It's my pleasure to share my opinions with anyone through the class and the discussion on this blog. Although my spoken and written English are not that good, I am trying to express my ideas in proper ways.
I called my mom after the class and said with excitedly: well, I had a great time with my classmates in the class today and we talked about Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa. Her reaction was dissatisfied: Dalai Lama is trying to dismember out state (China)and I don't have much to talk about him."Well, there is at least something worth to talk as we do have different perspectives and ideas towards anything and anyone.""Son, let's stop it right here, Dalai Lama is Dalai Lama, he's a danger to out country and security. I am quite busy right now, call me back later."The conversion may seems ridiculous or boring to any of you here. It means a lot to me:
1. Dialectic. Dalai Lama is likely to be role modal who symbolizes high standard of moral in many countries in the world, except in China. Many Chinese (more accurate, certain) dislike him as his attitude towards Tibet. His aim to highly self-govern Tibet is considered to be an threat to dismember our nation and we should do everything against him.There are solid foundations and reasons for people who admire or abominate Dalai. People in the supporting side may say in terms of his religion beliefs regarding freedom, human rights and such so on. On the other side, the reason why so many Chinese go against him is that his suspected conspiracy to split our nation, with some other schismatics outside of China. Regarding to dialectic, what I learned is that everyone is encouraged to share or agrue anything without enforcing the others to accept certain ideas. Mutual respect is the premise of any sorts of arugment. I don't admire Dalai Lama, I would not force somebody who favors him. We just have different opinions towards something. Besides, we shouldn't stereotype not only people and opinions going along with them. Time is flying and things could be changed, especially we're in the age of booming information. The more you see or hear, the much easier you may change your attitue towards something.
2. Language. Language is one of the most imporant tool to commmunicate with the others in terms of what they're thinking and trying to explain. In the lecture last week, I remember one of my classmate saying that the Chinese millitary invaded Tibet. If we interpret the term "invade" in Chinese, it could mean brutal intrusion with attacking and indecency. However, in China, we thought it was an act of liberation to reform Tibet from feudal serf society towards properity while retaining certain the core values of the religion. When you read a newspaper in a foreign language and compare the piece of news in your own language, you would find the difference between the two and the little difference could affect your considerations and judgements. I remember when I wached CNN two years when it was repoting the turbulence in Tibet, its wording sounds like that the Chinese government should really take account for the incident. Shouldn't the mass media be neutral or it should represent some ideas by only certain people?
3. Mao Ze Dong and Deng Xiao Ping. These two were the paramount leaders in Chinese history. While people are still criticizing Mao as his dictatorship, butality which caused millions of deaths in the events such as the Great Forward Leap and Cultural Revolution, he still has the great impact on Chinese history as he unified the lower class of China （workers and peasants) to fight aganist the invasion of Japan, fight for the independence of China,and initiated a a "New" China. Regarding the question "Who you are and what you do" in the class, Mao certainly did something great to develope his identity and attract millions of supporters. However, after he was in the position of leader, his influence was exaggerated and people did everything he appealed including the great forward leap. He revealed his superiority over the mass. Nowadays, the Great Foward Leap and the Cultural Revolution are still nightmares of many Chinese familiies.
Here are some quotes of Mao:
"The mass line represents the creative and productive energies of the masses of the Chinese population, which are potentially inexhaustible. Party members should take their cue from the masses, and reinterpret policy with respect to the benefit of the masses."
"It is necessary for intellectuals, students, soldiers and the average peasant to pay attention and involve themselves with political work. This is particularly true in wartime."
"It is necessary for China to become self-reliant in the course of the revolution, along the usual lines of class struggle. At the same time, it is a mistake for individuals to only see the good or the bad in a system, to the exclusion of all else.”
Deng Xiao Ping, the successor of Mao, focus on the economic and political reform from a central planning econocic entity yielding to a maket-orientated entity. He aslo stressed the imporantance of science and education in China where many people are becoming more competitive than before. During his designation, he issued many governemnt policies which learing China towards soaring developing and prosperity. However, after 3 decades of sky-rockeing, China is now facing more sosial issues such as imparity, inequality, hugh markup between the rich and poor, drawbacks in the political and economic systems. People start blaming the disfuntion of the goverment.
Here are the quotes of Deng:
"It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice. "
"Let some people get rich first."
"Poverty is not socialism. To be rich is glorious".
"The United States brags about its political system, but the President says one thing during the election, something else when he takes office, something else at midterm and something else when he leaves."
In conclusion, I grew up in a place where Socialism, Marxism, Leningism， Revisionism,
Capitalism, Partyism (the Chinese Communist Party, the only major political party in China) are still crashing, right wing, left wing, pragmaticism, central autority, democracy,are still overlapping, the new generation of information and globalization is rising, ethics and moritily become more complex while people are 6 million university graduates are competing for employment in every July (regular Chinese graduation period).
While the term “socilism with Chinese carateristiscs" sounds odd, human rights, child labour, enviromental issues are still being blasted in China, we're putting efforts to change, it's just matter of time.
