Day 1 & 2 Journal

Prompt: Is China how you expected it to be? (6/7 & 8/2010)

Today was a long and exhausting day. But there were some good sides to the day. First I had to get up at 5:00am so I would have enough time to get ready to head over at the school on time. When I arrived at the school with my mom and dad, there were already a lot of kids at the school. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, Principal Klocke was there and nice enough to bring us all donuts to snack on. As soon as everybody arrived, the teachers went over some things about what we would be doing today. When they were done talking, everyone said their good byes and we all boarded the bus to the airport. The drive there was good, hardly any traffic. We had to circle around the airport gates a few times to find a spot to get off. After we left the bus, we went to get our tickets at the ticket counter. The wait for the tickets did not take long. Soon it was finally time to move through the security gates. I was a little nervous because of all the stuff I had with me. But they did not ask me to stop. Then, we walked to our gate, which was a long walk from where we were. So we got to use the moving sidewalk underneath the airport road. When we all got to the gate, we still had three hours before our plane arrived. Most of the kids went and got food in the terminal while I stayed with the bags. A little while later, my group, the porcupines, played some Uno that I had brought with me. We played that for an hour and by then, more people started to arrive at the gate. The plane had finally arrived and it was almost time to board. We then got in line to board the plane. I could not believe that we were about to board the plane that would take us to China! 13 hours later, we arrived in Beijing, China. We got off the plane and walked through the airport to the outside. We found our bus and we drove off. China is not exactly what I thought it would be, because it reminded me of Chicago. There were lots of cars on the roads and tall skyscrapers everywhere. There were also new buildings being built all over the city, which I did not expect. When we got closer to the hotel, I was surprised to see that they had a Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and a KFC. I did not think they would have fast food restraints, but those were big franchises. After dinner, we went to the market for some shopping and sight seeing. They had many different shops and food stands. One store had candy everywhere on the shelves. Another stand was selling fried insects to eat. China will be full of surprises and I can not wait to see what will be in store for me.

This video changed the views I had of China by showing how bad life can actually be for some people in China compared to my life in the US. I use to think China was just a very large country that had such a big population that they had to have ‘the one child rule’, but that otherwise the people were very similar to us in the US. The movie showed how many problems in China today are similar to the problems in the US after the industrial revolution. Such as women’s rights and poor educational opportunities; low pay; and working 11 hours, 7 days a week. Migrant workers and others having to be separated from their families to work is a hard life. The rapidly growing economy and expanding industry is also causing environmental, social and medical issues that did not exist before.

The differences in social classes in China seemed to be related to if you were from a rural or city life. Those who were rural believed in old traditions and Chinese myths. Women’s education was not important, and marrying into a fixed marriage just to be married was the important thing. Those who were from a city life all seemed to have opportunity for an education and were freer to choose who they wanted to marry. Both social classes, rural and city, had to work long hard hours and many times be separated from their families in order to have work and a career.

I thought Wei Zhanyan, the migrant factory worker, was the most interesting in this film because she wanted to make her own decisions and would rather be happy and not married, than be unhappy in an arranged marriage. She wanted to become a modern woman and was afraid of the old Chinese traditions. Even though her family was calling her home to meet the match maker for an arranged marriage, she did not want to go. Yet she did go because of her obligation to her family. In the end though she followed her heart and broke off the engagement, even though it would be bad in the village to break her word.

Chinatown Chicago

The Nine Dragon Wall is one of the characteristic features and landmarks of Chicago’s Chinatown. You can find the Nine Dragon Wall on the north side of Cermak Avenue, just east of Wentworth. It is a shortened replica of the famous Chinese Nine Dragon Wall standing in Beihai Park, Beijing. Dragons are sacred and are believed to have magical powers just like the number nine, so it's best not to pass this by without paying close attention. It was built in 2004 under the sponsorship of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. It is made of glazed tiles that were made in China. The purpose for having the Nine Dragon Wall replica was meant as a focus of community pride as well as a tourist attraction.

The Chinese zodiac signs represent twelve different types of personalities. I was born in 1992, which is the year of the Monkey - 猴. People born in the Year of the Monkey are fun and versatile. They’re likely unpredictable, witty and charming, and good at making others happy. They tend to spend a lot of time day-dreaming, and are quite clever and naturally curious. I am also a lot like the water Monkey. Water Monkeys are extremely sensitive and often feel hurt by the things that are said to them. They refuse to show their sensitive side to others and as a result, are extreme jokesters. If they can stay focused, they can succeed, but more often than not, they’re easily distracted from their goals. This description of the monkey describes my personality very well. It shows how I act and who I am. I can notice the similarities between me and the monkey.

The trip to Chinatown in Chicago was really exciting and enjoyable. The tour was a great way to see every thing we did not see on our first trip down there. Meeting our tour guide and having him show us around was really a fun way to do it. We went to the Chinatown Square Plaza where all 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac were on display in the court yard as statues, with their zodiac description on each base. The food we ate at the Cantonesia restaurant was delicious. I had the lemon chicken. If the food in China will taste anything like this food did, I am not worried about eating there. If this is what it is going to be like in China, I can’t wait to go!

Censorship in China

I looked at an article in The New York Times, “Google Shuts China Site in Dispute Over Censorship”; and an article in China Daily, “In quitting, Google misses its chance”. Google in China is different from the Google in America. In the U.S., Google is open and uncensored to everyone who wishes to look at it. Any site they want to look at is available for them. History, science, government, or even food is no secret to the people. But in China, the government there is censoring the information that is released to the public. All information on a topic that would make it to the U.S. is not available to see if you were living in China.
In the Chinese paper, it mostly says that Google should have stayed in China and not left on the basis of morals. It says the way to impact the country is to stay and accept the hardship of censorship. Google has “played a significant role in China’s social transformation in the last decade simply by being in the country and making themselves available to the average Chinese. The impact on the people, society and politics from the fast developing internet service should never be underestimated.” The paper feels Google took the easy road by leaving. Staying would have been a harder road, but they could have made a more positive impact on China in the long run.
While in the American paper, they talk about when Google started four years ago, it was hoped that the search engine would help bring more information to the Chinese, even if it was censored, and loosen the government’s controls on the web. Instead the Chinese government has tightened its grip on the Internet in recent years. The fact that Google “cannot exist in China clearly indicates that China’s path as a rising power is going in a direction different from what the world expected and what many Chinese were hoping for.”
The difference in these two stories mainly is about censorship. The Chinese are use to and accepting of censorship, while the US and the free world do not accept censorship and feel it is a moral issue. It was hoped that the Chinese government would eventually loosen their control, but instead tightened it, and sharpened attacks on Google. While both papers agree that the presence of Google in China could have a positive affect in the long run, the tightening censorship control was too much from the US view point, but considered normal to the Chinese.

Chinese New Year Parade

The trip to China Town in Chicago was a great experience. The train ride was nice and smooth, although this wasn’t my first time taking the train to Chicago. I have gone every year with my parents for our annual holiday trip to visit the city. For most of this ride, we had our own train car there and back. This was my first trip to China Town and it was a great place to go and see. I enjoyed seeing all the different buildings and people that were in the streets watching the parade. I was impressed by the Wall of Nine Dragons at the entrance to China Town. The parade was awesome to see. There were a lot of tigers in the parade in honor of 2010 being the year of the tiger. There were many different kinds of dragons and even a puppet show in the parade. I have seen this puppet show in Chicago before and it is very entertaining. I was really surprised when I saw the Bag Piper’s marching in the parade. I don’t think we would see them in a New Year’s Parade in China. There were all types of people in the crowd and in the parade, from firemen and Ronald McDonald to school bands, many who were not even Chinese. This field trip and spending time with my classmates made me more excited to be going on the trip to China.

I read about the history of the Chinese New Year at <http://www.history.com/topics/chinese-new-year>. The Chinese New Year was originally tied to the lunar-solar Chinese calendar; the holiday was a time to honor household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors. It was also a time to bring family together for feasting and relaxing. Most Chinese people now call it the Spring Festival.

This experience will better prepare me for our trip to China, by learning about the different celebrations they celebrate. I now have a better knowledge of some of the different customs they have and the importance of bringing their family together.

Adventures in cooking

The dish that I had prepared for dinner one night was Chinese stir-fry. I put chicken, carrots, water chestnuts, pea pods, soy sauce, garlic and green onions in it. I also made rice to go with the stir-fry and started it first, puting the rice and water in a pot and cooking for 15 minutes while I prepared the other ingredients.

First I cut the carrots into small pieces and then boiled them in a pot of water for 3 minutes. Next I cut the garlic into very small pieces, cut the stems off of the pea pods, and sliced up the green onions. After that, I cut the chicken up into 1-inch pieces. Then I opened the can of sliced water chestnuts. Now all of my ingredients were ready.

I then got out a wok pan to put the cooking oil and garlic in and turned the stove on. Then I added the green onions and cooked them for 1 minute and removed them to a bowl.

I then added the water chestnuts and carrots to the pan and stir-fried them for several minutes. Then these were removed to a bowl and the chicken was put into the pan, one half at a time. Each half of the chicken was stir-fried for 3 minutes. I had to add more oil and it was popping up at me.

All of the ingredients were now put into the pan with the soy sauce and mixed well. The pan was covered and cooked for 4 minutes. It was starting to smell good now. The rice was also finished now.

My mom and I had the stir-fry for dinner. I put some rice and the stir-fry on each plate. It looked pretty good and tasted good too.

This is Nicholas’ mom. I ate the stir-fry that he made for dinner. It was very good and the vegetables were all nicely done. I love spicy Thai food, so next time I would want to use a spicier sauce, maybe some ginger.

China's One Policy

It is horrible thing to hear. Kids are being abducted right off the street without it even being known they’re gone. The police say they have to have a 24 hour waiting period before they can go looking for someone who is missing. But by the time that period has passed, it is already too late to find the missing child. Though it is good to see the parents doing something about their missing children instead of just sitting at home hoping something will happen. They are putting up flyers and going to other preschools to see if their child might now go to school there. Unfortunately, many families never find their child and are devastated for the rest of their life.
I found this web site, www.angelfire.com/pop2/china/OneChild.html on the one child policy. The one child policy limits many families in china to one child. Many families always want a boy to carry on the family name and traditions, but sometimes they get a girl. Because of the one child policy, they can not try again for a boy. The pros of the one child policy are it leaves a less over populated area in china. The cons are that many families are killing their new born daughters because they wanted a son, either by drowning them or even abandoning them on the street.
I understand China’s reason for this policy is to limit the population so they will be able to feed everyone. The policy is working to limit the population but it is not fair to those families whose sons are stolen. The policy now allows two only children who marry to have two children of their own, which gives them a better chance at getting a son.