Women Liberation background of film The Joy Luck Club

In December 1968, the Students for a Democratic Society adopted a position paper on women at a National Council meeting. The “National Resolution on Women” states that, “Women are not oppressed as a class but they are oppressed as women within each class…(and) the fact that male supremacy persists in the movement today, raise the issue that although no people’s liberation can happen without a socialist revolution in this country, a socialist revolution could take place which maintains the secondary position of women in society. Therefore the liberation of women must become a conscious part of our struggle for people’s liberation.” From east to west, women’s liberation is affirmed theoretically as just class liberation: in the United States, it was linked to the movement to abolish slavery; in Europe it was linked to worker’s movements; in many third world countries, it has been linked with nationalist liberation; in the Soviet Union and China it was linked with socialist revolution. For almost western women, they have ideological basis for women’s liberation that they have had the desire for development blocked by their gender status are bound to set off an awakening of female subjectivity. However, Chinese women are the exception. They collectively have ignored and avoided this unavoidable stage on the road to women’s liberation. As the result, the Chinese women liberation is a long process of awakening. In the thousand year’s masculine domination society, the van guard oriental females escaped from old China to new west (especially in United States) thoroughly shed themselves as a snake sheds its skin with extreme pain. Finally, they welcome their new birth, new identity and new life. The Joy Luck Club is based on the bestseller written by Amy Tan describing the experiences of four women who emigrated from China to the United States. Each woman's story contains horrendous experiences in China and shows how those experiences affected their relationships with their American-born daughters.

Thoughts about class warfare

After learning about class warfare for almost a quarter,I do have some new thoughts about this whole idea.In the past I merely think the class warfare is only about hatred between the rich and poor.But While I doing research for my ARP paper,I found that class warfare is actually every where.It covers reputation, social status ,life quality and other people's judgment.Working class people envy the rich people can buy whatever they want.Upper class people wish themselves can have more free time like middle class people do.It is actually useless to complain about our social status because it is very hard to change it.What really matters is the way we think about our life and the people around us .For my PSA ,the nokia 7650 is relatively expensive for the working class people. It is like a symbol of classed romance and love that are not available to every one since not many people can afford the phone.Only some with enough money are able to get the chance to experience the special way to propose with their new cell phone.But for my perspective,it does not mean only rich people can show their love to each other. Working class and low-income people may be lack of money ,but they have their own way to create and maintain a pleasant and harmonious relationship with people around them just like the upper class do.There are also many simple moving romance that middle class people achieved .They may not be able to buy a big diamond for their girlfriends but they can spend a whole day with her sharing her secrets and accompany her when she feel lonely. It could be hard for them to buy a house for her as a gift,but helping her clean her room when she was busy also works in showing how much you care about her.If we can evaluate our life properly, we can all find how amazing it is .

Pop Culture and Class Warfare

Throughout the duration of English 110, my mind has been opened to many different perspectives on work and class and how the two are related to one another. In particular, in the process of choosing primary sources, seeing other peoples sources, and looking at blogs related to work and class has made me more aware of how pop culture and the media are able to both reflect and have an effect upon different social classes.

Although my primary source was a comedic sketch produced by Mad TV, there are so many of examples of pieces in which the media or pop culture sources portray class warfare. For example, advertisements, like the Levi’s ad we analyzed in class, are likely intended to appeal to the masses so companies can sell as many of their products as possible. However, they do so by using class association as a motivator. But, regardless of their intentions, advertisements and other forms of pop culture may also be having an influence into how classes interact with one another. The media is often scrutinized for sending negative implicit messages, especially toward children and teenagers—who are considered by critics to be more easily influenced—and the same holds true for class warfare.

I think that in investigating texts which deal with class warfare I have learned that there is an evident relationship between how individuals act and how pop culture portrays people to act in our society. The same holds true for the ways the media presents class, work, and the relationship between people of different social classes to the public. Therefore, I feel that it is important that we as individuals are aware of invested in what we are choosing to read, listen to, and watch, and the messages that our forms of entertainment are sending.

Commonplace essay

I think I will choose my ARP to develop my commonplace essay .My primary source is a video advertisement for Nokia 7650 cellphone . It is a extremely creative and fantastic advertisement that tells a romantic story about a young man takes photos all over the world with his nokia phone to propose to his girlfriend.
I belive this source is easy to develope and appeals to more audience.I will use my information and analysis in my ARP to finish mt essay.Based on my analysis about my primary source,I come up with two thesis.Firstly, I believe while it seems that everyone has own life patterns , the consumption choice and lifestyles of middle and working class people are deeply influenced , positively or negatively ,by the upper class 's way through different means.In addition,I also tend to concede that although it is true that the majority of people today communicate with each other by chatting online or texting through mobile phones,the way we express our feelings and emotion varies from different social class ,which shapes our unique characteristics and defined our identities..In my commonplace essay I think I will more focus on my first thesis since it is more close to middle class people's life and easy to attract people's attention. I will futher disscuss how this influence exist by showing more examples of people's life. I may also use my own experience to convince my audience to belive my thesis.And I am also going to show other middle class people's opinion about this phenomena and analysis it according to different social background.I hope I can make my essay more persuasive and appeal to people among different social status.

Commonplace Essay about films

I will derive a topic from my ARP essay for my commonplace essay. I am so interested in one of my secondary recourses that a black and white film Nanjing!Nanjing! directed by Chinese director Lu Chuan. The film is about one of a horrible and painful contemporary history of China during World War II, we call the war as Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945). The horrible memory is called Nanjing (Nanking) Massacre that a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing, the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937. During the massacre, at least 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers were murdered and 20,000–80,000 women were raped by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army. However, the cruel history is denied by Japanese government and major number of Japanese, especially young generation has nothing about this history because they never learnt it from their history text book. For my commonplace essay, I won’t use historical evidence to reveal the truth even I have already collected a mass of undeniable documentary evidence. Because there are a lot of scholars from China, Japan, US, German even all over the world are telling the truth to the public. I want to find out the relevant theme films which narrate the history, the truth and the disaster by using the artistic form, because film is a better way to reveal the truth and attract more people to concern the event. And my essay’s audience can be anyone who concerns this history or would concern it, no matter trusts it, doubts it or denies it, they could watch these films which I mentioned in my essay and think about what the films want to tell the audience. I hope after my essay, more and more people will pay attention to this history which cannot be concealed.

Commonplace Essay

For my Commonplace essay, I am planning to continue focusing on my primary source from my ARP, the Mad TV sketch "Bon Qui Qui at King Burger". "Bon Qui Qui at King Burger" is a sketch starring comedian Anjelah Johnson as a girl who works at a fast food restaurant as part of an "Out of the Hood Program". I feel that this will be an effective source as it will likely be relevant to an audience of college students; I know that many of my peers have seen the sketch, have watched Mad TV, or are at least aware of Mad TV and the manner of its humor. Additionally, some students may even be able to relate to Bon Qui Qui herself, as a young girl working in the fast food industry. (Perhaps I can also use the sketch as a jumping off point to discuss the relationship between young adults and work and, in particular, write about how so many young people work in food service.) Furthermore, I feel that the topic is timely because matters of health, the fast food industry, and ideas of human rights are things that are frequently discussed or debated upon, and I could tie those ideas into my essay.

I hope to use the analysis and research from my ARP and use that information to inform an audience of students about the different possible objectives Mad TV. I feel that, by bringing in information about the stereotypes that Mad TV presents in the sketch it may grab readers attention, make them think logically, and bring their emotions into play (whether it makes them angry, sad, or confused). This is important because it also relates to what the Commonplace guide taught us about pathos, logos, and ethos. Although writing for ones peers is a somewhat daunting prospect, I am looking forward to writing in a less formal and more persuasive manner.

Blog Post #7

Throughout the course of English 110, I feel my writing has improved a great deal, primarily because I have been challenged to think more critically in each step of the writing process. Doing readings and discussions based on Writing Analytically has lead me to really think about all perspectives a text could be coming from; even something as simple as identifying the pitch, complaint, and moment of a piece has made a significant impact on what I write and how I write. Additionally, I feel that I have really developed a skill to analyze a text and discuss it in depth.

One thing I feel I struggled with that I hope to improve in my ARP is developing the relationship between my secondary sources. It may be somewhat difficult to acheive because my secondary texts address different issues within the topics that my primary source brings up. Additionally, I feel I need to pay more attention to relevancy and how a text relates (and conveys messages) to its audience. I also hope to focus on improving the structuring of my paper by ensuring that when discussing the texts I have chosen, I am still focusing on my thesis statements and arguments.

Because I feel I struggled a bit more with my SSI than my PSA, I have decided to begin by improving and extending my PSA by drawing in information from my SSI, and looking for further information from my secondary sources that relate to the arguments I made in my PSA. I also feel this will make it easier for me to discuss the relationship between my two secondary sources by addressing them side-by-side with my primary source.

#blog 7

For my SSI assignments ,I meet some difficulties in thesis statement and building connection between my primary sources and secondary sources.Although I do not quite agree with Mr Bollig's view that my second secondary source is less apparently relevant than my first secondary source,I do think I fail to make central arguments of second secondary source clear.Since my primary source brings about two thesis which seems not relevant to each other,I need to do more work in explaining how those two thesis relate to the class theme.Also,I did not make enough introduction about my secondary source especially the second one ,which may make people feel hard to understand what I was talking about.I should introduce the source by identifying the author and her pitch .Another parts I should improve is that I write two unnecessary anecdotes,which do not meaningfully advance my argument.So in my ARP assignment, I would more focus on the analysis of the source rather than the anecdotes . I also think I should work on the structure of the essay ,since although I do write my thesis statement ,I do not put them in the right place,which makes people feel my overall arguments not clear.I think the reason why I have trouble in writing a good SSI is that I fail to completely understand the requirement. So I would read the requirement of ARP a lot more carefully and figure out how I could meet all the Objectives. Generally speaking, this course is pretty hard for me because the requirement for writing analytically is very challenging.It is easy to make mistakes in your writing.So I need to spend more time to improve my paper and learn more effective ways to write analytically.I believe I will make great progress in writing by the end of this course.

Post #7

Because a little misunderstanding about the purpose of primary source, it is hard for me to link the primary source and secondary. I didn’t realize how important the primary source is for this course and our final paper. If I can re choose my primary source I will use secondary source as primary one—black and white films, and shifts primary to secondary clips and singular black and white imagines in the films. Then my theme will focus on why black and white can do the colors cannot do in modern visual arts, film or photo. However, I start to establish my theme on a black and white photo in a magazine; I analyze it from the photo’s content, the structure, the contrast color to how all of them combined to express the visual shock to present the theme. It is amazing to use black and white instead of color in such a realistic content to touch viewers. Then I pick up my second sources, two or three black and white films, also two review articles about these films that who the extreme contrast, unrealistic color show our realistic life, war, history and horrible scenes. The challenge I met is to set “conversation” of primary source and secondary source. My secondary sources are more perusable and plentiful to insist what I conclude on my primary source. So the “conversation” loses balance somehow. My paper’s center of gravity inclines to what is the effect of black and white films. Thanks to rewriting my SSI, I restructure my paper. In each viewpoint, I talk about both my primary source and secondary source, and pay more attention on how the secondary source insists the point that I get from the primary source. This structure is more reasonable and persuadable. What I need to do next to make my paper better is adding more argument from my own point of view. In the draft, I rely on too much what the critics consider about the effects of black and white films. Instead, I should state my agreement or disagreement insistently, showing my attitude. I think if I add more my argument, it is easy to fill an 8 pages paper.


Shiyun Hu

Everyone barks

In the show Roseanne, it is hard to believe what American lower-middle class looks like; at least they have an independent house to live. In Chinese’s situation, the house as big as their will cost a middle class family 20 years saving, even more. When I was in high school, my desk-mate was from a lower class that her father is a taxi driver, her mother is a worker. They live in the boundary of city and countryside, in a poor and old one room home. A blanket hanging in a rope separate her home two part, one for her studying, one for her parents’ bed. This structure of house is very popular in lower class family, for children’s education, parents always sacrifice everything for next generation, because child is the only hope for the whole family to get rid of poverty. And accepting higher education seems the only way to be successful for younger generation. Even the situation of lower and middle class in United State is much better than in developing countries, they are also suffering living problems brought by poverty. However, I am so happy to watch the TV show like Roseanne, because their optimistic attitude towards life encourage people a lot, their humor and ridicule makes life easier. As Roseanne says to her daughter’s history teacher, everyone in her home barks. Barking is an attitude to against unsatisfied life, in China, more times, people prefer to choose endurance and silence than fight for their rights. I think barking is a good thing, just not hurt others.

Shiyun Hu

#Blog post 6

After watching this interesting video at class ,I searched more information about this clip episode.I found that Roseanne' was the story of middle class family struggling with life's essential problems: Marriage, Children, Money and Parent's in Law. Roseanne and his husband raised three cute sons and daughters of different age.I think the most interesting part about Roseanne is her attitude towards her life and family. Her family is not rich at all but she manages to make it a happy union.When she was told that her little girl barking at class ,she was not surprised and unhappy like other mother did. Instead ,she told her daughter's teacher "What's the problem?Our whole family barks!"It is very valuable for a mother to face her daughter's problem so positively and calmly. Most mother would be very upset to be asked to see her daughter's teacher .They tend to blame their kid for whatever they did without even listening to their explanation,which would really hurt a child's feeling and ruin the relationship between mother and kid.So I have to say it is pretty cool for Roseanne to understand her daughter and joke about her daughter's problem.She knows her daughter need more love than just blam.In addition ,it is also very funny to see she visualize her ideal life.She wants to have a clean house ,smart kids and husband cooking for her. It shows although she was a mother of three kids she has her dreams for the future,which indicates that middle class people's desire to make their life better and happier. She and her husband do argue about some family and money issue. But those arguments only show they really care about each other .When their daughter cuts her finger ,they stop quarreling immediately,and try to help her deal with her wound.Her story told us middle class people can also lead happy life,if they have positive attitude.

Roseanne and Class Warfare

Upon watching the pilot episode of “Roseanne”, it is easy to identify many themes of class warfare and related topics. It is unique among sitcoms of its time in that it depicts a more “working class” family (in comparison to shows like “The Cosby Show”). This seems to be evident in the fact that Roseanne, the main character, works full time at a factory while her husband is having difficulty finding work. Furthermore, “Roseanne” addresses many cultural issues related to class struggle.

For example, Roseanne’s work life seems to deeply affect her home and family life. This is particularly evident when Roseanne has to take off work early to talk to her daughter’s teacher, who addressed the fact that her daughter was having behavioral issues that she thought might have been caused by a lack of interaction with Roseanne and other home issues. However, Roseanne responds by saying that she works eight hours a day, has three children, and, therefore, is unable to spend “quality time” with her kids.
Additionally, in the pilot episode of “Roseanne”, she and her husband get into an argument over the balance of work and household responsibilities; Roseanne argues that she works full time and does all the housework while her husband does nothing, and he tries to defend himself.

I feel that Roseanne was ultimately a successful show because, like many sources of comedic entertainment, it portrays situations and characters that are relatable to a large number of people. However, it is significant to note that such a large number of people are able to identify with a family such as Roseanne’s, one which struggles with time management, finances, and their relationships with one another, and are able to take their difficult situations and find them humorous. Nevertheless, it is easy to see many examples of the struggles and stereotypes associated with class warfare in “Roseanne”.

Blog5

The New Year's Sacrifice is a very famous novel written by Lu Xun who was one of the greatest writers in contemporary China.It told us a story about the miserable life of a woman named Xiang Lin ,which reflects the social class struggle in China after the revolution of 1911.
Xiang Lin was born in a very poor family in he countryside.After the death of her husband, her mother in law wanted to marry her to a farmer for money.So she had to flee and then worked as a maid in a landlord's family where she suffered discrimination and abusion from almost everyone .Later,her mother in law found her and forced her to marry that farmer.She lived a short happy life with his second simple-minded but hard-working husband and gave birth to a child for him. But it did not last long. His father was tortured to death by the local landlord ,which made her had to work in the landlord's family again to raise her son. Unfortunately, her son was eaten by a wolf when she went out to do the laundry .In the end, she find herself can not suffer more and then committed suicide in the New Year's Eve while everyone was celebrating the New Year.
From my perspective ,this novel reveals the fact that in China people from lower class ,especially women, suffered a lot from the mean treatment and prejudice by society.Just like Xiang Lin ,women in rural areas are always forced to marry someone they know little about just because they have a lot of money and high social status. Some extremely poor families even had to sell their daughters for money as they can not afford their life .It is hard to blame those parents How can you talk about morality if you can not even survive ?We can not change the fact that they were born to be poor but we can donate something we do not really need to them instead of doing nothing. People should never be so indifferent like the landlord did since it is human nature to help someone when we have the ability.In addition ,people sometimes still judge a person by where he or she was from not what he or she can do .Although this situation was much better than it used to be,we have to admitted that we tend to be more respectful for someone who has strong backgrounds than someone who does not. For example,when we want to marry someone from a poor family, we always consider whether she only marries you for your money.There are 13 billions people in China .No matter how hard the government worked ,poverty still existed so the least thing we can do is to be nice with the poor people and show respect to them.We can simply achieve our goal by valuing their work and encourage them when they are in desperation.

Black Friday

Most American's are familiar with the term "Black Friday" as the name for the Friday following Thanksgiving Day, and a day that is associated with both positive and negative connotations. On a positive end, many people look forward to Black Friday as an opportunity to get good deals to save on holiday gifts and other various items. However, Black Friday is also sort of an example of consumerism-gone-crazy; people wake up early in the morning (or do not sleep at all), camp out on sidewalks outside of store, and run in large mobs into stores to grab the things they want to buy before others do. People risk injury, health, and ignore the wants and needs of others in order to get the things they desire to purchase.

The question is: why do people go so crazy for Black Friday? I believe that a large part of the reason people are motivated to participate in Black Friday events are media and advertisements for Black Friday sales. More broadly, the media in general promotes materialistisc ideals. It seems that people who shop on Black Friday come from a variety of social and economic backgrounds and that all people are motivated by the fact that they will save money by buying things on that specific day of the year. I believe that if media in our culture (tabloids, television shows, movies, and even books) did not glamourize things such as having expensive and luxurious things, including homes, electronics, and clothing, than Black Friday would not be considered such a noteworthy event. Furthermore, if it were not for the media, I do not feel that shopping and materialistic ideas would be such a prominent part of our culture.

Rebel Spirit in Dream of the Red Chamber (Bolg 5)

One of China’s four great classics, Dream of the Red Chamber, is a novel written by Cao Xueqin, the novel provides a detailed, episodic record of the two branches of the wealthy and aristocratic Jia clan — the Rongguo House and the Ningguo House — who reside in two large, adjacent family compounds in the capital Beijing in feudal Qing Dynasty. According to describe dozens characters fate in the two Houses with a big clan’s history from prosperity to decline, Dream of the Red Chamber implicitly criticize the feudal privileges, social estate system and class inequality. To the feudal dynasty, it has a lot of impact.
The theme reflects on several outstanding characters. One example is Jia Tanchun, who is the main protagonist Jia Baoyu’s younger half-sister by Concubine Zhao. She is lamented was “born in the wrong womb”, because as a concubine child she is not respected as much as those by first wives. But she is brash and extremely outspoken, almost as capable as the host of the whole clan. Tanchun’s nickname is “Rose “for her beauty and her prickly personality. She is a good example of fighting the feudal rural and unequal status. Even unfortunately she cannot avoid tragic fate under cruel and indifferent society, but her spirit of anti- privilege and anti-feudalism is so impressive. Another character has rebel spirit is Qingwen, who is Baoyu’s handmaid; also the only maid dares to argue with Baoyu when reprimanded.
The whole novel is a pioneer in that extreme unequal society, most of characters are female, and their spirit of seeking free, equal is so notable and commendable in a male-dominated world.


Shiyun Hu

Deep thinking about primary source

My primary source is one of a series three pictures which were posted on a magazine Large. The picture is about a poor homeless man is donating coins to another homeless. The first time I saw it, I didn't get the deep meaning behind this picture itself. Because it is so hard to get only one theme here. The theme can be: People are equal; even poorest people are warm-hearted to help people; or only people in the same class cares each other. However, the small text in the picture reveals its value:"For people who think bigger than they are. It seems clear that to appeal public to treat people equally, do not look down people based on class and social status. But, I am so confused. If the poor donates to the poor means equal. Does it mean unfair status if the rich give money to homeless and the rich are arrogant? If the picture shows a poor man is helping a rich man, for instance, when a man is injured by a car accident and a passing by homeless donates blood immediately so that the rich can be alive. Then we can say:"For people who think bigger then they are." which means for love, for human nature, we all are equal. Nevertheless, come back to the original picture, I get another meaning: for the rich, donation is "Charity", but for the poor, it is "Love". A lot of impressive stories about poor people help others occur when catastrophic Wenchuan Earthquake happened in Sichuan Province, China in 2008. The selfless love warms victims and encourage them to rebuild home.

Shiyun Hu

Analysis about my primary source

I loved this video advertisement for Nokia 7650 once I saw it on one of my friend's blog . It is the most fantastic and creative advertisement I have ever seen .And after I replayed and watched this video for about seven or eight times,I became interested in digging the factors that made this video that special and popular. I tend to believe this is not just a advertisement that the Nokia company made to encourage people to buy their cell phones.It is also a reminder that let us reconsider some facts in our life which should by no means be neglected .
Firstly,this advertisement reveals the fact that people need to find a unique way to show how much we care and love our friends and relatives.We have to admitted the fact that our jobs and study certainly take up our leisure time that can be otherwise spent hanging out or chatting with our friends and family,while emotional communication is perhaps the most admirable in today's highly technical,highly rushed and highly stressed modern lives.So it is pretty important to come up with a method or a plan to share our feelings with people we care such as sending a greeting card or making some gifts for them.It may seems trivial at first but it really works in a long-term,benefiting all life long.
In addition, it also made us realize that cell phone and latest technologies have already become a part of our life. It changed our lifestyles in the way we work ,communicate with each other and even the way we have fun. It is good that our life become much easier with the help of high technologies but at the meantime I also tend to concede that sometimes we should go back to our previous life just like playings soccer with our friends or barbecuing with our family. That is a great way to relax and get close to people around you.

Bon Qui Qui at King Burger

For my primary source, I have chosen a MadTV sketch called “Bon Qui Qui at King Burger” about a girl who works at a fast food restaurant as part of the “Out of the Hood Program”. Many questions can stem from observations made from the sketch. “Bon Qui Qui at King Burger” has the goal of creating a humorous representation of something relatable to most people—going to a fast food restaurant.

However, this source simultaneously makes a statement about the culture of people from inner cities and how they act, placing particular emphasis on their behavior in a work environment. Additionally, it makes an argument on the types of jobs people from inner cities have and also how they interact with people from different communities and social classes.

The sketch seems to present stereotypes on the types of people who come from inner cities, their culture, their socioeconomic backgrounds, their relationships, their jobs, and their behavior. A main question that comes to mind is, why do such stereotypes exist? Do the majority of people recognize the stereotypes “Bon Qui Qui at King Burger” represents as true? Furthermore, does one’s race, social class, political views, or other background affect their view on the sketch? For example, would a person who works in a fast food restaurant full time find the sketch humorous or degrading? Is the sketch actually stereotyping people like Bon Qui Qui? What does the sketch say about the relationship between consumers and workers? Does the sketch make a statement about the relationship between managers and lower-level workers? Does the sketch display how said lower-level workers view both customers and work as a whole? All of the above and many other questions can be asked about the sketch, and are things I hope to address in my Primary Source Analysis.

Primary Source Summary

One of my primary sources is a documentary titled “Children in America’s Schools with Bill Moyers”. The documentary is based on the book Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools by Jonathan Kozol. Both the book and the movie document the social and economic differences of schools in rural, suburban, and inner-city schools with the object of informing the public of the injustices of educational inequality. It seems that the movie particularly aims to initiate people’s interest in advocating for change in the nation’s schools. The documentary specifically focuses on both elementary and secondary public schools in Ohio. It reveals to viewers many examples of schools in poor areas, such as rural slums and inner-cities, that have unsafe buildings, lack the necessary supplies, and typically have larger class sizes than schools in wealthy communities. On the other hand, wealthier schools, most of which are located in suburban areas, have new buildings, smaller class sizes, and an abundance of academic, extracurricular, and athletic opportunities. The documentary was created in 1996 and written by Jeffrey Hayden. The explicit messages given by the documentary are that educational inequality exists because of lack of funding, or overabundance of funding, from local government and taxes. An implicit message of “Children in America’s Schools” is that both the government and the general public need to work harder to change the “Savage Inequalities” that exist in America’s schools. I hope to further investigate this source and figure out more specifics as to how educational inequality and work and class relate and to use those ideas to apply them to into my own life and future career.

Summary about my primary source

This is a video advertisement for nokia 7650 cellphone which was made and published by nokia company in 2009 to promote its new mobile phone. It told us a very romantic story about a man asked his girlfriend in a different country to marry him. In this video, this handsome and romantic young man travelled over many countries and asked people he met to take photos for him and different kinds of signs with his nokia 7650 cellphone. And then he sent a message to his girlfriend in a different country which contained different images of him and signs. He used words from scene signs ,public signs , shop signs and even restroom signs to compelete a sentence which was ‘Will you marry me?’. In the end, he received a call from his girlfriend while he was sitting on the bench. We can see him answer the phone clearly and show great happiness on his face though a truck behind him made great noise. Finally, the truck went away and a huge sign on the tall building behind it appeared, which is ‘Nokia, Connecting People’. It was a really creative and fantastic advertisement that showed people two great functions of this cellphone: taking clear photos and talking to people without being bothered by noise outside. The video’s background music ‘underneath your clothes’ by Shakira was also terrific and made the whole video more romantic with the application of warm color .This advertisement also showed us that people who used nokia cellphones were very creative and romantic, which really motivated a lot of men and women to buy their products for the purpose of being one of them.

Social class in china

When I was a kid, my family was not as rich as my friends’ families. Every time I asked my parents to buy some fantastic toys my friends showed to me ,they always told me that it was not suitable for me and I should play something else. At that time I was very unhappy , and felt pretty envy about my friends. I always asked myself why I cannot get the toys I want just as them did. But as time went by, I tended to understand my parents’ explanation because I realized that those toys were quite expensive for our family to afford. It is extremely true that money really matters in contemporary society in China and our social status almost determines what our life qualities would be .
“Bob’s your uncle,” is a commonly used expression in Britain, often used to emphasize how easy it is to do something, or solve a problem. No one would have expected that one hundred and twenty-three years later, “My father is Li Gang!” would come into the Chinese language as a bitter joke, carrying an even more poignant connotation than “Bob’s your uncle.” On the night of October 16, 2010, a drunk young man named Li Qiming was racing his automobile on a lane in Heibei University, Baoding, and hit two female students. One died instantly, and the other was rushed to the hospital, seriously injured. But he didn’t stop, and went on driving to send his girlfriend back to the dorm. He was finally stopped by a throng of security guards and enraged students. He got out of the vehicle and shouted in supreme arrogance as if nothing had happened, “Go head and sue me, my Father is Li Gang!” People may have had no idea who Li Gang was, but his attitude got it across that his father was a powerful figure and he could just get out of this big trouble because of him. It finally turned out that his father was the deputy director of the police department in Baoding and he was sentenced to be imprisoned for seven years ,which the majority of people thought too unfair .And now “My Father is Li Gang!” has become the most popular catchphrase in Chinese people’s daily life. We often heard conversations like this :
Man: “oh, I still cannot get jobs!”
Woman: “No wonder! Because your father is not Li Gang!”
In my previous college and high school, a lot of students have their own cars while other students from poor families could only afford one meal every day. Some students bought a lot of luxuries for their girlfriends while others have to take several part-time jobs to pay for their tuitions. That phenomenon is unfair but also exactly the fact in society in China. Therefore, I want to learn more about what social class are like in United states and how it is different from china’s.

Hi everyone!

My name is Lingfeng Shi and you can call me Ramon .I am a transfer student from China and my major is electrical and computer engineering. This is my first quarter in OSU and I find it is really a fantastic place to continue my undergraduate study and people there are very friendly and nice. In my country ,I also major in electrical engineering so it is pretty good to continue my major study in OSU.I am the only child in my family, but I do have a lot of cousins .I love all kinds of sports,basketball,soccer,and tennis. Among those, I love basketball most. In my spare time, I always watch NBA games and play basketball with my friends. Yao Ming is my favorite basketball star, and I feel very pity about his retirement. I want to be a successful electrical engineer just like my father did in the future. I am really happy to meet you here and I hope we can make great progress in English writing together in this class.

Summary

Here is a public service advertisement. A series of pictures are published in Large magazine. I choose one of three pictures as my primary resource. It is a black and white picture, even it has depth focus that background is fuzzy but it is clear to see the place is in a street of a big city. Camera shallow focuses on the three characters in the front of scene. Three homeless men are in dirty cloth with several holes and all barefooted. One curls up and leans on the wall. An freeze action is there: one poor man is walking by and throwing two coins into a paper cup which is hold by the third homeless man who is sitting on the ground near the first man. A text with very small white words is on the lower right corner of the picture: "For people who think bigger than they are. Large magazine". It is so impressive that even the most poor people in lower class has the right to live equally. In the picture, the man who is donating coins has a serious expression, perhaps he notices the two people on ground may need more help than himself. At least he has a coat, but the man holding the cup just wear a shirt. He is a little "higher" than others, but he never think he is "bigger". The picture is so realistic because it was shot in black and white. In such a cruel socielty that differed by three classes depending on amount of means of production and status, the most important thing that from human nature are same for everyone, that is love.

Class warfare in films

It is said that:"Economic basis determine superstructure". According to Max Weber that class is based on economic inequalities, other status and power differentials. In film, a for of visual art which reflects realistic world, sometimes, it highlights class contradictions in dramatic conflict; sometimes, to attract all the audience, it has peaceful ending that two classes relationship become compromised from opposed; sometimes, it conceals the class theme as metaphor under an ordinary story, but leads viewers to seep think after leaving theater.

The classic Hollywood film It happened one night is a good example to defuse conflict between upper class and middle class. From hero Peter (Clark Gable) who is an out-of-work newspaper reporter and heroine Ellie (Claudette Colbert) who is spoiled by her extremely wealthy father hate each other at beginning to Ellie runs off her wedding ceremony to find Peter instead, the status difference, economic gap and class conflicts all transfer to romantic comedy,happu ending.It seems like only "love" can build a bridge to cross the deep channel.

Class controdiction is an everlasting thing that people care about, not only socioligists and politicans consider, but artists expose their thinking process by art works. So that, in film world, class relationship is also a popular thing. The topic I desire to focus is about how directors treat realistic class warfare in the artistic form--film, to defuse it, to exaggerate it or hide it until audience notice it by themselves. Base on my major knowledge, I'd like to analysis different genre and different cultural background films toget an answer. And I believe this research will help me to capature inspiration for future script creation.

HI ! Buckeyes!

My name is Shiyun Hu, from China. As a transfer student, I don't know my exact grade here. But this is my third quarter in OSU. It's so hard to imagine what my previous university in Wuhan, China looks like. In fact, that is a sports university which has 80% students are going to be professional athletes. Except for me. I am the one of poor 20% academic students double major in English and Journalism. Every time, when people ask about my major in such a full of energy and power school, I just show my thin arm and say wryly:" weight lifting " . So that, right now I am so proud of being a buckeye here, because eventually I can do what I want. I am a film enthusiast, my dream is to release my own film some day. That's why I gave up all my previous academic background to come here, to be the only one Chinese student in film studies major. My English name is Lavi, I'd like you guys to call me Lavi. Perhaps, the initial words "La" will be the place where my dream reflects into reality.

How Class Relates to My Interests: Educational Inequality

During my junior year of high school, I watched a documentary in government class that really struck a chord with me. The documentary was about educational inequality in public schools; it focused on how many schools have a lot of money while other schools are so poor that the children have to walk to seperate buildings just to access bathrooms. The rich schools have thriving academic, artistic, music, and athletic programs, small class sizes, and nice, new buildings. On the other hand, the poor schools have larger class sizes, less teachers, and less access to supplies.

The main question that came to mind when I discovered this is: why do public schools, which all receive state and federal funding, differ so drastically in their conditions? The problem is related to local taxes. The poorer schools featured in the documentary we watched were located in rural slums and inner cities, communities where most of the residents were lower-class citizens, whereas the schools that seemed to be void of problems were located in suburban areas, where residents tended to be in the middle or upper-class. Therefore, it is easy to see that social class is directly linked with educational inequality.

As I mentioned in my first post, I am a Music Education major and an Advocates for Children and Education Scholar. As an aspiring educator, it is of particular concern to me that all children and adolescents should have the opportunity to not only attend school, but that teaching and learning happen in a safe, clean, and encouraging environment. How are children supposed to feel that school matters if their own school is practically crumbling down around them (both figuratively and literally)? Therefore, I hope to find a primary source dealing with a topic that discusses educational inequality as it relates to social class and work.

Hello, Everyone!

My name is Shelby Butz and I am a first-year student at The Ohio State University. I am currently majoring in Choral Music Education and I am also in Advocates for Children and Education Scholars, or ACES for short. I am involved in Women's Glee Club and Symphonic Choir and I also love participating in community service. Outside of extracurricular activities alone, I have always enjoyed school and am excited for the academic challenges and opportunities that await me here at Ohio State. In English 110, I am hoping to challenge myself to think differently, become a better writer, and, therefore, become a more prepared and successful college student in general. I look forward to getting to know everyone here on the blog!