IA Academic Event Reflection

Sunday, October 20th, 2019, 8:00-10:00pm @ Smith-Side Basement

The documentary was interesting to begin with because the setting was in Dayton, Ohio–which is just 2 hours away from Columbus. It started out with the shutdown of a General Motors plant during the 2008 recession, fast forward to a few years later in 2014, a Chinese billionaire buys the GM plant and rebrands it as a glass making company. The revitalization of the plant brought thousands of jobs to the people in the area. Initially, everything seemed to be going well, but soon tensions began to rise due to the clash between the Chinese and American workplace culture. Cao Dewang’s views of the factory did not align with the American workers at all–on top of that, the American workers were not making as much as they did previously and the conditions of the workplace were quite dangerous. Even though the film was intense at times, there were little snippets in the documentary that showcased the personalities of some of the workers and it was fascinating to see everyone’s different point of view. One thing I found amusing was the stereotypes the different groups had towards each other because it was so generalized. The film hit especially close to home for me because I come from a Chinese family myself and the workers in the movie were of the same background as me (Fujianese) and I could actually understand what was being said by everyone in the movie. To hear the story from both sides was really cool for me because it made me realize how much people have to sacrifice just to get a job to support themselves and their family and gave me a deeper appreciation of my own family and what my parents had to do get to where we are today.

IA Campus Event Reflection

Tuesday, October 8th, 2019, 6:00-7:00pm @ Enarson Classroom Building

At the fashion global engagement night I had the opportunity to learn about various diverse styles and types of fashion from countries around the world that I did not know before. I’ve always had an interest in fashion and trends and to see it relate to international affairs and how it defines one’s identity was very fascinating. The event began with the leaders presenting a slideshow of different garments from various countries that were important to their culture. My favorite part of the presentation was seeing how unique each country’s wedding attire was. Each one was special in their own way to show off the culture behind the fashion. After we learned about the different styles, we all played a friendly game of Kahoot. What I enjoyed the most though, was the open discussion we had at the end of the event. We talked in small groups about what fashion meant to us as individuals and as a society. A key point we hit on throughout the night was that fashion could mean a lot of different things for someone, including–but not limited to: their culture, their mood, and their identity. From this event I learned that fashion is much more than just clothing. Fashion is not a concrete thing but an abstract concept that can be used to help define a person, a group, or a society.