The Chinese Film Shaolin Directed By Benny Chan

Confucian scholars and the emperor attacked Buddhism as an outlandish, barbaric belief. “The Memorial of Buddhism” written by Han Yu, a Confucian scholar, opposes Buddhism when the emperor decides to bring “the finger bone of Buddha” into the Chinese palace. He shows the unjust actions of the emperor by referring back to Confucian teachings such as keeping “[ghosts and spirits] at a distance”. The scholar also describes how Buddhism is barbaric because it does not conform to any Chinese laws or Confucian teachings (Doc. 4). As a Confucian scholar, he favored the relationship between “sovereign and subject” and traditional dress. He did not want

Jin Wang is embarrassed to even be apart of his family by the way he acts and how he represents their culture. He now can see how hard it is to fit in.

“It is often said that, aside from the impact of Marxism on twentieth-century China, the only other time when the Chinese looked beyond their own borders for intellectual sustenance was during the period when Buddhism was absorbed from India” (LaFleur 23). Why did this religion appeal to the Chinese when they disregarded so many other external influences? After all, being tied to the rest of the world by the Silk Road meant they were constantly inundated with novel concepts from far and wide. The answer must lie in how Buddhism interacted with the other faiths already established in the country, namely Confucianism and Daoism (sometimes spelled Taoism). While at first glance it may appear that Confucian China would be the last place

When Jing Mei recognizes the similarities between her mother and herself she begins to understand not only her mother but herself as well. There are subtle connections and likenesses from the beginning between Jing Mei and her mother that Jing Mei does not see. The book commences with Jing Mei taking her mother's place at the mah jong table, creating a similarity between them from the beginning. Suyuan dies two months before the start of the book, and therefore is not able to tell the stories. Jing Mei has learned and must tell her stories in her place, forming another parallelism between mother and daughter. Because Suyuan is dead, Jing Mei must act in place of her mother when she goes to meet her Chinese sisters in China. Throughout the book Jing Mei takes the place of Suyuan, showing she and her mother

The result of this education was a disaster due to the differences in values between the two cultures. Ying-Ying realized that her marriage was a mistake when her husband left her for another woman. Her love for him turned to hate and she killed her unborn baby. She felt great remorse for this and considered herself a murderer. She later remarried a gentleman by the name of St. Clair. With St. Clair she had a daughter. After her second son, which was her third child, died at birth, Ying-Ying had a mental breakdown. She saw his death as a punishment for the murdering her first son.

    Earlier this week we focused on ancient eastern China during the Han Dynasty and the east asian philosophies that arose during this time period. We reviewed three great asian philosophers, Confucius, Lao Tzu, and Buddha. In class we also picked from a list of quotes from these three philosophers a quote they said that really resonated with us and wrote a descriptive essay on it and shared it in class for extra credit.

Perhaps, the powerful storyline of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was what encouraged one of the greatest cinematic martial arts directors Ang Lee, to make a film out of the Chinese novel. In this film, Lee’s primary function is not only to portray skillfully choreographed fighting scenes, but also to connect powerful sequences of events that touches upon the emotional complex human condition that is associated with both the Taoist and Buddhist belief systems. By not allowing action to be the sole guiding force of the narrative of Crouching

Before this assignment I never knew anything about Asian history until I got to this class and received this assignment. I can’t believe how much Asian history influenced the way we as Americans look at history now. In Steward Gordon’s When Asia Was The World, I found the story of Xuanzang very interesting. Xuanzang was a Buddhist monk who traveled all over to learn more about Buddhism until he became confused and decided to go to the center of Buddhism, along the way he faced many difficulties, he decided to go back to China and share what he had learned.

Jin uses the word “grief” to explain that we used to choose to lament, then we couldn’t

Early in childhood Jing Mei dreamed of finding her prodigy and being a famous Chinese American, mostly because of the views and actions her mother placed on her. Her mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. (pg 405) Her mother was always pushing new tests and talents on Jing Mei. She even went as far as having her daughter Jing Mei models her physical appearance and actions after a child-star Shirley Temple. Her other was always testing her with many different things trying to discover Jing Mei’s talent. Later Jing Mei started to feel like her mother was just trying to make her into someone she was not and started to just fail and not try to do anything right hoping her mother would give up. When her mother died she had realized what her mother had been trying to do. Her mother had only wanted her to do her best. She had then to realize what her mother had

The interdependency between Wu and Buddhism blooms as early as her overtaking of the imperial rule of China. As resourceful and violent as Wu is in securing her title, demonstrated by the empress’s exploitation of the “secret police force to monitor dissident factions,” she is also cunning in gathering support from the ordinary masses, such as the Buddhists and their followers (Bentley 290). She “generously patronize[s] Buddhists, who return the favor by composing

Jing-Mei feels differently though, “Unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to. I could only be me,” (359/80) and she was correct for she had no natural musical talent. Jing-Mei has a desire to please her mother, but an even stronger one to choose her own life. She pacifies her mother by going to piano lessons but puts in no effort. Jing-Mei is “…determined to put a stop to her blind foolishness,” (356/48) but her mother’s desire to create a prodigy to compete with Aunt Lindo’s daughter, keeps her focused on the impossible. That is, until Jing-Mei escalates this conflict to its breaking point in rebellion. Stunning her mother, she shouts “Then I wish I’d never been born! I wish I were dead! Like them,” (359/77) referring to the twin daughters her mother lost in China. Sadly, the mother’s desire to have Jing-Mei conform to her expectations creates a constant battle between mother and daughter, and, in rejecting those expectations, seeing disappointment in her mother’s face all too often causes Jing-Mei to feel, “something inside me began to die” (353/18).

Jing-Mei finds a new person that was determined to fight against her mother. Moreover, Jing Mei

Fa-hsien and his companions left his homeland to travel to India in search of rules of Buddhist discipline. In chapter two, he described his arrival in the kingdom of Shen-shen, where he first encounters the discipline of self-denial. The citizens of Shen-shen, including their King and priests followed the “rules of India” (Fa-hsien 2). In an effort to resist worldly temptation and comfort, they separated themselves from the comfort of family and friends in order to focus on Buddhist teachings.

The story Little Buddha begins with a Buddhist monk named Lama Norbu, who visits Seattle in the search of a boy named Jesse Conrad, who he believes is the reincarnation of Lama Dorje, their dearly loved teacher. This whole movie focuses on the journey of Lama Norbu and his monks to America, and of Jesse and his family to Tibet and is displayed as a spiritual voyage. When Lama Norbu and his encompasses find out where Jesse and his family are located, Norbu gives Jesse the book called Little Buddha, which he reads throughout the course of the movie to gain insight on the basic principles of Buddhism. As Jesse starts reading the book, he starts practicing and learning part of the Buddhism religion by going to the Monastery to learn about the monks and their religious practices. This movie moves closer to a more enlightened concept of the world and is reflected by the story within a story that is told by Lama Norbu himself. Jesse becomes very interested in Buddhism, even though it was very difficult to convince his parents to go to Tibet. Jesse’s dad Dean Conrad finally decides to go when he hears about one of his colleges passing away and concludes that there is more to life and is willing to find that out.