork—and activist artwork in general—is important to society because it effectively forces the viewer to engage in a self-reflective process that makes the viewer critically examine his or her own beliefs and world. Nevertheless, censorship greatly hinders the dissemination of the critical and thought provoking messages of Ai Weiwei’s art and makes his artwork less effective. In order to gain a better understanding of the relationship of Ai Weiwei’s activist art and the Communist Party’s subsequent censorship, I will examine Ai Weiwei’s influential childhood, his specific brand of activist artwork, the censorship of the Chinese government and the effects of censorship on the effectiveness of Ai Weiwei’s art.
This is the moment when Confucius ironically switches his roles from a Confucian teacher to a Taoist student as Robber Chih introduces him to the troubles associated with Confucianism. Through the ironic reversal in the roles of the two characters, Chuang Tzu criticizes the use of benevolence and righteousness in forcing people to do things that are not part of their innate intent and devote themselves to proper rituals. The sour mockery functions to imply the similarity between the Confucian principle and Robber Chih 's sin as the former one robs people 's ability to act naturally. In addition, the image of Confucius consistently bowing to Robber Chih in this chapter not only deems the Confucian way of the pursuit of position and fame as a fraud, but also suggests the defeat of Confucianism in competing with the Taoist values.
...m in the hotel and one of the cops hit Ai Weiwei on his head for no reason, this resulted in a swallowing in his head so Ai Weiwei had to go through an operation and it prevented him from testifying in the case of the earthquake activist Tan Zuoren, this last one was found guilty. Afterwards Ai Weiwei was very upset of this whole situation so he filed a lawsuit against the cop that hit him on the head. He knew that the government won’t do anything about it and will not actually listen to his complains but he didn't give up and take a step backward it was actually the opposite he kept filing several lawsuits against the cop as well as attending governmental premises hoping to be able to talk or complain to somebody. Later in January 2011, the government demolished Ai Weiwei's studio in Shangai and then in April 2011 he disappeared, everybody knew that he was arrested.
?Sheet after sheet, article after article, each da-zi-bao was a bitter accusation. One was titled, ?Teacher Li, Abuser of the Young.? The student had failed to hand in her homework on time, and Teacher Li had told her to copy the assignment over five times as punishment. Another student said his teacher had deliberately ruined his students? eyesight by making them read a lot, so they could not join the Liberation Army. Still another accused Teacher Wang of attempting to corrupt a young revolutionary by buying her some bread when he learned that she had not eaten lunch.? (42)