Analysis Of The Book ' Blind Shaft '

Throughout Li Cunxin’s memoir, Mao’s Last Dancer, Li immerses the readers into the complex, restrictive and challenging lifestyle he lived through various prose techniques, which engage the audience into the cultural values of his life. Some examples of this is when he was living in communist China, in a commune, going to a Beijing dance Academy, going to Houston and finally moving to Australia. Through these experiences, culture is portrayed as being both limiting and liberating. Culture could be limiting because it is was so restrictive because of Mao’s rules but it was also liberating because Chinese people are meant to be loyal to their country and since their country is communist, they believed that it was the most free nation in the world. This is shown in the story of the blind rabbit, where Li is taught that nothing comes easily, allegiance to country surpasses that to family and to keep pride in the family name.

Mao Dun, or rather his true name Shen Dehong, was a 20th century novelist and later the Minister of Culture of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1965. He is considered one of the most well-known and celebrated left-wing realist writers of modern China and is best known for two of his stories, Ziya and Spring Silkworms, the latter which will be referenced throughout this essay. Spring Silkworms tells the story of an elderly man named Old Tong Bao, his family, and his village as they prepare for the coming silk worm season. Throughout the story, we are able to get a sense of the desperation and turmoil that Old Tong Bao’s village is experiencing. From learning about the debt that his family has, how they had to sacrifice food in

Even with her previous experiences at Beijing University and at Big Joy Farm, Wong still held some belief that the Chinese system wasn’t as bad as it was sometimes made out to be. This event proved to her that it was. “The enormity of the massacre hit home…Although it had been years since I was a Maoist, I still had harbored some small hope for China. Now even that was gone” (259). As a reporter Wong was able to view the progression of the protests in leading up to the massacre, and in viewing it understood that the Chinese people were much more independent than they had previously demonstrated over the past 50 years. She had continuously seen the Chinese people following what they were told between learning in school or with physical labor, yet this protest was one of the first large scale displays of the unacceptance of the regime by the people, and the government did not know what to do with it. But because of this, Wong was able to recognize that the people were not reliant on this way of life that they had previously been bound to, but truly could lead for themselves and take control. The massacre awakened Wong both to the reality that the government was not acting to benefit the people, and that the people were more than capable of acting for

Originally, Liang’s “parents were deeply involved in all the excitement of working to transform China into a great Socialist country” (4). Over a serious of unfortunate events, though, he became the child of a “Rightist’s cap” mother and a “Reactionary Capitalist stinking intellectuals” father (9, 51). Impacted by the shattering of his family and horrific bloodshed created by fighting, Liang Heng began to question the Cultural Revolution. He claimed that his “family had scarified so much… but it had given [them] nothing in return” (148). Liang Heng presents his shift in ideology to demonstrate that most Chinese were no longer in support of a Communist nation. His “troubles were common enough and anyone could see there was a discrepancy between the glorious words of the newspapers and [their] painful reality (232). Even Liang Heng’s father, after many years of devotion, found that he could no longer defend the Party’s policies after he experienced the ill-treatment of the peasants in the country

This memoir of Ma Bo’s sent shock waves throughout China when it was published and was even first banned by the Communist Government. This passionate story paints a clear picture for what the Great Chinese Cultural Revolution was really like. Many Chinese living today can attest to similar if not identical ordeals as expressed in Ma Bo’s story. The toils of being a young Red Guard in inner China were experienced by many if not millions. The horrors and atrocities were wide spread throughout the country, not just in Inner Mongolia. The experiences illustrated in Blood Red Sunset uniquely belong to Ma Bo’s entire generation of mislead Chinese. As expressed in the books dedication the Cultural Revolution

In Jan Wong’s entrancing expose Red China Blues, she details her plight to take part in a system of “harmony and perfection” (12) that was Maoist China. Wong discloses her trials and tribulations over a course of three decades that sees her searching for her roots and her transformation of ideologies that span over two distinctive forms of Communist governments. This tale is so enticing in due part to the events the author encountered that radically changed her very existence and more importantly, her personal quest for self-discovery.

When it comes to critical thinking, reading and writing are two factors that deal with the critical thinking process. A few key aspects of critical reading and writing are identifying the tone in ones writing, how to throughly read and annotate a text, and the revision process. In the essay, “The Maker’s Eye”, Donald Murray explains how the attitude of a writer, listening to what readers have to say and how to edit your own writing makes your work better when critically thinking in college. These aspects of critical thinking, reading and writing make will keep the reader interested and make the writing easier to translate when read.

In the book, Broken Spears, by Gustavo Verdesio, he has compiled a book, with texts that contain the history of the indigenous people of Mexico. The book is written in a manner in which gives the reader insight of what he was thinking as he was compiling this book. One could see that this book is meant to give light to the real and truthful perspective of what happened when the Spaniards came in 1519. One could argue if this is what Verdesio is advocating for, and proof can be supported if you look into the text analytically. This paper is to argue that Gustavo Verdesio is advocating that the text told in this book is the history of what happened when Hernan Cortés invaded and conquered Mexico.

First off “Skid Row” is described as having a population of people that do not have “normal” lives (Bittner, 1967). This is subject to perception because each person defines “what is normal” differently. What one person sees as normal could be seen to others as weird. Anyway for the sake of the article. The people that reside in “Skid Row” as Bittner (1967) states “…is perceived as a natural habitat of people who lack the capacities and commitments to live “normal” lives on a sustained basis. From my understanding of the reading “Skid Row” is basically an area in a city that is run down and has been taken over by citizens that cannot afford to go anywhere else. It is the “Ghetto”. Bittner (1967) describes “Skid Row” as “…located in the heart of civilization, it is viewed as containing aspects of the primordial jungle, calling for missionary activities and offering opportunities for exotic adventure.” This leads to the need of patrolmen taking on the role of peacekeeping and law enforcing on “Skid Row” while implementing containment strategies “…to contain it and to salvage souls from it clutches.”(Bittner, 1967).

Mao Zedong, “the Great Helmsman of China’s Revolution” (Sijie 6), first launched his re-education process in 1968. He strived to limit education by prohibiting literature and sending “‘young intellectuals’” such as the narrator to the countryside. Through this re-education process, the narrator travels to the mountain of the Phoenix of the Sky, where he evolves into one of Mao’s subjects. The narrator works arduously under Mao’s communal model in the fields and acknowledges his “infinitesimal” (17) chances of escaping the mountain and the re-education process: “three in a thousand.” Later, while laboring in a coal mine, the narrator experiences “visions… difficulty breathing… [and] fear” (30-31). Mao’s

Personally, I feel that the film ¨Cry in the wild¨ uses different details to explain the book ¨Hatchet.¨ A few reasons I believe this since , in the book “Hatchet” it tells the reader that he sees the tornado, but in the movie, it says he hears the tornado. In the movie, it says he got attacked by the bear twice, instead in the story, it says that he wasn't attacked by the bear at all. It also says that in the movie he helps the two bear cubs, only in the book he didn´t find two bear cubs,he found one bear cub. Those are some of the reason’s why I consider that the movie ¨Cry in the wild¨ explains the book ¨Hatchet¨ in a different details that in the book actually uses. One more statement,

Hung’s first foray into the history behind China’s rise centers on the massive influx of American silver into 17th and 18th century China and how it fueled a commercial revolution. He talks about the revisionist image of pre-capitalist China as simply agrarian, and states that this

Capitalism and legalism along with their assumptions, ideas, and values are used in Roman Polanski’s China Town (1974) to manipulate characterisations and the denouement. Polanski manifests the love of money and society’s corruptibility in the depiction of the antihero, thus encouraging viewers to comprehend Noah Cross’ escape from the social value of justice. Protagonist Jake Gitties’ characterisation is used by Polanski to persuade the audience decency will prevail, effort has its reward, and justice is unbribable; nevertheless viewers are positioned to believe that Jake, because of poor decision-making in his campaign against evil, can not defeat the vast influence of villainy he opposes. Polanski’s characterisation of Evelyn Mulwray associates

“Dagong” means “working for the boss” or “selling labor,” and illustrates the commodification of labor and the subordinate status of the worker, in contrast to socialist imaginations of work as liberating. “Mei” means little sister, often associated with young, unmarried women in contrast to “jie”, the older, mature sister . Thus, the term dagongmei symbolizes the subordination of female migrants, both as migrant workers under urban factory owners, and as women expected to work long hours, some sacrificing their education, in order to support their families. Pun articulates the very real struggles many dagongmei face, from the 1993 Shenzhen factory fire that killed over 80 migrant workers, all but two female, only then alerting China and the rest of the world of the human costs of China’s rapid development to one woman, Yan, who screams in her sleep after years of work despite being in deep physical and emotional pain. Such pain is unbearable, and to scream out is the only way to survive. Yet as Pun argues, their very survival is of itself a form of resistance. These migrant workers may not be organizing, staging mass strikes or protests against the state or factory owners, but they are resisting. By screaming out, Yan is forcing the world to hear her pain. By telling

In Chinese history, the pre-revolutionary period (1945-1949) is particularly associated with struggle and painfulness that are unprecedented in Chinese history. It is a period between China’s bitter victory in Sino-Japanese War and Communist Party’s takeover of the country, establishing the People’s Republic of China; while the former, lasted 8 years, caused more than 20 millions casualties, the later brought more than 10 million lives devastated, let alone incalculable economic and cultural losses. Yet just as an old Chinese saying that ‘Fate is not satisfied with inflicting one calamity’, the fate of Chinese people was devastated by countless numbers of floods, drought, earthquakes, causing severe famines and economic depressions, aggravating the fate of this country and its people.